Best Fitness Blog

During this month of valentine hearts and sweets, remember it is also Heart Awareness month. There is no better time to care for your heart than now, and this month gives you the perfect excuse to start.

Did you know that diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure, all risk factors for heart disease, can be completely controlled by exercise? By changing your lifestyle through diet and exercise you give yourself the opportunity for a healthy and heart fit life as you age.

A sedentary lifestyle is the main cause for heart disease and cardiac arrest. Fortunately, it is completely under your control. Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, has many benefits including strengthening your heart and cardiovascular system, strengthening your bones and lowering your blood pressure.

Exercise is the key to a healthy and happy life. But don’t be discouraged if you have never exercised regularly before. Small steps through walking, cycling, and fun group exercise classes are how you begin. But don’t put it off any longer, start now.

Is it time for you to start taking care of your heart? Don’t know where to start? Contact Best Fitness in your area to see how we can help.

Depression and Exercise ... by Karli Taylor

Weight loss, disease prevention and athletic performance enhancement- all things we think of as reasons to exercise. All of these things, however, are physical manifestations of the benefits of exercise. What about the mental or emotional side of things? What about exercise as treatment for depression?

Research has shown that physical activity may be effective in improving mood for clinically depressed and non-depressed individuals alike. How?

For example, high intensity exercise, such as, running or cycling, is typically perceived as a means for people to deal with bottled up emotions. Anyone who has ever held a job, attended school, or has been involved in relationships with others can attest to the release of bottled up emotions or “cathartic” effect of running or cycling on significantly decreasing anger, tension and stress.

Is this the result of a hormone release? Some type of "endorphin high"? Studies show mixed results. Behavior theorists would claim that exercise leads to improved mood states because of the higher incidence and opportunity for positive reinforcement. People who exercise may receive more compliments on their appearance or high energy level.

Regardless of the reason, positive and significant correlation exists between an increased intensity of training with a reduction in depression. Sounds like a good enough reason to me!

Cross Training ... by Karli Taylor

The weather gets nice and we all just want to run (or cycle or swim or hike) outside. Every year I encounter people who freeze their gym memberships for 3 months and stick to their outdoor sports. I get it- I really do, but now I'm going to tell you why that's not such a great idea...

By just running (or cycling etc), you are doing 2 things that will work against you in the long run- you are creating imbalances and overuse injuries and you are quickly running toward a training plateau.

First let's talk about the imbalance thing. Though your body will become very efficient at the sport you gravitate towards during the summer, you are using the same muscles day in and day out. These muscles, over the course of the summer, will grow unusually tight. This tightness will put you at risk for muscle strains, pulls and even tears.

In addition to overusing certain muscles, you start to under use or neglect others. The muscles that you neglect will lose strength also putting you at risk for injury.

Now onto the training plateau- like I said earlier, your body will become very efficient at your sport of choice. For a while you will see gain after gain. Surely all of this repetitive running is good for you if you get faster each week right? WRONG. This improvement will inevitably stall- your body will become so efficient at running that you will need to run for hours to actually get a workout! I don't know about you, but I don't have 3 hours a day to run to burn a few extra calories.

So what's my point? My point is that playing outside is GREAT. I applaud all of you for being dedicated to your sport- but be informed as well. Treat yourself to at least one day off each week and at least 2 days of cross training. If you are a runner--cycle, if you are a swimmer---run. Shake up your cardio routine to get the greatest gains possible. I'd be willing to bet money on the fact that if you replace 2 running workouts each week with a bike ride, you will be a better runner by the end of the summer than you would be if you just ran.

Also- don't forget about resistance training. I know it's often a drag to be inside in the nice weather, but if you can squeeze in 2 30 minute sessions each week, you will not lose strength or muscle quality. It will be enough to keep you from losing all of your progress, and you can focus more on making gains in the gym when the snow comes back.