Flexibility

Muscles need to be in proper balance to work together optimally. Our posture and movement assessments will tell us which appear to be too active or short and which appear to be underactive or extended. We need to stretch the short muscles and strengthen or activate those that are long or extended. Stretching and strengthening go hand in hand to achieve flexibility; the genera rule is that when a muscle is tight the opposite muscle is extended.

Here's an easy way to think about this: those muscles that you sit on all day long, your glutes, are probably asleep; the opposite muscles, hip flexors, are flexed all day long and remain short. The hip flexors can get so tight that they inhibit the glute. So stretch the hip flexors, strengthen the glutes, try not to overdo it on exercises that flex your hips... and you are on your way.

Do the same type of assessment and programming for other area of your body.

Advanced Functional/Core Mini Workout

The following are some selected exercises that some of my advanced clients are doing...you might not be ready for them right now but with consistent effort can work towards them. Feel free to ask me to demonstrate them if you don't know what they are:

Tube Walking (Hip Abduction with Band)
Reverse fly with Chest on Stability Ball
Single Leg Deadlift into PNF Pattern (drawing sword)
Single Arm Cable Chest Press/Lunge/Step to balance on One Leg
Single Arm Cable Row/Reverse Lunge/Step to Balance on One Leg
Lateral Lunge/Balance on one Leg/Biceps Curl
Single Arm Cable Triceps Pushdown Kneeling on Bosu Ball
Single Leg Box Jumps (Plyometrics)

We're generally working in a range of 2 sets of 12-15 repetitions. At the beginner and intermediate level, you might start with a standing cable chest press, progress to one leg chest press, then lunging chest press and so on, until you are ready to do the more advanced version of the exercises. One of my most advanced clients had never exercised until about 2 years ago and can do all of these exercises.

BODY FAT: Define it. Measure it. Lose it.

Think of Body Fat as Your Body's Way of Storing Extra Energy (Calories) and Protecting Itself

The scientific term for fat is adipose tissue, your body stores extra energy in the form of fat cells in the adipose tissue.

MYTH: When you exercise your body turns fat into muscle, when you stop exercising, it turns back to fat.

FACT: Fat and Muscle are separate and distinct. When you exercise you may lose fat and gain muscle, and when you stop you may lose muscle and gain fat. They don't transform into eachother.

Some of your body fat is called essential fat because it provides insulation and protects vital organs. Men need at least 2-4% and women need 10-12%. The remainder is called storage fat, and that's what send many of you to the gym. Body fat tends to increase with age.

Body Fat: Let's Not Get Carried Away with the Measurements!

Body Builders and certain competitive athletes may need to obsess about their % body fat, but most of us just need a simple reliable measurement of progress. There are more than a dozen different techniques for estimating body fat, including infrared and x-ray techniques, and one that involves drinking a radioactive isotope . Keep in mind that any approach gives you an estimate based on various measurements and mathematical formulas, you can't directly measure the fat like you can with weight and height. You would have to go through the inconvenience and mess of removing all the fat from the body, weighing it and replacing it to do that. It is best to look at the body fat measurement over time to see changes, and to have it performed by the same competent person using the same equipment. All of the methods have strengths and weaknesses, and research has been conducted to validate them. Here is a recap of the measurement methods:

Hydrostatic Testing - Immersion in a tank of water and measuring displacement is accurate within about 2% for most people. Adjustments by race are made, since African Americans tend to have denser bones while Asians have lighter bones. Air Displacement Plethysmography (The Bod Pod) is a similar but uses air displacement instead of water.
Skin Fold/Caliper Testing - Results are accurate within +/-3.5% for 90% of the population. Results for the other 10% can be off by much more. Variation by tester can be a big factor, so have the same person take the measurements and look for a trend in the results. This technique tends to overestimate body fat for lean individuals and underestimate for obese. Caliper testing needs to be done slowly, carefully and precisely, usually measurements are taken at least three times and averaged for a result.
Bioelectric Impedance - Results are accurate within +/-3% for 82% of the population, and can be off by up to 20% or more for the remaining 18%. Results are inaccurate for small changes and can be affected by hydration, skin temperature, exercise within 12 hours prior, alcohol within 48 hours, food within 4 hours, bladder and bowel content. A body scale once estimated me at 38%, almost 3x the measurement obtained from calipers around the same time.
Circumference Testing - using a few simple measurements, results are accurate within +/-5% for 86% of the population. (There is an online tester available at bodyfat.caryraffle.com, it measured me at almost the same as the calipers and is very easy to use so that you can track your results.)
Ask me - I can usually estimate someone's body fat within a couple of percent, not much less accurate than some of these techniques and a whole lot easier. (Be forewarned, you may have to show me your bare midriff!). If you get a body fat estimate that doesn't make sense - maybe from one of those diet supplement people who set up tables on the streets or at the mall - feel free to contact me for a second opinion.

