With Christmas fast approaching and the New Year’s resolutions which usually follow, now is the time to give the gift that will provide a payoff for the rest of the recipient’s life! It could be for someone else, or it could be for you, but deciding to do something about the way you look, feel and function is a fantastic gift idea for anyone.

When you help someone who wants to make the improvements, but won’t take that first step, you are letting them know that you care about them and want them to be as healthy and fit as possible while looking and feeling better each week. If the gift is for you, you will be making a decision that benefits your loved ones as well. My clients tell me that their spouses or boyfriend/girlfriends are reaping many benefits from their training. They are really starting to look great, they feel better, their energy is vastly improved along with their stamina and endurance. Fat levels are reduced while strength and muscle is improved. Cholesterol (bad and good) ratios are improved, blood pressure improves and mood is much improved as well.

All of this is accomplished in a clean, friendly and fun environment. You’ll train your butt off — literally! However, even though it will be difficult at times and require your best effort, the rewards far exceed what you put into it. People often wait until the last part of the year to make the New Year’s resolution to get in shape. Gyms are always overflowing the first couple weeks of January . . . before returning to normal levels. When you make the decision now, you are committing to staying with it and reaping the benefits. Look great on the beach this summer and feel better very soon by getting started now!

Call Dave at 443 752-9928 or contact me on this website via the contact page. I’ll get you in shape the right way – safely.

When you do a resistance exercise, do you simply try to move the resistance from point A to point B . . . or do you focus the effort into the muscle(s) targeted? If you’re not focusing the effort into specific muscles, you’re missing a lot. Allow me to explain how to begin doing this.

In order to illustrate this, I’ll pick an exercise that is commonly performed and show you how to get more out of it. Lat pulldowns are routinely done in gyms across the U.S.  The vast majority of people I have watched are simply trying to pull the bar down to “somewhere around chin level” and then allow the weight to quickly pull their arms back overhead. The effort isn’t focused on any muscle or muscle group and the arms often end up becoming the prime movers for this movement. Your biceps are much smaller than your lats and they will give out first ending the set. This means your back won’t receive the work you had planned for it. Most “gym goers” don’t realize this, don’t care as long as it’s getting done, and haven’t noticed that their back looks virtually the same as it did when they began training. YOU CAN DO BETTER.

I often begin by incorporating an isolation exercise for the lats prior to the pulldowns to temporarily render them fatigued enough that the arms will not be a limiting factor. Secondly, I instruct my clients to concentrate intentionally on pulling the shoulders back and down when pulling the bar down and reverse that on the way up. I also tell them to attempt to drive their elbows into their sides during the movement. My clients have heard me say, “pull your shoulder blades together” and, ” drive your elbows into your sides” many, many times. It probably can become annoying – especially when you thought you were done 3 reps ago! I also instruct them to “think of your arms as hooks” — not the movers of the weight, just the attachment TO the weight. Finally, I usually will touch the tips of the middle 3 fingers of my hands on their working lats during the exercise. This is known as “cueing” and is done to help  clients focus directly on the muscles they are supposed to be using as the primer movers for this exercise.

When I practice these procedures during pulldowns, the effort is usually felt in the lats and the results begin to manifest themselves soon after. When I decided to write this article, deciding on which exercise to illustrate was like picking an ice cream flavor at Baskin-Robbins — there are so many to choose from. Many exercises lend themselves to this practice, but most people don’t know about it and, of those, very few ever use it and reap the benefits. My clients do and you can be one of those who learn the safest and most effective techniques around by contacting me. I stand ready to help!

You can make your exercise sessions more effective for your BODY by using your BRAIN. The benefit will be mutual since exercising your body causes enriched blood flow to take place over your entire body which benefits the brain as well. Dr. Daniel Amen has written an entire book about this and is a top proponent of exercise (combined with proper nutrition) to make your brain healthier.

When you begin performing an exercise you have never done before, your brain and nervous system have to create new synapses (connections between your brain and muscle) so that the movement can take place. The brain has to be able to send the signals for the muscle to move in the correct fashion via the synapse. This structure gets stronger and more efficient with use. That’s the reason that athletes at the top of their games still practice frequently – often daily.  Many times I have watched people struggle mightily on their first repetition of a new exercise making me wonder if the weight was excessive. I have learned to wait and watch though because many times the reps get easier as the set progresses and the synapse strengthens.

The problem is making sure you’re doing the movement correctly. BAD habits are reinforced with repetition just like doing things properly. This is where consulting a trainer is especially useful. Not just any trainer, of course! I am a stickler for doing exercises in the safest and most effective way and the mind/muscle connection is an important tool that will help you as you continue down the road to better health, fitness and appearance.

Knowing how to focus the exercise into the targeted muscles is of great importance as well. We’ll discuss that in future articles. As always, contact me via phone or through this website to get started moving in the right direction.

The evidence is overwhelming – when you exercise correctly, you age slower and your brain functions better. Study after study confirms this.

When you exercise your body, your heart pumps blood at a faster rate. Nutrients are pulled from their stores to meet the new demands. This blood flows to ALL areas of your body – including, of course, your brain. This enriched blood coursing through you allows your brain to extract everything it needs to support it’s functions. The increased blood flow make this process work much faster and more effectively. Your brain gets the benefits even though you trained your arms!

In addition to having a smarter brain, you can age more gracefully and build or retain the muscle that served you so well during your younger years. Exercising properly under the right training procedures can help you achieve these objectives. At the end of this article, I have included links to two recent articles which verify what many of us in the fitness field already knew. These articles are short and will help you to see how the professionals in the field of medicine are now promoting fitness as a tremendous tool in preventive medicine. (please also note that Dr. Amen recommends training with “a personal trainer who is skilled in working with people in your age group.”) Ahem – That’d be me!

