Back to Archives
Back to AdrenalineFitnessNY Home

FIT AND THE CITY - Julia's all about fitness newsletter

Some people swear by pilates and power yoga, others by weight-training, and yet others by a.m. runs while their friends claim swimming is the best way to get fit. Any self-respecting fitness buff has his or her favorite and will gladly share it with you.

So which way is the best? The truth is, all are. The most important thing when it comes to becoming as fit as you could ever become is to choose an activity you enjoy. Because if you don't, you're unlikely to stick to it long enough to see ANY results.

Rule number two is commitment. As long as you commit to performing your preferred activity for 45 minutes to an hour at least twice a week (three or even four is better) for a minimum of six weeks you'll see some result. Of course, the harder you exercise, the more results you'll get. And this brings us to rule number three - intensity.

It's crucial to understand this rule fully; the ones that don't often end up either injuring themselves or getting little results. Intensity is relative to the individual. For example, for the sedentary person embarking on his or her first exercise program, taking a brisk walk in the park might be too intense while, for the experienced athlete, a half-hour walk would be the height of boredom. In other words, you want to make sure you push yourself while exercising, but not too much. A good way to know you're at an intense enough but safe level is to do the talk test: as you're in the midst of your walk, circuit weight training session, or while using the elliptical machine, say a few sentences to yourself every now and then. If you can talk comfortably, you're fine.

Keep in mind that common sense goes a long way. If you begin feeling lightheaded, you're probably working out too hard and should slow down. It could also mean that you're dehydrated or in need of some calories. Drink water and/or eat a piece of fruit or a Power Bar and see how you feel. (You might find that your energy level shoots right back up after a few minutes.)

Beginner exercisers often ask me whether it's safe for them to work out more than three times a week. The answer is yes. To maintain adequate health, you need to get 60 minutes of exercise on most days of the week and this goes for beginners as well. As long as you don't push yourself too hard, you're fine.

Rule number four entails variety and is important for two reasons:
a) Using a variety of activities will result in faster results.
b) Using a variety of activities will lessen the likelihood of injury.

VARIETY AND FASTER RESULTS.

When you've mastered rule one, two, and three, you're best off switching to another form of exercise, especially if you're looking to lose weight. For example, if you've been running for two months, start swimming or circuit-weight train from now on. Any activity that's very different from the one you're currently doing will do the trick. This is because your body gets used to whatever athletic activity you put it through after about a month, which means it will no longer burn as many calories while doing it.

If there is only one form of exercise you like, there's still hope. You can also achieve variety by modifying your current activity as much as possible. For example, if you've been running on the treadmill on a flat surface at seven miles per hour, start running on a six percent incline at 5.5 miles per hour. Or try a program containing intervals.

VARIETY AND FEWER INJURIES.

Another reason you need to switch up your form of exercise after a couple of months is because doing the same thing over and over often result in painful overuse injuries. I myself developed shoulder pain due to doing too many of the same shoulder exercises while lifting weights. This could easily have been avoided had I not been so determined to lifting the same weight for the same amount of repetitions in exactly the same direction three times a week for a year. Luckily, I soon realized what the problem was and stopped. After another year of not doing any shoulder exercises, my pain disappeared. Instead of doing one type of shoulder exercise, I'm now doing many different ones, especially ones involving me using my entire body (more functional).

I don't think the importance of cross-training (mixing up your activities) can be stressed enough, so - please! - mix it up.

And now we've reached the last rule, rule number five - don't eat too much!

Unfortunately, no one can eat like that if their goal is to slim down. (And, quite honestly, an abundance of read meat, fried foods, fat, and sugar isn't good for you even if your goal isn't weight loss.) What usually happens is that they just stay the same or get bulky because they're developing muscle under the same layer of fat they're trying to get rid of through exercise but won't because of all the extra calories they're now consuming. If there wasn't a fat layer on top of the muscle, they wouldn't be bulky.

Bottom line: If you want to lose weight, you need to watch your calorie intake!

