Simple food choices go a long way when it comes to your heart’s health. Focusing on fresh foods full of heart-healthy fats and antioxidants can decrease your risk of developing heart disease and cut your chances of a heart attack. These 10 foods will help keep your ticker in top shape.

Oatmeal
Start your day with a steaming bowl of oats, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium. This fiber-rich superfood can lower levels of LDL (or bad) cholesterol and help keep arteries clear.

Opt for coarse or steel-cut oats over instant varieties — the coarse and steel-cut contain more fiber — and top your bowl off with a banana for another four grams of fiber.

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Childhood obesity, underage drinking, smoking and failure to exercise are all concerns for parents these days. If you want your kids to adopt a healthier, wiser lifestyle, you are going to have to show them the light. Children often learn best by example. Lead and they will likely follow.

How can you set the example and get them off on the right foot if your habits aren’t that great? Consider taking these steps to put yourself and your family on the road to better health and fitness: [Read more...]

Knee injury is a common complaint amongst health club in Tustin-goers. Knee injury in the gym for many people is largely avoidable with a little education. Even for those who have already suffered a knee injury, a dose of exercise education can help manage an existing condition and prevent further injury.

Why Knee Injuries Happen

In a majority of cases, knee injury is entirely avoidable in the health club in Tustin.

Many times knees are injured only because people do not know the right way to use gym equipment. Safe equipment use relies on knowing:

• The correct positioning and form
• The degree to which the equipment can safely be used given an individual’s fitness level (how hard, how fast, how intense, how strong you can go)
• The movements the equipment was designed for
• The muscle groups the equipment was designed to work
• How the equipment can be used for multiple exercises (again, with knowledge of form and intensity)

Likewise, exercises that are not dependent upon equipment result in knee injury for much the same reason. This can apply to strength training, free weights, flexibility, yoga, Pilates, and aerobic movements. Safe exercising at the health club in Tustin without equipment relies on knowing:

• Correct positioning of various muscles and body parts
• The degree of intensity that is safe given an individual’s fitness level
• The right movement
• How to modify an exercise to increase results
• The right combination of exercises to safely achieve desired results (so that no one body part is being injured because of use and overload)

Given that these are the main reasons people suffer knee injuries in the gym, the answer for prevention, and even management post-injury, is education.

Getting Educated To Prevent Knee Injury While Working Out

The only way to really be safe and prevent knee strain (or any other type of injury in the gym) is to get educated by someone who knows. In the health club in Tustin, that person is a personal trainer. A personal trainer will help you prevent injury by:

• Training you on each piece of equipment
• Teaching you the uses for different equipment
• Teaching you proper form and body positioning and working with you until you achieve it with ease
• Starting you at a safe level of intensity and increasing workout intensity as safe and necessary
• Modifying exercises given existing knee injury and other conditions
• Evaluating the safety of a movement/exercise/intensity and making accommodations and modifications when appropriate

The key to knee injury prevention in the health club in Tustin is education. Find a qualified professional who can help you learn about how to exercise safely and how to make the best and safest use of your workout time so that you can continue to see results and achieve your goals.

Exercising at your Tustin health club isn’t always easy, but it is one of the only controllable factors that can help prevent heart disease, the leading cause of death not only in the U.S., but worldwide. In fact, of six major controllable risk factors for heart disease, five can be managed in whole or in part by increasing exercise and physical activity (the sixth risk factor is smoking or tobacco use). The remaining three major risk factors are age, heredity, and sex, and exercise at your Tustin health club is the best way to diminish the impact of these, too.

According to the American Heart Association, 1.2 million people in America will have a heart attack this year. About a third of these people will die (452,000). Cumulative data is even more alarming—an estimated 7.9 million Americans over 20 now living have had a heart attack, and 8.9 million have experienced chest pain as the result of diminished blood supply to the heart (angina pectoris).

The Best Things You Can Do To Prevent Heart Disease

To prevent heart disease, or to improve heart condition if you already have heart disease, there are just a few things you can do. You can quit smoking and using tobacco (if you do), you can eat better and improve nutrition, and you can exercise at your Tustin health club. Being physically inactive is one of the most readily recognized risk factors for heart disease, but fortunately this is a totally controllable risk factor that can be reversed at any age and fitness level.

