Strickland Fitness

When you go to the gym, make it count. The more intense your workouts, the more calories you burn and the more lean muscle you build. Keep in mind what your goals are while exercising. That should help motivate you in to giving it your all. If you are on the treadmill, don’t watch TV or read a book. Concentrate on hitting your heart rate and not the channel button. Dedicate your workout time to your body and not to catching up on your shows.

I love the feeling of heading to the showers tired and sweaty. I always feel accomplished and motivated to do it again. Doing something is better than doing nothing, but I always feel the difference between working hard and just working. You will always find time to relax. So when you find time to go the gym or workout at home, work hard!

Thanksgiving is over and more holidays are coming. Are you worried about gaining a few extra pounds or losing the shape you’ve worked hard to obtain? Take these few tips through the rest of the year and you will continue taking steps toward your goals instead of leaps away.

When the holidays come, our activity level seems to drop while our appetite seems to grow. Well, if you want to keep the pounds dropping, keep active. If you are eating more but doing less, then your calorie intake will far exceed your calorie output. This leads to weight gain. The more you eat the more activity you will have to do. Try and keep your workouts regular or even increase it.

With the holidays comes lots of tasty food. I will not say that you can’t have any of it. What I will say is be smart about how much and when you have it. Some people believe that if they don’t eat during the day, they can save the calories for a big dinner. This does not work. Not eating throughout the day will slow your metabolism and make it harder to burn that meal off. We need food for energy. There is no reason to have dinner be the biggest energy giver when the evening is the time we need the least amount of energy. If you have supplied yourself with healthy energy throughout the day, your body will not feel the need for lots of calories come dinner time.

This time of year doesn’t have to be the time you gain weight. If you keep your activity level high and watch your calorie consumption, there will not be the need for that famous New Year’s resolution.

Why do we give up on our goals? Why do we put aside all of our hard work because the end results just seems too far away? Sometimes the gratification we are looking for only comes when the final product is established. Wouldn’t it feel great to have that gratification all the time? How do we get that when it comes to our fitness goals? The answer is setting short term goals for long term success!

If you want to lose 20 pounds, make that your semi-long term goal. Your long term goal should be to keep it off. Make losing 5 pounds your short term goal. After you lose that, make 5 more pounds your next goal. You will feel the gratification of reaching each goal giving you the determination to keep going. Losing all 20 pounds will come with your continuous hard work and persistence. You will also not have the feeling that the 20 pounds is too far away and it is taking too long.

Another great tool for your fitness goals is to keep a log of everything you are doing towards your goal. Whether it’s losing weight, gaining muscle, or just maintaining your already achieved success, log it. If your goal is to lose weight, write down what you are eating, drinking, your cardio, and your resistance workouts. That way you can go back and see what has been working for you or against you. If you put on a few pounds and you don’t know how, you can go back into your log and see what you were doing. This will keep you accountable for your results. This will also make you want to do more towards your goals so you can write it down.

When I ask a client how many calories they think they take in per day, the answer they give me is usually far less than the actual number. I ask them to write down everything they put into their mouth for a few days and then I count the calories. They actually are taking in almost 500 more calories than they thought. Their nutrition changes immediately. You can make fewer calories a day your short term goal. The long term goal will come with it automatically.

Working out with a partner has many advantages. If you are looking to build muscle, you will need to lift heavy weights. Having a workout partner guarantees you a spot for every rep of every set and they can push you through the exercise when it gets tough. Even if you are lifting light weights trying to get that summer toned body, your partner can be there every step of the way keeping you accountable for a solid workout. Sometimes it’s hard to make to the gym on your own account. If you know there is someone waiting to meet you there, you are more likely to make it every time. The days you don’t feel like going, you will have a buddy to spark the fire you need.

A good workout partner can be your girlfriend or boyfriend, husband or wife, co-worker, or neighborhood friend. I workout with my fiancé and it is a blast. It gives us a chance to spend some time outside of the house and away from all the stresses of daily life. We laugh and have a great time while working towards our fitness goals. Even as a fitness professional, I need a little push. I also can’t see my form while doing an exercise. She is there to push me and help me keep great form.

There is a natural competition that happens between humans. I train individuals and partners. The tendency is for the ones working out together to want to do a little bit better which makes them work out that much harder. You can also have contests to fuel your workouts. If you want to lose weight, see who can lose weight faster. Try slowly making progress on your runs together.

If you don’t make it to the gym as much as you would like or you are not getting the results you want, try adding a partner to your workout. Not one that you spend talking to the whole time, but someone who will push you, help you, and create an exciting and enjoyable workout experience on the way to your goals.

If I stand on one leg and the leg I am standing on is moving, can I still be balanced? The answer is yes. One definition of balance (which we will use for the purpose of this post) is: The ability to maintain bodily equilibrium. This means you don’t have to be completely still to be balanced. However, you need to be in complete control to be balanced.

When I start working with a client, one of the first things I go through is learning how to balance. I do a lot of exercises which makes the body use small stabilizing muscles to help complete the exercise. The client must know how to balance correctly to gain the benefits of these types of exercises. This knowledge helps in everyday life as well as sports and recreational activities.

Let’s learn the first step to good balance. In order to be in a balanced position, you have to activate your core. I will go into the definition of “core” and what it really means in a later post. What this means for you right now is controlling the center of your body. Keeping the center of your body (center of gravity) still will facilitate balance. Now, when I ask a client to stand on one leg, the first thing they do is put out their arms to the side of their body and then begin to lift one leg. This action of putting their arms out to the side has initiated the concept of counter-balance, not balance. Our tendency is to use our arms to add a little weight to each side which we can use to try and help us stay stable. Using this method of balance might keep you on one leg, but it does NOT mean you are balanced.

The legs are equipped with lots of little muscles which help stabilize the ankles, knees, and hips. It’s these muscles that should be used in complete balance. So with the standing on one leg example, the muscles in the leg should contract and relax as needed to keep you standing.

Let’s give it a shot. Stand on one leg and concentrate on keeping your arms relaxed and the center of your body completely still. Once your center is not moving, you should feel some small contractions in your legs which helps you stay in that position. If your upper body is not moving and you are standing on one leg, you are balanced.

You can use this concept in many things in life. If you are a skier or snowboarder, the next time you hit the mountain, concentrate on keeping your center still and let the legs do the work. It will definitely help you stay dry! If you like doing yoga and you can’t seem to stay in a pose without falling, think about activating your core and you will be like a statue.