Voyager Fitness

Chances are, if you are out of shape or overweight, you don’t enjoy your current status.  Even if every other aspect of your life is under control, the stress of getting in shape weighs on you, causing more negative health effects.

There are many barriers keeping you from reaching your optimum fitness level, including work, family, finances, etc. , but the ultimate barrier is the lack of knowledge on the subject.  Most people don’t know what to do when they go to the gym, and it makes them feel awkward when they exercise around others.  Now obviously personal trainers eliminate this problem by providing professional instruction and individualized program counseling to their clients, but a lot of people are not willing to spend the extra money for a trainer, especially when they are first beginning to exercise.

This is where the internet shows its true beauty, allowing anyone to research and come up with a pretty good idea for a beginner exercise and strength training program.  If you’re having trouble translating all of the information into a program of your own, here’s a basic outline to get you started on your voyage to better fitness.

Remember that you’re a BEGINNER.

This is very important.

Just because you’ve been doing your research on the internet and you’ve even bought a few books, don’t make the mistake of walking into the gym and pulling off a 15 miler on the treadmill.  Not even half of that.

Even if you used to be fit at one point in your life, don’t act like you’re 18 again and overdo it in the gym.  You will either end up burning out or seriously injuring yourself.  Remember that you are just beginning on your path to becoming ‘fit’ and design the workouts accordingly.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Most likely, there is someone employed at your gym who knows a little about fitness.  Ask that person for help if you need it.  Want to know how to operate a particular piece of equipment? Ask.  Have a question about recommended reps on a certain exercise? Ask.

Chances are, there are knowledgeable people working out at your gym as well.  There will be seasoned veterans working out in your gym who possess a ton of knowledge, and if they are a decent person, they won’t mind answering some well-timed questions.  After all, if you enjoy working out, you should inspire others to do the same by helping those who are just starting out.

Always start with a warm-up!

Never begin your workout without warming-up first.  When you perform activity and place strain on a “cold” muscle, you severely increase the chance of injury.  A sufficient warm-up will get the blood flowing to the muscle tissue and increase elasticity of the fibers, thus allowing proper movement and reducing the chance that an injury will occur.

A proper warm-up should include a cardio-based exercise such as a light jog or ride on a stationary bike.   The jog is an ideal warm-up because it involves muscles in both the upper and lower body, instead of the bike which is a mainly lower body dominant warm-up.  The warm up should be between 10-20 minutes, depending mainly on the amount of time available and the intensity of the planned session of exercise.

After this warm-up, you should have a light to moderate sweat going and should feel ready to perform the bulk of your work out.  The warm-up should not leave you feeling exhausted.  If you are tired after the warm-up, cut back the length and intensity until you find what works for you.

Use a full-body scheme.

When designing your new workout program, I suggest performing at least one strengthening exercise for each of the major muscle groups:

• Chest
• Shoulders
• Back
• Arms (biceps, triceps, and forearms)
• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Core / Abs

By performing at least one resistance exercise for each muscle group, you wil ensure that you aren’t neglecting a certain muscle group.  You will be setting the stage for optimum balanced muscular development.  Plus, if you happen to miss a workout, you can just pick right back up the next time in the gym, instead of throwing your entire program out of whack.

Use this site, and others around the web, to come up with a set of exercises for each of the categories above.  There’s your program. Simple yet effective.

Don’t forget to cool down.

Just as you had to warm-up before your workout, you should make sure to properly cool down afterwards.  This will allow your muscles to relax and will help the blood circulate to remove waste from the muscle tissue which will reduce soreness and tightness in the future.  The less tight and sore  you are within the next few days, the more eager you will be to workout again.  Therefore, you will have a better chance of sticking with your new program, which is the ultimate goal!

To cool down, I’d suggest a short 10-15 minute cardio session on a different piece of equipment from which you used for your warm-up.  An elliptical, stepper, or bike would be ideal.  After the cardio, it is important to stretch.  Perform your favorite stretch routine, making sure to hit on all of the same muscle groups included in your strength training regimine.  Make sure you hold each stretch for 15-20 seconds to properly lengthen muscle fibers.  This stretch will prevent soreness and reduce the risk of injury, while improving the elasticity and efficiency of the muscle tissue. 

Well, there you have it.  The simplicity and effectiveness of this begginer workout program outline will ensure that you stick to your new ‘good habit’ of exercising.  Hopefully, by utilizing this method, you will not only build strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility, you will be paving the path along your new voyage to a healthier, happier life.

I see it everyday.  People come into the gym to workout, and consistently perform the  exact same routine, day after day.  Then, with a clueless expression, come up to me and ask why they are not seeing the results they are looking for.  Sure, they are putting the time and effort into their fitness goals, but that’s not enough!

My recommendation is simple:  You have to change it up. 

MUSCLE CONFUSION

When you perform the same exercises for an extended period of time, your body adapts to those specific movements.  Your body, your muscles, and even your mind knows whats coming and prepares accordingly.  The result is a plateau of progress with little or no significant muscular gains or fat loss. 

Because of the body’s ability to adapt and prepare for the stresses placed upon it, you must outsmart your muscles by adding new and different movements and exercises.  This will challenge your muscles to a new level and allow you to make progress toward your overall fitness goals.  This idea has been coined “muscle confusion” by many leading fitness experts and trainers, and has been proven to produce dramatic results in various programs. 

Without this change in pace, you will continue to remain at your current fitness level.  Do research, ask your personal trainer, or just improvise.  All you have to remember is to change up your routine every couple months and you will be astonished at the progress that will be made by confusing and challenging your body and mind to a new level.

Life is complicated, to say the least.  We have appointments, events, meetings, games, and anything else that could possibly take up our time throughout each day.  This can create confusion that sometimes can become overwhelming at times.  However, if we try to remember to maintain balance in day-to-day life, it can turn out to be less chaotic.

Work and Play

This is probably the most important aspect to balance in our lives.  Work too hard and you risk burn out, stress, fatigue, etc..  Over time, this will likely cause negative health effects such as hypertension or depression, and will probably result in a loss of productivity in your work anyways.  In order to combat this, we must have fun.  Do something you enjoy, and suddenly all the work that you have been doing will feel worth it.

On the other hand, we can’t completely ignore work and focus solely on having a good time without consequences.  We may be able to do this for a week or so, while on vacation or a holiday, but this type of imbalance is just as dangerous as working too much.  You may someday (if you are fortunate) have the ability to focus more on fun than work, but some work must always be done in order to live.  We have to strive to find that healthy balance.

Life and Fitness

If we ignore this balance, we will suffer.  Exercise must be incorporated into daily life, but it also has a great benefit: it can be both work or fun, depending on what you need.  If you’re working too much and need to balance it out, you can exercise in a fun way – killing two birds with one stone.  If you’re having too much fun, partying and drinking too much, working out can provide the work needed to balance out the work/fun relationship.

Fitness is so important that, if ignored, we will die.  That’s right, I said die.  Not necessarily today or even tomorrow, but eventually you will die.  I know, we all die right.? Well, yea you’re right, but you will live LONGER if you consistently perform exercise throughout your life.  Now that is a FACT.Just look at the rest of this site for proof.

Sorry about ranting a little, but I felt compelled to write about this topic as it has been on my mind for a while.  As I continue to try and figure out what this world is all about, I will remember that life is about balancing everything.  Hopefully this will help us all with our own abilities to sense when things are coming out of balance, and we can fix the problem.

Remember this:  Having  a few of beers can create conversation and make for a great night, but look what happens when you have too many.  We have to find that balance.

The foundation of this blog is the idea that fitness is achieved through a gradual and steady voyage. Throughout this voyage, each of us will encounter new information that will allow us to modify and develop the way we individually view fitness, and how we will continue to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

My personal views are evident on the archives of this site via the articles that I have published.  As I continue to learn and research the realm of health and fitness, I will also continue to evolve my perspective on how the ultimate healthy lifestyle is achieved.  I realize my viewpoint may not ever reach perfection, but I hope you stay current with this site and keep posting comments, so that we can learn from one another to develop our own ideal healthy lives.

