Posts in Smart Exercise
LET'S GET REAL

You may be aware the first step to change is the decision to change. The second step is to make a realistic plan and the final step is to take action. What follows are the steps people just like you have taken to lose weight and look and feel better than ever. Maybe you’ve incorporated several of these habits into your life and are already reaping the benefits. Maybe you need to get on track and start at number one. In either case, let’s get to work!

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SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW CARDIO

Aerobic exercise involves the use of large muscles groups moving for long periods of time (but not as long as you think). Running, walking, swimming and biking are all aerobic activities, which increase the heart rate and the body’s usage of oxygen. This is important because the body uses oxygen in the energy-generating process (read: calorie burning).

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Guest Post: Tips for Boosting Confidence While Entering the Post-Lockdown World

For many, social anxieties are part of the mix of emotions leading to this stress. If you’ve been locked down and working from home all the time, odds are it’s been a while since you regularly interacted with people outside of your household. Justin Bennett of HealthyFit.info has created this guide to help you figure out tools you can use to boost your confidence and get back out there.

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GOT SQUATS?

If you had to get down in a squat right now without holding onto a chair or bending at the waist excessively, could you? I’m not talking about going to the gym and squatting with a bar on your back. I mean, can you squat down to pick up your phone from the floor without bending at the waist or hurting your feet, knees, hips or back?

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STAND UP STRAIGHT

In Sesame Street terms, “C is for chronic (back pain) or compression (of the spine). I know that’s not catchy, but poor posture may contribute to low back pain, in part because of the disc compression in the spine. Another factor is the weakening of our best friend, the gluteus maximus and a shortening of the hamstrings. In short, if you sit on your butt all day, it will be inactive and weak. The hamstrings shorten after long periods of time in a seated position and have to over-compensate for weak glutes (they extend the hips), which adds to their tightness. Some studies suggest tight hamstrings contribute to 80 percent of all low back pain.

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BUILD CONSISTENCY FIRST

It’s simple, people who make the goal to exercise twice a week are much more likely to achieve their goal than those who seek the “perfect” record of working out every day. This is not to suggest you can’t exercise every day, but if you haven’t seen the inside of a gym for a while, maybe you should be honest with yourself.

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OH NO! KNEE PAIN

I know you know this, but let me say, your body is amazing. It is a dynamic mechanism in which nothing happens in isolation. That said, dysfunctional movement patterns in one area, if left uncorrected, will negatively affect neighboring areas. This can begin a chain reaction, which may trigger pain in parts of the body you had no idea were connected.

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