Ask Eddie your fitness questions! Send an email to EAFit@aol.com

So why is warming up before exercising so important and what types of warm ups should you do?

One of the most important reasons to warm up is to prevent injury, but there are many other benefits including burning calories, enhance your fat burning potential and more. Warming up gets your blood flowing and your muscles need blood flow and the oxygen it carries to perform at their best when you are using them to their fullest potential.

When you first start warming up, the first line of energy your body will tap into is sugar. When you get passed burning sugar for energy, your body will choose fat as a source of fuel. This is where we want to be to lose weight. This is why I said that you can enhance your fat burning potential by warming up first…getting rid of sugar in the body and ultimately moving into a fat burning mode for the most intense part of your workout.

How to Warm Up Properly?

At the gym, an easy way to warm your entire body up is to get on the treadmill at a medium pace. Start out slow and work your way to a brisk walk. To warm up your upper body, you can pump your arms as if you are doing bicep curls (without weights) and shoulder presses. You shouldn’t be out of breath, but as get warmed up your heart rate should be elevated slightly. 5 minutes on the treadmill pumping your arms will get you nice and warm and ready to begin your workout.

If you’re not at the gym, let’s say working out at home, take a few trips up and down the stairs, perform a set of 25 jumping jacks, pump your arms as if doing bicep curls, shoulder presses, tricep kick backs, etc. Basically, go through a few exercises without weights to simulate movement and get blood flowing to these areas of your body.

Once you’ve warmed up for about 5 minutes, your muscles will have awakened and will be ready to tackle your workout!

For some great exercise ideas, check out our fitness channel on YouTube.

About Edward Albert

Edward Albert is the owner and director of personal training at Ultimate Fitness Training Center in Ocean Township NJ. He has been in the fitness industry for over 20 years and is a former bodybuilder. In 1992, he held the title of Mr. New Jersey. Today he is dedicated to improving the life and longevity of individuals of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Start by placing your bosu ball upside down on the floor.  Grasp the flat base of the bosu ball and position yourself as if you were going to do a push-up.  Tighten up your form by drawing your abs in towards your spine and flatening out your back.  Once you have a steady grasp and a balanced form, slowly raise and lower your legs, beginning with the left and following suit with the right.  As you raise your legs, squeeze your glute muscles as tight as you can.

See the short instructional video below.

Your triceps and chest muscles should be engaged as you firmly hold your stance on the base of the ball.  Your core muscles (abs, obliques, etc) are being worked to support your lower back, and you are drawing your abs in towards your spine, contracting and holding the muscle.  Finally, your butt is getting a good blast with the reverse leg raises. 

Try starting with 10-12 raises per leg.  Don’t rest inbetween changing legs.  After you complete 10-12 on each leg, give yourself a 30 second rest.  Perform 3 sets.  Once you become more advanced at this exercise, you can add to the intesity by wearing ankle weights.

Walking lunges helps build up your glute muscle which will give you a firmer, rounder bottom.  If you’re lacking in the rear, walking lunges will help give you more of a shape.  If you’re looking to tone and tighten, you’ll see phenomenal results if you make lunges a regular part of your workout. 

Check out the video below which demonstrates the best way to do walking lunges.  As you progress, you can hold 5-10lb dumbbells to intensify your workout.  It’s important to remember to keep your back very straight.  When you lunge forward, your knee should be at a 90 degree angle, and it should not extend over your foot.  Check the form in the video.  Start with about 10-12 lunges per leg.  Once you master the exercise, grab some hand weights to pump it up.

About Master Personal Trainer, Edward Albert

Edward Lee Albert is the man behind Fitness Diets Online. 

I began my career in the 1980’s as a body builder and competed nationally and won the Mr. New Jersey title in ’92.  Shortly thereafter, I began to use my knowledge to help others achieve their goals in fitness and health.  I train individuals ranging in age from 12 to 70 years, from the fitness novice to the professional athlete. 

It’s never too early or too late to make a commitment to better health.  For the past 6 years, I have assumed ownership of the Ultimate Fitness Training Center in NJ. 

We serve a range of clients, young and old with personalized fitness programs and diet plans.  I design fitness programs that work and keep you motivated and interested.  I believe in simple lifestyle changes to help you achieve your goals while still enjoying the best life has to offer.

If you’d like to ask me a question about your fitness and diet goals, click here to contact me.

