Tip of the Month: Exercising with a Health Challenge, Part II

If you're facing a health challenge - cardiovascular issues, breathing problems, bone or joint conditions, neuromuscular conditions, hearing impairment, pregnancy, psychological disorders, or mental handicaps - you can still enjoy the benefits of exercise. In fact, physical activity can help increase your energy, strength, balance, and coordination, not to mention easing your pain. But you need to find the best form of exercise and learn proper guidelines.

The July-August TitanUp Times discussed the need to work with your healthcare practitioner before starting an exercise program. (Click here to read the July-August TitanUp Times.) This month, we'll discuss ways to communicate with your fitness professional about your health challenges, and why it's important to do so.

Certified Fitness Professionals Make a Difference

You'll gain the most benefit from working with a certified fitness professional who is qualified to work with you. So, once you've found a person you might work with, you need to ask questions:

• Does the fitness professional have experience working with your condition?
• Will he or she feel comfortable training you? If not, can you be referred to someone who would be comfortable?
• Do you feel comfortable with this person? Does he or she provide knowledgeable answers to your questions?
• What can you expect to achieve with an exercise program? Be sure to discuss your goals.

Expect - and be prepared - to tell the fitness professional about your general health, your specific illness or injury, and your history of physical activity.

Your professional may perform evaluations such as a range-of-motion test for a certain joint, or a cardiorespiratory test to measure heart rate during aerobic exercise. With this information, he or she can establish realistic goals and design a safe, effective exercise program. (If you feel that the fitness professional is not interested in becoming familiar with your condition, talk with another who will be.)

To read the entire first part of this article, including a detailed list of conditions that may require special exercise guidelines, click here.

This information is furnished courtesy of the American Council on Exercise and is reprinted with the Council's permission.

Coming up:

• Sometimes Health and Fitness Professionals Need to Talk
• Progression: The Important of Having a Plan

The world is finding out that Niki DelGrosso is one serious natural body-builder, and one serious competitor.

On August 1, Niki took first overall in Open Figure at the 2009 INBF Mid-America Pro/Am Advanced Pro-Qualifier in Evansville, Indiana. According to the judges at this International Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation event, she's a straight "1" across the board, without a single negative comment. (Check out the event results at the INBF web site.)

The win gains Niki her pro card, in her first year of competition and less than a year after giving birth to triplets, and qualifies her for the WNBF Pro Natural US Cup Bodybuilding & Figure Championships, September 26 in Sacramento, California. And then, on November 14, she'll be competing in the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation's biggest show, the Pro-Natural Nature's Best World Championships, in New York City.

Niki is doing more than putting Titans Gym on the bodybuilding map. As a WNBF pro athlete and a firm believer in all-natural bodybuilding, she has contracted to abide by the organization's rigorous drug-free protocols. WNBF drug-testing rules include both urinalysis and polygraph testing before each event, verifying that no steroids, diuretics, growth hormones or other illegal drugs have been used in the past seven years. Failure to submit to testing or to pass the test will result in a seven-year suspension from membership and loss of eligibility for competition for the same period of time.

As a further condition of membership, each athlete agrees to limit his or her media exposure (interviews, photographs, or appearances in magazines, radio, TV, newspapers, web sites, etc.) to only those media approved by the WNBF, and specifically to promote therein her Pro Natural status.

Niki's performance has already won her the sponsorship of SDC Nutrition, makers of 100% natural About Time protein.

The WNBF was formed in 1989 in response to the need for a drug-free environment in professional bodybuilding competition. The steroids, diuretics, growth hormones, and other illegal drugs so prevalent at the time were outlawed, allowing competitors to bring to the contest only the results of their own hard work and natural ability. (Visit the WNBF web site for more information about the Federation.)

New at the TitanUp Café: The Store Is Open!

What do you need to help you get fit and stay fit? Nutrition supplements? Protein bars? Portions plates? Exercise DVDs? A pedometer?

TitanUp Café carries a full line of products to help you reach your fitness goals, including great-tasting About Time whey protein (check out the awesome nutrition profile!), multivitamin supplements, flaxseed oil, calcium, branched chain amino acid, arginine, glutamine, creatine, and soy supplements.

Our prices are better than GNC, and we couldn't be easier to find - we're right here at the front of the TitanUp Café.

Coming soon: Niki's recipe book will be available from her web site.