How to fine-tune your workout for better results
Ready to shape up your workout? Fine-tune any fitness faux pas that may be robbing you of the best results? Here, three exercise pros set the record straight for you, answering some of your most sweat-inducing fitness questions below.
1. Should I stretch before or after a workout?
Either time is fine, as long as you first do a preworkout warm-up (three to five minutes of whole-body movement, like marching in place); it's easier and safer to stretch a warm muscle than a cold one. "If you're doing an activity that's new to you or a workout that's exceptionally strenuous, warm up, stretch, then work out," says exercise physiologist Douglas Brooks of Moves International in Mammoth Lakes, California. "If you're doing your typical routine, warm up and then stretch either before or after your workout — whatever makes you feel best."
2. Should I take baby or giant steps on the stair climber?
Take steps that use your legs' entire range of motion, advises Jana Angelakis, owner of Pex Personalized Exercise in New York City. "Use your normal stride. Giant steps could harm your hips and lower-back muscles. Baby steps are inefficient and often indicate that the level you've set for yourself is too high." And you'll get better results if you never get into the habit of supporting yourself on the handlebars.
3. Should I lift weights slowly or quickly?
Slower is better for building and toning muscle, says Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., strength trainer at the YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts. "As you increase speed, you decrease tension and force in the muscle. You end up using more momentum than muscle." Pace yourself: During a typical repetition, the contraction (when the muscle works) should last about two seconds and the elongation (when it relaxes) should last about four seconds.
4. Should I do crunches every day or three times a week?
The overwhelming consensus: Do them every day. Angelakis encourages at least 25 sit-ups a day. Sound too easy? Try it her way: Take two counts to raise and two to lower your torso instead of one.
5. Should I use free weights or weight machines?
Muscles can't tell the difference between free weights or machines and they respond to both, according to Westcott. Your best bet: Use both — weight machines may better target a certain muscle or muscle group, while free weights bring other assisting, or balancing, muscles into play.
6. Should I weight train daily or three times a week?
Using weights every day may be overtraining, says Westcott. "Depending on the intensity of your workout, muscles need 48 to 72 hours to recover and repair." You'll get better results faster if you skip a day between strength-training sessions.
7. On the treadmill, should I vary the speed or keep it steady?
Whether you run or walk, alternating between higher and lower speeds is a highly effective way to exercise, especially if your time is limited (and whose isn't?). "Whether highly fit or not, anyone can manage to go a bit faster for 30 to 60 seconds and then do a minute or two at a slower recovery pace. Spiking workouts in this way is best for getting fitter, burning more calories and preventing injuries," says Brooks.
8. Should I lift heavier weights with fewer repetitions or lighter weights with more reps?
If you want to increase muscle as you tone, increase the weight, not the reps, says Angelakis. If you are interested in toning and definition, use low to moderate weight and aim for 12 to 15 reps. You'll know you're ready to add weight (in 5 percent increments) when 15 reps are only moderately difficult to complete.
9. Should I do the treadmill flat or on an incline?
The state of your back and your knees determine what's best for you. If you have any back problems, you should not walk or run on an inclined treadmill. The tilt can affect your back. On the other hand, if you have chronic knee problems that sideline you from running, increasing the incline as you walk on a treadmill can increase the intensity of your workout. For those with no knee or back woes, walking or running on an incline is a good way to target and tone the backs of your legs. Whenever you exercise on a slant, don't hold on — it defeats the purpose of the incline. If you can't keep up, decrease your speed.
10. Which is better, the bike or the treadmill, if I have only 30 minutes to exercise?
There's no one best machine. To optimize a workout of any length, pick a machine you love: "All cardiovascular machines are created equal. It's what you bring to the workout that makes it best for you," says Brooks. "You simply won't work out as intensely if the machine bores you." If you don't have a favorite, do 10-minute bouts on three different machines.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Exercise 101: Strength Training
No workout program would be complete without strength training. Although you need to do aerobics to keep your heart and lungs in good working order, you need to do resistance training to maintain your muscular strength and endurance, boost your metabolism and strengthen your bones. What's best about strength training is that it's easy and convenient — you'll find weights in every gym, or you can buy free weights to use at home.
Starting Out
If you've never lifted weights, make an appointment with a personal trainer. You need to learn proper form to prevent injury and to ensure that you're getting the most benefit out of the exercise. A trainer can also help you determine how much and how often to lift.
In general, if you can't maintain good form for at least eight repetitions while lifting a weight, it's too heavy; if you can perform more than 12, it's too light. Schedule two to three strength training sessions a week, allowing a rest day in between sessions to give your muscles time to repair and recover; if you want to lift weights every day, work out your upper body (arms, shoulders and upper back) one day and your lower body (calves, gluteus muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps) the next.
Target areas:
Weight training increases your muscular strength and endurance and muscle mass. Because muscle burns more calories than fat, regular sessions in the weight room can boost your metabolism. And because muscle takes up less space than fat, you'll look trimmer even if your weight stays the same. Other pluses: Lifting weights can lift your spirits. A recent study found that strength training improved mood in people suffering from depression. It also seemed to help them sleep better.
Other studies show that people tend to become more physically active once they start weight training, perhaps because their increased strength makes other activities easier to do and more enjoyable.
Pre-Activity Shape-Up
When you can't get to the weight room, try resistance bands, isometric exercises (such as tightening and relaxing your buttock muscles) and floor exercises (such as push-ups and leg lifts) to help keep your muscles in shape. To complement your strength-training regimen, add a stretching program. It's also important to do some sort of aerobic activity to keep fat off and maintain cardiovascular health.
The Warm-Up and Cool-Down
Before you strength-train, do five minutes of any activity that uses the muscles you'll be exercising, such as riding a stationary bike to warm up your legs or rowing for an all-body workout. Another alternative is to do a few repetitions with light weights of the exercises you've planned for later. Five to 10 minutes should be enough to increase the temperature of your muscles, making them more flexible and less susceptible to injury.
If your heart rate goes above 100 beats per minute after you work out with weights and you plan to do some floor exercises, such as sit-ups and leg lifts, you need a cool-down to keep from getting dizzy or faint. Walk around or pedal slowly on a stationary bike until your heart rate slows down. Otherwise, you don't need a cool-down; just go ahead and stretch your muscles.
Stretching is particularly important to maintain your flexibility. Be sure to stretch any muscles you'll be exercising after you warm up to prevent injury and again after you finish to boost flexibility and diminish soreness.
The Right Stuff
Having some basic gear and clothing will make all the difference in your enjoyment of a sport, not to mention your performance. Here's what you'll need:
Weights: Your gym will have weight machines and free weights. You can also purchase free weights for home use. Weight machines are probably better for beginners because they guide your movements and are safer; it's easier to make mistakes with free weights, says Liz Neporent, M.A., an exercise physiologist in New York City and coauthor of Weight Training for Dummies.
Clothing: Wear a shirt that's fitted; an oversized T-shirt can get in your way (or worse, get caught in a machine). Also, consider wearing bike shorts or leggings instead of loose shorts when you're working on machines that could put you in revealing positions.
Gloves: Mainly used for lifting heavy weights, weight-lifting gloves have padded palms that can prevent calluses and help you maintain your grip when your hands get sweaty.
Weight belts: These thick waist belts are meant to support your lower back when lifting, although the jury is still out on whether these belts actually help performance.
Pro Talk Mini-Glossary
Want to talk like a pro? The PHYS mini-glossary has the terms you'll need:
Free weights: Metal weights that aren't attached to pulleys or chains, such as dumbbells (one-piece weights) and barbells (poles with removable disks on each end).
Lactic acid: The source of the "burn" you feel after a tough strength-training or weight-lifting session. Your muscles produce lactic acid if they don't have enough oxygen to completely convert sugar to energy. To relieve the burn, move around or participate in some low-intensity, rhythmic activity afterward, such as swimming.
Rep: A single repetition of an exercise. For example, one bicep curl is one rep. You should perform each rep slowly and steadily, pausing between lifting and lowering the weight and taking about six seconds total for each rep. Don't cheat by going fast — you won't reap as much benefit and are more likely to injure yourself.
Resistance training: Any form of exercise that involves working your muscles against some external force or resistance. Strength training, or weight lifting, is one kind of resistance training, using weights as the resistance. Push-ups and exercises with resistance bands are other forms of resistance training. All types of resistance training tone and strengthen muscles.
Set: A series of reps — usually eight to 12 — make up one set. You should usually perform one to three sets of each exercise, with a 30- to 90-second pause in between.
Working in: Rotating on a machine with another gym-goer. While one of you rests between sets, the other one uses the equipment; then you swap places. Or you can use two different machines and switch stations between sets.
Working to failure: Lifting a weight until you can't lift it any more. That's the sign that you're exercising enough to see an improvement in strength. If you aren't working to failure, you may not be getting the maximum benefit from your strength training so you may want to do more repetitions or increase the weight.
