Fitness Tips

Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | Cardio Is Not The Answer!

 

How NOT To Lose Weight

If you want to lose weight, doing cardio every day for hours at a time is NOT the way to do it.

How TO Lose Weight

Instead, try lifting heavy weights.

What does lifting do for your body besides make you stronger? It helps you build lean mass. Muscle building burns calories. 

When most people try to lose body fat, they tend to make the same mistake; they go all out on the elliptical but never make their way to the weight room. You will lose weight this way, but you will also lose important lean muscle mass. Your number one priority when attempting to lose weight is to maintain the muscle mass you have. Lifting heavy weights will help you maintain that muscle mass.

Fun Fact

Ten pounds of muscle burns 50 calories per day (that’s 350 calories a week)!

Call me to help with your strength training 310.251.7420 

Image Credit: Molly Taylor

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | When Your Health & Fitness Go Sideways

 

It Happens

This usually happens to me twice a year - once in winter when the flu bug steamrolls everyone in the house & once at the end of the school year when things get a little crazy with multiple events going on.  When I recover from the flu or when the dust settles form the end of the school year I hit the reset button and I’m back on track. 

It's Not Easy

For many people it’s just not that easy. A couple of weeks quickly turn into a month of missed workouts or portion sizes slide back into old habits.  It happens to all of us…ALL OF US!

Turn That Ship Around

So we have to turn this ship around, but how?  Focus on the small stuff, making small changes is a great deal easier to mentally handle than massive changes:

  • Skip second helpings at dinner 
  • Get back to walking at lunch
  • Log your daily calories.

The act of creating action will get the ball rolling again and while some days it might feel like you’re pushing that ball up a hill at least your pushing it. 

Image Credit: Marius Fisku via Unsplash

I can help you get right-side up again 310.251.7420

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Erik's Weekly Fitness Tip | 2 Ways To Combat Aging

 

All The Rage

There are 2 wildly popular topics that dominate in our culture right now - weight loss and anti-aging.  The general public is so concerned about these things that many industries have created the latest fad to combat them. These “cure-alls” generate billions of dollars every single year in product sales, procedures and crazy claims. The worst part is that most of the products and information out there are total crap. 

Aging

For today’s newsletter we’ll stick to aging.  I think it is fair to say that no one wants to get old, but there isn’t really a choice in the matter.  So lets focus on being part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

2 of the best ways to combat the aging process:

1.     Strength Training:  

Yeah, yeah I know, here you go again on the importance of being strong.  Let me tell you this, I have yet to come across a client who tells me they’re strong enough. 

Simple reminder, after the age of 30, we are losing a small amount of muscle mass every single year.  While you might not notice much initially, you can bet at some point, simple daily tasks will get harder. 

Weight training helps maintain the all important muscle mass.  And for those who are concerned about aesthetics, muscle burns calories so get lifting!

2.     Recovery: 

Our bodies do not recover as fast as they once did.  Hormone levels drop, bad sleep, not eating enough, and the thousands of responsibilities that we have to deal with all affect our ability to recover from workouts. 

Intense training bouts are perfectly okay to be doing.  The difference now is you have to build recovery days into your weekly plan.  Instead of a 24-hour recovery period when you were younger, you will now need to stretch it out to 48-72 hours. 

On your days off, sleep, quality food consumption, and plenty of water are an absolute must. 

Image Credit: Robin Arm via Unsplash

Call me if you'd like to start a strength training program 310.251.7420

 

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