Tag Archives: Koko Cardio

Step Up! The Koko FitClub 5 Million Point Challenge to fight CANCER.

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For 24 hours starting Saturday, May 4 at 8am, Koko FitClub will host our second annual Koko 5 Million Point Challenge in partnership with the American Cancer Society Relay For Life©.

We’re challenging our members, friends and neighbors in the community to come in to Koko FitClub during this 24 hour period and do just one 15-minute Koko Cardio session on your choice of the treadmill or elliptical.

DO YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO FIGHT CANCER IN OUR COMMUNITY?

All are welcome! We’re not looking for monetary donations – we just want your Koko POINTS!  Each 15-minute Koko Cardio treadmill or elliptical session completed during those 24 hours earns 500 points towards our goal of 5 Million Points nationwide.  If we meet our goal, Koko FitClub will donate $20,000 to Relay For Life© so they can fund support services for cancer survivors and their families right in our own communities.

DON’T DELAY!

Members: call, email or visit your Koko FitClub today and reserve your Relay time slot. Sign up for one 15-minute Koko Cardio session during the weekend of May 4. Want to do more? Sign up for TWO sessions!

Not a Koko FitClub Member? That’s ok! You can sign up for the challenge here: http://kokofitclub.com/Relay-For-Life.html Your local Koko FitClub will reach out to you so you can reserve your Relay time slot and they can set you up with a FREE 15-day Koko Membership.

Yup! That’s what I said:
FIGHT CANCER FOR 15 MINUTES…WE’LL GIVE YOU 15 DAYS OF KOKO FREE!

So, share this post with your friends, family, spouse, kids – anyone who is interested in giving 15 minutes of exercise to fight cancer. And, as a thank you to our guests, we’ll give them 15 DAYS of Koko for free.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: TELL US, WHO WILL YOU “STEP UP” TO FIGHT CANCER FOR ON MAY 4?

We all care for people who have fought this battle. This is an event to CELEBRATE their strength and honor their spirits. An important part of this celebration is the opportunity for you to designate your efforts in honor of the bravest fighters you know. More details to come.

So what are you waiting for?  Get your walking shoes spruced up and your team rallied!  Let’s ALL STEP UP to fight cancer TOGETHER!

No Joke! Laughing Has Serious Health Benefits.

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It’s not the Miles, it’s how you live them. (Video)

It’s hard to argue that laughing is infectious – tell me you didn’t at least giggle while watching that video. It’s also hard to argue that after a good “laugh fest,” you feel better – both physically and mentally.  Did you know the effects of laughter and exercise are very similar?  This is where you say something like: “Is this some sort of joke? Does laughter really provide health benefits that are similar to exercise? ” According to the new field of “gelotology” – the study of laughter and its effects on the body – it sure does!

This is good news people, and for some, maybe that’s all you need to know – laughter has health benefits.  After all, if we enjoy laughing, that’s likely reason enough to continue to laugh.  But, if you are like me, curious about how something as great as laughing can provide health benefits similar to exercise, then put a smile on your face and read on.

Laughter experts, (is that an awesome job or what?) Dr. Lee S Berk and Dr. Stanley Tan, were among the first to discover that laughing helps maximize many functions of various body systems.  One of the key findings of their study was that laughter optimizes hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which leads to stress reduction.

Cortisol is a key hormone when it comes to exercise and weight loss, and “less is better.”  Cortisol is a “catabolic” hormone, which means that it breaks tissue down (as opposed to building tissue up the way testosterone, growth hormone and insulin do.)  We all know that consuming too many calories and not exercising regularly lead to weight gain, but there are other factors that can make weight loss more difficult.  One of those factors is high cortisol, largely from chronic stress.  If something as simple and enjoyable as laughter has the ability to decrease cortisol levels, start your “LOL” prescription immediately.

Decreasing stress is definitely a shared benefit of laughter and exercise, (unless you are exercising too long – it’s no coincidence that a Koko Smartraining strength workout is only 30 minutes,) but the comparisons don’t stop there.

Blood Flow:
When we laugh, our pulse and blood pressure go up, we breathe faster and send more oxygen to our muscles and organs.  That increased level of oxygen in our blood gives us more energy.   Similarly, exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And, when your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily routine.

