Fitness Together Brecksville: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Setting a Good Fitness Example for Your Kids

Kids are like sponges that absorb every attitude, approach and response they see from their parents as they go through their daily lives. When it comes to living a healthy and fitness-oriented lifestyle, kids can be one of the best indications of how important eating healthy and exercising regularly is to their parents.

Making a healthy lifestyle more of a priority for your family starts with parents leading the way and setting good fitness examples for their kids.

Lead By Example

There are so many situations in school, life and family in which parents leading by example is important to successfully teach kids how to make good choices. But it’s crucial for parents to practice what they preach if they want to make a healthy lifestyle a priority that sticks with their children throughout their lives.

Kids -- especially when they’re young -- naturally want to emulate their parents and won’t think twice about going for a walk at night instead of watching television if that’s what their parents do. Getting out and getting active yourself is one of the most important first steps to incorporating fitness into a kid’s lifestyle.

“If your kids see that you’re making a conscious effort to be healthy regularly, they will eventually notice the importance without you ever having to talk to them about it,” advises Kelly Bailey, personal trainer at Fitness TogetherBrecksville. “Let them catch you in the act of being fit, whether it’s during meal preparation, going for a run or writing down the workout that you’re about to do. If you’re about to exercise and they ask for something, tell them to wait because this is your exercise time.”

Make It a Habit

Exercising and eating healthy regularly becomes less of a struggle with your younger ones when it becomes a regular routine in your family’s daily life. Schedule time every day to do something active as a family -- even if it’s just 15 minutes at the beginning or end of your day -- so that fitness becomes something everyone in your family does without having to think about it.

By setting aside designated workout time, you are showing your kids that exercising is a priority and you’re making a point to instill healthy habits for you and your family.

“I think that it is important to talk to your kids about exercising because it’s a habit that you want them to form early,” advises Bailey. “I don’t really think you need to approach them about it. It’s one of those topics that you need to show the importance of by leading by example.”

Eating healthy also can become a habit if you minimize the junk food that comes into your house and maximize healthy food choices in your pantry and refrigerator. Remember, you’re the parent and you ultimately control the food that comes into your house. Make healthy food choices a priority for you and your family. Encourage your children to become involved in the menu planning and grocery shopping so they can experience what healthy eating looks like and be prepared to make their own healthy food choices as they get older.

“When it comes to eating healthy, find things that they actually like and make sure that those things are always available,” continues Bailey. “Sit down with your kids and come up with a weekly snack menu. This will help plant the idea of meal planning and also ensure that your kids will like the snacks that you are buying them.”

Discover What Interests Your Children

Fitting a square peg into a round hole never works when it comes to construction. So when you’re building your children’s interest in working out make sure that you don’t force them into doing an activity that they aren’t interested in.

One of the best approaches to encouraging children to become more active is to make sure that the activity they try aligns with their personality, desires and interests. Letting children take the lead on discovering what they enjoy will help make incorporating fitness into their lives easier and more rewarding.

Also, it’s important to be flexible as children might need to try out a few different activities before settling on what they enjoy. And even if the activity isn’t your first choice or interest as a parent, support your children in whatever direction they head.

“The most important thing for parents to realize when trying to encourage a child to work out is that it has to be their decision,” explains Bailey. “If you try and force fitness into their lives and it’s not their decision, it will become a chore and that isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Find a way to make it fun for them and I promise that it will stick.”

Have Fun With It

Having fun is the name of the game, both in life and in exercise. Neither adults nor children want to continue doing something if they aren’t enjoying it. With any exercise, it’s important to make being active fun for your kids and, your family.

Don’t be afraid to get a little silly with your exercises by making up games along the way to spice up the experience. And look for ways that you can make a fun activity your kids already like –- even playing video games -– more active by throwing in some victory laps around the house after completing a hard level or defeating a boss. When you make exercise fun, it becomes less daunting and less of an issue for you and your kids.

“It’s important to make family time more active,” says Kelly. “Go to the park instead of staying in or go bowling instead of watching family TV shows.”

