Need Motivation? Try these 8 Fitness Tips

A fitness trainer offers 8 things to try when your workout is just not working out.

Exercise boosters: enlisting outside help
Are you stuck in a workout rut? Not getting the results you'd like or just bored of the same old routine? Personal trainer Deb Kay from Women's Fitness Clubs of Canada has 10 tips to keep you motivated and moving this summer:

1. Exercise motivation booster: Mix it up

Variety is the spice of life, and exercise is no exception. Whatever it is you're doing, change it up, even if it's in a small way. If you're strength training, use a lighter weight but increase the number of reps; if you normally do standing exercises on the floor, stand on a BOSU or sit on a yoga ball to increase your core strength. Kay also advises you switch up your routine every five to eight weeks.

2. Exercise motivation booster: Shock your body

If you're not seeing results from a workout, your body might have plateaued and adapted to whatever you're doing; meaning it doesn't work as hard. So, kick-start your exercise routine by upping the ante: increase the speed of your activity or add more repetitions; add some weight or simply extend the length of your workout to push your body harder.

3. Exercise motivation booster: Get professional help

If you can, hire a personal trainer, even if it's only for one or two sessions. A PT draws from a depth of knowledge and experience, and can tailor an ideal workout for you that will target your desired areas of improvement. Plus, learning from a pro reduces the likelihood of injury if you're trying a new regimen since you'll be taught the best way to perform various exercises.

4. Exercise motivation booster: Call a buddy

Working out with a friend or a group is helpful if you're feeling unmotivated. It gives you company and allows for the creation of mini-competitions (who can do the most reps? who can skip rope the longest?) to keep things fun and interesting. You can also be one another's cheerleaders, pushing one another to keep going.

5. Exercise motivation booster: Interval training

Adding short bursts of higher-intensity activity into your cardio or resistance workout routine forces your body to work harder and helps burn more fat, thereby improving your workout results. It also ensures that your workout is never monotonous.

6. Exercise motivation booster: Get outside

It's summer! Why not take advantage of the nice weather and move your workout outdoors? Go for a long walk outside instead of on a treadmill. Hop on your bicycle and tour the neighbourhood instead of sitting on a stationary bike. Or even just take your free weights into the backyard and do your bicep curls under the trees.

7. Exercise motivation booster: Change your tunes

Are you listening to music or watching TV while you work out? If not, give it a try. And, if you're already doing it, ensure that your music is upbeat, energetic and motivating to keep you moving. Distracting your mind with sound or visuals is a good way to avoid boredom, thereby increasing the duration of your activity... which ultimately improves results.

8. Exercise motivation booster: Chart your progress

If you can tangibly see yourself improving -- you can walk farther, lift more weight, do 10 more push-ups than you could two weeks ago -- you're more likely to keep moving forward. Setting and achieving goals is a fantastic motivator.Whatever you choose to do, the key is to keep at it and keep it interesting for yourself and for your body.

Check me out on The Get Fit Club on WKMG Local 6

I invite you all to check me out on Local 6 news today and every Sunday (WKMG CBS—Central Florida's Brighthouse Networks) at 6:30pm and 11:00pm.

The Get Fit Club is changing 6 viewer’s lives with the help of our partners Gold’s Gym, Campisi Health Centers, Florida Heart Group, Florida’s Blood Centers and Smoothie King.

Follow the six Local 6 Get Fit Club members as myself and Local 6 anchor Todd Romero help them build a healthier lifestyle through proper diet, exercise and heart healthy information.

Visit the Local 6 Get Fit Club page each week to watch new episodes, read member bios, visit our sponsors links and for a new tip from me on how you can change your life for the better!

http://www.local6.com/local6getfitclub

Thanks!

What is Cellulite and How to Fight It!

The first thing you should know is that, in the true medical sense, cellulite is simply plain old fat. Yet it does have one defining characteristic—a dimpled, cottage-cheese, orange-peel look.

Here’s why: Everybody has connective tissue that separates fat cells into compartments. While men tend to have horizontal or crisscross patterns to those compartments, women’s compartments have a honeycomb appearance, giving fat a greater chance to protrude or bulge, hence the cottage-cheese effect.

As a result, women are more likely to develop cellulite than men, mainly around the hips and thighs. However, men can develop the condition, too. Although cellulite becomes more noticeable with age, largely because the skin gets thinner over time, it generally strikes individuals in their 30s.

Of course, not everybody will develop cellulite in their lifetime. That’s because genetics determines where your fat cells are and how many fat cells you have. Activity level is another crucial factor associated with cellulite. If you exercise regularly, you’ll decrease your odds of developing cellulite, or if you do, the dimpled look won’t be quite as pronounced.

Beware of the Quick Fix

Beware of cellulite cream makers, medical procedures like liposuction or cosmetic treatments like body wraps. They don’t work. No cream applied to the skin can penetrate the skin and rearrange the fat cells beneath the surface.

Liposuction is designed to remove excess deposits of fat, but it won’t change the appearance of fat. As for body wraps, the effect is only temporary. Fat is compressible, so when you do the wrap, it will smooth your skin, but by the next day, your skin will be back to normal.

Another misconception is that dieting alone can zap fat. Although there are diets that make you lose weight, at least one quarter of the weight lost is muscle, which lowers your metabolism. If you return to your usual eating habits, you’ll likely regain more weight than you lost because your metabolism is slower.

The Cellulite Solution

So what can you do to diminish the appearance of cellulite? Experts recommend daily cardio exercise combined with two to three strength-training sessions a week and a healthy diet. The good news is that there’s actual proof that this approach works.

Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Mass., and author of No More Cellulite (Perigee, 2003), designed a cellulite-reduction program that includes 20 minutes of strength training with five exercises for the upper body and five for the lower body, and 20 minutes of treadmill walking or jogging, staying at about 70 percent to 80 percent of maximal heart rate. This program is followed three days per week, although participants can always do more cardio.

Participants in an eight-week study of Westcott’s program lost about 1 pound per week or about 10 pounds after two months. When participants combined the exercise program with good eating habits (a food pyramid–based diet consisting of either 1,600, 2,220 or 2,800 calories), they doubled the fat loss, losing 9.1 pounds of fat (compared to 4.5 pounds without the nutritional component)

How to Get Started

An exercise program doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. For strength-training exercises, any tool is fine, including dumbbells, elastic bands, body weight and machines. If you prefer machines, leg presses, seated leg curls, hip adduction and abduction, and overhead presses are recommended.

Effective free-weight exercises include the dumbbell squat, band hip adduction and abduction, bodyweight trunk extension and trunk curl.

Still not sure where to start? A session or two with a certified personal trainer can help get you started on the right track. And while results won’t happen overnight, a consistent program of regular exercise combined with a sensible diet can go a long way toward not only improving your appearance, but your overall health as well.

Daily Inspiration

Joy is the best makeup
~Anne Lamott

Personal Trainer Series: What To Look For in A Personal Trainer--Part 4

No formal education can beat getting down and dirty and working with all types and levels of clients day after day. An excellent trainer who has been certified and training clients for a minimum of three years. You want a problem-solver who has seen a lot of different kinds of people in many different situations.

Staff Trainers in Public Gyms vs. Independent Trainers: When trainers first begin training, they tend to work on staff at training facilities in order to help build their clientele. That doesn't make them bad trainers—but they don't necessarily have a lot of experience. Often these trainers will graduate to training independently in these gyms or in trainer-only facilities. Either way, ask for a list of current clients as references so that you can ask them more about the trainer's style and dependability (for example, are they generally on time, do they regularly use new material, are they safety focused, and so on).

Assessments: Good and experienced trainers will always carry every client through a very detailed assessment of their bodies—including strengths, weaknesses, posture issues, body measurements, and so on. And all of that is before starting any type of workout program. Always ask a potential trainer about the details of his or her assessment before starting to work with together. If your trainer does not appear willing and able to do an upfront assessment of your entire body, this should be a big red flag.

Documentation of Workouts/Progress: Good and experienced trainers will always document every client's workouts in terms of the exercises and weights they are lifting in order to accurately track their progress and results from week to week. If your trainer does not show up to your workouts with a written plan of what he or she wants to accomplish on that day, then this is another red flag. Your trainer should also be prepared to give you copies of your workouts so that you can do them on your own—the documentation of these workouts should be exact and accurate and easy for you to understand.