Hiking Truly Is Healthy

Hiking Truly Is Healthy
A fit body is a happy body, and one of the best ways to stay healthy is to get plenty of exercise. Hiking is an efficient way to increase your action level, while offering an excess of health benefits. Start gradually, especially if you are a bit out of shape. Invest in a sturdy pair of hiking boots and do your research first. Many hiking trails are evaluated by intensity, so get a hiking guide and start out at the level that is correct for you. Get your doctor's advice before hiking if you are pregnant or have any health issues, such as heart illness or even if you are diabetic.

Improves Your Overall Health
Hiking is an exceptional way to get outdoors and get some exercise. Hiking offers prosperity in overall health benefits and may help extend your life. Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, including hiking at your own level, is safe for most people, according to the Centres for Illness Control and Prevention.

Lowers Your Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Take a hike to help keep your cardiac system top shape. Regular exercise, such as hiking, helps raise your high-density lipoprotein levels and lower your triglyceride levels. This diminishes your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and of having a stroke.

Helps Prevent and Control Diabetes
Consistent hiking helps you to control, and or even prevent diabetes by depressing your blood sugar levels. Hiking gives your muscles a workout, which transfers glucose from your bloodstream for energy. Talk to your doctor first as you may need your diabetes medications attuned when hiking frequently.

Increases Your Energy Level
Aerobic undertakings such as hiking bring in extra oxygen and fuel your muscles, organs and even body tissues. This additional oxygen provides an enhancement fuelled by a process called Glycolysis whereby energy is created when glucose is broken down and this strengthens your muscles and lungs, while increasing your stamina, attentiveness and energy level.

Lowers Your Cancer Risk
Hiking helps decline your odds of developing cancer cells. There is a lesser risk of breast cancer and colon cancer linked with regular physical exercise, and it may also drop your chances of acquiring lung cancer and endometrial cancer.

Source

Why Measuring is Important to Fitness

Improving fitness is a performance-based concept. Fitness is generally related to improved health and wellness, both physically and mentally. Most people associate fitness to lower weight. This is not always the case.

 Let us begin by reviewing a definition of fitness:

 "Total Fitness is the ability to combine disease avoidance, efficiency in everyday life, ability to do desired activities, (e.g. sports, dancing, playing with children), healthy mental attitude, and good social behaviors, in order to achieve an optimal quality of life.

[1]

  This definition of fitness calls for enhancing both the physical and mental qualities of life. For a review of how psychological activity relates to fitness, see "Do Not Underestimate the Psychological Affects of Fitness". The best way to determine fitness is to establish measurements that relate to the above definition. Measurements are the best way to determine performance.

Why are measurements so important? Measurements are the premise for feedback. Feedback links directly to improving performance. In a research project conducted by Miriam Erez it was found that feedback, "Facilitates the display of individual differences in self-set goals on the basis of knowledge of individual past performance. Then when self-goals are set, it provides knowledge for future performance to be consistent with the self-set goals.

[2] " Feedback begins with a study of your current reality, e.g. current body fat percent, body circumference. The next step is to create a vision that establishes a desired future state. Once this is done you need to define the measurements for the future state using the same measurement criteria you used to determine your current reality. After completing this step, it is easy to compare the two measurements and realize the performance gap. It is important to realize that knowing this information (knowledge) does not ensure a change in performance. How you use the information (monitoring & action) dictates change that leads to performance that is more effective.

 

Now that we understand knowledge alone does not lead to performance improvement, it is important to understand how monitoring can lead to action resulting in performance change. This concept becomes more important as you learn to take accountability for sustained fitness.

Many people hire personal trainers because of their ability to establish measurements and monitor the progress of their clients. Unfortunately, this can lead to dependence on the trainer. This is bad for two reasons. First, the dependency is costly. Second, it transfers the client's performance accountability to the trainer. When the client decides to cease using the personal trainer, there has not been enough learning on the client's part, to transfer the skill sets of monitoring and action planning for continued fitness performance. Consequently, the client often abandons their monitoring resulting in non-performance. This often leads to abandoning fitness development and a regression back to the previous state.

Performance improvement accountability rests with the individual. When hiring a personal trainer it is important to make sure the trainer's focus is to educate the client on the monitoring process and provide them with the skills and tools to monitor their own performance. There are several internet and PDA tools available via the internet. These tools provide goal setting, body measurements, food monitoring, calorie tracking, activity tracking, and behavioral tools, e.g. mood monitoring and journals. Monitoring tools establish feedback, e.g. calories burned vs. calories consumed, activity calorie expenditure, and comparison of mood-to-calories. Individuals who establish fitness goals and use such tools have a better chance of achieving the self-fitness goals than those who do not.

