Keeping your workouts effective

One of the main reasons the human race has endured on this planet for so long is our innate ability to adapt to our environment. Be it cold, hot, floods or droughts, we have always found a way to survive in an ever changing world. The same holds true for exercise. After exercising regularly for as little as two weeks, our bodies begin to adapt to the stimuli and eventually what made you sore just doesn't do it anymore. Adaptation breeds complacency and boredom and oftentimes people fall off the exercise wagon as a result. Here are a few tips to keep your workouts effective.

VARIETY: I know a lot of people tear a page out of their favorite fitness magazine and head straight to the gym. There's nothing wrong with doing so, but know that pretty soon your body will adapt to anything you do repeatedly. I guess what I'm trying to say is tear A LOT of pages from your favorite magazines and constantly mix it up. Never allow yourself to get hung up on a particular exercise or group of exercises simply because they felt good. Variation will keep those exercises effective over the long haul.

TEMPO: An often neglected variable in exercise is tempo or the speed with which you perform each repetition. Taking 5 seconds to complete a single repetition has a much different effect on your body than taking one second to complete it. Changing the tempo of your repetitions adds another dimension of change to your routines.

INTERVALS: Incorporating a cardiovascular activity between sets is a great way to strengthen the most important muscle in your body - your heart. Instead of sitting on the bench to recuperate after a set of shoulder presses, try jumping rope for a minute or perhaps some jumping jacks. This allows your shoulders to recuperate, but still jacks the heart rate up for a short interval of time.

BODY WEIGHT: You don't always need external resistance like dumbbells or elastic bands to have a great workout. Anyone who has trained with me can tell you that there exist MANY exercises that are VERY hard and use only your own body weight. Applying body weight exercises to your routine is yet another way to keep your body from getting used to what you do.


Bear in mind that even if you do the same thing every time you exercise, it's not a "bad" thing. But eventually your body will get accustomed to it and it will certainly not have the same effect on you. Keeping your routines changing is going to help you move forward on your quest to get stronger and healthier.

- Jeff

Making your metabolism work for you

Many fault their metabolism for the lack of progress towards their fitness goals. I hear a lot of “It’s too slow,” or “I have bad genetics.” Knowing how to get your metabolism operating at maximum efficiency is crucial no matter what your fitness goals are and, unbelievably, strength training plays a key role in jump-starting it.

“Metabolism” is defined as the set of chemical reactions that occur in every living organism to maintain life. The rate at which these processes occur determine how efficiently your body functions. Although most associate metabolism with fat loss, it actually dictates how EVERY process in your body happens. From healing an injury to converting carbohydrates to glucose, your metabolic rate sets the pace at which all these things happen in your body.

When you strength train, you force your body to repair torn muscle fibers and create new ones. This process of adding muscle results in your metabolism having to work more efficiently as you now must burn more calories to maintain the new living tissue you created. This results in an overall increase in daily caloric expenditure – even while you are at rest! Consequently, your metabolism slowly adapts by increasing the rate at which it performs the many processes that take place in your body every day. In other words, strength training is like giving your body a tune-up!

Some people are leery of strength training for fear of becoming bulky or too muscular. I submit that the level of resistance and the number of repetitions you perform while strength training are what dictate whether or not you actually get bulked up. Do not let the misconception of mass increase detract you from a smart way to jump-start your metabolic rate.

Whether it’s using weights, elastic bands, or even your own bodyweight, strength training can help you give your metabolism that much needed boost to get you on your way to a slimmer, harder YOU!

- Jeff