Tag Archive for: #wonderfullyfit

Functional Fitness

How Functional Fitness Benefits Seniors

/in , ,

Functional fitness is all about teaching your body to handle real-life activities. It is a way of exercising that helps your body be strong in those areas that the body needs to be strong in your everyday life. This type of fitness can benefit anyone but can benefit seniors perhaps more than others.

The Idea Of Functional Fitness For Seniors

Functional Fitness for Seniors

Functional fitness involves putting your body through the paces that are necessary for everyday life. As a senior, you can lift weights or use a weight lifting machine to strengthen certain muscles of your body to the exclusion of others and may find that you are strengthening certain muscles, which leaves a deficiency in others.

Without functional fitness, you can strengthen your arms in a biceps machine but still throw out your neck when reaching for something out of your reach or throw out your back while lifting your grandchild.

Seniors especially make the mistake of exercising their arms or legs in ways that may strengthen those muscles but avoid exercising their back, for example. This can lead to back trouble that could have been avoided if you had recognized that your arms and legs are intricately connected to your back and are useless without a strong core.

As a senior, you need to use all your muscles and joints in concert with one another and not just isolating out certain muscles to the exclusion of others.

Helping Your Muscles Work Together

Many seniors make the mistake of using weight machines or free weights while at the gym. They are isolating out certain muscle groups for strengthening, strengthening some muscles more than others. They may believe that to have a good biceps bulge is a sign of good health when their triceps muscles are not exercised at all. This means that the muscles cannot work together to do the everyday lifting and stretching that needs to be done as part of your regular day.

Everyday movement is not idealized. You don’t lift or move things by isolating out your muscle groups and in fact, it takes a strong back, strong legs, and strong-arm muscles to move a box or carry groceries. If you isolate out a muscle group to the exclusion of all others, you can set yourself up for injury to those muscles you have neglected.

How To Make Functional Exercise Work For You

Functional exercise is all about integration of muscle parts. It is about showing the muscles how to work together to accomplish a task rather than isolating muscle groups that may be exercised out of proportion to the rest of your muscles.

If you like rowing machines, for example, think about the posture you are in when you do that exercise. Your back is stiff and your arms are bent repeatedly with your legs doing very little. This strengthens some muscles and not others.

A better activity is to use a free weight standing up. First, you bend over and strengthen your back in picking up the weight. Then you strengthen your legs by holding the weight with your entire body. Finally, put the weight in various motions around your body so that your latissimus dorsi muscles are activated, along with your biceps and triceps muscles. Even the small muscles of your hands are strengthened by holding the weight.

All your muscles are working in concert by that simple exercise. If you repeat it on the other side of your body, the muscles of your back, sides, legs, and arms are exercised for the other side of your body and you haven’t missed any muscles in the process.

This type of exercise better mimics the regular activities you do every day and you will have fewer injuries because your muscles have learned to work in concert.

Balance And Control

Functional exercise is all about using your body to balance yourself while having control over your muscles. For seniors, it may mean skipping lifting weights completely and instead of working on things like squats and lunges that use all your muscles and help your balance. You don’t need bulging biceps to have good functional use of your body.

Can you stand on one foot for any amount of time without falling?

If you have questions about functional exercise, talk to a trainer about those exercises that will best mimic those things you are doing in everyday life. It is a different way to exercise that will keep you balanced, strong, and free of injury.

What You Need To Know About The DASH Diet

/in , ,

The foods we eat can affect our overall health. A diet rich in harmful elements like saturated fats and cholesterol is a sure way to hypertension and other diseases. On the other hand, the right choice of foods can lessen your risk of acquiring such diseases.

There is a particular eating plan that has been proven to lower hypertension or high blood pressure. This diet is called the DASH or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

What is the DASH Diet

What is the DASH diet?

The DASH diet is a result of clinical studies conducted by scientists of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The researchers found out that a diet high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, protein, and fiber, and low in fat and cholesterol can drastically reduce high blood pressure.

The study showed that a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products had a big effect in reducing hypertension. It also showed that the DASH diet produces fast results, sometimes in as little as two weeks after starting the diet.

