Fitness, Health and Exercise Facts: For a Great Workout Think Opposites!

Hello to all you “women losing it” out there! Here is my latest Fitness, Health and Exercise Fact from my sister blog. Please enjoy and of course feel free to share it with friends and family!

FITNESS, HEALTH AND EXERCISE FACT
Think Opposites for a Great Workout
Presented by LEC Fitness, LLC

This Fitness, Health and Exericse Fact will expand upon a concept that I introduced in an earlier blog.
Everyone has their favorite exercises or their favorite body parts that they like to exercise. Whether it’s an area of our bodies that we think is weaker, or needs more work cosmetically, the truth is that we often fall into the habit of working on the same areas workout after workout. But, the secret to a great workout is to pay attention to those ‘other areas’ as well! Here’s a simple way how to do this and to help ensure that your body is getting a complete workout. Work opposites!
Just take a look around your gym the next time you’re working out. Chances are that you’ll see someone working feverishly on, for example, chest press, leg extensions, or bicep curls, and then move on to something else working those same muscle groups, leaving their poor ‘opposite’ untouched. So, what I recommend is an occasional technique known as ‘Super-Setting.’ This technique entails your exercising a muscle and then its opposing muscle in successive exercises. By exercising in this way, you ensure yourself that both sets of muscles will get some attention – thereby helping to ensure a complete workout, and helping to maintain or develop muscle strength symmetry (i.e. helping our body to maintain its proper relative strength).
One word of caution: Super-setting can lead to faster muscular fatigue since you are essentially working the same body part in successive exercises, so take it slow! See how your body reacts to this form of exercise, and if you find it too difficult, simply perform exercise for these opposites later in your workout but not necessarily in succession as described above. Ok, that’s it! Go forth and exercise, and of course Have Fun!
As always, check with your physician before undertaking the exercises described in this Fit Fact, or any other exercise to help ensure that it’s proper for you.
As a certified personal trainer I strongly recommend that you meet with a certified trainer or other fitness professional to help you plan your program so that you can make safe and effective changes to your exercise program.

This Fitness, Health and Exercise Fact is brought to you courtesy of LEC Fitness, LLC
http://www.lecfitness.com

“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”

This is a quote that I’m sure most, if not all, of you have heard.  Yet, often the importance of planning is overlooked and forgotten.  For all you “Women Losing It – Weight That Is” readers, here’s a great reminder of how and why planning is important to your workout and exercise regimen.  This post is from my sister blog (LEC Fitness, LLC).

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to share!

In Health and Fitness,

LaRue

“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”

Fitness, Health and Exercise Fact: Cardio Before Weights or Weights Before Cardio?

Hi everyone! Here’s a copy of my latest Fitness, Health and Exercise Fact on the subject of Cardio Exercise Before Weights or Weights Before Cardio? Enjoy!

FITNESS, HEALTH AND EXERCISE FACT
Cardio Before Weights or Weights Before Cardio?
Presented by LEC Fitness, LLC

I’m often asked “Should I perform my cardio exercise first or my weight training first?” As a matter of fact, I recently answered this question for the readers of an online publication. When asked, I usually give the same answer – “it depends.” Ok, so perhaps not exactly the definitive answer that people want to hear, but honestly, it’s the best one that I can give! Here’s why.

When trying to decide the order of exercise between these two, the answer really depends on your training goals, or can even be as simple as the type of challenge you’d like to give yourself on a given day. For instance, is your training goal focused on increasing your strength, improving your cardiovascular conditioning, or perhaps reducing body fat? Conventional exercise wisdom says that aerobic exercise (e.g. walking, running, biking or swimming) is perhaps the best way to reduce body fat and improve your cardiovascular condition. So, if that’s your focus, then performing your aerobic exercise while you are fresh (i.e. first) probably makes sense. Likewise, if developing strength is a primary goal, then, at least in most of your training sessions, performing your resistance training first makes sense. That way, you are not pre-fatiguing your body with your aerobic training, and can devote your best efforts towards your resistance training.

With this being said, there may still be instances where you may want to switch things up by performing your secondary exercise FIRST. By doing this, you can add an element of intensity to your primary exercise. So, for example performing your strength training after a cardio workout will make the strength training session more intense and challenging. However, a Word of Caution if you decide to occasionally train this way – remember that since you will be pre-fatiguing your muscles by performing the secondary exercise first, you may not be able to push as hard with your primary exercise, so be careful and don’t be afraid to cut-back on the intensity of your primary exercise in that particular workout.

This Fitness, Health and Exercise Fact is brought to you courtesy of LEC Fitness, LLC http://www.lecfitness.com

Create Debt to Get Ahead

Hello to all of my followers on this blog.  A few days ago, I posted the blog (see link below) on one of my sister blog pages.  Since it was very well received, I wanted to share the post on this page.  Enjoy!

Yours in Health and Fitness,

LaRue

http://laruecook.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/create-debt-to-get-ahead/

What do you think?

Visit My New Company Facebook Page

Hi all. I just created a new Facebook page. Please stop by and visit me there, and invite your friends to Like Us.

Thanks.LEC Fitness, LLC

New Logo!

We are excited to let our readers, clients and fans know that we have a new logo! After reviewing several new designs, we have settled on this new logo for our company. We feel it expresses the strength, power and passion that we bring to ALL of our client interactions and training sessions – no matter what our clients’ fitness goals may be (e.g. corporate/employee wellness, sports conditioning, general fitness for everyday life. We hope that you like this new logo, and encourage you to look for it in our future company advertisements and informational pieces.

Your in Health and Fitness.

New Logo for LEC Fitness, LLC

We R Athletes is Up and Out!

My film project “We R Athletes” is finally completed and I’ve been busily submitting this short documentary to film festivals around the country. Here is a link to a short 1-minute trailer on the movie – enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Here’s my short synopsis on the film:

Are female athletes real athletes? This may seem like a silly question to some, but to our mothers and their mothers before them, it’s one that they often faced. Take a look at today’s female athletes and there should be little doubt – these are true athletes! Yet, for many years, girls and women who played sports were considered just that “girls and women playing!”

Female athletes are a strong, dedicated and inspiring group – as much, if not more so, as their male counterparts. This film takes a brief look at just how far our female athletes have come in improving their participation in sports through proper strength and conditioning, and how far they have yet to go. The benefits of reaching their potential by becoming the strong and confident young women, mothers and role models are many, and transcend the most obvious physical strength that they gain.

This film celebrates the accomplishments of female athletes by taking a multi-generational look at how female athletes have evolved over the years and are finally becoming recognized as the true athletes that they are — that they always have been.
We R Athletes – Film Trailer

New Television Programming

I am in the development stages of producing a brand new cable television show on health, wellness, strength training, sports conditioning, exercise for girls and women. I’m in the brainstorming stage, and would love to get feedback from those of you out there with an interest in female fitness and strength and conditioning. What kinds of things and topics would interest you? Drop me a line here or email me at lecfitness@yahoo.com Thanks much! I’d like to make this show as interesting as possible to the viewers.

 

LaRue’s Film

Today I met with the Director of my film and I am thrilled to report that it is now COMPLETE! My film — a short documentary on sports conditioning for female athletes — has been a year-long road but an interesting and very satisfying journey! I’ve learned a lot in writing this –my first — film. Next steps are readying the film for submission to various film festivals — STAY TUNED!