Anne Parker's blog

Work Your Core at Work by Sitting on a Stability Ball

Have you every noticed your posture while you are sitting at your desk? Are you hunched over with rounded shoulders?  Have you taken a look down at your belly to see what it is doing while you are sitting with poor posture?  It is probably sticking out and completely “turned off”.  That’s right, your core “turns off” when you have poor posture.  Think of all of the time during the day that your core is turned off. In the car, at your desk, even sitting on a recumbent exercise bike if you are not being conscious of your posture.

We have a terrible epidemic in America, the “turned off core”.  Our core muscles are the largest group of muscles in our bodies and we are continually putting ourselves in positions (poor posture) that turn off our core muscles and contribute to a protruding belly, shoulders that round inward, lower back pain, neck pain and an overall feeling of being pudgy. 

The good news is that we can easily reactivate our core muscles through proper core training and improving our posture.  A great way to get started is to sit on a fitness stability ball.  You will need to purchase the correct ball for your height, and you can do so by looking at the chart on the side of the box for the stability ball.

When you pump up your ball make sure to follow the manufactures instructions for proper inflation. One common mistake I see is under inflating the ball, it should not be squishy. When you start using your stability ball at work, you will need to start in 10-15 minute intervals.  It depends on your fitness level, but usually your back will tell you when it is time to sit in your chair for a while.  Soon enough you will be sitting on your stability ball all day, improving your posture and “turning your core back on.”

Don’t Be Average This Holiday Season, Avoid the 6 lb. Weight Gain!

The average American gains 6 pounds between Thanksgiving and January 1st.   I don’t know about you, but I don’t even want to gain 1 pound this holiday season.  It is very easy to gain weight, and very difficult to lose it.  It takes 3200 calories to gain one pound of fat, it also takes a caloric deficit of 3200 to lose 1 pound of fat. 

Here is an example of the number of calories consumed during a typical Thanksgiving dinner and amount of exercise needed to burn the calories.

•    One mixed drink
•    One glass of wine
•    One cup of coffee with cream and sugar
•    One cracker with cheese
•    Half a cup of mixed nuts
•    One ounce of potato or tortilla chips
•    One teaspoon of chip dip
•    Six ounces of white and dark turkey
•    Half a cup of stuffing, Half a cup of mashed potatoes
•    Half a cup of gravy
•    Half a cup of green bean casserole
•    Half a cup of candied sweet potatoes
•    A dinner roll
•    A pat of butter
•    A slice of pumpkin pie

Total Thanksgiving Day calories consumed 2685 calories.
You will need to walk 26.85 miles, or 53700 steps.

I have told all of my personal training clients to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and all of the yummy food it has to offer.  My one request is that on Friday, they return to a clean eating plan and stick to it as much as possible throughout the holidays.

Holiday weight gain does not happen by over indulging in a few meals.  It happens because for many nights over the course of 5 weeks, we are meeting friends for cocktails and high calorie meals.  Follow a clean eating strategy Monday through Sunday during the day, and aim for clean eating 4 nights per week.  A well planned eating strategy, and a very consistent workout schedule will enable you to enjoy the holidays and still fit in to your pants on January 1st.

It's Not How Hard You Start, It's How Hard You Finish

Do you remember how motivated you were on January 2nd 2008 to get healthy and fit this year?  What was your motivation? Maybe it was the idea of a fresh start in the year 2008 or watching aging family members deal with lifestyle related health issues and vowing not to follow in their footsteps, possibly it was wanting to be able to play with your Grand Children until you are 100?

Regardless of what your motivation was, you need to finish strong!  Just because it is the holidays and things get busy, it doesn’t mean that you can put yourself and your health on the back burner.

Taking control of your nutrition and workout schedule is very empowering and I want to help you have a strong finish to 2008 and a jump start on your new goals for 2009.

Keep a Food Journal and Double Your Weight Loss

In a recent study by the Kaiser Permente Center for Health Research, participants who kept food  journals lost almost double the weight of their nonjournaling counter parts.  The finding is good news for people looking for an inexpensive route to a healthier weight.

The more detailed the food journal, the more weight the participants lost.  According to the study, our memory is unreliable and we tend to underestimate the amount of food we consumed.

Why does a food journal work?  Personal accountability.  Making a commitment to ourself and sticking to it is very empowering.  Most of us don't know exactly how much we eat, and being able to see how many calories you have consumed throughout the day is what will keep you on track with your health and fitness goals.

Your food journal should look like this in order to deliver the best results:

• Time of day meal was consumed
• Type of food eaten and the calorie amount for every thing
• Amount of food consumed (portion size appropriate or too large?)

Here is a good resource for getting started on calorie, protein, sodium and fat content of the foods you eat.

www.calorieking.com

The quality of the foods you eat make just as much difference in how you look as how many calories you are consuming.  If you are eating 2 meals each day at a fast food restaurant that accounts for 2000 calories of food, you are not going to see quality results in your weight loss effort.  If you consume balanced meals comprised of natural foods that equals 2000 calories per day, then you will feel better and look better.  Quality Counts!

A a general rule of thumb, you should be consuming one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you will consume 150 grams of protein.  Once you start counting your protein, you will feel full and satisfied.  I think it is easier to count protein grams than fat or calories because I see better results with my fitness goals when I am consuming the correct amount of protein and not too many overall calories.

What Is Suspension Training with the TRX?

Training with a TRX is a great way to work "all core, all the time." Hopefully you had a chance to check out the video and see for yourself how beneficial TRX training can be.

Here are some of the benefits of training with the TRX.

Benefits:TRX® Suspension Training® harnesses your own body weight to create resistance as you train. That's all you need - the TRX and your own body. No additional weights required.Unlimited Versatility

Build Core Strength

Killer abs are great, but more importantly, having a strong core will prevent injuries, improve posture and increase overall strength. This is because all of our movements are powered by the torso - the abs and back work together to support the spine during everyday activities and exercise. Suspension Training builds core strength with every exercise by creating an element of instability that calls on your core to provide balance and coordination.

Life Doesn't Happen Sitting Down

In real life, our bodies move to the side, backwards, forwards and diagonally. Shouldn't we train the same way? Unlike traditional weight training that tends to be linear and follow one plane of movement (sagittal), Suspension Training encourages multiplanar training (frontal, sagittal, transverse) which integrates all your motions and mimics real life movement. This will bring a muscular balance to your body, increasing performance and preventing injuries.

Make your body your machine

TRX® Suspension Training® harnesses your own bodyweight to create resistance as you train. That's all you need - the TRX and your own body. No additional weights required.

Unlimited Versatility

We're all unique. Not only is each individual's body built a little differently, but we each fill our lives with a mix of physical activities that can require specific training. TRX Suspension Training allows you to instantly adjust not only the level of difficulty for each exercise, but you can easily customize any workout on the fly.

Maximize your training time

You can easily switch from exercise to exercise in less than 15 seconds. This allows you to maximize your training time and enables circuit style workouts.

I'm Bringing Jump Rope Back!

I’m bringing back jump rope! Well, actually Madonna brought it back in her current concert tour.  Madonna and her dancers did an awesome jump rope routine that inspired me to start using a jump rope more often in my training sessions.

According to the Cooper Institute, 10 minutes of rope jumping at 120 jumps per minute produces the same cardiovascular fitness as:

Cycling: 2 miles in 6 min.         
Tennis: 2 sets           
Running: 1 mile in 12 min.
Swimming: 12 min.                       
Jogging: 30 min.         
Handball: 20 min.

We are all short on time – right? Jump Rope is a perfect workout for the days when you have a day full of meetings, conference calls and a messy commute.  Get your butt out of bed 15 minutes early and jump! Find a great song that inspires you and have at it. 

Count the number of times you can jump in one minute and then rest for a minute, repeat this as many times as possible and you have created a killer workout that will generate amazing results.

Here is a You Tube video of Madonna jumping rope at the concert…she’s crazy! I love it!

Please post your favorite jump rope workouts!

The Power of Goal Setting

Think back to a time when you put your full attention in to something you wanted and you then got it.  Maybe it was your first car, a promotion at work or closing a big deal at work.  Remember how you thought about it 24-7 and really believed that it could happen? What have you accomplished that makes you proud?  Whatever it is, write it down somewhere where you can look at it daily, so you can remember how it made you feel.

Setting a goal requires more that just writing in your journal and hoping that it will happen.  You need to “dream it, believe it, and achieve it”. I know its cliché, but very true.  If you have a goal of obtaining optimum health, then you need to start living it right now.  You need to believe that you are already that person.  You need to make choices everyday that a fit and healthy person makes.

Healthy people don’t eat at fast food restaurants, they plan ahead and make sure that they either have a snack to hold them over until they get home or they bring their meal with them from home. Healthy people don’t eat a lot of sugar, caffeine or saturated fats. Healthy people exercise at least 30 minutes each day.

Are you starting to understand that if you believe that you are fit and healthy it will happen? If you believe that you are abundantly wealthy, you will be? If you worry about your weight and finances, then you will be fat and poor forever?

I want you to purchase index cards and write each of your goals out separately on a card.  These cards will accompany you everywhere you go.  Whenever you have down time, I want you to look at the cards and think about your goals.  Before you go to bed, I want you to look at your cards and dream about your goals.  When you get up in the morning, I want you to look at your cards and focus on them for 2 minutes before you get out of bed.

