Are you a gym idiot? Time for a little humor...

I have been very lucky to workout in a relatively quiet gym and 90% of the time, I am by myself which is awesome compared to other gyms I have belonged to in the past.

I have seen many annoying habits and probably committed several of them myself when I first started lifting weights over 15 years ago. Feel free to leave comments below after the article of strange things you have seen in the gym.

• People not returning weight plates to the tree. Do you really expect the next person to clear away your 45 lb plates off the machine? Don't be a meathead, plus you get some forearm work putting the plates back.
• Barbell curls within the squat rack. Find another place to do these, they're squat racks for a reason.
• Inexperienced squatters. Watching someone load up the bar with over 200 lbs and only going to a 1/4 inch depth on the squat. What's the use, you're not getting anything out of the exercise that way. And then not put the weights away. Note: I was in this group for a short while until someone smartened me up on these.
• Cell phone users. Are you there to get better or shoot the shit? Other people don't want to hear about your day while they are working out.
• Dumbbells not returned to the rack. Why do people need to use mapquest to find their weights?
• Time in the gym. I used to get to the gym by 3.30 and be done by 4.45 and some people would be on the same exercise the whole time I was there.
• Showoffs. The grunters/yellers (I'm talking really loud, I grunt on the last rep or two with heavy weights with about an 8 foot voice.) who want everyone to know they are doing their 1/4 inch squats on every rep.
• Guys who stare at women exercising. There was a guy at one gym I belonged to who would stare at all the women in the gym area working out. Way to help women overcome their fear of the weight room there buddy.
• People getting to close to you while you're in the middle of an exercise. The thought of someone bumping into a dumbbell in the middle of a db bench set makes my shoulder hurt already. There's like 10k sq feet in here, you don't need to be on top of me.
• Arm Farm Residents. The guys that you see doing biceps every day they are there. Not to mention the fact they rock enough to mimic a rocker. I do bicep curls like 1x a week for 1 set. You'll get bigger arms by doing pullups/chinups and get more out of those compound exercises than isolating your bi's with those rocking chair db curls.

There is a great series on YouTube, search for Gym Rats, Don't be that Guy. There is some language here, so may not be safe for work. Here is the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnstNnqYp2M

That's all for now, please leave some comments on what you have seen while you are in the gym. There are several more that I can think of, but these are a few of the biggest ones that I used to see on a daily occurrence.

Good Luck.

Fitness after Baby

Congratulations, you just had a baby and now you are wondering what the hell happened to your body. I hope this article will introduce you back into fitness and how it can be so beneficial for you and baby.

Most importantly, you need to get your doctor's approval before beginning any type of postnatal exercise program. If you exercised regularly throughout your pregnancy, you are already a step ahead of the curve. Start out slowly, your inner body is still in shambles (your inner abdominals were just shredded giving birth either naturally or through c-section). Kegel exercises are great to help start your pelvic floor rebuild. A brief kegel exercise description can be found here:
http://www.gossipcraze.com/_mm/_d/_ext/40838/big_Kegel%20Exercises01.gif

Doing sit ups with your newborn can be fun too. If you have your baby in a seat, start off by doing some sit ups where you are eye to eye with your baby at the top position. Again, go slow with these, there is no need to do 100s of them right away. Start out with 2 sets of 6-8 for a week or two and increase to 10-12/set after. Your body will tell you when to increase the volume. If you do these with your hands across your chest, make sure to tuck your chin into your chest as you contract your abdominals on your way up.

Aerobically, going for walks with your baby is great for both of you. Beyond more bonding time, you are both getting fresh air and you are working your legs and lungs. If you have some hills around, find them and go up them. If at any point you are getting tired, rest for a couple minutes before continuing. Pushing the carriage also works your upper body as well. When you can, start slow jogging with the carriage increasing to a full jog/run. Remember to drink plenty of water before, during, and after your walks. Make sure you are wearing a well supported sports bra, exercise after breastfeeding if you are breastfeeding. Your breasts will be lighter. Light cycling, swimming, pilates, yoga (w/baby), and lightweight resistance training with freeweights or bands are other great forms of exercise.

Other things to keep in mind while doing some aerobic work:

• Be careful with change of direction activities such as high impact aerobics or running
• Start out with 5-15 minutes of exercise gradually increasing to 30-45 minutes over time
• If you feel out of breath or are in pain, slow down or stop completely
• Stop exercising and see your doctor if vaginal flow changes to a pink or red color

Finding time to workout is hard with a new baby. All you need are a few minutes a day, 10 minutes is 10 minutes no matter how you slice it. I mentioned earlier about yoga with baby, there are videos out there for this type of exercise as well as classes offered. If you can not walk outside with your child, take them to the mall and walk around. Turning on music in the house is also a way for you to dance your heart out without anybody watching except your baby in the swing. Dancing burns calories. If your area has one, a baby boot camp is fantastic. Make sure the instructor is nationally certified and has experience with pre/post natal fitness. They should be able to provide you with references.

