Fitness & Wellness

Your Fitness Journey Starts Today

Your Fitness Journey Starts Today

You don’t have to study for years to begin your fitness journey, but you do have to make a firm decision to change your habits and make them healthier. That’s always the first step in any journey. Healthy habits, like exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, drinking plenty of water and eating a healthy diet are goals that can lead the way. You need to get your attitude in line, so you look forward to making the changes, not feel sorry for yourself.

Don’t feel deprived when you’re eating healthier.

At first, the change in your diet will be a shock, especially if you’re eating highly processed foods and foods laden with sugar. Sugar is in almost all processed items, too. Sugar is addictive and at first you’ll really crave it. It won’t take long before the healthy food you’re eating will actually taste different. Fruit will taste sweeter, for instance. That’s because when you eat sugar, it blocks the sense of the sweet taste and you have to eat more sugar every time to get it. Once you quit, your taste goes back to normal. Whether you give up sugar or simply increase your vegetable intake, like any journey, starting is what’s important.

Get moving.

If you aren’t ready for a formal exercise program or so out of shape you simply won’t last long? Don’t worry, you can change that. It takes time, however. There’s a true story about a young man that was so severely obese that he could barely get out of his chair. His doctor’s told him he would die if he didn’t lose weight. He started by exercising. It was just walking out of his house to the end of the walk and back. That’s as far as he could go. Every week he went a few steps further, until he got to the end of his block, then several blocks. Since those first steps, several years have passed. Not only did he lose weight and live healthier, he’s become a marathon runner, but it was that first step that made the difference.

Own your effort to get fit.

You can listen to others about what you need to do, but this challenge to get healthier is all yours. Only you should determine what you want to work on next. You can follow outlines based on science, but how you accomplish each step depends on you. Do you love riding a bike? Start by doing that. Do you want to increase your daily activity? Take the steps not the elevator or walk to lunch. Are vegetables not your favorite? Make spaghetti squash and put extra vegetables in the sauce.

  • If you don’t have a full hour to exercise or even a half hour, carve out three ten minute sessions throughout the day. It’s just as healthy to walk for ten minutes, exercise ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at night.
  • If you’re adding something to your schedule, like exercise, try to do it at the same time each day until it becomes habit.
  • Too often people go on diets that require counting calories or counting carbs. Make it simpler by eating whole food, food closest to its natural state. Vegetables fill you up without adding extra calories, so you’ll lose weight without the hassle.
  • If you’ve had a rough day and consider skipping your workout, remember that exercise is a big stress buster. It burns off the hormones of stress and replaces them with ones that make you feel good.

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


Home Workouts That Burn The Most Calories

Home Workouts That Burn The Most Calories

There are tons of articles written about the perfect workout, which ones are true? If you go LIV Fitness, our trainers will help you with routines that are geared to your fitness level and burn the most calories, but you’re on your own trying to sift through the information on the internet to find home workouts that burn the most calories, Here are some guidelines to help you identify the best workouts.

Intensity counts.

No matter what type of exercise you choose, it’s the amount of intensity that makes the difference. You’ll burn more calories in a half hour of power walking than you would with a half hour of leisurely strolling. One type of workout that proves this is HIIT—high intensity interval training. Since it’s almost impossible to go at peak intensity for very long, HIIT has you adjust your workout with a minute or two at top intensity and an equal amount of time at a recovery level, then back to peak intensity. Even seasoned athletes can’t go at top intensity for extended periods of exercise.

Full body workouts are exceptionally good at burning calories.

It only makes sense that working more muscles during an exercise would make you burn more calories and that’s exactly what a full body workout does. Full body workouts use compound exercises that do just that. Some examples of these exercises that you can do at home include ones that use dumbbells like squat to overhead press, wood chop or bent over dumbbell row and bodyweight exercises, such as the plank, skater hop and squats.

Some calorie sizzling workouts require equipment.

Luckily, most of the equipment necessary for these are simple and relatively inexpensive. Strength building exercises using dumbbells and barbells burn tons of calories while building muscle. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn 24/7, since it boosts your metabolism. Kettlebell workouts burn hundreds of calories. They work major muscle groups, including core muscles.

