Tag Archive for: @LongBeachTRNR

Can a Fitness Tracker Help You to Lose Weight?

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Fitness Trackers are all the rage right now, with devices from companies like Fitbit selling in huge numbers and being pretty ubiquitous. Wearing a Fitbit is as much a fashion statement as anything else though. This is a way of communicating to the world that you ‘do fitness’ and that you are up to scratch with modern technology.

What’s less clear, is just whether or not a device like this can really help you to lose weight and get into better shape. Read on and we’ll take a look at how something like a Fitbit stacks up in real-world testing and how you can use it to your advantage.Fitness Trackers

The Good

First, let’s take a look at what fitness trackers do well. The first and most important thing that you will get from your fitness tracker is motivation and awareness. At their most basic, fitness trackers are devices that can count steps (pedometers) and tell you roughly how many calories you might have burned on that basis.

This can then bring home the reality of your current activity levels. Many of us will be shocked for instance at just how little we move during the weekends. Those who work in offices and drive in in the mornings like equally find that they actually don’t move much Monday-Friday.

Seeing this reality written in plain English can make it hard to deny and can encourage you to move a little more and to increase your general activity levels.

This gets even more powerful when you consider the social elements that many fitness trackers come with. A lot of fitness trackers will also let you see how your friends, family and partner are doing in terms of their fitness goals – or to challenge them to see who can move the most in a set amount of time.

This too can be an excellent tool for encouraging more activity and getting you to head outside and move more.

Then there are the additional tools and features – things like being able to follow guided workouts and HIIT routines for instance.

The Bad

There are downsides to fitness trackers too however. The first is that they are not usually particularly accurate. Heart rate monitoring is only possible to a degree if you aren’t wearing a chest strap and even then, it is only somewhat correlated with calorie burn.

Many activities can’t be picked up by a fitness tracker at all and while the notion of making sure you burn more calories than you consume (tracked through a fitness tracker and diet app like MyFitnessPal), this can also be an overly simplistic way to monitor your diet that doesn’t take into account such things as your micronutrients or your hormonal balance.

In short, a fitness tracker is a fantastic tool for helping with your weight loss and it can be very useful. However, it is also important not to rely on them or to perceive them as any kind of ‘silver bullet’ that will help you to magically lose all your weight.

Hate Cardio? Here’s How to Make it a Part of Your Routine

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Some people love running for fun or as a cardio activity, and are absolutely addicted to it. Everyone else struggles to understand how they possibly got to this point. After all, running is slow, painful, boring and makes you feel sick. What’s to like?

A lot of us want to love running because we know it’s good for us. We want to be fitter, we want to lose weight and we want to spend more time outside. But when we try it, it’s just too unbearable to stick with. cardio

So what can you do to solve the problem and actually get into running properly?

How to Learn to Love Running

The first thing to do, is assess what you’re doing wrong.

In many cases, the problem is that we try too hard to start losing lots of weight right away and to get into shape. We are under the illusion that in order to ‘burn fat’ or improve our fitness, we need to be training at a level that is very uncomfortable.

However, this is very much the wrong way to look at it. After all, when you start running, if it is something you’ve not done regularly before, then you’re immediately adding to your routine and doing more than you did before. You are immediately improving your health and burning more calories than you would otherwise. That alone is enough!

What’s more, is that this is enough to improve your ability to run, which means you can do a little bit more more comfortably in future.

If you head out right now to go for a run and you try to run as fast and as far as you can, then you’ll come back feeling like you achieved something but also feeling completely beaten up by your training and completely in pain.

Instead then, try to go for a run just to enjoy the run. Jog at a pace that feels comfortable and set out to explore the area. Wear comfortable shoes and when you’re ready to come home, turn around and come back.

This is something you’ll now actually want to do again.

Make it Simple

The other thing to do, is to make sure that the type of workouts you’re using are ones that you can easily fit into your routine.

This is the other problem with going for a 40 minute run: 40 minutes is a long time. And it’s especially a long time when you add the extra washing you have to do, the fact you might get lost and the fact that you need to shower and get changed.

Instead, how about looking into a relatively beginner-friendly form of HIIT? HIIT has the advantage of being something you can use anywhere and of being something that lets you burn a lot more calories and improve your health much more in a shorter space of time. This is something you can now conveniently fit into your routine and thus actually stick with.

