Welcome Back to Beach Body 101 - Spring 2010

Beach Body 101 Syllabus:

(Prerequisites: Determination, enthusiasm for health & fitness improvements, clearance to participate in physical activity from your doctor)

This is a 3-month course split up into 3 modules: April, May, and June. Each module will consist of fitness foundations, nutrition principles, and developmental practices. All components are equally important and essential to your success in this course.

I’m your instructor, Kelly Gonzalez, CEO of Kelly Gonzalez Fitness LLC, certified personal trainer and fitness advocate for life. My goal is to inspire, educate, and motivate you to improve your health whether you remain in this course or withdraw early.

Motivation and support is unlimited. My office hours can be found on my website at www.kellygonzalez.com. Private instruction and tutoring in this course is available. Please contact me for more information.

Module 2: Conquer with Consistency

Last, month we discussed the importance of getting back to basics. You learned compound exercises for each major muscle group using your own bodyweight, how to structure a healthy diet eating more nutritious foods in small meals throughout the day, and how to develop your exercise routine to fit your lifestyle.

This month our theme is consistency. One month of healthy eating habits and exercise isn’t going to cut it. To win the battle you need plenty of weapons including determination, enthusiasm, and consistency.

In this module we will focus on upper body exercises to tighten and tone your arms for summer attire, determine how many calories you need to consume and burn to drop pounds, and the importance of exercise enjoyment to help you stay motivated on your journey to your best beach body. 

Fitness Foundations: Upper Body Shape Up and

Sculpted Arms for Summer

If you’d rather text goodbye than enthusiastically wave then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this arm-sculpting workout. By implementing the workout at least 3 days per week this month along with your regular cardio workouts you could be saying bye-bye to arm flab and hello to new muscle.

This workout first targets the major muscles of the chest, back, and shoulders with a compound movement, meaning many muscles are working simultaneously, and then each exercise is followed up with a single joint movement to isolate a single muscle. This makes the isolated muscle pull double duty since it’s already fatigued from doing its share in the previous exercise.

Start with 1-2 sets of 10-12 repetitions for each exercise. Remember to choose a weight that is challenging. The last 2-3 reps within a set should feel difficult, but you should still be able to complete the repetitions with impeccable form. As you become accustomed to the exercises and gain strength increase your volume by performing 2-4 sets of 12-15 repetitions. Once this is fairly easy gradually increase the resistance.

To get more of a caloric burn and cardiovascular benefit perform these exercises in a circuit format going from one exercise to the next without rest. Break for 3-5 minutes between sets and then repeat for 2-4 circuits.

Chest/Triceps

Chest Press: Lying on your back on a bench or stability ball. Start with a dumbbell in each hand with arms in right angles at your side. Press straight up and bring the dumbbells close together. Lower back down through the full range or motion and repeat.

Overhead Tricep Extension: In a seated position, raise dumbbells straight overhead and bring them together, keep your upper arms locked by your ears, bend from the elbows to lower the weights and push back up.

Back/Biceps

Underhand Row: In a standing position, contract abdominals, bend forward with a flat back, and bend knees softly. With a weight in each hand at your side, pull up forming right angles with your elbows and squeeze your shoulder blades together, lower down and repeat.

Bicep Curl: In a standing position with arms at your side, grasping the weights with an underhand grip, bend at elbows to curl the weights upward.

Shoulders

Military Shoulder Press: With your arms out at your side bent in a 90 degree angle press up overhead bringing the weights close together, lower down with control to start position and repeat.

Bent Arm Lateral Raise: With arms down at your side/waist and bent in 90 degree angles, raise the arms laterally up to shoulder height and lower back down to the starting position.

Nutrition Principles: How many calories do I need each day?

Counting calories can be a real chore. Nonetheless, it’s still important to know how many calories your body needs since too many lead to an increase in fat mass and too little can slow metabolism and lead to a decrease in lean muscle mass. Therefore, I don’t expect you to count every single kilocalorie, but it is imperative to have a gauge and become accustomed to how many calories are in a portion of daily meal items since many of us eat similar items and portions day in day out. Try keeping a log of all food consumed, the times, and the nutrition facts for at least 3 days to better understand your eating habits. The culprit behind your body battle may be staring back at you.

