A Day of Rest

I workout 5 or 6 days a week and I don't at least 1 or 2 days a week.  That's something I have really struggled with, I still feel guilty on the days I don't workout.

Something in me is all, "Hey, you sat on your butt and didn't workout for years, you've had your rest, keep moving!"  Of course, it doesn't work that way.  In fact, if you don't rest on occasion, your body will actually force the issue and then you will be down a lot longer than one day.

I know of what I speak.  My insistence on going 7 days a week has landed me in the hospital twice.  It wasn't anything simple either, I had become desensitized so I didn't notice the symptoms my body was trying to throw at me.  By the time I woke up, it was too late, I was flat on my back on a hospital bed.  I have learned my lesson, finally, and now when I feel exhaustion coming on, I slow down and some days, I just plain stop.

Learn from me.  Put together a workout regime that makes sense and gives you 'off' days so that you can recover.

Benefits of a day off:

• Muscles get a chance to rebuild.  Every time you lift weights, you make small tears in your muscles.  Resting gives them a chance to reknit and get stronger - the whole purpose behind pumping iron.
• Walking and running stresses joints.  Giving those joints a chance to rest lessens the possibility that you will damage cartilage or attached ligaments from overuse.
• Your mind needs a break too.  When you are stressing over finding time to do everything in your life AND workout, it can be a little much to take.  Your brain is the most important exercise organ you have, let the stress wash away and your workouts will be better on the other side.
• If you workout seven days a week, you are more likely to burn out on the very idea of working out.  A break can help you feel like you control your life, not the gym.

There are many other physiological and psychological benefits as well, but these are some of the key concerns that you should keep in mind.

The bottom line is to take care of yourself - because no one else will.

Yours in Health,

Kate

Bring on the Muscle

I trained with Traci a week and a half ago. We did my measurements. I have (no surprise here) put on a couple of pounds since my last weigh-in. I wasn't shocked because the last month has been rough. I have been honest here that stress and covering the floods really messed with my eating habits.

The odd thing was the fat test - the caliper said 17%, the electricity said 26%. Okay. 17% would be phenomenal, but lower then I would really want to be, because women need 18% or more body fat or your girl things start getting out of whack. 26% would be acceptable and healthy, but not anywhere near where I want to be.

Two oddities came to light here - 1. my other measurements were smaller (waist, thighs and pinch locations), so the caliper would appear right; 2. I might have been a little dehydrated, so the electric one may not have worked.

The gist of it is, there is only one absolute way to know how much fat is on your body - (within 2-3%) and that's a Dual-energy X-ray. It is mainly used for bone density, but it looks at your entire body make-up at the same time. I have called my doctor about getting one. Not only do I want to know my body fat, but two years of changing my eating habits has left me curious about how it may have affected my bone density.

Overall what this all says is, I need to be careful what I put in my body. Pathetic that after two years I need to be reminded of that. But I believe I am a recovering obese person and like recovering alcoholics, you are never cured, you simple continue to recover and dealing with your addiction gets easier over time. As I have mentioned before however, eating is the worst addiction of all - you can't just give it up cold turkey, it will kill you.

The other thing this reinforces is that muscle building is muy importante. I need to keep piling on the muscles to - 1. burn more calories, 2. protect my bones, 3. be strong.

Now I just need to write one of these entries entitled "Bring on the Protein". I don't get enough and it's hard to 'bring on the muscle' without it. Oh well, like everything else in life, it's a work in progress.

Yours in fitness, Kate

BMI My Butt

5' 4" + 150 pounds = 25.7 = "Overweight". Well, yes and NO.

Those are my stats according to the lovely tool - here.

The site also answers what BMI (Body Mass Index) is:

"The BMI is a measure of your weight relative to your height and waist circumference measures abdominal fat. Combining these with information about your additional risk factors yields your risk for developing obesity-associated diseases."

Here are how they breakdown:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5-24.9 - Where you want to be.
Overweight = 25-29.9 - My current rating claims this.
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
Another one they do not show (and where I started) - Morbidly Obese = BMI of 40 or greater.

That my BMI says I am overweight has been bugging me for a while. Then I found a spot on this site that says:

"{The calculator) may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build."

And there it is. I knew that, but I wanted it in writing and the National Institutes of Health have been kind enough to do just that.

You see this simple calculator takes only weight and height into account. Not the endless hours I have spent in the gym proudly packing on muscle. My recent fat measurement tells a much truer story. My body fat is 21.3%. Very healthy, in fact, athletic, which is where I have wanted to be along.

So, the point of my post is: One number does not tell the whole story. You have to bring together many numbers to be clearer on where your health really sits. Do your research and you will know what your real plan should be.

Yours in health, Kate

Muscles

I have just finished up with Traci.

I hit it hard with cardio, running for 20 minutes before I started with her. Then she had me do 5 minutes on the elliptical - at 6 miles an hour - which was dang hard. Then it was on to the stair stepper for 5. (I am training for a new fitness challenge that I will tell you about tomorrow.)

Now it was time to hit all the major muscle groups. Since I had legs like jelly after the cardio, Traci had me do abs first. She is always coming up with creative new ways to make crunches more challenging. Today it was using bands hooked to the wall for added tension. It was challenging.

In fact, at the end of the workout she was lamenting that perhaps she had been too easy on me. I admitted that everything else was getting easier, but informed her the abs were tough, she was pleased. And that's what I really like about having a personal trainer.

Traci looks at my fitness goals, does the research, tries the exercises and makes a plan for me. Every workout with her is different, I can go weeks without doing the exact same move with her. I will do crunches for example, but it's a different variation and they are constantly rotated, so I never get bored and neither do my muscles.

That's one of the keys to being able to build muscle continuously and make it tough - diversity. If you are doing the same thing over and over again, your muscle gets really good at it and then it requires less calories and effort for your body. So changing up your workout at minimum once every two weeks will keep you from getting bored and your body from becoming complacent.

It's so great to be able to walk into Fitness World West to see Traci and that planning is done for me. But if you are just starting out, you can use moves you learn from just about anywhere. One of my favorite places to cull from is Women's Health magazine. Wherever you get your exercises remember, don't over do it. And adding on muscle is a great way to burn more calories, even when you are just breathing.

Yours in fitness, Kate