Fitness & Wellness

If you’re looking for one magic key to getting fit, you’re going to be very disappointed with this article. There’s no one key to a successful program, but several important keys. The first one to fitness is getting started. No matter who I talk to, most people who have led a sedentary life find they spend a huge amount of time planning and reading about working out before they actually start. So, the very first key is to begin! Don’t wait to find the perfect workout or even wait until you have time to come in for an evaluation with a personal trainer. Start with something simple, like going for a walk after dinner.

Now that you’re moving, sit down and decide what your fitness goals are.

I know we always start you off, first with an assessment and then by helping to create a goal, before you ever begin a workout, but that’s when we’re creating your plan. For people working out on their own, just moving should be a starter. Once you’re moving, you need to decide what you want to achieve to create a plan that gets the best results.

Create the steps to reach your goals.

Those steps may include eating healthier with a specific whole food diet and a workout program that’s tough, but still doable. Some people who workout at this gym have tried a number of videos to help them on their quest. Unfortunately, the videos don’t jump out and wait for you to put them in the DVD and you aren’t held accountable if you miss a session. That brings me to a super important key to getting fit.

Stick with it.

Consistency, consistency, consistency!!! That’s the real key to fitness. Making sure you eat healthy and sticking with a plan of action even when you might feel discouraged or aren’t seeing results. Stick with it! You don’t have to have a sophisticated plan, like we’d provide you with at the gym. That just helps you achieve your goal faster. One man could barely walk because of his overwhelming obesity. In fact, the doctor told him he’d soon be crippled and then die. He started a program of exercise…well kind of a program of exercise. He opened his door and walked from his door to the curb, gasping for breath. Each week he went a little further and in a couple of years, became a distance runner, shedding several hundred pounds on his journey.

Personal trainers can provide a plan that will help you reach your goals quicker, which is why they’re so popular, but only you can achieve your fitness goals by carrying out those plans.

• Make sure you include activities you enjoy each week, such as dancing, tennis or even walking. They provide great exercise and keep you moving, while helping you achieve your goals.
• Look into some of the shorter exercise techniques if you’re stressed for time, such as HIIT.
• Find a workout buddy. Exercising with a friend are not only fun, they can boost your motivation and keep you accountable. It’s one reason we do group workout sessions.
• Find ways new ways to exercise that provide a total body workout, such as using kettlebells. They’re fun and produce great results quickly.

I’ve recently heard one of my clients talk about their aunt, touting how mentally sharp she was for her age. It seemed to assume that the older you get, the more you “dumb down.” While you might think it’s true, it’s not the number of years you live that determine your mental sharpness or a guarantee that senility is part of the aging process. Even though genetics also plays an important role, it’s the lifestyle you live that makes a difference whether you’re mentally viable in your senior years. Here are some natural ways to fight mental aging.

Get plenty of exercise.

Studies show that exercise can help improve cognitive functioning. In fact, just walking briskly can help bring big changes in the brain. A study in 2017 determined that not only did walking briskly three times a week for an hour lower blood pressure, it also helped improve thinking skills. Another study showed that people with the e4 gene—APOE epsilon4, a gene that identifies people at risk for Alzheimer’s, could lower that risk with exercising. After 18 months of studying four groups of people, two groups with the e4 gene, one group exercising and one group not and two groups without it divided the same, the e4 group who didn’t exercise had significant atrophy of the hippocampus area of the brain, which is a signal for the onset of Alzheimer’s. Other studies show exercising boosts brain activity.

Eating healthy and maintaining a normal weight helps.

Healthy eating and weight control, along with regular exercise helps reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. There’s a huge correlation between cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment. Atherosclerosis, for instance, means that fat and cholesterol causes inflammation that thickens the arteries and slows the blood to the brain. Lower levels of oxygen and nutrient laden blood affect brain cells.

Your sleep position can affect brain aging.

It may sound odd, but how you sleep makes a difference. A study in 2015 found that people who sleep on their side help the brain to clear waste products and by doing that, lowers the risk of diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Most wild animals and people tend to sleep on their sides for a reason. It helps the brain function at optimal level by improving the waste removal in the glymphatic and lymphatic systems. The waste are chemicals, tau proteins and amyloid that can build up and affect its functioning. Side sleeping also lowers the risk for sleep apnea and reduce snoring.

