Eating nutritious meals can help you keep away unwanted weight gain as well as optimize the operation of your body, but diet is only one part of becoming truly healthy. True fitness is obtained through a combination of diet, exercise and a wellness lifestyle.
One main key to developing a fit body is to engage in strength training to work and optimize muscles. Strength training could include lifting free weights, using weight machines in your home or gym or even using your own body weight to do exercises such as pull ups or push ups. Strength training will increase muscle growth (women will never build significant muscles due to their lack of testosterone), which will increase metabolism and daily calorie burn.
Dieting alone will lead to muscle loss.
Another key benefit of exercise is cardio improvement. Aerobic exercise such as running, biking, swimming and playing sports will help your body become a more efficient machine. It will strengthen your heart, your bones and increase your oxygen efficiency. Diet alone cannot achieve these results.
Fitness is much more than dieting. It is a lifestyle that concentrates on taking care of the body on multiple levels. When you decide that it's time to get in shape, don't forget that just cutting back on the ice cream will never get you all the way.
WCS Fitness sells refurbished exercise equipment at below-retail prices. Our refurbished fitness equipment is high quality at a low price. We see gently-used treadmills, elliptical trainers, stair steppers, stationary bikes and more.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Lifestyle Change Is The Only Way
If you are looking to lose weight and finally become fit, you must commit to a lifestyle change. No pill or short term diet will ever work to affect a lasting change no matter what the commericals say.
Becoming fit is a gradual process, and one that only occurs as you develop the right habits and actions and break away from those bad habits that have brought you to where you are.
Good habits include regular exercise and eating well balanced and nutritional foods, but it goes further to include getting rest, keeping your life balanced and moving away from those circumstances and people that are most likely to hinder your progress and hold you back.
Simple actions like buying a treadmill for your home, shopping at a local Farmer's Market and getting a friend to walk with you after work are all positive changes that will help you make and keep your healthy commitment to yourself.
WCS Fitness can help. We offer a wide variety of gently used fitness equipment for below-retail prices. Our exercise equipment is refurbished to like-new quality, so you can be assured of getting the best functioning fitness equipment for a spectacular price.
We sell refurbished treadmills, elliptical trainers, stair steppers, stationary bikes and more.
Becoming fit is a gradual process, and one that only occurs as you develop the right habits and actions and break away from those bad habits that have brought you to where you are.
Good habits include regular exercise and eating well balanced and nutritional foods, but it goes further to include getting rest, keeping your life balanced and moving away from those circumstances and people that are most likely to hinder your progress and hold you back.
Simple actions like buying a treadmill for your home, shopping at a local Farmer's Market and getting a friend to walk with you after work are all positive changes that will help you make and keep your healthy commitment to yourself.
WCS Fitness can help. We offer a wide variety of gently used fitness equipment for below-retail prices. Our exercise equipment is refurbished to like-new quality, so you can be assured of getting the best functioning fitness equipment for a spectacular price.
We sell refurbished treadmills, elliptical trainers, stair steppers, stationary bikes and more.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Workout No Brainer – Have A Fitness Plan
Planning is the foundation of maintaining progress and achieving goals. It also makes life much, much easier. To make the best of each and every workout, make sure you have a plan before lacing up your shoes and jumping on a treadmill.
If you are a casual fitness client, planning a workout doesn’t have to be as complicated as writing down which what order of exercise machines you’ll visit, how much weight you’ll put on and how many reps you’ll do (most serious athletes will plan out all this information in advance of a workout, but it is not necessary for beginning or intermediate exercisers). Just creating a mental checklist of which muscles you want to work on, which exercise machines you want to hit or what type of aerobic activity you want to pursue will help you stay on task at the gym.
Before you plan a workout, remind yourself of your long term and short term fitness goals. Evaluate how far you’ve progressed to reaching your short term goal. Ask yourself what do I need to do today in order to put myself in a position to meet that goal? This will help you see exactly what type of workout you need to create and how hard to push yourself.
If your goal is to lose a specific amount of weight, you may want to combine cardio and strength training. Maybe you’ll decide to do a half hour on an elliptical trainer then do circuit training on weight machines. If your goal is to run a 10k, then you might plan a treadmill workout and concentrate on increasing your distance.
If you have only a limited amount of time to work out, make sure to factor this into your workout plan. To save time make your circuits shorter and increase resistance (weight).
Be sure to go through your plan before you begin your workout. In your head, check off each machine you want to visit and go over other important details such as how many miles to run on the treadmill or how long to use the stair climber.
