Fitness & Wellness

Simple Habits For A Healthier You

Simple Habits For A Healthier You

People in Irvine, CA, understand it takes more than sticking with a diet for a week or exercising regularly for a month to live healthier. You have to turn things into a habit that you do automatically, much like driving to work. How often have you headed out Saturday morning to go shopping and found yourself on the way to the office? You do it so many times that it becomes automatic. Find something that can improve your health, no matter how small, and do it consistently for two months.

Cut out soft drinks.

Whether drinking diet sodas or the ones containing sugar, you’ll be better off switching drinks to unsweetened green or herbal tea or water. The soft drinks containing sugar add 100 calories. Just drinking three 12-ounce soft drinks each day adds 300 calories to your intake. That’s 109,500 extra calories each year. If you divide that by 3500 calories, the amount to cut to lose a pound, you’d lose 31 pounds without effort. Studies show that people who drink diet soft drinks have a larger abdominal circumference, so quit those, too.

Eat slower and chew your food more before swallowing.

If you can eat an entire dinner in under five minutes, you probably have a problem with your weight or digestive issues. Taking your time when you eat and chewing more helps you stay healthier in two ways. Part of digestion takes place in the mouth. The saliva and extra chewing break food down more to help avoid digestive issues. The longer you take to eat, the more time you have for your stomach to signal to the brain that it’s full. You won’t feel bloated and will lose weight when you slow down at meals.

Get active!

Start moving more. You don’t have to start a formal exercise program if you’re not ready. Get up and move around or do simple exercises if you’re watching TV. Don’t drive around the parking lot looking for the golden parking space closer to the door. You’ll save time, use less gas, and get more exercise by parking immediately and walking further to the store. Increase your pace when you walk to get more benefits. Increase your pace when you walk to get more benefits.

  • Improve your diet. You can start by making simple changes. Instead of a pizza crust, use a large burrito shell. Top it with sliced tomatoes, herbs, and spinach. Bake for five minutes in a small oven. Remove and sprinkle on Balsamic vinaigrette and top with mozzarella. Put it back in the oven until the cheese melts.
  • Drink more water. Carry a bottle of water with you and sip on it frequently. You’ll probably have more energy as you increase your water intake. Mild dehydration can make you feel exhausted.
  • Create a sleep schedule and stick with it. Get used to going to bed at the same time and arising at the same time, even on the weekend. It improves your circadian rhythm and keeps your hunger/satiety hormones balanced.
  • Make healthy snacks ahead. You can cut up veggies or fruit and prepare dip so when hunger hits, you won’t be tempted to eat high-calorie snacks.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Ways To Boost Your Immune System

Getting sick is not fun. It takes hours away from work, costs money, and feels horrible. If you feel like you catch colds or the flu easily, it’s time to find ways to boost your immune system. Staying healthy isn’t guaranteed, but you can improve your chances by making a few changes in your lifestyle. If you exercise regularly and think it’s enough, it’s not! You need a healthy diet, plenty of rest, and less stress. Here are some specific ways to do it.

Include the right nutrients in your diet.

Are you getting adequate zinc or vitamins A, B-9, C, D, and E? These vitamins all help improve immunity. During COVID-19, studies found that people who suffered the most from it had a deficiency of vitamin D. Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables can help provide these nutrients. Choose a rainbow of colors. Each color has a different phytonutrient. For instance, elderberries contain a phytonutrient with anti-viral properties that can help prevent the flu.

Exercise regularly, but don’t overdo it.

Whether you walk, do calisthenics, or lift weights, do some form of exercise every day. You don’t have to do a full session at one time. You can break it into shorter, easier-to-manage sessions, as long as it totals a half hour to an hour. You need 150-300 minutes a week of moderate or 75- 150 minutes of intense exercise. Don’t do an intense workout every day or exercise for too long if it’s intense. It stresses your body and lowers your immunity.

Learn relaxation techniques.

