September 20, 2004
With the Exercise Advice Journal, you will stay motivated for exercise through Shelley's encouragement and support, learn new exercises to keep your workout fresh, get your fitness questions answered and receive healthy recipes for you and your family!!
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Exercise Advice Journal - Issue #001
September 20th, 2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Exercise of the Month - The Plank...To Strengthen Your Core
2. Fitness Blog Tidbits - Weight Training Before or After Cardio?
3. Fitness Action Step - Setting Goals Part 1
4. Healthy Cooking Tips & Recipes - Beans...An Easy Way to Get Protein
5. Ask Your Fitness Questions - What is Your #1 Most Pressing Fitness Question?
EXERCISE OF THE MONTH - The Plank
a. Position: Get on your knees and place hands on the ground. Align hands at nipple line, place feet hip width apart on toes, and extend the arms to raise body up into pushup position. Trunk and hips should be in a straight line.
b. Target Muscles: Your core muscles, abdominals, hips and back
c. Step by Step Instructions: Hold the pushup position for 30 seconds.
d. Beware of Cheating: Avoid sagging at your hips and back. Your muscles get the best workout when you maintain your body in a straight line. A good way to know if you're cheating is to do this exercise in front of a mirror, if available.
FITNESS BLOG TIDBITS
Recently I was e-mailed this exercise question:"I walk 4 miles a day at a rate of 3.5 to 4 mph. On Mon, Wed & Fri I do strengthening exercises for about 30 minutes. My question, should I exercise immediately after walking? or wait a few minutes of several hours?"
Here was part of my answer...
"Aerobic exercise (walking) and strength training use different energy sources. For instance, when you are performing aerobic exercise, your body uses both fat and glucose (sugar stored in your muscle and liver as glycogen). However, when you are strength training, your body uses only glucose/glycogen.
If you do your aerobic exercise first, there is a chance that you could use up all of your available glucose/glycogen. Then, when you are ready to do your strength training, there is nothing for the muscles to use – it’s like a gas tank being empty! In order to get the glucose/glycogen for the strength training, your body could break apart MUSCLE TISSUE to use amino acids as the energy source. That means you could possibly lose muscle tissue during strength training if you do your aerobic exercise first.
However, when you do your strength training first, your glucose/glycogen stores are full and when you then do aerobic exercise, your body can burn fat to meet the energy demands (sounds like a better deal, huh?).
It’s okay to do a light aerobic warm-up first, but all-in-all, it’s best to do your strength training first if at all possible."
Any other advice you would give? Post your comments, feedback and/or questions here!
FITNESS ACTION STEP - Setting Goals Part 1
One of the best ways to stay focused and motivated when exercising is to set measurable and realistic goals. How do you do this? First you need to decide what results you want from exercise. Do you want to lose weight, gain muscle, have more energy, feel better with less pain?Once you decide what results you want to achieve, you then need to put those results into a measurable goal. For instance, I will lose 5 pounds of weight in 4 weeks or I will lose 2 inches from my waist in 4 weeks or I will wake up feeling rested after sleeping 7 hours by October 20th 2004.
The important aspects of your goal are.... #1: I will #2: The measurable result (lose 5 pounds of weight/lose 2 inches from my waist/wake up feeling rested after sleeping 7 hours) #3: Time frame (4 weeks, 2 months, specific date)
Stop right now and set one fitness goal for yourself - you can do it! I would love to hear the types of fitness goals your setting and share them with others. E-mail me your fitness goal and any questions you may have.
Next month, we'll continue to part 2 of setting fitness goals!
HEALTHY COOKING TIPS & RECIPES - Beans...An Easy Way to Get Protein
Need to get more protein in your diet, but don't know how? Beans are an easy way to add more protein into your diet. My husband and I just returned to the U.S. after living in Belize, Central America for two years. One of their staple foods in Belize is rice & beans.
I have to admit that I never ate beans much before moving to Belize....that is, except green beans. But, I have grown to love them....stewed kidney beans, rice & beans, bean soup, refried beans....the options are endless.
I've learned an easy way to cook beans using a slow cooker. Soak 3 cups of kidney beans in 8 cups of water overnight. In the morning, drain beans and place them in slow cooker with garlic, onion, 8 cups of water and ham. Cover and cook on high 14 hours or until soft. Serve over rice.
ASK YOUR FITNESS QUESTIONS - What is Your #1 Most Pressing Fitness Question?
Send me your #1 most pressing fitness, exercise or health question and I will begin answering your questions on my exercise blog! Submit your questions here: www.abs-exercise-advice.com/question.html.
Comments? Ideas? Feedback? This journal is for you, so please tell me what you think. I’d love to hear from you! Simply reply to this e-mail with your comments.
Until next month,
Shelley Hitz
