11/7/2008
We are in our last week of workouts and congradulations the the contestants and Ali and Nick for doing an awesome job at keeping up with their resistance and cardio workouts as well as the very important nutritional aspect. I decided that we would focus on some of the very basic weight lifting moves. Sometimes we can get caught up in what`s the newest and most fancy move, but the simple squat, lunge, pushup, and row have been shown to be the most effective. These moves are the most effective because they involve the use of multiple muscle groups which in turn slightly increases the chance of injury, so be sure that you have a mirror to check your form or a fitness professional to keep you in check. As for our nutritional topic this week, we talked about the use of multivitamins and who should use them. Supplements and multivitamins are everywhere. It seems no matter where you go you will see or hear about how multivitamins will help you and your overall health. For certain groups of people, this is true. For others, it is not. Most healthy people get all the vitamins and minerals they need from their diet. In fact, taking a multivitamin when you get enough vitamins and minerals in your diet can actually be dangerous. Overdosing on some vitamins can cause serious illnesses and even organ damage. Who should use a multivitamin?: Those who are elderly and have poor dietary habits or decreased exposure to the sun. Women who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant, breastfeeding or have been through menopause. Those who are vegetarians. Vegetarians and vegans most likely will only need a B-12 supplement, but may need other vitamins too, depending on the variety of the diet. Those who eat less than 1,200 calories a day. Those who are lactose intolerant or have a medical condition that affects vitamin absorption. Talk to your doctor about your specific condition and the supplements you may need. Those who smoke and/or drink excessively. Those who generally have a poor diet that includes very few fruits and vegetables. If you aren`t sure that you fall into one of these categories and you take a daily multivitamin, it will probably not hurt you. Just be sure the multivitamins are balanced and don`t have an extremely high amount of any of the vitamins and minerals included in them. Some multivitamin options include Centrum and One-A-Day vitamins that include 100 percent of the recommended daily value of most vitamins and minerals. Avoid multivitamins that boast about megadoses (300 to 400 percent) of certain vitamins or minerals. These can get you into trouble and put you at risk for an overdose. Making sure you get enough vitamins and minerals through either your diet or a combination of diet and multivitamins is very important for your overall health. Although taking vitamins will not help prevent the cold or flu, the healthier your immune system is, the better you will be able to fight off cold and flu infections if you do get them. And of course, if you have any questions about your vitamin needs, talk to your health-care provider.

11/3/2008
I decided for this week`s workouts we would focus on exercising for stress relief since everyone had a very stressful week. Even though we are still losing weight, when I met with Margo, Nick, Ali, and Chris they looked noticably tired and worn-out. Although it seems counterintuitive that exercise would relieve stress and anxiety because the goal of a workout is to stress and overload the muscle, it is an extremely effective stress reliever for multiple reasons: Outlet For Frustrations: When life`s annoyances or frustrating situations build up, you can feel stressed or experience low-grade anger. More high-energy forms of exercise like boxing, martial arts or weight training can also provide an effective release of these negative emotions, turning these otherwise potentially unhealthy emotions into motivation for increased health and well-being Exercise and Stress Hormones: Exercise can decrease `stress hormones` like cortisol, and increase endorphins, your body`s `feel-good` chemicals, giving your mood a natural boost. (This is the chemistry behind a `runner`s high`.) Distraction: Physical activity itself can take your mind off of your problems and either redirect it on the activity at hand or get you into a zen-like state. Exercise usually involves a change of scenery as well, either taking you to a gym, a dojo, a boxing ring, a park, a scenic mountain, a biking trail or a neighborhood sidewalk, all of which can be pleasant, low-stress places. Lookin` Good: I have to include this possibly superficial, but significant, benefit of exercise: it helps you lose weight, tone your body, and maintain a healthy glow and a smile. You may feel a subtle but significant boost as your clothes look more flattering on, and you project an aura of increased confidence and strength. Call me shallow, but this does impact many people, and can relieve stress for those who are concerned with their appearance and worry that they don`t look as healthy as they could. Social Support: The benefits of social support are well-documented and manifold. Because exercise and physical activity can often involve others, you can enjoy a double dose of stress-relief with the combined benefits of exercise and fun with friends. Whether you`re in a class with others, working out in the gym with a buddy, playing softball in a league or taking a walk or hike with a friend, having others work out with you can make you feel good as well as help motivate you to push harder to get a better workout without it feeling so much like `work`. Increased Health: While stress can cause illness, illness can also cause stress, with the physical pain, missed activities, feelings of isolation and other costs that come with it. So improving your overall health and longevity with exercise can also save you a great deal of stress in the short run (by strengthening your immunity to colds, the flu and other minor illnesses) and the long run (by helping you stay healthier longer, and enjoy life more because of it). Resilience To Stress: That`s right, research suggests that physical activity may be linked to lower physiological reactivity toward stress. Simply put, those who get more exercise may become less affected by the stress they face. So, in addition to all the other benefits, exercise may supply some immunity toward future stress as well as a way to cope with current stress. If that`s not a great reason to get more active, I don`t know what is!