With that said, you may (or may not) know that I have recently started to really buy into the primal living ideology, better known as the paleo diet.  This school of thought includes views on exercise that differ from the conventional workouts that we are used to.  Physical activity and exercise is recommended to be performed on a daily basis, which could take a big chunk of your schedule if it was to be solely performed in a gym.  However, when thinking primally, we begin to better understand that fitness does not have to be this extremely regimented and strict, but can be easily meshed into daily life.

The gym lifestyle – setting yourself up for failure

Too many of us start off wanting to ‘get in shape’, and the first thing that comes to mind is joining a gym.  Now, don’t get me wrong, joining a gym is great as a first step. However, we can’t rely too heavily on the gym as the only way to get a workout in.  Instead, we need to look at other ways to get our daily exercise, such as a quick jog in your neighborhood, walking your dog, or even yard work. These are all ways to raise your heart rate and burn some calories that don’t require getting dressed in your gym clothes and driving to the gym.

Relying solely on the gym is too time restrictive sometimes, and will be hard to continue if you have a busy schedule, like most people.  It’s also easy to make excuses not to go, since it requires you to get ready, get in your car, and drive to the destination. Even if we do end up making it into the gym, there can be distractions that keep us from getting the workout we need, like other people talking to you, using the piece of equipment you want, or posing in the mirror.

On the other hand, performing non-gym alternative workouts such as chopping wood, mowing the lawn, landscaping, etc. will not only be productive, it can also turn out to be fun (if you’re able to think outside the box).  Plus, you will find that it is way easier to fit these types of workouts into your schedule consistently, since they are things that need done anyways.

Like I said, don’t misread what I am saying here: I still believe that the gym is a crucial place to perform a variety of exercise routines.  Obviously I’m a fan, I work in one.  But what I’m trying to prove here is that you need to think outside of the gym to get your required daily exercise, as not all workouts are going to be done in the gym.

Remember, get creative with your exercise.  Workouts don’t all need to be dumbbells and treadmills.  Exercise is exercise whether it’s done inside or outside.  The key, just like with anything else, is hard work, consistency, and SWEAT!

Imagine.  It’s 45,000 B.C. and you’re hungry.  Since you can’t hop in your car and drive to the nearest shopping plaza, you have two options: hunt or gather.  By gathering, you would find tons of edible fruits, nuts, berries, seeds, etc..  Add that to the wild game, slaughtered on the most recent hunt, and there’s your food.  No grains, corn, or other processed junk.  Just all-natural, nutrient rich foods, that digest easily and give you plenty of sustained energy for the rest of your day.

This is the idea behind the primal diet(or paleo diet), a fast growing trend in nutrition that makes perfect sense.  Based on Evolutionary Science, every species of animal has a diet pattern based upon digestive abilities and other factors.  Well it turns out that humans are natural omnivores, designed to eat a mixed diet.  The primal diet way of thinking is geared toward following nature, rather than eating the processed, refined, and chemically altered junk that we see on many shelves today.

A leading spokesman for the primal way of life is Mark Sisson, who publishes information and offers products via his website: marksdailyapple.com

Mark has put extensive amounts of work into the “Primal Blueprint”, his instruction manual on primal living that can be purchased through his site, but I have learned so much just through his blog posts and videos that I have yet to purchase the book.  And believe me, this guy is living proof that fitness is maintainable at any age, especially by eating primal (Mark is 57 and pretty ripped!) I highly recommend checking out his site if you’re looking to learn about the primal way of life.

PRIMAL LIVING – Back to the basics.

The whole idea behind going primal is based upon evolutionary science and natural human instincts.  Basically, your diet and exercise programs are designed with a caveman mentality.  Everything you eat is based upon the diet of primitive man, so you will avoid the processed junk and refined garbage and stick to mainly whole, natural foods and recipes that rely on meats, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries, etc..  The idea is simple: If a caveman could find it, pick it, or kill it, you should eat it.