The DASH diet also emphasizes three important nutrients: magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These minerals are thought to help reduce high blood pressure. A normal 2,000-calorie diet contains 500 milligrams of magnesium, 4.7 grams of potassium and 1.2 grams of calcium.

Doing the DASH Diet

Following the DASH diet is very easy and takes little time in the choice and preparation of meals. Foods rich in fats and cholesterol are avoided. The dieter is advised to eat as many vegetables, fruits, and cereals as possible.

Since the foods you eat in a DASH diet are high in fiber content, it is recommended that you slowly increase your consumption of fiber-rich food to avoid diarrhea and other digestive problems. You can gradually increase your fiber intake by eating an additional serving of fruits and vegetables in every meal.

Grains are also good sources of fiber, as well as the B-complex vitamins and minerals. Whole grains, whole wheat pieces of bread, bran, wheat germ, and low-fat breakfast cereals are some of the grain products you can eat to increase your fiber consumption.

You can choose the food you eat by looking at the product labels of processed and packaged foods. Look for foods that are low in fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. Meats, chocolates, chips and fast foods are the main sources of fat and cholesterol, so you should reduce your consumption of these foods.

If you decide to eat meat, limit your consumption to only six ounces a day, which is similar in size to a deck of cards. You can also eat more vegetables, cereals, pasta, and beans in your meat dishes. Low-fat milk or skim milk is also a great source of protein without excess fat and cholesterol.

For snacks, you can try canned or dried fruits, as well as fresh ones. There are also healthy snack options for those on the DASH diet such as graham crackers, unsalted nuts, and low-fat yogurt.

It’s Easy to DASH

The DASH diet is popular among many health buffs because it doesn’t require any special meals and recipes. There are no special preparations and calorie-counting to be considered as long as consume more fruits and vegetables and reduce your intake of fat- and cholesterol-rich foods. The DASH diet is a healthy eating plan that focuses more on the three important minerals that are believed to have a beneficial effect on high blood pressure.

The DASH diet is great for people who prefer convenience and ease in their eating plans. With scientific evidence to back it up, the DASH diet offers a proven and tested diet system for people looking for good health.

Functional Fitness

A Guide to Achieving Functional Fitness

/in , ,

Ever wondered why sometimes even the people who seem extremely healthy and physically fit backslide at performing an everyday task as small as lifting a toddler? The reason behind such anomalies is a lack of functional fitness.

Functional training deals with exercises and movements that help individuals cope with their daily life routines. Simply put, functional fitness exercises help you to perform some daily chores such as carrying groceries or walking up the staircase to the best of your ability without incurring an injury.

Benefits of functional fitness

As mentioned above, physical fitness and functional fitness cannot be used synonymously. Physical fitness does increase the chances of fitness but in no way guarantees it. This is why we sometimes see very well trained athletes succumbing to minor injuries after performing some day-to-day task.

The cross-co-ordination of the various joint and muscles in our daily routine requires us to undergo proper training in order to ensure that we are up to par in our everyday lives.

The emphasis of functional training is to develop the core muscles in order to help you optimize your daily productivity. These include the abdominal and lower back muscles. Whether you are a housewife or a busy professional with a sedentary lifestyle, some basic fitness exercises are all you need to make the most out of your day.

Where conventional weight training is about isolating the different muscles, functional training, on the other hand, is about the integration of various muscles to ensure their synchronization while performing a task that involves cross-muscular co-ordination.

Since our everyday routine involves the use of various joints and muscles, training exercises focus on improving multi-joint co-ordination. Keeping this in view, a functional fitness exercise might involve the elbows, spine, and shoulders altogether instead of just focusing on one joint or muscle.

When one embarks on the quest of fitness, he is simply expected to stand on his own feet in order to develop the capacity and control to carry his own body weight adequately. The subsequent stage involves moving on to some conventional weight training techniques.

Therefore, initial training exercises involve the one-legged squat followed by balancing oneself on tiptoes. Once mastery in these basic exercises is achieved, only then can a person move on to advanced exercises.

Remember, if you want to optimize your day’s productivity and stay fit, start your functional training right away! It will provide you long-term benefits that very few other methods offer.

