Most people are more aware than ever how having a wealth of no-equipment workouts can help you stay fit at home. We do plenty of them at 180 Fitness, because they work. Bodyweight exercises are great strength builders. What you’re lifting is the weight of your body, and you have that with you at all times. You can begin immediately with squats, push-ups and planks. There is a lot of variety with each of these. If you’re out of shape, you may want to start with a knee bent push-up until you get stronger. For planks, there are also wide variety of ways to do them, but as you get stronger, hold the plank longer.
If you aren’t doing exercises for flexibility, you’ll have a smaller range of motion and a bigger potential for injury. When you think of flexibility, you probably immediately think of stretches and you’d be right. A standing hamstrings stretch is an example. However, some tried and true exercises, like lunges and squats, both of which can build strength in the lower body and core strength. Side bends are also good for flexibility.
Creating a list of exercises and break each up into three minute segments to get cardio, flexibility and strength training. Move quickly from one exercise to another with minimal breaks in between to create your own circuit training that gives a good cardio workout, plus strength and flexibility training, based on the exercises you do. Taking a brisk walk, riding a bike and even running up and down stairs builds cardio strength.
The key to successfully working out without equipment is making sure your form is right. No matter what exercise you do, start out doing it slowly and doing fewer to make sure your form is correct. Each time you use a modified form of an exercise, such as front planks, side planks and bridges, follow the same rule, focusing on form first before number of reps or intensity.
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Many clients come to Gloucester, ON, to lose weight. Some have heard of the benefits of several different kinds of diets and many are keto-curious. I’m a proponent of healthy eating, which helps you shed extra pounds without actual dieting. The key to a standard keto diet is lowering the amount of calories from carbohydrates to 5%, increasing the amount of calories from fat to 70% and eating a moderate amount of calories, 25%, from protein. There are other versions that increase protein intake, cycling a keto diet with a high carb diet and blending a keto diet with your workout.
Keeping your carbs low is hard, unless those carbs come from vegetables, nuts and dairy. Limiting food that contains refined carbohydrates, such as bread, refined sugar products, pasta, and pastry should be part of any healthy diet, not just a keto diet. It should be the first step toward healthy diet. Just cutting out sugary products and those made with refined flour could help you shed weight and be healthier without any other changes.
Fatty fish, eggs, meat, butter, nuts, seeds and low carb vegetables are part of the keto diet. The problem is achieving the high intake of fat that is necessary to boost the fat intake and whether that’s a good habit to form. Grains, sugar, fruit and even tubers are on the do not eat list for a keto diet and some of those foods are good for you. Foods that are suggested are leafy greens, vegetables that are above ground, meat, full fat dairy, low glycemic impact berries and avocados, nuts and seeds, low carb sweeteners, meats and all types of fat except for trans fats. These are all healthy foods.
People who take medication for diabetes should talk with their doctor first, before making any radical change to their diet. You need to also make sure you know which fats are heart healthy and avoid too much saturated fat. Keto diets have been known to trigger low blood pressure, constipation, kidney stones, increased risk of heart disease and nutritional deficiencies. People with conditions that involve the liver, thyroid, gallbladder or pancreas should also avoid keto diets, as it is not safe for them.
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One of the complaints I sometimes hear when people first workout is that they’ve gained weight, not lost it. There are a few reasons your workout causing you to gain weight. A few of those reasons are healthy ones and indicate you’re getting stronger and fitter. However, there are also reasons that simply means you’re putting on extra pounds and not in a good way. Let’s start with the good news, it might be that you’re gaining muscle tissue.
We provide a well rounded program of workouts to improve your flexibility, strength, endurance and balance. When you do strength training, you’re bound to build more muscle tissue. Now consider that muscle tissue is denser than fat tissue is, so one cubic inch of muscle tissue weighs more than one inch of fat tissue. As you decrease the amount of body fat and build more muscle, you may gain a pound or two, while still losing inches. That trend won’t continue since the more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to lose weight. Muscle tissue burns more calories for maintenance than fat tissue does.
