Skokie Personal Trainers

Anaerobic exercise is defined as any type of exercise that does not require copious amounts of oxygen to generate energy. Doing such activities requires the body’s tissues to use up less energy, as opposed to aerobic exercises. Personal trainer in Skokie can suggest a healthy balance of aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

What Happens to the Body During Anaerobic Exercise?

During an aerobic workout, oxygen is used to break down glucose, but in anaerobic exercise, phosphocreatine from the muscles is the main agent for metabolic activity. This is the reason why muscles get whipped more into shape, as anaerobic exercise is an ideal means of toning the muscles. The most common forms of anaerobic exercise includes weightlifting, wrestling, mountain sprinting, alpine skiing, hill-climbing, squats, push-ups and sit-ups.

Benefits of Anaerobic Activities

Anaerobic exercise is done in a short period of time but there is a high intensity of muscle work involved. The benefits for the health are quite remarkable. Cardiovascular diseases, obesity, arthritis and other health problems are further prevented.  It also helps build lean muscle mass, which can deteriorate through aging and sedentary lifestyle. Anaerobic exercise also strengthens the bones, not just the muscles. Bone density improves when there is regular weight-bearing exercise.

Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercises

Skokie personal trainers advise combining aerobic and anaerobic exercises for optimal fat-burning fitness program. Aerobic workouts help burn calories and fat easily, promotes health of lungs and heart. On the other hand, anaerobic exercises build stronger muscles. When these two are mixed in a well-balanced fitness plan, expect to reap the long-term benefits for an improved quality of life.

Anaerobic and aerobic exercises are two different training programs, but they do complement each other if combined the proper way. A healthy balanced diet also helps to gain the maximum benefits brought by these training techniques.

Busy executives, and other people who work long hours, can still find options on how to integrate exercise into their lives. Without knowing it, simple activities that require movement can help burn a few calories everyday. Here are a few tips from a fitness trainer in Skokie.

Run Errands

If the supermarket is not that far from your house, then leave those car keys behind and opt to make it a brisk-walking routine. Sitting behind a desk for the whole day is detrimental to your health. Kick that sedentary way of life with a scheduled coffee run to your favorite coffee shop nearby. Another fine example is taking the stairs in the office building, instead of the short trip via the elevator.

Playtime with dogs

Taking the dog on its walk is another way to use the time for exercise. Bring some of the dog’s toys and take it to a park. You can play catch or run around while frolicking in the grass. As long as the pet is actively moving, so should you.

Let’s Get Physical with Chores

You may be busy in the office but most often than not, you still have to do some chores upon reaching home. How about using that time to engage in exercise while cleaning? Crank up the music as you do the cooking, laundry or tidying up the house. Make up a few playful steps like squats and twirls when you need to move around the place. Skokie personal trainer welcomes any form of activity that makes you sweat.

Commit to get enough sleep

Being too busy should not be used as an excuse to provide your body the amount of exercise it needs. You must stop and take a stance to commit to better health habits for your own good. Aside from regular exercise, getting 6 to 8 hours sleep is very important. The body requires ample time to recharge in order function properly. The workplace can be a stressful environment, but with a sound mind and body, it doesn’t have to be twice as hard to cope with the daily rigors of corporate life.

Retirement from corporate life can be a rewarding stress reliever especially when you have a competent personal trainer to guide you. Regular physical activity that can leave you with a couple of sore muscles is certainly a lot better than corporate boardroom tussles, and certainly healthier for one in his or her twilight years.

Check with your Doctor

But don’t forget getting sound medical advice from your physician if you’ve been a lethargic retiree for some time, especially if you have developed any of those ailments that come with age such as high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis or a chronic heart disease.

It is a medical fact that regular physical routines even for those in poor health can help improve muscular strength and vitality. Strength training never fails to benefit anyone at any age. And when you’re in your 60s or older, it’s often just a matter of being cleared by your physician and getting  competent guidance from your Skokie personal trainer, especially if you happen to live in the state of Illinois.

The Benefits of Strength Training

Old folks with osteoarthritis have been known to experience 43% less pain incidences from a clinical study conducted by Tuft University. In addition, the folks enrolled in a 16-week strength training regimen showed improved clinical symptoms of the ailment.

