Wedding Shoulders

February 21, 2015February 21, 2015Leave a comment

Like I mentioned in a previous post I am a personal trainer and got married last July 💍💒

I wanted to have more defined deltoids (shoulders) and no arm fat jiggle! Here are a couple moves I recommend for sculpting your shoulders! 💪💪💪

Whatever your reason try these moves to shape up your shoulders!

Top: Front Raises Middle: Lateral Raises Bottom: Reverse Fly

But my smart husband helped me out by blocking my arm for the kiss! Definitely a keeper! 👌👌

Good luck! And check out our wedding photographer , makeup artist, and hair stylist

Remember to check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

Slider workout!

February 18, 2015February 18, 2015Leave a comment

Sliders are all you need for a great full body workout! Sliders cause you to burn more calories during an exercise because it requires you to engage your stabilizing muscles. The more muscles being used during each move which results in more calories burned!

Mt. Climber [advanced: twisting Mt climbers]
Bear Crawl [advanced: add push up]
Scissors
In and outs
Single leg in with wiper
Push ups – all kinds a challenging variations.

Check out my instagram for video examples of some of these moves!

If you don’t own sliders you can use towels on wood for or even paper plates!

What’s for dinner? Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Ravioli

February 11, 2015Leave a comment

This past Sunday, my husband and I were home and wanted make something fun for dinner! I found this recipe HERE. It was relatively easy and I’m glad I got to use my ravioli maker kitchen aid attachment we got at the wedding! But you can definitely make this without a ravioli maker – just roll out the dough and make the raviolis buy hand!

This is a very hands-on recipe and was fun to see what goes into making ravioli. The recipe is kid friendly and a great way to teach them at a young age about what to put in your body and how to make it!

If you make this or have any other versions of it make sure you tag #maketimeforfit!

Sweat it out

February 6, 2015February 6, 2015Leave a comment

If you’re like me nothing sounds better after a good workout than to sweat it out and relax in the sauna – but do you know what you are sweating out??

The answer is toxins! Sitting in a sauna and sweating helps your body rid itself of many toxins that have built up from processed food, alcohol, chemical and pesticides from the air! Regardless of how perfect your diet is there are tons of chemicals in your body simply from living and being around other people (don’t get too grossed out!).

Here’s where a sauna comes in. On an average day, your eccrine glands put out about a quart of sweat. But when you hang out in a sauna, they pump out that much in 15 minutes.

But the benefits of the sauna don’t stop there! It also helps your heart! A post-workout sauna session helps improve blood flow!

Japanese researchers have found that sitting in a sauna is particularly helpful for congestive heart failure. After taking daily saunas for four weeks, 13 of 15 patients with serious heart failure had significant decreases in blood pressure and improvements in ejection fraction (a measure of the heart’s pumping ability), exercise tolerance and oxygen uptake.

Sauna sessions can help with –

Improved blood circulation: The sauna increases and improves the rate of blood circulation and breathing.
Weight loss: Sauna is similar to mild exercise, it burns about 300 calories per average session. Regular sauna treatments combined with a healthy diet and moderate exercise will help you lose weight and stay fit and healthy.
Skin cleansing: A profuse sauna-induced sweat followed by a shower cleanses your skin far more thoroughly than just taking a shower. It makes it soft and healthy with immediately noticeable effects.
Body relaxation: Stress build-up creates tension in the body manifesting in various aches and pains. The heat and humidity of the sauna diffuses the pain and relaxes tired muscles. A sauna in the evening will leave tense muscles and sore limbs totally relaxed. Sauna also temporarily relieves arthritic pain.
Mind relaxation: The sauna is essentially a place to relax. Regular sauna adepts all agree that it effectively helps relieve physical and mental fatigue and stress.

And most of all it just feels great to sweat it out! After your workout – go for a sit in the sauna and reap all the benefits!

***Try this: When you sit in the sauna, brush, lightly scratch, or tap the skin on your arms, legs, belly, and back. This will stimulate your pores to open more while you’re in the sauna, and boost the circulation at the surface of your body. Immediately after you leave the sauna you have to immerse yourself in cold water! This will close your pores back up, pull the blood back to your core organs, and reinforce your natural defenses. This means that you will actually lose less heat when you are out of the sauna, boost your circulation, stay warmer longer, and keep your vital organs happy and functioning at the same time.***Reference 3

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Teach kids the importance of exercise!

January 15, 2015Leave a comment

Did you know that children spend more than 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen – TV/Video/Computer.

The majority of kids are not active and not getting enough physical activity. Take your kids on a walk, work out with them, teach them HOW and WHY it is important to exercise daily! Plus teach them the impact food (good and bad) has on moods, headaches and overall well-being. They will follow whatever example you set – so be an example of what you want them to be.

Teaching your kids healthy habits such as daily exercise will help them stay healthy and help keep you accountable! Don’t forget they are always watching!

Run less, lose more

January 5, 2015January 5, 2015Leave a comment

Happy Monday! January 5th – lots of resolutions and goals for the new year. As you start or continue your fitness goals – here are some things I’ve learned to help get you seeing results!

I am a runner by heart. I used to not feel like I got a good workout unless I ran. Little did I know that was the reason I hit a plateau and was just staying on that plateau, month after month.

After getting my certification in personal training I began to understand the benefits of cardio in combination with strength training.

Change up your cardio regiment, try incorporating intervals, sprint work, swimming, jumping rope or stationary bike to change up your daily routine. With that and adding a few more strength training exercises you will see results and move away from that plateau! Share your results and tag @maketimeforfit and #maketimeforfit

Why wait until January 1st?

December 28, 2014Leave a comment

Go to the gym.

Go for a walk.

Skip dessert.

Grab an apple instead of party mix.

A recent poll showed that only 59% of people stick to their health and fitness goals! Start incorporating simple steps into your daily routine RIGHT NOW! A healthy lifestyle is an on-going progress – start with easy things and then keep working to add more things into your routine. Goals don’t have to start on a certain date or time – why wait? START NOW!

This isn’t working…

December 8, 2014Leave a comment

Ever have the feeling no matter what you do, you aren’t getting the results you want? Maybe it’s time to take a look at your routine and see if there are things you can change.

Isolating small muscle groups – Doing isolated exercises like bicep curls and tricep kick-backs will NOT get you any significant results. These one-muscle-at-a-time moves simply don’t stimulate enough muscle fibers to build lean muscle or expend enough energy to maximize your calorie burn.

Too much cardio can be an issue with many women who are not as comfortable lifting weights or fear they will get too bulky. I promise you; you won’t get too bulky, you need a ton more testosterone and if you aren’t supplementing that – don’t worry.

If you want to build lean muscle while burning fat so you can get serious definition, you need to perform exercises that stimulate as many muscles and expend as much energy as possible at the same time.

Try super settings moves or adding jump rope, jump squats or a cardio boost between sets.
Try doing full body moves that work both and small muscle groups. Ex. Lunge with over head press, step ups with lateral raise.
For added difficulty try adjusting your balance – the smaller the the base the more challenging the move.

Fight the holiday bulge!

December 1, 2014Leave a comment

Happy December! It’s that time of year where cookies, cakes, pies and any and everything you could ever want is available. It is the most tempting time of the year that can result in a weight gain, on average, of 8-10 pounds.

With the holidays come parties, cocktails and family commitments that prevent you from sticking to your gym schedule and your daily eating routine. Here are a few tips to help keep you from adding to your waist line during the holidays!

Avoid mindless snacking
- It is SO easy to stand by the appetizers table and eat more than a meal BEFORE the meal! So be aware of what you are eating – put food on your plate and walk away
Don’t skip the gym
- It’s important to keep your physical activity up! It’s easy with office parties and relatives visiting to decide to skip — try to keep a routine the best you can – this is the time when you need it the most!
- Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean it’s cold in the gym! Battle the cold and you won’t have to battle your jeans!
You don’t need dessert
- Woof – I know this one sucks – but it’s true. If you are full and think I can’t eat another bite – don’t change when it’s time for dessert. And if you feel obligated to have something (which you shouldn’t because it’s your choice what goes in your body) have one dessert, not all of them. You also don’t have to eat the whole thing. Split the dessert or just politely discard whatever is left.
First bite is best
- If there that pecan pie your aunt makes or the cookies your grandmother makes just for Christmas – I’m not saying deprive yourself – just remember the first bite is the best. Don’t go back for bites 5 and 6.
- Eat slowly and enjoy – you are less likely to feel the urge for another and you can completely enjoy whatever you have without feeling the need to over-indulge.

Good luck this holiday season! Remember your summer-time body is made in the winter! You can make it through the holidays without any set backs as long as you stick to your plans and keep moving!

Tired? Go for a walk!

November 12, 2014Leave a comment

Sometimes you hit that wall, sometime around 2 or 3pm you just dont know how you’ll make through the rest of the day; what do you do? Grab a cup of coffee? Snack on something to keep you up? Take a energy drink?
While all those may “work” the most effective way to get an energy boost – physical activity. Crazy right? Go exert energy to gain some? But that’s exactly right!

“We live in a society where people are always looking for the next sports drink, energy bar, or cup of coffee that will give them the extra edge to get through the day,” says researcher Tim Puetz, PhD, also of UGA. “But it may be that lacing up your tennis shoes and getting out and doing some physical activity every morning can provide that spark of energy that people are looking for.”

If you get to the point where you can barely stay awake – go take a 10 minute walk around your office or walk out to your car and back in. You’ll be surprised how much a little physical activity will increase your energy level for the rest of the day!

Referenced article

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Tag: muscles