Fitness Destinations

Although I am going to get back to writing original and awesome content here at Fitness Destinations, in the recent months I have been posting a lot of the great Beachbody content over at Surfside Fitness. In addition to continuing to put out quality, useful health, fitness, and weight loss content, Beachbody also recently released their newest flagship product: ChaLEAN Extreme, and it looks like it might even put P90X to shame! Definitely worth checking out.Here is the collection of some of the best posts from Surfside Fitness, and they are all worth a read. Enjoy!

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• Bill Murray’s 6 New Year’s Resolution Tips
• 8 Fitness Myths
• 10 Ways to Fight Obesity
• It’s All About the O! (Omega-3, that is)
• 6 Ways to Find the Time to Work Out
• 8 Foods to Boost Your Metabolism
• 10 Tiny Changes for Big Weight Loss

Despite a startling amount of scientific research and real-world examples, there is still a grossly inaccurate belief that the key to weight loss is starving yourself. Not only is that an exceptionally false statement, but starving yourself actually causes your body to store body fat, and it also deprives your body of much needed energy and nutrients, which in turn makes your health decline – regardless of what the scale says.

“Skinny fat people” are people who believe that dieting alone is an effective way to lose weight, and they do, in fact, lose weight. Skinny fat people often weigh as little as 110 to 130 pounds, and they fit into clothes much smaller than the clothing sizes they wore before they starved themselves.

The problem is that the majority of the weight that they lost came from their body literally “eating itself,” and what they lost was healthy, metabolism-boosting muscle tissue – they still held on to a lot of the FAT!

Whenever you consistently don’t eat enough calories to sustain your body’s need for energy and for nutrients, your body will believe that its energy intake will always be that low, and it will go into “starvation mode”. In essence, it will hold onto body fat because body fat is a long-term energy source, and it will “defend itself” from further energy needs by destroying muscle tissue, and using that tissue for energy.

The muscles in your body are what use the majority of the calories that you ingest. They are the “furnace” that cranks up your metabolism, and for every pound of muscle tissue that you have, your body needs to feed that muscle tissue just to keep it alive. A body that is in starvation mode realizes that even though not very much energy is coming in, those muscles are still needing to be “fed”. In order to defend itself against actually starving to death, your body will start to break down those muscle tissues in order to use them for energy, and to prevent those muscles from needing to be fed in the future.

On the scale, this all looks well and good. Muscle weighs significantly more than fat does, so while you starve your body, the number on the scale drops, but your body fat isn’t going anywhere.

In addition, since you are forcing your body to literally “eat itself” in order to survive:

• Your metabolism plummets to dangerously low levels, causing you to have very low energy levels.
• Your muscle tissue is literally disappearing, so your strength also goes away, and even everyday activities can become difficult.
• Since your muscles use most of the calories that you ingest, and you have allowed your body to destroy your muscles, you are forever stuck in a vicious circle of needing to starve yourself to keep from putting the weight back on.
• The majority of the nutrients that we take in come from our foods, so a lack of consistent intake of nutrient-dense foods causes you to be susceptible to numerous illnesses, and your ability to recover from those illnesses is severely limited.
• Although the number on your scale is lower, you look unhealthy. Your skin sags from your bones, you jiggle when you walk, and even the best outfits can’t hide the fact that you are not in shape – you are a skinny fat person.

The Solution

Proper diet AND a proper exercise program are the only way to lose weight while also increasing your overall level of health.

Proper diet means:

• Eating 5 to 6 smalls meals per day
• Ingesting calories based on your lifestyle, not just on your age and your gender
• Taking in the proper ratios of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy dietary fats

Proper exercise means:

• An exercise program that is appropriate for your goals and your present level of conditioning
• Exercising intensely and consistently, while also listening to your body
• Knowing when it is time to rest or back off, rather than over-doing it and getting injured

Exercise Program Recommendations

For putting on muscle mass, radically cranking up your metabolism and your level of cardiovascular fitness, check out P90 or P90X.

