Fitness

Daily fitness is important for enjoying a overall healthy lifestyle.

Holiday Gifts for Yourself: Part 1

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Baby ThoughtsThe Holiday season brings opportunity for travel; do you have a fitness plan to navigate it in a happy and healthy manner? Plan to move your body and you will succeed when most people exercise the least – during the holidays and on the road. This blog will look at fitness strategies for the holidays. Part 2 will tackle strategies for travel.

Exercise is not a seasonal sport! Yet many people let their fitness regimes go by the wayside in late November and throughout December thinking that “the holidays are approaching and I am too busy, under pressure or distracted to work out.” What if we change this strategy to: “During this stressful time of year, I need my exercise more than ever.”

Winter FitnessNext, pick and choose from the list of following strategies you feel you can best follow:

  1. Pre-pay your December workouts.  With a financial commitment, you may get to the gym more often.
  2. Schedule something different or special during December. Take cross country ski or skating lessons. Plan and take an active vacation in early December and return home committed to continue a healthy focus into the holidays and New Year.
  3. Plan a healthy holiday party.  Focus on fitness and fun, not food.  If there’s snow on the ground, meet friends and family for ice skating at a local outdoor rink, downhill skiing at a nearby ski resort or cross country skiing in a convenient park.  In warmer climates meet at a park for a hike or walk or bike ride. If the weather is miserable move the party indoors for a ping pong tournament or dancing.  Instead of post-party guilt and lethargy your guests will leave invigorated and thankful.
  4. Practice healthy gift giving.  Gift certificates for exercise equipment, clothes and footwear, massages, yoga classes, a day spa, a fitness club membership or a personal trainer all make thoughtful gifts. You may need to drop a few hints to your family and friends that you would love to receive fitness related presents.
  5. Announce your healthy intentions ahead of time.  Advise your relatives or friends of your plans to work out during their/your visit.  They will be more understanding of your needs. Invite them join you!
  6. Organize physically active outings for family and friends. Being Canadian, a game of shinny (pond hockey) comes to mind, or tobogganing or building a snowman or snow forts to have snowball fights.  Plan a snowshoe trip to cut your own Christmas tree.  In warmer climates schedule a walk along the seashore or an afternoon of horseback riding.  Coordinate a leisurely bicycle ride. Besides benefiting everyone’s health, group exercise encourages talking, sharing and laughter.

It may be necessary to shift a date or two to accommodate everyone’s busy schedules, but do not skip your December exercise sessions entirely. They are likely to be the most necessary and most appreciated workouts of the year.  With a little healthy planning, you can keep moving – and stay fit – 12 months a year.

Health and Happiness,

Cathy

The Silent Thief

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You have heard it called “the silent thief”.  You remember a friend whose mother or grandmother was never the same after breaking her hip because of it.  You may even have been told that you are at risk yourself.

It is osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become thin and filled with holes (hence the “porous”), making them weaker and more prone to fracture.  Osteoporosis is called the “silent thief” because bone is lost with no signs.  You may not know that you have osteoporosis until a strain, bump, or fall causes a bone to break.  Approximately one in four women and one in eight men are at risk of developing osteoporosis once they are over 50 years of age.  More than 2 million Canadians are currently living with osteoporosis.

What to do? In the world of osteoporosis risk, there are things that you can change and things that you can’t.  Know the risk factors: http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/bone/Osteoporosis/osteoporosis_ff.asp, address the things that you can change, don’t sweat the things you can’t and pursue a lifestyle that supports bone health.

One element of a lifestyle that supports bone health is physical activity just like we emphasis during our boot camp retreat here at Mountain Trek.  Use it or loose it is our adage.  Bone is living tissue that remodels itself continually.  As we go about our day, our bones are being gradually broken down and rebuilt by our bodies.  How strong a bone is built depends in part, on how strong it needs to be.

Bones that have to carry a load stay stronger, longer.  If you do not subject your bones to the stress of weight-bearing activities, you will gradually lose bone mass.  Just ask an astronaut.  In the weightlessness of space, astronauts can lose as much bone density in one month as postmenopausal women lose in one year.

Rate of loss may be slower here on earth, but the same rule applies: if you don’t use your bones, they won’t stay strong.

