Ideally, you’ll want to wind down your workout with less intensive exercises for about five minutes. For example, if you’ve been running, you’ll need to slow your pace down to a jog then walk. If you’ve been doing cardio kickboxing, march on the spot or step from side to side. Five minutes allows the temperature of the body and muscles as well as the heart rate to slowly decrease, which is better since a rapid decrease can shock the body. Circulating blood also slows down, allowing the muscles to eliminate waste products (i.e. lactic acid) that may have accumulated during the more intensive part of your workout and preventing blood from pooling in the legs (possibly leading to nausea and dizziness).

Once your heartbeat has slowed down and and you’ve cooled off, it’s time to stretch.

Research has found that the best time to improve flexibility and enhance your recovery is during this time. Skipping stretching regularly can reduce flexibility in under a month, so it’s absolutely imperative that it’s part of your cool down.

Our certified Personal Trainers know the importance of cooling down and stretching. They’ll help you perform exercises to adequately cool you down and improve flexibility.  You’ll also notice that you’ll be less stiff and sore the next day!

So what does “lighter” and “vigorous” activity mean?

Here’s a chart that shows some examples of possible activities that fit the description:

Light Activities (an hour)
Walking at a leisurely pace
Low intensity gardening
Gentle stretching
Bowling

More Intensive Activities (around 45 minutes)
Brisk walking or hiking
Riding a bike
Raking leaves
Dancing

Vigorous activities (about half an hour). You should be breathing hard, sweating and your heart rate should be accelerated.
Spinning
Kickboxing and marital arts
Jogging and running
Fast swimming

Obviously, though, it really depends on how much effort you put in to each exercise. Dancing can be vigorous if you go at it hard, and spinning can be less vigorous if you’re slowly pedaling. The Public Health Agency of Canada also recommends that you work on flexibility, strength and endurance on most days of the week to achieve the most health benefits.

However, these guidelines are the bare minimum. If you want to really increase your strength, endurance or lose weight and keep it off, you’ll have to bump up your exercise regimen.

You’ll far exceed the guidelines if you sign up for private or group sessions with one of our Personal Trainers in Toronto – even the free trial class can help you!

The main cause of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (aka sun stroke) is insufficient fluid intake while working out or performing strenuous physical activity. Fluid intake is essential to assist in healthy bodily functions as well as produce sweat, which helps cool down the body. However, if you don’t drink enough, the body will use liquids to satisfy bodily function requirements first – which is the problem. Since you won’t sweat, your body won’t be able to cool down, allowing the core temperature to rise to a level that could kill your cells, damage your brain and cause serious health problems.

Heat exhaustion is a sign that your body is unsuccessfully cooling itself down. You’ll look pale and feel clammy. You’ll also most likely feel faint, nauseous, weak, lightheaded and have a headache. Muscle cramps may develop, and you’ll be sweating profusely. To treat heat exhaustion, all you have to do is cool yourself down. Remove clothing, move to a cooler area, and drink some water or something with electrolytes and a bit of sugar (e.g. Gatorade). Don’t gulp – just drink a bit at a time.

If you’re breathing is shallow and you’re not sweating, have a headache, rapid pulse, hot red skin, and are acting strangely, then you’ve got heat stroke. Heat stroke is far more serious because your insides are basically “cooking” due to the rising core temperature. Needless to say, this requires immediate medical attention. Move to a shady spot, wrap yourself up in cool, wet towels, drink water or a sports drink, and get medical treatment from a professional.

Beat the heat by drinking plenty of water before you even think about working out. It’s a good habit, especially for the summer. Health Canada recommends drinking 2 to 5 cups of water at least 3 hours before you workout, and about a cup every 20 minutes while working out. Wear clothing suitable for hot weather, sticking to loose fitting items that are light in colour.

And because humidity makes it harder for the body to cool itself down, since sweat won’t evaporate as easily, you may want to consider moving your workout indoors or waiting until the humidity isn’t so high.

Such enthusiasm is fantastic, but our Personal Trainers have found that sometimes too much enthusiasm can be a bad thing, especially for people who want to fast track their way to improved fitness.

If you want to prevent injury, remember to do the following:

Before and after every exercise session, warm up. This involves gentle stretching and something to get the blood pumping a bit faster prior to the session and more intense stretching and a cool down afterward.

Drink a glass of water before you work out and drink more at intervals throughout (some experts believe about 2 ounces every 15 minutes is ideal).

If you’re just starting your exercise program, start off easy and increase intensity gradually. To keep things challenging, aim to do a couple of more reps or a heavier weight every week, or increase the length or intensity of your cardio segment.

Don’t workout on an empty or full stomach. Have a banana or something light (preferably rich in protein) in you haven’t eaten, or wait at least 2 hours if you have.

Your body needs time to heal after strength training, and this can take one day or more. Weightlifting can only effectively tone and build muscle if you allow your body to repair the targeted muscles, and this can only be optimally done when you’re not using them and resting. Many people find strength training every other day achieves the best results. On those off days, try doing something else like cardio.