Starting Out
If you've never lifted weights, make an appointment with a personal trainer. You need to learn proper form to prevent injury and to ensure that you're getting the most benefit out of the exercise. A trainer can also help you determine how much and how often to lift.
In general, if you can't maintain good form for at least eight repetitions while lifting a weight, it's too heavy; if you can perform more than 12, it's too light. Schedule two to three strength training sessions a week, allowing a rest day in between sessions to give your muscles time to repair and recover; if you want to lift weights every day, work out your upper body (arms, shoulders and upper back) one day and your lower body (calves, gluteus muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps) the next.
Target areas:
Weight training increases your muscular strength and endurance and muscle mass. Because muscle burns more calories than fat, regular sessions in the weight room can boost your metabolism. And because muscle takes up less space than fat, you'll look trimmer even if your weight stays the same. Other pluses: Lifting weights can lift your spirits. A recent study found that strength training improved mood in people suffering from depression. It also seemed to help them sleep better.
Other studies show that people tend to become more physically active once they start weight training, perhaps because their increased strength makes other activities easier to do and more enjoyable.
Pre-Activity Shape-Up
When you can't get to the weight room, try resistance bands, isometric exercises (such as tightening and relaxing your buttock muscles) and floor exercises (such as push-ups and leg lifts) to help keep your muscles in shape. To complement your strength-training regimen, add a stretching program. It's also important to do some sort of aerobic activity to keep fat off and maintain cardiovascular health.
The Warm-Up and Cool-Down
Before you strength-train, do five minutes of any activity that uses the muscles you'll be exercising, such as riding a stationary bike to warm up your legs or rowing for an all-body workout. Another alternative is to do a few repetitions with light weights of the exercises you've planned for later. Five to 10 minutes should be enough to increase the temperature of your muscles, making them more flexible and less susceptible to injury.
If your heart rate goes above 100 beats per minute after you work out with weights and you plan to do some floor exercises, such as sit-ups and leg lifts, you need a cool-down to keep from getting dizzy or faint. Walk around or pedal slowly on a stationary bike until your heart rate slows down. Otherwise, you don't need a cool-down; just go ahead and stretch your muscles.
Stretching is particularly important to maintain your flexibility. Be sure to stretch any muscles you'll be exercising after you warm up to prevent injury and again after you finish to boost flexibility and diminish soreness.
The Right Stuff
Having some basic gear and clothing will make all the difference in your enjoyment of a sport, not to mention your performance. Here's what you'll need:
Weights: Your gym will have weight machines and free weights. You can also purchase free weights for home use. Weight machines are probably better for beginners because they guide your movements and are safer; it's easier to make mistakes with free weights, says Liz Neporent, M.A., an exercise physiologist in New York City and coauthor of Weight Training for Dummies.
Clothing: Wear a shirt that's fitted; an oversized T-shirt can get in your way (or worse, get caught in a machine). Also, consider wearing bike shorts or leggings instead of loose shorts when you're working on machines that could put you in revealing positions.
Gloves: Mainly used for lifting heavy weights, weight-lifting gloves have padded palms that can prevent calluses and help you maintain your grip when your hands get sweaty.
Weight belts: These thick waist belts are meant to support your lower back when lifting, although the jury is still out on whether these belts actually help performance.
Pro Talk Mini-Glossary
Want to talk like a pro? The PHYS mini-glossary has the terms you'll need:
Free weights: Metal weights that aren't attached to pulleys or chains, such as dumbbells (one-piece weights) and barbells (poles with removable disks on each end).
Lactic acid: The source of the "burn" you feel after a tough strength-training or weight-lifting session. Your muscles produce lactic acid if they don't have enough oxygen to completely convert sugar to energy. To relieve the burn, move around or participate in some low-intensity, rhythmic activity afterward, such as swimming.
Rep: A single repetition of an exercise. For example, one bicep curl is one rep. You should perform each rep slowly and steadily, pausing between lifting and lowering the weight and taking about six seconds total for each rep. Don't cheat by going fast — you won't reap as much benefit and are more likely to injure yourself.
Resistance training: Any form of exercise that involves working your muscles against some external force or resistance. Strength training, or weight lifting, is one kind of resistance training, using weights as the resistance. Push-ups and exercises with resistance bands are other forms of resistance training. All types of resistance training tone and strengthen muscles.
Set: A series of reps — usually eight to 12 — make up one set. You should usually perform one to three sets of each exercise, with a 30- to 90-second pause in between.
Working in: Rotating on a machine with another gym-goer. While one of you rests between sets, the other one uses the equipment; then you swap places. Or you can use two different machines and switch stations between sets.
Working to failure: Lifting a weight until you can't lift it any more. That's the sign that you're exercising enough to see an improvement in strength. If you aren't working to failure, you may not be getting the maximum benefit from your strength training so you may want to do more repetitions or increase the weight.
Exercise 101: Stretch It Out
The stretches you need to get flexible and fit
When it comes to fitness regimens, stretching usually comes in a distant third — behind aerobics and strength training — probably because it isn't directly associated with weight loss or dramatic changes in appearance. Yet without a good stretch, all your hard work at the gym would not be complete. Stretching before and after physical activity will not only help prevent injury, but can also improve sports performance by increasing your range of motion and improving your coordination.
Even if you aren't going to get a full workout, spending 20 minutes a day stretching can have a wonderful effect on your general well-being. It will free your body of muscular tension, improve circulation and enhance muscle tone. Stretching now will also help you avoid some of the unpleasant hallmarks of aging, such as decreased flexibility, poor balance and stiff joints. Best of all, stretching makes you feel good.
Before you begin stretching, read the tips below to learn how to get the most from your exercise.
Stretching Dos and Don'ts:
Stretch as often as you can — three to five times a week is recommended.
Remember to stretch after you work out. Many people think stretching is only necessary before exercise, but stretching afterwards is essential to avoid cramping, tightness and reduced range of motion.
Warm up for three to five minutes prior to stretching. A warm-up is any continuous movement that increases your body's core temperature, such as going up and down the stairs a few times or riding a stationary bike.
Breathe slowly and deeply throughout each stretch. Calm breathing will help relax you and your muscles and facilitate safe, effective stretching.
Focus on the muscles being stretched and hold each stretch for at least 10 to 30 seconds, or five to six full breaths. Repeat each stretch three to five times.
Don't bounce. Bouncing can force the joints past their natural range of motion, causing sprains of the ligaments or tendons. Instead, focus on stretching to a point where you feel a mild tension. If the tension goes away after 10 to 30 seconds of holding the stretch, adjust your body ever so slightly until you feel a mild tension again, and hold for a further 10 to 30 seconds.
Most importantly, stretching should feel good. Never go beyond the point of feeling a mild tension in your muscles. If the tension is uncomfortable, you are overstretching and should ease up slightly.
When it comes to fitness regimens, stretching usually comes in a distant third — behind aerobics and strength training — probably because it isn't directly associated with weight loss or dramatic changes in appearance. Yet without a good stretch, all your hard work at the gym would not be complete. Stretching before and after physical activity will not only help prevent injury, but can also improve sports performance by increasing your range of motion and improving your coordination.
Even if you aren't going to get a full workout, spending 20 minutes a day stretching can have a wonderful effect on your general well-being. It will free your body of muscular tension, improve circulation and enhance muscle tone. Stretching now will also help you avoid some of the unpleasant hallmarks of aging, such as decreased flexibility, poor balance and stiff joints. Best of all, stretching makes you feel good.
Before you begin stretching, read the tips below to learn how to get the most from your exercise.
Stretching Dos and Don'ts:
Stretch as often as you can — three to five times a week is recommended.
Remember to stretch after you work out. Many people think stretching is only necessary before exercise, but stretching afterwards is essential to avoid cramping, tightness and reduced range of motion.
Warm up for three to five minutes prior to stretching. A warm-up is any continuous movement that increases your body's core temperature, such as going up and down the stairs a few times or riding a stationary bike.
Breathe slowly and deeply throughout each stretch. Calm breathing will help relax you and your muscles and facilitate safe, effective stretching.
Focus on the muscles being stretched and hold each stretch for at least 10 to 30 seconds, or five to six full breaths. Repeat each stretch three to five times.
Don't bounce. Bouncing can force the joints past their natural range of motion, causing sprains of the ligaments or tendons. Instead, focus on stretching to a point where you feel a mild tension. If the tension goes away after 10 to 30 seconds of holding the stretch, adjust your body ever so slightly until you feel a mild tension again, and hold for a further 10 to 30 seconds.
Most importantly, stretching should feel good. Never go beyond the point of feeling a mild tension in your muscles. If the tension is uncomfortable, you are overstretching and should ease up slightly.
Exercise 101: Fitness Anatomy
Want to injury-proof your lower back? Build your biceps? Limber up your hamstrings? Whether your goal is to strengthen or stretch, you should get to know your muscles, where they are, what they do for you and what you can do for them. This easy-to-read illustrated guide to a dozen muscle groups will help you put a little more, well, muscle into your workouts.
