Are you participating in indoor cycling or spinning classes? Are you over the age of 35 or just a fan of classic rock? Here are five great classic rock songs that are perfect for your next class…

Indoor cycling classes, often called spinning classes, are becoming more and more popular group fitness options. Not only are they low impact, but they provide an excellent cardio workout in a fun, motivational setting.

Of course, the music plays a big part in the enthusiasm level. Chances are, if you like the songs, you’ll work harder and gain more benefit from the class. Most instructors have a programmed set list, but they are always agreeable to suggestions. And if you’re not a techno or hip hop music fan, you’ll be happy to know there are several tried and true classic rock stalwarts that are perfect for an indoor cycling routine.

In no particular order, here’s our list of the top five classic rock songs for cycling classes:

“Crossroads” by Cream: The driving beat and brilliant musicianship of Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, and Eric Clapton, collectively known as Cream, really vault this four minute classic into overdrive. Clapton’s guitar solos at the 1:30 and 2:35 minute marks make ideal “push aheads”. “Crossroads” is a perfect choice for the middle section of class when effort level is nearing its peak.

“Train Kept A’ Rolling” by Aerosmith: Thumping bass guitar and a mid tempo beat make this song a great choice for a seated hill climb. Catch the beat with a moderate resistance level and your heart rate will surely be kept a’ rolling.

“China Grove” by The Doobie Brothers: Everyone knows this Doobie Brothers song, so it’s a good warm up choice to get everyone in the grove, err, groove. Lively, energetic, and long enough to really warm up the legs.

“Fire” by Jimi Hendrix: This Hendrix classic is perfect for sprints. The guitar solos and chorus sections are reasonably brief interludes for four sprints of almost equal duration.

“Do You Feel Like We Do” by Peter Frampton: The ultimate “Can I make it to the end of this song?” choice. The live marathon version can be used for a combination of standing and seated climbs, flat road work, and just about anything else for that matter. It’s every bit of 14 minutes long, so it’s a challenge for sure, but hey, who doesn’t like to sing along with Frampton and that mouth harp?

So, for a welcome break from pop songs and techno, ask your instructor to slip in one of these classic rock standards into your next indoor cycling class routine. You’ll be certain to feel young again!

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Throughout our lives, we have all heard that aerobic exercise is good for us. It does not matter how old you are, what you weigh, or how athletic you might be (or not). The bottom line is that aerobic exercise helps us to live longer, healthier lives. So why do not more of us do it on a regular basis?

Excuses, Excuses

We are all guilty of it. Making excuses to justify the reasons why we can not exercise is something we do almost automatically, and with the busy schedules most of us have, our excuses sound pretty legitimate. We have all said at one time or another that we are too busy, we have to work late or it is just too hard to get up an hour earlier each morning when we already suffer from lack of sleep.

Children, spouses, work, errands, chores, and a host of other commitments and obligations all conspire to keep us from doing something that is vitally important for maintaining our health and fitness.

When you consider, however, that all it takes is 30 minutes a day, four days each week to keep ourselves fit and healthy, it makes it much more difficult to keep coming up with those excuses.

How to get the Exercise you need

The first thing you need to do is find an aerobic activity that you enjoy. Walking, jogging, swimming, and cycling are the most popular aerobic exercises. For most people, walking or jogging are the easiest since they do not require any special equipment and they can pretty much be done anywhere that you have room to move.

You will need a good pair of athletic shoes, but this is really the only investment you will need to make to get started with your new activity. To make sure that you have the time to exercise at least four times each week, plan your schedule ahead of time. Even if it means that you have to write out a schedule in your day planner, pencil in at least 30 minutes during times of the day that will work best for you.

