How to Run! (Day2)

How to Run

 

HOW TO RUN: THE “TALK TEST”

The point isn’t to go as fast as you can or how far you can get in the running interval. The idea is to go slow and steady. You need to pass the “talk test”. That is you are able to speak in complete sentences while you are running at moderate intensity – or thereabouts.  If you can only respond in one-word grunts to your running buddy’s questions, you are running too fast. The main point is simply that you shouldn’t be gasping for air while running. You should be breathing deeply, but not be out of breath. YOU’RE NOT SPRINTING.

Don’t worry if running at that level feels like you’re going in slow motion. Every time you run, you will be fitter than the last time, which means you’ll be able to go faster while maintaining the same moderate intensity and passing the “talk test”. That is why you might see experienced runners running at an incredibly fast pace, but still talking to each other. They are running at moderate intensity, but because they are fit from practicing, they are going faster. If you are running alone, try humming a line or two of a favorite song to work out how intensely you’re running. 

Obviously, if you have a heart rate monitor, all of this is unnecessary. Generally you are able to pass the “talk test” at around 70% of maximum heart rate. Equally, if you can speak in paragraphs you’re going too slowly.

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HOW TO EXERCISE TO LOSE FAT

 

Build Muscle With Strength Training:

A common misconception among women, is that strength training will cause them to bulk up. This is rarely the case. Women don't produce enough of the hormone testosterone, to build the muscles that a man might build doing the same workout. So grab those dumbbells and different types of weights, ladies, and get pumping! Starting a strength-training program requires no special equipment and doesn't mean that you have to join a gym. Simple body weight exercises are effective. For example, combine push-ups with variations of the lunge and abdominal plank exercises, and you will develop strength in all of the major muscle groups of your body.

 

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How to Run! (Day1)

How to Run

 

You want to be a runner? Ok. You can’t just wake up one morning and do it. You need to start slowly, but be progressive. Intensity, initially, should be moderate (60 – 70% of maximum heart rate) – not high. It takes a little time and patience to run, not long, but not overnight either. If health permits, start off with a combination of walking and “jogging”.

Your body needs time to adapt to the impact of running on your joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones. You also need time to adapt an efficient, natural and economic (on energy) running style.

Novice runners waste a lot of energy at the start by bouncing too much during each stride. Once you get the hang of it, when you find your running mojo – your rhythm – you will place less strain on your body and actually enjoy it. Music can help you find or maintain a rhythm and improve your running ability.As a beginner, you will make quick gains in aerobic capacity, i.e. how far you can run without getting out of breath. 

However, your muscles, joints and tendons, need a little more time to adapt. Therefore, while you may be tempted to run faster, pace yourself in the first few weeks and give your joints time to adjust. Instead focus on the steady, continuous rhythmical movement of your run and making the switch from jogging to power walking and back again. This plan minimises your chances of injury.

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HOW TO EXERCISE TO LOSE FAT

Build Muscle With Strength Training: Many people will discover, that the real noticeable change to their body shape; comes when they begin strength training. Whilst strength training may make your heart pump faster, it is not considered an aerobic activity. However, it does burn fat and the purpose of strength training is also to build, tone and shape the muscles.

 

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Exercise Heart Rate Training Zones for Weight Loss

 

 

You can determine how intensely you are exercising by monitoring your heart rate or rating your perceived exertion.

Determine YOUR heart rate training zone with a heart rate calculator.

BEST HEART RATE FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Your “training zone” tends to be at an intensity of 60 – 80% of your maximum heart rate. If you have been inactive for a long time, exercise at an intensity level lower than 75% of your maximum heart rate. Then gradually increase the intensity. This is of course simply a guideline and you must assess how you are feeling during your workout. You know that you are working at the right intensity if you are sweating and breathing harder than normal, but not gasping for breath. You also need to sustain it for 30 – 60 minutes.

As you become more fit, it becomes easier to exercise in your target heart rate (THR) range. However, your heart rate also decreases as you get increasingly athletic. Therefore, you need to periodically re-calculate your target heart rate.