How Does Exercise Prevent Heart Disease?

Exercise at your Tustin health club prevents heart disease in several ways.

First, the heart is a muscle, and all muscles are made stronger and able to function better by repeated use—in this case, exercise. Exercise improves circulation and decreases blood pressure, thereby further eliminating factors that impact heart health.

In addition, exercise at your Tustin health club helps improve blood profiles. It balances out hormones, improves metabolism, and brings blood lipids (fats) under control. Exercise reduces levels of triglycerides in the blood (which have been linked to arterial disease) and increases HDL levels (HDL’s being the good fats that improve heart health and that are seen at low levels in inactive adults).

Who Can Exercise For Heart Health And How?

Regular aerobic exercise at manageable levels is what majorly improves heart health, although strength training also factors into the equation and proves beneficial as well. Both of these are exercises that anyone can be involved in, even with a previous history of heart disease.

The key to exercising safely at your Tustin health club to prevent heart disease is to keep activity manageable and effective. But manageable is a highly relative term for individuals, and what is safest for one may be different for another. The best way to be sure exercise is both safe and effective is to seek professional help—first from a doctor, then from a qualified fitness professional, such as a personal trainer, who can coordinate and develop an exercise plan that is at once reasonable, safe, and effective.

A Tustin Personal Training Expert Reports! When most people start a new exercise program, they have an idea of what they want to accomplish. People start exercising for plenty of different reasons, from wanting to improve their overall health to meeting a specific goal. Knowing what you want to accomplish through your fitness routine can help you focus on your goal and have something to work towards. A great way to focus on what you want to achieve is to work with a Tustin personal training expert, who can assess your current strengths and weaknesses and help you reach your goal. In this article, we’ll take a look at three tips to remember when setting your fitness goals.

Be Realistic

“I want to lose twenty pounds before my high school reunion next month.” Unfortunately, setting a goal like this can be a recipe for failure. Sure, it can be done, but it will require a strict commitment to healthy eating and exercise every day for the next thirty days, and this could be asking too much of yourself. And then, what happens after the reunion? Will you set a new goal or go back to your bad habits?

Being realistic about the goals you want to reach and the time in which you want to achieve them is a big part of planning for success. Only having the one big goal at the end can make the path very difficult to follow, so try setting incremental goals along the way, and don’t be afraid to reward yourself when you’ve reached a smaller goal, like treating yourself to a session at the spa or that hunting trip you’ve been putting off. With the help of a Tustin personal training expert, you can finally be consistent with your efforts, and be motivated to continue with your program!

Keep a Record

If you’re meeting with a Tustin personal training expert two or three times a week, chances are that he or she is keeping a record of your progress, but if you’re meeting your personal trainer less frequently, you might see the benefits of keeping your own records. Don’t plan too far in advance, as you can’t predict how your body will improve over the long run, but try to plan in increments of eight weeks, by noting what you think you should be doing and then what you actually did. A Tustin personal training expert can help you can also keep track of your measurements, weight (although weighing yourself is not always a reliable method of measuring the amount of fat in your body), or your BMI.

Don’t be Afraid to Make New Goals

How many people do you know that are still trying to get off that last five pounds? It’s true, the closer you get to your goal, the harder it is to achieve it. But this isn’t just true of weight loss goals; whether your goal is to run a marathon or to be able to lift a certain amount of weight, our bodies tend to plateau and it can be difficult to push through to the next goal. Don’t beat yourself up if you’ve gotten to a place that seems insurmountable. It’s ok to move the flag back a little, if it helps you to push on. This is also a great time to evaluate where you are and if your goal is attainable. Talk with a Tustin personal training expert, and make a new goal to help you continue on your path!

Cross training is achievable with Tustin personal training. No matter who you are, what you fitness goals are, or what your top targeted result for working out is, you can benefit from cross training. All you need to know to get you started is why cross training is a good idea for you and where you can learn more about the best cross training methods and techniques to enhance your fitness plan.

Cross Training—What Is It?

