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What's On Your Running Playlist?

Hildebrand Fitness — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:15:00 GMT

What's on your running playlist? Take your running up a few notches with the right tunes in year ear buds. Keeping pace with a faster beat can really release those endorphins and induce that much coveted runners high.

Try a few of these, but use with caution, they just may set those feet on fire.

Eminem - Till I Collapse
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Blackstreet and Dr. Dre - No Diggity
Michael Franti - Say Hey
Michael Franti - Stay Human
MIchael Jackson - Smooth Criminal (don't diss MJ)
The Streets - Fit But You Know It
The Ting Tings - Great DJ
Ven Y Baila - Valerie
4 Minutes - Madonna

Let me know how much faster your moving with the right tunes!

Preparing Your Body for Altitude

Hildebrand Fitness — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:36:00 GMT

Michael Hildebrand on the summit of Mt. Rainier, 14.410 ft

After bagging the summits of Kilimanjaro and Rainier in the last few months, I thought a post on getting ready for the rigors of exercise at altitude was in order. Physical endeavors in the high environments have been some of the most rewarding physical experiences of my life. Between the incredible views, the sunrises, the satisfaction of accomplishment, it is hrad to beat up there. There a few things that may help in easing your transition into those high altitudes if you are coming from a lower elevation like most of us.

Michael and Krista HIldebrand on Uhuru peak, the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, 19,340 ft.

If you're heading to the hills and planning on doing some mountaineering, or just planning on doing some aerobic activity at altitude like say, Denver, or Mexico City, or La Paz, some preparation may be in order. The best way to prepare for exercise at altitude is to train and sleep up there. The only way your body will acclimatize to the altitude is to be at altitude. That is the reason while Team USA trains at Colorado Springs at 6035 feet above sea level. During the process of acclimatization, your body will begin to manufacture more red blood cells and hemoglobin to carry more oxygen from an environment that is harder to extract that O2. If your agenda is mountaineering in a very high environment, 10,000 ft and above, you may notice shortness of breath and fatigue doing activity that was easy at a lower elevation. If activity is prolonged it may develop into a headache or nausea because of a lack of oxygen getting to the tissues. This can eventually progress to a condition known as Acute Mountain Sickness and can be very serious, leading to Pulmonary Edema, Cerebral Edema, and can be fatal. Treatment requires an immediate decent to a lower elevation where the symptoms will almost always alleviate. You should always have a planned schedule for acclimatizing involving rest days, and days where you ascend a few thousand feet and then returning to a slightly lower elevation to sleep. This helps your body manufacture those much needed extra red blood cells.

So in preparation for your arrival at high altitude and to assist your structured acclimatization schedule and process, there are some things you will want to do. Improving your endurance and your cardiovascular strength, or your VO2 max. VO2 max is how well your body delivers oxygen to your tissues. The higher your VO2, the better you will be at altitude, as the more efficient you will be at utilizing the fewer O2 molecules you will be pulling from the atmosphere. To improve your endurance, start training your cardiovascular system at 75-80% of your maximum heart rate, three times a week for at least an hour. To improve your VO2 max, interval training is the way to go. For example, after a five minute warm up, you would do a 1 minute interval at 90-95% of max heart rate, followed by a 2 minute interval at 65%, then a 2 minute recovery at 50% or so. Repeat that interval for a total of 45 minutes. Do this two days a week. Recovering on the sixth day, and going for a long low intensity walk on the seventh day. The more efficiently you can deliver those O2 molecules to your muscles, the better you will perform when there will be fewer of those molecules to use!

The high alpine environment is some of the most incredible terrain on the planet offering countless unforgettable experiences. Prepare your body for the rigors of the high atmosphere and you will excel!

Running with Dogs

Hildebrand Fitness — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:39:00 GMT

Sometimes that perfect running partner can be hard to find, but man's best friend may be just what you need. Nobody makes you feel quite like your dog, and that just might benefit your runs as well. Not all breeds are created equal however, so you may want to consider a particular breed based on your typical running workouts.

