I have doing more activities in the morning [brisk walk to pick up point], afternoon [jog/exercise] and evening [brisk walk to home] – find opportunities to do as much as possible. [FITT]

[Continued from comment -273]

That reminds me that I also have the same thing – big thick rubber band called Gym in the pocket. Shall we make use of it together?

Dear Trainers

Can you tell us how do we incorporate this ‘equipment’ into the workout we have learned so far?

Thank in advance for your help.

I juz remembered that i’ve bought this big and thick ‘rubber band’ called Gym in the Picket. wonder if you guys have heard before?

How do i incorporate this sport equipment to the workout i’m receiving from you guys?

I used to be very active in my younger days and was also active, playing netball for prisons till i badly sprained both of my ankles some years back. I have to stop cos they weren’t really recovering as fast as they should. I couldn’t even wear nice nice shoes which is even an inch high cos my ankles will be sore and swell after a short distance. My legs will even uncontrollable give way and twist it even in slippers. That is how bad it is. Hence, i juz ballooned and so here i am, ’round and cute’.

I’m really glad to be nominated by Prisons to be on this LTW Challenge. Losing weight is definitely on the top of my list. Not forgetting i’ve got my annual IPPT to clear – the dreadful 2.4km.

Have i lost any? I dunno. I felt my uniform pants tighterr after 1st 3 wks of the programme. Muscle gain i hope. It should be, rite???. However i do notice my love-handle smaller and more ‘tender’ recently… hahahah, not forgetting i’m fitter oredi.

This bootcamp is only the beginning. I’m looking forward to all the workout sessions for a trimmer me and i pray i’ll continue even when the programme ends.

Thanks, all dear trainers for the hard work in pushing us. I really appreciate it.

(a) What can you improve and how much more of it will you do?

Physical – having morning jog to company bus pick up point rather taking public buses, having morning exercise slowly starting 15 minutes and keep increasing the timing and the intensity each day & working on the FITT [Frequency / Intensity / Timing and Type of exercise] to include afternoon and evening.

Social – Spend more time with my nephew and niece and introduce them games (incorporate of my exercises) like robot walk [actually lunges], robot go toilet [actually squat], etc. Well, it is fun playing with them and do a little exercise altogether without feeling doing exercise.

Psychological – Although I did not lose much weight as I wanted to, but my colleagues (guys you know) mentioned to me I seems slimmer and ask me whether I am on diet. I felt more and more healthy in terms I don’t get to climb two flight of stair feeling out of breathe. And now I am able to wear fitting clothes and do not feel like ‘dumpling’, and able to get cheaper clothes and fit in them.

Knowledge – Trainers have been introducing new exercise moves like crunches, kick boxing moves, etc. It makes the training more fun and something new to learn.

As for the nutrition/ food consumption, trainers have been inputing and sharing with us a lot like drinking, food consumption quantity, period, etc. It is very benefit me a lot and I have been practicing and find them useful.

(b) What have been stopping you from working out and raising your bar since 4 weeks ago?

Whenever exercise, I feel out of breathe and then after the exercise – I having headache, pain at the side and soreness. Added to it – I have no confidence in losing weight in exercise. Some of my surrounding friends – tempting me with food and said ‘you have been trying to lose weights all the time and it does not seems to work – you gained them back everytime, why bother?’

Now, I have starting to correct some of my problems – out of breathe due to breathing errors during exercise, headache and stitch due to not enough water before exercise and drink too much after exercise respectively. Soreness which was much better when doing stretching. Whereas my confidence due to I found some supporting friends / colleagues / Lose to win mate & trainers – giving me a lot of motivation and encouragement injection whenever I down. Thank to them.

Heather Lee
[Bravo 1]

Apart from that Psychologically I hope to be able to more exercise on my own rather than have to rely on too much on others. Its tough but I can! I MUST!!!

Ian
East (Alpha 2)
DPA~

Some areas you want to talk about – the domains of your life pertaining to Fitness -

Soccer or any phyiscal activity
- Currently I try my best to participate in some team sports, but my physical capabilities has prevented me from being able to last the duration like the mentioned above, soccer, I wanna play 90 minutes!!!
- Be slim enough to do adventurous sports (bungee jump? sky dive?) not that I cannot do it now, Its just that my weight = More insurance needed, or need the instructor to assume more risk so I don want that!
- Be able to do a circuit training in a reasonable ease, currently I am able to do it ok~, but my intention is to be able to do the whole circuit training without any “slacking through” some of them due to lack of stamina ha~

I hope to be able to find more time for my exercises~ Its tough to balance family time; work; personal time etc etc…. Arghh!! I must step uP!! Raise the standards!!!!

It’s time to Raise the standards. Raise the bar. Raise YOUR BAR.

(a) What can you improve and how much more of it will you do?

Some areas you want to talk about – the domains of your life pertaining to Fitness -

1.Physical (Progression, Intensity, Duration, Variety, etc)
- Physical: Definitely, I would want to challenge myself much more with regards to my stamina and explosive power. I mean, setting aside more than an hour to jog is pretty fine, but it’s the timing that I’m aiming at right not. Interesting that this whole week was titled as Step Up, because that was what I’ve been doing, getting my mini-backpack out of storage and turning it into my jogging bag, and running back home from office!

