Well, according to several studies, here is the recommended technique to use in order to optimize your weight lifting sessions:

• Optimal Number of Reps per Set:  8-15. In order to really work your muscles and promote the release of fat-burning hormones, you should only put enough weight on the bar so that you can perform between 8 and 15 repetitions.  Doing less than 8 reps doesn’t release as many fat-burning hormones and if you can do more than 15 reps, you probably don’t have enough weight on the bar.
• Optimal Number of Sets per Exercise:  2-4. Performing 2-4 sets (composed of 8-15 reps per set) will keep your hormone at a consistent, fat-burning rate.
• Optimal Rest Period Between Sets:  60 seconds. You should rest no more than 60 seconds in between sets.  Otherwise, your muscles begin to cool down and heart rate, as well as your level of fat-burning hormones, begins to drop.
• Number of Seconds to Lower Your Weights:  3 seconds. Many people simply let gravity take over and let the weight drop down to the starting position.  This is dead wrong and can actually lead to serious injury.  You may not believe it but in many exercises, your muscles actually work harder on the eccentric, or lowering, phase since they’re working against the force of gravity and trying to decelerate the weight load at the same time.  Take a full 3 seconds to slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position in a controlled manner.

Are there exceptions to this “formula?”  Of course there are.  If you’re working on building strength, you should focus on lifting heavier weights for a smaller number of reps (usually 1-2 sets of 2-3 reps) and increasing the rest period in between.  However, for people that are trying to build and tone muscle and lose a few pounds in the process, this combination should get you there in the least amount of time.

So what are you waiting for?  Head to the gym and give it a try!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: weight lifting, weights, exercise, fitness, gym, health, weight loss, fat-burning

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I recently purchased a Polar F11 fitness monitor and it’s totally changed my workouts!  This wrist unit not only keeps track of my heart rate (which is an indication of how hard you’re pushing yourself), it estimates the number of calories I’ve burned during the session.

The best part is that I can upload all of that information to a website that keeps track of all of my workouts.  Instantly, I can see how many times I worked out this week, how many calories I burned, the total amount of time I spent exercising, and a number of other things.  How cool is that?

Not only that, …

I can also schedule, or set goals, for future workouts.  The website can even design an exercise program for me.  All I have to do is tell it how many times I want to work out during a week and it does the rest.  As you can see from the screenshots, the website displays the entire week with all of my workout sessions listed.

When I click on a specific workout, the site gives me a bar chart telling me my maximum heart rate, my average heart rate, and how much time I spent in each zone.

The neat part is that since I’ve started using the Polar F11 and uploading my workout info, I’ve literally been looking for chances to “fill up my calendar” with workouts.  It really motivates you to workout so you can get “something on the board.”

As if that wasn’t enough motivation, you can also participate in “challenges.”  A challenge is a goal that someone sets, for example “to see who can burn the greatest number of calories in a 2 month period,” that several people can participate in.  When you accept a challenge, your workout information is automatically included on the challenge site. 

When you go to the challenge site, you’ll see a bar chart with all of the people that have accepted the challenge as well as their progress.  It also tells you what your current standing in the group is.  There’s no better motivation to get an extra workout in than a little competition.

The range of features on these types of fitness monitors is pretty extensive, as are the prices so do a little bit of research before you decide on one.  Some, like the Polar F11, only measure heart rate.  Others designed specifically for runners and/or cyclists contain a GPS device so you can measure exactly how far you’ve run or biked as well as the speed.

The more popular fitness monitors tend to be manufactured by:

• Polar Fitness – a broad range of fitness monitors for running, cycling, and sports
• Nike – makers of the Nike+ for the iPod as well as more traditional fitness monitors
• Garmin – GPS enabled monitors for running and cycling

All three manufactures have a training website that allows you to upload and view your workout information.  However, only certain models from each manufacturer have Internet uploading capability so make sure you check before you purchase.

So if you’re the type of person that gets a real thrill from “putting some numbers up on the big board,” then using a system like this will probably work for you.  As I’ve already mentioned, it’s motivated me to go out and exercise because I didn’t want there to be any days without some sort of activity in my online workout diary.  Plus, I didn’t want to start lagging behind on some of the challenges that I’m part of.

When you know how many calories you’ve burned, it makes you want to go out and burn some more!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: fitness monitor, heart rate, balanced health, healthy, fitness, polar, nike, garmin, watch, bpm, sports, exercise

You might also be interested in the following items from Amazon.com:

Gruve Personal Activity Monitor, White/Gray

• Personalized to your specific calorie burn rate
• Real time feedback through colored lights
• Sendentary behavior vibration reminds you to move
• Easily syncs with pcs running windows xp, vista and windows 7
• Price includes gruve, 1 year subscription to gruve online and access to the gruve guide