Take a look at the articles and then give me a call. Sitting and simply thinking about it won’t get it done. You must actually take action. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

http://70.32.73.82/blog/5128/pumping-iron-to-stay-young/

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20110720/exercise-sharpens-older-minds?ecd=wnl_fit_072911

www.harfordfitness.com

I knew in advance what my wife’s reaction would be before I told her I intended to write an article on portion control. She’s watched me eat for over 30 years and she knows how I love to eat . . . until I’m full!

That’s NOT a good way to lose weight.

Eating until you’re full can easily result in stomach stretching. This happens because your brain doesn’t get the message that you’re full until about 20 minutes or so after you reach capacity. By then, you’ve probably eaten more — unless you stopped when you were getting “comfortably full.”  When you eat all you can “stuff in” and stretch your stomach repeatedly in a short period of time, it will retain the new, larger size and will now take more to satisfy you. This cycle can become repetitive and result in a significant weight gain and a larger abdomen — something most people try to avoid . . . unless you’re going into sumo wrestling!

There are a number of things you can do to help this become easier. Eating 6 SMALLER meals throughout the day instead of 3 larger ones will help you to maintain normal blood sugar levels and will stave off the hunger pangs which often lead to over eating. That process will be made easier yet if you prepackage your meals in advance WHEN YOU’RE FULL and carry them with you in ziplock bags. Here’s a link to an article I wrote about how to do this.  (read staying consistent)  http://www.harfordfitness.com/category/nutrition/page/2/

Another trick you can try is this. About 20 – 30 minutes before your evening meal, take a fiber supplement (or an apple) and a large glass of water. By the time you sit down to eat, the fiber will be absorbing the water and beginning to fill your stomach. You will get the feeling of fullness you like sooner and you will gain the  advantage of additional fiber which many Americans tend to shortchange in their diets. This should only be used once per day and the evening meal is the time most people overeat — that is why I suggest this timing. Water and fiber are your friends — USE THEM!

Make sure you’re getting right amount of sleep. Most people will tend to gain more weight on less than 7 hours or more than 9 hours of sleep. The lack of sleep will cause your body to produce too much of the hormone grehlin – an appetite stimulant. It will also cause it to slow production of leptin – the hormone that sends the “stop eating” signal to your brain. Make sure you stay in the right range.

Eat slowly and savor every bite you eat. By doing this, you will thoroughly enjoy your food give your brain more time to get the message that you are full. (Some people have found that they eat less when they visualized eating it before  actual ingestion). Exercise your self control a bit by stopping when you’re beginning to get comfortable – or before, if you’re able. In 20 minutes or so, you will probably feel full. If you continue this practice of stopping before hitting the tipping point, your stomach will shrink somewhat –in about 2 weeks. You can then continue this and your stomach will shrink as long as you don’t restretch it — then you’ll have to start over again. A visual trick that works is using a smaller plate. It takes less food to fill a small plate and that full plate will help your brain to think it’s getting plenty because it will appear that way to you.

Portion control works . . . you just have to practice it. Keeping you meals small and frequent will help keep you satisfied and your metabolism will speed up a bit since it won’t feel like it has to store calories until the next meal. Keep to total at your predetermined number, continue to get the exercise you need and you’ll be on your way to your ideal weight.

Contact Dave for additional info at http://www.harfordfitness.com/contact/  or call at 443 752-9928.

Anyone that has trained with me KNOWS that I want you to be “sore but functional” the day following training. Being overly sore is not the goal since you should be able to do everything you want and need to do, but you should be reminded that you trained those muscles the day before because you are now the owner of a “good soreness.”

Ok, so I met my goal of making sure you worked hard enough to produce soreness, which will result in the muscles having to become stronger to adapt to the increased demands being placed upon them — what about you and this soreness I caused?  It should be quite livable if I gauged it right and you will not be limited in your activities, but it can be eased a bit . . .

Ice is always a good bet since it helps to reduce inflammation. However, I recommend beginning with heat – to loosen the muscle and induce a good blood flow. For best results, use a hot-water bottle with a damp washcloth between it and your skin. This “moist heat” will penetrate about 10% deeper than dry heat. You can also use a heating pad as a decent 2nd choice.The heat should be applied for 15 – 20 minutes.

Note: It is not a good idea to use “Icy Hot”, “Ben Gay” or any of the other topical ointments as a heating source. They don’t produce any real heat and what you feel is the effect of your skin being irritated – that’s what these ointments use to produce a heating sensation — skin irritants. They are of NO REAL USE.

After heating the sore area, massage is the next step. Massaging the affected area for 5 – 10 minutes will also help to increase blood flow and stimulate recovery in the area. Follow up with 20 minutes of a bag of frozen peas or corn – again with a washcloth under it, to complete the therapy. This entire procedure can be repeated an hour later if desired.

As another step you can take, anti-inflamatories such as Aleve (Naproxin sodium), tylenol or aspirin are often beneficial as a temporary help and many doctors advise their use. ALWAYS drink a large glass of water with any of these or any meds. In fact, increasing your water intake can often be helpful as well.

Hopefully, your training is gauged correctly and the soreness is just enough to know you trained hard enough, but won’t hamper your “pursuit of happiness!” For help in making sure you’re doing it right, contact me through this website,l or call me anytime @ 443 752-9928. Help is just around the corner and I’ll be glad to make it happen.