21Aug

Fab 4 Fitness Friday – Core Blast!

August 21, 2020 Jessica Bottesch

It’s all about the core! Core work will strengthen your pelvis, low back, hips and abdomen. Why is that important? Being strong in those areas helps promote stability, balance, and protects you from injury. An added benefit to core work is that it doesn’t require a single piece of equipment to do. Try our Fab 4 workout and see.

Use these Fab 4 Moves in the Workout:

Plank Shoulder Taps–1 minute
Leg Lower to Reverse Crunch–1 minute
Side Plank with Leg Raise–30 seconds each side
Ab Bicycles–1 minute

Workout: Repeat 4 times

18Aug

Move More, Sit Less.

August 18, 2020 Jessica Bottesch

How do we fight the threat of our chairs? The answer is to get up and move.

14Aug

Fab 4 Fitness Moves Friday – Squat it Out!

August 14, 2020 Jessica Bottesch

Ever wonder how Beyoncé gained her assets? She probably did a few squats.
The benefits of squats are many, but they crush calories, improve core strength, and you don’t need equipment to do any.
Squats are a compound movement – one that hits several major muscle groups at a time – which means they are a fantastic way to build lower body strength. Try the Fab 4 workout and see.

Use these Fab 4 Moves in the Workout:

Regular squats x 15 Pulsing squats x 30
Squat hold 30 seconds
Square squats x 10 (front to front, back to back, = 1)

REPEAT 3x

16Mar

Moderate Intensity Workout

March 16, 2020 Ronda Williams

Looking for a Moderately Intense Workout that takes 30 – 60 minutes? Check out this bodyweight workout can do this all at home.

Over 40 Workout

Moderate Intensity – Choice #1 Outside Body Weight Workout

Walk briskly or light jog for 10 minutes

2.5 minutes – 30/10 second work/rest circuit intervals

30 seconds – Bodyweight squats or squat jumps
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Push-ups modified or full
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Side taps, Jumping Jacks, or Star Jumps
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Cross body crunch – Long Lever Arm

Walk briskly or Light Job for 10 Minutes

2.5 minutes – 30/10 second work/rest circuit intervals

30 seconds – Lateral Lunges
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Y’s, T’s and A’s
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Marching or High Knees
10 seconds – Rest
30 seconds – Bodyweight good mornings

Only have 30 minutes for your workout today? – STOP HERE and go to Cool Down

Want to get the full benefit of a 60-minute workout? Repeat this whole program a second time, then go to Cool Down.

Cool Down

Yoga – 5 Sun Salutations, Side Bend, The Forward Hang Standing Pigeon
Stretches – Standing hamstring stretch, Standing quad stretch, Shoulder and Tricep crossbody stretch
Breathing – 1 -2 minutes of deep breaths

19Nov

How Amanda Plays

November 19, 2018 Amanda Fontaine

In this blog I want to share some examples of how I’ve used play in different aspects of my life:

Play in my relationship
I was struggling with being snappy, and short with my boyfriend. In addition to praying for patience and to be slow to anger, I decided to make this a game. Everytime I acted this way he could say “Angelica”. For those of you who didn’t grow up in the 90s with me, she is a cartoon character who appears in Nickelodeon’s show Rugrats. She is the spoiled brat and serves as the main antagonist of the series. This way he could point out to me in a funny way how I was acting. It could lighten the mood and we could joke about it.

https://www.verbicidemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/rugrats-angelica.jpg

Play at work
My coworkers and I constantly make funny comments and pick on each other in a loving way. Not a day goes by that we don’t laugh at each other for something. It puts us all in a better mood. Laughing is good for the soul. It’s contagious. Can you joke with your coworkers? Try lightening the mood and don’t be so serious all the time.

Play in exercise
I could go on and on about this one. If you do the same things over and over again you will get bored. I love variety and mixing things up. The best way I do this with exercise is by creating a game or changing the repetitions or time intervals of exercises to make it a new exciting challenge. Check out my favorite workout card game (https://becomepowerful.com/2017/10/20/fun-games-get-fit-play/ ).

Play with my community
I do this in tons of different ways. One is game nights with my friends. We rotate different games and try new ones (again variety!). We’ve done a couple escape rooms. Check it out in your area. They have different themes and difficulties. Three, the more artsy side we’ve done things like handcrafted night out and wine & design.

These are just a few examples for you to see how play is a part of everything in your life, and if it’s not, it should be.

Later we will talk about how play is important in overcoming sorrow/times of grief, anxiety/depression, motivation to achieve goals and improve mood.

