Tom
Menting,
NSCA - CSCS & CPT
Certified Personal Trainer
Lakewood Colorado's Personal Training for All Fitness Levels!
720.351.0722
Tom's
Health Tips
Holiday Fitness Tips
December-7-2011
10 Holiday Fitness Tips to a Comfortable and Happy New Year
This holiday season there will be many gifts both bigand small. Kids will yearn for toys or games while adults will wish for jewelry and electronics. However, few wish-lists will include weight loss or a healthier lifestyle. Often thoughts of fitness are pushed back until New Years and then soon forgotten. How about this holiday season you give and ask for the gift that actually keeps on giving: health and wellness. You may ask “how in the world can I tangibly give or receive health and wellness this year?” It isn’t about a big package or a pretty wrap job, it’s about real changes to your life. They will certainly worth it! Here are ten tips to give you and your family the best chance to get into amazing shape.
1. Support Each Other and Provide a Positive Environment: Have you tried to lose weight without anybody’s support before? It’s extremely difficult. In today’s world of excess and dangerous processed food and beverages it can be almost impossible to eat and workout properly without a support system. Speak to your spouse or your parents and get them on board so that they can help you remain positive throughout your health journey. If you are trying to help your children get healthier be a great example for them to see everyday
2. Set Real and Tangible Goals: How many times have you set a goal that had no discernable plan or ending? You need to set both short and long term goals but they need to be goals that you can know with exact certainty that you have accomplished. Rather than saying “I’m going to get in shape this year,” you should change your cue and say “By June I’m going to lose 20 pounds and 10% body fat.” Tangible goals will help you stay on track and motivate you during those difficult time periods
3. Understand that Being Healthy is a Lifestyle, Not a Wish: If you want to make real changes you need to take it seriously. It takes a combination of physical activity, nutrition, proper sleep, and stress management. Luckily those things don’t have to consume your life for you to be healthy, but you need to make positive changes in multiple areas of your life in order to see positive changes in your body and mind
4. Focus on the Types of Food that you Eat rather than Calories: While cutting calories can result in a short term weight loss, eating healthy foods can result in sustained weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Instead of eating a meal of holiday candy and then starving yourself, have one piece of candy and then supplement with some fresh fruit or nuts. The more nutrient rich foods that you can incorporate into your diet the more you will shed unwanted pounds and keep your body from developing debilitating disease
5. Be Aware of how Your Body Feels: Too many people go through life unaware of how they actually feel. To understand wellness is to understand how your body and mind feel. Do you feel energetic? Do you feel happy? Do you feel motivated? If you do not know the answers to those questions then you need to take a little time to yourself and understand what is feeling great and what isn’t. When you begin to learn how you feel you will learn when you need to make changes in your diet and workout routines in order feel even better
6. Mix up Your Workouts: How many times have you thought “I’m so bored with my workouts?” You need to make sure that you are staying excited about your journey toward a healthier lifestyle. One of the most effective ways to keep motivated during your workouts is to try new things. Instead of jumping on the elliptical machine everyday for 4 months why not try rowing one day, biking the next, and hiking the next. Changing the exercises you do not only keeps your body guessing, which is great for getting more fit, but it also keeps your mind excited, which helps you get to the gym on those tough days
7. Challenge Yourself and Your Results will Emerge more Quickly: Your body responds positively when you introduce new things to your repertoire. That idea holds true with intensity as well. If you workout hard you can build strength faster. That strength helps to speed up your metabolism, which helps cut body fat. As you lose body fat you will feel more energetic during the day as well as in your workouts. This process is how you get the physical results that you want, while adding additional mental toughness that will help you during work, school or your daily routine
8. Smile, it makes it that much more Worth it: It is a simple equation. When you enjoy what you are doing you will want to do it more. There is no set equation to get in shape or be healthier, so hunt for a strategy that makes you happy. Maybe you like being outdoors and eating organic, healthful foods. If so, go for it. Maybe you like lifting heavy weights and eating a great deal of protein. If so, go for it. You don’t need to run 10 miles a day or eat 1 exact way to earn your health, when you find a strategy that you like go ahead and implement it, then enjoy the ride
9. Know that it is All a Decision: Your health boils down to one thing, YOU. Are you willing to work for it? There is a reason why fad diets don’t stick around very long. They don’t work. Either your weight loss isn’t sustainable or dangerous side effects develop. You need to eat a bit better and take care of your body a bit better to get healthy. Once you have made the decision, and made it for real, you will gain the energy and the will power to achieve your goals
10. Remember why you want to be healthy: There are difficult times during any journey and this journey to better your health is no different. When you feel like you may lose your way or when you don’t have the motivation you usually have take a second and remember what you are working toward. When you get healthy and learn how amazingly your mind and your body can feel you will want that feeling all of the time. It is worth it, your motivation loss is only a temporary phenomena, so wait it out and come out even better on the other side
The holidays are about family and happiness. There is no better time to begin to make these positive changes to your mind and your body. You should begin to feel more energetic, sleep better, look better, and work better. Whether you give the gift to somebody else or give it to yourself remind yourself that it’s worth it and so are you. Cheers!
