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4 Ways To Optimize Your Fitness To Get The Most Out Of Each Workout

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Spending a lot of time working out can be a great way to make yourself healthy. Many people dedicate substantial portions of their lives to this sort of work, putting loads of effort into exercising each day. Of course, though, no matter what you do to keep fit, it will always be worth taking steps to optimize your workouts to get the most out of them. To help you out with this, this article will be exploring some of the best ways to improve your workouts without having to put more effort into them.

Your Diet

Maintaining a good diet is notoriously difficult, with many people finding it extremely hard to keep up with eating healthily. Of course, this will be easier when you are also working out, as you will feel more motivated to ensure that you have a good diet. It’s important to make sure that you are eating the right food before and after going to the gym. High-energy meals will be great before your workouts, but you will need something to help you recover afterward.

Sleep & Rest

Sleep is crucial to your fitness goals, though many people don’t realize this. Your body needs to spend a certain amount of time sleeping each night to ensure that it can recover properly from your workouts. Your sleep is also tied heavily to your metabolism, and this means that proper sleep can help you to lose weight. There are loads of guides and resources available around the web that can help you to get better sleep.

Additional Equipment

Most gyms come loaded with different types of equipment. This gives you the chance to try a range of different exercises, while also giving you an opportunity to find something you really like. Of course, though, you can supplement your regular exercises with additional equipment that will make it even better for your body. Weights are a good example of this, with wrist and ankle weights providing a heavier workout. Likewise, tools like an electric belly fat burning belt can also provide more from your workouts.

Your Approach

It can be all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that getting fit involves working as hard as humanly possible. In reality, though, you can often work smart rather than working hard, and your fitness goals can be easier to achieve than you expect. Working too hard can be bad for those with defined goals, as you are likely to spend more time recovering than you will if you take it a little bit easier. Light exercise each day is always better than heavy exercise once each week.

As you can see, making sure that you get the most out of each workout is a challenge that can be hard to balance. There are a lot of tools and resources available to help you with this, but you should also work to be creative and try new things. Your body is different to everyone else’s, and this means that you need to find options that work for you.

Thank you for reading!

Fitness Health

3 Reasons You Feel Incredibly Tired After Working Out (And How To Fix This!)

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Tiredness is somewhat normal after working out, but it shouldn’t be a case of you crashing on your sofa and feeling like you need to sleep. Obviously, working your body will tire it out, but you should still have enough energy to get on with the rest of your day. So, why are you so incredibly tired following your workouts? Here are three reasons this could be the case, along with some solutions to help you stop feeling so drained:

You didn’t have enough fuel in your body beforehand

Fueling your workouts is critical to make them more effective and intense. You need to have energy in your body to burn while working out, but the problem is that too many of us work out with a lack of energy to burn. This happens when you skip meals before working out, so your body is essentially running on empty. You burn calories while exercising, but you have no fuel left to sustain you after the workout. So, you start feeling faint, lightheaded, and exhausted. 

Addressing this problem is a simple case of fueling properly before working out. Eat a carb-heavy meal or snack before exercising, leaving at least 30 mins after you eat. This will make you feel more energetic during and after the workout. Oh, and refuel after as well (definitely with protein)!

You’re dehydrated

Dehydration is super common since you sweat a lot during your workouts (meaning you lose a lot of fluids). It’s important to be hydrated before working out. You want to feel hydrated during the workout, and of course don’t forget to hydrate after the workout, as well (especially drink something with electrolytes)! This will stop the feelings of exhaustion that you tend to feel.

A couple of ways you can achieve hydration are by bringing a reusable water bottle to the gym (and constantly filling it), or you could even try IV therapy. A water bottle encourages you to drink while exercising, replacing lost fluids along the way. You can use it after the workout as well to keep your hydration levels high. The average IV therapy costs have become more affordable in modern times, and this basically provides instant hydration to your body – along with the benefit of replacing lost electrolytes. Whichever method you choose, just make sure you stay hydrated to avoid extreme tiredness. 

