Exercise decreases the chances of preeclampsia (hypertension leading to seizure, stroke, and death of mother and fetus) as well as gestational diabetes, back pain, and more! Working out while pregnant also improves aerobic and muscular fitness, aids in facilitation of labor recovery, decreases stress, anxiety, and depression, maintains a healthy life style, causes a more rapid return to pre-pregnancy weight, strength and flexibility, decreases the drastic weight gain, decreases time of labor, improves digestion by decreasing chances of constipation, increases your energy reserve, and reduces “postpartum belly.”

Pregnant women have a lower oxygen availability for aerobic exercises. Moderate intensity is the recommended, however, exercising to a fatigue state in not recommended. For obvious reasons, abdominal exercises are prohibited after the first trimester.

Balance exercises are a essential to pregnancy workouts. Hormones which the body releases during pregnancy causes the joints to be more lax for fetal growth. Therefore, balancing exercises are needed. Any exercises where the woman in laying on her back should be avoided since the fetus will place pressure of the vena cava and aorta. This will compromise the cardiac output and decrease blood flow to the uterus, which is definitely not what want!

Since exercises should never be done to the point of exhaustion, it is important to monitor exercise through the rate of perceived exertion, which is basically the client’s perception on how hard they are working. This method is more effective because typical heart rate equations do not apply to pregnancy.

If a pregnant client is working out for the first time in a long time or ever, it is important to first get a physician’s clearance and stick to low intensity, low impact activities. If the client has been working out prior to pregnancy, it is okay to stay to the workout, but modifications are needed as the pregnancy progresses. Working out with weights is still great to do while pregnant. Weights will not hurt you as long as you are using proper form and you listen to your body when it says you are tired.

So, if you are pregnant or are preparing to become pregnant, you don’t have to stop the workouts that you love! Being active during pregnancy has many benefits for mommy and baby. Just avoid high altitude workouts, supine (any position o your back) exercises and scuba diving and you will be fine!

I have always found that William Shakespeare plays and dialogues to be some of the most meaningful quotes. Here are a few of my favorite ones:

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

“How far that little candle throws his beams. So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

“They do not love that do not show their love.”

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become and still, gently allows you to grow.”

The health benefits of fish oil are heavily supported by scientific research, with benefits including improvements in body weight and composition, speedier recovery from muscle soreness, reduced inflammation (translation=less injuries/faster recovery/fewer health complications), reduced blood pressure, improved cholesterol levels, reduced blood triglycerides, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced cortisol, anti-oxidant properties, “blood thinning” properties (decreased platelet aggregation) and a range of improvements in cognitive properties such as reductions in depression, anxiety and even ADHD in children.

Given the long list of benefits of fish oil, the relatively low cost (~$10 for a bottle of 300-400 from your local big box store or online retailer) makes it well worth the investment. Daily intake varies depending on activity level, body weight and other values (people who eat fish regularly don’t need to take as much as those who rarely eat fish) but general recommendations range in the 2-4g EPA/DHA per day. EPA/DHA are the Omega-3 fatty acids that give fish oil it’s health benefits. An average 1000mg capsule of fish oil only contains about 300mg of EPA/DHA, requiring an intake of 6-10 capsules per day to achieve the 2-4g recommendation. There’s no need to take 2x or 3x strength fish oils (they’re usually more expensive per mg of EPA/DHA) or “low mercury” fish oils (mercury attaches to the protein tissues in fish, it is not suspended in their oils.) You’ll have to decide what dose of fish oil is right for you and calculate how many capsules you need to take daily, but even a few capsules a day is better than none. Of all supplements on the market, this is one of the few that can live up to the hype. Give it a shot, your body will thank you.

Further reading on fish oil at examine.com

Working out with phone apps is great and beneficial to those who cannot afford a trainer, need help with tracking their progression, and who travel often. The app almost becomes like a video game because with each hour workout you complete, you earn a badge that unlocks new rewards! So, if you’re competitive like me, if makes you want to reach that next badge. So no more excuses people! Use your phone to reach your health goals and reap the benefits of a healthier life!

We have all probably heard the saying “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”

This is all to common in the world of health and fitness and is one of the main reasons people do not reach their goals.

Lets examine this from a few different perspectives.

Completely hypothetical by the way

Perspective 1 – A 235lb 5’6″, 28 year old Female, an engineer, used to workout with moderate success in college, Grew up playing sports, husband is a chef, has been mostly sedentary for 5 years (since becoming a full time engineer). Wants to lose 50lbs and run a half marathon.

(This is 231lbs and a loss of 88lbs….so, you get the idea)

- This is a common enough type of gym goer and someone who would utilize a personal trainer

Without going into training specifics, lets look at the key aspects of this clients weight gain. The first is a sedentary lifestyle, the second is her husband is a chef, third is she used to be more athletic and in shape.

What I immediately see is someone who THINKS they know what they should be doing, but that they just are not doing it. Since she used to be an athlete she knows how to work out, or how to be fit, and since her husband is a chef, they tend to prepare meals at home, and he should know how to create a healthy meal.

……………. Sounds to me like she might be insane………….

Achieving health and fitness is work, it doesn’t come as a by product a few components of your life that fit well when thinking about it. You have to actually activate and moderate those components of your life in such a way as to accommodate your goals.

Now, don’t get me wrong, her being an athlete in her past and her husband knowing food can definitely benefit the cause. However, they can also (and more so tend to sway this way) deter you from your goals.

This particular case can absolutely attain the goals of 50lbs of weight loss and a half marathon, however the components currently in her life have so far, sabotaged these goals and therefore cannot be counted on to help facilitate them.
Perspective 2 – Viewing fitness as a short/long term goal or a career.

All of us have tons of goals, some of us are better at setting and working towards them than others and our views and thoughts of them differ. This is where success or failure lies.

When I go to work each day, I work towards being better tomorrow than I was today. There is an easy motivator there, its called money….. More money is my goal for working. (This is not taking into account job satisfaction or any other factors)

When I workout each day, I also work towards being better tomorrow than I was today…….money is not my goal….so what is? Simply put, just the fact that I am better….

Some people don’t have this drive. They simply want to be better because society tells them to be better, or they have a goal like “looking good for summer”……well, that’s insanity….

Summer will come and go, whether you hit your goals or not, and you will still do just about whatever you were going to do during that time. Sure, you might be more comfortable with a 6 pack and not feeling like you have to wear your shirt all the time, but lets face it, you didn’t gain the weight over night, so odds are you comfortable enough with it that you will probably do the things you want to do regardless. So, that means you will probably continue to eat the foods you ate before….maybe you’ll eat smaller portions, maybe youll gain some muscle mass from your gym efforts, but with a goal like that, odds are you will not look the way you want when you want to.

Shameless….

Im not trying to be a debbie downer, Im simply trying to put it in perspective. I see people like this everyday. Without a true, strong, driving desire to continuously be better you will not automatically reach your goals.

The majority of people are C students (low C to be real honest), which is fine. The people we idolize in pictures, the fitness models, they are A students. The obese people we all struggle to avoid becoming,well, they are failing…. but being a C student is comfortable, which makes it hard to really feel the need to get an A, but it stems just enough motivation to keep yourself from failing.

F-                                                    C                                       A+

In the end, you have to go against what is comfortable to get true results. Comfort got you to where you are right now, and discomfort is the automatic result of actions that force your body beyond its normal capability. So look at discomfort as a good thing. It it weren’t uncomfortable you would be wasting your time anyway….

Funny thing is, most people think that to be that A student you have to be insane…….

A little bit about myself. I was born in Southern California, but grew up in Flagstaff, AZ. I spent my first semester of college at U of A, but quickly realized my mistake and transferred back to NAU. I worked as a wildland firefighter for the Forest Service in Alpine and Blue Ridge during the summers between school years to help pay my tuition. After graduating I worked my final season for the Forest Service and decided to move to the desert with some High School friends going to ASU. I spent my first semester here taking Fire Science classes and becoming EMT certified so I can apply to traditional metro fire departments and ambulance services. After completing my classes I began studying for my personal training certification, and passed the NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) exam in February. I started interviewing for personal training jobs all over the valley, but knew the HIT Center was the only place I wanted to work as soon as I stepped inside and saw the grass turf, tires, sledgehammers, Olympic lifting platforms and other toys available to train with. I was hired soon after and working at the HIT Center has been a great experience so far. I look forward to meeting and working with all of you, and helping you achieve your goals.

Let’s get started.

Is a lack of sleep making me chubby?

Leptin and Ghrelin

The hormone leptin is intricately involved in the regulation of appetite, metabolism and calorie burning. Leptin is the chemical that tells your brain when you’re full, when it should start burning up calories and also when it should create energy for your body to use. It triggers a string of messages and responses that starts in the hypothalamus and ends in the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland controls the way your body stores and uses energy.

During sleep, leptin levels increase, telling your brain you have sufficient amount of energy for the time being and there’s no need to trigger the feeling of hunger or the burning of calories. When you don’t get enough sleep, you end up with too little leptin in your body, which, through a series of steps, makes your brain think you don’t have enough energy for your needs. So your brain tells you you’re hungry, even though you don’t actually need food at that time, and it takes steps to store the calories you eat as fat so you’ll have enough energy the next time you need it. The decrease in leptin brought on by sleep deficiency can result in a constant feeling of hunger and a general slow-down of your metabolism.

The other hormone found to be related to sleep and weight is ghrelin. The purpose of ghrelin is basically the exact opposite of leptin: It tells your brain when you need to eat, when it should stop burning calories and when it should store energy as fat. During sleep, levels of ghrelin decrease, because sleep requires far less energy than being awake does. People who don’t sleep enough end up with too much ghrelin in their system, so the body thinks it’s hungry and it needs more calories, and it stops burning those calories because it thinks there’s a deficiency.

Several scientists theorize that these hormonal changes that occur during sleep are the product of an evolutionary process that ended up with humans who could survive the food shortages of winters. Traditionally, winters have long nights and little food, and summers have short nights and an abundance of food. With shorter nights comes less sleep, less leptin and more ghrelin, making the body eat as much as possible and save those calories for the long winter ahead. With winter comes more sleep, meaning more leptin and less ghrelin, both of which tell the body it’s time to burn those calories it stored during the summer.

Sleep deprivation has also been found to increase levels of stress hormones and resistance to insulin, both of which also add to weight gain. Insulin resistance can also lead to type 2 diabetes.

The National Sleep Foundation offers the following tips to help make sure you get enough sleep for your body to function optimally:

• Try to aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
• Increase your exercise level, but aim not to exercise within three hours of your bed time.
• Don’t ingest caffeine or alcohol near your bed time — caffeine can keep you awake, and alcohol can disrupt the normal cycles of your sleep.

Devon is currently ranked 4th in the US and we wanted to say congratualtion Devon, can’t wait to see how the rest of the year goes.

To see Devon’s race watch the video below (Click here if you cannot see the movie)

Watch more video of Brooks PR Invitational 2012 on flotrack.org

15 Easy Ways to Rev up Your Metabolism
Even before you start exercising, you can use plenty of tricks to eliminate visceral fat, improve your flab-burning metabolic process, and start losing weight fast.
Don’t Diet: The Diet isn’t about eating less, it’s about eating more—more nutrition-dense food, to crowd out the empty calories and keep you full all day. That’s important, because restricting food will kill your metabolism. It makes your body think, “I’m starving here!” And your body responds by slowing your metabolic rate in order to hold on to existing energy stores. What’s worse, if the food shortage (meaning your crash diet) continues, you’ll begin burning muscle tissue, which just gives your enemy, visceral fat, a greater advantage. Your metabolism drops even more, and fat goes on to claim even more territory.
Go to Bed Earlier: A study in Finland looked at sets of identical twins and discovered that of each set of siblings, the twin who slept less and was under more stress had more visceral fat.

Eat More Protein: Your body needs protein to maintain lean muscle. In a 2006 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “The Underappreciated Role of Muscle in Health and Disease,” researchers argued that the present recommended daily allowance of protein, 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, was established using obsolete data and is woefully inadequate for an individual doing resistance training. Researchers now recommend an amount between 0.8 and 1 gram per pound of body weight. Add a serving, like 3 ounces of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack. Plus, research showed that protein can up post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent.

