Fitness & Wellness

Strength Training Is Important

Published by superadmin on December 27, 2018 | Leave a response

When you come to Iron Fit here in San Antonio, expect to do strength training. Whether you’re a man or a woman, there are huge benefits that aids a healthier lifestyle. If you’re working out to shed weight, it’s the top type of exercise for results. However, even people that don’t need to shed a pound benefit from it. Weight training provides benefits regardless of gender. Even though some women consider it as a workout for men, that’s just not true. More recent studies show that women may actually get more benefits from strength training than men do, both as a weight loss tool and an aid for maintaining good health.

Keep injuries at bay with strength training.

It’s called strength training for a reason. Of course, the reason is that it makes you stronger. That improved strength not only helps you lift more with less chance of injury, it also improves your balance, posture and coordination. There are numerous studies that show that people who use strength training have fewer falls, and injuries from falls, than those who don’t. In fact, one study showed it reduced the risk of falls by almost 40 percent! For those who are younger, it can mean less time off the job and for seniors, it could mean the difference between living on your own or moving to an assisted living arrangement or nursing home.

When you keep your muscles strong, you keep your bones strong, too.

Strong muscles pull and tug at the bone, so the body reinforces that bone to make it stronger. If you lose muscle tissue, a condition called sacopenia, the bone actually loses calcium, which leads to osteoporosis. Strength building workouts not only boost muscle tissue, they also help keep bones strong. Almost all studies show that strength building workouts can help prevent bone loss and some studies show it can even reverse it.

Osteoporosis and sacopenia aren’t the only conditions that strength training helps.

If you have insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes, it’s no news that switching to a healthier lifestyle can make a huge difference. Adding strength training to your workout regimen can help you use insulin more effectively and not only help reverse insulin resistance, but also help prevent type 2 diabetes. It can help reduce the pain that comes from arthritis. In fact, several studies show it’s more effective than pain medication.

If you want to get rid of that sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes from stress, consider adding strength training to your workout. It burns off the hormones of stress and helps you feel great again.
You might not think that doing heavy lifting can build your energy level, but you’d be wrong. It takes a few weeks, but you’ll start feeling the difference. Before you know it, you’ll be zipping through your day.
You’ll build muscle tissue when you workout with weights or do strength training exercises. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does, so you’ll boost your metabolism.
Strength training not only helps lower blood pressure, it also creates less stress on the heart than you might have if you used aerobic training. It’s a heart healthy way to exercise.

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Start On Your Fitness New Year’s Resolution Today!

Published by superadmin on December 17, 2018 | Leave a response

I’ve seen it too many times. People set a fitness New Year’s resolution and wait until the stroke of midnight on December 31st to begin. The problem is, they only plan to begin their fitness goal, but often fail because the moment of passion passed. If you know anyone that smokes and planned to give it up for their New Year’s resolution, you probably have seen them puffing away, smoking more than normal the last few weeks of the year, making it harder to quit. The same is true of people who plan on shedding those extra pounds. They eat like there’s no tomorrow, in anticipation of feeling hungry and deprived. It just doesn’t have to be that way.

Is weight loss one of your goals?

In order to lose one pound, you have to eat 3500 fewer calories than you burn. Rather than waiting until the year begins, start by making a few changes every week, or every day. Learn to make substitutions. If you normally eat a candy bar for a mid afternoon break or have a donut in the morning, switch it out. Grab some fresh fruit or take vegetables and dip to work for a snack. Low fat string cheese and an apple or half an apple with nut butter also make good alternatives. Rather than grab a burger and fries for lunch, go healthy. Even if you eat the same number of calories, you’ll get the nutrition your body needs to keep you healthy and feel fuller longer. Make one change every week and before you know it, you’ll be eating healthy.

Get more exercise.

Don’t wait to join the gym. Start right NOW! That’s right! Just move more. Exercise doesn’t have to be a few hours at the gym every week. In fact, if you work at a sedentary job, you’re better off moving five minutes every hour. Go up and down the stairs if you have them in your building. Walk to a close destination rather than take a car or other form of transportation. Learn some quick five minute workouts you can do at your desk and do them every hour, when you’re not walking up and down the stairs. You’ll be ready for the gym when the new year starts.

