Fitness & Wellness

When you watch TV or look on the internet, there’s always some “magical” machine that will give you the workout of your life and make losing weight and building muscle easy. Here’s the good news. People have been getting fit long before there were machines invented to help them. In fact, the key to getting fit comes with doing the most scientific combination of exercises. You don’t need equipment to workout at home, you just need the right program.

Bodyweight exercises are the best “no equipment” alternative.

Whether you’re doing strength training, flexibility training or endurance workouts, bodyweight training is especially good. Not only have these exercises provided great outcomes for years, but when combined together in a circuit training style, gives some of the best results available that no machine can match. Creating a circuit training workout can help improve cardio, while boosting strength and flexibility. You can adjust for fitness levels by taking shorter or longer rests between exercises or increasing the number of repetitions. Squats, pushups, lunges and planks all fall under the category of bodyweight exercises.

If you want equipment, it doesn’t have to be expensive.

Resistance bands can be a boon to a workout. Not only are they effective for all muscle groups, they’re easy to carry when you go on vacation, cost very little and take up minimal space for storage. You’ll work your muscles and keep them under tension constantly throughout the workout. A balance or exercise ball is another piece of equipment that doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You can create weights with sand or water and plastic milk jugs or laundry soap containers. Even a jump rope or hula hoop can be a super inexpensive and easy to store piece of equipment.

In the distant past, strong men got strong through work.

How did the old time strongmen train? They really didn’t use special workouts, but instead lived their workout. The ancient Greeks lifted stones, threw them and practiced rope climbing. Ancient Chinese also threw heavy items, did tug of war and other simple activities, besides martial arts, to get into shape. In fact, lifting a ding, a large weighted three legged cauldron was part of the martial arts training. You don’t have to look any further to find ways to boost your strength. Lifting heavy items, even grocery bags or a wooden garage door can help build strength. Doing chores and putting in maximum efforts, like rearranging furniture or washing windows can help too. You’ll be getting two things accomplished at once, getting fit and getting your chores done.

• If your job is more mental than physical, that doesn’t mean you can’t build strength on the job. Chair exercises like chair pushups and moving for five minutes every hour helps you stay in shape.
• Take the stairs rather than the elevator or park further from the store or work and walk to improve your endurance. Once you start getting fit, you’ll find ways to boost your workout routine and improve your overall fitness
• Consistency is the key to any program. Keeping a schedule and sticking with it is important. So is creating goals and tracking and recording your progress.
• No matter how much you workout, eating healthy should also be a top priority. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet when it comes to weight loss.

For more information, contact us today at Craig Long Fit

Dieting doesn’t work, making lifestyle changes does. That’s why beginning the new year with a strict diet will doom you to failure. Diets always fail because they always end. At that point, you go back to old eating habits that put on weight in the first place and that starts the yo-yo weight loss process. Instead, start now with some healthy eating habits that will help you take off weight and prevent it from returning.

Start with the simple stuff.

If you’re not ready to jump in with both feet, start by dipping your toe in the water. Make sure you have healthy snacks available for mid morning and mid afternoon. Not only will it help keep you from hitting the candy machine at the office, raiding the cupboards or grabbing every sweet treat you find at the gas station, it will help prevent overeating at the next meal, while it provides a nutritious, low calorie, filling option. A small bag of nuts, fresh fruit or even peanut butter stuffed celery are a few options.

Change how the food is prepared that you buy or make.

Switching from fried foods to baked, steamed, roasted or grilled is another easy change you can make. Eating more whole foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables can also fill you up without filling you out. The simplest way to do it is to eat more whole foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables that you don’t cook. Slow cooked meat will melt in your mouth and you control all the ingredients. There’s no worry about extra sugar or fat added. Grilled food has that smokey flavor everyone loves, and also is lower in calories than pan fried meat. Not only will changing how the food is made reduce the calories and benefit your health, it can also enhance the flavor.

Cut out added sugar.

It’s probably the hardest thing for most people to do for two reasons. Sugar tends to be in most products on the grocery shelf and it’s also addictive. Catsup has sugar in it, so do most prepared foods. That’s why making the food yourself and keeping it closest to its natural state is important. Start checking labels when you shop and look for words like glucose, fructose, sugar or maple syrup, for example. Whether it’s honey, granulated sugar, maple sugar or high fructose corn syrup, it’s all sugar and it activates the same area of the brain as cocaine does.

• What you drink makes a difference. If it’s soft drinks, it adds calories and even diet soft drinks can add inches to your waist according to recent studies. Try water. Water hydrates you and can fill you up so you eat less.
• Don’t opt for low fat dairy, such as low fat yogurt. Sugar is added to make it palatable when the fat is removed. You’re better off consuming that type of healthy fat, which fills you up and keeps you satisfied longer.
• Make sure your meals include a rainbow of color. Fruits and vegetables are a specific color because of the phytonutrients. Anthocyanins, for example, are powerful antioxidants and make the foods that contain them red, blue or purple. The more colorful your meal, the more diverse the nutrients.
• At Craig Long Fit, we can help you with a program of healthy eating that makes it easy to eat the right thing. You can start today or ask for a free consultation.

For more information, contact us today at Craig Long Fit

Most the women I talk to want great looking arms and men want muscular biceps. Both require building your arm muscles. Both require the same types of exercises, except to tone your arms you do more repetitions with lower weight. In order to build larger muscles, just use the same strength building exercises and add more weight, which automatically cuts the amount of reps you do to failure. No matter what your goal, big guns or no flab but a sculptured look, these exercises work great. It’s all about the amount of weight you use.

Start with a tricep exercise.

Tricep pushups are a good start, they use body weight and are similar to regular pushups, but hands are closer together and done on bent knee. Tricep kickbacks are another. You need weights for these. Have one dumbbell in your left hand with right leg forward two feet and keeping your weight evenly distributed. Lean forward with the right hand on your right thigh and bend your leg. Bend your left hand at the elbow. Lift the weight in the left hand by bending your elbow, inhaling as you’re lifting and then lower it as you exhale.

Work out your biceps.

Nothing is better than bicep curls to give a sculpted look or build those muscles. For toning, use weights that allow you to do 15 to 20 without being completely fatigued. Go for higher weights and fewer reps for building muscles. Start with a dumbbell in each hand and arms down to the sides with the palms facing inward. Start to raise your arms by bending your elbow as you slowly turn the palms so when it’s raised, the palms of the hand meet your bicep, then lower back to starting position.

The lateral raise can tone your deltoids and shoulder area.

You need two dumbbells for this one that are about the same weight as the bicep curl of the last exercise. Have one dumbbell in each hand and bending slightly at the hip with the weights in front of you. Slowly raise your arms straight out to the side high enough to make your body appear like the letter “T.” Slowly lower your arms back down and then raise them again.

• If you can do regular, rather than modified knee push ups, they’ll help you build beautiful arms without using weights. Your body becomes the weight.
• Try an overhead extension with a dumbbell to get rid of flab. Hold one dumbbell vertically with both hands. Keep your wrists straight and bend your arm at the elbow as you raise your arm overhead with elbows pointed toward the ceiling as you lower the dumbbell behind the head. Raise the dumbbell up again.
• Try a kettlebell for some fun exercises that will get your arms toned and firm fast. A kettlebell swing also exercises the core muscles.
• Tricep dips can be done anywhere and don’t require any equipment. You simply hang on the edge of a bench or chair as you lower yourself to the floor.

For more information, contact us today at Craig Long Fit

When you want to look your best, especially in a silhouette producing outfit, you don’t want bulges hanging down over a bra. It takes two things to look great, losing weight and doing exercises to get rid of back fat. I tell clients in Florida that to look your best, the weight loss is necessary. It won’t take off pounds specifically on your back, but all over your body. The exercises then tones the area and makes back fat less noticeable.

Spot exercises don’t really work.

Yes, you want the area toned, so in that sense, it works. However, it won’t take fat off that specific area. When your body loses fat, it comes off the entire body, not just the area the exercise targeted. However, it does tone the muscles in that area, so when the fat is gone, it will look toned and not flabby. The multi-pronged approach works to remove fat and build muscle tissue. Once the fat is gone, and only then, can you see all the work you put into toning the muscles.

Use exercises that tone the back, upper arms, core muscles and burns high amounts of calories.

That’s the perfect description of strength training exercises. It’s even more true when you use circuit training or high intensity interval training. Burning calories is a key way to get rid of all fat and strength training is one way to do it. The muscles in the back are divided in three groups, upper back, mid back and lower back. Work all three areas and you’ll see a huge difference. It will eliminate a lot of the jiggle and lap over. Work the trapezoids, deltoids, the latissimus dorsi, lower trapezius, rhomboids and erector spinae.

Use exercises with pulling motions for the upper back, mid back and shoulder area.

A wide grip pullup is a good exercise for the upper back, just as a Romanian deadlift with weights are. Using a cable machine, a seated close-grip row and standing upright row work. Exercises that simulate pulling, throwing and rowing help build the muscles. A back stretch and unilateral hammer-grip pull-down work well, too. Push ups work the deltoids and give a more sculpted appearance. A workout containing Superman, back extension, knee roll and trap bar deadlift all work the lower back area.

• Compound exercise are a good way to boost the effectiveness. They work several muscle groups at once and burn more calories as they build strength and tone.
• Working out with weights will get results faster and help burn fat. It defines your back and builds muscle tissue faster.
• Stay hydrated while you’re trying to burn back fat. It will help you feel full longer, replenish the water you lost working out hard with weights and even improve your skin.
• For something you can do in the office to help build back muscles, try jumping jacks without the jump. Start with your arms at your side cross them at the top and lower them and cross them at the bottom, like you would in a jumping jack.

For more information, contact us today at Craig Long Fit

One of my clients in Florida, said they eat only crockpot foods as a road to fitness. They either make the food in the morning and let it cook all day and it’s ready for a meal at night or let it cook while they sleep and refrigerate and reheat it later. You can make several healthy meals without effort or cooking over a hot stove, which is a true pleasure in our hot weather. Those who work often cook it at night to avoid the stress of coming home from work late, make more complicated recipes or be able to sample it to ensure it’s fully cooked, just in case you need to cook it longer.

Here’s a great healthy recipe that’s easy to make.

Chili might not sound as good today, since it’s super hot outside, but imagine it on those cold rainy days. YUM! This sweet potato chili is even more delicious and nutritious. One cup only has 275 calories but lots of nutrition, thanks to the tomatoes, black beans, spices and cubed sweet potato. Use one pound of ground turkey, 1onion and 1jalapeno, 3 garlic cloves, 2 large sweet potatoes, a can of black beans, a can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes and two cups of chicken broth. Season with a half teaspoon of ground coriander or a teaspoon cumin, a teaspoon of each cinnamon and kosher salt, a tablespoon of each chili powder & unsweetened cocoa powder and a half teaspoon of pepper. Dice the onions, mince and seed the jalapeno and garlic. Put it all in a pot, breaking up the turkey and cook for six to eight hours on low or half that time on high.

Was that list of ingredients too daunting. How about a simple chicken recipe and a side of salad? Have chicken will eat healthy, especially if it’s skinless boneless chicken breast. Just buy a two pound package of chicken breasts, a jar of salsa—the chunky kind and measure out a half cup of balsamic vinegar. Put the breasts on the bottom of your slow cooker, cover it with your jar of salsa and add the vinegar on top. Cook it on low for six hours, but if you’re in a rush, put it on high for four hours. You can shred it and mix it in the juice, serving it on a bun for an added treat or serve it with roasted veggies.

There are loads of healthy weight loss recipes ready to use.

If you do an internet search, you’ll find so many healthy recipes it will make your mind swim. Best of all, the food is done and waiting for you in the evening, so there’s no temptation to get carryout or stop at burger quickie. Making a full recipe can help create meals for several days. Just freeze the leftovers for another day. You’ll be amazed at how it helps you save time, money and lose weight all at the same time.

• Don’t limit your cooking to dinner, you can make breakfast in a crock pot too. Try steel cut oatmeal, one of the healthiest types. You’ll have to spray the inside of the crockpot with oil to ensure the oatmeal doesn’t stick. It’s one important step you shouldn’t forget.
• Do you have leftover vegetables that need to be used? Try some slow cooker soup. It’s delicious and even if you don’t eat it that night, makes a great emergency item for the freezer.
• Try a slow cooker whole chicken with lots of vegetables beside it. Carrots, onions, peppers and potatoes are just a few you can add.
• I offer a wealth of recipes for crockpots and other easy to cook healthy meals you can access from your phone. Give it try. You may find that you like eating healthy more than you thought.

Contact us today for more information:  craiglongfit.com