Until then, find little ways you can play at work, in your relationships, being active and with others in your community.

THRIVE On!

04Sep

Chasing the Man Bod: Finding Your Motivation

September 4, 2018 johnbecomehinkle

Just recently, I heard that a friend was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs. The news immediately brought back a lot of feelings and emotions. I was diagnosed with the same in 2014. Shortly after I heard the news of his diagnosis, I sent him a text message and asked if I could come see him. I did. I wanted to tell him of my experience, compare notes, and help him feel more comfortable with what he was facing.

Getting the news of pulmonary clots is a bit concerning and very scary. For clots to get to your lungs, they have to pass through your heart. When they do, you hope the whole clot goes through and none of it takes up residency there. To make sure that one did not, blood testing has to be done. That is just the beginning of blood testing. Cardiac enzyme test, clotting protein tests, genetic test, etc.

Treatment involves blood thinning medication for at least 6 months. Blood-thinning changes how your body regulates temperature and you become more prone to extreme temperatures. For example, the week after my diagnosis, my wife and son ran a 5K road race in Raleigh. I was registered and supposed to be out there with them but I couldn’t get half way up the staircase at home without getting out of breath. A road race was completely out of the question. The weather was a nice sunny 52 degrees for mid January in Raleigh. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a toboggan and gloves, AND I WAS STILL FREEZING! It was all due to the blood thinners.

When I was diagnosed and when I visited my friend, I was reminded of my purpose in life and why I take care of myself. My purpose is to support my family, mold my son into an independent, respectful person that is a productive member of society, and help better the lives of others through fitness. I cannot do that to the best of my ability unless I take care of myself. I have to take care of myself so that I can help others.

Every so often, we need to take stock of ourselves and our lives to see if we’re still on track with the goals we have set out to achieve. If not, adjustments have to be made. There is no better motivator than our reason for “being” and our purpose in life.

So, I ask you, what is your purpose for being? What motivates you to be healthy, be fit, grow as a person? Are you evaluating all that from time to time and then making adjustments to the plan to keep moving forward? Or are you just flying through life hoping that it all just falls into place?

31May

Chasing The Man Bod: Secret #5: Have Some Workout FUN!

May 31, 2018 johnbecomehinkle

Before I get in to the details of Secret #5, let’s do a quick recap of Secrets #1-4.

Secret #1: Increase your daily water intake. Take your body weight in pounds, divide it by 2, and that is how many ounces of water you need to take in every day.

Secret #2: Weight Train at least 3 days each week to help boost testosterone levels. Use whole body or multi-joint movements like the squat, deadlift and bench press to trigger testosterone release in your body.

Secret #3: Eat Clean & Lean 5 days/week. Eat lean proteins like chicken and fish along with a variety of vegetables and stay away from simple sugars.

Secret #4: Get 6 ½ to 8 hours of sleep each night. This helps to restore your mind and your body for full recovery from your workouts.

Now, for Secret #5: Add some FUN in your workouts on a weekly basis. Play basketball, go for a hike, play some tennis, have fun splashing around in the pool with friends or family members.

Remember, those activities are workouts too, Break the monotony of pumping iron and spinning on the elliptical. It not only keeps you from getting mentally bored but it challenges your nervous system in a different way. A variety of activities releases endorphins and turns on the pleasure centers in your brain. That makes you want to go back for another workout and carry on your quest to chase the svelte man bod you had in your younger days.

HAVE FUN!

20Feb

Chasing The Man Bod: Secret #4 Sleep

February 20, 2018 johnbecomehinkle

Your body grows and repairs during the rest phase of your workouts. Most specifically, this happens at night when you are sleeping. Let’s take a deeper dive into the benefits of getting your ZZZZZZ’s at night.

Growth hormone helps restore and rebuild body tissues and muscles. Seventy-five percent of growth hormone is released during sleep, more specifically, the deep sleep stage. We typically cycle through all of the sleep stages four to five times each night and the deep sleep cycle is present in the first 2 to 3 of those cycles. There are several things you can do to contribute to a good night’s sleep and increase the number of sleep cycles you have.

The biggest determining factor to good sleep is your routine leading up to bedtime. Sixty to ninety minutes before bedtime, you should avoid electronics like your tablet or cell phone because the blue light emitted tends to stimulate the brain making it harder to fall asleep. Activities like journaling, mild stretching, and meditation help you relax and fall asleep faster. Finally, being in a room with the lights dimmed also help the brain and body settle down and relax.

