April 25, 2024

Is fear holding back your exercise?

July 26, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Get Fit Quick Tip:

Embrace your exercise fears!

Is fear getting in the way of your fitness? What exercise or sport would you be participating in if you weren’t afraid, anxious or nervous? Embrace the fear and keep moving forward. Here’s how:

Ask for help. Everyone was a beginner at some point. Don’t know what to do? Ask your friends, a professional, the front desk staff.

Start slow. Afraid you won’t be able to complete an entire spin class? Don’t! Share your thoughts with the instructor and set your goal to complete 30 minutes (with a proper warm up and cool down.)

Break it down. Always wanted to try rock climbing? Great! Break it down by firstly, simply visit your local rock gym. Second, ask if you’re able to observe others climbing. Third, inquire about lessons or classes. Fourth, climb!

 

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Appreciate your Fitness by Nicole Bryan

December 23, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Do you appreciate your fitness? You should! You’ve worked hard for it. Appreciate how far you’ve come and how fitness and living healthy has enriched your life. A great way to appreciate your fitness is through giving back. And if you’ve enjoyed good health, it’s important to take a minute and acknowledge that as well. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Encourage a fellow exerciser. Encouraging another exerciser costs nothing and requires no time. Everyone loves positive feedback for their efforts. Offer a few positive words to someone you see working hard every morning at the gym, or someone in your class who’s come a long way or go to a spot on a local race course and cheer on the athletes running or riding by. Your positive words really do matter to others who may be struggling to keep his or her fitness focus. Kind words really do make a difference.

Volunteer for a community event. There are many races in many sports that happen year round. Find one that interests you and ask how you can help. Volunteers help at registration, at the hydration stops and at the finish area, there really is a task for every helping hand. Many race directors also need volunteers for several days prior to the event, so just drop a quick email or phone call and ask!

Register for a race. Consider competing in a race as a victory lap to celebrate all your training and hard workouts mastered. And keep in mind, registering for an organized race doesn’t always have to come with hard core expectations. Racing expectations are set by you. In fact, sometimes racing can simply provide a fun opportunity to get active with others who share our passion for living healthy.

Get active for a cause. Form a team and register to raise funds and participate in an organized event for a cause that’s close to your heart. The process is very simple: recruit your friends, family, co-workers, neighbor’s and sign up! The American Heart Association, Alzheimer’s Association, the Arthritis Foundation, the MS Society, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training are all worthy causes to consider lending your fitness to, just to name a few.

Plan an adventure outing. Why not plan an outing and invite others to join you? Consider a hike in the front or back country, a day long kayak excursion or maybe a bike ride is more your pace. Try a new physical activity or a great way to challenge your fitness even more. An outdoor adventure is also a great way to celebrate a birthday or other significant milestone. It’s also a great way for your guests to see the town when visiting you. And who knows, you all may even find a new activity to love.

Often we’re so focused on race to our end goal or even on setting the next goal immediately, we forget to take in the view and celebrate our progress as we go. Stop! Look around you and acknowledge how far you’ve come in your fitness journey. Congratulations!

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Thinking of Quitting? By Nicole Bryan

September 18, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ask any exerciser and just about every single one will tell you there have been days where they wanted to quit. Give it all up. Forget healthy living entirely. However, something or someone inspired them to keep going.
You want to quit your workout? Here’s why you shouldn’t:

There will be progress. In fact it’s almost a given or guarantee, if you stick with it long enough that is. Many of your body’s systems are trainable. You will become stronger and more efficient with repeated practice. For example, your cardiovascular system, or your heart. Your heart will become stronger when you make it work through exercise. Physical changes from exercise and healthy eating are both externally and internally based. They are based on human biology and physiology, so if you’re not seeing results do an honest inventory. Are you truly following the guidelines on a daily basis? If so, double-check or fine tune your approach. Maybe what you’re doing isn’t right for you or your body. Consult a Fitness Professional to dial in all aspects of your healthy living schedule. Stick with it long enough and you’ll get where you need to be.

Difficult times will pass. Schedules change, demand on our time change, responsibilities will change. Adjust your healthy choices, but keep at it. Just because it’s hard now, doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Focus on getting what you need from your workout. Your needs will change, and they should change. Why give it all up just because you hit a bump on the road? Don’t.