As many of you know out there, my own dog is my running partner of choice. An Alaskan Malamute, she is bred for endurance and to run long distances pulling freight. This makes her a great endurance training partner, especially in the winter months and if snow is involved. In the summer months we need to be sure that she is well hydrated all the time, and that she has a place to cool off after the workout. It takes a special personality to handle a Malamute and to make a good dog out of them. Especially stubborn and intelligent, and with exceptional strength, they can be challenging dogs to train. If it is a good match though, and you live an especially active lifetstyle in the outdoors, in my opinion, there is no better best friend and training partner.

Many people automatically think that because your dog is, well, a dog, that he can go right out do whatever you think he should be capable of doing. Like say, running a 5k. If your dog has not been as active as you may have been recently, like say through the winter months, then he is going to need some time to build up his fitness level just like you do. This tends to be an issue in the spring when you may have been training all winter at the gym, while the pooch is curled by the fire place. Take it slow with him at first, and always, ALWAYS be sure to have water waiting for him at the end of the workout.

Take care of your pup, and he will definitely take care of you. Happy running!

Training for better movement, not muscles

Hildebrand Fitness — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:11:00 GMT

I often am asked what exercises one can do to isolate a particular muscle. The answer is that there are no exercises that isolate just one muscle group.

Our bodies are amazing machines that utilize synergistic muscle groups to accomplish a staggering range of motions. One mistake many people make when they are training is to attempt to strengthen their bodies in a piece meal fashion, that is, one muscle group at a time.

Well, our bodies don't work like that, so in order to maximize your potential you need to think about training in a way that fully utilizes those synergistic muscle groups. For example, rather than using a chest press machine, try doing the same 'synergistic motion', using dumb bells and doing a unilateral chest press (one side at a time) on a flat bench with your legs elevated. This will not only work your chest, triceps, and shoulders, but will make you very cognizant of your care stabilization. By challenging your balance whilst strength training, you will be focusing on your core strength first. You will also be promoting better flexibility, and therefore better movement.

So the next time you train, think about training for better movement, rather than individual muscles.

Avoid being sidelined with a Hamstring Injury

Hildebrand Fitness — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:04:00 GMT

One of the most common injuries to athletes and generally active people alike is a hamstring pull or strain. Often the first impulse is to stretch that hamstring, and often that is not necessarily the best option.

In our modern lifestyle, many of us spend a lot of time in a seated position. Whether that is sitting at a desk through the workday, sitting through a day at school, or sitting down and decompressing at night. That seated position flexes your hip and your knee, tightening your hip flexors on the front of your hip, and your hamstrings on the back of your thigh. This tightness and shortening of the muscle inhibits their antagonists: in this case the glutes and quadriceps. So when this individual begins activity like jogging, the glutes, which should be doing the work, is turned off by the tight hip flexor. That forces the hamstring to take over a job that it should not be doing, resulting in an injury.

So in order to correct this common problem, and to prevent injury a few things should be done:

1. Stretch your Hip Flexors:

· PROCEDURE

· While keeping a slight forward lean of the torso, tighten the core and contract (tighten) the glute of the leg with the knee on the ground

· Maintaining this posture, shift the entire body slightly forward

· Exhale and hold the stretch for two seconds

· Relax and repeat

2. Strengthen your glutes:

· Lying Glute Bridge

o Procedure:

§ STARTING POSITION

§ Lying face up on ground with arms to side, knees bent, and heels on ground

§ PROCEDURE

§ Lift hips off the ground until knees, hips, and shoulders are in a straight line

§ Hold 2 -3 seconds, return to start position and repeat for prescibed number of repetitions

§ COACHING KEYS

§ Do not let back hyper-extend

§ YOU SHOULD FEEL IT

§ Working mainly your glutes and secondarily your hamstrings and low back

Performing these two exercises consistently will correct a misalignment in your posture, turn your glutes back on and allow them to fire properly. In turn reducing your risk for a hamstring injury by leaps and bounds.

Staying Active Outside through the Winter months

Hildebrand Fitness — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:11:00 GMT

Just because the winter is upon us, there is no need to forgo being active and including outdoor workouts in your routine. It may take a bit more fortitude, and taking advantage of good weather, but with a bit of preparation you can have some seriously awesome workouts outside this winter.

