Archive for the ‘Fitness’ Category

Many people should probably exercise more often and with more intensity. Now is the time to kick excuses out the door, because you’re about to learn how to reduce your risk of sore muscles. You’ll feel so good that you will be motivated to make time in your day to exercise. So get started!

Okay, so now you might be thinking about where to start. Should you warm up or stretch first? Here’s the simple answer – both.

Start with a good warm-up to lower your risk of having sore muscles the next day. Warming up your muscles (especially the major muscle groups you’ll be using during exercise) is one of the best ways to prevent muscle stiffness and injury. A good warm-up consists of moving your body by slowly walking, gently jogging, and light participation in the activity you’re warming up for. The goal is to increase your heart rate a little bit, which increases your muscles’ temperature so they move more easily. Your warm-up period doesn’t have to take long, either. Five minutes or so will do the trick.

Once you’ve revved up your body with a good warm-up, you’re ready to start stretching. Stretches are most beneficial when you hold them for at least 30 seconds, but a good rule of thumb is to start by holding a stretch for just five seconds and work your way up to 30 seconds as your body gets used to the stretching and exercise. As you stretch, be sure not to bounce as this action can increase your risk of injury. If you’re not sure how to stretch or you want to make sure you are performing your warm-up and stretching properly, visit your local gym for advice.

It’s true that the warm-up period of your exercise is more self explanatory than stretching, so here are a few simple stretching techniques and positions that may help.

Calf stretch – This is a great stretch if you’re going to be using your legs during exercise, such as when you run or play many team sports. Begin this stretch by facing and standing about two feet away from a wall. With your heels flat and your back straight, slowly lean forward and press your hands and forehead against the wall. You should feel this stretch in your calf right above your ankles.

Hamstring stretch – You’ve likely heard of a lot of people who get hamstring injuries, so this exercise is obviously very important. Lie with your back flat on the floor and both knees bent. With your feet flat on the floor, slowly bend your right knee up to your chest, place both hands behind your right thigh and then extend your leg upward. You should feel the stretch in the back of your leg. Repeat this exercise with the left leg.

Neck stretch – This is a good stretch if you’re going to be working out your upper body, especially the shoulders. Standing upright, hang both arms by your side. Then take one arm and twist your palm so it is facing out. At the same time, grasp your head with your other hand and gently pull your ear toward your shoulder. Stop and hold when you feel the first signs of stretching along the side of your neck. Repeat on the other side.

Okay, there’s no time for excuses anymore now that you know how to warm up and stretch. Get out there and get moving and have a great time – you’re going to feel great!

Exactly how fit are you? It’s an intriguing question. Many people over and under estimate their own fitness. Often, the fitter people get, the more critical they are of their own fitness. The ways of measuring your fitness is almost as varied as the ways you can get fit. So how do we find out how fit we are?

Measuring your fitness is important for a few reasons. Knowing your current fitness level will enable you to make clear goals for your workout program. You’ll be able to measure your fitness after some time, and see how far you’ve progressed. This will help to maintain your motivation. Finally, it’s important to know your fitness level so that you can choose the most appropriate exercise and strength training for your body.

There are four primary components of fitness that you can measure. The first is aerobic fitness. This is your endurance level, and it is dependent upon your age, gender, and improves with proper training. Aerobic fitness is directly related to the proportion of your bodyweight that is free of fat. Your level of aerobic fitness implies a level of health, and thus is a very important measurement.

Aerobic movement requires the delivery of oxygen to the muscles. Oxygen is delivered to the muscles via your bloodstream. Therefore, each heartbeat you have is an indicator of the amount of blood traveling through your bloodstream. So one way to measure your aerobic fitness is to take your heart rate, or pulse. Record your resting pulse rate, and then go for a one-mile brisk walk. Take your pulse again once you’ve immediately finished the mile, and record how long it took you to walk. As you gain aerobic fitness, your heart rate should lower. So should the time it takes you to walk the mile! The average resting heart rate for an adult is 60 to 100 beats per minute (bpm). Truly fit individuals can have a resting heart rate of 40bpm!