Resistance training is to be done with primal life in mind as well.  Living primal means avoiding most complex exercise equipment and machines and mainly sticking with body weight exercises and some free weight maneuvers.

In terms of cardio, Mark recommends performing low-level aerobic exercises such as biking, hiking, walking, and swimming mixed with high intensity interval training which includes short bursts of sprinting with breaks in between.  The sprinting replicates a situation that would occur in the primal world (like a caveman chasing down the next meal).

It just makes sense…

When you think about it, the primal living concept makes a lot of sense, and there is good reason behind why it is emerging as one of the fastest growing ideas in nutritional thinkng.  It’s so simple, it’s brilliant.  You eat what you’re naturally supposed to eat, and you will look like you are naturally supposed to look.  This means you will shed those unsightly extra pounds and look like you are ready to go out and chase down a meal (or something like that).  And, since your body will be burning food more efficiently, you will feel great too!  It’s pretty much a no brainer.

As research continues on this topic, I am excited to learn as much as possible about primal thinking, and will continue to provide interesting primal topics to Voyager Fitness in the future.

As always, if you have any questions about primal living or just want to share your thoughts your comments are always welcome!

CC Image courtesy of JPChamberland (Jean-Pierre Chamberland) on Flickr

Do you want to live healthier? Do you enjoy money? Do you want to help save the environment by becoming more green? Do you hate traffic? Do you love the outdoors?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, I have a solution that will help you accomplish one or all of these goals:  Ride your bike to work!

I know for some of you it may be near impossible due to the length of your commute, but for some of you who don’t drive very far to get to work, this little change in routine will provide you with a whole batch of benefits that will leave you (and your wallet) a whole lot healthier.

Live a longer, healthier life!

Bicycling is a low-impact, aerobic exercise.  It’s low impact due to the reduced stress placed on the knees when compared with similar exercise such as running.   When you run, especially on pavement, your knee joints can take a beating from the constant pounding they receive.  However, there is very little impact on the joints while riding a bicycle, which reduces your risk for inflammation and other injury that can keep you out of commission.

The aerobic aspect of cycling will give your heart a workout.  Moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise reduces your risk for heart-attack and disease as well as maintaining healthy blood-pressure, cholesterol levels, and body-weight.

Have more money!

I don’t know many people who wouldn’t like the sound of that!  Especially in this economy, we are always looking for ways to save money, but very few people think of biking to work as a way to accomplish this.  Most people are afraid to step out of the mold and change from the conventional form of transportation, but once you begin to experience the freedom (physically and financially) that bike commuting offers, you may never want to go back to your old ways.

Biking to work will save you tons of money in the long run.  Use this calculator, provided by Kiplinger, to help you get a visual of the actual amount you will save per day by altering your method of commute.  You may be surprised how much you spend on gas, parking, and tolls on a daily basis.  Just think what you could do with that extra cash!

Be more GREEN – help the environment!

Let’s face it, us humans pollute… A LOT! Aside from the tremendous amounts of garbage and other wastes we put into the environment every day, we also get in our cars to drive a mile down the road.  If we need to run to the store, we drive.  If we need to get something to eat, we drive.  If we need to… well, you get the point.

The point is, we drive everywhere!  Even if it just as easy to walk, or better yet, ride your bike! If you chose to ride your bike for every short trip, you would greatly reduce your share of carbon emissions and other harmful gases produced by cars, trucks, and SUV’s.  If more people start to follow this pattern, imagine the benefit this would have on the air quality and environment around us.

Establish a consistent, positive mood!

By now, you probably already know how exercise can positively affect your mental attitude and mood.  Biking is a form of exercise, so it does the same.  But it will also brighten your mood by keeping you outdoors to enjoy the fresh air, knowing that you are positively affecting the environment around you.  Even the idea of saving tons of money will make you feel good too!

So what are you waiting for?  Get a bike, start riding, and enjoy the benefits! (you can thank me later)

Photo Courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski

Okay, you’re probably wondering what I am talking about.  Vitamin Water has got to be healthy – it says so right in its name: “VITAMIN” water.  Right?

