Mar 26

Stretching 101

by Personal Trainer in Exercise, Inspiration 0 comments tags: barefoot fitness challenge, exercise, fitness, Fitness Vida, home workout, how to, mobility, movement, routine, stretch, stretching, surf, surfing, tips, training, workout
Stretching 101 by Fitness Vida When it comes to stretching, the act is often overlooked by many that hit the gym or punish their bodies in the name of fun/sport. Maybe it’s lack of understanding or oversight? A proper stretching routine, paired with your fitness routine will go a long way for your overall health and the way your body feels. Since your body will adapt to whatever you do most often with it, not adapting a stretching routine with your workout routine could lead to many negative consequences like back /neck/shoulder tightness/pain, or even injury. Aside from that, it makes you FEEL GREAT when you do it often! Please read on for a quick primer on Stretching 101. What happens if you don’t stretch enough? While the act of exercise mainly puts focus on contraction (the squeeze) of the muscles, it is important to realize that solely contracting the muscles all the time can lead to serious limitations in how you move. Constant contraction will lead to shortening of the muscles, which causes muscle imbalances . With these in place, your posture will suffer and that will first lead to pain, and possibly future injury. If you are an […]
Apr 12

The Stand Up Paddleboard Workout

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Workout Wednesday 0 comments tags: balance, exercise, home workout, routine, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, SUP, tips, training, workout
Stand Up Paddle boarding (or SUP) seems to be everywhere these days. Visit a beach, a lake or a river, and you will usually see many people SUP’ing. Maybe it’s because the learning curve is so shallow that almost anyone can be up and enjoying themselves on an SUP in just a matter of minutes. Or maybe its just because it’s just plain fun. You are on the water enjoying nature, all while getting a great workout for your body. Whatever the reason, it is much more fun to paddle when your body is conditioned properly. The Stand Up Paddle Board Workout was designed to help maximize your fun! Some serious movement conditioning will come in to great play if you plan on spending long periods of time out on the water paddling. If you are serious about SUP, this is a great workout routine that will help you not only stay out longer on the water, but do it stronger and more efficiently while reducing the risk of future injury. In order to understand the exercises, let’s first look at SUP from the body’s point of view Balance, agility, mobility, coordination, strength, physical conditioning and power all come in to play at […]
Apr 07

Fitness Friday Medley 2 (April 3-9 2017)

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Fitness Friday Medley, Inspiration 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, Fitness Friday, get back in shape, health, movement, routine, tips, training, workout
Hello again, and welcome to the Fitness Friday Medley 2. If you missed out on last weeks post, you can view it here. This weeks wrap talks about some of the “not so sexy” fitness topics that often are overlooked. When I say “not so sexy”, I mean things that won’t give you a round booty, huge guns or superman speed, at least directly. Indirectly, they all are important pieces of a proper fitness regimen. Read on to find out why. Exercise of the Week: Balance Training Ok, well Balance isn’t so much a simple exercise as it is an element that should be part of everyone’s fitness training regime no matter what their goals are. Like cardio, the less you practice it, the worse it becomes. As you get older and stop being more physically active, poor balance can also be a source for injuries. Please have a look at a more in depth piece I wrote a few years ago regarding this subject here . Smart Recovery One of the most often overlooked elements to a healthy fitness lifestyle is recovery. How you spend your time in between workouts is just as important as the time you spend working […]
Mar 24

Fitness Friday Medley 1 (March 20-26, 2017)

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Fitness Friday Medley, Inspiration 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, Fitness Friday, get back in shape, health, movement, tips, training, workout
Love it or hate it, the internet can be an amazing place to find out everything you need to know to help you reach your fitness goals. Nearly everything you need is just a few keystrokes away. As much as this is a good thing, it can also be very overwhelming. Thousands of articles, blog posts, videos and audio clips get posted each and every day, all meant to help you get in shape. For the outsider looking in, confusion is inevitable. Since I constantly have clients asking me the best places to find information that will help them stay focused and motivated, I’ve decided to start a weekly post with some of my favorite tips and tricks. Welcome to the Fitness Friday Medley 1. Exercise of the Week: The Plank It may not be a sexy, but it is one of the most effective moves that one should master to help lay down a base for fitness success. Watch the video below for the why and the how to perform a perfect plank. Why do so many people fail at fitness? Comedian, Announcer, Show Host…. Joe Rogan is a lot of things. He also has a deep passion for fitness […]
May 25

Workout Wednesday #3 HIIT For Runners

by Personal Trainer in Exercise, Inspiration, Workout Wednesday 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, health, hiit, runner, running, tips, training, workout, workout wednesday
If you missed my first 2 post’s on HIIT, and why it is so important for runners, I would recommend reading them first before proceeding with this workout to get  better understanding of the how/why to my methods for the workouts.  Both posts can be found here and here. This will be part 3( or week 3) of 5. Intensity goes up a bit, and we start to work with lateral (side to side) movements. The process will be the same as in part 1 and 2, as it will be for the following 2 workouts to come in the series.   Why work lateral when you run forwards? When I train runners, the first thing I always find out is that most of them are not training any other motions then moving forwards. This is not a good thing! When the body becomes used to doing one thing over and over, it can easily adapt to the movement which means it will not be functioning at peak performance. Injury Prevention is also a big reason. In fact, the largest connecting tissue in the body runs right down the side of your leg (Iliotibial Band or ITB ). It’s job is to hold your thigh muscles […]
May 11

