Victoria Wellness Professionals

The inverted row is, for most people, one of the most challenging exercises they will perform in the gym. This exercise requires a tremendous amount of upper body strength as well as core stabilization.

Primary muscles involved with this exercise are the lats, trapezius, rhomboids and biceps. Core strength is also tested in keeping the body in a straight line position. This is not an exercise for the beginner to try. Feet on a block or ball is the most advanced version of this exercise. Start with feet on the floor and go for perfect technique first.

Common faults seen with this exercise are: leading with the head or chin, allowing the hips to sag and shrugging of the shoulders.

You should strive to keep the head aligned and the neck neutral. Squeeze your glutes and try not to allow your hips to drop as you lower yourself to arm length. Keep the shoulder blades pulled back and down. Strive to get your chest as close to the bar as possible.

Next time in the gym, if not already, give this most difficult back exercise a whirl.

Please add your comments to the bottom.

Narina

Uncategorized back, back strength, exercise, rowing

This exercise, called a Diagonal Plate Raise, is an excellent exercise to increase mobility or movement through the upper back (thoracic spine). Thoracic mobility is important to all of us to keep our lumbar and cervical spines healthy. When performing this please ensure that your hips or lumbar spine do not rotate; keep hips square to the front. Make sure you follow the plate with your eyes so you are not twisting your neck. This can be done for 6-8 repetitions for 3 sets on each side.

For more information on joint mobility and how it affects how everyday lives or our enjoyment of sports (golf, etc), please sign up for our newsletter and I would be happy to send you the free article.

Please leave a comment; did you find this article/video helpful/interesting?

Narina

Uncategorized exercise, flexibility, golf, joint mobility, narina prokosch, sports, thoracic mobility

A friend of mine sent me this video and it was so moving I had to share with you. We all have challenges in life, some more than others. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with some clients that have faced amazing adversity, overcome huge challenges and have done so with a contagious positive attitude.

If I ever start to feel sorry for myself and some of the challenges life has thrown at me, I think of these two particular ladies I worked with several years ago, go forward with a positive outlook and think instead of how incredibly lucky I am. I have my health, I have a wonderful husband who I love dearly, two hilarious pug dogs that keep me lauging daily as well as a successful career and business. How can one ask for more?

So, I invite you to watch this video (you may need to cut and paste to your browser). You may want a kleenex handy. The video title is “Are You Going to Finish Strong”

http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

I invite any comments.

Narina

Uncategorized adversity, career, life

I was a little tired this morning. Late evening at the gym last night and up early this morning. I wanted a quick and kick butt workout this morning. A workout that moved fast from exercise to exercise so I didn’t have time to think about being tired. So, this little dumbbell circuit filled the bill. We use this often at our gym. After a good warm up, clients will usually go through this workout three times before we move on to core work and some sled to finish off. Give it a try. Make sure you are well warmed up. At our gym, we use a series of mobility drills followed by some walking lunges and push ups. All exercises are for 8 repetitions. Go through entire circuit; rest 45 seconds and repeat 2-3x. Okay, here goes:

DB squats
Bench DB Press
DB Lunges
Bench One Arm DB Row
Step Ups with DB
Push Ups
DB Reverse Lunges
DB Single Leg Deadlift or DB Romanian Deadlift

Give it a try. Let me know how you did. For more information on our mobility drills and dynamic warm ups, send me a comment to this blog and I will be happy to forward our warm up regime to you.

Also, sign up for our newsletter. Our latest newsletter deals specifically with mobility vs flexibility – what’s the difference.

Have fun,
Narina

Uncategorized exercise, flexibility, lunges, mobility, rowing, squats, workout

Just finished my morning workout:

Turkish Get Ups x 3
KB Swings (16 kg) 225 in 10 minutes (longest run 50)
Bicep/Tricep arm blast 5 sets of 5 reps
Sled Push/Pull – 40 yds x 4 sets

Great start to the day. Now ready to face our extremely motivated and fit clients!

Narina

Uncategorized biceps, kettlebell, sled work, training, workout

As I was lying in bed this morning listening to the news on the radio, a short interview with a Nutritionist was playing. It made me think that in this newsletter I would just like to share some comments/news related to health and wellness. Here goes:

The interview with the Nutritionist was focussed on portion control. Her comment was that besides choosing the right foods to eat, it was just as important to control the amount of food you are eating. You can be eating all the right foods, but if you eat too much your weight loss/weight control plans will not be successful. This is always so evident to me everytime I travel to the U.S. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of food the restaurants pile on your plate. One entree can easily serve two people. You would be safe to divide your meal in half right away and no, no asking for doggie bags either.

In 2006, I attended a Conference at UVIC. One of the presenters was Len Kravitz, PhD. Dr. Kravitz is the Program Director of Exercise Science at the U. of New Mexico. He is a highly sought after speaker across Canada and the U.S. Dr. Kravitz’ area of expertise is metabolism and weight loss. These are a few of his comments from that lecture:

NEAT = Non-exercise activity thermogensis; part of daily activity thermogenesis

New research on NEAT – Fidgeters expend 352 addition kcals/day. This is good new for all those of you who “can’t sit still”. Just walking around or standing when on the phone will burn additional calories!

RMR = Resting metabolic rate (60-75% of energy)

Your RMR is a figure of what your body uses in way of energy at rest. All you body’s vital organs and muscle are in need of energy just to survive. Skeletal muscle is 40% of the human body and contains 50-75% of all proteins in the body. RMR of muscle = 15-25 kcal/kg/day and amounts to 20-25% of your daily energy expenditures. As you can see muscle is a very active tissue, which is why as fitness professionals we stress resistance training in all weight loss programs.

