Best Fitness Blog

...By Karli Taylor

It is one thing to change your attitudes toward food and exercise when you are actively trying to lose weight, but those habits need to remain intact once the weight is off in order to maintain your weight loss. In short, permanent behavior change is necessary to effect long lasting physical change.

One of the best gifts you can give yourself whether you want to lose weight or not, is the gift of a personal trainer.

A personal trainer can create a program for you with your current fitness level and goals in mind. But more importantly, a personal trainer can help you stay motivated. Trainers provide education, support, and accountability. Just the fact that you have paid money for a personal trainer will help you keep your appointments.

Personal trainers will help you exercise at a level that is right for you, and can help push you to new levels. A good personal trainer can help you target the areas you want to work on and provide the right combination of machines, cardiovascular activity, and functional strength exercises for you.

Goals like building strength, improving posture, decreasing body fat, and staying fit, flexible and healthy are ones that can be capitalized on with a personal trainer. Clear goals keep you focused and moving steadily forward every day. Contact Best Fitness in your area to schedule personal training for weight loss.

Visit one of our Best Fitness Clubs to learn even more about this topic. We have locations in Albany,NY, Tonawanda, NY, Schenectady, NY, Erie, PA, Nashua, NH, Chelmsford, MA, and Drum Hill, MA.

Cross Training ... by Karli Taylor

The weather gets nice and we all just want to run (or cycle or swim or hike) outside. Every year I encounter people who freeze their gym memberships for 3 months and stick to their outdoor sports. I get it- I really do, but now I'm going to tell you why that's not such a great idea...

By just running (or cycling etc), you are doing 2 things that will work against you in the long run- you are creating imbalances and overuse injuries and you are quickly running toward a training plateau.

First let's talk about the imbalance thing. Though your body will become very efficient at the sport you gravitate towards during the summer, you are using the same muscles day in and day out. These muscles, over the course of the summer, will grow unusually tight. This tightness will put you at risk for muscle strains, pulls and even tears.

In addition to overusing certain muscles, you start to under use or neglect others. The muscles that you neglect will lose strength also putting you at risk for injury.

Now onto the training plateau- like I said earlier, your body will become very efficient at your sport of choice. For a while you will see gain after gain. Surely all of this repetitive running is good for you if you get faster each week right? WRONG. This improvement will inevitably stall- your body will become so efficient at running that you will need to run for hours to actually get a workout! I don't know about you, but I don't have 3 hours a day to run to burn a few extra calories.

So what's my point? My point is that playing outside is GREAT. I applaud all of you for being dedicated to your sport- but be informed as well. Treat yourself to at least one day off each week and at least 2 days of cross training. If you are a runner--cycle, if you are a swimmer---run. Shake up your cardio routine to get the greatest gains possible. I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that if you replace 2 running workouts each week with a bike ride, you will be a better runner by the end of the summer than you would be if you just ran.

Also- don't forget about resistance training. I know it's often a drag to be inside in the nice weather, but if you can squeeze in 2 30 minute sessions each week, you will not lose strength or muscle quality. It will be enough to keep you from losing all of your progress, and you can focus more on making gains in the gym when the snow comes back.