Monitoring and feedback also establish effective performance behavior patterns. Once the link between feedback and successful results are established, people make the connection between what they did, and the improved performance results, i.e. when a person sees a correlation between reduced body inches and intense resistance training; they are more likely to continue the resistance training on their own. Over time, a person who monitors his protein, carbohydrates, and fats soon recognize the foods that provide the right balance of these nutrients. 

They then instinctively begin to select the right foods and portions that keep their nutrition program on track. Monitoring is self-regulated and feedback is done on an exception basis, i.e. a person realizes they have eaten too much for the holiday and records the data for that holiday, sees how much they have detoured from their nutritional program, and what they need to do to correct the situation.

Feedback through monitoring becomes less cumbersome and frustrating as you move to a maintenance program vs. a progressive fitness program. The people who sustain fitness and continuously improve fitness always have well established feedback-monitoring systems in place. These tools have become second nature to them, because of the repetition. You never want to eliminate monitoring and feedback. As you reach your goals and establish a maintenance program, you will use these tools less, but never abandon them. 

You need to find the right monitoring and feedback tools that work for you. Everyone has different needs and different circumstances. The important point is to find monitoring and feedback tools that you will use. Once the tools become second nature you will become more proficient at designing and implementing a strategy for fitness.

Source:Vic Vogel

Pre- and Post-workout Nutrition for High-Intensity Interval Training

 

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become hugely popular thanks to real results in shorter periods of time and extensive benefits. With busy schedules the norm, it’s no wonder so many clients and potential clients are now seeking out these kinds of workouts.

HIIT, which involves repeated sessions of relatively brief, intermittent exercise, usually performed at very high intensity, can be easily modified for various client needs and fitness levels. When combined with an expert nutrition program, personalized HIIT programs can elicit serious results and health benefits, including: 

Improve blood pressure and cardiovascular health
Improved insulin sensitivity
Improved body composition

Whether you’re adding HIIT to your own personal fitness program or ramping up client results and health benefits with this style of training, it’s important to understand the nutritional needs to support it from start to finish. While nutritional needs do vary by individual and training program, these nutrition plans and meal ideas for pre- and post-workout nutrition can help.
General Nutrition to Support a H.I.I.T. Program 

To get the most out of any fitness program, you should follow a healthy meal plan in general. Effective and well-rounded nutrition programs are based on a variety of healthful ingredients such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean proteins. The best nutrition plans provide adequate calories and macronutrients such as carbohydrates to fuel the body and provide energy stores for workouts. It’s important that these are expertly created programs that allow you to stay within your scope of practice and prevent clients adopting a restrictive diet that may inhibit their success. Adequate water is also a must to ensure complete hydration during workouts.
 

Pre-workout Nutrition for HIIT

Due to the intensity of these workouts, it’s vital to follow a healthy nutrition plan with adequate nutrition in the days and hours leading up to a workout. Plan on a moderate- to high-carbohydrate meal that also includes protein approximately three to four hours before the HIIT workout, and then another high-carbohydrate snack within an hour after the workout. Good options for a pre-workout meal include: 

Whole-wheat toast with peanut butter and banana
Non-fat Greek yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit
Dried fruit and almonds
Post-workout Nutrition for HIIT

The biggest nutritional concern post-workout is replacing energy stores (glycogen) and repairing muscles that have been broken down during the intense workout. Again, a combination of carbohydrates and protein has been shown to be most effective. Research shows that a 3:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein within 30 minutes of completing a HIIT workout is best for replacing energy stores in preparation for the next high-intensity workout. 

 

Suggestions for post-workout nutrition are similar to pre-workout meals and include:
Whole-grain cereal with fruit and soy milk
Whole-wheat crackers with fruit and cheese
Hummus and pita bread

The best pre- and post-workout nutrition boosts energy and results—and motivation. 

Reference Gibala, M.J. (2007). High-intensity interval training: New insights. Gatorade Sports Science Institute Sports Science Exchange, 20, 2.

Gavin Aquilina’s Tabata Training 101

 

In this article, Gavin Aquilina says we need to ask “why?” more often, in order to be better fitness professionals.

Tabata training doesn’t work!? How can somebody say that?

Tabata training would be one of the most misunderstood and misused terms in cross training, fitness and fat loss.

