11 best weight lifting tips

As we age, our bodies naturally lose muscle mass. To counteract this loss, most people should incorporate weight lifting into their fitness routine. Here are some of my favorite weight training tips:

My best weight lifting tips

Warm up

Move your muscles through a full range of motion before working out. Consider walking on a treadmill or doing jumping jacks.

Address mobility

Lifting weights can improve your mobility and help you stay injury-free.

Have a plan

Have a goal and a plan to get you there. Understand what your focus is for the day, including which exercises and weights you’ll use.

Good form

Bad form can lead to injury. Study the correct form and execute it properly.

Safety first

Always use safety rack or spotter, especially when doing squats or using the bench press. Make sure you are using the equipment properly.

Compound/Isolation

Compound movements involve multiple muscles through a general range of motion, while isolation movements only use one muscle. When starting out, focus on compound movements to get more bang for your buck.

Consistency

You won’t see progress unless you’re working out consistently. Slowly build and maintain muscle over time.

Periodization

Change your workout focus every so many weeks. This adds variety and ensures you will keep seeing the benefits of the work you do.

Nutrition and supplements

You can get every bit of nutrition from whole, real food. There is no magic pill.

Rest

Make sure you’re resting enough between workouts and getting adequate sleep.

Patience

Reaching your goal may take months or years of training. Make weight training a regular part of your lifestyle.

By following these tips for weight training success, you will see a positive impact along your health and fitness journey!

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Making fitness a lifelong habit with Kathleen Trotter

Kathleen Trotter is a personal trainer and the author of Finding Your Fit, a great new book that encourages people to find their own unique recipe to sustain long-term success with health and fitness.

Kathleen explains that becoming fit is an active, lifelong process. She details seven strategies that will help set you up for success:

1. Stop aiming for perfection – Something is always better than nothing. Forget the all or nothing approach to health.
2. Convenience and consistency is key – Find ways to make your workouts convenient, which will contribute to long-term consistency and success.
3. Find your exercise bliss – Adopt fitness activities that you enjoy and will want to do consistently.
4. Find your why – Tie a deeper meaning to why you are committing to your fitness lifestyle.
5. Find your inner athlete – This helps in working toward your long-term goal.
6. Flip your negative thoughts – Moving is a privilege. Think positively and be grateful for the ability to move.
7. Mindfulness and preparation equals success –Determine your priorities and plan for the week ahead.

Kathleen also speaks about the concept of goals versus wishes. Your goals may not be connected to your life and reality. To adjust this, follow these six steps:

1. Stop using a “too busy” excuse – Pair your fitness activities with other non-negotiable activities.
2. Gradual progression – Don’t try to tackle everything at one time. Try adding one good habit and removing one bad habit per week.
3. Establish a WWWH plan – Be realistic about what you’ll do, where you’ll do it, when and how.
4. Respecting your genetics and the realities of your life – Be the best version of you possible.
5. Form goals that are relevant and important to you – This may include engaging in activities with family members.
6. Learn from yourself and others – Determine what was successful/unsuccessful and learn from that.

To connect with Kathleen Trotter or learn more about Finding Your Fit, find her on Twitter at @ktrotterfitness or visit her website at http://www.kathleentrotter.com/.

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11 Great Health and fitness gifts (for them or for yourself)

Great health and fitness gifts

With the holidays upon us, consider giving the gift of health and fitness. If you’re looking for a few ideas, here are several great health and fitness gifts:

Note: The links below are affiliate links at Amazon. It doesn't cost you any more, but does give the podcast a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Yoga Mat

Used not only for yoga, this mat makes it easy to get down on the floor and perform mobility and stretching work.

Food scale

Getting your portion sizes right can be difficult in the beginning. A food scale can help you get a better grip on how much you should be eating.

Resistance bands

These bands allow you to work out anywhere, doing any type of resistance exercise to build muscle, strength, and endurance.