When it comes to calories BEE Smart by using the Harris-Benedict Formula for basal energy expenditure (BEE).

W= weight in kilograms (weight/2.2=weight in kgs)

H= height in centimeters

(feet x 30.48)+ (inches x 2.54)=height in cm

A=age in years

Men: BEE=66.5+13.8 (W)+5.0(H)-6.8(A)

Women: BEE=655.1+9.6(W)+1.9(H)-4.7(A)

Once you calculate your BEE factor in activity to account for calories burned during exercise.

BEE x 1.2 for regular moderate activity and exercise

BEE x 1.5 for high levels of activity and exercise

Now, let’s say you want to lose 1 pound per week...

There are 3,500 calories in a pound. If you create a deficit of 500 calories through diet and exercise each day you should lose 1 pound in a week.

You can cut 250 from exercise by walking for 45 minutes at a moderate pace and cut 250 calories from your diet by swapping meal items for healthier options like water instead of soda, balsamic vinegar instead of creamy ranch dressing, whole fruit or vegetables instead of a bag of chips. You get the idea.

Sounds like old news, but guess what- if you apply the concept consistently it really works.

Developmental Practices: Exercise Enjoyment

The other day I heard a trainer say to her client, “I just want to make sure you’re really sore tomorrow!” Now don’t get me wrong, when we workout we are actually tearing the muscle down, it only gets stronger after it recovers. The soreness you may experience indicates that the stimulus was great enough to create a physiological response, but if I were new to working out or maybe a little intimidated, being beaten into the ground and feeling sore and achy for days would make me want to run for the hills or at least form a negative association with that form of exercise.

The most important thing when it comes to exercise is to enjoy the activity. Yes, it requires hard work and dedication to get in shape, but why can’t it be fun along the way?

A study in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that participants who enjoyed exercise experienced more positive affective responses than those who enjoyed exercise less. It makes sense, right?

Plus, if you enjoy the activity and feel competent in your efforts you’re more likely to perform that exercise more often and consistently. Remember, in order to lose weight it’s back to the simple principle of more calories out than in. If you do a kick butt workout at a higher intensity than you’re ready for, and can’t walk for days nonetheless think of exercising again for at least a week, how productive is that when it comes to working towards a goal of weight loss?

Yes, you could burn 600 calories in that single workout, but guess what-you’re only burning 600 calories through exercise for that entire week if it leaves you in pain for days! I’d rather workout nearly everyday, really enjoy it, burn about 300 or more each session and tally up a deficit of 1500 calories from exercise. The bottom line is to progress accordingly, work consistently towards your goals, and enjoy the process.

By setting goals and tweaking your training sessions to gradually increase the intensity, frequency, and duration, type of exercise performed, and don’t forget….perform the exercise consistently you can get in shape and enjoy the process.

Try setting small goals each week for each variable this month:

Week 1: Frequency: Try to squeeze in an extra 20-30 minute cardio session this week.

Week 2: Duration: Add 5 minutes to each cardio session or push for 2-3 more repetitions in at least 1-2 sets of your strength training workouts.

Week 3: Intensity: Mix in a greater resistance/incline or higher speed in your cardio workouts. Try to work at a higher heart rate for 30-60 seconds and then recover for 2-3 minutes. Repeat as many times as you can in a 20-30 minute session.

Week 4: Type: Don’t be afraid of change. Hopefully, you enjoy more than one form of exercise. Many of us just get stuck in our routines. Get reacquainted with an old friend. Try the treadmill instead of the elliptical or hey, maybe just a different type of elliptical.

Conclusion:

This concludes module 2 of Beach Body 101. This month’s lecture was designed to stress the importance of consistency, to help you stay realistic with your progress, and motivate you to keep up the hard work. After all, health and fitness is a life long journey. It’s wonderful to shape up for summer, but it’s vital to be healthy for the long haul.

Your hard work and effort is always appreciated!

Be fit, be healthy, be happy, because you deserve it!