Cross training is, in simplest terms, diversification of your fitness program. Cross training happens when you mix exercises and/or types of training, or alternate training methods. Tustin personal training can help, especially if you run out of ideas. This may be done in a single workout session or by the day. Here are a couple of examples:

• Day one you go for a jog, day two you hit the free-weights, day three you go biking

Or

• A third of your time you use the treadmill, a third you work on strength training, a third you use the stair climber

There’s really no one recipe for cross training, as the exercises will vary depending on your goals, focus, and interests. This means that there are endless combinations and possibilities for cross training, and that only you and your personal trainer can decide what will work best for you. Ideally, that will be a carefully chosen mix of exercises and activities that gets you where you want to be.

Cross Training—Why Do It?

Cross training is a good idea for many reasons, and there a number of benefits to cross training as enhancement to a fitness plan.

Cross training helps you by:

• Breaking up the boredom—admit it, anything you do everyday gets old eventually; it is very motivational to be able to look forward to something new and interesting. Tustin personal training can help you with new ideas.
• Waking up your body—your body gets bored and used to the same movements over and over, too
• Preventing injury—repeated use and strain of the same joints and muscles opens the door to use injuries; using new joints and muscles strengthens the body all around so that aggravation is minimized and peripheral support is increased
• Increasing gains—again, this comes from presenting new challenges to muscle groups; cross training helps break and prevent plateaus. With Tustin personal training, you can learn more about these advantages.

The reasoning behind cross training is fairly simple and straightforward, but the compound benefits are many.

Cross Training—Where Can I Learn More?

To develop an effective plan for cross training, rely on your interests, your goals, and Tustin personal training. Figure out what is enticing to you, what you ultimately want to achieve, and then learn the right way to mix and match exercises and activities—and do them right (and safely!). The person most qualified to help you make those decisions and give you that education is a personal trainer.

The benefits of cross training are there for the taking. Look at the many ways you can spice up your fitness plan with Tustin personal training and get started on a new route to better fitness results today!

Tustin personal training experts understand that when you’re working fifty hour weeks, exercise is probably the last thing on your mind. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of grabbing fast food and crashing on the couch after a difficult day at work before catching a few hours of sleep and starting all over again. The truth is that exercise can help even the busiest professionals stay in top form, sleep better, reduce their stress and even complete tasks without fading at the end of the day. In this article, we’ll take a look at how busy professionals can make time for exercise.

Pencil it in

Any professional worth his salt has a calendar filled to the brim with meetings, appointments and deadlines. Why not pencil in time for exercise, too? If you’re really ready to make a commitment to improving your lifestyle, schedule exercise into your routine and treat it like an important business meeting. Once you’ve added it to your regular calendar, you’ll be surprised at how easily everything else falls into place. At the same time, don’t beat yourself up if something unavoidable comes up and you have to cancel. Just don’t use this as an excuse to cancel the rest of your exercise appointments for the week! A Tustin personal training expert can help you stay on track by holding you accountable!

Exercise at Work

If you truly can’t get away during the day, there are plenty ways to incorporate a little fitness into your daily routine. A Tustin personal training expert has a view suggestions! Obviously, try to always take the stairs. Instead of emailing a question to a colleague on another floor, take the time to go ask the question in person. Set an alarm on your computer to remind you get up once an hour to stretch your legs and your arms. Even a quick break can be refreshing. Clip a pedometer on your belt and try to achieve between 6000 and 10,000 steps a day.

If you have your own office, you can even incorporate exercise equipment into your routine. Try sitting on an exercise ball, which will strengthen your abs and back while you work, or lifting dumbbells while you’re on the phone. Even if you work in a cubicle and don’t want to be seen with your exercise equipment, keep a couple of bottles of water in a drawer and use them as dumbbells when you can.

Office Fitness Programs and More

Upper levels of management are quickly learning that when their employees are healthy, they tend to work more efficiently, so exercise can benefit everyone in the workplace. Some companies have taken the initiative to start fitness programs in the office with the help of a Tustin personal training expert.

Finally, if you live close enough to work that you can commute by foot or bicycle, consider making this change. Not only will you be doing something healthy for yourself, but it’s healthier for the environment as well!

