Put Your Love to the Fitness Test

Sure it might be tempting to eat an entire box of chocolates, splurge on a romantic dinner or skip the gym in favor of a movie this Valentine's Day, but you don’t have to let your love life derail your plans to get fit this year. With these workout ideas for couples, you and your partner can spend quality time together while you stay on track to reaching your goals in February and beyond. 

The Benefits of Exercising with Your Partner

The two of you may be at different fitness levels and have different goals, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t exercise together. There are plenty of reasons to give it a try:

• Safety. With someone else watching your form and being there to spot you when you need it, you’ll exercise more safely than if you were alone. Besides, who cares more about your safety than your soulmate?
• Quality time. Couples spend most of their time apart due to careers and other responsibilities. Instead of hitting the gym alone, plan a workout time that fits both of your schedules. You’ll reach your fitness goals, without sacrificing that one-on-one time that every partnership needs.
• A common interest. Add exercise to your list of shared interests and hobbies. The possibility for new, unique activities is endless and keeps things exciting. You can never have too much in common.
• Motivation and support. Getting encouragement and praise from your partner is one of the best motivators. It’ll help both of you remain consistent and take care of one another.
• A deeper bond. Exercise produces chemicals in the brain that evoke feelings of happiness, reduce stress, and also increase arousal and libido. Several studies show that men and women who exercise regularly report better (and more frequent) sex with their partners.
• Respect and pride. Taking care of your body and your health shows the person you care about that you want to be your best for them—and that you want to be around for years to come.
• Balance. In many couples, one partner tends to favor cardio (typically women) while the other tends to favor strength training (typically men). By working out together you can balance your workout program to include more of both. Let your partner teach you about the areas of fitness you’re unsure of and be open to new fitness experiences.

Wondering how working out as a couple might work in the real world—especially when you’re both at different fitness levels? Here are some great ideas to get you started:

• Sign up for a class together. While a class like salsa dancing is perfect for couples, other classes will work just as well. Consider trying something new that interests you both: martial arts, an indoor climbing clinic, yoga (including Partner Yoga), 5K training, adult swim lessons, or other sports.
• Do cardio that allows you both to work at your own intensity level. Group classes like Spinning (indoor cycling) allow each participant to cater the workout to their fitness level, meaning that you both get the workout you want—easy, challenging, or somewhere in the middle.
• Do cardio side-by-side. At the gym, simply pick two cardio machines next to each other and work towards your individual goals. You’ll be together but can each work at your own speed, intensity, incline and resistance level.
• When walking or jogging outside, try intervals. If you are a slow jogger and your significant other is faster, intervals will be perfect for both of you. Work at one partner’s faster pace for a few minutes, and then recover at the other person’s slower pace. Intervals are also a great way to improve your fitness level and speed over time. Before you know it, you’ll both be able to work at the same pace together.
• When strength training at the gym, "work in" (switch places) with one another between sets. About 90 seconds of rest between sets is beneficial anyway. So while you rest, your partner can complete one set of the exercise. Switching the weights to your own level is quick and easy to do on most machines. Another time-saving option is to use dumbbells, so that you don’t have to constantly add and remove weight plates when switching between sets.
• Stretch together. Assisted stretching has major benefits for your flexibility. Giving your partner a gentle tug or soft push in one direction can be helpful—just don’t overdo it.
• Enjoy the great outdoors. Create a more active lifestyle together by picking up new hobbies. While these may not always count as traditional cardio or strength training, every bit of activity you do will benefit your body and your health. Geocaching, hiking, canoeing, tossing a football, recreational cycling, rafting, camping, and just enjoying a nice, leisurely walk at the end of the day—all of these beat an evening in front of the TV.
• Change it up. Try your partner’s exercise ideas just as you want them to try yours. If you have trouble agreeing, compromise. Do your walking routine on one day, and your partner’s upper body strength routine the next, for example. Be open-minded, but keep your partner’s needs (fitness level, goals, comfort level) in mind too.

(No Comment...lol)

 

You've heard me say this over and over "don't judge...don't judge..."

This woman makes it hard not to...lol. Spin-gasm?

Spinning Loves Safety

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

  

Doctor: So, what brings you in today?

  

Patient: Well, where do I start? My back hurts. My knees hurt. My heart is always racing and I’m always tired.

  

Doctor, reading chart: Says here you do indoor cycling?

