Equipment Overload

On Christmas Eve, my sister, Jess, and I went to a nearby fitness center to get our lifting on. Jess was basically following my lead as we did five upper body moves - some dumbbell, some machine, some cables - and a few ab exercises. Close to the end, she looked all around the gym at the rows and rows of machines and equipment, then turned to me and asked, "Sooo, is what we did the best way to lift weights? And if it is, why are all these other machines here?"

Jess is a Columbia graduate and - ivy or not - probably one of the smartest people I know, so I find it a little bit disturbing (on behalf of the fitness industry) that all of this is so confusing to her, and others. Shedding some light on questions like these is precisely the reason I started this blog.

Most gyms are composed of two types of resistance training equipment: machines and free weights.

Machines are designed to control the body's path in space to make the movement easier and enable us to isolate a muscle or muscle groups. Most machines are selectorized and have a weight stack with a pin that moves to select a given load, thereby facilitating quick weight changes from person to person. This is typically the circuit equipment that takes up the bulk of space within a fitness center. Most people are familiar with the leg extension, leg curl, inner/outer thigh, chest press, and other weight machines. These machines are perfect for beginners who are new to movement patterns, individuals who are overweight and for whom body weight exercises are less appropriate, those who have trouble lying down to perform exercises, or intermediate to advanced lifters who want to isolate one muscle or area of the body. The biggest disadvantage with weight machines is that they only perform one movement per machine...meaning you spend $3,000 bucks on one machine that works your quads, $3,000 on one that works your hamstrings, and so on.

Conversely, free weight equipment does not dictate the body's movement path, so using it requires more integration of the body's muscle groups and stabilization at the core. Free weight equipment consists of bench/shoulder presses, squat racks, cable equipment, dumbbells, barbells, etc. This is the space in the gym where we see rows of plain benches, racks and racks of dumbbells, and weight plates that can be loaded on to barbells. As the name "free weight" implies, there is plenty of freedom here to create your own exercise for a certain body part, and to compile or select the proper weight amount.

To elaborate on this point, consider a leg press machine. You can do one thing on it: a leg press. Now consider a barbell. You can use this one piece of equipment to perform lunges, squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, biceps curls, and much more. Thus, the advantage with free weights is the ability to exercise many body parts using the same equipment, provided you know what you're doing (for many, unfortunately, this is the disadvantage). A lot of people have free weights in their homes because they are less expensive than machines and store more easily, but can still be used to exercise the entire body.

So to further answer Jess's question, we used a sprinkling of the available equipment because we wanted to exercise the upper body and I chose these five exercises to make sure we exercised each muscle group. We used the machine assisted pull-up for back and the cable tricep pressdown, which enabled us to use the pin weight stack to switch back and forth quickly without fuss over plate-loading. We used free weights for biceps curls, shoulder presses and chest flies, which enabled us to do the same exercises at the same time. We could have done free weight exercises for back and triceps, and machine exercises for biceps, shoulder, and chest, and still achieved the same goal.

It's kind of like saying, "So you made rice for dinner. Why didn't you make barley or pasta or cous cous?" I guess it just depends on what you're hungry for...

Oh my god...you're still working out in the cold?!

YEA WE ARE. This is Philadelphia, not Toronto. Last night, the beginning was hard for some, stepping out into the wintry night. But after doing a set of squat thrusts while Britney's "Gimme More" pumped over the Boombox, we ended up looking something like this.

Yesterday's temp at time of workout = 35 degrees
Felt like = 28 degrees

Beware the Calories in Coffee

As it gets colder, and warm drinks become enticing as a means to regulate body temperature, keep in mind that, calorically speaking, not all hot beverages are created equal. A cup of black coffee contains about 5 calories - no worries, there. But as a general rule, the more wordy the name of your coffee becomes, the more calories it contains. Mocha, frappa, double, extra, w/ whip, w/ syrup, w/ caramel, etc. are all making your drink taste sweet, yummy, and in certain cases, adding on the amount of calories found in some meals.

Starbucks' nutrition webpage posts the calorie content for menu items. I've selected a few examples to post here. All drinks are "grande" size or 16 ounces. The dangerous ones appear towards the bottom in bold.

