Author Archive
Back to the Basics
Written By pkreschSo you want to start up a new fitness program. This time you’re going to be serious about it right? What do you need to really get a good program started? What is the hottest equipment and where can you find it? Are these some questions going through your head? If they are, the answer is simple. You already have what you need. YOUR BODY! That’s right! You don’t need to spend money of the fanciest, high tech equipment out at the sports store. The trend is to use your body weight and get back to the basics! So turn off the infomercial and think about this.
Benefits of using your body weight are:
- You will improve your functional fitness (your ability to move thru daily activities without injury)
- Increase strength and muscle tone
- Burn Calories
- Raise your heart rate for heart health
- Maintain bone density
So let’s get back to the basics. Remember your PE Classes from grade school? Your PE Teacher was not so off the mark on how to get you in-shape (wink, wink). Here are some ways to do aerobic exercise using your body weight that don’t involve purchasing expensive equipment.
- Jump rope
- Climb stairs
- Dance
- Jog
- Walk
- Skip
- Jumping Jacks
Here are some ideas for increasing strength and muscle tone.
- push-ups
- planks
- lunges
- squats
- triceps dips
- downward dog
- squat jumps
- inchworm crawl
- bear crawl
- crab walk
- Warrior pose
As you can see, all these exercises can be done right in the comfort of your home or neighborhood. You don’t need to spend a monthly membership fee at a health club to get fit. You may want to hire a personal trainer (wink, wink again) to help develop a plan and program for you. A trainer will also make sure you are doing the exercises correctly and without injuring yourself.
But more importantly, get yourself moving. Stop making excuses about why you can’t lose weight or get fit. You have everything you need. YOUR BODY!
Peggy Kresch
cPT, American Council on Exercise; MissFIT Complete Program Coordinator Find out More >High Intensity Interval Training – Is it too good to be true?
Written By pkreschHAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
Last week I explained to you why Aerobic Exercise is good for your heart. We had that little science lesson on what actually happens to your body when you perform aerobic exercise. Today we are going to talk about a alternative form of aerobic exercise. If I told you that there was a way to burn more calories, lose more fat, and improve your cardiovascular fitness level while spending less time doing cardio, you’d probably reach for your phone to report me to the consumer fraud hotline, right?
Well, this is one of those rare times when your natural it’s-too-good-to-be-true reaction could be mistaken. If you want to take your fitness and fat loss to the next level—without spending more time in the gym—then high intensity interval training (also known as HIIT) could be exactly what you’re looking for.
Before getting into the details, notice that I didn’t say HIIT would be easier, just that it would take less of your time. In fact, the HIIT approach to cardio exercise is very physically demanding and isn’t for everyone. If you have any cardiovascular problems or other health concerns that limit your ability to exercise at very intense levels, or if you are relatively new to aerobic exercise or not already in good shape, HIIT is not for you—at least for now. If you have any doubts or concerns about whether it might be safe for you, check in with your medical professional before trying HIIT.
What It Is and How It Works
HIIT is a specialized form of interval training that involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. Because it involves briefly pushing yourself beyond the upper end of your aerobic exercise zone, it offers you several advantages that traditional steady-state exercise (where you keep your heart rate within your aerobic zone) can’t provide:
- HIIT trains and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. You train your anaerobic system with brief, all-out efforts, like when you have to push to make it up a hill, sprint the last few hundred yards of a distance race, or run and hide from your spouse after saying the wrong thing.
- HIIT increases the amount of calories you burn during your exercise session and afterward because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise session.
- HIIT causes metabolic adaptations that enable you to use more fat as fuel under a variety of conditions. This will improve your athletic endurance as well as your fat-burning potential.
- HIIT appears to limit muscle loss that can occur with weight loss, in comparison to traditional steady-state cardio exercise of longer duration.
- To get the benefits HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals.
