How you doin'?

First off let me just say it's a beautiful day and I should be out riding my bike. But, it's tough to ride a bike with a cast from your knee to your toes. So, I opened the windows and watched other people get their exercise by riding their bikes. Not quite the same. But it did get me thinking (doesn't everything?) about cross training. As you know from my previous posts I like the arc trainer for the bulk of my indoor cardio. When the weather is reasonable I like to ride my bike. Occasionally I will hop on a spin bike or Jacobs ladder. Over the past 4 months I have mixed in some cross training, almost a Crossfit type program that also included kettlebells to get cardio along with strength training. So, what's the best way? Probably a combination so you don't get bored, but there's nothing wrong with finding something you like and sticking with it. Be careful of the "get through it" mentality. You know what I mean, you go work out just so you can say you worked out. What you do is less important than how you do it. If you are having trouble getting motivated try this: do a short warm-up then do the rest of your workout in intervals. Doesn't matter if you are strength training or cardio or both. Decide what you are going to do then do 30 seconds on 15 seconds rest. Work as hard as you can for 30 seconds, it's 30 SECONDS! You can do anything for 30 seconds. Get on a spin bike and sprint for 30 then rest for 15 and repeat. Do crunches, chest press, step-ups, jump rope, jumping jacks, slam ball, whatever you can think of. When you are done do 5-10 minutes of easy cardio to cool down.
That's it for today,

I'll see you at the gym ( as soon as I can drive again)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's Me Again

It's a new year. I'm stuck at home for a few weeks. I'm a little cranky. Seems like a good time to post a new blog entry. I know I should post more often.
I had to have surgery on my right foot, it's a surgery I'm familiar with, I had the same surgery on my left foot 10 years ago. If you don't want to know about the surgery skip to the next paragraph. If you don't skip ahead, remember I warned you. So what I had done was a "right calcaneal eccstectomy with tendon repair" what that means is, my heel bone was scraping against my achilles tendon, which was causing pain and stiffness in the tendon. Eventually it weakened the tendon to the point there was concern the tendon would break. So, I scheduled the surgery and here I am. As with most surgery, the actual surgery is the easy part for the patient. They wheel you in to the operating room, tell you that you are going to get sleepy, next thing you know you are waking up in the recovery room. Later is the hard part. This surgery has a fairly extended recovery time. Because the tendon doesn't get much blood flow it takes a loooooong time to heal. I am not to put any weight on it for 8-12 weeks. As I type this I have it elevated with an ice bag under my knee, which is what I will be doing for at least 8 more days. I have ordered a hands free crutch which I hope will help my mobility. Because the surgery was on my right foot, no driving. Ok, enough about me........
How are you doing on your New Years Resolutions? This seems to be about the time it starts getting tough. So when you decide to skip the gym (and it is a decision) what's your excuse? No time? Too tired? Sore? You and I both know those are not very good excuses. Make time, you'll have more energy if you go, have a light work out to flush the lactic acid out of your muscles, you'll be less sore. How about those eating decisions? It's just as easy to cook a healthy meal as an unhealthy one. At the very least control your portions. Remember, bikini season is right around the corner.
Next time I will talk about some specific workouts and how to keep from going crazy when you are stuck in the house for days on end.

Sooooo, how was your winter.

Soooo, how was your winter. I'm sure all of those helpful tips I posted helped you navigate the dangers of holiday parties, hospitality rooms etc this winter. I'm also sure that you appreciated all of the tips that I put out there about starting your workouts that coincided with New Years resolutions, right? Oh, you missed those? You should probably check the archives, some of my best stuff. Great work by me. Well that's it for now, happy spring!

What? You can't find the above mentioned posts? I'm sure they are there in the archives, right below the post where I said I would post twice a week. Maybe this Internet thing was broken, or maybe I'm a slacker and didn't post. I'll give you a hint, I'm a slacker. But hey, I'm here now. What can I say, I was busy. Teaching, coaching, ummmm I'm sure there was more but I can't think of what it was right now. So, anyway, Happy Spring! I'll try to post more often, but now it's March Madness. That's a bad excuse. I'll tell you what, I'm going to throw in a free post. No, seriously, a freebie just for you. Here is my spring advice to all of my many readers. Are you ready? Here goes "EAT LESS, WORK OUT MORE!"

There you go, what else do you need to know? Ohhhhh, you've come to expect more ? Come on, I'm only one man. It's not like a have a team of writers helping me here. It's just me. All alone.