Coffee of the Week - Black: 5
Cappuccino - Whole Milk: 140
Cappuccino - Skim Milk: 80
Cappuccino - Soy Milk: 110
Caffe Latte - Whole Milk: 220
Caffe Latte - Skim Milk: 130
Caffe Latte - Soy Milk: 170
Caffe Mocha - Whole Milk: 290
Caffe Mocha w/ Whip - Whole Milk: 360
Caramel Macchiato: 270
Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino - Whole Milk: 310
Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino w/ whip - Whole Milk: 430

Keep in mind that even if you are drinking "regular" coffee, you add 20 calories for every Tablespoon of Half-n-Half (most of us use 2 TBSP) and 16 calories for every teaspoon of sugar (I've observed anywhere from 2-5 for this one) that you dump in there. Your innocuous cup of low-cal coffee may actually be tacking on calories of which you are unaware.

Perhaps you're wondering what I drink? If I'm on the go, I usually grab a 12 oz. coffee and add what I'd guess is a TBSP of half-and-half. I'm a coffee drinker so this is daily. If I'm couching at the local coffee shop with friends, I might go for a 12 oz. cappuccino or a latte, both made with whole milk. This is the kind of drink I have once or twice a month. And if it's the more rare dessert drink (every other month), I like a double-shot mocha, whole milk, no-whip:)

Don't forget to tip your Barista!!

12 Days of Fitness

Admittedly, in the land of fitness, a derivative of this song to plan a workout is not the most creative idea...sorry! But I think the rendition we did at the Art Museum last night was fairly inspired.

Similar to a ladder, we started at the bottom, or "rung" 1, then did 1 and 2, then 1, 2, and 3, and so on until we got to 12. And when I say "we," I mean "they": Cathy, Paul, Janet and the Dans. They all came through every single repetition of what most said was one of the hardest group workouts yet!

Here's what Trainer gave to Muscle Group on the 12th round:

12 Mountain Climbers
11 Arms-a-dipping
10 Lunges, walking (10 out, 10 back)
9 Quads-a-squatting
8 Planks-a-walking (8 "steps" each way)
7 Stairs-a-stepping (7 step-ups each leg)
6 Push-ups, rotating (6 to each side)
5 Squat Thrusts
4 Tricep Push-ups
3 Stair Flights
2 Trash Can Touches
1 Plank 'til everyone's done

Highlights: A total of 84 rotating push-ups and 36 triceps push-ups per person, jealous onlookers from Fairmount Running Club on rounds 11 and 12.

Cardio - Are you working hard enough?

You can probably picture the cardiovascular equipment room within a fitness center: a few rosy-faced individuals pounding out sprints on the treadmill, two friends chatting next to each other on the Ellipticals, someone reading People magazine on the bike, another reading a novel on the Stairmaster with elbows locked out and leaning on the handlebars...you get the picture. All of them will say, "I went to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio." But who was actually working hard enough?

When it comes to cardiovascular exercise, "working hard enough" refers to the body's ability to accomplish two things: caloric expenditure and improvement in the capacity of the cardiovascular system (i.e. the heart and blood vessels' ability to deliver oxygen to the skeletal muscles).

Caloric expenditure will happen at any intensity level. You burn calories even when you're at rest. However, and this is sort of a no-brainer, the more intensely you exercise, the more calories you will burn. For example, let's say you're a 150-lb person and your goal is to burn about 500 calories. You just put it in an hour on the treadmill...did you work hard enough? If you walked the hour, the answer is no. You probably expended about 300 calories. If you jogged, the answer is yes as you probably burned closer to 500 or 600 calories. Clearly, higher intensities offer greater caloric expenditure and overall duration can be reduced to meet a specific goal.

Unlike reaching a desired caloric expenditure, which can be achieved through a balance of intensity and duration, improving the ability of the cardiovascular system must be achieved through reaching a desired intensity, or heart rate. To improve cardiovascular fitness, you need to exercise within your target heart rate range which is approximately 64%-94% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). MHR is estimated as 220 - age.

It's not as confusing as it sounds. I'm 25 so my MHR is 220 - 25 = 195 beats per minute. I should be exercising within a range of 125 (195 x .64) and 183 (195 x .94) beats per minute.

