It seems like it’s taken forever, but spring has finally arrived here on the East Coast of the U.S.! I think we can safely put away our snow shovels, the rock salt and pick up the rake, and gas up the lawn mowers. Now that the temperatures are finally staying locked in the 60’s to 80’s we can all soak up that sunshine that’s been hiding out on us since St. Patrick’s Day.

But with all the schools starting commencement practice, and with Memorial Day just a few days away, summer is not that far off. And is your body ready for the beach and all that it has to offer? Or are you going to be hiding it under a t-shirt or worse when you and your friends hit the sand and surf?

Well, there are quite a few among us that might have put off getting to the gym or hitting the pavements early this year because of the cold, wet, snowy conditions that seemed to hang over everyone this year. But you can still pull off a pretty good-looking presence once the volleyball nets get strung and the shoes get swapped out for a pair of flip-flops. Here below are a few exercises and tips that can give that body of yours a little definition. After all, we don’t want anyone kicking sand on your beach towel now do we?

Getting fit and toned requires the right balance of weights, cardio, and the right nutrition, to get your body working correctly in order to tone and shed that extra fat that you’ve grown accustomed with over the winter and sloppy spring months! Studies have found that incorporating into your fitness routines, strength training, it can have your metabolism working overtime, instead of just doing cardio all by itself.

A study at West Virginia University supports this. They found that people that incorporated a regular regimen of lifting weights, peeled off an average of 14.5 kg and watched their metabolisms speed up by 4 percent. The reason for this? Well, the more you incorporate weight training, the more calories you'll burn during everything you do. Lifting your coffee mug or watching your favorite show suddenly becomes more productive as you burn fat for free.

The people in the study who did just aerobic exercise, such as running, lost more weight, on a faster scale, but that also included four kilograms of muscle. Consequently, their metabolisms slowed down by an average of 14 percent. In the future, they'll have more trouble keeping the weight off, if they slack off on the amount of running they do in a week/month. The key to successfully losing the dead weight, which we call fat can be avoided if you build muscle, along with the cardio.

Keeping track of this crunch-time fitness activity can be a challenge without the help of a good activity tracker/monitor and one that also tracks your heart rate can be very beneficial when you're looking at the stats to see where you're improving and where your not hitting your mark.

One that I like and keeps me on track with my fitness goals is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch  It not only tracks various kinds of cardio exercises like running, (It has a great GPS, built right in) but it also is waterproof, so swimming laps is a no-brainer. And with its multiple performance features and the benefit of having a wrist-based heart rate monitor, you can plot just how well you're doing using the data calculated from your VOC max estimate, and lactate threshold.

Again, this is nothing but a tool, albeit a great tool for helping you get that body of yours in shape in time to feel confident as you walk the beach.

Now, It's Crunch Time!
The whole idea of this type of training, is to combine a weight regimen routine along with your regular cardiovascular sessions, just break out two-three days a week to add in the weight training, and in no time, you should start to see a faster reduction in your weight, while seeing the results of a more toned body frame.

You'll combine these lifting workouts with short, sharp interval training sessions. Research at Laval University found this burns fat, up to three times faster than exercising at the same pace.

This three-pronged attack is a surefire way to earn you more muscle and less fat. Repeat this workout 3-5 times per week to keep building muscle and burning fat, or alternate between the workouts listed below.

WORKOUT PRACTICES:
Choose a weight that's 80 percent of the most weight you can push or press just once.
Do just one set of every exercise using 8-12 reps.
When you can do 12 reps, add 5 percent more weight.
Take four seconds to raise the weight and four seconds to lower it.
If the routine takes more than 45 minutes, you're taking way too long.
Do 3-4 workouts per week, leaving a day's rest between each one. This is your light running day!
If you want to do cardio, do it after lifting to burn more fat.  But monitor your stats so you don't push yourself over your limits!
Don't rest between sets. The setup time for a new exercise is enough.
Push out the reps until your muscles fail and cry for mercy.
Use perfect form for all exercises to avoid injury.  

Recommended Weight-Related Exercises:
BARBELL SQUAT
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL DEADLIFT
1 set of 8-12 reps
SEATED LEG CURL
1 set of 8-12 reps
SEATED CABLE ROWS
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL BENCH PRESS - MEDIUM GRIP
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL SHOULDER PRESS
1 set of 8-12 reps
PARALLEL BAR DIP
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL CURL
1 set of 8-12 reps
SIT-UP
1 set of 8-12 reps

Remember, you’re going through this fitness routine, in order to get your body beach ready in a short amount of time. Once you reach the level of muscle tone and weight to mass ratio, that you’re looking for. Then slack off a bit and get back into your regular cardio/running routines, if that is your main fitness passion. Just remember to work in at least two days a week of weights, at a lesser pace and weight amount than we recommended above, just so you keep those muscles you've worked so hard on to tone up these past few weeks, in the same great shape!

 * If you search YouTube, for the above weight training exercises, you will be able to see the correct posture and stance that you need to maintain in order to not only do the exercise correctly but to avoid injuring yourself!

Than Your Fitness Watch Should Be ON Your Wrist, NOT Left In A Drawer!

I know, most everyone from time to time has tried to get on the fitness treadmill. But there always seems to be something that takes you off that healthy track and into the “Jungle of Guilt” where you’ve labored for a while, even though your intentions were good, you slipped over to the “Dark Side” of eating those “Fatty Foods” again and seeing yourself entering the movie theater instead of going inside your gym.

Some of us have used incentives to motivate ourselves into getting healthy by purchasing the latest and greatest fitness watch, aka… Activity Monitor. Sure, you made sure it has all the bells and whistles, even has a heart rate monitor too, cause you’re gonna make sure you're working out to your fullest.

But you soon find out that even the best fitness monitors are like gym memberships. In the beginning, their shiny, new and you like showing it off as you work out, especially when you're amongst your fellow “Grunters and Sweaters” at the gym. Then, three months later you find that the novelty wears off and you realize that you haven't developed the body of a chiseled athlete and bit by bit you're visits to the gym are getting less frequent.

Well, you’re not alone, there are stats out there that show that most people, who make the purchase of an activity monitor whether it be a Gamin, or a Fitbit,  or some other popular fitness device, actually stop using them within the first 6 months!

So, how do you fix it so that you’re not one of the fitness wannabe’s out there that has their fitness watch laying alongside their old Timex? The answer is really simple. It’s all about what you want and your commitment to getting there. You need to approach your new fitness tracker, no matter the brand, (Naturally we like the two Brands we’ve spotlighted named above) with the right mindset!

Remember, just because you've strapped a tracker onto your wrist, doesn't mean you're going to get fit. What you've got here is a tool, and if used correctly, it can be a great, even life changing tool to aid you in staying motivated.

But if you asked us for our own personal favorite, we think the Garmin Forerunner 920XT Multisport GPS Watch  fits our purpose, quite nicely. It’s a multi-function activity tracker, so whether you run, bike, walk, jog or even swim laps or take a dive out in the ocean. This activity tracker does just what it says it will do. Track your Activity, period! It also monitors your running dynamics, which includes tracking your cadence, vertical oscillation and ground contact time. Yep, we are talking an advance tool but also one that can easily be worn during your workday, or social outing because it looks great on your wrist!

But this activity watch, like any other tracking device, Is NOT a replacement for your own desire to succeed. You may have been thinking about getting in shape for months or even years but you simply did nothing about it. You may have even made multiple attempts before this to get in shape, even purchasing other exercise devices to help get you there. Just like the rowing machine, set of free weights or that yoga mat you bought, but the reality is, if you don't interact with it and use it, it won't help! If you accept from the outset that the hard work and a lifestyle change is still down to you, you'll have more success.

Most fitness trackers come with preset step goals. Your current lifestyle might mean you can hit these targets with ease. But we all know doing what you've always done isn't going to bring about the change you're looking for. Use the tracker for a week and see how you compare and then change the targets to be more demanding.

At the same time make a list of the times during your day when you realistically have the opportunity to add in more steps. This will help you understand where you might need to make bigger changes for greater impact.

Challenge yourself or Ramp up your daily activities. Once you've made your list, it's time to work out how to change your behavior. One big problem with fitness trackers is that they'll sit there recording what you do all day but won't actually have any effect on your daily habits. One way to change that is to create micro targets during the day. Walk more steps on the way to work or at lunch.
Challenge yourself to walk at least 100 steps per hour. These small targets and goals help you focus during the day rather than just drifting to the an-end-of-day total.
In order to boost fitness and stay healthy, it's important to avoid being sedentary for long periods of time. Worse than that, sitting for long periods of time can actually increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. So if you’re like a lot of us, you spend your days sitting at a desk only getting up for lunch and the occasional coffee or heaven forbid a soda, diet or regular,  please note, both are NOT good for you, so, this is one habit to change.

Moving for five minutes every hour has been proven to aid overall wellbeing and fend off some of the bad habits mentioned above. Many of the latest fitness trackers including those from Garmin and Fitbit come with handy reminders. Make sure these are set to on and don't ignore them. Use your hourly strolls away from your desk as an excuse to go get a drink of water for a healthy double dose of good.

The bottom line on all of this is, the activity monitor of your choice, (we’ve picked our favorite lines above) are meant to make you aware of your progress, or lack thereof, in order for you to improve your health. But you need to accept the fact that you are responsible for YOU.

At HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com, we are here for you to help you achieve a life goal of being healthy. Feel free to send us an email, to let us know we are helping you in changing up your lifestyle habits. We hope WE ARE!

Your friends in attaining good health. The staff here at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com.