Abdominals
Strengthening the abdominal muscles is one of the best ways to protect against back pain and — need to hear it again? — give you good posture. If they're weaker than the hip muscles, your spine alignment may be thrown out of whack. The main muscles to target are the rectus abdominis and external and internal obliques (the transversus abdominis, which lies underneath the other muscles, is involved primarily in breathing and can't be exercised separately).
RECTUS ABDOMINIS
Location: This broad, flat muscle extends the entire length of the abdomen, from the lower three ribs to the top of the pubic bone (below the navel).
Job: Helps stabilize your entire body by maintaining your balance and posture; enables you to bend at the waist.
Used when you: Walk, run, shovel, do yoga, breathe.
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL OBLIQUES
Location: The external obliques run diagonally downward and inward from the lower ribs to the pelvis. The internals, which lie under the externals, run upward and inward from the hip bones to the lower ribs.
Job: Helps you rotate, twist and bend at the waist.
Used when you: Do the Twist, hit a backhand, pivot in basketball, swing a golf club.
Biceps
One of the best-known muscles, the biceps runs along the front and inner side of your upper arm, from the front side of the scapula to just below the elbow.
Job: Bends your elbow.
Used when you: Pick up and carry groceries, paddle a canoe, arm wrestle, rake.
Calves
The calves consist of two muscles on each leg, the gastrocnemius and the soleus. They stretch from the back of your knee to the Achilles tendon.
Job: Flexes your leg at the knee, points your toes and enables you to push off the ground when you jump forward.
Used when you: Dance, tiptoe, walk, run, skip, jump, pedal.
Chest
The pectorals (pecs), your main chest muscles, consist of two pairs of muscles that work together: the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. The pectoralis major, which covers most of the upper chest, stretches from the top of the arm to the collarbone, breastbone and upper six ribs on each side. The pectoralis minor is a smaller muscle underneath, running from the middle of your chest to the shoulder blade.
Job: The pectoralis major pulls your upper arm toward your chest — for example, when you pull your arm across your body or push something forward. The pectoralis minor pulls your shoulder blade forward.
Used when you: Go through a revolving door, hit a forehand, hug a tree, do a push-up, bench-press 100 pounds.
Hamstrings
The hamstrings are made of three muscles on the back of each thigh. They extend from the lower part of the pelvic bones to just below the knee.
Job: Bend your knee and assist the glutes to straighten your leg at the hip. Strong hamstrings help guard your knees against injury.
Used when you: Run, bicycle, stand up, jump, climb stairs, kick up your heels.
Hips
The main muscles controlling your hip movements are the gluteus muscles (glutes). You have three pairs of gluteus muscles — the maximus, medius and minimus. Strengthening your hip and butt muscles can help prevent hip and lower back injuries. Be careful not to overdevelop them, however, because if they're much stronger than your abs and back, you could throw your spine out of alignment and wind up with an aching back.
GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
Location: The largest and outermost layer of this muscle group, the gluteus maximus extends horizontally across each side, connecting the pelvis to the thighbone.
Job: Extends your thigh and makes your leg rotate at the hip.
Used when you: Stand up, walk, run, climb stairs, jump.
GLUTEUS MEDIUS
Location: Mostly hidden under the maximus, the medius runs along the outer part of the hip. Like the maximus, it connects the pelvis to the thighbone.
Job: Moves your thigh to the side.
Used when you: Sashay across the dance floor, pedal, run, take an aerobics class.
GLUTEUS MINIMUS
Location: The minimus is buried under the other gluteus muscles. It runs along the outside of the hip, connecting the top of the pelvic bones to the top of the thighbone.
Job: Assists the gluteus medius in moving the thigh sideways.
Used when you: Do anything that involves the medius.
Inner Thighs
The muscles of the inner thigh are the oft-neglected adductors: the adductor magnus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, pectineus and gracilis. They connect the pelvic bones and the thighbone.
Job: Pull your legs toward each other.
Used when you: Swim the breaststroke, kick a soccer ball, go in-line skating, cross your legs, do jumping jacks.
Lower Back
The erector spinae muscles are the primary movers and shakers in the lower back. They actually run the entire length of the spine, but the lower third is the most developed.
Job: Straighten your spine. Strengthening the erector spinae muscles will help ward off lower back pain (and give you good posture to boot) by keeping your spine properly aligned.
Used when you: Stand up, sit up straight, walk, bend over backwards.
Quadriceps
Your quadriceps are a large group of four muscles that cover the entire front and side of each thigh. One connects the pelvis to the knee; the others stretch from the thighbone to the knee and the top of your lower leg.
Job: Straighten your knee. If you're weak in the quads, chances are that you'll be weak in the knees.
Used when you: Run, walk, stand, ski, hop, snowboard, jump, kick a tire. To find out how to exercise this muscle group, follow the link in the upper right corner.
Shoulders
The most important muscles in your shoulder are the deltoid muscle, a triangular, three-part muscle that wraps around the top of the shoulder, and the rotator cuff, a set of four small muscles connecting your shoulder and upper arm.
DELTOIDS (a.k.a. delts)
Location: The anterior deltoid extends from the front of the collarbone to the top of the arm, covering the front of the shoulder. The posterior deltoid stretches from the shoulder blade to the upper arm, covering the back of the shoulder. The medial deltoid lies between the other two, running from the tip of the shoulder blade to the upper arm.
Job: The anterior deltoid moves your arm up and forward and helps rotate it inward; the posterior deltoid moves it backward and rotates it outward; the medial deltoid moves your arm out to the side.
Used when you: Swing a golf club, swim, serve a tennis ball, hail a cab, shoot a basketball.
ROTATOR CUFF
Location: The rotator cuff muscles attach the top of the upper arm bone to the shoulder blade.
Job: Supports your shoulder and keeps your arm in its socket; rotates the arm. Weekend warriors beware — unless you're accustomed to it, using your rotator cuff for a repetitive motion (say, pitching a softball) could lead to an injury.
Used when you: Throw or catch a football, paint the ceiling, carry a briefcase, drive a car.
Triceps
The triceps runs along the back of the upper arm from just below the elbow to the shoulder, where it's attached to the top of the upper arm and to the outside tip of the shoulder blade.
Job: Straightens your elbow and assists pecs with the pushing motion.
Used when you: Hammer a nail, pound the podium, push a door closed, cast a fly-fishing line, push a lawn mower.
Upper Back
Your upper back is covered by the two trapezius muscles and the rhomboids, a smaller group of muscles that lie under the trapezius. Across your middle and lower back are the latissimus dorsi, a pair of muscles that connect your arms to your spine. Strengthening these muscles will improve your posture and stave off back pain.
TRAPEZIUS (a.k.a. traps)
Location: This triangular muscle, one of a pair, stretches across the back from the spine to the shoulder blade and collarbone. It reaches from the base of the skull to the middle of the back. The pair of trapezius muscles resembles a kite.
Job: Supports your neck; assists the shoulder muscles in lifting the arms and shoulders.
Used when you: Shrug your shoulders, carry a backpack, cradle the phone.
RHOMBOIDS
Location: The rhomboid muscles are attached to the vertebrae just below the neck and run diagonally down to the inner edge of the shoulder blade.
Job: Squeeze your shoulder blades together.
Used when you: Stand up straight with your shoulders back, just like your mother always told you to.
LATISSIMUS DORSI (a.k.a. lats)
Location: The latissimus dorsi starts from the top of the arm near the armpit and fans across the lower two thirds of the back, where it's anchored to the spine.
Job: Pulls your arm down or back. It contributes significantly to good posture; weak lats can lead to rounded shoulders.
Used when you: Row, swim, do pull-ups, pick up a child, chop wood.
Abdominals
Strengthening the abdominal muscles is one of the best ways to protect against back pain and — need to hear it again? — give you good posture. If they're weaker than the hip muscles, your spine alignment may be thrown out of whack. The main muscles to target are the rectus abdominis and external and internal obliques (the transversus abdominis, which lies underneath the other muscles, is involved primarily in breathing and can't be exercised separately).
RECTUS ABDOMINIS
Location: This broad, flat muscle extends the entire length of the abdomen, from the lower three ribs to the top of the pubic bone (below the navel).
Job: Helps stabilize your entire body by maintaining your balance and posture; enables you to bend at the waist.
Used when you: Walk, run, shovel, do yoga, breathe.
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL OBLIQUES
Location: The external obliques run diagonally downward and inward from the lower ribs to the pelvis. The internals, which lie under the externals, run upward and inward from the hip bones to the lower ribs.
Job: Helps you rotate, twist and bend at the waist.
Used when you: Do the Twist, hit a backhand, pivot in basketball, swing a golf club.
Biceps
One of the best-known muscles, the biceps runs along the front and inner side of your upper arm, from the front side of the scapula to just below the elbow.