Stress kills. It causes physical conditions like high blood pressure but also suppresses your immunity. Exercise helps. Learning breathing techniques, meditation, or other relaxation techniques can also help reduce stress and improve your immune system. If you’re stuck in traffic, practice meditation or deep breathing. Getting upset won’t do you any good. It can cause stress that interferes with the functioning of your immune system.

Improve your immunity by cutting out certain foods. Cut highly processed food, food with added sugar, and deep-fried food from your diet. Sugar is the biggest culprit that diminishes your immunity.

Get adequate sleep. While you sleep, T-cells create cytokines, which are proteins that boost immunity. You need adequate and quality sleep, so turn off all electronic devices and sleep in a cooler room.

Add probiotic foods, like yogurt or sauerkraut, to your diet. They help improve your gut microbiome, which acts as a second immune system. Feed those microbes with foods high in fiber, such as beans or apples.

Count your blessings. An attitude of gratitude helps. Be more social. Smile and laugh more. Even if it’s fake, spend a few minutes daily doing a belly laugh. Initially, you’ll feel awkward, but you’ll smile for a while afterward.


Sneaky Ways To Lose Weight

Sneaky Ways To Lose Weight

People often start a weight loss regimen with trepidation and dread. They think they have to make dramatic changes to their life. Luckily, you can start slowly by making small changes. These sneaky ways to lose weight can make it easier and more fun. They take away the pain people often experience when they first start to lose weight and provide the satisfaction of shedding extra pounds. They don’t replace a healthy diet and exercise. Some of the sneakiest ways include both.

Start with the simplest one: mindful eating.

What is mindful eating? It’s all about savoring your food and enjoying every bite. When you eat fast, you often eat more. You’ve already consumed several mouthfuls of food when your stomach finally signals your brain that it’s full. When you eat mindfully, you chew your food extra times until it’s a liquid. You’re using all your senses, noting its scent, taste, and texture the entire time you chew. It’s good for your digestive tract since more of the process is in your mouth. It also helps you eat less.

Walk more.

It’s easy to find ways to walk more. If you’re grocery shopping, park further from the store and walk. Carry your groceries back without using a cart, if possible. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you have too many flights to climb, take the stairs part of the way. If it gets too difficult to climb further, take the elevator. If you take the bus to work, get off one stop early and walk the final distance. Challenge yourself to walk further up the stairs or get off the bus earlier and track your progress.

Use smaller dishes.

Create a visual trick by using smaller plates. Using an 8.5-10-inch plate instead of an 11-inch plate makes all the difference in how high you pile the food. The same size serving looks far bigger on a smaller plate. It’s an optical illusion. Pile on the vegetables and salads first, then add your protein source. There’s little room on the plate for starchy food or bread. That keeps their serving size smaller.

  • Eat healthier and make substitutions. Substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream for your potatoes. It saves a few calories, but when added together, they’re big savings. Use applesauce to replace some oil or sugar in baked goods.
  • Plan and prepare meals ahead. Plan healthy meals one day, shop the next, and cook everything for the next week on another day. At the end of a long day, all you’ll have to do is heat and eat. It’s faster than take-out food and saves money.
  • Drink more water. Drinking a glass of water 15-20 minutes before a meal can fill you up and boost your energy. Drinking more water prevents dehydration, where people sometimes mistake thirst for hunger and eat to solve the problem.
  • When you plan meals, include snacks. Have fruit and vegetables cut and ready to eat in the refrigerator. Make healthy trail mix and pack it in individual serving sizes. When you make healthy snacking easier, you’re more apt to do it.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Staying In Shape With A Busy Lifestyle

Staying In Shape With A Busy Lifestyle

Staying in shape isn’t easy when your life is busy. Many people in Irvine, CA find it difficult to have adequate time for everything. They often ignore fitness because they feel they’ll have time later when life isn’t as crowded or other people’s needs are more important than theirs. Neither reason is good. There are ways to include fitness in your life. These include making a few changes or modifying your workout.

Fitness starts in the kitchen.

