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There comes a point in everyone’s exercise program when you are ready to increase the intensity of your workouts… and you should be! If you have been incorporating the same routine with the same resistance and the same exercises day to day, week to week, year to year, then you are ready for a change.

Maintaining is just fine, but why not work on increasing strength and muscle fibers to adapt to greater loads or force creating a stronger more efficient body that can endure more. Increasing the intensity of your workouts will do just that.

Here are three ways in which you can increase the intensity of your workouts:

1. Increasing resistance
2. Increasing speed
3. Increasing range of motion

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Increasing resistance simply means to add more weight to each of your exercises. If you are always doing the same amount of weight your muscles are not adapting to greater forces and therefore are not strengthening any further. In order to encourage muscle growth and fiber increase, simply increase the size of your weights. It could be as little as a 1 lb increase for just one set. That extra weight will encourage muscle growth to adapt to the increase. Continue to increase as your muscles adapt to the new weight.

How do you know if you are ready to increase resistance?

If you have total control over the movement of an exercise and it becomes easy for all designated sets and reps, then you are ready to increase. Once you increase be sure that you can control the new weight with proper posture and form. If you cannot maintain proper posture and form then you are not ready to increase and can look to the other methods of increasing intensity instead.

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Increasing speed is a great way to increase intensity and actually make your strength training somewhat cardio driven. This allows you to include both strength and cardio into one workout. All you need to do is increase the speed of your movement for each exercise. Keeping proper posture and form when increasing speed is crucial. In order to ensure this, reps are typically done with lighter weights. Something you can control through full range of motion without breaking form. Be careful not to jerk or overextend joints while increasing speed.

Increasing speed is great for Hi-Intensity Interval Training. It will allow you to get a lot of reps and exercises into a small amount of time while elevating your heart rate and increasing your endurance and reaction time. It does not require a lot of weights, heavy dumbbells, barbells and equipment. You could grab one or two sets of dumbbells and get a 30 minute full body workout in just about anywhere.

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Increasing range of motion is another way to increase your intensity.

Range of motion is defined as the full movement potential of a joint, usually its range of flexion and extension.

Many do not exercise to their full range of motion or try to increase it. It is important to try to increase your range of motion through your full potential. It is a way to increase your overall flexibility and ensure all muscle fibers are at work.

Last thing you want to do is constantly be working in short ranges of motion keeping the muscles in a flexed state (such as pulsing only). You want to practice bending and extending your joints to their full capability. Working on increasing your range of motion will do just that and it will require more muscle fibers to be engaged, increasing the intensity of your workout.

When starting to increase your range of motion, such as squatting lower, decrease your weights and see if that helps you increase that range. Once you are able to increase your range of motion you can start to increase your weights again. Sometimes the reason you cannot engage in a full range of motion is because the weights are just to heavy to accomplish that range. Therefore, decreasing the weights is a great way to work on increasing the range of motion.

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You now have three different ways in which you can begin to increase the intensity of your workouts. You can do this by either increasing your resistance, increasing your speed or increasing your range of motion. You can also incorporate more than just one way or even all three at the same time. Just be sure whatever you increase, proper posture and form are maintained throughout the move.

What is strength training and why is it important to include in our fitness routine?

Strength training is defined as a type of physical exercise specializing in the use of resistance to induce muscular contraction which builds the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles.

There are two types of training when it comes to exercise and they are aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic is defined as occurring with the use of oxygen, or requiring oxygen. Aerobic exercise includes activities in which oxygen from the blood is required to fuel the energy-producing mechanisms of muscle fibers. Aerobic exercise includes activities such as running, cycling, skiing, tennis, such activities that maintain a steady state for more than a few minutes. These types of exercises or activities are considered cardiovascular activity.

What I would like to discuss is the anaerobic system, and that is defined as occurring without the use of oxygen. Anaerobic exercise includes short-term activities which muscle fibers derive contractile energy from stored internal compounds without the use of oxygen from the blood. Anaerobic exercise includes activities that require short bursts of “all-out” effort such as sprinting and weightlifting. These activities will tax the muscles in a way that will bring them to fatigue at a quicker rate which you will not be able to sustain for long periods of time.

Both types of exercise are crucial and required for maximum health benefits. Most people understand the importance of and incorporate cardiovascular exercise (aerobic), but not everyone incorporates or understands the importance of including strength exercise (anaerobic) into their fitness routine.