The key element of HIIT that makes it different from other forms of interval training is that the high intensity intervals involve maximum effort, not simply a higher heart rate. There are many different approaches to HIIT, each involving different numbers of high and low intensity intervals, different levels of intensity during the low intensity intervals, different lengths of time for each interval, and different numbers of training sessions per week. If you want to use HIIT to improve performance for a particular sport or activity, you’ll need to tailor your training program to the specific needs and demands of your activity.
HIIT Guidelines
- HIIT is designed for people whose primary concerns are boosting overall cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and fat loss, without losing the muscle mass they already have.
- Before starting any HIIT program, you should be able to exercise for at least 20-30 minutes at 70-85% of your estimated maximum heart rate, without exhausting yourself or having problems.
- Because HIIT is physically demanding, it’s important to gradually build up your training program so that you don’t overdo it. (The sample training schedule below will safely introduce you to HIIT over a period of eight weeks.)
- Always warm up and cool down for at least five minutes before and after each HIIT session.
- Work as hard as you can during the high intensity intervals, until you feel the burning sensation in your muscles indicating that you have entered your anaerobic zone. Elite athletes can usually sustain maximum intensity exercise for three to five minutes before they have to slow down and recover, so don’t expect to work longer than that.
- Full recovery takes about four minutes for everyone, but you can shorten the recovery intervals if your high intensity intervals are also shorter and don’t completely exhaust your anaerobic energy system.
- If you experience any chest pain or breathing difficulties during your HIIT workout, cool down immediately. (Don’t just stop or else blood can pool in your extremities and lightheadedness or faintness can occur.)
- If your heart rate does not drop back down to about 70% of your max during recovery intervals, you may need to shorten your work intervals and/or lengthen your recovery intervals.
- HIIT (including the sample program below) is not for beginner exercisers or people with cardiovascular problems or risk factors. If you have cardiovascular problems or risk factors should NOT attempt HIIT unless your doctor has specifically cleared you for this kind of exercise
A Sample Progressive HIIT Program
Please adhere to the general HIIT guidelines above for this program. To maximize fat loss, maintain an intensity level of 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (RPE of 5-6 on the 10-point scale) during warm up, cool down and recovery intervals.
| Week | Warm up | Work Interval (Max Intensity) | Recovery Interval (60-70% MHR) |
Repeat |
Cool down |
Total Workout Time |
| 1 | 5 min. | 1 min. | 4 min. | 2 times | 5 min. | 20 min. |
| 2 | 5 min. | 1 min. | 4 min. | 3 times | 5 min. | 25 min. |
| 3 | 5 min. | 1 min. | 4 min. | 4 times | 5 min. | 30 min. |
| 4 | 5 min. | 1.5 min. | 4 min. | 2 times | 5 min. | 21 min |
After completing this four-week program, you can continue working to increase the number of work intervals per session, the duration of work intervals, or both.
You can adjust this training plan to accommodate your particular needs and goals. If you find that this schedule is either too difficult or too easy for your current fitness level, you can make adjustments to the duration and/or number of high intensity intervals as necessary. For example, if you want to train yourself for very short, frequent bursts of maximum intensity activity, your program could involve sprinting for 20 seconds and jogging/walking for 60 seconds, and repeating that 15-20 times per session.
You don’t need to swap all of your aerobic exercise for HIIT to gain the benefits. A good balance, for example, might be two sessions of HIIT per week, along with 1-2 sessions of steady-state aerobic exercise. As usual, moderation is the key to long-term success, so challenge yourself—but don’t drive yourself into the ground. Get ready to see major changes in your body and your fitness level!
Remember to follow all the guidelines above before starting this program. If you think this is a good program for you, you may want to consult a MissFIT Certified Personal Trainer to continue on with a HIIT form of training.
MissFIT is on the Road
Written By pkreschWe are taking our show on the road again! Ok, not really our show, but we will be out and about at some local venues and we would love for you to join us. Stop in and say HI.