You drank caffeine before working out

A common way to approach workouts is to have coffee or another caffeinated beverage beforehand. Certainly, if you take any pre-workout supplement, it’ll be packed full of caffeine. While it gives you a burst of energy for the workout, you tend to crash later on as the caffeine wears off. So, you’re sitting at your desk slumping over struggling to keep your eyes open!

You could fix this by avoiding caffeine before working out, or perhaps have another caffeinated beverage after to keep you going for a bit longer. At least this means you don’t fall asleep at your desk while working!

You shouldn’t struggle to work or go about your daily tasks following bouts of exercise. If you’re absolutely exhausted, it’s likely because of one of the problems above. 

Thank you for reading!

Fitness

How To Feel More Confident When Going To The Gym

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Going to the gym is a great way to stay fit and healthy. If you have a gym membership, you’re more inclined to follow a fitness routine that will benefit your health in the long and short terms. Unfortunately, there’s one major problem that holds lots of you back: confidence. You lack the confidence to feel comfortable in a gym environment, making it harder for you to actually stick to a routine. As a result, your health and well-being suffer, and all because you don’t feel confident in yourself! 

How do you address this issue and start feeling more comfortable going to the gym? It’s honestly not as hard as it initially seems. It can feel like this is a mammoth of a task, but you can slowly work on getting yourself to a point where going to the gym no longer fills you with anxiety. Here are a few ideas to try:

Work on building your own self-confidence

A good starting point is to figure out why you’re self-conscious. For many of you, this is an issue that plagues your entire life, not just when going to the gym. Perhaps it could be beneficial to work with a life coach to help understand the root of your confidence issues and how to build a sense of self-worth back up. This alone can be enough for many of you to start believing in yourself and commit to going to the gym more often. 

Find the best gym environment for you

Often, your lack of confidence stems from the gym environment around you. As a newbie, you can walk into a commercial gym full of fitness models and instantly feel worse than them. Just breathing the same air as these people make you feel self-conscious, so you’re less inclined to return. Therefore, finding a better gym can be a smart way of gaining more confidence. A lot of women have started going to female-only gyms, which makes them feel so much more confident as they’re only around other women. You could also choose to go to a smaller, more private gym, rather than a massive one. If you haven’t already seen and read it, there’s another post on this blog specifically about choosing the right gym. Feel free to check it out here. 

Learn the basics at home

For most people, a lack of gym confidence comes from a lack of ability. You don’t really know what you’re doing, so you’re self-conscious when entering the gym. This happens to just about everyone when they start working out, so don’t worry. The best idea is to learn the basics at home and build your confidence in your own abilities. When you’re more confident at working out at home, you can transition into the gym. Or, go to the gym during the quietest hours when hardly anyone is around, so you can learn and practice in peace. It’s all about taking baby steps to build your skills and have fewer things to worry about. 

Becoming more confident in a gym environment is so beneficial for your health & wellbeing! Going to the gym will no longer feel like a huge challenge, making it so easy to stick to a regular routine. From here, you’ll see all the health and fitness advantages!

Thank you for reading!

Fitness

6 Big Fitness Training Mistakes To Avoid

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There’s all kinds of contrasting information out there, and this can mean that training optimally can be tough. Most people make training mistakes at some point, where they are starting out or years into their journey. The odd training mistake won’t ruin your progress, but if you keep on making them, you could end up disheartened, with injuries, and suffering from imbalances. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some big training mistakes to avoid:

  1. Running Before You Can Walk

Everyone needs to master the basics, and even those who are pros in the gym can afford to go back to them from time to time. If you try to overcomplicate things, you’re going to run into problems. If you do it right, even a simple programme can help you to improve and get you great results. From there, you can build. However, never underestimate the effectiveness of going back to basics! 

  1. Going For Weights Over Form

Ego training is another huge issue. Form is far more important than the weight you are lifting. While you need to challenge yourself in your training, go too heavy and you could hurt yourself. If your form isn’t right, you will develop an injury or a problem. Form first, weight second. 

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  1. Not Training Your Entire Body

Training your entire body is crucial, unless you want to develop muscle imbalances. You may think you already have strong legs or strong arms, but you should still train them. Balancing out your body parts and ensuring overall strength is smart and functional. You don’t want huge arms and stick thin legs, or vice versa. You can put more focus on a body part you particularly want to build, but you should never do this to the detriment of other body parts. A sensible training split is key. 