There are endless benefits to exercise in general, both aerobic and anaerobic, which includes helping to alleviate or reduce the risk of:

• Allergies
• Anxiety
• Arthritis
• Back Pain
• Bursitis and Tendinitis
• Cancer
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Cholesterol
• Constipation
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Fatigue
• Glaucoma
• Headaches
• Heart Disease
• High Blood Pressure
• Insomnia
• Knee Problems
• Lung DiseaseMemory Problems
• Osteoporosis
• Overweight & Obesity
• Varicose Veins

Not only does exercise reduce the risks of all these issues, it helps to improve:

• Overall Strength
• Endurance
• Speed
• Stability
• Balance
• Flexiblity

The problem is that if you are only training your aerobic system you will be benefiting from only some of these elements. The aerobic system will only train part of the muscle fibers called the slow twitch muscle fibers. In order to hit the rest of the muscles called the fast twitch muscle fibers you need to strength-train in some way. To get the most out of your fitness routine and to experience as many of these benefits as possible, you must incorporate both systems.

As we age, our muscle size will naturally decrease. In order to just maintain strength it is crucial to include a strength training routine into your program. Your muscles will not increase on their own, but they will certainly decrease. The only way to maintain and increase muscle size is to train it to increase. Stability, balance, endurance and flexibility are directly affected by muscle strength, and will also naturally decrease with age, making strength training important to maintain these elements as well.

Now that we know why it is important to strength train, let’s discuss how to incorporate it.

Strength training can be incorporated in several ways through:

• Your own knowledge and/or research
• Group fitness classes
• Personal trainers
• Fitness videos

Resistance can be incorporated through several modalities including:

• Your own body weight
• Weight machines
• Cable machines
• Free weights – dumbbells, kettle bells, plates, barbells, weighted balls and bars, etc.
• Bands and tubing

Incorporating anaerobic training (strength) in with your aerobic training (cardio) will make a world of difference in your every day tasks and the aging process. If ever there was a fountain of youth it is in these two systems working together. If you would like to find that fountain, make sure you include both of these systems into your daily fitness routine.

   

When it comes to strength training, there are so many ways in which you can train your body using resistance. Knowing where to start and what to use can be overwhelming. Typically, gyms will have a few different sections designated to strength training that include:

1. Seated Machines
2. Cable Machines
3. Free Weights
4. Bodyweight

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Let’s discuss these sections along with the pros and cons of each:

The seated machines are usually in a circuit that will hit most of the major muscle groups of the upper body, lower body and core in a seated position. These machines are adjustable in both position and resistance, and isolate a particular muscle group or groups.

Pros:

• Easier to use for most of the general public with little knowledge of exercises
• Shows what muscle group or groups are being used for the exercise, including pictures and how-to instructions
• Great to isolate a particular muscle group on which you may be focusing
• Helps to keep you in proper position and form
• Good for supporting the back
• Completing exercises on entire circuit machine section will hit most major muscles of the body

Cons:

• Less effective in developing strength
• Limits the recruitment of other muscle groups and stabilizer muscles
• Limits core activation
• Doesn’t incorporate balance
• One size does not fit all – machines are built for the average frame. If you are too short or too tall the machine may not properly adjust to your measurements and will therefore be unsafe, ineffective and/or unusable
• Some can be hard to manage or adjust properly due to limited strength or not knowing proper adjustments
• Weight limit – If the lightest setting is too heavy or the heaviest setting is too light you cannot regress or progress
• Expensive and large space required

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Cable machines are one of my favorite sections. This is the area of the gym that has a bunch of cables and available attachments. There are endless things you can do in this section for incorporating exercises to hit all muscles of the body. These machines offer varied positions, attachments, directions and resistance.

Pros:

• Shows some exercises you can do including pictures, how-to instructions and what muscles are being used
• Versatile – multi-directional positions and exercises can be done from one area
• Options to isolate specific muscle groups or work multiple muscle groups
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Requires balance and stability
• All sizes and ages can use effectively with knowledge

Cons:

• Need knowledge in this area to utilize properly
• Good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial in this area to prevent injury
• Can be hard to adjust pulleys – can be too high or tough to move into desired position depending on strength and height
• Weight limit – If the lightest setting is too heavy or the heaviest setting is too light you cannot regress or progress
• Expensive and a large space required

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The free weight section includes resistance weight such as dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, weighted balls, etc. It also includes benches, seats, and racks. This section is another area where you can do endless work for every muscle group of the body in varied positions.

