 The
New Year is over and the obligatory
"I-am-going-to-change-my-life" discussion is under way. How
is it that every year folks take a weight loss and fitness goal and
turn it into something so impossible to reach?
Personal trainer and business owner
Catherine Andersen says nearly every failure to launch is rooted in
two issues. "They either don’t know how to start — ‘Do I
join a gym, do I change how I eat, what do I do?’ Or they don’t
really get the time commitment involved, they have a skewed perception
of how much time is needed every day," Anderson says.
A good standard to work up to is one
hour a day, Andersen says. "It sounds like a lot for some
people," she says. "But once they commit and start working
out an hour a day, they see where else they’ve wasted time. They
actually become more productive."
Andersen knows what she is talking
about. The Shorewood resident earned an international business degree
and worked in sales for a large printing company until a merger with a
competitor resulted in widespread job cuts. Layoffs are rarely
positive, but for Andersen it gave her the opportunity to pursue
another passion: fitness and the sport of figure — or competitive
— bodybuilding.
"Losing a job is never a good
thing," says Andersen, who became a personal trainer in college.
"But if there was a good time — it was then. It allowed me to
go pro and allowed me to decide what I wanted to do."
Andersen took her love of fitness and
desire to help the most people in the shortest amount of time and
decided to launch a boot camp and personal training business. She
founded A-List Fitness Inc. in 2007 and became a certified Adventure
Boot Camp instructor. She held her first boot camp in February 2008
and quickly expanded. The 40-year-old is expected to open an
8,900-square-foot facility in Glendale this month.
The first step to a fitness plan is to
be realistic, Andersen says. Grab your calendar, and decide what you
can religiously commit to, she says. From there, hone in on your
goals. Is it to lose weight, improve overall fitness and tone, or is
it performance related?
Regardless of the goal, everyone must
incorporate cardio — that means an elevated heart rate for at least
20 minutes — muscle strength and muscle endurance exercises into
their workout routine. A person’s body will not change without
strength training, which you can do in your own bedroom.
To keep cardio workouts interesting,
take a taste of different activities like yoga, a group fitness class
or spinning, Andersen urges. Finally, all workouts should begin with a
five-minute warm-up and five-minute cool down, she adds.
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