Quite often a high intensity circuit using a 20-second work effort followed by a 10 second recovery, repeated 8 times, is called a Tabata circuit. It might use for example, burpees, push ups or mountain climbers as a Tabata exercise and sometimes a combination. After a period of recovery the circuit is repeated 3 or 4 times over a 40 minute time period. This is not true Tabata training.

True Tabata training, is a warm up, followed by 20 seconds of work at 170% of your VO2 Max with a 10 second recovery (VO2 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise). This is repeated 8 times for a 4-minute workout.

This true Tabata protocol is very effective at increasing VO2 Max and explosive anaerobic power over a 6 week period. And in its true form, it is only a 4 minute workout. Therefore Tabata may spike your metabolism BUT it is not of great enough duration/volume to promote significant calorie burning and in turn fat loss.

The timing protocol of 20 seconds work followed by 10 seconds recovery, reflects the Tabata methodology. Determining 170% of VO2 Max for many of the selected exercises cannot be done. For example in a park or gym floor, it is very hard for me to measure and therefore do, 170% of my VO2 Max on burpees.

In actual fact if you complete the true Tabata protocol (20sec + 10 sec x 8 repeats) on an exercise bike or cycle ergometer and then give yourself a 4 to 5 min low intensity active recovery, it is impossible to complete another sequence of the Tabata protocol for 8 repeats. If your lucky you will possibly achieve 6 repeats or 3 minutes. Give yourself another 4 to 5 mins recovery and once again the numbers will drop down to around 4 repeats or 2 minutes.

It is important we ask questions such as, how can we:
Apply Tabata for fat loss?
Apply Tabata for fitness?
Complete in field VO2 Max tests and calculate Tabata speeds/distances?
Is Tabata better than long duration for increasing VO2 Max?

It is so important as an industry, that we ask more WHY’S and don’t just blindly follow a trend. Understanding what and why we are doing something is so very important.

Ask More WHY’S! 

Article by Gavin Aquilina.

GPS Watches Help Monitor Five Areas While Training

GPS watches help individuals monitor several things at the push of a button. GPS watches can help an individuals monitor speed, distance, pace and calories burned while training.

Just a decade ago runners and walkers would time workouts and them have to figure out how far they ran/walked. If you didn't know the distance of workout you may have to get in your car, drive the loop and hope your car measured the distance accurately. 

Many don't realize that often cars are not calibrated accurately. This could mean the workout is actually longer or shorter than expected sometimes by a tenth or more per mile. This could significantly affect the result of the workout. 

The individual then would have to calculate their pace per mile by dividing the total time run/walked by the distance covered. If you wanted to see how many calories you burned during the workout once again you have to spend time calculating your weight, distance, speed into calories burned. The individual then had to keep track of all the data somehow. 

With a GPS running watch the individual simply turns the watch on and is off to start the workout. The GPS watch times your run while calculating your pace, distance covered and your calories burned all while you are running. This information is helpful in keeping the individual running at the pace they should be training at. The individual knows instantly if they are running too fast, how far they have run to the tenth of a mile and total calories burned. 

GPS watches are especially useful when you run in an area you are not familiar with. The GPS tracks your every turn in the city or woods during your workout. If you become confused just follow the plotted map back the way you came. 

GPS watches also store the data for future viewing. One can look back to see how far they ran on a certain day, week or month. The Garmin Forerunner Personal Trainer let you download recorded courses and compete against previous workouts. The GPS watches need to be recharged. The battery life of a GPS watches is usually between 10-13 hours. With a battery life this long it means you get several workouts in before you have to recharge the watch. The data stored in the GPS watch is not lost even if you let the battery die.

GPS watches help the individual monitor speed, distance, pace and calories burned during a workout so you can train smarter, more effectively and enjoy the feedback of the latest technology!

Damian@FitnHealthy

Cardio Training Habits for Success

If you're new to the world of fitness, first and foremost never over do it, and always get cleared by a medical doctor if you think you may have health considerations

 

Cardio short for cardiovascular training by design is different from resistance training. The main focal point of cardio training is to increase the fat burning process. This is accomplished by burning fat as the main fuel source. Weight resistance training builds bigger muscles and uses glucose (usable carbohydrates) as the main fuel source. Although if cardio training is intense (not able to talk and exercise simultaneously) glucose instead of fat will be used as the energy substrate. This is due to the fact that fat doesn't burn fast enough to keep up with rapid movements.

Like I mentioned before if you're a newbie to exercise take it slow by walking in your neighbor 3 days a week for 20 min, for the first 2 weeks and progress up to 4-5 days a week for 45-60 min, at the end of the 3rd and 4th week. After that, you can try more intense versions of cardio including: treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, jogging and cross trainers. 