Job: Bends your elbow.
Used when you: Pick up and carry groceries, paddle a canoe, arm wrestle, rake.
Calves
The calves consist of two muscles on each leg, the gastrocnemius and the soleus. They stretch from the back of your knee to the Achilles tendon.
Job: Flexes your leg at the knee, points your toes and enables you to push off the ground when you jump forward.
Used when you: Dance, tiptoe, walk, run, skip, jump, pedal.
Chest
The pectorals (pecs), your main chest muscles, consist of two pairs of muscles that work together: the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. The pectoralis major, which covers most of the upper chest, stretches from the top of the arm to the collarbone, breastbone and upper six ribs on each side. The pectoralis minor is a smaller muscle underneath, running from the middle of your chest to the shoulder blade.
Job: The pectoralis major pulls your upper arm toward your chest — for example, when you pull your arm across your body or push something forward. The pectoralis minor pulls your shoulder blade forward.
Used when you: Go through a revolving door, hit a forehand, hug a tree, do a push-up, bench-press 100 pounds.
Hamstrings
The hamstrings are made of three muscles on the back of each thigh. They extend from the lower part of the pelvic bones to just below the knee.
Job: Bend your knee and assist the glutes to straighten your leg at the hip. Strong hamstrings help guard your knees against injury.
Used when you: Run, bicycle, stand up, jump, climb stairs, kick up your heels.
Hips
The main muscles controlling your hip movements are the gluteus muscles (glutes). You have three pairs of gluteus muscles — the maximus, medius and minimus. Strengthening your hip and butt muscles can help prevent hip and lower back injuries. Be careful not to overdevelop them, however, because if they're much stronger than your abs and back, you could throw your spine out of alignment and wind up with an aching back.
GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
Location: The largest and outermost layer of this muscle group, the gluteus maximus extends horizontally across each side, connecting the pelvis to the thighbone.
Job: Extends your thigh and makes your leg rotate at the hip.
Used when you: Stand up, walk, run, climb stairs, jump.
GLUTEUS MEDIUS
Location: Mostly hidden under the maximus, the medius runs along the outer part of the hip. Like the maximus, it connects the pelvis to the thighbone.
Job: Moves your thigh to the side.
Used when you: Sashay across the dance floor, pedal, run, take an aerobics class.
GLUTEUS MINIMUS
Location: The minimus is buried under the other gluteus muscles. It runs along the outside of the hip, connecting the top of the pelvic bones to the top of the thighbone.
Job: Assists the gluteus medius in moving the thigh sideways.
Used when you: Do anything that involves the medius.
Inner Thighs
The muscles of the inner thigh are the oft-neglected adductors: the adductor magnus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, pectineus and gracilis. They connect the pelvic bones and the thighbone.
Job: Pull your legs toward each other.
Used when you: Swim the breaststroke, kick a soccer ball, go in-line skating, cross your legs, do jumping jacks.
Lower Back
The erector spinae muscles are the primary movers and shakers in the lower back. They actually run the entire length of the spine, but the lower third is the most developed.
Job: Straighten your spine. Strengthening the erector spinae muscles will help ward off lower back pain (and give you good posture to boot) by keeping your spine properly aligned.
Used when you: Stand up, sit up straight, walk, bend over backwards.
Quadriceps
Your quadriceps are a large group of four muscles that cover the entire front and side of each thigh. One connects the pelvis to the knee; the others stretch from the thighbone to the knee and the top of your lower leg.
Job: Straighten your knee. If you're weak in the quads, chances are that you'll be weak in the knees.
Used when you: Run, walk, stand, ski, hop, snowboard, jump, kick a tire. To find out how to exercise this muscle group, follow the link in the upper right corner.
Shoulders
The most important muscles in your shoulder are the deltoid muscle, a triangular, three-part muscle that wraps around the top of the shoulder, and the rotator cuff, a set of four small muscles connecting your shoulder and upper arm.
DELTOIDS (a.k.a. delts)
Location: The anterior deltoid extends from the front of the collarbone to the top of the arm, covering the front of the shoulder. The posterior deltoid stretches from the shoulder blade to the upper arm, covering the back of the shoulder. The medial deltoid lies between the other two, running from the tip of the shoulder blade to the upper arm.
Job: The anterior deltoid moves your arm up and forward and helps rotate it inward; the posterior deltoid moves it backward and rotates it outward; the medial deltoid moves your arm out to the side.
Used when you: Swing a golf club, swim, serve a tennis ball, hail a cab, shoot a basketball.
ROTATOR CUFF
Location: The rotator cuff muscles attach the top of the upper arm bone to the shoulder blade.
Job: Supports your shoulder and keeps your arm in its socket; rotates the arm. Weekend warriors beware — unless you're accustomed to it, using your rotator cuff for a repetitive motion (say, pitching a softball) could lead to an injury.
Used when you: Throw or catch a football, paint the ceiling, carry a briefcase, drive a car.
Triceps
The triceps runs along the back of the upper arm from just below the elbow to the shoulder, where it's attached to the top of the upper arm and to the outside tip of the shoulder blade.
Job: Straightens your elbow and assists pecs with the pushing motion.
Used when you: Hammer a nail, pound the podium, push a door closed, cast a fly-fishing line, push a lawn mower.
Upper Back
Your upper back is covered by the two trapezius muscles and the rhomboids, a smaller group of muscles that lie under the trapezius. Across your middle and lower back are the latissimus dorsi, a pair of muscles that connect your arms to your spine. Strengthening these muscles will improve your posture and stave off back pain.
TRAPEZIUS (a.k.a. traps)
Location: This triangular muscle, one of a pair, stretches across the back from the spine to the shoulder blade and collarbone. It reaches from the base of the skull to the middle of the back. The pair of trapezius muscles resembles a kite.
Job: Supports your neck; assists the shoulder muscles in lifting the arms and shoulders.
Used when you: Shrug your shoulders, carry a backpack, cradle the phone.
RHOMBOIDS
Location: The rhomboid muscles are attached to the vertebrae just below the neck and run diagonally down to the inner edge of the shoulder blade.
Job: Squeeze your shoulder blades together.
Used when you: Stand up straight with your shoulders back, just like your mother always told you to.
LATISSIMUS DORSI (a.k.a. lats)
Location: The latissimus dorsi starts from the top of the arm near the armpit and fans across the lower two thirds of the back, where it's anchored to the spine.
Job: Pulls your arm down or back. It contributes significantly to good posture; weak lats can lead to rounded shoulders.
Used when you: Row, swim, do pull-ups, pick up a child, chop wood.
Exercise 101: Jump Start
Tips and tricks to put your eating and exercise program back on track
It was the night she went to the trouble of making brownies from scratch — so she could gorge on them instead of going to the store in search of a candy bar — that turned Lori Malkin's life around. She had little food in her cupboard (except baking chocolate), she was premenstrual and in a bad mood, and, well, who doesn't know the way that story usually ends?
"Afterward, I thought, This is ridiculous," Malkin says. "That was it. There were so few things in my life I had complete control over, but the one thing I could change was my body."
The next day she signed up for a step-aerobics class at the studio around the corner from her house in Ozone Park, New York, and started going twice a week. She also took up jazz dance and began eating sensibly. Over the next six months, her whole life shifted. She lost 20 pounds, joined a theater group (and got the first part she auditioned for), quit her job as a graphic artist with a publishing firm, went freelance, and fell in love. All because late one night, two and a half years ago, picking at the leftover crumbs of a brownie pan, Malkin somehow found the will to change.
At some point, almost everyone feels driven to do things differently. From Dale Carnegie to Deepak Chopra, from New Year's resolutions to birthdays with zeros in them, we have created celebrities and celebrations to spur us forward. With too little of such an urge — in cases of extreme depression, for example — we may be unable to eat or sleep. With too much, we wind up sounding like Richard Simmons — an option that is, believe it or not, healthier.
What Is Motivation?
"We use the term 'motivation' to mean drive," says Frank Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org). "Without that particular instinct, as a species, we would die out. It has two main components: dynamism, or the impetus to do something, and direction, or the impetus to do one specific thing rather than another. But motivational triggers take many different forms: anxiety, thrill seeking, and the need to achieve, just to name a few."
Put more personally, some people are inspired to make changes after sinking as low as they feel they can go, and then saying, "Enough." Others can give themselves a kick in the pants simply by staring at an unflattering photograph or checking off boxes next to a list of exercises or contemplating the prospect of a promising evening out or fitting into a beloved pair of old blue jeans.
"If a person can look honestly at the choices she is making and realize that she has the option to do things differently, then she can often get herself motivated to change," says psychologist Peter Spevak, director of the Center for Applied Motivation. "But first you have to understand the significance of feeling bad or not fitting into your clothes. That discomfort, should you choose to acknowledge it, is what challenges you to question the status quo."