Buying Diet Plans and Workouts – What to Look Out For and What to Expect

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There are many ways to approach weight loss  but one of the most popular options these days is to invest in buying an ebook, an online course or a set of DVDs. These programs are widely available online and through TV ads and they promise to make weight loss easy by giving us all the information we need laid out in front of us and removing any and all guess work.

But do these diet plans really work? Are they good value? And what can you do to get the most from them?buying

The Cynical View

One thing to consider is that diet plans can often be over-priced and poorly thought out.
This is not to say that they are ineffective or that the authors don’t know what they are talking about. Often though, the plans are designed in such a way that they will be very difficult to stick to and that most people won’t be able to keep them up for long.

These can often include elaborate eating plans that involve lots of preparation and cost a lot of money, or they might involve lengthy workouts.

Either way, this is not a concern for the author – as from their point of view they will still have sold a product that worked and the only problem was with your inability to stick with it.

Then there is the price.

A training program that costs several hundred dollars might be worth it in terms of the results, but there is no getting around the fact that most of the information is probably available online for much less.

This makes the product poor value at best and certainly not a good way to spend your cash.

The Promising Aspect

That said, this is of course not true for every training program. Some programs will be written with longevity in mind by people who really care.

And some will be available for much less, or will include lots of extras – perhaps personalization.
Personalization is important in fact, because everyone is different and different training programs work better for different people.

With all that in mind, you should have a better idea of what to look for and hopefully you can decide for yourself what would be good value for such a program.

More Advice

Perhaps the most important tip of all though, is that you mustn’t wait for your training program or treat it as gospel. Too often, people will read training programs and buy training programs almost as a form of procrastination.

This is like an unspoken agreement between the seller and the buyer.
While advice can make a big difference and help you to train faster, the reality is that losing weight should not be complicated and essentially amounts to eating less and exercising more.

You can start doing this immediately – there is no need to wait for a training program or diet plan. Don’t use it as an excuse!

Why Sleep Is Essential For Our Health

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In today’s modern society, there are lots of things to do that causes we always come to feel we do not have sufficient time to complete everything. It is not unusual for many individuals to go to bed until midnight and then wake up too early every day to fit in everything. You may think that it is not such a negative thing. Ok, now let us take a peek at the significance of having a quality sleep for our overall health.

Numerous aspects of sleep are still undiscovered at present, even though experts have been engaged in many different scientific studies for decades. Clearly, sleep has long been a mystery. Even so, there are a few facts to convince you that sleep is an important activity.sleep

Simply have a look at a young child. When it happens to be the time for him/her to take a nap, soon you will have to deal with problems since the child will start conducting unpleasant things. Having said that, after getting a short nap, he/she will get back to be fun again. In reality, the same also happens for older people when they have sleep deprivation. Needless to say, they will not exhibit the same responses as toddlers will do, but similar things truly happen.

Some processes take place during sleep. A bodily chemical that influences growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans is issued while you are getting a good sleep. This hormone is very essential during the growth period of children. This clarifies the reason babies require sleep so many hours every day. HGH, or human growth hormone, is at the same time used for restoration of tissue structure that is the reason older people need eight hours of sleep every night for their bodies to get the rest they need to repair and re-energize.

Besides issuing HGH, while sleeping other important processes also take place. A system that protects against disease, for example, is affected by the quality of your sleep. Simply put, the body’s defense mechanism will not function normally in case you have sleep deprivation. It has also been known that acquiring a sufficient amount of sleep is important for an individual who wants to manage his weight.

In essence, the significance of sleep cannot be emphasized enough. Lack of sleep has unwanted side effects on your physical and mental condition such as finding it hard to concentrate and to make reasonable judgments. This can put you into a dangerous situation, especially when you must react to something extremely fast.

As just stated, sleep can be viewed as-as an activity for developing and rebuilding. It is needed to regain the energy that has been worn out all day. If you have quality, sound sleep, you will acquire an adequate amount of energy to carry out the new day’s tasks. Even so, bear in mind that the amount of sleep you must have may be not equal with others. Just make sure you always get the full amount of sleep required. If not, your system will begin asking for it.

A Useful Method for Losing Weight: Carb Backloading

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There are many different schools of thought when it comes to losing weight and there are many different systems, diet plans and strategies that claim to be the most effective in the world.

Of course not all of these can work equally though and so your job is to try and weed out the winners from the losers and to identify which strategies are most effective generally and also best suited to your specific lifestyle and biology.losing weight

For your consideration then: carb backloading!

What is Carb Backloading?

The basic idea behind backloading is that you are going to time your meals, or more specifically time your consumption of carbohydrates.

