Category: Fitness

If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall For Anything

Last year 17.5 million people died of lifestyle related diseases that could have been prevented with a change of diet or exercise.  More than 75% of people who start a fitness program give up within three months.   Exercise is prescribed by doctors. It is a must for staying healthy, yet only 10% of the population exercises regularly. The rest are leaving it up to their doctors to keep them alive, relying on prescription drugs to solve problems they would not have if they only got off the couch. Yet, while the average American spends seven hours a day entertaining themselves…

Belly Fat and Muscle, Part III of my series on what to do about belly bulge

Sometimes a large belly can be a sign of excess body fat. The best way to get rid of this body fat is to adapt to a fitness lifestyle of proper nutrition and exercise.  To burn of this fat, you must burn more calories than you are taking in. This doesn’t mean that you should starve yourself. Self starvation can lead to stress which can cause belly fat to be stored in the mid section. (for more on how stress can lead to belly fat check out this post: https://heroestraining.com/?p=417 Starvation can also lead to a lowered metabolism and an…

How Bloating can lead to a Large Belly, Part II of my series on what to do about belly bulge

The human gastrointestinal tract is over 30 feet long. When it is not functioning properly, along with your digestive organs, this can lead to swelling and bloating in the abdominal region. Swelling can be caused by overeating, stress, food sensitivities or allergies, poor nutrition, gastrointestinal disorders; or eating too much salt, sugar or msg. On overeating: When you gorge yourself with food, you are taking in more than your body has time to digest. This can throw your digestive system out of whack and lead to bloating. Remember to eat slowly, as it takes time for the body to realize…

How Stress Leads to Belly Fat, Part I of my series on what to do about belly bulge

This is how having too many stress hormones can lead to belly fat: When under pressure, we release stress hormones from our adrenal glands. These hormones help the body work into overdrive in order to cope with hardship, fear, lack of rest or overtraining. Norepinephrine is first released, stopping your body from producing insulin. This is an example of how stress can lead to diabetes. Ephinephrine relaxes your digestive organs so blood can go to other parts of the body in case you need to run or fight. Then cortisol is released which tells these hormones to stop working so…

How To Fill Your Pants

Recently people have been asking me how they can tone their buns and “fill their pants.” In order to bring shape to that problem area, you need to wake up those gluteus muscles. Lunges are one of the best ways to fire up your buns. Also, you can isolate this area by using resistance bands and movements that target the glutes. This video demonstrates some floor exercises you can do using resistance bands that work out every angle of the gluteus muscles. Make sure you really squeeze your buns while you do these moves: For the video, click here: How…

Why Am I Not Improving?

I started this website as a means to educate all of my group fitness students on lifestyle choices that will help them get results outside of the aerobic room. In today’s post, I would like to address important lifestyle components that could make the difference between making our goals, and never getting there. These components are, diet, recovery and consistency.

What To Do In Case of an Injury

In all my classes, one of the the most frequently asked questions is what to do after an injury.  Today I am addressing this question with 3 basic steps: Step 1: RICE:  When an injury has first occurred, the protocol we are all taught to use is R.I.C.E.  This stands for rest, ice, compression and elevation. Step 2: Restore Mobility:  When swelling subsides and most of the tissue has healed, we start to move that area again in order to retrain the damaged tissue. Step 3: Restore strength, stability and flexibility to the area and scar tissue. On step 1:…

Turning Stress Into Strength

With her permission, Ellie Miraftabi, MFT. Ph.D. has been gracious enough to allow me to post her article on my website.  Ellie is a licensed psychotherapist and coach.  Thanks for contributing, Ellie! Turning stress into Strength By: Ellie Miraftabi, MFT. Ph.D. Today I want to discuss self-care and turning stress into Strength. More psychologists recognize that self-care helps them be better caregivers. There are self-care basis –eating right, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly – and more luxurious ones. Using them all If you do just one thing, make it exercise.   Psychologist’s research and clinical experience show the critical importance…