 

Choose a level where talking with your exercise partner is still possible for 15 minutes, 3x week for 2 weeks. You can progress up to 45-60 min 3x week. A rudimentary way of determining intensity level for these cardio modalities is 55% to 65% of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220, then multiple that by either.55 or.65. 

This is a good range that will keep you in the fat burning mode and not burning glucose that you will need for your resistance training(glucose is the preferred fuel source during weight training).

Although the age predicted max heart rate is the most common method under use today it has one major flaw. Some 60 yr olds are in better shape that some 30 yr olds, but this method would fail to recognize such an important factor. I actually prefer using something called the Borg Scale to determine intensity which I outline a little later in this article. 

Advantages of cardio training: When your muscles need oxygen and nutrients it's your heart-lung complex (cardiovascular) that does the job. When your body has waste products that need to be expelled like carbon dioxide and metabolic wastes, your cardio system better be in tip top shape, or illness and disease might soon follow. The better shape you're in the more proficient your heart will be to pump blood to all the various organs. This translates into more energy for you throughout the day and a more rewarding and productive life. 

 

An out of shape person has his or her heart working overtime just to accomplish the minimal about of work required to maintain life. Now take that person and try to make them do something active beyond sitting on the couch. The heart will have a stressful time keeping up because it's all ready working hard. Shortness of breath, rapid heart beat, wheezing, loss of balance and fatigue are signs of a weak cardio system. 

The more cardio trained you are, the less your heart has to work. Who do you think has more energy a person with a resting heart rate of 80(how many times the heart beats in one minute) or a person with resting heart rate of 110 beats per minute? The person with the resting heart rate of 80 is more proficient in pumping blood throughout the body compared to the person who needs an extra 30 beats per minute to get the same amount of blood pumped throughout the body. 

A good method of determining of how hard you're working is something called the Borg Scale and my own preference of intensity feedback:

6, 7, 8 = very, very light
9, 10 = very light
11, 12 = fairly light
13, 14 = somewhat hard (correlates 55-65% age predicted max HR)
15, 16 = hard
17, 18 = very hard
19, 20 = very, very hard

You're your own master here, which is why I like using this scale. Begin with light sessions according to how you perceive your own exertion and work your way up until you can maintain 2 somewhat hard workouts for about 45-60 min, 2 x week along with another 2 light workout sessions alternating between the 2 for a total of 4 sessions a week. 

 

 Again, cardio training along with resistance training is essential to good health. It is also the cheapest and easiest way to exercise, just grab some running shoes and you're all set!

Damian@FitnHealthy

Does Your Heart Rate Really Matter?

 

  

How would you feel if I told you that I would give you $100, give or take $200?

For years, this is not unlike what we’ve done with heart-rate training. Measuring exercise intensity using heart rate has suffered from two major problems:

1. Using relatively inaccurate formulas to make specific exercise-intensity recommendations
2. Attaching discrete, seemingly all-or-nothing objectives to various heart-rate ranges

The overreaction to these problems has taken the form of proposing that heart-rate training doesn’t matter when it comes to measuring exercise intensity, especially with the rise in popularity of high-intensity interval training, where the directive is a straightforward “go as hard as you can.”

Not everyone needs to use heart rate to measure intensity, as their goals may not be that specific or their starting health status may not be questionable enough to warrant needing a definitive intensity range to ensure safety when starting an exercise program. However, most people will benefit from having some accurate gauge of exercise intensity to help direct exercise efforts.

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number…Until It Becomes a Bad Number

Using any formula that starts with age is problematic and introduces huge error ranges that are potentially as large as the training zones we are using. Any formula including any version of 220 – Age for maximum heart rate calculation is going to be a mess for the same reason that selling a single shoe size to everyone is going to be a problem. Not every 50-year-old has the same fitness level, and maximum heart rate is determined by more than just the number of years you have been alive.

Today, instead of having to rely on formulas, we have field tests that measure specific points where the physiological response to exercise intensity shifts. A recent study illustrates the unacceptable level of error when using a formula now that we have the field tests. The formulas get it right for some people, but get it wrong for enough people that if a better option is available, it should be the preferred choice.

Out With the Inaccurate, In With the…More Accurate

The field tests directly measure two critical heart-rate points for each individual. The first ventilatory threshold (VT1) occurs when intensity reaches the point where the fuel for activity is coming in equal parts from carbohydrate and fat. The second ventilatory threshold (VT2) occurs when the rate of accumulation of lactate in the muscles begins to exceed the ability of the circulatory system to recycle it.

