online edition - PRO Sports Club

fitness center
By Abigail Rowe, CSCS
7No Pain, No Gain?
Pain is your body’s way of telling you that
something’s wrong. I always remind my
clients that there’s a difference between pain
and discomfort and everybody’s threshold is
different. While pushing yourself can often
lead to more results, listen to your body
and don’t do more than you can handle.
1Spot reduction
When I was in high school,
my best friend and I did 1,000
crunches a day, convinced that
we’d have perfectly whittled
abs by bikini season. Little did
we realize there’s no such thing
as “spot reduction.” The best
way to lose those love-handles?
Focus on total body weight loss
and firming the muscles.
Not monitoring your heart rate
If you follow the heart rate
recommendations on the cardio
machines, you may be doing
yourself a disservice. A heart rate
that’s too low will use more fat
for energy, but it may take much
longer to burn the same amount
of calories. By the same token, a
heart rate that’s too high makes
you anaerobic, which may burn up
your lean tissue. Take advantage of
your free Get Started session with a
personal trainer and establish your
individual heart rate range to help
you reach your goals sooner.
6
Not taking a rest day
One of my clients did cardio for 30 days straight without
taking a day off. Not only was he tired, but he wasn’t
losing weight. If you rest 1-2 days per week, you’ll have
more energy for your workouts and avoid overtraining
injuries. Rest days enable muscle repair and/or growth
and recovery of the central nervous system. Enjoyable,
low-intensity activities such as a walk or leisurely cycle are
perfectly okay. Of course, if you need a day to veg on the
sofa, that’s fine too.
Workout
Mistakes
THREE
Only doing cardio
Cardio is a great way to burn
calories. However, your body
always loses a percentage of calories
from fat and a percentage of
calories from lean tissue/muscle. In
order to keep the muscle and burn
mostly fat, incorporate strength
training to replace the lean tissue
calories burned during cardio.
Along with exercise, eating a wellbalanced
diet can help you reach
your goals sooner.
Doing the same exercises day in/day out
As your body becomes accustomed to an exercise
routine, it expends less energy to do the same
amount of work. So you’re not burning the
same amount of calories you initially did. The
same goes for strength training. If you want to
continually challenge a muscle and burn calories,
change up the exercise for that muscle group.
IV
Not stretching
In order for muscles to reach their full potential for strength,
they must be able to stretch to 120 percent of their natural
resting length. This won’t happen if a muscle is tight from
being over-worked. Here are a few simple tips. Stretch
all major muscle groups, hold each stretch approximately
30 seconds (don’t bounce), stretch after warming up, and
stretch only to the point of discomfort, not pain.
Photo: istockphoto.com
30 PRO PULSE MARCH-APRIL 2011