Losing Body Fat

There are only 2 proven ways to lose body fat: Burn more calories than you consume or consume fewer calories than you burn. Most of use a combination of both - exercise and watching our diets. What about watching carbs? Sure, if you load up on empty calories your body may crave more nutrition and you'll end up eating more, but protein shakes are also loaded with calories that you may not need. I've got some tips, by no means a complete list but just my personal top 10:

Cary's Top 10 Fat Burning Tips
1. Eat a good breakfast. Numerous studies have shown that people who eat breakfast do a better job losing weight and keeping it off. Breakfast skippers tend to make up lost calories later in the day. They don't have the energy to work out as hard, and the body doesn't produce the enzymes need to burn fat during their workout. One theory is that if you workout hard on an empty stomach, the body goes into "survival mode" - sparing fat and burning muscle protein for energy.
2. Use a combination of cardiovascular and strength training activities. Both burn calories while you are working out. Strength training has the added advantage of building muscle mass so that your metabolism increases - so you burn more calories at rest. Start with a cardio warm up, but avoid long cardio sessions before your strength training if you want to burn fat. You want as much energy as possible available for the strength training session. (If you're already lean and training for a marathon, you can skip this advice). Exercise at least 150 minutes er week, more to make real changes in body composition.
3. Work in the "cardio training zone" and you'll burn more fat than in the "fat burning zone." The fat burning zone is a myth: you may get a higher percentage of calories but the total calories burned is lower. You actually burn the highest percentage of calories while sleeping, not exactly a fat burning activity. The cardio zone begins at about 70% of your maximum heart rate. People who aren't on medication can use 220-age to get their maximum hear rate. (In my fitness orientations, we use a different formula that is more personalized.)
4. Interval training for your cardio activities can increase your calorie burn for several hours after you are done exercising. This is recommended for those of you who have already established an aerobic base. Try alternating between 65%-75% of your maximum heart rate for 2 minute intervals.
5. Circuit Training for your strength activities keeps the calories burning - The idea is to keep your heart rate up by eliminating the rest in between sets. Most of my workouts are organized in compound sets, working opposite body parts so that while one side works the other side rests. You may need to rethink or reorganize your traditional split routines. Just be sure to rest each muscle group for 48 hours in between workouts.
6. Gear your strength training to building lean muscle and burning fat. Target the large muscle groups, your legs, back and chest muscles burn more calories than arms and shoulders, and the latter get worked along with the big muscles. You should generally be working in the endurance strength training zone, so do 2-3 sets of 12-20 repetitions of the exercises at moderate weight. Exercises that require you to stand and/or stabilize generally burn more calories than seated or lying exercises. Total body exercises (i.e. lunges with chest press/lat pull down/biceps curls) really turn up the heat.


7. Don't rely on fad diets and supplements. Try to make lasting changes in your diet and lifestyle. Be careful of supplements containing large amounts of stimulants like caffeine and guarana, these can increase your heart rate and you may already be consuming caffeine in your coffee or tea. Caffeine in moderation does help burn fat. If you're already getting enough protein in your diet, ship the protein supplement you don't need the extra calories! The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that endurance trained athletes consume 1.2-1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily.
8. Periodize, or change your exercise routine, at least every 4-6 weeks. Your body adapts during this period and you will see diminishing returns on the time you invest. You can change the pace and duration of your cardio routine. For strength training, change the sets, repetitions, tempo, try less stable exercises and total body exercises.
9. Avoid Overtraining - Muscles grow while you rest. If you are spending more than an hour 3-4x a week working out and not seeing results, and often feel tired and sore, you may be overtraining. Your body shuts down the muscle building process and stops burning stored fat. Work hard, but also rest.
10. Pay careful attention to posture, aches, pains and injuries. You're in this for the long haul and cannot afford to be sidelined by pain or injury that keeps you from working out. It is important to incorporate corrective exercises into your program - call it "prehab" - and avoid exercises that can exacerbate your problem areas. The most common problems that I see include: a. Feet Turn Out /Knees Turn in - sets you up for foot pain (plantar fascitis), knee or hip pain or injury, back pain; b. Shoulders Roll Inward - sets you up for rotator cuff injury, possible upper spinal injury; c. Arched Back - Sets up disk injury may also indicate predisposition to abdominal herniation. I am happy to meet with you, assess you for these potential issues and discuss appropriate corrective exercises and program modifications.

