The calendar has turned to a new year, and many seek answers regarding New Years resolution fitness tips.
Living healthy is always a New Years goal.
Local personal trainers shed light on starting 2012 off on a healthful note.
Eating the right foods like green vegetables and good meat, drinking plenty of water, and staying active with exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day is the norm. Taking that first major step toward a healthier lifestyle is a major factor.
It takes a lot more will power than anything else, said Rob Robson, a certified personal trainer and nutritionist at the Ute Mountain Recreation Center in Towaoc. Your brain is what your body makes you do what it does. If you dont have a strong mind, youll have a hard time with fitness. You need to work on your mind first and foremost. Thats whats going to get your body to follow. Anybody can lose weight and get in shape.
Shedding weight with strength training is just simply sticking to the basics.
If youre going to do chest, never miss bench press. Youre going to do legs, never miss squats, said Robson, who finished fourth in the 2011 Musclemania Mr. Universe competition. Anything thats basic. You dont want to put too many cables in there, because its not strength movements. You want to stick with the heavy weights, low reps for strength.
Basic strength exercises for shoulders is the military press, and chin-ups for back.
One can sculpt and define the body with high repetitions at a lower weight with a refined diet.
For low fat and high protein, fish, chicken and other forms of poultry are recommended. Eggs are the best source of protein, Robson says. A breakfast with eggs and oatmeal, a turkey sandwich with greens for lunch, and for dinner, eating some more white meat and green vegetables is suggested. Drinking water with each meal is essential.
Its pretty simple, really, Robson said. Its just making those little sacrifices. Like making your lunch instead of going to the drive through.
Diet and strength training are two of the common parts for health and fitness. The other major piece of the puzzle is cardiovascular (heart) exercise.
Cardio is really good for your heart and your lungs. It keeps them strong, said Hannah Carver, a certified personal trainer at the Cortez Rec. Center and Body by Design. It also helps with body fat, especially unwanted fat.
Good cardio is very important living at Cortez high altitude (6,200 feet above sea level).
People who arent used to altitude, have a hard time, Carver said. If you keep your heart and your lungs strong, youll be OK.
Carver recommends doing cardio 30 to 45 minutes a day, running on a treadmill or track, and working out on the elliptical machines and exercise bikes.
All three health and fitness elements incorporated together can get one in the shape he or she ultimately desires.
If you do weight training, youre going to be strong, but if you need to sprint or run somewhere, youre not going to have that endurance, Carver said. If you just do cardio, your endurance muscles are going to be strong, and your heart and lungs. But if you need to move something heavy, you may pull something because youre not strong. Its important to have those combined. Not just one.
Each trainer suggest rotating days for a particular exercise, such as cardio one day and weight lifting the next. This workout pattern gives muscles the proper time for recovery.
For more information, Robson can be reached at 564-5360 and people can get a hold of Carver at 759-4503.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at [email protected].