  • You can modify any type of workout and make it a HIIT workout. Whether you’re jumping rope, running, walking or doing a circuit of exercises, HIIT not only burns calories as you do it, but raises your metabolism for hours after you’re done.
  • Jumping rope is a simple exercise you can do at home that burns tons of calories, too. You can modify your intensity and vary your routine to make it HIIT.
  • If you have a bike, take it for a spin. You can burn over 600 calories an hour if you’re going at a fast pace on uneven terrain. You can also make it practical. Add a carrier and use it to go shopping or ride to work and save on gas.
  • In order to lose weight, your efforts need to start in the kitchen. No matter how many calories you burn working out, it won’t overcome an unhealthy, calorie laden diet.

For more information, contact us today at Liv Fitness


Could Split Workouts Be Better For You?

Could Split Workouts Be Better For You?

If you come to LIV Fitness in Dublin, CA, you’ll find people that use split workouts and others that swear by full-body workouts. Which one is best? There are pros and cons for both types of workouts and it all depends on which one is best for you. A split workout breaks your workout to various parts of the body on different days, normally it’s upper body and lower body days with abs on either day. Full-body workouts are just that, a workout that addresses the needs of all parts of your body.

If you want to focus in on building specific muscle groups, split workouts will help.

Bodybuilders often use split training because it allows for more intensity and focus on specific areas of the body. It works an area hard and provides extra days for recovery. Split workouts allow you to work muscle groups to fatigue, which stimulates growth and repair. So if your goal is to build big muscles, a split workout may be for you. It lets you rest those muscle groups for up to 48 hours, which is a guideline for resistance training.

If you have a busy schedule, split training may not be best for you.

Split training is great for those who have more time to devote to perfection, but that’s not always the case for most people. Most people exercise to attain fitness, but not necessarily perfection. People who are just starting workout programs get the most progress from a full body workout, especially if they’re trying to lose weight. They burn more calories, since more muscles and joints are worked at once. Beginners also find that full body workouts are more focused on technique and build overall strength and fitness.

There are several types of split workouts.

While the most common form of split workouts is the upper body/lower body combination, there are other ways to categorize and split up your workout. If you train the muscles that push on one day and the muscles that pull on others, you’re using a push/pull split workout. Working opposing muscle groups together are antagonistic split workouts. You work muscles that have opposing actions, like quads and hamstrings. When your quads contract, your hamstrings relax and visa versa. Biceps and triceps are another example of true antagonists that would be worked together with an antagonistic split.

  • If you know you can stick to a workout regimen, a split routine could work for you. Skipping a day at the gym can throw the whole schedule off. If you’re unsure, stick with a whole body workout rather than lose progress from skipping days.
  • Those who are serious about body building often have more severe split schedules, focusing on one major group of muscles a day and working out six days a week.
  • You can build stronger and larger muscles with a split workout, since you’re focusing on one group of muscles, so the workout can be more intense. It’s especially effective for weight lifters and body builders and helps avoid burnout before the end of the session.
  • No matter what type of workout you choose, find the one that helps you reach your goals and is good for your present level of fitness. People often start with a full body workout, and as they become fitter, may switch to a split workout.

For more information, contact us today at Liv Fitness


What Exercises Burn Stomach Fat?

What Exercises Burn Stomach Fat?

Everyone wants that six-pack look or the perfect flat stomach. In fact, you’ll find all types of exercises and workouts on the internet that claim to burn stomach fat, but the truth is, you can’t just burn fat in one area, it comes off the entire body. No matter how many exercises you do to tone your abs, if you still have a layer of fat covering them, nobody will see the work you’ve done. In order to burn belly fat, you have to burn fat all over your body.

Compound exercises and full body workouts burn tons of calories.

You lose fat when you eat fewer calories than you burn. Compound exercises and those that work the entire body burn more calories. The key is to burn calories from fat and build muscle tissue at the same time. Since compound exercises, ones that use several groups of muscles and joints, burn more calories, those are the ones that will get you to a flat stomach faster. A few compound exercises are squats, push-ups, burpees and planks.

Some exercises build your abs and burn tons of calories.

