It’s summertime, remember to stretch!

With summer time around the corner, many people will begin a new workout regime or take their current one up a notch.

With the increased work load on your body it is important to stretch. Your body is only going to perform if you take care of it. And let’s face it, if running, lifting, moving hurts you aren’t going to do it.

Fitness isn’t a once in a while thing it’s a continue processed full of ebbs and flows. Take your victories in stride and your struggles with grace. Just stick with it.

Here are some hip stretches that will help keep your body healthy and ready to go, no matter what you throw at it!

HIP STRETCHES

 

You don’t know who’s watching

Updated: August 2nd 2020

Working out is apart of my daily routine. I’ll go train clients at my boot camp (click here for info on that) and pre-covid I’d slide into the office at least Tuesday and Thursdays  and work at my other job at Fox Sports Southwest. I’d always get up and workout in my garage those days. My life was set up where my workout is a part of the day. It’s built in. It does help I have equipment in my garage but honestly you don’t need much to get a good workout! Through two pregnancies my schedule and workouts didn’t change much. Of course the intensity changed but I was consistent.

One minute of exercise is more than zero.

I want my kids to see how much I value my health, physical fitness and mental fitness. They will grow up seeing my work ethic and my lifestyle.  I want to live as long as I can to see them have kids and their kids have kids! So I take care of myself, eat well, sleep enough and have fun.

Here is a simple workout format you can use and incorporate ANY body weight exercise in.

Exercise 1 & 2 10 reps of both then-8 reps of both-6-4-2 (run, jump rope, high knees)2-4-6-8-10

Example exercises:

Squats & Pushups – run .25 miles

Lunges & Tricep Dips – 100 jump ropes

Superman pulls & Straight leg situps – 100 High knee

If you have dumbbells you can add different moves and modify as you wish! It doesn’t have to be complicated!

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Sweat it out

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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Why wait until January 1st?

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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Give the gift of Health!

Need a last minute gift? What about a gym membership? You are helping not insulting by giving someone the gift of health!

Every new years there 1000’s of resolutions made to get healthy – you can help save someone’s life by helping them keep those resolutions!

Dont be worried about hurting someone’s feelings – you are truly helping them in the long run!

And if you don’t know where to start once you’re in the gym? Email maketimeforfit@gmail.com to get a personalized workout plan tailored to your goals! GET moving in 2015!

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This isn’t working…

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.

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Fight the holiday bulge!

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!
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