Planning your workout is crucial to keeping yourself on track to realize your fitness goals. Planning will assist exercisers in making the most out of their workout, maintaining motivation and increasing the effectiveness of their fitness routine.
Best of health!
If you are a casual fitness client, planning a workout doesn’t have to be as complicated as writing down which what order of exercise machines you’ll visit, how much weight you’ll put on and how many reps you’ll do (most serious athletes will plan out all this information in advance of a workout, but it is not necessary for beginning or intermediate exercisers). Just creating a mental checklist of which muscles you want to work on, which exercise machines you want to hit or what type of aerobic activity you want to pursue will help you stay on task at the gym.
Before you plan a workout, remind yourself of your long term and short term fitness goals. Evaluate how far you’ve progressed to reaching your short term goal. Ask yourself what do I need to do today in order to put myself in a position to meet that goal? This will help you see exactly what type of workout you need to create and how hard to push yourself.
If your goal is to lose a specific amount of weight, you may want to combine cardio and strength training. Maybe you’ll decide to do a half hour on an elliptical trainer then do circuit training on weight machines. If your goal is to run a 10k, then you might plan a treadmill workout and concentrate on increasing your distance.
If you have only a limited amount of time to work out, make sure to factor this into your workout plan. To save time make your circuits shorter and increase resistance (weight).
Be sure to go through your plan before you begin your workout. In your head, check off each machine you want to visit and go over other important details such as how many miles to run on the treadmill or how long to use the stair climber.
Planning your workout is crucial to keeping yourself on track to realize your fitness goals. Planning will assist exercisers in making the most out of their workout, maintaining motivation and increasing the effectiveness of their fitness routine.
Best of health!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Progression Is The Key
In fitness, the "overload principle," holds the improvement is achieved through challenging the body to work a little harder than it is accustomed to.
This means lifting a little heavier weight or adding extra two reps to your set. It means increasing the resistance on the elliptical trainer or increasing the speed on the treadmill.
An exerciser will not show significant fitness improvement if he/she does the exact same exercise every day. The body is an amazing machine and will quickly adapt to the pressures you put on it. That's why if you run a ten minute mile four times a week, you will start to notice the effort becomes easier and easier until it is hardly a workout at all.
The overload principle suggests that if you want to run faster, you will need to increase your speed. If you want to run farther, stay on the treadmill a little longer.
Push yourself gradually. Increase your efforts 5-10%. This may be mean adding 3 pounds to your weights or taking 10 seconds off your running time. Stick to this new load until your body adapts. As soon as you begin to feel comfortable again, it's time to push yourself a little harder!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Key to Health - Cross Training
Most athletes revere the fitness philosophy of "specificity", which means that to improve your abilities in a certain sport, you should train through the same movements the sport requires. To improve running, runners should run. Bikers should bike. Tennis players should work on sprints and developing the back, chest and shoulder muscles that are required for strong strokes.
The rule of specificity is highly effective for athletes, but like all good things, too much specificity can lead to boredom, burn out and even injury. It is important for athletes to expand their fitness regimens to include a wide variety of exercises in order to engage all the muscles of their body and to rest those muscles used regularly in sports competition. Putting your body through the same motion (ex. running) can lead to overuse.
The key to preventing an overuse injury is cross training. Cross training simply means to participate in related yet different exercises. Runners can take a day off from running and go swimming instead. Swimming engages all the major muscle groups while giving bones and joints a day to rebuild and recover from a long run.
Athletes are encouraged to try different exercise machines. Skip the treadmill and check out the elliptical trainer instead. Aerobic athletes should definitely invest in strength training. If you've never stepped foot in the free weight section of your gym, give it a try. If you have the means, buy exercise equipment for your home. Buy a stair stepper or bike and use it once a day.
Cross Training training provides many important benefits. It helps fully develop your fitness, helps prevent overuse and will insert a fun, new component to your workout. Give it a try and discover all these benefits for yourself.
The rule of specificity is highly effective for athletes, but like all good things, too much specificity can lead to boredom, burn out and even injury. It is important for athletes to expand their fitness regimens to include a wide variety of exercises in order to engage all the muscles of their body and to rest those muscles used regularly in sports competition. Putting your body through the same motion (ex. running) can lead to overuse.
The key to preventing an overuse injury is cross training. Cross training simply means to participate in related yet different exercises. Runners can take a day off from running and go swimming instead. Swimming engages all the major muscle groups while giving bones and joints a day to rebuild and recover from a long run.