Any time an individual works above resting heart rate, he or she is improving fitness (if deconditioned), and at least maintaining fitness (if already well-conditioned.) Beyond that, the two intensity shifts at VT1 and VT2 can help define more personalized training progressions because they are based on field tests of the individual’s response and not formulas. (Details of the field tests and expanded details surrounding VT1 and VT2 can be found in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual, 5^th edition.)

Are You In the Zone?

Now for the second problem: Using heart ranges to define narrow training objectives like the “fat-burning zone,” or the “cardio training zone,” as if in one zone all you are doing is using fat exclusively and the other zone is the only place you find cardiovascular improvements.

Working above resting levels but below VT1 will improve fitness in deconditioned individuals and maintain it in those with an average baseline level of fitness. Working between VT1 and VT2 will maximize both caloric quality and caloric efficiency (explained in the next paragraph) in the interest of prioritizing a metabolic response during the exercise session. Working above VT2 will maximize increases in the ability to perform at a high level and prioritizes a metabolic response after the exercise session.

As many people now realize, the big problem with the fat-burning zone idea is that it emphasizes lower intensities because a higher proportion of the calories burned come from fat. But high-er doesn’t necessarily equal high. A large portion of a small number is still a small number. Working between VT1 and VT2 (which will be higher than the old fat-burning zones) maximizes caloric efficiency through intensity that is high enough to burn a relatively high number of calories, yet low enough to allow caloric quality, meaning a significant portion of calories come from fat. (Note: At VT1, the carb-fat mix for the fuel of activity is equal.) What does this mean? A significant amount of fat is burned during the exercise session and significant improvements in cardiovascular fitness are achieved.

Working above VT2 will generally result in shorter-duration workouts for those pursuing general fitness goals, as well as a higher portion of carbohydrates burned as the fuel source for exercise. However, at this intensity, the “after burn” effects begin to manifest and metabolism gets a slight boost while at rest, which is when the body shifts to using a higher portion of fat. Note that training above VT2 also requires a high degree of psychological commitment as well.

Surrounded by Fat-Burning Zones

As a result, both of these zones are really “fat-burning zones.” Between VT1 and VT2, you burn more fat during the exercise session. Above VT2, you burn more fat after the exercise session. Shortly after I first learned of these methods from an ACE exercise physiologist several years ago, I began using them with my clients and it enhanced my clients’ results by delivering more precise training-intensity recommendations, which yielded better results without an excessive investment of time for the clients.

Gone are the days where you need to know someone’s age to recommend heart-rate training intensities. This evolution of cardiovascular training intensity is a natural phenomenon in any field, as methods are altered as understanding grows.

 

Source Jonathan Ross | ACE 

How You Can Get Your Body In Its Best Shape Ever With HIIT Fitness

HIIT Fitness is a growing fitness trend in the US. Hit Fitness, or High Intensity Training Fitness, is a fitness system built around a unique combination of science and sport.

HIIT Fitness in the Spokane Valley, WA area is a growing trend

Hit Fitness , or High Intensity Training, is a fitness system built around a unique combination of science and sport.

Hit Fitness is definably an "alternative" way to personal fitness, but it is a method that is worthy of a look.

What Will I Really Be Doing In HIIT Fitness?

Hit Fitness combines a unique combination of typical fitness along with sporting elements, such as the practice of Fencing or Kenpo.

Some of the activities that are included in HIIT Fitness include:

*Circuts

*GRIT

*Personal Fitness

*Other Sporting Activities

The types of activities that you participate in depends on the type of HIIT Fitness Spokane program that you join.

Different instructors of the HIIT Fitness way have different methods. Regardless of the methods that your fitness coach uses to teach you Hit Fitness, you will experience a unique exercise technique that will benefit your body more than a traditional fitness plan can accomplish.

HIIT Fitness Sporting Events

Participating in sporting events in the Hit Fitness program is a big part of your training. Not only will these sporting events help you to achieve your fitness goals at a faster pace, but several of the sports can be used later in life, even after you complete your fitness goals.

Sounds Fun. What Does Hit Fitness Spokane Concentrate On? Well, the HIIT Fitness program is quite the unusual exercise system. The HIIT Fitness program focuses on the following aspects of the fitness world:

Anaerobic Threshold Balance Body Composition Strength VO2 Max (maximal oxygen consumption)

Hit Fitness Anaerobic Threshold

A basic definition of the Hit Fitness Anaerobic Threshold is that it occurs when muscles "burn" glucose without the use of Oxygen. Anaerobic Threshold is ideal for those who need that short extra burst in their life. On the flip side, Anaerobic Threshold would not be ideal for a distance runner.

Hit Fitness Balance

Another important part of the Hit Fitness way is the aspect of balance. A majority of people who participate in the Hit Fitness exercise plan are athletes. These people require a great amount of agility and balance to succeed at what they do best. By having great balance, you can even increase the efficiency of your Spokane workout.

Hit Fitness Body Composition

Hit Fitness Body Composition is a way of describing the percentage of bone, fat, and muscle in your body. The Hit Fitness Spokane system puts a lot of attention on the aspect of body composition, as it is vital to balance the mass percentages of bone, fat, and muscle in ones body.

Hit Fitness Strength

Hit Fitness works with your overall body strength. Since the Spokane Hit Fitness way of exercise revolves around sporting activities, it is important to have strength as it will give you the opportunity to push your body to the next level.

Hit Fitness VO2 Max

What is VO2 Max? Basically, VO2 Max is another meaning for the maximal amount of oxygen consumption. It plays a very important role in Hit Fitness as your VO2 Max directly determines how physically fit you are. Each person has a different VO2 Max.

Damian@FitnHealthy

The Exercise Afterburn Effect

The Afterburn Effect; Burn Calories While Doing Nothing!

What Is The Afterburn Effect?

- Exercise after-burn, also know as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), is when the body continues to burn calories after the exercise session is over. For example, let's say you go for early morning jog for 30 minutes. After you have finished the 30 minute jog, your body will continue to burn calories for the next 15 minutes to 48 hours! EPOC represents the amount of oxygen consumption needed to bring the body back to a pre-exercise state. The amount of calories burned from EPOC is directly related to exercise intensity and duration. The harder and longer you exercise, the more calories your burn via the exercise after-burn!

Exercise Intensity!

- Exercise intensity, according to all the studies conducted to date, is the most important determinant of the effect of EPOC. The harder and more intense you exercise, the greater the effect of EPOC is.

In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, the effect of exercise intensity on EPOC was studied in 8 trained men and 8 trained women. The subjects were examined after completing 3 separate exercise bouts of different intensities. The intensities were 40%, 50%, and 70% of their VO2 maxes. Your VO2 max is the greatest amount of oxygen your body can take in and use for exercise. Your VO2 max is a good measure of your fitness level. The more oxygen you are able to use, the more energy you will be able to create, so the higher your VO2 max, the higher your fitness level is. 

 

So let us get back to the study. The study showed that the intensity levels had a great effect on the duration of EPOC. In both men and women, the effect of EPOC was greater as intensity increased. 

The study also showed that even low levels of exercise intensity still have a positive effect on EPOC. The results of the study were as follows:

- For the men

40% VO2 max - EPOC was 31.2 min;

50% VO2 max - EPOC was 42.1 min;

70% VO2 max - EPOC was 47.6 min

- For the Women

40% VO2 max - EPOC was 26.9 min;

50% VO2 max - EPOC was 35.6 min

70% VO2 max - EPOC was 39.1 min

In another study published in the Journal Of The American College Of Nutrition, the effects of low and high intensity exercise on calories burned during exercise and after exercise were studied in 8 active women, ages 22 to 31. Although both groups burned 500 calories, the effect of the exercise after-burn was much greater for the high intensity group (45 extra calories) versus the low intensity group (24 extra calories).

Effect Of Duration On EPOC!

Duration also has been shown to play a big role in the energy after-burn effect. In one study conducted in 1988 published in the Canadian Journal of Sports Science, subjects were divided into 3 groups.

Although all three groups exercised at 70% of their VO2 max, the duration was different for each group. One group exercised for 3o minutes, another group for 45 minutes, and the final group exercised for an hour. The results of the EPOC values of the studies were 33 calories lasting 128 minutes, 74.5 calories lasting 204 minutes, and 165 calories over 455 minutes for the durations of 30, 45 and 60 minutes, respectively. This study showed that increasing exercise duration has a great effect on EPOC.

 

In another similar study (1), 6 healthy male subjects exercises at 70% of their VO2 max for 80 minutes, 40 minutes, and 20 minutes. The results of EPOC were 55.5 calories, 73.5 calories, and 159.5 calories for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, and 80 minutes respectively.

There have also been studies that have combined high intensity exercise with longer durations.

There are more studies such as these that show similar effects of duration's effects on EPOC. In a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, 8 trained males performed 164 minutes of treadmill running at 70% of their VO2 max. The average EPOC effect was 162 calories, which is a significant contributor to overall energy expenditure.