  1. Forgetting To Work On Flexibility and Range of Motion

Working on your flexibility and range of motion is crucial when building muscle. If you fail to do this, you could end up with stiff, tight limbs, and you’ll become more prone to injury and issues later on down the line. 

  1. Changing Up Your Program Too Often

If you change up your program all the time, how will you know if you’re improving? It’s a good idea to stick to a program for anywhere from 1-3 months, so you can track particular exercises and ways of training. You’ll notice whether you are getting stronger, fitter, and whether you are finding them easier this way. Somebody like Dr. Marvell Scott can help you to stay accountable with a program that you enjoy. 

  1. Not Eating To Fuel Your Sessions

It isn’t all about your training. If you don’t eat to support your training and your goals, you’re going to have mediocre sessions and mediocre results. When training with weights, adequate protein intake is key. You need carbs for energy, and healthy fats, too. Women especially need to ensure they are getting enough healthy fats so that their menstruation cycles are supported. It’s a good idea to learn how to track macros so you can ensure you’re eating balanced meals with everything you need. This way, you can incorporate things you actually enjoy, too, rather than follow an unsustainable way of eating that you won’t stick to long term. 

Thank you for reading!

Health

Five Changes To Make To Improve Your Health

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If anything, life is too short, and it’s essential that we’re making the most out of what we have available to us. Who knows how much time we really have, and if there are ways to help extend our life, then it’s important to do it. Here are five changes to make to improve your health and hopefully, help you to live longer!

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Try To Improve Fitness Levels

It’s important to do what you can in order to improve your fitness levels. There are certain things that you can do to help encourage a healthier lifestyle and for many, finding the right sport or activity is what can help you love fitness and working out more. For those who don’t enjoy it, it might simply be that you’ve not found the right type of fitness that you enjoy. There’s no denying that there’s lots of options out there to choose from and so it’s worth doing what you can to trial out different fitness and activities to see what you like. Improving your fitness levels can certainly contribute to your health because it improves the body’s strength and keeps the organs nice and healthy, too.

Ideally, you should be working out at least once or twice a week, and if possible, exercising for over 20 minutes per day. The best advice to offer when it comes to improving your fitness is to build it up slowly. It’s a marathon, not a sprint so take your time. Build up to what you feel comfortable doing and then slowly go up in how much you work out each week until it’s at a level that you can sustain.

Get The Health Checks You Need

Health checks are good for spotting things early and there are lots of different diseases and illnesses out there that can do harm to our body. However, getting yourself into a doctor’s room is a lot easier said than done. For many of us, we tend to prioritize other things like our jobs before our health and it can be the same for putting others before ourselves. It’s essential that you break this bad habit and listen to your body when something seems off. Trust your gut and don’t allow life to get in the way and to stop you from getting it checked.

Health checks should be an annual check-up with your doctor, seeing a dentist, getting your eyes checked and your hearing looked at. You can learn more about these checks and how they can benefit you by going online. You also have the opportunity to get other health checks as you get older, and this should certainly be taken advantage of.

Be Sure To Get Plenty Of Sleep

It’s important to get plenty of sleep because sleep is what helps repair the body. Try to get as much sleep as you can as and when you can get it. The ideal amount is around seven to nine hours a night and if you’re not getting that, then you’re likely going to do yourself some damage later down the line. If you struggle to sleep, then there’s plenty of help and guidance out there to approach the way you’re sleeping. It might be that you try blackout blinds or perhaps you look at getting an eye mask if blackout blinds aren’t possible.

Eat With Moderation In Mind

It’s always good to eat in moderation rather than to simply focus on what you can and cannot eat. Everyone needs to indulge every so often and perhaps eat the stuff that’s not as good for you. Moderation is the thing you want to focus on when it comes to looking after your body. It’s important to watch what you’re eating and when you’re trying to gain weight, lose weight or maintain, moderation can help you do this because it’s all about the calories. 

Everyone’s a little different when it comes to eating and due to our genetics and bodily functions, it’s good to follow your own guidance on what calories you should be having. It’s important to enjoy your food, so don’t be strict on what you can and cannot eat. It is the size and amount that really matters.

