Health

Dec062016

The Top 10 Workout Songs for December 2016

Please enjoy a post from our friends at RunHundred.com.

Dance tracks dominate the proceedings in our monthly workout music recap. While that sounds like the introduction to one-dimensional playlist, the tracks approach the genre from different avenues. Plus, there are a handful of pop singles mixing things up along the way.

The first batch of dance tracks are the remixes—where Top 40 favorites like The Weeknd and clubland stars like Flume both find their recent hits reimagined. Elsewhere, you’ll find David Guetta and Nevada each leading collaborative covers of a pair of ’90s, R&B singles. Finally, you’ve got straightforward pop tunes including a rousing send off to past loves from Little Mix and a contribution to the Singsoundtrack featuring Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande.

Dec012016

Dealing with Shin Splints while Running

Please enjoy a guest post on a topic near and dear to our heart from our friend, Dan Chabert: Writing from Copenhagen, Denmark, Dan is an entrepreneur, husband and ultramarathon distance runner. He spends most of his time on runnerclick.com, monicashealthmag.com, and gearweare.com and nicershoes.com. He has been featured on runner blogs all over the world.

Shin splints are a very common symptom amongst runners, especially beginners. This injury affects approximately 40% of beginner runners according to coach Jeff Gaudette. This injury is also known as medial tibial stress syndrome.

For a long time it was thought that shin splints were caused by small tears in the muscular tissue or inflammation of the muscles, causing intense pain. However, modern studies reveal that the shin splints are caused by flexing in the tibial bone. It’s very common for people to misdiagnose any tibial pain as shin splints– consider visiting a doctor to confirm the symptoms.

Nov192016

Why You Should Switch Up Your Exercises

First of all, good for you for exercising. Good for you for putting in some work (I know it ain’t easy) into staying healthy and taking care of yourself. After that pat on the back, let’s talk about what you’re doing. It’s hard enough to get in the gym, do a home workout, or whatever you’re doing, let alone planning (and doing) different workouts. But it’s important! Doing the same old routine day after day can kill your mojo!

Why is it important to switch up your exercise? The body is always trying to get to homeostasis, meaning to a point where it has to do as little as possible to keep at a steady state. Humans are also great at adapting. Put those together and your body will try to get used to workouts as soon as it can. Once it “gets used to” a workout, it won’t have to work as hard. Which means YOU won’t burn as many calories, your heart rate won’t go as high, your muscles won’t get worked as intensely as they used to. Are you feeling what I’m saying now? You have to keep your body on its toes!

Nov182016

Optimum Nutrition 30th Birthday Giveaway!

(This post was written and the computer deleted it, so good luck to our memory to write the exact… same… thing. We keep it real over here.)

30 years. I think you’d have a hard time convincing a lot of people who modern-day supplement companies have existed for over three decades, but that wasn’t the case at the 2016 Olympia when Optimum Nutrition, the gold standard in the industry, threw a huge party in Vegas. Although I grew up in gyms and around fitness, I really didn’t start taking any supplements until 2007, but for the last decade as I’ve grown both personally and professionally in the fitness industry, there have been very few standards that have remained constant. Optimum Nutrition has been one of them, and they’ve done so by taking a smarter approach than any of their competition.

Nov172016

Happy National Take a Hike Day!

Happy National Hiking Day! If you’ve been hanging around Hungry & Fit long enough, you know that we love the outdoors and we love to hike. Of course, I miss living near Runyon Canyon where Noke and I could walk 15 minutes to the closest trail and be on our way. Lately, we’ve been frequenting another trail on the weekend. On Sundays, we like to go to Will Rogers State Park.

Nov162016

Stress-Relieving Meditation

If after this election, you have bouts of panic or freak-out moments, this meditation is for you. If you feel stressed, on the verge of mental break, this meditation is for you. Even if your anxiety has nothing to do with the election, this meditation is for you. This will just take a few minutes and, trust me, it’s worth it. Deep breath.

Nov152016

ACTION Personal Training Certification

“I want to become a personal trainer, what should I do?”

Well… that’s a loaded question. How much time and money can you afford to allocate to that goal right now? How much knowledge do you currently have about anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, physics, kinesiology, etc? Why do you want to become a personal trainer and are you a motivated self-study course kind-of-person? And those are just the first three that pop into our head. We are asked all the time about ‘how to’ become a professional in the field of fitness and becoming a certified personal trainer is most enthusiasts’ first course of action, but what kind of weight do acronyms actually hold?

Nov052016

Performance Shoulders Workout

Whether our injuries are actually located somewhere inside our shoulder or hip girdles, many injuries are caused by a lack of stability and mobility in those two areas. They’re two extremely complex joints that are surrounded by many different muscles, as opposed to our biceps or triceps that are far less challenging to isolate and deal with as a regular person working out at the gym. Fortunately, we don’t have to change anything in terms of “how to train” other than be aware of the various muscles that should be targeted.

This workout combines basic movements that activate all the major muscles in the shoulder girdle and eventually leads up to some lifts that are closer to what you’d see in competition. It’s not necessarily a workout for a beginner and that’s why we aren’t offering full explanations and pictures of the exercises. If you’re unsure what these (basic) exercises and muscles are, you should probably take a step back and start with the machines in the gym, rather than free weights.

Nov022016

The Top 10 Workout Songs for November 2016

Please enjoy a guest post from our friends at Run Hundred!

This month’s top 10 workout songs span a wider tempo range than normal—with the fastest song clocking at more than double the speed of the slowest. Moreover, that’s just the beginning of this playlist’s variety. So, with no further ado, let’s get into the mix.

On the lower end of the spectrum, you’ll find new tunes from The Weeknd and Lady Gaga that are perfect for warming up, cooling down, and stretching. At the other end, you’ll find lightning fast tracks from Green Day and Dagny that will give you an extra boost mid-routine. Those tracks alone incorporate country touches, Scandinavian melodies, pop punk,and Daft Punk. Elsewhere, you can find remixes from Ellie Goulding and The Chainsmokers alongside soundtrack hits by Years & Years (from Bridget Jones’ Baby) and Christina Aguilera (from The Get Down).

Whatever your tastes, new faves await. When you’re ready to make tracks, here’s the full top 10 list—according to the votes logged on workout music site Run Hundred.

Oct262016

Don’t Text While You Walk Your Dog

We live in a very dog-friendly neighborhood. I can’t go for a walk without seeing another dog. I love this! I like dogs and I like people who like dogs. However, it really peeves me off when I am walking Noke and then I see someone stumbling along head absolutely glued downwards to their phone. I start wondering to myself why they have a dog in the first place if they don’t want to actually spend real time with it. Sure, maybe it’s an emergency and they really have to contact that person then and there. But usually–let’s face it–it isn’t. I bet your walks aren’t more than an hour long, maybe not more than 30 minutes either. You can spare that time to really be with them.

As soon as I see someone on their phone walking their dog, I immediately take Noke to the other side of the street and avoid that person. They have no sense of what their dog is doing, feeling, or intending because they are in some Facebook post. I can’t trust the human to handle their dog correctly, and thus I don’t want Noke anywhere near them. It’s not just the right thing to do, but you can also benefit from just being with your dog: