Fitness & Wellness

No matter where you live, Louisville, KY, or any other town or city, lower back pain can cause you to miss work and suffer from pain doing the simplest things. It’s hard to lift anything, move a few feet or do the simplest task. Even sleep alludes you when you suffer from this condition. Lower back pain can be caused by inactivity, prolonged sitting or simply turning the wrong way. Improving circulation in the area is imperative to recover. That’s why lower back pain exercises can help bring relief.

It’s easier to prevent back pain than to cure it.

If you’ve ever felt the pain from a back injury, you know how disabling it can be. If you’re prone to back pain, it’s better to start a regimen of back pain exercises before you have another problem, than to wait for it to arrive. Anyone with a sedentary job knows how stiff and achy the back can get. For those people, stretching frequently and moving at least five minutes of every hour is important. A standing extension stretch provides relief and a short break from sitting. Stand with feet at shoulders width, then put your hands at the top of the hips with the tips of the fingers in the small of the back. Lean backward, arching your back until you feel it stretch. Hold and return to starting position and then repeat several times.

If you feel your back pain begin, don’t head for the bed, head for the floor instead.

When lower back pain begins, stopping it as quickly as you can, is important. This quick exercise will help stretch the muscles and bring relief. You need a towel to do this. Lay on the floor holding a towel, one end in each hand. Put your feet flat on the floor, bending the knees. Create a loop with the towel and lift one leg, putting the sole of the foot in the loop. Gently pull the towel toward you, attempting to straighten your leg as you do, trying to make it perpendicular to your body. If you can’t, straighten it as much as you can. Lower your leg and do the other side.

Stay on your back on the floor for another exercise.

While you’re laying on your back, bring your knees straight up and put your hands above your head. Rock your knees from side to side to loosen your back and warm it up. Each time you rock, rock your legs a little further until you can lower your legs on each side without lifting your shoulders from the floor. Once you’ve touched your outer knee on the floor on one side, slowly go back to starting position and touch the outer knee of the other leg on the other side.

• Muscle relaxers and pain medication used to be the treatment advised. The high increase in pain medication addiction and side effects have severely limited its use. Exercise not only brings relief, the only side effects are a healthier body.
• Cat poses can relax your lower back. Get on your hands and knees. Arch your back like an angry cat with your head facing downward. Inhale, relax, exhale and drop your abdomen toward the floor as you lift your head, changing your body position from a convex curve to a concave one.
• Simply pulling one knee at a time toward your chest can help bring relief. You keep the other leg extended as you do this stretch. Return to neutral position with both legs extended and do it on the other leg.
• To avoid future problems, build stronger abdominal muscles and back muscles. When your abdominal muscles are strong, it helps remove the pressure from the back.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training 

If you’ve ever been to Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, you know we have an entire program to build muscles with exercise and a healthy diet. You may read ads about pills that help you bulk up or lose weight, but many of these supplements are either unhealthy, such as steroids, or basically useless for weight loss or building muscles unless you have nutritional deficiencies. The right type of training and diet can help you reach your goal, whether it’s changing fat to muscle or bulking up.

No matter what your goal, building muscles takes an exercise program.

There are no shortcuts to building muscles. However, working out for hours won’t do the trick either. Focusing on the intensity and the quality of the workout and how well it matches your fitness level and goals is what’s important. Your workout, especially if it’s intense, shouldn’t go over an hour. HIIT—high intensity interval training—varies the speed of the workout and circuit training limits the rest between exercises. Both are good for building muscles. You should focus on building strength, which is easy to use as a goal and far easier to measure.

Getting the most out of each workout is important.

Compound exercises, ones that work several muscle groups and joints, give you the most bang for your exercise time. Strength training is at the core of building muscle tissue. You need to vary your workout to ensure you’re building all muscle groups and improving strength on all planes. Bodyweight exercises are the easiest to use at home, since they require no equipment. Kettlebells, resistance bands and/or weights are also good for muscle building and should be part of your program. Rest a day or two between workouts to ensure you give your muscles a chance to heal. Training three times a week is enough. The exercises cause microtears in the muscle and the healing process is what makes them bigger.