Remember, you don’t have to make these fitness changes all by yourself. Seek out the advice of a Tustin personal training expert. A personal trainer will take your busy schedule into account when setting out a fitness program for you, and help you come up with even more ideas on how to incorporate more exercise into your busy lifestyle.

Tustin personal trainers have found that many people still mistakenly think that diabetes is an entirely hereditary disease. Recent increases in the incidence of diabetes and in the incidences of the disease in young people show otherwise, however. Type 2 diabetes has steadily been on the rise across all age groups and the rise has been directly correlated to inactivity and poor nutrition.

Diabetes—The Stats

Tustin personal trainers agree – recent statistics concerning type 2 diabetes are alarming. If it seems like everyone you know knows one or more people with diabetes that is because it is very likely true. Statistics show that around seven percent of the U.S. population has diabetes…but not all of them know it. An even higher number of people have pre-diabetes, a precursor condition just steps away from full onset diabetes.

Some sobering statistics on diabetes and pre-diabetes:

• Close to 21 million people in America have diabetes
• 21 million is equivalent to 7% of the total population
• Of that 21 million, 14.6 million cases are confirmed and 6.2 remain undiagnosed—6.2 million people have diabetes and do not know it yet
• 54 million people have pre-diabetes
• People with pre-diabetes often develop diabetes within 10 years
• 1.5 million people were diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. in the year 2005 alone
• About 3% of the population between the ages of 20 and 29 have diabetes
• About 10% of people aged 40-59 have diabetes
• About 20% of people over 60 have diabetes

These numbers continue to rise as well. However, simple lifestyle changes can do a lot to prevent diabetes, even in those people who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Tustin personal trainers can help you learn what kinds of changes will prevent diabetes, and for those with diabetes they can teach you how to make living with diabetes easier.

Diabetes—What A Difference A Lifestyle Makes

Poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle—two factors that have been more and more prevalent in society—are significant contributors to diabetes. By just improving diet and starting a regular exercise and fitness program, the likelihood of developing diabetes drops dramatically. Enlisting the help of Tustin personal trainers may make this easier for you. For many people, again even people with pre-diabetes, a good fitness program can prevent diabetes onset entirely.

Tustin personal trainers would like you to know some important things about diabetes prevention and exercise:

• One study showed that 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week cuts diabetes risk by 58% (just a half hour per day, five days per week)
• Metabolic syndrome, a syndrome consisting of a compilation of diabetes risk factors, was more effectively prevented by lifestyle changes (diet, exercise) than by the leading prescription medication used to fight it
• Diabetes risk is lowered with just a five to seven percent reduction in body weight (when lost through diet and exercise)
• Ten to 14 pound weight loss for an average person weighing 200 pounds translated into 60% reduction in diagnosis of pre-diabetics

Diabetes is a disease that can very often be prevented entirely by changing the way you eat and live. Better nutrition and even a moderate fitness routine can keep you from falling victim to one of the leading chronic diseases, a disease that causes numerous complications and results in death due to exacerbated heart and organ disease. Tustin personal trainers would like you to make changes for the good now, and live long without the burden of this growing disease.

Tustin personal trainers will tell you, training for a local charity event isn’t just a great way to get involved; it’s also a great way to get started on your fitness goals! There are a great many benefits to training for a local charity event, not the least of which is personal comfort and safety.

Motivation That’s Larger Than Life

Sometimes, it takes something bigger than ourselves to get us started on the fitness track. A charity event—like a walk, a run, or a sporting event—can be excellent motivation for getting fit.

Charity events have all the right elements for motivating a person to movement. Tustin personal trainers recommend getting involved, these events have the benefit of:

• Reason—something more tangible than just body image; something more solid than an elusive weight ‘ideal’
• Team work—fitness is always more achievable with a partner to support you; a local charity event multiplies that support by the size of your team and sponsors!
• Spiritual rewards—knowing you are helping others and doing something great to improve the world and/or life around you increases your positive spirit and energy, which in turn increases you self image and confidence
• Personal fitness—sure, you may start off with the intention of helping others, but you’ll find that you feel great once you do, and that accomplishment will help bolster the fitness plans that you’ve been putting off

Go Prepared

Though every charity event participant and volunteer goes with the best of intentions, an event can turn quickly if that person does not also go prepared. It is shocking to a body system to suddenly endure a miles-long walk or run. Prevent illness and injury by training for the charity even ahead of time. If you are a newcomer to fitness events, enlist the help of Tustin personal trainers to help the training go smoother.

