FIT FACT

Presented by LEC Fitness, LLC

Have you ever reached a point in your workouts where you seemed to be stalled – seem to no longer be making progress in your fitness?  Or, you simply find yourself bored with your exercise routine?  If so, or if you want to avoid this before it happens, please READ ON.

My mantra to help you avoid these stall points or boredom in your workouts is “Overload to Avoid Plateau.”  The Overload Principle is a simple principle that allows your body to make fitness advances by working at an exercise-intensity greater than what is accustomed to.  In Plain English this translates to, for example, increasing the amount of weight that you normally lift.  But, this principle does not only apply to strength training, aside from strength, this principle can also be applied to other fitness components such as flexibility and even your cardiovascular fitness.   Here’s how this might work for you.

If you think back to when you first started exercising, certain exercises were probably more difficult than others.  For example, if you walk for your health, you may have started out walking a mile.  You may have found yourself huffing and puffing along as you walked your mile.  If you stuck with it, as you continued your walking routine throughout the days, weeks, months you may have found walking that same mile easier and easier.  Here is where – if you want to continue to challenge your cardiovascular system to improve – you may want to overload your cardiovascular workout to keep your fitness gains moving forward.  You can overload in a number of ways:  increase the distance you walk, decrease the time that you walk that same mile (i.e. walk faster), or a more advanced method such as wearing a weighted vest or carrying some external weight while walking that same mile.  The same principle applies to your strength training:  lift more weight, increase the number of repetitions you perform with the same weight, or decrease the amount of rest you take between exercises.  All of these are examples of overload, and of how you can continue to challenge yourself to make advances in your fitness.

By safely incorporating the overload principle into your workouts you will not only find yourself avoiding the dreaded plateau, but also keeping your workouts interesting and challenging!

One word of caution:  Overloading is not something that should be undertaken without planning because, if done improperly, it can lead to injury.  Generally speaking, you should NOT increase more than one exercise factor at a time (e.g. time, distance weight).  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 Fit Fact is brought to you courtesy of LEC Fitness, LLC www.lecfitness.com

Yours in Health and Fitness
FIT FACT3LECFitnessFF

My company, LEC Fitness is a licensed Clinical Site and certified Provider of the award-winning Sportsmetrics™ Sports Performance and Injury Prevention Program. This program was researched and designed specifically to help athletes avoid the risks of a potentially devastating injury – non-contact ACL injury – a risk that can be lessened through proper training.

Here is a short video clip of us conducting the test on one of our athletes, and the resultant test that you will receive.  This test result helps us plan our “next steps” in the training process, and helps us identify potential problems in the athlete’s body mechanics that could lead to injury.

Yours in Health and Fitness
Sportsmetrics™ ACL Injury Prevention Testing by LEC Fitness

Hello everyone! With the first month of 2012 under our belt the New Year’s eve “charge” towards better health and fitness continues for many of us. Here’s some “common sense” advice on a health topic that oftentimes goes unnoticed – proper hydration – just click on the link above to read this Fit Fact.   Enjoy, and “keep drinking!”

In Health and Fitness

Well, one principle that underlies most if not all of the diet and weight-loss advice out there is that you must EXPEND more calories than you take in! But how should you create this DEBT? What makes sense? How does your body react when you attempt to do this?

According to Kevin Hall, PhD of the National Institutes of Health if you approach your weight loss goals by merely slashing calories – in other words approaching this goal only by reducing food intake – you cause your body to rely on its defense mechanism of CONSERVING or storing energy when it thinks it’s being starved. In other words, it slows its metabolism. This of course has the opposite effect of what you’re trying to do by dieting. So, what’s the answer? CREATE DEBT!

The kind of debt that I’m talking about here can be created through activity – through exercise. By combining exercise with a healthy reduction in your food intake (and here I would insist that you seek the counsel of your physician or registered dietician before you do so), you can begin to expend more calories than you bring in. Dr. Hall says that by gradually reducing your calorie intake you won’t trigger the starvation reflex, and instead of resisting your efforts, your body will adapt to the reduced calorie intake and exercise by LOSING!

So, what are you waiting for? Start going into DEBT today!

Healthy Employees = Happy Employees
Happy Employees = A Healthy Bottom Line

DID YOU KNOW? That surveys show that the top 5 Reasons that successful companies offer Workplace Health Promotion programs are:
1. they attract and retain good employees
2. they keep employees healthy
3. they improve employee morale
4. they improve employee productivity
5. they reduce employee health care costs

LEC Fitness is owned and operated by an experienced corporate wellness professional with experience managing and directing employee wellness, fitness, and health programs at a local college and for a large corporate fitness center.

There are many employee wellness options available for any size employer and for any budget. Check out our attached summary for just a few of our programs:  LLCWebsite2CorporateProg

- the reduction in the use of sick leave
- improved employee morale and retention
- reduced health care related costs

The great thing about Corporate or Employee Wellness Programs is that they can come in all sizes and shapes, and can be suited for the particular company no matter what size.

Whether you’re the CEO or HR Director of a large company, a small business owner with few employees, the property manager of a residential community, or an employee or resident at one of these organizations, this blog is for you!

Here’s what one of our clients (the former Medical Director of the US Postal Service) had to say about us:

“I have had 17 years of experience as an occupational medicine physician for the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Postal Service, and over 200 private sector corporations. During this time I have evaluated a variety of health and fitness programs…Mr. Cook’s program is unique…[H]e has exceptional understanding of the physical conditioning and overall fitness… I highly recommend Mr. Cook for any type of corporate fitness program development, as well as a personal fitness trainer.” (Dr. L. S.)

We sincerely hope that you enjoy this site, visit it often, and refer your friends.  Please make sure that you “Join” this blog by using the Sign-Up button on the right so that you receive updates as they are made.  And as always, please contact LaRue if you have any questions or would like additional information on anything that we post.  Enjoy!

Your Health is Our Business