Alright so no matter who you talk to I'd be just about everyone has  done some form of cardiovascular conditioning of some sort from group fitness classes, home work outs, the treadmills, ellipticals, etc. And no matter where you go you can almost always see these people either really going for it or leisurely working on their fitness. The thing is so many people quit before they get started, quit because they don't know what to do, or the results just stop coming. And honestly, that sucks! The question then becomes why?

 Cardio training is essential for any fitness regimen and it doesn't have to be the traditional kinds mentioned above either, but we need something that will help us better train our heart, lungs, and blood vessels as well as efficiently burn fat and calories. So again if this is necessary why do the results not always happen?

A few reasons come off the top of my head (these will vary from person to person as far as what your fitness level and how/if/when this happens):
~over training (this is super common in group exercise classes)- the process of pushing your body past the breaking point so to speak and your body cannot recover quickly enough and you end up never shedding any poundage.

~under training- this is categorized by people not pushing hard enough and generally this is categorized by people pushing themselves but not hard enough.

~plateaus- categorized by people who do not make changes in their routines, people who have been doing the same thing for more then 6 weeks and have stopped seeing results. 

How can you avoid this and ensure your work out is effective?

~knowing your heart rate training zones
~using a heart rate monitor to determine where you are in the work out in regards to what zone you need to be in to burn fat. (for MOST people this is zones 1-3 past that often times you get into your anaerobic threshold and stop burning fat and start burning sugars).
~mix up your work outs! 

New ways to add in cardio:
~interval training
~micro bursts of cardio between strength sets
~muscle multi-tasking (using multi-joint exercises)
~try a new machine you haven't used before


Questions for you?
Do you wear a heart rate monitor during your work outs?
How often do you switch up your fitness routines? 

Happy Tuesday! So how was the weekend for you? My favorite are the weekends you don't have much to do but just relax and watch movies...and guess what that is what I did all day Sunday. It was unplanned but it worked!

I do like my weekends to relax but I must say personal training is so rewarding it is so worth it to work with clients when they want to!! So I had a couple of sessions to kick of the weekend. I don't know I am Irish but St. Patty's has never really been a big "holiday" for me so I just enjoyed some sushi instead :-)
But hey what's a girl to do? I wouldn't say Mike and I are much of night owls really (I mean come on I pass out at 10 and could easily go earlier!!) but we stayed up Saturday to finish putting together the masterpiece that will soon turn into our saltwater reef tank and the cat's palace,as I like to call it!!

Did I mention this thing is 6 feet tall and Mike built it entirely? Pretty sweet and the boys love it!

We ended Saturday with some amazing sushi!!! I swear I could eat this every day!!

I think I have been over doing it thought with work stuff lately because weirdly in the middle of the night I woke up and my entire body hurt, not like skin pain from a sun burn but like my whole body! Every way I turned I hurt...it was just so sudden. So unplanned Sunday rest day happened!

I think that between the time change and all the extras I have been taking on lately my body had just had it's fill! I took days off from a planned work out Friday and Saturday too because I have just been so exhausted!!

Now with addressing rest...
In every good training plan there is at least 1 rest day per cycle. A rest day doesn't have to mean doing nothing at all (for me it did on Sunday) but usually I will do more active rest days. So maybe doing some light yoga or doing something not in my work out calendar like a round of tennis or a light jog. Something to just keep moving, heck even a long day of shopping can do the trick ;-)

Not taking rest days can really cause problems and you begin to get into over training. Over training is just that, doing more than your body can handle and you are prone to injury and fatigue! The key is really to listen to your body. I did and I am really starting to feel better! My biggest obstacle is just making sure I get enough rest, that is my biggest hurdle at the moment!

How do you know if you are over training?
~extreme fatigue
~the last time you took a rest day? ha when was that?
~you are constantly tired
~you are constantly sore
~you do not ever look forward to working out but you used to
~you keep getting injuries
~you stopped getting results (can sometimes be a plateau but commonly it is also over doing it!)

Solution? About ever 12 weeks I like to take a full week off and just let my body take some time. This really helps me mentally reconnect and gives my body the time it needs too!


so how often do you take rest days?