Once you've gotten your bands, you can use this free mini-course to help you get started – Get Started on Strength.

Fitbit

A Fitbit with a heartrate monitor is a great tool for assessing your activity level. I prefer the fitbit because it just seems a little more fashionable and holds up very well (I've taken one on a tough mudder).

Foam Roller

As you know, I'm a big fan of mobility training and a foam roller is an essential tool.

Bands

Unlike resistance bands, these bands are multi-purpose. You can use them in your mobility work, use them for resistance work, or use them as an assist in your pull ups. These are the most effective way ot build pull up strength using progressively weaker bands.

Workout gloves

Ok, I'll admit it… I'm a bit old school in my lifting and I don't wear gloves. But I see where you may. Who wants hands that look like you workout? Well, if you body says it, maybe your hands don't have to.

Adjustable Kettlebell

If you try to buy a full set of kettlebells, they can get quite expensive and they'll take up a lot of space. I own two of these adjustable kettlebells.

Running belt

Keeping your phone, money and emergency contact details on you when you run is the smart way. This belt can help you do just that.

Adjustable desk

Sitting is being called the new smoking. Having an adjustable desk can help eliminate too much sitting.

Desk treadmill

If you're looking to buy me a gift, this is what I want! Set on a low speed, you'll be able to get your work done and get some exercise. Win-win!

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11 Health and fitness enemies

Health and fitness enemies can prevent us from maximizing our progression unless we develop strategies to deal with them. Here are a few examples:

Happy Miserables – Stress

These people always look at the negative aspects of life and can bring you down, adding stress to your life. Recognize their negativity doesn’t have to impact you.

Drinking buddies

These are friends who want you to join them in their lifestyle of drinking and eating unhealthy foods. Find ways to join in socially without indulging, such as eating a clean dinner before you go out.

Potluck Planners

Potlucks are usually full of unhealthy foods. Bring a healthy item to share as well as additional healthy sides for yourself.

School fundraisers

Candy in the break room is a big threat. Instead, keep healthy snacks in your desk so you won’t be tempted.

Competitors

Some people may want to compete at the gym. Stick to your plan and don’t fall into their trap.

Loiterers – Hogging equipment

These people will hog the gym equipment, texting, etc. Don't be shy, ask if you can step in between their sets.

Sick but pushing through

Germs can spread easily in the gym. If you’re sick, do your workout at home. Keep your distance from those who work out while sick.

Bad Personal Trainer

Ask around for a good personal trainer, one who will listen to you and help you reach your goals in a safe, effective way.

Well meaning friends and family

They may try to convince you that their way is best. Make health and fitness choices for yourself and don’t let them derail your progress.

Back stabbers

These people want you to fail, so stay away.

Nonparticipants in the home

You don’t have to prepare two meals if your family is not eating the same foods as you. Cook meals with meat, vegetables, and sides that allow everyone to pick and choose.

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11 Best mobility tips

Mobility

As we age, mobility becomes an even more important.  Before we go through my best tips, I think it is worth going back and defining what mobility is all about.

Mobility is the ability to move naturally through a full range of motion.  This can be impaired by either a tightness of a muscle or damage to a joint.

Every Day

To have an effective mobility training program, it should be something you do every day.  This not only includes doing mobility training, but also undoing the things we do to reduce mobility, such as sitting all day.

Warm up

Before you do any stretching or self-myofascial release, it is important to warm up the muscles.  This can be done simply by moving the muscle to get good blood flow.

Do SMR right

Most people do self-myofascial release wrong.  When you roll the muscle, you are stimulating it.  What you should do is to roll lightly on the muscle until you find a sore spot.  Then you should apply pressure until the muscle releases.  This is more about spot pressure than rolling.

Purpose of static stretch

A static stretch is for the muscles you aren't planning to train.  When you do static stretches, the muscle loses strength.