For losing inches in a very healthy manner that doesn’t emphasize muscle growth as much, check out Debbie Sieber’s Slim in 6 program

If structured exercise does not appeal to you, but you want to take the weight off in a fun and healthy way, take a look at Turbo Jam or Hip Hop Abs.

Regardless of what type of program you get involved with, always remember that there are 2 components to fitness: Proper diet and Proper exercise.

If you skimp on either one, you will regret it in the long run – guaranteed.

People have been sweating it out on the dance floor for years now, and the fact that it is a great workout is pretty well understood. However, like any workout, there are ways to get the most out of it, or ways to minimize the benefits that you’ll get.

People who go to night clubs or dance parties to get their groove on can certainly work up a good sweat, and burn off some calories. With a good mix of music or a DJ who really knows how to work the crowd, it can really be a lot of fun, as well as a way to get some great exercise. Unfortunately, night clubs and parties usually come with ways to retard the weight loss benefit in the form of high-calorie drinks, snacks, and other foods.

If you want to just “cut a rug” and have a blast, then by all means, at least get the exercise benefit out of it, even if you aren’t going to lose any weight. However, if you want to have the fun of dancing, and ALSO the weight loss benefit, here are some ways that dancing can crank up your weight loss efforts!

A Consistently elevated Heart Rate

One of the best ways to lose body fat is to keep your heart rate elevated for long periods of time. Notice the term “lose body fat” as opposed to the term “lose weight”. Many allegedly miraculous weight loss programs cause you to lose water weight or even healthy muscle tissue, both of which are unhealthy, short-lived, and can actually cause you to gain more weight back after the program.

Your mission when it comes to weight loss is to lose BODY FAT, not just to lose weight. Body fat goes away whenever your body has a need for energy that cannot be met by whatever calories are presently in your system. Specifically, whenever you elevate your heart rate into your Target Heart Rate zone (roughly 60%-85% of your maximum heart rate), you open the flood gates of your body’s fat burning ability.

If you have ever really gotten into a dance set, at a party or otherwise, you know that you are breathing heavier than normal, you start to sweat, and your body starts to go looking for energy. That’s the “sweet spot” whenever you are in a position to start losing weight, right there on the dance floor. However, that is provided that you don’t hit the chips and dip table or suck down a beer as soon as you get off the floor…

Increased Metabolism

In addition to just raising your heart rate so that your body goes looking for additional calories from stored body fat, dancing raises your metabolism more than a more “traditional” exercise because dancing utilizes so many different muscle groups.

It would be impossible to list the specific muscle groups that are used when dancing because it obviously depends on the type of dancing that you are doing. However, the thing to remember is that whenever you dance, you use many muscle groups all in conjunction with each other, and that “confuses” your body about where to obtain the energy for that activity. The more intense your dance routine is, and the more muscle groups you manage to incorporate, the more “confused” your body will get.

The benefit to confusing your body in this manner is that not only will you burn calories during your dance activity, but you will continue to burn calories long after you stop. The more you can crank up your metabolism during any type of exercise activity, the longer it will take your body to “normalize” afterward.

So, the next time you feel like getting a little “freaky” when you dance, go for it!

A Powerful Core

Your “core” muscles encompass many different muscles groups, including your inner and outer abdominal muscles, your side abdominal muscles, the muscles of your lower back, and also the musculature that supports your spine. Having a strong core is necessary for many reasons, not the least of which being the prevention of injury, increased mobility, and the ability to do activities that people with a weak core cannot do.

Although dancing uses many different muscle groups, it all starts in the middle, where your core muscles are. You can’t gyrate your hips, bend over backwards, dip your partner, or do any other fancy (and calorie burning) dance moves if you can’t control your core muscles.

Not only will dancing increase the strength of your core and your brain’s ability to control those core muscles, but having a strong core also sets you up to do other activities later on with an increased sense of “solidity,” for lack of a better term.

