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Stew Smith is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a former Navy SEAL, and author of several fitness and self defense books such as The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness, and Maximum Fitness. As a military fitness trainer, Stew has trained hundreds of students for Navy SEAL, Special Forces, Air Force PJ, Ranger Training, and other physical law enforcement professions. His eBooks at Military.com can help you achieve your fitness goals, whether you're a beginner or an expert. For more info on his books, visit the Military.com eBook Fitness Store. View the Smith Archives
This week's Ask Stew Column is in the form of an article developed
out of several of the emails concerning running, burning calories,
and measuring body fat percentage. These questions all had a common
theme - How do I run, keep burning calories, and not get fat during
the winter months? I know that running is difficult outside due to
snow and ice, and staying inside and eating more food is becoming
a dangerous habit for many people, but there are options.
As far as getting out of the cold, treadmills, stationary bikes and
indoor pools are a big favorite, not only during the winter but year
round. Doing 15-30 minutes a day on these indoor machines will keep
you in fighting shape during the winter months. But, if you do not
have access to am indoor training facility, try jumping rope or jumping
jacks to get the heart pumping, and then mix the calisthenics leg
exercises listed below for a challenging cardio and resistance training
workout.
Exercising your legs is very often overlooked by even the most avid
weight lifters and exercisers. Many people simply cannot and should
not perform some of the more basic leg exercises like squats and lunges
due to knee and lower back injuries. But, that does not mean you have
to neglect the pillars of our bodies' foundation. Doing leg workouts
not only make your legs stronger and able to support your body better,
but you will actually burn more calories in your workouts by incorporating
a leg routine.
Since your lower body has the biggest muscles in your body, by exercising
the thighs, hamstrings, calves, lower back and glutes (rump), you
can actually kick-start your metabolism and burn more calories with
the following quick, but challenging leg workouts. You will find that
leg workouts also have a cardiovascular element to them. Once again,
this is because these muscles require so much more blood, so the heart
will beat more to supply new blood to the lower body.
The exercises:
Squats
Keep
your feet shoulder width apart. Drop your butt back as though sitting
in a chair. Concentrate on squeezing your glutes in your upward motion.
Keep your heels solid on the ground. Grab some dumbbells to make it
more challenging and only do a half squat to place less strain on
your knees. An alternate exercise for squats is the leg extension
machine.
The Lunge
The lunge is a great leg exercise to develop shape and flexibility.
Keep your chest up straight and your stomach tight. Take a long step
forward and drop your back knee toward the ground but keep the front
shin vertical - do not over extend. Want to make it more of a challenge?
Grab some dumbbells. Make it easier on your knees by only going down
half way. An alternate exercise for lunges is the leg curl machine.
(If you have injured knees - you may want to skip this one.)
These two exercises work the largest muscles of the body - the butt
and the legs. By exercising these muscles you will speed up your metabolism
and therefore burn more calories throughout the day.
The workout:
Warmup bike, walk or run for 5:00
Stretch Repeat the following three times:
1. Squats- 20 reps
2. Lunges - 10 reps/leg
3. Bike, jog or walk - 5:00
You will find leg workouts to be challenging and you may be quite
sore the following day. Do not neglect your post-exercise stretch
routine and you will be much less sore. Do legs 2-3 times a week and
rest your legs 2-3 days before another leg workout. On days that you
do not do leg calisthenics, try to bike, walk, or run, and stretch
well in order to break up the soreness of the leg workout the day
before.
P.S. - You will burn at least 200% more calories by adding leg PT
to your walk or jog. To see how much body fat is on your frame check
out the body fat calculator using the same criteria as the Navy
Circumference Test.
Workouts and exercises like these along with tips to passing any PFT
are located in the Military.com
Fitness eBook Store. Check it out.
Send in your emails to stew@stewsmith.com
- next week I will answer several emails as part of the column. Even
if you are not in the column, I will answer the question or direct
you to the answer. The above workout is from many of the eBooks listed
on the Military.com Fitness ebook Store.
Keep
your feet shoulder width apart. Drop your butt back as though sitting
in a chair. Concentrate on squeezing your glutes in your upward motion.
Keep your heels solid on the ground. Grab some dumbbells to make it
more challenging and only do a half squat to place less strain on
your knees. An alternate exercise for squats is the leg extension
machine.