Pay attention to your body. If you feel pain while you’re doing an exercise, stop and adjust your position. If that doesn’t help, tell your Personal Trainer about it or skip the exercise and do something else. This is incredibly important since ignoring pain can cause damage to your body, particularly your joints. Stop exercising if you feel dizzy or have pain in the chest, neck, shoulder or arm. This may be indication of a more serious health problem.

Easy. Join a martial arts class in Toronto.

The martial arts provides a unique and incredibly effective way for people who want to keep or get fit and are looking for something differeent, whether a fitness freak or far from it.

If you’re not familiar with the marital arts and are weary of such a proposition, we totally understand your concerns. Afraid of getting hurt? Hurting someone else? Becoming more violent? The essence of martial arts is certainly about “fighting”, but you needn’t worry about such things if you express your reasons of joining a class to the teacher and sit in on a class and watch to see if it’s suitable for you. There are so many martial arts schools out there that you’re bound to find one you like. As for becoming more violent, the majority of marital art styles promote respect, humility and discipline. These traits are inherent in most styles, as espoused by their respective founders.

We think that the martial arts is an excellent alternative to the gym, and here’s why:

1. A great all body work out. Take a kung fu class, and you’ll be using your entire body for its duration. Unlike weightlifting and other exercises that focus on one area of the body, kung fu gets your arms, legs, and core working at the same time. Actions like punching and kicking may look like they use only the arms or legs, but in fact your entire body needs to be involved in order to perform techniques correctly. Trust us, your whole body will be sore the day after if you’ve exerted the effort.

2. Improves strength. Pumping iron isn’t the only way to build muscle. The martial arts strengthens all the muscles, including the core and stabilizers, since it forces you to use your entire body. Muscles you never even thought you had will also get strengthened.

3. Improves cardiovascular health. When you practice a technique, usually you have to do it over and over again to get it right. So, imagine doing a bunch of kicks or punches – you get the picture. From start to finish, a martial arts class keeps the heart pumping and you sweating. It makes for an excellent aerobic work out.

4. Improves flexibility. You’ve seen those high kicks and low sweeps that talented martial artists can do. They get it from achieving and maintaining a certain level of flexibility, which is what you’ll be doing if you join a martial arts class as well. Kung fu helps improve flexibility through dynamic and static stretching exercises, increasing your range of motion.

5. Remains challenging. Unlike a gym environment, martial arts employs a number of different techniques. Coupled with varying skill levels within a class, this “sport” makes it a constant challenge to keep up, always giving you a goal to attain. Each class is dynamic and challenging – never boring!

Personal Trainer Toronto believes that martial arts can become an integral part of any exercise regimen. We offer private martial arts training to improve fitness, increase strength, boost flexibility, and accelerate weight loss. Call us today to find out more information about our Toronto martial arts program, Fighting Fit.

Get rid of the idea that it’s just for little girls with pigtails playing outside – skipping is a great way to boost cardiovascular fitness, helping to trim and tone the body. It increases endurance and helps improves speed, positively affecting your ability in any sport that requires such qualities, including martial arts, basketball, and badminton. If you’ve got to stay light on your feet, then adding a skipping component to your exercise regimen is ideal.

Remember to do the following:
bend at the wrist only, keeping the arms soft
stick to little jumps to maintain speed
only skip on a padded floor, since concrete floors can be damaging to the joints

It’s not as easy as you think, you know! There are many people out there who don’t know how to skip, or to skip more than a few seconds.

Need more info? Watch the video – it may help. And don’t be surprised if your personal trainer asks you to do a few minutes of skipping.

At these times, your energy levels are probably at an all time low. If your muscles aren’t aching, you aren’t sick, or you don’t have another more pressing engagement to commit to, then you have no real excuse that’s preventing you from working out. The only thing you’ll need to do is to boost your energy levels, which will put your body and mind in a better state for exercise.

Here are 4 surefire ways to boost your energy levels when your Personal Trainer isn’t around:

1. Low energy levels are often related to low blood sugar levels (BSL). A low BSL doesn’t just make your body feel sluggish, it can also negatively impact your mental state, making you feel cranky, stressed out and pessimistic. This makes it even more difficult to exercise, since your mindset will help you supply a number of self defeatist excuses.

To maintain healthy blood sugar levels, all you have to do is eat all day. Sounds like a pretty good deal, huh? The only thing you have to remember, though, is that what you eat has to be nutritious, which means instead of chips and cookies, you’ve got to eat vegetables, fruits and whole grains, with occasional lean protein. If you don’t have the luxury  to snack all day, then eat something about 30 minutes or less prior to your scheduled work out. Choose something that’s rich in simple carbs with some protein (about 20% protein). Avoid sweets and other sugary foods. Although you’ll feel great right after you eat them, your energy levels will crash minutes later, causing you to feel worse than before.