10/23/2008
Week 9 started out as rather unusual...Ali was gone all weekend, Chris will be gone this weekend, Margo still has some family things that need her attention, and Nick had some back issues. As far as out workouts are going, we kept the same one as last week, but now have incorporated some plyometrics. We are doing quick, and powerful movements that stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibers and keeps the body off balance. These activities are only advised if you are in good shape already and have no immediate injuries. Any type of injury can have more than just a physical effect on you exercise, but also can affect your mind. Depending on the type and severity of the injury, time of recuperation can vary greatly. If its an acute orthopedic injury, the best treatment is R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, elevate), if the injury is more chronic and a nagging type it might be wise to seed a professionals advise. Making sure that you do your research on the injury is also very important. I think the biggest injury that tends to get overlooked is any type of overuse injury. Adequate rest is just as important as doing physical activity itself...making sure that you take a day off in between resistance training days, and if you are going hard with cardio, just taking a day off or doing very light activity will make a great difference.

10/17/2008
With only four weeks left, it must be travel time for everyone. Chris went on his big NYC trip, Ali will be traveling over the weekend, and Nick is away on the weekends hunting. Margo unfortunately had a family emergency and had devote her time to that this week. Keep in mind that travel time doesn`t need to be a vacation from you fitness routine. You may not be able to get to a gym, but there are other ways to stay active and healthy. Body weight exercises like pushups, lunges, squats, and crunches can be done without equipment. Try and get in 15 minute walks and what is especially important is keeping your nutrition in check. It is difficult not to indulge when you are on vacation, but just remember its OK to have those things, but just in moderation and somehow "make up" for it by eating a little less you next meal and getting in some exercise.

10/9/2008
Congrats again to Margo, Nick, Ali, and Chris!! Losing body fat and gaining strength is a great accomplishment. I think the importance of proper nutrition was evident to everyone this week. Nick said he had a few "cheat" days and really didn`t make up for them, thus not seeing the weight loss. Keep in mind that it`s OK to have your favorite foods or treats, just in moderation. And if they`re unhealthy treats, try to make up for it by eating extremely healthy the next couple days, and maybe adding another workout or a few extra minutes to your workout. It`s getting a little cooler outside, which in North Dakota really only means one thing to a lot of people...Hunting Season. If you have ever hunted before, you probably know how physical the activity is, but not many people think about targeting their workout routine to the physical demands of the sport. Depending on what you`re hunting (and how), you could be putting on 5 or more miles every day. And it`s not just walking on a flat surface, many times you could be trudging through high grass and mud carrying heavy gear (and hopefully your prize). Cardiovascular endurance is a key factor for surviving the day. Using the treadmill and elliptical are great cardio machines to increase endurance, especially if they are set on a higher incline and/or resistance to simulate walking outdoors. Other muscle groups that would be important to strengthen are the back and shoulders. Doing rows and lat-pulldowns are great exercises to do for those groups. Remember, physical fitness will not only help you survive the hunting weekend, but perhaps allow you do go that extra mile late in the day and get that last potent shot.