Snow shoeing, they say, is the fastest growing sport in America these days, and for good reason. It is fun, it easy to learn (if you can walk, you can snowshoe), and it is great exercise. Plus, the trails that you now and love in the summer, turn into winter wonderlands when the snow flies, with far less traffic. With a little preparation, you can have the most memorable outdoor experiences with your snowshoes. Make sure you are prepared for winter conditions with adequate clothing, - GoreTex is your friend! Always carry a first aid kit and emergency supplies, and educate yourself a little about Avalanche awareness. More and more snowshoers are getting themselves into a bit of trouble because of the capability to get into the backcountry with snowshoes. So it is important to be able to recognize avalanche dangers when you see them.

Cross-country skiing or 'skate skiing' may be one of the best workouts you will ever have. Cardiovascularly there are few activities more demanding. There are several Nordic skiing areas with groomed and non-groomed trails and bountiful acres to skate through with those cross country skis, putting your backcountry worries to rest. You can go in the backcountry with your cross-country skis, but the necessary preparations stated above apply. Backcountry skiing with what is called a Randonee setup is a favorite. In a Randonee setup, you have a free heel like a cross-country ski, but your skis are more like a downhill ski. This allows you to get into the backcountry and climb hills like you would on cross country, but then you have the capability to lock your heels down at the top, and downhill ski down. Both are cardiovascularly demanding, and also a wicked workout on your quads, glutes, and of course, your core. Awesome!!

If heading to the winter wonders of the mountains is not your thing, there are plenty of workout opportunities with in confines of the city. One of the greatest things about living in the Northwest is the myriad parks and green spaces we have here. Just because it is not warm and sunny, does not mean you cannot head to a park do a great workout. Having the right clothing will make all the difference. There have been improvements by leaps and bounds in cold weather aerobic training clothes in recent years. Breathability and warmth have been incorporated into your clothing, making working out outside in the winter fantastic. Make sure you do not overdress, as with your workout you will be creating a lot of body heat, warming your core. Be sure to wear glove liners and a hat though, as you lose heat through your head, and your fingers will freeze as you begin moving. From, there you can do everything outside in the winter that you can do in the summer.

So dress warm, prepare for the elements, and get out there and enjoy the winter and get your workout while you are at it!

Roll out your kinks

Hildebrand Fitness — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:34:00 GMT

If you have seen those foam rolls lying around the gym, and have been wondering what on earth they could be for, then listen up. Those foam rolls could be your key to avoiding injury, relieving knee pain, hip pain, and improving posture.

The foam roll is used in a flexibility improving technique called SMR- Self Myofascial Release. This is a technique similar to that of a deep tissue massage with similar goals in mind. By using your own body weight and rolling through the foam roll on specific muscle groups you will improve the elasticity and optimum length-tension relationships of your muscles.

If you have not used it before, or have not done so in a while, your tissues will be tender, and this will find some hot spots. Contrary to what you will want to think, that means that you need do be doing SMR all the more. When your tissues cease to be very tender, then your muscles are improving in their elasticity. This is critical in preventing injury and getting optimum performance out of your body.

What it is

Foam rolling is a form of self-tissue massage that can be very beneficial for recovery and regeneration. It helps alleviate soreness and makes your muscles feel better.

When to do it
Use a foam roll after your training session or after you've been in the same position for hours, such as after sitting on a plane or behind a desk.

How it works
Imagine your muscle as a shoelace. It has a certain length to it. If it gets in a knot and you pull both ends of the shoestring, the knot gets tighter. You need to work the knot out with your fingers to restore the original length of the shoelace. The same goes for our muscles. Sometimes stretching is not what we need. We need to work out those "knots" in the muscle, which often arise from inactivity or repetitive activity, in order to restore the muscle to its original length. This can certainly be uncomfortable, even very uncomfortable.

