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The Health and Fitness Express contains
the random and organised thoughts of John Miller
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A couple of weeks ago I sent out the first edition of an article
outlining the basis of a 12 week fitness program. It dealt largely with
the issue of goal setting and some aerobic fitness tips.
This week the article concludes with tips on strength training and a few
other bits and pieces.
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SITUPS AND PRESSUPS
I know that a lot of people don't like going to a gym. If that's the
case there are four key exercises that I'd recommend you do at home
- situps
- pressups
- back arches - build up to a minute's worth of gentle ups and downs.
- air bench - build up to 2 minutes worth.
These exercises are outlined in the Strength Training Diary. You can
also purchase them by going to www.crookback.com and obtaining a copy of
my ebook HOW TO FIX UP A CROOK BACK.
For situps and pressups I recommend several strategies.
1. Do the exercises every day and aim to do one more situp/pressup
each day.
2. Do 40 or 50 of each exercise each day, breaking them into sets of 10
repetitions (or less).
3. Pyramid situps/pressups
Do one and take a breather.
Then do 2 repetitions and take a breather.
Then do 3, and then 4 and then 5 ...
Then come back down, doing 4, 3, 2 and 1.
Over the weeks and months you can see if you can pyramid
up to 6,7,8,9, or 10 of each exercise.
When you can do all the way up to 10 and back, report back. You'll
have done
100 situps or pushups and you'll be in good nick.
If you're not good at pressups start by doing them on your knees. As a
rule of thumb one knee pressup is worth about half a 'regular' pressup.
If you're a women, knee pressups will probably suffice - though once you
can build up to 40 or so on the trot you may be ready to do them on your
toes. Age doesn't have much to do with it. One of the fittest women at
FiT AND HEALTHY who's well into her seniority can knock out 40 good
pressups on the knees and 20 on the toes.
You can vary your situp training program. Do crunches with your feet up
on a chair. Do some with your feet held under a piece of furniture. Do
some with your feet flat and legs bent at 90 degrees. Mix them up for
best results.
You'll be amazed at how quickly you can improve at situps and pressups
if you're diligent. By the end of 12 weeks I'd be aiming for 40 or 50 of
each.
Set yourself a weekly target, based on the number you can do now. Write
the weekly target down.
FLEXIBILITY
Purchase HOW TO FIX
UP A CROOK BACK, containing some of the key exercises you need to do to
keep your body flexible. I find a good time to do them is after an
aerobic exercise session or while watching TV.
At FiT AND HEALTHY we do most of these exercises at the end of each
fitness class. If you want to learn how to do the exercises come to a
fitness class at FiT AND HEALTHY. You'll find the class times at
www.millerhealth.com.au .
If you're serious about getting involved in as good flexibility training
program come along to the Crookback Clinic, 7.30pm on Monday and
Wednesday.
The other good way to improve your flexibility is to attend a yoga
class. I highly recommend it.
AGILITY AND MOBILITY
The test of mobility is to see how many times you can sit down on the
floor (with legs straight out) and stand up straight in 30 seconds. 10
is a good score. The best I've seen is 20, but you need to be as lean as
a greyhound and have a high degree of gymnastic ability to get to that
level.
To improve on your score in the functional mobility (sitdown and
standup) test, do it every couple of weeks.
LOSING WEIGHT
If you want to lose weight here are a few things you need to do:
1. Set yourself a target weight loss for each week. Half a kilogram is
reasonable.
Imagine, if at the end of 12 weeks you weighed 6Kg less than you did at
the
start of the program. You'd be puffing your chest out further than John
Howard, Tony Blair and George Bush all put together. Losing half a kilo
a
week is not a crash weight-loss program.
2. Eat from the top of the Hourglass - keeping mind you're more likely
to have
a starch guts than a fat guts. Cut out the garbohydrates. Get a copy of
the Hourglass Diet.
3. Exercise with aerobic vigour - 400 aerabytes a week is good, 600 is better
and 800 is best.
BLOOD PRESSURE
Go to FACT
SHEETS you can read up on what you need to do to lower your blood
pressure.
In a nutshell, exercise with vigor, eat from the top of the Hourglass
(particularly eat less grain-based food), lose weight, stop smoking,
take a big long holiday in the sun, lay off the grog and meditate.
WANT MORE ADVICE?
Purchase a copy of How
to Fix Up a Crook Back or go to the
Back Pain Bookshop and
purchase some of the books we recommend.
WANT TO CHECK HOW YOU'RE GOING?
If you're in Canberra I'm available to take you through
Platinum
Challenge any time so you can gauge how you're going. In fact you
can do it at home. It will take you 15 minutes, maximum.
IS THIS ROCKET SCIENCE?
Nope, just persistence, discipline and consistency!
They say that 12 weeks is a reasonable time for you to get and then stay
focused on getting fitter and healthier, regardless of where you're
starting from. At the end of that time I'd be optimistic that there will
be a huge improvement in your performance. Just set aside a bit of time
each day. Remember, it's one step at a time.
Stephen Covey says in the
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,
'start with the end in mind.' Write down the goals you want to achieve
by the end of a 12 week program. Break them down into manageable bytes
for each week and then set down your daily program to achieve it.
Finally, I heard it said that the hardest thing Robert de Castella had
to do every day was get his shorts and sandshoes on every morning and
get outside his front door. Take a leaf out of his book. You'll achieve
your goals and come out at the end of the program fit as a trout, lean
as a greyhound, toey as a Roman sandal and smelling like roses!
In the meantime stay tuned; highly tuned.
John Miller
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