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 02

4 PVC Pipe Mobility Movements

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Workout Wednesday 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, Fitness Vida, get back in shape, home workout, mobility, movement, routine, tips, workout
4 PVC Pipe Mobility Movements  Nothing feels better than a good warm up in as little time as possible. One of my favorite go to pieces of equipment is the PVC Pipe. When you hold it your hands together , you can create force in different positions as well as keep an equal feedback between the hands and the muscles being stretched. Best part is they can usually be found for less than $5 at your local hardware store. Tips for using your PVC pipe: Go slow, take your time Always push the pipe away from your body through movements. This will help the joints move through their full range of motion Try and use good form Hold each stretch 2-3 seconds and perform 4-5x per movement (or limb)  
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 […]
Apr 05

Workout Wednesday #4 Movements for Paddle Sports

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Workout Wednesday, Workout Wednesday 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, get back in shape, movement, routine, SUP, surf, swimming, tips, training, workout, workout wednesday
Summer is almost here, prepare now! It’s been a while, but Workout Wednesday is back. Today I want to talk about summer. If you live in the northern hemisphere, you most likely have 1 thing on your mind, time on the water! Whether you kayak, sup, surf or swim, there’s no better time to get the body ready for a long injury free summer of fun activities. Quality time prepping the body will also make the body perform better in all aspects of you activities. Swim longer, paddle further and recover quicker. Isn’t being healthy and playing all the time what life is all about? Getting hurt is no fun. Getting hurt early into summer, or early on an epic fun trip can mean lots of time and sessions missed. Paddle sports in general are very tough on the upper body as most motions will be done hundreds ,  if not thousands of times every day while out there adventuring. That sets them up to be very stiff, sore and left in a  weak state where they could rip or tear much easier. Strengthening and stretching muscles on a regular basis will keep your body stronger and more prone to […]
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 […]
Jun 16

Top 10 Workout Essential Tips

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration 1 comments tags: exercise, fitness, get back in shape, health, movement, routine, running, workout
“Quality means doing it right, even when no one is looking”-Henry Ford       Most people are making these mistakes even if they don’t know it. Read on to find out how to reap huge rewards from your workout routine. Ask yourself, and be honest, ARE YOU GUILTY? You may be without even knowing it. Start with one, or implement all 10 right away. Odds are high your body will thank you for it. 1. Don’t go all CRAZY for your first few weeks if you are just getting started. 3-4 sessions/ week in the beginning is plenty When the body hasn’t moved in a while, it will not be prepped to go out and give everything it has right away. Stay smart, take it slow and avoid the higher risk for injury that persists when you first start out. 2. Get off the Treadmill! Let me explain this one before you jump to conclusions. I am no way advocating against running at all, just doing it over and over again on a treadmill. Due to its low-calorie burn, and the body’s ability to adapt to running at a steady pace, it is one of the least effective way’s to just simply […]
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 15

Monday Motivation 6

by Personal Trainer in Blog, Exercise, Inspiration, Monday Motivation 0 comments tags: exercise, fitness, health, monday motivation, routine, running, tips, workout
For this weeks take on Monday Motivation, I want to add 2 key components I feel are some of the most important items that should be the base of any fitness aspiration. Log 3 consecutive days of meals. If you are just starting out, the point of a new “routine” in the first place is to make changes from what wasn’t working to something that hopefully will. As I have come to determine , most of my clients have no idea how many calories they are actually taking in. Since weight loss or muscle gain in its easiest form is calories in and calories out, it really is a game of the numbers. Once you have everything logged, use a nutrition app such as  MyFitnessPal or the US govt site ChooseMyPlate to calculate your daily calories . The results may suprise you and may just hide the key to shedding the pounds. Log 3 workouts or runs.  In part 2 of my “Top Ten Tips for Getting Back In Shape” series, I talked about the importance of planning. Knowing what you are going to do in the gym(or wherever you exercise) helps keep you on task and helps you get in and out more efficiently. Another thing I noticed […]
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 […]