Practice mindful eating.

Mindful eating means you focus more on each bite of food. The more aware you are of each bite, the more you can savor the flavors. Even more than that, mindful eating helps you slow down the process of eating, so your mind can catch up to your body and let you know when you’re full. Chewing each bite more not only enhances the enjoyment, it helps digestion and reduces the amount of food you eat, since you’ll feel full without eating as much. Chew, chew, chew and count the number of times you did if you need to do that to slow down eating.

Start by cutting out processed food. You don’t have a learning curve if you simply cut out processed food. That goes for high sugar drinks, too.
Drink more water. Often thirst is masked as hunger. When you drink more water, you’ll not only be helping your body, but lowering your caloric intake, too.
At holiday celebrations, fill up on the fresh fruit and vegetables. It doesn’t mean you can’t eat some of your favorite foods, just remember to use small portions. A smaller plate will make you feel like you ate more.
Get a regular sleep schedule. Lack of sleep can cause you to be stressed and even to overeat. Sleep is also important for heart health and reducing the risk of other serious conditions.

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The Key To Fitness Is Consistency

Published by superadmin on December 5, 2018 | Leave a response

At one time or another, everyone has set up a workout program, going into it with fury, only to abandon it a few weeks later. Sometimes, life got in the way. Sometimes, the program was far too ambitious for the level of fitness. Working out for a few days may help a bit, but won’t give you the results you hope to achieve. The key to any fitness program is consistency. It’s not like writing a paper or reading a book, where you can do it in one day and its done. It’s more like keeping a kitchen or other room clean. It takes consistent work.

It takes time to get the body into shape.

Too often people quit their workout program because they aren’t seeing the results they hoped to achieve. In most cases, they haven’t given it enough time. That exercise session helped burn more calories, getting you closer to burning the 3500 it takes to lose one pound. It also boosted your circulation to help you think clearer. That one session also burned off the hormones of stress, while triggering the release of hormones that make you feel good. After just one week, you’ll notice more energy, but to see the changes in muscle mass or drop in weight, you may have to wait up to a month. Muscle growth, weight changes and increased strength and fitness will be obvious after consistently working out for up to six months.

You need to have a schedule and stick with the schedule.

Every commitment or appointment is normally on your calendar or on your phone. Create an appointment for your workout. If you don’t, it won’t happen. Create a consistent schedule, so that it becomes a habit. Whether you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening, it doesn’t matter, as long as you do it regularly.

Get some help.

There are many different ways to increase the probability of follow through. One of those is having an exercise buddy. A workout buddy holds you accountable, since he or she is actually an appointment. If you skip that appointment, someone knows. It’s a far better solution than just promising yourself you’ll do it. A workout buddy also can push you to work harder and make every workout more fun.

In order to stick with a workout program, you need to set yourself up for success. Don’t try to get into shape in just one day, it simply won’t work. Some people tend to overdo their first workout, leaving them too sore, tired or even injured to continue.
If you’re not sure where to start, consider working with a personal trainer, either with private sessions or group sessions. Once you’ve established the workout habit, you can try it on your own if you like.
If weight loss is your reason for starting a workout program, don’t forget to start eating healthy, too. No matter how much you exercise, you can’t overcome an unhealthy diet.
On the days away from the gym, stay active. Make it your passion to find ways to get more exercise. Walk more, take the stairs and even create some mini workouts to get your blood circulating after you sat for a while.

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Ways To Make Fitness Easier

Published by superadmin on November 26, 2018 | Leave a response

If you’re trying to get fit, you might feel a bit overwhelmed by all the changes you need to make. Don’t be caught in that trap! You can make fitness easier by following a few easy rules and just modifying the things you do everyday a bit. Of course, eating healthy is part of the program and so is regular exercise. You can make doing those two things easier once you get in the groove. Here are a few tips that can make you feel better about healthy living and help you make the adjustments you need to make to maximize fitness benefits.