-Intensity: The number of regulated exercise sessions has increased and I think it’s really great that I’m now at the point that exercise is a daily thing, whether this will sustain after the challenge is yet to be seen.

- Duration: Being that I’m a long D runner, I guess I should look at Duration in the context, from running from office to Novena in less than half an hour to less than 25mins etc.

- Variety: Wished I had time to do more different kinda sports, but I’m kinda lazy and stick to those that I’m familiar with!

2.Social (More workout time with family, play sports with friends)
- Interesting that this was highlighted as I went gymming with one of my friends on Wednesday night, been trying to get more “sport dates” with friends, rather than makan dates (or makan dates only after sport dates)

3.Psychological (Confident, Self Esteem, Energetic, etc)
- Yeah, in some sense, I’m getting more confident now in my image, looking into the mirror is now governed by a sense of purpose and mission rather than a desparate anguish of the fast slide into oblivion…energetic, yet to be see really, been feeling more exhausted, but I’ll see how i feel in a couple of months.

4.Knowledge (Learn new exercises, Read on Nutrition, etc)
- Heh. I guess you can neve stop learning eh? Recent readings (more like my mom does the readings and then she tell me) on the GI index, which I figured out is really more of a low simple sugar diet (chey, just relabel and you’ll earn more money)
- But in terms of new exercises, the one I really want to master is rock wall climbing!

Please include Before, Current and After today plans.

Before: Didn’t want to climb steps, didn’t want to do more running then usual, didn’t want to push myself.

Current: Climbing steps in office, running home from office and yeah, pushing in order to achieve my target.

Future: Really aiming to bulk. I know I’ve been saying this for years, but it’s pretty hard to start from nothing. Once I get my net weight down to a certain figure, I’ll go more into lifting. But really, I wanna to be able to compete and push myself at a much higher level.

(b) OPTIONAL – What have been stopping you from working out and raising your bar since 4 weeks ago?

I guess it would be something called time, lots of committments, but having the deadline coming soon is a very very good motivator.

This week intensity is really tough huh? Especially the “Tabata” – the one which we have to do 6 sets of seconds each like a spider I believe I have raised the bar to at least 7 . Now can really feel that both my legs is like a jelly and coupled that with yesterday futsal game and today’s hot weather at West Coast. fuyo!

So back to this week homework.

1) Physical – Before 1km of slow jog without stopping to walk. Now about 7km of running without stopping. Before the programme end, 10km and target next year is half marathon.
2) Social – Been playing social soccer and badminton for a while but nothing beats my new hobby – running!
3) Psychological – Definitely energetic and confident with the weight loss and tone up and the encouraging remarks receive from fellow family, colleague and friends
4) Knowledge – Love the variety of exercise targeting different muscle every time attend the work out! With the tips I got from the blogs and the trainer experience , its been a great experience so far..

What can I do to improve.

1) Build up upper body strength so can do more push up
2) Raise the bar to 8 for maximum results.
3) Have enough sleep so can recover faster
4) Control my food intake. (the toughest so far)

Khairul
Chartered Silicon Partners
Bravo 3 (West Coast / Thursday / Saturday)

A lot of times some of us are not working out at the correct intensity on ourselves to achieve maximum training benefit. So what is the correct intensity should we be working out at? And what do we use to gauge the intensity required?

I will always say your heart rate never lies. It is one of the most convenient and accurate measurement that could be easily obtained to indicate training intensity; the higher the intensity of the workout, the higher your heart rate.
The target heart rate (THR) zone you will want to be looking at for your cardio training is 70%. Gone are the days when specialist emphasized on continuous low-moderate intensity exercise to burn fat. Facts from researches have shown that exercising at 70% will burn both carbohydrates and fats. So how do you calculate THR?

THR CALCULATION
Maximum Heart Rate= 220- Age
Heart Rate Reserve= Maximum Heart Rate- Resting Heart Rate
THR= (Heart Rate Reserve X Training %) + Resting Heart Rate

(Resting Heart Rate can be obtained by taking the average of your heart rate for three consecutive mornings. Take the measurement each morning once you open your eyes without sitting up/ getting out of bed. This will ensure an accurate measurement.)

By now you will have realized that the THR we are working out at during bootcamp is much higher than 70%. Consistent working out at higher intensity actually burns much more calories. This is what we achieve and it is also what you want to achieve when you are working out on your own 3 other times a week.
At least THR 70% for at least 30 minutes will be good for most doing cardio training. But if you find that you can go for higher intensity, go ahead to aim for 80% or even 85%. Don’t let anything stop you from burning more calories when you can do it.

If you can’t find the motivation to go for higher intensity, you can always go for our regular bootcamp sessions (we have bootcamp almost every day of the week) or get a polar watch to spur you on everytime you are lagging beyond the required intensity. Let the beeping be your source of strength too.

Ale Bootcampers! Step Up! Step Up! Step Up!

Yingbin
Dy Chief Trainer West Side