The table below shows the level of fitness and its approximate corresponding maximum heart rate.

Fitness level	% of Maximum heart rate (MHR)
Beginner/ low	50 – 60%
Average	60 – 70%
High	75 – 85%

RATINGS OF PERCEIVED EXERTION (RPE)

Another way to assess the intensity of your work out is by using a scale of 1- 10, called the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. The scale does not require measuring heart rate.This can be easier to use for beginners who are not using the gym. If you are using equipment in the gym or have a heart rate monitor when doing outdoor activity, it is simple enough to use target heart rate as your intensity guide.

Level 1	Very, very light
Level 2	Very light
Level 3	Light, very easy
Level 4	Low intensity, warm-up level, easy
Level 5	Low to moderate intensity, still fairly easy
Level 6	Moderate intensity, working and breathing a little hard
Level 7	Moderate to high intensity, breathing harder, more challenging
Level 8	High intensity, very challenging, breathing very hard, difficult to talk
Level 9	Very high intensity, breathing seriously hard
Level 10	Maximum intensity, feels like your heart will burst out of your chest

 "THE BIG GYMNASIUM'S" DAILY FITNESS TIPS

 How to Exercise to Lose Fat

As your fitness level improves, you want to incorporate more intensive workouts as well. Higher intensity workouts incinerate more calories, but a smaller ratio of fat. To maximise fat loss, combine high intensity, moderate intensity and low intensity exercise programs into a complete and balanced workout.

 

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Exercise For Overweight Adults & Other Health Issues

 

 

If you are overweight and you’re planning to start an exercise program, you need to think about your joints, as you will be putting a significant amount of strain on them.

Do NOT start off with running. It is a good idea to avoid high-impact exercise until you have lost enough weight for jogging to be comfortable. Non-weight bearing exercise such as bike riding or swimming are excellent as is low-impact exercise such as power-walking (you can increase difficulty/ intensity by adding hills or incorporating intervals of differing speeds).

Joining a gym can be rather scary, even for an experienced exerciser. It can be intimidating to walk into a room full of sweaty exercisers, who seem to know what they’re doing. However, do not ever be embarrassed to exercise, because you feel overweight. Once you know where everything is and which equipment you want to use, you wont feel overwhelmed as you’ll be focused on your exercise plan and the parts of the gym you’re using.

EXERCISE TIPS FOR OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE:

Follow the advice below and the weight will start falling off. Rome was not built in a day. Whatever size we start from, whether we have 10lbs or 100lbs to lose, we cannot achieve our goal overnight. Transformations happen in stages. Okay, so yours may take a little longer, you should not let this be a hurdle. What’s important is that you get there. Your motivation to keep going is to appreciate your successes, which include the changes in your shape, the improvement of your fitness and quality of life and the reduction of any health risks. Persistence and determination will get you to the body you want.

• Walk/ power walk off those pounds either outdoors or on a treadmill.

• When you get to the fastest speed you can (power) walk, without starting to run, raise the level of difficulty by increasing incline on the treadmill, the time you are walking or by choosing a more difficult walking route with hilly intervals.

• The treadmill is lower impact compared to running/ walking on concrete and asphalt. The treadmill has some shock-absorbent ability and thus is better on your knees, hips and joints.

• If you have access to gym equipment, the cross-trainer/ elliptical trainer is a godsend for you (actually everyone!). It is hands down my favorite invention for weight loss and should be yours too. It is a no-impact exercise and most people find that they are able to burn more calories than they would running, because it feels easier.

• There is no particular level at which you should begin. The starting level is completely up to what feels comfortable to you and is approved by your health care professional.

• The general recommendation is to exercise for 30 minutes at moderate intensity several days a week. However, this may not be practical for beginners especially if overweight. Start slow. That is at a lower intensity and for a shorter duration. 20 minutes of cardio is a good starting point, which you can break up into shorter phases.

• Use a pedometer, which can be very motivating if you are walking.