"How do you take that feeling of desperation and those short-term goals and turn them into a program?" asks Chris Imbo, co-owner of Casa, a fitness club in New York City. "You show people the pleasure of taking control of their lives." Trainers such as Imbo help clients define their goals, set up realistic schedules to achieve them, and act as one-man (or -woman) cheering sections.
What's In It For Me?
But the little private tricks most of us employ in pursuit of self-control are often as individual as our fingerprints. There is, for example, motivation that stems from the inducement of a reward. Lisa, a Manhattan writer, forbids herself to watch soap operas anywhere but at the gym. "The only reason I have a tight butt," she says, "is because I had to find out what was going on in the Nikolas Cassadine story line on General Hospital." Courtney, a Los Angeles stylist, keeps no breakfast food in her house specifically so that she has to take a three-mile walk to a café to eat her preferred fresh fruit and bagel. And though the power of love may move some to compose sonnets and spray-paint highway overpasses, it spurs others on to weigh skinless chicken breasts and board StairMasters.
Experts in fitness, nutrition, and psychology have found that although the appeal of living a healthier, longer life can get people to start exercising and eating properly, it is rarely strong enough to inspire them to keep up the regimen. Exercise motivation consultant Jay Kimiecik, a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, has found that long-term exercisers succeed where gym bingers fail because they focus on doing a physical activity largely for its own sake. In other words, it's the intrinsic benefits of enjoying what you do, focusing on a clear goal, and keeping track of both mind and body while you exercise that keep you going.
"I call it the what's-in-it-for-me approach," says Penny, a Miami advertising executive. "Sacrifice is so hard to sustain. I exercise because I love to eat and drink, and I'll only exercise in ways that I enjoy. Most mornings, I'm up at six, stoked to get out and walk for an hour or so by the ocean before breakfast. If I ever lived in a cold climate again — God forbid — I'd have to take up Latin dancing or martial arts or something else that's really fun."
Scare Tactics
Of course, there are other inducements. Dianne, a consultant living in Santa Monica, finds her large Airedale to be more demanding than a friend might be when it comes to forcing her to get out and walk. Beatrice, a Manhattan architect, finds that the buddy system works for dieting. "I'll go on a diet with someone in the office so I won't feel like the only one who's deprived. We'll even eat each other's brown-bag lunches to break up the monotony. And I'm competitive, so I want to be the one who's lost more weight by the end."
In moderation, that kind of competition can be healthy, but the genesis of other types of motivation is not always positive. Scare tactics, which seem particularly potent in the short-term, work as well. Cruel as it may sound, for Jennifer, a political aide in Washington, D.C., it's envisioning her own plump mother — naked — that gets her to the gym on time. Isabelle, an editor in East Hampton, New York, remembers a particularly unappetizing Buddhist tract that instructed fasting monks to "contemplate the remains of their stomachs" as being a useful dessert inhibitor. And Sara, a Chicago businesswoman, agrees to pay her assistant $1,000 whenever she goes off her diet or skips a workout. She's had to fork it over twice in the six years since initiating the persevere-or-pay plan. Find the best trainer in your neighborhood "Although some people respond to more positive forms of encouragement," says Manhattan diet guru Stephen Gullo "others, who may have failed a lot in the past, find pain a much more powerful motivator." Gullo has come up with a series of mantras his clients can use when they feel tempted. "I've studied what drives big eaters and tried to develop an alternative way of thinking. I tell them things like, 'Only the thin say, 'No, thank you.' And, 'Do you like it enough to wear it?' I appeal to the fact that certain foods and eating habits have not done well by them."
Seeing Results
Find out how others control their eating habits Visualization is another tool that helps some people literally to see their way through a diet or exercise program. "When we see something in our mind," says Henry Marsh, a former Olympic athlete and author of The Breakthrough Factor, "it becomes the script we live by." At the Casa fitness club in Manhattan, a giant map of Mount Everest is pinned on the wall to enable clients to visualize their progress, so that it isn't just the improvement of their own bodies that encourages them to keep working out but the sense of achievement they get as they move individual flags from camp to camp and ascend the mountain. "Each camp represents a short-term goal," explains trainer Jason Mittelman, the game's originator. "You have to accumulate points by running, biking, walking, or using the VersaClimber for a certain number of miles." (The real trick? Doing it without oxygen.)
Of course, if gearing up the first time to get fit or lose weight is difficult, then getting cracking after a relapse is an even bigger challenge. It's one that Marion, a film development executive in Los Angeles, had to face after gaining back a quarter of her initial 50-pound weight loss. "It's funny. I made mistakes the second time around that I didn't make before," she recalls. "A big one was that I went to the gym for the first time in a long time wearing the same workout clothes I'd worn when I was really in shape. And I saw myself jiggling and looking awful while everyone else was in their little thongs and exercise bras. I never wanted to go back there again. It was just too painful." The moral of the fable? "You've got to find clothes that make you feel good. I shop for the perfect sweatpants and T-shirt the way I do for a dinner party outfit."
In the end, Stephen Gullo finds we are motivated by the desire to look good, to feel in control, and to live healthier lives. "How we look has a lot to do with how happy we are," he says. "And studies have shown that how in control we are has a lot to do with how long we live." Happiness and longevity: They're probably worth a push-up or two.
It was the night she went to the trouble of making brownies from scratch — so she could gorge on them instead of going to the store in search of a candy bar — that turned Lori Malkin's life around. She had little food in her cupboard (except baking chocolate), she was premenstrual and in a bad mood, and, well, who doesn't know the way that story usually ends?
"Afterward, I thought, This is ridiculous," Malkin says. "That was it. There were so few things in my life I had complete control over, but the one thing I could change was my body."
The next day she signed up for a step-aerobics class at the studio around the corner from her house in Ozone Park, New York, and started going twice a week. She also took up jazz dance and began eating sensibly. Over the next six months, her whole life shifted. She lost 20 pounds, joined a theater group (and got the first part she auditioned for), quit her job as a graphic artist with a publishing firm, went freelance, and fell in love. All because late one night, two and a half years ago, picking at the leftover crumbs of a brownie pan, Malkin somehow found the will to change.
At some point, almost everyone feels driven to do things differently. From Dale Carnegie to Deepak Chopra, from New Year's resolutions to birthdays with zeros in them, we have created celebrities and celebrations to spur us forward. With too little of such an urge — in cases of extreme depression, for example — we may be unable to eat or sleep. With too much, we wind up sounding like Richard Simmons — an option that is, believe it or not, healthier.
What Is Motivation?
"We use the term 'motivation' to mean drive," says Frank Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org). "Without that particular instinct, as a species, we would die out. It has two main components: dynamism, or the impetus to do something, and direction, or the impetus to do one specific thing rather than another. But motivational triggers take many different forms: anxiety, thrill seeking, and the need to achieve, just to name a few."
Put more personally, some people are inspired to make changes after sinking as low as they feel they can go, and then saying, "Enough." Others can give themselves a kick in the pants simply by staring at an unflattering photograph or checking off boxes next to a list of exercises or contemplating the prospect of a promising evening out or fitting into a beloved pair of old blue jeans.
"If a person can look honestly at the choices she is making and realize that she has the option to do things differently, then she can often get herself motivated to change," says psychologist Peter Spevak, director of the Center for Applied Motivation. "But first you have to understand the significance of feeling bad or not fitting into your clothes. That discomfort, should you choose to acknowledge it, is what challenges you to question the status quo."
"How do you take that feeling of desperation and those short-term goals and turn them into a program?" asks Chris Imbo, co-owner of Casa, a fitness club in New York City. "You show people the pleasure of taking control of their lives." Trainers such as Imbo help clients define their goals, set up realistic schedules to achieve them, and act as one-man (or -woman) cheering sections.
What's In It For Me?
But the little private tricks most of us employ in pursuit of self-control are often as individual as our fingerprints. There is, for example, motivation that stems from the inducement of a reward. Lisa, a Manhattan writer, forbids herself to watch soap operas anywhere but at the gym. "The only reason I have a tight butt," she says, "is because I had to find out what was going on in the Nikolas Cassadine story line on General Hospital." Courtney, a Los Angeles stylist, keeps no breakfast food in her house specifically so that she has to take a three-mile walk to a café to eat her preferred fresh fruit and bagel. And though the power of love may move some to compose sonnets and spray-paint highway overpasses, it spurs others on to weigh skinless chicken breasts and board StairMasters.
Experts in fitness, nutrition, and psychology have found that although the appeal of living a healthier, longer life can get people to start exercising and eating properly, it is rarely strong enough to inspire them to keep up the regimen. Exercise motivation consultant Jay Kimiecik, a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, has found that long-term exercisers succeed where gym bingers fail because they focus on doing a physical activity largely for its own sake. In other words, it's the intrinsic benefits of enjoying what you do, focusing on a clear goal, and keeping track of both mind and body while you exercise that keep you going.
