Dear clients, friends and family,

Spring has arrived! As the days get longer and warmer, we typically want to spend more time outdoors. It’s also a time of year when many people get inspired to start taking better care of themselves – especially with summer and swimsuit season just around the corner!

Many people will start a running program to help jump-start them into shape. However, most new running programs don’t last very long because people wind up getting injured because they’ve done too much, too soon. So I wanted to pass along a good Learn to Run program that will ease your body into the impact forces associated with running.

Follow this program 3x/week on alternating days.

Week One: (Run 1 min. Walk 4 min) x 4 = 20 minute workout
Week Two: (Run 2 min. Walk 3 min) x 5 = 25 minute workout
Week Three: (Run 3 min. Walk 2 min) x 6 = 30 minute workout
Week Four: (Run 4 min. Walk 1 min) x 6 = 30 minute workout
Week Five: (Run 5 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 30 minute workout
Week Six: (Run 6 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 35 minute workout
Week Seven: (Run 7 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 40 minute workout
Week Eight: (Run 8 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 45 minute workout
Week Nine: (Run 9 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 50 minute workout
Week Ten: (Run 10 min. Walk 1 min) x 5 = 55 minute workout

This program will get you in great shape and prepare you to run a 3 mile run by summer!

Note: We are also starting a Learn to Run program at the end of this month at both our Vancouver and Portland locations. Nothing like a group to keep you accountable and get you to the finish line! Call 360.574.7292 or 503.287.0655 for more details or to register.

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

ps. Have you ever wanted to jump out of a plane? I’m tandem skydiving this Saturday March 27th in Molalla Oregon. The cost is $180 per person and I’m freaked out so the more people there to do it with me, the better! If you’re interested, email me at sherri@nwpersonaltraining.com

Read more on Learn to Run and then Jump out of a Plane??!!…

Dear clients, friends and family,

An effective exercise program does not need to be painful. In fact, there is no study to date that has found extreme muscle soreness indicates a good workout and yet, so many people gauge the intensity of a workout by how stiff they are the next day.

Most of us have experienced muscle soreness. Remember the feeling after your first day of skiing, your first spring run or your first fitness class? This sensation is referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) because it takes about 1-3 days after the workout for the stiffness to kick in. The severity of DOMS is dependent on the novelty and intensity of the activity. So if you participate in a new sport and you go really hard, expect to be very stiff. Even if you are really fit, if you do something your body isn’t used to, you’ll probably pay for it unless you take it easy.

The message is, if you’re training appropriately, there’s no need to be extremely sore. It’s OK to think “Hey, my muscles feel like they had a great workout yesterday.” However, if you have a problem getting out of a chair, walking or even just moving, you’re training too hard – and not very sensibly. Calling in sick for work because you worked out too hard the previous day is not going to make your company very happy or get you the results you want!

While lifting weights you will experience muscular fatigue, a slight discomfort and a temporary “burning” sensation at the end of a set that goes away as soon as the set is finished. During cardiovascular exercise like running, cycling or fitness classes, your heart will be beating more quickly, you will be breathing heavier and you may feel fatigued at different points of your workout. These sensations are all normal.

However, during exercise, you should not feel sharp pain. This is not normal and you should stop the exercise immediately and consult a sports physician or physiotherapist. The key to exercising safely is being able to distinguish between muscular fatigue and pain.

To reduce the likelihood of extreme muscle soreness, always warm up, cool down and stretch. If you are participating in a brand new sport or activity, progress very slowly. Don’t go hard on your first day. Give your body a few workouts to adjust and then gradually pick up the intensity. For example, if it’s your first day of biking, choose a flat route, take lots of breaks and go for only a short ride.

Once you’ve established a consistent exercise routine, there are no extra health benefits from pushing yourself to be extremely sore. Pain is a warning signal that you have done too much, too soon.

If you do find yourself suffering from DOMS, back off on the intensity of your program and progress more slowly.

“No pain, no gain” is a myth. Pain is not necessary and may in fact be detrimental to improving your fitness and getting results.

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

Read more on Exercise isn’t supposed to be painful!…

Is it better to do abdominal exercises before or after a workout? A.M., Vancouver, WA

Actually, there are pros and cons to both. Performing abdominal exercises before a workout will help to warm-up and prepare the core/abdominal muscles for the actual workout which will involve these muscles in some manner. However, you must be careful not to overly fatigue these important muscles prior to exercise as they are the spine and pelvis support network. If totally fatigued for example, prior to a loaded back squat and/or deadlift, poor form and injury may result. So if you do your abdominal exercises before your workout, you would want to take it easy and train at a sub-maximal level for the rest of your workout.

If you wait to perform your abdominal exercises at the end of the workout, you can train them more aggressively because you won’t have to worry about the over-fatigued state as we mentioned above.

You can even perform abdominal exercises during a workout in between exercise sets so long as the intensity does not exhaust the abdominal muscles and compromise the quality and/or safety of any of the other exercises in the workout. For example, sometimes a workout circuit I will follow will be a lower body exercise, upper body exercise and then a core exercise and repeat this template with different exercises each time through.

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

ps. Join us for March Muddy Madness on Sunday March 21st.

http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=67

Read more on When is the best time to do abdominal exercises?…