Explosivelyfit Strength Training

Cardiovascular and respiratory endurance training

The principle methods used to develop the cardiovascular and respiratory systems revolve around working below the anaerobic (without oxygen) threshold pace for both time and distance. This means performing a cardiovascular exercise at a pace fast enough to tax the physical response of the two but without going into the anaerobic ranges. The anaerobic range gets its turn at the end with a fast sprint to the finish line and you need superior strength to excel in nearly every physical activity. Taxing both the cardiovascular and respiratory systems is the goal of endurance (aerobic, with oxygen) training programs. Since the physical ability that is needed to move the limbs seems to disappear, first let’s look at this next.

Strength, as most can agree, is a vital component of training no matter if it’s endurance or power, you still need the strength to move your body. In the case of the endurance athlete, this strength comes from the development of strength endurance. A lack muscular endurance means you will not be able to go long distances if your muscles can’t continue putting out the force necessary to move the limbs.

The majority of endurance athletes lack muscular endurance. This is commonly seen at the end of a long race when one participant has a strong kick and the others fall behind at the finish line. Another example of this occurs when some of the athletes seem to be just barely moving their legs forward in a shuffle instead of a powerful stride to the end. However, is it all just in the muscles? Hardly so.

Respiratory fatigue precedes cardiovascular fatigue symptoms and therefore gives out sooner thus limiting the power output of the muscles engaged in the endurance activity. The respiratory muscles must be able to continue onward for long periods and still produce adequate power output to ensure a successful outcome.

Training muscular endurance requires high repetition numbers some even as high as two hundred to two hundred and fifty for one set. These are mentally hard training sessions and not ones for the faint of heart.

Stay strong mentally and physically, and remain passionately committed to your hearts chosen path.

Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS, *D  Web: http://www.Explosivelyfit.com

Getting sucked into the easy way out

I just read a review of a fitness program that guarantees results in only twelve minutes a week. There’s even a shorter version of another program that will get you fit in only six minutes. How can any sane reasonable person think that twelve minutes a week will make one iota of a difference in ones health?

The people buying this stuff must be extremely gullible or simple stupid be to believe this nonsense.

Our nation is already sitting near the top of the heap for being the most obese in the world at an astounding 30.6 percent of our population. This means that over thirty people out of a hundred are obese.

How did we get this way? The answer is most Americans continually sit on their asses and do nothing physical.

This appalling state of affairs will not be changed by doing a simplistic six to twelve minute exercise session once a week. Evidently, PT Barnum was right when he said there’s a sucker born every minute.

The authors of these types of false leading phony fake exercise plans are taking advantage of the laziness that appears to be indigenous within our constantly enlarging and fatter growing society.

The basic minimum physical activity recommendations are two hours and thirty minutes per week. This is a mere twenty-two minutes a day. If a person can’t find twenty two minutes a day to do something positive for their health they need to readjust their priorities.

The bottom line is this: get off your butt and get moving and not just six to twelve minutes a week. Only a fool believes this will get them into physical shape.

Stress fractures and your active teenager

Stress fractures amongst our younger athletes are occurring with greater frequency as the competitive demands increase within youth sports. Accurate detection of these fractures and other musculoskeletal problems that may arise is essential to proper treatment.

Stress fractures normally result from excess fatigue or training issues of too much too soon in the program. In the young aggressive athlete, it is not uncommon for them to try to work through the pain thinking that it will go away if they work harder. This is a mistake on their part.

According to a recent article in Biomechanics, stress fractures occur due to abnormal repetitive stress on normal bone. Approximately 9% of the total injuries happen in those who are under the age of fifteen, about 32% between sixteen and nineteen and the remaining 59% in those individuals over twenty years old.

Insufficiency fractures on the other hand come about because the bone is unhealthy due to mineral deficiencies or some other physiological condition.

Fatigue fractures appear in healthy bones subjected to abnormal muscular stress or from an unusual force being applied to otherwise normal healthy bone material.

At all times the coach must carefully watch the training going on around them. If an athlete is displaying unusual gait patterns, twisting movement difficulties and other general but odd body motions during practice or training sessions, that athlete must be called out and the situation discussed to find the cause of the problem.

Coaches will look over the pre-sport physical paper work and make note of any unusual health concerns before the athlete hits the training area. With prior knowledge and awareness of these problems, the conditioning of each athlete can be tailored to their individual needs.

This is the mark of a coach who cares about your child and is truly paying attention to the details of their training program.

Stay strong mentally and physically, and remain passionately committed to your hearts chosen path.

Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS, *D

Phone: 509.991.6833

Web: http://www.Explosivelyfit.com

Improving your static and dynamic balance properties

It doesn’t take much to lose your balance and find a nasty fall as a result. This is especially true for those who are beyond forty years old. Couple a lack of good balance up with inadequate strength and you have a time-tested recipe for injury. Often times when I’ve see an older person waking slowly over bad sidewalks, in their yard or just crossing the street it is apparent to me they are unsure of their step. Perhaps this is due to a medical condition that is beyond their control.

Nonetheless, there are a substantial number of others who are simply, and I might add, woefully out of shape.

Being out of shape means different things to a widely divergent population of today’s society. One that immediately comes to mind is the lack of aerobic and muscular endurance, another is our increasingly and noticeably overweight population and a third is the inability, due specifically to the lack of physical activity, to sustain an active lifestyle commensurate with the person’s age.