So don’t let the thief in get our there and play.  Seek activities that put stress on the bones; this encourages the body to lay down new bone during the remodeling process.  Some of these activities include:

HIKING

RESISTANCE/WEIGHT TRAINING

YOGA

CIRCUIT TRAINING

DANCING

TENNIS

WALKING

CYCLING

Happy hiking….Cathy

The Health Benefits of Snowshoeing

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Group of People Snowshoeing Through Winter Landscape

When winter rolls around we often get into the headspace that we cannot go outside. It’s cold, it’s wet, we’ll get sick – but nothing could be further from the truth. Here at Mountain Trek we’ve employed snowshoeing as our main fitness component for the winter because quite simply, it’s good for you, it fun, and best of all it’s outside.

Snowshoeing can change your entire relationship with winter, exercise outside helps in alleviating common depression and replacing it with a healthy and wholesome alternative to visiting the gym. Here, we’ll lay out just some of the health benefits of snowshoeing.

Burn Calories

Snowshoeing provides the aerobic workout that you get from running, hiking, or biking; except with snowshoeing, you can actually burn more calories per hour than running. This is because you lift your legs much higher, and must work through more resistance when you’re snowshoeing versus when you’re running. Depending on the difficulty of the terrain, the speed with which you are walking, and the depth of snow, you can burn between 400 and 900 calories per hour!

Build Muscles

Much like running, your quads, hamstrings, and calf muscles will all reap the benefits of your snowshoeing workout. Throw in a set of poles and your back, arms, and shoulders receive a great workout as well. Not to mention uneven ground also works your stabilizer muscles and core, making this a complete full-body workout. The repetitive movement will build strength in these areas, so be sure to stretch and drink plenty of water afterward!

Low Impact

Beyond that, snowshoeing provides a low impact workout that’s easy on the knees. This is because snow acts like a cushion, absorbing shocks and bumps. One of the greatest advantages of snowshoeing is that anyone can do it at any age. Grandparents and grandkids, families, walking clubs can become snowshoe walking clubs in the winter. It’s amazingly versatile and accessible.

Snowshoeing is an enjoyable activity on rural trails and in urban settings. The general rule of thumb is: if there’s snow, you can snowshoe. There’s nothing quite like exploring your local neighborhood or park after a big snowstorm. Go during the day or strap on a headlamp and go exploring after dark in the deep silent white. Take a look at some other ways to stay active during the winter months.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Stretching The Truth

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stretching outsideWe know that stretching when exercising is important at Mountain Trek. As a fitness boot camp, we happen to do a lot of it. But studies are showing that the key to making it effective, is a matter of when you stretch.

The latest exercise research shows that you should stretch after a workout and not before. Charles Poloquin, hailed as one of the world’s premier strength coaches, says in his blog

 

A plethora of recent studies have shown that static stretching actually weakens the muscles before strength training, therefore exposing you to a greater risk of injury.

A decrease in muscle strength

When you lengthen or stretch a muscle before it is worked you actually reduce the strength potential within that muscle. In a recent study conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. In another study published by The Telegraph in the UK, it was found that stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30%!

Don’t misunderstand and think that you don’t need to stretch or that you will lose overall strength if you stretch. As part of our weight loss program we do a lot of hiking and consequently, a lot of stretching. This study just shows a strength decrease immediately after the stretch. This means the strength comes back after waiting for a while. If sequenced correctly, you can actually gain strength with proper stretching.

Instead of stretching

Warm up the muscles with approximately 5 minutes of cardio to get the blood flowing throughout the body. According to P.J. Glassey, co-owner of X-Gym in Seattle says, a “warm muscle is a strong muscle”. He also says that “too often people think that stretching is a warm up and its not”.

An article on sports medicine offers, “if injury prevention is the primary objective, the evidence suggests that athletes should limit the stretching before exercise and increase the warm up time.”

Why should you stretch?

Aside from increased energy, better posture and flexibility, and heightened mental clarity, it just feels good! When combining cardio & strength training It is recommended by fitness trainers and exercise scientists that weight lifting (strength training) come before any sort of cardiovascular training (running, cycling, aerobic machines or classes) if you like to combine strength training and cardio in the same workout.

The theory behind this is that you do not want to fatigue the muscles before challenging yourself with pushing and pulling heavy weights.

