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You need warm up exercises to get your muscles warmed up and ready for a tough workout. These are low effort movements that you can do before you start your regular exercise program. Many are dynamic stretches, which gently warm the muscles. Dynamic stretches keep your body moving and unlike toe touching, aren’t held for long. Torso twists are one example. They also prepare your heart for a workout and improve your performance.

Reaching in all directions can help.

One of my favorite warm-ups is super simple. Just stand with feet apart wider than hip-width. You’ll do a propeller move, pivoting on one foot as you swing that arm across your chest and twisting your upper body and torso in that same direction. Then you do it with the other foot and arm. Standing in the same position, lean the body to one side, bending that knee as you do and stretching the opposite arm into the air at a diagonal to your body. Stretch as you make that move and repeat it using the other side.

Pacing is actually the start of a warm-up.

Anything that gets your circulation going is a good way to start. Jogging in place or simply pacing can be beneficial. Mix that pacing with something a little more difficult, like a walking lunge or lunge twist. Like the movement above it’s all about stretching your arms and twisting and you bend down into the lunge. You can do a side lunge and lift your opposite arm above your head and lean to that side, for even more benefit.

Mimic the exercise you’ll be doing, but on a far gentler level.

If you’re running, jog a bit at first. Use those muscles you’ll be using for running and do leg swings or leg pendulums. Just gently swing one leg and then swing the other. Follow that with quad stretches for a few seconds. If you’re lifting weights, warm-ups increase your range of motion, reduce the potential for injury and help you make more impressive and permanent changes. Warm the whole body with short jogs, jumping jacks, squats, push-ups or lunges.

Riding a stationary bike and then switching to arm circles can be an easy warm-up that will address all areas of your body. When you do arm circles, start with small circles in one direction and work toward larger ones, then change the direction of the circles.

Easy body twists can help warm core muscles. Stand with feet wider than hip-width and arms outstretched, at a 90 degree angle to the body. Twist the upper body from side-to-side.

If you’re doing explosive training, the quick bursts of energy of jumping jacks can be an easy warm-up that won’t stress the muscles. Explosive training maximizes your power in a short period of time.

When you’re doing warm-up workouts, start slower and easier, then work up to a faster pace and level of difficulty. Your initial warm-up should gradually move to more difficult and prepare the body for even harder moves of your workout.

At LIV Fitness in Dublin, CA, we encourage people to set smart goals, since it’s the best way to achieve them. Fitness goals need to be realistic. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Start with a specific goal. Vague goals, such as I want to lose weight or get into shape, don’t provide any information to let you know you’ve achieved your goal. If you are fifty pounds overweight and say you want to lose weight, do you achieve your goal when you’ve lost a pound? Decide exactly what you want and achieve it.

Make your goal measurable.

You need to know if you’re making progress and have a way to measure success. Do you want to lose inches, pounds or have enough energy to climb five flights of stairs in under five minutes without having to stop. When you can measure your goals, you know whether you’re making progress. It allows you to set milestones so you can celebrate occasionally. Everyone needs that, no matter what their goals.

Make sure your goal is attainable.

Too often people want to make the progress move faster, but that’s not how the body works. In order to lose one pound, you have to eat 3500 fewer calories than you burn. It’s impossible to permanently lose twenty pounds in a day, but not to lose twenty pounds in two months. While you want to reach for the stars and aim high, building muscles doesn’t happen overnight. A lofty goal is important, but so is having an appropriate amount of time to do it.

Is your goal relevant and time-based?

What is a relevant goal? It’s one that’s important to you. If you want to lose weight because someone told you that you should, you won’t have the success you’d have if you really wanted the weight loss. Don’t let someone determine your goals. Of course, a health care professional may tell you that you need to lose weight. In that case, focus only on how good you’d feel and how much longer and healthier you’d live. Making your goal time-based gives you a deadline. If you don’t, the goal becomes a “some day” and that never comes.