The Famous Dash Diet

/in , ,

No, we are not talking about some famous Hollywood sisters. The DASH diet or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension is a physician recommended, researched and used diet to help lower blood pressure in two weeks.

Today, one out of four Americans (approximately 73 million people) exhibit high blood pressure or hypertension. Blood pressure is the pressure within the artery walls. Hypertension can be defined as a consistent blood pressure elevation. High blood pressure causes the heart to work harder and is the leading cause of heart attack and stroke. Diminishing sodium intake and eating healthy can help you reduce your chances of acquiring hypertension. This is the premise of the DASH diet.

Information about the dash diet

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute conducted two studies about this diet. Their findings showed that blood pressure was reduced with a diet low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and total fat and high in fruits and vegetables, fat-free milk products, whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts.

As you can see, more food products are allowed in this diet compared to other commercial diets available. They also recommend diminished, not eliminated, amounts of lean red meat, sweets, added sugars, and sugar-containing beverages. Foodies will not have a hard time adjusting to this diet since it does not completely eliminate common foods in the American pantry.

In the DASH Diet plan, there are recipes and diet plans suggested for a 2,300 mg and 1,500 mg sodium consumption. About 2,300 mg of sodium is recommended by both the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and the United States Dietary Guidelines. And unlike most short term diet plans, the DASH diet also offers tips on how to stay focused on the diet. Think long term.

Although weight loss is not a priority, it is a welcomed consequence since the DASH diet is based on a 2000 calorie per day limit. Some tips on how to further reduce sodium in your diet include:

Read food labels.

  • You will be surprised how much sodium can be found in low fat or processed foods.
  • No extra salt, please. It is typical for us to add a “dash” of salt when boiling pasta or rice.
  • Discover other spices or herbs to replace salt in your usual recipes.

As a tip, a teaspoon of table salt contains 2,300 mg of sodium.

It is also best to do this change gradually, since you may experience some detoxification reactions like loss of appetite that may stop you from going through with this diet strategy. Adding some physical exercise and getting appropriate medical supervision is also beneficial.

In conclusion, there are a lot of nutritious but appetizing foods available in the market today. The DASH diet allows a lot of leg room, and its long term benefit is a longer, healthy life. And so, why not try a little DASH in your diet today?

Functional Fitness

Functional Fitness Training Helps You Lose Weight Fast

/in , ,

The true goal of fitness is to improve the health of individuals and the community. The fitness industry is just beginning to play a credible, integral role in health-care reform, including the way it serves the sedentary and/or aging population.

What is Functional Fitness?

Benefits of Functional Fitness

The term functional fitness is applied to a simple exercise plan that is designed to improve health, increase the ability to perform the activities of daily living, enhance the quality of life and prolong physical independence.

Functional fitness is everyday training for health, good posture and muscle balance. The purpose of functional fitness is to train muscles to perform their specific functions in daily activities at peak performance. A functional fitness plan includes cardiovascular and strength training to maintain a healthy body. A well designed functional fitness plan can complement the activities that a person already is doing in life, and does not require joining a workout facility.

Functional fitness helps people reach goals such as reduced blood pressure, increased range of body motion, and improved self-esteem. For sedentary individuals, achievable benefits from a functional fitness program include the ability to get up from a sofa, to carry suitcases on vacation, to climb stairs, and to reduce the pain experienced from life’s movements.

Most people shun exercise because of the amount of time they think it takes. You know it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes per day to live a healthy lifestyle.

Functional fitness programs do not waste time on exercises that are not needed. Besides some specific exercises performed to improve the specific needs, most of the exercise in a functional fitness program is moderate intensity physical activity accumulated during the day, such as walking instead of driving, physical activity instead of TV, and household tasks are done with a minimum of labor-saving devices.

A Simple Functional Fitness Routine

Let me give you a simple training routine. Everyone these days have stationary bikes. Use them in my method.

  • Fast paced cycling for 1 minute
  • Rest for 10 seconds
  • Fast paced cycling and so on.

Do this for at least 10 rounds of cycling. You’ll lose all your extra flab in this 12 minutes a day workout. This will build your cardiovascular, help you lose weight, be more active and energetic in day to day life. All you need is 12 minutes of your busy time.

The DASH Diet: Does It Work?

/in , ,

Well, it is actually among the most renowned diet plans out there nowadays and it may be more than a trend. Designed by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health, this diet program is founded on nutritional facts.

DASH is an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, this basically means tips on how to decrease your blood pressure levels via the foods you ingest. The premise of the diet plan is to guide men and women with high blood pressure and hypertension on out how to eat much healthier and reduce their blood pressure and the possibility of connected ailments. High blood pressure is often a problem that might be easily avoided by leading a healthy lifestyle nevertheless, once a person has it, it can only be managed.

Benefits of the dash diet

Having elevated blood pressure is a serious matter and may even bring about illnesses such as coronary artery disease, dementia, stroke and eventually heart failure. Picture this, close to 33% of men and women currently, have high blood pressure or hypertension. That’s one-third of the adult populace, and therefore there exists a very good probability that either you or somebody you know may possibly be identified as having the ailment.

The DASH Diet for Hypertension may help you reduce your blood pressure and also your potential risk for some of the affiliated ailments through setting a few rules to go by. To illustrate, one of the main recommendations set forth by the weight loss plan is to reduce your sodium consumption to between 2,300 and 1,500 mg a day. This may look like you are still receiving a large amount of sodium, but in reality, it is not very much.

Consider some of the items you might consume every single day…

Were you aware that a quarter pounder with cheese provides approximately 1,190 milligrams of sodium? That’s basically your entire daily allowance if you are limiting yourself to 1,500 milligrams a day. Even at 2,300 per day, it is still over 50 percent of the suggested daily portion.

Even if you imagine you are going to be health conscious and get a salad, be warned… Condiments and dressings have proven to be notorious for including large levels of sodium.

So, what will you end up taking in on The DASH Diet?

  • Plenty of vegetables and fruits per day in place of sweets and desserts
  • Foods which are high in dietary fiber as an alternative to refined carbs
  • Low-fat and fat-free dairy products rather than whole milk products
  • Water and club soda as opposed to sugary soft drinks

The DASH Diet is not just an agenda pertaining to eating, it advises some healthy lifestyle changes as well:

  • Initiate a workout plan whether or not your blood pressure level is typical
  • Try to get at least thirty minutes of physical exercise on a daily basis
  • Determine weight reduction targets for yourself
  • If you take prescription medication for high blood pressure, don’t forget to take it daily

With such common sense advice it’s no surprise The DASH Diet is gaining this sort of interest at this moment. This is a diet plan that makes sense and offers the potential to enable you to lose weight and remain healthful. Even people who have healthy blood pressure can usually benefit from the DASH Diet and sticking to a high fiber, low fat, minimal sodium eating routine. Pursuing this diet will not just allow you to shed pounds, it could actually help save your life.

Functional Fitness

What Is Functional Fitness Training?

/in , ,

More and more people are signing up to gyms these days, but worryingly a lot of those people seem to believe that the quality of the gym they join depends more on the definition of the TV screens in the treadmills than any definition their torso might see from training correctly. It seems that in the Fitness and Leisure industry, far too much emphasis is being placed on the leisure rather than the fitness… but fortunately, there is another option for those who truly want to improve, and more and more people are realizing this: enter Functional Fitness Training.

Now there are many Internet articles and threads that simply debate the definition of functional fitness training… this is not one of them. I understand that any training can be classed as functional depending on what you’re training for. For example, if you’re job description includes a need to have to largest biceps in the world then yes, 2 hours of bicep curls a day could be classed as functional training.

what is Functional Fitness

The goal here is not to argue the vagueness of the term, but to highlight the benefits, so for the purpose of this article functional fitness training will refer to an exercise or group of exercises that mimic, adapt and allow the improved performance of life’s daily tasks for the majority of people, with a reserve left for individual goals.

Here a goal could be, and usually is, to improve quality of life outside the gym; that is to have an increased capacity for recreation and play, whether this is a grandmother having fun with her grandchildren, or a teenager playing football.

Life’s daily tasks include movement in the 6 degrees of freedom, namely back/forward, up/down, left/right, roll, pitch, and yaw. Or more specifically to human movement, push/pull, jump/squat, step, twist, and bend. So functional training is training that seeks to improve as many of these movements as possible through one or a series of exercises. So consider functional fitness training defined… for this article at least!