How Aerobic Exercise Benefits You

• It helps you fight off a variety of chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and osteoporosis. Research has also shown that regular aerobic exercise helps to prevent cancer.
• Aerobic activity also helps us to manage our weight. If you are worried about your weight, or you just want to make sure that you do not start putting on extra pounds, aerobic exercise is the single best thing you can do for your body.
• If you often have difficulty sleeping, regular exercise can help you to get a better night’s sleep. When we sleep well throughout the night, our productivity and concentration levels are vastly improved. Do not exercise too close to your bedtime, however, or your increased energy levels will actually keep you awake.
• Can you believe that exercise can actually make you happier? It is true. When we exercise, chemicals in our brain are stimulated that make us feel more relaxed and happy. The end result of this can lead to increased self-esteem and elevated confidence. Exercise can also help to prevent depression.

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As the number of people being over-weight has risen due to many reasons such as bad eating habits or lack of exercise, more and more companies are seeking to offer quick fix solutions to the marketplace. We see a lot of attractive advertisements for weight loss pills, surgeries and fad diets every day.

However, many people fail to realize that although these methods help, such methods should only be part of their weight loss efforts. Losing weight successfully and maintaining a healthy body definitely requires exercises. And among the many types of exercises, aerobic exercises are among the most recommended by fitness instructors. Not only will these exercises help you lose weight, they will allow you to stay healthy and feel energized as well.

Aerobic exercises will help you lose unwanted fats and keep your body healthy and energized through increasing your intake of oxygen. Aerobic exercises have three basic parts – the warm up, intense exercise and cooling down. The warm-up part involves stretching to prepare the muscles for the strenuous activity that will follow. The last part of the routine is the cooling down to relax your muscles.

Among the many activities that promote physical fitness, aerobic exercises are the most appreciated and recommended by fitness instructors. Aerobic exercises offer many benefits. They help increase the circulation of the blood and oxygen in our body. They tone those muscles and help you get rid of unwanted fats. And the best thing about aerobic exercises is that you can do such exercises in the comfort of your home. Just wear light clothes and a good pair of comfortable shoes and play up-beat music and you can start doing the drills.

Fitness experts recommend that aerobic exercises be done at a moderate rate. They also recommend the following aerobics exercises:

• Dance Aerobics- It is a combination of graceful dance routines and rhythmic aerobic steps. It strengthens and tightens your muscles and at the same time helps you lose excess body fat. It is considered as one of the easiest aerobic exercises that can be enjoyed by people from all ages. Since dance aerobics can include intense jumping, you may want to do warm up exercises for 15 minutes or so before dance aerobics. Variations in your dance steps as well as your routines make this exercise more fun.

• Running- It is one of the best forms of exercise because it helps burn fat fast. It helps in increasing oxygen intake and thus, increases blood circulation. If you haven’t done running exercises before, begin with jogging a few rounds in the first few days. And once your body has adjusted, start running a few lapses. Make sure that you are wearing running shoes that fit perfectly to avoid any leg injuries.

• Stair climbing- It allows you to develop the muscles in the lower part of your body, including the hamstrings, calf and hip flexors. For this exercise, you can make use of machines, such as the Stairmaster 4000 PT, the ClimbMax or the Versa Climber, if you do not have the regular stairs. Try to keep your balance with the right posture and as much as possible, avoid using the handrails.

All these aerobic exercises will help keep your body healthy and in good shape. Such exercises also keep your weight in check and make you feel energized every day.

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Heart rate is a much discussed aspect of cardio vascular training, weight loss and fitness. I get a lot of questions about it as it pertains to fitness and weight loss. The questions covered here are some of the ones I hear frequently on the topic.

What is resting heart rate? Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you art at rest. As you become more fit, your resting heart rate will decrease. This is because a fit, healthy heart is strong and more efficient. Therefore it needs fewer beats to circulate the blood. A good number for this would be in the 70’s. Athletes others who are very fit can get it even lower.

