Contributed by Bethany Reynolds Health & Fitness Professional
True- But we could build it faster if we hop, skip, or lift weights.
Like muscles, bones shrink without stimulation. So standing instead of sitting can be your first step. Astronauts can lose 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass every month they spend in zero gravity. Sedentary elderly people could lose about that much in a year. We all need strong bones no matter what age we are. Luckily, weight-bearing activity can help slow bone loss. If your bones are healthy, we can add in jumps, skips, or hops. Not ready to start at that higher level of work? No worries, any activity that puts pressure on your skeleton will help. So we can start with standing, marching, walking, and keep progressing.
Along with walking adding in resistance exercise should help. By lifting weights we can improve overall bone health. By increasing the magnitude of the effort, we put more strain on the muscles and bones. This works for us by increasing the strength of the bones and muscles. Another option to try is weight-bearing movements that involve balance. For example, you could try doing some upper body exercises like bicep curls or triceps kickbacks while stabilizing yourself on one leg. If you are interested in increasing your own bone density we can help. Let’s get started today so you are stronger tomorrow.
Contributed by Kimberly Turner E-RYT 500, YACEP Yoga & Fitness Professional
While we all know how great strength training is for our health
and fitness, we might be overlooking some other aspects of our training. Flexibility,
mobility, recovery, breathing and meditation/mind work are all things we should
also be incorporating into our fitness programming. For these reasons, you
should highly consider adding yoga into your training. Not only will it improve
all of the areas listed above, it’s also a fantastic stress relief. Let’s dive
a little deeper and see why yoga is such a great addition to your training.
Strength Benefits Lifting heavy weights is obviously a better way to increase strength gains
and build muscle, but you may be surprised to know that yoga will also help
build some strength. Yoga is a body weight exercise which means that while you
are engaging in each pose, you are supporting the weight of your body. Yoga also
mimics the way the body moves naturally which makes it functional exercise.
Increase Range of Motion When we strength train we tend to shorten and tighten the muscles fibers that
are being used. During yoga you flow from pose to pose, this movement increases
the mobility of your joints. Some positions are also held in a sustained
position which aids in lengthening and stretching the muscles to improve your
flexibility.
Improve Balance There are many yoga poses that put the body in a position where you must
focus on your core and balance. Single side standing poses, like standing and
kneeling lunges or tree pose, require you to focus more on using one side of
your body to help you stay upright. When fighting the forces of gravity that
are trying to pull you to the ground you are challenging your core muscles
which will in turn help you improve your balance.
Reduce Soreness and Risk of Injury The lengthening action of many yoga poses help to work out any tightness or
lactic acid you’ve accumulated in your muscles from strength training. Yoga
also helps draw oxygen into your overworked muscles; this makes yoga a fantastic
recovery training. Instead of focusing on the larger muscle groups, yoga
requires you to use the smaller stabilizing muscles. This allows you to find
and eliminate any muscle imbalances and helps you prevent injuries.
Better Posture Working larger muscles groups can sometimes cause tightness or muscle imbalances
on one side of the body over the other. Yoga requires you to evenly work opposing
muscle groups while focusing on proper technique and form, this helps to
improve posture and body awareness so your body isn’t compensating in anyway
and you can avoid chronic pain and tension.
Improve Mental Health and Stress Relief Yoga teaches you breathing techniques, mind-body awareness, and meditation.
These are all great coping skills that you can use to deal with stress. Yoga
cultivates feelings of deep inner awareness and brings you into the present
moment so that you can deal with situations that arise with the most clarity and
peace of mind.
If you have not incorporated yoga into your training programming
yet, give it a shot. You may find that it’s a great complement to your fitness
training. You’ll notice almost immediately that you feel better mentally and
physically. If you don’t know where to start, JKFITNESS offers private and
small group yoga training. Your session will be completely tailored to your body
and it’s needs. Give us a call to find out more information!
Contributed by Dani Barbosa Health & Fitness Professional
Did you set any health and fitness goals this year? Most of us did, but life gets crazy and our once hopeful goals get put on the back burner for another year.
Often times, when we set our goals, we tend to keep that
sexy finished product in mind rather than the hard work it takes to get there.
