5K training tips for beginners

 

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This might be your first time running, or a return to running. The less running you've done recently, the more you can expect to improve. However, you're also at a higher risk for injury by doing too much too soon. This is why it is important to start with a good aerobic base.

For starters, purchase a good pair of running shoes designed for your arch and stride type. If you're not sure which type of shoe you need, visit a local running specialty store to get fitted properly. Good socks are as important as good shoes. Look for socks that are seam-free, and ones that manage moisture so you won't get blisters

Your Pre-Run Routine

Before you start a run, you need a good warm-up routine, which includes dynamic stretching to get the blood flowing. Leave the static stretching for the post-run routine. Dynamic stretching includes walking lunges, butt kicks, high knees and toy soldiers—straight-leg kicks that stretch the hamstrings. Dynamic stretching will increase your flexibility and help prevent injuries by strengthening your muscles and joints. After doing some dynamic stretching, walk briskly for five minutes, then speed up to a comfortable jogging or running pace. 

Your First Runs

You can start your aerobic base building by doing a run/walk plan, like the successful Couch to 5 k plan. A good first week of running is 20 to 30 minutes total of jogging/running/walking three times a week. Be sure to space your training days throughout the week to give yourself a chance to recover and rest. 

Don't worry about how fast you are running. Speed will come later once your aerobic base has improved. Just increase the duration of your runs gradually. It is important that your first runs should be completed at an effort and pace that is easy and comfortable. Most beginners don't know what an easy or comfortable pace should be so they tend to push too hard. A comfortable pace is one you feel confident you can sustain for the duration of your run. It is better to run too slow and finish feeling like you could have gone longer or faster, rather than finishing exhausted. A simple way to determine your pace and effort is to listen to your breathing. If you aren't gasping for air and you can talk while you're running, then your pace is just right. 

Don't be afraid to walk. Walking breaks the run into smaller, more doable pieces. These breaks will allow you to run longer and faster. Walking breaks work best if you walk for one to five minutes.

When you finish your first run, don't stop suddenly. Instead, walk for another five minutes to cool down gradually. 

Benefit of HIIT workout

Benefit of HIIT workout High -intensity interval training (HIIT) describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. For example, a good starter workout is running as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes. Repeat that 3-minute interval five times for a 15-minute, fat-blasting workout. It sounds too simple to be effective, but science doesn't stretch the truth. Read on for eight proven benefits of HIIT:

Efficient

Super-efficient HIIT is the ideal workout for a busy schedule—whether you want to squeeze in a workout during your lunch break or to get in shape for a fast-approaching event. Research shows you can achieve more progress in a mere 15 minutes of interval training (done three times a week) than the girl jogging on the treadmill for an hour. burns more calories than a half hour on the treadmill!) And according to a 2011 study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, just 2 weeks of high-intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as 6 to 8 weeks of endurance training.

Burn more fat

Not only do you burn more calories during a HIIT workout but the effect of all that intense exertion kicks your body's repair cycle into hyperdrive. That means you burn more fat and calories in the 24 hours aftera HIIT workout than you do after, say, a steady-pace run.

Healthier heart Most people aren't used to pushing into the anaerobic zone (that lovely place where you can't breathe and you feel like your heart is trying to jump out of your chest). But in this case, extreme training produces extreme results. 2006 study has shown that after 8 weeks of doing HIIT workouts, subjects could bicycle twice as long as they could before the study, while maintaining the same pace.

No equipment needed

Running, biking, jump roping, and rowing all work great for HIIT, but you don't need any equipment to get it done. High knees, fast feet, or anything plyometric like jumping lunges work just as well to get your heart rate up fast. In fact, some equipment like dumbbells can make HIIT less effective because you want the focus to be on pushing your heart to its max, not your biceps.

Lose fat no muscle

Anyone who has been on a diet knows that it's hard to not lose muscle mass along with fat. While steady state cardio seems to encourage muscle loss, studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow dieters to preserve their hard-earned muscles while ensuring most of the weight lost comes from fat stores.

Increase your metabolism

In addition to increased fat burning and more muscle preserved, HIIT stimulates production of your human growth hormone (HGH) by up to 450  percent by the 24 hours after you finish your workout. This is great news since HGH is not only responsible for increased caloric burn but also slows down the aging process, making you younger both inside and out!

Do it anywhere

Since it's such a simple concept—go at maximum effort for a short period of time followed by a recovery period and repeat—you can adapt it to whatever time and space constraints you have.

Challenging

This is not a workout you can do while reading a magazine or chatting with your friend. Because it's so short, you will be working hard the whole time. The trade-off is this format offers seasoned exercisers a new challenge and new exercisers a quick way to see results. You may be in pain, you may be sucking wind, but you definitely won't be bored!

The best foods to eat before and after workouts

When it comes to fitness, there are certain universal questions that experts hear almost every day: How can I get the most out of my workouts? How can I lose weight faster, burn the most calories and feel energized enough to power through every training session? While there are other elements that may affect your unique situation, there's one simple answer that applies to all of these questions: Eat! More specifically, eat the right foods at the right time.

Like many women, I used to think the best way to lose weight is to work out hard and wait until mealtime to eat. I now know that the key to getting and maintaining a knockout body is a combination of regular exercise and eating the right foods at the right times. Feeding your body before and after every workout is essential for burning the most calories, staying energized, building lean muscle, losing weight, and speeding up recovery.