As a quick test to calculate heart rate while at rest or while exercising, count your pulse for 6 seconds and add a "0" to the number. For example, if you counted "7," your heart rate is about 70. To achieve my target heart rate of 125-183, I would hope to be counting between 13 and 18 beats in 6 seconds which would estimate my heart rate at 130-180.

An even quicker way to estimate if you are in your target heart rate range is to use the Talk Test. If you can carry on a conversation while exercising just as you would if you were sitting around the dinner table, your intensity is too low. However, if you are so out of breath doing your cardio that you are unable to speak, your intensity is too high. You should be slightly winded but able to talk to someone while exercising.

Whether you monitor calories on the treadmill display, estimate your target heart rate using a 6-second pulse, or use the talk test, the main idea is to check in with your body and periodically ask yourself the question, "Am I working hard enough?" The more you focus on Britney's latest pregnancy, the less you are able to focus on your own body.

Fabulous Four

Please take a look at these four and tell me if, "...but it's cold!" is a valid excuse not to workout. Shout outs to Cathy, Emily Teel, Laurel and Ruth for completing the first ever sub-freezing Muscle Group. Wha-what!

High Temperature for December 6, 2007 = 32 degrees
Number of complaining participants at Muscle Group = 0
Number of people from Muscle Group who brought a camera = 2
Number of Muscle Group members, including me, who knew how to use them = 0
Number of times I tried to take this picture = 15
Number of minutes it took me to download it to blogger once Ruth sent it to me = 43
Number of dips performed during workout = 100
Laurel's Chaturanga improvement from triceps strengthening = priceless

Click here to learn more about being a part of Muscle Group, where we do more than just try to take pictures...

Mission Accomplished!

Yesterday, six members of Muscle Group (MG) worked out on a wintry evening and sponsored a runner at Back on My Feet. One thousand thanks yous to Dan Dengel, Emily Teel, Abram Lipman, Cathy Schweiger, Daniel Joyce, and Janet Harper for your daily MG contribution and an extra thank you to those who chipped in a little extra. It went a long way...

Together we raised the $100 needed to get a new member started in the Back on My Feet program. This money will go towards gear and incentives for a new runner. If you think it's cold when we start out, these program members will likely brave the fiercest of winter temperatures as their groups runs begin at 5:45AM! They'll be happy to have the gear:)

The donation is under my name (I did throw in some money but, no doubt, you guys made it happen!) and can be viewed at https://www.active.com/donate/backonmyfeet.

AWESOME JOB.

Back on My Feet Fundraiser Tuesday Night

Back on My Feet (BOMF) is a non-profit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of Philadelphia's homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem.

It costs approximately $100 to get a new member started in the BOMF program, which goes to buy the individual shoes, socks, a shirt and shorts as well as to help purchase incentives for the mileage goals.

I recently met Wylie Belasik, the organization's training coach and assistant manager of Philadelphia Runner, who was 100% pumped about the programs being offered.

This Tuesday's Muscle Group (12/4), meeting at the Art Museum from 5:30-6:30pm, will be a fundraiser for BOMF. All $10 group fees (plus anything above and beyond that you would like to kick in) will be donated to sponsor a runner in the program. Hopefully we can make it to $100!

Learn more about BOMF at their website: www.backonmyfeet.org.

Set, Reps & Why It's All So Confusing

As a fitness professional, people are constantly asking me, "How many reps? How many sets?" There is more than one answer to these questions, depending on your goals. Yup, this is another long-winded answer. Smile, you're learning something...

Before I even get into it though, I need to make a point I will make throughout the post. No matter how many repetitions you are prescribed, your goal within each set is to reach momentary muscular failure. Even if you feel tired or uncomfortable, your muscle may still be capable of more work for that set. When people are lifting weights, I often hear them say things like:

"Oh, I can feel it!"
"This is hard."
"That's working!"

These are all comments from the brain saying that it would be more comfortable if you stopped doing that exercise. But you're not trying to fatigue your brain; you're trying to fatigue your muscle. When the muscle you are exercising is incapable of completing another repetition, it has truly spoken. When you hear trainers say things like, "Push yourself," or "One more...," they are trying to help you override your brain's messages to give up, because you don't reach your goals if you give up.

Now, on to the science behind sets and reps. To improve muscular strength and endurance, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends one set of exercises for 8-10 large muscle groups performed on 2-3 days/week. Improvements can be seen within a variety of repetition ranges 6-8, 8-10, or 12-15. Strength improvements may be more notable at a lower rep range while endurance gains will result from a higher range.