I want to lose weight. I want to meditate. I want to eat better. These goals
all sound great and are set with the best intention, but we tend to overlook
the process we actually need to develop to reach our well-intended goal. Habit
stacking is a simple method you can use to refine your process to help you
reach your goal. You can practice habit stacking by pairing a habit you would
like to build with a habit that you are already well settled into.
Habit stacking = After I (Current habit), I will (New
habit).
Here’s a few examples:
Exercise
Current Habit: After work, I change from work clothes into
my house clothes and watch tv.
New Habit: After work, I will change out of my work clothes
into my workout clothes and go for a walk.
Meditation
Current Habit: I scroll through social media while I brew
coffee every morning.
New Habit: I will meditate for 60 seconds as I wait for my
coffee to brew every morning.
Nutrition
Current Habit: I go out to eat on Fridays with my friends
and always overeat.
New Habit: When I go out to eat on Fridays, I will ask for
half my plate to be put in a to go box before I am served.
Use this strategy to help build habits that are in line with
your goals. This can be used for anything, not just health and fitness. The
strategy is simple, but change is hard, so pick a habit that can be done easily
and is convenient to your current habits. Pick one habit to build at a time and
go from there. Focus on the refining your process and the results will follow.
Stay happy! Stay healthy!
Contributed by Bethany Reynolds Health & Fitness Professional
You know how important exercise is for you. Let’s talk options you have to continue or even to start a fitness program. Your preference might be face-to-face training, while others may prefer online training. At JKFITNESS we offer online training that feels like a face-to-face appointment. You schedule you appointment time with your trainer and from the comfort of your own home, you can have a live, interactive, individualized, personal training session.
Utilizing the internet for improving your fitness is the ultimate way to find success when venturing out is not an option. It’s the best investment and it’s worth your time, energy and money because you’re investing in yourself.
Call us today and let us help you get started with a program that is customized and tailored to your individual needs.
Contributed by Dani Barbosa Health & Fitness Professional
When it
comes to improving and maintaining your overall health, sleep is equally as
important as nutrition and exercise. Quality sleep promotes recovery, mental
clarity, and contributes to weight loss/management.
We’ve all
been guilty of it. We operate on a few hours of sleep, drag ourselves through
the day, and end up being halfway present by the time we get home, and repeat. Although
you may have been able to pull this off in college and your early adult years
and get away with it, overtime, it will take a toll on your health. Like all
bad habits, they take time to break and replace with new “healthier” ones.
Prioritizing and improving your sleep patterns can be extremely difficult
depending on your situation, but the benefits of this change greatly outweigh
the cost tenfold.
Here are
some tips to help create or improve your current sleep routine, optimize your
sleep space, and wake up:
Sleep
Routine:
Limit
alcohol and caffeine a few hours before sleep, this can affect your ability to
fall asleep.
Eat
dinner a few hours before bed, eating a large meal right before sleep may
interfere with your ability to fall and stay asleep.
Unwind
your mind, write down and vent anything and everything running through your
head that may keep you up.
Unplug,
turn off, and put away all electronics if you can, too much light before bed
can affect your ability to go to sleep.
Stretch
or destress, unwind and relax your body, light movement or meditation can prime
your body for optimal sleep.
Sleep Space:
Keep
the room as dark as possible or limit your light exposure as best you can.
Declutter
your space, a messy environment can stimulate a restless mind.
Set
a comfortable temperature, find a climate that works best for you.
White
noise if needed to help ease your mind and lull you to sleep.
Wake up:
Wake
up with light, the body is made to sleep in the dark and wake in the light.
Wake up by gradually exposing the body to light, this will tell the body it is
time to get up.
Wake
up to soft noise, instead of giving yourself a heart attack at 6:00am with a
blaring alarm, set a soft noise to gradually increase to help you wake up.
Get
moving, staying in bed makes going back to sleep that much easier. Get your
feet on the floor and stand up to get your day going.
Contributed by Kimberly Turner Health, Fitness & Yoga Professional
Often when we set certain weight loss or fitness goals we end up sabotaging ourselves. When we can recognize self-sabotage we can do a better job of overcoming it so that we don’t ruin our health and wellness goals.
