What's next?

When I train a client, I usually introduce them to cardio activities to begin with, walking being the most natural choice, then I introduce them to strength training. The benefits of strength training are numerous. It helps to build muscle (increase the size of the muscle fibers) which in turn helps to increase the body's ability to burn calories. Muscle helps to support the skeletal system (bones) and weight bearing activity actually helps to keep the bones strong. Muscle also helps the body with strength and endurance for cardiovascular exercise. Strength training is important to be able to carry out the body's daily tasks such as carrying groceries, lifting children, moving furniture and whatever else you might have to do in a day's work. The look of a nicely toned body is always a plus too.

How does one start a strength program? There are no firm rules except that you need to challenge your body. You can choose to lift weights or do strength training with resistance bands or even use your body's own weight for resistance. If you start with weights you want to choose a weight that is appropriate for you and for the muscle that you are working. Larger muscles will require heavier weights than the smaller muscles. The muscles of the lower body are the largest, then the back and chest. The muscles of the upper body such as the arms and shoulders are smaller. I always save abdominals for last. It is good practice to work the larger muscles first so that you do not fatigue too quickly.

How do you determine what weight is appropriate for the muscle that you are working? The best way to determine this is to select a weight that you can complete 12 repetitions of an exercise. Once you have completed the eighth repetition, your muscle should start to feel tired but you should be able to complete the set of 12 reps. The twelfth repetition should be the point where your muscle feels that it cannot continue. If you feel you can do more repetitions, then the weight that you have selected is probably too light for the exercise. It might take a few tries to actually find the appropriate weight for each exercise. You will find that the weight that you choose for your upper body will most likely be too light for your lower body so you will more than likely need 2 or 3 sets of weights.

I have talked about repetitions and sets. A repetition is the number of times that you perform one exercise. For example, you might do 12 bicep curls. Each curl is a repetition. Now those 12 bicep curls constitute one set. If you do 2 sets of bicep curls, this would be 24 bicep curls but done 12 at a time with a rest period of 30 seconds to a minute in between each set. Someone just starting would probably do one set of 12 reps and then after a few weeks begin doing a second set of the exercise as a progression.

I mentioned the use of resistance bands for strength training also. I like the use bands because they supply resistance through both phases of the muscle contraction. The concentric contraction, the actual upward movement of the bicep, would have the greatest resistance because the band has to be stretched for the resistance on the muscle. The eccentric contraction, which is the downward movement, or lengthening of the bicep, also is provided with some resistance by the band if the muscle is moved slowly through the exercise. The beauty of bands is that they can be brought anywhere because they are light and compact. I like them for traveling.

Exercises using your own body weight as resistance can also be done. A good example of this type of exercise is the push up. Other examples include squats and lunges without weights.

It is difficult to describe the various exercises here but I can direct you to some websites and some very good strength training books. Onlinefit.com is an excellent website with several different strength programs for all different levels of fitness. They have programs using weights, bands, body bars and stability balls.

One of my favorite books is Getting in Shape by Bob Anderson, Bill Pearl and Ed Burke. This book can help you put an entire fitness program together. Strength Training Anatomy and Women's Strength Training Anatomy, both by Frederic Delavier are well illustrated strength books demonstrating form and offering precautions for the exercises. There are several other books available. These are just a few in my library.

Once you start your strength program you may want to begin with training 2 days a week. These should not be consecutive days. Your muscle fibers need to rest so there should be at least one full day in between strength sessions. Eventually you will want to progress to 3 days. Resistance or strength training is a progressive process. You might progress by adding more reps, sets, exercises per body part and more weight. It takes time. Do not add too much on too quickly. When the exercise becomes too easy, you know it is time for a change in weight or number of reps. Your body will let you know.

I forgot to mention that you do not need to weights if you find the expense too much. You can use bottles of water, cans or anything with weight to them as long as it is enough for you. The choice is yours.

Happy lifting!

Where to Start First?

It's a tough question to answer. I think the best place to start is with cardio activity. You need the cardio activity for your heart and lungs. It helps to burn fat and to create more energy for your body to function. Cardiovascular activity brings oxygen to the lungs which goes to the capillaries in the alveoli to pass the oxygen to the red blood cells which travel back to the heart to get pumped through the arteries to all of the tissues in the body where the oxygen is passed from the red cells to the tissues at the capillary level. Oxygen is necessary along with glucose for cellular respiration which is responsible for ATP production for cellular energy. (I told you I was a biological science grad).