• Your plan of action should include the steps you take to reach your goals. Those steps might include eating healthy or exercising every other day.
• Track your progress. If you don’t track your progress, how will you know if you’ve succeeded. Track your progress in the gym by the amount of weight you lift or reps you do. You can even use other measures.
• Make your goals a priority. They should be important to you. You should schedule your workout as you would any appointment, which also helps make it a habit and ensures you’ll stick with the program.
• Keep your goals in front of you. Some people put them on sticky notes and post them around the house. Do something every day to help achieve your fitness goals. It doesn’t have to be working out in the gym, doing something fun, yet active is important, too.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness

You see them everywhere, protein powders and shakes. They were at one time strictly in supplement and health food stores, but now are on grocery shelves, discount stores and pharmacies. To make it more confusing, there are protein drinks and powders of all kinds. There are ones for seniors, ones for bodybuilders and ones for vegetarians. Are they a waste of money? Dangerous? Or truly beneficial? For seniors, the answer might be yes, since the ability to use protein efficiently diminishes with age. How vigorously you exercise and your weight and muscular development also play a role.

Your protein intake varies by a number of factors.

If you’re female, you need less protein than a male. Your body weight also plays a key role in the amount of protein you need. The more you weigh, the more protein you require. If you aren’t using your muscles, like exercising, which can cause micro tears, you don’t need as much protein as an active person. Protein is used to help repair those tears and build more muscle mass. Someone with an intense workout schedule, like an athlete, needs the most. As noted previously, aging can also cause a need for more protein.

In the United States and other developed countries, protein deficiency isn’t a wide spread problem.

Marasmus, Kwashiorkor, inherited conditions and Cachexia are protein deficiency diseases. Marasmus and Kwshiorkor come from dietary lack of protein. Their symptoms include irritability, fatigue, lack of growth, diarrhea and impaired or stunted cognitive functioning or mental health issues. Lack of protein is most often seen in third world countries, especially during famine, when food is hard to find. On the other end of the spectrum, you can have too much protein. It can occur when you eat more than 2.2 grams per kilogram of weight over an extended time. Symptoms are dehydration, exhaustion, nausea, headache, irritability, with severe ones being kidney disease, seizures, blood vessel disorders, cardiovascular and liver disease that can result in death.

You probably don’t need any protein supplement or shake if you have a healthy diet.

There’s no harm in drinking a protein shake occasionally, but you should never do it to replace a healthy meal. A little extra protein may be good if you’re older or have a tough workout schedule. You don’t need to sprinkle on protein or add extra protein at every meal. Unless your health care professional advises otherwise, limit the additional protein supplements and simply eat healthier.

• Every part of the body uses protein as building blocks. The body needs it to make skin, muscle, bones, cartilage and blood.
• If you’re trying to lose weight, protein can help. Boosting your protein intake will make you feel fuller longer. You don’t need supplements to do that and can get that from eating regular food.
• One of the drawbacks of consuming high amounts of protein is the bad breath it causes. It’s the type of breath that doesn’t disappear from brushing your teeth or using mouthwash.
• One of the biggest problems with protein shakes or supplements is that people use them to replace food. That means they don’t get all the nutrients a more traditional meal could supply.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness

At LIV Fitness, in Dublin, CA, we help you make time for workouts by offering 24/7 service, but people still find it hard to find the time to add a workout to their schedule. The US Department of Health and Human Services advises adults to get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week or 75 minutes of more intense activity. That urging is obviously ignored when you consider that 80% of the American population doesn’t meet that requirement. Most people say they don’t have enough time, so one solution is to get up earlier and workout in the morning. Not only will working out for 30 minutes every morning get you into a consistent habit, it boosts your metabolism.

Make an appointment with fitness.

One of the biggest reasons getting up early actually works is that there are few distractions to sidetrack you that early in the day. You can get the same results by making your workout an appointment with the gym. Put it in your planner, on your daily calendar, make a reminder to go off in your phone. Do the same things you would do with any important appointment. If you have to schedule another appointment, that time is already taken, just as it would be with any other appointment. Make working out a priority appointment.

Break your workout down to short ten minute sessions.

While this type of workout program is best if you’re working from home, it’s still effective. If you know your schedule is super crowded, add three separate ten-minute workouts between other tasks. Not only will it help you get moving more often during the day, it’s just as effective as a solid 30-minute workout. When you’re working in an office, either close your office door and do some calisthenics or take your break tackling a few flights of steps. Walk to lunch, ride a bike to and from work or do some serious power walking while you’re waiting for the kids at basketball practice.

Pack two bags of workout clothes.

Always have your gym bag and workout clothes with you, so you’re ready to workout and won’t cancel because you left it at home. You may already be driving around with your gym bag and workout clothes in your car, but what about those days you take the clothes inside to wash? That’s why having a second bag ready. Carry not one but two bags with you at all times. One is the emergency bag for those days you forget to replace the bag after you’ve washed your gym clothes.

• Keep your goal in front of you and conquer your mindset. View exercise as something you love, because it ultimately makes you feel better, not another chore. Make it your special time for yourself.
• Watching TV can be an opportunity to exercise. Have a list of exercises you can do without disturbing the whole family. Planks, lunges, crunches and squats still allow you to watch, but you’ll be doing it more actively.
• Cut down the amount of time you spend by doing HIIT—high intensity interval training—or other high intensity workouts. Studies show that shorter HIIT workouts are as effective as longer steady state workouts.
• Eat healthy, get adequate sleep and hydrate regularly. Those things will help you have more energy to have a more productive workout when you’re at the gym. You also won’t feel too tired to workout.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness

Intermittent fasting—IF— has become quite a hot topic in Dublin, CA. Some people think it’s a diet or think that they have to give up food for long periods, but that’s just not true. Intermittent fasting is one method of losing weight and improving health that doesn’t require any specific diet, but of course, healthy eating still is important. It’s a way to schedule your meals and give your digestion a break. It can be as simple as eating only during an eight-hour period and fasting the other sixteen, to eating light or not eating one or two days a week.

Weight loss may be one benefit of intermittent fasting.

There are studies that show both types of IF, eating only within an eight-hour window or fasting for one or two days a week, may help boost weight loss. Your body requires glucose as fuel and that simple sugar comes from food. If the food is sugar or simple carbs, it’s broken down more quickly. If you don’t eat food used to create glucose, after eight-hours, the body breaks down fat for food. Your insulin levels drop and you lose weight. Studies show that using an eight-hour window for food consumption actually lowered subject’s appetite.

Animal studies about intermittent fasting have been around for quite a while.

As early as the 1940s, animal studies on the effects of IF on aging. The studies at the University of Chicago showed that feeding rats on alternate days helped them live longer and delayed the normal signs and diseases of aging. It was surmised that fasting was a normal part of life, since early man did not have easy access to food and often had to go without for several days. The studies showed improved metabolism, weight loss, an aid to fight inflammation, lower blood sugar levels, reduced insulin resistance, and improved removal of damaged cells, which aided in lowering the risk of cancer. It even showed improved brain function.

There can be dangers in fasting and it’s not for everyone.

People with advanced diabetes and take medication shouldn’t fast unless they’re under the supervision of a doctor. Those taking heart medication, blood pressure medicine, are pregnant or breastfeeding or have an eating disorder shouldn’t fast without being closely monitored either or at all in some cases. Even circadian fasting, eating all your food in an eight-hour window and fasting the other 16, need to talk to their health care professional first.

• IF may be healthy and help you shed extra pounds, but it’s never meant to replace healthy food. If you’re eating junk food in your window of eating, you simply won’t lose weight or be healthier.
• More recent Japanese human studies confirmed what was learned by earlier animal studies. Fasting tended to slow the aging process, while also speeding up metabolism. Rats on the IF program had dark coats, while their counterparts had grayed or died.
• One of the reasons circadian fasting may work is that many people gain weight from eating snacks late at night. Narrowing the window, while also reducing hunger is the perfect combination for weight loss.
• If your doctor okays circadian IF, people with insulin resistance or early diabetes often benefit from it. It lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, while also increasing energy and mental clarity.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness 24/7