Fitness Together Brecksville: June 2014

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Fitness Freedom: Breaking Out of Your Exercise Rut

A lot of time and energy is spent during the months leading up to summer getting your body fit and ready for swimsuit season. But, now that the first month of summer is coming to an end, you might feel like you’re in a fitness rut. If you’re feeling hesitant about pulling out your stars and stripes swimsuit and you’re not feeling great about what you’ve accomplished this year in your fitness journey, it may be time to break out of your exercise rut by re-tuning and revamping your summer fitness plan.
“By the time summer hits, you may feel like you haven’t accomplished all of your fitness goals, which can make you feel bad and de-motivated,” explains TayneePearson, personal trainer at Fitness Together Brecksville. “Instead of getting emotional, you should approach it from a problem solving perspective by stepping back and focusing on the basics. Quitting a program or throwing up your hands and never giving anything a real chance isn’t really a solution. You need to decide whether you’re going to focus on solving the problem or perpetuating it.”
If you’re ready to focus on finding solutions for establishing your fitness freedom and breaking out of your exercise rut, the following easy tips can help you regain and maintain a healthy and fit lifestyle during the summer season.
Keep Your Goals Front and Center
With kids home from school, vacations on the horizon and relaxing days at the pool filling your schedule, you might be having a hard time fitting exercise into your summer plans. As warm weather and laid back attitudes settle in this time of year, it’s a good time to review and readjust your fitness goals so they stay part of your summertime routine and not replaced by pool side lounging. One way to keep your goals front and center during the summer months is to sign up for a late summer or early fall endurance event, suggests Pearson. When you have a goal that you are working toward, it makes it easier to stay on course with your fitness plan or it can motivate you to jumpstart your training if you’ve taken a break during the first few weeks of summer.

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“Summer isn’t just about spending time at the beach, looking good and being outside,” says Taynee. “A lot of people use summer to prepare for a lot of different races and events. When you’re training for something like a road race, it can be really motivating because you have something you can aim for and train for. Even if it’s just a local 5k race, it’s at least something to help keep you focused and active during the summer.”
Take Fitness with You
Summer is the season to get away from it all by taking family vacations and embarking on new adventures or journeys. But, just because you’re traveling doesn’t mean that you have to get away from your fitness routine while on the road. Just as you check out the best hotels and attractions to visit while on your summer vacations, also make checking out your fitness options a priority as you plan your trip.
When FT’s clients go on vacations, their team of trainers always puts together workouts for their clients to take with them while they’re away. They will research the closest gyms to where their clients are staying or figure out what equipment and set up will be available at their hotels. They make staying active while away from home easy for their clients by building workouts around what equipment and facilities will be available. You can do the same thing too by performing some quick online searches or calling the hotel where you’re staying at so you have fitness ideas to keep you active before you arrive at your destination.
“Having something in hand that you’re going to take with you on your trip will help a lot to keep you focused and pointed in the right direction during your vacation,” says Pearson. “Mentally, you also have to keep reminding yourself how far you’ve come in your fitness level and how stronger you’ve become since you started working out. This will help keep you motivated to keep staying active even when you’re away from your regular fitness routine.”
Have Some Fitness Fun with Your Kids
Fun in the sun is the name of the game during summer break and vacations. The whole idea is to find fun, active things to occupy your time, while promoting a healthy lifestyle for both you and your family. If you have younger kids, it can be as simple as going to the park and running around with the kids. Or, if you have older kids, you can play your family’s favorite sports together. If you’re looking for a more structured workout, check out your local area fitness facilities for summer family training programs or small group classes.

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“Summer is the perfect time to getout with your kids and get outdoors,” says Pearson. “The options are ultimately limitless. The idea is to just stay active and be healthy for you and your family.”

If you’re struggling with sticking with a fitness routine as the summer months get into full swing, get back to the basics by incorporating activity into your daily lifestyle. Keep it fun, incorporate your family and enjoy your summer fitness journey.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Trainer Tuesdays: Why Should I Incorporate Balance Into My Workout?

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.

Why Should I Incorporate Balance Into My Workout?