Once you head off to bed, you want to make sure the room is dark. Remember, light tends to stimulate the brain and will keep you staring at the ceiling for a while. Optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Body temperature falls as it starts into sleep mode and a cooler room promotes the body cooling allowing you to fall asleep faster. Ultimately, you want to give yourself the opportunity to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

It’s time to snuggle up with a good book and then off to meet the sand man.

Nighty, Night!

31Jan

The Three Biggest Mistakes You’re Making in the Gym

January 31, 2018 Chris Lathrop

You’re trying to distract yourself. More and more studies show there is great power in being mentally engaged in the things that you do and your workout is no different. You can improve muscle activation drastically just by thinking about your muscles working while performing and exercise. An added benefit will be in keeping good form and avoiding injury.

You’re doing it too fast! One of the most important aspect of strength training is the amount of time you actually spend doing each exercise. This aspect I refer to as “King Tut”, Time Under Tension, and it reigns over your gains. If you rush through an exercise you’re losing as much as a quarter of the benefit. Going fast relies on momentum and reduces the overall time your muscles are actually working. If you’re going to exercise why not get the most out of it you possibly can?!

You’re doing it too fast again! Static stretching can be beneficial for improving range of motion, strength, and for reducing aches and pains if you do it properly. It takes close to 10 seconds for your muscles to relax so that you actually start to benefit from a static stretch. Think about how many hours in a day you sit in a chair with particular muscles shortened. Do you really think you’re going to undo that by holding a stretch for 20 seconds? Most likely not. Yoga and gymnastics programs that have been shown to improve flexibility suggest holding static stretches for a minimum of 60-90 seconds and many suggest much longer. Time your stretches to make sure you fulfill at least the minimum 60 seconds and avoid fidgeting which can reduce their benefit. Keep in mind these rules don’t apply to dynamic stretching and shouldn’t be performed at the beginning of a workout.

12Jan

Lower Body Mobility

January 12, 2018 paulbecomeborda

I often hear a lot from clients or other folks in the community that there never seems to be enough time in the day to get a workout in or get any kind of stretching or mobility work in for the body.

We are each given the same 24 hours each day to be as productive and efficient as possible. I know how difficult it can be to find time to work on flexibility in today’s world. Given that, I wanted to share a great 10 minute lower body stretching program that can be done to limber up the lower body in just a short amount of time.

Each of these exercises should be completed for 1 set holding for around 1 minute each (you can certainly do 2 sets of each for 1 minute holds if you have the extra time).

#1 – The Couch stretch

This is one of my all time favorite stretches period. It is incredibly effective for opening up some of the anterior chain muscles like the quads and hip flexors. It’s key to make sure that you don’t arch your back during the stretch so try and maintain that neutral spine. The further the knee is to the wall the more intense the stretch will be so you will need to gauge that for yourself. To intensify the stretch a little bit more you can squeeze the glute of the leg that you are stretching and you should notice that you feel the stretch a bit higher up in the hip flexors.

#2 – Supine hamstring stretch w/ strap

This is a great stretch for the hamstrings that can be done anytime and anywhere. All you really need is a stretching strap or even a belt would work. With all of these stretches we are looking for moderate intensity for the stretch. It shouldn’t be so painful that you can’t hold it for at least 1 minute.

#3 – Elevated pigeon stretch

I love this stretch for my hip rotators and glutes. Many people are not flexible enough to get into the pigeon stretch on the floor in a safe and effective manner so this is a great alternative. This can be done on any surface like a bed, couch, or massage table. Make sure to stay tall through the spine and maintain good posture throughout the stretch. If performed correctly you should feel a good stretch on the outside of the glute (no pinching on the inside of the hip!).

#4 – The Goalie stretch

The adductors are one muscle group that I feel are largely neglected by most people in terms of including them into any type of flexibility or mobility programming. Try to keep the outstretched foot flat on the floor as well as maintaining good posture through the spine (please don’t slouch!).

#5 – Calf stretch on slantboard

Most people don’t know how tight their calves are especially if you are a runner. You can do this stretch pretty much anywhere like on a step at home or any slightly inclined surface similar to the slantboard that is pictured. There are two variations of this that you can do. The first is with the leg straight which targets the gastrocnemius muscle of the calf and the other would be bending the leg you a stretching a bit and that targets the soleus muscle. This can be done one leg at a time or both legs at once.

Be consistent and set aside 10 minutes in your day and you’ll notice that these stretches really start to improve the flexibility in your lower body!

Over 40 Workout

Cool Down

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