John Kelly's blog

From this Reader’s Digest article, The Importance of Strength Training:

The consensus is growing: Strong muscles are good for everyone. In fact, the American Heart Association now recommends that all adults strength train their major muscle groups at least twice a week.

The benefits mentioned in the article:

Strong muscles require active living.
More strength results in more protection for your joints and your back.
Improve your looks with strnger muscles.
Strong muscles help you lose weight
Strong muscles give you a mental boost.

From this article The Brief Way to Better Blood Sugar:

Men in a small study who added short, intense bursts of activity to mini workouts seemed better able to metabolize sugars.

When the men were given the equivalent of a meal's worth of glucose at the end of the study, their bodies metabolized it better than before the study.

Researchers suspect that bursts of intensity during workouts elicit stronger contractions and therefore more glucose uptake in the large muscles attached to bones.

The high intensity interval training in this study was performed on exercise bikes. High intensity interval training can also be incorporating into strength training - perform a series of high intensity strength training exercises will little rest between the exercises.

The results From this study Weight Training and Heart Benefits:

Resistance exercise led to a longer-lasting drop in blood pressure after exercise than aerobic exercise. Resistance exercise produced greater increases in blood flow to the limbs and small increases in central arterial stiffness while aerobic exercise produced decreased arterial stiffness without an increase in blood flow Lower arterial stiffness and greater flow-mediated dilation are considered key contributors to cardiovascular health. The researchers theorize that resistance may produce “compensatory peripheral vascular effects” which offset the increase in arterial stiffness while keeping blood pressure constant.

This blog is primarily concerned with health, fitness, diet, personal training, and human performance. Not unrelated to health is the environment where you live and the opportunities presented.

According to this Forbes article The U.S.'s Biggest Brain Magnets:

“College graduates are heading in droves to Raleigh, Austin and, surprisingly, New Orleans”.

From this article Cities Unaffected by a Bad Economy Austin was mentioned as one of the cities untouched by the recession.

And from this Forbes article The Best Cities For Jobs the top five for job growth in 2010 were to be:

1.            Austin

From this New York Times article, Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog:

Nearly half of dog walkers exercised an average of 30 minutes a day at least five days a week. By comparison, only about a third of those without dogs got that much regular exercise...

A 2008 study in Western Australia addressed the question when it followed 773 adults who didn’t have dogs. After a year, 92 people, or 12 percent of the group, had acquired a dog. Getting a dog increased average walking by about 30 minutes a week, compared with those who didn’t own dogs…

On average, they exercised about 30 minutes a week more than people who didn’t have dogs.

Too much strength training leads to overtraining and injuries.  It is best to take some days off and give your body time to recover.  For those who want to do more what should one do to on those off days ?  We tell them to consider doing aerobic activities they enjoy - yoga, walking, rowing, etc.  If you do activities you enjoy you are more likely to stick to a training regimen. 

At Austin TX Personal Trainers and New Orleans Personal Trainers we have aerobic equipment available for use by our clients on the days they do not have strength training sessions with a trainer. We have the Concept 2 Rower at both facilities.  Rowing provides a great full-body aerobic workout, and the Concept 2 Rower is the best rower on the market. Technique in rowing is important.  The video here provides a primer on the basics.

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New Orleans Fitness Trainers  Austin Fitness Training

Some trainees want to go all out every time. Some trainees think they are going all out. They really haven’t revved up their engines as high as they think they have, but that is another matter. For those who like to go all out it is a good thing for awhile. After a time the most hardened trainee will suffer from burnout or become over-trained.

A good trainer will anticipate the burnout or the over-training and make pro-active adjustments for the trainee. Sometimes as trainers we miss the cues and have to make adjustments after the fact. I had one client who absolutely loved the workouts and trained very hard. He then became sporadic in his attendance. I asked him about it. He told me no longer looked forward to the sessions and would look for a reason to stay late at work so that he could avoid an appointment. Lesson learned; we made adjustments. We did not go hard every time after that. When we did he was really up for it.

This blog is primarily concerned with health, fitness, diet, personal training, and human performance. Not unrelated to health is the environment where you live and the opportunities presented.

According to this Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine article, 10 Best Cities For The Next Decade, Austin Ranked # 1

When I first began lifting weights I worked out every other day - Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday - repeat - and I never missed for five straight months.  The sessions were with a personal trainer, and accurate records were kept.

Soon my progress stopped. I was particularly stuck with bicep curls just barely achieving eight reps each time for five months. Twice during that time I got nine reps on that one exercise; I likened it to a religious experience – achieving beyond the realm of normal.  The workouts during this time were grueling, as I was hell bent on breaking through a plateau.

I went home for Christmas.  It had been more than a week since my last workout when I found a health club with the very same line of equipment I had been using. I thought surely I would be weaker. I was shocked to find that I was stronger. On the bicep curls I got eleven reps, not the usual eight. I had no explanation for it.