The second measurement is muscular fitness. This relates to your strength, and the endurance of that strength. Your muscular fitness can show how susceptible you are to injury. It also relates to your bone mass. A very simple way of testing your muscular fitness is with push-ups. You can time yourself, and see how many you do in that timeframe. Or, you can just complete as many push-ups as possible before fatigue sets in.

The third measurement is flexibility. This is your body’s ability to move joints and muscles through a full range of motion. It can also relate to your balance and coordination levels. A tight muscle can prevent normal movement. The most common way to measure your flexibility is via the dreaded sit and reach test. With this test, you’ll need a measuring tape. Place the measuring tape along the floor. With your feet at zero, and the tape stretching away from you, sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Try to touch your feet or stretch as far past your feet as possible. Have a friend check how far you went on the measuring tape. If you can’t reach your toes, you’ll have a negative number. If you stretch past your feet, you’ll have a positive number. Obviously, the more flexible your legs, hips, and lower back are, the further you will be able to reach in this test. One problem, though, is that your flexibility in each joint is independent of your other joints. Therefore, you may have very flexible shoulder joints, but terribly tight hamstrings.

The fourth measurement is your body composition. This tends to relate to the amount of fat on your body, and where that fat is located. The location of fat at specific sites (in particular, the waist area) places you at higher risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. A simple way of measuring your body composition is via your body mass index (BMI). This is your body weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of your height (in meters). For example, if your weight is 61 kilograms, and your height is 1.69 meters, then your BMI calculation would be

61
(1.69 x 1.69)

That’s a BMI of 21.36. There are also charts that allow you to look up your BMI based on your height and weight. The range for a normal BMI is 18.5 – 25. You will fall into the overweight range if your BMI is anywhere between 25 – 30. Obese is anything greater than 30. Underweight is anything under 18.5.

Another important body composition test is to measure your waist. Anything larger than 40 inches for men, and 35 inches for women increases your health risks. This is particularly important to take notice of if your BMI is larger than 25.

So how fit are you? But more importantly, how fit do you intend to be? Set your goals, work your program, and watch as those numbers go down, down, down.

Welcome Jackie and Stormy Hornback

Welcome Our New Athletes!

Stephanie Hill

Lameka Grayson

Cameron Lopez

Welcome New Athletes!

Megan Nelom

Katarina White

Welcome Kimberly Jones to our little fitness family!

Welcome Deandra to our Boot Camp family!

I’m just saying…Fit Test results from last week.

Total increased push ups: 23

Total increased sit ups: 43

Total increased squats: 47

Total weight lost: 22.8 pounds

Total inches lost in waist, 19

Total inches lost in hip: 12

Way to go Boot Camp Athletes, You are awesome! Want results like this? Join Killeen’s Best Fitness Boot Camp today! Call Jim at 254-247-3668 for a free class and body composition assessment.

An insider’s guide to the most potent brain foods available at your local supermarket.

Learning and growing smarter and more aware isn’t always easy. It takes hard work, studying the latest findings of whatever piques your interest, and a third ingredient that makes the other two possible: food. But if you think all food is equal when it comes to powering up your gray matter, think again. If you’re feeding your belly the wrong foods, your brain may be paying the price.

How It Works

“Input, output, what goes in is what comes out.” The old children’s song holds many truths, including the fact that what foods go in your body affect what goes on in your brain and ultimately comes out of you. Just like your heart, your brain requires lots of oxygen to function properly. When oxygen-rich blood has a hard time getting to your brain for one reason or another, it becomes difficult to process information and remember events.

Other problems can also arise in the brain due to your diet. One is the build up of free radicals. Free radicals are damaged cells that roam free in your body and harm surrounding healthy cells. The best protection against excessive free radicals is eating plenty of antioxidants. If you don’t provide this protection, your brain can suffer as a result.

Brain Food No-Nos

As if they weren’t seen in a bad enough light, research has found trans-fats and saturated fats to have a bad effect on your ability to think. So avoiding foods high in these fats will help your heart stay healthy and your brain strong and ready to think for years to come. Other foods to avoid for a stronger brain include fast food of all kinds and anything that falls into the “junk food” category. In case you’re wondering, that includes greasy potato chips and just about anything you’ll see in the checkout aisle at the store.

