How Working Out at a Gym in Mesa Can Prevent High Cholesterol

July 23, 2009 by Tim Oneil  
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Working out at a gym in Mesa on a regular basis can prevent high cholesterol by reducing the amount of plaque build-up in the arteries. People talk about high and low cholesterol readings, but many don’t really understand what cholesterol consists of in the body. All they know is that too much cholesterol lining the arteries can cause blockage leading to heart disease.

Not All Cholesterol is Bad

There are two types of cholesterol called HDL (high density lipoproteins) and LDL (low density lipoproteins). Cholesterol is actually like a natural patching system your body uses to repair artery and blood vessel damage caused by disease.

Blood vessels are composed of layers and one of them is called the intima. The intima is the innermost vein layer. When the intima gets a tiny hole for any reason, the body tries to repair the damage. Veins can be damaged by diseases like high blood pressure or diabetes.

The way the body repairs the nick in the vein is by filling it with LDL. When too much repairing LDL accumulates, the HDL cholesterol clears the excess LDL away. Low density cholesterol can collect in the arteries due to diet and genetics also.

The problem is that a build-up of cholesterol in the blood stream can cause blood clotting and blocked arteries. This in turn can lead to strokes, heart attacks or heart disease.

High density lipoprotein is called the “good” cholesterol because it helps keep the “bad” LDL cholesterol at a healthy level. But sometimes the whole system fails to work properly due to lack of fitness or poor dietary habits. When you eat a lot of foods containing trans fats, for example, you can raise your LDL level even when the vein does not have a hole to repair.

Obviously, you want to raise your HDL levels as much as possible in order to keep your arteries cleared of plaque build-up.

Give Yourself the Gift of Exercise at a Gym in Mesa

Though medical science does not completely understand the process yet, exercise is known to increase the production of good cholesterol. That means a workout program can actually prevent high cholesterol formed by LDL. Your exercise program at a gym in Mesa should be combined with a healthy diet to get the maximum benefit.

Working out regularly will also insure you maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. Your blood flow is improved and your veins are kept cleared. The amount of exercise you should get as a minimum is 30 minutes a day of aerobic exercise five days a week.

A fitness trainer at a gym in Mesa can structure a fitness program that will include the right amount of aerobic exercise needed to prevent high cholesterol. Natural treatments for high cholesterol that already exist include losing weight, eliminating unhealthy foods from the diet, and exercising regularly. In many cases, it is even possible to avoid medications.

One of the best gifts you can give your heart and circulatory system is plenty of exercise at a gym in Mesa.

How to Choose a Gym in Mesa

July 23, 2009 by Tim Oneil  
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Choosing the right gym in Mesa for you isn’t as simple as heading to the closest gym and signing up without doing a bit of research first. Decide what you want to get out of your health club experience before you sign up and then do the necessary research to fit your needs. If you’re ready to make your fitness goals a reality here are a few tips for choosing the gym in Mesa that’s best for you.

Location, Location, Location

It’s awfully hard to keep yourself motivated to go work out when your gym is clear across town and you want to go after work – hello, rush hour! Finding a health club that is convenient to either your home or work, depending on when you want to work out, can either make or break your fitness routine. Obviously, this shouldn’t be your only factor in choosing a health club, as you shouldn’t choose a gym in Mesa that you don’t feel comfortable in, but it’s much easier to put off exercise when you have the excuse of it being too far away.

Take a Test Run

The employees at some health clubs are experts at the art of getting you to sign a contract before you’ve even gotten a feel for the place. Most reputable health clubs will allow you to take a trial membership or a one day pass, and this is invaluable for finding out not just what the club offers, but how you find the atmosphere as well. When you take your trial membership, try to visit at the same time you would normally work out, to get a feel for how crowded the club is or if you feel comfortable working out with these patrons – after all, you’ll see them pretty frequently. Do you have to wait a long time for equipment or to catch the attention of a staff member? Also, this is a great way to get a feeling for everything the club offers.

Staff and Personal Training

How the staff interacts with their clients is just as important as what features the gym in Mesa offers. Do they take the time to greet you when you walk in the door? Is there enough staff available to answer questions when you’re working out? Do you feel confident that they know what they’re talking about? This last one could be the most important question of all, as you are potentially putting your health in a staff member’s hands when you ask questions about the proper way to use equipment or knowing when to stop.

See if the gym in Mesa offers personal training, since this is a fantastic tool for meeting your fitness goals. It is always best when you can choose your own personal trainer, but some clubs will only assign one to you or will rotate trainers around their clients. The best cases are when you have the opportunity to interview a trainer before starting an exercise program, if for not other reason than to make sure you feel comfortable with this trainer. Be sure to ask about certification, experience, and how they can help you meet your long or short term fitness goals.

Calorie Intake, Fitness Goals, and Our Mesa Gym

July 23, 2009 by Tim Oneil  
Filed under Articles

A Mesa Gym Expert Reports! Most of us already know the magic formula for losing weight: burn more calories than you consume. But what if your goals aren’t to lose weight, but to become a better athlete? And how many calories do you need to consume during the day, anyway? For those just beginning at our Mesa gym, matching up their caloric intake with their fitness goals can be confusing, and they may under or overcompensate. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at why you need a healthy amount of calories in your diet, why the calories will change depending on your goals, and how you can get help to determine the right amount of calories for you.

Healthy amount of calories

No matter what our fitness goals are, we already know that we need to keep an eye on the amount of calories we consume everyday. We need a healthy amount of calories everyday because this is what gives us the energy to do our everyday tasks and give us fuel for getting to our Mesa gym. But some forget that we still need a minimum amount of calories everyday in order to be healthy and they try to overcompensate with vastly reducing the number of calories they intake.

Often called crash dieting, this is a dangerous road and many crash dieters may find that they gain the weight back they’ve just lost plus a bonus of a few extra pounds when they resume their former caloric intake. Crash dieters deprive their bodies of important nutrients that the body needs to function and could end up doing more harm than good. On the other end of the scale, athletes that want to “bulk up” and spend lots of time at our Mesa gym, should be careful with the amount of calories they consume and how they consume them. A larger diet consisting of proteins and carbohydrates will help them much better than simply overeating.

The right caloric intake for your goal

There is no magic number of calories to consume that will help everyone across the board. There are quite a number of things to consider, none the least of which is what your fitness goals are. Certainly those wishing to lose weight should decrease the number of calories they consume, but it is certainly possible to decrease this number too much. The number will change depending on if you are young or old or male or female, but the goal is to find a healthy balance between the amount of calories you intake everyday and the level of exercise you do. This is true if you goal is to become a better weightlifter or long distance runner. The more intense your workout level, the more calories you will need to consume to find the correct balance.

Finding the right balance for you

Those that aren’t sure how many calories they should be consuming in order to reach their fitness goals would do well to consult the advice of a personal trainer at our Mesa gym. Not only can a personal trainer give you a full assessment of your present fitness level, help you map out your goals and how to reach them, and help you along the way to achieve your goals, a personal trainer can also help give you a guideline to how many calories you should intake over the course of the day that will help you in your quest. If you are interested in working with a personal training at our Mesa gym, contact us today!