As the weather warms up, many people begin to focus on nutrition and fitness in order to look great in those summer clothes and feel better on those sunny days. This is a great time to look for the real truth about maintaining a healthy weight, staying fit, avoiding injuries, and looking fantastic. Here’s some recent wisdom about fitness, health, and nutrition.
Nutrition
The Harvard School of Public Health highlighted an article that suggests one daily habit might increase the chance of Type II diabetes by as much as 45 percent. Hint: it’s not just what you eat but might be about how you fall asleep.
Harvard also published a simple infographic to help demonstrate the correct proportions for a typical healthy meal. This makes it easy to visualize the right balance of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, healthy protein, and healthy oil.
Why is it so difficult to maintain a healthy weight after losing weight? According to this recent article on LiveScience, it’s brains and not bodies that might be the culprit.
Staying healthy doesn’t have to always be about deprivation. Prevention offers the great news that chocolate (in moderation) can make people both healthier and smarter! I actually think they mean “dark chocolate“!
Companies that market genetic tests may claim that results can motivate purchasers to change their eating and other health habits if they know they suffer from an increased risk of certain diseases. Sadly, LiveScience reports that these reports haven’t proven to motivate most people to change their behavior.
Personal Training
The Strength Theory website resolves the great squatting down vs. squatting back debate. Apparently, the muscle motion is similar, so it really doesn’t matter that much, or so they say. What do you think?
In order to build muscles, is it better to rest a longer or a shorter time? This might seem counter intuitive, but Dr. Mike T. Nelson reports on a study that demonstrates that it’s important to rest longer between sets in order to build muscle faster. The study compared resting one minute vs. three minutes between sets. How many of us already knew this?
Carbs are “in” again for body builders, but is it really important to focus on the right kinds of higher carbohydrate food. Eat to Perform makes the point that there may not be that much difference between so-called fast carbs and slow carbs for very active people, but more natural and less processed food choices are still likely the best.
Everybody has to start their personal training somewhere. RyanWoodTraining.com offers the simple steps for performing that first pull up the right way. Not everybody is ready to do pull ups right away. The article also suggests some other exercises to begin with that will help develop enough strength in the back and arms to safely and correctly do this traditional exercise.
This article isn’t meant to suggest that there’s any health advantage of being “shredded” instead of simply lean. However, lots of people like the sculpted look. In that case, these tips from Anyman Fitness can help people get ripped. Pay special attention to Tip #8!
{{cta(‘0da87957-461d-4dae-8be0-05fa338aa1ab’,’justifycenter’)}}
Fitness
The best steps to stay fit and healthy change somewhat as people age. Also, it’s difficult to know which areas of fitness and health to focus on for aging people. Prevention offers 5 great tips for people over 65 to keep their golden years truly golden.
Advocates of foam rollers claim that they help increase range of motion, lengthen muscles, and provide a great way to warm up before a workout. However, Dr. John Rusin, the “Strength Doc,” says that foam rollers don’t work like people think they do. If used incorrectly, they may not do much of anything at all. Huge fan of the foam roller!
The scale doesn’t measure fat loss perfectly. That dial might get stuck because of water weight, hormones, and other things that aren’t directly related to fat. However, people who are sure that they are stuck on a fat-loss plateau may want to consider these plateau-busting tips from On the Regimen.
Most people figure that warming up is the critical first step of any fitness routine. After trying many different kinds of warming-up exercises, MiguelAragoncillo.com questions the reasons for warming up and the value of different ways to do it.
According to Dr. John Rusin, everybody can benefit from working on their posture. This is as true for athletes as it is for sedentary people. Learn how to improve posture and reduce the risk of injuries.
I hope you enjoyed these recent article finds and learned something new along the way. Share with your clients, friends and family. Don’t forget to check out last months articles on fitness, health & nutrition!
{{cta(‘e31b1793-085e-4b69-b9cb-e83795b06f58′,’justifycenter’)}}