KIDDLES OF LAKE FOREST CUSTOMER APPRECIATION NIGHT
On Wednesday, Feb. 15th we will be one of the local vendors at Kiddles Customer Appreciation night. There will be some great discounts from Kiddles in Lake Forest and the 4 other local businesses they have invited. Please stop by from 6-8pm. Here are the details;
BEAT THE WINTER BLAHS: LADIES NIGHT OF PAMPERING
Want to kick the winter blahs? Enjoy a relaxing evening of pampering just for you at a Ladies Night Out to renew your mind, body and spirit. More than a dozen local vendors will be there to help you refresh yourself for the new year, offering fitness demonstrations, chair massages, hair and makeup consultations, skin care treatments and raffle door prizes.
Tickets are $15 per person and includes admission, one wine ticket and a door
prize raffle ticket. (Additional tickets will be available for purchase at the event.)
This unique event benefits United Way of Lake County’s Success By 6 Program for early education and is hosted by MissFIT Complete.
Register now for a relaxing and rejuvinating evening. www.liveunitedlakecounty.org/missfit.
Peggy Kresch
cPT, American Council on Exercise; MissFIT Complete Program Coordinator Find out More >How does Aerobic Exercise get your Heart Fit?
Written By pkreschIf you are a regular reader of the MissFIT Blog, you know that February is Heart Health Month. As Katie mentioned yesterday in her blog, we are going to focus this month on ways for you to get your heart healthy. Your heart is the engine of your body. It affects everything else inside you. If it is not functioning at it’s maximum performance, you may not feel it in your heart, but it may be noticed in a variety of other symptoms.
So today, we are going to be talking about what you can do to start getting your heart IN SHAPE. Yep you guessed it, AEROBIC EXERCISE. Aerobic exercise is defined as constant moderate intensity work that uses up oxygen at a rate in which the cardio respiratory system can replenish oxygen in the working muscles. Examples of aerobic exercising are running, cycling, swimming, walking.
Most of our blog readers are very inquisitive readers who come to read our blog to be educated on various topics. To meet your thirst for knowledge, I thought I would give you a LITTLE (I promise) science lesson on why aerobic exercise is good for your heart. Please bear with me!
During aerobic exercise, hear performance is based on heart rate (how many beats per min.), stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped per beat) and heart contactility (the forcefulness of each heart contaction). These variaables increase blood flow and oxygen supply to meet the demands of exercising muscles. Progessivly increasing the length of your aerobic exercise triggers adaptations in the heart muscle structure. The heart thickens and the left ventricle expands, improving heart function during exercise. Consistent endurance exercise, such as 30-60 minutes, causes a long list of additional cardiovascular adptations and responses.
- Increased carbohydrate used
- Increased mitochondria (“energy factory” of cell) function
- Improved cell regulatory work of metabolism
- Increased fat oxidation
- Faster use of oxygen and fuel into muscles
- Increased stroke volume
Ok, so let’s put some of that into easier terms.
- Your heart will get to be a stronger muscle.
- You will use up the carbohydrates that are stored in your cells which will cause your body to use fat as fuel.
- Your metabolism will be increased.
- Your body will burn more fat.
- Your heart will pump more blood per beat which increased the blood flow to your muscles and back to your heart.
See, I knew you would want to know that. It makes more sense then as to why aerobic exercise is so important to maintaining a healthy heart. Here are my top 10 reasons that you should consider increasing your aerobic exercise.