Whenever you feel like you have a strong core, it is the same idea as building a house on a solid foundation. Anything is possible whenever your central power unit is in great shape. The confidence of having a strong core will cause you to be more willing to do other physical activities later on down the road that will enhance your weight loss efforts, in addition to the calories that you burn during your dance routine.

Boost to your Self-Esteem

Right on the heels of a cranking up your confidence by building a stable core comes the related benefit of raising your level of self-esteem. Dancing in a manner that makes you feel good about yourself carries over even after you get off the floor. By getting in touch with your body and controlling it in such an intimate and precise way, you feel mentally more in touch as well.

Look at the crowd at any night club or party, and look at the people who are dancing vs. the people who are just watching. The dancers are having fun, they aren’t bored, they aren’t shy, and they are rarely all alone. Even a dancer who goes to a night club alone does not stay that way for long, as he/she gains momentum and self-esteem as their mind and body come together while dancing.

In addition to just having a dance partner at a party or a night club, however, that self-esteem tends to carry over into other areas of your life as well. When you feel confident and in touch with your body, and you put your body “out there” frequently on the dance floor, it becomes a lot more difficult to consciously pack on unnecessary “curves”.

Picture yourself getting busy on the dance floor, shakin’ your thing, and having a blast, and then try to picture yourself wolfing down a double cheeseburger, a large order of fries, and a sugar-filled soda. Those two pictures just don’t mix, do they?

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As with any other exercise protocol, you can get a lot out of dancing, or you can get the minimum benefit by not taking it very seriously.

If you want to take it seriously – and use it as a fun and very effective way to lose weight – then get your groove on in the privacy of your own home with exercise routines built specifically for the dancer in you: Turbo Jam and Hip Hop Abs.

Lose some weight, and learn how to be the center of attention on the dance floor all at the same time. Now that is time management!

Having a high level of cardiovascular endurance means that you can exercise both longer and harder, resulting in more rapid weight loss, a better level of heart health, significantly lower blood pressure, and an overall increase in your level of health and fitness.

However, as you start to see results from your cardiovascular training program, it is important to keep those results from hitting a plateau by frequently changing up your exercise program. Practice cross training in order to keep your body from adapting to any one type of exercise stimulus.

What is Cross Training?

In a nutshell, cross training means that in order to get the most benefit from your exercise program, you need to frequently change the way that you stimulate your muscles and cardiovascular system.

There are no specific exercises that are part of a cross training program, since it depends on the goals of the individual, as well as the training program that the individual has been utilizing thus far. For the purposes of learning how to increase your cardiovascular endurance with cross training, we will focus on various cardiovascular activities.

Cardiovascular Exercises that are part of a Cross Training Program

Cardiovascular exercise can be any activity that you use in order to get your heart rate up to the proper intensity level in order to ensure you attain whatever your goal is. A quick list could include any or all of the following:

• Running/Jogging
• Bicycling
• Swimming
• Brisk Walking
• Rollerblading
• Calisthenics (jumping jacks, running in place, etc.)
• Aerobics Classes
• Elliptical Trainer
• Stair Stepper/Climber
• Stationary Bike

How to Increase Cardiovascular Endurance

All of the activities listed above are great for cardiovascular training, and each of them can be used in one of four ways to increase your level of cardiovascular endurance:

1. Increase the amount of time spent doing the exercise
2. Increase the intensity level at which you do the exercise
3. Do a variety of different exercises
4. Practice interval training

Increasing the amount of time spent doing the exercise

The most obvious way to increase your cardiovascular endurance is to simply do an exercise for a longer period of time. If you have a favorite cardiovascular training exercise that you have been doing for a long time, chances are that your body has adapted to the energy needs that are created by that activity. You are no longer burning as many calories as you used to, even though you are exercising for the same period of time.