You won’t ever regret your effort. Plain and simply put, you won’t ever regret healthy choices or a healthy lifestyle. Your workout will always be worth your time and effort. When you have a few more years of healthy living behind you, you’ll never say you wish you didn’t do it.

Personal pride. What about the confidence that comes from setting a goal and accomplishing that goal? There is tremendous personal pride that will come from improving your lifestyle, your body and your overall health.

Makes your life easier. Being in good health makes life easier in many ways. You have energy to complete your tasks. You have strength to lift what you need.

Be an inspiration. You never know who you’ll be inspiring with your dedication and discipline. Chances are you were inspired to live healthy from another person, be that person for someone else. If you can’t do it for yourself when times get tough, do it for someone else until you find your groove again.

You never know where your health will take you. Being healthy opens you up travel, adventure, athletic competitions, community events, making new friends and family fitness endeavors. Be open to expanding your fitness.

So, if you want to quit your healthy living, firstly you are not alone. And secondly, don’t. Find what works for you and keep going. Early, late, long, short, high intensity, low intensity, home, gym. Don’t ever quit. Keep after it.

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Back to the Basics by David Hutchings

August 13, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Train well, eat well, recover well. Follow these three themes and you’ll be on your way to reaching your fitness goals.  Sometimes people get bogged down in the details before getting the basics right.

The information floating around makes it difficult to even identify the basics.

Firstly, nutrition.  Eat for your goal.  It’s that simple (theoretically).  If you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Before you worry about supplements, fat burners or meal timing answer this: are you eating fewer calories than you burn through daily activity?  There are many apps that can tell you the amount of calories you should be eating to lose weight.  They’ll also help you track your food.  Get one and start tracking – then you’ll know whether you’re eating the right amount of calories.

Next, training.  You can lose weight by diet alone, but you’ll also lose muscle along with the fat which isn’t ideal.  This is where training comes in.  Training burns calories, but the right training will minimise muscle loss too.  Doubly beneficial. Having more lean muscle means you burn more calories just going about your daily life.  It also means you’ll have more muscle tone once the fat is burned off.

Lastly, recovery.  Watching your nutrition and training appropriately are vital, so is recovery.  You need rest so the body can prepare itself for the next day of training and eating well. Losing weight is stressful to the body in terms of training and being in a caloric deficit.  It’s also stressful on the mind.  Setbacks are frustrating and can take a toll mentally so ensure you are getting your rest.

If you’re trying to lose weight but haven’t been successful ask yourself this – am I eating, training, and recovering well?  Chances are if one of these boxes isn’t being ticked, it could be the reason.

David Hutchings is the owner of 360 Degree Fitness Limited  — a mobile personal and small group training business based in Wellington, New Zealand. He trains a variety of clients from regular folks trying to get a little fitter to athletes looking to increase their speed and strength. He likes to fish, hang out with his wife and son, and also enjoys classic rock and a good barbecue.

 

*Disclaimer: Result may vary from person to person.

 

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , ,

Take your Fitness to the Next Level!

July 3, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Take your fitness to the next level…

Join #HealthyWayMag Fitness Chat every Monday at 5pm(Pacific)/8pm(Eastern) on Twitter. Pick up exercise tips, workout ideas and your weekly fitness motivation.

How does a Twitter Chat work?

 

1. Log onto Twitter.

2. Enter hashtag #HealthyWayMag.

3. Follow along with our conversation about all aspects of fitness.

4. Interact with fellow fitness-enthusiasts. During our Question and Answer discussion, you’ll learn about new exercise methods, top gear and best practices for success. Your motivation will soar!

5. Enjoy fitness friends, accountability and FUN!

 

 

Monday July 6, 2015 #HealthyWayMag Fitness Chat Sponsored by SaltStick:

Do you know that replacing electrolytes lost during a tough workout is key for top fitness performance? If you race, participate in community events or organized athletics, having an electrolyte replacement plan in place is essential. Enter SaltStick! Reduce muscle cramping and fatigue that results from electrolyte imbalance by adding SaltStick Caps into your training regime. SaltStick Caps enable you to beat the heat and the body stress that comes with max workouts in hot and humid conditions. And with their patented, cutting edge and user-friendly salt tab dispensers, you can easily carry SaltStick Caps with you while cycling, running, hiking or the like. And for more of a competitive edge check out their SaltStick Mini, weighing in at only 12g. Making SaltStick your new training may just mean your fastest workouts are yet to come! Check them out on Twitter @SaltStick , and join their Facebook community for more info!

