Effect of Exercise on the Brain

Research has suggested that exercise has an impact in increasing grey and white matter in the hypothalamus. In other words, exercise has an positive impact on cognitive brain function which will improve productivity, memory, and the thought process. Engage in 30-45 minutes of exercise daily to reap the cognitive benefits that exercise provides!

Written by Chris Croley, Personal Trainer, Motivation Fitness

3 Ways to Log a Better Run

Strengthen Core

According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a stronger core can help your speed. Run with a slight lean forward so that you are using the pull of gravity for your propulsion instead of your legs. The trick is in your core strength. Building a strong core increases agility, efficiency and your ability to balance yourself in a gentle forward fall while running. A strong core allows you to relax your legs and can improve coordination on technical terrain.

Incline Training

Runners who trained on inclines improved their maximum running speed by 4.3 percent. In hill running, the athlete is using their body weight as a resistance to push against, so the driving muscles from which their leg power is derived have to work harder. The technique to aim for is a "bouncy" style where the athlete has a good knee lift and maximum range of movement in the ankle. They should aim to drive hard, pushing upwards with their toes, flexing their ankle as much as possible, landing on the front part of the foot and then letting the heel come down below the level of the toes as the weight is taken. This stretches the calf muscles upwards and downwards as much as possible and applies resistance which overtime will improve their power and elasticity. The athlete should look straight ahead, as they run (not at their feet) and ensure their neck, shoulders and arms are free of tension. Many experts believe that the "bouncy" action is more important than the speed at which the athlete runs up the hills.

Stride Stretch

Stretch your hamstring muscles to increase your running stride. The hamstring muscles include the semimembranosus, the semitendinosus, and the biceps femoris. These muscles bend (flex) the leg at the knee and also straighten (extend) the leg at the hip joint. They are especially important for effective sprinting in terms of power and stride length. To properly stretch your hamstrings, after every run lie down and raise your right leg toward your chest. Hold for atleast 10 seconds, lower, and repeat twice; repeat on left leg. This hamstring stretch has been proven to boost stride length by 7 percent.

Post Written by Kyla Viviani, Personal Trainer

How Goal Setting Can Improve Your Results

Are you working out just to workout, or do you have a specific reason?  Have you been doing the same workout for years?  You know it’s good for you, but do you wonder what exactly exercise can do for you?

Goal setting is possibly the most important part of exercise.  Without stating what you’d like to accomplish, there’s no way to achieve it.  So what can exercise do for you?  With proper direction and motivation, exercise can affect many positive changes, including

· Improvement in a specific sport

· Decrease the risk for diseases (arthritis, Alzheimer’s, various forms of cancer)

· Increase flexibility

· Better balance and coordination

· Avoid or get rid of joint pain

Setting goals takes several steps, but is easy.  You must begin by questioning yourself. “What do I want to accomplish?” “What is my current health status?” “Is this goal a credible goal?” “What are the steps I need to take in order to get to my goal?”  You must follow these questions by establishing a way to measure the movement towards your goal; for example, a valid fitness assessment.  Track your workouts. Write  down your activities and their difficulty levels.  Lastly, you must be prepared to do a full re-assessment after three months and make any modifications to keep you on course.

Some examples of valid goals are; “Improve my tennis game” “Get rid of my knee pain” “Walk down the street and not be afraid of falling” “Be able to bend over and touch my toes” “Climb stairs without getting winded.”

 

Goal setting gives your workouts a focus.  Rather than just going through the motions, pick a direction and work hard to achieve what you want!

Written by Micah Josephson, Personal Trainer

Is your lack of sleep getting in the way of your fitness goals?

If you are like most Americans, you are not getting enough sleep. Researches believe that one of the primary causes of obesity is sleep deprivation. Which simply means that the less you sleep the more you will weigh. Throughout the day, the longer we remain awake, our metabolism tends to get confused and we end up eating more, getting stressed, and gaining weight. When your body doesn't get enough sleep, the proteins in your body that tell you you are full simply stop working. This causes your body to feel hungry and of course, you eat more.

Sleep deprivation also causes increased levels of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol tells our body that we are hungry and lowers lean body mass. Lack of sleep also causes our bodies to convert calories into fat instead of energy. Finally, not getting enough sleep can interferes with your bodies ability to build muscle mass. Of course, the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn through out the day.

There are a few ways to help yourself fall asleep each night.

