As you ramp up your workouts in 2016, you are probably searching for new and fresh fitness tips and tools. We’ve got great news for you - owning a MYZONE belt puts you ahead of the fitness trends for 2016! The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recently published their annual Survey of Worldwide Fitness Trends, and at the top of the list was wearable technology.
At MYZONE, we are very proud to offer the most accurate and reliable wearable fitness tracker. Your MYZONE belt provides you with many features such as: storing up to 16 hours of activity data, viewing your effort live on your smartphone, connecting with and challenging friends, earning points and gaining status rankings, and connecting to 3rd party fitness equipment.
In addition to enjoying your MYZONE belt, we encourage you to try out some of the other 2016 fitness trends listed in the ACSM article! Wear your belt to see what types of workouts best support your fitness goals.
The additional top fitness trends for 2016 include: body weight training, high-intensity interval training, strength training, and educated, certified, and experienced fitness professionals.
Body Weight Training:
Body weight training includes activities like plyometrics and circuit training. A great feature of body weight training is that you can do it anywhere (just like you can use your MYZONE belt anywhere). You can perform a variety of body weight exercises to improve both cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular fitness. Wear your MYZONE belt and try out the following body weight circuit:
Lower Body Circuit: Squats, Lateral lunges, Single-leg dead lift, Scissor jumps
3 sets of each exercise at 1 minute each with 10 seconds of rest between each exercise (14 minutes total).
Take a 1 minute recovery and then move on to an upper body circuit.
Upper Body Circuit: Push ups, Plank hold, Mountain climbers, Triceps Dips
3 sets of each exercise at 1 minute each with 10 seconds of rest between each exercise (14 minutes total).
Aim for the green and yellow zones during each minute of each exercise and try to recover as much as possible during the 10 seconds of rest. Recover down to blue during the 1 minute of recovery between the lower and upper body circuit. You should earn about 100 MEPs during this workout when you include a 5-minute warm up and cool down in the blue zone.
High-Intensity Interval Training:
High-intensity interval training includes work periods of high intensity (yellow and red zones) and rest periods of moderate intensity (green and blue zones). See our previous blog about High-Intensity Interval Training for more information. Generally, work periods last between 10 seconds to 2 minutes followed by recovery periods of a similar duration. Choose your favorite piece of cardio equipment and try the following high-intensity interval training workout:
First, warm up for 5 to 10 minutes within the blue and green zones. Next, select a challenging work level and push hard for 30 seconds. Aim for the yellow and red zones during the 30-second work interval. After your 30-second work interval, recover as much as possible for 30 seconds (aiming for the green zone). Repeat the work and recovery periods for another 9 sets (for a total of 10 sets). If needed, take a 1-minute recovery after the first 5 sets. Following the 10 sets of 30-second work and rest intervals, cool down in the blue zone for 5 to 10 minutes.
Strength Training:
Strength training involves muscular fitness exercises that challenge your muscular strength (the ability of your muscle to perform at maximum force).
Strength training should be performed after your build a foundation of muscular endurance. To build muscular strength, perform 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 exercises for each major muscle group. Select a load at which you are challenged to complete 4 to 6 repetitions for each set. Rest for 2 to 3 minutes in between sets.
When wearing your MYZONE belt during strength training, you should see your heart rate increase rapidly during each set and recover quickly between each set.
Educated, Certified, & Experienced Fitness Professionals:
You can use your MYZONE belt when working with educated, certified, and experienced fitness professionals. These fitness professionals should have a solid understanding of heart rate training and should be able to guide your fitness programming according to your goals.
Keep an eye out on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Periscope) to receive training advice and coaching from our MYZONE Master Instructors.
Share with us how you are using your MYZONE belt to accomplish your 2016 fitness goals. Use the hashtags: #myzone #effortrewarded #myzonemoves.