Health and Fitness

One thing to focus on before beginning any step-bench related exercise, is to decide, if its secure to let a client perform any program. One may be too heavy, another one may be too weak. Its hard for your body, especially the leg-muscles of course, and especially if you have not done anything exercise related for years, or maybe never.

Remember that you're lifting the total body weight up and down for a given number of seconds or minutes. It's hard on your body, but luckily the body is quick to adapt to physical stress by getting stronger, but only if you give it significant reason to. Don't forget the need for quality sleep and nutrition, though. Without making sleep and nutrition key-components and priorities, you will have a hard time getting to your fitness-goals.

What I will do, if I find that a client needs some conditioning first, she or he will spend more time on the stationary bike, and outside on the football field beginning some light phases of power-walking in intervals.

One example, is that I use it to do push-ups without hurting my wrist, because of an old injury. I simply place my hands on the edge of the bench, so that my hands are making a soft angle. Doing so I can avoid making a L-like positioning of the arm and hand, when the hands are on the ground/floor. When I position my hands like mentioned above, it will take a lot of stress off the wrists. Before my wrist injury I did push-ups as a part of my training program, but I was unlucky during a football-match. I fell awkwardly, resulting in wrist pain.

In late January 2010, I decided to bring back the push up on a regular basis. The move had been absent from my programs for about 2 years. Since implementing my above mentioned variation, I've experienced solid gains over the last months in my chest-exercises. Im almost ready to proceed and do my push-up routine holding my hands on a barbell.

Now back to other types of training using the step bench.

Many of my clients, simply fall in love with this exercise-tool after only a few sessions. I use it mainly for interval cardio training/metabolic resistance training, and it is highly effective. I actually still use it myself with extra weight, either dumb-bells in my hands or supporting a barbell on my shoulders. 15-20 minutes per session is enough, if you train hard and focused, with a strict count of resting-seconds.

Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is high, meaning you will continue to spend calories, for a long time after training. EPOC is an elevated consumption of fuel. In response to exercise, fat stores are broken down and free fatty acids (FFA) are released into the blood. In recovery, the direct oxidation of free fatty acids as fuel and the energy consuming re-conversion of FFA's back into fat stores (a futile cycle) both take place. The EPOC effect is greatest soon after the exercise is completed and decays to a lower level over time. One experiment found EPOC increasing metabolic rate to an excess level that decays to 13% three hours after exercise, and 4% after 16 hours. Another study, specifically designed to test whether the effect existed for more than 16 hours, conducted tests for 48 hours after the conclusion of the exercise and found measurable effects existed up to the 38 hour post-exercise measurement. (Schuenke 2002).

I highly recommend trying some of the above methods, it will surely have an immediate impact on your over-all physical development.

Mr. Henningsen has an educational background in the health-industry, and he works as a nutritional advisor and physical trainer. Mr. Henningsen likes to share his view on different topics concerning exercise and nutrition.