Free On-Line BODY FAT CALCULATOR

Click here for a quick and easy test that you can do in your home, and track results over time. All you need is a computer that is connected to the internet and a tape measure. For more accuate results, schedule a reading with me using body calipers.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Setting Goals that Get Results

by Cary Raffle

We start the New Year with resolutions, plans and great expectations. How many of us will stick to our plans and succeed? Research has shown that we are most effective in achieving our goals when they are clearly defined, measurable, achievable, and are realistic but at the same time represent a little bit of a challenge. It also helps to break your goals up into smaller goals so that can have little successes along the way. How do you know what is realistic and achievable? Read on....

Exercise to Maintain Body Composition and Health - the minimum amount of exercise required to maintain your body composition and health is 150 minutes per week, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. This is usually expressed as 20-30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days per week and preferably every day. To avoid risk of injury, ACSM recommends moderate intensity exercise for those not training for athletic competition.

Be careful not to overdo it. Working the same muscles day after day is counterproductive, especially in strength training. You actually damage muscle fibers when you exercise, and they need at least 48 hours to repair and recover. Muscles grow during this rest period, not when you are working them. So give each muscle group time to recover in between workouts.

Losing Weight - For safe and lasting weight loss, plan on losing between 1-2 pounds per week, according to ACSM and the American Dietary Association. Faster weight loss may be unhealthy and you run the risk of yo-yoing, experiencing rapid drops and quickly gaining. Instead of fad diets, focus on making long-term lifestyle changes.

Maintain a calorie deficit - calories taken in minus calories burned - of about 500 - 1000 per day, you can eat less or workout more or do both. Remember that as you lose weight, your calorie needs also drops. See me to estimate your calorie needs, or visit www.mypyramid.gov for more comprehensive tools. However, if you are beginning an exercise program, make sure that you don't reduce the calorie intake so much that you don't have energy to work out.

Goal Setting - Weight loss is probably the most frequent goal, but it isn't necessarily the most effective measure of results or the one that is right for you. Body measurements, clothes size and subjective assessments of how you look and feel and move are often a better indication. Many people who begin a new fitness program will see the shape of their body change and their clothes size decrease without a corresponding weight loss. This can happen because muscle weighs more than fat. So when you increase your lean body mass (muscle) and decrease your fat, you weight may not go down as much as you expect. Over a longer period of time, you should see the weight loss results. One of my clients was highly deconditioned and cited his greatest accomplishment as being able to reach down and tie his shoes without having to sit down and rest.

Getting Your Workout In - Whether you're joining a gym, running in the park, or walking at the mall, nothing is going to happen if you don't actually get your workouts in. Most successful people start by scheduling their workout appointments, just like any other important meeting. Put it right into your calendar! It may help to attend regularly scheduled classes, meet a reliable friend, or have an appointment with a trainer. I've had many clients who wouldn't make it at all without their training appointment, or who would cancel because they weren't in the mood if not for the 24-hour cancellation fee.

Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy or 'Getting Big") - It takes more than 16 exercise sessions over the course of several weeks to see an increase in muscle size, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. However, increasing the size of the muscle does not necessarily increase the strength or lifting capacity of the muscle. Increased strength and increased size are two distinct and different muscle adaptations, and you need to train differently for each.

Plateauing - Expect your strength training to plateau after about 4-6 weeks. At this point, you experience diminished return from your program as you continue doing similar exercises and a similar range of sets, repetitions, time under tension and stability. We call this the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). Progression requires changing one of more of the variables in your program on a regular, pre-planned basis. It is not only about increasing the weight. Progression can also apply to your cardio training and diet, in some circumstances. I wrote about progression last year. You can sample a few general programs from past newsletters by clicking the links below, or meet with me to develop a program specific to your current fitness level and goals.

Program 1 - XpressLine
Program 2 - Introductory Strength Training
Program 3 - Unstable Exercises (incorporates Core Training)
Program 4 - Advanced Unstable Exercises (unilateral workout) Running the Marathon in 2009 - Start now and many of you can do it! If you've been running at least 2-3 hours a week for more than a year, you've got a pretty good base to start from. Let's set a realistic goal first - for most of you, that would be completing the training and the first marathon without an injury. You can find several alternate programs for marathon training at the ING NYC Marathon website (click here). You'll be increasing to about 50 miles of running a week at the peak of your training. It is a good idea to get assessed for any muscle imbalances and postural distortions, so that you can incorporate corrective exercises and stretching into your program. Exercises to strengthen your core and complement the running program will also help. Risk Factors - According to the International Health and Racquet Sports Association, about half of all new gym members experience an injury during their first 6 months of membership. This often leads them to abandon their memberships, fitness programs and goals. The National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends that all fitness programs begin with an assessment, identification of risk factors, and a corrective phase of training to reduce the chance of injury. Post Rehabilitation - If you've had an injury that required physical therapy, you may have some additional risk factors. The National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends that you continue to incorporate the rehab exercises into your training program.

