Suzie Trains Maui BLOG

Want To Reach Your Fitness Goals Faster? Keep on Your Fitness Track with an Exercise Log

By Suzie Cooney,  CPT Suzie Trains Maui

Keeping an exercise log can help you stay on track with your fitness and diet goals.         

I know making progress toward your health, diet and fitness goals isn’t easy … especially if you aren’t keeping track of that progress. People hire me to hold them accountable. But once you are on your own, you will have longer lasting results and continue to see your body changing if you keep track of your progress. I always try to impress upon that you will see a change more quickly in your body if you keep track. Just like keeping a food journal will more than like double your weight loss!

 Here are some great tips to ensure you the success you desire!

Measure your success and progress:

One of the basic principles of weight training is progression. During each additional workout you need to challenge yourself to stress and overload the muscle a little more than the last workout.  I love to help clients with this. First set we may go easy, but the second set, get ready! Depending on your goals, this progressive overload will continuously strengthen the muscle, increase endurance, size or a combination of the three.

However, if you don’t know how much weight you used, the number of repetitions or how many sets of a given exercise you performed, it becomes very difficult to consistently overload the muscle and make progress.

If you keep detailed notes of your exercises, the order in which they were performed in, the weight used, repetitions, sets and rest periods, you’ll always know exactly what you did in your previous workout. This will help you make sure that your next workout is slightly different and slightly more challenging than the last.

Exercise Logs Help You Identify “dull points and plataues” in Your Workout

Actual Exercise log 3 days a week

Here’s an example of a real training log of one of my clients. He trains 3 times a week and by the end of the week we made great strength gains which is one of his goals.

Ever have a workout where you felt weaker than normal during a particular exercise? 

This can be the result of many factors, including over training, the order in which you performed your exercises, the intensity or volume of the exercises you did before the current one, or even whether you did cardio before your weight training.

Training logs provide a quick way to look at all of the different variables in a given workout and identify factors that could be impacting your performance. A variable can be either, speed of the repetition, if you are on 1 leg or 2, or by simply increasing the weight or by decreasing your rest period in between sets.

  Continue reading Want To Reach Your Fitness Goals Faster? Keep on Your Fitness Track With an Exercise Log

Suzie Cooney is a contributor the The Maui Weekly.

Click here to read more about Increase Muscle Mass and why you should too:

http://www.mauiweekly.com/page/category.detail/nav/5015/Suzie-Trains-Maui.html  

To contact Suzie Cooney, CPT
808-283-2121
e: Suzie@SuzieTrainsMaui.com

  The Maui Weekly printed today:

Break out of the workout trap, and don’t be like others stuck in the same routine—and the same body.

Ever notice at the gym: You see the same person on the same treadmill or weight machine doing the same routine? But, do they look any different? Here are a few tips to avoid falling into the same workout trap.

More is not always better

Lifting too much weight can compromise the alignment of your spine and may cause muscle and ligament injuries. Heavier is not necessarily better. Watch your form and avoid swinging weigths or overloading the cables. For example, the lat pulldown machine can be very dangerous with too much weight. Maintain a controlled movement and pace. Avoid the rocking back and forth movement that tends to come with too much momentum or weight.

There’s more to train than just a bicep!

Most people love to train the bicep muscles, because they tend to respond to training rather quickly. Have you noticed that when you’re at the gym, everyone’s doing a bicep curl? Yeah, it looks great, but it’s the smallest upper body muscle. Don’t forget your legs, back, shoulders and abs! Balance your workout for total body conditioning.

Where’s my six-pack?

Continue reading The Workout Trap This weeks Maui Weekly Article October 8th 2009

Free Weights vs. Machines and the Benefits of Both!

Suzie Cooney, CPT Maui, Hawaii

I am often asked, should one train with free weights or machines?  There is great discussion among specialists in my field, but I like to focus on the benefits of both!

They both have certain advantages in strength training and performance. They both also have limitations.  It depends on what you have access to and where you are starting in your fitness program, if you are a professional athlete or coming off an injury, and what suits your needs.

Machines:

Whether a high performance spin bike like the cool Keiser M3 or the home gym system, Bowflex® Home Gyms or a cable systems such as Precor Exercise Equipment, offer a more controlled movement and allow for complete muscle isolation.

Machines, if used correctly, don’t have to be so intimidating.  They may be good for the novice person, or senior who has yet to establish the knowledge or the strength, to isolate the rest of their body as the base, and move the selected limb or target muscle group safely through a repetition. The motions are usually smooth and controlled.

For the experienced, machines offer a nice way to mix up the routine, avoid training plateaus, and don’t require a spotter.  They also can be used for rehabilitation if you are injured, to protect a certain joint, such as the knee or shoulder. 

Free Weights:I prefer free weight training, for it requires balance, coordination, and total body stability. More muscles throughout the entire body must be recruited to stabilize your base.  Think of your body, basically as the base or “machine”.  The feeling you get from free-weight training is much more natural.

Free-weight training offers a much larger variety of exercises that give you complete control, of speed, range of motion and the opportunity to progress the intensity of that exercise. For example, performing a simple bicep curl can be more challenging by standing on one leg, or placing a stability ball behind you with one foot, while the other foot in a deep lunge position!  This takes huge balance, strength and serious muscle stabilization. 

The equipment variety has changed greatly over the years.  You may have noticed that these days, free-weights come is many different shapes. I love to use medicine balls, kettle balls, The Body Bar and even paper plates!  I have noticed that one can achieve greater strength gains with this method of training.

Training with free-weights does require proper training and knowledge of how to perform each exercise safely! This is critical. I make sure all of my clients execute each repetition to perfection. We don’t progress up to a heavier weight or to the next level until we are both comfortable that the joints, back and extended limbs are strong. If you are attempting advance strength training, I highly recommend a spotter!

There have been numerous studies that conclude free-weights are not better than machines. They each have their role in fitness training, and I recommend getting comfortable with both. It’s also great to mix it up so you enjoy working out!