So it's pretty simple then, right? Just exercise harder and longer and you'll burn more calories from the exercise after-burn! Unfortunately, that may not be entirely correct. There have been studies that show different exercise after-burn effects from exercise. Some studies showed a low EPOC effect after exercise of long and short duration even with high intensities. From all the research done, the effect of EPOC varies from person and person. It seems that many factors such as gender, age, fitness level, etc. may be playing a role in the effect of EPOC.

Interval Training!

If you really want to maximize your calories burned from the exercise after-burn, the I would highly recommend performing intermittent training, which is a form of interval training. Intermittent training consists of shorts bouts of all out exercise followed by a rest period. You would repeat this over and over throughout the course of the workout. The Fields Sprints workout video is an example of an interval training workout.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology consisted of 8 males performing 20 1-minute intervals at 105% VO2 max with corresponding 2 minute rest periods between intervals. The same 8 males also performed 30 minutes of continuous exercise at 70% VO2 max to allow for comparisons. The results showed a significant increase in the EPOC effect for the interval training (75 calories) versus the continuous running (34.5 calories).

Resistance Training!

So we have pretty much covered everything about the exercise after-burn effect on cardiovascular exercise, but what about strength training?!

Although it is difficult to compare cardio to resistance training because of just the sheer difference of the type of workout and exercise intensity, there have been studies trying to compare them.

In a study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Science Research, the subjects were broken down into 3 groups. One group performed 40 minutes of cycling at 80% of their maximal heart rate. Another group performed 40 minutes of circuit training (50 percent of individuals' maximum lift [1 RM] x 15 repetitions x 4 sets) and the final group performed 40 minutes of heavy resistance lifting (80 to 90 percent of 1 RM x 3-8 repetitions x 3 sets). Heavy resistance training produced the greatest EPOC ( 53 calories) compared with circuit training (51 calories) and cycling (33.5 calories).

So what did we learn from all this? 

To exercise! More important than any of the details of the exercise afterburn is the exercise! Find something you enjoy doing and do it! Above all else, just make sure to exercise and be active. If you really want to maximize your training program and burn the most calories from the exercise after-burn response then I would recommend doing the following:

Tempo Training:Continuous aerobic exercise at a high intensity for half an hour to an hour.

Long, Slow Distance Training:Continuous aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity for an hour.

Split Training:2-4 high-intensity exercise bouts for a period of 15-25 minutes with a 5 minute rest in-between.

Continuous Interval Training:Alternating 3-minute bouts of low-intensity and high-intensity exercise for a period of 30-60 minutes. An example of this would be to walk for 3 minutes, then jog for 3 minutes, then walk for 3 minutes, etc. Or if you are in very good shape, you would jog for 3 minutes, sprint for 3 minutes, jog for 3 minutes, etc.

Supramaximal Interval Training:15-20 of really high intensity exercise (the hardest you can exercise) for a period of 1 minute, with 2- to 5-minute rest periods in-between.

Heavy Resistance Training:2-4 sets, 8-10 exercises, 3-8 reps of 80%-90% of your 1-rep max with 2- to 3-minute rest periods

 Source : Danny Maman

Want to be a Better Hill Climber on your Bike...

If you ask most people where their cycling weakness lies, they will more often than not say hill climbing. Nothing sucks the snap from your legs quicker than a steep uphill grade but nothing is more satisfying than conquering a tough hill. - This applies also on a SPIN Bike

 

If your goal is better fitness you can't get a better workout than a ride that hits hill after hill. As a coach, the most common questions I get revolve around how to be stronger on the hills.

Here are the four key areas that affect your ability to go uphill fast.

Climbing Power

Climbing well requires both cardiovasular and muscular endurance. Without getting too technical, the best way to get better at hill climbing is to climb. Hill repeats where you climb to the top, turn around, descend to the bottom and repeat are a great way to get a lot of hill work in a short workout. My favourite is to head out to local hill that is about 1 km long. It's challenging with a few steep pitches with good visibility at the top and bottom, making it safer for turning around when doing repeats. Early in the season I'll have athletes do 5-6 repeats, building to 15-20 further into the season.

When training to climb better it is important to work on both seated and standing climbing. Standing up when you hit a steep section is a good way to get up quicker and spread the load over more muscles but it only works if you work at it. When doing hill repeats, alternate doing one time up seated and the next standing. Just remember to switch a gear or two harder before you stand up as your cadence drops when you stand.

