Fitness Questions Everyones Asking…

I want to start working out after being inactive for a while so what do I do?

This is a question I tend to get more often than not, when it comes to working out. In fact, it is probably the number one question I get to start a new year’s resolution to lose weight. Well, the point that it is even a new year’s resolution is a problem. This suggest that I set a start time and a goal to lose a certain amount of weight. So then the BIG question is……..”What do you do when you lose the weight fast…what then?” More importantly, we should focus on creating a lifestyle resolution……

Sorry for the rant…NOW BACK TO THE QUESTION, “What is the best route to take when getting back to working out, after not being active for a while?”

Let’s begin by seeing what happens in your body after your extended vacation from exercise:

The lunges lose elasticity, which in effect make it harder to breathe and may result in side aches.
Blood vessels become smaller and less efficient at pulling oxygen from the blood. This will cause your heart to work harder to provide your muscles with oxygen, which creates a rapid heartbeat.
Muscles experience safe growth when you gradually overload. Key word “gradual”. I know you are eager to bench 315 on the bench, but hold on superman. That’s how you hurt yourself. Muscle.

Here are my three keys to success when getting back into the workout grind:

Talk To Doc

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that an individual consult their physician before returning back to exercise after 3 or more months of being off. This is very important because returning back to fitness will require you to pay attention to your overall health. This is especially important if you have a history of suffering from any chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis.

Be one with your inner tortoise “Danielson” (this word is referenced from the popular 1984 martial arts movie The Karate Kid)

In other words, slow it down. Start slow with everything that you do so that you do not hurt yourself. Whatever you did right before you stopped working out, then return to it. If you were a cyclist, then return to cycling but at a lower intensity. Take longer to warm-up, cool down and stretch. If you were more of a weight lifter, than lift around 50% of what you would normally lift. Aim to workout 2-3 times per week with sessions lasting no longer than 45-minutes. As your body gets back in shape at around 5-6 weeks, you can add more workout sessions and even work on intensifying the workouts. Remember that your body is an adapting machine, so try to change it up every 6-weeks. You will know it is time to progress when the workouts are no longer challenging.

ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Guidelines to:

Cardiovascular Exercise:

Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week
How: 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise(5 days per week) or 20-60 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise ( 3 days per week)

Resistance Exercise:

Adults should train each major group two or three days each week using a variety of exercises and equipment.
Very light or light intensity is best for older persons or previously sedentary adults starting exercise
Two to four sets of each exercise will help adults improve strength and power
8-13 reps for each exercise to improve strength and power, 10-15 reps improve strength in middle age and older persons starting exercise, and 15-20 reps improve muscular endurance
Wait at least 48 hours between resistance training sessions.

Flexibility Exercise

Adults should do flexibility exercises at least two or three days each week to improve range of motion.
Each stretch should be held for 10-30 seconds to the point of tightness or slight discomfort.
Repeat each stretch two to four times, accumulating 60 seconds per stretch.

Neuromotor Exercise

Definition of Neuromotor: “Of or pertaining to the effects of nerve impulses on muscles.” (Dictionary.com)
Neuromotor exercise (sometimes called “functional fitness training”) is recommended for two or three days per week.
Exercises should involve motor skills (balance, agility, coordination and gait), proprioceptive exercise training and multifaceted activities (Pilates) to improve physical function and prevent falls in older adults.
20-30 minutes per day is appropriate for neuromotor exercise.

Have Fun and Plan

Whatever you decide to do, just have fun doing it. Remember that the world is filled with fitness opportunities. You can start your fitness journey by going for a hike, swimming, walking, or riding a bike.
Include others in your goal setting for fitness
Most importantly, you gotta have a plan when you workout. Write your plan down.
Give yourself grace to fail, but remember a lifestyle has ups and down. Try and keep those in the middle road

What about FOOD?????????

Confused about food, like Kenan Thompson was from Saturday Night Live..

Nedu’s Quick Tips

1. Cook your meals

It is interesting that you will actually know whats in your food when you start cooking it yourself. Stay away from refined foods and fast foods. Most packaged foods are loaded with sodium or sugar. You will notice an immediate drop in poundage with this step.

2. Drink plenty of water

3. Eat multiple, small, preplanned meals

For more information on nutrition, be sure to check out “The 4-Week Gut Buster Detox Plan“!!!

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Nedufitness…Making Fitness Last A Lifetime..