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s the BEST workout? By Jennifer Austin

May 22, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Question: What is the best workout? Answer: The workout you’ll do! The list of possible exercise is endless. Choosing what to do for exercise is really very simple: Go back to the basics of finding what you enjoy. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll want to be doing it! And when you want to be doing an activity, you’ll increase your effort. Effort is where results happen. Design your exercise according to an activity you enjoy.

Ask yourself the following five questions:

Does the activity fill you with ease?
Do you look forward to this activity?
Do you feel physically, psychologically and emotionally better after?
Do you miss the activity when you’re away from it?
Does the activity feel natural and comfortable (doesn’t feel painful) in your body?

Find what activity promotes a “yes” answer to the previous questions, and that’s where you should begin. Here are a few ideas for common activities with fitness-focused progressions to get you started:

If you like to walk, take one day a week and extend your walk to slightly longer than your usual duration. A great way to make your walk longer is to plan for a destination walk. Head to a different neighborhood and explore, for example. You’ll be distracted by new surroundings you’ll hardly notice the longer time spent walking. Adding on in 5 minutes increments is a good way to build fitness into your walk. Build on from there to create an unaccustomed effect on your body.

If you like to ride your bike, think about organizing a work or neighborhood bike club to prepare for an organized ride. Gathering a group of friends together at a set time and place each week to prepare for a ride will add consistency into your bike schedule. Riding with others is also a great way to learn new techniques and bike handling skills to make riding more effective. Combining bike riding with a task is also a great way to make use of the time that would otherwise spend sitting in your car. For example, have to drop something off at a friend’s house, ride your bike there! Have to pick up something small at the store, hop on your bike.

If you like to jog, try adding in a few sprint intervals. If you’re used to jogging the same loop, the same speed the same days of the week, your results probably ceased awhile ago. Adding in sprints increases intensity, which is great for burning calories. Sprint to a landmark on your route or sprint according to your watch. Finding hills to jog also makes for a great muscle loading workout.

Designing your exercise around what you love to do is a great start toward fitness. Most important when just starting out, is not always what you’re doing but that you are in fact, doing something to challenge your heart, lungs and muscles!

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Fuel your enthusiasm!

March 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Fuel your enthusiasm!

#HealthyWayMag Fitness Chat happens every Monday at 5pm(Pacific)/8pm(Eastern) on Twitter. You’ll find exercise friends, workout tips and healthy living ideas. Join in the conversation with others also on their journey to fitness. Exchange ideas to solve your challenges and share your success to inspire others. Fueling your fitness enthusiasm has never been so easy and accessible!

Thank You #HealthyWayMag Fitness Chat Sponsors! If you’re looking to add a little inspiration to your perspiration, give their links a click.

Shaping Her Esteem. Shaping Her Esteem (SHE) promotes the participation of girls in physical activity to increase their health and wellness. They share recipes, physical activity ideas, nutrition tips and motivational videos. They also organize and facilitate boot camps for young girls. Shaping Her Esteem is looking for girls between 8-16 who would love to write about her experiences in sport/dance, and to share positive experiences in physical activity! Follow them on Twitter for more info.

Momentum. Momentum Jewelry’s signature piece is a delightfully comfortable bracelet that blends function with purpose. Intended for active use, it is washable, lightweight, and non-tarnishing. More importantly, their motivational and inspirational sayings are personalized and become internalized. Check them out on Twitter to see all their products.

RunnerBox.  Runnerbox delivers subscription boxes full of products hand selected to enhance the training, racing and recovery of runners, cyclists or triathletes. Now you can sample top gear just like the pro’s. It’s the perfect gift for yourself or someone else! Check out their Runnerbox, Tribox and Cyclebox. Follow them on Twitter for more info.