Don’t worry about calories, just focus on how food is made.

Too often people focus on carbs or calories and find they’re spending every waking hour just worrying about the number of calories or carbs they ate and keeping tally. While keeping a food diary can be important for those who want to lose weight, so is focusing on how the food is made. You can’t go wrong with whole foods…food that is most like its natural state, such as fresh veggie and fruit. Choose organic and eat as much as you want! It’s really easy to get all the nutrition you need without too many calories when fresh fruits and veggies are primary sources of energy. Don’t drink the juice but eat the whole fruit or veggie.

Find ways to boost your activity throughout the day.

It might seem almost too simple, but just taking the stairs or parking further from the building can boost your overall health by increasing the amount of exercise. You can also find easy ways to get in a half hour to an hour of exercise on those days away from the gym. Walking to lunch, breaking up a workout to three or four sections and doing them throughout the day are just two ways. If your job involves lots of sitting at your desk or standing in a stationary position, take five minutes out of every hour to move around a bit.

Don’t forget about hydration.

Staying hydrated is extremely important. Some people simply hate to drink water or even worse, think they have to guzzle it all at once. Keep a bottle of water with you at all times and sip on it throughout the day. If you hate plain water, add a few tablespoons of fruit juice to it to give it a light flavor. Grape juice, lemon or apple make good additives. Some people crush up fruit and mix it with a little water to create cubes for their water that add flavor and make the drink more interesting. Try increasing the amount of herbal tea, green tea or even some bouillon for cold winter days. It’s far better than hot chocolate for you and warm you instantly.

Learning portion size is extremely important. For instance, a portion of meat for a meal is about the same size as a deck of cards.
Walk faster. Pick up the pace when you walk. It changes an ordinary walk into a workout.
Carry your groceries to the car if you can. If you don’t have a huge load, carry the bags on your arms, rather than in a cart. It’s just a little extra strength building.
Turn on music when you clean and dance through your housework. Every extra movement you do helps burn calories and gets you in shape faster. Enjoy life and feel how exhilarating it is to move freely.

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Make Strength Training Part Of Your Daily Life

Published by superadmin on November 13, 2018 | Leave a response

One thing that definitely will help you shed weight is strength training. If you’re already working out regularly, you’re probably doing it two or three days a week and working different body areas. However, you can boost the effect with a few simple exercises you can do every morning and by changing a few habits you do every day. If you’re like me, you love to stretch the first thing in the morning. I feel like a dynamic stretches get me ready for the day. I also love to add a few quick exercises to the mix, which also boosts my readiness for the day.

Give ten minutes to strength training, but vary the type you do.

You don’t and shouldn’t do the same exercises every day. It doesn’t give those muscles time to build. However, there are a few strength training exercises you can add to your morning stretching than will get your blood flowing and ready for the day, plus help you increase your energy level. Keep it simple and do only four or five exercises with two or three sets of each. Vary the workout daily and do an easier one the day you workout at the gym.

Resistance bands are great at home equipment.

You can get a full body workout to start the day with just six minutes or so. While it’s not meant to replace your workout regimen, it’s a good supplement you can do daily and increase your overall activity. One is super simple. Grab the band in the middle with your hands in front of you and pull. Another is to put one end on the floor, held in place with your foot, and with the other had pull the band up and to the side. Tie it around your calves, squat and step to the side with one foot. Pause, then bring your other foot over and then back to the original position. Finally, do a glute bridge, but holding the band over your thighs and held to the floor at your side with your hands as you do it.

Another way that’s simple is body weight exercises to boost your strength.

Whether it’s squats, pull ups or step ups, there are all types of variations you can do to increase the amount of strength training. Focus on doing a few pushups or pull ups each morning, then try one of the variations of squats, like pistol squats or split squats. Doing a skaters move or step ups are also good.

