Fitness & Wellness

Do you want to get maximum results, plus help prevent injury, you need to stretch for success. That’s right, stretching should be part of everyone’s workout. It’s not only great as a warmup or cool down, it’s also necessary for flexibility. While strength training is definitely important for weight loss and protecting you from injury in some ways, flexibility training, such as stretching, can prevent injury by increasing the range of motion. If you’ve been sitting too long, there’s nothing better than stretching to help relieve the pain and get your circulation going.

Don’t jump straight out of bed and take off running.

Watch a cat wake up. Cats don’t jump straight up, unless they’re scared. Most of the time they reach their paws forward, stretch their back and slowly get moving. You need to do the same thing when you get up each morning. Raise your arms and stretch out. Arch your back and even turn your head side to side. Lunges of all types are good ways to start. Reach your arms in the air and stretch out your body, elongating it as much as possible and then roll your shoulders. Focus on stretching every muscle in your body.

Stretching your hamstrings, hip flexors and quads will get you ready for the day and even help lower back pain.

Not only is stretching great as a warm-up, to ensure muscles are adequately warmed, stretching can relieve pain. Kneel on the floor and then raise on leg, putting the sole of your foot flat on the floor with the knee bent at a 90 degree angle. Put your hands on the top of the bent knee and push your body backward to stretch. It feels amazing.

Your back pain will disappear with this little stretch.

Is your lower back aching from too much sitting. It’s time for a stretch. Get a towel and flip it around until it’s in a roll. Lay on your back with one leg laying straight out and the other bent at the knee with your foot flat on the floor. Lift the foot of the leg with the knee bent an loop the towel around the sole of the foot. Push your foot out as you pull the towel and your foot straight in the air. Do the same on the opposite side. You’ll feel it stretch out your back and relieve any pain your in at the time.

• Do you have a kink in your neck or are you about to do some lifting. You’ll want to stretch your triceps. Put one hand behind your back as though you’re about to scratch and then grab your elbow with the other hand and stretch your arm even further back.
• Use dynamic stretching for warming up and static stretching for cooling down. Dynamic stretching moves your muscles and gets you blood flowing. Static stretching includes things like touching your toes and reduces any muscle tension.
• Do stretching throughout the day for pain relief. Standing with your arms extended and rotating your body from left to right and back can stretch your body and help eliminate muffin tops.
• When you choose me as your online coach, I include all type of exercise, including flexibility. Just come to 180Fitness.ca for a free consultation.

For more information, contact us today at 180Fitness.ca

While you hear about miracle fat burning foods, they’re a bit of a myth. If all you had to do was eat a bowl of kale or two stalks of celery, obesity wouldn’t be at epidemic proportion. However, there are foods that do boost your metabolism. These are thermogenic foods. They’re lower in calories and use most of the calories you consume to help digest and utilize the nutrients in the food. Celery, for example, has a lot of fiber and water, but very few calories, so digesting it burns off more than you consume.

You’ll be hot, hot, hot when you burn calories with capsaicin.

Capsaicin is what makes peppers hot. It’s located in the pith and ribs in the peppers. While that heat from the pepper will burn your eyes and skin, it also burns your fat by speeding up your metabolism. The increased thermogenesis means an increase in fat and calorie burning. If that weren’t enough, it regulates blood sugar, has anti-inflammatory effects to relieve pain, clears out the sinuses and triggers genes that prevents fat accumulation.

Have a cup of Joe.

That cup of coffee in the morning not only wakes you up, it also can boost your metabolism to help you lose weight, as long as it’s not filled with sugary flavors and whipped topping. It’s the caffeine that makes it effective. You’ll get a similar boost by starting your day with a cold glass of water that contains a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar—ACV. The cold water makes you body work to warm it and the ACV will keep you feeling full for hours.

Green tea has benefits for weight loss as well as health benefits.

The EGCG—a type of catechin—in the green tea, acts like an antioxidant an increases fat oxidation by as much as 25 percent. Green tea also contains caffeine, which boosts your metabolism just like coffee does. One study showed that combining six or seven cup of green tea with a program of exercise helped weight loss, while also flushing out toxins from the system, reducing tooth decay, and reducing the risk of serious conditions like Alzheimer’s, cancer and Parkinson disease.

• Food that contains fiber is also beneficial to weight loss. While it leaves you feeling full, it also makes your body work harder to digest the fiber.
• Sometimes, things you might otherwise throw out is what is actually the best for you. Use the bones from animal products to create bone broth that provides protein, collagen and boosts your metabolism. Grass fed beef bones and free range chicken bones are best.
• Using medium-chain fatty acids like coconut oil has fat burning benefits that can help you lose weight. High protein foods like meat are also high thermogenesis foods that add to calorie burning.
• At 180 Fitness, not only will you get a great workout program, you can also get a personalized nutrition program that will help you burn fat.