Discover the right way to exercise Hi, my name is Jimmy Cuneo! Here s a little bit about me Having trained and coached martial arts for over 30 years, I am extremely passionate about training and teaching my clients. I firmly believe that all of the wonderful benefits and outcomes from training in the martial arts start with the trainer and the environment. After all, you can have all the knowledge in the world and the best system to teach, but if people don t enjoy the training or get the results they want, then you won t come back. I believe that desire and enjoyment trump discipline nearly every time, and my goal is to create a fun, challenging, positive training environment so that my clients can t help but want to come back again and again. I do this by providing training that meets your specific needs and goals, challenges you physically and mentally, and by setting an environment that is FUN and free from negative stress above all else. In short, I know that my clients are a lot like me, so by creating the kind of training environment that I myself want to be in, I know that I m also setting up the best environment for my clients to thrive. I ve come to these conclusions about training from my experiences learning a variety of martial arts with a variety of world-class instructors over the past 40+ years. Before we delve into how YOU should be training, let s first look at what you shouldn t be doing
The WRONG way to exercise Low intensity The best way stay fat is to train at a low intensity. Basically, your body is powered by 3 different energy systems or fuel tanks. Which one it uses depends on the intensity of the workout you are doing. The largest tank is the aerobic energy system and the fuel it supplies is oxygen and body fat. Exercising at a low intensity (less than 7 on a scale of 1-10) will keep your body in the aerobic system. This may sound like a great way to 'burn' fat - but too much low intensity exercise actually has the opposite effect. That's because your body is very clever at adapting. The more low intensity aerobic exercise you do the more body fat it needs to fuel the demands of those workouts. AVOID: Low intensity aerobic exercise - it actually causes your body to store fat! Training muscles Back in the 1980's body builders figured out that muscles grow bigger when they are stimulated and then rested. So they created impractical exercises to train muscles in isolation in order to train some while resting others. This worked, but it had a lot of drawbacks: It required a lot of planning, training multiple times a day and many, many hours in the gym. Some years later, we discovered that the size of their muscles had more to do with the drugs they injected rather than the way they trained. We now know that training muscles in isolation is simply a waste of time. AVOID: Exercises that isolate muscles such as bicep curls and leg presses High-Repetitions at low resistance Muscles are made up of two types of fibre: fast twitch and slow twitch. Fast twitch muscle fibres contract quickly, generate power and have capacity to grow. They are the ones responsible for giving our bodies the nice firm shape we look for. Slow twitch contract slowly and are used to help us endure long periods of work at low intensity. Performing exercises with loads light enough that you can do more than 5-10 repetitions (reps) in a set will only train the slow twitch muscle fibres. Ignore fast twitch and your body starts to lose its natural curves and shape. AVOID: High repetitions at light loads
Using machines Machines that use elaborate cable and pulley systems were designed to isolate muscles. Gyms are filled with these useless contraptions that do nothing to improve the way you move. Today, we already sit down far more than we need to and this leads to movement dysfunctions that cause chronic injuries such as low back and knee pain. AVOID: Machines with cable and pulley systems that you must sit down in to operate. Long periods on the treadmill, rower or cross trainer Training for time intervals longer than 2 to 3 minutes means using the aerobic energy system and slow twitch muscles fibres. Too much of this type of training causes your body to turn 'skinny-fat'. The more you do it, the skinnier and fatter you will become. AVOID: steady state training The results of exercising the WRONG way. Don't let this happen to you!
The RIGHT way to exercise High intensity When we raise the intensity of the work we do, the energy system and fuel source changes from aerobic (oxygen and body fat) to anaerobic (glycogen and adenosine triphosphate) The fuel tanks for these anaerobic energy systems actually live inside your muscle cells and the fuel is only released when the intensity of your workout goes beyond 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. The body can replenish the fuel tanks in the muscle cells from its reserve supplies stored in the liver - but this requires a short period of rest to happen. Alternating periods of high intensity exercise with short rest periods during your workout triggers an interesting metabolic effect. In the 24hrs following your interval workout, your body replenishes its fuel supplies by converting excess body fat to glycogen and ATP 3 - ready to power your next high intensity interval workout. ACTION: Alternate time intervals of high intensity bursts of work with short rest periods Natural full-body movements Our bodies were designed to move as a unit. Training movements instead of muscles develops full-body strength and coordination and will improve the way you move and feel. Select natural movements that require all the muscles in your body to activate and fire at one time. This is not only timeefficient. It will improve your posture and train you to move faster and more effectively. ACTION: Exercise natural movements such as lifting, pushing and pulling Low-Repetitions at high resistance Stimulating the fast twitch muscle fibres will cause them to grow and fill your body out in all the right places. Men tend to develop broad shoulders and big legs while ladies become firm, curvy and toned. Fast twitch muscle fibres respond best to weights or resistance that you can only lift for a maximum of 5 to 10 reps at a time. ACTION: Go heavy or go home when it comes to weight training (and use free weights not machines)
Use your own bodyweight Explosive exercises such as sprinting, jumping and throwing are perfect for those short, intense bursts of work required to stimulate fast-twitch muscle and raise the intensity of your workout into the anaerobic energy systems. Moving fast against the force of gravity can increase the resistance by up to ten times your bodyweight - making you stronger and increasing your capacity to lift heavy loads. ACTION: Choose plyometric bodyweight exercises Short sprints Running faster for shorter periods (between 10s and 2 minutes) is far more effective than slow, steady state jogging. Same goes for rowing, crosstraining and cycling. To prove how effective this is, look at a sprinter compared to a marathon runner. Which body type would you prefer? ACTION: High intensity interval workouts reduce fat and build muscle How you train affects the shape of your body. Train like a sprinter, not a marathon runner
Summary THE RIGHT WAY TO TRAIN THE WRONG WAY TO TRAIN high intensity intervals low to moderate intensity for long periods full-body, natural movements training muscles instead of movements low-reps at high resistance high-reps at low resistance plyometric bodyweight exercises using cable and pulley machines short sprints on sand or up hills steady state running on a treadmill RESULT: HARD, TONED & CURVY BODY RESULT: SKINNY, FAT & CELLULITE BODY INVITATION You're Invited to a FREE "Workout Planning" Session with Hoover Fitness Expert Jimmy Cuneo... This coming Wednesday 5:00pm at Eden Ridge Circle, Hoover Give your current gym routine a complete makeover and start a brand new program that you design yourself Experience how different drills and exercises do different things to your body You ll leave the session with a brand new workout routine, a big smile on your face, and the confidence to know that all the hard work you put into training yourself in future will not be wasted RSVP https://www.bamagym.com/free-workout-planning-session/
When Jimmy Cuneo was in his pre adolescence age he was a bullied fat kit headed for trouble always looking for a better way to look and feel better. It was at the Westbury Police Atheletic League on Long Island, where he first established a passion for the sport of boxing, and for fitness in general. After he joined the Police Athletic Club in his early teens, Jimmy started training daily at the Gym. Later on Jimmy Joined the Army and continued his Boxing training and later became enthralled with Martial Arts. Jimmy has been coaching since his twenties. He wants to help everyday people and athletes, of all levels, improve their game. "There s a right way and a wrong way to exercise. Get it wrong and you are simply wasting your time at the gym" -Jimmy Cuneo