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The more you want to use it, the more we would recommend that you go for high quality treadmills.
When you understand the basics of a quality treadmill, then it will be easy to find one that is perfect for your home and budget.
Long or short workouts determine the quality of motor you need for your treadmill.
I usually end my treadmill routine with about 15 minutes of quality stretching.
Researches have shown, that during exercising most people forget to breath deeply or they are unable to integrate their breathing pattern with the exercises causing them muscle pain and fatigue after the workout.
Creative Ways to Exercise I find that getting them outside for circuit workouts or surprising them with an impromptu game of you-pick-your-workout keeps things interesting and, if you're feeling the same way, there are plenty of creative ideas out there. Some of my favorites:
World of Warcraft Workouts - I've never tried World of Warcraft, but I got a sense of it after reading Geek Into Shape's blog post describing the game and how much downtime there is during game play. Geek Into Shape's writers, Josh Bush and George Titsworth, actually help you figure out how you can exercise when you're: "waiting for a Zeppelin, flying from the top of the continent to the bottom, or waiting for the stupid mage to drink some water." Too funny and very creative!
Creative Cardio and Strength Training Workouts - My creative workout ideas probably aren't as fun as exercising while you're playing World of Warcraft, but this article offers a few new ideas for being a little more creative with your workouts.
101 Creative Ways to Exercise - This list gives you lots of ideas for how to exercise, some realistic (like ropeless jump roping) and others are a little out there (like joggling - juggling while jogging).
TRX Training - The TRX suspension system looks a little strange, but I had the pleasure of trying it out last year at a fitness conference. The idea is that you use the straps as a tool to enhance body weight exercises and it's amazing how many exercises you can do.
What about you? How do you get creative with your workouts? Leave a comment and tell us about it. Creative Ways to Exercise originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 05:00:02.
Summertime always brings out the restlessness in many of my clients. The sun is shining, the air is warm and they know they only have a few months before the snow flies again (yes, I just said the 'S' word...sorry). This fact makes indoor workouts seem a little too much like torture and while torture is always enjoyable, I do want my clients to have fun, too.
Exercise of the Week - Pushup, Plank and Row There are a few key form pointers for making this exercise safe and effective. First, start with light weights to get a feel for the exercise. It's tough to hold a plank position with just one hand and it's even harder when there's a weight in the other hand. Second, use hex weights or weights that won't roll around on you, which could end badly. Last, doing this move on an elevated platform (as shown) makes it a little easier. You can modify further by doing the move on your knees or you can do the move on the floor to make it harder. Or you can shake your head in disgust and skip it altogether...I'll never know.
Do it right: Get into a pushup position on a step or raised platform with hands gripping dumbbells about shoulder-width apart, palms facing each other. Lower into a pushup, press up and pull the right weight up into a row, keeping the hips down and working to keep the body from twisting. Lower and repeat the pushups, alternating rows on each side for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps.
Exercise of the Week - Pushup, Plank and Row originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 05:00:28.
Pushups are already a challenging exercise, but if you're wondering how to make them even more intense, you're in luck. This pushup, plank and row variation takes you to a new level by incorporating more core strength and involving your lats, making this a whole body movement (or as one of my clients suggested, a 'whole body movement of pain').
Fit Fact: Women Have a Different Heart Rate Response to Exercise In a recent study experts decided to ask an important question - are the heart rate formulas we use, largely based on men, accurate for women?
The answer: Not really. After some study, they realized that the traditional formula used to calculate maximum heart rate, (220-age or the updated version, 206.9 - (0.67 x age)) actually overestimated maximum heart rate for women.
With this information, experts have come up with a new formula to calculate maximum heart rate for women. 206 - (.88 x age) = MHR
Now, the experts in this study were actually more interested in finding an accurate peak heart rate for women in order to predict future health and to make sure women recovering from heart problems were given the right exercise intensity to recuperate. If the numbers were too high (as the experts suggest in this study), they might be doing women more harm than good by trying to make them work too hard.
Now, I've always promised there would be no math on this blog, but I lied, so bear with me. Let's take a look at how target heart rate zones would be different using the new max heart rate formula along with the karvonen formula. Say you're a 49 year old woman with a resting heart rate (RHR) of 65:
Old Formula
206.9 - (0.67 x 49) = 174 New Formula
206 - (.88 x 49) = 163 You can see how different these numbers are and this suggests that some women may be struggling to get to a certain intensity, not because they're not in shape, but because their max heart rate has been overestimated.
So, what about you? How does this formula change your numbers and do you think it's more accurate? How heavily do you rely on calculations like this anyway? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
Source: RJ Gibbons, GJ Balady, J Timothy Bricker, at al. Heart Rate Response to Exercise Stress Testing in Asymptomatic Women. The St. James Women Take Heart Project. Circulation. 2002;106:1883. Fit Fact: Women Have a Different Heart Rate Response to Exercise originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 05:00:31.
It's taken the medical and fitness world some time to figure out that women aren't just small men (and if they'd just read "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," they would've known that) but they are getting there. We know that women's bodies work differently from men's - woman have different heart attack symptoms, they tend to lose weight differently and they also have a different response to exercise.
174 - 65 (RHR) = 109
109 * 65% (low end of heart rate zone) OR 85% (high end) = 71 (65%) or 93 (85%)
71 + 65 (RHR) = 136
93 + 65 (RHR) = 158
The target heart rate zone for this person would be 136-158 beats per minute.
163 - 65 (RHR) = 98
98 * 65% (low end of heart rate zone) OR 85% (high end) = 64 (65%) or 83 (85%)
64 + 65 (RHR) = 129
83 + 65 (RHR) = 148
The target heart rate zone for this person would be 129-148 beats per minute.
