November 2012

Get Fit While Losing Weight

November 19, 2012 Getting Fit, Goal Setting, Weight LossLeave a comment

get-fit-lose-weightFor many people, choosing a healthy diet and exercise plan is not about weight loss alone. You may be striving for a healthier life, a fit life. Getting fit and staying fit are great ways to lengthen your life, improve your mood, and keep yourself healthy.

To get fit, and stay fit, follow these guidelines:

1. Focus on Lifestyle Changes: Fitness is not a temporary solution to a short term problem. It is a series of lifestyle choices, leading up to an overall lifestyle change. As you begin your journey into weight loss, focus on the fact that you are developing a healthy body for a lifetime, not just a skinnier body right now. This will help you to see the big picture, and enable you to stay strong through diet difficulties.

2. Adjust Your Diet: Adjust your diet plan until you find one that is both healthy and livable. For example, if you hate salad, and design a diet plan focused on eating a big salad at lunch and dinner time, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Take the time to research multiple diet plans, and find on that you can live with. Sure, there’s no such thing as the donuts-and-chocolate-cake diet, but find the healthiest diet that also works with you. This will make sticking to it, as well as losing weight, easier to do.

3. Include Activity: Again, take the time to include a plan that fits into your life. Choose a gym or fitness club that is open when you have the time to exercise. Pick activities that you enjoy. Plan your exercise time to fit into a part of your day when you’re not exhausted. Incorporate active outings into your family schedule. Strive for a more active life as a whole, and don’t beat yourself up over one or two missed workouts. Remember, you’re making changes for a lifetime.

4. Get Plenty of Rest: One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight or become fit; is they burn the candle at both ends. Lack of adequate rest lowers not only your body’s natural defenses, but weakens your mental and emotional stability as well.  Think of it this way a well oiled machine can operate at maximum capability.

You can lose weight on an unhealthy diet, but true fitness requires devoting time to your health. By making yourself a priority, and focusing on long term lifestyle changes, you’re setting out on your fitness journey. Take the time to find diet plans and exercise routines that you can fit into your schedule, as well as enjoy. This will make incorporating fitness into your daily routine something to look forward to, instead of something to dread.

Stretching to Avoid Injury & Stay in Shape

November 18, 2012 Injury PreventionLeave a comment

stretchingMost sports medicine professionals agree that those athletes who take the time to really care for their bodies experience far fewer injuries than those who act reckless with regard to their health.

It is really important to remember exactly what a benefit stretching provides when you are trying to decide if spending time stretching is worth it.  The exact benefits are almost limitless, however there are some specific benefits that virtually all athletes should experience.

It is really important to remember exactly what a benefit stretching provides when you are trying to decide if spending time stretching is worth it.  The exact benefits are almost limitless, however there are some specific benefits that virtually all active individuals should experience.

Among the benefits of stretching there are the improvements to your circulations, range of motions, posture, overall performance and even your ability to relax after working out.  However this is not all that stretching provides, it also helps you decrease the tension in muscles and can even assist in reducing overall joint stiffness that can occur after a work out.  The overall benefit of stretching is possible to achieve in as little as 10 minutes before starting an actual workout, which makes it very easy to work into any routine that you are exploring.

By properly ensuring that you are stretching, you are not only providing the benefits to your body, but you are also able to reduce the number of times you are forced to go to the doctor over an injury.  Most active individuals would rather be playing their favorite sport rather than sitting in a doctor’s office being treated.  However, while most active individuals would prefer not to spend time being treated, it is still important to seek treatment for all injuries that occur rather than leaving them unattended.

With proper attention paid to stretching in addition to an appropriate exercise routine it is possible to greatly reduce the number of injuries that occur.  While not all injuries can be avoided by stretching, it can help to reduce the severity of many injuries as well as reducing the overall number of injuries.  It is highly important to work with a coach or other sports medicine professional to develop a routing for stretching that is most effective for your individual lifestyle as well as body type.

Especially important for active individuals is discussing their workout habits and any previous injuries when selecting a stretching routine.  By carefully choosing the proper exercises and stretches it is possible to help protect against further injury, and really tailor the workout to your exact individual needs.  However, just merely stretching to stretch can sometimes void the benefits if the stretches are not the proper type.  For example, if you are a runner and focus more emphasis on stretching your arms you are going to see fewer benefits than someone who stretches their back as well as legs before actually running.

Deciding with your sports medicine team the appropriate exercises, number of repetitions and all other pertinent details of your stretching program also helps to ensure that your entire team knows exactly what you are doing, and can make modifications and adjustments based upon what you need as an individual, as well as what you need to improve your overall athletic ability.  It is very important to carefully select exercises that are appropriate for your needs at the time of the warm up as well.  This means specifically, if you have an injury to your hamstring muscle, you should give it some rest for a couple of days at a minimum.

This brings to light the importance of talking to your doctor and learning to listen to your body.  If you feel as if the stretches you are doing cause you more harm than they help, it is time to rework your routine and change how you are treating your body.  Remember, changing the types of stretches that you do is perfectly acceptable especially when you are healing from an injury.  Working to keep your body in the best overall condition possible is your ultimate goal and working towards that goal often means having to make adjustments to a routine, often at the last minute.