Pros: 

• Extremely versatile – varied positions and exercises can be done
• Works multiple muscle groups
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Requires balance and stability during standing exercises
• Greater power and overall strength is improved and achieved more efficiently
• Benches and seats allow options between seated or lying exercises to help stabilize the back or help isolate particular muscle groups
• There is no weight limit – weight starts at 0 lbs. and can progress to as heavy as you can manage
• All sizes and ages can use effectively with knowledge
• Inexpensive and a small space is required for most equipment

Cons:

• Also need knowledge in this area
• Can be time consuming if removing/replacing plates and making weight changes
• Can be difficult to isolate a muscle or muscle group
• Good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial in this area to prevent injury
• Very easy to have improper control – free weights require an extreme amount of control working both with and against gravity — too often people use momentum to drive the move rather than control of the muscle or muscles being used

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The final section of resistance is where you use your own bodyweight to achieve strength gains. This section will have things like mats, stability balls, box steps, bosu balls, resistance bands, etc. When using your own bodyweight, no equipment is necessary but certain equipment can assist in the exercises to make them harder, more challenging, or recruit more muscles.

Pros:

• No equipment necessary means you can do these type of exercises anywhere, not just in a gym
• Recruits multiple muscles in almost all exercises
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Can incorporate balance and stability depending on exercises
• Produces lean muscle
• Little to no expense and space required

Cons:

• Also need some knowledge in this area
• Can be hard to maintain proper form — good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial with these exercises to prevent injury

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As you can see there are some pros and cons to all sections. Where you end up will depend on your goals, knowledge, injuries and what you are trying to achieve.

• If you are looking to support your back, isolate and strengthen each muscle group in a fairly safe and effective way without much knowledge of exercise, than it is best to work on the seated machines.
• If you are looking to recruit multiple muscle groups, stabilizer muscles and core along with building lean muscle and/or muscle mass, than cable or free weights would be best.
• If you are looking to produce super lean muscle while recruiting multiple muscle groups and activating the core, then bodyweight exercises are an excellent choice.

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Depending on what you are trying to achieve, each section has it’s benefits. I personally like to jump around and hit all sections in one workout. Whether I am working upper body, lower body, core, or full body, I like to incorporate the benefits of all sections. I hit my muscles from different angles, through different methods and sections of the gym to ensures I fire up all the muscle fibers. This allows me to isolate a particular muscle group as well as recruit other muscles in besides the ones I am focusing on. I particularly like to make sure my core is constantly being activated so multiple standing and bodyweight exercises are a must in each of my workouts.

Most important thing to note is that no matter what section you are in, be sure you are knowledgeable in the exercises you are performing. Proper posture, form, control and weight is required to do an exercise properly and effectively without injury.

If you are unsure about a particular section of the gym and would like to learn more about what exercises you can perform, be sure to visit your local fitness center and speak to one of the qualified trainers on staff about setting up an appointment.

Most of us work extremely hard to loose weight, struggle to maintain, or more often than not just keep gaining. Poor food quality and sedentary working lifestyles are partly to blame.

With weight gain comes extra stored fat. Reducing and burning excess fat in our bodies can be quite a challenge. It takes a lot of hard work and consistency to loose just a few pounds and rid your body of stored fat. In order to boost that fat burning process you must consider:

• cardio exercise
• proper diet and nutrition
• building muscle

By far one of my favorites ways to burn fat is by building muscle. How will building muscle help you loose fat?

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First, muscle burns more calories than fat. The body requires more energy to maintain muscle, therefore burns more overall calories. If you increase the amount of muscle in your body, you increase your resting metabolic heart rate increasing the amount of calories you burn at rest as well as during exercise and activities. These increases can potentially help your body burn more overall calories on a daily basis. That extra calorie burn will help assist in overall fat loss. The goal is to build more lean muscle while ridding the body of stored fat.

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Second, lets face it… how are you going to build that muscle? Building muscle requires exercise and exercise burns even more calories. Exercise will require the muscles to work harder, increasing the total amount of calories you burn. The extra calories you burn during your workout will help to convert fat into energy and that means fat loss.