Moreover, you want to strength train the larger muscle groups first and finish with the smaller stabilizers. This follows the Chek Institute which teaches, that you train your inner core at the end of your workout. This prevents your core stabilizers from becoming fatigued to the point of not being able to properly support your spine and lower back.

Confused? It’s OK.

Here is a simple list of proper sequencing for your workout.

1) Warm-up: 5-10 mins of cardio

2) Strength training: 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps at maximum effort

3) Cardiovascular Exercise: 40-60 minutes at 65%-85% max heart rate

4) Core Stability Exercises: at least 3 core exercises focusing on slow movement in neutral spine

5) Stretch: hold each stretch for 30 seconds

Note: you do not need to do #2 and #3 in every workout.

Gimme 10!

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Gimme 10! Happy women after a workout10 minutes, that’s all we’re asking, okay, if you’ve been to Mountain Trek, you know the magic number is 40 minutes of exercise 3-5 times a week (in your target heart rate zone, breathing hard but not breathless). A study in a new research field called “metabolomics” is showing evidence that 10 minutes of exercise increases metabolic changes up to one hour. Bonus if you are already fit, you may get more benefits.

The following is a quote from the AP article from which the study is cited:

First, in 70 healthy people put on a treadmill, the team found more than 20 metabolites that change during exercise, naturally produced compounds involved in burning calories and fat and improving blood-sugar control. Some weren’t known until now to be involved with exercise. Some revved up during exercise, like those involved in processing fat. Others involved with cellular stress decreased with exercise.

Those are pretty wonky findings, the first step in a complex field. But they back today’s health advice that even brief bouts of activity are good.

“Ten minutes of exercise has at least an hour of effects on your body,” says Gerszten (a researcher), who found “some of the metabolic changes that began after 10 minutes on the treadmill were still measurable 60 minutes after people cooled down.”

So when you have only 10 minutes to spare for a quick walk around the block, take it! 10 minutes goes a long way to contributing to your overall health.

You can read the entire article here.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

The Right to Bare Arms

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How do you feel about baring your arms this summer? Are you excited to show off their sculpted, fit presence or would you prefer to promote a long-sleeve fad for the season? With a few key muscle strengthening exercises you can say goodbye to a bad case of the arm jiggles and hello to a chic sexy sleeveless dress. You can’t just wish for this to happen you’ve got to work it! So work it we will…..

The following exercises are part of your 3X’s a week, muscle strengthening regime in order to sculpt the arm jiggle zone. access to a gym is optional;

1. PUSH UP: The army has this one figured! I love the push up because I am a multi-tasker. With this one exercise you actually work six muscles at once – biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, abdominals and glutes. Get on to all fours on a mat or fold three towels-one placed under each bent knee and one where your forehead will touch the ground.

  • Kneeling on the towels with ankles crossed, position your hands shoulder width apart on the floor directly underneath your shoulders.
  • With elbows as well as your back straight, and holding your body weight, tuck your chin in to hold a pretend orange against your chest and then slowly lower yourself until your forehead touches the towel or mat. Your chest should not touch the floor. Now on an exhale push yourself back up to the starting position. Cathy’s hint: keep the core engaged; wave and hollow.
  • The goal is to gradually train and build so that you can do 2 sets of 8-12 repetitions. Then you can lengthen the lever and gradually build to 2 sets of 12 full military push ups.
  • Don’t fret if you do one and find yourself not able to push up, we’ve all been there! Just start by standing up and “pushing up” against the wall for 2 sets of 12.
  • Be patient and keep good form, excellent form trumps all else!

2. TRICEPS KICKBACK:

  • Grab a single arm dumbbell from 1-10 pounds for beginners, a rubber exercise band or a jug of milk. It helps to do this in front of a mirror to keep an eye on your form.
  • Using a bench, stool or armless chair. Bend over and place the hand without the weight onto it for stability. Keep your back straight, looking forward, and bend the weight bearing arm so that the elbow is in alignment with the body roughly at your waist.
  • Without moving any other part of your body, straighten your arm straight back so that the weight is now lined up with your butt. Hold for a count of two and then gradually come back to your bent elbow start position.
  • Your goal is to do minimum two sets of 8-12 repetitions on each side, again be patient, keep the core engaged and keep good form.
  • Once 12 reps are achieved you need to increase the weight.

