The number one reason people don’t exercise is because they complain they’re too busy. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in a day to get everything done as people are juggling work, kids, social, personal tasks and more. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we specialize in –helping really busy people commit to their health and fitness so they can look and feel their best.  So here are some quick and easy tips to help maximize your time while working out so you can get more done in less time!

Move Your Body:

Focus on increasing your overall activity more throughout the day.  If we all just took the stairs more than the elevator, parked further from our destination and walked to do errands, we wouldn’t have to spend hours in the gym!

Avoid Distractions:

We can’t tell you how many times we see gym-goers zoning out while watching TV or reading a magazine.  If you want to maximize your workouts, put away the books, magazines and distractions while working out so you can focus on what you’re doing and get in and out of the gym more quickly. Read more on Be Efficient & Be Effective…

I’m going to give you a little Exercise Physiology lesson today…all about strengthening your heart and lungs!

The cardio-respiratory system or the heart and lungs is responsible for the distribution of oxygen throughout the body. Oxygen, the gas that makes up 21% of the air we breathe, is critical to life. In fact, tissues will start to die without oxygen in about 6 minutes. So the efficiency of the heart and lungs and how they work together is very important both during rest and exercise.

This system functions by first causing us to breathe using our respiratory muscles. Air then enters our bodies and travels to our lungs. The oxygen is diffused through our lungs and into our blood stream and travels towards the heart. The heart is a strong enough muscle to be able to pump the blood to the entire body where tissues will extract the oxygen to use it to produce energy. Carbon Dioxide, a toxic waste product, is produced and the body must then dispose of it so it travels back up to the heart, then to the lungs and we exhale it. This entire process is an ongoing system that of course, occurs more rapidly during exercise. There are a few things that can make this system function more or less effectively. Read more on Strengthening Your Heart and Lungs…

Gardening Without the Aches & Pains

Gardening is in full swing but many zealous gardeners are often left limping and in agony the day after. Why does this happen – it is only gardening after all? Since many of us view gardening as a peaceful activity, it’s hard to imagine that it’s actually an athletic activity requiring muscle endurance, strength and flexibility.

But if you break gardening down into its most fundamental movements, you’re basically pulling, pushing, bending, squatting and lunging the entire time. It really is a weight-training workout minus the dumbbells.

And on top of all this, many of us get carried away with trying to create our ideal garden visions and finish the job the very first day out and end up spending way too much time in our flowerbeds. And it only gets worse as we get older and our tissues don’t seem to be quite as limber as in our younger years. Read more on Gardening Without the Aches & Pains…

Have you ever noticed that as most people age they begin to move more slowly?  It seems to take them forever to get out of a chair, walk across the room or bend down to pick something up.  This is because as we age we lose about 7 pounds of muscle each decade and this loss is predominantly a loss in the number and size of fast twitch muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are the ones responsible for allowing an individual to move quickly, and to maintain agility, reaction time, strength and power.  As these fibers atrophy, we find ourselves moving very slowly.  However, the good news is that this loss can be slowed down and in some cases, prevented by training your fast twitch muscles. The rule is “If you don’t use it, you lose it”.  So it’s important to do whatever you can to keep these muscle fibers working so they don’t perceive that they are no longer needed.

Here are some ideas to help you maintain your agility and mobility as you age.  Try to perform at least one agility drill 2-3x each week.

Lateral Agility Drill

Position 2 cones, chairs or props a few feet apart.  Now quickly step laterally to the outside of one cone and back to the outside of the other touching down towards the floor or cone on each end.  Try to go as fast as you possibly can.  Continue for 30 seconds. Recover and complete 3-5x. Read more on Don’t Get Old and Slow!…