Exercise FAQ :: My Fitness Trainer

Yes, stretching is absolutely necessary--even if you're not feeling sore. Stretching protects your muscles from injury. It also allows a better range of motion, which can improve the quality of your workouts. Because it helps your muscle damage heal more quickly, it can actually cause you to lose weight faster!

When I first learned how to weight lift, I thought stretching was for wimps! I went about 11 years lifting weight and not stretching. Then, when I studied to become a personal trainer, I learned the reasons why stretching is so important. When I started stretching my strength increased, and I got better results!

Your muscles will probably increase in size- this is called hypertrophy. Men tend experience more hypertrophy than women, because they have more of the hormone testosterone. If you want your muscles to get bigger stick to 6-10 repetitions with a heavier weight. Women will have a much harder time gaining muscle size- but most women like it that way! Women, you don't need to worry about unintentionally bulking up unless you don't follow the calorie recommendations. They are set to assure that no matter how much weight you lift (and the more the better,) you won't bulk up! If you are a woman with a hypertrophy goal, I'd recommend you find a good bodybuilding book.

Many of my clients love to work out at home because of the privacy and convenience. It doesn't matter what you wear or if your hair is fixed. You don't need a babysitter, and you can work out at any time of day or night. You never feel like you have an audience while you exercise. You also never need to wait for a machine.

The gym is a great place for you if you are motivated by seeing other people work out. I have a few clients who say that if they didn't drive to a gym, they'd never get a workout in. They like the camaraderie of the gym environment. And hey, once you get to the gym, all you can do is work out. There are no distractions like laundry or unexpected houseguests.

Not at all- it is a common myth that women will bulk up if they lift heavy weight. Women have lower levels of testosterone than men, so it's much harder for them to gain muscle size (hypertrophy.) Female bodybuilders (who don't cheat with drugs) spend hours and hours in the gym, and wake up in the middle of the night to eat. What they accomplish definitely doesn't happen by accident.

If you have body fat to lose, you will only get smaller by following this program. Even as your muscle grows, your inches will drop. This is because fat pounds are much bigger than muscle pounds. As you gain muscle, it burns fat. The fat loss will be greater than the muscle gain. If you are gaining muscle but not burning fat, you're eating too many calories, and your program on MyFitnessTrainer.com will correct your caloric intake accordingly.

No. Running, swimming, and other aerobic exercise accomplishes different goals than strength training. Aerobic exercise, or cardio, burns lots of calories while you're doing it. You can probably even feel the calories burning as your body heats up during your run. Aerobic exercise is necessary because it works the most important muscle in your body- your heart. It is also a good fat-burner. Cardio exercise burns calories while you do it, and then for 3-4 hours after you quit. Weight lifting, or strength training, generally burns fewer calories while you do it, but continues to burn fat for 3-4 days! This is because when you strength train, you cause microscopic tears to the muscle. These heal over the course of the next few days, and use your body fat as fuel for the healing process.

"Cardio" is short for "cardiovascular exercise." Cardio generally means any exercise that works your heart. Other muscles are always involved in cardio workouts, but it is primarily your heart that gains strength. You can't substitute running for a leg workout- it's a heart workout, even if your legs get tired. Cardio burns calories. The longer and harder (faster) you do cardio exercise, the more calories you burn. Some examples of cardio are running, swimming, dancing, rollerblading, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, biking, treadmills, walking, and aerobics. The best way to choose a cardiovascular exercise is to pick something you enjoy.

Strength training involves making microscopic tears to your muscle fibers. Believe it or not, that's the goal! It's called "good muscle damage." (Bad muscle damage would be an injury.) Strength training does not have to include dumbbells or barbells, or weightlifting machines. It can be done using your body weight as resistance. It can also be done with resistance bands, and exercise balls. In order for strength training to be effective, it has to require significant effort. If you are just "going through the motions" you are not strength training.

It is more effective to let your muscles heal between strength training workouts. Try not to work the same body part two days in a row. Even letting each muscle heal for up to a week can be beneficial. Definitely never work a muscle that is still quite sore from the last workout. Remember, it's during the healing phase that muscles burn fat.

No one ever likes this answer, but sometimes the truth hurts. There is nothing such as spot reducing! You can "spot train" a certain muscle group, by building the muscles up, but this will not cause you to lose fat there more quickly. Muscle burns fat by taking small particles of fat from your entire body, and carrying them through the blood stream. Where your body tends to lose fat first can not be changed.