3. BICEP CURL:

  • Grab a pair of single arm dumbbells anywhere from 1-15 pounds for beginners, bands or cans of beans.
  • Have a slight bend in the knees and engage your core to keep your back straight.
  • Your start position is hanging your arms down by your sides. Slowly bend your elbows aiming your lower arm toward your shoulders. Your body is completely in control and doesn’t move except for your lower arms.
  • Your goal is to isolate your biceps muscle. As soon as you reach the level of your shoulder give your biceps an extra squeeze before slowly lowering to the start position.
  • Switch arms and repeat for 8-12 reps on each side X2 sets.
  • Once 12 reps are achieved in each set, increase the weight.

4. PULL UPS: This is a fun one…

  • You need a sturdy table or two sturdy chairs and lay a strong broom handle across them a few feet apart.
  • Grab your mat and lay flat on your back on the floor. With both hands, grab either the edge of the table or the pole palms shoulder-distance apart and facing in.
  • Engage your core, keep your neck straight (hold a pretend orange between your chin and chest) now lift yourself off the floor as high as you can.
  • Hold for a count of 2 and lower yourself back to the floor.
  • The goal is to perform as many of these as you can while maintaining excellent form.

Although the emphasis in this blog was on strengthening and sculpting the arms you must remember to do your fat burning cardio as well as it’s the fat that surrounds the triceps that tends to give us our bat wings that flap in the wind. You can get the most bang for your buck by doing both cardio and toning at the same time by going for a hike and using your hiking poles! Now go out there and BARE ARMS!!!

The Fun Theory

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Volkswagen, that clever German car manufacturer who brought us the Bug, is now peddling straight up, joyous, no strings attached, fun. Their fun theory is a clever marketing campaign that has nothing to do with their cars, and rather focuses on ways that people can add more fun to their lives.

The fun theory is based on the simple premise that fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. As such, the peeps at Volkswagen made a video that pits taking the escalator against taking the stairs. By making the stairs a fun experience they were able to move people away from the escalator.

Now that kind of change of behaviour reinforces exactly what James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minn, has based a study in obesity on. The study examines how much people move and how much they don’t.

Furniture at Weight Loss SpaDr. Levine investigated why do some people who consume the same amount of food as others gain more weight? What he found out was that the people who didn’t gain weight were unconsciously moving around more. The study prevented participants from actually exercising but the participants found other ways to move their bodies like taking the stairs, trotting down the hall to the water cooler, doing chores at home or simply fidgeting. On average, the subjects who gained weight sat two more hours per day than those who hadn’t.

When sitting, electrical activity in the muscles drop — “the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse, leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked.

Read the full study at the NY Times

So find your fun and go do it! Get up from your desk and go fill your water bottle, take the stairs instead of the elevator, get out and dig in the garden. Whatever it is, just get out of your chair and do it. And if you’re having fun doing it, it’s likely that you’ll keep doing it. A sure way to increase your vitality, lose weight and be happy.

Healthy Feet

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100 moving parts…26 bones…33 joints…countless muscles, tendons, and ligaments…an engineering miracle! The importance of FEET cannot be underestimated. Our feet are the basis of our gait and posture…absorbing 3 times our body weight with every step…cushioning compression for our knees, hips, and spines.

To keep them healthy, free the “10 little piggies” and walk barefoot whenever possible, and balance on 1 leg for a few minutes each day. Both of these activities “fire” the proprioceptive nerves in your ankles, and strengthen your feet and calf muscles.

These tips are courtesy of Emily Kennedy and ALIVE Magazine.

The Good News Is…

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Hiking The AlamoAs hikers it’s pretty obvious how important our knees are to us. Everything from proper hiking posture to using trekking poles to strength training, helps to keep knees healthy and ensures our ability to hike for many years to awe inspiring peaks and places.

It was affirming to read the article from the American Council of Sports Medicine, which provides strong evidence that physical activity is beneficial to knee joint health.

As it turns out, exercise affects each part of the knee differently, which helps explain why there have been conflicting reports for so long.

Happy knees like to move so keep getting those 10,000 steps in a day and do your strength training. Spring and hiking season are just around the corner!