The real magic occurs when you include a healthy, muscle building diet.

No matter how hard you workout, you’ll never lose weight without a healthy diet. You may build muscles, but nobody will be able to see them since they’ll be covered by a layer of fat. Eat more frequently if you’re naturally thin and everyone should have a schedule of five to six meals. Eat one to three hours before you workout and within an hour after finishing. Before you workout, it can be something as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a handful of trail mix. If you don’t have an hour before working out, a banana is perfect. Afterward, a small meal with protein and carbs will do, such as a whole grain turkey wrap.

• You can alternate your workout working upper body one day and lower body the next if you want to get more exercise time in without over-exercising.
• Increase the number of reps you do every three to four weeks and vary your workout to avoid plateauing.
• Get adequate sleep at night. Not only do your muscles need that sleep to heal, you’ll also find your workout more productive when you’re well rested.
• Make sure you hydrate frequently, especially if your workout is tough. Before you exercises, drink 16 ounces of water. As you exercise, keep a cup of water on hand and sip every 20 minutes or as you get thirsty. Follow up your exercise with another 16 ounces of water.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
 

I have people come into the gym and see other clients doing push-ups and lifting weights. They shake their heads and almost quit on the spot. That’s when I give them my standard advice, “Focus on what you can, not what you can’t.” Sure, maybe you can’t do a regular push-up, but you probably can do a modified one on bent knee. Maybe you can’t do a workout with a ten pound kettlebell, but you can do one with a five pound one.

That’s why a personal trainer is important.

Trainers first assess your overall fitness and learn any special needs, plus your goals. Only then does the trainer create a workout program designed specifically to push you to the limit of what you can do. Before too long, that workout will become easy, which means fitness level improved and another “can’t do” became a “can do.” The longer you workout, the more you’ll see improvement and those worries about not being able to workout as hard will disappear.

If you have physical limitations, there’s still a lot that you can do.

I work with people who are recovering from an illness or serious condition and even people with physical limitations, such as bad knees or back problems. For those people recovering, as long as the doctor gave the okay for an exercise program, I start them off slowly, until they build their strength. If you have physical limitations, I modify the workout so it doesn’t exacerbate the condition. In fact, many of the exercises actually help relieve painful conditions.

Maybe you can’t lose fifty pounds in a month, but you can lose eight to ten.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, don’t get discouraged. Break it down to smaller weight loss goals. Losing fifty pounds in a month isn’t possible to do in a healthy manner. Don’t give up because you have a long way to go. Instead, break it down and work on a goal that’s quicker to achieve. It helps boost your motivation, by giving you success more quickly.

• The older you are, the slower you’ll see the changes. Men in their sixties won’t build muscle tissue as fast as those in their twenties. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get more muscular. It means it will take longer.
• There was a man destined to die because his obesity caused so many problems. He could barely walk a few steps. Every day he took those few steps and soon they became a few more. It took a while, but today, he’s lost hundreds of pounds and is a marathon runner by simply focusing on what he could do.
• If you can’t give up all the food you love to save calories, start by just giving up one of your favorites. Small changes add up to bigger changes down the road.
• At Body Sculptors, we have programs that focus on you and what you can do. As you achieve them and get to the next level, we’ll change the program to match your new ability.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

If you want to start your new year right, start now. Many of my newer clients in Louisville, KY, decided to commit to get fit before the big holiday meals. Not only does it help prevent weight gain, it actually makes them more aware of what foods they really enjoy. Rather than filling their plate with dressing and gravy, they might choose more lean turkey and vegetables, deciding the dressing and gravy wasn’t that important. That doesn’t mean that if you love dressing and gravy that you can’t have any if you commit. Just don’t make an entire meal of it and make sure to enjoy every minute of eating it.

Once you commit, you also commit to making smarter choices.

Healthy eating doesn’t mean you give up everything, but it does mean that you eat with some forethought. You make decisions based on taste, nutrition and calorie count. If you can get the same taste with more nutrition and fewer calories, all the better. For example, using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream on a baked potato will give you that.

