RE: Re: Fitting in Training with Work?

[Guest guest]

lee, I love your advice. You are so correct about moving and feeling

good about it!

Work can also include any housework done while at home, and many things

constitute

exercise; scrubbing, vacuuming, hauling groceries. Using good body

mechanics

while doing these activities helps prevent repetitive stress injuries, and

it's amazing how many

calories one can burn by just cleaning house.

I am going to add your 300 squats/25 push ups to my day.

Thank you!

Sacramento, CA

Re: Fitting in Training with Work?

Be focused instead of motivated. It's more productive in the long

run.

Don't get hung up on going to the gym. It's not entirely necessary

especially for ladies who want to improve fitness, but not training

as competitive athletes.

Choose a goal that can be done anywhere at any time. For example,

decide to do 100 free hand squats a day (less if that will make you

too sore in the beginning). Then do them in small one or two minute

segments during the day. For example, do 25 before taking a shower,

25 while lunch is in the microwave, 25 while dinner is cooking or

during a break at work, and 25 during the news or while the children

are taking baths. Before you realize it, you're body is moving, and

you'll start feeling good about it.

This is the approach I use. I train to feel and look good. I don't

compete with anyone, and don't spend long hours at the gym. I

routinely do 300 free hand squats and 25 pushups every day.

I normally include a lot of other exercises such as walking/jogging,

stretching, and more upper body work, because it is a major focus for

me. But my base level is 300 squats & 25 pushups even if I don't do

anything else. I can get those in throughout the day regardless of

how busy I am. This approach keeps me looking and feeling good, and

it keeps me focused.

Hope that helps.

Best,

lee Grasso

Denton, TX USA

[Guest guest]

--- wrote:

---------------------------------

lee, I love your advice. You are so correct about

moving and feeling

good about it!

***

Sorry to come in late to this... You might like my

article, " Workout for the Time Poor " .

http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=83

I've taken to leaving a kettlestack (a plate loaded

kettlebell) lying around, and knocking off a set of

swings whenever I wander past it. I find it rather

relaxing.

One thing I used to do when working at home was set a

timer for 10 or 15 min. Whenever it went off, I'd do

something: a set of pullups in my doorway, a set of

squats, a yoga stretch, etc.

Also, fun things for the " home workout " :

http://www.housegymnastics.com/

I'm now doing side bridges on my counter to emulate

these folks!

Basically, follow three principles: be creative, think

in " chunks " rather than " workouts " , and any space can

be a workout space if you're clever enough.

Krista -Dixon

kristasd@...

Toronto, ON

[Guest guest]

--- wrote:

> lee, I love your advice. You are so correct

> about moving and feeling

> good about it!

> Work can also include any housework done while at

> home, and many things

> constitute

> exercise; scrubbing, vacuuming, hauling groceries.

> Using good body

> mechanics

> while doing these activities helps prevent

> repetitive stress injuries, and

> it's amazing how many

> calories one can burn by just cleaning house.

> I am going to add your 300 squats/25 push ups to my

> day.

> Thank you!

>

>

> Sacramento, CA

>

There are numerous studies that have shown that the

difference between individuals who are lean vs those

who are overweight is the amount of spontaneous

physical activity each group has. The most recent and

most thorough study is outlined in my quotation below.

For most individuals weight gain over the years is

caused more by decrease in daily activities rather

than an increase in dietary calories. In today's

efficient society very few individuals perform truly

manual labor. For most of us we spend most of our day

sitting down or just standing around. Does anybody

walk to the grocery store anymore? Our children don't

walk to school anymore, they don't even walk to the

park to play.

Carpenter's don't use hammers anymore they nail guns,

telephone repair men don't climb the poles they have

power lifts etc.

We have so many energy saving device from riding lawn

mowers to powered snowblowers, escalators and

elevators. We have drive in banks and drive-in

pharmacies. We don't have to go to the mall to shop

anymore, we use the internet and have Fedex deliver

the goods.

The energy saved by these devices becomes fat in our

bellies and our butts.