So, if there exists functional fitness training, does this mean some training is un-functional? The answer to this is a definite yes… and unfortunately it’s all around us, and we’ll be writing an article on the topic of un-functional training shortly, so hold tight.

The many benefits of functional fitness training

Much of what goes on in gyms today is impossible to recreate outside of that environment. Functional fitness training allows you to develop strength in a controlled environment and then apply it to everyday life outside of that controlled environment.

Many favorable improvements gained from functional fitness training are down to the amount of ‘fitness bases’ covered in any one session. Indeed in one movement, you could be improving strength, coordination, balance, agility, accuracy, flexibility, endurance and stamina. There are very few activities that can produce an improvement in both neurological fitness (balance, coordination, agility, accuracy) and physical skills (strength, flexibility, endurance, stamina). This is achieved by using a large number of the body’s joints and muscles at once, training your body as one unit… (Your body was designed to be used like this!)

Training your muscles to work together this way means more focus is on training movements rather than isolating individual muscles. Anytime your body is moving rather than remaining stationery you rely on dynamic balance as opposed to static balance, and dynamic balance requires a great deal of core stability amongst other things. Functional fitness training will only seek to further improve core stability and strength, which has the knock-on effect of improving most aspects of your moving life, in particular, improved intra-abdominal pressure, posture, and injury prevention. So, functional fitness training boasts numerous physiological benefits, but there is more to it than this…

One of the most important aspects of functional fitness training is that it can be scaled to suit anybody’s level of ability. Intensity, duration, and resistance can be altered on all of the movements trained to match the individual levels of fitness and allow everyone, and anyone to get the most out of their training. On top of this, functional fitness training is constantly varied and is very often different every session, a trait that should be absolutely necessary for any fitness plan or schedule. The ability to not get bored with your training is a luxury that very few people training in conventional gyms have.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the return from your exercise investment that you get from functional fitness training. Your exercise investment includes the money you spend (on your gym membership, kit, nutrition, and travel) and the time/effort you put into your training. As alluded to earlier, for most people using conventional gyms the value is more in the luxuries and less in the fitness aspects, whereas, when it comes to functional fitness training, the return you get is the increase in your capacity to enjoy your recreations and play having reached your goals. In short, it gives you an increased work capacity overall fitness domains, which means in any given time period you can do more of whatever it is you want to do. Essentially, functional fitness training is real fitness training!

Beach City Personal trainer Long Beach

Stay Fit With Cardio Training

/in , ,

Being fit and healthy is the in thing. Actually, it really never goes out of style. That body is the most valuable asset you could have in your lifetime. Thus it is important that you take good care of it. Give it the proper attention it needs. When it comes to ensuring and maintaining health, the best option is to do cardio training.

What Is Cardio Training?

Cardio training involves any activity that requires the use of the large muscle groups of the body in a regular and uninterrupted manner. It elevates the heart rate between 60 to 85 percent of the fastest heart rate you could get.

Some of the usual cardio training activities are walking, jogging, running, aerobics, cycling, tae bo, swimming, and rowing. Cardio training is considered an aerobic exercise as one is required to move from one exercise to another.

What Are the Benefits of Training?

1. Gives Energy to the Body

You can expect more energy and higher endurance after some time of regular cardio training.

2. Prevents Diseases

One could prevent heart diseases with regular cardio training. It is also helpful in preventing other variety of diseases like diabetes, obesity and even high cholesterol. The cardiovascular training strengthens the heart and the lungs. The low to moderated type of cardio exercises are required for people seeking to prevent diseases. Examples of these are walking, brisk walking or jogging.

3. Control Your Weight

With cardio training, you are able to burn more calories. This will help one who needs to lose weight. While those who already achieved their ideal body mass, the training will make it easier to control the weight.

Cardio training helps burn calories. However, this generally depends on your current weight and the kind of cardio training you are undergoing. Better consult this matter with your physician or trainer, to know the proper type of training for your needs.

4. Lose Body Fats

Some people do not have a problem with their weights. However, there may be some excess fats that keep bothering. Cardio training will help in getting rid of those. The activities involve the movements of large muscle groups. Regularly doing the training will make you leaner.