Aspen Yoga Mats. Aspen Yoga Mats supply a non-toxic mat that is comfortable, stable and weighs only 3.3 pounds. They offer custom embroidered mats. Or choose from one of their five designs: the Laughing Buddha, the Yin/Yang, the Orchid Branch, the iconic Aspen Leaf and the word BALANCE. Mats are available in five unique colors: Pink, Turquoise, Tangerine, Aloe and Plum. Yoga mats made according to your interests and energy! Check them out on Twitter!

KIND Healthy Snacks. They are your healthy food choice with a positive mission of promoting kindness. With a variety of snacks from which to choose, you’ll rest assured you’re feeding your fitness with healthy and nutritious ingredients. Give their savory STRONG & KIND bars a try to power your workout, or try their most popular Nuts & Spices bars for a healthy mid-day snack. Follow them on Twitter to stay up to date.

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Buddy Up for Fitness Results

April 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Get Fit Quick Tip

 

Buddy Up. Finding an Exercise Accountability Partner is a great way to stick with your workout. Having an Exercise Partner doesn’t always mean doing every single workout together, it simply means you agree to hold one another accountable to your fitness and healthy living goals. Find a friend, family member or co-worker with whom you’ll agree to check in on a regular basis as to the progress of your workout goals.

 

Check back often for your useful and practical healthy living and fitness tip! Our Get Fit Quick tip will always be easy to remember and you’ll be able to implement it the very same day. Our tip will be so clear and concise you’ll be motivated to forward it to all your friends and family to inspire them to live healthy and fit as well

Filed Under: Get Fit Quick Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Finding Time for Fitness by Tera Busker

February 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We are all busy and often have a hard time for finding time for fitness. Try these 7 tips to find time in your day to get in a great workout and make a positive step in the healthy direction.

Make it a PRIORITY! It’s easy to let excuses and every day activities get in the way of your fitness schedule. Too tired, too busy, too much to do – we have all been there. But if you want to make fitness a part of your life, you have to find time to make it a part of your life.  Schedule your workouts just like you would any other important appointment like going to the dentist or getting your hair done. Write it in your calendar and block out time in your day to get it done.

Be sneaky! Sneak fitness into your everyday chores and activities. Make small changes in your day like taking the stairs at work, walking to your co-workers office instead of emailing them,  squatting while you fold laundry or cleaning the house at a brisk pace.

PLAY! If you have kids or pets, be active with them! Kid and pet free? Join a sport league. Working out doesn’t have to mean spending time in a gym. Taking Fido for a hike, playing tag with the kids or joining a backyard game of flag football counts too! Having fun with your fitness makes it seem like a less daunting task.

Wake up early. Getting your workout completed first thing in the morning means you will be less likely to be distracted by other responsibilities later in the day.  Also, working out in the morning starts out your day with a sense of accomplishment and puts a little extra pep in your step.

Be prepared! If you know that you have limited time between getting up in the morning and heading out to the gym before you have to get to work, get in a routine of making sure your gym bag is packed every night before you go to bed.  That way in the morning you will not be rushed or have to skip your workout because you aren’t ready.

Get into a routine. If working out during your lunch hour works best for you, try to stick to that schedule. Life does have a way of throwing a wrench in your plan every now and again, but changing  up your routine too much leaves room for excuses to sneak in.

Instead of finding ways you CAN’T, try to find ways you CAN! Don’t “can’t” yourself to death. Anyone can find a million reasons why they can’t find time for fitness, but try to change up your thinking and try to find ways you can. Can’t workout for an hour every day? Then make the most of the time you can. Can’t afford a gym membership? Go for a jog or walk outside and do bodyweight strength exercises! Focus on the positive of what you can do and try to eliminate the negative of what you can’t.