Ok, try this. Commit to going to the gym 3 times this week. And for this week only, you can eat whatever you've been eating while I was on "vacation" as long as you promise to log every bite you take. Then I want you to figure out how many calories you are consuming. If you haven't been working out regularly, go back to basics. Whatever you did when you first started working out.

We will pick it up there next time.

As always,

I'll see you at the gym

What if I'm Trying to gain strength

Sooooo, hey there. How ya doing? I'm baaaack. The weeks are getting away from me. I'd like to say I'll post once during the week, once on the weekend and any other time the mood strikes me. The problem lately has been that the mood hasn't been striking me as much as I'd hoped. So, I'm going to try to force the mood to strike by tying myself to my laptop. Part of the problem is I'm not on my laptop as much as I used to be. I have an IPhone (it's unlikely I'll post from it) I have a Nook Color that has been rooted to be an Android tablet (keyboard still too small) and I have a laptop. The laptop hasn't been getting used as much as the others. And to make matters worse, my laptop is pouting about it's lack of use. But, I am making a comm....... wait where was I?

I should talk less about my issues and more about how you are going to build some muscle! Right?

Right!

Here we go.......

SO you are at something near your goal weight. Maybe you lost weight to get there, maybe you gained weight to get there (lucky duck) maybe you just hang out in the ideal weight neighborhood because you're sooooo cool. However you got there you would like to tone up, physiologically speaking. But all you can find are programs to lose weight, a few to gain weight (mostly aimed at 14 year old boys) but nothing to maintain weight while gaining strength/muscle mass. For you ladies out there who are about to stop reading because you are at your ideal weight and do not want to lift weights because you will look all "muscley" or GAIN weight. Not to worry, it takes a lot of serious lifting, serious nutrition and time to gain weight by lifting if you are a woman of the female persuasion. OK, back to it, If you want to tone up shoot for 3-4 workouts per week. The workouts should include cardio and strength training. The strength/resistace training can be a full body workout. Generally do your lifts in 3 sets 10 per exercise. I would recommend:

Leg press and leg extensions for the legs. If you don't have access to a leg press machine squats are a great substitution. Watch your form on the squats we don't want a sore back to slow your progress.

Chest press or incline press with barbells, dumbbells, Smith (hinged) machine and pec deck or dumbbell incline flys for chest.

Rows (any type) and either lat pulldown or pullups for upper back.

Romanian deadlift and or hyperextensions for lower back.

Dumbbell curls and or preacher curls for biceps and triceps extension for, you guessed it, triceps

3sets of 25 ab exercises of your choice

Cardio of your choice. I know all of you are smart enough to look up any exercises you have questions about. Also, check out youtube or ask a trainer at your gym. Or, if all else fails contact me and I'll explain any that you have questions about.

Because I'm a techy, really, I'm a techy? I have a couple of app suggestions for you to check out.

If you have an IPhone and want a good easy tracker for both your food intake and your exercise I'd suggest Loseit. Another good one, although I think a little more cumbersome is Caloriecounter. Those are both freebies. Both are also available for Android.

I also bought an app from Human Kinetics called Abs Revealed which has about 50 ab exercises and loads videos of them in the app, which means you don't need an internet connection to watch the videos.

Ok, that's it for now,

You can always reach me on:

Twitter @mikerigoni

Facebook: Mikerigoni

email: mrigoni64@gmail.com

I may start doing some fitness counseling personal training in the near future check back for more info.

Until next time

I'll see you at the gym

You Never Know Who's Reading

2 in one day, but this is a short one.
As I'm sure all of you remember I posted about the Fitness on Demand (trademark?) classes at SNAP Fitness in Chatham. A week or so after that post I was working out and the manager of the Chatham SNAP told me that SNAP corporate headquarters had sent her my blog. She printed and posted that particular entry, which led to a nice conversation and a couple of SNAP t-shirts. The point of this is two fold:
1) I like free stuff
2) You never know who is reading what you are putting out there on the "interweb" as Tony Kornheiser calls it. It's certainly possible that someone at SNAP headquarters in Minneapolis searches for mentions of SNAP every day, I suppose one of my fabulous readers could have sent a link to SNAP. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Who knows? It made me happy to know someone was reading, and also reminded me once again to always think before I hit send on anything I write.

That is all

I'll see you at the gym

Designing Your Workout (pt 1)

OK, lets design a workout, shall we? You know what your goals are, right? Not get in better shape.
Lose weight, add muscle, run a 5k do a triathlon, whatever.

We will start with the easy one, Lose Weight.
1st, please check with your doctor before starting any workout plan. Side note, I love side notes, does anyone check with their doctor? I have to say that so you don't go work out, get injured etc and sue me because I'm a trainer and clearly said it was ok to work out. Alright back to our regularly scheduled programming.
If you want to lose weight here's your first lesson. Consume fewer calories, burn more calories. Alrighty, I guess that's about it. I'll see you next time.

Ohhhhh, you want more details. Alright, just remember, you asked for it.

Cardio, the answer beyond controlling your eating is C-A-R-D-I-O. Get your heart rate up, keep it up. Cardio is the gift that keeps on giving. Do 45 minutes of cardio, your body will keep burning calories for about another 45 minutes. There are many, many good ways to get cardio.
Jog, bike, elliptical, arc trainer, treadmill, step class and on and on. But, did you know that you can count weight lifting as cardio? If you either do your weight workout in A) a circuit, but what is a circuit? I'm glad you asked. In a full body workout lets say I'm going to do lunges, squats, bench press, lat pull down, shoulder press, biceps curls, triceps push downs and crunches on an exercise ball. I can do 1 set of every exercise with no rest. Then a short rest then another set, rest and repeat. I should do weight that allows me to do 12-15 reps of each exercise. Start with weight you can only do 11-12 times, as you get stronger and can do 15 reps, increase the weight and go back to 12 reps.
On the B) side you could also do 3 sets of 12-15 of each exercise, 15-30 seconds between sets and a 1 minute break every 3 exercises.

Here is a quick example of one of my early workouts:
10 minutes on the elliptical
The circuit described above (2 sets of each exercise)
16 minutes on the elliptical

Remember, if you are trying to lose weight, you want to do low weight, high reps when lifting,with elliptical, treadmill, bike etc as a warm up and at the end of the workout.

If you plan to work out on consecutive days, split the lifting into 2 workouts so you don't work the same muscles on consecutive days. You can do cardio (elliptical, bike, whatever) every day, just change it up so you don't get bored. You can also work your abs any day they are not sore.
If you split the workout, add some alternative exercises, for example, add some pullups (with assistance) to go along with lat pulldown. Add incline bench to regular bench, the possibilities are endless.

2 final things:
1. if you're a regular reader, feel free to subscribe, It helps me to know who I'm talking to, I know, so much for this being my diary.

2. Always remember, I can't do this all on my own, I'm no superman. (Random sitcom theme song)

3. I guess it was 3 final things. I am still doing 2 spin class/ab days per week and lifting 4 days per week (moderate to heavy) 1 muscle group each day.

That's all for now,

I'll see you at the gym

But How Do I Design My Workout?

Ok, so you want to work out, you need to work out. But you're a little afraid, cautious, confused, just not sure what to do, or how to do it. By the way, I love commas, and big long sentences an English teacher would surely hate. I also love short sentences. OK, on with the show. What is the first thing you should do? First, set some goals, "getting in shape" is not a goal. Goals should be more defined. Set some long term goals, then some short term goals that will get you to your long term goals. Don't fret, your goals may change and that's ok. You've set goals, now what? Generally speaking now would be a good time to make sure you have appropriate clothes and shoes. You know, shorts, t-shirts and any kind of athletic shoes. Now, if you've got some old exercise equipment serving as a place to hang your shirts, clear it off. If you don't have equipment or don't want to work out at home, find a place to work out. Here is where I throw in a disclaimer, if you've read my blog you know where I work out (SNAP Fitness) what works for me may or may not work for you. Here's some free advice, don't get locked in for a year until you've gone for a few months. Make sure it's the right place for you before you get locked in, decide whatever you've chosen is wrong, and won't go anywhere else because you're already paying for a membership. Now what? Guess you'll have to tune in next time to find out.
Oh, fine, next time I'll talk about how to design your work out.

Until next time,
Hang on, I've noticed my blog has been a little short on sitcom references lately, I'm going to have to work on that. Until then this is T-Bone signing off. (Seinfeld reference for you)

I'll see you at the gym

Questions? Comments? You can reach me:
try @mikerigoni on twitter
or mikerigoni on facebook
or mrigoni64@gmail.com for email
or you can call 411 (that's for you Tony Kornheiser fans)