On top of watching certain foods, you should avoid eating too much of anything – good or bad. By eating extra calories, the synapses in your brain that help you think can become less flexible, reducing your ability to learn at your maximum potential. It can also result in damage to damaged cells in your body, forming free radicals that have no regard for what cells it damages, whether they’re located in your arm or your brain.

Powered Up for Success

If you’re ready to beef up your brain, eating the right foods is essential. By including the proper foods in your diet, you enable yourself to learn better and enjoy better memory.

Foods that boost your brain’s potential include the following:

• salmon
• walnuts
• kiwi
• blueberries
• spinach
• orange juice
• strawberries
• other foods with omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid, and vitamin B

In addition to helping your brainpower today, researchers have found that eating the right foods can also help you ward off many frightening conditions, including dementia, schizophrenia, depression, and mood disorders. Don’t eat these foods, and you could actually be increasing your risk for these conditions and others. For the most effective brain-boosting diet, try eating smaller food portions at each meal, even if that means you have to consume more meals than the usual three a day.

Written by Crystal Haynes of CrossFit Milford

When you first walk in, it’s just a gym.

The multi-colored, circular things stacked in the corner; those are just weights.

The room smells like rubber. The rhythmic hum of the row machines provide a quiet, and melodic, white noise; a background to the actual noise of the gym. Music fills the parts air and chatter, maybe a little smack talk, fills the other parts.

It’s just a gym.

Until it’s not.

2 years ago I almost died. A fever of 1-hundred-something degrees, an immune system not worth a damn; and a body battered from years of asthma, respiratory infections, and countless servings of Chef Boyardee and Easy Mac. And when I was well, I made a promise to myself.

1 and a half years ago I had made a change. I started eating better and went to the globo-gym 4 times a week. I ran my first mile at 25 years old.

One year ago I walked into CrossFit on assignment.

Two days later, I made THE change of my life.

The first workout is the hardest; you’re a mess with nervous anticipation; a sense of not knowing what your body will do.

In time, you will. The workouts never get easier, but they do get less intimidating and then fun.

When I hit the door, I was on three different inhalers; could barley do a jumping pull-up (on a box,) and always finished last in the workouts.

One year out — 1 inhaler, chest to bar pull-ups…and I only finish last about 50% of the time.

But it didn’t strike me how far I’ve come in a year, until one really sweaty day last week.

After collapsing on the floor; my central nervous system shaken up; my shins talking to me, saying. “no means no to box jumps,” I heard a voice behind me.

“Good job, Crystal.” I had heard this before (We are the most welcoming CrossFit in the Northeast. No, really. I checked,) “You make this all look so easy.”

You can imagine my surprise, given that I have never been good at anything athletic in my entire life. I used to convinced my gym teachers to let me write papers to get out of having to participate in class in high school.

The next day at CF, I worked with someone fresh out of the “On Ramp” class. I found myself giving them tips and slight corrections; not thinking anything of it. But at the end of class they smiled at me, thanking me for my help.

Thanking *me.*

The geek who used to play chess and spent entire Saturdays at the library helping the librarians stock shelves; getting a sneak peak at the new arrivals.

While I believed it before, I believe it more than ever now. CrossFit is not just a gym.

There are weights. There is loud music. There are even muscle heads.

But there are moms. There are dads. There are kids. There are coaches. There are friends. There are cheerleaders. There are warriors. There are dozens of people who get up every day (or three days, one off) and make a choice to *be* the change. And they change all who touch them.

So it isn’t just a gym. It can’t be.

So I can’t just be some woman who works out. I’m an athlete. I can’t be anything else.

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.” –Mother Teresa

A fattening, unhealthy look at some of the worst foods you can eat for breakfast.

Doughnuts

You knew it was coming, so may as well get it over with. Whether glazed, powdered, or cream-filled, doughnuts were made to be delicious ways to begin or interrupt your day. What they were not created for was to be a healthy way to get your day started right. Many companies have made it their mission to create the ultimate healthy doughnut, but every attempt has come off less tasty than the original. Instead of settling for something that tastes less than the best, leave doughnuts of all shapes, sizes, and health on the shelf.