Quit Any Bad Habits

And finally, try to quit any bad habits that you have (smoking cigarettes, drinking excess alcohol, consuming soda, etc). These bad habits can contribute to ill health, so it’s good to get rid of them where possible.

Changes that you make to your health can certainly help to live longer in the future. I hope you use these tips to help improve your health!

Thank you for reading!

Fitness

How To Get Guaranteed Results When Exercising

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It’s no secret that regular exercise is good for your health. So many studies show that exercising can prevent health problems and aid common issues like chronic pain. But, many of you want to work out to see results. As such, it’s demotivating when you try hard and see no changes in your body. From here, you stop exercising – which is a detriment to your health. 

How do you see guaranteed results all the time? Believe it or not, it’s not that difficult!

Know Your Goals

The first step is to understand your specific fitness goals. Do you want to maintain your weight? Are you hoping to lose weight or gain muscle? Do you want to be free from chronic pain? All of these goals are different and require different exercise regimes. By figuring out what you want to achieve, you can start putting together a program that targets them. This ensures you don’t waste time doing things that won’t provide the right results. 

A great example is someone who wants to gain muscle but only does cardio workouts. You won’t see the desired results, so you’ll get demotivated very fast!

Find Out What Works for Your Body

We’re all different, and some people respond to certain exercises better than others. It’s very scientific and relates to muscle fibers and all that jazz. Still, with companies like Dynamic DNA Laboratories, you can figure out what type of exercise suits your body the best. Effectively, you send a blood test to companies like this and they analyze it to see how your body responds to different stimuli. 

In essence, you learn what you should be doing. It’s a great way of making your body more productive when exercising. Again, it’s all about avoiding things that don’t bring you the benefits you’re after. 

Be Consistent

The third step is to be consistent. This relates to both your fitness routine and diet. You can’t eat healthily for a week and then go back to your old habits. It won’t provide the results you want to see! Likewise, if you exercise once a week, don’t expect to see the desired results you’re after. 

Consistency is key, which is why many people hire personal trainers or find online training programs. I definitely recommend this as you can get a program that tells you what to do and when to do it. There’s a sense of accountability there, but also a schedule. Most people lack exercise consistency because they don’t have a plan and just wing it all the time. 

It seems too good to be true – are these three things all you need to see results? Well, yes! Exercise and health are very simple things that have become overly complicated with time. If you want to see results, you need to define your goals. This lets you know what type of exercise you should be doing, and what diet you need to follow. Then, find out what your body responds best to and stay consistent with your training program. Good luck!

Thank you for reading!

Health

Before Training The Body, You Must First Train Your Mind

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Healthy body, healthy mind. That’s the mantra that most people try to live by. Perhaps now it’s the time to flip that idea on its head and focus on the concept of a healthy mind building the platform for a healthy body.

The first step on the road to success, then, is to build a detailed and transparent plan. Focus on building a stronger mindset through these seven simple tips, and your body will soon follow.

Step One: Start the day in style

Healthy living is a daily challenge. Most people wake up with good intentions, but it’s very easy to lose your enthusiasm once you fall behind on those various tasks. Therefore, starting the day in a positive fashion should be a priority. Eating oatmeal every day can become a winning routine, and it should be supported by drinking a glass of water. The value of good hydration is clear.

If you plan to workout in the mornings, be sure to do it consistently. Or if you want to get on with daily assignments, leaving time for workouts later on, that’s fine too. Another top trick is to set your alarm 10 minutes early. The simple thought process of being ahead of where you should be at any given time will keep you motivated throughout the day ahead.

Step Two: Sleep well

Actually, this step could be moved to the top of the list if you prefer. You spend roughly one-third of your life sleeping while it is the time for your body and mind to recuperate. We all appreciate the negative impacts that a bad night’s sleep can have on our mindset. Conversely, healthy sleep patterns will allow you to wake up and attack the day.

Healthy sleeping patterns start with the evening rituals. Learn to avoid the blue light of your smartphone for an hour before bed. Meanwhile, new bedding and improved climate control systems can aid the cause too. The key isn’t only to enhance the duration of your sleep. True success comes from reaching the REM stage of deep sleep. Get this right, and then move onto daytime upgrades.

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Step Three: Master goal-setting habits

It’s impossible to follow the right path if you don’t even know the intended destination. Furthermore, human nature dictates that we need targets that we can aspire to achieve. They provide motivation and clarity. This is why a combination of achievable short-term and long-term goals is vital. Use the milestones to track your progress and spur you on to the big goals.

Healthy living can cover fitness, nutrition, and simply getting outside more regularly. Ultimately, then, the goals must be tailored to meet your personal requirements. Anything less would lead to disappointment. In turn, it could encourage you to abandon the process altogether. So, if you want to give yourself a fighting chance of staying on track, you must not skip this step.

Step Four: Seek help through tech

We all encounter moments where we can’t be bothered or where life seems to get in the way. The occasional cheat meal or skipped gym session won’t spell disaster. Still, once you break the habit of doing things correctly, it’s hard to rediscover the mentality. If modern tech can keep you in the right frame of mind, you should reach out to grab it.

Motivational tech tools can range from fitness trackers to calorie counters. Meanwhile, simply setting schedules and alarms will force you to stop being lazy. If you continue to struggle, joining a community where you compete against others is the perfect solution. The competitive streak in you will encourage you to keep outperforming friends or online buddies.

Step Five: Avoid bad influencers

We are all influenced by our surroundings. This is especially noticeable when you consider the company you keep and the impact they have on your lifestyle choices. If a friend constantly leads you to give up on healthy living goals, it might be the right time to take a step back. Even if it’s just for a few weeks until you can see the benefits of avoiding those pitfalls.

Conversely, positivity begets positivity. Positive people that pursue healthy living should lead you to personal improvements. Moreover, you will be in a better position to pick up valuable tips. This may allow you to reach your goals with greater success rates. Naturally, this can extend to ideas such as quitting cigarettes once and for all. Putting yourself first is normal.

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Step Six: Meditate

Modern life is stressful, and it can hit your mindset hard. In turn, this will probably put your physical wellness at risk too. A few minutes of yoga each day can transform your life for the better. It allows you to find inner peace while also becoming more supple. This can subsequently keep you in a better mindset while helping you achieve more with physical fitness.

Meditation can be supported by drinking green tea after a session while a little self-pampering is vital. The balance between endevours and rewards can encourage you to keep up the new routines. In turn, they can slot into a better overall lifestyle that extends to your career and other features. It’s a small addition, but its impact can be huge.

Step Seven: Focus on fun

Last but not least, you should try to make healthy living feel enjoyable. Consistency is the key to sustained success. Moreover, you are only human, and falling into the trap of repetitive routines could backfire spectacularly. Therefore, you should aim to mix it up with a range of cardio and strength training. If nothing else, keeping the body on its toes will aid results.

Better still, trying new ideas may unlock new passions and hobbies. It is coupled with the fact that it can reduce the threat of sneaking into the red zone where injuries are more common. Those features ensure that this is the best way to keep yourself engaged with healthy living. You can take your results to the next level by opting for fitness retreat holidays or spa breaks as your rewards.

Thank you for reading!

Fitness Health

Actionable Steps To Make Your Fitness Goals More Attainable

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Are you struggling to reach the next level in your training sessions, or do you feel like your progress has stalled? If you’re on a mission to achieve fitness goals, here are some actionable steps you can take to make your targets more attainable. 

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Targeted exercises and activities

There are myriad activities and exercises you can engage in to get fit nowadays. While it’s beneficial to vary your workouts and make training fun, it is also advantageous to tailor your training regime to match your objectives. Think about what you want to achieve. If you have a clear goal, for example, to get fitter, to build muscle, to tone up or to improve your endurance and stamina, you can follow a plan aligned to these targets. If your main aim is to run a marathon, it makes sense to focus on exercises that increase endurance. If you want to burn fat and increase muscle mass, combining cardio and weight and resistance training will help you reach your goal. 