The “exercise effect” is the term that describes your body’s ability to adapt to exercise, and those changes are almost always positive. However, for any given activity, once your body adapts to that activity, you have to find a way to force your body to need energy in a way that it previously hasn’t, or your progress will slow down or even stop.

Increase the intensity level at which you do the exercise

Let’s say that you jog at a pace of 5 mph. It’s not blazing fast, but it is a high enough speed to burn through some serious calories, especially if you jog for 30 minutes or more. If that is the speed that your body has adapted to, you can exponentially increase the need for energy (calories) by nudging up the speed at which you run.

Adding even half a mile per hour to your running speed will cause your body to rapidly burn through the same number of calories that you had previously been using, and you will find yourself significantly more winded. If you can push through this additional energy and oxygen need and stick to the same workout duration – only at the increased speed – both your cardiovascular endurance and your rate of weight loss will increase.

Do a variety of different exercises

Another way to force your body to utilize both oxygen and caloric energy at higher than previous levels is to do exercises that are different than what your body is used to. Although doing activities that you enjoy is one of the success secrets of exercising, if you only enjoy one or two activities, then you may be limiting your potential for fast results.

Again referring to the fact that your body adapts to any activity that you do, this effect applies to both caloric energy and oxygen needs, as well as actual muscle fiber recruitment. When you need additional muscle fibers or different muscle fibers than your body is used to, you will also increase the need for both energy and oxygen.

NOTE: This does not mean that you need to change up your cardiovascular training routine every single day, but rather that you pepper in different activities on a consistent basis. Also, be sure that when you do a new activity, you keep up the proper level of intensity for whatever your goals are.

Practice interval training

Check out this link if you want a lot of details about interval training, although here is a brief description. Interval training simply means that you change up the intensity of your cardiovascular training session multiple times during the session itself.

Interval training has the effect of causing your body to become very confused about exactly how much energy (calories) will be needed at any given time, and that level of confusion also applies to the amount of oxygen that your body needs to supply for the activity.

By including interval training in your cardiovascular training regimen, you will not only increase your level of cardiovascular endurance, but interval training is also a powerful tool for cranking up your metabolism. A higher metabolism = a higher number of calories burned every single day.

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In short, increasing your level of cardiovascular endurance with cross training simply means that you keep your body from getting used to any particular type of exercise program, and you also keep striving for different and higher levels of progress.

By properly utilizing cross training techniques, not only will you increase your level of cardiovascular endurance, but your overall level of health and the rate at which you are able to lose weight will both increase as well!

Related Video Training:

If you are serious about losing weight or increasing your level of health, your one-stop solution is Interval Training!

Interval training carries with it many different benefits, allowing you to achieve the maximum amount of progress in the shortest amount of time. Below are some of the benefits associated with interval training, followed by a primer on what interval training is, as well as some sample interval training programs.

Benefits of Interval Training

• Keeps your body from adapting to your training program, meaning that your progress will never stagnate
• Cranks up your metabolism for longer periods of time than “standard” cardiovascular training
• Allows you to burn more body fat for energy as a result of confusing your body during the interval training session
• Increases your level of cardiovascular endurance as well as the overall strength of your heart and cardiovascular system
• Eliminates the boredom often associated with cardiovascular training sessions
• Increases the release of post-exercise endorphins as a result of the high-intensity nature of interval training
• Boosts your confidence as you realize that you can increase your physical abilities exponentially above previously accepted levels

What is Interval Training?

Basically, interval training is a method of exercise whereby you are constantly changing the level of intensity of the training session, which keeps your body from being able to adapt to the activity.

The human body is a highly adaptable machine, and as soon as your body adapts to any given type of training, your progress will slow down, and sometimes even stop completely. Even if you keep exercising, you will not see any further progress until you find a way to start confusing your body with a new training protocol.

The concept of interval training itself is very simple, although there are numerous ways in which you can modify your approach in order to get the most out of it.