You’ll do this in such a way as to eat carbs like bread, pasta and others only immediately after you have engaged in intensive cardiovascular training.

More specifically than that, you will be timing your consumption of simple carbs in order to follow HIIT workouts. That means that you’ll a low-carb or no-carb diet for the majority of the day and then when you’ve finished an intense training session, you’ll be able to permit yourself to have some pasta or a sandwich.

Why Does it Work?

The idea behind this system is to first empty the energy stored in the muscles (glycogen) before turning to carbohydrates. What this is thought to do is to create a demand on the body that will ensure that the new sugar influx is not stored as fat.

You see, the body only stores excess sugar as fat when it doesn’t have any use for it. If your blood sugar is low when you eat, then your body will use some of the incoming sugar rather than store it. Unfortunately, low blood sugar also stimulates the release of many hormones and it doesn’t take much to get a good supply back.

Conversely though, the body also stores a small amount of energy in the muscle cells as glycogen to allow us to run and fight when we have low blood sugar and we are burning energy too quickly to rely on fat stores.

When this is depleted, the first priority for the body (after powering basic functions) is to restore this energy. Thus, any carbohydrates that you eat within a short window of opportunity will be sent to the muscle and not the belly.

How to Get it Right

Before you try this system, it is important to note that it doesn’t work if you only use steady state cardiovascular exercise. A gentle jog will use up the blood sugar and then turn to fat stores. Conversely, if you sprint or go at 100% output, then your body will have no choice but to use glycogen (because burning fat is too slow).

We can only maintain max output for a short amount of time though and this is where HIIT comes in – as the perfect way to use up this form of energy and create that necessary demand.

Workout Programs

Youth Boxing – A Great Cardio Workout

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Many kids these days are too sedentary. Technology has kept them indoors watching television and playing video games. For a kid, as well as for the rest of us, getting proper physical exercise is important. Have you ever considered youth boxing?

With the incidence of childhood obesity on the rise, something has to be done to get our kids moving. One of the ways that kids can get a good workout and have some fun is through boxing. Kids love to hit things when we don’t want them to. How about encouraging them to hit for a change?

boxing

Youth boxing programs work for kids of all ages. Once seen as a way to channel anger in kids with emotional or societal issues, boxing can help any child to make great strides in their lives.

First, let’s talk about the physical health benefits. When you box, you are always moving. That is how you stay away from your opponent’s blows. That constant motion keeps the heart and lungs working. Over time, they’ll find out that they run out of breath less easily and are able to stay in the ring longer.

Boxing is a great resistance workout. Just practicing on the bag, doing push-ups, crunches and sparring teach young pugilists how to perfect their stance and use their muscles. In addition, they get to have fun with kids their own age.

What about the emotional benefits of boxing? Kids are constantly learning and growing. While they are trying to discover just who they are, their self-confidence may take a hit.

Learning to master their body provides a boost for their self-esteem. As they learn more and accomplish more in the ring, their self-confidence increases. They also learn how to manage their stress and anger for a better emotional adjustment in social situations.

Boxing teaches not only physical strength but also mental strength. While they are moving in the ring, they are always thinking about their next move. This takes focus, which many young people don’t have the hang of yet. Learning how to focus is helpful in the classroom. They concentrate on what the teacher is saying and do their work instead of participating in distracting behavior.

There is also an element of discipline in boxing. You have to know when to strike and when to hold back. You also have to listen to your coach. This is useful when it comes to using the same courtesy and manners with teachers and parents.

Besides all of these benefits, kids love to compete and succeed. Boxing teaches success on a personal level. Even if you only win a few matches, you have learned how to master your body and your emotions. Visit a boxing gym near you to see if this sport is right for your child.

Workout Programs

What is Matrix Weight Training?

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You may wonder what Matrix Weight Training is. This type of training is not commonly shown on television, or on the internet, but it is not a secret in training facilities. Matrix weight training was developed by Doctor Laura Ronald almost 30 years ago.

However, in recent years, other popular exercises instructors have attempted to come forward with claims that they created the exercise program. Even though these claims have been made, documentation does support that Ronald Laura is the inventor of Matrix training.

Matrix Weight Training

What Makes Matrix Training Different?

When we preform normal exercises, we only exercise on one plane. This means that we are moving parts of our body up and down, side to side. The Matrix Weight Training system forces the participant to utilize a series of exercise methods that activate muscles that are not utilized in standard exercise routines.

Health care professionals who stand beside the Matrix Weight Training System have openly stated that the exercises allow participants to reach their maximum potential and build muscles faster and easier than ever before. Since muscle groups that are normally ignored are targeted, building and sustaining muscle density is a lot simpler.

Another magnificent advantage of the Matrix Weight Training system is that the participant is not completely reliant on heavy weights, which risk straining or injuring muscles. There is a dramatically lower injury rate with this system, than with traditional weight training systems. These two advantages have provided a lot of benefits to people of all ages. Since the system is intensity based, the workouts take less time to complete than traditional weight training systems.

Applying Matrix Weight Training

Have you ever noticed that exercising using the same patterns, the same weights, and the same cardio exercises, the changes to your body slowly come to a stall? This is because the body becomes used to the work that is put out, the strain it takes to perform the exercise, and it stops making improvements over time. This is the same theory used to explain why weight loss slows over time. People who change the number of calories they take in on a daily basis, and keep their body wondering what to expect next, are the ones who lose weight on a continuous basis.

The Matrix Weight Training system the intensity of exercise changes through full or partial movement, which make the muscles inhibit the momentum at various intervals. When using an up motion, the participant must utilize their muscles to inhibit upward movement, and during downward phases, they must force their body to resist the pull of gravity. These exercises were designed with the overall goal to neutralize the adaptive response muscles have when they are able to anticipate what is going to happen next, decreasing the automatic response, and forcing an alternative response.

Applying the Concept

If you are trying to apply this concept to a familiar topic, think of a basketball player. In order to be successful, a Basketball player must practice the same exact shot from the same place on a court over and over. This allows their arm’s neuro-muscular fibers, their core, and their legs to create habits of response, allowing them to make the basket even when they are not completely focused. A weight lifter unknowingly does the same thing. Each time they workout, their body learns to interpret what is going to happen next.

Since the Matrix Weight Training System can be used with weights, or without weights, it can even be used by children, the elderly, during rehabilitation, and by people who are obese. Dr. Ron Laura has developed adequate documentation that this type of weight training can be used to build lean muscle, tone the body, maintain fitness level, and help people develop strength as they lose weight.
By utilizing the Matrix Weight Training System, there is no excuse for not getting in shape, or staying in shape.

Workout Programs

Certification and Function of Athletic Trainers

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We have all heard of athletic trainers, but what exactly do they do? An athletic trainer is a trained health care professional whose goal is to prevent and treat injuries. An athletic trainer is not a personal trainer and they are not the person that pushes you past your comfort level.

For a person to develop a fulfilling, long-term career as an athletic trainer, they are required to bachelor’s degree in medical sciences. While a bachelor’s degree as a minimum requirement, many athletic trainers hold a master’s or even a doctoral degree in health sciences.

athletic trainer

Upon completing their degree program, at least forty-six states have a requirement for students to pass a rigorous examination to obtain certification. This certification allows them to obtain a license to perform the work duties of an athletic trainer in the state they reside in.

After obtaining their license, they must continue to take classes in medical related topics if they wish to keep their license active. In total, an athletic trainer must have at least 80 hours of continuing education credits every three calendar years in order to keep their certification active.
An athletic trainer will need to work under the supervision of a doctor of medicine, and in combination with other health care professionals, and even sports teams.

The purpose of an athletic trainer is to help athletes use their bodies in a way, that prevents illnesses. When injuries do happen, the athletic trainer is tasked with the duty of evaluating the injury during games or practices, sometimes with minimal resources. Once the injury is identified and treated, the athletic trainer will work with the player to rehabilitate them and prevent further injury.

Athletic trainers can work in a large variety of settings. The most effective place one can find a career is in a public or private school setting. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that every elementary, middle, and high school with a sports team have an athletic trainer on staff.

Another place athletic trainers find work is at a college or university. They work as part of the athletic staff, usually as an athletic trainer and a teacher.

Sports teams also hire athletic trainers for education and treatment purposes. However, professional sports team positions are limited, and the work is seasonal. Therefore, they usually call the same athletic trainer back in year after year because their players are used to working with them, and they have built a strong rapport with players.

Athletic trainers may also find employment at a sports focused clinic. In these settings, the trainer will have a chance to work with a wide range of patients with diverse backgrounds. Many schools use these clinics as outreach programs to attend games and educate students on injuries as the season progresses.

Athletic trainers may also find a valuable position in the military to help train personnel coming in. They can also be involved in rehabilitating soldiers after various injuries, and getting them back to their everyday responsibilities.

The outlook for an athletic trainer is very bright. The career is expected to grow exponentially over the next several years. This is in response to the increasing need for preventative health care, and the increasing percentage of aging population.

An athletic trainer is considered to be an important person in any health care team. Technology is constantly changing which makes the need for athletic trainers who are capable of utilizing it more urgent.

Workout Programs

Is High Intensity Training Dangerous?

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We all know that for all the individuals wanting to exercise, there are many ways to do so. Some individuals prefer stretching and toning to high impact aerobics. Others may have a preference for Zumba over walking.

While there are many different variations and just as many preferences, it is important to know as much as you can before taking on any type of exercise regime.

training

High intensity training (also known as HIT) works the same way. The more you know, the more you can judge for yourself whether or not HIT is the exercise regimen for you.

What Is High Intensity Training?

Originally, high intensity training utilized intense weight lifting and repetition. The goal back then in the 1970s was to produce a greater muscle mass in a shorter period of time. Limited yet frequent and highly intense weightlifting is the foundation behind this type of high intensity training.

Today’s version of high intensity weight training works similarly. Repeated bouts of intense, but short courses of movement followed by a less intense form of movement is part of what makes up today’s high intensity training.

Success in High Intensity Training

Research is beginning to show that there is success when using high intensity training. For example, a study done at the American College of Sports Medicine shows that two weeks of high intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as 6 to 8 weeks of endurance training.

If such is the case, that is a benefit pointing to the success of high intensity training. Another benefit points to the ability to burn fat long after a high intensity training workout.

Some studies are showing that individuals who utilize high intensity training are able to exercise for longer periods of time at a higher rate than before.

The Downside of High Intensity Training

As with any exercise regimen, if you do not know what you are doing or do not have the help of professional, there is always the chance for risk of injury or harm.

Taking on high intensity training without the advice of a doctor and at the very least a healthy heart check-up is risky and dangerous.

Performing high intensity training on an empty stomach could result in many dangers such as:

  • Fainting
  • Dizziness
  • Injury
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Physical injury
  • Muscle weakness

So before starting this type of exercise, make sure you see your doctor to ensure your heart is able to cope with this strenuous activity.

Workout Programs

Exercise Programs and Training for Weight Loss

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Weight loss and getting into shape can be a continuous battle for a lot of people. Dieting is not enough for most people, and implementing an exercise program is typically needed. The primary focus in a weight loss based exercise program should be to find a regimen you enjoy.

This makes it more likely that you would stick with the exercise program, instead of leaving it behind due to disdain. If you do not like to jog, why put your mind and body through it? By finding exercises that you enjoy, you will be more likely to stick with it.

exercise program

Before you start an exercise program, you should check with your primary care doctor to ensure you are healthy enough for the level of activity required. After you have established that you are healthy enough for the activities you plan to do, set your long-term goal and short-term goals. After determining your long-term goal, break it down into more manageable, smaller tasks. For example, if your overall goal is to lose thirty pounds, you can break the goal down further by saying you want to lose two pounds per week.

When you are involved in any weight loss based exercise program, it is important that you take the time to warm up properly before you begin exercising. Warming up before working out helps you avoid muscle and tendon injuries, and results in a lower risk of developing strains and sprains.
While you are exercising, make sure you have plenty of water. It is essential that you keep plenty of room temperature water on hand while you are exercising. This is because cold water can cause stomach cramps while you are working out, and your body is hot. Keeping yourself hydrated at all times will keep your muscles performing at their best, and prevent them from becoming extremely sore the day after your workout.

During your exercise routine, it is important that you switch between cardio exercises and weight training exercises. By switching up your exercise, your body will experience maximum results, and you will be able to burn more fat than if your body can predict what will happen next.

At any time, if you become tired during your exercise, take a break. When your body is tired, you are more likely to become injured. If your goal is to lose weight and get back into shape, the last thing you need is to put yourself in a situation where you can become injured.

Some people who have developed a weight loss exercise program have found that it is better to exercise in groups. If you are someone who is more likely to push themselves when you are in a group, joining a gym or exercise club may have great benefits. And when you are working out with other people, is possible that you will have more motivation, which will translate to more overall success.

If you are trying to lose weight, do not depend on diet alone. It is essential that you make a total lifestyle change for future success. Exercising to lose weight is one of the best methods to shed extra pounds. Not only will you feel better because of the exercise, you will be able to build lean muscle mass and look better too.