"I call it the what's-in-it-for-me approach," says Penny, a Miami advertising executive. "Sacrifice is so hard to sustain. I exercise because I love to eat and drink, and I'll only exercise in ways that I enjoy. Most mornings, I'm up at six, stoked to get out and walk for an hour or so by the ocean before breakfast. If I ever lived in a cold climate again — God forbid — I'd have to take up Latin dancing or martial arts or something else that's really fun."
Scare Tactics
Of course, there are other inducements. Dianne, a consultant living in Santa Monica, finds her large Airedale to be more demanding than a friend might be when it comes to forcing her to get out and walk. Beatrice, a Manhattan architect, finds that the buddy system works for dieting. "I'll go on a diet with someone in the office so I won't feel like the only one who's deprived. We'll even eat each other's brown-bag lunches to break up the monotony. And I'm competitive, so I want to be the one who's lost more weight by the end."
In moderation, that kind of competition can be healthy, but the genesis of other types of motivation is not always positive. Scare tactics, which seem particularly potent in the short-term, work as well. Cruel as it may sound, for Jennifer, a political aide in Washington, D.C., it's envisioning her own plump mother — naked — that gets her to the gym on time. Isabelle, an editor in East Hampton, New York, remembers a particularly unappetizing Buddhist tract that instructed fasting monks to "contemplate the remains of their stomachs" as being a useful dessert inhibitor. And Sara, a Chicago businesswoman, agrees to pay her assistant $1,000 whenever she goes off her diet or skips a workout. She's had to fork it over twice in the six years since initiating the persevere-or-pay plan. Find the best trainer in your neighborhood "Although some people respond to more positive forms of encouragement," says Manhattan diet guru Stephen Gullo "others, who may have failed a lot in the past, find pain a much more powerful motivator." Gullo has come up with a series of mantras his clients can use when they feel tempted. "I've studied what drives big eaters and tried to develop an alternative way of thinking. I tell them things like, 'Only the thin say, 'No, thank you.' And, 'Do you like it enough to wear it?' I appeal to the fact that certain foods and eating habits have not done well by them."
Seeing Results
Find out how others control their eating habits Visualization is another tool that helps some people literally to see their way through a diet or exercise program. "When we see something in our mind," says Henry Marsh, a former Olympic athlete and author of The Breakthrough Factor, "it becomes the script we live by." At the Casa fitness club in Manhattan, a giant map of Mount Everest is pinned on the wall to enable clients to visualize their progress, so that it isn't just the improvement of their own bodies that encourages them to keep working out but the sense of achievement they get as they move individual flags from camp to camp and ascend the mountain. "Each camp represents a short-term goal," explains trainer Jason Mittelman, the game's originator. "You have to accumulate points by running, biking, walking, or using the VersaClimber for a certain number of miles." (The real trick? Doing it without oxygen.)
Of course, if gearing up the first time to get fit or lose weight is difficult, then getting cracking after a relapse is an even bigger challenge. It's one that Marion, a film development executive in Los Angeles, had to face after gaining back a quarter of her initial 50-pound weight loss. "It's funny. I made mistakes the second time around that I didn't make before," she recalls. "A big one was that I went to the gym for the first time in a long time wearing the same workout clothes I'd worn when I was really in shape. And I saw myself jiggling and looking awful while everyone else was in their little thongs and exercise bras. I never wanted to go back there again. It was just too painful." The moral of the fable? "You've got to find clothes that make you feel good. I shop for the perfect sweatpants and T-shirt the way I do for a dinner party outfit."
In the end, Stephen Gullo finds we are motivated by the desire to look good, to feel in control, and to live healthier lives. "How we look has a lot to do with how happy we are," he says. "And studies have shown that how in control we are has a lot to do with how long we live." Happiness and longevity: They're probably worth a push-up or two.
Burn More Calories: Your Fitness Clock
Find your peak performance hour
Ever wake to scribble a 3:00 a.m. epiphany that looks downright embarrassing in the clear light of day? Notice how saving your run for late afternoon makes you feel fast and loose enough to reel in Michael Johnson?
The explanation for such mind and body swings may lie in your circadian rhythms, the biological time clock that cues physiological responses — body temperature, muscle strength, lung capacity, mental alertness. When we're in sync, we perform better, sleep better, think better. But when we're out of sync — ever been jet lagged? — we're really out of it. Some studies suggest there may be an optimal time for all sorts of activities — aerobicizing, brainstorming, even hitting the boss up for a raise. NASA has been building missions around this idea for years (who wants a groggy astronaut piloting a billion-dollar shuttle?), but only recently has the sports world started to catch on. Roger S. Smith, a sleep medicine specialist in Palo Alto, California, says athletic capacity can fluctuate as much as 10 percent throughout the day.
And who couldn't use an edge? We asked trainers, sleep physiologists and nutritionists to create the fittest 24 hours imaginable. Sure, you can't alter your entire agenda; try just a little schedule juggling. You may have the fittest day of your life.
But before you read any further, ask yourself: Are you an owl or a lark? Are you bright-eyed and singing shower arias at 5 a.m.? Or the sort who gets a second wind when Conan O'Brien starts his monologue? Sleep researchers say most of us are either larks or owls — some of us to an extreme. This ideal day best fits someone who rises at 6 or 7 a.m. and hits the hay at 10 or 11 p.m., so owls or larks can set their clocks back or forward a few hours accordingly. Click on the times in the upper right hand corner to find the perfect times — and exercises — for your workout.
Wake-up Call
5:00 a.m. Dream time It's about an hour before the alarm starts to squawk, and your body temperature, which crashed around midnight, is rising like the sun. After about seven hours in the sack, you're in R.E.M. — your dream life is at its most active and imaginative (if Brad Pitt is going to have a cameo in your unconscious, this is his cue). Strength and flexibility are at an all-day low; you may as well dream on.
6:15 a.m. Morning motivation If sticking to a routine is a problem, stick to a.m. workouts. "Studies show that people who exercise in the morning are three times more likely to keep exercising," says Levi Query, an exercise physiologist at Adventist Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. "There are far fewer distractions, and you only have to take a shower once." If you're full of excuses — it's raining out, the gym's too expensive — try jumping rope.
Master the standard skip, then move on to these: Jog-step-jog in place, hopping over the rope one foot at a time. Great for calves, because you have to push your entire body weight off the balls of your feet. High knee: As the rope passes under the bottom foot, lift your other knee as high as it will go. This tough technique targets hips, thighs and abs.
6:45 a.m. Feeling no pain You're best able to tolerate physical pain — thanks to a higher endorphin level — between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., some experts say. (Reason enough to switch to an early-rising dentist and reschedule that root canal.) For those members of the Crunch-Hater's Club, Chanze LaMott, aerobics director of the Portland, Oregon-area Gold's Gyms, says now's the time to tackle a few of these killer crunches.
Lie on your back with your hands behind your head, your knees bent, right ankle resting on your left knee. Lift shoulders as you pull your knees toward your chest. If the move is too tough, modify it by leaving your right foot on the ground and pulling your left knee toward your head. Try 10, then alternate legs for another set. When you're immune to these, do 20 reps per side.
7:30 a.m. Big breakfast Nutritionists agree that a substantial breakfast — say, cereal and milk or fruit and yogurt or a bagel and jam — is the best way to power up for the day ahead, refuel after morning workouts (one hour after is best) and prevent binges later on. Speaking of refueling, try to plan your exercise schedule around your stomach's to avoid that googly feeling in step class. (It takes three to four hours to digest a big meal, two to three for a small one and less than an hour for a snack.)
On the Job
10:00 a.m. You're a genius! Each morning your body releases a hormone called cortisol, which works to speed the release of energy-producing glucose, the blood sugar that fuels muscle and brain cells. Your body temp is up — and so are your powers of concentration and manual dexterity. Should you finish that report or fine-tune the backhand? Unless you're the sort who can read The Brothers Karamazov while Mastering the Stair, take advantage of this stroke of brilliance and stick by your desk. Portland yoga instructor Gisele Guerrasio suggests the Seated Star, a borrowed-from-yoga pose to shed shoulder tension caused by crouching over keyboards.
Sit in a chair, feet planted, back straight. Bring your arms behind your back, hands clasped, and lift them away from your back until you feel gentle tension. Exhaling, lean forward from your hips so that your chest touches your thighs, and continue lifting your arms. Inhale, rise and repeat for good measure.
Noon power lunch If you exercised this morning, eat a well-balanced lunch now. (You're best able to restore depleted glycogen levels two hours after working out.) Or use a mini-workout to defuse that midday mental time bomb prodding you to tell your boss what you really think. "When you're angry, you can yell and scream or you can beat yourself up or you can take out your frustration with some exercise," says Kate Hays, Ph.D., a sports psychologist in Toronto, Canada. These power kicks from Justin Klahn, a black belt tae kwon do instructor in Portland, Oregon, target quads, butt and hip flexors. (There's no harm in imagining the boss is your opponent.)