When I was growing up in the 50's the only exercise

facility in town was the local YMCA. Worker swould

take the bus to work and walk from the bus stop to the

factories. The only students bused to school were the

middle school and high school students. Most mothers

did not have a car to drive so in order to play we had

to walk or ride our bikes to the nearest park to play

sports.

Studies have shown that people in the suburbs are

fatter than city dwellers. The city dwellers have to

walk to the subway and walk from the subway to work.

The city dwellers do a great deal more of walking than

the suburbanites. Many suburban towns do not even

have sidewalks. How many people do you see driving

around the parking lot trying to find a parking space

just a little closer to the store entrance.

My advice to my patients who wish to lose weight is to

first keep a diary for a week to see how much time

they are sitting down or lying down vs standing or

actually moving from one place to another.

I then advise them to try to walk more in their daily

activities. A pedometer is a good motivator to see

how many steps you take each day. Most indiviudals

overestimate the amount of activity they actually

accomplish every day.

A good workout in a gym might burn between 500-800

calories in an hour- done 3 x weekly that is 1500-2400

calories. If you walked 2-3 miles daily you would be

burning roughly the same amount of calories.

The workout in the gym should be a supplement to every

day activities and not a replacement.

If you could just burn an extra 100 calories a day

through increased activity that 100 calories

multiplied by 365 is 36,500 calories or roughly 10 lbs

of fat.

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington, CT

<<WASHINGTON - Thin folks who tap their toes while

they work and fiddle during routine activities could

be burning hundreds more calories a day than plumper

couch potatoes.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota designed

a study to test if some people are born to stay seated

while others are restless enough to make themselves

thinner.

Everyday activity adds up.

They found obese people sat for about 150 minutes more

per day on average compared to lean subjects, who

burned 350 more calories daily.

The naturally leaner subjects didn't necessarily sweat

more at the gym. They simply were active, whether

cleaning the house, walking to work or twiddling their

thumbs at " non-exercise activity thermogenesis, " or

NEAT.

The study's lead author, endocrinologist Dr.

Levine, explored links between inactivity, low

metabolism and obesity in the hopes of devising new

treatments for obesity.

" Our study shows that the calories that people burn

in their everyday activities – their NEAT – are far,

far more important in obesity than we previously

imagined, " said Levine.

For Levine, the results suggest if people can return

to the activity levels of the 1950s then the U.S. has

the potential to trim expanding waistlines.

Standers versus sitters

In the experiment, 10 lean subjects and 10 healthy,

mildly obese adults (BMI of 33 or higher) wore

customized undergarments embedded with sensors that

monitored their posture and movements every half

second, 24 hours a day for 10 days.

The participants had to eat all of their specially

prepared meals at the hospital, with no home-cooked

treats or restaurant food allowed. Investigators

performed special metabolic tests on them.

They found obese participants sat or lay down an

average 2.5 hours more per day than their lean

counterparts. On the other hand, burning more NEAT

calories could translate into 33 fewer pounds over a

year, the researchers said.

The lean volunteers were then fed an extra 1,000

calories to see if they'd become more sedentary, but

they didn't.

And obese volunteers who shed pounds continued to

prefer the couch instead of being active, such as

using a treadmill while watching TV.

The study appears in Friday's issue of the journal

Science.

Copyright ©2005 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation -

All Rights Reserved >>

[Guest guest]

One of the truly sad things is that our children WANT us to park closer, etc. I

know whenever I take my children shopping, they almost always say " ma, why do

you have to park so far away, there's a parking space right there "

How many many times I see someone at our Y (they came there to exercise,

right???? And walking IS exercise, right????) waiting for a parking space

that's closer to the door than the one that is further away. How sad!

I do wish we had more sidewalks, we don't have any. Really, the builders of

these developments are to blame here.

Michele LeGrand

Kennett Square, PA

Many suburban towns do not even

have sidewalks. How many people do you see driving

around the parking lot trying to find a parking space

just a little closer to the store entrance.