Stretching Before & After Exercise

You probably already know about the importance of exercising on a regular basis. Many don’t know that with every time you exercise, proper stretching should be accompanied with your workout.

Importance of Stretching

If you aren’t properly stretching with your workout, you are definitely putting yourself at risk for a serious injury during your workout. It’s always a bad situation when you can’t workout because of a workout related injury that was very preventable – if only you stretched after your workout!

Not only do you prevent injury by stretching, you also become increasingly more flexible,  stronger, bring valuable oxygen to your muscles, and  provide better blood circulation.

Stretching after your workout helps prevent muscle cramps, soreness, and allow for your muscles to loosen up.

Before your Workout

Do you need to stretch before your workout? This topic is very debated, and studies show that stretching before your workout might not be as beneficial as we all once thought. In my personal experience, I find that stretching is very beneficial for my workouts, especially since I have previously injured one of my knees in the past. I notice that I have a lot more range of movement, and my knees don’t hurt at all (or as much) during my workout  compared to me not stretching at all. My take? Listen to your body’s needs and take necessary precautions.

Studies say that having a warm up before your workout is really what helps your body get ready for that good heavy workout your about to do.

After your Workout

After your workout is when you should be stretching, which you will really notice the benefits when your muscles aren’t as tight and sore the next day.

When stretching, be sure to breath in and out slowly and allow yourself to ease into your stretch. Do not “bounce” into your stretch, as this can cause more injury to yourself than not stretching at all.

Stretching Tips

•Ease into your stretches – Be sure to ease into each of your stretches rather than quickly moving into them. Quickly moving into your stretches might cause injury in and of itself.

•Slowly Breathe in and out – Just as Breathing while working out is important, it is just as important to Breathe while you are stretching.

•Keep it in the Happy Medium – Don’t barely stretch where you aren’t really stretching at all, and don’t over do it where you end up hurting yourself. If you aren’t feeling anything, slowly ease more into the stretch until you feel it. If you are in pain, you are over doing it, and ease slowly out of the stretch until you feel moderately. The goal is to find the “Happy Medium”.

Stretches

Here are some stretches that will be helpful for you:

Glute Stretch – While sitting down on the floor, extend both legs in front of you and put one leg over the other and place the foot as close as possible to the hip. Be sure to keep your upper body upright and grab your leg and pull it towards your upper body.

Inner Thigh Stretch – While sitting down on the floor with your upper body upright, bend your knees and press the soles of your feet up against each other. Slowly push your knees to the floor, without bouncing. This stretch is more commonly known as the “butterfly stretch”.

Hamstring – Sit on the floor with both of your legs straight in front of you. Keep your toes up rather than pointed, and reach for your toes with your hands.

Calf – Stand at arms length from a wall, and put both hands on the wall. Put one foot forward and bend it towards the wall while your other foot is straight.

Quad – Stand close to a wall or other support, and with one hand balance yourself. Lift one leg off the floor and with your other hand, grab your ankles (not your toes!) and hold.

Ankles – While standing up, roll one of your ankles clockwise ten times, and then again counter-clockwise. This stretch is important for when you put a lot of weight on your ankles, such as when you are running.

Tags: After Exercise, Before Exercise, muscle, oxygen, post workout, preworkout, Proper stretching, stretch, Stretching, tips, workout

Gym Etiquette guidelines to follow

Whether you are new to the gym or a seasoned gym rat, here are some common gym etiquette guidelines that you should be sure to follow:

•No muddy shoes on gym floor – you are sharing this gym with a lot of people, and nobody wants a dirty gym.  In most cases, the gym will provide a rug for you to wipe off your shoes.

•Must wear gym shoes while exercising – typically, you will not be allowed to exercise wearing  sandals, slippers or flip flops. This is obviously for safety reasons, and should be followed.

•No gym bags on gym floor – It’s never fun tripping over someone else’s gym bag just after you had an intense workout. Most gyms will have a policy in place to keep gym bags off of the floor, which is for everyone’s safety.

•No alcohol, smoking, or drugs allowed on premises – this should be an obvious, but it still must be mentioned!

•No offensive or abusive language – you are exercising around a lot of people, and should respect the fact that others will not want to hear your offensive language.

• Don’t talk my ears off! – Most people want to go to the gym to exercise rather than engage in social hour. Nothing’s worst than having to listen to someone else’s conversation about anything and everything for your entire workout. Respect the fact that other people are around you and don’t want to hear about your problems. If it’s just you and your friend at the gym, that’s another story. Then again…how can you have a successful workout if you are talking the whole time?

•Before changing TV stations, see if others are watching the TV or not – It’s OK to change the TV channel only
if nobody else is watching the channel that is currently on. If you change the TV channel without prior approval, it’s just plain rude.

•Share equipment – allow others to use the equipment during your rest period. Unless the equipment has your name on it,  you have to share.

•Share the lane – If your gym has a pool, be sure to share the lane with others. Just because you got there first, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share the lane.

•Stop working out on a defective machine – If you are on an elliptical machine that keeps squeaking like crazy, get off and get onto a new machine. This is respectful to those around you who don’t want to hear the squeaking, and respectful to the gym so that they can have the machine repaired for future use.

