Posts Tagged ‘Fitness Tips’

How Much Exercise & Dieting is Too Much?

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Are you pushing your body to its limit?     Hiring personal trainers and starting to get your life back on a healthy track is a great thing. Those who attend regular personal training sessions not only have an easier time losing excess weight, but they gain an enormous amount of energy and tend to feel better about themselves as well.

     Yet, there is such thing as going too far. It’s a great thing to be a gym rat who loves personal training, but your health could be jeopardized if you cross the line into gym nut. Similarly, watching your calories and switching to nutrient-dense foods is excellent for your health, but not eating enough or being too restrictive could present health risks.

     So, how do you know when you are venturing too close to that line separating healthy from obnoxious and unhealthy? For starters, your personal trainers will tell you when you are pushing it too far. There are some personal trainers that just want their money from the sessions so they may not say much, but for the most part trainers want you to be a healthy reflection of what their services can accomplish so they will let you know if they are concerned.

     Another way to determine if you have taken personal training and healthy eating to the extreme is to ask yourself if it is interfering with other aspects of your daily life. If you are determined to reach your goals so you make sure never to miss a session with your personal trainers that is one thing, but if you have stopped going out with friends entirely because you are living at the gym you may have a problem.

     Personal training should enhance your life so you do more with your friends and have even more fun. It should never take your interest away from other activities you enjoy.

     If you are feeling drained and without energy even though you are seeing great personal trainers, you might be pushing it too hard. Personal training should rev up your metabolism and give you tons of energy. As the weight comes off you should feel healthier and healthier. If the opposite is happening, you are likely doing too much.

     You would assume that others in your life would tell you when they are concerned with your health, but you can’t always trust people who love you. If it has been many years since they have seen you at a healthy weight or if they have always known you as an overweight person, they may think you look too thin when you are at a completely reasonable weight. This is because they are used to looking at you as a much larger person.

     Some people may also feel you look too thin if they are overweight themselves. It might be a hint of jealousy trying to bring you down, but in most cases they just don’t realize what a healthy weight looks like on you.

     Remember you should feel alive and vivacious after starting personal training. As the weight comes off you should feel better and have more energy. If this doesn’t happen then discuss this with your personal trainers. Make sure you aren’t pushing too hard or working out too many days.

     If you are working out on your own and are feeling worse rather than better, then it’s time to seek out personal training so a professional can design your workout program and instruct you on how hard to push and when to take a break.

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The Best “New” Exercises & Stretches

Monday, August 16th, 2010
Method Fitness Fitness Tips

Method Fitness: The best "new" stretches and how to use them, even when you skip the gym.

Many people who sign up for fitness boot camps for women in NYC are shocked with the types of exercises that they encounter in the first few sessions. This is because most people think of very basic military-style exercises and stretches when they think about weight loss boot camps.

Push-ups and jumping jacks are the typical exercises that people think of doing when they sign up for fitness boot camps for women, but what they are actually hit with is usually something very different. Yes, those exercises are thrown into some weight loss boot camps, but the core workout presented in our boot camps is anything but traditional or old school.

Reinventing the Wheel

Personal trainers love exercises like jumping jacks and push-ups today just as much as they did in the past because they are highly effective. The difference in today’s fitness boot camps for women is that trainers are taking those old school exercises and putting a modern twist on them. They are making them even more effective by incorporating different groups of muscles throughout the body.

For instance, consider the squat. We all know what squats are and if you have ever attended weight loss boot camps you know that they are extremely effective at shaping your thighs and toning your rear end. They also happen to be the base movement or stance for a wide variety of newer exercises commonly used in weight loss boot camps.

For instance, kickboxing segments of a boot camp will have you bending down in a squat while punching in different directions. You may also perform different types of squats with different leg positions and even incorporating weights or workout bands.

Combined Movements

Another newer form of exercise that is often used in fitness boot camps for women involves combining two or three separate movements into one. For instance, a personal trainer may have you squat down then come up into a dumbbell press over the head, sinking right back down into the squat. Or, you could find yourself squatting down and then leaping straight up in the air, coming straight back down into a squat.

Combined movements are especially effective when you add lower body movements with strength training movements for the upper body. Just lifting weights for the upper body doesn’t keep your heart rate very high, but if you are lunging, squatting, crunching, and doing other movements along with the arm exercises you can get more cardio and fat burning benefit while strengthening and toning.

Trainer Innovations

The great thing about weight loss boot camps is they are usually led by some of the most talented, experienced personal trainers. These trainers come up with their own innovative moves and combinations of moves that aren’t found anywhere else. Sometimes they have a moment of inspiration and come up with a new challenge on the spot. Other times they have been planning the torture days or weeks in advance.

The only thing that is for certain with fitness boot camps for women is that you will not be doing the old school movements that you expect. You may start out with some jumping jacks but you can guarantee there will be something more challenging, more modern, incorporated at some point.

This surprise is what adds challenge and difficulty to the workout and that is what makes weight loss boot camps so successful and life-transforming!

For more fitness tips, please visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/methodfitnessny and press the “LIKE” button at the top of the page to become a member of the Method Fitness community!

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Easy, Effective Ways to Exercise at Home

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

In-home personal training is a new concept that blends the effectiveness of hiring a personal trainer with the convenience of working out in your own home. In-home personal trainers in NYC come to you so there are no excuses to not stick with your personal fitness goals. If you struggle to stick to a routine exercise program or find that excuses should be your middle name, this is a great option to consider an in-home personal trainer in NYC.

If you doubt that you could actually get an effective workout right in your own home, consider the following ideas to get started with or without an in-home personal trainer.

Make TV Time Workout Time

How much television do you watch on a daily or weekly basis? If you spend even 15 minutes in front of the TV, you have time to exercise! Not having the time to get in an effective workout is the biggest excuse personal trainers often hear, but it is nothing but an excuse. Any small bit of time that you have free can be used to whip your body into shape.

If you have time for a television show even once a week you have time to exercise. If you have a treadmill or other piece of home fitness equipment put it in front of the TV and make yourself work it for at least half of every TV show you watch.

If you don’t have home equipment, jog or march in place while watching TV. You can even use dumbbells or hand weights while you watch.

Go Back to Childhood

Do you have a park near your home? Or, do you have playground equipment in your backyard for your children? If so, then you can take a tip from some of the best in-home personal trainers in NYC and travel back to childhood to get in a great workout. Try to do chin-ups on the monkey bars. Climb the walls and run up and down the slides. Get creative and you will find many ways to work up a sweat just like you did as a child.

The benefit of in-home personal training in NYC when working out in this manner is you  have someone to show you proper form so you eliminate the risk of injury. In-home personal trainers can also give you ideas and spot you so that you make it through the harder moves.

Old School Still Rocks

Think of old school exercises that you did as a child or maybe remember your mother doing with Jane Fonda in the living room years ago. Think of very basic yet highly effective exercise movements that can be done without any equipment. Some ideas include:

* Jumping Jacks

* Push-Ups

* Sit-Ups

* Grapevines

* Toe-Touches

* Knee Lifts

There are hundreds of different moves that used to be performed through old school aerobics videos.

Dance it Off

This is probably the most fun way to workout in your own home: dance! Turn up the music and get your booty moving. You can burn off tons of calories if you put all your energy into this simple yet effective form of cardio.

In-home personal training in NYC is a great idea if working out at home fits your personality or life circumstances. While you may be able to sweet talk and excuse yourself out of workouts, in-home personal trainers in NYC will make you stick to your word so real progress is made.

Check out the Method Fitness Facebook page for more fitness tips!

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