Most people find it much easier to begin an exercise program than to stick to it. The poor success rate of New Year's resolutions illustrates this point well. As a trainer, I experience this all the time. Clients come to me with a burning desire to lose weight, get stronger, increase flexibility, build muscle and tone up, improve their running technique, become a better hockey player, you name it. I can usually tell right away if the client will be one of those who drops out after five to ten sessions. One dead giveaway is unrealistic expectations. For example, they believe they should have lost ten pounds in two weeks while only having worked out twice a week or be able to run a marathon when they have just learned how to run properly. Another dead giveaway is wanting to book training sessions daily despite my recommendation not to.
What these people lack is the mental toughness needed to reach their goals. If you want to change yourself, your habits, your body and fitness level, having developed mental toughness is a must. Because the idea of being fit is much, much easier to attain than the process to achieve it.

1. Listen to the experts. Make it a habit to read biographies and listen to audio programs telling of winners who have overcome tremendous obstacles and setbacks to become successful. Check out success stories in magazines and the Internet - fitness, money, or otherwise - you'll find they are people JUST LIKE YOU. So if they can do it, why can't you?

2. Realize that anything worthwhile takes time. Rarely is lasting success achieved when people throw themselves into a situation. Do you really remember much of the material you crammed during an all-nighter before that test in high school? How many relationships based solely on passionate "love-at-first-sight" stand the test of time? And how many people going on a crash diet actually keep those five pounds (mostly water-weight anyway) they lost in a week permanently off? Most gain not only the five pounds back but three extra on top of it.
If your expectations are too high, it's easy to overtrain, overcommit, and overwork. Success WILL come to those who persist, but understand it may take months instead of days.

3. Get comfortable with the unfamiliar. Make it a part of your daily routine to do something totally different than what you normally do. Work out at a different gym. Put your TV in the closet for a month. Drive or walk to work using a different route. Change workout routines regularly. You'll be better prepared to handle diverse environments with greater calm and confidence. And, best of all, never allowing yourself to get comfortable in life will keep you young and vital!

4. Think and speak well of your health. Teach yourself, your friends, and your children to use positive self-talk about fitness and personal health. Too much attention is paid to minor aches and pains, like there's value to not feeling good. If your foot is a little sore, going on and on about it will just make it worse (and drive your friends away). Focus your attention on something positive or go to the doctor. Make it your mission to let everyone know that being a health nut is the coolest thing ever. Hollywood and the media often glamorize smoking, drug and alcohol use, and having the body of an anorectic twelve-year-old. Don't help them.

5. Hang out with similar-minded people. Socialize only with those who have already achieved their goals or who are dedicated to goals similar to yours. Avoid associating with people who have the same unresolved problems or who are frustrated by their lack of achievement. You know, the pity parties: "Oh, woe is me. My life is in an upheaval. How about you?" "You poor thing. Woe is me, too. I feel terrible about myself. How about you?" These pity parties often turn into either drinking matches or all-you-can-eat parties...
Some people thrive on the attention they get when they feel bad. A strong community of like-minded people gives you motivation, support, and purpose for succeeding.

6. Focus on desired results. Winners dwell on the rewards of success while losers focus on mistakes and failure. Do what's necessary NOW. Be in the moment. For example, don't worry about if your presentation will be well-received by your boss while preparing it, just focus on doing a good job preparing. Forget about that your last presentation didn't go as well as you'd have wished. No one's perfect. This way, two-thirds of your worries disappear.

7. Expect the unexpected. You can't control what nature and others do. You can anticipate what MAY happen, and prepare for them as best you can. You can also control your response to what happens. This means that just because you fell and broke both your arms now you'll have to give up on your goal to get fit. You may not be able to lift weights with your hands for a few months, but you can definitely do lower body work and plenty of walking, thus still become fitter. Promise yourself to not use the elevator but walk every flight of stairs. When you're back to normal, it won't be like you'll have to start from square one again.

Ask Julia - How much strength-training vs. cardio should I do to stay fit? Q: I'm a 44-year-old male who wants to know how much weight, how often, and how strenuously I should be lifting (upper/lower body, etc.) versus how much aerobics I should be partaking in (hours per day, days per week), and how much stretching/yoga type work should I be doing just to stay healthy. My goal, as I am sure is many others', is not to bulk up or to lose weight, but to stay fit and maintain muscle mass.

I'm a big believer in intense workouts; therefore, I recommend that you don't rest more than one minute between each set (30 seconds is better). Just make sure you're in control of the exercise/weight and not it of you. As long as you're in control, you can go as quickly as you wish. Count each repetition out loud to avoid holding your breath throughout the set. A good way to weight train is to alternate between upper and lower body exercises, i.e. instead of resting between each set of push-ups, do a set of hamstring curls. This way you'll be doing equal amounts of upper and lower body exercises. Also strive to incorporate a couple of full-body exercises such as wood chops and squats with military presses.