Consider exercises like the bicycle crunch. Not only does it tone abdominal muscles, it is tough and burns lots of calories. You lay on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your upper body as you bring your left knee toward your head, while bringing your right elbow to your left knee and then lowering your upper body back, but not touching the floor. Then bring the left elbow forward to touch the right knee. It’s a pedaling action combined with lifting and holding the upper body as your elbow crosses your body. It burns tons of calories and builds those abs.

HIIT workouts not only burn calories when you do them, but long after.

HIIT workouts aren’t a specific type of workout, but a specific way to do any type of workout. It involves working out at top intensity for a few minutes and then lowering the intensity to a recovery period for a few minutes, then back up to high intensity and so on. Alternating between intensities not only burns tons of calories while you’re doing the exercise, it causes afterburn, which boosts your metabolism for up to 48 hours. You can do it with any type of exercise from bodyweight workouts to walking.

  • What you eat is ultimately makes the real difference. No matter how hard you workout or what exercise you do, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Eating healthier is one key to attaining a flat stomach and getting rid of belly fat.
  • Kettlebells work the whole body, strengthen core muscles and burn tons of calories. Not only are these exercise effective, they’re fun.
  • One highly overlooked exercise to strengthen abs and burn calories is simple. It’s called a plank. It builds core muscles and requires you hold position. You can do it while watching TV.
  • Riding a bike, whether it’s outside or on a stationary bike is a great exercise for burning fat and building ab muscles. Dublin has bike rentals and could be a great way to get exercise riding to work or shopping, while reducing the carbon footprint.

For more information, contact us today at Liv Fitness


Workouts Almost Everyone Can Do At Home

Workouts Almost Everyone Can Do At Home

Whether it’s due to a stay at home order or a blip in your schedule, you may not always be able to go to the gym. That doesn’t mean you should skip your exercise program, but might mean you need to modify it a bit. If your daily demands force you to skip your workouts at the gym, it doesn’t mean you should skip them altogether. There are exercises you can do at home that require no equipment or equipment that’s easy to make or secure. Your health is too important to skip your workout for any reason if there’s an alternative.

Bodyweight exercises are the best alternative to weights and machines.

Bodyweight exercises have been used for centuries. Some of these exercises not only build strength, but also flexibility and endurance. You can start with the basics, push-ups, pull-ups, squats and lunges. Adjusting your stance and modifying how you do each of these exercises can work different muscles. Adjusting how you stand, such as widening your stance for squats, is one way to do that and modifying the exercise. Learn these exercises and you’ll have a versatile workout.

Modify your bodyweight workout to make it a cardio workout too.

If time isn’t on your side or you simply want to try something different, you can modify your bodyweight workout to cut the amount of time it takes, plus provide a great cardio workout. Make it a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout. What is that? It’s a way to adjust the amount of intensity that works your body harder. You do the exercise at peak intensity for a minute, then reduce the intensity to allow your heart rate to get back to normal for an equal or slightly longer time. After that short recovery period, you go right back to the high intensity workout. It’s a great way to combine your strength training and cardio.

If you like using equipment, you can make your own.

You don’t have to buy weights if you have water bottles. Just fill them with sand and you have dumbbells. Sand-filled detergent or milk jugs double as kettlebells. Like kettlebells, a detergent or milk jug filled with sand has an off-center balance that constantly forces your core muscles to make adjustments. That provides an excellent core workout. Your home steps can provide a step up exercise that’s just as tough on your legs as a step machine. Using a wall or chair for support allows you to do many exercises you couldn’t otherwise do.

  • Opt for inexpensive equipment. Use items like a jump rope or resistance bands. Those two items only cost a few dollars and if you have children, you may already have a jump rope at home.
  • Have some fun with the kids while you workout. A hula hoop is another inexpensive piece of equipment and is fun for the whole family. Shooting hoops and playing other active games with the kids will give you a good workout, plus provide great family time.
  • Don’t forget to warm-up and cool-down. Both are important parts of your exercise program. The warm-up prepares your body to work harder and the cool-down lets you recover gradually, so blood doesn’t pool in your extremities.
  • Do compound exercises to get the most for your workout time. Compound exercises, like mountain climbers, thrusters, jumping lunges and single-arm swings, workout several muscle groups at once.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness


How To Stay Dedicated To Your Fitness Goals

How To Stay Dedicated To Your Fitness Goals

You feel great and are ready to take on the world. Well, at least challenge your body and take on the challenges of the gym. That first workout is invigorating and you can’t imagine not being able to achieve success. Inevitably, that enthusiasm you started with often wanes and it’s tough stay dedicated to your fitness goals. The key to success in fitness come primarily from sticking with a goal. Here are a few ways clients shared to maintain their determination to strive for success.

