Club Blog

Starting a fitness program without testing your fitness level is like beginning a journey without knowing exactly where you and having no map to guide you to your destination. Fitness testing establishes your starting point. Plotting out check points along your fitness pathway can direct you toward achieving both short-term and long-term goals.

Seven reasons for fitness testing before and during your exercise program are to:

1. Establish your baseline. When you know initial fitness status, you know how far you have to go to reach your goals. Testing helps you set specific, achievable yet challenging goals with realistic target dates.

2. Compare yourself to others. Many tests are standardized. They provide norms, so you know where you stand in relationship to the “average” person’s score.

3. Individualize your program. Knowing your fitness level springs you out of the one-size-fits-all exercise mold and jumpstarts your personalized, streamlined training path.

4. Know how hard to work. You can estimate your optimum training range using maximum or predicted maximum fitness scores. For most phases of training, exercise intensity is typically performed within a target zone of 60-85% of your maximum cardio or strength level.

5. Evaluate your progress. When you measure your progress regularly, you can see how far you have advanced from your baseline fitness level. Each milestone that you achieve is a great confidence booster that propels you on toward your goals.

Exercise can lower blood pressure. The number of capillaries surrounding each leg muscle fiber increases by 5-10% following endurance training. This not only makes exercise easier but also lowers blood pressure. Numerous studies support that exercise training does indeed lower blood pressure in hypertensive subjects.

Exercise improves heart function. When you start an endurance based exercise program, expect your resting heart rate to decrease by about 1 beat per minute every week during the initial weeks. This is an indication that your heart is becoming more efficient and pumping more blood each beat. Highly trained endurance athletes can have a resting heart rate as low as 40 beats per minute or even less.

Exercise can prevent muscle loss. Sedentary adults lose 6-10 percent of their muscle mass per decade after age 30, leading to a condition called sarcopenia. Regular strength training can delay or in some cases reverse this trend. When it comes to muscle, you must use it or you will lose it!

Exercise can help you live longer. Studies on large populations have discovered the highest death rates in those who are the least fit. Those who are the most fit have the lowest death rates.

Exercise can improve sex life. A study published by the Harvard School of Public Health found that men who exercised vigerously were half as likely to experience sexual dysfunction when compared to men who did no exercise.

Exercise can improve brain function. Research has discovered that the fittest kids generally score the highest on test scores. Older adults who are fit show less cognitive decline compared to their sedentary counterparts.

Exercise can speed up wound healing. A study out of Ohio State found that skin wounds healed an average of 10 days faster in the exercise group compared to the non exercise group.

Exercise can help the elderly. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported gains in leg strength of 374 percent over baseline in men over 90 years of age who began strength training in as little as 8 weeks! Other research has found a reversal in normal age related characteristics in the muscle of seniors who took up weight lifting.

Many people have their reasons for not wanting to exercise. These are six of the most common excuses that people give for not exercising, and ways to combat those excuses:

I am too tired: This is how a person says to him or herself when thinking about exercising and does not want to. If you are too tired, you can take a short nap and you will feel refreshed enough to exercise. Otherwise, you can pick the time of the day to exercise when you are most at your peak.

For example, if you are a morning person, then exercise in the morning. If you are an evening or late night person, then you can exercise at night. There may be some health concerns regarding what time of the day is the best to exercise. However, if you exercise no later than late afternoon/early evening, you should have no problem

I do not have time: Many people these days are so wrapped up in their work that they do not even think about exercise. However, people cannot afford to not take the time to exercise. In fact, exercising helps you perform better at work. The amount or length of time you need to exercise depends upon how active you naturally are or how active you are on the job. You should consider a minimum of 20 minutes a day.

Also, you can find creative exercises to engage in; such as if you need a gallon of milk and you forgot it at the store, you can walk there to get it. You can also bike to work instead of drive if, you are not too far away from your job and you do not have to work too late. You can find ways to exercise if you have a busy schedule.

Ask a panel of fitness professionals the age-old question of free weights vs. weight machines and you’re likely to end up in a tense gridlock. The fact of the matter is, fitness preferences are as diverse as the crowd of people you see at your gym, but there are pros and cons to both that we can outline here.

Free weights are versatile, inexpensive, and, depending on the amount of weight you’re used to lifting, ultra-portable. They also simulate real-life lifting situations which will help you better accomplish everyday activities that require strength.

Weight machines, on the other hand, can be effective weight training tools, too, provided you use machines that allow you to adjust them based on your body’s dimensions and range of motion.

The fact of the matter is that few things are more important for your health than just getting out there and doing something to strengthen and tone your body, but proper technique is more important than the specific type of equipment you use.

Do you think that your health isn’t precisely as you’d like it to be as you have additional fat? If so, you ought to think about getting rid it by weight lifting. A lot of individuals connect strength training with body builders, however this shouldn’t be thought of simply as a means to become very strong and muscular. Disciplined weight lifting is one of the more valuable methods to lose weight and keep it off. It is appropriate for anyone over the age of twelve, either male or female.

Prior to starting any weight lifting plan, it’s important to obtain a medical go-ahead from a physician to be certain that you don’t have underlying or unknown health issues that could create a risk while working out. Although you look or feel completely fine, it’s usually wise to obtain this consent to be certain that you’ll be able to work out consistently and will be able take demands which might be put on you by your instructor.

If you have access to weight lifting machines at a fitness center, you easily can do some dumbbell lifting slowly in the beginning. This may be 3 to 4 sessions to begin with, however you may step up with time. At your home, you might do some dumbbell workouts while listening to music or watching TV to help distract yourself from the strain.

Even when you’re not working out, it’s helpful to move more since it also can be a factor in your weight loss. For example, at school or work, you could use the stairs instead of the elevator. If you have extra time at home after dinner, jog or walk the dog to burn more fat.