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Essentials For Every Gym Bag

Published by superadmin on October 15, 2024 | Leave a response

If you checked everyone’s gym bag in San Antonio, TX, you’d find a wide range of items. Some are essentials specific to that person, but in most cases, there are things everyone carries to the gym. The bag will vary by the timing and whether the person dresses for the gym and changes to street clothes after working out or wears street clothes there and changes before working out. In both cases, workout shoes will be in the bag. The type of shoes, weight-lifting, cross-training, and lightweight agility shoes will vary by the activity at the gym.

Workout clothing should be layered and comfortable.

The clothes you wear for working out should be comfortable. They should have several layers you can remove as your body warms. The material should be breathable and allow body heat to escape. Newer materials are wickable. It leaves you dry by keeping the sweat away from the body. The fabric should move with you and allow maximum range of motion. Clothing that stretches is the best. It should easily adapt to your movements while being fitted enough to check your form if you’re learning new exercises.

Make sure you have a water bottle.

When you workout, you sweat. The potential for dehydration becomes greater. If you carry a refillable water bottle with you, you can sip on it throughout the workout. You can purchase a special gym water bottle that’s insulated to keep water cold, or bring along a bottle of water from your fridge or buy some on the way to the gym. When it’s empty, fill it at the fountain in the gym. If there’s no fountain, take several bottles.

Take your toiletries.

Have a second set of everything you use in the morning in a plastic bag you keep permanently in your gym bag. It should include deodorant, comb or brush, toothbrush and paste, soap, and other products that are part of your routine. It doesn’t cost that much to have it ready to go. For women, carrying a small hair dryer, dry shampoo, or a sweat-wicking hair band or wrap and wearing a style like a braid can be an option. If you’re going to work, keeping a second collection of skin care products and makeup is essential.

Use two sets of gym clothes. When you get home, throw one set in the washer and pack the other immediately. You’ll be ready in the morning even if you forget to repack them.
Your workout wear is vital. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune or be the latest fashion design. It does need to be comfortable. Never wear tight clothing that restricts your breathing.
If you’re lifting weights, packing a weight belt is essential. The type of workout belt you choose depends on your needs. Leather is more durable and offers more support, while nylon provides more flexibility if you need a wider range of motion.
Take a towel if your gym doesn’t supply them. Put a large trash bag to carry it home after you use it. Pack an extra set of undergarments and socks.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Are Fitness Trackers Really Necessary?

Published by superadmin on October 5, 2024 | Leave a response

Technology has come a long way in the last decade or two. Phones are smaller and have multiple apps to provide products at your fingertips or answers to tough questions. It’s entered the personal health market with fitness trackers and ways to track everything from heartbeat to miles traveled. Are these beneficial for people focusing on health or simply a novelty that’s fun to use? Not all fitness trackers look alike. Some are rings, some watches, and some are apps for your phone. Your needs will determine the best one for you.

Why are you getting a fitness tracker?

One phone app you may have seen advertised monitors your heart rate for irregularities. Before you shop for your tracker, determine why you want it. Are you trying to lose weight or get in shape and want something that tracks your exercise and steps? Are you training for a marathon and need a tracker to measure miles, time, and heart rate? When you purchase this type of technology, your goals should match your performance. If you don’t, you’re wasting your money. It’s like buying a gym membership and never going to the gym. You won’t get fitter if you don’t use it.

Does the fitness tracker have too many functions or not the right kinds?

You probably don’t need to know your Vo2 levels unless you’re an advanced athlete. People just entering the world of fitness trackers with average to limited technology knowledge are better off using simple ones with fewer, less complicated functions. Ones that track activity, sleep, heart rate, or blood pressure can be beneficial. Before you purchase a fitness tracker, learn how to use it and what it measures. It may have multiple functions, but not the one you need. Being too complex is one drawback of more sophisticated trackers.

If you’re tracking your health metrics, you can help your doctor.

