Vision S7100 Suspension Trainer

Summer Fitness Blunders

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Date: 07/19/2011
Category: Lifestyle Management
Teaser: In the rush to burn calories and get fit, we often commit mistakes that can add up and demolish any fitness regimen. Follow these tips to avoid the blunders that can impact your goals and add to the time it takes to meet your fitness goals.

In the rush to burn calories and get fit, we often commit mistakes that can add up and demolish any fitness regimen. Follow these tips from Life Fitness to avoid the blunders that can impact your goals and add to the time it takes to meet your fitness goals.

Fashion Choices

When exercising, cotton can hold moisture and cause chaffing. Cotton socks can absorb moisture, swell, lose shape and form against your foot, which may cause blisters. Dry fit and polyester materials are better choices because they manage sweat build-up more efficiently and will keep you comfortable during your workouts.

Caloric Drink Intake

How many times have you completed a challenging, grueling workout only to sabotage your hard work by mindlessly consuming a couple frozen coffees or Pina Coladas? Just because something is liquid doesn’t mean it contains zero calories. Make your drinks count as much as food choices in your daily caloric equation, and select low-calorie and low-sugar options.

Heat Exhaustion

Exercising outdoors in the summer can be a great way to fill up on vitamin D levels, but don’t forget to keep hydrated and stay aware of the time logged outside. Spending too much time in the sun and heat without enough water can overwhelm the body system that regulates temperature – symptoms of this can include dizziness, fatigue, muscle cramps, nausea and headache.

Use Prevention!

Incorporating a little prevention in your summer workout program will make the hot months manageable, enjoyable and productive.

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide.

Bring Your Sexy Back

Summer is the season for backless sundresses, halter tops and bikinis. Unfortunately, back fat can creep up on you when you least expect it, and can be a stubborn beast to banish. Life Fitness breaks down ways you can keep your back sexy this summer

Spot sculpting works – focus on a particular muscle group and practice exercises that will firm up that area. Perform back exercises at least three days per week, always allowing a day of rest in between for recovery.

• Lunge Rows: Using a 10- or 15-pound hand-weight in one hand, get into a lunge position and hinge forward from your hips, not your spine. Pull the weight up to torso-level in a rowing or sawing motion and slowly lower back to the starting position. Your back is typically one of the stronger upper body muscles so don’t be shy about increasing your weight.

• Lat Pull-downs: Using a wide bar on the Lat Pull-down Machine, hold it with a wide comfortable grip and secure your knees underneath the pad. Pull the bar down to chest level. Extend your arms back to the top, and repeat. Try three sets of 12 lat pull-downs.

• Reverse Flys: This is the perfect muscle group to target for reducing “bra bulge”. Choose five- to 10-pound weights and begin in a seated position with feet flat, and arms hanging down at your sides. Keep your abs tight, lift both arms horizontally outward and squeeze the shoulder blades together, slowly returning back to the start position. Try three sets of eight to 10 reverse flies.

Don't forget...

The trick to spot sculpting is being realistic – if you have overall body fat to lose, your back fat is not going to magically disappear. Get serious about your cardio routine and diet, and remember that it takes 3,500 calories to gain a pound, and 3,500 less calories to burn it. Even 10 minutes of exercise can make a difference!

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtrd7-5AESLSh5y6nrS9RuVZ8CyJHmxBVnEiFNDNkcT0xLS4pFqejDbgcxywmVBIH6OodHDq3Ti8Afghirgbh48yJgAePzc1zqSuhAT-vdzdaw== or follow us on Twitter at http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtq85zchlS3Z02XcKX2yBXFGrzuAl3UhzTx1wc2gdCwZ4ayfzTutwDxgu6XltgU2znV0F9hefLZZHnBrysiirLtKELcGPUAamvT6oHf6EtNGqTDxR3QKvVmg or join our Facebook fan page at http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtqELWTbSkQDnapObDYUVeINxPEeZaE7qTORwTvbxisBLlv1_AORkP8SYNhymTGoY-LZlSL38YtjXSUqGiavsEP2cWSFyaavcF4cvAGbJgoBrngAZvwiB0k4.

THE BIOMECHANICS OF CARDIO EXERCISE

Walking and running are two of the most popular forms of exercise today, and equipment like treadmills and elliptical trainers can mimic outdoor training while helping you to achieve valuable cardio results. When using these pieces of equipment, biomechanics plays an important role in proper form, safety and injury prevention.
Follow these tips from the experts at Life Fitness to learn what is important in proper form and what to look for when choosing fitness equipment.

