EllipticalHome.com Blog

Welcome to the September issue of the EllipticalHome.com
Fitness Newsletter.

Depending on what side of the equator you’re on — happy
fall or happy spring! In my part of the world the weather
has turned a bit cooler and the leaves are just beginning
to change color.

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“A Time to Rededicate and Re-energize”
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This is a time of year that life seems ripe with
possibilities. For students, it’s the start of a new school
year and for others it’s time to bear down harder at our
professions and finish the year strong.

It’s also a good time to approach your workouts with
renewed energy and enthusiasm. The cooler weather
definitely makes exercising more pleasant. This is also a
great time to get up a head of steam as we approach the
holiday season. The vast majority of us put on extra pounds
between Halloween and New Year’s Day.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could get into our best shape as
we enter the holiday season and then weather the storm of
all those extra calories when it’s upon us? Think of it
like when you’re riding a bike up and down hills.

The period right now is when you’re going down a big hill.
You want to pedal as fast as you can so you build up enough
momentum to carry you to the top of the big hill that’s
coming up.

This way you can dip into the Halloween candy bowl, eat a
hearty Thanksgiving meal, and sample some of the joy during
the holiday season. Of course I’m not advocating that you
go nuts and throw all of your healthy eating habits away.

Quite the opposite, my approach to exercise and diet is to
basically stay on a straight and narrow course of healthy
eating and regular exercise.

However, you should allow yourself an occasionally treat
now and then or even miss a workout if you’re feeling
tired, but always strive to get back on track as soon as
possible. This approach works out much better than an
extreme approach based around denial and a strict regimen.

In the long run, the person who does his/her best to stay on
track even though straying from time to time is much better
off than the person who goes extremely hard for a while and
then gives up because of physical and mental burnout.

Starting in next month’s (October) newsletter I’ll be
providing tips and moral support for navigating the
temptations of the holiday season. We can get through this
trying time together!

It’s also not too early to start thinking about those New
Year’s fitness resolutions. Here’s an article to get you
inspired with those “resolutions”:

http://www.ellipticalhome.com/new-years-article.html

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Featured Article: A Fitness Update:
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The featured article in this month’s newsletter isn’t
really an article, but an update on my progress with the
changes I’ve made to my elliptical trainer workouts. As you
may recall from previous newsletters, I was experimenting
with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on the
elliptical trainer. You can read that article here if you
missed it:

http://www.ellipticalhome.com/elliptical-hiit-training.html

To recap, I adopted this approach in order to deal with
limited time to workout during my lunch hour. I saw some
benefit from HIIT in that I dropped about 2 lbs and was
getting my target heart rate up. Certainly not huge gains,
but then not too bad for a 13 minute elliptical trainer
session.

The downside is that I was left fairly drained afterwards
and didn’t have much left for my weight training sessions
even though they were also very abbreviated.

In last month’s newsletter I wrote about switching to
training within my cardio zone rather than fat burning
zone. Well, I’ve been doing this workout for a little over
4 weeks and I’m very pleased with the results thus far.

The biggest difference is that I don’t feel nearly as
drained after my elliptical sessions. I now have plenty of
energy to hit the weights immediately afterwards. I no
longer feel like I have to drag myself through my workouts.

After all, I work out because I enjoy it!

The best feedback I received was when I paid a visit to my
doctor this week. The nurse, as part of the check in
ritual, took my weight and blood pressure.

First she did a double take when she measured my weight.
She said she couldn’t believe I weighed as much as I did when
I “looked so thin”. I think the combination of cardio and weight
training is starting to pay off.

Next she took my blood pressure and to be honest I was
expecting the worst. My BP has always been elevated and in
recent months it’s been as high as it’s ever been. I have
been making other adjustments to try and bring it down
since I really want to avoid having to take medication to
lower it. I want to avoid the side effects.

Anyway, she said “very good — it’s normal!” I could hardly
believe it. I know it’s just one reading and I will need to
stay on top of it since elevated BP is not something to
take likely, but again, I have to wonder if my recent
changes have had an impact.

The jury is still out on the benefits of this cardio zone
approach, but so far I’m encouraged enough to stick with it
and see how much further it takes me.

The real test is next month when I go in for a complete
physical and also have my cholesterol checked. Now that one
has me really worried!

Enjoy your spring or fall and I’ll probably be checking in
with an update or two before the next newsletter.

Welcome to the August issue of the
EllipticalHome.com Fitness Newsletter.

It’s still pretty hot here in the
Washington, DC area as we settle into the “Dog Days” of
August. This is the time of summer when most people clear
out of town and either head for the beach or if you’re a
Congressperson, you go back to your home state where
hopefully it’s a lot cooler. The upside is that DC is a bit
less crowded for the locals.