There are two important steps. First, burn fat. You need to lose the layer of fat that covers your abdominal definition. This can be done by strictly following the program: do your cardio, your strength training, and your healthy eating. Stick to your recommended calories. Second, work those ab muscles in order to add muscle tone. Remember, you want tight abs, not huge abs, so stay away from the ab machines that allow you to do super-high resistance. It's better to do each rep very slowly, and use your own weight as resistance.

Cardio exercise burns calories while you do it, and then for 3-4 hours after you quit. Weight lifting, or strength training, generally burns fewer calories while you do it, but continues to burn fat for 3-4 days! This is because when you strength train, you cause microscopic tears to the muscle. These heal over the course of the next few days, and use your body fat as fuel for the healing process.

Strength training involves making microscopic tears to your muscle fibers- called "good muscle damage." (Bad muscle damage would be an injury.) In order for strength training to be effective, it has to require significant effort. If you are just "going through the motions" you are not strength training.

Strength training burns calories while you are doing it as well as for 3-4 days while the muscles are healing! It is very effective for fat loss. This is because when you strength train, you cause microscopic tears to the muscle. These heal over the course of the next few days, and use your body fat as fuel for the healing process.

Ask your doctor or physical therapist to instruct you as to the specific adaptations you should make. S/he is likely to say that you should stretch more, keep the movements slow and controlled, and stop anything that is hurting the joint. Also, reducing the range of motion may help. For example, if your knees hurt, it may help to do smaller knee bends instead of squats.

You know how you get bored if you do the same thing over and over again? Your muscles do the same. They also become very efficient at the exercises they learn. Being efficient may sound like a good thing, but in weightlifting it's not necessarily great news. When the muscles are efficient, they can lift more weight with less muscle damage. Because muscle damage is the goal (see "good muscle damage") this means you have to up the weight more and more. A better alternative is to vary the demands on your muscles so that they are challenged in new ways. These new challenges will cause good muscle damage that will heal stronger and burn lots of fat in the process. Your program on MyFitnessTrainer.com will provide different exercises each day to keep you from getting bored and to give you a great workout.

Yes and no. You can focus on a certain muscle to build up the muscle. This can add to the "toned look." However, "spot training" for fat loss is a myth. This is information that my clients have always had trouble assimilating; I think this is partly due to the fact that everyone would rather believe that "spot training" is possible. After all, who doesn't have a trouble area?

Let me explain how fat loss works, and then maybe you'll understand why you can't spot train. When you work any big muscle (take the leg muscles, for example,) you cause microscopic tears. These tears are considered "good" muscle damage. When the muscle heals, it uses fat as its main source of energy. It gets this fat in the form of small particles in the blood stream, which have been collected from all over the body. Your genetics determine where it takes the most fat from, but it does take a little from everywhere.

So, if you know that muscles use fat as energy in their healing process, which muscles should you work the most to burn fat? Clearly the best muscles to work to burn fat, (no matter where your trouble area is) are the biggest ones. That's because the biggest muscles burn the most fat.

Here's an example: If you don't like the flab on the back of your arm, you should work the biggest muscles in the body. Working just your arm muscles would build up your arms, but not help you lose much fat from them. That's because arm muscles are relatively small, and don't burn much total fat. (Remember, the muscle doesn't reach out and grab the nearest fat, it collects it in particles through the bloodstream.)

To lose that unsightly arm flab, you should work all of your muscles. This will stoke your fat-burning fire. It is important to also get in enough cardio exercise. Most importantly, you need to eat the right number of calories for your body's needs. You can't chose where the fat goes from first, but it'll go from your arms as well as everywhere else.

If you follow the MyFitnessTrainer program you can expect to see those "trouble areas" melt away.
21. Do I really only need to do two exercises per day? Or is the idea to do the day's exercise along with the previous day's exercise, adding as you go?

The strength training exercises (the two shown each day) are not meant to be added to each other. You only have to do two exercises per day, and those two exercises are constantly changing. If you don't feel you're working hard enough, read the FAQs from the drop-down menu, and find tips to make it more challenging. One good tip is to move much more slowly. Also, if the workouts are still not enough, you can do extra cardio. On the other hand, the exercises are designed to start slowly so that you don't overdo it on the first day. So make sure to listen to your body.

22. Where do I find my cardio recommendation?

The cardio recommendation is listed below your two daily exercises. It is open to allow you to use any method of cardiovascular exercise that you like. You can get ideas and see pictures if you go to the Exercise Library in your member menu, and choose "cardio."

23. Where can I buy an exercise ball and band?

For your convenience, I have put together a list of products that I recommend. You can browse the list here, and then either purchase them online right away, or copy the information and buy them in a local fitness or sports store.