These generic areas can all be improved upon but it takes a conscious effort and a certain amount of sweat to change a lifetime of neglect. And the last, the topic of this article, is balance.

Balance can be developed in your home while doing the dishes, watching TV, walking in the woods, or even sitting at your computer. It just takes an effort on your part to derive the benefits of better balance.

Here is an exercise that is easy to do but still gets good results. As a precaution before doing it make sure have lots of room for unexpected movement and won’t cause harm if you lose your balance and start to fall.

The exercise is called the stork, for obvious reasons, because you stand on one leg.

In the start position balance on one leg and bend the other one up and put that foot on top of the straight legs’ knee. Hold this initial position for increasing amounts of time.

Once this becomes easy then add some motion to it by wiggling your hips or your upper torso around in random movements.

Finally do it with your eyes closed for increasing lengths of time.

Stay strong mentally and physically, and remain passionately committed to your hearts chosen path.

Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS, *D

Phone: 509.991.6833 Web: http://www.Explosivelyfit.com

Exercising in the fat burning zone or wasting your money:

Hint: It’s the latter

More than a decade and a half ago scientists issued a report. In it, they stated that performing high intensity aerobic exercise burned mostly stored carbohydrates for fuel as opposed to using stored fat as the fuel source during lower intensity exercise sessions.

Needless to say, personal trainers, looking for an easy buck, who did not read the rest of the report, jumped on this partial fact. Taking this to the absurd end conclusion you’ll lose more weight laying on the couch clicking the channel changer in the low intensity fat burning zone of nothingness than by being active.

This report stated that your body does burn more calories from fat during low intensity activity. However, it quickly added this important fact, the greater the intensity of the exercise the more overall calories that are consumed in the process. The more calories burned the greater the weigh loss.

As in all cases of exercise, intensity is the key ingredient to success.

Exercising at a higher intensity creates magnified hormonal changes within your body. These changes cause fat burning to continue after the session is over during your recovery time. Some experts believe this revved up action goes on for up to five hours afterwards.

You won’t lose as much fat tissue by working out slowly in the fat burning zone, as you will by going faster and including strength training into your program. Nonetheless, more time will come off the paid session with your trainer by riding slowly as they stand by saying “good job.”

Do yourself a favor and find a trainer who knows what is going on and is knowledgeable about current training methods.

Read more strength training articles here.

Are you training with a true certified trainer or one that paid for their certification off the internet?

Is your trainer knowledgeable and competent? Do they have the right background to guide you along or have they bought their certificate off the internet. The so-called certified personal trainers who did just that are duping more and more people.

If you are training with a personal trainer or a strength coach, ask to see their credentials. High quality associations such as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ASCM) mandate a college degree and a rigorous proctored written test before being accredited as a personal trainer or strength coach.

Others just want a $99.00 payment after you take an open book test on the computer. Look at the net under personal trainers, there are 96,500,000 personal trainer certifications listed under Google. It seems as though every Tom, Dick, and Jane have his or her own certification programs.

Do you want someone who took an open book test setting up your fitness program? Not if you are an intelligent consumer, you don’t.

Look at the strength coaches trainer certifications, there are 832,000 possibilities listed under a Google search with the NSCA at the top of the list. There is a reason for that. The certified strength and conditioning specialists (CSCS) is one of the most difficult of the certifications to obtain.

The CSCS trainers know their stuff. They didn’t take an open book test to pass. They have to recertify every three years by proving they have kept up with the latest in theory and practice of strength training. This is accomplished through continuing education credits.

If your trainer took an open book test and paid their $99.00 for a certificate then you’ll get someone with that kind of knowledge and work ethic. They took the easy way, the way without effort and now they’re out there taking your money while at the same time purporting to be a fitness professional.

Little effort, little knowledge, little help. Is this what your body and health deserves?

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for in a trainer.

Working out at home

It’s nice to walk into a well equipped gym and be able to hit your session with unbridled enthusiasm. Normally the costs are within reason and if it has highly qualified trainers all the better. But what if you don’t have the money, the transportation or even the time to go to one of these places for your daily exercise? The solution can be found right in your own home.

If you are just starting out you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to get into shape. And you certainly don’t have to have the latest in workout clothing. Sweats and an old Tee shirt complement one another perfectly. I would recommend, however, investing in a good pair of cross trainer or basketball style of shoes.

Next, start saving a few plastic milk containers. These make ideal adjustable weights and setting them up is easy just put a ruler along the sides and measure and mark out inches all the way to the top.

Before you exercise add water or other material up to any of the marks and weigh it. Both containers should weigh about the same. Now you’ve got a set of dumbbells.

I’d suggest getting a skip rope. Buy a length of half to three quarter diameter sized nylon rope at the hardware store. The right length is about twice your height off the spool. It’s long enough when you can stand in the middle and each end comes up to your shoulders. Cut it off and then have the ends sealed to prevent it from fraying. You’re all set to go for the cardio portion of your exercise program.

If you have the inclination, then buy a set of exercise tubes. An alternative is to go to a medical supply store and get a few lengths of different sized latex surgical tubing. Make certain you aren’t allergic to latex.

Grab a big juice container of plain water and get started because every day wasted is one you’ll never get back.

Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS*D

Stay strong mentally and physically, and remain passionately committed to your hearts chosen path. Danny M. O’Dell, MA. CSCS, *D Phone: 509.991.6833 Web: http://www.Explosivelyfit.com