• Be aware of the damage of anticholinergic drugs. Anticholinergic drugs are medications used for sleep and allergies. You might recognize them by names like Dramamine, Benadryl, Unison and Advil PM. Scientist are finding more and more links to continued use of these drugs and dementia.
• Find a purpose in life. If you’ve ever met a person that retired from a job that was their whole life and within a year or two either had a health crisis or passed, you probably already recognized the link between feeling useful and driven to achieve a goal and ill health.
• Make sure you have adequate vitamin D. One study shows that a vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of dementia by 122%. Getting healthy exposure to the sun can lower your risk.
• Avoiding foods laden with pesticides is another way to keep your brain healthy. Check the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 list. Purchase organic foods listed on the dirty dozen and opt for the cheaper, non organic foods on the Clean 15.

I always say that anytime you can exercise is a good time, there are still some exceptions to the rule. Sometimes, people live a sedentary life five days a week and then become the GI Joe of the gym on the weekends. If you find your weekly schedule too crowded for exercise and spend your weekend focused on getting healthier and fitter, you need to be aware of the dangers of being a gym weekend warrior. Exercising is important, no matter when you do it, but you must watch out for these pitfalls.

There are studies that show weekend warriors get health benefits from getting all the exercise necessary in one or two days.

One study published in JAMA Internal Medicine used information surveyed from 63,591 adults. The survey showed that exercise lowered the risk of death approximately 30 percent, regardless of whether the exercise was done in one or two sessions a week or spread out throughout the week. The one or two sessions had to equal the same amount of time spent in five or more sessions to get the same results. The amount of time spent in vigorous activity should be approximately 75 minutes or 150 minutes of moderate activity.

Your risk of heart disease is lowered no matter what way you exercise, but there are other risks.

Even though you get the heart healthy benefits when you’re a weekend gym warrior, you face other risks. The risk of injury grows when you push too hard on just one or two days. People who just exercise on the weekend often push hard or enjoy sports on the weekend, rather than just spend two and a half hours walking. That vigorous exercise can cause musculoskeletal injuries due to overuse. Exercising on a regular basis throughout the week tends to reduce the likelihood of fractures and strains. Too vigorous of a workout can trigger rhabdomyolysis, which can lead to serious complications.

Ease into your workout by preparing your body for the high intensity.

One reasons weekend warriors often suffer from injuries is that their muscles aren’t ready for the sudden jolt. You also have to be aware of the the potential for dehydration, keeping sports drinks and water close at hand, particularly on hot days. You can prepare you body by focusing on a pre and post workout stretching, plus adequate hydration. Adequate warm-up and cool down are of prime importance particularly if you are sedentary throughout the week. Work with a personal trainer to create a list of stretches you can do the first thing in the morning or later in the day to boost your flexibility and help prevent strains It doesn’t take much activity throughout the week to lower the risk of injury. Devoting just ten minutes each day to stretching exercises lowers the risk dramatically.

• If your schedule is so demanding that weekends are the only possible answer, start slowly and gradually ease into an intense workout. Run a few laps and do stretches before playing ball with friends. It can help prevent damage that will keep you out of the game for a long time.
• To get the maximum benefit from your workout, especially if it’s only one or two days a week, consider adding High Intensity Interval Training—HIIT—to your workout program. You’ll get maximum benefit in the shortest amount of time.
• For those inactive during the week and switch up to high activity on weekends. Be aware of the symptoms of rhabdomyolysis and/or dehydration. Avoid training in extremely hot weather. Rhabdomyolysis can be extremely dangerous and even life threatening.

You don’t have to be a body builder or want to compete in weight lifting to get benefits from strength training. Everyone should be doing strength training. It should be part of every workout no matter what your goal. Strength training provides many different benefits, besides building muscle strength. It’s great for weight loss, not only burning huge amounts of calories, but also retaining the muscles you already have. The more muscle mass you have, the easier it is to lose weight, since muscle tissue requires more calories than fat tissue does. Strength training also continues to boost your metabolism even after you quit exercising.

Strength training slows and even reverses both sarcopenia and osteoporosis.

No matter what your age, strength training is important but even more after you reach midlife. You lose muscle mass as you age so that by the time you’re 70, you’ve lost about 45% to 50% of the muscle mass you had in your younger years. That loss of muscle can affect your balance, leave you tired and lead to falls. Exercise stimulates the cells responsible for building bones, so it also increases bone density. In fact, one study had postmenopausal women participate in strength training for a year and the results were impressive. The women all showed significant increase in the bone density of their hips and spine, the places most often affected by osteoporosis.

Strength training provides huge heart health benefits.

