Fitness & Wellness

Halloween is over and that’s the only day of the year that bat wings are appropriate. It’s time to work on more than just your upper arms, too. If you’ve let your body go for a while and now have arms and legs that look like jelly, not to mention a midsection to match it, it’s time to get rid of your fall flab and get back into shape. You’ll be ready to bring in the New Year with a beautiful body and loads of energy. You’ll even be able to wear short sleeves without worrying about the fluttering bat wings.

Get fast results with HIIT

HIIT—High-Intensity Interval training—burns calories quickly and turns mushy muscle rock hard. You won’t build big bulging muscle tissue, but have a toned sinewy look of lean muscle mass. You get more of a workout with just 15 minutes of HIIT training than you would if you were on a treadmill for an hour. It’s just that efficient. Our exercise stacking makes each exercise build on the previous one to get the quickest results and eliminate the flab quickly.

Sometimes weight loss causes flab if you don’t workout while you’re doing it.

You may not need to lose weight. In fact, weight loss may be the reason for the flab. You may have lost lean muscle mass rather than fat, which often happens when you dieted, but never exercised. That’s not a problem. It won’t take long before the combination of healthy eating and regular exercise changes that too flabby tummy or those Jello-like thighs into a toned, sleek area that doesn’t jiggle when you walk.

It’s time to get active and sooner is better than later.

As you age, your body undergoes many changes. Most of these changes start in your 30s. The lost of muscle mass and function is called sarcopenia and often comes from aging. If you’re physically inactive, it can mean a loss of 3 to 5% of muscle mass every decade. That’s another cause of flabbiness, but you can prevent it and even reverse it with strength training. It’s time to turn back the clock and start your program to fight the flab and get the svelte look you’ve always wanted.

• You get more than just toned muscles when you workout. You also boost your immune system and reduce the risk of serious conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer.
• Not only will you reverse muscle loss when you exercise, you’ll be building stronger bones too. Exercise helps slow and even reverse the progress of bone loss that can cause osteoporosis.
• While spot exercises won’t eliminate the fat from specific areas, it does cause you to lose fat from all parts of the body and tone the muscles to provide a more attractive appearance.
• You need a healthy diet to shed pounds and help build muscles in the process. We can help you with nutritional training too.

You may not run, so surviving your first 5K may not be significant, but it should be. No matter what the demanding physical challenge is, many of the same tips apply. When running a marathon, you’ll want to know the course and the conditions ahead of time. The same is true for any major competition. Learning as much about the setting, the conditions and what to expect helps tremendously. It also helps you plan your training program for the challenge.

Don’t try to do it all at once.

A big challenge makes you want to put an all out effort in training, particularly when you first decide to undertake the goal. Like any goal, you need to lay out all the steps required to get you into shape. Remember, while working diligently on the activity—in this case running—you need to cross train to build all areas of your fitness. For instance, strength training helps a runner with balance and to prevent injury when running. Start your training slowly and gradually work harder.

Overcome the mental blocks.

Be honest with yourself. What are you the most afraid of happening? It’s probably looking foolish, if you’re like most people. Think about it for a second, even if you fail miserably and come in last, you’re still way ahead of people who thought about entering but never did. You’re also probably not alone, since most first timers in any competition feels that way. Once you get past the mental block, you can work to get training program in line.

On the day of the race, get there early.

Set your alarm a half hour earlier than you think you should. Get to the event, whether it’s a race or other competition, early. There’s nothing worse than rushing to get there, hoping you’ve made it in time. That’s always when things seem to go south. It sometimes helps to take a trial run from your room to the location, so you’ll be sure that you know where it’s located. Even if you leave early and get lost, you might end up not making it to the race.

– Work with a personal trainer to design a diet to help you meet your goal and select the foods to eat the night before the event and day of the event.

– Learn to recognize the signs that you need water or signs that you’re becoming overheating if you’re running in the summer. Preparing to be safe is just as important as speed

and endurance.

– Don’t line up in front of the group. Get toward the middle or back. You don’t want to set the pace too fast at first and running at the front of the pack will push you to do it. It can cause burn out before the end of the race.

– Once you start the event, you should have practiced enough that you get in the zone and quit worrying about the other runners or contestants. Focus on what you’re doing and nothing/nobody else.