Better dynamic balance and flexibility when walking, which is among the first to go with age, can be restored. Post menopausal women who often lose 1% to 2% of their bone mass have been shown in the same Tuft University study to regain lost bone densities while reducing the risks of fractures from minor accidents among women aged 50 to 70. Other benefits include improved sleep quality, better cardiac health, improved glucose or sugar control among type II diabetics and proper control of weight, which often shoots up with age.

In general, exercise slows down physical aging. Aerobics maintain heart and lung endurance while strength training improves muscle tone, which is easily wasted with age. For aging folks, your personal trainer will agree that a good balance of aerobics and strength training is essential to feeling young even at an advance age.

Having a clear picture of how you want to look like after going through your daily workouts is one excellent way to have a firm handle on your fitness objective. Gym goers generally have an idea, but mostly vague. They want to lose weight, but how much and how realistically attainable is either non-existent or a moving target that changes with their mood.

Whether you want to get your muscles toned, lose some fat or just remain healthy, your fitness objective must always be stated in clear measurable terms against what you can actually do. Here’s a thought to let you stay on track with your fitness goal.

Have your College Clothes Ready

Most women lose the svelte trim they enjoyed in college after their first child. Lactating mothers often gain a few pounds, a natural result of their hormonal spurt occurring during and after pregnancy. Ideally, this shouldn’t last, and the right diet and workout should be able to get you back to your gorgeous trim figure soon enough.

If you live in Illinois, your personal trainer in Skokie should be able to help you define the proper workouts and dieting regimen that will allow you to burn more calories than you consume. This is the only way to lose fat without compromising your body’s nutritional needs. A number of those weight-loss diets are starvation diets that deprive you of even the most basic nutrition. But losing weight is not about eating less.  It’s about burning more calories than consuming them.

What You Should Reach For

This should be your fitness goal.  It doesn’t matter that you eat less, but if eating less result in consuming more calories than burning them from a sedentary lifestyle, you won’t be able to wear your college clothes again.

Stay on track with a singular aim to lose weight. Apart from the competent guidance of your Skokie personal trainers, it helps when you have your college pictures stuck on the dresser mirror and your favorite prom gown beside it as a gentle reminder about what you can achieve. Your idea of what you want to look like at the end of your workout couldn’t be clearer.

If you haven’t tried it yet, why not exercise with your significant other? It doesn’t really matter if you’re at the same level of fitness or not. There are plenty of benefits to exercising together, as attested by our in-house personal trainer in Skokie, and here are some of them:

You Hit Two Birds with One Stone
A common excuse for not working out on a regular basis is that people find it hard to schedule time to go to the gym, what with work (or school), family responsibilities, and other obligations. Often, when it’s a choice between your significant other and your fitness routine, the odds are in favor of your beau. But, if you both agree to spend time together to work out, then you can take care of two important activities at once.

Working Out Becomes More Fun
Surely you’ve had the experience of becoming bored with your fitness routine — particularly when you’re doing it all alone. More often than not, it seems more like a chore, or a punishment for having indulged in French fries for lunch. But when you work out with your lovey-dovey, time just…flies. Many Skokie personal trainers have told us that instead of considering it as drudgery, their clients now think of working out as an essential part of leading a positive, active, healthy lifestyle. Couples giggle at each other’s exercise faux pas and catch up on gossip — and, as a result, they always look forward to working out!

A Different Kind of Bonding
Obviously, any activity in which you’re both actively and simultaneously participating can be a fantastic bonding experience. Sure, maybe seeing a movie or watching TV requires less effort — but these are passive pastimes. Text-messaging or chatting online may be convenient, too — but it eliminates the need for the face-to-face interaction that’s essential for enjoying each other’s company. On the other hand, seeing each other in action gives you unique chances to get to know each other better.

It Tests Your Mutual Affection
During a workout, you’re not totally made up and wearing your best outfit — instead, you’re sweaty, maybe even a little smelly, and sport an unkempt, flushed look. If you can still enjoy one another’s company in these circumstances, without any regard for your physical appearances, well… You can THEN say that you TRULY care about each other!

