FitnessCrew

Click on the following link to access our April 2009 newsletter:

http://fitnesscrew.com.au/FitNews_April.html

After the over-indulgence of the festive period here are some ways to reduce that spreading waistline. First of all it can help to eat the right kind of fats. More specifically you need to be eating fatty acids: increasing the amount of omega 3 and 6 you digest will help you burn fat more efficiently and reduce cravings. These essential fats can also make you feel more cheerful and you can find them in your local health store.

Exercise is also the secret to a flatter tum. Holding your stomach muscles in is actually one of the best exercises, rather than slouching. Simply holding your stomach muscles in is great exercise, as is tensing and relaxing the muscles on the rest of your body during your daily activities. A fitness ball is also a great way of exercising at home, as are the traditional situps which can easily be fitted into a short exercise routine. But diet is also essential. It’s important to distinguish when you need to eat from when you’re eating out of boredom or for emotional comfort. Try to eat at set meal times and only when you are genuinely eating out of hunger.

Whatever the weather is like, give your diet and fitness regime a boost by getting outside for a run. Don’t forget to warm up first, but just three 30-minute sessions a week will quickly give you a toned look and make you feel great. If running is too much for you try power walking or alternate jogging with fast walking. For maximum benefit a personal trainer will really help you get in shape and Fitness Crew can send somebody to your home or office.

If jogging is beyond your fitness level there are other options. One surprise discovery is that massage can actually reduce your waistline, so get some essential oils and rub your stomach in a clockwise direction or ask your partner to do it for you. The best way is to massage in concentric circles around the belly button, and also in smaller concentric circles moving clockwise at an equal distance from the belly button as if choosing various times on an analogue clock as the massage points. Start with the smaller circles all the way around with the belly button as a central point. Finish by massaging in a circle closer to the belly button. End by rubbing in a straight line downwards from a point just above the belly button and ending at the lower abdomen. This will help digestion.

Yoga has some wonderful exercises for the abdomen which reduce the waistline. An excellent sequence of yoga positions for the abdomen can be found here http://yoga.about.com/od/yogasequences/ss/yogaforabs.htm These exercises work best when combined with a healthy diet.

For a more unusual way to tone your belly and waistline how about trying belly dancing? If a class or public group seems a bit too much to face you can find the main belly dancing moves online and they really do tone those abdominal muscles. There are many sites that can teach you the moves and preparatory exercises and here’s one with plenty of good step-by-step advice http://yoga.about.com/od/yogasequences/ss/yogaforabs.htm

One of the best ways to get the encouragement and professional help to reduce your waistline and other problem areas is to call in a personal trainer. Fitness Crew can visit you in your own home to tailor-make a fitness programme for your particular needs and help motivate you to achieve real results.

These days so many of us spend the day at the computer for our work, and maybe even more hours in front of it to communicate with friends later. With such a sedentary lifestyle it can seem impossible to get fit but there are many ways to fit exercise into the day. When work and leisure involves many hours of sitting in front of a screen it’s also vital to make sure you have a healthy diet.

One unhealthy side-effect of computer work is the constant snacking due to boredom or to take breaks from work. If you snack due to boredom try to find another activity to break the monotony and help you resist the constant intake of coffee and unhealthy foods. It’s best to start the day with breakfast to take the edge off hunger, but also because research has shown that people who miss out breakfast send their body into starvation mode and it will reserve fat.

How about replacing coffee with a healthy alternative like green tea, which actually helps burn calories while also helping prevent ulcers and heart disease as well as cancer. The problem with snacking at the computer is also the type of junk food we favour at these times. You can actually eat larger portions of healthy food and put on less weight on the abdomen than you will put on by lowering the calories while eating unhealthy snacks.

If your work involves sitting around you can make a massive change to the amount of calories you burn in a day by being active as you take short breaks. Just walking around or standing more has been shown to make a big difference, so instead of snacking when you need to pause for thought it would be better to add some movement into your day. Although housework used to be considered an invalid method of exercise it actually does count as moderate exercise to burn calories. So, a break from the computer to hoover, clean the kitchen or bathroom, put out the garbage, or walk the dog, all burn those calories and let you get back to work with a clear mind.

The World Health Organisation recommends that adults from 18 to 65 years of age should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days per week, which is easy to fit into a sedentary routine. Alternatively, or in combination, they should get 20 minutes of intense physical activity on 3 days per week. Even if you are feeling down with colds or flu, or with more serious conditions, a walk is usually possible. If you find walking boring an interesting audio tape like a book can make the time pass more enjoyably and you’ll be more likely to walk for longer.