What is max heart rate? This is the maximum beats per minute your heart is capable of beating. You can go to your doctor and request a stress test. This is a test in which they hook you up to various monitors and have you get your working harder by doing something that will put load on your cardio vascular system such as walking on a treadmill. Speed and/or incline are increase until you cannot continue. When calculating this number for an exercise program use the rule of thumb calculation: 220 – (your age) = (your maximum heart rate)

What is target heart rate? This is the range in which you want to get your beats per minute in order to increase cardio vascular fitness, burn calories and burn fat. For most fitness programs, target heart rate is the range between 60% and 80% of your max heart rate. Just multiply your maximum heart rate by.6 for the low end of the range and.8 for the high end.

What is interval training? Interval training is purposefully varying your heart beats per minute during a cardio session by varying the intensity, and therefore the level of exertion, at which you work. A sample interval training workout might go something like: 5 minute warm-up, 2 minutes moderate intensity, 30 seconds high intensity, repeat moderate and high intensity interval combination 10 times, cool down for 5 to 10 minutes. There are dozens of possible variations on this but, that is the basic idea. Interval training is a great way to burn more calories and fat and increase cardio vascular fitness more quickly than steady state cardio.

What is steady state cardio? Steady state is just like it sounds. You go at a fairly even pace throughout the duration of your cardio session. Steady state training is a good way to burn fat and calories and good to throw into the mix for a well rounded cardio program.

What is the RPE scale? RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. The RPE scale describes how you should be feeling at each level of exertion on the scale. The scale will either run from 6 to 20 or 0 to 10. Either way, the lower numbers represent less exertion with exertion levels increasing as the numbers increase on the scale. This is a method of determining your approximate the rate at which your heart is beating by assessing, based on some subjective guidelines, how hard you are working. It can be a good method to know if you do not have a heart rate monitor.

Certainly there is plenty more to know about heart rate and cardio vascular fitness but, these are some of the basics to help get you started.

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If you’re an indoor cycling class participant, or maybe just getting back into a fitness groove, you may hear some new terminology being bantered around in your classes. The term is rate of perceived exertion, and it is a great way to measure your effort and activity level. Let’s examine how and why it works…

What Is Rate Of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

For years, fitness instructors and participants have struggled to come up with a relatively uniform method of measuring effort level. For example, when an instructor in your class tells you to work harder, what exactly does that mean? How can “harder” be measured? In truth, it really can’t. Further, each of us has different capacities for fitness. You may be able to run comfortably at seven miles per hour, while I struggle mightily to maintain a six mph pace. Conversely, what might be an intense workout for me may be the proverbial walk in the park for you.

To more or less even the playing field, the concept of rate of perceived exertion was introduced. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is used to gauge or measure how hard you’re working during a cardio workout. RPE is based on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the hardest. Your instructor will indicate a number, which you will translate to your own intensity level. The best way to measure your intensity level is your ability to chat with your neighbor during the workout. Here are explanations for each of the levels:

RPE 1-3: This is typically your warm up phase and the tail end of your cool down. You can converse very easily with no effort at all.

RPE 4: At this level, you are sufficiently warmed up but you can still converse with practically no effort.

RPE 5: You are beyond the warm up stage and into the actual work of your routine or class. You can still converse quite easily with only a small amount of effort.

RPE 6: This is the moderate level. You can talk but it requires some effort.

RPE 7: At this level, your effort level is getting more intense. You are able to converse but it requires quite a bit of effort.

RPE 8: The work is now difficult and conversation requires maximum effort.

RPE 9: Now you’re only able to get out one or two words at a time.

RPE 10: This is your absolute peak effort and your entire energy level is focused on the workout. Breathing is heavy and there’s no thought of talking.

RPE is most commonly used in indoor cycling classes, although it is also appropriate for treadmill classes. You will find that some instructors use a scale of one to five for RPE, basically sandwiching the levels together. But since our brains are trained to think on a scale of one to ten, this terminology is more common.

Understanding RPE is important because it allows you to tailor your workout according to your fitness level and individual capabilities. An instructor can’t tell participants to peddle or run at a specific speed because it may well be beyond the skill set of some students.