10 Holiday Fitness Tips to a Comfortable and Happy New Year
This holiday season there will be many gifts both bigand small. Kids will yearn for toys or games while adults will wish for jewelry and electronics. However, few wish-lists will include weight loss or a healthier lifestyle. Often thoughts of fitness are pushed back until New Years and then soon forgotten. How about this holiday season you give and ask for the gift that actually keeps on giving: health and wellness. You may ask “how in the world can I tangibly give or receive health and wellness this year?” It isn’t about a big package or a pretty wrap job, it’s about real changes to your life. They will certainly worth it! Here are ten tips to give you and your family the best chance to get into amazing shape.
1. Support Each Other and Provide a Positive Environment: Have you tried to lose weight without anybody’s support before? It’s extremely difficult. In today’s world of excess and dangerous processed food and beverages it can be almost impossible to eat and workout properly without a support system. Speak to your spouse or your parents and get them on board so that they can help you remain positive throughout your health journey. If you are trying to help your children get healthier be a great example for them to see everyday
2. Set Real and Tangible Goals: How many times have you set a goal that had no discernable plan or ending? You need to set both short and long term goals but they need to be goals that you can know with exact certainty that you have accomplished. Rather than saying “I’m going to get in shape this year,” you should change your cue and say “By June I’m going to lose 20 pounds and 10% body fat.” Tangible goals will help you stay on track and motivate you during those difficult time periods
3. Understand that Being Healthy is a Lifestyle, Not a Wish: If you want to make real changes you need to take it seriously. It takes a combination of physical activity, nutrition, proper sleep, and stress management. Luckily those things don’t have to consume your life for you to be healthy, but you need to make positive changes in multiple areas of your life in order to see positive changes in your body and mind
4. Focus on the Types of Food that you Eat rather than Calories: While cutting calories can result in a short term weight loss, eating healthy foods can result in sustained weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. Instead of eating a meal of holiday candy and then starving yourself, have one piece of candy and then supplement with some fresh fruit or nuts. The more nutrient rich foods that you can incorporate into your diet the more you will shed unwanted pounds and keep your body from developing debilitating disease
5. Be Aware of how Your Body Feels: Too many people go through life unaware of how they actually feel. To understand wellness is to understand how your body and mind feel. Do you feel energetic? Do you feel happy? Do you feel motivated? If you do not know the answers to those questions then you need to take a little time to yourself and understand what is feeling great and what isn’t. When you begin to learn how you feel you will learn when you need to make changes in your diet and workout routines in order feel even better
6. Mix up Your Workouts: How many times have you thought “I’m so bored with my workouts?” You need to make sure that you are staying excited about your journey toward a healthier lifestyle. One of the most effective ways to keep motivated during your workouts is to try new things. Instead of jumping on the elliptical machine everyday for 4 months why not try rowing one day, biking the next, and hiking the next. Changing the exercises you do not only keeps your body guessing, which is great for getting more fit, but it also keeps your mind excited, which helps you get to the gym on those tough days
7. Challenge Yourself and Your Results will Emerge more Quickly: Your body responds positively when you introduce new things to your repertoire. That idea holds true with intensity as well. If you workout hard you can build strength faster. That strength helps to speed up your metabolism, which helps cut body fat. As you lose body fat you will feel more energetic during the day as well as in your workouts. This process is how you get the physical results that you want, while adding additional mental toughness that will help you during work, school or your daily routine
8. Smile, it makes it that much more Worth it: It is a simple equation. When you enjoy what you are doing you will want to do it more. There is no set equation to get in shape or be healthier, so hunt for a strategy that makes you happy. Maybe you like being outdoors and eating organic, healthful foods. If so, go for it. Maybe you like lifting heavy weights and eating a great deal of protein. If so, go for it. You don’t need to run 10 miles a day or eat 1 exact way to earn your health, when you find a strategy that you like go ahead and implement it, then enjoy the ride
9. Know that it is All a Decision: Your health boils down to one thing, YOU. Are you willing to work for it? There is a reason why fad diets don’t stick around very long. They don’t work. Either your weight loss isn’t sustainable or dangerous side effects develop. You need to eat a bit better and take care of your body a bit better to get healthy. Once you have made the decision, and made it for real, you will gain the energy and the will power to achieve your goals
10. Remember why you want to be healthy: There are difficult times during any journey and this journey to better your health is no different. When you feel like you may lose your way or when you don’t have the motivation you usually have take a second and remember what you are working toward. When you get healthy and learn how amazingly your mind and your body can feel you will want that feeling all of the time. It is worth it, your motivation loss is only a temporary phenomena, so wait it out and come out even better on the other side
The holidays are about family and happiness. There is no better time to begin to make these positive changes to your mind and your body. You should begin to feel more energetic, sleep better, look better, and work better. Whether you give the gift to somebody else or give it to yourself remind yourself that it’s worth it and so are you. Cheers!
October 15, 2011 The Simple Powers of Sleep and Exercise
Get Moving and Quit Tossing and Turning
A
little exercise could go a long way towards helping to improve your sleep.
Regular
exercise improves your heart health and blood pressure, builds bone and muscle,
helps combat stress and muscle tension, and can even improve your mood. But who
has the time? If you have trouble sleeping, maybe you should think about making
the time.
Sounds
like a catch-22, right? The most common excuse for not working out is being too
tired. But working out is exactly what your body needs to prevent you from
being exhausted in the future. Before you start pumping iron, keep in mind that
exercise and sleep have a love-hate relationship. Work out at the wrong time,
and it will keep you awake. Exercise at the right time and your body will be
perfectly prepared to shut down when it’s time for shuteye.
Get moving in the morning.
Exercise
right after getting up to help relieve stress, improve your mood and signal
your body that it’s time to start the day. The best thing you can do is get
outside. Being exposed to natural light in the morning, whether you're
exercising or not, can improve your sleep at night by reinforcing your body's
sleep-wake cycle. Also remember to talk to your doctor before beginning or
modifying an exercise regimen.
The best time of day to exercise.
When
it comes to having a direct effect on getting a good night's sleep, it's
vigorous exercise in the late afternoon or early evening that appears most
beneficial. The reason has to do with your body temperature. That's because a
good workout raises your body temperature above normal a few hours before bed,
allowing it to start falling just as you're getting ready for bed. This
decrease in body temperature acts as a trigger that helps ease you into dozing
off.
Exercise
doesn’t have to mean turning yourself into body builder. Here are some other ways to add
activity into your daily routine:
Take
a 20-minute walk on your lunch break.
Take
the stairs instead of the elevator.
Park
your car as far away as possible.
Walk
to and from work.
Set
an alarm to go off every hour, then stand up and move around when it does.
Use
the restroom on another floor.
Leave
something important in your car so you have to run out and grab it at some
point during the day.
Deliver
documents and packages to coworkers in person instead of by email.
Get
a headset for your phone and walk around while you talk.
What kind of exercise is best for sleep?
Strength
training, stretching, yoga, and any other types of exercise have their
benefits, but nothing matches the sleep-enhancing powers of a cardiovascular
workout. When your heart rate is up and your muscles are pumping for at least
20 minutes, you’ll end up sleeping sounder and longer, plus you’ll feel more
awake during the day.
If you
suffer from sleeplessness, you should takes the steps necessary to add at least
20 minutes of vigorous exercise into your schedule three or four times a week.
Choose whatever activity you enjoy and get used to an increase in activity
leading to a decrease in tossing and turning.
I've had people tell me the only way they would exercise is if the machine had a motor on it. That really didn't make a lot of sense to me. My Dad had and an interesting observation of losing weight. He told me the more labor his projects entailed the more weight he would lose. The only thing he would change in his life would be how hard he worked on his projects. Sounds like to simple math of burning more calories than you are consuming.
One component of training that gets overlooked with embarking on a fitness training program are tangibles. Most of you will follow a program based on what you saw on an infomercial or magazine article. The most important component I’ve seen to help drive success is how good is your support group. The most cutting edge programs can be useless if you don’t have the support to keep you on track.I’ve always been told to surround yourself with people you want to be like. An important role of a fitness trainer is to keep you accountable for your goals. Some can very easily workout solo, but most of you need some accountability.
Coaching does not mean getting a cookie cutter plan and "bye bye, good luck, keep me posted". No, it is more about conversations, reflections, different points of views, exchange of experiences, tips, support. I love helping my clients, I love getting to know them.It is an investment. A very good one to make if you are serious about your fitness achievement. It's up to you, you are welcome to work with me any time!
November 24, 2009 6 Ways To Prevent Holiday Weight Gain
6 Ways To Prevent Holiday Weight Gain
Obesity has worldwide problem. In fact, almost 2/3 of Americans need to lose weight and over 1 billion people in the world are overweight. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight and improve your health and fitness. And yes, this can still be done over the holiday season. Don't wait for New Year's day to start your weight loss resolutions.