Trackers offer all types of information. If you think you’re constantly tired, tracking your sleep can help. It can identify the quantity and quality of sleep. Blood pressure monitoring is another benefit, like the tracker that identifies irregular heartbeats. Sleep scores, blood oxygen levels, period predictions, and other information can be beneficial, too. Tracking calorie intake and expenditures is also valuable for people trying to lose weight. As with every tool, knowing how to use it and consistently using it improves results.

If you’re sedentary, fitness trackers can help get you moving and keep you moving. It makes exercising a game where you’re challenged to improve every day.
Apps that track the intensity of your workout can lead to a more productive session. It functions like a personal workout buddy to help keep you on track and pushing hard.
One drawback to many apps and trackers is the lack of accuracy. A waterproof tracker is also important if swimming or the potential for water damage exists.
If trackers have multiple features you’ll never use, you pay extra without getting the benefits. It also depletes the battery faster. Fitness trackers are beneficial, but only if you choose the right one for your needs.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Lose Body Fat And Preserve Muscle Mass

Published by superadmin on September 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Preserving muscle mass is important for everyone, especially people who want to lose weight. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn since muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain. If you’re trying to lose body fat, saving your muscle mass is vital to your future progress. You’ll also look and feel better when you maintain or build more muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the thinner you’ll appear compared to your weight. One cubic inch of muscle mass weighs more than a cubic inch of fat. That means a pound of fat needs a bigger container than a pound of muscle. It’s like comparing the container for a pound of feathers to a pound of metal.

Focus on losing weight more slowly.

You can lose more weight with an extremely low-calorie diet, but that rapid weight loss means you lose muscle mass. Slow the weight loss by eating more calories, but still fewer than your body needs to maintain weight. One study followed two groups of obese people. One group ate an extremely low-calorie diet of 500 calories for five weeks. The other group ate a low-calorie diet of 1250 calories for 12 weeks. Both groups lost similar amounts, except the first group lost it in just five weeks. That group also lost significantly more muscle mass.

Add exercise to the mix.

Your body needs cardio, but it causes loss of both fat and muscle tissue. Instead, strength-building maintains and builds muscle mass while also burning calories. Doing intense workouts like HIIT—high intensity interval training—burns even more calories. It’s a technique that alternates the intensity of the workout between high intensity and a recovery pace. When you combine it with strength-building, you’ll maximize your weight loss and maintain or even build muscle tissue.

Focus on your diet and where you’re getting calories.

Your body needs protein to build and maintain muscle tissue. A nutritious diet is vital to that effort. Some people feel that cutting all fats from the diet is necessary for weight loss, but that’s not true. Your body also needs healthy fat. You need approximately 15% of your calories from a source of healthy fat. Fat is necessary for building muscle tissue and burning body fat.

Find the number of calories for your ideal weight and reduce your intake to 500 calories lower. Then, increase your exercise time by doing strength training at least twice a week. You’ll build muscle and slowly lose fat.
Women shouldn’t worry about building too much bulk. Your hormones work against the potential to build excess muscle like men do. You’ll get a leaner, toned look.
Get adequate sleep and stay hydrated. Sleep helps your workout be more productive. It also helps balance the hunger and satiety hormones so you’re not constantly hungry.
When you burn more muscle tissue, you’ll notice you’re more tired and sluggish. It makes exercising harder and negatively affects your gym performance. Burning excess muscle mass can make you feel moody and negatively impact mental health.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Best At-Home Exercises For Beginners

Published by superadmin on September 15, 2024 | Leave a response

People in San Antonio, TX, need at-home exercises at one time or another. Beginners may not be ready for a gym, busy mothers may not have sitters, and gym members may have times when their schedule makes it impossible. Here are some easy at-home exercises that everyone can do. It doesn’t matter whether you’re fit or a newbie, you can modify these to meet your fitness level and you don’t need any equipment.

Start your workout with a warm-up exercise.

Every workout, whether at home or in the gym, should start with a five-minute warm-up. It can be as simple as walking around or marching in place. The warm-up should use the same muscles as you use in the workout. Use dynamic stretching for warm-ups. Those are stretches where you move as you stretch, like lunges. Use static stretching after your workout. It’s stretches where you stretch and hold, like toe touches.