No matter what repetition range is chosen, the goal of each set is to reach momentary muscular failure - i.e. you couldn't do another rep if you tried.

Blah, blah, blah, right? So here's an example of how this prescription is typically applied, and where it goes wrong. You might be even be familiar with it. A woman joins the gym and gets one free personal training session so she can learn how to use the machines. She tells the trainer she wants to build strength and endurance in her muscles. The trainer shows her how to use 8 different circuit pieces at the gym (leg press, chest press, lat pulldown, etc.) and tells her to do 1 set of 10-12 repetitions for each exercise. In most cases, the trainer sets the initial weight for each exercise lighter than it ultimately should be. Lighter weights enable the client to learn proper form, develop self-efficacy with a new program, and give the connective tissue time to adjust to a new stimulus without injury. So the trainer tells she needs to increase the weights once she is able to complete 12 or 13 repetitions smoothly. This will probably mean she can only complete 9 or 10 repetitions with the new weight, but as her strength improves, she will soon be able to do 11 or 12 with the new weight, and so on. Great. There's nothing wrong with this advice. But here's how it plays out...

The client, knowing very little about momentary muscular failure, and having very little experience in life of working a muscle to absolute fatigue, comes into the gym and goes through the circuit with the initial weights the trainer has set, probably completing sets of 12 across the board. Even that's ok. But 9 times out of 10, this client will come in the second time around and go through the circuit with the same exact weight - which is too light - and perform the same number of repetitions (12) for each exercise. It may seem absurd in light of what I've talked about, but this is what really happens.

What this woman needs to be asking herself at the 12th repetition of every set is, "Could I do one more?" If the answer is yes, the weight needs to be increased. Sometimes, not only could someone do one more with the weight they think is right for them, they could do 8 more or 15 more. A weight that light is not pushing the muscle to reach momentary failure and it will not improve strength and endurance. Period.

ACSM's guidelines speak to enhancing muscular strength and endurance in the general population. The problem with these recommendations is that most people don't actually care too much about muscular strength and endurance - what they desire is muscular hypertrophy, or increased muscle size.

The National Strength and Condition Association puts forth a more detailed compilation of sets/reps to achieve muscular hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy
8-12 reps
4-6 sets
30-90 sec rest btw sets

The sets and reps here are referring to one muscle group. Therefore, if I wanted to increase the size of my quadriceps muscle on the front of my thigh, I might perform 3 sets of lunges and 2 sets of leg extensions, completing 8-12 repetitions of each exercise to momentary muscular failure.

I would have to use this formula for every single muscle group whose size I wanted to improve - chest, back, shoulder, triceps, biceps, abdominals. Obviously, this can't all be done on one day so often times, people will exercise certain muscle groups one day (i.e. legs, shoulders, back) and others on another (i.e. chest, biceps, triceps). There is no quick circuit for muscular hypertrophy. It's a lot of hard work. But whether your goal is a more moderate increase in muscular strength/endurance or a very visible increase in muscle size, the principle of momentary muscular failure has to be applied to every single set.

Fit For What?

Can you look at another person and say whether or not he or she is "fit"? I'm curious if there's anyone out there who can...because I can't.

Recently, at one of my group sessions, I had 3 people who were meeting each other for the first time. At the beginning of the workout, more than one of them said to me, "Wow, Linds. You've got a lot of fit people who come to your workouts!"

Being "fit" or being a person with a high level of fitness has entered our vernacular as a way to describe someone who is lean, thin, built, or shapely, but ignores the question, fit for what?

Why is this a problem? Fitness cannot be measured by how someone looks. Summing up the culturally prevailing ideal body with a word that also implies one's physical ability is misleading. Of the 3 people to whom I referred earlier, all of whom looked "fit" by each other's initial judgments and all of whom do happen to have lean body compositions, one is a fantastic runner but not very flexible, one is quite strong but struggles with cardiovascular endurance, and the other is as bendy as any client I've trained but still new to and building muscular strength and endurance. If we label everyone we see who is trim or muscular as fit, individual differences in fitness categories - cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, power, etc - become obsolete.