60% of your RMR is from liver, kidney, heart and brain. These organs’ metabolic rate is 15-40 times of the equivalent rate in muscle.

To calculate your RMR:

Women: Wt (kg) x .9 x 24 = ______
Men: Wt (kg) x 1.0 x 24 = _____

One of the discussions that Dr. Kravitz brought up was the amount of exercise needed to make significant changes in body composition and how you can accomplish this is short bouts:

“Accumulate time of exercise (cardio work) is just an beneficial as long workouts. Best results are seen with accumulation of 200-280 minutes per week. This can be accomplished in as little at 10 minute bouts.

One study that followed 150 women/132 men for 5 years after their initial weight loss showed that all of these individuals were successful in keeping their weight off for 5 year and they all did consistent cardiovascular workouts of 200-280 minutes per week.”

So, we can take away a few important notes from the above comments: Eat smaller portions, short bouts of cardio are just as effective, and consistency is king.

Narina

Uncategorized aerobics, cario, exercise, metabolic rate, muscle, nutrition, portions, weight loss

After my morning kettlebell workout, I did a short video of three exercises.  The first exercise is the Turkish Sit Up – use a light weight to start this one.  Make sure the straight leg stays on the floor; do not let the foot rise off.  Keep the arm straight up toward the ceiling and when in the sit up position, keep the arm close to your head with bicep close to ear.  When returning to the floor do not let the arm drift back over your head.  Do about 6-8 repetitions and change sides.

The second exercise is the Renegade Row – a good core training exercise as well as the row.  Make sure your shoulders are directly over the dumbbells when you start.  Your feet should be about shoulder width apart.  Keep your hips down and try not to sway side to side when rowing.  Alternate sides for about 8 repetitions.

The third exercise is the Bulgarian Squat with Overhead Press – an excellent thigh burner and core exercise.  Position back foot on block or bench.  Front foot should be out far enough to ensure the shin is straight when dropping into the squat.  Hold the dumbbells on your shoulders.  Drop down into the squat.  At the bottom, perform the OH press.  Return weights to shoulders and rise up.  Perform 6 reps and switch sides.

Try these exercises if you are looking for some variety in your workouts.  Keep the weights light enough until you master the form.

Have fun.  Contact me if you have any questions.

Uncategorized dumbbells, exercise, kettlebells, rowing, situps, squats

This was sent to me by a client. Just fun; don’t get hooked now.

How good is your geography??

http://www.minijuegosgratis.com/juegos/hwdykyworld/hwdykyworld.html?a456=c6ba

Narina

Uncategorized

This article was sent to me by a client. It is from Reuters. Very interesting. Please have a read.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE50863H20090109?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

Narina

Uncategorized exercise, fitness, obesity, overweight

Our local newspaper just happened to print an article today on Breakfast and it’s importance. To read this article, go to the following link:

http://www.timescolonist.com/health/diet-fitness/healthy+breakfast+keep+weight/1091532/story.html

I also had done a newsletter for our group this morning. I have included that article below:

There used to be a cereal commercial on T.V. I can’t remember which specific cereal it was, but their tag line was “Breakfast of Champions”. The commercials and the cereal box usually had a picture of some Olympic or professional athlete. Naturally they wanted to imply that the pictured athlete used their breakfast cereal and of course it may be responsible for their athletic performance.

Their thinking wasn’t far off. Breakfast is indeed the the meal of champions. First and foremost it is the most important meal of the day. Research has shown that successful weight loss programs always begin with a well balanced breakfast. If you think about it, you are fasting when you are asleep at night. Your first task of the day should be to get the furnace started, and the furnace will not burn without fuel.

So, now the question – what does constitute a good breakfast. What should I eat? Well, this is a good time to clear your mind of the old standard breakfast. There is no rule that says breakfast has
to contain eggs or cereal. In fact, breakfast does not need to be much different that any of your other meals throughout the day. You need to change your way of looking at breakfast. Meats such as turkey sausage, turkey bacon as well as vegetables such as spinach, broccoli or cauliflower can also be used as a kick start for the furnace.

Breakfast needs to contain three vital ingredients – protein, carbohydrates and good fats. It is your choice, as long as it is a healthy choice, what you prepare for breakfast.

Here are a few suggestions for breakfast:

1 chicken sausage, 1 cup cooked broccoli, 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Hard boiled egg and yogurt mixed with real fruit

2 eggs, 1 cup steamed cauliflower, 2 tsp flaxseed oil over the cauliflower

1 whole egg, 2 egg white – make into omelet with spinach

There are several sources on the web that provide excellent nutritional information. A couple sites you can look at are:

www.precisionnutrition.com – John Berardi

www.ProvenFatLossDiet.com – Isabel De Los Rios. A couple of the
meal plans above are from her.

www.sparkpeople.com – a site submitted by one of our clients

Please be selective where you gather your information and feel free to talk with me about any information you come across on the web.

So, if you are already eating a healthy breakfast, good for you! If you are skipping this meal, now is the time to make some changes. If you are trying to lose weight, this is Step #1 in your weight loss plan.

We are all Champions, so let’s start eating like Champions.

Till next time,
Narina

Uncategorized breakfast, exercise, Health Links, nutrition, weight loss