cardio

MGT Loves the Elliptical Trainer!

Tags: cardio, intervals

The elliptical trainer is one of the most popular cardio machines at the gym because it is low impact and works the legs, glutes, hamstrings and even the upper body if you don’t hold onto the railings and instead work your arms back and forth.  But many exercisers will stride along without paying attention to intensity…reading a magazine!  We know you have done it!  J

Don’t read a magazine! Monitor your intensity this way:

Most elliptical machines at your gym will have not only a “Resistance” and “Crossramp” measurement, but also something called “Strides per Minute (SPM).”  SPM is a measure of how fast your legs are moving and it is a great way to monitor your intensity.  For example, many of the elliptical workouts in MGT dictate a certain resistance, but leave the SPM up to you.  However, if you are at Level 15 Resistance, but your legs are barely moving, it may not be the amount of intensity needed to generate great results.  For your higher resistances (10 and above), aim for above 140 SPM, while your lower resistances can allow for SPMs as high as 200.  On your recovery segment, move as slow as you like, but remember, during your hard intervals, a tough resistance + a challenging SPM = great results!

Below is a great NEW elliptical workout, not featured in any of the My Gym Trainer books.  As you move through the different resistances, focus on your strides-per-minute (SPM) and do your best to maintain your perceived exertion between 8-9 (on a scale of 1-10) on the tough intervals.  During the rest periods, go at whatever speed you want and recover slowly so that you can push just as hard on the next bout.

Take it Outside! My Gym Trainer Stadium Workouts

Tags: burn fat, cardio, stadium workout, women's workouts

No Equipment Needed!

Stadium Smarts:

Summer is a great time to escape the gym and head outdoors for a great workout.  To shake things up or bust through a plateau, head to a local outdoor stadium with lots of steps, perhaps at a local high school for a great stair climbing circuit.  Here are some tips for how to get the most out of your My Gym Trainer stadium workouts:

1. Intensity trumps duration: Because running stadiums is so intense, the workouts contained here are shorter, but will generate a bigger metabolic boost than long, slower workouts. By nature, running stairs is an innate interval-training workout.  Intervals alternate high-intensity bouts (runningup the stairs) with low-intensity recovery periods (walking back down the stairs).  This varying of high and low intensities several times within the workout pushes us to breach our anaerobic threshold; the point at which we are breathless and our muscles are burning.  Hitting this point (but notstaying there) in a workout increases the intensity and after-burn effect of the session, so that you continue burning greater fat and calories after the workout is over.

1. Shape and sweat: Stair climbing is one of the best cardiovascular activities for muscular endurance and shaping.  Especially long strides up the stairs (two steps at a time) mimic the movement of a lunge, first stretching the glutes, quads and hamstrings, and then contracting all 3 muscles together in one big muscular effort to reach for the next step.  If done right, this movement creates a muscular burn in the glutes, quads and hamstrings that cannot be generated in other cardio activities like jogging.

1. Up your metabolism with weights: We know cardiovascular exercise is great for our heart and helps shed pounds, but without weight training, we will see little definition or “cuts” in our newly trimmed physique.  These circuits created integrate cardio along with weight-training exercises to hit all the major muscle groups, while increasing the metabolic effect of the workout.  If you want to target a troublesome lower half, incorporate this leg circuit up to 3x/week.  Need a little tone in the arms?  Try this upper body circuit 2-3x/week.  Complete both circuits on days that you want a total body blitz, resting a couple minutes between upper and lower body circuits.

The workouts are to be done circuit-style, which means that you move from one exercise to the next with little rest.  Continue cycling through all the movements within the circuit until the 15 minutes is up.

Want more?  To increase your intensity, bring some dumbbells with you to the stadium! Place them at the top of Aisle #1 before you begin, and hold them during your squats, squat jumps and squat thrusts for added burn in the legs.  During your upper body circuit, use them at the top of the aisle to do rows and shoulder presses.