Surround yourself with people and things that are going to help you achieve your goals.  If you have a weight loss goal, don’t make plans to go to an Italian restaurant with your friends for dinner on Saturday night.  If you have a professional goal of getting a promotion and pay raise at work, don’t stay up until midnight every night watching TV, research shows that the most productive people in the world get up early. If you have a fitness goal of working out at least 30 minutes everyday, then make sure you schedule your workouts everyday in your calendar.

Do you have people in your life that are holding you back? Do you know people who are always negative? You need to surround yourself with people who you want to emulate. If you want to be an executive at your company, then you need to spend time with executives. If you want to lose 10 pounds, then spend time with people who are already healthy and fit or people who have the same goal as you.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
-Vince Lombardi

When it comes to goal setting you must understand that you hold the key to creating your every desire.  Now let’s get started on resetting your metabolism, your motivation and your life!

Fitness on a Budget, Get the most "bang" for your "buck"

Watching the budget? Here is a budget and time friendly workout routine you can do at home.  What are you waiting for, let’s get started!

Equipment: Spin Bike, Weight Bench, Dumbbells

Total Workout Time: 30 Minutes
Warm up: 10 minutes on spin bike
Workout: 10 Push-ups, 10 squats holding dumbbell (or single leg squats if you are advanced), 25 Jumping Jacks, 10 chest fly on bench with dumbbells, 10 single arm row on bench with dumbbells, 25 abdominal crunches on bench, 10 dead lifts with dumbbells, 3 minute hill interval on spin bike.

Do this circuit as many times as possible in 20 minutes. Your weight selection should be heavy enough that you can complete all of the required number of repetitions without straining. It also should be pretty difficult at the end of each set, don’t use weights that are too light.  You will miss many of the benefits of weight training with the incorrect weight selection.

Another great and very budget friendly workouts is on the TRX Suspension Trainer.  For under $200 you can purchase a TRX and do your workout anywhere.  At home, at a hotel, in a park, at the gym.  Here is a fun fitness challenge to get you started with the TRX. Here is a link to the videos

1. Atomic Push Up

2. Suspended Lunge

3. 45 degree Row

4. TRX Hip Press

5. TRX Postural Squat

Fitness on a Budget, Get the most "bang" for your "buck"

Watching the budget? Here is a budget and time friendly workout routine you can do at home.  What are you waiting for, let’s get started!

Equipment: Spin Bike, Weight Bench, Dumbbells

Total Workout Time: 30 Minutes
Warm up: 10 minutes on spin bike
Workout: 10 Push-ups, 10 squats holding dumbbell (or single leg squats if you are advanced), 25 Jumping Jacks, 10 chest fly on bench with dumbbells, 10 single arm row on bench with dumbbells, 25 abdominal crunches on bench, 10 dead lifts with dumbbells, 3 minute hill interval on spin bike.

Do this circuit as many times as possible in 20 minutes. Your weight selection should be heavy enough that you can complete all of the required number of repetitions without straining. It also should be pretty difficult at the end of each set, don’t use weights that are too light.  You will miss many of the benefits of weight training with the incorrect weight selection.

Another great and very budget friendly workouts is on the TRX Suspension Trainer.  For under $200 you can purchase a TRX and do your workout anywhere.  At home, at a hotel, in a park, at the gym.  Here is a fun fitness challenge to get you started with the TRX. Here is a link to the videos

1. Atomic Push Up

2. Suspended Lunge

3. 45 degree Row

4. TRX Hip Press

5. TRX Postural Squat

Get the Exercise "High" to Manage Stress

Some people might think it’s unrealistic to get up everyday and exercise, but now doctors are saying that getting into a routine of daily exercise should be “normal” and can among many other things, help combat stress. In a recent television interview on the TODAY Show, motivational guru Tony Robbins addressed how people can cope with stress during these challenging economic times.  He enthusiastically endorses a solid workout to help produce feel-good endorphins, increase blood flow and increase oxygen to the brain.

Physical activity — whether it's a relaxing walk, bicycle racing or meditative tai chi — helps relieve stress. According to research conducted at the Mayo Clinic virtually any form of exercise can decrease the production of stress hormones and counteract your body's natural stress response. It's true. The same regular exercise routine that helps prevent disease and builds muscle can also help you better manage stress.

Here are a few ways you can get on track and stay on track with your fitness routine:
•    Schedule your daily workouts on your calendar – and don’t miss it!
•    Make workouts more convenient by having some equipment to workout at home.
•    Learn new techniques from a personal trainer, most trainers will help you design a program you can follow on your own for an hourly fee.
•    Surround yourself with people who have the same fitness goals as you.