If you are a mountain biker, then heading up to your local ski hill is the best place to work on your climbing. You can do either long or steep and as it takes less time to go down than up you will spend more of your ride time climbing.

Bodyweight

This one is really simple. For the same fitness, the lighter you are the faster you will go up hill. Power to weight ratio is an exact science among pro roadies. For every 5lb you lose you will be 30 seconds faster over 5km of climbing at 7 percent grade. If like me, you can't see your abs then work at cutting weight and you will see a big improvement in your climbing ability. Don't lose weight too quickly though as it can negatively affect your power output. 1-2 lb per week is a safe level of weight lose without sacrificing energy you'll need to train.

Core and upper body endurance

The legs are the prime movers on the bike but the support muscles like your arms, abs and lower back work constantly while riding. Over time they get tired and your pedaling form suffers. When it comes to climbing they work even harder so the fitter you are in your support muscles the longer and faster you will be able to climb. While your core can be the weak link on the bike the best way to train it is off the bike cross training. See the workout below to improve your core fitness and climb better.

Mental focus

I won't lie to you, climbing is hard work. That is where both the challenge and reward come from. Part of climbing well is mental. Don't look upon that big hill with dread. See it as a challenge to overcome. Keep telling yourself in your head that you are a good climber. Attack the little climbs like you own them.

Core Workout to improve your hillclimbing

Do this workout 2-3 times per week and you will notice an improvement in your cycling within 4 weeks. Try to do the workout with as little rest as possible between exercises. Do a set of each exercise, moving to the next immediately for a total of three circuits. 

As you become fitter build up to a total of 5 rounds.

3 rounds

15 dumbbell swings
15 Spiderman pushups
15 Sumo deadlift high pulls
15 seconds each of front planks and side planks to each side (build to 30 seconds)

This workout won't take much time but will do a lot to improve your hill climbing. Put in consistent work and you will see progress in a very short time.

 Source: Winston Endall |GO

6 Remarkable Types Of Garmin Forerunner For Your Athletic Lifestyle

Garmin forerunner is not your ordinary watch. They are GPS-enabled and especially designed for triathletes to meet their technical needs.  
Overview of some of the Garmin forerunner products and some of its features:
Garmin forerunner 110 – this product is for runners to track distance, time and pace they’ve done. It computes how much calories you’ve burned based from your heart rate, which works when paired with optional heart rate monitor.

Garmin forerunner 210- this product is for athletes who also track accurately the distance, time and pace done. It doesn’t matter if you’re working out indoor or outdoor. Its additional feature enables its user to create customized interval sessions and the pace for each interval. It basically gives most data that runners need.

Garmin forerunner 310 – this product is designed for people who likes multisport. It features a data screen that is customizable. Unlike the previous Garmin forerunner this one is water proof! Yes you read it right. This forerunner isn’t just water resistant but water proof. This is to accommodate the multisport enthusiast needs. It also has an additional feature: a virtual partner that encourages you to meet your training goals. By setting up a pace on your device, you can compete with your virtual partner.

Garmin forerunner 410 – this product’s additional feature: allows you to create a detailed work out. It records your past tracks which encourages you to step up by competing with your own record. Its enhanced bezel allows you to scroll through screens.

Garmin forerunner 610 – this product features a new resistant touch screen interface where you can easily scroll on and view your data. This is a great training tool because you will be able to compete and challenge yourself from your previous track or course or a different challenger that you uploaded. It also has navigation features which can help you go back to your starting point.

Garmin forerunner 910XT- this new product provides detailed swim metrics and tracks distance, speed/pace, elevation and heart rate for cycling and running. It analyzes your every pedal, stroke, and step.



Benefits:
Has great GPS technology
Accurately gives the data you need as an athlete
Accurately monitors your heart rate
When connected to their website, you will be able to see your track, where you travelled, your run’s summary and more.

Pros:
Very light and has a sleek design
Easy and simple to use
Easy to read display
Connects you to their website for detailed online analysis
GPS enabled; which enables you to see your route and elevation after data are uploaded or connected online.

Cons:
Garmin forerunner 410 is too sensitive, which makes it easy to accidentally activate the menu
Runs the battery down easily because it doesn’t turn off automatically when you accidentally turn it on.

Garmin is known for its great GPS system and has been leading in producing watches that has great training features for sports. Garmin has kept innovating and creating watches to keep up with every athlete’s need in gathering and analyzing data to better enhance their skill. 

The Garmin forerunner products are great and useful for sports enthusiasts, enabling them to keep track of their workouts and help set their personal record. If you happen to be one of them, don’t hesitate to get a piece today!