Blog

Beat the Winter Blues!

Posted: 02/07/2012

1. Exercise
As if we needed another reason to get fit! Exercise isn't only for maintaining your weight and staying healthy. It's great for relieving the stresses of life. Plus, the effects of a good workout can last for several hours after you hit the showers. You'll have more energy throughout the day, and your metabolism with stay elevated too. Exercise also helps your mind by releasing those "feel good chemicals" that improve your mood.

2. Eat a Healthy Diet
What and when you eat has a great affect on your mood and energy. Avoid refined and processed foods (like white breads, rice, and sugar). These foods are not only devoid of the nutrients your body craves, but they zap your energy levels and can affect your mood—causing depression, lack of concentration, and mood swings. Try to incorporate more complex carbohydrates (whole wheat breads, brown rice, veggies, fruit) and get your daily 8 cups of water. These healthy foods provide your body (and mind) with nutrients, and stabilize your blood sugar and your energy levels.

3. Act on your Resolutions
A recent study from the CDC showed a strong link between healthy behaviors and depression. Women who exhibited healthy behaviors (like exercising, not smoking, etc.) had less sad and depressed days than those whose behaviors were less than healthy. Although researchers studied women, the results are likely similar in men.

4. Embrace the Season
Instead of always avoiding the cold and the snow—look for the best that it has to offer! Take up a winter sport like ice skating, snowboarding, hockey, or even sledding! Enjoy these opportunities while they last—after all, they're only here a few months per year. Staying active will boost your energy. Seeing winter in a positive light, with all the fun activities that it has to offer, will keep your spirits high

Kick the habit!

Posted: 01/24/2012

At Fitness Together we want to assist you to develop healthy lifestyle habits.  The key is to NOT overwhelm yourself with change – pick one thing to tackle.  Think of that nagging bad habit that you can’t seem to quit.  Consider creating a “bad habit jar” with fitness as the consequence for not kicking the habit.  When you slip up, write an IOU to the jar, and perhaps every week empty the jar and pay for your ‘sins’.  Have one too many cookies? Add 50 crunches to the end of your workout.  Lost your will power and smoked a cigarette? Tack on an additional 15 minutes to your run. Knowing that these activities carry a consequence may help you stop them.   And it may also help you get in touch with the REALITY that it’s called a ‘bad’ habit for a reason.  If you need more accountability (and most of us do), ask a friend, or your FT trainer, to help keep you honest.

How to Spend Less Time in the Gym and See Better, Faster Results

Posted: 01/11/2012

Everyone who's trying to get fit wants to see results right away.  While there's no magic pill or "quick fix", there is one thing you can start doing differently in your workouts to speed up your results.

I'm talking about focusing on the exercises everyone hates to do, but are oh-so-good for you!--

Compound Movement Exercises.

Unlike single-joint exercises (i.e. isolation exercises) like bicep curls, triceps kickbacks, and leg extensions, compound movements recruits multiple joints and multiple muscles.

This is what makes them so hard to do. However, it's also the reason they are so effective.

Not only do compound movements burn more calories and rev up your metabolism, they also promote the secretion of human growth hormone (hgh) which helps with muscle growth.

So what kinds of compound movements should you be doing?

Here are a few you can get started with:

Squats -- be sure to ask someone who works at your gym to show you how to do these with proper form. If at any time you experience pain, STOP immediately.

Deadlifts -- another great exercise. On this one, make sure to keep your chest out and back straight.

Bench presses -- Keep your back flat on the bench. Don't use so much weight that you start arching your back to try and push the bar back up.

Barbell rows -- Make sure to keep your back straight and chest out. Squeeze your lats and hold for one second on the contraction for maximum benefit.

There are more compound movements you can do, but these will give you a great start.

If you don't know how to do any of the ones listed here, make sure to ask someone who works at your gym to show you the proper form, to avoid injury.

These exercises will be tough. But the hard work will be worth it.

What's more, just doing 3 - 5 of these exercises will workout your ENTIRE body. That means less time in the gym and greater results.

New Year's Goal Setting

Posted: 01/03/2012

New Year’s Resolutions and goal setting can be tough!  Statistics show that most folks will fail at reaching their resolutions and goals!

 

With the end of 2011 upon us, it's time to decide exactly what you want to accomplish in 2012.

 

1) You must have a "WHY" for each of your goals.

 

One of the biggest factors for making sure you reach your goals is to have an underlying reason as to why you want to reach this goal, something that truly drives you.

 

2) Write your goals down.

 

I am a huge believer in sitting down and handwriting your goals out. Then keep them visible and review regularly.

 

3) Find a support system.

 

Let's face it, it is tough to reach your goals and stay internally motivated for the entire year.  You will have periods of time that you struggle and find it hard to stay motivated.

This is where a great support system comes into play.  This can be family, friends, workout partners, and your fitness coaches. You have a built-in support system of coaches, friends and people that know exactly what you are going through and what you're trying to accomplish.

 

4) Create both outcome based goals and procedural goals.

 

Most of us create goals that are outcome based such as 'I want to make more money", "I want to lose more weight", etc.  These are strictly based on outcomes.  If you set procedural goals as well you will be able to track your progress and reach your outcome goals.

 

If your outcome goals are to do 10 regular pushups and lose 20 lbs in the next year then you need to set some action steps in place to accomplish these tasks.  Trust me; they won't magically happen because you wrote them down.   So an action step procedural goal might be to get in at least 150 workouts over the next year.  

 

5) Have a plan!

 

The biggest mistake that you can make is not creating a plan.  As I stated before you can't write down your goals and hope and pray that they are achieved.  You have to do a little work!

 

For each goal write up a plan for how you will accomplish the goal.

 

Example:   "I want to drop my body fat by 15% over the next year."

 

Action Steps:  "I will begin by making one positive nutrition change each month for the next year.  I will start with eating a healthy breakfast every day.  Next I will make sure to increase my vegetable intake.

After those steps are reached I will cut out starchy carbs." And so on.

 

If you use these 5 tips above I promise you'll get great results and 2012 will be an awesome fit and healthy year for you!

 

Have a safe and happy New Year!

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

Posted: 12/02/2011

 

• Max Fat Burning: Despite what you may have heard about the fat burning potential of low intensity exercise, your max fat burning zone actually occurs at the upper end of your aerobic zone, about 80 percent of your max heart rate. It’s true that working at a lower level of intensity (50 to 65 percent of your max heart rate) is easier to maintain for an extended period of time (an hour or more), and it also allows you to burn a greater percentage of fat calories as compared to carbohydrate calories. Yet minute for minute, this lower level of exertion burns substantially fewer total calories and thus fewer fat calories overall. It’s at approximately 80 percent of max that you experience the largest total amount of fat being burned during the shortest duration of time. Generally, you’ll be able to hold your max fat burning intensity for at least 30 minutes (longer as you become more fit).

 

Estimate your max-fat-burning heart rate with this test:

• Choose an activity in which you can maintain a consistent intensity, such as running, cycling, skiing, rowing, etc.
• Warm up for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Increase your intensity to the highest heart rate you can comfortably maintain and then hold it for 10 minutes. You should be able to talk, but your sentences will be short and choppy.
• Active recovery should be three minutes. Keep moving but with light resistance or intensity.
• Return to the highest heart rate you can hold for 10 minutes and maintain it.
• Cool down for five to 10 minutes.
• Average your heart rate from the two vigorous 10 minute sessions to determine your estimated max fat burning. (Note: This number should be equivalent to the one displayed on most aerobic equipment.) 

Three goals to get you started

Posted: 11/16/2011

Today I'm going to leave you with 3 goals you can implement this next week to start seeing some measurable progress.

 

1.  Add 10 minutes of exercise 3x per week to your current program.  If you're not currently doing anything, start with just the 10 minutes 3x per week. If already exercising then add the 10 minutes to your program. It probably needs some progression anyway.

 

A great example of a 10 minute strength and cardio combo workout could include a short bodyweight circuit consisting of:  bodyweight squats, jump rope, kneeling pushups, lying hip bridge, lying v-ups, jumping jacks. Repeat this circuit 2 -3 times for a great workout that is guaranteed to ramp up your metabolism.

 

2.  Take your dinner and split it into two meals and eat one at dinner time and one three hours earlier or three hours later depending on your time of dinner.

Frequent smaller

feedings are the best way to speed up your metabolism and burn fat fast.

 

3.  Take one minute to visualize your health and fitness goals. I mean really visualize them, then write them down. Then develop a plan to get them accomplished, no excuses!

 

That's it.  Get started and by the end of next week you should already notice an improvement in your health and fitness.

 

Frauds

Posted: 11/08/2011

Americans regularly fall victim to fraudulent weight-loss products. These include nonprescription drugs, dietary supplements, skin patches, creams and gadgets. They're often advertised as providing rapid weight loss without the need for diet and/or exercise.

Add to that the fact that consumers are easily frustrated because of what they read, watch and hear in the news. One day they may see a headline touting a nutritional "breakthrough," and the next week they hear about something totally different.

So, how do you distinguish fact from fiction? For starters, remember that nutrition is a science that involves biochemistry, biology, human physiology, anatomy and food chemistry. As with advances in medicine and pharmacology, rigorous research needs to be done before dietary guidelines are recommended.

When you hear something about a recommendation, such as using lychee fruit to reduce belly fat, consider the source. Is the person offering this advice a credentialed health professional with specific training in nutrition?

Trained nutrition professionals have degrees in nutrition, dietetics, public health or related fields. They have supervised clinical experience, have passed a national exam and are required to pursue continuing education. In Delaware, nutritionists must be licensed.

Or, if you read about new research -- such as the 47 people who drank chocolate milk and had a lower risk for heart disease -- you need to consider the size of the study. One this small generally constitutes a preliminary or pilot study.

Health information and dietary recommendations need to be viewed cautiously. The Food and Nutrition Science Alliance, a coalition of professional nutrition and scientific societies, offers the following 10 red flags of junk science:

1. Recommendations that promise a quick fix.

2. Dire warnings of danger from a single, complex study.

3. Claims that sound too good to be true.

4. Simplistic conclusions drawn from a complex study.

5. Recommendations based on a single study.

6. Dramatic statements disputed by reputable scientific organizations.

7. Lists of "good" and "bad" foods.

8. Recommendations made to help sell a product.

9. Recommendations based on studies published without peer review.

10. Recommendations from studies that ignore differences among individuals or groups.

Before making any drastic changes to your diet or following nutrition advice from a questionable source, talk with your health care provider or a licensed nutritionist.

Here's 5 ways to amazing & lasting health...

Posted: 11/02/2011

1. Support - To keep you motivated, it's essential you
find a support group, others in your situation who know
what you're going through and can help you every step

2. Tools - Believe me it's so much easier to exercise
and eat healthier when you have a step-by-step plan to
follow. If you stick with it a few weeks, soon your new
healthy lifestyle becomes a habit

3. Knowledge - Knowledge is key. You need to understand
YOUR body first and foremost. Then you know what YOU
should eat, how YOU should exercise and so on

4. Expert Advice - When it's your health at stake, it's
always best you seek your knowledge through an expert.
Someone with real life experience and know how.

5. Reward - When you achieve a goal, reward yourself.
If you want a new coat, say - "Okay, I'll get it after
I've dropped X pounds" or whatever your goal is.