Immune Response:
As we discussed already, laughter decreases stress, which in turn, improves the functioning of our immune system.  Some studies have shown that laughing and the ability to use humor raises the level of infection-fighting antibodies and boost the level of immune cells.  Laughing also increases the response of tumor and disease killing cells, such as T-cells, and defends against respiratory infections by the immunoglobulin created in saliva.  In the same vein, exercise can boost your immune system by providing a boost to the cells in your body that are assigned to attack bacteria.


Calorie Burn:
Last, but not least, laughing burns calories! When you laugh, you are giving your diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles a light workout.  Maciej Buchowski, a researcher from Vanderbilt University, conducted a study in which he measured the amount of calories expended in laughing.  Mr. Buchowski concluded that 10-15 minutes of laughter burned 50 calories.  (Imagine the effect I could have on the calorie burn for Koko Cardio if I worked in a stand up routine…)
While those 50 calories are a nice bonus and add up over time, don’t skip today’s workout because you watched “Bridesmaids” last night.  One piece of chocolate has about 50 calories.  At the rate of 50 calories per hour, losing one pound would require 12 hours of concentrated laughter. The world record for non-stop laughter, held by Belachew Girma, is 3 hours and 6 minutes.  That said, some interesting fitness trends have emerged that combine exercise with laughter; check one of them out here – you won’t be disappointed (but you may decide my Koko Cardio stand up routine isn’t such a brilliant stroke of genius.)

So my friends, as contrary as it sounds, humor and laughter should be taken seriously when it comes to the impact they have on our health and wellbeing.  After all, this “medicine” is fun, free, easy to use and doesn’t require a prescription.  Since laughter pre-dates speech by perhaps millions of years, we can conclude that laughter the most ancient of medicines still being used today.

I hope that every mile of your journey is filled with the wonderful sounds of laugher, that you find humor in as many situations as you can, and that you take the time to stop and laugh with the people you care about the most.

Laugh more…live better!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub
Customized Exercise. Customized Nutrition. Amazing Results.

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Returning to Your Workout Routine After Illness or Injury

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You’re finally on a roll with regular exercise, thanks to Koko. You feel great and your workout has become part of your daily routine. Then it happens: you get sick, you sustain an injury or you need a medical procedure. You are told by your doctor (who is always telling you to get active) to stop exercising for awhile. Sometimes a long while. Don’t worry. I know firsthand you can come back from it better than ever. You just need to have the right expectations.

Last month, for the second time in three years, I had emergency eye surgery and could not exercise. After one week I was told I could start back with cardio. Great! But, I was still not able to do any strength training. It was two weeks before I was told I could slowly ease back into my strength training sessions.

What happens if you cannot get in your weekly Koko Smartraining workout, or worse, you become sick or have to go on bed rest for a few weeks or more? When your body receives no exercise stimulus, detraining will occur.

detraining | dē-ˈtrān- iŋ: the partial or complete loss of training-induced adaptations in response to cessation of training or a substantial decrease in training load. 

This loss in both strength and aerobic capacity is followed by a decrease in your lean muscle level (LML) and can occur in as quickly as two weeks!

Don’t worry. Life happens. You body is amazingly adaptable and you can get it back to where it was – and then some!

If you’re faced with returning to your Smartraining workouts after a period of two weeks or more of inactivity, just plan to slowly progress back to the level you left off.

Koko Cardio – To start, try and complete a full 15 minute workout, but at a lower intensity than what you could do before your break. Slowly increase the intensity of your exercise over subsequent weeks. If you find that next higher intensity program is too much, back off on my audio suggestions for the incline, speed or resistance (for the elliptical.) You know how to do it!  Also, it may be that 15 minutes is too much to handle at first. It’s ok. Be patient with yourself and your body. It will come back.

Koko Strength – Rarely do I suggest it, but do not try to lift the weight that the Smartrainer initially suggests. It remembers the “you” from before your time off. Instead, you can help it calibrate to your current strength level even if a strength test isn’t scheduled. What I did was to cut my weight in half (or less) for the all my exercises through the first few sessions. The Smartrainer remembers your adjustments for the next time it gives you those exercises. After a week or so, I started to increase my volume of work by doing three extra reps on the sets that felt easy. The Smartrainer understood this to mean, “Michael needs more weight on this exercise” and it automatically adjusted the next time.

