How fast is too fast?

About 15 years ago I started seeing a ton of people wearing heartrate monitors while exercising. You can pretty much buy them anywhere these days. I actually saw one at Randalls in their health isle. What I get asked a great deal is "what should my hearrate be when I'm exercising?" Two questions you need to ask yourself.

What's your resting heartrate?

What's is your fitness level?

If you get winded walking up a flight of stairs I would suggest seeing a doctor before you start plugging in numbers to a heart rate training program. If you are a competitive athlete your numbers will be slightly different.

So lets take someone who is 36 and in good physical conditioning.(LIKE ME!!!)

Max Heart rate: This is the maximal ammount of times your heart can beat in one minute. There are a few factors to this (age,gender,fitness level). The rule of thumb for this 220-age for those who are fit you can try 205-1/2age. With both of these formulas in mind a MHR for a fit 36 year old can be 220-36=184 or 205-18=187

With that number in mind you can set your training into 1 of 4 training zones.

Very Light or Daily activity zone: 50-60% of MHR This is a great zone for beginners,people recovery sessions, or someone comming off a layoff. This zone should be easy and shouldn't leave you out of breath

Exercise for Health zone:60-70%of MHR This is typically called the "fitness zone" This zone will help strengthen your heart. It will also increase the sum total of small blood vessels in your extremities. It increases metabolism by increasing the enzymes in your muscles.

Aerobic Or Exercise for Fitness Training zone: 70-85% of MHR. This is the zone that is commonly referred to as the Target Heartrate Training zone(THR). This zone improves overall endurance as well as raising the speed your body can exercise at without building lactate.

Improved -Performance Training Zone:85-100% of MHR. At this point you are training at a level that is between you're aerobic and anaerobic zone.A very fit person will be training at or near their anaerobic threshhold. This is the zone used for sprints,hill training,breakaways,and time trialing. This style of training will increase your muscles tolerance to very large ammounts of lactic acid.

Think about these 4 zones and where you want your specific training to be. When all else fails try doing pushups for a minute........or run a hill.

Variety! If you are as old as me you remember the old step classes where about 30 people in unison did the same workout. It was a well thought out program that looked amazingly choreographed. These days the concept behind group fitness has changed a little. sure you can still do that same kind of class where everyone is doing the same thing or you can try a class where you use several different stations to mix it up. Much like a circuit. Circuit classes started off as weight machine classes where clients went from machine to machine in order to get a full body workout. Now, these classes resemble obstacle courses. In Austin Fitness Extreme I take that circuit concept and blow it up a little. If you look at this picture you can see the varying exercises that half of the class is doing.

What Else Can You Do?

You've got to be kidding me! Seriously? Where the hell did you come up with that? That's just twisted. I hate you. These are all the remarks I get from people I tell to do the seemingly impossible. Mind over matter. You're only as tough as your last workout. Ok that is silly. The truth is some hurdles are meant to be jumped over. We all have that hurdle that we hesitate 1 extra second longer than we should. Ok maybe this is a metaphor for lfe.

When I first met Lee he was as gym member. He worked out regularly but nothing special. You know, push ,pull,squat,crunch. he always wore these horrible wife beater tank tops. One day I grabbed him and few other guys and said "lets try something new."

Lee is a bonifide maniac now. He is doing things that I find difficult. He has watched his diet, become inventive with his workouts, and just blazed past me in cardio conditioning.

What's his motivation? Maybe to make me look bad. Whatever it is , it's working for him. On this day I caught Lee after he had done an hour workout and asked him to try this simple task. It goes to show that with a willing mind and capable body...........Tom can convince you to try anything.

Try this at home

5 squat thrust with 12lb weights

10 squat thrusts with 10 lb weights

20 squat thrusts with 5 lb weights

No Gym No Problem

I have been personal training for almost 13 years now and one of the things that has become very clear to me is although my work revolves around the gym, most of my clients don't. Many often travel out of town on work related business. It always seems to happen as we are making headway. A little discouraging? Sure. However even the busiest of schedules can accomidate a workout from time to time. Now I don't expect my clients to travel with a kettlebell in their suitcase.(amazingly some actually do) Nor do I expect them to call me in hopes of motivation.(yes some do) What I would like everyone to do is what I like to refer to as a "Fitness Daily 1" . No gym in your hotel? It's snowing outside so you can't run? I don't understand the hotel gym machines? I have heard it all. What it all boils down to is.........................I'd rather do something else. I'm with you on that. So my "Fitness Daily 1" programs are designed for people that don't haver much time (10 min tops) when they are traveling. It doesn't take long at all. Take a series of exercises that you can perform with no weight. Just you and the floor. For the most part if you ever see a "boot camp" that has millitary calisthenics , these are the exercise they are alluding to. I was in the Navy and can tell you that at no time did we ever get physical training with any type of machine. It was just our bodies and some space(and not always much of that). It's very doable.