Do strength training without weights.

You can use bodyweight exercises for strength-building exercises. If you can’t do a push-up, do a modified form on bent knees. If a regular push-up is too easy, challenge yourself with a one-arm push-up, a push-up with a clap at the top, or one with someone sitting on your back. Planks are another at-home exercise. You can do a high or low plank. The difference is whether your arms are bent with the weight on your forearms or straight with the weight on the palms of your hands. Hold the position as long as possible and work toward increasing the amount of time you do it.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—or circuit training saves you time and boosts results.

Circuit training involves doing sets of several exercises with little time resting in between sets. You work different muscle groups or the same ones. HIIT is similar to circuit training since it’s not a particular exercise but a way of doing it. You alternate the intensity between peak intensity and a recovery phase. You can use it when you walk, run, or do strength-building. Circuit training uses strength-building exercises but how you do it builds cardio strength, too.

The more intense your workout, the shorter the workout needs to be. You can break up your workout into shorter sessions and do several throughout the day, but always do a few minutes of warm-up before you start.
Try a Dr. Zach Bush nitric oxide dump. Combine 15 squats, 15 jumping jacks sans the jumping, 15 overhead presses, and 15 arm paddle moves. Do it four sets several times a day.
Your at-home workout should include exercises for flexibility, strength, endurance, and balance. You don’t have to do them all at once but include them throughout the week.
Have a list of exercises you can do at home so you don’t waste time searching for something to do. If you’re short on time, turn your chores into your exercise by putting all your efforts into it and moving at top speed and intensity.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Does Drinking More Water Help You Lose Weight?

Published by superadmin on September 5, 2024 | Leave a response

Drinking more water has many benefits. It can be the quicker-picker-upper to boost your energy when it gets low. That’s because even mild dehydration can cause you to feel tired and fuzzy-brained. Your body needs water to function properly. Your brain, lungs, and heart are 70 to 90% water. Water can help ease achy joints by increasing the synovial fluid that lubricates the joints. You may have heard of water weight, but it’s not water but the lack of water that causes it. Water can help you lose weight.

Drinking water instead of soft drinks can help you lose weight immediately.

Each time you drink an 8-ounce soft drink, you consume approximately 100+ calories. Switching to water instead can save a lot over a few months. If you have a 3500-calorie deficit, you lose a pound. If you drink two to three 8-ounce glasses of cola daily, that’s an extra 200 to 300 calories. In 12 to 18 weeks, you would lose a pound without doing anything else. Don’t think about switching to diet drinks. Studies show that people who drink diet soft drinks have a bigger waist circumference. That means they have more belly fat—visceral fat. It’s the most difficult type to lose.

Drinking more water can help you lose water weight.

Too much sodium and too little water is one cause of water weight. The body tries to dilute the sodium and it retains water. Drinking more water normalizes the amount of sodium and acts as a diuretic to flush out excess fluid. Dehydration can cause water weight gain. The body hoards the water in case there’s a need to keep vital organs functioning. Drinking more water flushes the body of excess water.

Drink water before a meal and make it ice-cold water.

If you drink a glass of water a half hour before a meal, studies show that it cuts your appetite so you eat less. Drinking ice-cold water is even better. It boosts your metabolism by 30% for an hour and a half. One study showed that drinking two liters of water a day increased metabolism enough to burn an extra 96 calories a day without making any other changes to diet. One study showed that people who drink a glass of water before a meal eat 75 fewer calories. That’s 225 a day.

If you’re hungry, you might be thirsty instead. Sometimes, the body sends mixed signals to the brain. Before you eat something, drink a glass of water first to see if the hunger diminishes.
You’ll get a more productive workout by drinking more water. Mild dehydration can drag you down and interfere with your performance. Drink 8 ounces an hour before exercising and sip on it throughout your workout.
Mild dehydration can slow your metabolism and the body’s fat-burning process. It affects hormone production and causes cells to expand. Both of those things diminish fat burning.
The older you are, the more difficult it becomes to stay hydrated. Frequent UTIs, aching joints, or signs of mental confusion may be mild dehydration in seniors. Dehydration signs mimic senility.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Is Walking Enough Exercise?