Patient: Yah, I go every day. The instructors are so creative! Love the hovers, standing without using our hands and how comfortable I am in the tri-bike position, especially when the gear is so heavy I can’t pedal faster than 40 RPM. We sprint every day, which hurts so good—makes me feel like I sweat blood!

  

  

Lots of people think that generally all indoor cycling classes are the same, but because this instructor yanks the seat away to deliver the most painful class possible, or that instructor has their clients stay seated and clipped in with one foot and the other foot goes on the handle bars for a hamstring stretch, that somehow these instructors have taken a sound program and enhanced it. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

  

Does this mean that instructors from the original Spinning® program are robots, stuck in tiny parameters such as three hand positions and five core movements (Seated Flat, Seated Climb, Standing Flat, Standing Climb and Jumps)? Not at all. In fact, adhering to the basics of precise bike fit, rider control of the resistance knob, and incorporating the basic principles of good form on the road, Spinning instructors are relieved of the traditional role of entertaining fitness clients and freed to coach them toward their optimal fitness with the knowledge that the riders are safe and able to train with longevity in mind.

  

There is a reason that some things are considered advanced and not for the beginner and other things are outright contraindicated and known to be unsafe on a stationary bike. Only after a rider has had an opportunity to build up a good aerobic base for training and is comfortable with the nuances of shifting out of the saddle and back down safely should they attempt the more advanced techniques of Sprints and Jumps.

  

Contraindicated movements, such as hovers, “handlebar draping” and incorporating other equipment for an upper body workout, are always contrary to the Spinning training program because they work against the rider, increasing risk of injury with no real fitness benefit.

  

As a class participant, how do you know that what you’re doing is both safe and effective with minimal risk to you?

The general rule is, if you don’t do it on a bike on the road, you don’t do it in a Spinning class. The reverse is not always true, however. There are a couple of things we do in the Spinning program that we don’t do out on the road. Hand Position 1 is one example. Cyclists do not ride in that position on their road bikes, but on a Spinner bike during warm-up, cool-down or easy flat roads, some riders enjoy the position and find that it allows them to connect the mind, body and bike.

Riding with the elbows/forearms on the handlebars, however, similar to riding a tri-bike, is one thing that is not brought into the studio. Locking down on a bike that is geometrically designed differently (angling the body backwards, rather than forward) and does not shift from side to side under the rider like a bike does on the road concentrates the energy generated to power the pedals into the lower back of a still rider. The elbows must be free to help dissipate that energy: Since the bike does not rock, the rider must.

  

So, why are Jumps okay, since you never see cyclists moving in and out of the saddle repetitively? Some programs dismiss the value of Jumps, indicating that it poses a risk of sheering to the knees to move from seated to standing several times in a row. Without the precision fit that is expected of Spinning instructors, a saddle that is too low or too far forward might pose this risk. However, when the rider is fit to the bike correctly, cyclists do need the coordination to transition smoothly in and out of the saddle depending on the terrain or competition of their ride and Jumps help build that fluidity for effective repositioning.

  

Which leads us to hovers. Mountain bikers will argue that they need that lowness for absorbing shock on a descent down unstable terrain, which is true. However, this quad and glut strength should be found off the stationary bike through more traditional squats and lunges, because hovering (keeping the body still and low while pedaling) does not mimic what happens on the bike outdoors. Generally pedaling stops on descent, and to continue to pedal on an indoor cycling bike while holding the body low and still is more stressful on the knees, hips and lower back than it would be to just gain that strength on the weight room floor.

  

Spinning instructors who stick to the Spinning program, delivering a sound class within the guidelines of their instructor manual, are equipped with the tools to challenge the riders, both mentally and physically, to build strength and stamina while minimizing the risks associated with physical training. The program takes perseverance, patience and is not based on a single workout, but rather on the larger picture of training and periodization. Instructors who feel the need to entertain their clients to avoid boredom are often the ones who are afraid of boredom themselves. Creativity, however, is not about being “new and different.” Creativity comes from adherence to the foundations of a safe and effective training program while engaging the rider in an intelligent, emotional dialogue with their own bodies across the topography of the class and the classes that cumulate across the training calendar.

  

Remember, before improvement can happen, you must establish safety. Once safety is at the core of the program, it is the instructor’s job to coach you into a workload that pushes your cardio fitness, not your upper body strength, your fear factor or your total exhaustion.

Humor

If exercise is getting in the way of relationships or commitments, then you haven't discovered intense interval training.

What to Eat Before and After Exercising

How often do you think about exactly what you’re going to eat before you exercise? How about what you’re going to eat when you’re done exercising? And no, I’m not talking about that big bowl of ice cream or tasty martini that you’re trying to earn while you’re slaving away while Spinning. I’m talking about really planning your pre and post-workout fueling so that you get maximum results from your fitness efforts.

What to Eat Before and After Exercising

If you don’t have a nutrition plan for your fitness routine, you’re doing yourself a pretty big disservice when it comes to getting the results that you desire. If you workout while you’re starved, you simply won’t have the energy for your body to gain maximum fitness. If you exercise for a long time without eating, you’ll limit your ability to burn calories and maintain intensity. And if you don’t feed your muscles and replenish your energy stores after exercise, you won’t have the necessary building blocks for recovery.

In this posting, you’re going to learn about ideal pre-workout, during workout, and post-workout nutrition, with a quick and dirty tip for optimizing each of these components of fitness fueling.

What Should You Eat Before Exercising?

Just before you exercise, the last thing you want to do is put a bunch of proteins and fats into your body, even if they’re healthy proteins and fats. These types of fuels take a long time to digest and draw precious oxygen and energy-delivering blood into your stomach and away from your exercising muscles. They also carry a greater risk of giving you a stomachache during your exercise. But if you don’t eat at all, you risk breaking down muscle and causing a great deal of stress to your body during exercise.

The ideal pre-workout meal is consumed about two hours before exercise, contains about 300-500 calories, and is composed primarily of healthy carbohydrates. If you don’t have time to eat two hours before, a quick 50-100 calorie snack 5-10 minutes prior to exercise will also be effective.

Good Pre-Exercise Snacks

Try a bowl of oatmeal, whole-grain cereal, whole-wheat toast, or even sweet potato or yam as a pre-workout meal eaten two hours before your workout. If you have to eat directly before your workout, a small piece of fruit—like an apple or banana—will do. If that sounds a bit too blah for you, then you can try just a little bit of protein or fat, like a teaspoon of peanut butter or a small handful of almonds, but just don’t go overboard and eat last night’s pizza for your pre-workout meal.

What Should You Eat While Exercising?

Take good care of your body’s fueling needs for exercise, and engage in any type of caloric restriction apart from exercise.

Interestingly, research has shown that if you exercise for longer than 60 minutes without supplying your body with any nutrients, you actually burn few calories and less fat than if you had eaten, and your post exercise metabolic rate, or rate of calorie burning, is also lower.

If you plan on exercising for less than an hour, you don’t need to eat; just make sure you hydrate with small, frequent sips of water during your workout. But if you’re doing something like a long run or bike ride, or maybe a couple of back-to-back fitness classes, try to eat 50-100 calories every half hour, preferably from a quick carbohydrate source that is easy to carry, like a ziplock bag of raisins, an energy bar, energy gels, or even a sports drink. The goal is not to replace every calorie that you burn, but rather to give you just enough fuel so that you can maintain a brightly burning metabolism.

What Should You Eat After a Workout?

There is a window of time about 20-60 minutes after you exercise in which your muscles will readily accept the carbohydrates and protein that you consume and suck them up to be stored away as precious energy and building blocks for recovery. But if you wait too long after exercising to eat, your body become less likely to use what you eat as fuel and recovery, and more likely to run out of energy during your next exercise session, whether later in the day or even the next day.

The ideal post-workout meal is comprised of a blend of carbohydrates and protein. There are all sorts of fancy ratios used by elite athletes, but the basic rule is to eat just a little more carbohydrates than protein, and to consume about 2 calories of carbohydrate for every pound of target bodyweight. For example, if your target bodyweight is 150lbs, you should eat about 300 calories of carbohydrate, and about half that many calories of protein. A sample post-workout meal would be chicken with brown rice, yogurt with almonds, or a protein shake with a banana.

Here’s your quick and dirty tip for post-workout fueling: Don’t wait until you get home or to your office to eat. Typically, by the time you’ve prepared breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you’ve missed your magic window of 20-60 minutes. Instead, prepare and carry your post-workout fuel in your gym bag or car. This is when Ziplocs, Tupperware containers, and shaker cups will be quite handy.

Summary

As you can see, when it comes to getting fit, nutrition is just as big a part of the equation as exercise. That doesn’t mean you need to arrive at the gym with a grocery shopping bag full of fruit, or a 24-pack of energy drinks, but it does mean that you should plan ahead to give your body the fuel it needs for fitness. Don’t worry--you aren’t going to sabotage your fat-loss efforts as long as you fuel in moderation. The way I like to think about it is this: Take good care of your body’s fueling needs for exercise, and engage in any type of caloric restriction apart from exercise.