Athletes are encouraged to try different exercise machines. Skip the treadmill and check out the elliptical trainer instead. Aerobic athletes should definitely invest in strength training. If you've never stepped foot in the free weight section of your gym, give it a try. If you have the means, buy exercise equipment for your home. Buy a stair stepper or bike and use it once a day.
Cross Training training provides many important benefits. It helps fully develop your fitness, helps prevent overuse and will insert a fun, new component to your workout. Give it a try and discover all these benefits for yourself.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Using Treadmills for Therapeutic Purposes
Although most people think of treadmills as a tool to use in order to achieve a greater level of fitness, you may be surprised to learn that treadmills are also used for therapeutic purposes. In fact, treadmills first gained popularity after being developed for therapeutic purposes in 1952 by Dr. Robert Bruce and Wayne Quinton. The two created the treadmill in an effort to help with diagnosing lung and heart disease, but Dr. Kenneth Cooper later discovered the effectiveness of using a treadmill for improving cardiovascular health. Since then, researchers have found an increasing number of ways to use treadmills for therapeutic purposes.
Monitoring the Heart and Lungs
Ever since Dr. Robert Bruce and Wayne Quinton first developed started using treadmills for therapeutic reasons, doctors have continued to use the machines in this manner. In fact, treadmill companies such as Landice specialize in developing treadmills for therapeutic use. These treadmills contain monitoring equipment and other features that make it easier for doctors to monitor the heart, lungs and other vital signs while running or walking on a treadmill.
Improving the Nervous System
More recent research has demonstrated the effectiveness of using treadmills to aid in improving the nervous system. In fact, V. Reggie Edgerton, PhD, who is a professor of physiological science at UCLA, has pioneered a form of treadmill walking therapy to aid in the treatment of neurological conditions. In fact, thanks to this technique, some people who were previously wheelchair bound have actually learned to walk again. Put simply, when a nonambulatory person is placed on a treadmill, the legs may actually begin walking as patients experience a lessening of their paralysis level.
Recovering from Trauma
Treadmills are also used to help patients recover from trauma, such as the trauma experienced after an accident or after undergoing an operation. Of course, it is important for a person recovering from trauma to work closely with a rehabilitation specialist in order to develop the most appropriate workout program. Once a program is developed, however, it is possible to purchase a treadmill for home and to use it to continue the rehab program at home.
Although treadmills are a great addition to any home gym and are perfect for helping to improve your level of health, they are also an amazing medical tool. From helping with the diagnosis of disease and problematic conditions to helping you overcome traumatic injuries, treadmills are a true medical marvel!
Do Elliptical Machines Work For Burning Fat?
By Adam Kahn
The main goal of cardiovascular activity with elliptical machines is no different to that of using treadmills or stationary bikes; to increase aerobic fitness. To become fitter, we are trying to increase the hearts capacity to supply the body's muscles with more oxygen. As a result, the metabolism increases and the body burns stored fat quicker, aiding weight loss.
The joy of elliptical machines is that they provide a safe and easy starting point for anyone new to an aerobic fitness routine. The smooth oscillating motion of an elliptical allows the user to start off at a slow pace on a lower resistance which they can then build up over a period of time as their aerobic capacity increases.
The emphasis however with cardio training is that if our goal is also to burn fat, a constant pace over a period of time during a workout, is not going to be half as effective as training with intervals. Cardio workouts should be performed at least four times a week, lasting for at least twenty minutes. Unless you are breaking a sweat, then you are not optimizing your workout to burn fat.
Elliptical machines are perfect for burning body fat through interval training. The key is to alternate average-intensity pace with high-intensity bursts. Unlike with treadmills where your joints and muscles will suffer more stress, elliptical machines make interval training much easier on the body but still help effectively burn body fat and tone.
Depending on your current level of aerobic fitness, you may find initial attempts at interval training quite difficult but by limiting your maximum bursts to 60 seconds and your normal rate to 60 seconds, the body will soon adapt.
The great benefit with elliptical machines is that cardio workouts can be performed in reverse motion. Whether you are targeting fat burn with a constant pace in your workout or performing interval training, reverse motion targets all the muscles you would not normally use. Optimal fat burn can be achieved with this motion, as the heart and muscles have to work much harder.
Whether you decide to use elliptical machines for aerobic fitness or burning unwanted fat is entirely up to you. Always make sure to consult a doctor before taking on such workout routines, especially if you have suffered injuries or have a history of heart or respiratory problems in the past.
No matter how intense the workout, elliptical machines are by far an extremely enjoyable method to burning fat and improving aerobic fitness. By working hard and keeping motivated, you can be well on your way to achieving that perfectly toned body.
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