Details….details……..details!

We now live in an “information at your fingertips” world. Almost everything you would want to know about anything is out there on the internet and/or social media. That includes working out. A quick google search on “working out” is an easy jump off place. You can find all kinds of programs out there.

If you want me to build one for you, shoot me an e-mail.

Aerobic and strength conditioning are both important. The aerobic conditioning strengthens you heart muscle. An “in shape”, well-conditioned heart muscle is more efficient at pumping blood; it doesn’t have to work as hard. Both your blood pressure and resting heart rate will improve. In fact, your entire circulatory system will work better.

Concepts to start with:

Building lean muscle (improving your strength) is also very important. The more lean muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn at rest. If you take 2 people that weigh the same, the person with the lower percentage of body fat (meaning more lean muscle for the same body weight) will burn more calories throughout the day. It takes more energy (burns more calories) to maintain muscle that it does to maintain fat. That’s why it’s so important to add lean muscle to your body and reduce fat.

For those of you interested in overall fitness, it’s easy to incorporate both aerobic and strength conditioning. For those of you who focus more on long distance activities (biking, running, hiking, swimming, etc), try and plug in some strength training. As a side note, I lost about 25 lbs of muscle when I ran my marathon. For those of you focusing on pure strength, try and not let your weight get out of hand and do a little more aerobic conditioning.

As far as setting up a program, try and exercise at least 2 hours a week (preferably not all at once). Below are some thoughts:

1. Mon, Wed, Fri or Tues, Thurs, Sat (30 to 45 minutes each session) or a 5- or 6-day routine.

2. You can combine aerobic and strength training in both or split them up; do strength on Mon & Friday and aerobics on Wed or vice versa.

3. As a general rule for strength training, you’ll need to do 8 to 12 repetitions per exercise starting with compound movements first and then smaller muscles if you want.

4. Aerobic conditioning can be done in all kinds of ways: Long and slow, medium duration and more intense, or the now popular HIIT (high intensity interval training).

5. Start slow! Don’t go nutty with your workouts and get so sore you can’t move for a week. The beauty for longevity is slow incremental progression. For you veterans, watch the overtraining!

All the above can be manipulated in all kinds of ways to attain the goals you want and conform to what works best for you depending on age, time constraints, etc.

Please realize one program does not work for everyone. Here’s you chance to take control of your future and incrementally improve your fitness level.

Feel free to send me an e-mail at [email protected]

To your health and happiness,

Nate