The amount you sweat affects your weight and so does the amount of water you retain. If you’ve just soaked a your workout shirt with sweat and then weigh yourself. Do get jubilant about that weight loss. You’ll probably regain it as soon you rehydrate. Water retention can also have an effect on your weight. When you consider that your body is over 65% water, up to 90 % for some people, you can see how both retention and fluid loss can have a big effect on your weight.
If you just workout, without considering your diet, you may find that permanent pounds are added. Why does that happen? It occurs because you’re eating more or eating quick energy foods, like high calorie candy bars or junk food. It’s easy to do, since working out often makes people hungry. However, the solution is also easy. Prepare for that hunger by having healthy snacks and working with our nutritionist on a healthy meal plan to avoid the weight gain.
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One of the biggest problems that came from the lockdown is the quarantine 15. Those extra pounds gained from boredom and easy access to the refrigerator. With gyms being closed and most active pastimes discouraged or limited, it’s hard not to eat your way through this time of crisis. That’s why it’s important to stay in touch with your fitness community and find ways to share workout options and encouragement online. You can also do it with social distancing.
Never fear, there are some easy resolutions to this problem. The first is to take your workout outside and stick with your habit. We offer outside classes for those who like the personal touch and love seeing old friends they made at the gym. Those outside classes have been very popular. It brings a bit of normalcy back into people’s lives, plus keeps you with the habit of working out regularly. If you haven’t joined us at one of the pandemic proof boot camps, please do, you’re going to love it.
We also offer online workouts. In fact, you’ll see some of these on the website. There’s an opportunity to interact with the coaches, too. These are safe, since you workout at home and there’s no contact. They’re perfect during a quarantine. Get the kids involved, and/or your spouse. Your whole family can benefit from the workout. You’ll all feel better when you finish and you’ll be helping your body look and feel better.
You miss a lot when you don’t keep up with us on Social media. For instance, did you realize we just had our 13 year celebration and had some great bargains for present and past clients? We’re back from quarantine and going strong, but some of you still need to take extra precautions. For you, we provide great feedback and online training. We’re all about your safety and health. That’s what being a great trainer means.
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At 180 fitness, we want everyone to be healthy. Two of the most important things you can do is to stay active and exercise and eat healthy. No matter what type of fitness program you undertake, just do it. If you want a break from calisthenics, there’s nothing wrong with adding yoga. Varying workouts to prevent boredom and plateauing that can occur is important. You can vary your workout by switching the types of bodyweight exercises you do at home or mixing it with other types of workouts, such as running, walking or yoga.
If you started working out and lost weight, but your weight loss suddenly slowed or stopped, you probably plateaued. Plateauing occurs when your body becomes more efficient at doing an exercise, so it burns fewer calories. You have to change the way you challenge your body, by doing different exercises in a bodyweight workout, cranking up the difficulty of the one you’re doing or switching the actual type of exercise you do, such as doing bodyweight workouts one day and yoga or running another. You’ll see better progress when you do.
People who only run develop stress injuries, runner’s knee and shin splints, just to name a few. These are overuse injuries. To avoid specific injuries from overuse, find alternate ways of working out and mix it up, letting certain muscle groups, joints and ligaments recover properly. You can do that by adding yoga or swimming to your normal workout session. You’ll also build new muscle groups when you mix it up and work muscles on different planes.
While your body is getting fit, it’s also helping your brain. Exercise helps prevent memory loss and boosts new learning skills. Not only does it increase circulation, which helps the brain as well, it also increases your brain power by making it work as you learn these new techniques, rather than going on autopilot with old workouts. Learning new exercises stimulates the growth of new neuron connections between cells by stimulating the production of growth factor that increases brain plasticity.