If weight loss and the prevention of bone and muscle loss weren’t enough, there are a number of other heart health benefits you’ll get from strength training. It strengthens the heart and lowers blood pressure too. It also boosts circulation and improves cholesterol levels. When used with aerobic training, it provides a balanced vascular response. The aerobic training reduced arterial stiffness, but didn’t increase blood flow, while the strength training increased blood flow to the limbs, but had a minor increase in arterial stiffness.

Strength training helps control blood sugar and lowers the risk of diabetes.

While most people think of cardio training for controlling blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of diabetes, but resistance training is also good, according to new studies. In fact, doing either, strength and cardio, for two and a half hours a week will substantially lower the risk for diabetes. However, when you do both, cardio and strength training, it can lower the risk even more, up to 60 percent. That’s a huge incentive to include strength training in every workout.

• Strength training is important to improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s Disease, Arthritis, fibromyalgia, spinal cord injury and lymphedema. It also helps manage the disease.
• Strength training has proven helpful for those who have depression, anxiety and can relieve stress. It puts you in a better mood.
• If you want to build your energy level, you need to build your strength. You’ll not feel as tired and have a higher energy level when you include strength training in your workout.
• Strength training can be challenging and fun. Consider kettlebells, those are just plain fun and the challenge you’ll have trying to beat your best lift.

There’s a lot of discussion and disagreement about the beneficial effects of exercise on your vision. Even though the jury is still out about whether it has a direct effect on near and far sightedness. Some say exercising, other than those for the eye itself, has no effect on your vision when it comes to near and far sightedness. Some other studies show it can boost vision and reduce the chance of serious eye conditions, such as macular degeneration and glaucoma, since it improves blood flow to the eye, lowers intraocular pressure and protects the ganglion cells in the retina. Some studies show that just 20 minutes of moderate exercise four times every week may reduce vision problems and improve blood flow to the optic nerve and retina.

Stress plays havoc with vision.

When you’re down to the wire and you need every second to get that important document prepared for work, it’s often the time when you’re under stress and may even start feeling it with blurry vision, eye pain, sensitivity to light, increased or the appearance of floaters or watery eyes. It’s more than the computer screen that causes these conditions, it’s the pressure you’re under and the flight or fight syndrome caused by stress. That stress not only makes your pupils dilate, which can cause headaches and light sensitivity. It also causes the muscles in your face to tighten and decreases the blood flow. That makes vision blurry and gives you headaches. Take the time to get about 20 minutes of exercise, even if it’s a brisk walk or running up and down the stairs. It burns off the hormones of stress and helps get you back on track.

Visual exercises for sports improves more than peripheral vision.

There’s no doubt about the fact that the better the athlete the better their peripheral vision, depth perception, focus flexibility and dynamic visual acuity. Some of these abilities improved naturally and helped enhance athletic performance. Others actually occurred because of practice in the sport of choice. The Air Force Academy helps enhance their athletes performance by using three simple exercises. Two involve reading eye charts at a distance and close or on the left and right quickly to improve focus. The third is catching a bouncing ball for hand eye acuity. These simulate the actions of the eyes when playing sports and improve the player’s vision. They could be a huge aid for yours.

Exercise helps in the prevention of conditions that affect vision and even may improve those conditions.

Three conditions that affect eye health are cataracts, wet age-related macular degeneration—AMD and glaucoma. A study in 2013 and another in 2016 showed that running or a brisk walk can help decrease the risk of cataracts or slow the progress. Another study followed 4000 older adults for 15 years and showed exercise reduced the risk of AMD. Doctors also use exercise to reduce high intraocular pressure in the eye as a treatment for glaucoma.

• Even people with floaters can benefit from a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods, plenty of nutrients and antioxidants, plus exercise. Start by cutting out sugary foods and starchy foods.
• Always check with your eye doctor first to make sure eye conditions aren’t something more serious that needs immediate attention, particularly if you’re diabetic or have eye conditions that warrant it.
• Use your vision. Countries that put an emphasis on sports and outdoor activities have the lowest occurrence of nearsightedness. The more you use your eyes, the stronger they become. Take 20 minutes a day to walk or run without wearing your glasses and focus on seeing in the distance.
• Adding healthy fat (think avocados, salmon, coconut oil and nuts) to your diet, dark leafy veggies, foods high in vitamin C (raw red peppers), vitamin A (sweet potatoes or other orange foods containing beta-carotene, food high in zinc (chick peas) and foods high in zinc and lutein and zeaxanthin (Eggs contain all three) can help your eyes.