Roll this way
Glide your body over the foam roll, pausing at any tender points for 10-30 seconds. Only go as deep as you can tolerate and build up the amount of time you spend foam rolling. Your muscle tissue will begin to get used to this new sensation and be more more willing to accept the new form of self massage that you've implemented into your routine.

Push through the discomfort of the foam roll exercises, and you will be doing your body a great favor by reducing your risk of injury and allowing for optimum movement.

The Importance of the Food Journal

Hildebrand Fitness — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:28:00 GMT

A recent study (reported in August 2008 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine) asked people to keep a food diary– simply writing down what they ate. The research included 1,685 overweight adults over 25 years old who were asked to eat a healthy diet, exercise and to keep a food journal.

Those who wrote what they had eaten six days a week lost on the average TWICE as much as those who made food journal entries less often in this study.

The findings showed that you don’t have to keep an elaborate food diary. It seems that the act of writing down what you are eating is what’s important. And it’s more effective if you write it after you eat, not at the end of the day.

To begin your food journal find a notebook that is small enough that you can carry around with you. You need to carry the food journal around with you on daily basis so that you can truly focus on where your calories are.

Write down everything that you eat for 1 week. This will be your starting week in your goal to lose weight. This will give you a realistic vision of exactly how much food you consume on a daily basis.

Sit down at the end of the first week and look at your food journal. Look at what you have been eating and realize this why you have not seen and weight loss. The eating trends that you have now are what are causing you to not lose weight. You need to change your eating habits to lose weight. Your food journal will help you to do this.

Start implementing changes after analyzing your diet. Begin reducing portion sizes. You should be evenly dividing your overall caloric intake for the day by five or six meals every 3 hours or so. This helps keep your insulin levels even all day long and optimizes your utilization of the nutrients you are taking in. Start analyzing the types of calories you have been taking in as well, making sure to have an adequate balance of complex carbohydrates, protein, and good sources of fat. For example, try to be somewhere around a 55%, 35%, 10% respective.

A common thread for what makes journal writing so powerful is that it is focused reflection and review. Sit down every week and evaluate how you have done with your eating through your writing in your food journal. You will also want to weigh your self when you sit down with your food journal. You can keep track of your weight by writing it down in your food journal as well.

Stop putting off getting back in shape and start being accountable to yourself and keeping a record of what you are putting in the one body that you have. You may find some of your habits surprising, and being accountable for it will allow you to change those habits for the better and get you to four fitness goals.

Get the most out of your time: Train early

Hildebrand Fitness — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:55:00 GMT

Not everybody is an early bird, let alone one that is able to get out of bed and head straight to the gym for a good energizing, calorie burning workout. However there are several reasons why you should think about getting over your old sleeping in ways, and head to the gym!

One of the main reasons is that working out first thing in the morning will increase your metabolism. By getting that body moving early, you are giving your system a major jump start. By increasing what is know as EPOC (excess postexercise oxygen consumption), you will also increase you caloric burn for the rest of the day, i.e. you will increase your metabolism. After cardiovascular exercise or weight training, the body continues to need oxygen at a higher rate than before the exercise began. This sustained oxygen consumption is known as EPOC. This is an important concept especially when training early.

Another reason to train early is that your workouts can be easy to put of if you wait until the evenings. We are often tired by the end of the day, and it is too easy to convince ourselves to do it the next day. Plus, by getting it done early, you will have the whole day ahead of you and will be that much more energized from the workout.

You will find that you will be more alert throughout the rest of the day, as all those endorphins released into your bloodstream during a workout positively impact your brain function as well. You may not notice it at first, but after getting into your routine for a week or so, you will notice a big difference in how you feel throughout the rest of the day.

Once you are into your routine you will begin to sleep better as well. Exercising later in the day tends to disrupt your body’s cycles. All of the benefits described above will be occurring, but much too late for you to reap the greatest benefit from. Many people describe having trouble sleeping if they workout too late, disrupting their sleep cycle, and making them even more groggy in the morning.

It may be tough at first, but try doing your workouts first thing in the morning for a few weeks and see how you feel.