Kelly Bailey: Balance is something we talk about all the time: balancing life, balancing schedule, balancing work and play. How often have you thought about your physical ability to balance? Balance training is an important aspect of training that should not be ignored. Athletes know the benefits of balance training because many sports require good balance. In my own personal experience as an equestrian athlete, core and balance training have improved my riding ability. But balance is important for everyone, and most especially for older adults. Incorporating balance training can greatly reduce the risk of falls and broken bones. Try incorporating one or two balance moves into your next routine and reap the long-term benefits!

Jenn Noggle: Balance is very important to overall wellness. Like our muscular strength, we “use it or lose it”. If you have poor balance, you are setting yourself up for much bigger problems down the road. You likely often hear about the older population falling and ending up with broken bones or worse. This is not necessarily because someone is clumsier or trips more often than the average person, but rather they probably have poor balance. This means that the chances of catching yourself or regaining balance once you trip is slim. Because most of the population spends most of the day sedentary, I see countless individuals who don’t even realize how poor their balance is. While it is great to include balance work in your regular workouts, you can also start as simply as balancing on 1-leg while brushing your teeth. The more you work at it, the better it will be. Better balance means a greater quality of living no matter what your age!

Steven Madden: As trainers, we often include exercises that require stabilization. When asked why, most people seem to be puzzled by the idea that we want to improve their balance. Outside of the grade school playground, most people don't know why they need to work on their balance. Working on balance improves your coordination, athletic skill, and posture. This makes you less prone to injury and gives you greater stability as you age. This can help prevent falls and help keep you independent as you age. After all, improving quality of life is part of why people train in the first place.

Taynee Pearson: Please excuse Taynee as she is out of town this week!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

STRETCH your LIMITS

STRETCH your LIMITS

By Fitness Together Trainer, Jenn Noggle

Do you have trouble squatting down to pick something up off the floor? Is it difficult to reach that scratch in the middle of your back or bend over to touch your toes? Do you experience lower back pain or stiffness? Like many others, actions that used to seem so simple and basic can now be challenging and frustrating. The good news is that more often than not, the solution is simple. Incorporating a consistent stretching routine into your life, whether you exercise or not, is a critical component of your overall wellness. There is more good news…even a small time commitment can yield huge results! Here are just a few:

Increased Flexibility and Range of Motion

Range of motion (ROM) is the area through which a joint should normally be freely and painlessly moved. A limited ROM means that there is a reduction in a joint’s normal, full range of motion. As you age, and especially if you sit a lot, your muscles will become tighter and shorter over time. This makes you more susceptible to injuries, nagging aches and pains, and compromised daily function. Regular stretching will increase and maintain the proper, full range of motion in your joints. This means better flexibility and balance, decreased pain and tightness, decreased muscular imbalance, and easier overall movement and function.

Increased Circulation and Energy Levels

Stretching has been proven to increase blood and oxygen flow to your muscles, thus increasing the supply of nutrients to your muscles as well. This means reduced muscle soreness and tension, increased comfort and ease of day-to-day activities, increased energy levels, and shortened recovery time.

Better Posture and Reduced Back Pain

Numerous muscles, including the hip flexors, lower back muscles, hamstrings and quadriceps, contribute to your posture. Poor posture means tension, breathing difficulty, fatigue, and back pain. Regularly stretching can improve posture and therefore, greatly reduce or eliminate the back pain that affects millions of Americans today.

Aren’t these benefits worth at least 15 minutes each day? Don’t continue to limit your activity or blame your age for what you can no longer do. Start rejuvenating your body today! Whether it is after your workout, or while you watch your favorite tv program, make the time to improve your body and your life today! A Fitness Together trainer can put together a personalized stretching routine for you to do on your own, or you can try out a Passive Stretching session to help maximize your flexibility and function.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Besides Exercise and Diet, What Else Impacts My Fitness?

Trainer Tuesdays

Besides Exercise and Diet, What Else Impacts My Fitness?

Kelly Bailey: While diet and exercise are the two things that probably impact your fitness the most, there are other important factors to consider. The two that most readily come to my mind are sleep and stress.

Recovery, both mental and physical, happens primarily during sleep. Lack of sleep can cause myriad symptoms from mental fog and depression, to decreased physical performance when you are training or playing sports. Try to get into a routine of going to bed at the same time every night, and be sure to turn off all electronics at least 30 minutes before lights out. The light from computer and TV screens can cause sleep problems.

We've all heard a million times over that stress can negatively impact health. In our fast-paced society, we all encounter stress from the pressures of work, family, and maintaining our health. It's how each of us deals with stress on an individual basis that matters. It's important to find (and make time for) your own stress-relieving activity. Exercise, meditation, or a favorite hobby are all ways to relieve the stress that we encounter every day.

Steven Madden: While mood and environment are other factors of fitness, the one that I cannot stress enough is sleep. Sleep is often viewed with distain, this arduous task that prevents us from doing everything in the day we need/want to accomplish. Most of us know better, but we still treat it like breakfast, I know it's good for me, but I don't have the time to do it right.

Before someone says, "But I only need 5 hours of sleep", let me say that I don't believe you, but I do agree that not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep. 6-8 is the healthy range, and it depends largely on body chemistry. Sleep is so important, not just because your body and brain relax and recharge, but because this is when your body works to repair or improve itself.

When you sleep, your body produces growth hormone and starts protein synthesis in muscles, provided you are eating the appropriate diet. This leads to muscle cell repair and growth. So, if you spent your time and the gym yesterday and only slept for 4.5 hours because you just had to watch all of Orange is the New Black season 2 on Netflix, you have actually just undermined some of the work you did at the gym. Why would you do that?

In addition, lack of sleep can raise hormone stress levels. Missing one night of good sleep will not cause too much of a problem, however several days or weeks of bad sleep will elevate your stress level to the point that you will start to experience symptoms of overtraining syndrome. The basic reason is that you told you body not to sleep, and since your body doesn't know any better, it assumes you cannot sleep because you are in danger, and so it puts its self on heightened alert. It's that whole fight or flight response. Even when not running for your life, prolonged time in fight or flight mode takes a physical tole.

Getting too much sleep won't help either. You cannot catch up on lost sleep. Sleeping all day, one day a week can change the body's patterns making it harder to fall asleep at other times. If you are having a hard time sleeping, try having quieter evenings, where you don't do anything too physical 2-3 hours before you go to bed. Make sure you are getting a strong workout to help make it easier to sleep and try to avoid caffeine at night. Wait a minute, aren't those two other aspects of fitness-- diet and exercise? Why didn't anyone tell me they were related?

Jenn Noggle: While diet and exercise are a huge part of overall fitness, there are some other factors too. I think mental health is a big part of overall wellness and health. Additionally, the way you live your daily life outside of exercise. Are you sedentary all day except for when at the gym? If so try to fit in some extra physical activity whenever you can (Ex: parking farther away or taking the stairs) Stretch periodically throughout the day to keep your muscles and joints flexible for the rest of your active lifestyle.

Taynee Pearson: Besides dieting and exercise, mental health is also an important aspect in living a healthy lifestyle. Determination, and persistence are keys to help you lead a healthy lifestyle and reach your fitness goals. It's important to set goals and stick with them even though the results may not show right away. Happiness is another aspect that improves your overall wellness.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Is the 5:2 Diet for You?

by Dr. Janet Brill

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy and “fast” way you could lose weight? That’s the appeal of the latest “fasting” diet strategy depicted in the wildly popular two-day-a-week fasting concept, and offered in the book The Fast Diet by Michael Mosley, MD, and Mimi Spencer.

Is this radical diet something you should try? Here are some thoughts on this controversial diet strategy, also known as the “5:2 Diet.”

1. What is The Fast Diet plan?
This plan consists of eating regular meals five days a week, then semi-fasting (500 calories for women and 600 for men) on the other two (non-consecutive) days. For Mosley, this approach has not only helped him lose weight but has also improved his health in the process.

2. Fasting Diet Plan Reduces Calorie Intake
This concept of ultra-low-calorie eating days combined with ‘eat anything and everything days’ may be a strategy that could work for some people, especially those who do not want to change their current eating habits or feel deprived of foods they love. However, this type of dieting is no magic bullet. It clearly helps people to eat less calories in a faster and supposedly less painful manner than traditional dieting.
While the 5:2 concept may seem appealing, the drastic low-calorie starvation days are no “picnic.” The ultra-low-calorie intake may make you irritable and fatigued as well as completely deprived not only of your favorite foods but of any food!