Take the time today to make fitness a priority for you, your kids and your family. By supporting your children to live a more healthy and fit lifestyle, you’re dedicating yourself and your family to living better, stronger and more fulfilling lives.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

What are Some Important Things to Look For in a Running Shoe?

Trainer Tuesdays

Welcome back to the weekly edition on Trainer Tuesdays. Make sure to check in at our blog every Tuesday evening to learn the expertise of our great staff. Aside from being fantastic exercise coaches, they are also extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of health and fitness; so, it's time that you get to know them a little better! Each week, we will post a frequently asked, or sometimes just a fun fitness related question followed by the answers of each of the trainers at Fitness Together Brecksville.

What are Some Important Things to Look For in a Running Shoe?

Taynee Pearson: A few important things to look for in running shoes are adequate support around the ankle region, enough support and cushioning, and the correct inner sole for the shape of your foot. There should be at least a thumb space between the end of your toes and the front of the shoe because as you run your foot shifts forward. The mid sole should fit like a glove and the back of the shoe should fit snug around the heel and ankle. Good running shoes should provide adequate support to prevent knee and ankle injuries.

Steven Madden: Not being a runner, I feel a bit ill informed on this issue. So I had to do some research. To my surprise, only a few sites even mention the one thing I knew for sure you had to understand, your arches. You need to understand if you have a flat arch, high arch or somewhere in the middle. Flat arches often lead to over pronation of the foot while high arches, naturally, lead to the other problem, supination. If your shoes do not address this issue, you lost before you've even stepped in them.

Next, check to see where the shoe flexes. If it does not flex along the same line as your foot, that will lead to comfort issues. The heel should be snug, but not tight. Also remember that with all the pounding your feet will be experiencing when running, your feet will swell. Because of that, you need to have some lateral room in your shoes as well, or your shoes will simply start to hurt your feet.

Remember, that everything needs to be comfortable, or why bother.

Kelly Bailey: As far as important equipment goes, the shoes you run in probably deserve more consideration than anything else you wear. There are literally hundreds of choices out there, so it can be difficult to know what to look for. I have recent personal experience with this. A few months back, I went into a popular shoe store in the mall. The teen working the counter hardly said hello when I came in, but I was dazzled by the brightly colored and sleek-looking running shoes neatly aligned on the wall. I bought a pair and ran in them for two months, only to end up with plantar fasciitis. I immediately stopped running, and high-tailed it to a local boutique dedicated to runners. The owner of the shop greeted me, and after hearing my story, got right to work figuring out what was causing my problem. She measured my feet, and watched me walk with shoes and without shoes. The problem: my feet pronate inward. The shoes I had bought at the mall were making it worse. I spent significantly more money on new running shoes, but they have been worth every penny. My plantar fasciitis is gone and I’m back to running.

Moral of the story: find a professional who can help identify any issues you have, and can set you up with the right shoe.

Jenn Noggle: Please excuse Jenn this week as she has been very busy training clients all day.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Four Tips for Setting, Managing Proper Fitness Goals

http://www.fitnesstogetherbrecksville.net

Spring has sprung and summer is around the corner, making it a popular time for setting and checking in on your weight loss or other fitness goals. If you’re thinking about shedding the final pounds of your winter weight before swimsuit season is in full swing or you’ve signed up for a summer endurance race to challenge your fitness level, it’s important to make sure that your goals are SMART -– specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely –- so you can successfully follow through on meeting your expectations.

To help with setting and properly managing your summer health and fitness goals, it’s important to put the following four tips into practice.

Tip 1: Check In with your Closet

With the summer months quickly approaching, it’s a good time to pull out your swimsuits, sun dresses and shorts from your closet to see if they still fit or if you may need to get something new. The way your clothes fit can be a good indication of where you are in meeting your weight loss goals and it can help put everything into a better perspective than stepping on the scale.