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As you can see building muscle will boost your metabolism and get you exercising, both of which encourages the burning of extra calories. Those extra calories lead to the break down of fat cells.

Does this mean that it is the only thing you need to do to burn fat? No. However, it will give your body an added boost to help the process along. You absolutely must incorporate cardiovascular exercise for heart health and more calorie burning along with a proper diet and nutrition plan.

Incorporating muscle building and not just cardio and nutrition alone will give you better results in your fat loss goals. It creates a more efficient metabolic body that will have you looking lean and strong!

You may or may not have heard of a push/pull/leg split. This is a type of workout routine that involves splitting up your weekly workouts into a push day, pull day and a leg day. The push and pull days include upper body workouts and the leg day involves lower body workouts.

This is a great way to split up your week. A push/pull/leg split routine breaks up your body into three parts working different muscle groups. This guarantees you hit all of the major muscles of the body by the end of the week.

Let’s discuss each one of these days and the specific muscle groups involved in them:

Push days recruit the muscles of the upper body that are involved in pushing movements. These muscles include the chest, triceps and front shoulders. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements.

Here is a sample workout for a push day:

Chest:

• Bench Press (flat, incline and/or decline)
• Dumbbell flys (flat, incline and/or decline)
• Cable chest fly (double and single arm)
• Pushups

Triceps:

• Cable rope tricep push downs
• Overhead dumbbell tricep extensions
• Single arm tricep dumbbell kickbacks
• Tricep dips

Front shoulders:

• Cable straight bar push down
• Overhead dumbbell press
• Dumbbell lateral raise
• Single arm dumbbell frontal raise

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Pull days recruit the muscles of the upper body that are involved in pulling movements. These muscles include the back, biceps and rear shoulders. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements.

Here is a sample workout for a pull day:

Back:

• Cable lat pulldowns
• Barbell bent over rows
• Barbell deadlifts
• Single arm dumbbell rows
• Pull-ups

Biceps:

• Cable straight bar curls
• Barbell preacher curls
• Single arm rotating or hammer curls
• Concentration curls

Rear shoulders:

• Standing cable reverse flys (double and single arm)
• Cable rope face pulls
• Bent over dumbbell reverse flys
• TRX wide row

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Leg days recruit the muscles of the lower body that are involved in all lower body movements. These muscles include the quads, hamstrings, hips, glutes and calves. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements. Also important to include in leg days are compound exercises. A compound exercise are multi-joint movements that work several muscles or muscle groups at a time. A squat is an example of a compound movement as it engages several muscles of the lower body including quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Here is a sample workout for leg day including several compound movements and a few muscle specific exercises:

Compound movements:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Step ups
• Deadlifts

Quads:

• Machine leg press
• Seated single leg extensions

Hamstrings:

• Machine hamstring curls
• Bulgarian split squat

Hips:

• Machine hip abduction
• Standing cable single leg hip abduction
• Dumbbell Plié squat
• Side lunges

Glutes:

• Cable single leg hip extension
• Wide stance goblet squat
• Hip thrust or bridge
• Single leg donkey kick

Calves:

• Standing calf raises
• Seated machine calf raises (on calf machine or leg press)

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Now that you have have the exercise list for your push/pull/leg days let’s see what a typical week may look like:

• Monday: Push day
• Tuesday: Pull day
• Wednesday: Leg day
• Thursday: Rest day
• Friday: Push day
• Saturday: Pull day
• Sunday: Leg day

With this plan you know that you will hit all these muscle groups twice a week. You can include the same workout twice a week for your push/pull/leg day or you could mix up your exercises for each workout. For example on Monday push day you could do all barbell and dumbbell push exercises and on Friday push day you could do all cable and bodyweight push exercises. This will mix up your workouts so you don’t get bored and challenge those muscles in a different way.

If you don’t have time to do 6 strength days a week, just include one push/pull/leg day each week instead of two.

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Now you just need to figure out where to place your cardio and abs. Cardio and abs can be included into any of these days either before after or included with your strength training workout. Specific ab workouts can also be done on your rest day. Plan the days that you are going to include cardio and/or abs into your routine around your push/pull/leg days

A few examples of how to include cardio:

• as a warm up or a finisher to your strength training workout.
• included on the days that you have shorter strength training workouts planned. Leg days may take longer and require more energy since they include some bigger muscle groups and therefore you may not want to include longer steady state cardio on those days.
• within in your strength training workout. A HIIT style workout would be perfect to get both strength and cardio in by adding bursts of cardio such as plyometric in between sets of strength.

