Five Nine Fitness

1. Impatience

Impatience is probably most people’s worst enemy when it comes to staying on track with your workout plan. It is so easy to get distracted, especially if you feel the recent progress with your exercise has been slow. You must be aware that physical training won’t do miracles over night. Only faitful and diligent exercising and workout, day after day, week after week, month after month will prove results.

Looking back; maybe you’re one who hasn’t trained or exercised for years, maybe not at all. How many years did it take to put you in the physical shape and fitness condition you were in before you started regular exercising? Do not expect results in one week – take a look back and try to feel the difference after 3 to 6 months of exercising. If you are that patient, you’ll definitely see results of your workout effort.

2. Expectations too high

If you expect to become a Joe Jordan or a Naumi Chambell after a few weeks of exercises, you’ll get disappointed. The purpose with your physical workout is to make yourself feel better and give you a better and richer life,

Plyometrics

If you have never heard of plyometrics, then you are missing out on one of the most effective high-intensity cardio techniques there is. These explosive exercises are designed to strengthen fast twitch muscle fibers, but are also excellent for improving anaerobic cardiovascular endurance.

Some of the best exercises include platform jumps, side-to-side box jumps, weighted explosions, frog jumps, vertical explosions, and depth jumps.

Sprints

If you’re looking for almost immediate results then you should consider using sprints. Sprints are very challenging, but can also be very rewarding. You can look forward to lean muscle gains in the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core. In addition, sprints will accelerate fat loss, and help improve athleticism.

If you’re just starting out then I recommend you begin with the traditional sprint. The traditional variation is performed on flat ground at distances that do not exceed 60 yards. Anything further will deteriorate running form and decrease the intensity level.

Interval Sprints

Once the traditional sprints gets easier, then I recommend you use interval sprints. Interval training utilizes both energy systems in combination, which results in a massive fat burning effect. The best way to perform

How many reps and sets should I do?

How many reps and sets you do is completely dependent upon your goals and strength training method of choice. For example- if your goal is to lose weight and tone up your muscles, then you should consider doing 3 sets of 12 reps. If your goal is to increase muscle size, you will want to continually increase your weight size and consider a pyramid method for reps and sets.

How fast should I lift weights?

When you first learn about strength training, learn about proper speed. I see a lot of people lifting weights way to fast. A good speed is somewhere between 2-4 seconds on the lift and 3-4 seconds on the lowering phase. Your muscles aren’t really doing the work if you move faster than that. Momentum is.

Should I workout everyday?

How often you choose to workout is up to you. I always advise beginners to start slowly. A very important rule is to allow your muscles at least 24 hours of rest before lifting weights again. So for example, if you work your biceps today, let them rest tomorrow. I know

The most important piece of equipment you will need is a good pair of walking or running shoe. Most shoe stores and sporting goods stores should be able to supply you with a good selection.  You may also want to think about getting yourself a pedometer. Pedometers are handy little gadgets that can measure your distance and time and help you keep track of your progress.

Why am I walking?

Now that you have your equipment and are ready to go, it might be nice to know why you are starting a walking program. The health benefits of walking are many and include the following:

• Helps with weight loss.
• Helps to reduce blood pressure
• Reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes
• Relieves stress
• Boosts overall energy levels
• Strengthens the heart and reduces the risk of heart disease
• Studies have shown that walking relieves depression and anxiety
• Strengthens your body
• Burns almost the same amount of calories as running

How should I start?

Since walking uses almost all 650 of your muscles it is a very good idea to warm up before you begin a walk. This will loosen up your body and help to avoid injury.

How long should I

Myth 1

Just doing some midsection exercises can reduce your “love handles”.

Fact

You cannot reduce fat from a certain targeted area of your body just by using exercise alone.

And the abdominal area is no exception.

So if you want to get a flat stomach and to reveal your abs, losing the fat covering them is the way to go.

And the only way to do this is to lose fat proportionately from your entire body by burning more calories than you consume.

How? By doing these two things:

1) Have a healthy and balanced permanent diet: dark green vegetables, fresh fruits, whole wheat and whole grain products, non-fat dairy products, fish, poultry breast, lean red meat, egg white.

Yes, you should cut out all sugar, soda, non-whole grain products and saturated fats: these aliments should only be a reward for achieving a goal, not a habit!

2) Start exercising

Aerobic and weight training will raise your metabolic rate. In result, your body will burn more calories.

* aerobic exercising

3 times per week, practice an exercise that keeps your heart rate elevated for

The most effective exercise regimen includes both strength training and cardiovascular (aerobic) training in a consistent, regular program.

– 2-4 days of strength training and

– 2-5 days of aerobic activity; or

– 3-4 days of circuit training.

