Best Exercises For Stronger Obliques
At Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, we focus on overall fitness using the tools of a healthy diet and a program of regular exercise designed specifically for each person. We are often requested to help people with specific goals, like building abdominal muscles, which includes the obliques. Exercises for the obliques not only provide that V look at the waist, but they also help maintain body stability. The obliques run along each side from the abs to the lats, the large flat muscles in the back that run to the sides.
You need strong obliques to do compound movements.
If you want to stay balanced when you’re doing squats or other compound movements, you need strong obliques. They help you stay centered so you don’t lean forward too far or fall out of form. Strong obliques are important for more than just proper balance, they help maintain strong posture. Because they run from the lats to the abs, they keep the midsection tight and whittle your waist.
You can use kettlebells, a medicine ball, dumbbells and barbells to make obliques strong.
Use a dumbbell or barbell to tighten your obliques. Hold the weight in one hand and bend to the side as far as possible. Hold for a second and return to starting position, then reverse sides. Stand a few feet from a wall with your side to the wall and use a medicine ball as a prop. Twist toward the wall and toss the medicine ball, catch it and return to starting position.
You don’t need equipment to do some oblique exercises.
If you know how to do a push-up and a plank, you’ve almost conquered the next oblique exercise. It’s a push-up to moves to a side plank. Start with a push-up, but instead of going down again, twist your body to the side, raising the arm that’s on the top, then lowering it to do the next push-up, where you’ll lift the opposite arm.
- A seated barbell twist builds obliques. Start by sitting on a bench with a barbell resting on your shoulders. Slowly twist from one side to another while keeping your feet stationary.
- Lay on a decline bench with legs over the edge at the knees. Raise your upper body up and twist to the side. Lay back down and repeat on the other side.
- If you’re doing obliques, do them before any heavy lifting, not afterward, to prevent compromising your form. If you use weights, do fewer reps. Those that don’t use weights, like crunches can be done with more reps.
- You can build strong obliques with side crunches. Lie on the ground with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your head and upper back with arms extended down. Try to tap your right heel with your right hand, then attempt to tap the left side with the left hand.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
How To Fit More Steps In Every Day
For most people, it isn’t about the type of exercise to do…it’s more about just getting some exercise. If you’re working out in the gym already, then you can add to your program by getting more steps daily. Walking or increasing the number of steps you take can be done by anyone of any age and any level of fitness, so it’s a perfect way to add more exercise to your life. Whether you actually monitor your steps or just find ways to increase your steps, never really tracking them, it can increase your fitness without a lot of effort.
Take two or three breaks in the day to do more walking.
You don’t have to walk a full hour or half hour to boost your exercise. Try ten minutes at a time several times a day. It all adds to your overall fitness. Every time you move briskly or move more than you did previously, you’re boosting your exercise time. Taking several quick five to ten minute walks throughout the day can increase your exercise time without a lot of effort.
You don’t have to walk any place in particular, just walk.
If you walk around the living room, it counts as a walk. Your body doesn’t differentiate whether you’re going someplace or simply meandering. That means you can walk during commercials when watching TV or if you’re binge-watching Hulu or Netflix, save some money and get the version with commercials so you can use that time to walk or exercise. If you’re at work, take a timer and set it for 55 minutes, then walk around the office for five, getting a cup of coffee, going to the bathroom or getting bottle water. It can help you work more efficiently.
Use every opportunity as an opportunity to move more.
Are you waiting in line at the grocery, pace side to side while you wait. Park further from the store and walk those extra steps, instead of wasting gas circling the area for a parking space. If you have the option of taking the steps or an elevator, do the steps. If it’s several floors, walk a few floors and take the elevator for the rest. Are you talking on the phone and just standing there? Pace while you talk or keep on moving. Be very aware of times when you could be moving, but choose to sit or stand in place instead and change that.
- People movers at airports are a big convenience, but don’t just stand, walk. You’ll get some exercise and to your destination quicker.
