Inspired Journey Fitness

You’re ready to take your training to a new level and buy a heart rate monitor. So, what should you look for in your new training partner? A basic bare bones heart rate monitor will cost you about $50 and will do just as the name suggests. It will monitor your heart rate. For the geek at heart (we know who we are), the monitors at the top end of the range will connect you to your computer, plot your location and route by GPS, store your data, offer comparisons against other workouts, and more. I’ve owned several Polar monitorsand have been very happy with them. Garmin and Suunto also make great products.

Here’s a summary of the most popular features that you’ll find and what they mean. The more features, the higher the price.

• ECG accurate – The monitor is considered to be as accurate as an electrocardiogram. A monitor from a good quality company will have this as a basic feature. The monitor does this by taking constant readings through the use of a chest strap.

• Large easy to read display – A bright and easy to read display is a joy when you’re trying to see your monitor while on the bike, running, pool, or whatever your favorite exercise. No stopping or squiting needed.
• Target zone alarm – Tells you when your heart is below or above a particular zone.
• Multiple customizable zones – Allows you to determine several zones
• Recording time in zones – Allows you to review the time you’ve spent in certain training zones so you can make sure you’re working hard enough, or that you’re not working too hard.
• Fitness test – Will take you through a fitness test and determine max heart rate, VO2 max, or other tests.
• Calorie measurement – Tracks your caloric expenditure based on your workload, your weight, height, and age.
• Water resistant – This one’s really important. You might not plan to use your monitor when swimming, but you might get caught in the rain or the condensation from your body will exposure the unit to moisture. Make sure your chest transmitter is also water resistant. Once again, if you’re buying from a quality company you won’t have a problem here.
• Lap counting – Allows you to compare your times over laps during your workout.
• Interval programs – Allows you to program the monitor to vary your intensity and alerts you when you increase or decrease the intensity.
• User serviceable – It’s great to be able to change the batteris by yourself rather than having to send the watch or transmitter to a service center. If your monitor is water resistant, this may be a pie-in-the-sky dream as the company will not support a warranty if you change the battery yourself. Water resistant monitors usually have a seal inside that they want to make sure is properly replaced and they’ll only guarantee it if they do it themselves.
• Bike functions – Tracks your bike speed, distance, cadence, and more. Since bike wheels are different sizes and provide different readings, you’ll want your monitor to allow you to switch between multiple bikes (road and mountain bike, for example)
• Computer interface – Connect to your computer to download data. Allows you to compare your workouts and see what progress you’re making. Some will even allow you to create workout profiles on your computer and upload them to the monitor. This is much better than trying to push tiny buttons on the monitor and create a workout.
• Large buttons – Speaking of buttons, I want mine to be a good size so I can activate them easily.
• GPS – The high end monitors from Garmin will give you a color screen that plots your location on a map. If you use the same route regularly, you can store the route and compare your progress today against previous exercise sessions and see how you’re doing.

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It doesn’t matter if it’s the treadmill, elliptical machine, Arc trainer, stepper, or other piece of cardio equipment. Just let go.

Here’s why you need to get your hands off that machine:

Holding on reduces the effect of supporting your weight. Using the handrails to support you lifts some of your weight off the machine, effectively making it easier for your legs. This means that you’re not simulating actual walking, but instead you’re just faking it.

Holding on can promote poor posture and unnatural movement. Grabbing the front of the machine increase your risk for slumped shoulders and a rounded back. It also causes an unnatural running or walking style, often preventing your legs from fully extending, further screwing up your body’s alignment and altering movement patterns. Add one more thing, you can also increase your risk for repetitive strain injuries.

You’re burning fewer calories. Cranking up the speed or incline higher than you can handle and compensating by grabbing on to the machine cancels some of the effects of your exercise. Many people look at the calories burned number and incorrectly believe that just because that number is going up, that you’re actually burning those calories.

There are a couple of flaws here.

1. Grabbing the machine and lifting your weight off means you’re doing less work. Scientific studies have proven this. The machine doesn’t know you’re cheating and will still tell you the same result as if you were doing all the work. You might as well just turn the machine on, step off and let it run. Read a book and come back in a half hour. The machine still thinks you were working.

2. The second flaw here deals more with the fallacy of the “calories burned” reading that you’ll see on the machine’s display. The machine usually doesn’t know enough about you to actually understand the rate at which you burn calories. Put a hyper-fit individual on the treamill next to an unconditioned person, set the speed and incline on the same settings, and the calories burned number might show up the same. However, each of those individuals bodies will burn calories at different rates. Don’t worry about how many calories the machine thinks you’re using. Just do it right and burn calories at your own rate.

You negate the effect of the incline. I saw someone today walking with the incline at 12%. She was clamped on to the machine and leaning back to the point where she was perpendicular to the tread. That means she was effectively walking with zero incline. When you walk uphill outdoors you don’t lean backward. Why would you do that indoor? Same goes for the stepper. When you’re walking up stairs you don’t lean on the handrails or press your palm on the rail to remove some of your weight.

You’re doing nothing for your balance. Life is full of challenges. It’s full of uneven surfaces too. Your brain relies on your ability to compensate for changes in terrain. Holding on to the rails eliminates that balance challenge, increasing your risk again for injuries.

You might need to check your heart rate every once in awhile. That’s OK, but check it and let go. Don’t obsess about that number. Learn how you feel when your heart is working where you expect it to be and go there.

If you feel unsteady on the machine, slow it down and/or reduce the incline. Over time, you can speed it up as you gain confidence.

If you’re holding on because that’s the only way you can ready or watch TV, stop focusing on how you’ll entertain yourself and consider your health instead of what Brad and Angelina are doing this week. Can’t handle the boredom? Try an audiobook or go outside once in awhile and change your scenery.

Got another reason? Tell me about it and I’ll help you get rid of that idea and get you on the machine the right way.

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A few weeks ago, our Biggest Loser Team did a workout using resistance bands. The exercises we did were:

Lunges
Squats
Military press
Upright rows
Lateral raises
Tricep kickbacks
Front raises
Bicep curls
Rows (with door or pole)
Cable rotations (with door or pole)

If you need a refresher on how to perform these exercises, check out these videos

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Let’s get it out on the table right now.

Fat is indiscriminate. You can’t burn fat in a specific area of your body. Said another way, spot reduction is a myth.

All those gadgets you see on TV that help you burn fat in a specific area of the body. That’s right, a myth. Don’t let that discourage you though, because any fat burned is progress. The point is to not worry about where you’re burning the fat, but just to burn it.

Specific exercises can tone and add muscle in a specific area of the body, and that’s a good thing, but they won’t burn the fat in that area. Adding muscle is a huge benefit to fat burning as muscle is more efficient. It helps you move easier and uses more energy. Increase your lean mass and you’ll burn more fat.

So, what should you do? Move more, eat less. Burn some fat. Add some muscle.

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My dad loves gadgets and his new favorite is the iPhone. He bought a new iPhone a few weeks ago and my daughters and I were amazed at all of the cool things it can do. Well, here’s another one.

If you’ve got an iPhone check out the Daily Plate Calorie Tracker.

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