“Everybody gets stuck thinking that the number on the scale is the only thing that matters,” explains Steven Madden, personal trainer at Fitness Together Brecksville. “Clients who don’t see a lot of weight loss on the scale can actually experience a lot of inches coming off. Don’t use the scale as a crutch. It can be a lot more beneficial to keep tabs on how much better your clothes are fitting as your body composition changes.”

Tip 2: Focus on the Experience

The steps you take throughout your journey are what really count as you grow into adopting a healthy and fit lifestyle. When you have a specific outcome in mind, it’s important to look at the whole process and not just focus solely on the results, advises Madden.

How you are going to reach your goals is what’s important. If you don’t have a plan that breaks down your long-term goals into attainable tasks along the way, then you may end up spinning your wheels and quickly become overwhelmed.

“Take yourself out of the equation and be very specific with your planning by laying out a step-by-step, progressive training program,” explains Madden. “Whether you’re able to do this on your own or you need a trainer to guide you through the process, it can be very helpful to come up with a process that works for you and is geared toward your specific goals.”

Tip 3: Don’t Let Distractions Take You Down

Staying on top of your workouts is one of the most important things to maintaining forward progress toward meeting your goals. It’s easy to let life get in the way when work gets busy, kids are off on summer break and summertime happy hours lure you from the gym to outdoor patios.

It’s important to realize that whenever you skip a workout or make a poor nutritional choice, that's a step away from achieving what you're hoping to in the long run. Keep the driving factors associated with your health and fitness goals at the center of all the decisions you make so you don’t get derailed by summertime distractions.

“Your trainer can help with keeping you on track, but a lot of it comes from within you,” shares Madden. “You need to have a vision of your goal and keep that vision at the forefront of all the decisions you make. Focusing on all the little details can make some of the biggest differences.”

Tip 4: Assess, Acknowledge, Be Proud of Your Work

As you hit the mid-year point, it can get easy to get discouraged with the goals you set at the beginning of the year if you haven’t realized all of the results you were striving for. Before throwing in the towel, though, it can be more beneficial to acknowledge what you’ve accomplished so far, while re-assessing what else you may need to do to continue working toward the same goals or even making new ones.

Even if you haven’t completely met your goals yet, be proud of the journey you’ve started and celebrate important milestones along the way.

“Instead of getting down on yourself, stay focused on how much stronger and flexible you’ve become,” advises Madden. “Weight doesn’t come off as easy as it went on. So you need to stick with it.”

Whether your goal is to lose weight, compete in an endurance event or look your best for an upcoming reunion, it’s important to have a clear reason for why you’re working out during the process. Keep your vision at the forefront of everything you do, and make sure you have various short-term goals that support and feed into accomplishing your long-term aspirations.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Trainer Tuesdays: How Can Having a Workout Partner Help Me?

Trainer Tuesdays

How Can Having a Workout Partner Help Me?

Kelly Bailey: What motivates you to stick with your exercise routine? The lucky few are intrinsically motivated by how exercise makes them feel and look. On the other hand, the vast majority of people struggle to find the motivation to work out regularly. Kids, jobs, lack of sleep, and the stressors of daily life are all factors that can easily throw a semi-committed exerciser off their game. One of the best ways to increase motivation and success in your exercise program is to find a workout partner. A workout partner can help you in several ways. First and foremost is accountability. If you know your workout partner is getting out of bed at 5:00 AM to meet you at the gym, you are far less likely to hit the snooze button. Next, working out with a friend can make the time seem to go faster and can often make working out more fun. Last, you have someone with which to share your fitness accomplishments. As an added bonus, you have a built in spotter!

Jenn Noggle: Having a workout partner can help in a number of ways. The main ways that I have seen it help a client is in terms of accountability and motivation. When you are planning to workout with a partner, you are more likely to have a plan and a schedule for your workout. You are also far less likely to blow it off when life gets busy because someone else is counting on you. Motivation wise, a partner can be great because you can push each other and challenge each other to do that extra set or extra mile. Accomplishing your goals together can be very exciting and encouraging. Also, for those that might not exactly love exercise, a partner can offer that social aspect that can make the experience much more enjoyable!