Your relationship with a health professional — for instance, your own fitness trainer in Skokie — should be based on trust and honesty. You should be able to trust him or her, right? Especially when it came to matters about health, diet, and stress management, which is his or her field of expertise. But a recent Internet-published article says otherwise. Read on to learn about the usual, yet incorrect, assumptions that people have when it comes to health and fitness trainers.

The Industry is Regulated
It is not. There is no single regulatory board that oversees and supervises personal trainers, whether on a local, state-wide, national, or global level. Unlike doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and other healthcare professionals, personal trainers don’t have a common government body that issues them certifications for having fulfilled certain requirements or for finishing a designated curriculum of classes or training sessions.

It Takes Time to Become a Personal Trainer
Not necessarily! The “credentials” of self-marketed personal trainers run the gamut in terms of requirements fulfilled, difficulty level achieved, costs invested, and prestige gained. Some are rather easy, requiring only money to gain a certificate; some need a bachelor’s degree in a special field before even being allowed to take a qualifying exam. If you’re shopping for a reputable, legit Skokie personal trainer, for instance, make sure their certification is backed up by a CPA, lawyer, or public official, and that the exams they took had both written and practical formats (to ensure comprehensiveness of knowledge and training).

Personal Trainers Are Generally Qualified
Again, not necessarily. As a matter of fact, an individual can call himself a “personal trainer” without having had any experience in training fitness pupils in the past, but simply because he or she looks good, has a great or sexy body, and seems to know a lot about working out and diet/fitness regimens.

With a Personal Trainer, You’re Never at Risk
“Never” is a big word; Even with the best, most qualified personal trainers, there’s always SOME risk involved. The trick is to spot the right kind of trainer, who will always put your well-being and safety first, and who designs fitness programs that are progressive, not radical, unreasonable, or harsh. Remember: A personal trainer should help you achieve your goals more easily…not make it more difficult for you to reach them.

Sticking to a workout routine may not be as easy as you think. Even if you have your own Skokie personal trainer, you can still fall off the fitness wagon and abandon your regimen all together. But, if have the right mindset and thinking about exercise, you can surely make it an everyday habit. Here are some useful tips:

Start on the Right Perspective
Most people who embark on a fitness program do it for the sole purpose of losing weight. This is a good reason, but it could also start you off on the wrong foot. It’s better to think of exercise as a prelude to a healthier and more active lifestyle. Once you convince yourself that you need it to feel stronger and have lesser risks of illnesses, you’ll be more likely to stick to it in the long run.

Set Small Goals
Much like milestones in your career, your personal fitness goals shouldn’t be set too high. This way, you can avoid any disappointments in the future. You can easily become discouraged if you miss a day or two of walking, or if you fail to attend an aerobics class. So, start with small, realistic goals that you can easily accomplish. Once you’ve met those goals, you’ll have more confidence to pursue more challenging ones.

Find a Support System
It’s likely that your motivation will sometimes plummet during the course of your fitness program. That’s why it’s advisable to have a support system, in the form of an exercise buddy or a personal trainer. You’ll have somebody to share the experience – whether good or bad – and you’ll get the encouragement you need to keep going.

Inject Variety into Your Routines
When you find yourself in a rut, perhaps it’s time to mix it up! Change your routine to include other activities. If your workout consists of purely cardio routines, try to dabble into strength training, or yoga, or Pilates. Like they say, variety is the spice of life – and it’s also true with exercise.

Sticking to a workout routine may not be as easy as you think. Even if you have your own Skokie personal trainer, you can still fall off the fitness wagon and abandon your regimen all together. But, if have the right mindset and thinking about exercise, you can surely make it an everyday habit. Here are some useful tips:

Start on the Right Perspective
Most people who embark on a fitness program do it for the sole purpose of losing weight. This is a good reason, but it could also start you off on the wrong foot. It’s better to think of exercise as a prelude to a healthier and more active lifestyle. Once you convince yourself that you need it to feel stronger and have lesser risks of illnesses, you’ll be more likely to stick to it in the long run.

Set Small Goals
Much like milestones in your career, your personal fitness goals shouldn’t be set too high. This way, you can avoid any disappointments in the future. You can easily become discouraged if you miss a day or two of walking, or if you fail to attend an aerobics class. So, start with small, realistic goals that you can easily accomplish. Once you’ve met those goals, you’ll have more confidence to pursue more challenging ones.