The truth is- it isn’t that easy to ‘get big’.  Men and women train hard and heavy for months, sometimes years to achieve maximum muscle development and definition. They also follow extremely strict bodybuilding diets.  If getting big was as simple as just lifting a few weights, the world would be a much leaner place.  Weight training also helps women increase bone density- one of the major factors in warding off osteoporosis. 

Women who would like to incorporate weight training into their fitness routine should speak to a personal trainer at their gym about creating a routine that will help them develop long, lean muscles.  Typically, this is achieved through lighter weights and higher repetitions.  Added benefits of weight training include loss of fat and inches as well as increased strength and stamina.

Having more lean muscle on your body helps you naturally burn calories and fat faster than the average person.  Men typically have more muscle than women, which is why they tend to burn calories quicker or lose weight faster.  The more muscle you have, the faster you will lose weight.

If you have questions about developing weight training programs for your body type, email me at njfitnessexpert@aol.com

Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/NJFitnessExpert

In order to create complete, full shoulders, you must perform the main mass building exercise correctly, the barbell press.  The barbell press is the mass building exercise for the shoulders as the bench press is for the chest.

The set up and the grip is the same. Place your hands on the bar by spacing your hands far enough apart so that when bar is lowered to your chin, your forearms will be perpendicular to the ground.  When the bar is lowered to your chin, you are in full stretch.  Pressing the bar to the top (or the contraction portion of the exercise), always squeeze your elbows up and aim towards an intersection point toward the top of your head. Never push straight up, if you do, you will most likely push up too quickly. By pushing up too fast, you run the risk of locking and snapping your elbows. This also adds an undue stress on the tendons and ligaments of the elbows.

Performing this exercise correctly is very important so you don’t damage your delicate rotator cuff.

Start with 8-10 reps to warm up the muscle and increase blood flow.  On your next set, up the weight and reduce reps to 6-8. You should be feeling maximum burn at about the 6^th rep (once you increase your weight) and then try to push out the last 2 for total muscle exhaustion. It’s wise to have someone spot you during this exercise to ensure that you are able to return the bench to a safe resting position on the bar behind you.

 The incline barbell chest press is the perfect exercise to make the top portion of your chest thick. When performing this exercise, you want to have the maximum stretch as you lower the bar, lowering the bar all the way to your chest.  Make sure to achieve maximum contraction by squeezing your pec muscles as you push the bar back up.  This will give you complete muscle fatigue which will provide maximum growth for your chest. 

When setting up to perform this exercise, start by lying flat on the bench then adjust yourself to the proper position. The only two parts of your back that should rest on the bench are the rear of your shoulders and your glutes.

Then, grip the bar.  Place your hands far enough apart so that when the bar touches your chest, your forearms will be perpendicular to the ground. The bar should touch about a 1/2 inch below your clavical. In this position, you are at maximum stretch.

When pressing the bar to the top, or the contraction portion of the exercise, always squeeze your elbows up and toward an intersection point approximately 8-10in above your chest.  Don’t push your arms straight up.  Focus on squeezing your arms above that intersection above your chest.

When you push your arms straight up without squeezing over that central point on your chest, you run the risk of inuring your elbows and placing undue stress on the tendons and ligaments of the shoulders and elbows. By focusing on a central point over your chest and squeezing, you will feel more chest involvement rather than shoulders and triceps. 

More online at www.fitnessdietsonline.com

Let’s start with the bench press exercise. To many times I seen men and women performing this exercise incorrectly.  The key is in the range of motion…and that is often the first thing I see people doing wrong.

When performing the bench press exercise with a straight bar, you should always complete a full range of motion, bringing the bar all the way back down to your chest. The reason for this is so you get maximum stretch and a full contraction, this encourages a complete breakdown of muscle fiber so you can stimulate growth.

In order to get maximum growth you need to rest the empty bar on your chest, while it’s resting there you forearm should be at a ninety degree angle or perpendicular to the floor. This will create maximum stretch in the pecs and place the least amount of stress on the elbows and the shoulders.  If your forearms are any further apart it will not encourage proper pec development, it will just add more stress on the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints. It may also cause rotator cuff problems.

Bench correctly and be injury free while achieving thick, full pec development.

About Edward Albert:

Edward Albert is a former body builder and former Mr New Jersey title holder.  He is currently the owner and director of personal training at Ultimate Fitness Training Center in NJ.