The featured article in this month’s
newsletter is on determining your target heart rate. It
seems the method we’ve been using may be “worthless”.
There’s also a featured exercise for putting a serious burn
on your abs and a “cool” summer recipe.

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Featured Article: “Target Heart Rate: Worthless?”
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A few weeks ago before the current heat wave put this area
in its grip, I got together with a few of my co-workers to
play tennis one evening after work. I really love to play
tennis even though I’ve never progressed beyond the
intermediate “hacker” level.

I do have a few brief flashes of what
appears to be a game, but that’s usually overshadowed by a
host of botched shots, which I like to refer to as
“unforced errors.”

The temperature was in the low 80s and the
average age of my colleagues is around 30. At 49, I’m the
senior citizen in the group, but I felt I could hang with
them. I’m not sure if it was the heat or being out of
condition, but after about 20 minutes I had to excuse
myself and take a breather. I really didn’t feel very good
and I didn’t want to take any chances, but after a 5-minute
rest I caught my second wind and played for another hour
and a half.

I felt somewhat embarrassed because my
co-workers know how fanatical I am about running off to the
gym at lunchtime to workout. It also hit home that maybe
I’m not in very good cardio-vascular shape. It really made
me rethink my training regimen.

My first thought was maybe all this
emphasis on staying in the “fat-burning” heart rate zone
was really just a false sense of complacency. Maybe what I
really needed to be doing was getting my heart rate up much
higher and working on improving my cardio conditioning. At
least this would be the best way to improve my stamina on
the tennis court.

The other harsh reality is that all this
so-called “fat burning” training wasn’t really burning very
much fat. As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, I’ve
been trying out a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
routine. I have been seeing some promising results in my
conditioning since I’ve been on it and this routine has
gotten my heart rate up during my sessions on the
elliptical.

Coincidentally, I recently came across an
article that discussed a book entitled “The Heart Rate
Monitor Guidebook” by Sally Edwards. She states, “The ‘220
minus your age’ formula is worthless.” She advises that you
determine your maximum heart by using the “Sub-Max Step
Test”.

This simple test is performed by stepping
up and down on an 8-inch step for 3 minutes without pausing
and then taking your heart rate during the third minute. I
just did this test today at the gym. I used one of those
step aerobic platforms, which works great by the way.

Once you have your heart rate, she then
advises that you add an “estimate factor” to it based on
your fitness level:

Poor shape = 55
Average shape = 65
Excellent shape = 75

You then take 70% – 80% of this number to
get your fat-burning target heart rate.

My results from the step test were:

144 bpm at the end of 3 minutes
144 + 65 (assume average shape) = 209 bpm
.70 * 209 = 146 bpm (target fat-burning heart rate)

80% would be 167 bpm, which quite frankly I
think would kill me. She advises not to go over 90%. Don’t
worry Sally, there’s no chance of that happening!

Please be very careful when performing this test as well as
calculating your sub-max heart rate. As you can see, this
number will most likely be substantially higher than the
old method:

200 – 49 = 171 bpm
.70 * 171 = 120 bpm

What it looks like to me is that this
sub-max method actually puts your fat-burning heart rate
closer to your cardio-conditioning heart rate derived with
the old method. This seems to make sense to me. Highly
conditioned athletes in sports such as basketball usually
aren’t carry around a lot of body fat!

I’m going to take my own advice and work up
slowly to my newly calculated target heart rate with my
goal to sustain this heart rate for 20 minutes per
elliptical session.

As usual, stay tuned for progress
reports!

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Featured Newsletter: 50-Second Fitness Quick Fix Video-zine
————————————————————————————————–
From time to time I’d like to tell you about other quality
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This newsletter from personal trainer Kevin Gianni has a
unique twist:

Check out the revolutionary 50-Second
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Founder, Kevin Gianni, is a personal
trainer on a mission to de-mystify the fitness and health
industry and show you just how easy it is to be in great
shape. His newsletter has been featured in Today’s Diet and
Nutrition and
My Family Doctor Magazines.

Check it out using the link below and get a
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Better Than You Have in Years!”

http://tinyurl.com/2zy4gb

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Featured Recipe: “Cool Cucumber Salad”
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My wife and I love to plant a vegetable garden every summer
and we always plant cucumbers. As I’m sure you know, there
are only so many cucumbers you can eat before that bloated
feeling sets in. There are also not too many recipes for
them either.

We like to enjoy them in thin slices with a
marinade. The great thing about this method is you can make
up a large batch and keep it covered in the fridge for a
few days and serve it as a starter for lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

1 medium size cucumber
½ cup white vinegar
¼ cup water
½ onion coarsely chopped
Oregano to taste
Black pepper
Salt
1 tsp sugar or ½ tsp artificial sweetener

Peel the cucumber and slice very thin.
Place into a deep bowl and lightly salt. Pour in vinegar
and water and stir in either sugar or sweetener. This will
cut some of the bitterness of the vinegar. Add in the
chopped onions, season with black pepper and oregano. Stir
thoroughly and place into fridge with a cover. It’s best
chilled. Server in small salad bowls with plenty of
marinate for the cucumber slices to float around in. Don’t
let all the vinegar throw you off, when all of the
ingredients combine it’s a very tasty and refreshing
summertime treat!

Enjoy what’s left of the summer and happy
training!

Welcome to the July issue of the
EllipticalHome.com Fitness Newsletter.

Hope your summer is turning out to be an
enjoyable one. We got drenched by almost 2 weeks of
non-stop rain here in the Washington, DC area a few weeks
ago, but it’s finally turned hot and humid like we’re used
to this time of year.

This week marks the one year anniversary of
EllipticalHome.com going live. This newsletter came along
several months later, but I thought this would be a good
enough reason to give you a gift.

I’ve compiled the 4-day mini course
“Getting Started With Elliptical Training” into an eBook. I
also cleaned up a few of the typos that I came across.
Right click on the link below and choose “Save Target As”
to save it directly to your hard drive.

[You'll need to subscribe to the newsletter to get this]

In this newsletter I want to talk about my
experiment with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
using the elliptical trainer. There’s also a review of
“Flatten Your Abs: Abdominal Slimming Manual” by David
Grisaffi and a tasty recipe to try out on your grill this
summer.

So let’s get started!

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Featured Article: “HIIT Using An Elliptical Trainer”
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As I’ve mentioned in past issues, my focus since I first
began exercising on a regular basis back in high school has
been on weight training with an emphasis towards
bodybuilding. Cardio has been secondary for me until the
past year.

The problem has been time management since
I exercise during my lunch hour 5 days a week. You can read
the full article about how my new routine deals with this
problem:

www.ellipticalhome.com/elliptical-hiit-training.html

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Featured Review: ““Flatten Your Abs: Abdominal Slimming
Manual”
by David Grisaffi
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There’s a lot of buzz these days about “core training”. You
may notice people at your health club using stability balls
in rather unique ways or even trying to balance on a BOSU
(“both sides up”) ball while doing dumbbell biceps curls. A
lot of this has to do with training the core muscles.

I became aware of core training only
recently and that’s thanks to David Grisaffi and his
“Flatten Your Abs: Abdominal Slimming Manual”. Though not
as comprehensive a work as Tom Venuto’s BFFM book, David’s
eBook covers a lot of ground when it comes to cultivating a
decent set of abs.

David busts a lot of myths about ab
training and what it really takes to get a six-pack. But
the real gold mine in this book is the wealth of abdominal
exercises he details. There are plenty of photos to
illustrate how to perform the exercises and what’s really
nice is that he breaks the exercise programs into
difficulty levels.

The section on core training was a real
eye-opener for me. If you’re like me, and always thought
that ab training was just leg lifts and crunches, then
you’re in for a big surprise!

There are muscles underneath the showy
“six-pack” muscles that are actually more important towards
tightening your mid-section. Strengthening these core
muscles will also do wonders for your lower back. Learning
just a few of the many exercises David covers in the eBook
will change how you look at ab training forever.

In fact, there’s one exercise that looks
like you’re just lying on the floor not doing anything, but
after just 10 reps it feels like there’s a fire deep under
your mid-section!

The organization of the book is a little
backwards – after a question and answer format in the
introduction, the book launches right into the exercises.
Actually, more of the introductory material is in the later
chapters, but besides this minor complaint, David’s Ab
Training Manual is a very complete treatment on the
subject.

Combine this manual along with Tom Venuto’s
“Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle” and you have a complete
compendium of information on getting lean and fit.

www.ellipticalhome.com/resources/flatten-your-abs.html
www.ellipticalhome.com/resources/burn-the-fat.html

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Featured Recipe: “Salmon Kabobs”
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Summer is grill time and in addition to grilling the usual
burgers and hotdogs or even chicken many people also
through a piece of healthy fish on the grill. Fish steaks
such as salmon, tuna, mahi-mahi, or shark taste great done
on the grill. You can even grill thicker filets of fish
too.

Kabobs are another great meal for grilling.
Instead of beef or chicken kabobs why not try them with
fish?

