Tips for Avoiding Fall Weight Gain
A study conducted in 2000 revealed that Americans gain an average 1.5 pounds between two key holidays – Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. While this isn’t too surprising, the trend can start as early as September or October if you’re tempted by sugary seasonal treats like pumpkin spice lattes, baked apple pies, Halloween candy, and warm comfort foods like casseroles and pastas. Combine an intake of richer foods with less activity due to colder weather, crazier school-year schedules, and spectator events like football, and what do you get? A recipe for fall weight gain. The good news is that a seasonal expansion isn’t mandatory. The following strategies can keep you from falling back into bad habits and maintain your hard work at the fitness center all the way through the gauntlet of tasty fall temptations. Here’s what we recommend. Keep Your Activity Levels from FallingIt’s a natural tendency to move less once fall hits. You no longer have to be beach-ready, and if you’re an outdoor sports enthusiast, bad weather starts to interfere with your favorite ways to stay in shape. If you have kids, you might also find it more challenging to make it to the fitness gym between shuttling them to school and extracurricular activities. Simply being mindful of these seasonal changes goes a long way. If you wear a fitness tracker, check your activity levels and make sure you’re still reaching your goals. If you can’t make it outside during daylight hours or during bad weather, sign up with a gym near you and enjoy the benefits of working out on your timetable. If you watch your kids play sports after school, walk or jog around while you do it. Meal Plan and Prep AheadHectic fall schedules can also interfere with healthy eating habits. Take a day to plan what you’ll be eating the rest of the week and do any prep work ahead of time. This will make the work/school week run smoother without resorting to unhealthy fast or convenience foods. Overnight oats, mason jar salads, and big batches of healthy soups are a few simple suggestions. Substitute Healthier Ingredients in Fall FavoritesDid you know you can substitute butter with Greek yogurt, olive oil, avocado, applesauce, natural nut butters, or even pumpkin puree? When baking pies, substitute high-calorie crust with an oat and nut topping and make your own fresh fruit filling rather than using the canned varieties loaded with sugar. Speaking of sugar, swap out refined white sugar with stevia, honey or maple syrup. While making your favorite comfort foods, use leaner cuts of meat and lighten up your sauces. Whatever you can do to make a recipe a bit lower in calories and higher in nutrients will benefit your waistline and help you maintain your fitness goals. Avoid Halloween CandyYou can still enjoy Halloween without giving into a candy binge --just buy your treats at the last minute so they’re not sitting around to temp you. When it’s all over, donate your leftovers to a favorite organization and don’t fall for the post-Halloween candy sales. Use these tips to consciously fight the fall trend toward less activity and more food, and you’ll avoid that 1.5 pound creep not only this year, but many years to come. via Blogger https://ift.tt/34Qvujx October 13, 2020 at 01:05AM
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5 Tips for Avoiding Knee Injuries
Most of us have experienced the frustration of knee pain or knee injuries at some point in our fitness journey. Women are about 10 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than men, a statistic John Hopkins recently linked to lower testosterone. Others might have a family history of arthritis and other joint problems that predispose them to this frustrating problem. Whatever your situation, you shouldn’t have to resign yourself to a lifetime of knee pain or feel like you’re always one step away from a knee injury. By strengthening and protecting your knees, you can keep them healthy and happy for your daily fitness center workouts. Here’s how. 1. Choose the Right Shoes, On and Off the CourtShoes that are unsupportive, don’t fit well, or are simply wrong for the activity you’re doing can compromise your knees. For instance, women who wear heels all day at work place strain on their calves and quadriceps, which are attached to the knee. When working out, choose your shoes based on what you’re doing that day: court shoes are designed to support a lot of side-to-side motion, while running shoes are not. 2. Always Warm Up with CardioDiving right into a strenuous workout without a proper warmup is asking for a knee injury. Incorporate five to ten minutes of light cardio activities like walking, jogging or body-weight calisthenics to warm the muscles and loosen/lubricate the joints for the work ahead. 3. Strengthen the Surrounding MusclesWeak calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, and hips are responsible for most knee pain and injuries. Focusing on range-of-motion and weight-bearing exercises that strengthen these muscles is the surest way to avoid unnecessary pain and injuries. You can do simple exercises, use fitness gym machines designed to isolate these specific muscles, or even use resistance bands. Here are a few suggestions:
4. Avoid Mistakes in FormEven strong muscles can’t support the knees if you use improper form during your workout. Two key form mistakes to avoid are locking the knees and tracking the knees past the ankle during moves like squats and lunges. Always keep a slight bend in your knees, no matter what activity you’re doing, and make sure your legs form a 90-degree angle with the floor. Also avoid letting your knees collapse in toward your body. 5. React to Signs of Knee ProblemsIf you ever feel sharp, shooting pain or throbbing in one of your knees, stop what you’re doing. This kind of pain is a sign you’re using proper form or placing too much stress on your joints. Acute pain could also mean you’re close to a serious knee injury it would take weeks or months to recover from. While you rest your knees, find other types of cross-training activities that won’t place stress on them but still allow you to get in a good cardio workout. Knee pain is something many of us will continue to encounter as we test the limits of our training load and simply get older. By doing everything you can to strengthen and protect the knees, you’ll keep them healthier for longer while still being able to enjoy the fit lifestyle activities you love. via Blogger https://ift.tt/34zwk4g October 08, 2020 at 11:39PM
In Appreciation of Your Workout Buddy
Just like peanut butter goes with jelly and Barack goes with Michelle, you and your workout buddy just make sense together. Whether you jog together in the morning, hit a fitness class over lunch, or pump iron after dinner, your workout buddy is your cheerleader, therapist, and personal trainer, all rolled into one. Without an excellent workout buddy, many of us wouldn’t be able to achieve our fitness goals. Here are some of the reasons why you should take some time out of your day today to give a shoutout to this special person in your life. They make you show upOne of the most important ways a workout buddy can help you with your fitness goals is by actually forcing you to show up. This doesn’t mean that your buddy has to pound on your front door to physically drag you to every workout; in general, social pressure is sufficient to motivate us to workout. You may feel the strong need to skip your fitness class after work, but the thought of your workout buddy in class alone and disappointed is enough to get you to the gym. Thank your buddy for simply establishing accountability for your workout routine. They motivate you to work harderResearch shows that having a workout buddy not only makes you show up to the gym, you actually work harder when you workout with someone else. A study by Michigan State University found that women who spin pedaled twice as long when they believed they had a virtual workout buddy than those who were riding solo. Research indicates that for best results, you should pair up with a buddy who is slightly fitter than you for maximum motivation. In our next blog, we will continue to go over reasons to love your gym buddy. In the meantime, when you need a gym that will support your workout goals, Try Spunk Fitness! We offer excellent membership deals for our gym. via Blogger https://ift.tt/3llJfgF October 07, 2020 at 10:18PM
4 Kinds of Smartphone Apps That Maximize Your Gym Workouts
Are you feeling left out because you don’t have a personal fitness tracker yet? Don’t be. If you have a smartphone, there are a number of free or cheap mobile apps that have some of the same features: calorie tracking, activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, and even customized workouts to help you reach your fitness goals. What’s more, a number of these apps are especially useful for maximizing your workout time at the fitness center. Tracking AppsJust like personal fitness trackers, many apps can help you track calories, workouts and fitness stats all in one location. Some even sync with popular fitness trackers so you won’t have to enter information twice. A few general fitness and nutrition tracking apps you might want to check out include My Fitness Pal, the FitBit app, and the “Lose It!” app. As with dedicated trackers, you’ll want to keep your smartphone on you at all times so the apps can give you credit for all your activity both in and outside the fitness gym. Coaching and Workout AppsIf you need some motivation and a workout plan that fits your current abilities and goals, there’s an app for that (well, actually, several). FitStar, Touchfit: Georges St-Pierre, Pear Personal Coach, Sworkit and 30 Day Challenges are just a few apps that help match you with customizable workouts and include features like video demonstrations, cues, and advice from athletes and expert trainers. Music AppsHaving the right music can make all the difference in getting in a quality workout and having a good time. FIT radio, Spotify Premium, RockMyRun, MotionTraxx, and Spring Running Music are a few subscription-based apps that can help you create custom playlists based on the type of activity you’re doing. A few, like RockMyRun, actually detect when you speed up or slow down and match the music to your cadence, while others keep a steady beat to help you stay in your target training zone during your cardio sessions. Weight Lifting AppsEveryone who lifts weights knows it’s important to track your weight, reps and sets, and yes – there are even apps that can help you with that. Jefit, GymBook, Strong, and StrongLifts 5x5 are a few apps that help you keep track of your resistance training schedule along with other workouts so you won’t have to keep carrying around that crumpled piece of paper as you go from one weight machine to the next at the fitness center. Gym Motivation AppsSome days you might even need motivation to get to the gym. Apps like Pact and StickK can help you do that by putting your money where your gym shoes are. Whenever you follow through with gym attendance (tracked by GPS) or honor your personal fitness contract, you keep your bet. When you fail, other users, your friends, or a favorite charity collect the dough. How’s that for some extra motivation? This is just a drop in the bucket of app-based fitness resources that can help streamline and customize your workout routine. Whether you use them to try something new, track your progress, or get just the motivation you need to push through that hard workout, smartphone fitness apps are a great complement to your fitness gym membership. via Blogger https://ift.tt/34J8cwb October 06, 2020 at 04:10PM
High Reps/Light Weights or Low Reps/Heavy Weight: Which Is Better?
Lifting weights is pretty uncomplicated: pick a weight, choose a move, and crank out as many reps as you can. Other than making sure to use proper lifting technique and, if you’re lifting really heavy, grabbing a friend at the fitness center to spot for you, there’s not much to it. No fancy machinery necessary, no formula to figure out -- just you and some iron. But, like most types of exercise, there are plenty of opinions on the ‘best’ way to do it. One of the main areas where opinions differ is in the choice of weight and number of reps. Some swear by using heavy weight and low reps, while others say the fastest way to get ripped is to use lighter weights with more reps. So which is the best, and why? The simple answer is both! Each has its own purpose, but both types of lifting are beneficial to everyone, at every fitness level. Although there’s enough information on the science of weight lifting strategy to keep you reading for weeks, here’s a basic breakdown of the differences between the two and how they can help you achieve your goals during your weekly fitness gym workouts. Lighter Weights/Higher RepsThe benefit of lifting lighter weights is that you can complete more repetitions and sets before your muscles fatigue. This trains the body’s type 1 muscle fibers, or slow-twitch fibers, which leads to greater muscular endurance. Bottom line: you’ll be able to lift and hold heavy things for longer periods of time. The perception that using lighter weights won’t create unwanted “bulk” makes this strategy more appealing to women than men, but men benefit from it, as well. How to do it:
Choose a weight that’s between 50 to 60 percent of your maximum capacity and complete a few sets of 15 to 20 reps.
Heavier Weights/Lower RepsLifting heavier weights works the body’s type 2 or fast-twitch muscle fibers, which have more power but fatigue faster. Contrary to popular opinion, lifting heavier weights will not make women look bulkier, at least not without serious training and very heavy weights. Instead, lifting heavier weights creates new muscle tissue, which not only increases strength and power, but makes you look leaner since muscle tissue is denser than fat and takes up less space in your body. More muscle tissue also burns more calories, even at rest, increasing your metabolism. How to do it:
Choose a weight that’s 80 to 85 percent of your maximum capability and complete 6 to 8 repetitions each set.