Women and Strength Training

Hildebrand Fitness — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:10:00 GMT

Women today are realizing the profound benefits of strength training in their workout routines. The myth in the world of health and fitness of women “bulking up” with weight training is being put to rest at last. The truth is that by strength training, women will reap more benefits than they possibly could imagine.

In the past, women relied on cardiovascular activity and a low calorie diet to change their physical appearance. Unfortunately, low calorie diets merely punish the soul and plummet the metabolism. And without consistent strength training in your program, change in your physique will be an impossible goal. Also, with out strengthening your muscle tissue, ligaments, and tendons through strength training, all that cardio can lead to injury. We now know that strength training is absolutely essential if we wish to create visual changes in our bodies, and we've discovered that the benefits of strength training extend far beyond the visual.

As work is performed against resistance in a strength training program, muscle mass and muscle tone is improved. This newly formed muscle tissue is functional, meaning it does work and therefore requires energy to do what it does, i.e calories. As opposed to body fat, or what is known as adipose tissue, which is energy. As long as you are on a good nutritional diet, this new muscle tissue will draw the energy it needs from that body fat, and will require more calories. That means that your metabolism begins to go up, way up. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate- the number of calories it takes to run your body in a day w/o exercise) goes up, and your body composition will begin to change. Your body fat percentage goes down, which comes with all kinds of benefits, including having a leaner body with the capability to live an active life with a reduced risk of injury. This is all equally true in both women and men. Sometimes the difference lies in how the training is implemented. Heavier resistance and fewer repetitions lead to larger muscle fibers and what is known as hypertrophy. While lighter resistance and more repetitions still garner the benefit of improved muscle tone and muscle mass, making you a leaner, stronger, sleeker version of you. The problem is that some women take this notion to the extreme and do exercises with far too light a weight and far more reps than is necessary. If you don not use heavy enough resistance than your muscle tissue will have no reason to improve, and you will not gain the myriad benefits of weight training. You should use a weight that is challenging for 15-25 reps, without losing form in any way. Your form and technique is far more important than the weight or the reps. If your form falls apart at 8-10 reps, than it is too heavy. If you have not already, seek the advice of a fitness professional to ensure that you are doing things correctly, and always using correct technique, tempo, resistance, and rest periods.

Middle-aged women can gain particular benefit from strength training. When you work against resistance in a strength-training program, you are also putting that resistance on your bone structure. This not only reduces risk of osteoporosis in younger women by maintaining bone density, but studies have shown that bone density actually increases in older women who have exhibited signs of bone density loss. As mentioned earlier, strength training not only improves the quality of muscle tissue, but it also increases the strength of connective tissue, reducing the risk of injury.

The women in this study were all post menopausal, and some of their ages were in the 50's and 60's. They made some remarkable changes in their lives as they got stronger. One woman described going rollerblading with her children. Another went canoeing with her husband. Strength training gave these women back a youthfulness that they thought they would never see again.

As a woman, you should not fear weight training, but instead embrace it with vigor. Incorporating strength training into your workout routine will bring benefits of lower body fat %, higher metabolism, improved muscle tone, reduced risk of osteoporosis, reduced risk of breast cancer, reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, reduced risk of injury, not to mention an improved self confidence to move about and live an active life, and the list goes on. Again, for the safest, most effective program, you should seek the advice of a certified fitness professional.

Feel free to write if you have any questions.

The Seven Principles of Effective Ski Conditioning

Hildebrand Fitness — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:21:00 GMT

The 2008-2009 ski season is apon us at last, and if you’re like me, you’ve waited all year long for that glorious white powder. Incidentally, this is the time of year that most of say, “Ok, it’s time to get in shape for the winter.” Even though I am out with a season ending injury, I can still offer my advice and get all of you in solid alpine shape for the season. I have mourned my loss, and I'll be back at 115% next year. No time to lose for all of you though

That is the aim of this article. To equip you with the tools of knowledge and exercise that is essential to an effective ski conditioning and preparation program. The importance of effective and quality conditioning in a sport as demanding an unforgiving as skiing can not be overstated enough.