Published by superadmin on August 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Walking may be a great way to start if you’re starting a fitness program or are extremely out of shape. Almost everyone can do it, and you can do it anywhere. Is it enough to improve your overall fitness or keep you in shape? There are four types of fitness: strength, flexibility, endurance, and balance. You need more than just weight-bearing aerobic endurance exercise. Walking is a good start, but not the ultimate whole-body workout you need.

Walking has limitations.

Walking improves endurance, but what about the other types of fitness? You will improve your balance walking. While you’ll build strength in your lower body walking, unless you use arm weights and pump your arms vigorously, you won’t improve upper body strength or develop flexibility. Adding arm weights, carrying weights, or water bottles can work more muscles, but not all upper-body muscles or exercise the lower-body muscles on all planes.

Even if you’re out of shape, adding other exercises may be necessary.

Walking is an excellent start and supplement to any exercise program, but you must add other exercises for complete fitness. A fifteen-minute stretching session every morning can help maintain flexibility and reduce the risk of injury. Adding exercises to your workout, like squats, can boost nitric oxide to help lower blood pressure. Our trainers will provide an easy workout that focuses on your needs. It will start slowly and focus on form until you can push your body further.

Alter your intensity and get a better workout.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—is not a specific exercise but a way of doing exercises. You can even use walking to do it. You alternate between high-intensity and a recovery pace. You walk a few minutes at peak intensity, dropping back to a recovery pace, and then switching back to peak intensity. It builds endurance faster and helps you get into shape quicker. Walking backward, at an incline, on different terrains also adds diversity and more benefits.

No matter what type of exercise you do, including walking, always warm your muscles and cool down afterward. Doing dynamic stretches before you exercise and static stretching afterward provides benefits.
Punch while you walk. You might feel a little awkward punching in the air if you’re walking in a mall or on a busy city street, but if you’re walking an isolated path in a park or the woods, it boosts benefits.
Walking is an excellent exercise for seniors. It’s a weight-bearing exercise that can help prevent osteoporosis. It can help lower blood pressure while building strength. It reduces the chances of injury from falls.
Walking in a park or green area is good for the soul. You can get closer to nature and relax as you walk. You’ll get a dose of vitamin D when you walk in a sunny area. Walking more helps you sleep better at night.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Reasons Why You Might Struggle With Overeating

Published by superadmin on August 15, 2024 | Leave a response

There are many reasons for overeating. No two people are alike and neither are their life experiences. Finding the cause of the problem can help you deal with and eliminate it. Overeating is one of the causes of obesity, which is now the leading cause of preventable deaths. Obesity increases the risk factor of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. People don’t usually overeat healthy foods. Instead, they tend to overeat junk food and unhealthy ones.

You may be an emotional eater.

Food and emotions are often linked. You have comfort food, holiday food associated with good memories, and food you eat when angry or frustrated. Comfort food is usually smooth and easy to eat, like mashed potatoes. People often eat crunchy food like pretzels or crunch hard candy instead of letting it dissolve when angry.

How do you determine whether your overeating is from emotions?

Keeping a food diary helps. Note the servings you ate and how you felt when you ate it. Were you sad? Angry? Or just bored? Identifying when you eat helps you understand why you overate. Think back to childhood. Were your parents people who encouraged you to clean your plate? Do you eat the last bit of food in the pan or serving bowl so you don’t have to throw it away? There are two ways to solve that problem. The first is to make smaller amounts and stick with serving size. The second is learning it’s okay to leave something on your plate.

Mindful eating slows you down if you’re eating too fast.

What is mindful eating? It’s savoring each bite, identifying the flavor, texture, and taste. People who eat fast usually eat more than they should. It takes time for the stomach to fill and signal to the brain that it’s full. When you eat fast, you fill your stomach beyond full capacity long before the brain receives the message. Chewing each bite until it’s a liquid not only takes longer, giving your stomach time to react but also aids digestion.