Steven Madden: A workout partner can be very beneficial for your workout. A workout partner helps you stay safe by guaranteeing that you always have a spotter for your work out. They are also someone you'll feel accountable to. When working out alone, no one knows you skipped your workout. When training with a buddy, there's no way to hide from them. There is also the motivation factor. You each provide the other motivation, both to actually doing the workout and during the different exercises. A partner can push you when you need to be pushed. Then of course, they can simply help pass the time by giving you someone to talk to during your routine. If you both have the same fitness goals, a workout partner can help you, and vice versa, achieve the goals, if not sooner, than at least in higher spirits.

Taynee Pearson: Having a training partner always helps because it helps you motivate and push yourself. Training with a partner, makes you competitive as opposed to working out by yourself, it's always a competition between you and someone else. Training with a partner also prevents you from skipping a workout because it's not nice to let your partner down.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Sweating For the Wedding!

Sweating For the Wedding

Get in Picture Perfect Shape For Your Big Day at Brecksville's Premier Personal Training Studio!

“I originally joined Fitness Together in January to prepare for our May wedding. In this relatively short amount of time I have significantly reshaped my body, gained flexibility and endurance along with my new muscles! When I recently went in for my dress fitting, the seamstress was astounded at my different measurements and ended up taking the dress in significantly. I can't even believe the difference in how perfectly the dress fits now compared to when I first purchased it in January. I think this was best illustrated by the fact that Adam joined FT a few months after me when he noticed these changes! Of all the many expenses associated with the wedding, this is the one we find the most valuable. We can't wait to look back at our pictures and see this transformation reflected in them.”
-Rebecca & Adam
Fitness Together Brecksville Clients

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Trainer Tuesdays: What are Some Good Ways to Monitor My Fitness Progress?

Trainer Tuesdays

What are Some Good Ways to Monitor My Fitness Progress?

Kelly Bailey: Monitoring fitness progress is important because improvements in fitness happen over time and we often miss the small changes if we don't pay attention. Tracking your progress will help you see the big picture, allow you to make adjustments to your program, and keep you motivated to achieve more. Before you start a fitness program (or even if you've started one) you should at least gather some baseline data that will tell you where you are today, and then you will have a basis for comparison and can decide where to go from there. The baseline data you gather and what you monitor will be very dependent on your fitness goals. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to know what your weight is today, what weight you want to get to, and then you need to weigh yourself regularly to see if you are getting closer to your goal. If you don't like to weigh yourself (I know I don't!), the fit of your clothes is a good indicator if you are trying to lose or maintain weight. If your jeans start to fit a little tight (it's not the dryer), you know you need to clean up your eating and re-prioritize your exercise routine. If you are interested in gaining strength, your baseline data might include how much weight you can squat and bench press, and how many push ups and pull ups you can perform. After three to four months of weight training, if you can squat and bench more weight, and perform more push ups and pull ups, you know your training program is working. Setting goals, gathering baseline data, and then monitoring your progress will keep you motivated and on track to reach your fitness aspirations!

Steven Madden: There are many ways to monitor your fitness progress. In fact, there is an entire cottage industry around the very idea. You can carry your pedometer attached to your waist, while you've got your Fitbit, Nike Fuel Band or your Jawbone sending all kinds of data to your smart phone. At the end of the day you know everything you've done in regards to any imaginable activity. You know every single calorie you burned when you zip-lined down Mount Everest while playing "The Rainbow Connection" on an out of tune banjo.

I'm joking of course, and devices like these have their place (in truth, I want one), but it's what we do with the information the really helps us monitor our progress. Raw data is a great start. That's why I simply write down all my workouts. I write the weight and reps and sets for each exercise. After 3-4 weeks, I may be lifting a few more pounds a few more times, and I've got the paperwork to prove it. There is also the scale. You can watch your weight drop over time too.

But those are not the only ways to monitor progress. I've had one client tell me that after several months they realized they didn't get winded going up their stairs anymore. It was clear that that was more important to this client than what their scale said or how much they have increased the weight they have been lifting. Just yesterday, another told me she wasn't as sore as she used to get after working in the garden. These are the unmeasurable results that still track progress. Simply feeling better than you did a few months ago is progress, progress that shouldn't be ignored, no matter what your scale says.

