My appearance on Global Calgary this morning. Remember to have cardiovascular testing done first.
Stay strong YYC!!
Category: Exercise
Recovery
Recovery is one of the most overlooked aspects of training. If not done regularly, it will most likely lead to overtraining and injury. Of course, like all other aspects of training, recovery is not simply done. It depends on age, intensity of training being done, how often you are training, type of training, physical limitations and past injury history. Any educated, experienced trainer will give you good advice on how often and what to do.
In general, recovery should look something like this:
1. Get massages on a regular basis. How often? Depends on level of training, but at least once a month if you are training regularly at a moderate to high intensity.
2. Stretch! Ya, I know! But stretching AFTER exercise or on recovery days helps to keep the tissue ‘aligned’ and allows for full range of motion.
3. Drink lots of water. Staying hydrated is very important!
4. Rest/sleep. As I have written about before, you heal when you sleep. No sleepy, no healy!!
Some basics.
Remember, active living can be considered a recovery day. A walk, play with the kids in the park, gardening, cutting the grass, shoveling the snow and so on.
Remember to recover, it will benefit your training more than you think!!
Stay strong YYC!!
Patience, you must have patience!
This is about the time of year when the newcomers to exercise start to drop off. Most will be upset that they haven’t seen a huge change in weight, measurements or how they are feeling. The truth is, you won’t!! Have some patience! The question I always ask back to my clients is “how long did it take you to gain this weight or how long has it been since you have exercised?” The normal response is usually an eye opener. Remember that exercise isn’t something to fix a problem, it is a preventative tool used to help increase health, vitality and the by-products are weight loss, feeling and looking better, sense of accomplishment and increased self esteem!!
Please relax! These will all come in time!
Make sure…you are on a proper program designed with your needs in mind. Are you doing it on your own? Do you need some help?
Maybe your program is to hard for your level of fitness and you are overtraining!! There are many possibilities.
If you are frustrated, burned out, unsure, upset or on the brink of quitting…please don’t! Find an exercise professional to give you the guidance you need.
Better yet, suck it up and keep moving forward. The results will happen if you are on the right track.
Stay strong YYC!!
Happy New Year
Welcome back everyone, to reality that is! If you have taken some time off of a healthy routine, come on back in, the water is fine. Returning to a workout regime should be gradual. Even if you only took a couple of weeks off. Give your body time to readjust to exercise again. It is the safest and most effective way to avoid disappointing yourself with the decreases in endurance and strength that you will notice. Take your time and do it right, or you may need to book a massage with me to fix the injured parts!!
Good luck, welcome back and stay strong YYC!!
Small biz owners mag
If you are a small business owner you should check out this free online magazine. It has several great tools to use to help run a successful business. I am a contributor and my article is on page 46-47. Check it here!
This is a no spam, no junkmail site!!
http://bit.ly/12J6DIU
Massage and injury
If, or when you injury yourself, ie. falling on ice or snow, remember that a pulled muscle needs time to initialize the healing process and you should let the healing start by leaving them alone for the first 72 hours (approximately). Now, realizing that everyone is different, try to pay attention to how your body heals. Applying ice initially has always helped me in the past. I ice 2-3 times during the first 24 hours if injury. There should be NO massage for the first 2-3 days after a serious injury. This allows the muscle to lay down a matrix and become stable and strong enough to resist the pressure of a treatment. If you get treatment it may be detrimental to the healing process.
Now, new studies are showing that light stretching and even light movement help the muscles to align the fibers in proper direction for increased strength. Keep that in mind, light movement, don’t go to the gym and do a hamstring workout if you blow out a hammie!!!
Consult me if you need further information!!
Stay strong YYC!!
How to stay fit while running a biz.
I would like to thank @BBEmpower for the great opportunity to be a featured author in their new magazine in #yyc. Please find my article on page 46. The articles in this magazine are fantastic! And everyone in Calgary today will have some extra reading time I am sure!!
http://bit.ly/12J6DIU
Biggest Loser controversy
I couldn’t help myself but to share this article. I hits home with me, big time, and actually shares my view of the show. I hope you enjoy the read, and thanks to James S. Fell for writing it!
Stay strong YYC!!
http://www.sixpackabs.com/did-jillian-michaels-really-do-a-bad-bad-thing/
Exercise Program Progression
Continuously altering your exercise regime is important for growth. Not only as a whole, but quite literally. Now, this blog is general as it would be quite impossible to write one blog about all of the possibilities of exercise change based on type of program, individuality, level, strength, cardiovascular ability…..etc.
The important thing to take from this is that you need to change your program every 6-8 weeks, as a general guideline.
Basically, your body adapts to stress that is put on it, ie. exercise. And the frequency, intensity, type and time you put in are all factors deciding what the stressors are. In other words the FITT principle. Changing one principle every 6-8 weeks helps to keep your body moving forward with stress adaptation and allows for increase in muscle gains or cardiovascular improvements. The only caution is that you should not increase intensity and time(duration) at the same time. It is just a potential injury and health risk.
Feel free to send me any questions regarding your program (as long as it is not a weeks worth of work for me!!).
Thanks and stay strong YYC!!
Active rest
Remember that we heal and grow during sleep and rest. Overtraining is a huge problem in athletes, and can impede on strength and power gains. Take an active rest day. Go for a walk, easy bike ride or just enjoy playing with your kids at the park. An easy swim or a light yoga class are also great forms of active rest.
Don’t forget about massage! A great deep flush can help to revitalize the body and improve healing time!!
Stay strong YYC!!