Now that we have established all of this what type of activity can be classified as cardiovascular activity. Any activity that raises your heart rate from 60% to 85% of your maximum heart rate can be classified as cardiovascular activity. To calculate this subtract your age from 220 and then multiply by 0.6 to 0.85. As long as you maintain activity in this range for at least 20 minutes, there will be cardiovascular benefit. If you can maintain it for as long as 60 minutes, there will definately more health and fat burning benefits but for someone just starting out, 20 minutes is a good number to start with. You can always work your way up.

The activity that I would recommend for someone just starting is walking. If you have been inactive for a long time, you may only be able to walk for 10 minutes at a time. This is okay. You might want to try for 2 ten minute walks 3 times a week to start with. Research has found that cardiovascular benefit can be cumulative. If all you can do is 10 to 15 minutes in a day, that is okay too. As you go on, you will find that you can walk longer.

Once you are able to walk for a brisk 30 to 40 minutes you may find you would like to try running. Running is an excellent cardio activity and is a natural progression from walking. You might want to do a walk/jog program to start. You could set up an interval program of 5 minutes walking and 2 minutes running to start on an alternating basis. Interval training is an excellent way to improve cardiovascular health as well as burn more calories. Do this activity for 30 to 40 minutes and you will notice a big difference in cardiovascular endurance as well as calorie burn.

Not everyone enjoys walking and running. There are numerous activities that can be done for cardiovascular health. Cardio kickboxing is one of my personal favorites. Dance moves if done continuously for 20 to 40 minutes or more can be considered cardio. Many people love to bicycle. Spinning is an excellent activity. Step aerobics has cardiovascular benefit as well as strength. Ice skating, inline skating, swimming, cross country skiing and many other sport activities can offer cardiovascular benefit. The choice is yours. Start small and work your way up. That is the marvel of this whole thing. You can work at your own pace. No one says that you have to run a marathon after a week. The main idea is to find an activity that you enjoy and stick with it.

Some Background Information

This is just a bit of information regarding the background of the author. I am a medical laboratory technologist with several years experience working in all areas of the hospital laboratory. I am currently a supervisor in the blood bank of a very busy hospital. Very early in my career as a medical technologist, I became a certified fitness instructor. I started teaching classes for Dance Fit. After a year, I became involved with a group that started a series of fitness classes called Dance and Stretch. I was an instructor/choreographer with this group for several years. In my early 30's I decided to go to university to obtain my bachelor of science in biological sciences. I found it more difficult to work part time in the hospital, go to school and teach fitness classes at the same time, along with raising my 2 daughters so I gave up teaching my classes. I did not forego my own fitness endeavours though. I forgot to mention that I also taught for the school of medical technology on a part time basis.

Upon finishing my degree, I went to work in a hospital in the US (I live in Canada) full time. While I was working in my new position, I was approached by a local aikido dojo, the Rose City Athletic Organization, to design and teach a cardio kick box class. This was in the days when Tae Bo had become the big rage. I am in no way a martial artist but I had participated in several cardio kick box classes myself and felt confident I could do such a class. I designed a class which we called KEN BOK, named from the Japanese wooden sword Bokken. The class was designed as a traditional fitness class. The cardio portion was mixed impact with a lot of kick box moves, kicks and punches, and also some simple dance moves along with classic cardio moves. The strength portion varied. We used the Bokken and the jo (wooden staff) for much of the strength. We also incorporated light weights and resistance bands into the workouts. The workouts were done to motivating music. Music has always been my main motivator. The class ran for about 3 years but some changes in my hospital job and lack of interest in the kick box move prompted an end to the class.

In my fitness journey, I discovered an online fitness forum which gave me another source of interest and motivation. I became very active on the forum and after a year became a forum moderator, a position I still hold on the forum. I was also lucky enough to be selected to appear in a fitness infomercial, although the infomercial itself was very short run. I had a lot of fun going to New York to meet with some of my online friends and filming the infomercial. The experience once again motivated me to go and pursue my fitness career. I needed some more training and education, as it had been a few years since I attended any time of workshop. I found an organization called Can Fit Pro (Canadian Fitness Professionals) which offered training locally for fitness instructors, personal trainers and nutrition and wellness specialists. I had just missed the training sessions for personal trainers but I noticed that there was a course for nutrition and wellness specialist being offered soon so I registered and took the program. I passed the written exam and the practical exam for the certification. A few months later I saw that the personal trainer training program was offered so I did the program and again passed the certification requirements.

I decided to start small business called Fit Kix using my skills as nutrition and wellness specialist, personal trainer and fitness instructor. What I hope to offer people is a way to get back to health and maintain it through healthy eating (not dieting) and moderate exercise. I hope to promote healthy lifestyles in this modern day where technology has taken over so many of our "healthy" options in life. I hope that many will opt for some of the ideas that I can present here to help with a long and healthy life.

What is Fitkix?

Fitkix is a lifestlye of healthy living and healthy eating. With all of the lifestyle induced illnesses in the world today it is important that we start promoting a healthier way of life. It's not something that is difficult to do, although many people dismiss it because they think it takes a lot of time and effort to be healthy. All you have to do is move, lift, stretch, relax and eat in moderation.

Moving can be as simple as parking the car at the end of the parking a walking from there to the store or if the store is a couple of blocks away, leave the car at home and take time to enjoy the fresh air on the way there. This could also count towards some of that relaxation that we just talked about.

Lifting could mean lifting weights or it could also mean carrying those groceries home that you just walked to the store to buy. Our bones need weight bearing activity to keep them strong and our muscles need some resistance to keep them toned and strong.

Stretching could come from the ever popular yoga or from bending and reaching while cleaning the house or doing the yard work.

Relaxation could come from meditation or simply from doing something that you like to do.

Eating moderately does not mean that you have to give up the foods you love. It just means that you eat them less frequently making them a treat when you do have them. Your meals need to come from the main food groups, mainly grains and cereals, fruits and vegetables, dairy sources, meats and alternative protein sources, healthy fats and oils, water, and the other food group which entails the many snack foods we love so much. It's the other food group that we reserve for treats once in a while.

Changing a lifestyle might take a bit of planning. Many of the changes in lifestyle are really changes in behaviour. Some people can adapt to change much more quickly than others but it is not impossible if you are not one of those who adapt quickly. It just takes some time.

Taking the steps to a healthy lifestyle can be done by changing thing at a time. You do not have start a cardio program, strength program, eating program and relaxation program all on the same day. It is probably best to decide which area of you lifestyle could use the most improvement or maybe you might want to concentrate on the area that is easiest to change.

Once you have decided which area to focus on, you need to set goals. I recommend the SMART system of goal setting. A goal should be:1)Specific
2)Measureable
3)Action-oriented
4)Realistic
5)Timed

Once the goal is established, an action plan needs to be designed. This is a plan on you can go about attaining the goal you have set for yourself.

Here is an example. Johnny Couchpotato has decided that he needs to get into better shape. The most exercise that he gets is walking from the parking lot at work to his office on the second floor and that is without taking the stairs. He decides that he needs to to start walking to help with weight control and cardiovascular fitness. Johnny lives about a half a mile away from work. Johnny decides that he would like to walk 5 miles per day which is a lot for him. He knows that he will not be able to start his 5 miles a day right now because he is not in shape. Also he usually works until 5PM and he needs an hour for dinner. He also watches the news at 6PM. His favorite show "24" is on at 9PM but he watches Jeopardy, Access Hollywood, and a couple of sit coms while he is waiting for his favorite show. What can he do?

He has decided on the change that he wants to execute but he needs to set goals. He wants to walk 5 miles per day which is a realistic goal. He needs to decide what time frame he wants to achieve this goal. He has decided that in 5 weeks, he wants to be able to walk 5 miles in a day. This is a long term goal. He decides that he can break this down into shorter goals or short term goals. In week one, he will walk one mile. For each additional week he will walk one more mile until he reaches week 5 where he will be walking 5 miles per day. This goal is doable.

How does he plan to acheive this? In week one, he has decided to walk to in the morning and to walk home in the evening. This will be his first mile. During week two, he has decided that it might be nice to walk home for lunch and back. He has an hour so travel time will be 15 minutes leaving him with another 45 minutes to eat. Week 3 is a little more difficult. He needs to find time to do more walking. He has decided that he can miss Jeopardy for a 15 minute walk after the news thus accomplishing his third daily mile. One week 4 he will extend his walk to 30 minutes for a total of 4 miles per day. In the last week, he had to decide whether to miss part of the news after dinner to walk or to get up earlier to walk. There is a Starbucks that is one half mile past where Johnny works. Before he started his program, he often drove there on the way to work to buy a tall mild coffee. He misses this so now he maybe he can walk there before work, if he leaves a few minutes early, and get his coffee and walk back to work in time for 9AM.

Mission accomplished! In 5 weeks Johnny has figured out where and how he can fit the time in to accomplish his goal and reward himself in the end with his morning Starbucks!

This is just the beginning! More to follow soon!

Enjoy your walk