Social situations can encourage overeating, especially if you’re a grazer or feel awkward in social situations and hide behind eating. Before you know it, you’ve eaten a full meal of hors d’oeuvres before the actual meal. If you’re at a party, focus on the veggie tray and eat slowly.
You may overeat out of habit. If you always got a giant burger and large fries when you were younger and more active, you may continue to get it, even though you don’t require as much to eat.
Do you overeat because you skip meals? Some people skip meals and find they’re ravenous. They guzzle down a meal and without waiting, get a second helping. You can prevent this problem by having a healthy snack to curb your appetite and slow your eating.
The key is to know why you’re eating. Overeating occurs when you eat past your point of satisfaction. As you eat, ask yourself if you’re hungry or eating for another reason. If you’re worried you’ll be hungry later, have a healthy snack ready to fill the need.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

What Foods Should I Buy Online?

Published by superadmin on August 5, 2024 | Leave a response

There are so many whole food options in San Antonio, TX, buying food online isn’t usually an option. Some people shop locally online and pick up their groceries to eliminate some of the hassle. That’s different from ordering from Amazon or other websites. You may get more physical activity shopping in the store, but there’s a trade-off on time. Combining our personalized meal planning with local online grocery shopping frees up a great deal of time. It makes meal planning easier. Besides local online purchases, what other foods are better purchased online?

Exotic ingredients are easier to find.

Occasionally, you’ll have a recipe for a gift or party dish that needs an ingredient not frequently used, like a spice or special sauce. That’s when an online purchase may be the best option. You won’t have to spend hours checking local groceries or specialty shops to see if they have saffron or liquid stevia. Maybe you’re making a healthier bread option and want to grind specialty flour. It’s hard to find red wheat berries or spelt berries locally. You have to turn to online sources.

Foods that are hard to find may be fresher from online sources.

The foods in the recipes we provide are easy to find at every grocery, but sometimes you want to experiment with a recipe or have a favorite that calls for a hard-to-find ingredient. You might find it at a local store, but since the demand is small, the ingredient’s freshness is often questionable. Rather than worry about the shelf life of an item, buying online may be the perfect option. Specialty online sites sell to people worldwide. Many drop ship directly from the source, so it’s usually fresher.

If you have a staple you frequently use that you want to buy in bulk, online may be your answer.

Buying in bulk is the best way for items you use frequently with a longer shelf life. You can’t always buy it that way locally. Whether you have a big family or add nuts to almost every dish, having a supply available is convenient and can save money. You may have to go an extra step, such as dividing ten pounds of nuts into one-pound air-tight containers and freezing or refrigerating them to keep them fresh.

Bulk nuts purchased locally are often far less fresh than those purchased online. They haven’t sat exposed to air that can turn them rancid and haven’t been touched by people or children grabbing one or two to eat.
If you’re an impulse shopper just starting meal planning, ordering your groceries online and picking them up can help prevent impulse purchases that can destroy your weight loss program.
You can compare prices when you shop online. Sometimes, the price difference between a local purchase and an online one is huge, but the product is the same.
If you’re buying items grown locally, it’s always best to buy locally. Farmers’ markets are an excellent source of healthy whole foods from the garden.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Move It Or Lose It

Published by superadmin on July 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Move it or lose it can mean a couple of things. When discussing fitness, it means you have to exercise, or you’ll lose muscle mass, energy, strength, and flexibility. The downward decline starts in the mid-30s and continues until the person dies. If you exercise regularly, you can slow, stop, or even reverse that muscle tissue loss that leads to sarcopenia, osteoporosis, obesity, a weak immune system, poor circulation, heart issues, inflammation, hormonal issues, and injuries. You have a lot more to lose than just your biceps. You could lose the ability to live independently.

It’s all about consistency.

If you don’t exercise often but exercise hard when you do, you could be doing yourself a disservice. It can also cause undesirable results. Your body can’t handle the dramatic increase in exercise. When you start, take it slowly. Focus on form when doing calisthenics or lifting instead of the number of reps or the weight you lift. Start by running short distances or walking more if you’re out of shape. Make an appointment every day to exercise.

