Check out our next FITT Camp session on Monday Aug 23rd for FREE! Register now at http://www.bootcampsintucson.com/registration.html
For more information about our 4 week FITT Camp check out our website at http://www.bootcampsintucson.com
Posts Tagged ‘health’
Register now for our next FITT Camp starting Monday 8/23
Thursday, August 19th, 2010Strengthen Your Core in 12 Minutes a Day
Monday, July 12th, 2010Strengthen Your Core in 12 Minutes a Day
If you suffer from back pain — or want to avoid it altogether, you’ll need to strengthen your core.
Strengthening your core is what allows you to do those everyday tasks (i.e. carrying the groceries, bending over to pick something you dropped, moving boxes, etc) and not get hurt doing them.
Plus, strengthening your core will give you better posture and keep you mobile well into your “Golden years.”
Here are three exercises you can do everyday (best of all, you can do them in as little as 12 minutes!):
Superman – Lie on your stomach. Stretch both your arms out in front of you. Make sure both your legs are straight behind you. To do a rep, lift your head, chest, arms and legs off the ground. You’ll feel your lower back tighten. When doing it correctly, you’ll look like Superman flying through the air. Hold this position for 3 – 5 seconds. Now go back to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.
Plank — Lie face down. Now get into a pushup position. Lower your forearms so that they are touching the floor. Keep your legs straight behind your. Only your forearms and toes should be touching the ground at this point. Now tense your abs and keep your back straight. Hold this position for 10 – 20 seconds. Repeat 5 – 10 times.
Side Plank- To do these, lie down on your right side. Now bend your right elbow, palm facing down. Put your left leg on top of your right and make sure they’re stretched out. Now lift your body (like you did in the plank) except this time, all that should be touching the floor is your right forearm and right toes. Stretch your left hand out towards the ceiling. Hold for 10 – 20 seconds. Repeat 5 times and then do the same on the left side.
Don’t worry if you can’t do all three exercises as outlined here at first. If all you can do is one rep, that’s fine.
Gradually build up. But most importantly, make sure you do these exercises every day to build a strong core that’ll help you relieve back pain, prevent future injuries and keep you walking taller.
Strengthening your core is just one of many things you should be doing to keep yourself fit and healthy.
Lose that stubborn belly fat!
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010Why is it so hard to lose that stubborn belly fat?
Body fat comes in two varieties. There’s subcutaneous fat, a noticeable layer of fat that lies just below the skin, and then there’s visceral fat, which is buried beneath the muscles. Visceral fat is the more worrisome variety because it surrounds vital organs and is metabolized by the liver, which turns it into blood cholesterol.
Visceral fat can go largely unnoticed because it’s not visible to the naked eye. In fact, the only effective way researchers can locate visceral fat is by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which uses magnetic waves to take a picture of the inside of the abdomen. Researchers can use this picture to estimate the amount of visceral fat a person is carrying.
What Causes Visceral Fat?
Your genetic makeup is between 30% and 60% responsible for the amount of visceral fat you carry. Nevertheless, research shows that both your diet and your level of physical activity contribute to your level of visceral fat. People who consume large amounts of saturated fat and people who perform little or no physical activity are likely to have high stores of visceral fat.
Short of talking a physician into performing an MRI on your abdomen, how do you know how much of this unhealthy fat you have? Check your waistline. A trim waistline is a good indicator that you don’t have a large buildup of visceral fat.
Getting Rid of Visceral Fat
Research shows that people whose diets contain polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats have less visceral fat. Polyunsaturated fats are found in high concentrations in sunflower, corn, and soybean oils, as well as in fish. Also, just exercising moderately—doing things such as walking, swimming, or playing tennis—on most days of the week will help you prevent visceral fat from accumulating. What’s even better is that doing regular bouts of vigorous exercise can markedly reduce the amount of visceral fat you already have.
Building muscle—through weight lifting or other resistance exercises—will help, too. Muscle burns calories and helps you maintain your metabolic rate. The more muscle you have, the bigger your body’s engine, and the more likely you will be to burn fat
Once adipocytes get the signal from hormones and release fat into the bloodstream, they shrink just like a balloon that you let air out of. When they shrink, so does your body fat. But if you eat excess fat once you’ve shrunk your adipocytes, chances are it will find its way right back to the adipocyte, and once again you’ll gain fat.
No matter how much physical activity you do, adipocytes never shrink so much that they disappear entirely. Like a balloon that you let all the air out of, you’re always left with some remnant. The only way to totally remove adipocytes from your body is with a surgical procedure such as liposuction or excision. But even with these procedures, if you go back to eating excess fat, you’ll put all the fat back on.
The physical activity recommendation for improving health is to accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, if not all, days of the week.
Article was taken from http://www.womenfitness.net/visceral_fat.htm
Here’s How Exercise Reduces Stress:
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Physical activity — whether it’s a relaxing walk, bicycle racing or meditative tai chi — helps relieve stress.
By now, you should know that exercise does your body good. But did you also know that virtually any form of exercise can decrease the production of stress hormones and counteract your body’s natural stress response? It’s true. The same regular exercise routine that helps prevent disease and builds muscle can also help you better manage stress.
How does exercise reduce stress?
Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your steps every day. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits.
- It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity helps to bump up the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Although this function is often referred to as a runner’s high, a rousing game of tennis or a nature hike also can contribute to this same feeling.
- It’s meditation in movement. After a fast-paced game of racquetball or several laps in the pool, you’ll often find that you’ve forgotten the day’s dilemmas and irritations and concentrated only on your body’s movements. As you begin to regularly shed your daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you may find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, can help you remain calm and clear in everything that you do.
- It improves your mood. Regular exercise can increase self-confidence and lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. This can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life.
How to get started
Every successful exercise program begins with a few simple steps.
- Consult with your doctor. Begin any new fitness program by consulting with your health care provider, especially if you have a history of heart disease or other risk factors.
- Walk before you run. Build up your fitness level gradually. Excitement about a new program can lead to overdoing it and possibly even injury. Plus, if you begin your program slowly, chances are better you’ll stick with it.
- Do what you love. Don’t train for a marathon if you dislike running. All forms of movement — from horseback riding to swimming — can increase your fitness level while decreasing your stress. The most important thing is to pick an activity that you enjoy.
- Pick a time and stick to it. Although your schedule may necessitate morning workouts some days and evening activities the next, carving out some time to move every day helps you make your exercise program an ongoing priority.
Motivation to keep moving
Starting an exercise program is just the first step. Here are some tips for sticking with a new routine or reinvigorating a tired workout:
- Set some goals. It’s always a good idea to begin or modify a workout program with a goal in mind. If your primary goal is to reduce stress in your life and recharge your batteries, your specific goals might include committing to walking during your lunch hour three times a week or, if needed, finding a baby sitter to watch your children so that you can slip away to attend a spinning class.
- Find a friend. Knowing that someone is waiting for you to show up at the gym or the park can be a powerful incentive. Working out with a friend, co-worker or family member often brings a new level of motivation to your workouts.
- Change up your routine. If you’ve always been a competitive runner, take a look at other less competitive options that may help with stress reduction, such as Pilates classes or yoga. As an added bonus, these kinder, gentler workouts may enhance your running while also decreasing your stress.
Exercise = less stress
Whatever you do, don’t think of exercise as just one more thing on your to-do list. Find an activity you enjoy — whether it’s an active tennis match or a meditative meander down to a local park and back — and make it part of your regular routine. Any form of physical activity can help you unwind and become an important part of your approach to easing stress.
This article was taken from Mayoclinic.com
To learn more about stress management click here
