As the weather gets a little chilly here in Southern California many people head inside for their cardio workouts. Gone are the long sunny days of summer where swimming, running along the beach and rollerblading help you break up your cardio workouts.

So what to do? One thing I like to do with my clients year round - but they love especially during the winter months - is boxing.

Are you better at quick bursts of energy or endurance exercise?

If you can identify correctly which you are better at you can create a custom wellness program that will take advantage of your natural abilities and propel you further than you thought possible.  Which leads to a question a client recently asked me.

Q: What is the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers?

Q: My trainer takes 15 minutes at the end of the session to do stretching. I feel this takes too much time out of my workout. Is this really necessary?

A: I always notice trainers having their clients stretch at the last quarter of their session. I personally do not do this with my clients. I cringe when I see trainers actually stretch the clients out as well. Only the client knows how far to go and it is such an easy way to injure the client.

Stretching is important because it lessens chance of injury and also helps alleviate some of the muscle soreness that develops the next day. I will share with you a way that has always worked for me and so far has never hurt any of my clients in the whole 15 years I have been training (knock on wood).

Don't have time to workout your usual routine? or Want to shock your muscles? There are many ways to speed up your workout. Here's one way to speed up the time, while getting the same benefits. I also use the following technique to shock my clients once in a while.

Back-to-back speed training is a great way to cut your workout in half. Note: You have to be creative if you workout in a gym because you don't want to tick other members off by hogging half the gym equipment.

Back- to-back training can be done by picking 3 exercises per body part and going back to back.
For instance, grab a pair of free weights and do 3 different bicep exercises without stopping. Break for about 30 seconds, and repeat the process 2-3 times.

If you have 30 minutes, I would recommend that you pick two body parts and abs.

Here's an example:

Chest:

When we first got our puppy, we searched endlessly to find the right dog food brand for him. We read nutrition labels and found the proper ratio of nutrients appropriate for our breed.

I began to think, it's funny how we as consumers make sure our pets are eating properly, now even the raw food diet is being talked about for pets. At a local pet store, we even saw a class the store was holding where a "pet nutritionist" was saying what pets should be eating. In observing the
class, I began thinking, I wonder how many of these people sitting in the class know what they are eating.