A trip to the gym, if it’s nearby, is a welcome break in the day for people working from home. At home or in the gym yoga can provide a great break and has been shown to burn as many calories as exercise that might seem more strenuous, and it also increases agility and improves muscle tone while reducing stress that could lead to serious health conditions. Running and skipping provide quick cardiovascular activity for the more able, while swimming, walking and yoga mean exercise is possible for everyone.

The trend in recent years to drink large cups of cappuccino, latte, iced coffee or frappuccino is one of the major causes of high calorie intake. It’s best to replace this habit altogether, perhaps with a cup of yoghurt when you have that desire for a milky beverage. Coffee is a temporary fix to give you energy but then leaves you drained, whereas a yoghurt drink gives you protein and longer lasting energy.

Just standing has been proven to burn more calories than sitting, so get up off that seat as much as you can. When you make phone calls try standing up for them. It actually gives you a more wide-awake and confident-sounding voice so it has additional benefits. And if you have any more tips for adding health and fitness to a sedentary lifestyle then I’d like to hear your comments.

Here’s wishing all of our readers a Happy New Year and a successful and healthy 2010. Here are some fitness tips to help you get the new decade started in the best way, and I think you’ll find some of them are a pleasure rather than a strain! I’m sure you’ve all been celebrating and even the most dedicated to a healthy diet and fitness regime will have had a break to party, so here are some ways to get back in shape and detox that body.

My favourite recent fitness discovery is that a glass of red wine a day with meals is healthy in even more ways than you might think, so I’ll make a resolution to have a little tipple with my dinner. A glass of red wine a day actually helps you avoid storing fat on your abdomen and is especially good for women with this problem.

The main resolution many of us will be making is to lose weight. To do this successfully it’s best to set an achievable target per week rather than aiming for too much weight loss and giving up when we fail. The best amount to aim for per week is up to 1kg (2.2lbs) and half that amount is also good. If you lose any more than that research has shown you are likely to be losing muscle, which can also be damaging for your heart, so be realistic and stay safe.

A steady weight loss of up to 1kg per week soon leads to noticeable results. Why not back up your diet by charting your progress? Keeping a chart of your weight loss and your planned fitness regime has been proven to help you commit to it. One of the best ways to stay motivated to lose weight is to use graph paper with fairly large squares with each representing 1lb or 0.5kg. Seeing the line of your weight loss mapped on this chart is great for self-esteem and you really don’t want to see it start climbing again. Don’t worry when you reach a plateau and lose nothing for a while – it’s normal and the line will start descending again if you stick with your diet and exercise.

Why not decide on the type of exercise you want to do every day so you can really commit to a fitness plan? Getting into the habit of regular exercise for a month has been shown to increase the likelihood of you continuing this healthy lifestyle. To make sure you’ll continue it’s also best to choose a form of exercise you enjoy. I like swimming and would miss it if I didn’t go every morning. How about you? If you don’t have a favourite form of exercise the important thing is to vary what you do so that you avoid getting bored, as boredom is the main reason people drop their fitness routine.

With these resolutions in mind we should be off to a happy and healthy 2010. If you’ve already been struck down by colds and flu, or other illnesses and physical conditions, you can still find a form of exercise you can continue. With many conditions you can still manage to have a good walk every day, and if you haven’t caught a cold or flu yet remember that swimming in a pool helps kill the germs that cause colds, so a regular swim could protect you.

I hope you’ll be joining me in these resolutions and send me your comments and tips so we can encourage each other. Soon I’ll be going back to the gym for my daily swim, alternating with fitness machines or classes, and remember you can even ask for a personal trainer to visit you from Fitness Crew if you want to get in shape from the comfort of your own home or workplace.

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Exercise Intensity Indicator

Ask yourself these questions after each exercise.

1. Were you able to complete two sets of ten repetitions in good form?
No: Reduce the weight to an amount that you can lift ten times in good form; rest for one or two minutes, then repeat for a second set. Read the rest of this entry »

The team at Fitness Crew has carefully scoured the internet in an effort to seek out only the best and most up-to-date information about Monitoring Your “10 Simple Tips to Beat Diabetes” . In doing so, we are pleased to promote the following resource to help you discover more about this topic. We trust you will find it of great interest. Fitness Crew. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a lot of information out there about keeping the body fit and healthy. But the million-dollar question is how much of it is accurate and up-to-date? At Fitness Crew, we’ve taken the guess work out, and even done the hard yards for you to find the following information on Leg Toning. Our team is pleased to pass-on these independent articles as beneficial reading into this subject. Fitness Crew. Read the rest of this entry »