Achieve Proper Walking and Running Form:

• Follow safety instructions when mounting and dismounting the equipment
• Keep your head, shoulders and hips in line facing forward to make sure your body moves with the least amount of effort necessary
• Keep your shoulders back to avoid a slouching position, which allows maximum oxygen intake
• If walking, let the arms hang naturally at your sides
• If running, swing your arms in a natural figure eight pattern; try not to make the mistake of holding your arms tight to your body while running, which can throw off your balance

What to look for in treadmills:
Ergonomically correct – When using a gym treadmill, make sure the console doesn’t place your body in an awkward position. It’s important that the console slants at a more vertical than horizontal level, keeping your body in an upright position.
Shock absorbers – Running on hard surfaces can negatively impact the joints and back. Having a more cushioned platform can help prevent injury and will put less stress on the knees and ankles.
Longer handrails – Extended rails expand the running space and allow for more freedom to move. Longer handrails will give you more room to swing your arms naturally, as well as the additional safety of extended support.

What to look for in elliptical trainers:

Smooth movement – Check if the drive mechanism is at the rear of the machine, allowing the pedals to support your feet through full range of motion. This will eliminate the common ‘numb foot’ experience from over-extending the ankle joint beyond the normal running or walking range.

Synchronization – When the arm handles and foot pedals work in tandem, your balance and body positioning happens faster. Interdependent arms and legs also accommodate different exercisers, providing a workout customized for your fitness level.

Whether you’re a loyal treadmill runner, an elliptical-trainer fan or a combination of both, a little education on how to properly use the equipment will make a big difference in achieving optimum results.

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit www.lifefitness.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifefitness or join our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/lifefitness.

What is functional strength training?

By Cedric Bryant

Functional strength training has become a popular buzzword in the fitness industry. Unfortunately, it is also subject to wide interpretation. At the extreme, some individuals believe that by mimicking the explosive, ballistic activities of high-level competitive athletes, they are training in a functional manner. All too often, however, such training programs greatly exceed the physiological capabilities of the average exerciser, which ultimately increases the possibility that an injury might occur.

Most would agree that there is nothing functional about sustaining an injury due to improper training.
In many respects, functional strength training should be thought of in terms of a movement continuum. As humans, we perform a wide range of movement activities, such as walking, jogging, running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, pushing, pulling, bending, twisting, turning, standing, starting, stopping, climbing and lunging. All of these activities involve smooth, rhythmic motions in the three cardinal planes of movement- sagittal, frontal and transverse.
Training to improve functional strength involves more than simply increasing the force-producing capability of a muscle or group of muscles. Rather, it requires training to enhance the coordinated working relationship between the nervous and muscular systems.
Functional strength training involves performing work against resistance in such a manner that the improvements in strength directly enhance the performance of movements so that an individual's activities of daily living are easier to perform. Simply stated, the primary goal of functional training is to transfer the improvements in strength achieved in one movement to enhancing the performance of another movement by affecting the entire neuromuscular system.

In functional training, it is as critical to train the specific movement as it is to train the muscles involved in the movement. The brain, which controls muscular movement, thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles.

Exercises that isolate joints and muscles are training muscles, not movements, which results in less functional improvement. For example, squats will have a greater "transfer effect" on improving an individual's ability to rise from a sofa than knee extensions.

For strength exercises to effectively transfer to other movements, several components of the training movement need to be similar to the actual performance movement. This includes coordination, types of muscular contractions (concentric, eccentric, isometric), speed of movement and range of motion.

Each individual component of the training movement must be viewed as only a single element of the entire movement. The exercises with the highest transfer effect are those that are essentially similar to the actual movement or activity in all four components. It is important to note, however, that individuals cannot become expert at a particular movement or activity by training only with similar movements. For optimal results, repeated practice of the precise movement is required.

Exercises performed on most traditional machines tend to be on the low-end of the functional-training continuum because they isolate muscles in a stabilized, controlled environment. While it may be true that traditional, machine-based exercises are not the best way to transfer performance from the weight room to the real world, it does not mean that such exercises should not be a part of a training program.
For example, "non-functional," single-joint exercise can play a critical role in helping to strengthen a "weak link" that a person may have to restore proper muscle balance. Furthermore, doing such an exercise can allow an individual to more safely and effectively participate in functional-training activities while also reducing the risk of injury.
In the final analysis, it must be remembered that functional training is not an all-or-nothing concept. A continuum of functionality exists. The only entirely functional exercise is the actual activity one is training for.
Accordingly, individuals shouldn't rely on any single group of exercises. Individuals should use all the weapons in their training arsenal. Functional strength training should serve as a supplement to traditional strength training, not as a replacement.
Properly applied, functional strength training may provide exercise variety and additional training benefits that more directly transfer improvements to real-life activities.