Every safe and effective exercise program should consist of three elements. In order, they are:

– Warm Up

– Work Out

– Cool Down

Warm Up

Always warm up before exercising. People who do not warm up before exercising are the ones who usually end up sustaining injuries. Protect your neck, back, spine, and joints. Get the blood and juices flowing and wake up your muscles gradually through a series of stretches and preliminary sets using reduced resistance. This is one time when “going through the motions” can be extremely beneficial.

Strength Work Out

Perform at least one set of 8-12 reps to near fatigue for each muscle group in the body (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, abs, thighs, hamstrings, and calves) a minimum of two times per week. Your goal should be to work up to doing three sets (increasing the resistance for each successive set) with 30-60

If you sit on a chair all day, you may be experiencing tight or sore back muscles. To eliminate these nagging minor pains, perform this exercise 2-3 times per week consisting of 2 sets of 15 repetitions. This is an exercise also recommended by chiropractors and doctors. I’ve also seen variations of this exercise done in Pilates and Yoga. If you do constantly have back pains, it is advisable that you consult with your doctor before attempting this exercise.

Method of Performance

Lie down on a mat or carpet with your stomach to the floor, keep your arms and hands flat at your sides and legs extended like in a standing position, but lying down. Slowly raise yourself up from your torso as far as you can go but do not over-extend. Just to the point where you feel comfortable and you are receiving the maximum benefit. Remember to tighten your buttocks when lifting yourself from the ground and concentrate on working the lower back. Now slowly lower yourself back to the floor. Don’t forget to breathe. Do about 2 sets slowly consisting of 12-15 reps, 2 to 3 times per week.

Variations

This

1. Muscle imbalances: nearly every ache, pain, or injury people suffer from today are mostly caused from muscular imbalances. Over 80% of people have muscle imbalances that go undetected. Over time, these muscle imbalances will cause numerous muscle and joint problems such as wear and tear on the joints, which eventually leads to arthritis, bulging disc or back spasms. An imbalanced muscle is a weak muscle.These weak muscles cannot stabilize the joint in its socket causing the joint to become misaligned and move at a slightly incorrect angle or rotation. When these faulty movements are repeated hundreds of times, the joints, tendons and muscles begin to degenerate.

2. Poor posture: Today’s diverse clientele with varied needs offers a unique challenge to health and fitness professionals. The one-size-fits-all approach to exercise programs is commonly unproductive and potentially dangerous. Many injuries and chronic back pain is a result of cumulative affects overtime.

Faulty postures and poor body mechanics will cause lower back pain and be at least partially attributed to these same faults. Improper movements will cause micro trauma to the joints and soft tissues. You may experience pain initially maybe pain comes and goes and doesn’t get

Back exercises are often prescribed effectively as an alternative to surgery. Doing daily back exercises can significantly reduce back pain related to a variety of common ailments. However, not every exercise is appropriate for some conditions and certain back exercises may even make the problem worse. This is why it’s important to check with your doctor about which exercises will help or hinder you.

One of the simpler back exercises that you can do is a pelvic tilt. Lie on your back with your feet flat and knees bent. Keep your legs together and cross your arms over your chest and then you are going to tilt your pelvis and push your low back to the floor. Slowly lift your buttocks off the floor as far as you can without straining your muscles. After maintaining the position for about 5 seconds, slowly lower your buttocks back to the floor.

Of course there are many other back exercises that can help strengthen your back and alleviate pain, you will just need to experiment to see what your back can handle. If an exercise doesn’t make you feel better, or worse yet, causes further back strain, then you

Infant through pre-school

• Fit in exercise time while they are napping. Try a home exercise video, walking or jogging (if you have a treadmill), jumping rope.
• Occupy them for even 15 minutes with a video or toy while you do some toning exercises like squats and tricep dips.
• Grab your stroller and go for a brisk walk*. Or, buy a jogging stroller for more flexibility. With a jogging stroller you can walk faster, jog or even run at a fast pace. And, for veteran rollerbladers, you can even use the stroller for some skating time.
• For younger children, you can use a back carrier to transport them while walking. This can burn even more calories as the extra weight makes it more challenging.
• Turn on some music and dance together. Toddlers love dancing, especially when their parents joins in.
• Push your kid on a swing. And, after every push complete one squat.
• Use an infant carrier or bike trailer to enjoy a bike ride together.

Grade School

• Try rollerblading or skating together.
• Spend an afternoon at a park with a playground, but don’t spend the whole time relaxing on the sidelines – join in on the fun. Spend some time swinging to

Aerobic exercise

Aerobic exercise burns energy and oxygen, through continuous movement of the largest muscles in your body (your thigh muscles). Aerobic activities include bicycling, swimming, jogging, and (a great one for beginners or those who are recovering from illness) walking. If you’re just starting, try 10 minutes a day four days and increase as it feels comfortable until you’re exercising 30 to 60 minutes. Some people find that adding variety to their program (a new route every day; alternating classes and stationary biking) keeps them motivated.

