Filed under: Exercise Tips, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Seasonal Exercise
So you’re having trouble exercising before and after work? Why not try to include something during work? Your lunch-break may be a good time to get some exercise on your way to pick up some fuel. For this mid-day workout, you’ll have to get outside on a mild, sunny day. You’ll take a break from work, loosen up, get some fresh air, and relax a little bit.
Be sure to set aside 20-30 minutes for a power-walk or moderate stroll. Start easy for 5 minutes for a warm-up, and then try a couple static stretches for your calves, hamstrings, and quadriceps, and hip flexors. Your legs will be thankful after hours of sitting at your desk, tight from immobility. Once you’ve stretched out, walk for another 15-20 minutes and repeat the same stretches you did for your warm-up. Depending on your fitness level, this may be a good active recovery session or cardio routine. Try it a couple times a week, throw it into your current exercise program as it relates to your goals, or do it whenever you can take a short break from work, and you’ll find yourself improving your flexibility and maybe even cardiovascular fitness!
Filed under: Exercise Tips, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Seasonal Exercise
Summer can be a great time to pick up an outdoor sport. Whether you’re a long-time athlete or a newbie to all sports, participating in a recreational past-time can be a good, healthy change of pace from traditional exercise. Local fitness and athletic centers often offer lessons and opportunities to compete in individual and team sports. But oftentimes the most convenient place to inquire about an outdoor team sports is at work.
Many companies have a softball team open to every employee, regardless of athletic experience. Signing up can provide you with a chance to socialize with other employees while getting in a light workout. Yes, as much fun as a sport can be and as demanding as many sports are, softball is not among the most physically strenuous ones. But with a good warm-up and quick cool-down, a softball game can be a good active recovery day where you can focus on improving flexibility, coordination, and maybe even speed and quickness.
To get in a warm-up before a game, you’ll want to get to the field at least 10 minutes before you’re scheduled to play. Jog a few laps around the diamond to warm up your core temperature and before you try any stretches. Once you’ve warmed-up, be sure to do some a couple sets of 10 reps for each of the following dynamic flexibility exercises: leg swings, standing twists, and forward lunges. The following pictures of leg swings are provided by Personal Training on the Net, a resource for personal trainers. Here’s how you complete a standing twist or rotation: stand tall with feet about hip-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you about shoulder height with you palms touching each other. From here, activate your abdominals and focus on engaging your core and hip muscles to twist your torso, left hip and knee to the right–almost as if you were swinging a baseball bat! Return to the start position, standing tall, with arms extended straight ahead. Repeat on the other side for a total of 10 reps.
These prep exercises should warm up muscle groups you can expect to use during the game. Enjoy playing, and once your time on the field is over, be sure to do some static stretches for your legs and shoulders.
Filed under: Exercise Tips, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Seasonal Exercise
It’s hard to keep your focus on exercise and healthy choices when you’re ready to kick back and enjoy the summer. Luckily enough, working out in the summer doesn’t have to be as burdensome as it was when you made those New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, summer may be the best and most convenient time of year to get some exercise relevant to your active lifestyle.
If you think of flexibility techniques set on a continuum in terms of progression and duration of the held stretch, then active flexibility could fall between static and dynamic flexibility. Active flexibility is often used as a progression before trying dynamic flexibility. So what is active flexibility?
Depending on the gym you go to, you may have noticed cylindrical foam rollers some of your fellow gym members use religiously. You may have been curious, but somewhat intimidated to ask or inquire as to what these rollers do. Once used nearly exclusively in physical therapy settings, foam rollers are often the missing link to flexibility programs and injury prevention.
While static stretching can be good for improving range of motion and reducing muscle soreness, dynamic flexibility is excellent for warming up muscles you expect to use for your workout, sport, or other activity. These stretches are characterized by moving a joint through its full, but comfortable range of motion, which will vary among exercisers. Although it is used more commonly in prep for a sport, with proper instruction, dynamic flexibility can be helpful in reaching your goals.
When you’ve completed a flexibility evaluation specific to your goals and needs, the results will help determine the right exercise prescription for you. Most flexibility programs include static stretches, especially if you’re just starting to work out for the first time.
Filed under: Exercise Tips, Flexibility, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Goal Setting
Once you’ve clarified your flexibility goals, you’re ready to take the right start with a flexibility evaluation. These assessments will help you get a good idea of your current overall flexibility and form a good starting point for developing a flexibility program unique to you.
Filed under: Exercise Tips, Flexibility, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Goal Setting
It seems nowadays we’re all aware of the importance of improving flexibility. In fact, one of the common goals exercisers and clients have are no longer just weight loss and strength-related. Becoming more limber is an aim for many exercisers, athletes and non-athletes alike.
Filed under: Exercise Tips, For Clients and Devoted Exercisers, Seasonal Exercise
For new exercisers, squats are a great way to strengthen and shape your lower body, and they’re generally a safe, efficient exercise for everyone. To do a squat, start by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart. Be sure to squeeze your abs and dig your heels into the ground so that most of your weight is resting on your heels as you bend at the waist and knees to lower your butt towards the ground. If you’re trying this exercise for the first time, do not drop past the point where your knees bend past 90 degrees. Stay within a pain-free, yet challenging range of motion where you feel your legs working with limited stress placed on any joints.