You have to eat, so make the meals healthy. If you’re always eating on the run, create a plan that includes that information. Start planning meals. Create a healthy menu or seek advice from a personal trainer. Shop for everything one day and cook everything for the week on another. Cooking everything at once takes less time and uses less energy. Use food for more than one meal. If you roast a chicken, use the chicken breasts for one meal, use the rest for chicken salad, a Buddha bowl, and chicken soup for other meals. You’ll save time and money. You’ll save time and money. When you’re ready, you only need to heat and serve.

Schedule your exercise at the same time each day.

If your schedule is unpredictable once you’re at work, exercise early in the morning before anyone else gets up. If you aren’t a morning riser, make an appointment with the gym and keep it as you would any other appointment. Getting and staying fit is all about being consistent. Some companies provide time to exercise. See if yours does. If you’re a busy mom, recruit the kids when they get home from school to join you in exercise. Ride bikes, go for walks, or do calisthenics together.

Shorten your workout by making it more intense.

The more intense your workout, the shorter it should be. You need between 150 and 300 minutes of exercise per week if it’s moderate, but only 75 to 150 minutes if it’s intense. You can’t do intense workouts every day. You need to give your body a rest. Fill in that half hour on your days off with mild exercises, like walking or stretching exercises. HIIT, high-intensity interval training, and workouts reduce workout time. You alternate between high-intensity and moderate-intensity workouts.

  • Stay hydrated. Carry a bottle of water with you and sip on it frequently. It increases your energy and keeps you feeling full. Even mild dehydration can drain you of energy.
  • Get adequate sleep. If you lack sleep, it affects all body parts, including the brain. It’s when your brain cleans and your body heals. It also affects your hormones by creating more hunger hormones and fewer hormones that make you feel full.
  • When you workout regularly, you’ll be in a better mood and finish jobs more quickly. Regular exercise burns off stress hormones and increases cognitive functioning.
  • If you constantly eat on the go, include healthy snacks and on-the-go healthy food in your meal plan. Our trainers can help you with nutritional tips to help you be healthy and lose weight.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


The Importance Of Mixing Up Your Workouts

The Importance Of Mixing Up Your Workouts

Trainers help athletes focus on workouts that enhance their bodies and prepare them for particular sports. It often involves mixing in tricks and tips that you might not expect. A healthy diet can make a huge difference, but so can mindset. Trying new ways to exercise and creating new routines is another. Mixing it up helps work muscles on different planes. It boosts fitness by ensuring your body experiences the potential blocks to success.

Including anaerobic training in your workout helps.

Anaerobic training includes high intensity interval training—HIIT—or weight lifting, sprinting, and plyometrics. It provides many benefits for the athlete. It increases muscle strength and power, improves circulation, boosts heart and lung function, and decreases inflammation. Instead of focusing strictly on steady-state aerobic workouts, mix those with anaerobic workouts that are high-intensity and vigorous.

Mixing it up can bring renewed energy to your training.

Everyone gets bored if they do it too often, no matter how important or how much they enjoy it. Switching up your workouts and adding new things can help keep you focused as you learn new routines. It can also make working out more enjoyable and work your body in new ways. Learning new exercises stimulates the brain to create new neural pathways. It increases BDNF—brain-derived neurotropic factor—in the brain. It stimulates the improvement of executive functioning. Being a star athlete takes more than physical fitness. It takes mental strength, too. The more you boost your brain power, the better athlete you’ll be.

Give your body a chance to recover with recovery workouts.

You can’t push yourself to the maximum daily and expect it to perform its best. It requires time to recover from an intense workout. Mixing up your workouts allows that. If you’re doing well-rounded training, which includes recovery exercises with low to moderate intensity, you’ll protect your body from unnecessary injury. You’ll increase your stamina, build strength, and improve reaction time and skills.

  • Even if you’re a basketball player or runner, strength training is important. You’ll improve your performance by ensuring your muscles are prepared to maintain proper form. You’ll build stamina and power.
  • By adding variety to your workout, you’ll ensure that you aren’t overworking specific muscle groups. That can lead to stress injuries. Working all the muscles ensures they’re ready when necessary.
  • Mixing up your workout can include family time or time with friends. Going biking, hiking, dancing, or swimming provides a social outlet and cherished time with the kids but still boosts your fitness.
  • Mixing it up can help avoid muscle imbalances by working all muscle groups. Not everyone responds the same to an exercise. Some people benefit more. Others see no change. When you have more diversity, you have more opportunities to find what works.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Importance Of Mental Focus And Clarity

Importance Of Mental Focus And Clarity

If you want an edge in any endeavor, athletics or otherwise, work on mental focus and clarity. Newer studies show that the difference between average and superior is often all in your head. It took centuries for someone to come close, although some unofficial claims were made, and almost 91 years to break the 4:01 threshold. Roger Bannister did it in 1954 with a record time of 3:59. That record stood for slightly more than a month. In the last 50 years, almost 1800 athletes have succeeded in running a mile in under four minutes. It shows the barrier was more mental than physical.

You also need mental clarity and focus to succeed.

If you want an edge in any endeavor, athletics or otherwise, work on mental focus and clarity. Newer studies show that the difference between average and superior is often all in your head. It took centuries for someone to come close, although some unofficial claims were made, and almost 91 years to break the 4:01 threshold. Roger Bannister did it in 1954 with a record time of 3:59. That record stood for slightly more than a month. In the last 50 years, almost 1800 athletes have succeeded in running a mile in under four minutes. It shows the barrier was more mental than physical.

Enjoying your activity can help you recover from a setback.

Whether you’ve had an injury or want to improve your performance, approaching training with a more positive attitude helps. Animal studies show the animals made greater strides when an enjoyable or entertaining aspect was part of the training. Fitness apps or mindfulness can help you refine your training and incentivize yourself to achieve more.

Know your limits and work to expand them.

There’s nothing wrong with knowing your limits. It gives you a place to start. Learn how to refuel yourself and keep your energy and focus high. Sometimes, it means taking time with friends. At other times, it’s resting. Good food also plays a role in boosting your energy. Setting smaller daily goals that lead to larger, long-term goals paves the road to success and keeps you focused.

  • You can boost mental clarity by choosing the appropriate food. For instance, sage contains phytochemicals like luteolin, quercetin, rosmarinic acid, and apigenin. They improve mood and increase cognitive abilities.
  • Mental clarity means having focus and ignoring distractions. It allows you to process all that’s around you. Eliminating distractions from unimportant information is vital to winning.
  • Mental clarity helps you improve your reaction time and make split-second decisions necessary to adjust your play.
  • Training to become the best involves all aspects of life, from the physical side and dietary requirements to the mental grit. Once you include all the dimensions, you’ll see faster improvement.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


How To Improve Stamina

How To Improve Stamina

The way you improve your stamina has a lot to do with your ultimate goal. If you’re running, the most effective tools may differ from someone focusing on weight lifting. Some techniques work for every sport and are a part of any sensible training program. They can help both the athlete and non-athlete. One simple technique is frequent hydration. Even mild dehydration can diminish your performance. If you’re feeling exhausted before finishing your workout, drink water and see if you can push through to success.

Do all types of exercise, no matter what your sport is.

If you’re only doing cardio because you’re a runner, you’re missing out on real benefits from strength training. The same is true if you’re a weight lifter. Doing cardio increases your endurance. You can modify weight lifting by including some sets of more repetitions and lighter weights instead of fewer reps and maximum weight. Turning some cardio into HIIT—high intensity interval training—can also improve your stamina dramatically.

Get adequate sleep to boost your stamina.

Even cutting your sleep short by an hour can affect your performance if you’re striving for endurance. Some sports are more affected than others. If your sport demands endurance, like cycling, you’re less likely to have the motivation and reserve to finish the race once your energy depletes. One study showed that boosting sleep from 7 hours to 8.5 hours improved the performance of a basketball team. It builds internal reserves so you have the extra power and stamina when you need it.

Improve your nutrition to boost your endurance.