Aerobic activity can help you:
- Keep excess pounds at bay
Combined with a healthy diet, aerobic exercise helps you lose weight — and keep it off. - Increase your stamina
Aerobic exercise may make you tired in the short term. But over the long term, you’ll enjoy increased stamina and reduced fatigue. - Ward off viral illnesses
Aerobic exercise activates your immune system. This leaves you less susceptible to minor viral illnesses, such as colds and flu. - Reduce your health risks
Aerobic exercise reduces the risk of many conditions, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer. Weight-bearing aerobic exercises, such as walking, reduce the risk of osteoporosis. - Manage chronic conditions
Aerobic exercise helps lower high blood pressure and control blood sugar. If you’ve had a heart attack, aerobic exercise helps prevent subsequent attacks. - Strengthen your heart
A stronger heart doesn’t need to beat as fast. A stronger heart also pumps blood more efficiently, which improves blood flow to all parts of your body. - Keep your arteries clear
Aerobic exercise boosts your high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol and lowers your low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol. The potential result? Less buildup of plaques in your arteries. - Boost your mood
Aerobic exercise can ease the gloominess of depression, reduce the tension associated with anxiety and promote relaxation. - Stay active and independent as you age
Aerobic exercise keeps your muscles strong, which can help you maintain mobility as you get older. Aerobic exercise also keeps your mind sharp. At least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three days a week seems to reduce cognitive decline in older adults. - Live longer
Studies show that people who participate in regular aerobic exercise live longer than those who don’t exercise regularly.
So that is the WHY in our discussion on Why you should exercise your heart. Next week on Fitness Tuesday’s Blog, we will discuss the HOW. You don’t want to miss it. There are some new studies out comparing some different ways to exercise your cardiovascular system and which ways are the most beneficial.
STAY TUNED!
Peggy Kresch
cPT, American Council on Exercise; MissFIT Complete Program Coordinator Find out More >Friends help Friends Reach their Goals
Written By pkreschAre you tired of having great exercise and fitness goals but feeling like you never reach them the way you want? A little know secret is that if you workout with a friend, you will be more successful at reaching your goals.
Whether planning for weight loss, improved fitness or overall health improvements, exercise friends can make a big difference. Reaching your goals requires a change of diet and behaviors. Finding friends with similar goals can aid you tremendously in success faster and putting patterns in place that you can sustain in the long term.
Here are four ways that exercising with friends will help you:
1. Reduce Stress. Exercising with friends can help to reduce the stress that often accompanies a new fitness or weight loss programs. You may be changing your eating habits. You may be used to relaxing and watching television many nights a week and now you have to commit time to exercise. New styles of eating and exercising can feel like a very lonely process. Exercising with friends helps to reduce this stress. You can share your challenges with your friends and draw on their support. For example, you may be having difficulty avoiding certain foods or changing some dietary habits. It helps to exercise with a friend who understands and can lend a listening ear.
2. Stay Motivated. Good friends can motivate you to stick to your diet and exercise plan. You may not feel like hitting the gym after work, but knowing that you agreed to meet your friend there will encourage you to keep your commitment. When exercising alone, it is much easier to skip an activity or tell yourself that you will do it later. While working out together, you can also discuss your plans and share knowledge and ideas about nutrition and fitness strategies.
3. Challenge Each Other. When you exercise with friends, choose those with similar goals and fitness levels. It will be difficult to keep up with someone who just finished running a marathon if exercise hasn’t been part of your daily routine for a long time, or vice versa. A compatible exercise partner can challenge you to increase your effort at each workout session. And you can do the same for him/her. For example, if you are hiking together every day, you can push each other to increase your distance each time, walk faster or add a steep hill.
4. Have Fun. Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring or frustrating. When you exercise with friends who make you laugh or share your interests, time can fly by. Whether you are going for a brisk walk every morning or lifting weights together at a gym, fun conversation can make you forget that your body is working out. When something is fun for you, you are more likely to stick to it.
Here are a couple ideas for ways to exercise with your friends:
- Running
- High Speed walking
- Aerobics
- Yoga
- Biking
- Swimming
Some of my best workouts have been when I recruit a friend to join me. We always push each other to work harder. It’s great to know that my workout buddy is always ready to meet me if she can. 
So find a friend that you have common interests, goals, fitness levels with and make a date to be active together. You will be surprised how much fun you will have getting a workout.
By the way, MissFIT Complete offers partner training in your home. It’s a great way to share the cost of a personal training session. Check out our Duet Training services.