The Importance of Eating Before Your Workout
Whether you eat or don't eat before exercise, research shows the body burns the same amount of fat. However, you can actually cause muscle loss if you regularly work out on an empty stomach. Here's why: When you're hungry, your body goes into survival mode and draws protein from muscle instead of from your kidneys and liver, where the body normally looks for protein. When this happens, you lose muscle mass, which can ultimately slow your metabolism and make it harder for you to lose weight. Plus, if you exercise on an empty stomach, you're not giving yourself the fuel you need to power through an intense training session.

What to Eat Before Your Workout
The best pre-workout bite contains some form of complex carbohydrate and a protein. Here are some of my favorite meals and snacks to keep me energized during my workout without weighing me down. 

• Brown rice (1/2 cup) with black beans (1/2 cup)
• Small sweet potato with steamed or lightly salted broccoli in olive oil (1 cup)
• Banana with almond butter (2 tablespoons)
• Multi-grain crackers (10) with hummus (3 tablespoons)
• Oatmeal (1/2 cup) with berries (1 cup), sweetened with stevia or agave
• Apple and walnuts (1/4 cup)

The Importance of Eating After Your Workout
During exercise, your body taps the fuel stored in your muscles known as glycogen for energy. After you've cranked out that last rep, your muscles are depleted of their glycogen stores and broken down. Eating (or drinking) something that combines protein and carbohydrates 30 minutes to an hour after your workout refills energy stores, builds and repairs your muscles that were broken down, and helps keep your metabolism burning strong.

The sooner you start refueling, the better off you'll be. Research shows that your body's ablity to refill muscle stores decreases by 50 percent if you wait to eat just two hours after your workout compared to eating right away. Try to plan ahead and bring your recovery drink to the gym, or pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat when you're finished.

What to Eat After Your Workout
According to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Medicine, consuming protein and a little carbohydrate is best immediately after exercise. Here are the foods I eat after my training sessions to help speed up recovery, maximize exercise benefits, and help maintain lean muscle to aid in weight loss.

• Protein shake made with half of a banana, one scoop of protein powder, almond milk, and hemp seeds (excellent protein source)
• Salad with roasted chickpeas (1/2 cup), light olive oil and vinegar
• Sautéed or steamed vegetables (1 cup) with non-GMO tofu (1/2 cup)
• Quinoa bowl (1 cup) with black berries (1 cup) and pecans (1/4 cup)
• Multi-grain bread (2 slices) with raw peanut butter (2 tablespoons) and agave nectar
• Burrito with beans (1/2 cup), brown rice (1/2 cup), guacamole (2 tablespoons), and salsa

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Benefits of Hiring a Personal Trainer

Eve's Personal Training program will help establish a healthier lifestyle. Some of the benefits of having a personal trainer include:
 

Keeps you safe from injuring yourself

Having an appointment with personal trainer makes you show up

Personal training motivates you and will prevent you from wanting to quit

Your fitness and weight training program will be customized for you so you can see result fast and stay motivated

Personal training sessions can be done at the gym or your home

The Right Kinds of Changes – 10 Strength Training Tips

1. List Your Goals and Plan to Achieve Them Over Time. A way to plan your your strength training program is to set goals for one year and goals to achieve every three months. Fitness assessment tests can help you determine these goals. If you have a variety of goals, you and your personal trainer will need to decide which to prioritize. 

2. Don’t Try Too Much Too Soon. Before you begin a strength training program, complete at least four to six of basic training. Use this training to develop general conditioning and practice proper form and technique. 

3. Change Your Exercises. Many fitness experts believe you should change your program at least every four to six weeks for maximum effectiveness. The muscle groups to be trained (based on your goals) should determine the type of exercises you perform. 

4. Change the Exercise Order. Plan the order in which you do your exercises as seriously as you plan the exercises themselves. Try alternating between muscle groups , doing biceps curls (arms) followed by leg extensions (legs)–or “stacking” all the exercises for one muscle group (i.e., performing them consecutively). A third possibility is to start with the exercises of greatest priority to you and follow them with exercises of lesser importance. 

5. Change the Number of Sets. Not all exercises require the same number of sets. Prioritizing your goals will help you determine which muscle groups or exercises need the most attention, and which need simply to be maintained.

6. Vary the Recovery Time. Your best strength gains are made during recovery, when your body makes the adaptations needed to support further physical development. The length of your rest periods should be based on your strength training goals. Short rest periods (less than a minute) are normally used when the goal is to build local muscular endurance; long rest periods (more than three minutes) are used when the primary goal is to increase strength and power. 

7. Change the Resistance Load. There is no set rule on what combination of reps and weights will yield the best strength training results. Most strength programs combinations include pyramid training (decreasing the number of reps per set as the weight increases, and then increasing the number of reps per set as the weight decreases); half-ascending pyramid training (just the first half of pyramid training); and half-descending pyramid training (just the second half of pyramid training). Note that your genetic makeup plays a large part in determining your ability to lift heavy weights. 

8. Evaluate Your Progress Every Four to Eight Weeks. Keep a record of your workouts,including exercises , number of reps and sets, amount of resistance and length of rest periods. Monitor your results. 

9. Be Flexible With Your Training. Remember, be prepared to change your strength training workouts to accommodate personal circumstances such as illness, injuries,food intake, soreness, etc. 

10. Give Purpose to Every Workout. The more focused you are with your weight training program, the more exciting result you will achieve with each session .

Secrets of Successful Strength Training

Are you getting bored with your strength training program, or not getting the same results you did when you started? It’s easy to fall into a weight training rut, doing the same old routine of favorite exercises day in, day out. Unfortunately, too much “same old, same old” can be the enemy of effective physical conditioning. The key to successful strength training lies in varying the training.