Finding the right pace for aerobic exercise is important. Rambling at too comfortable a pace may not maximize the benefits of aerobic exercising, but overdoing can make exercise “anaerobic” (non-oxygen burning). A good way to make sure you’re exercising aerobically is to measure your heart rate. After exercising, put your fingers (not your thumb!) across your wrist (palm up). Count the number of pulses you feel during 10 seconds, then multiply that by six to convert it to a one-minute heart rate. Keep your exercise heart rate to 55 percent to 80 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate (220 – your age)

If that’s too much math,

# Start gently. When you’re first starting out, you may not be able to stretch your joints very far. Don’t push it or you may end up damaging your tendons, ligaments or muscles

# Stay gentle. The American College of Sports Medicine notes that the “no pain, no gain” method of stretching may destabilize your joints. Try a gentle stretch of the muscles you use for 10 to 30 seconds. If it hurts, there’s a reason.

# Match stretches to exercise. If you’re an avid dancer, make sure that your legs and ankles have been gently stretched; if you lift weights, stretch your arms and legs.

# Accommodate your history. If you’ve had a previous injury, make sure that your stretches accommodate rather than exacerbate it. Your doctor or a sports medicine practitioner can help you to finding the right stretches and will often have handouts showing you how to perform them.

Remember, before starting any exercise program, you should consult with your health care practitioner to tailor it to your needs, particularly if you are 40, have existing health issues or a prior significant injury, or have suffered in the past from heart

Overcoming & Preventing Sports Injury

If you’re involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favourite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you’ll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you’re actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you’re losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you’re also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability.

A sports injury is a bit like losing money. Not only do you lose whatever you were going to buy with that money, but you also have to work hard to make up the money you’ve lost. Take it from me; a sports injury is one of the most frustrating and debilitating occurrences that can happen to anyone who’s serious about their health, fitness, sport or exercise.

The Cold, Hard Facts

I recently read an article titled “Managing Sports Injuries” where the author estimated that over 27,000 American’s sprain their ankle every day. (And no, that’s not a typo, EVERY

# Over 90% of people who exercise *consistently*, exercise in the morning. If you want to exercise consistently, odds are in your favor if you exercise first thing in the morning.

# When you exercise early in the morning, it “jump starts” your metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours, sometimes up to 24 hours! That means you’re burning more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning!

# When you exercise in the morning you’ll be *energized* for the day! Personally, I feel dramatically different on days when I have and haven’t exercised in the morning.

# Many people find that morning exercise “regulates” their appetite for the day – that they aren’t as hungry and that they make better food choices. Several people have told me that it puts them in a “healthy mindset.”

# If you exercise at about the same time every morning, and ideally wake-up at about the same time on a regular basis, your body’s endocrine system and circadian rhythms adjust to that.

Physiologically, some wonderful things begin to happen; A couple of hours *before* you awaken, your body begins to prepare for waking

Running on a flat surface burns calories and gives your heart and lungs a great cardiovascular workout. Running up hill challenges your muscles, heart, and lungs, burning more calories and providing additional toning. But taking a 30 minute run up hill or on a steeply inclined treadmill would quickly exhaust most of us, or likely force us to stop early. However, running up hill then back down, or up hill then on flat ground would allow for high intensity work counter balanced by intervals of slower periods of active recovery. Interval training burns more calories and pumps more blood than continuous lower intensity exercise because it includes intervals of energy and oxygen-hungry work.

Because interval training burns a lot of calories and provides good muscle work, it may help you save time. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of bricks. Likewise, running one mile burns the same number of calories as walking one mile. But walking one mile takes a lot more time. If your goal is calorie burning and toning, and you are short on time, then interval training does more, faster. Just remember that improving cardiovascular health requires aerobic exercise of

1. Think Small. This is probably the hardest part of exercise for people to understand and follow through with. Most people want the results to happen now and start their workout program going all out. This is the number 1 reason men and women stop exercising. They expect too much. Breakdown your goals into sections or parts and choose some realistic goals. Before you know it, you lost those annoying 10 pounds and or health has improved ten fold.

2. Begin Looking at Exercise Differently. Think of exercise as a way of life. Do not look as exercise as a chore or task that hurts you. Exercise is probably the most inexpensive and fun thing you can do for your life. Find something in exercise that you enjoy doing such as meeting new people, getting out of work, or your means of stress relief. It will be like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. The sooner you view exercise as a activity of health and way of life, the sooner your results will show up.

3. Get A Workout Partner. If there is somebody waiting for you at the gym, the same time you are supposed