Purpose of dynamic stretch

On the contrary, dynamic stretches do not reduce strength.  You should use dynamic stretching to warm up and loosen up the muscles you plan on training.

Hydrate

It is very important that you're properly hydrated.  Muscles and joints need fluid to function properly.

Move

Staying in one position for long periods of time causes muscles to tighten up and joints to lose function.  This damages your mobility.

Time of stretch/age

When we are older, we need to hold stretches and self-myofascial release for longer.  I recommend you hold the positions for a minute or more.

Breathe

Don't forget to breathe when you're stretching or doing self-myofascial release.  This helps with release/stretch.

Partner

Finding a partner to stretch with can make the stretching more enjoyable and can help you get a better stretch.  Just be aware of your form to avoid injury as more pressure is applied than you'd be able to apply yourself.

Mindfulness

Stretching is a great time to practice mindfulness.  Don't zone out.  Stay in the moment to help build the mind-muscle connection.

 

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11 Reasons to lift weights

Resistance training with weights or body weight is a key component of one’s fitness routine. This involves taxing the muscles through a range of motion so they are pushed to a point where they will regrow stronger and bigger. Here are 11 great reasons why you should lift weights:

1. Strength – As we age, we lose strength. If you don’t have the strength to perform basic functions, you may lose your independence. Lifting weights builds this strength.
2. Mass – Lifting weights will allow you to maintain and build back any muscle lost over time. Don’t worry, you won’t get bulky!
3. Body composition – Building muscle mass through lifting weights will protect you from building body fat, which will lead to a better body composition.
4. Makes you better at other things – Lifting weights could make you a better runner, athlete, or it may simply give you the ability to play with your grandkids.
5. Resilience – You will build the right muscles, leading to appropriate muscle balance. Make sure you have a balanced program through a full range of motion.
6. Can boost testosterone – This will help maintain lean muscle and promote a healthy libido.
7. Satisfaction – Lifting weights makes you feel that you have done something good for yourself and boosts your confidence.
8. Community – You may form lasting bonds with others at the gym. This is a great support network to learn from and encourage.
9. Longevity – Studies have shown that the more muscle mass you have, the longer you may live.
10. Stress reduction – Vent some frustration, relieve stress, and get rid of some of that cortisol.
11. Variety – Mix weight lifting with modalities such as speed or cardio. This will allow you to work your muscles in different ways.

Lifting weights offers many benefits throughout your health and fitness journey. Get started today!

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Functional fitness with Lamar Lowery

Lamar Lowery is the founder of the Lamar Functional Training Academy in Germany and the author of a new book called Functional Fitness. While intended for personal trainers, Functional Fitness offers information and sample exercises that everyone can use in building their own functional fitness.

What is functional fitness?

Lamar explains that fitness can be functional and not just traditional. Every moment involves a chain of muscles and nerves, which when repeated over time helps to restore the body’s natural capacity for movement.

Four pillars of human movement

In the book, Lamar discusses the four pillars of human movement, which provide a strong foundation to build upon when improving one’s functional fitness. They include:

1. Locomotion, which involves standing and moving.
2. Core area of the body, including the shoulder to the knee. This does not stop at the hips.
3. Pushing and pulling, such as opening and closing doors, moving a mouse. We do these motions constantly throughout the day.
4. Rotation and diagonal movement, which involves keeping your arms swinging when the body is moving. This keeps the muscles in the upper body activated. Another helpful exercise is doing squats by simply sitting in and getting up from a chair.

The functional path to better performance

To get started, Lamar recommends starting with the basics. This involves moving everything symmetrically and in pairs. Make sure your posture is aligned. Practice basic body positions including the push up position and a laying position. Learn to control these movements and then move on to more complex exercises. This is the functional path to better performance.

Functional Fitness is a great resource of various exercises, both basic and advanced, for both personal trainers and anyone interested in improving their health and fitness. To get a copy of Lamar's book, go to your local bookstore and request that they order it for you.