•Return weights to the racks or plate trees after use – This is necessary for several reasons: 1) Everyone wants a clean gym rather than having weights laying around 2) You are sharing the equipment, and having a standard location to find the free weights makes sense

Now that you know the appropriate Gym Etiquette, you are ready to hit the gym!

Tags: equipment, etiquette, exercising, Fitness, gym, gym rules, machine, share, shoes

Walk, Jog, or Run?

Is walking better for you, or is jogging? What about running?

Walk

Walking is a lot easier on your body than jogging or running, and if you have been out of the gym for awhile, walking is an excellent place to start. Walking is also a great cardiovascular exercise, and should not be looked at as an inferior workout to either jogging or running. Try to keep a steady brisk walk, and this is a great way for you to burn calories and lose weight.

Focus on walking correctly, get good comfortable shoes, breathe correctly, and work your way up to speed walking. If you have ever had a knee injury, you might want to stick to walking until you have fully recovered from your injury. Never feel like you have to go faster than what your body is ready for, or capable of.

With any other workout that you do, walking is also a great cool down.

Jog

If you like a short and intense workout, jogging might just be for you. Jogging takes less time for the same calorie burn and cardiovascular benefits compared to walking. Be sure that you have great shoes, and that you are jogging correctly. Jogging can be really hard on the knees and shins if you jog “wrong”, jog for a prolonged amount of time, or even if you didn’t properly stretch before or after your workout. Something important to also keep in mind, is to breathe correctly. It is important that you breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth. If you need help practicing this, try walking until you can get the hang of things.

Run

Most people who say then went “running” actually went “jogging” instead.  Running is faster than jogging, and if you are on pace to finish a mile in less than 9 minutes, you are “running”. Just like walking and jogging, running is a great cardiovascular exercise, but takes much faster to burn the same amount of calories as it does for walking or jogging. Just know that this is an intense workout, and not for those just trying to get back to the gym. This is something you should work up to, but you don’t have to reach this point.

Which one is for me?

Do what is best for your body. Because I have had a knee injury in the past, I am not pushing myself to run, and I even limit the amount of jogging that I do. Am I depriving myself of anything? No. Whether you walk, jog, or run,  you are having a cardiovascular workout, burning calories, and getting a great exercise in. As long as you are properly warmed up and prepared, whether you walk for an hour, jog for 15 minutes, or run for 3 minutes, your body will thank you.

Tags: breathe, burn calories, burn fat, cardio, cardio workout, cardiovascular, cool down, exercise, Fitness, Healthy, heart, injury, jog, jogging, knee, Lose Weight, quality shoes, run, running, running shoes, shin, Skinny, walk, walking

Importance of Breathing properly during exercise

Benefits

Breathing helps bring oxygen to the muscles, helps you relax, slows heart rate, and increases endurance

Application during Exercise

Be sure to develop a steady pattern of breathing while you exercise.

Breathe in through your nose, and excel through your mouth. If you breathe in through your mouth, that’s when you can start gasping for air, and your mouth just starts to burn. If this is the case, you aren’t doing it correctly.

Inhale during the recovery part of your exercise, and exhale during the exertion part of the exercise’s movement.

It’s important to breathe properly.  Breathing properly helps you keep your form, prevents injury and unnecessary fatigue. If you want to go the extra mile, or beat your personal best, breathing properly among other things is a sure way to increase your productivity while exercising.

Application for Everyday

It is important to get enough oxygen in our bodies, and most people don’t get enough on a regular basis.

So how can you make sure that you are getting enough oxygen in your body? An easy way to practice how to breathe properly, is to first lay down. Put your hand on your stomach. You should notice that when you take in a breath, your stomach should rise. When you exhale, your stomach should drop or sink in.

Take in slow, deep breaths to fill the lungs full of oxygen, and slowly release it.

Tags: application, benefit, breath, breathe, breathing, exercise, lung, oxygen

Cycling

Cycling is a fun way to get your body moving. I remember when I was younger I could ride my bike for hours since I was just having fun, feeling the wind in my face, and viewing the scenery. Back then, I didn’t realize that riding my bike (cycling) was actually good for me and that I was exercising.

Health benefits

Cycling is good for you for several reasons. First of all, it is a great cardiovascular workout (helps fight against heart disease). Cycling tones your muscles, such as your butt, your thigh muscles, and your calf muscles. More toned muscle comes with helping your body burn those calories, which if you want to lose weight, is a good thing. If you need to make sure you are careful with your knees, cycling is a great way to go. Cycling is easier on your joints than running for example, and can also help improve your joint’s movement, and reduces your risk of arthritis (which is usually caused by worn out cartilage in your joints).

Healthy you, Happy World

Another reason I can have an appreciation for Cycling? It’s not only good for your body, but also good for the environment. No pollution is a good thing, and something I just have to promote.

Tags: benefits of cycling, cardiovascular workout, easy on your knees, eco friendly, Fitness, fun, good for the environment, Healthy, Lose Weight, Month of May, National Cycling Month, prevents heart disease, toned muscle, Weight Loss, workout