Posts Tagged ‘weight loss’
Get More Out of Your Workout
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Probably the busiest place in the gym is the cardio room where you can see people sweating it out all hours of the day on treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bikes sometimes for 30 minutes or more at a time. For many, this IS their workout with maybe a few stretches thrown in somewhere in the session. While it’s definitely better than doing nothing at all, a gym membership can offer much, much more. (more…)
Fast Track Your Fitness
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
What are most people are interested in when they join a gym? Mostly they join a gym in an effort to look better and if that comes with the added bonus of feeling better and living a healthier life, all the better.
Unfortunately, however, a lot of people give up on going to the gym regularly after about a month. At the start, they’re very diligent and work out at least an hour every second day (some work out for two or more hours every day), they sweat, eat better (sometimes) but… no supermodel body appears in the mirror and this can be disheartening – the change from frumpy to fabulous is often way too slow.
Could there be a reason many people don’t lose much fat, change shape or get ripped and buff despite religiously going to the gym and working out? Yes, there is. It comes down to WHAT is being done at the gym. WHAT is being done is actually more important than how long it’s done for. In other words, QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY (although quantity certainly does come into it – having a great workout once a month isn’t going to do much). There are people spending maybe 15 to 30 minutes a day working out and getting better results (burning more fat, losing weight, sculpting and toning) than other people who work out for a couple of hours at a time every day of the week.
It’s possible that the people spending less time but getting great results might be doing what’s known as high intensity interval training. It’s been around since 1937 but up until now, has been used primarily by athletes and not regular people. There are lots of ways to do it and a good personal trainer is probably your best bet at getting the most out of it but the idea is that you exercise at a very high intensity (if you’re running, you’d sprint as fast as you can) for between 30 seconds to a minute then you’d slow it down (jog) until you recover a bit, but not all the way, then you’d up the intensity again.
You could try it next time you’re on the stationary bike, stepper or treadmill – instead of sitting on a set speed, try playing with the effort and speed levels – increasing then decreasing, increasing then decreasing and so on. If you do it right you can fast-track your fitness. Remember, it IS intense, so make sure you have a doctor’s OK before adding it to your routine.
Tracey Thatcher
New Year’s Resolutions
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
Happy New Year!
The #1 New Year’s resolution is losing weight and everyone at Foothill Athletic Club is ready to help you meet your goals. Did you know that obese Americans make up almost a quarter of the U.S. population? Obesity is responsible for a $40 billion jump in annual medical spending and those that are obese spend on average $1,400 more than people of normal weight. Your taxes, which help pay for Medicare and Medicaid, go towards $600 and $230 per patient, respectively, to help pay for obese patients. Reports attribute this spike to treatment for obesity-related ailments such as diabetes and heart disease. The total annual medical costs related to obesity is now estimated at $147 and is increasing at neatly 9% per year. (more…)