WRONG!

Please read this carefully:

Vitamin Water is NOT HEALTHY for you!

Got it now?  Good, now let me explain.

The TRUTH about Vitamin Water:

Vitamin Water is produced by Glacéau, which is controlled by Coca-Cola.  That’s right, the same company that produces tremendously unhealthy soft-drinks is profiting from selling you “healthy drinks” as well.  This should be your first clue as to the driving force behind the product.  I’ll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with your health.

Marketing, Marketing, and more Marketing!

The main goal for the folks who produce Vitamin Water is not to help you get healthier or lose weight, it is to SELL as many bottles of the stuff as they possibly can.  In order to accomplish this goal, they have put together a marketing strategy that has been quite successful.  You see, they simply name the product Vitamin Water and instantly people think it’s healthy without even checking what’s in it.  Add a clean, modern-looking label and fancy flavors and the product basically sells itself.

So, when a person walks into a store and looks at the drink choices, they will see various sodas and they will see the bright colored Vitamin Water.  If the shopper is even somewhat health conscious, they will chose the Vitamin Water, thinking that they are making the wiser choice, but in reality they are choosing a product that isn’t much more than brightly colored sugar water.

VITAMIN WATER NUTRITION FACTS:

Serving Size 8 fl oz; Servings per Container 2.5
Calories 50
Total Fat 0g
Sodium 0mg
Total Carbohydrate 13g
Total Sugar 13g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 60%; vitamin B3 10%; vitamin B6 10%; vitamin B12 10%; vitamin B5 10%, Zinc 10%

Ingredients:
vapor distilled/deionized water, crystalline fructose, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), natural flavor, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), natural flavor, vitamin E acetate, magnesium lactate (elecrolyte), calcium lactate (electrolyte), zinc picolinate, monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamine (B12)

That means that for every bottle of Vitamin water you gulp down, you are ingesting 32.5 grams of sugar!!! That’s INSANE when you realize that the daily recommendation for sugar intake is around 40 grams per day!  And that’s just ONE bottle!!! Think about if you drank 2 or 3 bottles a day!

That should make you ANGRY!

I don’t know about you, but when someone tries to trick or manipulate me with lies, I get pissed.  I hate being lied to, and that is exactly what Vitamin Water is: LIES!   Don’t market something as healthy when in fact you are selling sugar water with chemical additives that you call “vitamins”.  Bottom line is:  It’s not natural and it’s not healthy.  Period.

Next time you’re at the store and you’re thirsty, don’t waste your calories on junk like Vitamin Water, just drink what nature intended you to: WATER. Be informed on what you are putting into your body.   Better yet, skip the store, go home, and fill up a reusable bottle from your tap.  Coca-cola won’t be happy, but your body and your wallet will thank you.

Photo courtesy of Frank Carroll

There’s nothing worse than hitting a plateau in your muscle and strength gains.  You’ve been working out consistently for months, seeing major differences in the amount of weight you are able to push and in the mirror, but then the gains slow to a halt.  It’s okay, it happens to the best of us.

Put simply, these halts in progress are due to our body’s adaptations to the lifts we perform.  They’re called plateaus, and I am going to show you what I’ve done to blast straight through my most recent one.

Simple, straight to the point = 5×5 workout

If you are used to performing very complex routines with focused, isolated exercises, you may be astonished to read the following workout.  Trust me, it works – but if you don’t believe me, try it out for yourself and after a few weeks, you’ll see how this extremely basic program will give you the greatest strength gains that you’ve ever seen, PERIOD.

Okay, here it is:

5×5 Program

Workout A

Squats   -  5 sets of 5 reps

Bench Press   -  5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Row  -  5 sets of 5 reps

Workout B

Squats  -  5 sets of 5 reps

Overhead Press (military press)  -  5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts  -  5 sets of 5 reps

Pull-ups  -  5 sets of 5 reps

THAT’S IT!