There are a number of reasons for the increased incidence of obesity and overweight individuals, as suggested by American statistics, but also a number of workout and nutrition tips that can counter the effects of each bad nutrition and exercise habit that we have:
* It has been estimated that for every high-sugar drink you consume, you increase your risk of obesity by 60%! Soft drinks provide 33% of all added sugars in American diets.
Tip #1: Avoid drinking calories!
* In the USA, sugar consumption has increased from 26 to 32 teaspoons (between the 1970's and 1998).
* Americans eat an extra 150 kcal per day now in comparison to 1980. In theory, this could lead to 15 lbs. of weight gain per year!
Tip #2: Avoid over-eating treats at parties. If you can't have just one, don't have any at all!
* Your obesity risk increases 6-fold if you watch more than 2 hours of television each day.
Tip #3: Stay active. Walk around the mall a couple extra times if it means you'll avoid the couch and overeating at home. Stay busy, stay active, stay lean.
* Only 25% of individuals exercise moderately for 30 minutes each day, whereas 25% of the population does no exercise at all.
Tip #4: It's not all or nothing. If you can only do 15 minutes of exercise, that is still better than nothing. Don't stop all exercise just because you can't do 30 minutes that day.
* Obesity continues to increase in the USA despite a continued decrease in the consumption of dietary fat. In 1994-96, fat accounted for 33% of total calories compared with 40% in the late 1970's.
* In 1994-96, just over half of the population reported eating fruit each day while the consumption of processed carbohydrates (such as bread, snack foods, and cereals) has increased 110% since the late 1970's.
Tip #5: Avoid processed carbs. Hit the veggie tray, the protein offerings, and the calorie free beverages at parties. If its rolled in pastry, don't eat it.
* Milk consumption has decreased in children by 16% since the late 1970's, while consumption of soft drinks increased by 16%.
Tip #6: Don't keep soda in the house. If you don't buy it, neither you nor the kids will drink it.
Stick to these 6 simle tips and you'll stay lean over the holidays. Add in a little more exercise and you could do the impossible - lose fat over the holidays!
The off-season is officially here and now is the perfect time to review how you played this year. Did you play to the level you wanted to or know you could have? If so, what did you do that allowed you to reach your goals. If not, what was holding you back?
Knowing exactly what is keeping you from reaching the next level with your golf game is a critical step for outlining your off-season golf improvement plan. Are your limiting factors technical, physical, mental/emotion or is it a mix of the three?
Knowing the answer is the difference between having the same game and making significant progress next year.
October 6, 2009 Proper Nutrition For the Golf Course
Buying food at the golf course should be a last resort. Great nutrition starts at home:
Eat a healthy breakfast before heading to the course.
Pack energy-boosting snacks in your golf bag for every fourth hole.
Eat every 2.5 to 3 hours after your round to help your body recover.
Why bother with all this planning? Because nutrition is a key ingredient in your game plan-it can help you play strong and stay energized and focused to come up clutch when it counts.
September 4, 2009 The Importance of a Heart Rate Monitor
Heart rate monitoring (HRM) is no longer a training tool used only by athletes at the very pinnacle of their sport. Indeed, virtually every serious athlete now carries a portable heart rate monitor, fastened either on their wrist or mounted on the handlebars of their bike. Yet few of us fully understand the concept of HRM - and how to make best use of it to optimise our year-round training and competition. It's why over-reaching and over-training are still so prevalent among athletes - even those privileged enough to enjoy the services of a sports coach. High-intensity training is a bit like a fine, 100-year-old cognac. Wonderful if taken in small amounts - but too much of it can leave you feeling worse for wear the next day... And while many athletes (and coaches) think that HRM will prevent you from training too hard, too fast and too soon, in fact a number of new scientific studies show that, while HRM provides important feedback about the intensity of exercise, it can't measure certain other important indicators relating to your ongoing high intensity training efforts. Because this issue is both so important to every athlete, and so often misunderstood. This device is meant to be a huge benefit to a successful training program.
Magazines will give a top ten of what the best equipment on the market has to offer. He won't have to go far to find that our bodies make a wonderful piece of exercise equipment. Check with Tom to see some of the ways we could put together a workout program just using your body, a wall, and space. Enjoy.
Your body is made up of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers. If you are only training one type of muscle fiber, you may be missing out on an untapped part of your body that can help produce massive results.
How do you know the difference between fast and slow twitch muscle fiber? Slow twitch muscle fibers are generally used for long slow distances. The best slow twitch fiber athletes are marathon runners. Fast twitch muscle fibers are generally used for short burst of energy. The best fast twitch fiber athletes are olympic weight lifters. Balancing the use of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers will maximize fitness results. Please feel free to contact us on how to best use your muscles.
