Fit Facts: Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardiovascular exercise also called cardiorespiratory exercise, or just ‘cardio’ involves movement that gets your heart rate up to improve oxygen consumption by the body. It’s an essential part of every exercise program to get in shape, keep you healthy and fit, lose weight or maintain weight, lower cholesterol and help to prevent other diseases and disorders.

Couch Potatoes Arise

When most of us think of ways to improve our health and lower our risk for disease, activities like aerobic exercise and resistance training come to mind. But that’s really only part of the story. Recently, scientists have begun to recognize that the time we spend doing sedentary things can also have a significant and direct impact on our health. Specifically, recent studies suggest that
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The Caloric Expense of Alcohol During the Holidays

For those of you wanting to drown your sorrows of a holiday season gone mad with copious amounts of spiked eggnog like actor Chevy Chase in the movie Christmas Vacation or bringing good cheers by combining large amounts of high-fat treats with high-caloric alcohol, the New Year may start with a rude awakening. Researchers at the Laval University in St.-Foy, Quebec found that combining high-fat fo
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How to Train for a Half-marathon

Your specific approach to half-marathon training will depend on multiple variables: the time available to train, running background (novice vs. experienced runner), current fitness level and mileage, willingness to commit to a training plan and ability to learn to listen to your body.That said, if you’re patient and willing to put in the time to develop the endurance to run 13.1 miles and
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Gearing Up For A Triathlon

With the rising popularity of triathlon racing and the dozens of new sprint races popping up nationwide every year, it is exciting to see so many newcomers giving this swim-bike-run sport a tri. Equipment To provide some pointers on entry-level gear, even for those on a tight budget, it’s important to look at each individual sport: Swim This sport may be the least expensive in terms of
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How to Train for a Sprint Triathlon

The sprint triathlon distance (0.47-mile swim, a 12.4-mile bike ride and a 3.1-mile or 5K run) is the most popular race in the triathlon world, and most triathlon coaches consider this distance the perfect beginner’s race for the following reason: With a solid 12-week training plan and one workout a day (excluding recovery or off-days), even people without a swimming, biking or runnin
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Exercise to Boost Your Job Performance

How would you like to feel more energized at work — to sharpen your brain and enhance your ability to concentrate, learn, and think creatively? Not only would you feel better physically, but you’d be more motivated — and at the top of your game, career-wise. Sound good?   Being Your Best, Doing Your Best Exciting new research shows the remarkable effect of moderate-to-v
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Step Training Guidelines

Step aerobics, which revolutionized the fitness industry when it was introduced in the late 1980s, is a versatile training modality that can be made more or less intense by simply changing the height of the step, performing movements through different ranges of motion or adjusting the step cadence. The research-supported benefits of step training include cardiorespiratory fitness, weight managemen
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Jumping Rope: Not Just for Kids Anymore

Remember the song, “Not last night but the night before, twenty-four robbers came knockin’ on my door?” Those were the days when playing hopscotch, jumping rope and hanging on the monkey bars were our primary occupations. While hopscotch and swinging from the jungle gym may no longer be a part of your leisure time, jumping rope could be. Not only is it a great cardiovascular alt
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Diggin’ in the Dirt

Ever notice your neighbor’s well-kept yard? The details are hard to miss: grass that never strays taller than two inches, bright flowers that go unthreatened by overzealous weeds, colorful vegetables that peek out of bushes arranged in straight rows and, yes, the gardener with the smiling face and the well-developed muscles to show for it. That’s right—muscles. Gardening can bur
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Step Training for Fitness and Fun

Within the last few years, step training’s popularity has climbed rapidly. An estimated 10 million people have tried step training. Could 10 million steppers be wrong? On the contrary—vigorous stepping provides the cardiovascular benefits of running but stresses the joints little more than walking. Performed to invigorating music with creative choreography, this low-impact workout is
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What You Need to Know About Group Indoor Cycling

Some call it torturous, others exhilarating. But there’s no denying the popularity of group indoor cycling. What sets these classes apart from the usual boredom of stationary cycling is the visual imagery provided by instructors. Participants are led on a “virtual” outdoor road race, complete with hills, valleys, straight-aways and finish lines. But before you reserve your spot (
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Ready to Run?

You’re ready to start working out. But courts, balls, rackets and weights just aren’t your style. How about running? Running is one of the most effective, time-efficient workouts around, but if you get off on the wrong foot, it’s hard to stay motivated and it can be easy to get discouraged. Starting and sticking with a running program doesn’t have to be difficult. It’
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Kick Your Way to Fitness

Are you bored with your current fitness routine? It may be time to kick your way to one of the hottest workouts around. Kickboxing, also referred to as boxing aerobics and cardio kickboxing, is a hybrid of boxing, martial arts and aerobics that offers an intense cross-training and total-body workout. It blends a mixture of high-power exercise routines that strengthen the body and mind, decrease
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Interval Training

Lack of time is the number one reason people give for not exercising. And lack of results once they do start exercising isn’t far behind. Interval training is a great solution for both of these common problems. Interval training involves alternating short bursts of intense activity with what is called active recovery, which is typically a less-intense form of the original activity. The Swe
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A Walk a Day

The popularity of walking as a fitness activity is growing by leaps and bounds. Low risk and easy to start, walking has proved its health benefits in numerous studies. A classic eight-year study of 13,000 people conducted at the Institute for Aerobics Research under the direction of Dr. Steven Blair found that those who walked the equivalent of 30 minutes a day had a significantly lower risk of pr
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Make a Splash With Water Fitness

Are you ready to take the plunge and try a new fitness activity? How about water exercise? Also known as aquatics, water exercise is one of the best non-impact fitness activities around and just about anybody can participate. Pregnant women, the elderly or overweight, individuals with arthritis or those recovering from an injury can all benefit from the wide variety of aquatics classes currently a
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Cross-training for Fun and Fitness

Tired of the same old workout? Looking for a level of fitness that your current exercise routine can’t offer? Are you experiencing nagging injuries that just don’t seem to heal? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are a likely candidate for cross-training. Cross-training is simply a way of adding variety to your exercise program. You can vary your aero
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