Gruve is an unprecedented, personalized, scientifically proven solution that enables healthy, sustainable weight loss. wear your gruve all day and learn how to increase your daily activity, burn more calories and reach your personal health goals. sync your gruve with gruve online to view your calorie burn and activity intensity. log into gruve online and notice that your daily burn goal has been set based on a number of personal factors, not some generic formula like other programs. losing weight is as simple as reaching your get to greentm goal each day. included with your 1 year gruve subscription is the 12 week gruve guide which provides you with the education, motivation and support you need to make long term, sustainable behavior ch

Rating: (out of 23 reviews)

List Price: $ 199.95

Price: $ 179.95

Garmin FR60 Men’s Red Fitness Watch (Includes Heart Rate Monitor and USB ANT Stick)

• Bundle includes FR60, heart rate monitor, USB ANT Stick, quick start manual
• Water resistant to 50 meters
• Can be used for running, cycling and other fitness activities calculating time, heart rate and distance
• ANT+ technology: Wirelessly connect to heart rate monitor, foot pod and speed cadence sensor, then share fitness data with your computer
• Battery life: One year, user-replaceable coin cell battery

Log every mile and every minute with FR60, a sleek fitness watch plus workout tool that tracks your time, heart rate and calories burned. When bundled with the wireless foot pod (not included), FR60 also tracks speed and distance, indoors or out. Use FR60′s training tools to get the most out of your workout. Then, FR60 wirelessly sends your workout data to your computer for later analysis. Garmin Forerunner 60 (Men’s Red)
Flexible digital heart rate monitor provides instant feedback about how hard you’re working. Once you’ve logged the miles, FR60 automatically transfers data to your PC or Mac, wirelessly when in range. Train Indoors or Out
In the gym or on the road, FR60 tracks all your workout data, includ

Rating: (out of 57 reviews)

List Price: $ 149.99

Price:

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The other day, as I was cooling off after coming out of the sauna, I saw someone do something that brought the game of Russian Roulette to mind – something anyone over 50 should keep in mind.

What I saw was a guy about my age (50+) come out of the wet sauna sweating profusely and immediately go jump into the cold pool. His head broke the surface, he shook it once or twice, and said, “Man, that felt great!” My thought was, “Man, what a dumb thing to do!” Here’s why.

First of all, my field of study in college was engineering so I tend to think of everything in terms of pipes, connections, and mechanical systems – including the human body. When you sit in a wet (or dry) sauna, your body reacts to the elevated temperature by trying to keep itself cool. The first indication of this, of course, is that you begin to sweat.

In a dry environment like a dry sauna, the sweat on the surface of your skin evaporates removing heat from the skin and helping to keep it cool. In an effort to remove heat that is beginning to build up in your body’s core, your blood vessels dilate (expand) in order to get more blood moving near the surface of the skin so that the heat it’s carrying it can be removed through evaporation. This movement of blood near the surface of the skin is what makes people appear flushed or red-faced when they get too hot.

Now, since your blood vessels have dilated, your blood pressure drops. In order to maintain your blood pressure more or less constant, your heart rate increases. And that’s the condition of most of us sitting in a sauna: sweating pouring out of us, face flushed, heart rate elevated, and feeling very relaxed due to the increased blood flow.

OK, here’s where things can get dangerous, especially if you’re over 50, and why I thought what my friend did was like playing Russian Roulette. If you begin to cool the body down too fast, like jumping into a pool for example, the dilated blood vessels that are near the surface of the skin begin to contract very rapidly.

Since your heart rate is already elevated, constricting the blood vessels sends your blood pressure through the roof. This is like putting a kink in a garden hose when you’re watering the lawn. Actually, this is what gives you that invigorating jolt. However, if you have a weak spot anywhere in your circulatory system or if you’re over 50 and your blood vessels aren’t as pliable and elastic as they used to be, you risk rupturing a blood vessel. If that blood vessel happens to be in your brain, well, you get the picture.

So how can you enjoy a sauna without playing Russian Roulette at the same time? Here are a couple of tips:

1. Drink plenty of water before you enter the sauna. Many people risk dehydration by not drinking enough water or by trying to stay in the sauna too long.

2. Bring a water bottle in with you and use as needed. Take frequent drinks in addition to pouring some of the water over your head or onto your face if you get too hot.

3. Spend no more than 10-15 minutes in the sauna. This is a rule of thumb only but use some common sense. Spending too much time in a sauna doesn’t really do you any good health-wise and can quickly drive your body into heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke.

4. If you begin to feel light headed or faint, get out or ask for help immediately. It goes without saying that you should never use a sauna alone.

5. Never sleep or nap in a sauna. I know it’s really relaxing in there but if you fall asleep, you might wake up knocking on the Pearly Gates. Your sleeping body can go from relaxed to overheated to heat stroke to a coma before you know it.

6. Cool down slowly. After reading this post, it should be obvious why. You need to give your heart a chance to slow back down and your blood pressure to return to normal.

In my opinion, there’s nothing that feels better than a good steam bath after a hard workout. These tips should ensure that you enjoy using the sauna – without the Russian Roulette.

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: russian roulette, sauna, heart rate, blood flow, blood pressure, steam room, cool down, health

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