Whenever you are engaged in any sort of cardiovascular exercise, interval training is simply the act of constantly changing your level of intensity. This is normally done by having certain periods of time when you exercise at one level of intensity, and then other periods of time when you increase that level of intensity.

That same concept can be applied to distance just as easily, however. You keep up a certain level of intensity for a given distance, then increase the level of intensity for a given distance.

What is meant by “level of intensity” during Interval Training?

Intensity is simply the level of difficulty that is represented by any given exercise activity. The methods of changing the intensity vary depending on the type of cardiovascular activity that you are engaged in, but 2 of the most popular ways to modify your level of intensity are:

• The actual speed at which are you doing the movement, usually measured in miles per hour (mph) or revolutions per minute (rpm).
• The resistance level that you are fighting against while you do the activity. This can be modified by adding an incline if you are on an exercise machine, increasing the tension if you are on an exercise bike, or just cranking up the difficulty level of whatever machine you are using.

If you are a runner, increasing your speed is the most efficient way to turn up the intensity, although running on an incline is also very effective if that is an option for you.

What are some examples of effective Interval Training?

Exercise Bike or Elliptical/Cross Training Machine

Choose a number of revolutions per minute that you are comfortable with. The number of revolutions per minute that you choose should be challenging for you, but should not push you to your absolute limits.

After a proper warm-up, begin timing yourself, keeping your rpm’s at that challenging level for 4 minutes. At the end of that 4 minutes crank up your rpm’s to a much higher level for 1 full minute.

For example, if your rpm’s were previously 70, crank them all the way up to 80, 90, or even 100. Remember, you only have to do this for 60 seconds. At the end of the 60 seconds, return back to your previous level of 70 rpm’s for another 4 minutes. Repeat that process until the end of your workout.

Remember: Whenever you go back to your original level, you should ONLY go back to that level, which was 70 rpm’s in this example. At first you will be tempted to drop below your previous level because you will be very tired. However, if you drop below your previous level, you will not get nearly as much benefit from interval training.

Running

If your normal running speed is 5 miles per hour, begin running at that speed after a proper warm-up. After 3 minutes, take off and run as hard and as fast as you can for 1 full minute. Really give it all you’ve got!

After 1 minute, return back to your normal running speed of 5 mph for 3 minutes, and then repeat. You will quickly find that it takes you all 3 of those minutes before your heart rate returns back to normal!

The net result of that level of intensity from a calorie burning standpoint is that you will spend a significantly larger amount of time with a higher heart rate than you would have if you had just run at 5 mph for the entire exercise session. All of the other benefits of interval training would of course apply as well.

Distance

Regardless of which type of cardiovascular activity that you are engaged in, you can also use distance as a way to plan your intervals.

Give yourself a certain distance that you will cover at your “normal” speed, and then choose a distance that is approximately 10% to 15% of that distance, and crank up your intensity to an extremely challenging level while you cover that smaller distance.

Once the smaller distance has been covered, return back to your previous rate of speed or other level of intensity for a prescribed distance before repeating the higher intensity interval again. Repeat that process for the entire workout.

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Whether you use time or distance as a way to measure your intervals, the end result is the same – your body is too confused to adapt to the constantly changing exercise environment.

Also, the examples given here are just guidelines. There are no hard and fast rules about how long any given interval should be, or how much distance should be covered.

The only thing that is mission critical to the success of your interval training is that the higher intensity portions of your workout are very challenging, and that you never allow yourself to drop below your normal rate of speed or intensity.

You can modify both the speed/resistance changes during any given workout, as well as the distances covered during any given exercise session. You do not need to stick with one system and never change it.

In fact, the entire idea behind interval training is to keep your body from adapting to the activity, so feel free to change it up as often as you like. However, it is absolutely imperative that whenever you do your higher intensity intervals that they are truly challenging.

Don’t cheat yourself by putting forth sub-par efforts. Interval training is literally one of the most effective exercise modalities ever created, and you can use this system to attain a maximum level of weight loss and health.

Work hard, and the results will follow!