Workout with a friend or use a personal trainer.

Having a workout buddy holds you accountable for showing up at the gym. It becomes an appointment. You have someone to answer to for not going, other than yourself. Working out with a friend or a personal trainer also helps you keep your goals in focus, since both will share your victories and your defeats with you. You’ll be amazed at how this simple method keeps you more focused.

Break your big goals down to smaller, easier to achieve goals.

Create an overall goal, then break it down to what you need to achieve each week. When you achieve a goal, it provides a lot of motivation. Rather than focusing on losing twenty pounds, focus on losing two pounds a week for ten weeks. When you break the goal down, you can also make adjustments along the way if you aren’t seeing the results you want.

Track your success in several ways, not just by the scales.

If you only focus on one type of measurement, such as the number of pounds lost, you may miss other signs of progress. The number of inches lost is just as important. If you’re working out, you’ll build muscle tissue. Muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does. So if you weigh 150 pounds and are solid muscle, you’ll look far thinner than if you weighed the same 160 pounds but had more fat tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to lose weight, look and feel your best. Judging your progress by clothing size is another way to keep your momentum up as you progress in your exercise regimen.

  • Give yourself a treat when you reach a goal. Don’t make it food related, but stick with other types of rewards, like an hour to do anything you want or a new outfit.
  • Share your goals with a friend and keep them posted of your successes. Just like having a workout buddy, having a friend or group of friends to share successes with helps.
  • Get help from a personal trainer. While a trainer makes a great workout buddy, he or she does even more. Trainers develop programs that provide success faster. Success is a powerful motivator.
  • Make your workout an appointment. Put it in your schedule, just as you would any other appointment. Do it the same time every day until it becomes a habit. You’ll be more prone to stick with a habit.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness


Low Impact Ways To Stay Fit

Low Impact Ways To Stay Fit

At LIV Fitness in Dublin, CA, we offer lots of help and even provide personal trainers. If you have a special need, such as joint problems, which requires low impact ways to stay fit, our trainer is glad to provide that aid. However, there are things you can do on your own for a program that’s easy on the joints, while cutting the risk of musculoskeletal injury. Dancing is one of those workouts that you can do at home. Avoid moves like jumping or leaping. Play some oldies, like “The Twist” and you’ll be burning calories and having fun.

You can build strength without injuring joints.

What’s a low impact exercise? It’s defined as one where at least one foot remains in contact with the ground. Luckily, that doesn’t describe most strength-building workouts. You can do basic dumbbell presses or frontal raises. Sumo squats and reverse lunges are also considered low impact. Step-ups are also low impact, but if you’re having problems with knee joints, rather than create your own program, get the help of a trainer to guide you in building the muscles around the joints to relieve the stress, before you opt for working out on your own.

Low impact cardio gets your heart pumping without stressing your joints.

When you think cardio, you probably first think of running. That’s a joint jostling high-impact workout. You don’t have to have that amount of stress to get benefits. You can modify some exercises, like jumping jacks, to avoid the jumping part. Just take a step out to the right first, instead of jumping when you raise your arms. Slide your foot back into position and then step out to the left as you raise your arms. If you want to keep it simpler, use a stationary bike in the gym. It reduces weight-bearing stress on joints, while reducing stiffness and pain with the movement lubricating joints.

Swimming is a good low impact workout.

Your body’s buoyancy in the water helps remove the stress by reducing the resistance up to 12 times as much as the same movement on dry land. Just walking in the water can build muscle, yet doesn’t irritate the joints. Even though walking on dry land is also low impact, it doesn’t burn as many calories or build strength as fast.