10/3/2008
We are at the halfway point, and even though we haven`t seen big drops in weight, our participant`s body circumferences and body fat percentages have dropped significantly. Everyone has lost inches off their entire body, but most importantly, inches off their waist and hips. Sometimes it`s hard not to focus on the weight that`s being lost (or not lost), because it`s something that can be measured fairly easily. The fact is, there is a lot of focus on people being the "correct" weight. Keep in mind that everyone carries their weight a little differently, loses weight differently, and puts on weight differently, so if the scale isn`t showing the changes that you are expecting, look for other ways to keep tabs on yourself. Every four to six weeks, have your body circumferences or body fat percentages checked. An even easier way is just to try on your clothes, and see if they`re fitting you differently. If they are, great! And if not, it might be time to change up your workout. Great job Margo, Nick, Chris, and Ali...keep it up!!

9/25/2008
Week 5 brings us more muscle endurance workouts, doing 2-3 sets of 15 reps for 10-12 total body exercises. Everyone is looking good and keeping with the healthy recommendation of 1-2 pound weight loss per week. There are so many different benefits of being physically active and exercising regularly, such as a decrease in blood pressure and cholesterol, strengthens the cardio-pulmonary system (heart and lung), weight maintenance, improves sleeping patterns, etc. One benefit that is sometimes overlooked or not well known is the positive effect exercise has on a stress management. Exercise increases your overall health, and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your steps everyday. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity helps to bump up the production of your brain`s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Although this function is often referred to as a runner`s high, a rousing game of tennis or a nature hike also can contribute to this same feeling. It`s meditation in movement. After a fast-paced game of racquetball or several laps in the pool, you`ll often find that you`ve forgotten the day`s dilemmas and irritations and concentrated only on your body`s movements. As you begin to regularly shed your daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you may find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, can help you remain calm and clear in everything that you do. It improves your mood. Regular exercise can increase self-confidence and lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. This can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life.

9/18/2008
The focus for week four is muscle endurance. Ali, Chris, and Nick have been doing different circuits for the core, upper and lower body. Keeping the repetitions up, and the weight lighter, trains the muscles to perform for longer periods of time, also helps in muscle toning. For Margo`s workout, we are staying with the Nautilus machines for her lower body since that seems to cause her the least pain and inflammation and we did an upper body workout using cable machines. Everyone is losing or maintaining their weight, which is a great thing to see. A lot of times, people come to a weight loss road block, where diet and exercises routines are kept the same, but no more weight is lost. Just like I mentioned in last week`s blog, once the body gets used to a regular routine, it is done adapting and changing. Here are a few more tips to go along with last weeks to help stay away from those road blocks or plateaus: Zig-Zag calorie intake, or calorie cycling is the process of varying daily calorie intake, while maintaining the same weekly intake. Strength training - if you are not doing this as part of your program or lifestyle, then it`s time to start. Working your muscles will help to strengthen bone tissue, increase lean mass, and ultimately boost metabolic rate. Change your exercise routine - if you walk a lot, try jogging, or swimming, or cycling, anything that will change the way your body is working. If you are doing low intensity cardio work, then try some high intensity exercise. Alter macro-nutrient intake - Although it sounds complicated, once again, the idea is to change what you are eating. If (for example) you are eating a moderate diet that is higher in carbs, try eating less carbs and more protein. There is no need to get super-technical over the whole thing. If you have a carbohydrate snack every day at morning tea time, change it to a protein snack. Whatever you are doing consistently, try mixing it up a bit. Change meal frequency - If you are eating three square meals a day, start adding snacks in between (which may mean reducing the portion size of the main meals).