Salmon works great for kabobs. Cube some
salmon pieces from a thick filet and then just interleave
them on a skewer with green pepper and onion slices. Jab a
cherry tomato on the end. Season the salmon with a bit of
grill seasonings and lightly coat the kabob with canola oil
or vegetable spray so it won’t stick to the grill.

Then grill being sure to turn the skewer so
the fish cooks on all sides. Server over rice or if you’re
on a low-carb diet replace the rice with a steamed veggie
like broccoli. It’s a great summer time meal that’s a
healthy change from burgers and hotdogs!

That’s it for another edition of the
newsletter. And by the way, please forward a copy of this
newsletter to anyone else that you think would benefit from
it and let them know they can become a regular subscriber
by filling out the form on the homepage:

www.ellipticalhome.com

Enjoy your summer and keep up with your
training!

Welcome to the June issue of the EllipticalHome.com Fitness
Newsletter

Now that summer has officially started I felt it was time
to freshen up the site a bit. In an effort to try and stay
current I’ve launched the “EllipticalHome.com Blog”.
Actually, at the moment it’s primary purpose is a place to
archive issues of this newsletter and newsletter updates.

It’s also a good way to check for issues of the newsletter
that you may have missed if the Spam filter ate the email.

I’m still figuring out the basics of WordPress and blogging
in general, so if you have any tips for me please send them
along. Also feel free to leave comments on the blog when
you get a chance. It’s always nice to meet fellow fitness
enthusiasts and to exchange thoughts on health and fitness.

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New Elliptical Trainer Review for June – Bodycraft ECT-2500
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I recently added a review of the Bodycraft ECT-2500
elliptical trainer to the site. This is a rugged home
elliptical that has a 61 lb drive system with an eddy
current brake. What’s even nicer is that the Mercantila
Superstore currently has it marked down from $1499.99 to
$1299.00. You can read the full review here:

www.ellipticalhome.com/bodycraft-ect-2500.html

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Featured Article: “The Knock Against Elliptical Trainers”
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One thing I’ve noticed quite a bit is that many people who
consider using an elliptical trainer often ask if they
really work. Of course, asking if they really work is
rather vague, but I’ll assume that what they’re really
asking is can an elliptical trainer help them to lose
weight and get in shape.

Now if you’ve used an elliptical trainer for any length of
time as part of your regular fitness routine, then you
probably know the answer:

Yes, of course they work!

Sorry for getting agitated, but c’mon, already! Now like
any thing else, when it comes to fitness, you need to be
consistent and you also need put forth some effort.

The consistency part is kind of obvious and of course it’s
also probably the biggest stumbling block for many people.
That’s what I emphasize in my 4-Day mini-course on getting
started with elliptical training – in order to keep at it
you really should start out slowly and gradually work your
way up to more challenging workouts.

Unfortunately, this is where a lot of people also get
tripped up. They get complacent and forget about pushing
themselves gradually over time.

It’s all too easy to get lulled into a lazy groove by the
smooth motion of an elliptical trainer.

Heck, it almost seems effortless and you don’t even break a
sweat. This is fine when first starting out and you’ve been
inactive for a while, but at some point you need to start
cranking up the intensity. Otherwise, your progress in
losing weight and also improving your cardio-vascular
fitness will come to a screeching halt!

Now one of the knocks against elliptical trainers is that
they make it too easy to allow momentum to take over thus
reducing the effectiveness of the exercise. This is true
and is something everyone who uses an elliptical trainer
should constantly be aware of.

The good news is that it’s quite easy to prevent this from
happening by monitoring your heart rate while using an
elliptical trainer.

I won’t get into the merits of the various heart rate
monitors and their accuracy in this article, but let’
assume that you’re using an accurate one. Now all you need
to do is make sure you still within your target heart rate
zone, either fat burning or cardio, during the duration of
your workout.

If you find it more difficult to get to and maintain your
target heart rate, then it’s probably time to increase the
intensity of your elliptical trainer workouts.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways:

–Increase the resistance
–Increase the incline (if your elliptical is so equipped)
–Increase your pace (RPM)
–Do all three

You can also utilize the built-in programs on your
elliptical trainer to increase intensity. Of course, if you
feel dizzy or otherwise uncomfortable then stop
immediately! Though it’s important to progressively
increase the intensity of your workouts, you need to use
caution so as not to stress your body beyond what it can
safely tolerate.

If you’ve been stuck in your training progress maybe it’s
time to start kicking things up a notch in your workouts.
In a future newsletter I’ll tell you about a technique I’ve
been using to increase the intensity in my elliptical
trainer workouts by actually shortening them!

That’s all for this issue. I’ll be adding more elliptical
trainer reviews to the site as the summer progresses as
well as writing some new articles.