• Be consistent. Consistency allows you to increase the duration and intensity of the exercise as your fitness level begins to increase. This means you are gaining better cardiovascular fitness, strengthening your joints and ligaments and increasing fat burning.

• Try exercising with friends or family, the added support will help you to keep up your exercise plan. Alternatively, work privately with a personal trainer. If you are still worried, start in your back yard doing using a stationary bike, pedal exerciser or other sports equipment, until you start feeling more fit and confident.

If you have an injury or disability that prevents you from running, or simply find running painful, either try the cross-trainer/ elliptical machine and see if that works for you or try alternative cardiovascular activities such as swimming, cycling and rowing.

Before you start exercising make sure you clear the program with your doctor first. I assure you that (s)he’ll only be too happy to help.

"THE BIG GYMNASIUM'S" DAILY FITNESS TIPS

How to Exercise to Lose Fat:

All kind of exercise burn calories. Even non-exercise activity burns calories. However what is the best way to burn fat? Aerobic exercise will get the result. Aerobic activity, sometimes called cardio, is exercise that gets your heart pumping. As you perform aerobic activity, you'll breathe more heavily and begin to sweat.

It is not important, to exercise to the point of breathlessness every day. Additionally, the majority of people, efficiently burn fat at a moderate exercise intensity of 7 on a scale of 1-10.


Tomorrow:Work harder as your fitness level improves.

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How to Use the Elliptical Machine (Day2)

How to Use the Elliptical Machine

 

 4. Resistance Training on the Elliptical

You can use the elliptical trainer to really target and work your leg muscles and glutes. Do this by increasing the resistance or if a feature on the elliptical trainer by increasing incline.

You can also do incline intervals increasing the angle for a few minutes at a time, followed by a similar period with a lower incline. This will really work your guteal muscles (bottom). You can also do intervals with high and low resistance. Intervals make a great combination of cardio and resistance workouts.

Women training on the elliptical several times a week with high resistance, should keep an eye on the results.

The elliptical can give you amazingly toned thighs. However, you don’t want to overdo it and become bulky in the thigh area (though this will take time, i.e it wont happen overnight). Therefore, once you are happy with your legs, stop increasing the resistance/ incline. Keep the resistance/ incline constant to maintain what you’ve got.

 5. Do You Have a Body Part In Mind?

When you get on the elliptical trainer, you may have a particular body part in mind that you want to tone. Some of the newer elliptical trainers have body-part specific pre-set programs, such as “gluteal training” or one targeting the calf muscles. Choose the program that you want.

"THE BIG GYMNASIUM'S" DAILY FITNESS TIPS

   

Prepare For A High Intensity Training Program:

Be equipped with a stopwatch and some method for monitoring your workout intensity. A heart rate monitor works best. If you don’t own a monitor, you can use perceived exertion or take your pulse manually.


Tomorrow: Exercise For Overweight Adults & Other Health Issues


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How to Use the Elliptical Machine (Day1)

How to Use the Elliptical Machine

 

The elliptical trainer has many advantages and targets a host of muscle groups in the upper and lower body. To really work these muscles you have to use the elliptical trainer correctly.

1. Elliptical Trainer Posture

• Remember to maintain good posture to get the most out of your workouts.
• Adopt a comfortable standing position with your spine in a neutral position (with a straight back).
• Your hips, knees and ankles should be in alignment.
• Keep your shoulders back, your head up and your abdominal muscles tight.
• Let your lower body support your weight.
• Your weight should be distributed approximately evenly between the heels and the balls of the feet, sitting a little back on your heels.
• Stick your butt out as much as you can. This will target your butt, outer thigh and hamstring muscles and lessen the strain on your quadriceps. This will avoid building muscular big thighs.

2. Resistance on Elliptical Trainer

The elliptical trainer is very versatile. You can use the elliptical trainer as a cardio workout, by going fast with little resistance. You can also use the elliptical as a resistance based workout, where you are going slower but working against greater resistance to work and tone your legs. 