Be sure to perform a proper warm-up for at least 5 minutes, incorporating jogging, a few light run-throughs on the stairs and some dynamic stretches like high knees, side-to-side lunges and spinal twists.

Cardio & Lower Body Workout – You will need 2 adjacent aisles for this workout

Perform this circuit, rotating through as many times as possible in 15 minutes

Begin at bottom of Aisle #1, and sprint up steps, 2-at-a-time

Perform 10 squats at the top

Perform 10 squat jumps at the top

Perform 10 squat thrusts at the top

Perform walking lunges across the top until you reach Aisle #2

Walk down Aisle #2 – recovery time

Run back to the starting spot at the bottom of Aisle #1 and repeat circuit

Cardio & Upper Body Workout – You will need 1 aisle for this workout

Perform the circuit, rotating through as many times as possible in 15 minutes

Begin at the bottom of Aisle #1

Perform 10 incline push-ups with hands on the 5^th step and feet on the ground level

Perform 10 dips with hands on the 1^st step, feet on the ground level, knees bent

Perform 10 moving planks, bringing the hands from the bottom of the steps up to the 1^st step and back down while in push-up position

Sprint up the steps, 2-at-a-time

Walk back down the aisle, recovering

Sprint up the steps, 2-at-a-time

Walk back down the aisle and repeat circuit

Once your workout is completed, perform a 5-minute cool-down, focusing on bringing the heart rate back down and incorporating static stretches for the hamstrings, quads, glutes, shoulders, cheat and back.

Killer Recumbent Bike Workout to Shape the Legs

Tags: bike workout, burning fat, cardio

Traditional fat-burning anaerobic exercise done via high-intensity interval training (HIIT) creates a hormonally and calorically favorable environment to lose inches, while aerobic pedaling using heavy resistance generates a similar effect to that of weight training, thus shaping the leg.  If the resistance and speed combinations are enough to elicit a strong lactic acid burn in the legs and glutes, the result is a fat-burning, leg-sculpting effect.

Because of the orientation of the bike, the movement loads the glutes and the quadriceps predominantly, paying particular attention to the area right below the glutes referred to as the “glute-hamstring tie-in” by many fitness professionals.  The glute-hamstring tie-in is a notoriously stubborn place of fat storage for many women and also one of the first places on the body to take on cellulite with age.  The beauty of using the recumbent bike is that it helps burn fat all over, while eliciting a localized burn in the legs, attacking both the glute-hamstring tie-in and the lower part of the quad near the knee (referred to as the “tear drop” and the “sweep”).

Improve Muscular Endurance & Shape the Legs

Another useful approach when engaging the recumbent bike is to do a protocol that elicits more of a muscular burn in the legs.  The segments are a little longer and focus on a slow, deep aching in the glutes and quads to make those muscles pop.  Try this protocol as an alternative to a light weight-training workout or add it in at the end of a heavy leg day. 

Workout #3 – 25 minutes: Throughout this protocol, you will build on your resistance and slow the pace to the point of burning.  Choose Manual Program on the bike and change the levels as called for.  This type of working will really get the glutes burning; think about the muscles being worked and squeeze them to get the full effect.  This should feel similar to resistance training for the legs. 

Back to basics: Killer Recumbent Bike Workouts to Burn Fat

Tags: bike workout, cardio

As reformed “cardio queens,” we have to admit, we never considered the recumbent bike a respectable piece of equipment.  It never seemed as hard-core as running or doing the stepmill or doing hour-long Tae Bo workouts.  However, after a weight-bearing injury left Jill flat on her butt, she found myself on the recumbent bike, using it as a low-impact alternative.  Forced to create her own intensity, she pushed through some seriously tough workouts, torching fat and sculpting her legs like she never dreamed.

In our My Gym Trainer books, we thought that including recumbent bike workouts for this very reason was a must.  Many people have injuries and arthritis that limit them to non-weight bearing exercise, and why shouldn’t those exercisers, too, can get a really great workout to burn fat and tone the lower body?