Your diet plays a big role in how well you function and how long you last. Eating whole foods with a focus on fruits and vegetables helps. Eliminating food with added sugar is vital to maintaining peak performance. Pre-workout and post-workout snacks can also help improve your stamina when you’re exercising. Those snacks are a combination of carbohydrates and protein. Each person should have a diet that meets the body’s needs for their sport and their stamina. No two people are alike. Their nutritional needs also differ.

  • Make sure you aren’t over-exercising, especially if you’re doing strength training. Don’t work the same muscle at peak intensity every day. They need time for recovery.
  • Include short plyometrics in your training. The explosive movements can include adding jump squats or mountain climbers. You can mix these with other cardio or your strength training.
  • Build stronger core muscles. When you have strong core muscles, your body isn’t fighting to stay erect. You’ll burn less energy with an improved posture and a strong foundation.
  • Try new training techniques and ways to exercise. Periodically switching the way you exercise causes your muscles to work differently. Yoga may not seem the best for weight lifters, but it can increase flexibility and prevent injury. New exercises and forms of exercise can be more wearing than doing more sets of your regular workout.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Have You Tried Plyometric Workouts?

Have You Tried Plyometric Workouts?

If you want to condition your muscles for a quick response time or maximum short bursts of strength, include plyometric workouts in your fitness program. It’s all about the muscle SSC—stretch-shortening cycle. It’s the mechanism providing spring-like muscle performance that improves explosive and endurance-type athletic performances. It has three phases: the eccentric phase, the amortization phase, and the concentric phase. The eccentric phase occurs when you crouch before you jump. The concentric phase needs to be kept short to increase the power. It’s the transition period. The concentric phase shortens muscles to generate force. It’s when the muscles make their explosive movement.

Burn fat with plyometric exercises.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—burns massive amounts of calories and fat in a shorter time than other forms of exercise. It’s all about the intensity. The explosive movements of plyometric acts in the same way. It’s not just for athletes who want to improve their athleticism. When you increase your heart rate to maximum intensity, it causes EPOC—excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. That increases your metabolism for up to 48 hours, burning more calories even when the exercise ends.

You’ll boost your power and speed while improving your balance and coordination.

Plyometric training focuses on training muscles to react quickly with the maximum force. That boosts explosive strength. It helps boost neuromuscular balance and coordination by training them with dynamic, rapid muscle movements. It also benefits athletic performance by improving muscle efficiency and conditioning them to utilize stored energy more effectively.

Ease into plyometric workouts.

Like other intense exercises, don’t expect to start with a 30-minute session. Doing it for 10 minutes once a week is a good start. If you’re improving weight lifting, it works the body on all planes. Give yourself several hours between other types of exercises or do plyometrics at the end of your workout. After a couple of weeks, increase your plyometric workout to two times a week for a few months and accelerate it from there.

  • Don’t forget to warm up. It’s even more important when doing plyometric exercises. Do steady-state exercises like jumping jacks, running, or other cardio. It gets your muscles warmed.
  • Plyometrics are high-impact. Avoid doing them on concrete. Use a padded mat to perform them or a floor designed to reduce the impact. If you have joint issues, skip them. They are harder on the joints.
  • You can do vertical, horizontal, lateral, and vertical-horizontal movements. Some examples are squats or skater jumps. Our trainers can help you find the best exercises to fit your needs.
  • Always check with your healthcare professional before starting any exercise program, especially ones as intense as plyometrics.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Setting Realistic New Year's Goals

Setting Realistic New Year’s Goals

It’s back. It’s the time when people in Irvine, CA start working on their New Year’s goals they set at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. They may be struggling to keep them in the first few weeks or even decide to give up. Frequently, the reason is that they aren’t realistic and are trying to change too much too quickly. If you’re 100 pounds overweight, don’t expect to lose it in a month. Instead, focus on losing two pounds a week. You can celebrate next New Year’s Eve at your ideal weight. Even if you exercised six hours a day and starved yourself, you couldn’t lose that much weight in a month.

Make sure your goal is healthy.

Being realistic also means making beneficial goals and healthily achieving them. Exercises that build muscles cause microtears in the muscles. The magic occurs during recovery. The scar tissue makes them larger and stronger. Intense powerlifting three hours a day, every day, doesn’t give your muscles a chance to heal. Instead, it continues to tear down the muscle and causes you to lose strength rather than gain it. Starvation diets may help you lose weight, but you can’t starve yourself forever and be healthy. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows your metabolism. That makes it even harder to shed those pounds.

Realistic goals can be broken down into smaller goals that are quicker to achieve.

Part of goal setting and achieving those goals requires constant motivation. If your goal is to lose 40 or more pounds, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and lose motivation. You can feel the rush of success if you break your goal down into smaller ones. Break your goal down to losing two pounds a week. Then determine how long that will take you to achieve. If you want to lose 30 pounds, your mini goal will be losing two pounds a week for 15 weeks.

Remember that you can’t change some things.

No matter how dedicated to exercise and diet, if you’re big-boned, you’ll never look tiny. If you’re tall, you’ll never be petite. You can’t change your bone structure. If you’re overweight, you can lose weight, but you’ll always be big-boned or small-framed. Working out to build muscles won’t make you taller. Always focus on the things you can change and accept those things you can’t.

  • It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound. You can lose a pound a week by reducing your calories consumed by 500 or increasing the calories burned daily.
  • If you have a goal of exercising regularly, take it easy initially, especially if you’ve lived a sedentary lifestyle. Learn the proper form and prepare your body by increasing intensity slowly before you start pushing yourself.
  • Track your goal. Write the goals down, break them into smaller ones with deadlines, and track those goals daily. If your goal is muscle building, take your measurements and track the weight you lift or the number of repetitions.
  • The best motivation to stick with a goal is realistic expectations. If you continuously fail, you’ll quit trying. Even if you don’t reach a goal in one week, the real failure is to quit.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness


Why The Buddy System Works

Why The Buddy System Works

One way of improving your chances of consistent workouts is using the buddy system. It offers many benefits. One is accountability. That’s also one reason trainers help so much. You commit to an exercise program with another person at a specific time, so you go, knowing they’ll be there waiting for you. It’s the same as you do when you work with a trainer. Knowing someone else is tracking your progress keeps you accountable. One study found that people kept their workout schedule better if they were phoned every two weeks to check their progress.

Your workout buddy pushes you to do better and not slack off.

Whether you have a workout buddy or a trainer, someone is always watching and assessing how hard you’re working. Getting to the gym is the first problem you face. Doing something while you’re there is the second. You’ll be less apt to spend time standing around and more time working out. Some people appreciate a buddy for the friendly competition they add. It can push you to do more each time, like one more repetition or set.

It’s safer to use a buddy system.

If you need a spotter at the gym or someone to run with, having a buddy makes it safer. If you’re lifting weights, they can be your spotter. If you’re running, they can come to your aid in an emergency or a deterrent to people with dubious intentions. They are more apt to focus on a single runner, not two people running together. Your workout buddy can also watch how you do a particular exercise and help you with your form. That can improve the benefits and diminish the potential for injury.

You’ll be more adventurous and try new types of exercise.

Whether you want to join a Pilates class or try a new workout, having a buddy to learn with makes you feel emboldened. If you’re by yourself, you might be too intimidated to try using free weights the first time. There is courage in numbers, so trying it together makes it easier. The saying, “Two heads are better than one,” is true. That’s especially true when you use the buddy system. Working together helps you expand your knowledge.

  • Workout buddies can encourage you to get you through difficult exercises. They can provide verbal rewards when you’ve accomplished a difficult task and make you more aware of your strengths.
  • Be careful when choosing a workout partner. You want someone dedicated to improving their fitness. If you have a bad workout buddy, they can impede your progress.
  • Workout buddies make exercising more fun. If something is fun, you are more likely to continue it. You can also share other fitness goals, such as eating healthy. Exchanging healthy recipes is one way.
  • If you have a problem finding a workout buddy that will stay consistently focused, consider using a personal trainer. They provide all the benefits already named and a fitness program designed specifically for your needs.

For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness