Secrets to Living a Healthy Lifestyle » 15 Minutes

Heart Rate Monitor

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:23:29 +0000

A heart rate monitor can be a great tool for keeping you motivated and on track with your fitness goals. First of all, gadgets are great they give you something to look at and enable you to keep going even when you begin to get a little bored. Secondly, a heart rate monitor will help you stay within in your target zone and ultimately help you reach your goals sooner.

I often find it difficult to help my new clients, who have never exercised, understand how hard they need to be working. They are either working so hard out of their target zone that they can't keep up the pace for very long or they are not working near hard enough.

Most people who exercise will use one of two things to help monitor how hard they are working out. First, the above mentioned heart rate monitor and secondly a rate of perceived exertion scale (RPE). RPE is a scale of 1 to 10, 1indicates not working very hard and a 10 is an all out hardest effort you can give. The scale is easy to use and very affordable (free), however, it has its' drawbacks. First, a lot of people do not know their all out effort. Secondly, as you become more fatigued it becomes easier to relate working at a 7-8 to working at a 10.

The heart rate monitor is a little more specific, you are either working hard and getting your heart rate up or you are not. Click on the watch above if you would like to by one, you will be taken to the Perform Better website.

As you workout try to use something to gage how hard you are working and watch your success grow.

Total Body Transformation Workout – Day 20 strength workout A 3×12, flexibility, stretch the piriformis, quads and chest.

Day 21- Aerobic workout 15 minutes your choice of activities and foam roll the lats, hamstrings and glutes.

Day 22 – Enjoy your day off.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Technology vs. Productivity

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:19:50 +0000

I believe we have actually become less productive despite all of the newer quicker technology out there. For some reason over the past couple of weeks we have been losing power quite often. Funny thing is I have gotten more work done, spent more time with the kids and just been overall more productive (all in the dark). Let's face it what are you going to do when the power goes out? and you are sitting in the dark?

Take a step back over the next few days and turn off your technology (lights and refrigerator optional). I bet you become much more productive at work when you stop checking your email and rss feeds every 5 minutes. At night do not turn on the television or video games, instead get out some of those old fashioned board games or maybe even exercise as a family.

Don't let technology get in the way of your good health.

Total Body Transformation Workout – Day 16 Strength B 3×12 and stretch the calves, quads and lats.

Day 17 – anaerobic workout after a 5 minute warm up do 5-6 rounds of 1 minute hard followed by a 1 minute recovery, be sure to finish with a 5 minute cool down. Foam roll the shoulders, glutes and TFL.

Day 18 -strength C 3×12 and stretch the chest, lats and quads.

Day 19 aerobic workout 15 minutes followed by foam rolling the hamstrings, snow angel and lats.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Enjoy

admin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:04:11 +0000

I have no idea how many of these clips, if any are real, but they are fun to watch, enjoy!

Total Body Transformation Workout - for day 12 you will do intervals 30 seconds on 90 seconds off for 5 rounds be sure to have a warm up and and a cool down. You will also stretch the quads, calves and hamstrings.

Day 13 – you will do strength workout C 3×12.

Day 14 – you will do an aerobic activity for 15 minutes followed by the spiderman stretch and stretching your chest.

Day 15 – rest & recovery day.

Enjoy the video and workouts!

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Cross Training

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:59:01 +0000

I have a lot of people ask me, "What is cross training and what are the benefits"? It is basically training to increase performance by utilizing different forms of exercise. Rather than just focusing on strength training during the week, you might also do a yoga workout, a spin class, a pilates or a kickboxing class.

For the most part there are no rules as to what exercise you can or cannot do when you cross train. If jogging is your main form of exercise pick something such as biking as your cross training activity for the week. You really would not want to walk because that uses the same muscle groups.

Benefits of cross training -

Injury prevention
Rehabilitation from overuse injuries
Total body fitness improvements
Active recovery
Motivation booster
Introduction to new activities
Boredom busters

As you can see there are quite a few reasons to begin cross training. In my opinion injury prevention and active recovery are probably the two most important benefits. You can not lift weights or run everyday year round without enduring some form of overuse injury. If you incorporated another form of exercise during the week (active recovery) you would cut down on the injuries and actually enhance your overall level of fitness because you are working different muscle groups.

Total Body Transformation Workout – For day 10 you will do 15 minutes of an aerobic activity of your choice followed by stretching the piriformis and hamstrings.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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Pushing Through an Injury Pushing through an Injury Pushing through an injury is it...

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