What are your exercise/physical fitness questions?

1 Reply

Does this look like you up above in regards to exercise?

I must be honest, at one point it was me that was just like that. When I first started out making physical fitness my lifestyle I had questions on everything.

You see but that is the thing. We must question everything and not just take things for what they are. In the 7 years that I have been personal training, I still continue to ask question, because science is always changing and improving how we go about exercise.

Soo..

“What are your questions regarding exercise/physical fitness?”

In a series of blogs to come, I will follow up with answers to the most commonly asked questions.

Please leave the question in my comment section of the blog, Facebook page @nedufitness, Twitter: @neduthetrainer or even my personal facebook page: Nedu Martin Egwuagu Jr.

YOU STILL HAVE PURPOSE...

How To Torch Body Fat and Build Muscle in just 15mins

2 Replies

Welcome to the wonderful world of Density Training!! (By the way, there is actually nothing wonderful about it)

“Choose 5 exercises, load each of them with a 10 rep max load, perform them in a circuit and continue working for 15mins, trying to complete as many sets as possible. The workout seemed pretty easy in the first 5mins. 15mins later, I was sweating like I just stole something jk, but I really I never thought that I could be so tired in a short amount of time.”

In my search to find ways to get the most bang for the buck in a short amount of time, I came across form of Timed sets called Density Training by Robert do Remedios, CSCS. I’ve had much success training 30min sessions clients and myself with density training. With density training we were able to torch body fat, build muscle and get stronger faster!

Sooooooo what is it????

In the word of Remedios, “Density Training is a complete hybrid of both metabolic training and strength training….The loads that we are using are in the strength and hypertrophy training ranges, yet the pace of our training builds work capacity and fitness very quickly.”

So here is how you set up your circuit:

Choose 5 exercises, one from each of the menu lists.
Pick a weight that is your approximate 10 to 12 repetition maximum for each exercise
Move from exercise to exercise in a circuit format
Move as fast as you can through the circuit, resting as much as you need to along the way. Your goal is to get as close to averaging a set per minute as you can.
Choose an exercise from each category, and then decide on the amount of weight you want to use. Go for 10mins, 15mins or 20mins if you really want a challenge!!
Pick an order and stay in it!
Try and complete a set per minute. If you get fatigued, go ahead and rest but remember that your goal is to try and complete a set per minute.

Density Training Menu( I created my own Menu)

Density Training Exercise Menu
Explosive	Knee Dominant	Upper Body Push	Upper Body Pull	Core
Knee Tuck Jumps	Back Squat	Bench Press	Pull-Ups	Low KB Windmills
Box Jumps	Bulgarian-Split Squat	Push Press	Inverted Rows	Ab Rollouts
KB Swings	Front Squat	Incline Press	1-Arm Inverted Rows	Windshield Wipers
Hang Clean	Overhead Squat	DB Push Press	TRX Rows	Cable Wood-Chops(High-Low)
Jump Squat		TRX Push-Ups		Jack-Knives
				Sit-Ups

WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!! AFTER FINISHING THIS WORKOUT, YOU MAY JUST FEEL LIKE ROCKY BALBOA…..Just Saying…

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Nedufitness…Making Fitness Last A Lifetime..

fit

Lessons From A “Fearless” Man…

What is all this buzz on “Tabata” Training??

1 Reply

With so many new training methods being introduced into the fitness world, you probably have been asking yourself what are some of the most effective ways to torch “body-fat”? Glad you asked!

If you are not in the “Know”, then you are asking yourself, “what in the world is a tabata”? And if you are in the “Know”, then this will give you some ideas on different tabata workouts to do. So lets start from the beginning!

The “Tabata Method” is one of the top three leading interval training protocols right now in the fitness world. It was developed in 1996 by a Japanese researcher named Dr. Izumi Tabata. He conducted test on two groups of athletes; comparing moderately high intensity with high intensity interval training.

The resulted showed that the athletes who trained with high intensity interval training showed improvements in both their aerobic systems and their anaerobic systems. The athletes who trained with moderate intensity interval training only improved their aerobic system, and had little to no increase in their anaerobic system.

These high-intensity spurts generally have an individual working at 170% of their VO2 MAX. Basically you can get much more done using a Tabata training than you can in long distance running.

With this form of High-Intensity Interval Training, exercisers can maximize fat burning and muscle building potential!!