Make sure you do all forms of exercise.

There are four fitness categories. Focus on all four: strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility. All of them help prevent injuries but in different ways. Flexibility exercises prevent muscle tears and sprains by expanding the range of motion. Strength-building also prevents injury by reinforcing muscles. Balance helps prevent falls, and endurance improves your heart and breathing to keep you going longer.

If you’ve exercised before but haven’t for a while, you’ll get in shape quicker.

Studies show that people who worked out previously get fitter faster than someone who never exercised. Even if you never exercised, it’s never too late to start. The body is amazing. It repairs itself and continues to build new tissue throughout your life. The more active you are, the easier it is to maintain good health. Exercise lengthens telomeres that prevent chromosomes from unraveling. It protects the cells. It also improves sleep quality, lowers blood pressure, reduces depression, prevents cancer, and improves brain and heart health.

It’s time to start exercising before you face the consequences of a serious condition like heart disease or diabetes. It’s easier to do when you’re healthy and will keep you healthier longer.
You also need a healthy diet, in addition to regular exercise. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Getting adequate sleep and hydration are also vital.
Switch your routine frequently. If you do strength training or an intense workout one day, do recovery exercises the next couple of days, focus on flexibility training, or work on a different muscle group.
Find ways to increase activity. Park further from the store and walk or use the stairs instead of the elevator. Use leisure time to be more active. Ride bikes or hike instead of going to the movies with the family.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Exercising Outside In The Heat

Published by superadmin on July 15, 2024 | Leave a response

Exercising outside can be invigorating, especially if you do it in an area with lots of greenery. However, if you do it when the heat is the worst, it can be dangerous. To exercise outside safely, check the temperature first. Exercising is more than uncomfortable if it’s above 100 degrees or in the high 80s or 90s with high humidity. It becomes dangerous. Even playing sports on a 110-degree day is dangerous. It’s a day you should exercise in the gym or your home.

Wear the right clothing.

Your clothes should be breathable material that wicks away moisture. It should be a light color to reflect the sun rather than a dark color that absorbs the heat and makes you warmer. It doesn’t matter how your legs look, wear shorts. Wear a loose short-sleeved T-shirt or a tank top that’s lighter weight and loose fitting. Wear sunglasses that protect your eyes from UV rays. Put on sunscreen if you’re working out in the sun.

Take water with you everywhere you go.

Drink a bottle of water about a half hour before working out. Take a bottle or two with you and sip on it throughout your workout. Drink more water when you finish your workout. Take it slowly if you’ve spent all your time working out in an air-conditioned gym or haven’t exercised in a long time. Either start working out outside as the weather starts to warm, allowing your body to acclimate with the rest of nature. If it’s already hot out, cut your sessions shorter initially and work toward longer ones.

Adjust the time you exercise to the coolest part of the day.

If you’ve always exercised in the afternoon and decided to take it outside, you might find it easier to change the time to early morning when it’s the coolest. If it’s impossible to do or extremely hot even in the morning, take your time acclimating to the heat. Know your body and the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If you feel dizzy or nauseous, it may be heat exhaustion. You can modify your workout to short periods outside and finish up in air conditioning, extending the outside workout when you’re acclimated or the weather permits.

If your exercise is running and you do it in the early morning or late at night, stay safe with reflective clothing. Let someone know your path or allow them to track your cell phone.
Modify your activity based on the heat. Jog or walk rather than run on extremely hot days. Pace yourself no matter what workout you’re doing. Avoid high-intensity workouts when it’s hot outside.
Check weather forecasts for both temperature and the comfort index that considers humidity in the mix. When there’s both high humidity and heat it doesn’t allow your cooling system of sweat evaporation to work properly.
Workout in shaded areas on hot days. Trees can cool the temperature by four degrees. Avoid exercising on the asphalt that absorbs heat or concrete that reflects and intensifies it.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

Posted in Fitness & Wellness