There’s a good reason to get fit, besides just looking better. It’s to have a higher quality life and enjoy each minute to the fullest. One way to take a break from the gym is to find local hiking trails. While hiking alone can be very serene and fulfilling, going with your loved one or family gives you an opportunity to enjoy an experience together and get a little healthier in the process. Being and staying active is what you’re working toward, so don’t miss a moment of opportunity to enjoy the gifts of fitness.

Erwin Park has trails for everyone and is close to home.

This park is hidden away and worth the hunt to find. It’s not only good for hiking and walking in the serene area, there are bike trails to add to the variety. It’s huge and a well kept secret in McKinney. There are also great photo opportunities for shutter bugs that want a beautiful picture of Mother Nature. Just being there calms the mind. It’s also a good place to share with Rover so he or she gets some exercise too.

Stay close to home at Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary.

You don’t have to go far to find a nice hiking trail and plenty to do, just go to Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary. There are a number of activities besides hiking with lots of things for children. The park is big and there’s a lot to do, whether it’s just experiencing the wonders of nature or taking the kids on an active hike where they also can learn quite a bit. You’ll love every minute with your family in this park.

Crepe Myrtle Trails is more than just beautiful, it’s perfect for a romantic walk when in bloom.

There’s beauty abound when you walk the paved walkways of the Crape Myrtle Trails in McKinney. It’s loaded with a varieties of Crape Myrtle and signs about them. This is a more urban style walk with benches for resting and even picnic tables for a lunch on a cool spring day. This isn’t your traditional hiking area, but the 7.2 acres of flowering crape myrtles are a “must experience” at least once.

– Serenity Park is another local area that has swings for the children and a nice hiking trails.

– Enjoy everything there is to do at Towne Lake Recreation area. If you hiked around the lake and still have energy, take a paddleboat or play some disc golf.

– There are many parks with hiking trails that are within fifteen to twenty minutes of McKinney. Try Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve or Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano.

– Find your favorite park to hike and share it with the group. Let us know whether it’s easy to hike or better for those more advanced. Don’t forget to let us know if there are bike trails too.

People are amazing and continuously prove to me that you should never stop working out. I’m constantly hearing stories of people that modern medicine said would never get better, only to have that person prove them wrong. Most of the time, the right type of eating and regular exercising did the trick. I know of one woman whom doctors said would never walk again. She was close to 80 and hospitalized when this occurred. Her husband passed while she was hospitalized, too. When they sent her home, she asked if they could move her deceased husband’s exercise bicycle next to her bed. Little by little she dragged herself onto the bike and finally pedaled. Each time it was easier and each time she pedaled longer. Three months later she was walking with the aid of a cane. It’s pretty amazing to see what the body can do when you’re motivated and help it out with exercise.

Is your life a major disaster, you’re crazy busy or are you dealing with stress?

You may think that going to bed and sleeping helps you escape the depression you face, but it’s the worse thing for it. Exercise not only helps lift your spirits, it builds strength and endurance, making you healthier so you can deal with the stresses of life. It burns off the hormones from stress and replaces them with ones that make you feel good. Exercise actually boosts your energy level and helps you think better, so when you’re crazy busy, you’ll get more done if you stick with your workouts and make it part of your schedule.

Health conditions or pregnancy may make you think you need to take it easy, but science may say something different.

Of course, if your doctor tells you to stay off your feet, don’t run to the gym, but follow his directions. In most cases, however, doctors feel exercising is important. It makes delivery easier if you’re pregnant…just make sure you follow a routine that’s made for pregnant women. It helps reduce the problems of heart disease, improve healing, boosts your immune system, balance your sugar levels and lower your bad cholesterol. You even look better due to improved circulation. The chances of stroke are reduced, osteoporosis, cancer and arthritis.

Regular exercise slows aging.

Yup, it’s true. Not only does it slow aging, it turns back the clock. Exercise helps lengthen the telomeres. They do the job that aglets do. Aglets are those plastic things on the end of shoelaces that prevent the shoelace from unraveling, telomers act in the same manner, only they protect the chromosomes from damage. When chromosomes are damaged, it causes aging and illness, which eventually leads to death.

Exercise can provide social interaction which is important for good health.

You’ll sleep better at night when you exercise regularly. A good night’s sleep is good for your cognitive processes and heart healthy.

Exercise helps keep your weight down. Obesity is the leading cause of preventable death, surpassing even smoking.

Exercising regularly boosts your self-confidence. It improves your posture giving you presence. People treat confident people with more respect.