Endurance

Lift Your Way to Stronger Bones

Posted on June 25, 2019June 4, 2019 by LetlerFit

Can you exercise your way to stronger bones….OH YES! Despite what your grandma told you, picking up those weights is what’s going to keep those bones strong and healthy more so than aerobic exercise as research shows that resistance training has a positive effect on bone density.

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

Exercise Myth vs Truth

Posted on June 18, 2019June 4, 2019 by LetlerFit

Myth: Men respond better to strength training because they get stronger faster when compared to women

Truth: under proper programming, women see increases in their strength at the same rate or faster. ⠀

Lifting Weights with Hypertension

Posted on June 11, 2019June 4, 2019 by LetlerFit

Do you have hypertension and lift weights? Then this post is VERY important. ⠀
If you have high blood pressure you should avoid heavy resistance training (try and keep it no higher than 80-85% of your 1RM) as heavy resistance training on its own increases your blood pressure. So pairing your own high blood pressure with the effects of heavy weight training could lead to negative vascular events such as stroke or heart attack. You also want to avoid the valsalva maneuver as holding your breath while lifting can also increase your blood pressure. One exercise you should consider throwing out of your programming completely if you’re hypertensive is the leg press because it utilizes the activity of a lot of large muscles (lower body) under heavy loading and yields no functional purpose. Therefore risk outweighs benefits. ⠀

Exercise and Asthma

Posted on June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 by LetlerFit

Struggle with asthma? Did you know that most people who have asthma avoid exercise because of being scared of having an attack or making the asthma worse? I am here to tell you that exercising with asthma is totally safe (assuming you have your “puffer” with you at all times in case of an episode!) and encouraged! Regular aerobic exercise between 60-80% of HRR has been shown to decrease incidents of asthma attack.⠀
⠀
It is important to make sure you are going to a gym with great air circulation (aka some A/C), avoiding cold, dry air, or non-air circulating environment. It is also important to spend extra time warming up and cooling down. It is also important to understand that high intensity exercise and long duration/continuous activity trigger more asthmatic events than moderate intensity and “stop and go” exercise.

Health vs Fitness

Posted on January 18, 2019 by LetlerFit

Todays blog post literally copy and pasting off an old lecture so y’all don’t think I’m nuts when I tell you that health and fitness are NOT the same thing.⠀

-“Health and wellness are factors of disease free living with positive controls over physiological measures.”⠀
-“Fitness is defined by quantifiable measures of physical components broken down into health and performance related components.”⠀
⠀
“A person can be healthy, but not fit in the same way a person can score well in fitness testing and not be as healthy as a person with lower scores in the same test.”

Exercising Your Way to a Longer Life

Posted on January 9, 2019 by LetlerFit

Did you know that science has been able to link mortality rate and lifespan with levels of cardiorespiratory fitness? And that people who are physically active for longer periods of times with greater intensity are potentially adding to their lifespan and better quality of life to those years? If that’s not motivation to get moving, not sure what is! Think about all those moments you won’t miss out on because you chose to prioritize your fitness.⠀

Breaking Down Your Muscle Fibers

Posted on October 25, 2018 by LetlerFit

Every time I hear someone say an exercise targets fast or slow twitch fibers and have zero idea what they’re talking about, drives me crazy. While science is currently investigating I believe the last number I was told was 16 fiber types, the general teaching consensus is 3. Type 1, Type 2a, and type 2x. Fast and slow twitch in the science community btw is slowly starting to fade away because they realized thats not the best way of describing our muscle fibers. But for now, I put them into the blog explanation below:⠀
⠀
Your type 1 fibers are known as the slow twitch muscle fibers because they have the slowest firing rate, least amount of force production, and smallest circumference. They are however most resistant to fatigue and have the greatest aerobic efficiency of the other fibers.⠀
⠀
Your type 2a fibers are known as your fast twitch oxidative fibers because they have a fast firing rate, produce moderate force, and have a moderate circumference. As opposed to the type 1 fibers, your type 2 fibers fatigue rapidly because of the high force production and they aid in extended work at lower force output.⠀
⠀
Lastly, your type 2x fibers are known as the fast twitch glycolytic fibers and have the fastest firing rate of the 3 muscle fibers, the greatest force production, and largest circumference. They fatigue the fastest, but have the greatest creatine phosphate efficiency.⠀
⠀
Biagioli, Brian Dominick. Advanced Concepts of Personal Training. National Council on Strength and Fitness, 2012.⠀

Do Your Cardio!

Posted on October 23, 2018 by LetlerFit

Did you know that sedentary individuals have a 20-50% greater risk for developing hypertension compared to individuals who are fit?⠀
⠀
Regular exercise can decrease your risk of developing hypertension by:⠀
-improving arterial vasodilation⠀
-Facilitating Baroreceptor adjustment⠀
⠀⠀
Overtime aerobic exercise can reduce diastolic and systolic measures of Blood Pressure by 6-7 mmHG. In order to accomplish this you want to make sure you are exercising aerobically 30-60 minutes, 3-4 days per week at a 60-70% of VO2 Max intensity.⠀

Think a personal trainer and healthy food is expensive?⠀
⠀
-Hypertension costs the US 64 Billion dollars per year!⠀
-By simply reducing your blood pressure by 12-13 points your risk of heart attack goes down by 21% and any deaths associated with CVD go down by 25%⠀
-a 10% decrease in total blood cholesterol level may reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease by up to 30%⠀
-47% of heart attack and stroke victims die before getting emergency assistance⠀
-90% of all middle aged adults will develop hypertension at some point in their remaining life.⠀
⠀
Moral of the story: CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE IS IMPORTANT…as much as I hate doing it⠀

Cardio beyond “leaning out”

Posted on October 16, 2018 by LetlerFit

People do cardio ALL of the time, but not everyone realizes what is happening within when you do cardio the RIGHT way. What we know as cardio is also known as aerobic exercise. ⠀
⠀
Aerobic exercise increases the capillary density within muscle fibers and increases type 1 fiber efficiency. Aerobic exercise can also improve ones ability to buffer lactate and increases oxidative enzyme activity. ⠀
⠀
In regards to your cardiopulmonary adaptations cardio stimulates an increase in stroke volume, cardiac output, and VO2 max as well as improved cardiac conduction and metabolic efficiency. Cardio should hypertrophy the left ventricle and reduce systolic blood pressure, which reduces myocardial stress and cardiopulmonary energy sparing. ⠀
Research has also shown cardiovascular exercise to increase life span and boost immune health.⠀
⠀
Biagioli, Brian D.Advanced Concepts of Strength & Fitness; Conditioning. National Council on Strength & Fitness, 2015.⠀

Fitness Terms Commonly Misused

Posted on September 7, 2018 by LetlerFit

Let’s define some words that I see getting misused far too often:⠀
Coordination: Being able to harmoniously perform a movement or how well your body parts interact in order to accomplish a movement.⠀
Speed: Ability to move the body OVER A DISTANCE in a given time⠀
Agility: Your ability to change directions quickly or generate a rapid movement⠀
Balance: How well you disrupt the forces that can disrupt stability⠀

This is important because i see people confuse speed with agility or agility with coordination all of the time. Even other personal trainers. When we understand what words mean we can then gain better understanding of the exercises and their purpose