Have an exercise, fitness or healthy living question that you’ve been wanting to ask? Send your questions to AskTheExpert@acefitness.org and it may be featured in our weekly blog post.

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TREADMILLS vs. ELLIPTICAL TRAINERS

TREADMILLS vs. ELLIPTICAL TRAINERS 

In the battle of cardio machines, gym-goers are loyal to their favorite cardio equipment. Whether you’re a treadmill lover or an elliptical enthusiast, follow these tips from the experts at Life Fitness to make the most of what your favorite cardio machine has to offer.
TREADMILLS

• Outdoor Experience: If you’re a dedicated runner or even a novice jogger interested in re-creating the outdoor running experience, treadmill programs like the hill option can produce an authentic training experience while offering benefits of a controlled workout.
• Incline and speed: While climbing a treadmill incline might not be as exhilarating as a mountain hike, it’s a great way to add variety and intensity to your workout, especially during cold, rainy months. Having the option of varying your treadmill speed can be extremely beneficial. Check out your treadmill’s pre-programmed speed and interval workouts, and use these to alternate running speeds and intensity levels, which can offer significant calorie burn.
• Accessibility: Walking is the most popular form of cardio exercise, and the most compatible. Even if you’re unable to run, treadmill walking allows you to lessen the intensity of a cardio workout while still gaining heart and bone health benefits. If you can’t walk outside due to location or weather, the treadmill will always be a trusted option.

ELLIPTICAL TRAINERS

• Safety: If you’re seeking a workout with less joint impact, the smooth motion of the elliptical offers an intense workout with less perceived exertion. It’s not as hard on your knees, hips and back, but this machine can still deliver a respectable calorie burn and aerobic heart rate.
• Cross-training: The handlebars on elliptical trainers offer an upper body workout that’s in sync with your foot movement. Using the dual handlebars and legs simultaneously will give you a full-body workout, and you have the ability to alter stride length which gives you more freedom to tailor your workout.
• Resistance and speed: The resistance on an elliptical trainer correlates to the incline on a treadmill – speed is determined by how quickly and steeply you move your feet. Try utilizing the adjustable ramp that many elliptical trainers offer, allowing for more variety in your workout. 
• Fun Factor: Some exercisers complain that running on a treadmill is boring. The repetitive motion in a forward direction can become dull, causing you to abandon your workout program. Elliptical trainers can keep things a little more interesting by allowing you to increase the resistance level and speed, while also giving you the option to reverse the pedals and use muscles in a different way.

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtrd7-5AESLSh5y6nrS9RuVZ8CyJHmxBVnEiFNDNkcT0xLS4pFqejDbgcxywmVBIH6OodHDq3Ti8Afghirgbh48yJgAePzc1zqSuhAT-vdzdaw== or follow us on Twitter at http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtq85zchlS3Z02XcKX2yBXFGrzuAl3UhzTx1wc2gdCwZ4ayfzTutwDxgu6XltgU2znV0F9hefLZZHnBrysiirLtKELcGPUAamvT6oHf6EtNGqTDxR3QKvVmg or join our Facebook fan page at http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zxbqo7cab&et=1103925246923&s=3007&e=001DDdctKIhWtqELWTbSkQDnapObDYUVeINxPEeZaE7qTORwTvbxisBLlv1_AORkP8SYNhymTGoY-LZlSL38YtjXSUqGiavsEP2cWSFyaavcF4cvAGbJgoBrngAZvwiB0k4.

Vision Fitness' Sprint 8 and HGH Growth Hormone

Vision Fitness' Sprint 8 and HGH Growth Hormone

SPRINT 8 is the perfect fitness solution!
Vision Fitness has teamed up with Phil Campbell, author of "Ready, Set, Go! Synergy Fitness," to develop an anaerobic SPRINT 8 program found exclusively on Vision Fitness® cardio products. All you have to do is push a button to experience proven results. Here are some SPRINT 8 highlights:

• Each workout takes only 20 minutes!
• Effective for all ages and fitness levels
• Naturally releases growth hormone (your "fitness" hormone)
• Cuts body fat and tones muscle
• Reduces wrinkles
• Boosts energy
• Improves speed and performance

If you are over 30, you are likely experiencing somatopause!
Somatopause is the medical term for the weight gain, loss of muscle, energy decline and wrinkled skin you experience when you hit middle age. To combat somatopause, medical researchers say people must incorporate anaerobic exercise into their weekly fitness routine. Anaerobic exercise programs, such as SPRINT 8, help you release your fitness hormone. Try SPRINT 8 at Empire Home Fitness today!