TABATA PROS:

-You will improve your aerobic system much more than traditional cardio and also improve your anaerobic system at the same time.
-Shorter workouts
-It will fire up your metabolism and give you the “After-Burn Effect”(meaning that even after you have finished the Tabata workout, you will still be burning calories)
-Because of the high-intensity, it will build your mental toughness. So push through!

TABATA CONS:

-Because of the high intensity Tabata requires you to do, it could be dangerous when you perform this exercise when you are prone to strokes and heart attacks. Consult your physician if you have any history of high blood pressure, heart attacks or are prone to strokes, etc.
-There is a chance you can injure yourself if you are using weights in your tabata workout, so be careful and follow proper lifting techniques.

HOW DO I USE TABATA??

TOTAL WORKOUT TIME = 4 minutes

Do 20 seconds of a high-intensity exercise/10 sec of rest for 8 Cycles

I like to use The Tabata Method at the end of my strength training workouts as a “FINISHER”, to really kick-start my metabolism and finish strong with all of my workouts. Here are some of my favorite Tabata exercises that I use with some of my clients and you can use them too!!

Mountain Climbers 8x20sec, 10rest
Burpees 8x20sec, 10 sec rest
Push-Ups/Squats 8x20sec, 10 sec rest (Alternate exercises every cycle)
Barbell Squats(Cycle 1,3), Push-Ups(Cycle 2,5), Pull-Ups(Cycle 4,6), Sprint in Place(Cycle 7,8)

Ohhh and before I forget, check out “www.gymboss.com” to get and Interval Timer for your Tabata Workouts!!

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Nedufitness…Making Fitness Last A Lifetime..

Pressed for time? Try a Tabata workout (dailyherald.com)
You Oughta Tabata (kellieblauvelt.wordpress.com)
Learning About Tabata Training (sbwire.com)

My Christmas Day “Earn your Body” Workout

1 Reply

First off, I would like to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Right now I am at the house with my fiancé and family watching Season 1 of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire. As you can tell, we like to relax on the holidays to a good laugh. You can’t go wrong with everyone doing the “Carlton Dance“. If you don’t know it, then check it out on youtube here. [Carlton Dance].

I woke up early in the morning and lets just say Santa Clause was still asleep, including my entire family. SO i went to the gym like normal to do a special workout based on the popular Spartan workout.

I debated about working out today, but the more and more I think about it, I just really wanted to give myself an excuse to not go workout.

I was inspired by a motivational picture that I came across on the internet. Check this out:

I’m on a mission to transform my body and mind for 30days by choosing to not only never miss a workout, but to also have at least 30mins of devotional time in the morning and at night. Currently I am reading two New York Times bestsellers during the month of December:

So back to the workout. Well I am working out for 30 Days straight and I said it 30 DAYS!! Now of course I am not working the same muscle everyday. Most days are intense and some are little to merely doing some type of active recovery(i.e. jogging, cycling, jump roping, etc.) Here is what I did today for Christmas:

TRX Inverted Rows 3×15, 45sec rest
2-Hand KB Swing 5x50sec, 10sec rest (16K+ weight)
Push-Ups 15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Minimal Rest in Between
Box Jump 5×12, 30sec rest (men:24″, women:18″)
Floor Wipers 3×12, 30sec rest (75% of 1RM)
KB Dead Clean & Press 5×12, 30sec rest (men 16K,women 8 or 12K)
Burpees 5x30sec, 30sec rest

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! Enjoy this workout!

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Nedufitness…Making Fitness Last A Lifetime..

These are by far my favorite shoes to train in! So there are alot of things about these shoes that are great. So, where to start?

The Nike Trainers 5.0 shoe designs were actually inspired by the Chinese Finger Trap. When it is in a static or relaxed state they are loose and move with your fingers, but as soon as you to start to move quickly or explosively, they lock down on your fingers. And this is analogous to how training footwear should respond.

I Run, Jump, Lift Weights, Make Quick Cuts, Go to the Restroom, Eat, Go to the Grocery Store, Movies, and even sometimes nap in my shoes. Pretty much, I live life in these shoes. So thats why comfortability is a must for me.

-Great lockdown around your foot when you make a quick cut.
-Enhanced foot stability to help strengthen the foot muscles
-Extreme flexibility: The DiamondFLX design on the outsole enhances flexibility for multi-directional movement while providing a lightweight, low-profile fit.
-Very comfortable!!!

Why I like to train in the Nike Free Trainer 5.0