Did you know that our bodies are 2/3 water?
Now that’s a lot! Our brain cells are 80-90% fluid and our muscles are 60-70% fluid. We all know that our bodies can survive for long periods without food, but we simply can’t survive without water.
So how much should you be drinking? The simple answer is probably MORE than you are drinking now.
There are two schools of thought about exactly how much.
You don’t have to have fancy equipment to do cardio workouts!
Here are some you can try.
STEP-UP and SKIP
You need:
You may have tried Interval Training or it may be completely new to you. What exactly IS it?
Imagine sprinting at your top speed for 1 minute. It’s pretty difficult! Imagine if you could give your body the benefit of that level of workout intensity.
Interval helps you do just that. Try sprinting for 10 seconds, 20 seconds rest, then do it all over again. You’ve just sprinted 20 seconds at top speed.
What if you repeated the ’sprint-rest interval’ 4 times ? That would give you the benefit of 40 seconds of full on intensity.
Most cardio equipment at the gym has a program for ‘fat burning’ or ‘cardio’. Have you ever tried it? The ‘Fat-burning’ zone is NOT the best way to burn fat! How come?
The theory is that when your heart-rate is in ‘the zone’ the body burns fat as its fuel. True to a point. But you’d have to work ‘in the zone’ for so long it isn’t funny ! Nor is it efficient at really burning fat. You are better to go as hard out as you can and burn more calories per workout. As a result the amount of actual fat burned is greater.
Imagine this: …
We all know this one. We plan and write out our goals, get a program, get a support team and get started. So far, so good. We start to see results! “YES! This works” we say to ourselves, and our support team cheers.
Then something happens – we wobble, and fall off. WHY? I’ve done a lot of thinking on this one because over the years this has happened to me too!
So here’s my take on it. There are two kinds of sabotage: ‘Self Sabotage’ and ‘Well-Meaning Friends Sabotage’
Great Goals Alone Will NOT Get You There!
I’ve been pondering the burning coals picture. You know the one – coals burn at their brightest when they are burning on the fire together. Guess what! It’s the same with us. We make a decision to change something in our lifestyle and start out with fantastic specific goals and great enthusiasm.
It doesn’t take too long before that enthusiasm dries up and we are back to struggling. Like taking the coal out of the fire! Take it out and it will go out – that simple.
IF you haven’t read “Weight Loss” Mind Set Part 1 read it now.
Great! SO you have some really good positive statements – these state the OUTCOME – what RESULT you want. The question now is how do you get there? The mind set here is a DAILY ACTION PLAN that gradually will make life long behavioural changes – changes that will keep the excess off and keep you fit and healthy.
A DAILY ACTION PLAN can be a list of positive statements
So you’ve decided to ‘lose weight’ – it’s as much a mind game as a physical one!
Our brains work in funny ways and ‘negative’ statements cause some confusion.
“Lose weight” – is one of those! “I want to lose weight” is the most common reason people join a fitness centre, or go to see a personal trainer, yet the very statement is a stumbling block. When you lose something- guess what! You want to FIND it again. Now that is possibly ONE reason for the weight gain immediately after you get to your ‘goal weight’ So- we want to re-phrase for clarity.
Many of us, when asked about “Weight Training” or “Strength Training” immediately put up the “woah -not for me” signal. I wonder why? My guess is that we have these preconceived images of body builders and (if you are female) ugly muscles that seem to bulge out in all the ‘unfemine’ places.
Good News
Well, here is some good news! If you start strength training you won’t end up with all those bulging muscles that ( to me anyway) look so ugly.
Great! So you have made the decision to do some weight training. Now the dilemma -which is best? Those big machine weight stack things at the gym, or the ‘free weights’ – dumb bells and the like?
Well, it really depends on what your goal is. If you just want to ‘look good’ then machine weights will do that for you. If you want functional strength and stability in your day to day living – then free weights is the way to go. How come?
By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