Get work done around the house and build your core muscles. Vacuuming, raking and sweeping all tone your muscles. Put some zip in loading the wash machine by stand about ten feet away. Put the dirty laundry on the other side of you as you spin to toss it in the wash. Lifting the full basket is also a workout.
Do squats when you pick up clothes or toys off the floor. See, you don’t need a formal workout to get a good workout.
Wash windows and do it vigorously. That is good for upper body strength. Carrying children and pets will also boost your body strength. It also builds bonds. (If you have a large dog…better pass on this one.)
Don’t underestimate simple tasks. Carry your groceries into the house, enjoy a brisk walk to take the garbage out and go without a few labor saving devices once in a while. You’ll be amazed at how it also can boost your strength.

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Got The Blues? Maybe It’s What You Eat

Published by superadmin on November 3, 2018 | Leave a response

You probably already know that working out can make you feel better emotionally. It burns off stress hormones and can lift your spirits. What you eat also makes a big difference in your mood. Some foods promote feeling good and others can sabotage that good feeling. Sugar, for example, can get you feeling energized by spiking blood sugar levels, but drop your mood like a rock off a cliff just a few hours later. Simple carbs, like sugar, when eaten frequently can cause you to feel constantly depressed.

Grab some nuts.

Don’t buy those mixed nuts that are mostly peanuts, just go for the gusto and get just cashews and walnuts. Raw walnuts and cashews are real mood boosters. They’re both high in magnesium. Low levels of this mineral is linked to increasing the risk of depression. Cashews are high in vitamin B6, also good for leveling out moods and cashews have a high amount of tryptophan, which changes to serotonin that boosts your mood. Neither causes a spike in sugar levels, but do provide energy. Walnuts are also a good source of protein that can make you feel fuller longer.

Kale is more than a salad bar decoration.

If you want loads of extra minerals and vitamins, add some kale to your salads or put it in your soup. Kale is loaded with vitamin A, vitamin K and vitamin C, while also having generous amounts of magnesium in just one cup. Adding fiber to your diet can keep you feeling fitter, while also keeping you regular (and constipation will definitely make you feel out of sorts). Kale is a good source of fiber.

Grab a cup of Joe.

Coffee is known as the quicker picker upper, but it also can boost your mood. It improves your alertness and mental focus, and also can boost your performance in the gym. Just two cups a day can help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and also significantly lower the risk of depression. Don’t go for more. Less is better than more when it comes to drinking coffee.

Raw oysters are considered an aphrodisiac but they’re really just improve circulation and provide healthy fat, omega-3 fatty acid.
Salmon, another source of omega-3 fatty acid, is also a quick fix for an emotional low. It also fights inflammation.
Yes, if chocolate is on your list of go-to good-feeling-foods, you’re right. However, not just any type of chocolate and not a lot. Dark chocolate and just one piece is enough to give a lift.
Colorful berries are brimming with flavonoids. Those help improve memory but also help keep your mood in check and reduces inflammation to the brain. Add some to your diet for those down days and you’ll be doing yourself a favor.

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Make Moving A Habit

Published by superadmin on October 25, 2018 | Leave a response

One of the biggest causes of preventable deaths in the United States is obesity. It affects all parts of the body and has surpassed smoking as the leading cause of preventable illness and death. However, too often we fail to look at another problem faced by many and that’s a sedentary lifestyle. Even if you workout regularly, if you sit for hours at a time at a desk job, without a break every 55 minutes, you’re damaging your health. You need to make moving a habit and schedule a time to get out of your chair and walk across the room or even do exercises next to your desk.

If there’s a will, there’s a way.

Think about the things you can do that keep you standing and moving, particularly if you have a desk job. There are some two to four minute workouts that don’t make you sweat or require any equipment, but which also get your blood circulating. If you have a sedentary job, think of the things you can do standing up and moving around and then schedule them once an hour. One study showed that just walking around for two minutes every hour could improve health significantly.

The study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, April 30th edition addressed the issue.

This study followed 3200 people and found that while most people did not meet the required 2.5 hours of physical activity, short amounts of exercise throughout the day in two to five minute bursts did help keep them healthier. Merely standing and doing work did nothing to improve their health. That activity could include anything from cleaning, walking, climbing steps or even doing a few simple exercises. Taking those two minutes of mild exercise every hour reduced the potential premature death by as much as 33 percent. That’s significant.