Why Pedal

The recumbent bike is a piece of cardiovascular equipment that places the user in the seated position with the feet forward and back against a pad, as opposed to the upright bike which is more similar in orientation to a regular bicycle.  For a biomechanical perspective, it is advantageous to use the recumbent bike to take pressure off the joints of the lower body.  The recumbent has traditionally been recommended by doctors and physical therapists to patients whose joint conditions require them to get activity through non-weight-bearing exercise.  My Gym Trainer found another use for it: leg-burning device to generate real leg-shaping, fat-torching results! J

My Gym Trainer’s Favorite Recumbent Bike Workouts for Fat Loss

Traditional fat-burning anaerobic exercise done via high-intensity interval training (HIIT) creates a hormonally and calorically favorable environment to lose inches.  Ninety-five percent of exercisers want fat loss.  And most females will point to various hip and thigh areas and want to get rid of localized fat in these places.  Luckily, since the recumbent bike only works the lower body, the trainee can channel all exertion to the legs and glutes to create powerful pedal strokes through the fat-burning protocol.  We know from recent studies that HIIT burns greater amounts of fat than low-to-moderate intensity aerobic exercise, as was shown via stationary bikes in an article published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism (Dec 2008).  Fat burning increased 60% from baseline with interval programs such as those contained in My Gym Trainer.  Even though the recumbent bike utilizes only the lower half of the body, the metabolic effect created by interval training on the bike generates a universal fat-burning ripple effect.

Workout #1 – 25 minutes: Traditional HIIT workout done on the bike. Pedal as hard as possible for the “working” segments and move the legs very slowly during the “resting” segment in order to recover and be able to generate the same force for the next working segment.  Go for intense, all-out peaks of exertion (to the point of breathlessness), followed by low valleys of rest and recovery. Remember, it is not about duration, but instead about intensity.

Use a recumbent bike whose highest level is 20.  Choose the Manual program and adjust the level throughout the workout according to the time and segment lengths listed here.

Workout #2 – 25 minutes: Add an upper body component!  Grab a set of lighter weights (perhaps 5-8 lb dumbbells for women and 12-15 lb dumbbells for men).  The protocol is similar to Workout #1 in that we are incorporating intervals, however, in addition to pushing the legs hard during the “working” segments, you are going to perform upper body movements at the same time.  Full-body movements like this can feel awkward, but will only exponentiate the fat-burning potential of the workout.  By recruiting more muscle groups, the workout challenges not only their aerobic capacity but their muscular endurance too. The result is breathlessness, burning and an overall feeling of exhaustion.

Begin on a Manual Setting and adjust the levels as you progress through the workout.  The upper body movements involved are also listed.  During your “resting” segments, place the dumbbells in your lap so you can recover.

Check back next week for a recumbent bike workout that builds muscular endurance and shapes the legs!

Advantages of MGT workouts

Tags: better workouts, cardio, Fitness, fitness training, personal trainer, weight training

Take on your gym and make it work for you!

For dynamic workouts offering variety for best results, My Gym Trainer fitness cards work the entire body completely over a 3-session period, and are organized to allow you to workout everyday with one day of rest, if you choose.  MGT’s carefully planned cycles allow for the primary muscle groups worked during one session to rest and recover during the next two sessions before repeating the focal areas with different exercises on consecutive cards. 

If you don’t have the time and money for a professional personal trainer, or you have a trainer but want to do some workouts on your own, then My Gym Trainer workout cards are for you. 

Each MGT card contains one complete workout of weight circuit training on one side and cardio conditioning on the other side. 

Each MGT book contains 24 of these complete workouts, for up to six workouts a week, with the seventh day being a day of rest card offering fitness information and tips.  

CLICK HERE to purchase My Gym Trainer!

For more information, visit: http://www.mytrainerfitness.com

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