That's Fit

When we we run, we work our legs. When we do curls, we work our biceps. When we do crunches, we work our abs. This is one way of looking at it, anyway. Another way is to think of your body as a whole. There are no parts or areas; rather, there is just the body.

No, you don't need to start saying "ohm" at the end of each set you complete and wear healing crystals to the gym to aim for physical oneness. Simply place less emphasis on individual muscle groups or target areas, and instead train for total body results.

While there's nothing wrong with fine-tuning certain areas of your body once and a while with some muscle-specific exercises, you'll get maximum results from a program designed to exercise your body, not body parts.

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Dear Fitz, I know that most people are trying to lose weight, but I am trying to gain. Gain muscle, that is. I am going to the gym three to four times per week. I'm using the weight machines there, but It doesn't seem like I am gaining any muscle. Could you give me some advice? What types of healthy food should I eat? Should I be doing more reps with less weight or fewer reps with more weight? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Lea Rettig

A. Hey Lea, your question is superb, and the answer thank goodness is quite simple. Strength training should be challenging. Funny enough, my clients always seemed shocked and follow up that feeling of shock by giving me dirty looks when I pass them the dumbbell I'd like them to lift. Along with that dirty look, I receive chronic cries of, "Fitz! That's heavy!" Well, yes. Yes it is. The purpose of strength training is to get stronger, and yes ... build muscle. If I were to give them weights they could already lift comfortably ... they wouldn't be getting any stronger!

Freeze! Now, moving only your eyes, take a look at your posture as you sit and read this post. Are you sitting upright? Are you slouched? Are you leaning to one side more so than the other? Chance are, whatever your current position is, it is also the way you sit most of the time during other computer activities. This may not be so much of an issue of most of your day is spent mindlessly watching YouTube clips. But, if your goal is to be productive -- which, at least ostensibly, is also your boss' goal for you -- you may want to realign yourself.

If you happen to be the person who found themselves sitting properly, then bravo to you. Feel free to stop reading now and to carry on with your day. If, however, you're a bit of a slouch, know that you are decreasing blood flow to your brain by compacting your spine and compressing arteries. This, in turn, deprives you of a little something called oxygen, which ultimately impairs mental capacity.

A great solution for the "office chair slouch" is to replace the chair altogether. In its place, try sitting on Swiss ball. Not only will it help ensure proper spinal alignment, but it will also force you to work your core muscles in order to remain seated (and not fall off the ball and make an utter fool of yourself).

Most abdominal exercises can't quite be called relaxing. You might enjoy them, and they might not be painful, but if you try to tell me any exercises really feel wonderful while you're doing them, I'm going to ... well, I just won't believe you. But that's not really my point.

This week's Fit Gadget, the Multi-Core-Flex Excel Body Gym, is designed to massage your back while working your abs, quads, and inner and outer thighs. Actually, it claims that, in addition to giving you a fantastic workout, it will give you "the most relaxing back massage you've ever had. Its comfortable rounded pads enable you to stretch your entire upper body as well as your back for total relaxation."

Hmm ...

Your back is the key to everything. If you have a weak back you're suddenly weak all over. Injure your back and you're pretty much useless until it gets better. Having back pain means you hurt all over. The spine is the center of the human body, and all the muscles that connect to it help make up the core of who you are -- take care of your back and your spine and you're well on your way to taking care of everything else.

Try these tips for having a healthier spine:

Do you get so mad sometimes that you feel like slamming something? If so, try working that Hulk-like rage out of your system by doing just that. Best of all, you'll get a great core workout in the process.

Medicine ball slams are a great functional exercise that requires only one piece of fitness equipment to perform. No surprise here, that one piece of a equipment is a medicine ball. The one caveat is that you want to make sure that you use a leather-bound medicine ball and not the type that are like weighted, rubber basketballs.

To perform the exercise, start by holding the medicine ball with both hands over your head. Keep your feet just about shoulder-width apart, with your knees slightly bent and toes facing forward. Then, in one explosive movement, while keeping your hands outstretched, bend at the waist and slam the ball against the ground. Make sure that you slam the ball a far enough in front of your feet so that the ball doesn't rebound and hit you in the face (which is the reason why you definitely don't want to use a rubber coated medicine ball for this exercise). Then, pick up the ball right away and stand back up, ready to perform your next rep.

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Fitz, For about a year now, I've been doing exercises for my obliques. I've done them about three or four times each week and have done a variety of different exercises each workout. I'm also a naturally thin person who recently lost 10 pounds (so I'm really thin now) and I still have those awful love handles! How do I get rid of them? Emily

A. Ugh Emily! This is a question I've answered before, but since it's such a tremendous source of frustration for so many...I believe the topic of love handles is worth visiting again. You're actually the perfect example of how annoying they can be. You are a trim person who does a variety of abdominal exercises frequently. Most folks would believe that would be enough. Unfortunately for some people, it is not.

Love handles often have to do less with abdominal muscles and more with body type. For example. I'm a pretty trim chic, but when I have gained weight...it's all gone to my boobs, belly and thighs. In fact, I used to be 40 pounds heavier than I am today, but I've never had love handles. Some people get it all in their hips. Even if they achieve their ideal weight, some of those people are still stuck with dreaded 'saddlebags'. Your issue is the same. Great fitness. Lean body. One or two annoying pockets of fat.