You still need moderate to intense exercise in addition to your two minute break.

Don’t let those numbers fool you. Even though it’s important to break up bouts of sitting with light exercise, it doesn’t mean that a program of moderate to intense exercise for two and a half hours a week isn’t important. You still need that for your bones, heart and muscle tissue. You need that type of exercise to feel your best. The two minute workout simply supplements the good job you’re doing at the gym.

If you’re at a desk job, make it a point to stand and pace when you’re talking on the phone. You’re still getting your work completed, but adding a bit of healthy exercise while you’re doing it.
If you have privacy, take a minute or two to do some exercises, like jumping jacks without the jumping—just the arm movement, deep knee bends or air push ups—raising your arms to the sky.
When you’re at home, use the commercials of your favorite program to get some exercise. Run in place, do a few push-ups or get a two-fer by running to the wash machine and starting a load of wash, vacuuming the floor quickly or any active, but quick task.
Road trips can take their toll, especially if your job requires you to be in your car for extended periods. Schedule a break every hour and walk for a short period. That few minutes will keep you healthier and also keep you more alert.

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Time To Look Great For The New Year

Published by superadmin on October 16, 2018 | Leave a response

If you haven’t noticed, fall is upon us. With the coming of fall, comes the thoughts of the holidays at the year’s end. Rather than wait to make a New Year’s resolution, it’s time to start now and get what you want this year instead of focusing on what you want for the next year. You can look great for the new year and celebrate in style in San Antonio this year. You’ll also boost your energy level to help make the holidays more fun this year celebration more fun for everyone.

Start today for a jump start on fitness.

If working out for the rest of your life sounds like too much for you, don’t worry. There’s a way around it. Just pledge to workout for the next three months. At the end of that time, assess how you feel, your energy level and whether you wish to continue. In three months time, you’ll see huge differences in not only how you feel, but also how you look and how much you appreciate working out. Take it one week at a time, one day at a time or even one workout at a time to get you through the upcoming three months.

Learn to eat healthier now and avoid the pitfalls of the holidays.

Not only will you have time to get your body fit with exercise, you can learn ways to help you eat healthier and build habits that will help you avoid the holiday pounds. Eating healthy is just as important as working out, maybe even more important. Not only do you need to eat healthier to lose weight, you need it to build muscle mass and keep your body working at peak conditioning. You don’t have to give up everything you love and eating healthy isn’t really a diet. It’s nothing more than making smarter decisions when it comes to food. You’ll find you end up loving the new way of eating.

The combination of a healthy diet and working out regularly will create a whole new you.

When you combine healthy eating and exercise, you’ll not only find you’re filled with energy to get more done during the day, you’ll also start feeling good about yourself, knowing you’re creating a better, healthier lifestyle. It blasts off fat quickly, while building muscles to help you lose more weight or keep it off permanently. You’ll be starting a new year filled with confidence and ready to take on the coming year feeling positive and great.

Sticking with a workout program now, for just three months, can help you build strength to tackle those dreams you thought were too big. Maybe instead of weight loss or fitness, your New Year’s resolution could be for the job of your dreams.
If you start now, you’ll learn great tips and recipes to help make the holidays healthier for everyone with delicious, nutritious dishes that are fit for any holiday table.
One fantastic benefit of starting now is that you can ask for new clothes as a holiday gift in a smaller and better fitting size.
Not only will you impress others with your change, you can help them make changes, too. As a holiday gift, give them the gift of fitness with one of the specials we offer at Ironfit.

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Exercise Does More Than Just Help You Lose Weight

Published by superadmin on October 3, 2018 | Leave a response

If you started a program of regular exercise to help you lose weight, good for you. You’re doing something extremely positive to change your lifestyle and ensure a healthier existence. However, regular exercise not only burns calories and builds muscle tissue to help you achieve weight goals quicker. It has some other amazing benefits for the body that not only extends your life, but makes those extra years even better. It adds years to your life and adds life to those years.

Reduce the potential for heart disease when you exercise regularly.