URBAN LEGENDS: Two of the Great Myths of Fitness

"No Pain, No Gain" - Pain, especially that lingering sensation that you feel for days, is not necessarily the sign of a great workout. It is actually a sign that your body is adapting to new stimulus. If you continue with a similar exercise program at similar intensity, the soreness shouldn't return. You can minimize the soreness by starting light and gradually working into new routines. To read more about this subject, click here for an article from the American Council on Exercise.

"The Fat Burning Zone" - The idea here is that you burn a higher percentage of calories from stored fat in the fat burning zone compared to the cardio zone. True, but you burn more total calories in the cardio zone - think of it as getting a smaller piece of a much bigger pie. You actually get about 100% of your calories from stored fat when you are sleeping, but the total calories burned is very low. Focus on total calories, once you've established an aerobic base, and train in the cardio zone for best results reducing weight and burning fat. To read more about this subject, click here for an article from the American Council on Exercise.

The BRAIN TRAIN: Unilateral Workout

There are several good reasons to work one side of your body at a time, this month the focus in on training your brain - actually your neuromuscular system - through unilateral exercises.

Here's an interesting fact: numerous scientific studies have shown that working one side of the body can actually improve your strength on the opposite side. How is this possible? Because the major component of what we call "strength" doesn't happen in the muscles, it happens in the brain and nerve pathways and receptors that connect your brain to your muscles. We actually become stronger by improving the way that the brain "recruits" muscle fibers to do work such as lifting weights and the way the muscles respond to the call. Think of your body as a symphony. The brain is the conductor, the nerve pathways are his hands and batons, the musicians are the receptors in the muscles, and their instruments are the individual muscle fibers. Train them to work together and you'll make beautiful music.

What are some of the benefits of unilateral exercises? Most of you probably use them to balance your muscles. You feel you've got a weaker side, or maybe one side is slightly smaller than the other. That's only the beginning. Unilateral exercises can help improve core strength, and improve your overall strength by improving "neuromuscular efficiency." It's all in the way that you approach it.

Let's take a simple exercise like a single arm triceps push down with the cables. You'll often see someone doing this exercise leaning into the machine and putting their whole body into moving the handle from point a to point b. Instead, stand back, draw your abdominals and glutes in, bend the knees slightly, and maintain perfect posture throughout the movement. (Remember, glutes are core muscles). Now you've got those core muscles working to stabilize you - and not just in one direction. You'll feel the sideways pull as your obliques resist the weight imbalance. When doing single side exercises, lower the weight so that you can maintain perfect form and posture.

It is easy to start a unilateral program, you can even do it on ExpressLine. For added challenge, you can decrease the stability of unilateral exercises by standing on one leg, or use balls or balance boards. As you do these, you'll begin to understand how this is a learning process for your body, like loading a computer program into memory. Some of my clients and I began playing with unilateral exercises standing on one leg on a bosu ball - you may not want to think about that. They were incredibly hard at first, yet within a week or two, our brains had adjusted and they were surprisingly easy.

Will unilateral exercises make you smarter? Maybe not, but they're a smart addition to your program. Try the unilateral exercise program and 14 others at trainercary.com.

Advil Before Workout?

One of my clients, a hard training triathlete, recently asked me for my thoughts on using Advil before strength and cardio training. Advil, or ibuprofen, is part of a class of medicines call NSAIDS (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatories). They act on the pain center of the brain and also act to reduce inflammation in the muscle tissue.

To begin answering this question, one has to understand what inflammation actually is: a protective response by the body. Swelling occurs as your body's own way of immobilized damaged areas. NSAIDS can help reduce the pain and swelling but as they do this, they are also reducing the body's natural ability to protect and heal itself. Repeatedly dosing on pain relievers and anti-inflammatories before training can casue stomach upset, interfere with the healing process, and make you susceptible to further injuries.

Be very careful. Listen to your body. If you have a constant nagging injury, see an orthopedist or physical therapist and learn how you can address the underlying causes rather than mask the problem with medication. In the extreme, there are some studies that suggest that use of ibuprofen during prolonged endurance exercises such as an Ironman can lead to dehydration, hyponatremia and kidney failure, because it alters kidney function (however, I haven't found any documented cases of this happening).

Bottom line: Advil is medicine. Avoid prolonged and chronic use of any medicine that your doctor has not approved, before OR after exercise.