3. Nutritional Concerns with The Fast Diet
Nutrition is a concern if you do not eat wisely on the "regular" days. This means that even on those five days you should still be paying attention to your food intake to make sure that you are making balanced and healthy choices. The typical American diet -— high in processed foods, bad fats and sodium and low in nutrients -- can still promote disease, even if combined with weight loss.

4. Type of Weight Loss with the Fasting Diet
You’ll also need to keep in mind that not all weight loss is created equally. The fact is that to lose weight, one needs to eat fewer calories and burn more through exercise. In an ideal world, you would want to create a long-term calorie deficit through a combination of mild calorie restriction and daily exercise in order to lose body fat and not muscle mass. However, with two days of fasting the severe calorie restriction will probably lead to loss of both body fat and lean body mass. This alters metabolic rate over the long term, making it harder to maintain your new, lower body weight.

5. A More Moderate Option
For long-term weight loss, the turtle beats the rabbit. Taking a more moderate, slow and steady approach to weight loss has consistently proven to be the best long-term solution.

The best diet for losing weight, keeping it off and improving health is a plant-based, nutrient-dense, lower-calorie diet combined with an active lifestyle. But for people who want to try something more radical, following Mosley’s fasting diet plan is preferable to remaining overweight and experiencing the related health conditions such as an increased risk of heart disease, certain types of cancers, diabetes and high blood pressure.

A Fitness Together trainer can help you to set and attain small, doable, health and fitness goals which include finding a nutritious diet plan that works for you. 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

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

What are Some Dangers of Over-Training?

Trainer Tuesdays

What are Some Dangers of Over-Training?

Steven Madden: In the world where "a little is good, more must be better", we like to over do things to get results. Unfortunately, when it comes to fitness, that is about as untrue as you can get. Training too much and too often can result in overtraining, which has the opposite of your desired fitness results. Overtraining is the result of not resting your body, specifically your muscle tissue, properly before working the same muscles again.

Rather than spending 30-60 minuets workout, every other day, people want to work for hours, every day of the week. If your muscles haven't recovered from your last workout, you will not have an effective next workout. Ultimately, you will become weaker and lose overall strength as well as being more susceptible to injury, even hurting your immune system making it harder to fight a cold. After that 60 minuet mark, you have largely depleted your testosterone levels (men and women) which is necessary for building and maintaining muscles mass. Exercise causes micro trauma to your muscle tissue that normally heals its self, if given the proper recovery time (24-48 hours).

Overtime, overtraining can lead to serious tendon, muscle and joint pain, increase blood pressure and heart rate, weakness and fatigue, and even increase the risk of heart attack. Ironic really, since most of the people start a fitness regiment to avoid those kind of problems.

Kelly Bailey: We all know it's important to work hard to maintain and improve our fitness level. But real care must be taken to avoid over training. Don't be fooled by thinking over training can only happen to elite athletes. A new exerciser can experience over training as easily as a seasoned athlete. Over training happens when someone exercises too often, at too high an intensity, with inadequate rest. Over training can cause a host of physical and psychological symptoms, including joint pain and weakness, decreased athletic performance, insomnia, depression, and lack of motivation to exercise. Over training also makes a person much more prone to injuries because the muscles are fatigued and weak. The best ways to avoid over training syndrome are to schedule rest days. You can still work out on rest days, but intensity needs to be much lower. Cross training is also a great way to avoid over training. So, for example, if you are a runner, try swapping out one of your running days and go biking or swimming. Most importantly, keep in mind that our workouts break our muscles down. It's the rest period that allows our muscles to rebuild and become stronger!