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What you eat makes a huge difference in how healthy you remain. In fact, recent studies show that people who are obese face more complications from the virus, than those that aren’t. The increased risk is linked to the increased risk of suffering from other serious conditions, such as diabetes. We make it easy for you to eat healthier and lose weight by making it easier to identify your favorite healthy meal or meals and learn how to not only eat healthy but enjoy every minute of it.
Some people love the adventure of preparing new dishes in the kitchen but aren’t sure how to create healthy meals that taste delicious. Our nutritionist can help create menus for you that are easy to follow and varied, but also perfect for your dietary requirements and taste. In fact, you can make many of these dishes and freeze them, so you have meals ready to heat and eat on those busy days or days when the family must fend for themselves. These meals are so varied, you’ll probably find several you love.
What if you could have healthy foods delivered to your home and all you do is heat and eat them? It would be like dining out every night in a fancy restaurant, but without the need to dress up or drive. We help you by working with a local catering company that prepares meals you’ll love and so will your body. They’re healthy and lower in calories if you’re trying to shed weight, but served up fresh, just waiting for you to heat and enjoy. Finding your favorite meal can be a real treat and you’ll probably find you love more than one option.
It only makes sense that if you enjoy eating something, you’ll do it more often. There’s no reason to eat cardboard tasting food or celery and rice cakes when you can have a full meal that fills you up, but not out and provides all the nutrients your body needs. You may be surprised at how good spaghetti squash tastes or some of the combination like a healthy taco pasta or zucchini boat enchiladas.
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Our nutritionist can also help you modify your favorite meals by making changes to create a healthier option. Contact us at 180 Fitness for a free consultation.
A bodyweight workout focuses on strength training. It uses the person’s own body to provide the resistance that you’d get from weights, lifting it instead of dumbbells or barbells. The movements used are pushing, squatting, pulling, twisting, balancing and bending, so all muscles are worked. Those actions also enhance flexibility and can increase endurance and balance, based on what the exercises are and how you do them. You can do bodyweight exercises at home, on the road or come into the gym and get a program specifically designed for you.
Lower body workouts should include exercises like the squat or lunge. It’s always best to learn the basics for these two exercises and then modify them as you become more proficient. You can start with an assisted squat, that uses a table or chair to steady you and work to a pistol squat that pushes one leg to the front as you squat using only the other leg to support your weight. All of these lower bodyweight workouts build on your progress, with the variations becoming more and more difficult.
You may not be able to do a push-up or chin yourself immediately, but there are versatile bodyweight exercises to help you get to that point. Knee push-ups can become a regular push-up and move to a decline push-up. There are many types of pull exercises, such as an inverted bodyweight row, which can be your beginning workout until you can do a pull-up.
You can get more from your workout by making it a HIIT workout—-high intensity interval training. That means you vary your speed and intensity, making your heart rate high for a short time and then moving more slowly with a recovery period of equal time. Much like circuit training, you do a variety of exercises, one after another. Each exercise is done for twenty seconds at high intensity, with a ten second rest and then move on to the next. You could start with twenty seconds of Side kicks, rest ten seconds, 20 more seconds of the exercise and rest another ten seconds. Repeating up to eight times and moving on to the next, such as a skater jump. HIIT bodyweight exercises give you better results in a fraction of the time.
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One of the best things about working out is how you feel when you’re done. It’s an accomplishment, especially if you really didn’t feel like working out in the first place. It’s more than just that. Working out relieves the stress of the day and leaves you feeling more relaxed and at ease. While working out and getting fit changes how your body looks, fitness helps mental health, too.
When you’re under stress, your body undergoes a lot of changes. That’s because the brain sends out little messengers to make those changes and prepare it for running away or fighting. That fight or flight response slows blood flow to the digestive system and sends it to the limbs, increases heart rate, raises blood pressure and basically prepares the body for either outcome. Those changes, if not countered, can make long term changes in the body, including the brain. Burning off those hormones, helps stop those changes and brings positive changes to your mood and mental health.