• You should turn off your computer and T.V. every night at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Make sure that you eat enough proteins during the day and try to eat something with protein before you go to bed. This will keep you full and lower your stress level by increasing the amount of cortisol in your body.
• You should try to go to bed at the same time everyday, even on the weekends. This way you body establishes a routine.
• Also, when you plan out your day, you should exercise at least three hours before bedtime. Exercising wakes up your body making it harder for you to fall asleep
• . The last thing that you can do to help you fall asleep at night is try not to take naps during the day. Of course if you need to try to limit them to 15 minutes.

Written by Lori Sarne, Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness

Holiday Activities & Calorie Burn

With all the excitement, busyness, and stress of the holidays, many of us seem to feel like we do not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished.    How many of us stress out when we do not get our exercise in because we are “getting ready” for the holidays?  I know I do.  It is ok to cut down on your exercise so you can more enjoy the holidays.    Most of us may actually increase our daily caloric expenditure (not including exercise) during the holiday season due to everything that needs to get done for the holidays.  

Below are some holiday activities that most of us engage in including the estimated calories burned for 30 minutes of doing that activity.

• Shopping: 112 calories, whether it is shopping for gifts or grocery shopping.
• Touring/ Traveling: 100 calories, take a walk around the neighborhood to look at Holiday lights.
• Cooking: 100 calories, since we eat more during the holidays, we have to cook more.
• Housework: 137 calories.  The house has to be spotless for the guest, plus cleanup after gifts.
• Standing: 56 calories.  Yes, standing, but that is what we do at holiday parties.
• Playing board games with family and friends: 75 calories. 
• Dancing: 150-281 calories. This is a fun and effective way to burn calories and that holiday party!
• Wrapping presents: 106 calories.  I did not find the estimated caloric expenditure for wrapping presents so I used the estimated caloric expenditure for “ironing”.   I thought they were similar because we primarily use our arms for both of them.

These particular numbers vary according to your weight. To do your own calculation, go to http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc. Just choose an activity; enter your weight and time allotted to come up with your exact calorie burn. You can have some fun with this calculator!  

As you can see, we have a lot of activity during the holidays.   So, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a workout.   Go do all the things you need to do for the holidays and enjoy them.  

Happy Holidays!

Post written by Jeremy Workman, Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken

The Secret To Lasting Fitness Success

With new year's just around the corner and resolutions in the air, people constantly ask me about what they should do to effectively lose weight and get in shape once and for all starting January. Most of the time, their question centers around what kind of foods are okay to eat, what exercises are best, what kind of cardio burns the most calories, and other similar questions. My reply, however, is often not what they are expecting:

The right plan is the one that you can stick to for the long term!

The truth about fitness and nutrition is that there is no special secret or magic recipe for success. There are tons of different ways of achieving a given goal and its likely that you could use multiple methods to reach the same outcome. However, the method that will give you the longest term results, guaranteed, is the one to which you adhere the longest!

So the take away point is pick plan that you can stick with! Fad diets might help you lose weight quickly but you cannot do them long term. The same is true with extreme exercise regimens. Pick something that fits your personality and that you like, and then do it relentlessly. That's the way success is made.

Written by Yudi Kerbel, Head Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken

Cool vs. Effective – Are You Making The Right Choice?

When it comes to working out, many people feel that the flashier the exercises and the greater variety of them used, the better the results. However, this is usually not the case! While it may be tempting to try that fancy new-fangled ‘thread the needle’ exercise that you’ve seen someone doing at your local gym, often these type of exercise are all style and no substance.

So how do you know whether an exercise is worthwhile or worthless? The trick is to look at everything on a spectrum of cool vs. effective. On the one end are exercises that are super flashy but don’t really do much for you other than make you feel like a gymnast. On the other end are exercises that may not be anything new but have been proven time and time again to get you results.

If in doubt, ALWAYS tend towards effective instead of cool. After all, your goal in the gym is to look good and get healthy, toned and strong, not to do the coolest looking exercises of anyone who works out at your facility.

Here’s a list of time-tested effective exercises for you to use:

Squats

Deadlifts

Lunges

Step Ups

Planks

Pallof Press

Rows (vertical and horizontal)

Presses (vertical and horizontal)

The truth is that if you used nothing but these exercises for the rest of your life, you’d be just fine. Sure, you can mix in some other stuff to keep it interesting and keep you enjoying your workouts but don’t forget that it all comes back to what has proven to work time and time again!

Written by Yudi Kerbel, Head Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken