Top 10 Fitness Secrets

Whether you work out to improve your appearance, performance, or both, any personal trainer will tell you a critical key to success is setting realistic goals.
And they should be based on your current level of fitness, not Bo Jackson's or Linda Hamilton's, said Judy Kieres-McCormick, Dundee Township's fitness center coordinator and a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
"Genetics in large part will determine your limits," she said, "just like you're not going to grow another four inches (a safe bet considering I haven't grown since 1977), I'll probably never increase my VO2 max any more than it is."
However, most people, especially those who haven't exercised since high school gym class, have plenty of room for improvement, she said. So, with that in mind, we bring you the Top Ten Favorite Fitness Secrets of area fitness experts.

1. Do something rather than nothing. "I don't know if this is so much of a secret anymore, but if people would just get out and walk, they'd be surprised at what it can do for them," said Reada Sobeski, a certified personal trainer for the Dundee Township Park District. "People are surprised when they learn they don't have to kill themselves to benefit from exercise."
2. Exercise at your own level. Louise Domerchie, a Waukegan-based fitness consultant specializing in aerobics and weight training, feels "the overwhelming frenzy in a lot of aerobics classes can be intimidating. The idea that it has to be real intense to be any good drives me crazy," she said, "that excludes two thirds of the population." To avoid injury, exercise addiction and burn-out while still seeing improvement, Domerchie says to work at a level that's "slightly more than comfortable. It's somewhere between 'I can do this forever,' and the short term," she said.
3. Eat smart. "A real key for me in training has been good nutrition," Kieres-McCormick said. "High carbohydrates, low fat and quality foods. So many people trade in on nutrition for fat free-they'll eat a fat free doughnut, which has nothing, instead of a banana. Getting all the nutrients just makes such a difference."
4. Exercise shouldn't be a chore. "It should be a prescription for life," said Joann Flannery-Mathers, a certified personal trainer in Joliet. "That's always been my motto-just letting people know that exercise is not difficult, it's not grueling, it doesn't have to be going to the gym and pounding the treadmill every day."
5. Your muscles can't think. "Another common myth is that in order to build muscle you have to train with free weights and you have to do a long workout, multiple sets, etc..." said Richard Wolff, director of the Center For Nutrition at Elgin Nautilus. "But all you need to do is overload your muscles, and you can do that through a variety of means; your muscle doesn't know if you're lifting a rock or a dumbbell or a weight plate on a machine, as long as there's resistance."
6. Don't worry about what you're burning. According to Richard Wolff, R.D. and director for the Center For Nutrition at Elgin Nautilus, "Burning fat during exercise has very little or nothing to do with losing body fat." Body fat loss is relative to calorie balance over time, he said, meaning it doesn't matter if you're burning fat or carbohydrates during exercise, you're still burning energy. As long as you burn more energy (calories) than you consume, you'll lose body fat.
7. More isn't always better. "A lot of people feel they have to spend two hours exercising to get the benefits," said John Krzyston, a tester for the American College of Sports Medicine and manager of the Fox Athletic Club in Geneva. "We don't recommend more than an hour of [aerobic exercise] and no more than four days of strength training. Research has shown that people who try and do more than that tend to drop out," he added, "the intensity's just too high."
8. Throw out your scale. "People are always looking at that scale," said Krzyston, "but weight is not always a true indicator of health. Body composition (fat vs. muscle) is really what you want to focus on."
   Allison Huntley, program director and a certified personal trainer at Lake County's Family YMCA agreed.
   "You might lose five pounds, but what the scale doesn't tell you is you may have lost muscle mass, so your body fat percentage is even higher."
   There are several ways to have your body fat percentage measured, "but a great way to see if you've lost fat is to just stand naked in front of a mirror," Huntley said. "The eye is a good judge-that and how your clothes are fitting."
9. You can't spot reduce. "You can't shape fat," said April Hernan, a certified personal trainer and owner of Fitness Network in Batavia. "I get people who want to do 100 sit-ups, but they don't want to do any other exercise or watch their fat intake." Fat burning occurs all over, Hernan said, and cardiovascular exercise is the best way to do it. "You can have very tight, strong abs, but if you still have four pounds of fat covering them, you're not going to see it."
10. Speaking of sit-ups... John Peterson, Total Fitness Center director at Joliet Junior College said most people "just don't do them properly. They'll go all the way up and then go back just a short distance and think they're working their abdominals, when really they're working their hip flexors." The best way to work the abs, Peterson said, is to do crunches-lie on your back with your legs bent, feet flat on the floor. Press your lower back into the floor and use your abs to come up about 15 to 20 degrees and slowly lower. Try to keep the muscles contracted as you lower.

© Copyright 1994 Paula Lauer