What in the World is a Level Change???

Hey everyone! During this article we will have a brief discussion about what a level change is, what exercises accomplish it, who should be doing them, and why you should be doing them.  First, a level change is a general term that we attribute to any exercise in which you flex from the hips and knees to drop your weight towards the ground that is followed by an extension from the knees and hips to bring your weight back to a standing position.   This flexion and subsequent extension is done simultaneously through the two joints that being used is what make these exercises level changes.  There is a wide range of exercises that meet these criteria.

The most basic and common level change exercises are squats and lunges.  Even though these exercises are different in their execution they both meet the criteria and engage similar muscles.  Main muscles that are used during a level change exercise include glutes, quads, along with the core and postural muscles,  Other exercises that can be used to ramp up to squats and lunges are wall sits and step ups. By using the latter two exercises it will give your body a chance to get used to the level change motion before increasing the load put on your body.  With that being said let us go over who should be doing these motions.

The short answer is EVERYONE!!!!!! The level change is one of our 5 fundamental movements.  These movements are MANDATORY for anyone who wants to be healthy and have a complete training program.  This does not mean that everyone should be doing squats or lunges.  This means that everyone should find a way to accomplish level changes in their workouts.  The personal decision on what exercise to do should hinge on what you personally need the exercise to accomplish.

Level changes help build bone density, promote hip mobility, increase the connection between mind and body, and also can increase strength and endurance in the targeted muscles.  The goal of every exerciser should be to master the highest form of all fundamental movements and build the rest of your workouts from there.  Make sure that you personally do level change workouts at least twice per week and watch the results roll in!!!

If you need some help with your workouts, or want us to take a look at your form shoot us an email at joshmaness@highlycalibratedfitness.com so we can get in touch and help you out!  Until next time, find your push and never say sorry!

What Time of Day Should I Be Working Out?

        One of the great questions when it comes to building out your exercise program is what is the optimal time of day to be working out.  I am truly sorry to say that there is no straightforward, all encompassing, correct answer to this question.  Keep in mind people are different, sometimes very different, and we have to take these differences into account when programming for ourselves or others.  Luckily there are some criteria to consider that will point us in the right direction. 

First off your body will tell you if it is a good time to workout or not.  Your circadian rhythm, or sleep and wake patterns, may be the biggest consideration that we need to make.  Second we need to understand when in the day that we have the highest amount of food, or fuel, in our system available to workout.  Finally we need to look at our heart rate or rate of perceived exertion, RPE for short.  Looking at these three factors will start the process of choosing that best time in the day for us to workout.

Rhythm

Let’s talk body rhythms.  Some of us are morning people. Some of us are night owls.  Even more of us are somewhere in between.  Let me start this off by saying that in all of my experience as a personal trainer the people that I train in the mornings before they go to work are by far the most consistent exercisers that I have.  The biggest reason that I can find for this is the earlier in the day there are less distractions and less things that can come up that take you away from your workout routine.  Apart from that I suggest that you try and workout when your body is the most alert and most prepared that it can be.  If you are a night owl workout after work.  If you are an early riser use that to your advantage and knock out the workout early!

Fuel

Moving one to fuel intake.  No matter what time you decide to workout you need to have fuel in your body to get through your workout at a high enough intensity to make the work count towards your goals.  For me when I work out I make sure that I eat something that fits in the palm of my hand at least 30 minutes before the workout starts.  This helps to ensure your blood sugar is high enough to perform during the workout rather than just survive the workout.

Heart Rate and RPE

Finally your heart rate and RPE will give you the scientific data to back up your choice of workout time.  The way this works is that your RPE and heart rate should respond to the work stimulus that you give it.  In simple terms when you push during your workout your RPE and heart rate should rise and when you stop pushing it should begin to fall pretty quickly.  This concept is referred to as heart rate variability.  The quicker your heart rate increases when you begin to work and how quickly it decreases when you stop working is a great indication of heart and overall health.  It is very common that if your body is not ready to workout that your heart rate and RPE will take longer to respond to work and to rest.  When your body is ready to workout your heart rate will rise quickly but also fall quickly when you are resting.  This pattern helps to build a healthy heart, lungs, and body.

How I Attack This

My favorite time of day to workout is first thing in the morning.  It helps to lower my stress levels throughout the day and gets me to tackle my work day with a level and productive head.  Personally my body functions best when I am early to bed and early to rise. Before I workout in the morning I drink about 30oz of ice cold water to wake up my digestive system.  I also eat half a breakfast grain bar to get my body fueled and ready to go.  

Remember that no single factor will determine when the best time for you to workout is, but the combination of these three factors will get you very close to the right answer for yourself.  Finally that last thought that I want to leave you with is the time of day that you choose should breed more consistency over time, not diminish it.  If you try the morning workouts and you miss 4 out of 5 days, workout in the evening.  If you find your evening workouts get interrupted 3 of 5 days then push the workouts to the morning.  Play with it and see how your body responds to the different times of day and write down how your body feels.  This data will give you the confidence to keep to your routine and reach your goals.

If you need some help or want to talk about this further set your free consultation today!

What Part of Fitness Should I Use Today?

In the wide world of fitness there are so many different ways to turn.  You have mobility, strength, endurance, not to mention the mental battle just to stay on the program that you are currently doing.  Today we will take a simplified look at mobility, strength, and endurance and how you can apply these modalities to your everyday fitness routine.  

MOBILITY

Mobility refers to the consistency of the range of motion of all of your joints in your body.  Flexibility training is a way that you can gain more mobility through a given range of motion.  .  Another way we can work on our mobility is to use active range of motion training.  This is when you take a given joint slowly through its entire range in the hopes of bringing more blood flow to the joint resulting in a greater range with each repetition that is done.  According to the American Council on Exercise, or ACE, for flexibility or mobility training to be the most effective it needs to be done around 20 minutes a day for 5 days per week.  Next let's tackle strength.

STRENGTH

When we are talking about strength we are talking about our ability to move an object or load a single time.  The goal of strength training is to increase the load in which you are lifting over time through a given range of motion.  For example if you can squat 30 lbs on day 1 a good goal would be to lift 35 lbs on day 10.  The frequency of strength training depends on which muscle groups you are training.  For simplicity sake if you are doing full body strength workouts then you have to wait 24 hours before doing your next workout.  Remember strength refers to lifting an object 1 time.  Finally we have endurance.

ENDURANCE

Endurance refers to the ability to lift or move in a plane of movement repeatedly over time.  This can mean running for a set distance or lifting a weight up and down for a set of repetitions.  Endurance is training your cardiovascular system to be able to repeat the motion over and over again while efficiently regenerating energy to keep going. This type of training can be done every other day up to 5 days in a week. When thinking about which modality to use remember the definition of each.

MODALITIES AND GOALS

Correctly choosing a modality is all about knowing yourself and setting a goal that reflects the modality that you are going to be using.  If your goal is to be able to stay up later with your kids or grandkids then we need to work on your endurance so your body uses fuel more efficiently.  If you are having trouble at a new job lifting heavy boxes onto a shelf then work on your strength.  Finally if you are stiff all the time or you find yourself losing abilities like looking over your shoulder when you back up in your car then the work needs to be more on your mobility.  

A good program utilizes all three of these modalities to help you reach a specific goal.  Remember to match the modality to the goal not the goal to the modality.  The things in fitness that we like and are good at are not usually the things that we need to work on.  Get into the hard stuff! Let it help you grow!

If you need help integrating any of these modalities into a program that will help you meet your goals, set up a free consultation on our website today!