There are seven basic principles that are essential when conditioning for the demands of the ski season. Efficiency and noted progress in every area will ensure your ability to perform to your optimum capabilities, and more importantly allow you to avoid the classis skiing injuries that come along with a lack of conditioning.

(1) Cardiovascular Training One of the best cardiovascular mediums to be in when preparing for the ski season, is on the bike. The elevation of the heart rate, coupled with demand placed onto the quadriceps, is ideal when preparing for the slopes. Specifically, intervals on the bike, with two minute sprints at 100rpm’s or higher, with one minute rest periods. Alternatively, running on the treadmill develops your cardiovascular of your heart and lungs more effectively, than any other mode of cardio. You can’t go wrong with that.

A clip from 'Playground' - Warren Miller 2007 Feature. If this doesn't get you amped for training for the ski season, I don't know what will

(2) Strength Training When working on strength training in preparation for the ski season, your quadriceps and gluteal groups should be your focus, as they are most involved on those long steep and demanding runs. One exercise that is particularly effective is the one legged squat. Standing on the edge of a step with your inside leg, your arms tucked in as if you are skiing (convenient), and your outside leg elevated, lower yourself slowly to about 75 degrees and some back up. The repetitions should be performed fluidly and rhythmically, with a slight one second pause at the bottom of the rep. Start at about 30 seconds on each leg, and working up. This in combination with staple type exercises such as squats, leg presses, lunges and seated hamstring curls are optimum.

(3) Flexibility Flexibility is a key component to any type of conditioning, and conditioning specific to skiing is no exception. Proper length tension relationships is second to none in the prevention of injury and of optimum performance. In skiing, your body’s ability to recruit proper muscle groups under abnormal stresses is essential, and is impeded by a lack of flexibility. For your hamstrings, the track stretch: Kneel down, and sit back on your back heel with your toes on the ground. Your front leg should be straight out in front of you with your toes up in the air. With your front knee soft, gently lower your chest towards your knee, and at the same time visualize pushing your hips in the opposite direction. Hold for thirty seconds and switch. For your hip flexors: Kneeling on one knee, one leg out in front, and your back up straight, lean forward into your front leg, and at the same time slightly leaning back and away from your front leg. You should feel a stretch in the front of your hip. For your quadriceps: Bend a knee behind you, grasp your ankle and gently pull it towards you until you feel a stretch in the thigh.

(4) Agility Another aspect of skiing that is essential is your ability to react efficiently to your environment as your are hurling down the slopes, and your levels of mobility while doing so. Agility is increased in a number of effective exercises, but one good one is lateral lunges and progressing to lateral hops. Called ice skaters by some, equally effective for skiing. Start by taking a step out to the side with your toes facing forwards and continuing directly into a squatting position onto your outside leg with your inside leg straight. Push off your bent leg and come back to center, continuing with the other side. Do 15 reps on each leg. Once strength improves, progress to leaping out to the outside leg, squatting onto the one leg, and driving off hard to the side to the other leg, going directly down into the squat and repeating. It should resemble an ice skater skating down the rink, hence the name. This exercise is also very much conducive to developing power and speed, both important attributes.

(5) Speed Speed is increased by only one way, moving fast. A myriad of exercises can be applied here and modified accordingly. One mode that works well, and was also mentioned under cardiovascular training, is intervals. Periods of intense speed, followed by a quick recovery and repeated. Possibly the best for this, is running stairs. At a stadium, at the park, at Green Lake, in Queen Anne, wherever non slippery stairs of some distance are found. Start by sprinting as hard as you can getting your knees up high up the stairs, turn around at the top, and begin descending by leaping from the left side of one stair down to the right side of the stair below it, landing with soft knees. This mimics the side to side motion of skiing.

(6) Power Your power is a function of your strength coupled with your speed. In other words, your ability to produce significant amount of force, quickly. This principle plays an enormous role in skiing. Plyometrics has proven to be the most effective means for developing power. Plyometrics are basically performing one movement pattern that puts a muscle into a stretch and followed immediately by an explosive motion that contracts that same muscle. My favorite, as so many have discovered, jump squats and progressing to box jumps. Start by going into a squat position, your back straight, your hands up, your hips turned out, and lowering yourself down to your heels, keeping your knees behind your toes. Come out of the squat with an explosive force, leaping as high as you can, and landing with soft knees directly into the next squat. Repeating 15 times. Progress by doing the same exercise, but jumping onto a box, and then back off it into the next squat.