General AdviceYou might be wondering how to tell which weight to use for each type of lifting – for instance, how do you determine ’50 percent’ of your capability? A simple suggestion is to (safely) test your limits. Count how many reps you can complete comfortably with a particular weight, while maintaining good form, until you start to fatigue. The last few reps should feel difficult, but not impossible. If you can only complete a handful of reps before you start fatiguing, it’s probably near your maximum. If you could lift it all day without any trouble, it’s a little too light. Choose weights between this range based on whether you want to build muscular endurance or strength, and you’re ready to use both these lifting strategies to maximize your fitness center workouts every time. via Blogger https://ift.tt/34pr8Qf October 05, 2020 at 04:16PM
Tips for Time-Efficient Meal Prepping
Now that the holidays are in full swing, the struggle to keep our nutrition and fitness center workouts in line is bound to get challenging. Meal planning and prepping are key to maintaining progress toward fitness goals through this season, since how we eat most of the time has the greatest impact on our body composition. Having covered meal planning and shopping, let’s look at some tips for effective meal prepping to help it all come together and keep you lean and mean through the holidays. 1. Know how much time you have (and need) to prep meals, and plan accordingly.Knowing what you’re eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all week saves time in and of itself, but if you’re planning to eat “real” unprocessed food, it will also require some advanced prep time. First, look at your meals and calculate the time commitment they require – no prep time, ten minutes of prep time, one hour, etc. Then look at your schedule and decide which days and meals you will or won’t have the time for prepping. For instance, you may not have any time to prepare dinner one night, but a whole hour the next. This will determine which meals and ingredients you’ll need to prepare in advance. 2. Pick a prep day and make it fun!Seasoned meal preppers have learned it works well to pick a day (Sunday is the most popular) to do all their chopping, cooking, portioning, and freezing for the week. It’s more time-efficient to cook up large batches of key ingredients (chicken breast, sweet potatoes, etc.) than to cook each meal separately. Instead of looking at prepping as a tedious way to spend a Sunday afternoon, why not invite your fellow meal-prepping fitness gym friends to join you or turn on some dance music to get in a fun workout? 3. Pre-chop, pre-peel, and pre-portion.If you know that a meal will require a lot of chopping and peeling, getting this task done ahead of time can make those busy nights go much smoother and eliminate the excuse to eat out. If you need to pre-chop veggies and fruits a few days in advance, freezing them will help preserve their freshness. Many meal preppers also find that pre-portioning meals in disposable containers makes grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches that much easier. Using containers that are all the same size makes for easy labeling, stacking, and retrieval from the fridge. 4. Pre-cook and freeze ahead.Pre-cooking and freezing meals is another weekend activity that can save even more time during the week. You might be surprised at just how many meals you can freeze – do a web search for “freezable healthy meals” and you’ll find plenty of ideas to get started. 5. Prep passively with crock pots and overnight oats.Thanks to a few easy hacks and electronics, you can even prep meals while you sleep, work, or workout. Overnight oats (simply placing all the ingredients for your morning oatmeal in a mason jar overnight) is a hit when you don’t have time to cook them. Slow cookers make it easy to tenderize leaner cuts of meat and simmer healthy soups, vegetables, and much more -- all while you’re at work. You can even hit the health club after, and still have a hot, nutritious meal waiting for you when you get home. As you can see, meal prepping isn’t as difficult or as time-consuming as you might have thought. All it takes is a little planning ahead, a few tricks, and a determination to see your fitness goals through the hazards of the holiday season. You’ve got this! via Blogger https://ift.tt/2SmW7qB October 02, 2020 at 11:17PM
6 Tips for Getting Your Kids into Fitness
As a regular at the fitness gym, you’ve made exercise a priority, but have you thought about your children’s fitness, as well? It’s easy to assume kids get enough activity naturally and don’t have to worry about their fitness until later in life, but it’s the habits that are set in motion in childhood that will make a different in their health and fitness for years to come. Education Is VitalKids do receive some health education in school, but parents play the most important role in teaching kids how to take good care of their bodies. Even if you practice healthy habits at home, it’s important to have conversations about why you do what you do and equip them to make their own healthy habits, both now and later. Here’s some advice on how to get your kids educated and interested in keeping fitness a priority. 1. Be encouraging rather than demanding.Getting kids into fitness isn’t the same as getting them to clean their rooms or do their homework. There are some things kids just need to do because they’re told, but fitness shouldn’t be one of them. Why? The attitude they develop toward exercise now will influence their attitude toward it as adults. If it’s seen as just another chore or requirement, it may not stick once they have the choice. 2. Lead by example.It’s not only important to teach kids about fitness, but to set a good example. As you probably know from other aspects of life, kids pay more attention to what you do than what you say. If you talk about the importance of exercise and healthy eating habits but don’t go to the fitness center and eat junk all the time, they won’t take it as seriously. Show your kids how to live healthy lives by preparing nutritious meals at home, making good choices when you eat out, and keeping your own exercise routine a priority. 3. Make fitness fun!