If Your Focus Is Cardio: Pay attention to your strides per minute (SPM). SPM is the number of times your legs go around. The elliptical trainer shows this number on the screen. If you can try to keep to between 140 and 160 strides per minute. If you are doing interval training on the elliptical trainer, make sure your sprints are closer to 160 strides per minute.

If Your Focus Is Toning Your Thighs: Concentrate on your feet. If you press down with your heels, you will work your hamstrings and bottom more. If you press with your toes, you will tone your quadriceps muscles (front of your thighs) more.

3. Work Your Core Muscles On Elliptical Trainer – Hands Free

You can choose not to use the handlebars (you must have good balance) during some of your workout. This strengthens the core muscles, and improves posture and balance. Make sure you don’t sway from side to side once you let go of the handles.

Instead of holding onto handles, try pumping your arms as though you were running. If you are not paying attention to maintaining posture, you will have the natural tendency to move from side to side, instead of propelling forward, when going hands-free. 

Your hips may move from left to right and although your heart rate remains elevated, your quads are not working as hard as they should be. If this is a problem, to ensure you maintain proper form, place your hands firmly on your hips and pull your shoulder blades together to maintain posture. Your hips move less, your core tightens and your quads are engaged.

For an even greater challenge, transfer weight from heel to toe throughout the workout.

"THE BIG GYMNASIUM'S" DAILY FITNESS TIPS

 

Prepare For A High Intensity Training Program:The next step is to incorporate your high intensity interval exercise program into a well-designed exercise schedule. That means you should be well rested, as you go into the workout and you’ll need a recovery day (not a rest day!) afterwards. Avoid doing back-to-back HIIT workouts. Take heed as this could make the whole workout plan less effective.

 

Tomorrow: Elliptical Trainer and Resistance Training.

 

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How to Slim Big Thighs – Muscular vs Fat Thighs (Day3)

How to Slim Big Thighs – Muscular vs Fat Thighs

 

4. Running To Slim Thighs And Reshape Legs

Endurance running is especially effective in those who have big thigh muscles, as it may decrease the size of the muscles and reduce fat around the muscle to make the thighs smaller. It will completely transform the size and make-up of your thighs and your calves. Therefore, to slim down thighs do endurance running with little or no incline. If you find it too difficult to run or are unable to run, try the elliptical trainer with little or no resistance. Posture on the elliptical trainer is critical. Correct posture will target your butt, outer thigh and hamstring muscles (back of thighs) and lessen the strain on your quadriceps (front of thighs), avoiding you from inadvertently building big thighs.

 

5. Resistance Training

When you have lost some fat from your thighs you can think about resistance training. If you need to increase muscle mass in order to increase the shape and definition of your thighs you can implement resistance exercises. In order to have fantastic legs you need muscle. Therefore, if you lack shape having lost weight, a program of resistance training targeting the legs will help to shape and firm them. Be sure to keep the weights moderately light (up to 70% of your one-lift maximum), so that your thigh muscles become harder, stronger and more defined, but not significantly larger. In other words, focus on completing more repetitions, with less resistance. 

Those who have the type of muscle (mesomorphs) that responds quickly and gets big need to be particularly vigilant and may not choose not to do any such exercises, since their thigh muscles are already well toned.

 

6. Patience

You need to be patient and focused on what you want to achieve. You cannot burn body fat in specific areas, especially inner thigh fat. You cannot spot reduce. Body fat is lost from the entire body during weight loss. The inner thighs will be one of the last areas of the body in a woman to be slim and firm. Just remember to be realistic and to take your body shape, genetics and current level of body fat into consideration, when setting goals. You can get slim thighs, but you need time to get there.

"THE BIG GYMNASIUM'S" DAILY FITNESS TIPS

 

Prepare For A High Intensity Interval Training Program:

Before you commence an exercise program that involves high intensity activity, you need to ensure that you  are healthy enough for vigorous activity. You’ll be working very hard, so visit your doctor or a medical consultant to confirm that you are in good health.

Tomorrow: Starting a High Intensity Workout

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