Kids’ Cereals

You never want to grow up. You love your big-kid toys and your big-kid video games, and you’re still eating the same cereal you were when you were in elementary school. Unfortunately, those brightly colored, sugary sweet cereals have not become any healthier over the years. In fact, researchers from Yale University state that these kid-friendly cereals that are full of sugar and artificial flavors are usually less healthy than any cereals made for adults. So if your kids are eating the same colorful cereals as you, you’ll all need to change. Instead, look for something with four grams of fiber and less than four grams of sugar per serving.

Energy Bars

They’re crammed full of protein and go-get-em, and they fit in the palm of your hand. So what’s the problem? The problem is that alongside all that energy-boosting protein, there is also a lot of fat and calories. If you don’t spend adequate time each day to get rid of these extra fats and calories, your whole body is going to feel the extra pounds piling on. Instead of grabbing an energy bar for breakfast, only eat them right before or after an intense workout. That way you’re keeping your body fueled properly, but you’re also burning off most of the stuff you don’t want stuck to your hips.

Front Seat Foods

The mother of all bad breakfast foods is breakfast on the go. While fast-food breakfast is convenient and relatively inexpensive, it is also one of the worst ways to fill your stomach in the morning. Some of the most common options are sausage or chicken biscuits; biscuits and gravy; or bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. Make any of these items at home and you’ll be on the border of unhealthy. Pick them up at a fast-food restaurant and you’re guaranteed a dose of artery-slowing, fat-producing food, served in a Styrofoam carton with a side of orange juice. And no, the 100% natural orange juice doesn’t magically turn gravy into a harmless or healthy substance.

Don’t think it can be done? You’re about to be very surprised.

When you walk into the labor and delivery room, your belly is bulging. If the baby stays inside you one more day, you fear your stomach will simply explode. And when the contractions are over and your new little one has arrived, you look down and realize a shocking fact: your baby didn’t take all the extra weight from your body.

Want to shave off 40 weeks of weight gain? Read on to get a few tried-and-true methods to get you back on the road to light.

Breastfeed. You may plan to have your baby feed on a bottle when you go back to work, but if you really want to see pounds fall by the wayside, nothing works as well as breastfeeding. Okay – so the jury is still out about whether breastfeeding will really get rid of those pregnancy pounds, but it’s definitely worth a try. Even if it doesn’t work, it won’t cause you to gain weight, and you’ll boost your newborn’s immunity and reduce your likelihood for breast cancer in the future in the process.

Eat. Before you got pregnant, you had to watch what you ate to maintain a healthy weight. Now that you’ve had baby, the same watchfulness is needed to lose pregnancy weight. If you’re breastfeeding your baby, do not cut back on your calorie intake. Regardless of whether you’re breastfeeding or using the bottle, don’t eat high-calorie or high-fat foods. Rather, go for anything stuffed with lots of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Need more information on nutrition? Check out our Killeen Fitness Boot Camp Nutrition page.

Sleep. Though sleeping doesn’t sound like something that is going to help you shed pounds, not getting good sleep is a sure way to hang onto pregnancy pounds. According to research, insufficient sleep increases stress levels, which can in turn increase your weight. On top of the stress-induced weight gain, feeling sleepy also makes you less likely to feel like exercising – a major way you can help your body fend off the weight that doesn’t look quite as cute now that it isn’t accompanied by a pregnant belly.

Exercise. Though you don’t want to jump headfirst into an intense workout regiment immediately after giving birth, you should begin implementing exercise into your daily routine as soon as possible. During the first few days after giving birth, go for a short walk. If it hurts of you get tired, stop and take a rest. Giving birth is a traumatic event on your body, and it can take a while to recover. Allow your body to recover in its own time, but don’t stop trying to help it along. 6 weeks after baby comes, jump back into working out at the boot camp.

Exercise Some More. Even if you breastfeed, eat right, get nine hours of sleep each night, and take a walk around the block each day, you may still a few pounds that cling on for dear life. If this happens to you, you will need to increase the amount and intensity of your exercises. For fun ways to exercise, check into “Mommy and Me” exercise classes that allow you to spend time with your child and get fit at the same time. You may also want to make your way back into the gym as soon as possible for some weight training. To make sure your routine isn’t putting you at risk, talk with your physician before beginning anything strenuous.