Nutrition in Exercise

How To End The Year In Shape

Every year the same thing happens to nearly all of us.  The weather starts changing, the holidays start approaching and the comforts of great food and warm beverages and sitting in front of the game all coalesce into winter weight and fatigue.  What is interesting about this phenomenon is that is traces back to our ancestors...not the obsessive football watching on the big screen, but the hibernation-oriented winter seasons.  The difference now is that life's stressors and requirements are much different now for us than they were for them then. 

For all intents and purposes our lives continue on in a very similar manner with responsibilities at work, at home and to others.  We continue to have very similar, if not greater health stressors due to the cold and flu season, during this season of the year.  However, this is when most of us neglect our fitness and our health.  We generally tend to workout less or not at all, we increase our caloric intake dramatically and we become more sedentary. 

What Can Circuit Training Do For Building Muscle?

If your friend were to tell you that he just completed a circuit training workout that left him totally worked, would you wonder “what’s next…step class?...or some intense yoga?”

Many people don’t recognize the great benefits circuit training can provide everyone.  It isn’t just a general workout, but a highly efficient way to reach your fitness goals whatever they may be.

So…what is circuit training?

Circuit training is a combination of high-intensity aerobics and resistance training with minimal breaks between exercises.  You keep moving the entire time during and between the exercises. It targets fat loss, muscle building, and heart fitness and can be easily adapted to any fitness goal you may have.  For those seeking muscle building, you are likely more familiar with doing sets with increased weight over time.  Circuit training, on the other hand, works because it forces you to keep pushing your body aerobically, while still challenging your strength.

The Common Misconception

Many men associate circuit training with fat burning, cardio workouts.  And yes, with low resistance and no rest periods, this is a great way to burn fat and tone muscle.

Five Ways To Stay Motivated And Reach Your Fitness Goals

I fight it all the time: the urge to curl up on the couch with a delectable snack...mmmmm...But wait!  Won’t I feel better, look better, be happier, and be better able to rationalize curling up on the couch if I just do my workout?  Begrudgingly, yes I would.

No matter how it is hard for you (or me) to get moving, the benefits are outstanding and well worth it.  So before you push your workout off to tomorrow, read and remember these five ways to stay motivated:

Determine an attainable goal and plan to reach that goal.  The first thing to ask yourself is what your goals are and why do you want to reach them.  Do you want to lose weight, sleep better, increase your energy, gain strength, add flexibility, or just feel a heightened since of well being?  Once you know your goal, create a realistic workout schedule (like exercising twice on weekdays and once on weekends) that will set you up for success.

Change into your workout clothes. Sometimes, it's just a matter of getting dressed that causes the biggest barrier.

Lose the Excuses.  Erase the concept that if you can't do at least 30 minutes you're wasting your time.  Exercise burns calories, increases energy, and improves your health - even in small doses.  So before you skip your workout, try these ideas to get moving:

The Best Way To Lose Stomach Fat Fast

There are so many great articles about losing stomach weight that instead of creating our own, we have pulled this one from The Really Useful Fitness Blog.  It is short and simple, giving a clear path to an improved midsection.  As the article will show, the journey gym is an ideal piece of equipment to reach your stomach flattening goals.  Please be sure to visit the blog for over 5 years of great fitness articles:

Summer's coming and many people want to get rid of their extra stomach fat as quickly as possible.  No matter how fit you are, having an extra layer of ugly fat hanging off your hips and belly just doesn't look very good...especially when you're in a bikini or swimming shorts!

Most people, in their rush to reduce stomach fat, go to extremes by doing thousands of crunches, performing "marathon" aerobic exercise workouts, following crash diets, and/or taking one of the thousands of "fat burning" diet pills being sold all over the place.

Unfortunately, using these kinds of techniques is a recipe for fitness failure!

Top Abdominal Moves

With help from the American Council on Exercise (ACE), here are the top moves to whittle your middle.

Do these moves for 2 sets of 12-20 repetitions twice a week and you'll be well on your way to a stronger stomach.  But, as we all know, there is a six pack under there and ab moves is only part of the challenge.  While building muscle tone in your abs and throughout your body will boost your metabolism and help burn fat, you also may need to improve your eating habits.  Review our "Nutrition Basics" and "Eat Real Food. Period" articles for more information.



Crunch - The standard crunch is a mainstay for abdominal exercises.  Use the journey gym to add resistance by holding the resistance handle as you lift yourself from the bench.

 

 

How To Exercise As You Age

It is never too late to start exercising but most of us, unless actively involved in sport, don’t really bother until we see or feel the signs that our bodies are deteriorating.  Research shows that men and women lose more than five pounds of muscle every decade of life due to disuse (Evans and Rosenberg 1992).  So, if you gain an average of 10 pounds a decade while losing 5 pounds in muscle mass, you are gaining 15 pounds of fat every decade.

All that fat has great negative impacts on your heart health, your metabolism, your endurance, and your ability to turn it around.

So it is simply not good enough to think that a weekend round of golf, an hour of tennis, or a brisk walk to the office each morning will keep a trim body.  Everyone needs to retain muscle mass through strength training.  No matter how you feel about resistance bands, dumbbells, or weight machines, building muscle provides overall tone, increased metabolism, maintained or improved bone density, more energy, and overall better health.

How do some people seem to stay young and fit while others seemingly age faster than their years?

Genes does play a role, but a large part of staying young is the determination not to let age get the best of them.  If you haven’t started a good exercise regime by your early thirties, it is going to be increasingly difficult to retain good body health and vitality.

5 Essential Daily Routines For A Healthy Heart

Article from Exercise Proper: Your Guide to a Healthy Life

The heart is not as hardy as one would think.  It is the center of our being, the engine of our life.  It functions silently and efficiently, working its wonders behind the scenes despite its undeniable prominence in our existence.  Hence, the heart is easily neglected and its health is conveniently ignored.

But the heart is one of the more fragile organs of the body.  It is susceptible to more potential diseases than, say, the kidneys or the lungs.  Much care must be extended for the heart on a daily basis to maintain its good wellbeing so that it may continue to properly carry out its functions.

Here are 5 things that you should observe each and every day to ensure a happy and healthy heart:

How To Make Exercise A Daily Habit

We love this article and the blog it is from.  Please visit Zen Habits if you enjoy this article as their blog is chock-full of articles about productivity and self-improvement.  Recently my friend and fellow blogger Scott Young did a great post entitled, “New to exercise? Make workouts daily“ as it was an excellent post, and perfectly timed as it mirrors my own recent efforts at making exercise a daily habit.

The problem with trying to make exercise a habit, and it’s something that we’ve all faced, is that you usually try to exercise 3 or 4 times a week…and that makes creating a new exercise habit difficult.  The reason is that the more consistent an action is, the more likely it is to be a habit.

Therefore, as Scott points out, and it’s something I fully agree with, exercising every day is more likely to result in a habit — something that becomes almost automatic, and much easier, instead of a constant struggle.

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