How and why to try workout partners....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 7-24-2012

1.  Exercising is extremely good FOR you in a dozen ways and not exercising tends to do the reverse of that TO you.

So, anything that makes exercising more enjoyable for you or makes you doing exercise more likely or reliable is as valuable as the exercise itself!

Having a workout partner or partners can do exactly that. 

2. Regularly socializing with other people in a positive way is also good for you.  It’s often enjoyable, we now know it gives your brain quite a workout, and it often can relieve stress.  So, having a workout partner or socializing in a way that doesn’t trash your workout at the gym has a direct value too.

3.  There are dozens of ways to do this:

Here are a few.

1.  You can get a pro and hire a fitness coach or personal trainer!  You get extra instruction and problem solving help and a built in cheerleader along with the company

2.  You can go to an exercise class or a class teaching an exercise.  Group Aerobic Dancing or taking a Yoga class or group Tai Chi class all do this.  Similarly, some personal trainers will do a group class at the same gym where they offer their personal training individual sessions.  Dancing classes also work.  Retired football star, Jerry Rice was already fit from exercising on his own.  Then he took dancing lessons for his TV appearance and not only did well but lost about 12 pounds!

You often not only learn more in such groups but you begin to miss regular members or be missed if you skip a session which helps you go regularly.

3.  You may have a friend who already goes to the gym and begin to go also when he or she goes.

This one worked very well for me when I was in college.  A good friend did powerlifting at the local YMCA gym two nights a week.  He and a third friend were joining an experienced group of powerlifters on those nights.  My friend Tom invited me to go too.

Back then, I had done weight lifting by myself but I’d do it for a few weeks, try too hard to use more weight, get too stressed, and get too frustrated and stop going.

I hadn’t then learned to go regularly for a long time and to periodically but not every single time make the effort to do more.  I hadn’t learned that doing this was a key to getting a lot stronger.  (I also didn’t know then how incredibly important the regular exercise every week was for my health!)

But, if I felt like skipping because I felt too tired or I didn’t do well at the last session, I WENT ANYWAY!

Why?  Because I wanted even more to see my friends!  Then I’d often find that somehow, I’d actually do well when I got there much of the time.

Then because I went for months without a break, I finally began to get significantly stronger without overstressing by building up gradually.

Once I learned those lessons, I’ve been able to do exercise consistently on my own.  But that experience with my workout buddies taught me what I needed to know.

4.  Another experience I had is something some of you might be able to do.  You can be a friendly workout buddy informally to the people who you begin to see regularly at the gym on the days or evenings you usually go.

Smile, learn their name, cheer them on, and chat a bit.  When I did this, it sometimes meant leaving 10 minutes later than just my workout itself would have needed.  But I also had times when I exchanged several friendly greetings with people and I left on time anyway.

5.  Sometimes, particularly when working out is part of a fat loss effort, you can do it with a family member.  I’ve read of many successful mother daughter teams for example.  And, sometimes working out with your wife or husband works.  (My wife and I went to the gym together a few times.  Each time lasted several months by the way.)  Another way is to take your younger son or daughter to show them how to do the exercises and then just keep going.

In the email I got that sparked my doing this post, “The Benefits of Exercising with a Workout Partner”  “By Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD”,  they also suggest:

6.  “Post a notice at your gym with your schedule to get others to make a “see-you-there” pact.”

7.  “Put an ad in your favorite organization’s e-mail or paper and start your own walking group.”

The most important thing no matter what -- is that you do some exercise and ideally some vigorous exercise including both interval cardio AND strength training each week and exercise for a few minutes most days of every week.  If you can fit in walking and other moderate exercise too that also helps.

But it can be easier to get started; easier for some people to keep doing, and more fun to do with workout partners

My NEW POLICY on Comments: 

Almost all the time comments entered here as Anonymous or no name listed are spam for websites having no relevance or very little relevance for the post topic.  I'm getting ads for drugs from questionable sources, handbags oddly enough, software, and even porn sometimes.  I also get stuff with links in languages other than English.  So instead of taking half an hour a day or more to mark each one separately as spam, my new policy is to do a "pocket veto" and just delete them all instead.

Even the ones close to the topic are bids for free ads for products most of which I'd not buy or recommend.

SO, if you have a real comment on the post of that day, email me the date & topic from a copy cut and paste from the post and your comment to me at davideller7@yahoo.com .  Those I'd be happy to post and even do a comment myself as a reply or add similar information.