Push/pull/leg split is a great way to plan your workout week. You ensure hitting all of the major muscle groups of the body keeping your body strong and balanced.

Click here to get my Push Pull Leg Core Workout Package

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Is spot training effective? This is a complex question with a not so simple answer.

The answer is both yes and no!

I know this doesn’t make any sense and is somewhat contradictory, so lets explain the yes and no to my answer.  It really depends on your purpose for using it and how you implement it into your program.

Is it an effective method for overall weight loss? No.

Is it an effective method in your strength training program for overall appearance? Yes.

What you cannot do is spot train to loose weight in a specific area of the body or as a stand alone method to loosing weight or fat. What you can do is spot train to tighten and sculpt a particular area of the body for a better appearance.

Where fat will store and accumulate in your body is in your genetics, this is not something you can control. The best way to loose overall fat is through a healthy lifestyle of exercise and healthy eating habits. With this you will not be able to dictate where the loss of fat comes from or at what rate but, through a healthy lifestyle you will be able to control fat storage and loss.

Spot training or what I like to call “focused training” is working a specific area of the body to develop muscle and strength. This in turn will help the area appear tighter and more defined, especially as you loose surrounding fat.

It is not spot training alone that will help you loose weight and fat but, paired with cardio, full body strength training and a healthy eating plan, spot training can be an effective method for training areas of focus or particular interest to you.

Let’s discuss how to effectively encourage overall fat loss and spot train for focused areas of definition:

First, we need to discuss the methods of loosing overall fat. To loose overall fat will require an exercise program that includes both cardio and full body strength training a few times a week.

Cardio will help to encourage burning calories and fat stores through exercise and activities such as walking, running, biking, rowing, elliptical, dance, kickboxing, HIIT, step. Or, sports such as tennis, soccer, baseball, softball, basketball or any other activity or sport that gets your heart rate up and requires cardiovascular energy.

Full body strength will encourage balanced muscle growth and development throughout the entire body. Strength training is super important in not just physical strength but, in fat loss and calorie burn because the more muscle your body gains, the more energy your body puts out. This means that you burn more calories throughout the day both during exercise and at rest. This helps to accelerate the fat burning and weight loss process.

Now, let’s discuss how spot training fits in:

This is basically the final step in your exercise process and it is to fine tune the areas of your body that interest you the most. This may be the areas you have the most problems with or the ones you want to accentuate the most. This is what I call Phase 3 of my programming (click here to read about phase 3 of my program outline).

This type of training should be thrown in at least once a week in addition to your cardio and full strength routines (not in place of).

This workout will consist of training that particular area or areas with several different exercises and methods. This can be done through weighted, tension band, body weight, and/or plyometric exercises as well as with reps, time, isometric holds or combination of any and all.

The question is… how do we put this all together?

Here is a sample weekly routine to show you how to fit it all in:

It doesn’t have to be done in this particular order. Find what fits best for you! This may vary based on your schedule, if you take specific classes, see a personal trainer or only have access to gym or equipment on certain days of the week.

• Monday: HIIT (Hi-Intensity Interval Training) Workout
  Cardio and Strength exercises including but not limited to: strength, cardio and core.
  • This workout should include both overall strength and cardio. I like it on a Monday to hit that week strong with super intense bursts of both strength and cardio.
• Tuesday: Cardio Workout
  Strong cardio that gets your heart rate up and challenges your body.
  • This workout should be cardio driven and include a workout that uses cardiovascular energy
• Wednesday: Rest/Recovery day
  Can include a low impact workout such as walking, yoga, stretching or core focus.
  • This day should include some sort of rest for your body. You want most of the large muscle groups to have some recovery time. With that said you may include exercises that are beneficial, healing and/or low impact. A workout on this day should not overly challenge your muscles.
• Thursday: Overall Strength with Light Cardio Workout
  Include either light cardio before or after your strength workout for overall body. 20 minutes on the treadmill with a walk/jog/run would be a good type of cardio for this type of day.
  • This workout should be predominantly strength with a little bit of cardio mixed in before, after or during strength workout.
• Friday: Cardio Workout
  Strong Cardio Day #2
• Saturday: Spot/Focused Training
  Exercises consisting of your area of focus only. Hit those areas hard with several exercises in several positions (standing, seated, combo of, lying, etc.), several modalities (machine, free weights, body weight, stability balls, tension bands, etc.), and several methods (time, reps, sets, isometric, plyometric, slow, fast, concentric, eccentric, etc.).
  • This workout will focus on your particular areas of interest or concern.
• Sunday: Rest/Recover Day #2

This is just a sample, however you should be including cardio, overall strength, rest/recovery or low-impact, and spot/focused training throughout your week.