5. Get Rid of Boredom

Cardio training is fun. It pumps up your system. You will definitely feel more energized and on the go.

Recommendations to Better Enjoy the Benefits of Cardio Training

Cardio training is essential when you need to make health improvements. For starters, it is best to do the 30 to 45 minutes of exercises, 3 to 5 days a week. If you are aiming for weight loss, the training must be done 5 days a week. The more frequent you do it; the more likely it is that you will lose weight. However, avoid exhausting yourself too much in exercise. Avoid going beyond 45 minutes. Remember, it has to be done on a regular basis.

Start now. Walk or ride the bike around the neighborhood now. Follow that aerobics video you purchased. Set a goal and follow that goal. At the same time, modify your diet too. Eat healthy food.

As you increase in the fitness level, the intensity of the training must also increase. This is to have an area of variation and there should always be room for improvement. Implement this by intensifying some parts of the training. If you are into jogging or running, increase speed every 5 minutes for at least a minute or two. It is important that you challenge yourself, so as not to be stuck in a stump.

Avoid doing the cardio exercises before bedtime. You will have a difficult time sleeping if you do so as the energy level of the body will stay high for some time.

If you are undergoing weight training too, do the cardio exercises right after, not before.

It is best to take a snack 30 minutes before doing the cardio exercises. Do not start with training in an empty stomach. This will not help in achieving the proper momentum when you train. At the same time, avoid indulging in large meals too before exercise. Just give your body the proper supply it will need to sustain exhausting movements.

It is good to do cardio exercises outdoors. This way you can easily interact with nature and breathe fresh air. You can also simply enjoy going around the neighborhood as you get your system healthier by the minute. It is possible to make some friends among the people who also do their exercises.

Be consistent and stick with the training once you have started it. This is the only way that cardio training will benefit your body and your health in the long run.

Personal training Long Beach CA

Exercise With Dumbbells – 3 Benefits to Consider

/in , ,

Weight training with dumbbells has its advantages. They are space friendly. In other words, they can be used and stored in a very small area. Dumbbells have the advantage when it comes to working and strengthening a particular bodypart and, you can achieve a full range of motion where with a barbell in some case you are restricted.

Let us take a brief look at each one.

Read more

Personal training Long Beach CA

6 Psychological Benefits of Exercise

/in , ,

Have you ever had such a long and exhausting day that you didn’t even consider working out? Well, going to the gym, exercising at home or even dancing can transform you into that fresh and full of energy person you are in the morning!

Exercise will leave you with a euphoric, calm and clear state of mind, it is balancing for both the body and soul. Going So, apart from being healthy and having an amazing body, working out has extraordinary effects on your psyche. Here are a few of them:

  1. When you work out, you feel more confident with the way you look, and honestly, it’s only a matter of time until people will notice how fit you look. This new found confidence gives you a feeling of self-pride.
  2. Walking that extra mile or persevering through the tough peak of a workout is just another way of proving to yourself that you’re ambitious and that you don’t give up easily on anything! It gives you the strength and courage to take risks and try new things, it turns you into a fighter.
  3. Exercise releases endorphins which are well known for being the happy drug. The APA (American Psychological Association) conducted studies that have shown that physical exercise works almost like an antidepressant for people suffering from depression or anxiety. Whenever you’re down, work out a bit and feel the improvement!
  4. When you exercise, because the brain gets a lot of oxygen, its activity will improve significantly. You’ll be able to learn faster and also you’ll get the chance to train your memory with the steps of a new routine.
  5. Leaving the endorphins aside, think of the fun you have working out! Try classes that use exercising in disguise, where the instructor makes you laugh and puts on your favorite songs.
  6. Think of exercising as a social activity: even if you’re the jogger with earphones on or the regular member of a sports club, don’t forget that you’re surrounded by people working out for, perhaps, the same reasons as you.

Going to the gym is my favorite part the day: no matter how tired or upset I am, I always go home with a big smile and a skyrocketing self-esteem. Take the time to look after your health and well-being by getting into the habit of moving your body every day. To stay motivated think of it as a lifestyle as opposed to an exercise program.