Exercise and Weight Loss Lesson of the Week: Do you support your own goals?

Losing weight is hard enough, but it's even harder when you don't have a good support system around you. For example, you put together a fresh salad, grilled chicken and a side of whole grains so whole-grainy, you're wondering if it's possible to overdose on fiber.

You plate your meal, already proud of the sheer number of nutrients you are about to ingest when your spouse walks in and shouts, "Honey, I brought home pizza!" Your response is so instant, so primal, you actually have no memory of what happened to that lovely chicken dish, much less how your face ended up in the middle of a deep dish pizza.

That support is important, but we can't always control what our spouses do (though we never really stop trying, do we?). However, there are things we can control, things that, if left unchecked, make it that much harder to stay on track: Your pantry - That bag of Doritoes that stares at you (perhaps even winks at you seductively) every time you open the door doesn't care about what size pants you want to fit into or the fact that your doctor threatened high cholesterol medication if you don't lose weight. It's a known fact that temptation is easier to resist if it isn't there (or, at the very least, hidden where you'll never find it). Your scale - It may surprise you that an inanimate object can be so hateful, but the scale isn't always your friend. In fact, your scale may lie to you regularly, telling you you're not making progress, even when you are. If your scale makes you cry on a regular basis, it may be time to break up with it and find a less destructive relationship. Your workouts - Sometimes, even our workouts work against us. Perhaps they're too long to fit into the time we have, so we skip them. Or maybe they include things we don't like, making them more unpleasant than they have to be. We often try to force our lives to fit the workout schedule we're 'supposed' to follow, rather than fitting exercise into the lives we already have. Unfortunately, having an amazing workout program guaranteed to help you lose weight doesn't matter if you never follow it. A supportive workout program means one you can stick to most of the time.

What do you think? Have you set up an environment that supports your goals or have you sabotaged yourself in some way? Leave a comment and tell me about your experiences.

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Exercise of the Week: Glider Mountain Climbers

I recently started training a client's wife and she came in one morning and said, quite smugly, "It's too bad I can't do the same exercises as *Greg, seeing as how I can't do any high impact exercise." She conjured up a frown. "I guess I won't be able to to burpees or mountain climbers, like he does. What a bummer," she added with a disappointed sigh.

What she didn't expect was that she would indeed do both of those exercises without any impact at all (and that she would likely keep her mouth shut in the future, lest she give me anymore ideas).

With the right tools, you can take the impact out of a number of cardio exercises without losing the intensity, and my favorite tools for this are Gliding Discs. I've highlighted a variety of exercises with the discs (like sliding lunges and pushups), but mountain cilmbers are one of my favorites.

Not only do you engage both the quads and the core (and, boy, will your legs burn, as my client found out), pumping your legs as fast as you can will get your heart rate up, making this a great total body exercise.

If you don't have Gliding Discs, you can try using paper plates or even towels, if you have hardwood floors.

Do it right: Begin in a plank position, toes on the Gliding Discs and alternate sliding each knee in towards your chest, 'running' as fast as you can. Bring the knees in as far as you can while keeping the hips down and the core engaged. Repeat for 1 or more sets at 30-60 seconds.

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Exercise of the Week: Dips with Leg Extensions

If you want to add intensity to your usual triceps dips (and, really, who would blame you?), you'll really enjoy dips with a leg extension...or, as many of my clients call it, "Are You Crazy?"

Tacking on a leg extension to an already tough exercise not only adds to the work of each arm, it targets the quads and the core as well.

Do it right: Sit on a step or chair, hands next to thighs, knees bent. Push off the step and bend the elbows into a dip. As you press up, extend the right leg, reaching for the toe with your left hand. Lower and repeat on the other side, alternating sides for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps. Enjoy the burn!

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How to Avoid an Exercise Injury

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about exercise fears, asking readers what scares them most about exercise. The overwhelming choice? Injury.

I think fear of injuring one's self is a healthy fear. After all, there are plenty of studies (like this one ) suggesting that injury could be just one workout away. In fact, I remember reading a Canadian Health Survey suggesting that some 20% of the females surveyed and more than 40% of the males surveyed suffered an exercise injury.

However, the most important statistic is this: 100% of injuries cause pain and, I don't have a study backing this up but, pain hurts.

The key to dealing with this fear is to face it with a few tricks up your sleeve: Easing into your workouts, warming up and using good form, just to name a few (and you can find more ideas in How to Avoid Exercise Injury).

However, it also helps to remind yourself of a few things: You may get hurt anyway - There's an inherent risk in any type of movement, whether it's lifting dumbbells or pushing a broom. Just as you can't always avoid catching a cold or the flu, no matter how many times you wash your hands, you can't always avoid an injury. That reminder may help ease some of the frustration and guilt that often accompanies an injury. There are ways to keep exercising, even if you are injured - The worst thing some of us do when we get hurt is to get frustrated and quit. While you may need rest to heal your injury, you can almost always exercise some part of your body (with your doctor's clearance, of course). Keeping some kind of routine going, even if it's only a fraction of what you were doing, keeps the momentum going and gives you more control over your situation.

The last thing you want to do is to let your fear paralyze you into doing nothing.

So, what about you? Have you ever let your fear of injury stop you from exercising? Or maybe you have a chronic injury you're always dealing with and have some advice. Leave a comment and tell me about your experiences.

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Exercise and Weight Loss Lesson of the Week: Everything Counts

We often have a lot of rules about what 'counts' as a workout. These rules will differ from person to person, depending on the amount and type of information you've absorbed over the years - often without even realizing it.

For a lot of us, a workout only counts if it involves: A change of clothes, time, sweat, burning, heaving, swearing and, of course, pain and suffering.
It's true that, if you really want to change your body, you have to work at it and it usually involves more exercise and more intensity than you think.

However, there's way to burn calories that doesn't involve sweating, burning or suffering and something we often forget about: Simple movement.

We know that simply standing up can have a lovely effect on our metabolisms and we also know that NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is one of the simplest ways to add to your overall weight loss. This becomes even more important on those days when you can't fit in a workout that 'counts.' Is going for a walk or taking the stairs a few times going to burn as many calories as, say, a 4-mile run? No. But it will definitely burn more calories than sitting.

Yes, structured, focus workouts are important but, even if you can't fit in a workout, you can make a difference by staying active. Every time you stand instead of sit, walk instead of stand, move instead of vegetate, you're doing something important and it all counts.

What do you think? Do you often skip workouts if you don't have time? Do you feel like you have to do a certain thing for your workouts to 'count'? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

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Exercise of the Week: Squat and Curl with Rotating Press

I love combination exercises and not just because they save time, work multiple muscle groups (just like our bodies move in real life), improve coordination or make my clients cry. They also tend to raise the heart rate, offering a bonus calorie-burn to any strength training workout.

This squat and curl with a rotating press is a great example of just how efficient a combination exercise can be. There's a double squat, a double hammer curl and a rotating overhead press, targeting the legs, biceps, shoulders and core. The key is to avoid too much swinging (there may be a little momentum, depending on how fast you're going) by keeping the weights on the lighter side and focusing on each part of the exercise.

Do it right: Stand with the feet wide, toes out at an angle, holding dumbbells with palms facing in. Squat down and, as you press up, curl the weights into a hammer curl. Straighten the arms and lower into a squat. This time, when you press up, curl the weights up and then rotate to the right, pivoting on your feet while pressing the weights overhead. Repeat for 1-3 sets of 10-16 reps, alternating sides.

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What Throws You Off Your Exercise Game?

We all have more than one obstacle to exercise but, for most of us, there's always this one thing, be it stress or fatigue or an old injury, that throws us off our game every time.

Sometimes there's pattern there that we don't recognize, perhaps because it's so familiar, we don't even see it anymore. For one of my clients, her monthly meeting with her boss almost always led to a week or more of stress-induced eating and TV-watching (instead of exercise). For another client, it was an old knee injury. Each time it flared up, he would cancel his sessions, spend a week or two nursing his wound and his frustration and end up putting on any weight he'd lost.

What's interesting is that neither client recognized that it was a pattern, often happening so regularly, I could almost pinpoint to the day when both would fall off the wagon. However, once they recognized that it, indeed, was a pattern, they were able to do something about it. Now, my stressed client schedules an extra session with me on the day of her monthly meeting to work off her stress (and vent about her annoying boss). My knee client has started working with a physical therapist so we have exercises we can do when his knee acts up.

Thinking about this, is there a pattern to your exercise life? Things that throw you off again and again that, maybe, you haven't recognized? Tell me what regularly throws you off your exercise game.

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Exercise of the Week: Core Kickbacks

Kickbacks are a great way to work the triceps and, if you've been lifting weights for any length of time, there's a good chance you've done a zillion or so.

If you want to spice things up while adding more muscle groups to the mix, this core kickback is one way to go. The idea is to hold a plank position while doing your kickbacks which, you'll notice, is very challenging. Not only do you have to keep the hips down and square while holding your body up with one hand, you have to do it while extending a weight behind you again and again. Not an easy task (and not for beginners, of course).

The key is to take the feet a little wider for more support and to position your supporting arm more towards the middle of your body. It's also key to use a lighter weight here, at least at first, to practice your form before going too heavy. If you need a modification, put one knee down on the floor if you start to lose your form.

Do it right: Get into a plank position, on the hands and toes, feet wide. Hold a light weight in one hand and pull the elbow up next to the ribcage. Make sure your hips are square to the floor and your body is supported. Holding this position, straighten the arm, sending the weight back and squeezing the triceps. Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps on each side.