(7) Balance Your balance is something that is going to be of obvious benefit to the skier. Specifically for those last few runs of the day when your legs are getting fatigued, and reaction time is slowing. This is when you are most vulnerable to injury. To train your balance, you must be in an environment of high proprioception and instability. BOSU balls work wonderfully for this. Start by standing on the BOSU and doing repetitive squats. The instability of the ball alone will be effective in working on balance. Progress to doing the same thing with one leg. Your foot placed directly in the middle of the BOSU, and doing one legged squats. In addition, have a partner throw medicine ball at you while standing on the BOSE from all angles.

As with all training, your ski conditioning should be fun and exciting. Keep your mind on the goals of the ski season, and you will be able to ski hard all season long and avoid injury. Stay motivated by working with a partner, and don’t hesitate to seek professional guidance to ensure avoidance of injury and optimum training.

Staying Motivated in the new year: How positive energy improves your workouts

Hildebrand Fitness — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:51:00 GMT

President Dwight D Eisenhower, once said that ‘motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it’. In this new year, your motivation will make or break your goals, and the importance of staying positive and focused is essential.

The power of your positive energy on your workout can be profound, and often essential to training efficiently and getting the most out of your time. Leading sports psychologists say that your ‘positive self-talk’ and ‘internal dialogue’ can significantly improve your performance while you are training. Gareth Dutton, a psychologist at Florida State University says the problem is that most people just are not aware of how destructive their thoughts really are. “The thing that precedes your behavior is a thought, and we sometimes aren’t good at getting in touch with our thoughts,” he says. “We’re on autopilot.” Rather than telling yourself that this exercise is too hard, it hurts too much, I am too tired, I’m not getting anywhere, or any negative thought when it comes to exercise, try preceding your exercise with a positive thought and set yourself up for success. Try telling yourself while you are working out, “I feel tired, but I know there is more inside me to give”, “this is tough, but I know I can do this”. That positive self-talk will have profound impacts on your performance not only during your workouts, but also in making the right decisions when it comes to eating a healthy diet.

It can be difficult for beginners to master the skills necessary to adhere to an exercise plan, but give it time. If you can stick it out for six months it begins to become a part of who you are rather than what you do. You will begin to see more results as the weeks go by that will continue to motivate you further. You will begin to see more muscle tone, have more energy, feel stronger and fitter, and even to sleep better and feel more focused at work. Your confidence will begin to increase, and that will motivate you even further to continue to your goals.

Even the most dedicated among us experience dips in our motivation and long for something to relieve the boredom of repetitive training sessions. In fact, sport and exercise psychologists have demonstrated a strong association between boredom and exercise dropout rates. Whatever your performance level, enjoyment is a key motivator for adherence and output during training. Outside sources, known as ergogenic aides, namely music, can be an incredible motivator during your workouts. Recent studies are contributing solid evidence that listening to music can increase your effort and reduce your RPE (rate of perceived exertion). And these days more and more exercisers are turning to music as a source of inspiration that can aid in their performance.

Another aide in getting and staying motivated in the weeks and months ahead is to do some goal setting. Goal setting is a simple, yet often misused source of motivation. People tend to set either a goal towards something (running a half marathon), or away from something (not being lazy and unfit anymore). Setting a negatively enforced goal can be arbitrary and unwise in the long run. Set yourself up for success by being positive from the beginning and setting a goal towards something. Goals give a focus and the key to effective goal setting is the S.M.A.R.T. principle:

· Specific: not just generic, do-your-best type goals.

· Measurable: Your progress needs to be specific and measured, not just arbitrary gains.

· Adjustable: In the case of unexpected gains and improvement the goals can be increased, or in case of injury, they can be decreased.

· Realistic:

· Time frame: If you don't give yourself a specific time frame in which the goal must be achieved, then the urgency for attainment is reduced.

If the SMART principle is followed, you will be heading out on the right foot to reach those goals, and able to remain motivated as you make your progress along the way.

Every one of us has an untapped energy source that can be drawn upon to bring about superior results. Enhancing motivation is fundamentally about a change of attitude, developing a positive mindset and engaging in goal setting that facilitate improvement. Stay positive and focused on this road to improved fitness and performance this year. There will inevitably be ups and downs along the way, but if you stay determined and positive, you will make it happen.

A new year: a new healthier, more fit, more active, and more inspired you

Hildebrand Fitness — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:10:00 GMT

Welcome to 2009. It’s a new year, and like all new years, we are all momentarily inspired to have a fresh start in which we challenge ourselves to lose that weight, and to get in shape. Well, this year is going to be the year that it happens for you. This is the year that you don’t fizzle out by February, and that you stay fired up throughout all of ’09, and finally get to that leaner, fitter, and more active you.

As most of you know, the last few months of ’08, I have been out with an injury that has forced me to focus on other aspects of my life other than being physical and active. It has been hard for me, I won’t lie, but I think in the long run it will have made me a more aware, more rounded person. I’ll definitely have empathy now for my PT clients that I work with. It is not easy, and now I can personally attest. In case you are not aware of what has laid me up for so long, on November 4^th (election night as luck would have it), I was warming up for a volleyball match, doing nothing terribly out of the ordinary. Contrary to what some of you have enjoyed teasing me about, I was practicing what I preach: slow easy warm up, slow static stretching, active warm up. During the active warm up, I stepped forward with my left leg on the first step of my approach to the net, dorsi flexing my right ankle, when there was an audible ‘POP’ at the base of my right calf, and a feeling exactly like I was whacked in the back of my leg with a stick. I went straight down, and knew right away that this was not good. I held out hope all the way to the ER that it was no more than a tear in my calf, but they confirmed what I new, and Achilles tendon rupture. A pretty serious injury considering that it is not only a weight bearing tendon, but the main weight bearing tendon of your body. The largest tendon of your body, your Achilles supports your entire body weight plus the exponential increase in force as you dynamically jump, run, land, pivot, and anything that requires movement of your body basically. In short, in order to recover to your pre injury glory, it takes time, and a lot of it. So after surgery to repair the 95% rupture of the tendon, I was laid up for weeks and weeks immobilized and not allowed (or able) to put any weight on it what so ever; a very hard thing for someone like me to do. Not only not being able to do what I normally do, but also as an independent person, being forced to be dependent on others for virtually everything. It was humbling, but in the long run, I think it will have been very good for me. By the way, I would like to thank all of you came over in my time of need and helped me out. I will forever be indebted for being there for me.

So, in all the exorbitant amount of time I have had the last 6 weeks of 2008, between recovering from my injury, and the biggest snow fall in Seattle in 15 years, I have been planning for what is going to be the best year yet in 2009. Not only am I more fired up than ever about helping everybody reach their goals of getting in better and better shape, but I am more fired up than ever about getting myself back to where I was pre injury, and to be 115% of what I was by the fall if this year. That is affecting not only how hard I want to work myself, but also my excitement level in developing new programs and tools to get everybody more active and in better shape along with me. Hence the updates to my website, and beginning this very blog. With this blog, I want to create a place online where you can come and get solid reliable information about all things health and fitness. I will be writing roughly weekly posts about everything from weight loss, to motivational tactics, to nutrition. There will also be updates on my guided trips to both local destinations in the Cascades and beyond, and also my annual guided adventure travel trips – this year’s being Machu Picchu. This will be an effective forum, where you can have consistent reliable access directly to me. Feel free to make comments on the posts, and ask questions directly to me, or of course you can always send me an email directly. Visit www.hildebrandfitness.com, and check out the Hildebrand Fitness Facebook page as well.

Welcome to the blog and to 2009! This is going to be the greatest year yet!

I look forward to hearing from you, and to getting you to your goals in 2009,

Michael Hildebrand

Welcome

Hildebrand Fitness — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:28:35 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.