- Talk a walking lunch. Pack a brown bag lunch and walk a five to ten minutes, sit on a bench and eat your lunch. Then take a walk back to the office and you’ve added quite a few extra steps.
- Alternate your speed when you walk and turn it into a HIIT workout. Walk as briskly as you can for a few minutes, then slow your pace to a recovery pace for just as long or longer and back to the brisk pace.
- Keep your house cleaner while you increase your steps. Make the extra steps count and walk as you vacuum the floor more frequently, make sure everything is put away or even scrub the sink or tub.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Great Protein Sources For Vegetarians
It’s far easier to find healthy protein sources for vegetarians than it is for vegans. It’s because vegetarians do eat some animal products, such as eggs, dairy or both. Lacto vegetarians consume dairy, while ovo consume eggs. Lacto-ovo vegetarians consume both. Not all plant protein sources contain all the essential amino acids necessary to remain healthy, but animal sources, like eggs, do.
Include dairy and eggs in your diet frequently.
Egg salad, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, whole milk and cheese are excellent protein sources. While both eggs and milk are great protein sources, eggs have a better quality of protein in a better ratio than milk. It’s also more bioavailable. For some people who are lactose intolerant or have dairy allergies, eggs are definitely the best option. It’s easier to ensure you have a complete protein if you include milk or milk products and eggs in your diet. Both milk products and eggs are also budget savers.
Look for the most complete protein or combine proteins.
There are twenty amino acids that the body uses, and they can make all but nine. Those are the essential amino acids. The nine amino acids include: histidine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, threonine, lysine, tryptophan, methionine and valine. Plant based protein often lacks one or two of them, unless they are a complete protein source. Some options that are good plant sources include buckwheat, which is extremely healthy, soy, quinoa and Ezekiel bread.
Combine sources of protein for a complete protein.
You can combine two incomplete sources to create a complete protein source. For instance, beans have a low amount of methionine and a high amount of lysine, while rice is low in lysine with a high amount of methionine. When you combine them, you get the perfect duo that is a complete source of protein. However, you don’t have to balance proteins at one meal if you use plant proteins. You can eat two compatible incomplete proteins at different meals that day to keep in balance and have a complete protein source.
- Opting for a vegetarian diet can save money. It’s one reason meatless Mondays have become so popular. You can use lentils with rice, oats, wheat, rye and corn to make it complete.
- Chickpeas provide 7.25 grams of protein per half cup. You can even use them to make hummus, a great dip that’s perfect for healthy snacks. Scoop up that hummus with pita bread for a complete protein snack.
- You might not realize that leafy, green vegetables provide protein. For instance, kale has 2 grams per cup, while broccoli has as much as aa4 grams for every stalk you consume.
- If you’re making an omelet as your breakfast protein source, you can boost the protein by adding mushrooms, which has 3 grams of protein for five mushrooms. Add Ezekiel bread toast and you’ve started your day with a protein rich menu.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Say Goodbye To Love Handles
If you’re out of shape, you face problems like beer belly, love handles, bat wings and thunder thighs. Those are just a few of the terms clients use to explain what they want to improve. We’ll help you lose those all those things and replace them with a fit, toned body at Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY. Let’s focus on one, love handles. What are love handles? It’s nothing more than the accumulation of fat around the waist. It can occur from many causes, including lack of sleep, but it all boils down to too many calories and not enough exercise.
Besides making clothing fit poorly, love handles cause other problems.
Fat accumulating around the waist can be of two types. The first is subcutaneous fat, which is fat just below the surface of the skin and easier to lose. The second is visceral fat, the most dangerous type of fat that is deep inside and wraps around the organs. Love handles can include both types of fat. It can cause high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea, stroke, cancer, liver disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis. If you take steps to get rid of love handles, you will also reduce the risk of those diseases.
You need to focus on exercises that work the muscles of the abs, hips and back.
While you need a total body workout, if you want to target love handles, add an extra session on exercises that work the muscles in that area. Losing weight all over your body and tightening the muscles in both the front and back of your waist help. To lose weight, include strength building in your diet. Strengthen the back and abs with planks, push-ups and mountain climbers.