You will perform Workout A on the first day in the gym and Workout B will be your next lifting day.  Make sure to allow at least one rest day in between workouts.  I am currently lifting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and it seems to be working just fine for me.  I have seen strength gains that I have not seen in years!  It is truly an amazing way to change it up and blast through those dreaded plateaus.

Photo Courtesy of Joel Montes

One of the most effective tools in achieving results in any type of exercise program is the technique of keeping a journal to track and record your results.   Despite their effectiveness, I rarely see journals in the gym.  Hopefully after reading this list, you will learn to benefit from this new habit of keeping a training journal.

1. Track your results/progress

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to memory, I can barely remember what I ate this morning, let alone remember how much I was able to squat a month ago.   This is where the journal comes in.

Hopefully you are able to track your results simply by looking in the mirror, but here’s a better way.  Keeping a training journal will allow you to look back to a certain date and compare that with your present performance.  Here’s an example:

Johnny Lifter is looking to increase his bench press.  He want’s to know whether he has been progressing in weight and how fast.  Luckily, Johnny has been keeping a journal and is easily able to check his progress.  He simply flips back in his journal to a month ago, and he will be able to see that he was benching 135 for 8 reps and now he’s putting up 155 easily.  That was a whole lot easier than trying to go by memory!

2. Program planning

Regardless of who makes up your exercise program (personal trainer, coach, or yourself), the training journal is a priceless tool in designing your training regimen.  It is extremely hard to put together a program for someone who has exercised regularly, but has no record of what exercise has been performed in the past.  It’s kind of like trying to get to a destination, with no map.

Having a journal will allow you to analyze your past to develop a plan of attack for the future.  This will result in reaching your goals and achieving results in a shorter amount of time.

Think of your exercise program like a scientific experiment.  If a scientist doesn’t write down everything that was done to the experiment, the results are worthless because they can’t be explained or duplicated.  Therefore, no progress  can be made based on the past work.  What a waste!

3. Build self-confidence

Having a journal (or journals, depending on how long you have been at it) will do great things for your confidence.  You will be surprised at how good you will feel when you flip back through your journal and see how much you have actually done.  You will be able to grasp exactly how much work you have done to achieve the body and health that you have.  You will also feel much more confident towards the future work you will continue to do to maintain your healthy lifestyle.

4. Hold yourself accountable

Tracking your results and completed workouts will also allow you to keep track of the days you missed.  It is much easier to hold yourself accountable when you have proof of the missed days.  This will minimize the amount of excuses to skip out on workouts, and maximize the consistency of your program.

5. Confirm your GOALS

We all know how important goals are.  Well, how the heck do you plan on achieving goals without keeping track of your results!?

Having a journal will allow you to not only keep track of your progress toward specific goals, it will allow you to keep a record of past goals that were achieved, as well as goals for the future.  You will be able to see how far you’ve come, how many goals you’ve achieved, and you be able push yourself that much further with new goals.

So what are you waiting for?  Start keeping track of your workouts TODAY!

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I have been away from Voyager Fitness for a while.  Before you begin to think my absence was caused because of my lack of motivation for writing up to date and interesting health and fitness articles for my readers, please let me explain.

I have been studying intensely for the past 4 or 5 months, preparing to take the NSCA-CPT certification exam.  This exam is arguably the most prestigious (and toughest) Personal Trainer Certifications in existence and the material that it covers is extensive.  So I decided, with some hesitation, to step back from this site for a month, to really hit the books hard in preparation for the exam.

I am extremely happy to announce that my hard work paid off and I passed!  I am now officially a Certified Personal Trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA-CPT), which is a huge step forward in my career as a fitness professional.

This will benefit you as well!

I will now continue to build and grow Voyager Fitness into a valuable health and fitness resource for you – the readers.  I will use NSCA journals to aid in my research to continue to produce high quality, up to date, and interesting articles, so that you may learn and grow in your fitness quest.

If you have any questions about the NSCA-CPT exam, send me an e-mail at voyagerfitness@gmail.com  or post a comment to this post and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Also, look for some big changes coming soon to VF!