Facing Adversity with Wheeling Forward

While I grew up in and around the fitness industry, I entered it as an “adult” fitness professional around the same time as my close friend, Jose. Jose is an extremely humble man and a tremendous athlete, but you can find out a bit more about him here or maybe here or even here. He has an unprecedented work ethic and passion for fitness, but his desire to become better at his craft isn’t based off a want to make money or be famous… he wants to help people. He’s in it for the right reason and that is why Jose is so effective.

Feb232016

Wake Up with a Walking Meditation

Hooray, another “mental health” post! While we are obviously “physical” fitness trainers, we know that without the mental part, you haven’t got much. Today, we bring you a walking meditation. What is a walking meditation, you say? Well, it’s rather simple–you meditate while walking. These doesn’t mean your humming “om” to yourself while walking blind down the street. It’s more about leaving your own concerns about yourself behind and simply become an observer and a sponge. You take everything in while simple taking step after step. You listen to your breath, you listen to the birds, you feel the wind, you see the sun rising, and so forth. This exercise can be incredibly rewarding while also saving time. If you have a dog, I hope someone in your household walks it every morning. This can be done with your dog! Let’s get started. And if you think you can master the walking meditation, consider running, but first check out Nicer Shoes for their comparison between the two activities.

Sunrise today

Feb172016

Meditation for Positivity

In our hustle and bustle world, it’s easy to get down. It’s not always easy to get out of these feelings, so you get stuck in a negative bubble. Maybe you had a rough day at work, maybe you and your partner aren’t getting along, or maybe you’re just in some kind of funk. You may be working hard and getting nowhere, but staying in that foxhole of negativity is NOT going to help you in any part of your life. Try this meditation to keep your head up and your mind clear of negative distractions.

Feb122016

Healthy “Accidentally Paleo” Meatballs

Hungry had a long day at work on a Saturday (yuck!) and I had a hankering for cooking, so I wanted to make him a nice dinner. I am a vegetarian while he is not, so I don’t cook a lot of meat dishes. However, tonight I would! We had some nice lean beef in the house, so I wanted to make scrumptious meatballs! However, we didn’t have any breadcrumbs…hmm… Luckily, I was able to find a recipe to base mine off of that lacked breadcrumbs. This actually turned it accidentally into a “paleo” recipe. Hungry and I are far from being paleo, but I know it’s popular right now, so maybe this will help you out!

Feb082016

Treadmill Interval Workout for Non-Runners

For some of you, running outdoors at the moment could be a serious hazard to your life (who doesn’t love running on ice)? For some of you, it’s actually too hot to “comfortably” (when have I ever felt comfortable running) to run outdoors? And then many people simply dread the treadmill. Who wants to just run in one place at the same pace staring ahead? Not always the most fun. That’s why we have interval training to spice things up and make the time fly!

What is a treadmill interval workout, you ask? Basically, it’s intervals of different speed. And because we’re doing a beginner to intermediate session, the intervals will be a little longer. Let’s get started:

Feb012016

What is a “Pull” Workout?

There is a plethora of workout types out there. I mean there is a ton. From muscle workouts to crosstraining to cardio workouts and then more types within each type! It can be exhausting and, quite frankly, intimidating to even know where to start. That’s what we’re here for! We want to offer up different kinds of workouts so that you can feel familiar with them as you decide what you want to do.

So what is a “pull” workout? Think of “pull” very literally. Think of what muscles you use when you pull on something. Typically, you’ll use your upper back (lats), your biceps, and the backs of your shoulders and traps. This provides us a great area to work out! Back, biceps, and certain parts of the shoulders! Next time you hit the gym, try a few of the exercises laid out below:

For the back…

1. Reverse lat pull-down. Try 3-4 sets of a weight that’s right for you. Do your reps in a slow, controlled manner, bringing the bar down.

Jan312016

An Absolutely Free Way to De-Stress and Unwind

Sometimes after work, your brain is cramping and the world seems especially bleak. You just want to collapse on your bed and sink into it forever. You find it difficult to relax and unwind. I’ve been there! Many of us have! It’s very important to have a reservoir of tools that can help you de-stress and chill out. Things like yoga, meditation, a hot bath, workouts, and so forth. But what if you want to do next to nothing to get there? I have a solution that I discovered by accident!

Have you ever heard of your Third Eye? I’m no mystic or anything of the sort, but I do believe in certain places of our bodies being able to manipulate our mind and other areas of the body. Such as Reflexology, where putting pressure on certain parts of your feet can help de-stress or alleviate pain in other body parts. It’s a little above the brow, in the middle of your forehead. During a yoga session, I was doing a child’s pose with my forehead to the mat. The instructor told us to move about gently, doing what felt right. So I did. And I discovered a wonderful sensation that instantly calmed me down and lowered my stress. Follow these steps to find a little slice of bliss:

Jan282016

Job Openings in the Swimming Industry

The American Swimming Coaches Association sent all of their coaches an email recently in an effort to try to fill some vacancies for Swim Outlet’s Fitter and Fast Tour. This project is top-notch and travels across the country to provide the highest quality clinics of swim instruction to anyone interested. It’s a huge benefit for experienced swimmers and beginners, and while it focuses on youth, coaches and whole community benefit from its presence.

Jan202016

Cooking Shows Can Actually Make Your Life Easier

Food Network was and still is the most-viewed network in our household. Over the course of 20 years, that hasn’t changed but the personalities and themes certainly have. While it’s not fair to say whether it’s for better or for worse because that would be so subjective, we can definitely say what we enjoy more or less. Everyone has strong feelings for Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, and all the baking contests, but there are just some shows that give you a little bit of everything. Cutthroat Kitchen is one of them.

For the longest time, we watched a lot of Chopped and we still do. It has its practical application. While the focus of most competition cooking shows isn’t being healthy, there are two major components that will make the life easier of the everyday chef, or the home chef. Those two factors are time and convenience. In most of these competitions, the chefs are only given 20-30 minutes to prepare a meal. That’s right, on Chopped they’re not making a single dish. They have to prepare four portions, which could be exactly how many you need to make for your family! Most of us don’t have hours every day to make fresh meals, so we often resort to opting for some not-so-fresh meals but that often sacrifices the health factor. Frozen food and fast food are time-friendly and have large portions, but typically are filled with unnatural ingredients, excess calories, tons of sodium, and a lack of nutrients. On these shows, top chefs show you how to save time.

Jan182016

Workout While You Drive!

Getting from Point A to Point B used to be a challenge of physical endurance and mental strength. If you’ve played the game The Oregon Trail, you can only imagine how fit you’d have to be in order to make it across the country. Nowadays, everyone tries to put in as little effort as possible, as we’re even moving closer to cars that drive themselves. While I’m not asking you to ford any rivers, it wouldn’t hurt to think about turning your daily commute into something a little bit more rigorous. Here are a few things to try differently: