Fitness Pyramid

Fit for Life Challenge

I just signed up for the

Fit For Life Summer Challenge

from Women's Health and Men's Health mag.

When you sign up you have access to tons of nutritional information

Workout information

And a support community.

You can upload your before and after pictures, and track your weight.

You could even be featured in the magazine!

I am looking forward to trying  some of the workouts and getting all kinds of inspiration for my summer workouts!

If you want to sign up too

Click Here

Get Outside

The first on the list of 4 fitness Trends is Outdoor Exercise...

Now that its warming up and the snow is finally melting, everyone craves the outdoors

People head out to the patios, go for walks along the river, clean up the yard...

So why not take your exercise outdoors too?

Did you know just being out in nature, even looking at pictures of nature has mental health benefits...

So what can you do outside??

Hiking Yoga

A combination of the cardio of hiking, and the strength and power of yoga..

Combine the benefits of hiking, being in nature, and yoga...

It can get a bit expensive... a weekend retreat in Canmore is $750

But if you are looking for a restorative retreat this might be the thing for you!

Hiking

If you don't want to pay for a retreat or do the yoga... go for a hike!
Look up local hiking trails... make sure you pack a bag that has the essentials, food, water, sunscreen, layers of clothes, get some friends together (and always tell someone where you're going and when you'll be back)

head outside, get out of the city and get some exercise!

Bootcamp

I will be talking about this later... but its essentially a high intensity workout...outside!

Ultimate Frisbee, Softball, Soccer....

Joing a weekend recreational team... not only is it a great way to get outside and get exercise

you'll meet new friends, or have a great time signing up for a team with your friends...

Click Here for Calgary Sport and Social club Ultimate Frisbee co-ed sign up

Run/Walk

Lace up the running shoes and walk or run around the city, or drive to smaller town near by (like chestemere) and run there

Mapmyrun.com is an excellent resource for this... you can map routes to see how far they are, and view 100's of public routes that other people have loaded.

You can download the app on your smart phone and track your progress

Ride a Bike

Hop on the old bike, or rent one and ride around the community,

head to the local park, ride along the coast or the river...

biking is a great cardio exercise, its great for your legs and its fun!

Related posts

exercise with friends

exercise for you heart

good news for runners

4 Fitness Trends

On the Glamour Vitamin G blog I came across a list of 4 fitness trends according to searching on Yahoo

I will let you know what they are and then in the following week or so I will post more info about them!

Working out outside: Searches for treadmills and other indoor workout programs are down 26% when compared to the same time in 2009. Instead, searches for “outdoor yoga mats” have spiked, so have searches for “hiking yoga.”

Tai-Chi: If you think this form of fitness is for the older demographic, think again. According to the numbers, more people under the age of 34 are searching for Tai-Chi programs,

Boot camps: Searches for fitness boot camps are skyrocketing these days

Diet plans: The most popular searches? "Raw food diet" (up 106% this month) "paleo diet" (up 90%) and "Mediterranean diet" (up 52%).

Do any of these spike your interest? What fitness key words have you been searching lately?

Update

This is going to be a busy week!!

Yesterday I ran for 30 minutes and I did 2.5miles or 4km

It felt way better than a week ago so Im super happy about that!!

Monday Im doing a 90 minute hot yoga class in the morning

Then I have soccer practice for an  hour at night

Tuesday in class is our last day of mountain biking in class

Wednesday I am going to strength... Im looking for some new exercises if you know any!!

I am also thinking of doing some stairs

Thursday will be a rest day... and Friday likely will be too....

Friday is Bermuda Shorts Day at the Uni... its a last class bash put on by the Student Union.

Im not sure if I'll be attending as I have an exam Saturday morning.

So I will have to try to run Saturday or Sunday.

What are your plans for the week?  Are you trying out a new class or exercise? Or finally running outside?



Risk Factors

50-80% of heart disease is preventable.

The best way to prevent heart disease is by knowing and controlling your risk factors

The risk factors you can control are..

high blood pressure

high blood cholesterol

diabetes (type II)

being overweight

excessive alcohol consumption

physical inactivity

smoking

stress

-to find out how you can prevent these risk factors, or reverse or reduce the impact of these risk factors

Talk to you Doctor

-high blood pressure is the #1 cause of stroke - and you can't feel your blood pressure - have a check up with the doctor, ask what your blood pressure is, where it should be (tpyically around 120/80) and how to get it there

-things like reducing sodium intake, reducing stress by taking holidays, working less hours, practicing deep breathing, or listening to relaxing music can help

Talk to your doctor about options to help you quit smoking, and ways to begin being more physically active and what type of activity is right for you.

Remember- when it comes to physical activity - its okay to start slow.

Try to do 10 minutes of activity a couple times a day - like walking the stairs during commercial breaks, taking a walk on your lunch break, jumping jacks and jogging on the spot while waiting for something to cook...

risk factors that you cannot control include

age

sex

ethnicity

family history

and history of a stroke

-even though you cannot change these risk factors, you and your doctor should be aware of which ones affect you

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FITT

When thinking about starting an exercise program or wanting to change your current program there are a few things you need to think about. FITT
Frequency
Intensity
Time
Type

Depending on whether you are looking for Health and Wellness Benefits, Fitness Benefits or Performance benefits those four things should be different.  Here are some guidelines.
                   Health & Wellness                 
Frequency    3-5 days Moderate intensity
Intensity      50-60% MHR                 
Time            30-60min @ 50-60mhr                    
Type            Steady and continuous. low intensity                
                 Fitness Benefits
                  5-7days Moderate intensity.
                  70-85% MHR
                 20-60min @ 70-85mhr
                 Steady continuous
                 Performance Benefits
                  5-6 days moderate-high intensity
                  90% MHR
                 20min-2hrs depend on intensity

                 Steady, continuous
- for health & wellness, fitness and performance you should incorporate as much large muscle mass as you can i.e. legs and hip muscles, core (ab and back). Incorporating small muscle groups (such as arm and shoulders) at the same time will burn more calories.

(MHR = max heart rate calculated using the formula  220-age )

Quick Tips

To move more and boost your metabolism by keeping your muscles active throughout the day.

1. Walk when you talk - when you're on the phone, walk around, or pace back and forth.

2. Walk down the hallway to speak to a co-worker rather than emailing. Standford Research Prevention Center found that emailing rather than talking will result in a 10 pound weight gain over 10 years.

3. Lift while you watch - get yourself some weights and do arm exercises while you watch TV. Try bicep curls, tricep curls, shoulder press, shoulder fly..

4.  Fidget More - shaking your foot, bouncing your leg, tapping your fingers, doing calf raises - it all adds up and studies show that fidgeting actually burns a lot of calories.

5. Laugh more - and I mean laugh - laugh til your belly and your cheeks hurt. Belly laughing 100 times is an aerobic exercise similar to 10 minutes on the rowing machine.

-All these tips and more can be found in the Best Health Health Weight-Loss Revolution summer edition.  On stands now

women are catching up with the men!

Historically, Men have always been a lot more active than women. But that is changing. According to the Life Mark Health "Healthier You" newsletter, activity levels among women in Canada are increasing.


This is great news since Heart Disease is the number one killer of women in North America and the risk can be largely reduced by regular exercise.
Next time you are planning a date with your girl friends why not try to do something active. We need to get all women in Canada moving.
Here are some ideas of what you could do with the girls besides high calorie martinis and restaurant food.
Go for a walk - in the park, by a river, go for a hike (here is a link for Canada Trails - you can find information about hikes in your area, they even have information for Hiking groups)
Bike ride or roller blading - you probably haven't put on your roller blades since 1999 but it could be fun!
Jazzercise - yes it does still exist and it is targeting women stating 'its a fun thing to do with the girls"
Yoga - I know a lot of women who go to yoga, so why not get together with your friends and take a class
Join a recreational team - softball, kickball, volleyball, soccer... there are recreation leagues in almost all cities, you can play co-ed or I'm sure there are all women's leagues.
if there is something active you do with your girlfriends, let us know in the comments!