Wellness
Rest, Recover, Repeat
For the health- and fitness-minded, discipline and behavior change are key tenets of keeping ourselves on a strong physical track. Whether it’s literally scheduling our workout time, thoughtfully planning and preparing our meals, or tracking our daily activity, we are pretty consistent about making these things happen.
Fit for Change
CLIENT: Sam Garman
PERSONAL TRAINER: Kali Stewart, MS
LOCATION: Milagros Fitness/Online Coaching, San Diego
Higher Vitamin D Levels Linked To Better Fitness
There’s another reason to make sure you’re getting enough of the sunshine vitamin: High levels of vitamin D in the blood are now linked with better fitness, according to research from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
Sleep Deprivation: You Are How You Sleep
Spending a third of our lives horizontal, hallucinating and paralyzed may sound like something from a scary sci-fi movie—but, in reality, these are good things. It’s all about sleep, and getting enough of it is essential.
More Paths to Exercise Recovery
When it comes to balancing your training program, your mindset should be, “Tomorrow’s workout begins with your recovery from today’s.” Recovery heals the pounding, twisting and tearing of physical activity. A well-thought-out strategy for recovery is becoming ever more crucial with the rising popularity of high-intensity workouts featuring barbells, kettlebells, heavy medicine balls, explosive plyometrics and anaerobic interval training.
Question of the Month: April 2019
When you design training programs for clients, do you take exercise enjoyment into account? What strategies do you use to find out which types of physical activities clients enjoy doing most? Through experience, have you found ways that work better than others? Share your best practices and illustrative stories on how efforts to optimize client enjoyment of physical activity have produced better training results.
We want to hear from you!
Creating Enjoyable Training Programs
Physical inactivity levels continue to rise in spite of widespread knowledge of the negative consequences. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers suggest the issue may not come from a lack of knowledge but from how exercise is programmed. Studies show that simply manipulating elements of the FITT principle (frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise) does not improve adherence to exercise.
The State of Metabolic Health
Public health may be compromised unless people shift their lifestyle choices from bad to better, according to new research. A recent study found that only 12% of American adults are “metabolically healthy,” and current trends raise a red flag on efforts to lower associated risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other complications.
Deep Breathing and Mental Clarity
Next time you want to improve your ability to pay attention, you may want to observe your breathing. Findings from a study published in Psychophysiology (2018; doi:10.1111/psyp.13091) show that the locus coeruleus—the part of the brain that produces noradrenaline (also referred to as norepinephrine)—is directly affected by respiration. The study also shows that rates of inhalation and exhalation are related to attentional performance.
More Sleep vs. More Exercise
New research reveals that many working Americans are conflicted about whether to spend time exercising or sleeping. University of Pennsylvania investigators analyzed data from 48,000 adults who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2016. The researchers found that for most individuals sleep duration decreased as exercise duration increased, which led to the conclusion that exercise and sleep compete with each other for time.
Integrating Cognitive Training Into Exercise Programs for Older Adults
How can you “cognify” exercises to give your clients a big kick in the hippocampus? The basic ideas here can help you integrate cognitive stimuli into most exercises.
SMR Trends: Adopting Vibration Technology
The body of evidence in favor of self-myofascial release (SMR) techniques has been steadily growing. Research has shown that SMR can increase joint mobility and range of motion and reduce muscle soreness. It is used by personal trainers, athletic trainers and physical therapists alike to prevent and treat injuries in clients.
Don’t Let Bad Moods Sabotage You
Anxious, fatigued, unhappy, uncertain? We’ve all been there, all known times when our emotional hot buttons take over. We swear to ourselves that this time we will overcome those emotions and stay committed to our goal, but when it doesn’t work, we react with indulgent self-gratification. “I had such a long day, and I just don’t feel like going to the gym today,” or “I’ve already fallen off the wagon, so I’ll just eat what I want and start again on Monday.”
Cook and Taste the World for Health
A few weeks ago, I purged my extensive collection of cookbooks to make way for new ones. Like the 30 or so I just weeded from the mix, the new books will be learned from, splattered upon and well-loved until I’ve extracted all of their goodness.
Self-Care Massage Tools for Recovery
As a fit pro, it’s helpful to use self-care massage tools for exercise recovery to prevent or treat pain or imbalances in the body.
Ask The RD: E. coli and Lettuce?
QUESTION: I keep hearing about people getting E. coli from lettuce. I thought E. coli came from beef. Can you explain what E. coli is and why lettuce is a problem?
Higher Vitamin D Levels Linked To Better Fitness
There’s another reason to make sure you’re getting enough of the sunshine vitamin: High levels of vitamin D in the blood are now linked with better fitness, according to research from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. In the study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 20- to 49-year-olds with better vitamin D status also tended to have greater cardiorespiratory fitness, a measure of aerobic fitness often determined by measuring maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) during exertion.
Body Image And Social Media
A recent study provides more evidence that body image suffers when young women view photos of attractive peers on social media.
Growth in Yoga and Meditation Practice
Americans continue to turn to yoga and meditation as leading ways to improve health, according to data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). In 2017, yoga was the most commonly used complementary health approach, practiced by 14.3% of American adults (35.2 million). This represents an increase of almost 13 million practitioners since 2012. Meditation was the second most popular complementary health practice, used by 14.2% of adults. In growth, however, meditation outpaced yoga, with participation more than tripling from 2012 (4.1%).
BlogHer: Through My Lens
Health. When you hear that word, what comes to mind? What about when someone says, “I’m living a healthy lifestyle?” What does that mean to you? What does it mean to the world? Today, when celery cleanses and keto diets are all the rage, it appears the meaning of health is directly related to one’s waistline. However, “health,” as defined by the World Health Organization, is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 2019).