Time for Change Fitness: Proper Goals 101

Why Weight Training

Why does Time for Change Fitness promote resistance training?

Many people focus on calories alone. The slash and dash mentality develops destructive patterns, like extreme calorie cuts and/or excessive aerobics. This sets off an alarm-state in the body where the body sheds muscle tissue to lessen energy demands, and stores body fat as a survival response. Once this physiological state is reached, it becomes nearly impossible to lose any more weight no matter how many calories you cut or how much aerobic work you add. What you end up with is a person who is on a starvation level calorie count and performing excessive exercise, yet is still flabby.

The calories burned during an exercise session are relatively small compared to the amount burned during the other 23 hours of the day. Most fat oxidation occurs between training sessions, not during. This means your exercise sessions should primarily be geared towards building muscle and boosting your metabolism.

After a strength training session, the metabolic rate raises (the after-burn effect) for longer periods of time than after aerobic work (up to 48 hours). This is because all of the steps involved in the recovery process from strength training (satellite cell activation, tissue repair, protein synthesis, etc.) require energy (calories).

Friday, November 23, 2012

Proper Goals 101

Specific Goals Are Good Goals

The more specific your goals are, the easier it is to reach them. Sure, it will still take effort and dedication, but you can keep from spinning your wheels. Specific goals are good goals.

What’s Wrong With My Goal?

Many people that I talk with tell me that there goal is to be healthier. Ok… Where do we go from there? What does it mean to be healthier? The answer depends on who is asking the question. We all have – whether we realize it or not – a prioritization of health. For many of us, if we are living – nailed it! Heart health is a concern to some; skin and hair for others. To better define “healthy,” let’s define fitness. Fitness is simply the appropriateness of a person’s capabilities in relation to a certain task. A power-lifter, for example, may be fit to squat 600 pounds, but couldn’t climb a rope to save his/her life. For most, being “healthy” is simply being fit to perform the tasks that you want to, need to, or regularly perform.

How Specific?

Let’s get back to goals. It is much easier to train for being fit to climb three flights of stairs at work than it is to “be healthier.” If you are working with a trainer – or asking the local gym legend for help – you may be subject to their interpretation of fitness/health. But if you were to ask, “how should I exercise so that I am not soaking wet and out of breath after climbing the stairs,” you will get a much more helpful answer.

Structure

Structure is what allows you to maximize you time and effort. The more specific your goal, the more efficient the structure can be. If you want to build upper-body strength, walking five miles a day won’t get you there. On the other hand, if you are looking to improve your cardiovascular health, walk, walk, and walk.

Motivation

Specific goals also help to keep you motivated. If your goal is to lose some weight, you might stop after three pounds if it’s hard. If your goal is to lose fifteen pounds, you may be more likely to stick to your guns. Specific goals are also easy to track – and adjust. When my dad made a push to get below 200 pounds, he realized that 198 pounds was uncomfortable – and he felt a little weak. With his goal being specific, we were able to step back and objectively decide that he should gain some healthy weight back. How specific can you make your goals?