Tera Busker is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fitness To Go, an exclusive In Home & Private Studio Personal Training Service based out of Roberts, WI. www.fitnesstogo.net

 

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Stick to it in 2013! Written by Brett Klika

December 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

GO GREEN AND GET FIT! This article is sponsored by AC4 Fitness. AC4Fitness is a neighborhood style health club specializing in strength training and cardio-equipment along with 24/7 access for members. That’s right, as an AC4 Fitness member you receive your own key allowing you to workout at any time that is best for you! And as featured in the LA Times, AC4 Fitness is a showcase for cardio-equipment that produces rather than uses electrical energy. Every time you exercise on an Elliptical your human power is fed into the electrical grid. Taking care of the environment while taking care of yourself just seems like a smart thing to do. And as a membership option you may also enjoy HydroMassage, Tanning, and Wi-Fi—all in a non-competitive, and clean environment with No Sales People. If you’re looking for an alternative health club that is: Simple – Affordable – Comfortable – Convenient – AND A LITTLE GREEN, give AC4 Fitness a look.You won’t be disappointed. Check out our modest membership fees and “paperless” enrollment process at www.AC4Fitness.com or visit us at 52 N Fairview Ave., Goleta, CA.

Stick to it in 2013!
Written by Brett Klika C.S.C.S.

Good resolutions are simply checks that people draw on a bank where they have no account.  ~Oscar Wilde

Ahh, The NewYear’s resolution. It’s often a little white lie we tell ourselves to paint a picture of hope, change, and a flat stomach for the year to come. It’s not that we’re dishonest. It’s not that we don’t really WANT change, we just don’t know how to stick to a program.

The above dilemma is why more than 50% of people who begin a workout plan in the New Year find their way back to the couch within six months.  The notion of “working out every day” looks good on paper in December but as the reality of time, energy, and motivation set in, the idea loses its sizzle by summer.

Do you find yourself in this same predicament year after year with diet and exercise? If so, let’s make a change in 2013.

Here are 5 tips to help you stick to your program in 2013.

Instead of just writing your resolution, write why you are making that resolution.
If there is a strong enough “why” we can make anything happen. If there was a $100 in the middle of a busy freeway, would you run out to get it? Probably not. What if a loved one was trapped in the middle of that freeway? It would probably change your motivation.  Your “why” for behavior got stronger!

If exercise is your plan, why? What will exercise do for you physically, mentally, and emotionally? What are the ramifications if you don’t succeed?

Find activities you enjoy.
Regardless of what the media marketing machine tells you, there is no “one” best way for everyone to exercise. Odds are, there are activities you enjoy doing more than others.  Do activities you enjoy (or dread less) and do them frequently. Don’t set yourself up for failure by resolving to do something you hate doing.

Get an “accountabilabuddy.”
Research has shown that you are more than twice as likely to exercise if you do the program with someone else. Why? Accountability!  It’s a lot harder to sleep through that alarm when you know a friend is waiting for you at the gym.

If you’re having a tough time finding a friend to commit, a personal trainer is a probably the most effective option there is for building accountability and expertise into a program.

Set realistic and specific goals.
Goals are easy to write. They are much more difficult to fulfill. Instead of saying you want to “lose 60 pounds by not eating any junk food and exercising every day”, you may want to be more specific and realistic. While 60 pounds may be your big goal, you can start with 10. If you currently don’t exercise at all, aim for 2 days per week and 30 minute workouts. If your diet is poor, make some subtle adjustments like “no sugary drinks Monday through Friday.”

These goals are more attainable and will deliver you increments of success. You can always build on them!

Exercise at the same time every day.
If you wait to “find the time” to exercise, it’s not going to happen. You need to make the time and build in a portion of your day reserved for exercise. For most people, first thing in the morning is the time of day they can control. Even those who claim to “not be morning people” eventually come to enjoy the uninterrupted solace of morning.

If it’s not the morning, create a time such as your lunch break, or on the way home from work, where you can commit to getting fit!

Exercise these tips as you’re committing to health and fitness in 2013!

This article is written by Brett Klika. Brett Klika C.S.C.S., author of “The Underground Workout Manual- Exercise and Fat Loss in the Real World” (www.undergroundworkoutmanual.com) is a world renowned human performance specialist, motivational speaker, author, and educator. In his 15 year career, Brett has accrued more than 20,000 hours of training with youth, athletes, executives, and everyday people. He uses this knowledge and experience to motivate individuals and audiences around the world through his writing, speaking, DVD’s, and free blog. To try the Underground Workout Manual for FREE and check out his blog, visit www.brettklika.com.

Filed Under: Your Fitness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,