Start off by getting a health check.

• Visit your doctor if it’s been a while, and determine your current and potential fitness level.
• Work with Tustin personal trainers who can develop a safe and gradual training program that can take you from where you are to route completion by the day of the event.
• Also discuss good nutrition with both your doctor and your trainer. Your doctor will get you started, and a personal trainer will be more readily available to answer ongoing questions.

Start exercising! The key to training for any local charity event is to start exercising and building your strength and endurance. Start with even a walking routine for now, and develop your exercise routine with the help of any of the Tustin personal trainers available to take you through event training and beyond for lasting health and fitness. Working with a personal trainer will also give you alternative training and exercises that you can do at home or at the gym when weather and life commitments are less than cooperative, keeping you on a steady track of preparation up to and through the event.

There are times when our own wellbeing is not motivation enough to get us started on health and fitness goals. Training for a local charity event can be just the motivation you’ve been looking for. Make the most of your selfless gift, go healthy and prepared, and maximize your contribution to help you into the future, too. Keep in mind that Tustin personal trainers can help you plan your way into fitness success.

Tustin Personal Trainers Report! Just as some people have to come to terms with the fact that they’ll always be of short stature, a lot of us also have to come to terms with the fact that we’ll never be a size zero. Tustin personal trainers are in the same boat! Setting unrealistic goals in our fitness or diet routines can not only set us up for failure, but also a lack of self confidence and even depression. Even before starting on the path to a healthier life, it’s helpful to get focused on what you can achieve with the body you have. In this article, we’ll explore the pitfalls of comparing yourself to others, celebrity culture, and how you can get on the right track to making the most of what you have.

Comparing Yourself to Others

It seems like it’s almost ingrained in women to compare ourselves with each other, whether it is with our friends, co-workers, and even Tustin personal trainers. We can always find something to admire in other women, whether it be their hair or waist size. The problem is that we don’t often take time to sit down in front of a mirror and discover what it is we like about ourselves. Sure, we know what we want to change, but when do we ever take the time to complement ourselves?

The most important thing to remember is that every body is different. Sure, there are plenty of women that are naturally thin, and others that have to fight tooth and nail to retain their size. Don’t get caught in the trap of focusing your energies on anyone’s body but your own. Tustin personal trainers can help motivate and support you, and most importantly, help you recognize your strength and improve your health! Nothing is more important than ones health!

Celebrity Culture

Celebrities are everywhere these days – of course we expect to see them in movies or on music channels, but now they’re on the covers of women’s magazines, starring in commercials, and don’t forget the thousands of internet pages dedicated to favorite stars. It’s hard not to admire them for what seems like a fantasy lifestyle, and on top of that, they often seem to be absolutely perfect.

Just like comparing yourself to your friends and others, comparing yourself to celebrities is a dangerous trap, and there are three reasons why. First of all, it truly takes a team to make a celebrity look good on the red carpet. Wardrobe consultants and hair and makeup assistants all work together to make the celebrity look her best. Second of all, it’s true that many celebrities work very hard to maintain their figures, but a lot more than we could ever have time for, sometimes as often as two or three hours a day. It’s a part of their job to look the best they can, so they can afford to take the time. Finally, there is a not so secret weapon that magazines use to make celebrities look their best – the air brush. This tool is used very often to manipulate pictures of celebrities for the cover of magazines to make them look perfect, when the reality is quite different. Do yourself a favor and keep these reasons in mind the next time you admire a celebrity on the cover of a magazine!

What Can You Do?

It’s all very well and good to say that we need to focus on our own bodies when setting out to achieve a fitness goal, but sometimes it’s beneficial to have a second opinion, and that’s where consulting Tustin personal trainers can come in handy. A personal trainer can use his experience and training to do a full assessment of your body and help steer you towards a goal that will have you looking and feeling your best. Remember, Tustin personal trainers live in the same celebrity culture that you do! Tustin personal trainers can help motivate and support you, and most importantly, help you recognize your strength and beauty!