Working with a trainer

Sometimes, it can be difficult to reach peak levels of performance without encouragement, guidance or a little healthy competition. If you’re struggling to get to where you want to be, it’s worth thinking about taking part in group sessions to introduce a competitive element, training with a buddy or hiring a personal trainer. When you feel like the tank is empty, a good trainer will be able to squeeze that extra 5 or 10 percent out of you and they can push you to do better without putting you at risk of injury or burnout. Working with a trainer can also motivate you if you feel like you’ve run out of ideas for your training program, or you’ve lost confidence in being able to reach the next milestone. 

Know your limits

When it comes to fitness everybody has a limit, even Olympic athletes have a point to which they can push no more, so why should you be any different? While you hear fit pros talk about pushing through the wall or it being mind over matter, it is nonetheless important that you start to learn, recognize and respect your physical limitations when it comes to exercise. If you don’t you could end up causing yourself more harm than good. You could injure yourself or exacerbate a pre-existing problem that renders you unable to exercise for a significant period of time. This will only then push your end goal further away. Perhaps you have a longstanding heart problem to accommodate. Or maybe you were involved in a car accident that left you with injuries so severe you required a car accident lawyer to seek compensation for the effects of the injuries. Any pre-exisiting or ongoing injury or health complaint must be taken seriously and must be discussed with either a doctor or trainer when starting a new fitness regime or implementing new goals. 

Even if you don’t have any injuries or health complaints to be mindful of you still need to respect your limits to avoid causing yourself an injury or to avoid causing burnout. Overdoing it can lead to your mind and body exhausting itself and getting to a point where you cannot physically manage or mentally face any further exercise. 

Diet

Exercise is incredibly beneficial for your body and mind, but it’s not the only element of good health. To perform in the gym or on the sports field, you need to make sure that your body has sufficient fuel and that you take essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients on board. If you’re training with a specific goal in mind, you may also want to consider using supplements, but it’s important to seek advice from your trainer or doctor first. Sometimes, people try to increase exercise at the same time as reducing calorie intake and portion sizes to lose weight. It’s crucial to get the balance right if this is your target. Often, making changes to your diet will enable you to eat more without putting on weight because you’re eating nutritious foods that have a lower calorie content. 

Rest

It’s understandable to assume that the more you train, the closer you’ll get to your goal, but there is such a thing as overtraining. Allow your body to rest and recover to prevent injuries and enhance performance. You can take the odd day off or use rest days to enjoy low-intensity exercise, such as swimming or going for a walk. 

If you’re struggling to reach your fitness goals, don’t give up! Take these tips on board to make your objectives more attainable. 

Thank you for reading!

Fitness

How To Find A Worthwhile Fitness Community

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Social support is one of the biggest motivators for a wide range of reasons. Think about it this way. You know you need to change and start working out to get healthier. A friend agrees with you, they’re in the same predicament. You decide that it would be better to work out together, to help one another push past the limits you might otherwise artificially place on yourselves.

You set the date. You’ll attend the gym at 8am on a Thursday. When Thursday morning rolls around, and you feel tired, what will you do? Call it off? But you’ve been waiting all week for it. No, you choose to push through so as not to let your friend down. They decide to do the same. Repeat this five times, and you have a habit. Repeat this ten times, and now dropping out becomes even harder. Repeat this thirty times, and you have a close friend and workout buddy you can measure results together with.

Community is powerful like that. It can help you become your best self. But how can we find the best community, in all manner of fitness considerations? With the following advice:

Try Reddit

Reddit is a golden resource for many reasons. If you have a particular plan or program that you follow, from Couch 2 5k to weightlifting in general, you will meet people there who are more than interested in seeing what you have to offer. Reddit offers people young and old, beginner or advanced, to share tips and come together with an understanding of what is most appropriate. From diet advice (keto, intermittent fasting etc) to simply finding motivation, this can be a golden resource in your journey.

Stick Within Your Program

Sticking within your program can also be a fantastic means of meeting new people. Let’s say you’re beginning with Stronglifts or Starting Strength. You can BET that the people interested in those programmes will be more than able to help you out with them. From figuring out how to spend your deload week, to the best supplements to take, to helping convince you that you never need overbearing fitness gear to perform well, sticking within your program can help you become a fan of it, and it helps you excel within that space.