Even we adults who work out at the health club on a regular basis can have a bad attitude about it, treating it like an unpleasant chore rather than a privilege. Examine your own attitude about exercise and consider how it may be rubbing off on your children. It’s fine to be honest when you’re not feeling a workout, but if it’s all the time, maybe you need to find something you enjoy a little more. Show you kids that working hard to get and stay in shape is fun, rewarding, and enhances your mood rather than bringing it down.
4. Get kids involved in sports, gymnastics, and clubs.Physical education classes are on the decline, but sports programs are still a key part of most schools’ curriculum. Encourage (don’t nag) your kids to get involved -- and not just to indulge your own competitive nature. If they’re not competitive, they may enjoy a solo sport or activity. After-school clubs are another good way to get kids involved, since they can enjoy activities with peers that share the same interests. 5. Get active together.Kids are spending more and more time glued to electronics than they are outside. Doing fun activities like hiking, swimming, biking, skiing (or even playing Pokémon Go!) as a family will make it much easier to get kids interested in fitness without even realizing it and establish healthy habits they’ll follow well into adulthood. via Blogger https://ift.tt/2EPmnXu September 30, 2020 at 11:24PM
Yes, You Can Train Yourself to Love Healthy Foods
After eating all the rich foods that come with holidays, you think you’ve had your fill. But, ironically, doesn’t it seem even harder to turn down sweets and treats in the following weeks? If only we could learn to acquire such an addiction to healthy foods! The truth is that we can, but it will take more than just wishful thinking. Just like your fitness gym workouts, it takes training, gradual changes, repetition, and variety. The Basis of Flavor LearningAlthough there’s some evidence we natural prefer certain flavors, Pavlovian theory strongly suggests we mostly learn to enjoy flavors. The initial reason we eat a certain food may be that we prefer its flavor, but the more often we eat it, the more we enjoy it for other reasons such as texture, smell, and other nuances. For example, studies suggest that if children are first fed sweetened vegetables, they may eventually learn to like plain vegetables. The key is to use this behavior to train ourselves to enjoy not just the flavor but all the traits of healthy foods in their healthiest forms. Lower Your Flavor ThresholdsEach of us has a different sensitivity to each flavor based on what we’re used to eating (since childhood, in many cases). One person may think a dish is too salty, while another person thinks it’s just right. The amount of a certain flavor we are used to is the measuring stick we use when we try new foods, but this can be adjusted. The key in this case is to gradually lower your threshold for flavors like salty and sweet rather than cutting them from your diet, cold-turkey. Food producers do this all the time without consumers even realizing it, so why not try it on yourself? Eat and RepeatRepeated exposure to healthy foods can also train us to enjoy them. Again, studies involving children have shown that those who initially reject vegetables learn to genuinely like them after several tries. Use this theory on yourself by trying to eat more of healthy foods you’re not crazy about, rather than less. Familiarity breeds fondness. Eat Healthy Feel-Good CarbohydratesOur relationship with food is often based on how it makes us feel (that’s why they call it comfort food, after all). Many people enjoy sugary drinks and junk food because of the “high” they get from the spike in their blood sugar soon after eating such high carbohydrate foods. Train your body to recognize this energy “high” from healthier carbohydrates like whole grains, rice, sweet potatoes, and fruit, and you’ll be less likely to reach for that candy bar. Spice it UpVegetables and the healthiest versions of other food groups have a reputation for being bland since they’re low in added salt, sugars, and fats. There are many healthy ways to add flavor to these foods so you can enjoy rather than suffer through them. Experiment with spices, coconut and olive oil, citrus and fruit juices, until you find preparation methods and recipes for healthy foods that you enjoy. If you don’t hate it, there’s a good chance you can find a way to prepare it that your taste buds will like. Who knows – the health food you’ve always avoided may end up becoming your favorite dish! Together, these methods can be used to train yourself to enjoy and crave healthy foods so you can move beyond dieting and into healthy eating habits that last a lifetime. Just as you’ve conditioned your body to respond to your fitness center workouts and even look forward to them, “condition” your taste buds to do the same with healthy food. via Blogger https://ift.tt/30i0zvb September 29, 2020 at 12:07AM
Food Journaling: Track Your Eating Patterns for Long-term Success
Does it seem like, no matter how hard you work out at the fitness center, the scale isn’t budging? Weight loss plateaus happen for many reasons, but one culprit could be hidden calories. How carefully do you track what you put in your mouth, if you even track it? Even if you’ve been good about eating healthy, prepped meals, little things like calorie-laden espresso drinks, the office candy bowl, mindless snacking on “just a few” chips while watching television can all add up to sabotage your goals. Taking the time to journal what you eat could be the key to uncovering bad habits and patterns and finally seeing that scale budge one again. In a study published by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, those who recorded their intake experienced double the weight loss of those who didn’t. Here’s the basis of why food journaling works. • Food journaling forces mindfulness and keeps you accountable.Knowing you’ll have to write down what you ate makes you think twice about grabbing that extra handful of chips or scooping out another serving of mashed potatoes. It might sound like a guilt trip, but it’s just a way to keep your mind focused on your intentions throughout the day so you can succeed. • It teaches you a lot about your eating habits.A food journal may help you realize that what you think you’re eating and what you’re truly eating are not the same, and how that’s affecting your goals. For instance, maybe you’re eating healthy foods, but in excess. Maybe you’re not eating the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, skipping meals and setting yourself up for binging, or eating too few calories and slowing your metabolism. • It reveals your emotional relationship with food.If you take the time to record the circumstance surrounding your snack and meals, you’ll also gain insight into your emotional relationship with food. You might discover that you only eat junk food when you’re stressed, bored, or with company. Noticing these patterns builds awareness that in turn helps you work on your relationship with food. Tips for Successful Food Journaling1. Do it right away.Like anything put off, telling yourself you’ll record your snacks and meals later in the day usually mean it won’t get done. Establish a pattern of recording food as soon as you eat it throughout the day. Recording your meals on a smartphone app or personal tracking device eliminates any excuse of inconvenience, since we always have these items with us. 2. Be completely honest.Why lie to yourself? You’re only hurting your progress towards your goals and undermining your workouts at the fitness gym. It’s okay to fail -- just record it and learn from it. 3. Review the journal on a daily and weekly basis.Keeping a journal and then ignoring it still won’t help you. Make an appointment with yourself to track your progress, look for patterns, and continually improve your knowledge and attitudes. If you’ve never food journaled, this one practice could make the difference between a plateau and the results you’ve been looking for. By drawing your attention to what you’re really eating and revealing the hidden emotional triggers that sabotage your good intentions, food journaling can be a valuable tool to both get and stay fit for life. via Blogger https://ift.tt/3i7wJPP September 25, 2020 at 08:14PM |