What’s Missing in Your Workout?

There is nothing more frustrating than giving something your all and then finding out your plan was lacking an integral component.  I find this often with my patients.  They are really doing their best, yet not getting the results they want.  There is usually a reason for their failed efforts….they just don’t know it.

I recently spoke with Becky Wibbenmeyer, a personal fitness trainer, about my running program.  Since my goal is health and overall fitness, she told me to stop running simply for distance.  Becky says that adding intervals of higher intensity will benefit your cardiovascular system, as well as burn more calories. It even improves performance on your long runs.  If you are not training for distance, interval running will give you more results in a shorter workout. You can complete a good, tough workout in 20-30 minutes.  This is my idea of a bigger bang for your buck!

Becky has other great nuggets of information that she finds people are often unaware of.

Another way to get a maximum workout with minimum time is to do tabatas.  A tabata is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, for a total of 4 minutes.  For example, you could do 20 seconds of body weight squats, then rest for 10 seconds.  Repeat this using whatever body weight exercise you like!  She recommends trying: burpees, pushups, jumping jacks, lunges, and planks.  Becky stresses  pushing yourself for those 20 seconds.  “Mix it up and have fun!  You can’t go wrong with a tabata!”

Many people seek Becky’s advice to achieve weight loss.  Research and results focus on three main things:

1)  Nutrition is key.  Becky always highlights the importance of eating breakfast to give your metabolism a kick start for the day.  Water is a huge part of this!  Drink half your body weight in ounces of pure water per day.  For example, if you weigh 160 lbs, drink 80 oz of water.  To keep your metabolic fire going, do not go longer than a 4 hour period between feedings (balanced meals or snacks).

2)  See #1.  Becky stresses that nutrition is where it is at for weight loss.

3)  Metabolic Training should be your key focus.  Muscles are your calorie burners.  Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn at rest.  Metabolic Training exercises include strength training and cardio intervals (such as the tabatas and interval training above).

Becky loves helping clients discover their strength!  Their confidence improves and physical strength in the gym overflows into personal power in their daily life.  Becky works with clients in their homes as well as at the Webster Groves Rec Center.  She can be reached at rwibbenmeyer@hotmail.com.