Rate of perceived exertion provides everyone a more standardized measurement of intensity level, similar to mile posts in a distance run. When you monitor your effort level with RPE, you are more likely to have enough left in the tank for the really difficult segments of your workout. Try to use the concept of RPE in your next group fitness class. You’ll notice a positive difference in your workouts!

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Most people want to get in better shape. Even if you are in fairly good shape, it is almost always possible to improve your overall body condition. Remember that it can be dangerous to start a new aerobic workout if you haven’t worked out in years. You should always check with your doctor to determine what level of activity you are fit for at this time. Your doctor can determine if there are any pre-existing conditions that will limit the amount of exercise you do. When you do decide to start an aerobic workout, it is best to consult with an expert that can help you get started.

Aerobic workouts are very important for your overall health. Daily exercise will improve your fitness level and heart function. It will also help you rev up your metabolism and lose weight. Aerobic exercise helps get your heart rate up, your breathing increases and your body will start to sweat. These are all good things! Aerobic exercise of any kind can be very difficult if you haven’t been exercising at all. Start slowly and build up gradually so that you don’t injure yourself or become discouraged.

If you are already is good shape, you may need to alter your workout in order to continue to benefit from it. Since the goal of aerobic exercise is to get your heart rate and breathing to elevate, you may have to push yourself even harder to accomplish this once you become accustomed to the level of exercise that you are doing. You will have to find new ways to push yourself. Let’s say that you are already running 5 or 6 miles a day. You may have to add hills to your regular routine or try to run faster than you normally do in order to get your heart rate up.

Try mixing things up a little. Join a gym and get into some of the more advance aerobic or cardio classes. If you don’t like going to the gym, there are a lot of great DVDs out there that you can try. Tae Bo by Billy Blanks offers some great exercises that will really get your heart rate going. You can also try the “Get Ripped 1,000 by Jari Love. There is something out there for every level of fitness. As you get in better shape, you can make most of these workouts harder by adding weights or bands. The variety will also help to alleviate boredom. Remember that the whole point is to challenge your body and get in better shape.

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Aerobic videos were very popular in the eighties and nineties and it was for a simple reason: it works. If you don’t have plenty of money or if you do not like to go to aerobics class or if you cannot take a personal trainer then aerobic videos are a perfect choice. My first recommendation is to be a little bit serious and disciplined because I must confess most of the time those videos and DVD gather the dust and you will never ever do anything sporty with them. You have purchased or you want to purchase aerobic videos but when the time of action is coming nobody is present. Doing sport give you more energy, more joy and a happier life. Especially that aerobic is a dynamic and not so strong and hard fitness sport.

Let me tell you quickly why those kind of training by video work for some and not for others.

First and it’s obvious, the problem is not coming from your television or from your DVD or from the dog of your neighbor, it’s your mind set. Yes, the failure or success comes from the person watching (or not) the videos. Right before you begin your session, you must have the right mind set or the correct attitude. Do not start this like you’re going to do a slavery things or a boring thing, find and stick to something fun or useful to have pleasure time during your session. Know why you do it. With the right mindset you can achieve mostly everything, but this secret is not easy to catch because you have to do it firmly.

The easy thing to do first is to set goals and a schedule, not a big one but more of a progressive one. You’ll be happy to progress, to see results and to realize you’re doing it. People call this motivation but this is simple sense of achievement and soft but true discipline.

Then when you start with the right mind set and when you achieve your goal little by little, the motivation to continue comes automatically. You just need to launch the right time to do regular aerobic videos, follow your agenda but not like a fanatic (in fact, you can follow it like a fanatic but you have to be smiley and joyful within, a sort of contentment).

That’s my tiny secret of achieving something in life. First, start with a good source to spend your time with a fraudulent or inefficient and hype method then build-up your right mindset, set goals and agenda and you go. Be open mind and free your mind. Maybe you will want to enjoy aerobic classes now, maybe you’ll want to go on vacations… I don’t know with the right mindset from your aerobic videos, it can really start to boost your entire life because in my opinion people lake of happy goals and revitalizing insights.