Find a Support System
It’s likely that your motivation will sometimes plummet during the course of your fitness program. That’s why it’s advisable to have a support system, in the form of an exercise buddy or a personal trainer. You’ll have somebody to share the experience – whether good or bad – and you’ll get the encouragement you need to keep going.

Inject Variety into Your Routines
When you find yourself in a rut, perhaps it’s time to mix it up! Change your routine to include other activities. If your workout consists of purely cardio routines, try to dabble into strength training, or yoga, or Pilates. Like they say, variety is the spice of life – and it’s also true with exercise.

Today, there are many workouts in the fitness market that promise to improve your health and give you a lean, gorgeous body in just a short period of time. But one definitely stands out – the Insanity Workout. In this article, you’ll get the lowdown on this intriguing training program.

The Basics
The Insanity Workout Training Program is developed by expert choreographer and fitness master Shaun T, who also pioneered the ingenious Hip-Hop Abs program. It’s a 60-day, high-intensity workout that relies on intense cardio moves and body-weight resistance to encourage weight loss and provide total body conditioning.

How Does It Work?
The Insanity Workout makes use of max interval training to achieve great results. Max interval training is actually the converse of the typical interval training. Instead of doing short bursts of high-intensity exercise with long periods of rest, you’ll perform high-intensity moves for longer periods with shorter rest times. The routines alternate between aerobic and anaerobic exercise, and usually lasts for about 30-45 minutes.

The Insanity Workout also comes with a nutritional plan aimed at balancing your calorie intake during the duration of the regimen. Since the exercises are very strenuous and physically demanding, you will need to adjust your diet so that your body can easily cope with the program.

Benefits
Since it’s a very intense regimen that can burn almost 1,000 calories in less than an hour, you’ll definitely lose a lot of weight and get a leaner, more toned body. Even Skokie personal trainers can attest to the amazing results that this workout brings. The routines will also improve your cardiovascular health, and the accompanying nutrition plan will keep your metabolism working at its optimal efficiency. Best of all, you can do it at the comfort of your own home.

Who Is It For?
The Insanity Workout is aimed at men and women who are already physically fit and leading an active lifestyle. Since it will push your body’s endurance to its limits, you need to be in good shape already before attempting this program. If you want to have a go at it, it’s best to consult with your personal trainer in Skokie first – he will be able to determine if you’re fit enough to do the workout.

Most health and wellness experts, like your fitness trainer in Skokie, would definitely agree that there are just too many food myths out there. And what’s worse is that a lot of people are following them despite the lack of scientific evidence and the potential harm it can cause their bodies. Remember, not everything see on TV or read in magazines are true. In this article, we’ll debunk some of the top food myths and present you with the hard facts.

Fat-free is NOT Calorie-free
Most people think that indulging in fat-free foods is okay, since they won’t make you gain any weight. But the thing is – you can still put on extra pounds because such foods are not necessarily calorie-free. In fact, some fat-free foods even have higher calorie content than the regular versions! Too much calories in the body – as any Skokie personal trainer will tell you – can turn to fat, if not burned right away.

The best way to keep track of your calories is to check the food labels and note the calorie content. And the next time you see some fat-free cookies, don’t just munch mindlessly. They might not have any fat content, but they’re loaded with sugar – which can also add to your weight.

Eating More at Night DOES NOT Make You Fat
Eating at a particular time of the day actually has no correlation to weight gain. Whether you stuff yourself in the morning or indulge in a midnight snack, you’ll definitely put on weight if you don’t exercise and burn off those extra calories. That’s why it’s necessary to maintain an active lifestyle. Also, it doesn’t hurt to avoid munching on junk foods during nighttime, and opt for healthier snacks instead.

Yoghurt IS NOT the Perfect Diet Food
Sure, eating yogurt is a lot healthier than eating ice cream, and it has weight loss benefits. But it’s not the be-all and end-all of diet foods. It won’t magically shed off pounds from your body – you still have to exercise and eat right to get to the weight you want. Also, keep in mind that if you consume too much yogurt – especially those with too much sugar or sweetened fruit – you’re just defeating the purpose of eating healthy.