Three Important Fitness Questions - Finally Answered, Part 2

Welcome back to the second in my three-part installment to help inform you of the best ways to get fit! If you haven't yet read part 1, you can click here to read it first. I last covered whether cardio or strength training should be done first, if you should exercise in the AM or PM, and whether working out at home was better than at the gym.

Fitness is somewhat of a lifestyle rather than just "something to do". It takes consistency, effort, and knowledge to get the results you want from your body. In these next 3 fitness questions I'll answer, you'll learn about whether indoor or outdoor exercise is best, which types of workout machines yield the best results, and how long to work out per session. Enjoy the read and feel free to leave comments at the end of this post!

SHOULD YOU EXERCISE IN THE GYM OR OUTSIDE?
Outdoor activities such as bicycling, running, or in-line skating give you an edge on results because your body has to work harder to overcome the added resistance provided by varying terrain and wind resistance. Dr. John Porcari, a professor in exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, says that our bodies naturally burn between 3 and 5 percent more calories outdoors than the same distance completed on a treadmill. The added benefit of being outdoors is that you get to breathe in the fresh air and you can take different routes whenever you want to keep changing the scenery. Here in Southern California, where I live, exercising alone after dark can be a dangerous thing to do...and now that the sun is going down much earlier, finding time to workout at the end of the day can be difficult. Also, with winter approaching, the weather may not always agree with your workout schedule. You can overcome these challenges by working out indoors on a treadmill, tread climber, elliptical machine or stairmaster. Rather than putting the machine on the "manual" mode and going at the same pace and resistance level the entire time, set it to "random" and take the challenge head on! Make sure you bring your MP3 player loaded with some great, fast-paced music so you can really get into it and burn some serious calories! The best kinds of workouts: outside is optimal if the weather and time of day permit.

SHOULD YOU EXERCISE ON A TREADMILL OR A STATIONARY BIKE?
Did you know that the stationary bike (not the spinning bike) is the least effective exercise machine in the gym? It's true! According to one study done by Dublin City University, working out at a moderate intensity level on the stationary bike burned nearly half the calories as the treadmill when done for the same amount of minutes! On the other hand, you can burn about 200 calories in 18.5 minutes on the treadmill (versus it taking 32 minutes to burn 200 calories on the stationary bike). This is because treadmills are weight-bearing exercise and automatically burn more calories. Cross-country and rowing machines placed second best at feeling the burn. However, Dr. Wayne Wescott, fitness director of the South Shore YMCA warns, "Doing the same routine day in and day out can send your body into a fitness rut. Cross-train with different activities to prevent hitting a plateau." The verdict: Exercise on the treadmill for 3/4 of the time and then cross train on the spinning bike, tread climber, elliptical, or stairmaster for the other 25% of your workout.

IS INTERVAL TRAINING OR ONE, LONG WORKOUT BETTER FOR YOU?
Many fitness fanatics firmly believe in sustaining one, long workout for best results. If you're trying to train for a long-distance race or a competitive biking event, then you'd be correct. However, for the rest of us who only get so much time to workout when we can squeeze it in, interval training is best. Len Kravitz, Ph.D., associate professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico, explains that "We can burn anywhere from 75 to 125 additional calories just by adding periodic bursts of intensity to our workouts." This is great news because we can take a 30 minute treadmill workout, for example, and add three sessions of running for three minutes each into the 30 minutes...and burn even more calories. This is a great way to burn more fat while not exhausting yourself from one, long, high-intensity workout. If you're a beginner, walking at about 3.5 MPH and then speed-walking at 4.5 MPH three times for 3 minutes each is a great start :-) The best training to do: include short bursts of high-intensity effort in your standard workout routine to blast more fat and calories.

I hope you enjoyed part 2 of this 3-part series on fitness. The final three fitness questions will be tackled this week, so get ready...we're going to get fit together!

To better health and wellness women everywhere,
Kim