Take the exercises that Karen is doing. Very simple. For this demonstration Karen is doing 10 reps of each exercises. Take that numer and increase it to 20. Do these exercises 3 times through. That should take about 6 min(maybe longer). Remember "It's your only body. Take care of it." I know, kinda Cheesy.

Ahhhhh The hill. Every once in a while I drag Austin Fitness Extreme to the "ToysrUs" hill. Aptly named because it is located behind ToysrUs. It's about a quarter mile long. Pure misery. We start the morning off with a few exercises(pushups,squats,curls,crunches,jumping jax) and then work our way down to the hill. First we do a few short sprints. We culminate by doing suicide runs up the hill. I'm demented. As I videotaped this I kept wondering what is it that makes some people push themselves and others not. Is it desire? A heightened need for torture? Maybe it's guilt over the pizza they had yesterday? Or maybe it's the fact that they don't want to waste the 200.00 they plopped down for the workout. Who knows. I do believe that misery not only loves but needs company sometimes.

Group fitness classes have increased so much over the years. In the beginning they were "aerobic classes" then "step classes" then "tae bo" and last but not least "boot camps". Living in Asutin, I've watched as bootcamp classes have increased significantly over the years. There used to be only 2 or 3 outside of the gym sponsored camps. Now when you go out to town lake it looks like a asylum for fitness enthusiasts. I see group t-shirts, kettlebells, Gillberts Gazelles,rubber bands, a few tires, sprint groups,triathlon groups, mommy workouts, mommy with baby workouts, I see it all. And the truth is ......I love it. While they may not all want to workout with me , it's good to see so many people taking an interest in their own personl fitness. At the very least get in shape so you can chase after your kids.

I look forward to the months and years ahead where I can motivate groups of people as well as individuals. Misery does need company sometimes. It's helpfull to look to your right and see someone who hates the instructor just as much as you.

Ps. I saw Inglorious Basterds. Loved it.

All you men out there watch Shakira's new video La Loba. Need I say more.

Ok so I have been asked to post a few videos of pregnancy workouts. As strange as this may seem I had to wait for several ladies to actually look pregnant. The main thing to keep in mind is that as pressure on your back increases you need to find a way to support your back during exercise. No deadlifts. No deep leg presses. Try to keep in mind that your hips will expand so you should widen your base to accomidate that. Keep very aware of your form and breathing.

One thing I didn't mention before is that it is very important not to undertake any brand new style of working out during pregnancy. Not the best time to run your first marathon. Watch this video and look how she supports her back through the range of motion.

I've been personal training all kinds of people for the past 11 years. I would probably say that 60% of those are women. It has given me great insight to women . I still dont have it all figured out....Let's be honest, I'm not even scratching the surface. One thing I love watch is women as they go through the change of pregnancy. It still amazes me. I watched as my exwife went through the stages of pregnancy and in turn have watched as no fewer than 15 current and past clients have done the same. The first thing I did was go out and buy a ton of books on pregnancy and fitness. It is possible to continue with a workout regiment during pregnancy. The three most important things you can do is : first, ask your doctor if he/she has any guidlines for you as it pertains to fitness. Your blood work may show certain restrictions. Second ,tell your personal trainer. We actually need to know. It will change our approach. First off I wont scream"what the hell...10 more reps!!" Third and most important, listen to your body. Listen to your body. Listen to your body. If it hurts..STOP! A few warning signs to be on the lookout for once you have a doctors clearance to workout:

1. pain in the abdomen,chest,legs
2. Nausea
3. Abnormal bleeding
4. Heart palpatations
5. Overheating,especially during the first 6 weeks

Remember that your body changes. Don't beat yourself up about it. Your uterus grows to about a thousand times its normal size. This puts pressure on your diaphragm which can cause a change in your breathing during cardiovascular exercise. Kepp this in mind and slow down your pace. The growth in your uterus will also put pressure on your bladder so make sure a bathroom is close by. The extra weight you will be carrying will also put added pressure on your back,knee and ankle joints. You may get some swelling in those areas. Make sure your back is supported and try to widen your stance during certain exercises like squats. Go get yourself a swiss ball(big blow up ball). Use the bosu.

Overall you can continue with any workout program. Just pair it down. It is better to be over cautious. Even circuit training is still very doable. Take your weights down about 10 to 20% and cut your interval time in half.

Listen to your bodies ladies. You're beautiful no matter how you feel. Try to rest as much as possible and...........consider the name "Tom" . Seriously.