Just because a person looks slender doesn't mean he or she's healthy. I've encountered skinny people who turned out to be fat when I measured their body fat percentage and "bigger" people who were quite lean. So I will use body fat percentages as my guideline when giving recommendations for aerobic training (cardio).

If it's low (8-12 %), it's enough if he does two-three sessions of 30-45 minutes of cardio a week. One session can consist of a brisk walk in the park. Another can be the elliptical machine while the third can be a bike ride. It doesn't even be all on one chunk; for example, he can break up the walking in three smaller walks in one day.

If his body percentage is between 12-15 %, he definitely wants to do three sessions of cardio per week, maybe even add ten minutes of cardio after one or two weight training sessions.

If his body fat percentage is more than 15 % he should be doing three sessions weekly and follow each weight-training session with 15-20 minutes of cardio because he definitely wants to lower his body fat to below 15. (A healthy body fat range for women under 45 is 17-23 %.) He also wants to make sure that he weight trains for an hour three - not two times - a week, as weight training becomes more and more important the older a person is. In other words, a 23-year-old hasn't yet begun to lose muscle, so the focus of his or her workouts should be on cardio. A 44-year-old on the other hand needs to replenish the muscle mass he's been losing since age 25; thus weight-training becomes more important for him.

A great way to loosen up tight body areas before each workout is to foam roll them. Follow this with dynamic full-body stretches, meaning, don't hold each stretch but move your body gently in different directions while stretching. The focus should be on the tight body parts. It's a good habit to stretch your tight body parts statically for a few minutes after both strength and cardio workouts.

Fitness buffs and athletes have long used interval training - short bursts of intensive effort interspersed with more moderate stretches - to improve performance. But Talanian's study shows that the practice also improves cardiovascular fitness and helps the body burn more fat, even during low-intensity or moderate workouts.

It didn't matter how fit the subjects were before. After interval training, they experienced not only an increase in fat used and in aerobic capacity, but also an increase of enzyme activity in the muscle.

Talanian notes that faster fat burning and greater overall fitness may not necessarily mean immediate weight loss. The technique may improve someone's potential to burn more fat, "but for weight loss, you need to consider a balance of exercise and a healthy diet," he said. The message from his studies is to mix interval training into an exercise routine once or twice a week, particularly in running, swimming or cycling.

For his follow-up study, Talanian plans to look at about a dozen women over a six-week training period. "We will look at muscle transporters that carry fatty acids into the cell that might help explain those earlier results," he said.

June 19, 2007

Washington D.C. (Georgetown University Medical Center) -- Many people are drinking too much water, including sports drinks, when exercising, a practice that could put some individuals engaging in prolonged types of endurance exercise at risk of potentially lethal water intoxication, say international experts who study disorders of water metabolism. Such exercise includes marathons, triathlons, and long distance cycling.

A group of experts in this condition has issued a number of papers and recommendations, including an international consensus statement on this disorder published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine in 2005. Joseph Verbalis, M.D., Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and a member of this group, recently updated the scientific community on the causes of this disorder in the May issue of Sports Medicine.

Verbalis says the goal of the group is to understand the biological basis of EAH, and in that way, assure that no athlete ever succumbs to it again. A number of marathon runners have died from EAH, including one at this year's London Marathon in April. One recent study found that 13 percent of Boston marathon runners suffered from EAH, though most cases are mild enough so that they are not noticed by the athletes themselves.

"The tragic aspect of the deaths that have occurred from EAH is that these are healthy young people who otherwise would have lived normal, long lives," says Verbalis, who is also Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Georgetown.

"The data clearly indicate that EAH is caused by excess drinking during endurance exercise activities, and that it can be prevented by limiting fluid intake while exercising," he says. But despite this knowledge, Verbalis points out that "unfortunately, we are not seeing this condition go away."

"The public's impression of the amount of water that is necessary to drink for good health is not based on real factual data," he says. "Many in our society have promoted the idea that you need to continually drink a large amount of fluid, such as 8 ounces of water eight times a day. But most people don't really need that much."

Verbalis points out that EAH predominantly afflicts exercisers engaging in endurance activities of 4 hours in duration or longer. But "the average person who goes out for an hour or two of strenuous exercise is not going to be at risk for this," he adds.