Jenn Noggle: Throughout many years of training hundreds of people, this is one issue that I rarely see considered or addressed. People think they are being healthy by exercising, but are often working against themselves by actually overtraining. Overtraining basically means that a person is exercising in a pattern that is a higher intensity, duration or quantity than their body can properly recover from. There are symptoms from subtle to more serious, including but not limited to the following: chronic muscle or joint pain, frequent colds or infections, tiring or fatigue easily, frequent injury, elevated resting heart rate and/or blood pressure, stalled progress in workouts or body transformations, poor sleep, poor performance, anxiety or irritability...you get the picture. You can be working your butt off in the gym and be doing more harm than good if you are not giving your body adequate recovery time and nutrients. Besides working or talking with a trainer to avoid overtraining, make sure you give yourself rest days, cross train, and don't increase any distance, intensity, weight, speed, or length of exercise more than 10% in a given week. Make sure you are not only eating enough overall calories, but focus on getting the right kinds of nutrients to aid in recovery (i.e.: lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats). In addition to having a plan that factors in these tips, always listen to your body! If you feel like you need an extra day off, take it! Your body may need the rest more than the workout some days!

Taynee Pearson: Most people think there is no such thing as over training, but there is. There is a point where too much exercise can harm you instead of benefit you. Over training can affect a person in many ways. Over training may increase a persons blood pressure to increase, increase musculoskeletal injuries, dehydration, and muscle soreness and tiredness. It is important to find a medium between which is too little and which is too much.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Trainer Tuesdays: What's the Difference Between Doing More Reps of an Exercise and Adding More Weight?

Trainer Tuesdays

What’s the Difference Between Doing More Reps of an Exercise and Adding More Weight?

Jenn Noggle: While there are a number of people who associate high reps with "toning", that is just a myth. A person achieves a "toned" look by having low body fat and a healthy amount of lean muscle mass. There is one main difference between low weights/high reps and high weight/low reps. Performing exercises at a higher rep range will be focusing mainly on improving muscular endurance. Higher weight with a lower rep range is working more on improving muscular strength.

Muscular endurance refers to the ability to perform a specific muscular action for a prolonged period of time. Muscular strength is a muscle’s capacity to exert force against resistance. There is a place for both types of training in the average person's overall routine and your trainer can help you determine exactly how to set up your program so that your workouts are both efficient and effective!

Taynee Pearson: Adding more weight when you weight train would help increase your muscular strength and would help you develop more muscle mass whereas increasing your reps would help build up your muscular endurance. Both are necessary when trying to get into shape and develop more muscle mass. To improve your muscular strength, reps of 8-12 should be performed for 3-4 sets of each exercise. Muscular endurance may be improved by doing reps of 12-20, and 3-4 sets of each exercise. Both are important and should be used in a training program to help you make the most gains from your workout

Steven Madden: When I am training a client, the amount of reps that I have them do on a particular exercise are not just chosen randomly to fill time. Weight and reps are always chosen with either an over all fitness goal in mind, or with a goal of the particular 4-6 week program we may be working in. There are three general goal categories that determine reps/weights, strength, endurance, and power. The long accepted standard for exercise has been 1-6 reps is the power range, 8-10 or 8-12 for strength and 12-15 or 12-20 for endurance. This of course requires appropriate weight. No mater what the rep range, you generally want a weight that has you straining to complete the last 3 reps of an exercise while still maintaining proper form.

So what do you do when that weight you've been lifting is getting easier? Do you do three more reps, or do you increase the weight? That all depends on your goals. If you are looking to visibly increase the size of your muscles or increase your overall strength, then increase the weight a little. If you are trying to tone your muscles or increase your muscular endurance, then add three more reps. Just make sure your goals are clear so you do not make a decision that might be counter to your wishes.

Kelly Bailey: The last time you were at the gym, you may have noticed that some people tend to lift lighter weights for a higher number of repetitions, while others are lifting very heavy weights for a low number of repetitions. The traditional and very simplified reason behind the difference is that lower weight and higher reps (15 or more) will tend to increase muscular endurance (typically associated with more fat loss), while lifting heavier weight with lower rep ranges (1-5 reps) will increase muscular strength. Rep ranges somewhere in the middle (6-12) will increase muscular hypertrophy or muscle growth. You can build muscle, increase strength, or lose fat with just about any rep range, but some rep ranges work better than others for each training outcome. In terms of safety and overall effectiveness for fat loss AND muscle building, the ideal rep range seems to be 8-15 reps, and you should be reaching muscular fatigue by the last few reps of your set.