Go Organic When You Can: Canadian researchers reported that dieters with the most organ chlorines (pollutants from pesticides, which are stored in fat cells) experienced a greater than normal dip in metabolism as they lost weight, perhaps because the toxins interfere with the energy-burning process. In other words, pesticides make it harder to lose pounds. Other research hints that. Of course, it’s not always easy to find—or to afford—a whole bunch of organic produce. So you need to know when organic counts, and when it’s not that important. Organic onions, avocados, grapefruit? Not necessary. But choose organic when buying celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale or collard greens, cherries, potatoes, and imported grapes; they tend to have the highest levels of pesticides. A simple rule of thumb: If you can eat the skin, go organic.

Get Up, Stand Up: Whether you sit or stand at work may play as big a role in your health and your waistline as your fitness routine. In one study researchers discovered that inactivity (4 hours or more) causes a near shutdown in an enzyme that controls fat and cholesterol metabolism. To keep this enzyme active and increase your fat burning, break up long periods of downtime.

Drink Cold Water: German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that’s 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily—enough to shed 5 pounds in a year. The increase may come from the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature. Though the extra calories you burn drinking a single glass don’t amount to much, making it a habit can add up to pounds lost with essentially zero additional effort.

Eat the Heat: It turns out that capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their mouth-searing quality, can also fire up your metabolism. Eating about 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chilies boosts your body’s production of heat and the activity of your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for our fight-or-flight response), according to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology.

Rev Up in the Morning: Eating breakfast jump-starts metabolism and keeps energy high all day. It’s no accident that those who skip this meal are 4 1/2 times as likely to be obese. And the heartier your first meal is the better. In one study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology, volunteers who got 22 to 55 percent of their total calories at breakfast gained only 1.7 pounds on average over 4 years. Those who ate zero to 11 percent of their calories in the morning gained nearly 3 pounds.

Drink Coffee or Tea: Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, so your daily java jolt can rev your metabolism 5 to 8 percent—about 98 to 174 calories a day. A cup of brewed tea can raise your metabolism by 12 percent, according to one Japanese study. Researchers believe the antioxidant catechins in tea provide the boost.

Fight Fat with Fiber: Fiber can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. Studies find that those who eat the most fiber gain the least weight over time. Aim for about 25 g a day—the amount in about three servings each of fruits and vegetables.

Eat Iron-Rich Foods: Iron is essential for carrying the oxygen your muscles need to burn fat. Unless you restock your store, you run the risk of low energy and a sagging metabolism. Shellfish, lean meats, beans, fortified cereals, and spinach are excellent sources. (But it’s not always a good idea to take a supplement. Too much iron has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease in men. Get this essential mineral in natural doses from real foods.)

Get More D: Vitamin D is essential for preserving metabolism-revving muscle tissue. Unfortunately, researchers estimate that a measly 20 percent of Americans take in enough through their diet. Get 90 percent of your recommended daily value (400 IU) in a 3.5-ounce serving of salmon. Other good sources: tuna, fortified milk and cereals, and eggs.

Drink Milk: There’s some evidence that calcium deficiency may slow metabolism. Research shows that consuming calcium in dairy foods such as fat-free milk and low-fat yogurt may also reduce fat absorption from other foods.

Eat Watermelon: The amino acid arginine, abundant in watermelon, might promote weight loss, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition. Researchers supplemented the diets of obese mice with arginine over 3 months and found that it decreased body-fat gains by a whopping 64 percent. Adding this amino acid to the diet enhanced the oxidation of fat and glucose and increased lean muscle, which burns more calories than fat does. Snack on watermelon and other arginine sources, such as seafood, nuts, and seeds.

Stay Hydrated: All of your body’s chemical reactions, including your metabolism, depend on water. If you are dehydrated, you may be burning up to 2 percent fewer calories, according to researchers at the University of Utah who monitored the metabolic rates of 10 adults as they drank varying amounts of water per day. In the study, those who drank either eight or twelve 8-ounce glasses of water a day had higher metabolic rates than those who had four.

Source: MensHealth.com