Shoot for at least 2-3 days of cardio, 2-3 days of overall strength and at least 1 spot/focused workout. You may require more spot training days if you have several areas of focus.

You can also combine cardio and strength days or cardio and spot training days into one workout if needed. For example, on my sample, Monday is a HIIT workout and includes both cardio and overall strength into one complete workout.

By following this outline you will ensure that you cover what you need for both overall weight loss and spot area improvements.

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Muscle balance is very important when it comes to strength and injury prevention. Most of the major muscle groups of the body have an opposing muscle or muscles that it works with for joint movement and mobility. These muscles work together for movement of the body. If you strengthen or stretch one group of muscles, it is important that you do the same for the opposing muscle group or groups. This will help to prevent developing a muscle imbalance.

In This Series of Muscle Balance – Calves and Shins

I will be discussing the calf muscles, their opposing muscle group or groups, the joints they are connected to, and their actions. I will show exercises and stretches that help to keep those muscles strong and flexible.

The calf muscles are called the Gastrocnemius and Soleus muscles. These muscles are connected to the back of the knee joint as well as to the bone underneath the knee joint. They run down the leg and connect to the ankle and heel of the foot. The action of these muscles are extension of the ankle, pointing of the toe, and flexion of the knee.

The opposing muscle group to the calves are the shins and that muscle is called the Tibialis Anterior. This muscle is connected to the bone underneath the knee in the front of the leg. It goes down the leg and connects to the base of the foot by the big toe. The action of this muscle is to turn the foot upward and inward.

There are many exercises that can help to strengthen and stretch these muscles.

Here are just a few you can easily do at home without any equipment:

• For exercises do 10-15 reps and 1-3 sets per exercise.
• For static stretches hold each one at least 15-30 seconds.

1) Calf Raises

For calf raises stand with feet hip to shoulder with apart and in good posture. Place hands on your hips. Lift up as high as you can onto your toes bringing heels off the ground and hold for a moment. Lower your heels back to the floor slowly until feet are flat on the ground.

2) Toe Lifts

For toe lifts stand with feet hip to shoulder with apart and in good posture. Place hands on hips. Lift your toes off of the ground and up towards the ceiling and hold for a moment. Lower the toes back to the floor slowly until feet are flat on the ground.

3) Calf Raises to Toe Lifts

For calf raises to toe lifts stand with feet hip to shoulder with apart and in good posture. Place hands on hips. Lift up as high as you can onto your toes bringing heels off the ground. Immediately lower your feet back to the floor and roll back to lift your toes off of the ground and up towards the ceiling. Lower the toes back to the floor and immediately back into the calf raises.

4) Heel Step-Downs

For heel step downs stand with feet hip to shoulder with apart and in good posture. Place hands on hips. Step one foot forward about the length of your walking stride and place just the heel on the ground keeping the toes lifted up and off the ground. Hold for a moment and then step back to your starting position.

5) Heel Walks

For heel walks simply walk around the room on the heels of your feet keeping your toes lifted off of the ground with each step.

6) Staggered Stance Calf Raises

For staggered stance calf raises stand in a staggered stance with one foot forward in front of your body and the other foot behind you. Upper body should be centered in between feet. Make sure you are in good posture and place hands on your hips. Lift the heel of your back foot off floor coming up onto your toes and hold for a moment. Slowly lower the heel all the way to the floor or as close to the floor as you can get it.

7) Wide Stance Calf Raises

For the wide stance calf raises stand with feet wider then the shoulders and turn the toes outward about 45 degrees. Make sure you are standing in good posture and place hands on the hips. From this position lift your toes off the floor and hold a moment. Slowly lower your toes back to the floor until the feet are flat on the ground.