Mindful eating and savoring each bite is important.

The phrase, “stuffing your face,” isn’t just an expression. It actually occurs and most frequently occurs during the holidays. Do you find yourself eating just because the food is there, even though you’ve eaten so much you’re actually uncomfortable. Maybe it’s time to do some mindful eating and the holidays provide the perfect opportunity. There are all types of food, so some of them will be your favorites and you can take the time to truly taste them and enjoy them. Eat slowly and enjoy the flavor in your mouth.

There’s nothing wrong with feasting occasionally.

If you’re working out regularly, you need a supply of healthy food to keep you going. Weight loss occurs when you eat fewer calories than you burn, but that doesn’t mean you need to starve. In fact, a super low calorie diet is actually counterproductive. It can lower your metabolism, making shedding pounds more difficult. Your body goes into starvation mode where it tries to save calories for important functions. You’ll also find that working out doesn’t go as well as it does when you have the energy to burn. Feasting occasionally can keep your metabolic fires burning and give you the energy you need.

You can feast and still eat healthy. Start your meal with more vegetables and choose ones that aren’t starchy, such as potatoes. A big salad before your meal can also help reduce your appetite.

Dessert is the hardest to pass on, but you don’t have to do that. Split a dessert with another family member or only eat half. Just taking a bite and savoring it can give you the pleasure without all the calories.

Learn portion control. You’ll be surprised at how portion control can help you keep your calorie count lower while you still get to enjoy all the food you love.

At Body Sculptors, we can help you with a nutritional plan that will teach you how to feast without consuming tons of calories. It’s all about making smarter choices.

Constipation isn’t a new problem, but it has become far more prevalent with today’s diet. It affects about 20 percent of the population and while diet plays a big role, so doe lifestyle. The definition for constipation is less than three bowel movements a week and the symptoms include bloating, pain passing hard stools and long unfruitful trips to the bathroom. There are natural remedies for constipation that can help most people and are normally quite effective. .

What you eat makes a huge difference.

Eating more whole foods like fruits and vegetables can decrease the potential for constipation. That’s because these foods contain fiber. There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble, and both help get things moving, but insoluble may offer less help, and in some people, no help at all. Insoluble fiber is the fiber found in whole grains, bran and vegetables. It adds bulk and helps the waste travel through your system more quickly. Soluble fiber is in seeds, beans, peas, some fresh fruit and vegetables and oat bran. It helps absorb water to soften the stool and make it easier to go.

Get moving to get things moving in your colon.

While there are mixed reviews in studies as to the effect of exercise on constipation, but for centuries, it was one of the cures recommended. Studies found that exercise can help reduce the symptoms of constipation such as bloating and pain, even if it doesn’t increase frequency. Riding a bike, walking or other mild exercise is thought to work the muscles and massage the colon, helping to eliminate gas that builds up, too.

Drinking more water is a definite plus if you’re trying to beat the bloat of constipation.

It probably won’t surprise you to find that dehydration adds to the potential of constipation and many people who suffer from chronic constipation are frequently mildly dehydrated. The solution is easy, drink more water. One study found that carbonated—sparkling—water worked faster than tap water to get things moving again. It works better even for people with IBS or idiopathic constipation. Don’t mistake that for soft drinks. Those actually make you more constipated.

• If you find you have to use the bathroom right after your morning coffee, it won’t surprise you to find out that caffeinated is a good treatment for constipation.
• When you think of cures for constipation, prunes usually come to mind first. Prunes not only provide fiber, they also contain sorbitol, which acts like a laxative. Avoid this cure if you have IBS, since it’s a sugar alcohol.
• Eating both prebiotic and probiotic foods can help you get your digestion healthier. The prebiotic foods not only help feed the healthy bacteria, they also provide more fiber. Probiotic foods help balance the bacteria in the gut.
• Whether it’s eating healthier foods, drinking more water, getting plenty of exercise or adding pre and probiotics to your diet, even if they don’t provide a cure for your constipation, you’ll be helping your body get healthier.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training