Enter your comment too in the comment form on the same day as your email.  That can be critical to my being able to find the post to get your comment into it since I've been writing several posts each week for six years!  But list your name or a code name you thought up.  Do NOT do it as an anonymous post!

Important news on exercise....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 5-17-2011

There are two key reasons to exercise.

Done even close to right and often enough, exercise is so good for your health it’s like good magic!

People who exercise even close to right and often enough who want to lose fat, lose it more easily. They lose more fat. And, if they keep eating right and exercising they keep it all off.

So, what’s new?

1. Exercise is only effective at delivering these benefits if you do it. And, I just got some new information on how to make doing exercise dramatically more likely.

2. That same method increases the effectiveness of the exercise you do in helping you lose fat and keep it off.

3. This same method delivers a badly needed extra benefit very soon after you use it.

I found this information in Healthy Living, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 on Yahoo today. The article was titled: “Why Morning Exercise is Best” is by ThirdAge.com .

1. I’ve already posted that people who schedule their exercise first thing in the morning are far more likely to do it and keep doing it.

I once read that people who exercise in the morning are twice as likely to keep doing exercise as people who exercise later in the day.

The reason is simple. As each day unfolds, you have expected AND unexpected demands on you and your time. Sometimes you even get extra tired

When you exercise before all that happens, you have control; and it’s MUCH easier to do reliably and keep doing it.

I’ve experienced this myself.

My track record for exercising every morning is very close to 100%. It’s very unusual for me to have to leave too early to exercise. And, I very rarely get sick enough to not do at least a light and shorter session.

I also have a new and extra session on Monday and Wednesday evenings for just a few minutes. I’ve found I do those exercise sessions most of the time. But as much as a quarter of the time, I’m too tired or I get home too late or there is a special occasion that prevents it. If I was a new exerciser, I can readily see how I might get out of the habit if that was the only exercise I did.

But here’s the blockbuster news.: I may have underestimated the effect doing morning exercise has on doing it and continuing to exercise.

The article had this quote:

“In fact, more than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine.”

So, if you want to go to the gym or an exercise class at lunch time or in the evening, by all means do so. That does work very well for some people.

But have some kind of short and complementary exercise session you do in the morning at home too. That gives you an anchor into staying fit and benefitted and doing exercise. Then, if you can’t do the exercise later some days, you won’t lose as much momentum until you can get back. And if you move or the gym closes or something else happens to that part of your exercise, you’re still OK. You still are exercising and getting the benefits almost every day.

(I’ve found it also helps to have several kinds of exercise you can do at home to make your morning exercise time efficient. There’s no added travel time. That also helps make it doable every day.)

2. The other major news is that morning exercise may be MORE effective at helping you lose excess fat!

Exercise often helps you lose fat not just from the calories you burn while you exercise but from the extra calories you burn after you stop

The article had this quote suggesting that morning exercise does this best.:

“Some exercise experts say that when you exercise in the morning you jump-start your metabolism….and….you burn more calories throughout the day….”

(If you do interval cardio and strength training when you exercise you also multiply this effect. Those exercises tend to produce more metabolism boost for several hours after you stop than less vigorous exercise. And, they tend to add to your muscle mass. Even a few new pounds of muscle burns more calories 24 hours a day than you were burning before.)

If exercising in the morning does add to these effects, that’s a powerful added reason to do it.

3. There’s a third reason to exercise that is important for most of us.

You are mentally sharper all day at work if you exercise in the morning.

The article had this quote: “Your brain power gets pumped up. Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental sharpness.”

So, if you exercise in the morning, you have this effect almost all day long. And you start your day having this effect already in place.

They didn’t add; but exercise also helps you deal better with stress and have stress be less hard on you.

That can really help some days at work! Exercising in the morning gives you that effect before your day starts.

(It also helps that exercise helps you stay mentally sharp when other people don’t as years pass. Exercise grows new brain cells and literally prevents your brain from shrinking. It keeps your brain working by boosting your circulation when you exercise. And exercise helps keep your blood circulation from being blocked off by plaque too.)

The article ends with this:

“You’ll sleep better. Even though you may have to wake up earlier to fit in thirty minutes of routine exercise you’ll sleep better that night, since exercise has been shown to help improve slumber. Plus, you’re regulating your body clock by awakening the same time each morning.”