I urge you to separate someone's fitness from his/her physical presentation. Categorizing or judging people as fit (or not fit) based on appearances leads us away from respecting individual differences, understanding that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and everyone is a work in process. No one, no matter how lean or thin or muscular, is exempt here.

Being Thankful

I woke up this morning excited to head out for a run on a beautiful 70-degree day. I ran for about 4 minutes before getting a ridiculous stomach cramp that forced me to bring my run to a slow walk. I was pretty pissed off at first...how could this horrible pain be ruining my run?! How dare it. As I walked, I thought about what could be responsible for causing the cramp...hmmm...I wonder...maybe it was the Tanqueray and Tonics I drank last night or the pizza that followed them. (What - were you thinking trainers don't party on the night before Thanksgiving?)

It dawned on me as I kept walking how little respect we have for our own fragility. We put our bodies through a lot of stress - drinking alcohol, lack of sleep, eating processed sugars and excess fats, sitting all day long - on a daily basis and then expect them to cope with all of it flawlessly. No wonder I had a cramp.

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for my health and that of my friends and family. This post sends well wishes to all of us in the hopes that we will continue to be healthy, strong, and cramp-free.

This is a picture of me squatting our Thanksgiving turkey carcass last year, a time when I hadn't yet dropped my picture-taking razor phone in the toilet and I was, apparently, in dire need of a haircut. This year I am thankful for having reconnected with my friend, Keith, who chops my hair regularly, never letting me go too long without a funky fresh cut. I'm also thankful that I never trashed my original Nokia cell phone. It's about as big as a brick, but saved me $300.

Clark Park Muscle Group

Muscle Group will now be meeting at Clark Park on Sunday mornings. We had our first group there yesterday and, though it was a little cold, the general consensus seems to be that it is a great location for a workout. I promise to get a digital camera in the near future and show some of you guys in action!

Where: Clark Park at 43rd and Baltimore. We will meet in the park caddy corner to the Green Line Cafe.

When: Sunday 10:00-11:00am (Time may change week to week. Make sure you are on the distribution list.)

How: Email lindsey.schweiger@gmail.com to sign-up or call 215-350-7307

How much: First workout free! $10/workout thereafter

No More Marathons for Me

Tomorrow morning, participants of the Philadelphia Marathon will trek 26.2 miles across the city, running for anywhere from 2 to 7 hours. My friend, Dan, and I were driving by the Art Museum today observing the tents, bleachers, and rows of port-a-potties, ready to go for tomorrow's event. He asked me if I'd ever run another marathon.

In 2003, I ran the Country Music Marathon in Nashville. As a self-identified runner at the time, I wanted a completed marathon on my resume. I didn't actually WANT to run 26.2 miles. I didn't WANT to wake up at 7 AM as a working college student to step out into the 20-degree-plus-wind-chill freezing cold and take a lonely 20 mile training run. I didn't want to eat "Gu" to replace electrolytes. I didn't want my lower back and hips to ache as I sat in my classes popping ibuprofen. But I wanted to cross the finish line; I wanted my 26.2 medal.

I was so focused on the outcome of my marathon training efforts that I failed to notice something important: I didn't enjoy the exercise in which I was forcing myself to take part. On a daily and weekly basis, the training process was tearing my body and spirit down, but providing very little that felt gratifying.

Don't get me wrong. Crossing the finish line was gratifying. The marathon itself was a fun event and I don't regret running it. If I had it to do over, however, I might have never registered, spared my body and slept in more often!

These days, I try to stick with actitivies that feed my spirit and revitalize my body: an invigorating yoga class to start out my Saturday off...a casual run with a good friend to catch up on life...a walk into the city on a cool fall night to buy a new book...lifting weights in the basement singing along to pop music hits on Q102. Unlike the marathon finish line, gratification now comes on a daily basis from pouring more energy into the enjoyable process and content of my "workouts" and coming to expect less of their outcome.

Resistance Training for the Lower Body

"I'm a runner...that's all I do for my legs."

"I use the Elliptical machine and I can feel it working my legs."

When I recommend lower body resistance training to my clients, I am often met with responses like those listed above. There seems to be a lack of understanding that cardiovascular exercise (i.e. running, Elliptical) and resistance training have very different purposes and effects on the body. This post defines and provides background information on cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. It then explores four important reasons to include lower body resistance exercises in your program.