Verbalis also says that sports drinks, which contain some sodium and potassium and carbohydrates, are basically water with a few additives. "There's a misconception among the sports community that consuming sports drinks rather than water will protect you from becoming hyponatremic. That's simply not true," he says. "Drinking too much of anything puts some people at risk for potentially dangerous levels of hyponatremia."

The disorder occurs when endurance exercisers drink more fluid than their kidneys can excrete. The hormone that determines how much fluid a kidney can excrete is arginine vasopressin (AVP), which is released from the pituitary gland when a person is becoming dehydrated in order to force the kidneys to conserve water. At rest, a person's AVP level is low and can be suppressed to zero when sufficient fluids are ingested so that the kidney can excrete, rather than retain, excess water. But AVP levels can rise in people who exercise strenuously over a number of hours, even if they are not dehydrated.

"A kidney can normally excrete up to a liter an hour with an AVP level of zero, but when you're exercising, the AVP is telling your kidney to excrete a volume of fluid that is markedly less than the maximum the kidney can excrete at rest," Verbalis says. Too much water intake in an endurance exerciser whose AVP levels are on the rise means that some of the ingested water will be retained, and that excess water can dangerously dilute the level of sodium in the blood that is needed for organs to function, he adds.

Verbalis noted in his Sports Medicine paper that since 1985, "well over 100 individual cases" of EAH have been reported from physical exercise activities as diverse as forced military marches, prolonged hiking and marathon, ultramarathon and triathlon races, and there have been at least 8 documented fatalities. Some people have been known to gain up to 6-7 pounds during a marathon due to retention of water that the kidneys cannot excrete, he says. "No one should be gaining any weight during these events," according to Verbalis, "and if they do, it can only be due to fluid retention."

The hyponatremia consensus panel has recommended that everyone, including endurance exercisers, should "drink to thirst" ? that is, drink only when you feel you need to. Verbalis acknowledges that this advice is controversial, because some trainers and sports physiologists contend that "by the time you're actually thirsty, you have lost enough fluid to already be dehydrated," so they say you need to drink in anticipation of becoming dehydrated.

"We dispute that notion, and contend that thirst is a good indicator of your body's need for fluids, and that there is a window of time over which you can rehydrate safely," he says. While a person "needs to lose about 1-2 percent of body water before thirst will reliably remind you to drink, losing that little is not sufficient to cause any significant health problems," Verbalis says. "Many of us are often dehydrated to such small degrees, and it does not significantly affect us."

But he adds that endurance exercisers who don't want to rely on their body's thirst meter have another excellent option, and that is undertaking a sweat test. This involves recording a person's weight digitally, then running on a treadmill for an hour and recording their ending weight after toweling off the body sweat. "Most people don't know how much they really sweat while exercising, but this simple test can tell you approximately how much fluid losses you are generating from sweat," he says. "There is no need to drink significantly more than that, because sweat represents the major source of fluid loss during exercise."

A healthy person needs to be dehydrated in the range of 4-6 percent loss of body water before there's a significant health risk problem from dehydration, Verbalis says. "So, really, if people just do things in moderation, especially including re-hydrating by drinking, they're not going to be at risk of either dehydration from excessive sweat losses or EAH from excessive fluid ingestion."

Check out Martha's useful nutrition blog at CityGirlBites

I hope that you've been practicing filling out CAB form 1 so that you're now confident about identifying your thinking errors. CAB form 2 helps you question your unhelpful thoughts in order to reduce their intensity, generate and rate the effect of alternative thoughts, and focus on acting differently.

The first five steps of CAB form 2 are the same as those of CAB form 1:
Consequence:
a) Write down your emotion.
b) Write down your behavior.
Activating event:
c) Write down what triggered your feelings.
Beliefs:
d) Write down the thoughts and beliefs that went through your mind.
e) Identify the thinking error for each thought.

EXAMPLE:
a) Mark feels extreme anxiety while at the gym.
b) Mark escapes into the bath room.
c) After some pondering, Mark realizes he felt anxious because he spotted a girl he likes walking toward him. A friend of his told the girl Mark likes her.
d) Mark is convinced there's no chance this girl could actually like him back.
e) Mark's thinking errors are the following: catastrophizing and black-and-white thinking. Later, when he's settled down and has analyzed the situation, he concludes there's no proof whatsoever for thinking the girl DOESN'T like him. He simply doesn't know what she thinks at all! He now needs to create a Constructive Alternative to his dysfunctional behavior!