A. Warm up with a walk if you've been sitting. Then stand at an angle with your left hip and shoulder forward, feet about hip width apart, knees soft. Fists are together to protect your chin, elbows wide.
B. Pull the right knee forward and up (left knee stays soft) and snap the leg out in a fluid (but sharp) kick at an invisible enemy's groin. Compel the motion from your heel to pack a powerful punch. Return to standing. Do 10 kicks per leg.
Afternoon Busters
1:00 p.m. Trough time Your mental alertness is flagging and even though your body temperature is still on the rise, you're likely to feel a little muzzy. Scientists say this energy trough has nothing to do with lunch — though a big one can exacerbate that drowsy feeling. Don't call a meeting now unless you want your coworkers to snooze through it.
3:00 p.m. You're a genius, again! Your mental acuity has rebounded from its one o'clock low. Since the muscles in your body are warming up to their 24-hour peak, your handshake is actually firmer. You (and everyone around you) are likely to feel better than you have all day. Quick! Corner that coworker who owes you a favor or hit up the boss for that raise.
4:00 p.m. The power hour If you're out to set a land speed record, now's the time. All day your body has been building to this moment — temperature is at its peak, strength is soaring, air passages are clearest and fine motor skills are at their most precise. This might be a good time to test your limits with some late-day sprints. Bob Williams, a running coach in Portland, Oregon, suggests that walkers and runners try these one-minute pickup speed bouts once or twice a week.
After a good warm-up, set out for a walk or run. Pick up the pace for a full minute, pushing your heart rate up. Drop back to an easier pace for three or four minutes, or as long as it takes your breathing and heart rate to settle. Once you've recovered, pick up the pace again for a minute, and then recover again. (Keep the changes of pace fluid.) Start with one or two speed bouts in a half-hour walk or run and, as you get stronger, work toward four or five. Allow muscles at least 48 hours to recover between speed sessions.
5:00 p.m. Ozone alert Concentrations of ozone are at their highest now, particularly when rush hour exhaust saturates a sunny, windless sky. Breathing space isn't so great at the gym either, since the after-work surge usually means a wait list for spinning class. Better to take a deep breath at your desk, make tomorrow's to-do list and relieve today's tension with a Seated Twist, a modified yoga pose.
Sit in a chair, back straight. Slowly twist left, holding the chair back with your left hand. Breathing, twisting, feel the gentle tension release from your spine. Chin up, turn your head to follow. Untwist slowly. Repeat right.
Night Moves
6:00 p.m. Ouch Your pain threshold is at an all-time low and won't improve again until eight o'clock tonight. Now's not a good time to go into labor.
6:30 p.m. Dinner time Nutritionists attest to the honey-I'm-home munchies. If you've been too busy to eat right, your blood sugar is plummeting, and that inner voice is saying, "Why bother with the salad spinner when here's this neat bag of chips?" After work and especially after a workout, sit down to a healthful dinner — heavy on the grains and veggies, light on protein and fat. Unless you're a nighttime exerciser, you probably did most of your calorie-burning earlier today, so watch portion size and cool it on dessert.
7:00 p.m. Fresh air
After sundown, air pollution drops considerably, so if you missed your morning stroll, put a hustle on it. Wear light-colored clothing or reflective tape so you're not camouflaged by the night.
7:30 p.m. Prime time
If you Must See TV, get off the sofa. Studies show you're likely to spin/walk/run longer watching E.R. than while unamused. Since you're also more likely to let intensity sag, keep from being a boob in front of the tube with speed work during commercials, or with the Sidewinder, a lateral move from Klahn for adductors and abductors (muscles often ignored during our mostly forward-facing days).
After warming up on a treadmill at your usual cardio pace, cut the speed down to a crawl. Turn your pelvis perpendicular to the front bar and your gait becomes a side shuffle. (Don't cross one foot in front of the other.) See if you can shuffle sideways for the length of a commercial. Return to normal position and pace when George Clooney comes back. During the second commercial break, flip sides. Pick up speed when you feel at ease.
10:00 p.m. Bedtime Your body temperature begins to drop, mental alertness dwindles; unless you're an owl, you're not likely to accomplish anything now. In fact, studies show that mental power and reaction responses are so low in the wee hours that this is a prime time for car accidents and industrial disasters. (The Exxon Valdez and Chernobyl debacles both happened in the middle of the night.) Tuck yourself in and stay out of harm's way. You'll need your rest if you're going to get up tomorrow and start all over again.
Ever wake to scribble a 3:00 a.m. epiphany that looks downright embarrassing in the clear light of day? Notice how saving your run for late afternoon makes you feel fast and loose enough to reel in Michael Johnson?
The explanation for such mind and body swings may lie in your circadian rhythms, the biological time clock that cues physiological responses — body temperature, muscle strength, lung capacity, mental alertness. When we're in sync, we perform better, sleep better, think better. But when we're out of sync — ever been jet lagged? — we're really out of it. Some studies suggest there may be an optimal time for all sorts of activities — aerobicizing, brainstorming, even hitting the boss up for a raise. NASA has been building missions around this idea for years (who wants a groggy astronaut piloting a billion-dollar shuttle?), but only recently has the sports world started to catch on. Roger S. Smith, a sleep medicine specialist in Palo Alto, California, says athletic capacity can fluctuate as much as 10 percent throughout the day.
And who couldn't use an edge? We asked trainers, sleep physiologists and nutritionists to create the fittest 24 hours imaginable. Sure, you can't alter your entire agenda; try just a little schedule juggling. You may have the fittest day of your life.
But before you read any further, ask yourself: Are you an owl or a lark? Are you bright-eyed and singing shower arias at 5 a.m.? Or the sort who gets a second wind when Conan O'Brien starts his monologue? Sleep researchers say most of us are either larks or owls — some of us to an extreme. This ideal day best fits someone who rises at 6 or 7 a.m. and hits the hay at 10 or 11 p.m., so owls or larks can set their clocks back or forward a few hours accordingly. Click on the times in the upper right hand corner to find the perfect times — and exercises — for your workout.
Wake-up Call
5:00 a.m. Dream time It's about an hour before the alarm starts to squawk, and your body temperature, which crashed around midnight, is rising like the sun. After about seven hours in the sack, you're in R.E.M. — your dream life is at its most active and imaginative (if Brad Pitt is going to have a cameo in your unconscious, this is his cue). Strength and flexibility are at an all-day low; you may as well dream on.
6:15 a.m. Morning motivation If sticking to a routine is a problem, stick to a.m. workouts. "Studies show that people who exercise in the morning are three times more likely to keep exercising," says Levi Query, an exercise physiologist at Adventist Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. "There are far fewer distractions, and you only have to take a shower once." If you're full of excuses — it's raining out, the gym's too expensive — try jumping rope.
Master the standard skip, then move on to these: Jog-step-jog in place, hopping over the rope one foot at a time. Great for calves, because you have to push your entire body weight off the balls of your feet. High knee: As the rope passes under the bottom foot, lift your other knee as high as it will go. This tough technique targets hips, thighs and abs.
6:45 a.m. Feeling no pain You're best able to tolerate physical pain — thanks to a higher endorphin level — between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., some experts say. (Reason enough to switch to an early-rising dentist and reschedule that root canal.) For those members of the Crunch-Hater's Club, Chanze LaMott, aerobics director of the Portland, Oregon-area Gold's Gyms, says now's the time to tackle a few of these killer crunches.
Lie on your back with your hands behind your head, your knees bent, right ankle resting on your left knee. Lift shoulders as you pull your knees toward your chest. If the move is too tough, modify it by leaving your right foot on the ground and pulling your left knee toward your head. Try 10, then alternate legs for another set. When you're immune to these, do 20 reps per side.
7:30 a.m. Big breakfast Nutritionists agree that a substantial breakfast — say, cereal and milk or fruit and yogurt or a bagel and jam — is the best way to power up for the day ahead, refuel after morning workouts (one hour after is best) and prevent binges later on. Speaking of refueling, try to plan your exercise schedule around your stomach's to avoid that googly feeling in step class. (It takes three to four hours to digest a big meal, two to three for a small one and less than an hour for a snack.)
On the Job
10:00 a.m. You're a genius! Each morning your body releases a hormone called cortisol, which works to speed the release of energy-producing glucose, the blood sugar that fuels muscle and brain cells. Your body temp is up — and so are your powers of concentration and manual dexterity. Should you finish that report or fine-tune the backhand? Unless you're the sort who can read The Brothers Karamazov while Mastering the Stair, take advantage of this stroke of brilliance and stick by your desk. Portland yoga instructor Gisele Guerrasio suggests the Seated Star, a borrowed-from-yoga pose to shed shoulder tension caused by crouching over keyboards.
Sit in a chair, feet planted, back straight. Bring your arms behind your back, hands clasped, and lift them away from your back until you feel gentle tension. Exhaling, lean forward from your hips so that your chest touches your thighs, and continue lifting your arms. Inhale, rise and repeat for good measure.