Workout Wednesday #2 HIIT For Runners

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Workout Wednesday 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, hiit, routine, runner, running, tips, training, workout wednesday
If you missed my first post on HIIT, and why it is so important for runners, I would recommend reading that first before proceeding with this exercise to get  better understanding of the how/why to my methods for the workout.  It can be found here. This will be part 2( or week 2) of 5. Intensity goes up a bit, and we start to work the legs a bit more. The process will be the same as in part 1, as it will be for the following 3 workouts to come in the series. Below you will find pictures of each exercise for those not familiar with the names. Backward Lunge Plank w/ Alt Arm Extension Alt Leg Bounding Push Up Deep Squat Jump For a short refresher on our HIIT workout, perform each exercise with maximum intensity as you can for 20 seconds (30 seconds for pros). rest for 10 seconds before moving on to next exercise. Do this for all 5 exercises and rest 1-2 minutes before performing a 2nd and 3rd set. Repeat 2-3x/week instead of running! Save your knees and get the same cardio impact in less then 20 minutes! Stay tuned for part 3 of our HIIT For Runners […]
May 02

Monday Motivation #5

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Monday Motivation 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, health, monday motivation, tips, training, workout
So, how did we do last week? Were you able to try some yoga?   If you weren’t able to, that’s OK. No better time to start than the present. As always, we will introduce new tips to help motivate you into bigger change every single Monday. This week’s Monday Motivation is a bit of a selfish one for me. Today marks the release of my new podcast series titled the “Fitness Vida Podcast“. I invite everyone to tune in and listen to Weekly fitness tips, industry interviews with Top prefessionals in the health and fitness industry, and listener questions answered by me, the Personal Trainer. No topic is off limits. All questions are relevant. If I do not have an answer, odds are I know someone that does.  With each episode clocking in at less then 30 minutes, it will be the perfect addition toyour pre gym ritual! Listen the the first episode HERE If you like what you hear, please subscribe and share the love !  *Studies have shown that people who make small and gradual change over time have a much higher percentage of success then those that try to make drastic changes all at once. Even if you try 1 change/week […]
Apr 25

Monday Motivation #4

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Monday Motivation 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, health, home workout, monday motivation, routine, tips, training, workout
So, how did we do last week? We’re you able to try and get your plank time above 45 seconds?   If you weren’t able to, that’s OK. No better time to start then the present. As always, we will introduce new tips to help motivate you into bigger change every single Monday. This week again is all about expanding on our current Routine.  Yoga has been a sacred practice for many centuries, but over the past decade has seen a huge explosion in North America. If you haven’t tried it yet, no better time. Get on Google and find a class. If you are out in the stix, or just simply don’t have the time, here is a great FREE intro class you can do right from your living room. Since we are big on posture, this class will focus on stretching the hamstrings(a major culprit in low back pain) and opening up the hips. Total time: 33 minutes. Also this week we are going to try to start an “Accountability Log” (or exercise journal). Since change is slow and methodical when loosing(or gaining weight) the correct and healthy way, this will help make sure that the things that need […]
Apr 20

Our Top Ten Tips for Getting Back In Shape…Tip 4

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Food, Inspiration 0 comments tags: diet, exercise, fitness, get back in shape, health, healthy food, nutrition, training, workout
With all the exercise planned out for your new workout routine, the next thing we want to do is look at how you should be eating. This is where most of the confusion comes in. With so many “diets” out there, how does one know which one will be best for them? Lets start with the fundamentals that should be kept in mind no matter what “diet” we choose to follow. Tip #4 – Basic Nutrition Since this is a touchy subject with many communities involved in the Health and Fitness industry, I thought it would be best to talk basics, rather than specifics. The first thing I feel is most important to figuring out how much we should eat , is figuring out what our RMR (or resting metabolic rate) is. If you are not familiar with this term, it represents how many calories your body needs to fuel itself just to operate in a 24hr period, and accounts for about 70% of  a persons total daily energy expenditure before any physical activity.     to read more on RMR vs BMR, and how to find out your magic number, click here .   Once you figure out your RMR, you have to figure […]
Apr 18

Monday Motivation #3

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Monday Motivation 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, monday motivation, tips, training, workout
So, how did we do last week? We’re you able to add at least one of our new health/fitness  tips to your current lifestyle?   If you weren’t able to, that’s OK. No better time to start then the present. This week is all about expanding on our current Routine.  Since Stat Trackers are all the rage, this week we will use one of those to track steps for 3 days. This is a great way to see if you are getting the step goal for each day. Also this week we are going to try to learn how to do a correct Plank Pose. This is one of the most essential moves in a fitness routine and should ALWAYS be done with correct form. If you have never done a plank before, you can watch a great video below on proper form and technique. If you are already planking, try adding a challenge to your plank like increasing hold time, lifting one arm or leg at a time. *Studies have shown that people who make small and gradual change over time have a much higher percentage of success then those that try to make drastic changes all at once. Even if you try 1 change/week […]