8) Rotating Toe Taps

For the rotating toe taps stand with feet wider then the shoulders and turn the toes outward about 45 degrees. Make sure you are standing in good posture and place hands on the hips. From this position lift your toes off the floor and turn them inward rotating through the heel of your foot and tap the floor with your toes. Lift your toes up and off the floor from this position and turn them outward and away from the body rotating through the heels and back to a 45 degree angle, tap the floor with your toes.

9) Standing Calf Stretch

For the standing calf stretch stand with feet hip to shoulder width apart and in good posture. Step forward one foot and lift the toes off the floor leaving just the heel on the ground. Place your standing leg hand on the top of your thigh and reach your other hand down towards your toes while hinging forward through your hips. Continue reaching towards your foot getting your fingers as close to your toes as possible. Your standing leg should have a slight bend in the knee while the leg that you are stretching remains straight.

10) Seated Flex and Point

For the seated flex and point sit on the floor with your upper body in good posture over you hips and hands on the floor with arms at your side. Extend your legs out in front of you with your feet flexed bringing toes towards your body and hold for a moment. Point feet bringing toes away from your body and hold for a moment.

11) Lying Flex and Point

For the lying flex and point lay down on your back with your head resting on the floor and your arms at your sides with palms facing down. Place one foot on the floor with knee bent and extend the opposite leg over hip keeping it straight. From this position flex your foot bringing the toes toward your body and hold for a moment. Point your toe bringing the toes away from the body and hold for a moment.

12) Kneeling Shin Stretch

For the kneeling shin stretch kneel down on the floor with feet pointed so that the top of your toes are on the floor. Hold here to stretch the shins. For a deeper stretch sit on the heels. For an even deeper stretch sit on your heels and move your body slightly back, shift legs to the sides of your body so that feet are on the outside of your legs instead of underneath.

13) Lying Calf Stretch

For the lying calf stretch lay on your back resting your head on the ground. Keep one knee bent with the foot flat to the ground and raise the other leg over the hip keeping it straight. Flex your foot bringing the toes toward your body and reach your hand up towards your foot reaching for the toes. Keep the other arm on the floor at your side with the palm down. To get a deeper stretch grab the toes only if you can reach them while keeping the leg straight. If you cannot keep the leg straight to grab your toes you are not ready to progress this stretch.

Keeping these muscles balanced is extremely important!

These are just a few of the exercises and stretches you can do to keep your calves and shins strong and flexible. Include this routine in your exercise program at least once a week to insure proper muscle balance of these muscle groups.

To experience a live muscle balance class with me as part of my Body Works series at the Mid Island Y JCC click here to see class schedule.

As the New Year begins and resolutions are in full swing many people set out to find a gym or workout facility. One of the questions I frequently get is how do I choose a gym?

With so many gyms to choose from it makes the decision very overwhelming. Choosing a gym should be a process that takes time. After all, this is a huge commitment and one you want to be happy with. By choosing a gym you are happy with you will want to go, making it easier to reach the goals you set for yourself.

Let’s discuss the process you should consider before making your choice.

1. Ask yourself some key questions
2. Research local gyms
3. Visit local gyms
4. Experience local gyms with free passes and/or groupons/discounts
5. Make a decision

Let’s discuss each one of these:

First, There are some key questions that you will want to ask yourself before you do your research and they include:

• What equipment/machines am I looking for?
• Do I want to take classes? If so, what types of classes/workouts am I looking to take?
• When do I plan to go and what hours of operation do I need?
• Do I need a membership for just myself or for other members of my family as well?
• What type of budget do I have?
• What other services if any am I looking for? Personal Training, Nutrition, Massage Therapy, Babysitting, etc.?

There may be other personal preferences you have so be sure to write them down and include them in your key questions.

Once you have answered these key questions you now can start to research local gyms based on the answers. Use the internet, referrals, ads and other means to see what gyms are in your area. Research each gyms services and offerings before heading there to see if it has all the elements you are looking for. Create a list of each gym you are interested in visiting for further research.

Now that you have made your list it is time to visit each gym and see what you think about it. Take a tour and ask any questions while you are there, make sure all of your key questions are answered. Find out if they will give you a free trial pass to try their gym out. Another good idea is to check Groupon and search the internet to see if any gym/facility you are interested in has any discounted offerings.

After you have visited each gym and narrowed down the ones that interest you the most, it is time to acquire any free passes or discounts you came across. Be sure not to get free trials all at the same time. Focus on one gym at a time and attend until the time your trial or discount runs out. Make sure you experience everything you plan to include in your daily workout routine while you are at that facility. Any classes, equipment or services you are interested in be sure to try it out.