2. Take a 5 minute walk outside. This can help get the blood circulating, which is enough to kickstart some people. Or it just might make you want to keep walking, long enough to sufficiently become your actual cardiovascular work out!

3. Drink black tea, coffee or other beverage with caffeine about 1 hour before your scheduled work out. The caffeine will provide a quick boost that’ll help you get to the gym.  Avoid drinking caffeinated drinks regularly throughout the day, however.

4. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to avoid dehydration (6-8 cups for the average sized person), and 1-2 cups about half an hour before exercising.

With autumn in full swing, many of us who dread the cold and dreary weather find exercising more difficult. Plunging temperatures and cloudy skies make the outdoors inhospitable to exercises like running and walking, or even fun activities like playing sports. Who wants to bundle up just to get sweaty underneath all of those layers of clothing?

You may think that the gym is the only solution to maintaining your exercise regimen on colder days, but it’s not. When your personal trainer isn’t around to help, think outside the gym. Instead of running on the treadmill or doing a stint on the stair climber, do something that burns calories and increases your productivity: do some chores!

The fall is a great time to get outside and do that yardwork you’ve been putting off.

Start by raking up all of those leaves lying around, suffocating the lawn. Place them in a bag for pickup, or if you’ve got a garden and potted plants, keep them since they make a great mulch that provides nutrients for soil. Burn 236 calories an hour if you’re 130lbs, 281 calories if 155lbs and 345 calories if 190lbs.

After you’ve cleaned up the leaves, follow with some gardening to prepare your yard for the winter and spring. Pull up weeds, plant bulbs of flowers you’d like to bloom in the spring (e.g. lilies), and remove any spent plants that won’t be returning next year. Burn 295 calories if you’re 130lbs, 352 calories if your 155lbs and 431 calories if 190lbs.

Just because the fall is here, it doesn’t mean you can forget about lawn care. You’ll still need to mow the grass, with a manual push mower, of course! That will help build some muscle and strengthen your core. Burn 325 calories if you’re 130lbs, 387 calories if your 155lbs and 474 calories if 190lbs.

And finally, the gutters. Cleaning the gutters will help with rainfall levels that are usually heavier this time of year. This task can be dangerous, so make sure you get someone to help you keep the ladder steady. Burn 207 calories if you’re 130lbs, 246 calories if your 155lbs and 302 calories if 190lbs. Or, you can go apple picking instead, since it’ll burn the same amount of calories if you carry the apples with you.

You’ve been so diligent, exercising and watching what you eat for months. At first, the fat was melting off of you, but for weeks now, you’ve hardly noticed any positive change. In fact, it looks like you’re gaining weight. Why?

Don’t get frustrated and give up. Known as a plateau, it’s a common problem for many people who work out. The only way to overcome a plateau and start seeing positive results again is to change your workout routine (following the advice of your doctor, of course). Here are 3 tips to help keep your workout routine well worth the effort:

Challenge Yourself
The key to any effective workout is about challenging yourself. Think of your current workout as your base, and and build from there. You’ve got to challenge yourself and your physical ability by doing something that will make you exert more effort to get your heart pumping, just like how you did it when you started working out.

Muscle: 3 sets of 12 reps on 50lbs – is that your rule and you’re sticking to it? Hopefully not. Muscle builds, and it will adapt accordingly. As a result, you can’t expect to build your muscle if you’re pumping the same amount of weight all the time. You’ve got to increase the weight  in order to improve that muscle tone you’re working on.

Aerobic: You’ve been taking the same step class from the beginning, 3x a week without fail. You’ve committed every movement to memory and hardly break a sweat anymore. No wonder you’re not seeing any results! Not sweating in the intermediate class? Try the advanced. Not feeling the burn after 20 minutes on the stationary bike? Bump up the speed and go for 30. Jogging around the block too easy? Try some hills.

Try Something New
Doing the same thing over and over again only works the same parts of your body and muscles, over and over again. For example, if you only go on the stationary bike, you usually use your quads, calves, and butt, not to mention the benefits for your cardiovascular system. But how about your inner thighs, upper body, and other areas?

A plateau can be easily overcome by simply ditching what you usually do and trying something different. For your aerobic workout, how about steering clear of that stationary bike and trying the climbing machine instead? You’ll get to work out a variety of areas that have been neglected. Or instead of doing those lunges to work out your butt, do some squats instead. Go swimming instead of jogging, play basketball instead of tennis – get creative!

The 4 Week Rule
Instead of sticking with some old tired routine, follow the 4-week rule. In one 4-week period, do the same set of exercises (with a slight increase in weight or duration if you feel it’s not challenging enough), targeting a certain aspect of your fitness or body. After 4 weeks, change the exercises, increase their intensity dramatically and do something else for another part of your fitness or body. Doing this will help keep your workout fresh, and zero in on the areas you wish to improve.