  • Consider mild forms of yoga or tai chi. Tai chi involves gentle, thoughtful movements and may look easy, but it’s not.
  • A rowing machine provides a low impact workout that builds upper body strength. If you want the feeling of running, without the impact, try the elliptical machine. Elliptical machines give a full body workout, too.
  • If you’re extremely concerned about the amount of impact on your joints, consider isometric exercises. Just by taking a deep breath and tightening your abs for a minute, as you sit up straight, can build ab strength.
  • When should you avoid high-impact exercise? If you’re pregnant, have joint or bone injuries, have stress fractures or arthritis, are overweight or are just starting a program of exercise. Strengthening the muscles around the joints first helps prevent problems.

For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness


Is Snacking A Bad Idea?

Is Snacking A Bad Idea?

There’s a lot of misinformation about snacking. A lot of it comes from moms worried it would ruin your appetite for supper. The truth is, snacking can actually help you lose weight. However, the real key is they type of snack you choose. If you opt for a bag of M&Ms or a quick order of nachos at the 7-11, you really need to wait until supper. A snack of an apple or other healthy food is more in line with the type of snacking that’s good for you.

Healthy snacks are good and can even help you lose weight.

If you feel you could eat almost anything by the time it’s supper or lunch, you’ll probably overeat. Having a healthy snack helps you resist the urge to overeat. You can plan for healthy snacks and have bagged portions of nuts or an apple in your desk at work or break your meals down into five meals, with two of those being snacks. Just like going to the grocery on an empty stomach, going without a snack could make you more susceptible to eating higher calorie junk food.

Boost your brain power with healthy snacks.

If you feel exhausted and out of steam by mid-afternoon, a healthy snack might help you. Don’t fall for that quick and sudden surge of energy that comes from sugary treats. It causes a quick decline in your energy level as quickly as it boosts it. Food like nuts, fresh fruit, whole grains and vegetables can lift you up and improve your mood without that sharp rise and decline. Choosing options like walnuts and tuna can increase your Omega-3. That helps fight high blood pressure, heart disease and helps with mental conditions like schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

You can normalize your sugar levels to perform your best throughout the day.

If you divide your meals to five smaller meals or create three meals with two healthy snacks, you’ll help maintain your blood sugar level better. Blood sugar can dip after three to five hours following a meal. By spacing the meals closer together, it keeps your metabolism at peak performance. If your body goes into starvation mode, it slows functions to save energy and that means a slower metabolism.

  • If you want to do your best at work, try taking healthy snacks with you. Healthy snacks can help improve focus and boost your energy. Trail mix is one option you can keep in your desk. Make sure it’s filled with healthy options like dried berries and nuts.
  • If you opt for nuts, trail mix or other type of snack that’s not fruits or vegetables, make sure you watch portion control. While a handful of trail mix can keep you going and aid in weight loss, a pound certainly wouldn’t.
  • Choosing your snack wisely is important. One study showed that people who ate snack foods in combinations, such as cheese and vegetables, at fewer calories before feeling full, by up to 72% compared to those who ate snack foods like chips, plus they received more nutrition.
  • Studies show that snacking might have other health benefits, besides weight control. Two studies showed it helped lower cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDLs. It also showed snacking could help insulin and blood sugar levels.

For more information, contact us today at LivFitness 247


Eating Healthy When You're Older

Eating Healthy When You’re Older

We have many programs to promote eating healthy at LIV Fitness in Dublin, CA. We focus on all ages, including seniors. When you’re older, there are many factors that can prevent getting all the nutrition you need. We help you learn how to overcome those problems and get on the path to a fitter you. More than any other age group, seniors face inadequate nutrition as one of the biggest health issues. It doesn’t matter whether they have access to shopping or adequate funds, getting adequate nutrition is more difficult. In fact, for some seniors, poor nutrition is often mistaken for dementia.

Part of the problem is a social situation.

Seniors are often living alone and making a meal just doesn’t seem worth the effort. Rather than making a meal, they graze on snacks or eat processed meals already made, that have calories, but not nutritional substance. Overcoming this problem is easy. Making meals ahead and freezing them for a later date ensures nutritional needs. It can even cost less with proper meal planning. Using left over veggies and meat to create soups for chilly days is one money saving idea. Bones left from meat can be used to create bone broth that boosts collagen and other nutrients.