Taking the time to experience all the gyms you are interested in will help in the final process of making your decision. Reflect back on all of your experiences and decide which gym includes all or most of the things that you want.

Following this process will ensure that you feel comfortable with the gym you choose. This in turn will lead to a more successful experience and hopefully a new healthy commitment to yourself.

How many of you have said or experienced something similar to these comments that have derailed you from your fitness program? These are all issues where you may feel you have lost control, but you don’t have to feel that way.

Focus on changing what you can, not what you can’t!

This is a good rule to follow and something that many people need to redirect their focus to. All to often people are focusing on the wrong things. The things that they have no control on changing. I am here to tell you to stop and redirect your focus to things that you can change.

How can you do this?

I will strictly discuss how to do this for fitness and our bodies, but you can apply this in other areas of your life.

First, you need to evaluate if what you want to change is a wish, an excuse or a problem.

Let’s discuss some of these and how to redirect your focus into changing the things that you can.

A wish is something that we want or desire and do not have. When it comes to fitness and our bodies everybody has something about themselves that they probably want to change or wish they had.

Personally, I wish I was taller but, clearly that is not something that I can change. So, how do I redirect my focus on what I can change?

I can work on my posture. By working on my posture I will appear and feel taller. If I slouch, slump over, or put my head down I will appear smaller than I really am. For years now I have incorporated postural exercises into my workout including exercises in pilates, yoga and strength training to help me work the muscles, bones and joints that directly effect posture. This has made me feel and even appear taller. I have actually had people ask me if I got taller or not believe my height because I appear to be taller than I really am.

Same focus redirecting can be applied to specific areas of the body and weight loss. You will not be able to change the body you have been given but, you can make it the best body it can be.

An excuse is something you try to justify. In fitness and as a trainer we hear a lot of excuses. Excuses are probably the easiest of the three to change because it is usually our own selves holding us back and the mindset we have. In some cases that can be changed and in others it can not. With each excuse you need to look at the parts of the excuse that can be changed. “I have no time to workout” is a very common excuse and sometimes it’s justified and sometimes it’s not. We all have busy lives and things can get crazy, trying to find time to exercise is hard. However, I do find most of the time we can dissect someones schedule and find a way to fit it in.

When it comes to ones schedules there are things that we can’t change and there are things that we can. Some things we can’t change are our work, school, appointments and activity schedules. What we can change is TV, family, friends, shopping and other personal time.

One of the reasons I add family and friends into the things we can change is not because I don’t want you to spend time with them but, because you can change the way you spend your time together. You can do something active while you do spend time with them. Ask your friends or family to go on a walk instead of out to dinner. Partner up with a friend and go to the gym. Find an active activity your whole family can do. These are ways you can fit a workout in and still have quality time spent with your family and friends.

Evaluate your TV time. If you typically watch an hour or more of TV a few times a week. Take just 30 minutes of that time and do a workout. There are tons of available 30 minute or less workouts you can do or follow right from your phone or mobile device including my Build Your Stronger Self 16 Week Program (click link for an exclusive freinds, family and followers discount).

Do the same with your other personal and shopping time. Find out what you really need to do and what you can give up or give less time to to allow more time for workouts.

A Problem is something that is difficult to deal with and will stand in the way of your fitness goals. Some things considered a problem in fitness would be an injury, sickness, medical issue or anything that would truly stand in the way of getting in your workouts. This is something you will not be able to change so let’s discuss what changes you can make when workouts are just not an option.

When workouts are not an option you need to redirect your focus to your nutrition, this you can change and have control over. What you put in your body is more than half of the work to achieving and maintaining your fitness goals. This is going to be really important when you are limited on the activity you are able to do.

Take this time to allow your body to recover and fuel your body with super foods and proper nutrition. This will keep your body in shape and strong. If you limit your activity and practice poor nutrition you are basically giving up. At the same time you will surely loose any progress you made and trying to come back to a fitness program will prove to be extremely difficult.

These are just a few examples of ways you can redirect your focus to the things that you can change. Think of all the time and energy wasted on worrying about things you can’t change and have no control over and start to use that time and energy to focus on the things you can change. This will keep you in better spirits and make you feel in control rather than feeling like you have lost it.