5 Fitness Rules that you should break this week!

 I'm over the rules.  

The rules don't seem to be working yet we seem to be reluctant to break them.  As a nation, we've heard all of these rules don't eat bananas after 5 p.m. or better yet EVER, only workout every other day, eat sugar free, gluten free, and taste free food but we're still out of shape and more miserable than ever.

I say let's say throw the rules out and keep what works. First of all: everyone is DIFFERENT.  We all metabolize food differently, we all have different biochemical makeups, and all of us have different backgrounds/paradigms.  

One of the things I've learned is that we need to approach our health/wellness instinctively.  What works for one person, may not work for other people.  For instance my coach has me doing high volume training and that works for me.  I've responded really well to the program.  Now the RULES say that this is wrong.  I shouldn't be training the same muscle groups 2 days in a row, but it works for me and I have not gotten injured.

This week I am going to be sharing with you 5 Fitness Rules that you should break or better yet kill them altogether.

5 Fitness Rules that you should break or better yet should die

1) You have to do Cardio and Strength Training as Separate Workouts

2) You only need to work your muscles every other day

3) You need to drastically cut calories and do hours of cardio when wanting to lose weight

4) Beginners should do easy workouts

5) There is an ideal body weight and look that everyone should aspire to

1) You have to do Cardio and Strength Training as Separate Workouts

Who came up with this rule?  It simply isn’t true.

If the goal is body fat loss or total body conditioning, then I prefer to incorporate cardiovascular work into our strength sessions because the more muscles we get working, the more the calorie expenditure.

I’ve had clients wear their Heart Rate monitors to our sessions and they were ASTOUNDED to find that their heart rate was higher than it is when they go for a run. (One of the reasons I love HR monitors)

When I am trying to improve client’s conditioning, sometimes I will have them run on the treadmill for about 3-5 minutes during the session.  I want them to maximize our sessions.

During my own workouts sometimes I have treadmill intervals at the end of each circuit.  All of this is to get that metabolism revved up during the session and afterward.

I also like to incorporate exercises such as: Stepups, Popsquats, Mountain Climbers, Kettlebell swings, and burpees into the session so we can get some total body work going and these exercises elevate the Heart Rate.

The more muscles we work...the more calories we burn!  

Most people need to combine their cardio/strength workouts because they are pressed for time and also they need to work on overall fitness and conditioning.  Unless your goal is bodybuilding/aesthetic work, I’m not all that hot on you doing split workouts.  General Fitness/Fat Loss Clients are much better off combining Cardio and Strength Workouts.  If you work out 3-4x per week, I definitely recommend this method of training.

Here’s a sample workout I would use with a Fat Loss Client utilizing Cardio and Strength Training

Of course we would do a dynamic warm up first but here’s a sample circuit.  I also made sure to include the purpose of the exercise

Sample Workout

Circuit 1

Plie Squats (squat)

Push Press (push)

Push ups (Push/Body weight Exercise)

Gate Latches (Slow Pop Squats with stabilization)  (stabilization/Reactive Training/Conditioning)

Walking Lunge (Mobility/Lunging)

Row to Triceps Kickback (Pull/Multi Joint Exercise/Core Stabilization)

Intervals on the Bike for 5 minutes: 1 minute Fast/1 min Recover (Cardio/Power)

Stay on the Lookout for my YouTube channel where I will be demonstrating these exercises and also my vlogs!!

Until then,

Happy Training!