To overcome this, we must first address what self-sabotage is. Then we need get to the roots of this self-sabotaging behavior so we can fix it and make our lives more successful. Self-sabotage is when we knowingly or unknowingly prevent ourselves from reaching our goals. Or we create conditions where it is impossible to follow through with our goals, so that failure is the only option. With these impossible expectations set we can feel justified if we quit or ‘fail’.
The root of self-sabotage is often shame and it’s commonly something we have picked up in childhood or earlier in life. We fear being successful, we lack self-worth or belief in ourselves, we fear failure, or we don’t feel like we are in control; all of this can make us feel shame. We may also tend to focus too much on the end goal and not those everyday actions that we do to make those goals happen. When your goal seems so far off or hard to accomplish it’s very easy to allow yourself to give up. Not every day is going to be easy or your best day with an awesome workout or great nutrition and that’s okay. Let’s take a look at two reasons we might self-sabotage and how we can try to overcome them. Sometimes our goals seem like they will take too long to achieve, or we set the bar with such unrealistic expectations that we just give up.
If you break long term goals down into multiple shorter-term
goals you may find those changes become more attainable and you will be more
successful. While we may not reach our goal right away, we still accomplish
something good every time we decide to do a workout or cook a healthy meal or
even take a few minutes to meditate and breathe. Keep track of those little
‘wins’, they are what lead to healthy sustainable changes in your life.
Understand that sustainable goals take time. Rome was not built in a day and you won’t make long term changes in one day either. Try not to stress reaching your end goal right now. “Well I can’t do it by that day so I may as well give up”. It is far more beneficial to focus on what can you do today. Understand that by making those good choices everyday it will eventually get you to your goal. Stressing yourself to reach that goal on a certain timeline is going to make it harder and you could find yourself failing.
Are your goals realistic? Sometimes it’s not so much how far
off our goals are, it’s that we create unrealistic goals that are impossible to
achieve. If we set the bar too high, we will have a hard time seeing our goals
through to the end. Understand that not every diet or work out regimen is going
to work out for you. For example, if you have bad knees and you start doing an
exercise program with a lot of high impact exercises and deep squats you probably
aren’t going to have a good time. You will start to feel pain in the joints and
that pain can lead to you giving up. Adopt changes that are going to be
realistic to you and your lifestyle. You’re probably not going to get out on a
football field and play tackle, but you can start a strength training routine
that accounts for any modifications you need.
When you actively take a step back and identify areas where
you could be setting yourself up for failure, you will find it easier to make
sustainable changes for a healthy life. If you need help getting yourself on
the right track, a therapist, personal trainer or nutritionist can be a great
place to start.
Contributed by Bethany Reynolds Health & Fitness Professional
Summer is here and stay at home orders are easing up. We are so excited that people are eager to get back into the community and see their JKFITNESS family. The big question on everyone’s mind is: Must I exercise with a face mask on? At JKFITNESS we work by appointment-only to prevent any crowding in our gym. All employees working will have a mask on to ensure your safety. Practicing social distancing is not difficult and in fact, very normal at our studio.
You have the option at our studio to wear a face mask. Please be cautious if you do wear a mask while exercising; as the mask can make it difficult to breathe and cause other physical complications. Some issues to watch out for, especially with intense exercise, include: lightheadedness, dizziness, numbness or tingling and shortness of breath. If those become an issue, remove the mask while exercising and continue your weekly training without wearing a mask.
Not everyone should try exercising with a face mask on. People who have underlying cardiovascular or respiratory conditions should talk to the doctors first. Examples include COPD, Bronchitis, Cystic Fibrosis, Pulmonary Fibrosis and any other conditions that affect your heart or lungs.
If you don’t feel comfortable getting out of your home and coming into our studios for training you have the option of doing a virtual training session with us. You get the comfort of your home but the training and accountability we offer. We even have options for affordable group-exercise each day. We have seen clients fit two or more group exercise classes into their schedule and do individual personal training for a well rounded strength training and cardio fitness training program.
If you have any questions or you’d like to sign up give us a call at 210-388-0989, or email info@jk-fit.com. Let us help you learn the tools you need to be successful on your health and wellness journey.
Contributed by Bethany Reynolds Health & Fitness Professional
To sum up what I mean, we all need to lift heavy things. If we don’t move it, we lose it. Your options are things like dumbbells, medicine balls, resistance tubes, or body weight. By being consistent with strength training you start to increase bone density and muscle mass. I encourage you to move something that feels heave a few times a week. Let’s move from a mind set that is geared towards cardio exercise and try getting your heart rate up by doing more reps or sets of resistance training. I have found that moving through strength training exercises without long breaks increases my heart rate similar to that of power walking. If you’re not sure how to start or progress a strength training routine then consider using a personal trainer. We are here to help you meet all of your health and fitness goals.
Contributed by Cat Pitman Nutritionist, Health & Fitness Professional
We live in a society that plays a big role in what and how we eat. From the manufacturers that have brought us processed food that has taken over the grocery store shelves to the many businesses trying to make money off of the latest diet trend, it is hard to resist the urge to eat and sometimes overeat when we see an overly processed salty, savory, or sweet snack. Then, we have the latest diet trend chasing us around promising us we can lose 10 lbs in 24 hours. How about we take an up close and personal look at the reasons we eat the way we do. What influences our personal choices and how can we take back control over our diet? Here are some steps you can take today:
OBSERVE. RESET. EDUCATE.
#1 OBSERVE the way your body feels after indulging in
certain foods. Do you feel full? Do you
feel satisfied? Or does it leave you
wanting more? When we begin to listen
more to our bodies rather than society/culture we begin to reframe our
relationship with food. Find your
triggers and begin to tune into them.
You don’t always have to or need to resist them (you aren’t going for
perfectionism), but knowing what they are is half the battle.
#2 RESET your behaviors regarding food, but be patient as
this is a long process. How long did it
take you to develop the behaviors you have regarding food? Behavior is hard to change and does not
happen overnight. Healthy eating as a
lifestyle cannot be an “all or nothing” mindset but rather a “something is
better than nothing” mindset. So you had
2 donuts in the office, BUT you also added 2 cups of veggies to your day. THIS IS A WIN. Restrictive eating will eventually lead you
right back to where you started because the more you give up, the more you are
going to begin to crave and eventually cave.
#3 EDUCATE yourself about what is in your food. There are lots of sneaky ingredients
manufacturers put in our food products.
These ingredients can cause inflammation in our bodies and we may not
even be aware until it turns into something more serious such as diabetes,
autoimmune disease, chronic heart disease, joint problems, irritable bowel
syndrome, some cancers, etc. Become
familiar with nutrition labels and protect yourself. Nutrient-dense food is your first line of
defense.
We are definitely in some crazy times right now. Many of us are having to find new ways to deal with different stressors. Old tactics we used to employ to deal with stress just aren’t working or we are unable to do them due to social distancing. Maybe we used to go to the gym at the same time every day or we used to meet friends for dinner on the weekend. How many of you are finding you are snacking or drinking throughout the day more? Or maybe you’re leaning more on food for comfort? It’s times like these where we have to rely on discipline more than motivation to get us through each day. This new stress and lack of control that we are feeling can take us down if we don’t do something about it. Think about ways you can destress and take back some control in your life. Get back on the right path!
Try these two simple tips to do just that…get back on the right path:
Move more. Exercise for 30 minutes! Turn a room, hallway, or porch into a workout area. If you have trouble working out at home, defining a workout area can help. You do not need equipment. There are lots of exercises you can do with just your bodyweight. A JKFITNESS trainer can set you up with an awesome workout regardless of what equipment you may or may not have. Many of us move less while we are stuck in the confines of our homes. Do 25 jumping jacks every hour or 10 pushups. You’ll feel so much better mentally and physically!
Diminish that urge to mindlessly snack. Make sure you are not skipping meals and that you are eating a balance of nutrients. For instance, if you are hungry and decide to eat chips for lunch, your appetite will never be satisfied no matter how many you eat! If you build a meal with a balance of protein, healthy carbs, and healthy fat your body will get the nutrients it needs and feel much more satisfied. Try drinking some tea! Do you ever feel the urge to have something sweet after dinner? Try a cup of plain or sweetened tea with a drop of Stevia to help curb that sweet tooth.
JKFITNESS offers personal training, nutrition programming, yoga, small group training, open gym access, and MORE.Call NOW to change your life!
