Archive for May, 2012
Tips for Keeping Your Workout Routine on Track
Set Realistic Goals When it comes to your workout and exercise plan, you must set realistic goals. If you have not been a very active person, do not expect to be running 20 miles a day within the first month. You will become discouraged. This is one of the main reasons that exercise programs fail. [...]
Tasty Tips for Healthier Eating
Try incorporating these tips from Koff to help make healthier food choices year-round: Be a qualitarian: Choose the best quality food available at every eating occasion — you are what you eat, and your body runs best on better-quality fuel. Go all-natural: Make sure when you buy something that claims to be “all-natural,” it really is as [...]
Can Cardio and Weights Go Together?
Some trainers warn against lifting weights and going for a run on the same day. Mixing them, they say, will either limit the growth of the muscles, or reduce the endurance benefits of the run—what’s known as “muscle interference” or “exercise antagonism.” A Swedish study, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, investigated this [...]
Five ways to cut back on salt intake
Cut back on processed and prepared foods. Food manufacturers often use salt to preserve food and help “improve” the flavor and texture. Processors also use sodium to mask the taste of chemicals and additives they add to foods. Whenever possible, prepare your own foods using fresh, whole ingredients. For example, make your own salad dressing with [...]
Plyometrics Exercises
Plyometrics — also known as jump training — is a training technique designed to increase muscular power and explosiveness. Originally developed for Olympic athletes, plyometric training has become a popular workout routine for people of all ages, including children and adolescents. Plyometric training conditions the body with dynamic resistance exercises that rapidly stretch a muscle (eccentric phase) [...]
Eggs and nutrition
Are eggs really incredible? Yes! Eggs are affordable, a great source of lean protein, full of vitamins and minerals and low in calories, weighing in at about 70 calories each. Over the years eggs have received a bad rap for their cholesterol content. While eggs do contain cholesterol, that may not necessarily be a reason to avoid [...]
What’s a low glycemic diet?
Glycemic load is another way of looking at how a food may affect your blood sugar. Carbohydrates with a high glycemic load (such as fruit juices or doughnuts) will tend to make your blood sugar go up sharply, while carbohydrates with a low glycemic load (such as berries or bran cereal) produce a lower, slower [...]
Build Muscle for Better Health
We all know how important cardiovascular exercise is — how it’s great for your heart, cholesterol, and blood pressure. And whether you choose to walk, bicycle, or jog, you know that any exercise that increases your heart rate helps you burn calories and melt away unwanted pounds. But that’s only half the equation. For [...]
Fighting Midlife Weight Gain
Why do so many people gain weight in midlife? Blame it on hormones in convergence with poor lifestyle choices, overeating, not exercising enough, and stress. But hormones only account for about 2 to 5 pounds. The rest is the result of overeating, poor lifestyle choices — such as not exercising enough — and stress. How [...]
Heart Health Tips
LDL, HDL, Triglycerides…these numbers contain important information about your risk of heart disease. But the terms can be confusing. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program (a program of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) everyone over 20 years old should have a cholesterol screening at least every five years. Here is a quick [...]