9/11/2008
As week 3 gets underway, I’m beginning to see a lot of improvements in form and body posture in everyone. Now that we’ve had a few workouts under our belt, the muscles we’ve been working have had time to adapt to the stress placed upon it. So, it’s about time to change up the workouts for everyone. Right away, beginner weight trainers seem to make progress no matter what they do. However, eventually it becomes increasingly difficult to make even the smallest gains because the most productive exercises lose their effectiveness over time. One way to attempt re-stimulating progress is by changing the exercise routinely executed for a particular muscle group. Any significant change in one`s routine can stimulate new progress. When a new exercise has been introduced, the progress for the first few weeks is largely due to neural-motor adaptations. After this initial learning, or re-learning phase, subsequent strength increases become predominately from muscles fibers increasing in size. Changing exercises for a muscle group every workout is not necessary and may, in effect, not allow optimal neurological adaptation. In addition, it becomes difficult to make incremental progress if you change your exercises every workout. Sticking to a program, or a group of selected exercises, for a longer time will decrease your chance of injury, because you`ll be more familiar with your limits regarding load and volume, and it will make it easier to practice and maintaining good form. Your muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, vascular elements and neural-motor units respond favorably with small increases in duration and intensity. If too little weight is used, the body doesn’t have to adapt to an overload (placing a positive stress on the muscles - more than it is used too). Once that adaptation has occurred, it’s time to change up the workout structure (usually every 3-4 weeks). Overloading the muscle can be achieved by changing the intensity and duration, repetition, rest, and frequency. Remember, your muscles grow from the one set when you lift more than you ever did before, and not from the ten sets you did at a weight you have lifted for years.

9/3/2008
As in week one, week two`s focus was on building a strong core foundation and muscle/body awareness. Just like with anything else new that we learn, doing new exercises right takes lots of practice and it is important to not expect yourself to do the movements correctly with lots of reps or weights the first few times you do them. This is why initially, we spend lots of time focusing on correct form and posture with basic body movements so we can then move on later to more complex movements while keeping proper form. After you have mastered the correct movement, try increasing the intensity by adding repetitions or sets, increasing resistance, or changing up your balance points (i.e. standing on one leg, using a body ball). Our nutritional focus on this week was getting out Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed asleep all day. There are many BMR calculators out on the internet that just need your age, height, weight, and activity level. Once you know your BMR, the next step is to adjust your calories according to your primary goal. The mathematics of calorie balance are simple: To keep your weight at its current level, you should remain at your daily caloric maintenance level. To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit by reducing your calories slightly below your maintenance level (or keeping your calories the same and increasing your activity above your current level). To gain weight you need to increase your calories above your maintenance level. The only difference between weight gain programs and weight loss programs is the total number of calories required. Also consider what kind of calories your are consuming. You should be getting 10-30% of your calories from fats, 50-70% of your calories from carbohydrates, and 15-30% of your calories from proteins.

8/29/2008
Our first session went very well. Both Margo and Nick worked extremely hard and are looking forward to the next three months. The first workout we did was mainly focused on setting a foundation of a strong core (abdominals, lower back, hips and pelvic area) and body/muscle awareness. We need a strong core to make sure all other body movements are done right and to aid in injury prevention. Because Margo and Nick had not been previously working out on a regular basis, we just did one set of each exercise so not to totally shock the body. I also wanted to make sure that they were doing the proper form and getting the right muscles recruited for each exercise before we do lots of sets. Not only are Margo and Nick are in different stages of their lives, they also have very different physical capabilities. For the most part, they will be able to do the same workout with modifications to make sure they are getting an intense-enough workout for themselves. As for Ali and Chris, their main focus is toning and building muscle. We will start off the first couple weeks just getting back into the resistance training mode, but then focus more on specific muscles. They seem eager and excited to start back up again.