There’s been a lot of studies done recently that show the benefits of using exercise as an adjunct therapy for depression and anxiety. Part of the reason is the burning off of stress hormones, but there’s also more. When you workout, the body creates hormones that make you feel good. In fact, even moderate exercise several times a week is beneficial and in some cases, have eliminated the need for medication.
Try working out if you want more brain power. Studies show it helps boost mental functioning. Some of those studies focused on mental decline in aging and dementia. It can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by as much as 50%, as stated by the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation. It helps keep old connections in the brain, while encouraging making new ones, strengthens the hippocampus, which boosts memory and stimulates the creation of new brain cells called neurogenesis.
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While we’re luckier than some places, Gloucester, ON can get pretty uncomfortable in the summer, especially if you’re going to exercise in the heat. For those days that the temperatures reach their high, it’s time to adjust your workout schedule if you exercise outside or without air conditioning. Play it smart in the heat and take precautions. If you’re running, do it in the early morning or later in the afternoon, around four or five, when it’s cooler.
No matter where you workout, some of these guidelines are good for everyone. Choose materials that breathe and wick sweat away from your body. It allows your body to remain dryer and cooler. Natural materials also help your sweat evaporate more easily. Consider natural cotton, linen and jersey material. For outside workouts, choose lighter colored clothing that reflect the sun, avoiding dark clothing that absorbs the heat. Keep your clothing loose to aid in evaporation and avoid chaffing.
When you workout, you lose a lot of fluid through sweat. Rather than waiting and guzzling water all at one time, keep a bottle with you and sip on it throughout the workout. Sipping a bit every 15 minutes will help you stay hydrated, which also helps your workout go better. If you’re working out more than an hour, it’s time to switch out the water for a sports drink to replenish your body’s electrolytes. Sports drinks aren’t necessary for shorter workouts and may add to your total calorie and sugar intake.
For runners, choosing the best path is important. If you can’t workout in the early morning, look for a path that’s shaded. Running on asphalt can add to the heat. It can be 40 to 60 degrees F hotter. (4.4444 C to 15.6 degrees C). The less exposure to the sun you have, the cooler your body will be. When you’re out in the sun, make sure you have sun screen. If you choose to have sun exposure to reap the benefits of vitamin D, make it controlled exposure for short periods, not the whole workout.
For more information, contact us today at 180 Fitness
There are a lot of steps to achieving good nutrition and weight loss. One of the best ways is to create a meal plan and do meal prep ahead of time. That allows you to have ready made meals you can heat and serve, which take far less time than going through a fast food line and far less brain power at the end of a long day than trying to figure out what’s for supper. Planning meals and preparing them ahead can be a bit of a task if you don’t have help. Luckily, our nutritionists can help you with the meal plans, then all you do is shop and prepare. What’s the best day to meal prep? It’s the day or days that suit your schedule.
That can be quite a task and doesn’t always provide the nutrition your body needs. Spend one night creating a menu that you can use for the week and then list all the items you need to buy at the grocery to create that menu. If you’re working with a certified nutritionist, that part of the task is already complete, making you more apt to opt for planning and cooking your meals ahead.
Don’t go directly from work to the store if you’re hungry. Your cart will look like the candy counter at a gas station, with bags of cookies and junk food filled to the brim. Schedule a time after a meal or on a weekend morning (if that’s your time off work) to do your grocery shopping. One thing people often find when they adopt meal planning and preparing it ahead is that their grocery bill often drops. Not only will meal prep save you calories and boost your nutrition, it often saves you money. You don’t buy all the junk food on impulse and can compare your list to the sales or have coupons to find the best buy.
Not everyone has the same days off or the country would shut down. If you have the weekend off, pick one day to do the week’s meals or if you prefer, use them both. People who make meals ahead often create double recipes and pack not only a meal for the next week, but ones for future use, too. It’s especially important to do that if you know you’ll have plans or a busy season at work. That way, you can skip a week and either enjoy a vacation from meal prep or not have to worry if work gets in the way.
For more information, contact us today at 180 Fitness
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