Exercise helps reduce the risk of heart disease in several ways. The heart is a muscle and like any muscle, to function its best it requires exercise. When you do cardio or endurance workouts, it makes the heart pump harder and helps build its efficiency. It pumps more blood in one beat, allowing it to pump slower, lowering blood pressure in the process. Exercise also lowers bad cholesterol levels and helps you lose weight, which is a bonus to heart health.

You’ll keep your muscles strong, which helps your bones to remain strong, too.

Weight bearing exercise and resistance exercise not only builds muscles, it builds bones, too. These types of exercise stimulate the body to create more bone tissue and boost the retention of calcium to aid in the density of the bone, so they can bear heavier loads. When you move, even when you walk, the bones twist, move and compress, which stimulates the bone to grow to prevent breaking. High impact activities, such as jumping, weight lifting or hitting a tennis ball with a racket, have the most effect on bone density.

You’ll lower your risk of diabetes, cancer and even feel better emotionally.

While improved physical health, like lowering the risk for serious diseases and even helping to control other diseases, such as diabetes, are important, so is your mental health. Studies show that regular exercise can help reduce depression and even help anxiety. Part of it comes from the “happy hormones” produced during exercise and the body burning off the hormones of stress. The other part may come from simply feeling healthier and the increased circulation exercise brings.

Exercise improves your balance, strength and flexibility, which can help reduce injury and falls.
Regular exercise helps to improve the quality of sleep and can aid those with insomnia.
Exercise stimulates the growth of new neural pathways in the brain and improves cognitive thinking. It can help improve hormone levels of endorphins and serotonin.
The increased circulation during exercise can help reduce plaque build-up by boosting the production of nitric oxide in the endothelial cells of the arteries.

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Fat Loss Mistakes

Published by superadmin on September 24, 2018 | Leave a response

Dodging common fat loss mistakes can be difficult. Too often people start on a weight loss program, believing they’re doing everything right only to fail or slow their progress. The most common mistake when losing weight is to go on a super low calorie diet or fad diet. Sure the weight comes off quickly, but it doesn’t stay off. Extreme diets can’t be maintained for a long period if you want to remain healthy and when you quit and go back to normal or even moderate eating patterns, the weight comes back with a vengeance. If a diet is below 1000 calories a week, it can actually slow your metabolism and make you lose muscle mass not fat, making it more difficult to keep weight from returning.

You don’t combine diet and exercise for weight loss.

Exercise will not only help maintain muscle mass, it also burns extra calories and helps build muscles. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat. Even though it’s important to exercise, you can’t out exercise poor eating habits. What you eat and how much you eat is important for weight loss.

You choose strictly aerobic exercise to shed pounds.

While running and other aerobic exercises can help you lose weight, you really need all types of workouts to get fit. If you don’t have strength building as part of your workout routine, you’ll be sabotaging your efforts. Strictly sticking to running or other aerobic workouts can reduce the amount of muscle tissue in your body, but if you add strength building exercises to your routine, you’ll be building muscle tissue and boosting your metabolism to help shed pounds faster.

You faithfully stick with a low fat diet and skip higher calorie protein.

You need both protein and fat to be healthy. Remember, not all fat is bad. There are healthy fats, such as those found in avocados or fatty fish. Many of the “low fat” foods you find in the stores also use sugar to make the food more palatable, adding more calories and leaving you feel less full. You also need protein for maintaining muscle tissue. It also leaves you feeling more satiated and less likely to grab a quick snack or higher calorie foods.

Not having enough healthy fiber in your diet can sabotage your weight loss efforts. Fiber not only keeps you going, it also leaves you feeling fuller and reduces the number of calories you absorb.
You’re using a ketogenic diet, but add too much fat. No matter how good the diet, calories still count.
People often eat, not because they’re hungry, but for some emotional reason, such as boredom, anger or sadness. Watch that mindless snacking and pay attention to what your body tells you before you eat.
While eating too much is part of the cause of overweight, what you drink makes a difference, too. If you drink three 8-oz containers of a soft drink each day, in less than two weeks you’ll gain a pound.

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