Cardiovascular endurance exercise, what most gym-goers refer to as simply "cardio," is any strenuous activity requiring the body's large muscle groups for a prolonged period of time. There are many benefits of cardio but the main function is to improve the heart's ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles and for the muscles to become more efficient at generating energy with that oxygen. The muscular adaptations that occur in response to cardio are to the extent that they help the heart and vascular system deliver and use available oxygen.

Resistance training, what we more commonly think of as weight training, involves using external resistance to improve muscular strength and/or muscular endurance at a particular muscle or group of muscles.

Muscular strength is the ability of a muscle to produce maximal force. To improve muscular strength, one would train using weights that fatigue a muscle in 4-8 repetitions.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to generate a submaximal force over a given period of time or for a given number of repetitions. To improve muscular endurance, one would train using weights that fatigue a muscle in 12-15 repetitions. *Note the difference between muscular and cardiovascular endurance training: Muscular endurance training fatigues a muscle, or group of muscles, in 12-15 repetitions; cardiovascular endurance training allows for thousands of repetitions in a group of muscles.

The benefits of resistance training not associated with cardiovascular exercise include:

- Muscular hypertrophy (aka increase in muscle size): Hypertrophy is usually associated with resistance training in the 8-12 repetition range and employing at least 4 sets for each muscle. Performing only cardiovascular exercise will not lead to an increase in muscle size for the legs. This is important to consider for those looking to improve body composition by increasing overall muscle mass. While muscular hypertrophy in the upper body muscles may be aesthetically appealing, the majority of our lean muscle is concentrated in the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteal muscles of the lower body.

- Enhanced strength of connective tissue: As muscles adapt to the stimulus provided by resistance training, so do the connective tissues - tendons, ligaments, and cartilage - around them. Unlike running which tends to aggravate and lead to deterioration of connective tissue in the knee especially, resistance training provides a stimulus to the structures at this joint so they adapt and grow stronger.

- Preventing Osteoporosis: Unlike cardiovascular exercise, resistance training provides enough force to the bones to generate an increase in bone mineral density. Put another way, running and lifting weights for your upper body only will not prevent osteoporosis in the bones of the lower body.

- Increased circulation of anabolic hormones: Anabolic hormones like testosterone (ladies, we have this too) and growth hormone help synthesize muscle tissue from the proteins we eat. Resistance training, unlike cardiovascular exercise, causes a significant increase of anabolic hormones in the bloodstream. This response is even greater when lower body exercises are included. So what? In one Denmark study, scientists measured the arm strength of a group of subjects and then divided them into two groups. One group trained only with arm exercises (A group) while the other trained their arms and legs (AL group). Both groups spent the same amount of time training their arms, but the AL group also performed leg exercises as part of their resistance training program. At the end of the experiment, the A group had increased their arm strength by 9%, while the AL group had improved their arm strength by 37%! By recruiting large muscle groups through resistance training, the AL group stimulated a massive response of anabolic steroids which led to greater gains in their upper bodies.

Winter Workout Attire

I've been getting a lot of questions about what to wear when exercising in cold weather. I called Bryan Mahon, co-owner of Philadelphia Runner (a running gear retail store at 16th and Sansom), and asked for his advice on suiting up in the cold. Without hesitation, he spit off plenty of advice.

The most important thing, Mahon says, is to stay dry. To that end, cotton clothing is the ultimate enemy. He warns that wearing a cotton shirt to exercise is "like having a wet towel on your back."

The solution lies in synthetic attire, which pulls moisture off the skin and releases it into the air. Plenty of companies make synthetic garments and market them under fancy names like Nike's "Dry Fit" or Adidas' "Clima Fit." Don't be too concerned with the brand - just be sure that the clothing is not made from cotton.

Here's a quick crash course on what to wear for each part of the body:

Upper body: Clothing for the upper body is most important as this is where we sweat the most. If you could afford only one piece of clothing, make it a long-sleeved synthetic shirt that hugs your body. This will draw sweat from your skin and allow it to evaporate, keeping you dry. To stay warm, you can layer on top of this shirt - with other synthetic shirts, a jacket, even a cotton long-sleeved shirt. Just be sure that the layer closest to your body is not made from cotton!

