How Exercise Boosts Your Mood

As the season gets closer to winter, the days get darker and colder. This may take a toll on your mood, and research proves, one of the best ways to boost your mood naturally is exercise. Here is some info from www.mayoclinic.com on how working out can ease your worries and help you feel better emotionally.          

 

        

How does exercise help depression and anxiety?

Exercise probably helps ease depression in a number of ways, which may include:

• Releasing feel-good brain chemicals that may ease depression (neurotransmitters and endorphins)
• Reducing immune system chemicals that can worsen depression
• Increasing body temperature, which may have calming effects

Exercise has many psychological and emotional benefits too. It can help you:

• Gain confidence. Meeting exercise goals or challenges, even small ones, can boost your self-confidence. Getting in shape can also make you feel better about your appearance.
• Take your mind off worries. Exercise is a distraction that can get you away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed anxiety and depression.
• Get more social interaction. Exercise may give you the chance to meet or socialize with others. Just exchanging a friendly smile or greeting as you walk around your neighborhood can help your mood.
• Cope in a healthy way. Doing something positive to manage anxiety or depression is a healthy coping strategy. Trying to feel better by drinking alcohol, dwelling on how badly you feel, or hoping anxiety or depression will go away on its own can lead to worsening symptoms.
         

For personalized training and nutrition plans visit our website at http://twinspirationfitness.webs.com/

Cellulite Solutions

Cellulite is a problem that plagues many women, and while its virtually impossible to get rid of, there are some simple solutions to ease the site of cellulite.

             

Cellulite is a condition in which the skin appears to have areas with underlying fat deposits, giving it a dimpled, lumpy appearance. It is most noticeable on the butt and thighs and stomach areas. It's a problem that plagues millions of women. Even skinny women can have cellulite. It is very genetic. However, if you have cellulite, you can ease the appearance of the dimples through weight training. You see, the muscle will fill out the leg which will helps lessen the appearance of cellulite. However, you can't just lose weight to decrease the appearance of cellulite. You NEED to fill out the excess dimpled skin with muscle. So the fuller then muscle, the lesser the appearance of dimples! So another great reason to do some heavy squats and get those hammies nice and thick. Once you start getting muscle bellies in your glutes and hamstrings the dimply skin will start to decrease because you are filling it out with dense muscles mass.

 

Here's an awesome at home remedy I used before my fitness competition that I won. I seem to get cellulite, and I have excess skin from being heavy, around my abdomen area. Every night ,for about a month, I rubbed preparation H all over my stomach and then wrapped plastic wrap around it. I would wear it for a few hours. It actually made a visible difference! It basically pulled the excess water from under the skin and made the skin tighter. This isn't something I would recommend doing daily, but it's something you can try before a big event and it only costs about $5!

              

For information on a personalized training and nutrition plan, visit our website at http://twinspirationfitness.webs.com/

Cure Your Calf Problems

If you are new to working out, and specifically doing HIIT on the treadmill, you may experience sore calves. I get asked often how to cure painful calves. Here is a crash course on how to cure those aches. 

Before you run make sure you are doing some active stretching... never do passive stretching before running. Good active stretching for your calves would be doing heel raises on a stair with your feet parallel, turned out, and turned in, to hit all three heads of the calf muscle. Also, do some "farmers walks," and heel walks. Use a  stretch band to point and flex your toes to activate the calf muscle. Another active stretch is to do "high knees" landing on the balls of your feet.

Concentrate on form when running. A lot of people get sore calves because they strike on their heels instead of balls of your feet. Try to concentrate on striking on the ball of your foot which will also help you with speed. Another idea is to make sure you are wearing good sneakers for HIIT training.

When you are finished running use a foam roller, or a trigger point ball, or even a golf ball to roll out your calves with as much pressure as you can handle. That gets the blood flowing to the belly of the muscle. Then its time to stretch. Use stretch bands to pull your toes back and stretch the calf and hold it for at least 30 seconds. Pull your toes in every angle because the calf has 3 heads to it. Most people forget to stretch all three ways. Rolling out your whole body and stretching with really help with recovery and relieve soreness. Breathe when you are stretching to help the oxygen flow to the muscles. Finally, if you are having pain in addition to soreness, ICE and then heat for 20 minutes each. Another idea is to wear compression socks or sleeves on your calves. They help with blood flow to the area.

Always Learning

 

One of the most important things to look for in a personal trainer and nutritionist is that they are passionate about health and fitness. They should constantly be updating their knowledge of this everchanging industry. I (Juliane) challenge myself daily to read, for at least an hour a day, articles and books related to health and fitness. I keep reading until I learn something new. I've always been a little nerdy that way, but I love learning! I also think "hands on" training is extremely important. In addition to the continuing education classes I take to keep my personal training and nutrition certifications up to date, I go to a lot of clinics and seminars. Sure, it costs money, but I prefer to spend my money on learning because it's an investment that lasts forever.

 

Today, I bought Jessica and myself tickets to learn from one of my idols.... Dana Linn Bailey. She and her husband, Rob Bailey, are icon's in the bodybuilding industry. DLB is competing in the first ever Olympia Women's Physique Competition at the Olympia this weekend, and has really set the standards for that category. I am so excited to go to this seminar at her new gym and challenge myself with her lifting techniques.

 

 

My main point of this blog is that you should always be learning and continuing your education for what you are passionate about. If your personal trainer hasn't taken a class in years, or doesn't bother reading health articles, then they probably aren't passionate about their job. I LOVE health and fitness and that's why I made it my career. If you are going to this gym camp let me know so we can meet up! Jessica and I will both be there getting our pump on!

For personalized training or nutrition plans visit our website http://twinspirationfitness.webs.com/