Tag: strong

Wedding Shoulders

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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

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

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

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

February is Heart Awareness Month!

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healthy-heart

In honor of Heart Awareness Month – thought I’d give you five ways to keep your heart healthy!

Just like any muscle the more you work it out, the stronger it gets and the same goes for you heart. When you exercise regularly, your heart can recover faster after your heart rate is up from an activity.

Here are five exercises for your heart:

1) Swimming: The effect of immersing one’s body in water itself reduces stress. Swimming enables one to use the muscles in one’s body that might never be used otherwise. It can lead to a host of other benefits, such as:

• Reduced heart rate
• Improved breathing
• Improved circulation
• Better blood pressure
• Weight control, etc.

2) Cycling: To counter the sedentary lifestyle of an individual, cycling is a healthy and low-impact exercise. It can be enjoyed by all ages and it gives the heart, blood vessels and lungs a good workout. Regular cycling reduces the risk of health problems such as stroke, heart attack, etc.

3) Brisk walking: It is said that every step an individual takes is a part of their journey to good heart health. Brisk walking increases the heart rate. Regular brisk walking can reduce the risk of a heart attack, lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, and raise (good) HDL cholesterol, lower blood pressure, help manage weight, and improve one’s mood.

4) Running: Running can build up the fitness and endurance of the heart. It can also reduce the fat content surrounding the heart and inside the blood vessels. Running provides long term strength training to the heart, which helps in maintaining and increasing the fitness level of the heart.

5) Aerobics: Aerobics helps the heart muscles become stronger due to exercise, which makes it pump more efficiently. Therefore, one’s resting heart rate is reduced and the heart does not need to work as hard. It needs added oxygen to be pushed through the body to one’s muscles, and the heart being one of the biggest and hardest working muscles, benefits the most from this.

Be sure to take care of your heart – it’s the only one you got!

Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 killer of all children, more than all childhood cancers combined, yet the research is grossly underfunded. 1 in 5 children with a CHD will not make it to their first birthday. My friend’s baby, Luca was that 1 in 5. If you would like to donate to help those with heart conditions I encourage you to visit Hopeful Hearts.

Reference here – www.healthmeup.com

Slider workout!

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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!

Positive Thinking

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You over slept, late for work, missed a meeting, spilled your coffee – it’s easy to chalk the day up as a loss and continue living in that mindset. But if you change the way you think, you can change your attitude and in turn changing your focus off the bad and onto the good!

We often set the bar so high it is almost impossible to be reached leaving us feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. With so many unattainable expectations we have each day, we overlook all the good things we have in our lives!

Try to take time to name 3 things that you are happy about at the end of each day. Big things, little things it doesn’t matter what, just anything that made you feel good! Training yourself to focus on the good will help you keep the negatives from creeping in! I bet you’ll be surprised at all the wonderful things in your life that many times go over looked!

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Sweat it out

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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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Reference 2

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How is your New Year’s resolution going?

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So it’s February 1st.
 
Shockingly if you look at this graph from Frobes.com you’ll see more than 36% of those with New Year’s resolutions have already given up!

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Are you one of those people in the 36%? I’m not here to patronize just here to remind you that, there’s still time.
 It doesn’t have to be December 31st for you to set new goals.  That’s all a resolution is really, just a goal. 

Here are some ways to get back to achieving your goals!

● Be Specific
Setting a big picture goal is great but having multiple big goals can be a daunting task. 

♢Instead of “I want to lose weight” try “I’m going to cut out fast food and candy.”

♢Instead of “I want to read more” try “I’m going to read this book in February,  this book in March.”

Narrowing down your goals makes them manageable.

●Be Positive
Often times when we fail we are over come with guilt and fear that we aren’t good enough. Stop beating yourself up so much! Not sure where I hear it or read this quote but I wholehearted agree with it!

One positive thought in the morning can change your whole day

Many things that cause us pain, stress and anxiety in life are simply based on our reaction to them. It’s not the end of the world if you make a mistake – it’s how you deal with that mistake that makes all the difference.

Keep your head up and keep working to your resolutions – Happy February 1st!

Teach kids the importance of exercise!

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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!

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Turkey Sweet Potato Quinoa Crock Pot Chili

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I saw this recipe on my friend’s time line and had to check it out!
The recipe is from here.
I changed a few of the seasoning based on my taste the overall premise is the same.  The best part is that it is so easy and makes plenty for the whole family, or since it’s just me and my husband I kept some for leftovers and froze the other half!
Hope you guys like it! Definitely a new staple in our house.

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Run less, lose more

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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

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Why wait until January 1st?

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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!

 

 
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