Noon power lunch If you exercised this morning, eat a well-balanced lunch now. (You're best able to restore depleted glycogen levels two hours after working out.) Or use a mini-workout to defuse that midday mental time bomb prodding you to tell your boss what you really think. "When you're angry, you can yell and scream or you can beat yourself up or you can take out your frustration with some exercise," says Kate Hays, Ph.D., a sports psychologist in Toronto, Canada. These power kicks from Justin Klahn, a black belt tae kwon do instructor in Portland, Oregon, target quads, butt and hip flexors. (There's no harm in imagining the boss is your opponent.)
A. Warm up with a walk if you've been sitting. Then stand at an angle with your left hip and shoulder forward, feet about hip width apart, knees soft. Fists are together to protect your chin, elbows wide.
B. Pull the right knee forward and up (left knee stays soft) and snap the leg out in a fluid (but sharp) kick at an invisible enemy's groin. Compel the motion from your heel to pack a powerful punch. Return to standing. Do 10 kicks per leg.
Afternoon Busters
1:00 p.m. Trough time Your mental alertness is flagging and even though your body temperature is still on the rise, you're likely to feel a little muzzy. Scientists say this energy trough has nothing to do with lunch — though a big one can exacerbate that drowsy feeling. Don't call a meeting now unless you want your coworkers to snooze through it.
3:00 p.m. You're a genius, again! Your mental acuity has rebounded from its one o'clock low. Since the muscles in your body are warming up to their 24-hour peak, your handshake is actually firmer. You (and everyone around you) are likely to feel better than you have all day. Quick! Corner that coworker who owes you a favor or hit up the boss for that raise.
4:00 p.m. The power hour If you're out to set a land speed record, now's the time. All day your body has been building to this moment — temperature is at its peak, strength is soaring, air passages are clearest and fine motor skills are at their most precise. This might be a good time to test your limits with some late-day sprints. Bob Williams, a running coach in Portland, Oregon, suggests that walkers and runners try these one-minute pickup speed bouts once or twice a week.
After a good warm-up, set out for a walk or run. Pick up the pace for a full minute, pushing your heart rate up. Drop back to an easier pace for three or four minutes, or as long as it takes your breathing and heart rate to settle. Once you've recovered, pick up the pace again for a minute, and then recover again. (Keep the changes of pace fluid.) Start with one or two speed bouts in a half-hour walk or run and, as you get stronger, work toward four or five. Allow muscles at least 48 hours to recover between speed sessions.
5:00 p.m. Ozone alert Concentrations of ozone are at their highest now, particularly when rush hour exhaust saturates a sunny, windless sky. Breathing space isn't so great at the gym either, since the after-work surge usually means a wait list for spinning class. Better to take a deep breath at your desk, make tomorrow's to-do list and relieve today's tension with a Seated Twist, a modified yoga pose.
Sit in a chair, back straight. Slowly twist left, holding the chair back with your left hand. Breathing, twisting, feel the gentle tension release from your spine. Chin up, turn your head to follow. Untwist slowly. Repeat right.
Night Moves
6:00 p.m. Ouch Your pain threshold is at an all-time low and won't improve again until eight o'clock tonight. Now's not a good time to go into labor.
6:30 p.m. Dinner time Nutritionists attest to the honey-I'm-home munchies. If you've been too busy to eat right, your blood sugar is plummeting, and that inner voice is saying, "Why bother with the salad spinner when here's this neat bag of chips?" After work and especially after a workout, sit down to a healthful dinner — heavy on the grains and veggies, light on protein and fat. Unless you're a nighttime exerciser, you probably did most of your calorie-burning earlier today, so watch portion size and cool it on dessert.
7:00 p.m. Fresh air
After sundown, air pollution drops considerably, so if you missed your morning stroll, put a hustle on it. Wear light-colored clothing or reflective tape so you're not camouflaged by the night.
7:30 p.m. Prime time
If you Must See TV, get off the sofa. Studies show you're likely to spin/walk/run longer watching E.R. than while unamused. Since you're also more likely to let intensity sag, keep from being a boob in front of the tube with speed work during commercials, or with the Sidewinder, a lateral move from Klahn for adductors and abductors (muscles often ignored during our mostly forward-facing days).
After warming up on a treadmill at your usual cardio pace, cut the speed down to a crawl. Turn your pelvis perpendicular to the front bar and your gait becomes a side shuffle. (Don't cross one foot in front of the other.) See if you can shuffle sideways for the length of a commercial. Return to normal position and pace when George Clooney comes back. During the second commercial break, flip sides. Pick up speed when you feel at ease.
10:00 p.m. Bedtime Your body temperature begins to drop, mental alertness dwindles; unless you're an owl, you're not likely to accomplish anything now. In fact, studies show that mental power and reaction responses are so low in the wee hours that this is a prime time for car accidents and industrial disasters. (The Exxon Valdez and Chernobyl debacles both happened in the middle of the night.) Tuck yourself in and stay out of harm's way. You'll need your rest if you're going to get up tomorrow and start all over again.
Burn More Calories: Jump-start your metabolism
Jump-start your metabolism for maximum benefits
Metabolism gets a bad rap. It's one of the first things people blame when they start to put on weight or can't lose stubborn pounds. But here's the good news: You can make your metabolism work for you, not against you. Learn which activities will speed up your metabolism and maximize your calorie-burning potential, what it takes to beat middle-age spread and how to find the right time to exercise.
Metabolism Meter
Make the most of your metabolism
Nobody likes dieting. But is there really any other choice for those who want to lose weight?
Yes, there is. Look at the graph below to see how many calories you can burn if you replace some fat with muscle.
If a 150-pound woman converts 10% of her body fat to muscle, she can eat 300 extra calories per day without gaining weight.
There's a lot you can do to increase the amount of CALORIES you burn, even when you're sitting around doing nothing. The key is understanding your metabolic rate.
The metabolic rate is a rough estimate of how much energy — calories — the body uses each day. Your total metabolic rate is determined by three factors:
By adjusting each of these factors, you can boost your metabolism without making radical alterations to your diet.
"Even small changes, done consistently, add up to a good deal of calories," says Jack Wilmore, Ph.D., a leading expert on fitness and weight control and the head of the department of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A&M University (http://hlknweb.tamu.edu/).
What's Your Efficiency Rating?
Just as different cars burn fuel at different rates, so the metabolic "engine" burns fuel faster in some people than in others.
Most of this variation is due to differences in basal metabolic rate (BMR), the minimum amount of energy necessary to keep a human alive. It takes a lot of energy to run a body, and the average person burns quite a lot of CALORIES even when lying completely still. In fact, the BMR accounts for about 70 percent of the calories you burn each day.
Your BMR and total metabolic rate are determined by many factors, some of which are within your control (body composition, work schedule), others which are not (age, gender). But altering the controllable factors can make quite a difference in the number of calories you burn over time.
Metabolism gets a bad rap. It's one of the first things people blame when they start to put on weight or can't lose stubborn pounds. But here's the good news: You can make your metabolism work for you, not against you. Learn which activities will speed up your metabolism and maximize your calorie-burning potential, what it takes to beat middle-age spread and how to find the right time to exercise.
Metabolism Meter
Make the most of your metabolism
Nobody likes dieting. But is there really any other choice for those who want to lose weight?
Yes, there is. Look at the graph below to see how many calories you can burn if you replace some fat with muscle.
If a 150-pound woman converts 10% of her body fat to muscle, she can eat 300 extra calories per day without gaining weight.
There's a lot you can do to increase the amount of CALORIES you burn, even when you're sitting around doing nothing. The key is understanding your metabolic rate.
The metabolic rate is a rough estimate of how much energy — calories — the body uses each day. Your total metabolic rate is determined by three factors:
- The basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the minimum amount of energy required to keep your heart pumping, and brain and organs functioning while you are at rest
- The energy you burn during physical activity
- The energy you burn during the digestion of food
By adjusting each of these factors, you can boost your metabolism without making radical alterations to your diet.
"Even small changes, done consistently, add up to a good deal of calories," says Jack Wilmore, Ph.D., a leading expert on fitness and weight control and the head of the department of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A&M University (http://hlknweb.tamu.edu/).
What's Your Efficiency Rating?
Just as different cars burn fuel at different rates, so the metabolic "engine" burns fuel faster in some people than in others.
Most of this variation is due to differences in basal metabolic rate (BMR), the minimum amount of energy necessary to keep a human alive. It takes a lot of energy to run a body, and the average person burns quite a lot of CALORIES even when lying completely still. In fact, the BMR accounts for about 70 percent of the calories you burn each day.
Your BMR and total metabolic rate are determined by many factors, some of which are within your control (body composition, work schedule), others which are not (age, gender). But altering the controllable factors can make quite a difference in the number of calories you burn over time.
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