When we think of tracking progress, it can be anything from running the same distance a little bit faster, lifting a few extra pounds, taking an extra 200 steps a day to not having to stop half way up the stairs for breath before you continue. Sometimes, it is about numbers and data, other times it's all about how you feel.

Taynee Pearson: There are a few ways to keep track of your fitness level and see if any improvements have been made. There are ways to figure out if you have improved in cardiovascular exercise or strength and weight training. Keeping a record of your repetitions, sets and weights used during strength training will help you determine your progress. Keeping a record of the intensity, level and time for cardiovascular exercise will help you determine the progress with cardio. Increased mileage, especially with running will showgood progress and the time it was performed in.

Jenn Noggle: If you are trying to monitor your fitness progress there are a couple easy ways to do so. First of all, record your workouts in details. You can keep track of the exercises, the number of set and reps, the weight, etc. As you increase various aspects you will easily be able to see where you are or aren't progressing. Another great way to track progress is to have regular re-assessments. Every 6 weeks, perform the same fitness tests and compare the numbers. This is a simple straight-forward way to see where you are improving and where you might need more work.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Protein Bars: Pros and Cons

by Dr. Janet Brill

Let’s face it: Protein bars are an incredibly convenient (and tasty) way to take the edge off your hunger. Throw them in your backpack, purse or gym bag and you have an easy way to get some extra grams of protein into your diet. They can help you gain or lose weight, depending on your goals.

Let’s take a look at how the different bars’ ingredients stack up and what to look for:

1. PROTEIN
Protein bars differ from other snack and candy bars because they have more, well, protein! Protein can be beneficial for weight loss as it is the most filling of the three macronutrients (carbs, fat and protein). Eating a protein/carb combo right after a workout is also a good idea for improved muscle recovery and muscle mass gains.
Whey -- the milk fluid produced in cheese-making -- is often the bar’s protein source, which is preferred for its amino acid profile and proven muscle protein synthesis capabilities. However, the rising demand in China has caused whey prices to soar. So bar manufacturers are increasingly using less expensive protein sources such as soy and pea or rice flour.

The average protein bar contains somewhere between 15 and 25 grams of protein. Keep in mind that you could easily get in that amount of protein from any of the following “real” foods: Two cups of fat-free milk, two eggs, a cup of soybeans, or half a cup of almonds.

2. CARBOHYDRATES
The unappetizing taste of whey and soy proteins added to bars has resulted in manufacturers enhancing the taste by dumping in loads of sweeteners, which serve to make the bars much more palatable. In fact, many bars contain huge amounts of "added sugars,” the food ingredient that we need to cut back on for better health.

Some of the sweeteners include high fructose corn syrup -- which bumps up the calories -- or artificial sweeteners such as sugar alcohols which can result in GI issues. The takeaway message here is that protein bars are great in a pinch but are certainly no health food.

3. CALORIES
Many protein bars have calorie counts similar to a candy bar. So if your goal is to lose weight, you will need to pay close attention to just how many calories your snack contains.

Popular protein bars tend to range from 200 to 300 calories per bar. Keep in mind that you could get the same amount of protein and calories but much more nutrition from choosing real food snacks such as a peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole grain bread, a low-fat Greek yogurt with walnuts and berries, or raw veggies with a hummus dip.

Protein bars play an important role in the nutrition of athletes, particularly athletes that have a tough time getting in enough calories to fuel an intensive training regimen. For those individuals seeking to lose weight and eat a healthy diet, protein bars can be a convenient occasional snack.

Real food, however, has other important nutrients not found in protein bars. And so it should always be your first snack of choice.

A Fitness Together trainer can help you to set and attain small, doable health and fitness goals which include helping you plan your snacks. He or she will also develop an exercise program designed to meet your specific needs. You’ll receive nutritional counseling through the Nutrition Together program, which will complement your workouts.