Fitness -- Back to basics

First off, let’s just say that Bob Bancroft is a stud and I want to thank him for his post!  You can be sure you will be hearing from him again and maybe I can convince him to do another video soon.  Hopefully I can course a couple other of my clients to be guest authors and do videos too. 

We also have a few other things waiting in the wings for you:

1.  Cooking with chef boy-r- T and Johnny who is the ‘resident’ results by chef.

2. Destination Fitness L.A., where Lana and I will be taking you to different locations in L.A. to work out and get fresh foods.  You can incorporate all that into your life and we’ll have other different little tidbits to help you turn your life into a healthy life style!

I know a lot of the workouts I post are advanced and I don’t want to alienate anyone, so today we are going to bring it back to basics. When you are starting out, you want to build a strong foundation, starting from the inside with the stabilizers, form, flexibility and basic cardio. You are not going to start with power lifts or plyos, so lets break it down.

1. Form: It is very important to get proper form from the beginning because it is always hard to break those bad habits. You can look around any gym and see the people swinging weight around, doing squats on there toes or rounding there shoulders on all upper body exercises. When I start with a new client, I like to use a ratio method of training, this is when you count the seconds of the negative and positive movement. For example, on a chest press you lower the weights 3 seconds down on the negative and 2 seconds up on the positive for a 2 to 3 ratio. The purpose of this is to really concentrate on your movements and make sure : 1. that you are using the muscles that you are supposed to, and 2. that you will have control of the weights at all times.  So when you are starting out ,don’t worry about the knuckle heads around you, use weights that are not too heavy. When the weight is too much, you start compensating with other muscles and that’s when I always hear people saying: “I don’t feel it in my chest, tris, back…”

When a lot of people start working out, they tend to use there shoulders in every exercises. That has a lot to do with using the wrong weight (too heavy) and not getting in the correct position from the start.   Don’t be afraid to ask the trainers at your gym to watch your form and correct it, most will be happy to advise you.

2. Flexibility: At the end of your workouts stretching for 10 minutes will increase blood supply and nutrients to joint structures giving greater elasticity of the surrounding tissues. Do not force your stretches, flexibility like weight training doesn’t happen over night. With greater flexibility comes less risk of muscle tears.

3.Building a strong core: In just about every athletic movement we do, we engage our core, so to to lower the risk of injury building a strong core (Abs, back, pelvic floor and hips) is essential. They are not as glamorous to work but trust me, very important. On any weight training movement tightening the abs while performing the exercise will keep your form tight and also strengthen the core. Conventional ab work is just one of the many ways to strengthen the core.

4. Cardio for beginners: Because we can’t all start with 4 mile soft sand runs the treadmill is good to start with. Running on the treadmill is not the only way to juice up the workouts, using the elevation is also a good way to intensify the workout without adding the impact of running.  Start with walking intervals at level 1 for 2 minutes and moving up to level 4 for 2 minutes and repeat 10 times. When this gets too easy, move up the level or shorten the amount of time you are at level 1. Cardio is working out in the presence of oxygen so I suggest anywhere from 18 to 30 minutes.

5.  Building strong joints: Building strong joint and stabilizing muscles will increase your ability to strengthen your major muscle groups and help reduce injury.  Building strong rotator cuffs (The small muscles and tendons in the shoulder) will help with form, strength and posture, therma-bands are great ways for beginners to strengthen the rotator cuff ( I will do a video soon demonstrating these exercises)

If you build the body from the inside out and first concentrate on the basics, there is no limmit to where your fitness levels can go! I know it’s not the most glamorous but trust me, in no time you will be increasing the difficulty of your workouts, I always like to revisit the basics myself because it still helps me get to higher levels of fitness.