Find Classes & Leadership Sessions

There are many excellent leadership classes and sessions out there that help you connect to more people who share your mindset. Fitness is a way of life, but so is business growth, and so is making the best out of your leadership skills. If you can combine those things together and surround yourself with people who are positive, forward-thinking, and also members of the Fiesta app, you’ll no doubt combine your output together and become fit in not only health, but in the mindset it takes to live a life like this. That can only be a positive route forward.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily find your community, and share success in achievement of your goals.

Thank you for reading!

Fitness Health

5 Import Reasons To Incorporate Stretching Into Your Daily Routine

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While people rave about the many benefits of yoga and meditation (and rightly so), stretching tends to be forgotten about and is often an overlooked part of many people’s fitness routines. Even if you aren’t a professional athlete and are new to exercise, stretching should be a part of everyone’s daily routine due to the many short and long-term benefits. These include improved flexibility, posture and a reduction in body aches and stress, to name but a few. Here are 5 reasons why you should incorporate a 5-10 minute stretching routine into your day.

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Greater Flexibility  

Improved flexibility is probably one of the things that stretching is most famous for and one of the first things that come to mind. Lots of research has been done into stretching, confirming that it can help to improve flexibility significantly as well as the range of motion of the joints and can even help to delay reduced mobility that comes with aging. Stretching increases blood circulation to the muscles, decreasing the risk of injury when exercising, and improving the performance of physical activities as the muscles work more effectively. Improved flexibility and healthier muscles also improve balance, but it’s essential to ensure that all stretches are done safely and using correct techniques to avoid injuries. 

Improves Posture

If a typical day for you includes being hunched over a laptop for hours on end, you are not alone with sedentary jobs having increased up to 83% since 1950. Sitting for so many hours a day isn’t only detrimental to our fitness, but also our postures. Nine times out of ten, most of us are sitting incorrectly, slouching, and hunching over, leading to weakened and shortened back, core, neck, and shoulder muscles. Over time our bodies start to adapt to these poor postures, leading to potentially significant health problems, not only with our physical form but impacting blood circulation and how the body produces hormones. Once we have gotten into the bad habit of slouching, it’s tough to get out of. With just five to ten minutes of stretching a day, you can strengthen your back muscles, improving postures and encouraging proper alignment. Not only will you feel better and stronger physically, but you’ll also appear taller.

Relieves Stress

We all know that stress has a significant negative impact on our bodies and general health. Long periods of stress can contribute to problems including high blood pressure and a weakened immune system as well as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. 

When experiencing stress, no matter the level, your muscles’ response is to tense up. Stretching is, therefore, a great stress reliever, helping you to release much-needed tensions in areas prone to holding stress such as the neck and upper back. Stress also causes your breathing to be narrow and short but can be combated by a few daily stretches. These relax the body, encourage you to be calm, and help you get a better night’s sleep – and the benefits are often immediate. 

Reduces Pain After Exercise 

If you’ve ever experienced stiffness and soreness after a workout, to the point where it hurts to walk or even move, you’ll know just how painful delayed onset muscle soreness can be. This is especially true if you’ve been applying the muscle mind link when weightlifting or practicing Calisthenics. Even though it is necessary to break the muscles down to repair themselves stronger than before, the immediate after-effects can cause tiredness and affect coordination, which isn’t always ideal in our daily lives. The key to reducing delayed onset muscle soreness is to prepare your body through performing dynamic stretching before you exercise rather than after. This makes it easier to deal with any pain you might experience afterwards and helps to prepare your muscles for physical activity. It is also recommended to stretch after a workout when warming down; however, if you have pulled a muscle or are incredibly sore, then you should stop. Remember that stretching doesn’t actually heal your muscles post-exercise, but just like with stress, it is a great way to release any tension or tightness that you might be feeling. 

Calms the Mind

Much like meditation, stretching regularly has a calming effect on the mind, providing a mental break for the stresses of everyday life. The production of stress hormones is slowed down as stretching stimulates the nervous system’s receptors while improving the circulation and flow of blood throughout the body. Combine stretching with meditation techniques and exercising to recharge your batteries and feel calmer. 

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