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We All Need To Play Hooky Sometimes

I was at the grocery store recently and saw a woman pushing her small son down the cereal aisle. When she put a big box of something that looked brown, stick-like and healthy into the cart, the boy picked it up and dropped it on the floor. She tried again. The boy did it again. "James," she said calmly, "Please let Mommy put that in the cart."

"No." The boy said, then pointed to a box of cereal with a giant cookie pictured on the front. "I want that."

The mom looked at the colorful box, sighed from somewhere deep in her soul and said wistfully, "I do too."

This reminded me that being an adult can be a real drag sometimes. Being a healthy adult? Doubles (maybe even triples) the drag factor. Not only do you have to take care of your life (and work, kids, house, dog, cat, etc.), but you have to do it with a salad in one hand and a set of weights in the other...while jogging.

So, what happens when you never take a break from all that responsibility? Your mind becomes like that stubborn child, not only refusing to accede to your demands, but potentially sending you on a reckless salad-free, exercise-free bender.

We all need time to breathe, time to enjoy a few moments in life without monitoring every movement, every bite, every calorie. Time to play a little hooky from being so Healthy and Responsible.

Some signs you need to play hooky: Salad Fatigue - When one more bite, even one glance of a piece of lettuce sends you over the edge Exercise Fear and Loathing - When even the sight of your workout clothes invokes a fiery hatred, the intensity of which rivals a thousand suns Murderous Fantasies - When you find yourself daydreaming about firebombing your food journal, mashing your oh-so-carefully cut vegetables into an unrecognizable pulp, then driving recklessly to the nearest Chick-Fil-A.

Scheduling a break before you have a meltdown gives you the power to plan exactly what you will (or won't do) and savor every minute...without guilt. You can take up to a week off from exercise without losing your fitness and, sometimes, just a day off (or even a meal or two off) from calorie-counting can help you keep going without falling off the wagon.

What do you think? Does planning breaks from exercise and/or healthy eating keep you on track? How do you avoid a complete exercise meltdown? Leave a comment and tell me how you play hooky.

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What Are Your Exercise Fears?

I once had a client who was so afraid of the treadmill, she refused to even look at it, much less get on it. It wasn't just the treadmill, but any motorized exercise machine that sent chills down her spine (and, for the record, my cats know exactly how she feels). To overcome her fear, we had her drink several margaritas before her workouts.

Okay, not really, although I'm pretty sure she suggested that idea. What we actually did was start with baby steps: First, she would touch the treadmill when she came in. When she was comfortable with that, she agreed to stand on the treadmill (providing it was unplugged). It wasn't long before she allowed me to turn the treadmill on while she was standing on it and we felt like throwing a parade the day she actually walked on it.

She wasn't sure where her fear came from (was there treadmill trauma in her past?), but that fear was very real and it permeated every aspect of her workouts, which was the very reason she wanted to overcome it. As she did, her confidence grew in other areas and she was so motivated by that, she eventually became a personal trainer herself.

Fear of the treadmill may not be the most common experience, but exercise fear is very common, whether you're afraid of injury, making a fool of yourself, failure or whether you're afraid to start exercising at all.

So, what are your exercise fears and how do you overcome them? I'd like to hear from you.

Leave a comment and tell me about your experiences and how fear has affected your exercise life.

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What's the Best Fat Burning Exercise?

What's the best fat burning exercise? This is a question I get a lot, mostly because the idea of incinerating all that extra body fat is just too good to resist and there's just got to be some exercise that will get the job done, right?

Fat, in general, is highly flammable, but the fat that resides in our bodies (specifically, the love handles, the spare tire, the saddlebags and the batwings) seems stubbornly flame retardant no matter how hard we try.
So, when someone asks that question, I'd love nothing more than to offer a clear, concise answer, like, "Running at 8.69 miles per hour!" or "Doing 53 squats, followed by 19 pull ups and eating 16 egg whites!" or "Spending hours at this website!"

The truth is, fat burning comes from: Cardio - There isn't any 'perfect' fat burning cardio exercise. The key isn't so much what you do, but how hard you work at it. Intensity (and varying it with different workouts) is what you want to focus on to burn fat and you can find out how it works in Burn More Fat With Cardio. Strength Training - Muscle is to fat as a hummingbird is to my cat Ziggy. Muscle, like a hummingbird, is busy. It's pumping out calories to keep your metabolism going and it never stops. Fat, like my cat Ziggy, sleeps all day and, when it does get up, it eats and then, exhausted, goes back to bed. Strength training will make you more like a hummingbird and less like Ziggy. Consistency - Surprisingly, this is the most important part of the fat burning equation. The body, when exposed to regular exercise, becomes a fat burning machine, able to reach into each cell, oxidize the fat inside and hand it to you (or to your muscles) on a silver platter. Without exercise, your body does the opposite. Instead of getting more efficient at burning fat, it actually gets better at hoarding fat, making weight loss even harder.

So, there you have it: Consistent cardio and strength training. Not the wow factor I was hoping for, but the truth isn't always sexy.

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