Tag: planks

Answering your questions this month is personal trainer Dina Smock.

Dina has been with the club for over 14 years and is N.A.S.M. (National Academy of Sports Medicine) certified.

Kristi: How did you get into personal training?

Dina: I have a B.S. in Health Sciences, and I began my career at Midtown as a floor trainer. This developed into a passion for training and running special events, so I transitioned into the Events Coordinator role for awhile. After that, I became the Fitness Director and worked in this role until the birth of my twin daughters in 2002.

Since then, I’ve worked part-time as a personal trainer, with a focus on pregnancy exercise and Kinesis. I love my work, and I’m still training my very first client who started working with me 14 years ago.

Reader Question: “I have about an hour to work out every day. I would like to lose about 10 pounds and I prefer the cardio machines to the weights. Which machines should I use and for how long?”

Dina:If you can get to the gym and do a solid 30-to-60 minutes of cardio a day, three-to-four times a week, you will be on the right track. To burn the most calories, you have to work at a high intensity. The harder and longer you work, the more calories you will burn.

As far as what is the best machine, I believe that you need to have variety in your workouts.  If your program has variety, you are less likely to become bored.  Having variety also helps to prevent overuse injuries. If there are certain machines on which you are more likely to exert maximum effort (and thus burn more calories), the definitely fit those into your workout program. I joke with my clients by telling them that the machines on which they like to work out the least are the ones they should be doing!  The Gauntlet (the never-ending flight of stairs located in the back of the cardio room) is very challenging, and running or walking with a high incline on the treadmill are also great calorie-blasters.

Reader Question: “What kind of resistance training do you recommend for toning my arms?”

Dina: There are a lot of fun resistance exercises using weights, bands, and even your own body weight that you can do to tone your arms. Push-ups are a great exercise for focusing on the upper body and arms. Depending on your fitness level, start off with a few and then work your way up to doing more repetitions and sets.  Here is the proper way to do a push-up:

1. Lie on the floor on a mat or towel.
2. Flex the feet so the toes are on the floor, pointing toward your upper body.
3. Place hands, palms down, with palms at chest level, and fingertips at shoulder level.
4. Keep hands close to the body; later, you can spread your hands out further to work different muscles, or place them under your chest, but it’s important to start with the basic push-up.
5. Keep your head in an upright position so you are looking forward, and not down at the floor.
6. Slowly push up with the strength of your arms, keeping the body straight.
7. Hold the upright position for a few seconds.
8. Slowly lower yourself to the ground.

Also Yoga and Pilates are great workouts for your arms!

Reader Question: “How can you best train for mountain climbing without supplemental oxygen? How is it that only a few elite athletes can complete class 4 or class 5 climbs? How does a person train for this?”

Dina: I spoke with fellow trainer Dave Statt who has a client who has climbed several class 4 and 5 summits. There is no one correct answer to this question. In terms of training, obviously being in great shape will help with climbing, but it’s really the luck of the draw in terms of being able to do it without oxygen and there are many reasons why someone summits or does not summit.

Reader Question: “I’ve been swimming a lot this summer. I feel great after leaving the pool, but is swimming a good workout?”

Dina: Swimming is a full-body exercise. The more body parts you involve in your workout, the more calories you’ll burn. For example, spend 30 minutes doing the breast-stroke and you’ll burn almost 400 calories. Best of all, your joints are fully supported so you don’t have to worry about high-impact injuries. It’s also great cross-training for other cardio and weight-training activities.

Reader Question: “I don’t make it to the club as often as I would like to. Can you suggest some strength-training exercises I can do at home?”

Dina:  When you can’t make it to the gym here are some key exercises you can do at home with weights or without.  These exercises use your body weight and can be done anywhere. You can also take them on the road if you’re traveling.

1.    Squats.

Why They’re Great: Squats are one of the best exercises you can do. Squats work your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves all at once.

How to Do Them: Stand with feet hip-width apart, toes facing straight ahead or angled slightly outward. Slowly bend the knees and lower your hips towards the floor, keeping your torso straight and abs pulled in tight. Keep your knees behind your toes; make sure everthing is pointing in the same direction.

2.    Push-Ups.

Why They’re Great: Push-ups, like squats, are compound movements that use almost all of the muscles in your body. You’ll work your chest, shoulders, triceps, back, and abs.

How to Do Them:See above!

3.    Lunges.

Why They’re Great:Like squats, lunges work most of the muscles in your legs and bring focus to the glutes.

How to Do Them: Stand in a split-stance (one leg forward, one leg back). Bend knees and lower body into a lunge position, keeping the front knee and back knee at 90 degree angles. Keeping the weight in your heels, push back up (slowly!) to your starting position. Never lock your knees at the top and don’t let your knee bend past your toes. Variations: front lunges, back lunges, and side lunges.

4.    The Plank.

Why They’re Great:The plank (or hover) is an isolation move used in Pilates and Yoga. Planks work the abs, back, arms, and legs. The plank also targets your internal abdominal muscles.

How to Do Them: Lie face down on a mat with elbows resting on the floor next to your chest. Push your body off the floor in a push-up position with your body resting on your elbows or hands. Contract the abs and keep the body in a straight line from head to toes. Hold for 30-60 seconds and repeat as many times as you can. For beginners, do this move on your knees and gradually work your way up to balancing on your toes.

5.    Seated Dips

Why They’re Great: This exercise focuses on the triceps (the back of the arms).

How to Do Them: Sitting on a step, bench, or floor, place hands next to your hips. Lift hips off the step and forward until lower back is almost touching the step, keeping the knees bent (easier) or straight (advanced). Staying close to the step, slowly lower your body until your elbows are at a 90 degree angle.  Keep shoulders down and abs in. Then bring yourself back up and repeat.

You can add hand weight
s to your lunges or squats for more resistance. Do 2 –3 sets of each exercises at 12-15 repetitions, 2- 3 times a week.

Thank you, Dina!

I’ve received some really great questions from readers, so now it’s time for you to submit yours! If you have a question you would like one of the personal trainers from the Fitness department to answer, you can post your question as a comment to this post, or email it to me at kristi@meetme-atmidtown.com. If you email the question, I will ask it anonymously on your behalf, and post the question and answer (but not your name) on the next “Ask the Trainer” post. You do not need to be a member to ask a question.

What do you want to know?