When you're stuck in a rut sometimes all you need to do to get back on track is to switch things up and try something new. I've tried a lot of different ways to workout, like with a stability ball, resistance bands, free-weights/dumbbells, a stepper, etc, but here's something I have yet to try: a workout using a foam roller.

Foam rollers can help with strength, balance, and even stress relief. Foam rollers themselves are very similar to the foam "noodles" kids use in swimming pools, but they're thicker and shorter. The primary benefit of adding foam rollers to your workout is an increase in calories burned and better core strengthening due to the balance challenges added to traditional moves like squats, arm exercises, and even massages. Try some of these foam roller moves from Alive.com and see if you don't feel muscles working that you didn't know you had!

Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

Anthony Field of The Wiggles was not someone I'd imagine would change my own personal level of fitness. He's a Wiggle. In fact, all of my personal training clients half-lovingly refer to him as "Damn Wiggle". Why? Because ever since I met the hot looking boy in blue, they've all been stuck doing lots and lots of pull-ups. They're all infinitely stronger with way better abs as well. I too, am fierce on the bar. Thanks Anthony!

And just FYI. Before Anthony began training like this he was a bunch heavier. Still handsome, but there was certainly much more of him. The part 2 video I'll be posting next week will simply make you drool. The boy looks wicked in his tight Under Armour shirt. Want to look that hot too? Take a looksy at this!

A while back, the physician that has been caring for my lower back injury suggested I go do Pilate's to help strengthen and stretch the muscles that are stuck in a chronic spasm. Now, I've been teaching fitness for 18 years and have been exposed to almost every type of training and equipment under the sun. I'm embedded in it. Strangely though, Pilate's and Yoga are things that have never interested me. I understand the benefit to doing those things, and have recommended them to others. I've just never wanted to pursue them myself. I'm a fighter; literally. If you don't believe me click here. I like to move fast, go hard, sweat, grunt, and pant like a lunatic. I like to GO, GO, GO! The one time I took yoga, I wanted to slit my wrists. The few times I used the Pilate's Reformer, I thought it was interesting....but not anything I'd want to pursue.

So last week I show up at the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, and the advanced Pilate's mat class was just about to start. Feeling guilty for not following up on my doctor's advice from months ago, I half-heartedly asked the perky front desk chic if there was any room in the class. Yep. There was. And she handed me a little butterfly thing with a number on it to hold my place.

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Paul Watford

Age: 61

Occupation: Retired

How often do you exercise? Five to six days a week

What type of exercise do you do? Two to three days a week I do stadium steps. Two to three days a week I do core body exercises: sit-ups, push-ups, varying plank exercises, and yoga stretches.

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy? Its up to me. I am the only active person in my family.

2007 was a great year for healthy living. As nations banded together to fight the obesity epidemic, healthy habits were adopted by many people. As a bit of a fitness nut, I was happy to see so many people taking up activities, sports and hobbies that got them off the couch and on the road to health. I've always been active but even I got my butt (more) in gear and I feel better than ever. I'm excited for 2008 and looking forward to getting more in shape than ever. You too?

The American College of Sport Medicine recently came up with a list of the top fitness trends of 2007--Here are their picks for what made the most fitness headlines this year:

Pilates is one of the hottest fitness trends out there, and it's one of my favourite ways to workout too. It's fun, it's low-impact and it works. Think Pilates has done up a post on the fact and fiction of Pilates -- here are some fast facts for you:

• Pilates can give you flat abs -- provided you have a relatively healthy lifestyle
• Pilates will make your muscles look longer, but it won't actually make them longer (it's impossible!)
• Pilates won't make you taller, but you'll look taller because you'll have better posture
• Pilates will help you burn calories, but it won't help you lose a significant amount of weight if you're not eating well and getting another form of activity.
  
• Pilates can make you a better athlete -- in fact, Tiger Woods swears by it!

Want to know more? Click here.

We got our first big dump of snow over the weekend and it reminded me that winter -- and snowboarding season -- are just around the corner. Lucky for us, then, that Fitsugar has taken some initiative and given us some tips for how to shape up for snowboarding best. By following their advice, you can be strong and in-shape when you first hit the hills, and you can reduce our chances of next-day soreness after our first few days on the slopes.

Here's what they recommend:

• Work your quads with exercises like leg presses, squats and lunges
• Work your hip flexors with leg raises
• Work your core with plank, crunches and maybe even pilates
• And don't forget to do your cardio too, to improve your endurance.
  

A reader commented on my post The Core: All it's cracked up to be with a question about the specific exercises I mentioned -- push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, lunges, touch-downs, and planks. He wanted to know how to do some of these since the names themselves are not so self-explanatory. Since I neglected to include the how-to details, I'm back, this time to clue you in on how exactly to strengthen that core of yours. Here goes.

Most of you probably know how to do push-ups, but click here for a refresher. As for the rest, you can find them by clicking on the name of each exercise. The only one I've omitted is the touch down. When I find a good tutorial link, I'll pass it on. For now, though, the following line-up will keep you plenty busy -- and plenty fit too.

Pull-ups
Dips
Squats
Lunges
Planks

For more how-to tips for almost every exercise imaginable, visit this site.