Ryangie Fitness Couple



Exercise: What kind and how much?

Cardiovascular training has great respiratory and cardiovascular benefits. Which type of machine or class doesn't matter. Certain body parts may benefit from being used in a high repetitive and the result is usually some mild toning of the given body part. Do not mistake this for muscle building. Some machines will have an upper and lower body simultaneous action. The benefit from this is that it will get you to your target heart rate a bit sooner. In short, do whatever cardio exercise you enjoy or prefer. Having said that, cardio exercise as a method towards weight loss is highly overrated. Granted, your body moving equals calorie usage but if 30-45 minutes of cardio burns about 300-500 calories, isn't much easier and faster to eat 300-500 less calories? I'm not saying don't do cardio. It does have great benefits; just don't rely on it as your main method of weight loss. 

Strength Training

    Strength training's lists of benefits are being added to almost on a daily basis. Calorie burn while strength training nearly equals cardio training in the same amount of time. Increased lean muscle tissue equals a higher metabolism. Each pound of muscle requires 50 calories per day just for your body to sustain that muscle. 10 pounds of extra muscle increases your body’s daily calorie expenditure by 500 calories per day. Strength training not only increases muscle tissue volume but also increases the strength of tendons, ligaments, and bones. A healthier bone means healthier blood. Bone marrow is where your body creates red blood cells. Healthier blood creates a domino effect of overall better health. 

What do I do to strength train?      

Here is a routine I developed years ago that I still use today for myself and my clients. It separates body parts throughout the week to give ample rest and also is a complete routine that does not neglect any muscle group. It also maintains a muscle balance by implementing opposing muscle groups within the same day. Some refer to it as push/pull exercises.

Here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind as you perform strength exercises.

-Stay off balance. Perform all exercises possible with one limb at a time. For example, do a dumbbell chest press with one arm at a time and preferably on a stability ball. This forces you to utilize your core muscles and thus creating more benefit out of each exercise.

-Keep the muscle confused. Continuously change the type of exercise (machine free weight, plate load, etc), repetition quantity, set quantity and other varying techniques to keep your muscles guessing. Our bodies are excellent at adapting. When you perform the same thing over and over in the gym the muscles get accustomed to the exercise and thus causing what most people call a plateau. This is when most people quit or get discouraged. Don’t allow this to happen to you.

-Pre-exhaust. I personally like the pre-exhaustion technique. It entails performing an isolation (single joint and muscle) movement directly followed by the corresponding compound (multiple joint and muscles) movement. For example, a chest press preceded by a pectoral fly. Or an over head press preceded by a side lateral raise.

It is highly recommended to consult a personal trainer for more details on this and other techniques and also verification of proper form to prevent injury.

Weekly Routine:

Monday Chest and Upper Back

-Warm up

-Pec Fly

-Chest Press

-Bent over Dumbbell Raise (rear delt)

-Dumbbell Row

-Ab exercise

-Stretch

Wednesday Lower Body

-Warm up

-Squat or leg Press

-Lunges or other leg exercise

-Leg Extension

-Back (Hyper) Extension

-Calf Raise

-Ab exercise

-Stretch

Friday Shoulders and Arms

-Warm up

-Side lateral deltoid raise

-Overhead Press

-Pulldown

-Tricep exercise

-Bicep Exercise

-Oblique exercise

-Stretch

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