It may be frustrating to feel like you’re starting over and difficult to convince yourself to “take it easy.” (You just want to get back to where you were, already!)  Be patient. By slowly letting your body adjust to the specific demands placed on it by both strength training and cardio sessions, you will avoid injury and be back in peak form before you know it and stronger than ever!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

Koko FitClub Franchising

Does your workout take advantage of the best learning about exercise?

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Best learning about exercise built into Koko FitClub workoutsI’m an exercise physiologist by training with a keen interest in keeping up with the very best research. I use it to design your Smartraining workouts! There’s solid science behind the Koko FitClub workouts planned for you each and every visit – so you don’t have to think about it. That’s why you’re here, right?

So, while I generally keep this stuff “behind the curtain,” I spotted a couple studies recently that not only reinforce the Koko Smartraining methodology BUT they have awesome motivational value. (You know my ultimate goal – successfully convince you to keep up with your workout prescription of 3 strength and 4 cardio a week!)

The first study, from the Journal of Obesity1 looked at the effect of high intensity cardiovascular exercise on male body composition. These men did interval training workouts that looked like this: 8 seconds of hard work followed by 12 seconds of light work. This workout was done for 20 minutes, three times a week for 12 weeks. The men in the study showed excellent improvements in aerobic capacity (15% increase,) a reduction in visceral fat (17% decrease) and significant increases in lean muscle level.

Once again, proof that it’s not the quantity of  exercise you do when you’re at Koko FitClub, but the quality of exercise that matters.  And, there’s no reason you won’t see the same type of results by just sticking to your Koko Smartraining exercise prescription.

The second study appeared Archives of Internal Medicine2 using research from the renowned Cooper Clinic and the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. The research involved men and women who were tested for fitness at age 50 and then again surveyed about general health a decade later.

What did they learn? “Physical fitness at midlife made healthy aging — long considered a contradiction in terms –a distinct possibility.” The fittest 1/5th in their 50′s had far fewer chronic conditions in their 60′s, ( by more than half,) than the folks in the lowest fitness category.

What does that mean for you? When your Q-score and lean muscle level goes up, or your eBMI goes down, the immediate payout is that you look and feel better right now. Turns out, you are also banking that fitness so you look and feel great for years to come. It’s an investment in healthy aging so you can enjoy your entire life!

All this by meeting your Smartraining exercise prescription of 3 strength and 4 cardio a week. Could it be any easier to take advantage of the best learning about exercise? No way. Now go hit the club!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

Koko FitClub Franchising

1Journal of Obesity link – http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobes/2012/480467/

2 Archives of Internal Medicine link – http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1352789

New Koko Cardio Workouts for the Fall Coming Soon!

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Your favorite NFL teams are on the field. Kids are heading back to school. You know what that means at Koko FitClub? It’s time for new Fall Cardio Programs!

This Fall’s theme is “Take the Koko Challenge.”

Whether you are exercising on the elliptical or treadmill, there are plenty of new interval training cardio challenges this season  including hiking adventures, speed walking, Boot Camp, Tabata and Stadium Stairs workouts inspired by my days of running private clients up and down the stairs at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, MA.

The hiking adventures are a blast this time around. Inspired by your suggestions, some were even recorded on location, including  Bear Creek Trail, a hike I took while visiting Koko FitClubs near Keller, Texas. A Koko owner from Arizona recently hiked the famous Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon so we’ve included that, too. These are fun and challenging across both moderate and high intensity.

There are some great workouts to try, but I believe the true cardio challenge for Koko FitClub members this season will be the Traditional Tabata (moderate-intensity) and the Double Tabata. (Do I even have to mention that its high-intensity?) If you can handle that fitness challenge, then I want you to try Boot Camp and Wind Sprint sessions on the elliptical. That’ll get your heart rate up!

The new Fall Cardio programs will be available in clubs next Wednesday, August 29th. Enjoy and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on taking the Koko Challenge!

Michael Wood, CSCS
Chief Fitness Officer
Koko FitClub

Koko FitClub Franchising