Lower body: Pants follow the same cotton-free rules. (Cotton sweat pants are terrible as they will trap moisture.) Spandex, synthetic tights, track pants, etc. are all good options.

Extremeties - Feet/Head/Hands: Less expensive investments, synthetic socks, hats and gloves will allow sweat to escape your feet, head, and fingers, respectively.

To make it easy, put a Philadelphia Runner gift certificate on your holiday gift list. Nothing in the store is made from cotton!

www.philadelphiarunner.com

What to Eat Before and After a Workout

Several people have asked me what and when to eat before and after Muscle Group. It is best to consume a substantial meal 3 to 4 hours before vigorous exercise. This will provide adequate calorie and nutrient intake while allowing enough time to digest the food. While some people seem to have iron stomachs, more of us will experience cramps or stomach discomfort in the event that we have eaten too much too close an intense workout. For those who attend Muscle Group, this would mean eating a late lunch around 1 or 1:30 on those days. The size and content of your lunch will depend on your specific goals and food preferences, but generally speaking, you will want to take in 400-700 calories and include protein, fat, and carbs.

Certain people following this advice may experience hunger or may feel weak/shaky due to low blood sugar before or during the workout. If this is the case, try consuming a high-carbohydrate, low-fat snack anywhere from 30-90 minutes before the workout. (The timing will depend on how quickly your body processes food.) Avoid too much fat here as it will delay stomach emptying. Some ideas are banana w/ yogurt, half bagel w/ peanut butter, or a Luna bar.

After working out, you will want to consume a mixture of carbohydrates and protein. Exercise stimulates our bodies to synthesize proteins and build muscle tissue, but only if amino acids are available in the bloodstream. Similarly, carbohydrate is needed to regenerate muscle glycogen stores after training. Studies have shown that consuming a carb/protein mixture directly after a workout, one hour later, or three hours later, are all equally effective at stimulating protein synthesis (aka muscle-building). Some quicker ideas are milk or yogurt smoothies mixed with fruit, a turkey sandwich, eggs w/toast. If you are preparing dinner post-workout, look to lean meats or fish as a protein source and grains such as pasta, rice or cous cous as your carbohydrate.

Interval Training

As I mentioned in the first post, the workout we do at Muscle Group is a type of interval training. Interval training involves alternating short bursts of high-intensity exercise (i.e. stair-running, push-ups) with periods of near or complete rest. Two recently published studies in the Journal of Applied Physiology have validated the effectiveness intervals have on improving cardiovascular endurance and fat metabolism.

Gregory Haff, Ph.D., assistant professor of exercise physiology at the West Virginia School of Medicine, spoke to the physiology of interval training in the Sept/Oct 2007 issue of ACE FitnessMatters (a bimonthly publication from my personal training certification):

"The greater disturbance you create in the workout, the greater your consumption of oxygen after exercise. Interval training is anaerobic, utilizes fast-twitch muscle fibers and burns energy rapidly. The type of energy it uses is from carbohydrates, because fat doesn't give you energy that can be tapped immediately. However, the anaerobic exercise you have done will help you burn more fat after your workout."

Translation: Compared to someone who jogged at a steady pace for the same amount of time, an interval workout will enable your body to tap into more fat stores after your workout...while you are b.s.-ing with your friends before heading home, walking to your car, making dinner, etc.

Something to think about next time you decide to do the Elliptical for 30 minutes...

Muscle Group

Muscle Group is a cardiovascular and strength-training interval workout. It was the solution to a bunch of friends who were paying for gym memberships but never went, and who wanted a personal trainer but couldn't afford one. Because we train in a group, the cost stays low. The natural landscape makes for an invigorating, dynamic workout - we never do the same thing on 2 consecutive days. The group is motivated but non-competitive. Each individual can work within his/her own limits and not hold back other group members, but still be challenged. We do various calisthenics, stair-running, sprints, mountain climbers, dips, push-ups, lunges, planks, partner drills, group exercises and conclude with stretching. I'll provide variations to make exercises harder or modifications to make them easier. The result: a workout with high caloric output that will improve your cardiovascular capacity and muscular strength/endurance.

Where: Art Museum - meet at the bottom of the stairs in the front of the museum

When: Tuesday/Thursday 6:30-7:30pm

How: Email lindsey.schweiger@gmail.com to sign-up or call 215-350-7307

How much: $10/workout