Take care.

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So When I saw the Xtreme Cardio Dance commercial I thought to myself, “not another one”. But I must admit that there was something cool about this workout program. It seems we’ve come a long way from the old Richard Simmons videos where people toil endlessly through routines just to try and appear less unhealthy.

These days, workout videos look fun and seem to offer more than just fitness. Xtreme Cardio dance is definitely a tough workout series but if you watch the commercials you will see that the routines are made up of cool dance moves. And, these are the kind of dance moves we all want to learn. With the popularity of shows like Dancing With The Stars, we begin to wonder if we have rhythm or if we could pull off a fancy move.

I’m not saying that we all want to run out and take dance lessons and get on tv, I’m simply pointing out that dancing has become a little more cool and the fact that it’s becoming integrated into at home workout dvds like Xtreme Cardio is really cool.

There’s always been a huge demand for workout dvds either because some people feel intimidated to go to a class with other people who may know the steps, or they simply can’t fit a class into their busy schedule. I’ve always been one to want to go into a class with a little bit of knowledge about the steps because I’m easily embarrassed. But that’s just me.

So for someone like me, Xtreme Cardio Dance has a strong appeal. I want to get into shape by changing up my workout and I want to learn how be a better dancer. The program itself is made up of four different DVDs each representing a different style of dance during the workout.

First is Latin, then Hip Hop, next is Disco and finally something called Sexy Sculpt. The workouts are tough but there is something for everyone. The program was developed by Jaana Kunitz who we’ve probably all seen on dancing on television and I’m under no impression that doing her workouts will turn me into a pro. But, I do feel the burn where I’m supposed to and I’m picking up moves from each genre. It’s fun.

That’s really the point of a successful workout DVD. It has to be fun so you are compelled to keep at it. Maybe the videos of old have paved the way or something, but if you take notice of the new breed of workout DVDs I think you’ll find them much more appealing and useful.

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Almost all forms of sports include elements of aerobic ability. Its the ability by which we as individuals can sustain prolonged effort that gives us our aerobic fitness levels.

In general a sporting activity that lasts for 15 minutes or less is not fully aerobic. The exercise uses our anaerobic metabolism, meaning the energy our bodies already store and is limited due to our restricted energy sources. A 100m sprinter works an aerobically compared to a long distance runner who works aerobically. This is where the muscles use the oxygen for the combustion of fat and carbohydrates creating the necessary energy to move the body.

The ability and ease in which we breathe, which we take for granted, is the bodies most important function but all the same an unbelievable one! Its this skill to control this that dramatically improves our levels of fitness. Oxygen is obtained form the air and transferred to our lungs which in-turn flows through our blood and into our muscles. The more oxygen uptake we can achieve during a particular exercise lasting more than 15 minutes the better our aerobic fitness. This is measured as our Vo2 max.

Research has shown that aerobic fitness can be improved but is dependable upon age and sex. Its optimum in men is between 18yrs – 20yrs and in women between 15yrs – 20yrs. Males generally have a larger Vo2 max than women and this is due to the mass of muscle in the body. Aerobic fitness is directly linked to fat free body weight and statistically males have a higher mass than females.

Aerobic fitness is obviously directly related to our health and one in five men and one in seven women die from heart disease in the UK per year. Inactivity, high cholesterol levels, smoking, overweight, high blood pressure and diabetes are all contributing factors. Numerous studies have concluded that as little as half an hour of aerobic exercise such as walking, rowing or jogging three times a week can make patients 60 per cent less likely to die. It is four times more important than high blood pressure and twice as much as high cholesterol and consequently exercise clearly reduces many health risks.

The related effects of exercise include the following:-

- Assists in weight control mainly by reducing body fat.
- Strengthens and builds up both the muscles and bones.
- Increases stamina.
- Boosts your brain power.
- Encourages a better nights sleep.
- Promotes a healthier lifestyle.
- Helps prevent a huge variety of ailments from heart disease and breast cancer to diabetes, osteoporosis and even the common cold.
- Assists in the control of joint pain and swelling in people who suffer from arthritis.
- Can be more effective than medication in helping people with mild to moderate depression.
- Improvement in the functioning of the immune system.

…plus much much more.

Our aerobic fitness determines the degree of fatigue that everyone experiences in daily life. The better your aerobic fitness the less tired you will be.

What with aerobic fitness being very important in sport and even everyday situations its just as vital in childhood growth and development. A high level during a childs growing years indicates good development of muscle, bones and cardio-respiratory system. As we age our aerobic fitness provides detailed measurements of how fit we are physiologically. It is not unusual for someone of 60 years of age with a high aerobic fitness to be compared equally to that of a 35 year old with respect to that persons cardio-respiratory, muscular and other bodily systems.

Vo2 max does decrease with age but exercise slows its rate of decline.

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Why do so many gym-goers head instinctively for the treadmill? Is it because they want to improve their aerobic ability? Sometimes. Because they envy the carcass-with-lungs physique of long distance runners? Not in my experience. No, its because they want to burn as many calories as possible in their gym session, in the hope that these magic calories will remould and refine their bodies.

Unfortunately, aerobic exercise cannot sculpt anything and those who rely on running to tone their physique may find their buns of steel are decidedly doughey. A glance around in a starting pen for any major marathon, where almost all competitors will have spent several hours a week running for a minimum of five months, will confirm that there is only so much support lycra can do for wobbly bits!

So doesn’t pavement pounding do the job? The problem is not the running per se, simply that aerobic activity has limited effects on the body. Aerobic exercise (any activity that is sustained at a consistent pace) uses your slow-twitch Type I muscle fibres, which burn a combination of carbohydrates and fats, and I often measure this using a trainsmart monitor complete with gas mask. Running at a fast tempo will mean your body will use almost exclusively carbohydrates; fats, your slow-release fuel, hardly gets a look-in. My data shows powerwalking or slow jogging the most efficient way to burn fat for most people. Typically, running uses 10kcal/min with just 15% fat usage, compared to 7kcal/min with 80% fat usage.

Clearly, for most people, running is a poor fat-burner. Unfortunately, its not good at sculpting the muscles either – the slow-twitch fibres used during running will improve their abilities to exchange oxygen (eg become more efficient) but even a trained slow-twitch fibre is limited to growing to 120% of its untrained size. Cycling and aerobic classes fit into this category, too. So, lots of sweat + lots of calories burned = little fat reduction and little response from muscles.

I suppose some fat loss is better than none, and you will at least get better at running! If running is important to your sport, or you enjoy it, then this is clearly a very valid reason to continue pushing hard. It’s not as if running has no benefits – as with most exercise, individuals can expect an improved cardiovascular response, improved stress patterns and reduced blood pressure. As someone who has completed two marathons, I can tell you there is nothing wrong with running – provided you know what to expect from it.

If you want to improve the shape of your body, then you will need to increase your lean mass (muscle) and reduce your body fat. The most efficient way to do this is resistance training. This is press-ups, chins, squats and weight training with benches – this type of training overloads your fast-twitch Type II muscle fibres, raising your metabolism (and the rate at which you burn fat) for up to 72 hours after an intense workout. It improves your lean mass, and therefore your basal metabolic rate (the amount of energy your body uses up, just to stay alive, before movement).

There is always more than one thing to consider when looking to achieve success in regards to health and fitness. But very few of mu clients have found what they are looking for on the treadmill. Calories are just a form of energy and busting a gut to burn them blindly will not always generate the results you are after – but overloading the fibres most likely to get you a return makes sense and is the difference between working hard and working smart!

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