This also works if you only exercise 10 or 15 minutes on some mornings. For example, I have one day where I only do 6 minutes of abdominal exercises. And, the two days I schedule to do 30 minutes, I have two parts of 15 minutes each. Then, on those two days, if I get behind, I only do the first 15 minute part.

That flexibility plus my at home workout in the morning makes exercising virtually 100 % reliable every day.

So, it was nice to know I’ve been getting all these extra benefits!

How to make regular exercise a habit....

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-24-2008

Regular exercise that you keep doing has a huge & almost unbelievable set of benefits.

Here are a few highlights.

If you do it, you’ll be less fat. You’ll be a lot healthier & much more likely to stay healthy. And, we now know you’ll grow new brain cells and think & remember better. Your sex life will tend to be good & stay good. And, you’ll be more resilient in the face of stress.

But if you haven’t been exercising regularly, you might find it hard to get into & keep doing.

Here are some ideas that have worked well for me & other people.

Use the ones that sound like a fit for you & consider trying some of the rest.

1. Do all or part of your exercise in the first part of the morning. And, doing that exercise or that part of your exercise at home also helps.

That’s one of the most important strategies. With very rare exceptions the unexpected demands of your day tend to happen later in the day. And, when they do, instead of derailing your exercise that day, you’ve already done some exercise that day.

In fact, one study I read about found that about 70 % of people who exercised first thing in the morning stuck with it while only 35% of the people who exercised later in the day kept exercising.

In my case, I schedule a 15 minute strength training session at home in the early morning. Saturday, Monday, & Weds I do an upper body set; Sunday, Tuesday, & Thursday I do leg exercises; & on Friday I do a 5 minute abdominal routine. Using only a relatively light dumbbells for upper body exercises & my bodyweight for leg exercises & push ups, this is not enough to build my strength a lot. But I hardly ever miss doing any of these sessions.

In contrast to that, though I schedule to go the gym to do heavier upper body exercises Monday & Weds evenings, I tend to only make about half of the Mondays as I get home late Mondays & about 80 % of the Weds evenings. The list of things that prevents me from going 100 % of the time is long.

Since I do my at home exercises & do make a special effort to go when I can, I don’t lose ground very much when I miss my evenings at the Gym. I would if I didn’t exercise at home in the early mornings also.

3. It’s great if you can do more; but it’s not necessary to be super strict with yourself about exercising a lot every week. However, even 500 calories a week gives you 40% of the health benefits of exercising an hour a day seven days a week.

Since walking or running a mile or 15 minutes of strength training with no long waits between sets tends to burn 100 calories, 500 calories a week is quite doable. (My early morning strength training at home works out to about 700 calories a week. And I make the gym often enough to average another 400 calories or so a week.)

And, since the health consequences of not doing at least that much are so bad, I suggest you be very strict with yourself about always doing 500 calories a week or more every week.

Similarly, be flexible about your exercise routine if events force you to be any given day. But be very strict with yourself about hitting this minimum each week.

4. As long as you do at least two or three days of exercise during the week, you may be able to do a good bit of your weekly exercise on weekends if you have more time then. Weekends only is not enough but exercise on Saturday, Sunday, & any two other days can be.

5. Keeping a log book also helps you to stay on track. Not everyone will be willing to do a log book that they write a brief note of the date & that day’s exercise in.

But almost everyone who knows what exercise does FOR you & not exercising does TO you & who keeps a log book will keep exercising. If you are willing to use a log book at all, I recommend it very highly.

6. If you are at all social or if you want to have heavy enough weights to do strength training well or need access to cardio equipment for interval cardio, give serious consideration to joining a gym & going as regularly as you can.

It’s nice to see the other regulars each time. And that helps me to go as often as I can. We are good examples for each other & it’s nice to see other people I know are getting health benefits.

And, I like the extra strength & muscle I have because I work out there.

In addition, if you are new to strength training, many gyms will help you learn and set up a workout plan. Plus, in many exercises, the machines are safer to use, particularly for people new to strength training, than the free weights.

7. Finally, remember these two points:

a) You may not be able to do all the exercise you’d like or do all the exercise you schedule every single day you schedule it, but almost everyone can do 500 calories a week or more.

&

b) If you do regular exercise every week, it does incredibly good things FOR you. And, if you don’t, it does all the reverse of those things TO you.