As you age, dental issues and digestive issues can create problems eating.

Dental care should be at the top of the list for those who have problems eating healthy. Digestive issues and food intolerance can also add to the difficulty of getting adequate nutrition. You can save money by purchasing in-season fruits and vegetables and cut them into small pieces to help. Smoothies are a great way to get fresh fruits and vegetables into the diet, too. Our nutritional experts can help create a healthy diet and work with food intolerance issues.

One of the biggest nutritional shortages in seniors is vitamin D.

Vitamin D shouldn’t be a problem. After all, exposure to the sun helps you get it. That’s not as true for seniors. During the winter, there’s less access to exposure on large portions of the body. Seniors tend to stay inside more, too. Sun screens have led the way for more deficiencies. While smart sunning is one option, allowing the ultraviolet rays to be converted to vitamin D by the body, that ability is reduced by as much as 70% as people age. Fatigue, bone pain, mood changes, depression, muscle aches, muscle weakness and even muscle cramps can be signs of a vitamin D deficiency.

  • Foods higher in vitamin D are salmon, cod liver oil, swordfish, tuna, fortified products like yogurt, milk and orange juice, sardines, liver and egg yolk. Ensuring these are in your diet can increase vitamin D intake.
  • Ensuring you have adequate protein, a mix of fruits and vegetables and whole grain products is part of healthy eating. Make sure your fruits and vegetables are a variety of colors, including yellow, red, blue or purple and white.
  • If digestive issues are a problem, studies show that regular exercise can help. It aids in moving food through the digestive tract and increases the number of beneficial bacteria that help digest food.
  • Often seniors fail to drink enough fluid. The older you get, the faster you dehydrate and the less you notice you’re thirsty. Dehydration can lead to exhaustion, rapid heart rate, muscle weakness and confusion that resembles dementia.

For more information, contact us today at LivFitness 247


Benefits Of Green Tea

Benefits Of Green Tea

Everything you eat or drink has some impact on your health. If you’re trying to lose weight, quitting the soft drink addiction is one way to help. However, don’t replace it with no calories soft drinks, studies show they can cause the accumulation of visceral fat—belly fat. Try water. It hydrates you and is extremely healthy. If you don’t like regular water, try infused water or even unsweetened tea. There are benefits of green tea that do more than just keep you hydrated.

Green tea has antioxidants.

Green tea is loaded with beneficial compounds, such as polyphenols. Polyphenols reduce inflammation in the body and aid in preventing cancer. It also has catechins. One, called EGCG—epigallocatechin-3-gallate—is a potent antioxidant that helps reduce free radicals that cause cell damage and cell death. Cell damage and death account for many serious conditions, including aging. It has many health benefits, including protection from heart disease.

You’ll boost your alertness without getting the shakes.

Green tea not only gives you that burst of energy from the caffeine it contains, it doesn’t create that shaky feeling you get with too much coffee. Caffeine blocks adenosine, which allows neurotransmitters like dopamine that improve concentration and alertness to fire. It can improve mood, reaction time and memory. It also contains L-theanine that increases GABA, another neurotransmitter. GABA has an anti-anxiety effect. It also boosts the production of dopamine. It boosts your alertness like coffee, but keeps you calm at the same time.

Not only does green tea have no calories, it can help burn fat.

Drinking green tea can boost your metabolism and also aid in increasing fat burning. Several studies show that people taking supplements of green tea extract increased the amount of calories burned by as little as 4% more calories and as much as 17%, compared to the control group that took a placebo. The caffeine in green tea can also boost your body’s fat burning abilities and increase overall performance in the gym.

  • The antioxidants in green tea have been shown to slow the growth of certain cancer cells. Consuming it has shown to lower the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer.
  • Studies show that green tea may be a benefit to help control blood sugar and aid in preventing type 2 diabetes. There are studies that show it can help reduce insulin resistance that leads to diabetes.
  • Green tea may protect your brain from serious conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It is thought to reduce dementia.
  • There are a number of other benefits for drinking green tea. It can help dental issues by reducing bacteria in the mouth, keeping breath fresher.

For more information, contact us today at LivFitness 247