How to Get Off a Weight Loss Plateau

It’s funny how that tiny scale on the bathroom floor can make grown men and women quake with fear and break out into a cold sweat. Will it move? Will it not move? What strange forces influence the mystical movements of the body weight scale? And more importantly, why does it sometimes not budge no matter how hard you exercise? In today’s posting, you’ll learn how to exercise when you stop losing weight, why you may not lose weight with exercise, and how to exercise to get off a weight loss plateau.

Why You Stop Losing Weight

When it comes to exercise, there are generally 3 reasons why you stop losing weight:

Reason #1: Your body becomes accustomed to the demands you’re placing on it. When you perform a motion over and over again, you become more efficient at that motion, which means that you burn fewer calories doing it. For example, when you first step onto an elliptical trainer at the gym, you might huff and puff and barely make it through 10 minutes. But 8 weeks later, you can be cruising through a 45 minute elliptical trainer workout. The reason for this is that your muscles learn how to move in a way that introduces the least possible resistance to movement.

Though this would be quite handy if you were fighting for survival and in the wilderness chopping wood, it’s not so handy when you’re trying shed a quick 5 pounds and need to burn all the calories you possibly can. Whether your body is getting used to how much weight is on the barbell, how fast you’re walking, or how many times you bicycle during the week, physical adaptation is one of the top reasons for a plateau.

Excessive training and improper recovery can often cause a weight loss plateau.

Reason #2: You’re stressed. If you watch the Biggest Loser, you may have heard trainer Jillian Michaels mutter that someone isn’t losing weight because they’re “retaining fluids.” Both physical and emotional stress can play a role in fluid retention. From a physical standpoint, an increase in estrogen, decrease in progesterone, decrease in testosterone, or overstimulation of adrenal glands can cause fluid retention. In my previous posting “How to Recover After A Workout”, I mention that excessive training and improper recovery can cause a weight loss plateau. That is because excessive training and improper recovery cause all those physical consequences I just mentioned. Furthermore, lack of sleep, soreness, tension and constant focus on exercise can also result in those same physical consequences.

Reason #3: Your diet is not ideal. As you probably know, there are a myriad of dietary and nutritional complexities that you must consider when attempting to lose weight. No amount of running on a treadmill is going to help you lose weight if you’re using it as an excuse to eat whatever you want. When it comes to your weight loss suddenly stopping, there’s just as much chance that diet is involved as there is a chance that exercise is involved.

How to Get Off a Weight Loss Plateau

Now that you know how you got there in the first place, here are your three quick and dirty tips to getting off a weight loss plateau:

Plateau-Busting Tip #1: Make changes that keep your body from adapting to the demands you place upon it. Here are some examples:

·       If you only do cardio, add weight training.

·       If you only do weight training, add cardio.

·       If you always lift a certain weight or number, then increase intensity and decrease repetitions, or decrease intensity and increase repetitions.

·       Choose entirely new exercises.

·       Do your existing exercises in a different order.

·       Begin to do 30-60 second cardio bursts after each weight training set.

·       Choose new cardio modes, so if you bike, try running and if you run, try rowing.

·       Change workout time from morning to evening, or vice versa.

In other words, begin throwing your body curveballs! The rule rule of thumb is to never do the same “routine” for more than 4 weeks in a row.

Plateau-Busting Tip #2: De-stress. Often, the body can be nudged off a weight loss plateau by several days of good eating and very low amounts of exercise. Though this may seem counterintuitive, an overtrained or stressed body may simply need rest. I have personally witnessed dozens of people “magically” begin to lose weight when the normal hard exercise routine and perfect diet was replaced with an easy morning walk and a few good cheat meals.

Plateau-Busting Tip #3: Begin writing down what you eat. Sometimes you don’t know that you’re making nutritional mistakes until they’re staring you in the face. Are you really eating five pieces of tiny candy by the time you leave the office at the end of the day? That’s an extra pound of fat each month. Did you quit drinking an afternoon protein shake and replace it with a snack bag of potato chips? That can be enough to make a difference. By writing down your diet, you can go back and correlate changes to see when you stopped losing weight. Trust me; it makes the detective work much easier.

Weight loss plateau is typically the result of something far simpler, such as an unchanged exercise routine, overtraining, or small nutritional mistakes that someone was unaware they were making. With the correct changes, you can begin losing weight again within just a few days, and that bathroom scale will once again become your friend.