HOW TO CREATE CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVES:
Consider your negative thoughts more closely.
Acquire alternatives for each of your unhelpful thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs.
Ballpark figure the effects of your alternatives on your feelings.

Consider your negative thoughts more closely.
Ask yourself the following questions in order to examine and weaken your unhelpful thoughts:
- Can I prove that my thought is 100% true?
- What are the effects of thinking this way?
- Is my thought fully logical or sensible?
- Would people whose opinion I respect agree that this thought's realistic?
- What evidence exists against this thought?
- Is my thought balanced, or extreme?
- Is my thought rigid or flexible?
- Am I thinking objectively or realistically, or are my thoughts being biased by how I feel?

THINK THINGS THROUGH BEFORE YOU ANSWER! NO 'YES' OR 'NO' ANSWERS ALLOWED.
Example: Mark has already concluded that he doesn't know that his belief is 100 % true. He has also realized that his belief is extreme.

Acquire alternatives for each of your unhelpful thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs.

This step is critical as it's your alternative thoughts that will help you feel better! The following questions may help you come up with alternatives:
- What's a more helpful way of looking at the situation?
- Do I encourage friends to think this way?
- When I'm feeling OK, how do I think differently?
- Have any past experiences shown me that another possible outcome exists?
- What's a more flexible or less extreme way of thinking?
- What's a more realistic or balanced way of thinking that takes into account the evidence that does not support my thought?
- What do I need to think in order to feel and act differently?

Example: Last year a girl who seemed completely uninterested in Mark turned out to like him. This girl at least knows off Mark's existence and says hi when she sees him, so chances are bigger that she could like him. All in all, it's more common than not that women like him anyway. But even if she doesn't like him back he has coped with rejections before, which means he'll survive this one too.

WRITE AN ALTERNATIVE FOR EACH BELIEF!

Some thoughts are more stubborn than others, and you won't turn your thinking around completely in one go. It's normal to wrestle with negative automatic thoughts for a while. But if you stick with it, you WILL start to think in a more flexible and constructive manner.

Ballpark figure the effects of your alternatives on your feelings.
Estimate the intensity of your original negative feelings 0-100 %:
Example: Mark's anxiety level: 70%

After having practiced healthier thoughts for a few minutes, re-estimate your feelings. The intensity should have decreased (Mark might find his anxiety is now 40 %) and maybe even have been replaced with healthier emotions (such as concern in Mark's case).

UNHEALTHY EMOTIONS:

- Anxiety
- Anger
- Depression
- Shame
- Hurt
- Envy
- Jealousy
- Guilt

HEALTHY EMOTIONS:

- Sadness
- Concern
- Disappointment
- Annoyance
- Regret
- Remorse

If you want to master any skill, remember these three words: Practice, practice, practice! You may not need to fill out a CAB form every day. Other days, you may need to complete more than one form. The point is that practicing CAB forms regularly is worthwhile because:
- Practice helps change disturbing feelings and the thoughts that underpin them.
- Sinking a new thought into your head and heart takes repetition.
- By completing forms on paper, you'll become increasingly able to challenge unhelpful thoughts in your head (although, when hit with a huge, complex negative thought, you may need to resort to writing it down!).

The more intensely you do cardio, the more results you'll get - it's as simple as that. This is why I have gathered 12 great songs that, I promise you, will make you move...I bought and downloaded them from I-Tunes. Enjoy!

Song	Artist	Album
1. What You Waiting For	Gwen Stefani	Love, Angel, Music, Baby
2. I Begin to Wonder	Dannii Minogue	Neon Nights
3. U + Ur Hand	Pink	I'm not Dead
4. Let's Go Crazy	Prince & The Revolution	Purple Rain (Soundtrack)
5. Maneater	Nelly Furtado	Loose
6. I Was Made For Loving You	Kiss	Dynasty (Remastered)
7. Burning Up	Madonna	Madonna
8. Black Cat	Janet Jackson	Rythm Nation 1814
9. Truly, Madly, Deeply (Frisco Remix)	CASCADA	Truly, Lovely, Deeply
10. Move Along	The All-American Rejects	Move Along
11. Girlfriend	Avril Lavigne	Girlfriend - single
12. Girls and Boys (live in Rio)	Pet Shop Boys	Very: Further Listening (1992-1994)