The key thing to remember is go slowly at first with any exercise you are performing. There is no need to come flying out of the gate.

If you are breastfeeding, congratulations on working off anywhere between 500-800 calories a day without going to the gym. There are numerous other benefits for you and baby, but this is a great one as you seek out your old body. Don't forget to eat too. Without enough nutrition, your breast milk production will decrease leading to a very unhappy baby. Consult with your doctor about nutritional guidelines especially if your baby has food allergies.

As always, please leave any comments or questions and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

High Intensity Interval Training and YOU

Happy New Year everyone!

I have been lacking in the article department for December but I have a good explanation. My son was born on December 3 and he along with the holiday season has led to neglecting this here blog.

As many of you have done in the past and have done so for 2010, will be pronounced as twenty ten and not two thousand ten, resolutions set to lose weight are the most popular. I want to address something that most of the gym goers are going to attack, those dreaded cardio machines at the gym.

If you go to the gym a lot and have done so for years, have you ever noticed that the same people trying to lose weight are still looking the same as they did months or even years ago? Do you look at them and immediately think they are doing great because they can do 45 minutes of cardio day in and day out? I can guarantee that their endurance is through the roof and they probably have a blood pressure that CEO's and air traffic controllers can only dream of.

What is this high intensity interval training that you speak of Erik? Well, simply put, you are going all out, balls to the wall, for a short and set time period with a rest period of a longer duration for about 15-20 cycles. A great benefit to this type of training is that it only takes 20-25 minutes per session instead of a long, dragged out affair of steady state cardio.

Back to those members who you see on the cardio equipment forever... As hard as they are working now, they are not burning fat as efficiently as they were a year ago going at their same intensities. The body will adapt to whatever we do, we instinctively go into preservation mode and try to complete things with the easiest of efforts. So a year ago, they were burning over 450 cals over 50 minutes compared to now only burning 350 calories over that same period. (note, these numbers are not exact, just trying to paint a picture.) The heart does not need to pump as hard because of that adaptation to the same workload. This spits in the face of burning more calories when you work out longer.

Not to go all Bill Nye the Science Guy on all you reading this, but some science is required to make more sense of all of this. At low intensities or steady state cardio, your muscles are not doing too much. Energy to get through these workouts is coming from your peripheral fat stores which is great news. Hence, long steady state cardio does burn fat but at a lower rate.

Moderate to high intensity cardio training uses fat within the muscle as energy because the energy from the peripheral fat stores has been depleted. Carbs are also burned from the muscle here in this area as well. The carbs are burned because the muscle is looking to replace the depleted glycogen stores from the higher level of work effort required by the muscles. This process also fuels the fat burning stove. After your bout of h.i.i.t., your body continues to burn fat while your muscles are busy returning those glycogen levels. I don't recommend much in terms of nutrition and you should consult with a dietician or nutrionist before changing your diet, but having lower carb levels during h.i.i.t. will make your muscles burn off more intramuscular fat as energy instead of the carbs.

Is h.i.i.t. okay for you? If you are just getting back into exercise after a long layoff or you are new to training, I recommend building your aerobic levels up for 4-6 weeks with those long 30-45 minute steady state cardio sessions. This is a method of training that requires some experience and a strong mindset. It is very demanding physcially and mentally.

If it is up your alley and you want to kickstart your fat burning into high gear, this could be something to try out for 4-6 weeks. I do not recommend this as your new cardio workout forever. Long steady state cardio has its benefits for your aerobic capacity as well as your heart. You could take 3-5 weeks off from h.i.i.t. and go back to it later. It is great for you to mix things up.

There are different things you can do for h.i.i.t. But the main thing to keep in mind is that you should be out of breath after a short burst. Warm up for 5 minutes and start out with 10 seconds of all out effort with 20 seconds of rest and continue to do this for 10 minutes and then cool down for 5 minutes. This should get you to 20 cycles. As you progress over the 4-6 weeks, you can increase your 'all out' time and lower your rest time, or you can increase your total session to 25 minutes to get in more cycles. I would only do this type of training 2-3x in a week.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a note in the comment section of this post. Until next time, I hope you fulfill your 2010 resolutions.

Regards,
Erik