You have to eat healthy and lose weight all over your body, too.
When you tighten muscles to lose the love handles, you’ll notice they’re toned better, but it won’t show if the fat’s still there. You need to lose weight. You can’t spot exercise weight away from a specific area. It comes off all parts of the body, even if you did spot exercises all day. Eating healthy is particularly important and focusing on healthy food choices that are nutritious.
- Side planks, Russian crunches and twists are also excellent for getting rid of love handles. A side plank is similar to a plank, but you hold your body on its side and hold it up with just one hand, raising the other in the air.
- If you’ve never tried a bridge, it’s not that hard, it’s not only good for eliminating love handles, it’s excellent for relieving back pain as well.
- Always check with your health care professional first to make sure it’s safe to start a fitness program. In most cases, they’ll heartily approve. If you do have a health condition, let your personal trainer know.
- At Body Sculptors, we’ll create a special workout program designed specifically for your needs, goals and level of fitness. We’ll also help you with personalized nutritional guidance.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
What Is Lifestyle Medicine?
You know the drill. You go to the doctor, he or she finds you have a condition or disease and the string of prescription drugs start. Those drugs help manage the symptoms. Often, you’re stuck with a lifetime of prescriptions and even prescription changes for the rest of your life. It’s a program of managing the disease and treating the symptoms. What if you could eliminate the drugs and get rid of the disease entirely? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? That’s what lifestyle medicine is all about. It’s finding the root cause, often relating directly to your lifestyle, and helping you make the changes necessary to be disease-free.
Lifestyle medicine is used to supplement traditional medicine.
Doctors who use this philosophy of medicine don’t replace traditional treatments with lifestyle changes but use those changes to supplement the treatment. It involves six key changes. The first is a primarily plant-based diet. The second change is increasing physical activity. The third lifestyle change is stress management with the fourth being adequate sleep. Avoiding toxic substances and risky behavior and cultivating social connections are the next two steps lifestyle medicine focus.
All the steps are important, but the first step makes the biggest difference for most people.
Obesity is the leading cause of preventable deaths. Whether you’re just overweight or obese, it plays a big role in your overall health. It can cause increased blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. To eliminate obesity, it takes a lifestyle change to make a difference. That means changing your diet and increasing the amount of exercise you get each day. What you eat is the key to lifestyle medicine. No matter how much you exercise, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. The food you eat can cause other problems, besides weight gain. You need the right body building nutrients to create a healthy body that can protect itself from illness or chronic conditions.
Exercise and other lifestyle changes are also important.
While your healthcare provider may initially suggest a change of diet, eventually, he or she will add those other changes to the list. Exercise, a healthy sleep pattern and managing stress all play a role in weight control. Exercise not only helps you burn calories, but it also helps eliminate stress, improve your circulation and extend telomeres that protect the body. Adequate sleep is heart healthy and also helps keep the hunger/satiety hormones balanced, so you don’t overeat. Stress can lead to depression, lack of exercise and even stress eating. It can also lead to using toxic substances to bury the stressful feelings.
- Changing your lifestyle means cultivating new habits. It takes more than one healthy meal or trip to the gym. It’s a one-step-at-a-time consistent daily change that brings about an overall improvement in health.
- Lifestyle medicine isn’t meant to replace traditional medicine but complement it. Talk to your doctor about making these changes for improved health. Most physicians don’t have the background to create a specific diet and exercise plan but will be happy to work with specialists in that area.
- If your habits caused you to gain weight, which lead to insulin resistance and diabetes or high blood pressure, losing the weight is important. However, to do that successfully, you have to change your habits.
- Lifestyle medicine uses a holistic approach. It’s not only about managing chronic disease, but also promoting health and preventing disease. Even healthy people benefit from lifestyle medicine.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Does Exercise Help You Live Longer?
Exercise is important for a number of different reasons. It improves digestion, increases circulation and helps prevent serious conditions that are life threatening, like stroke, high blood pressure, some types of cancer and type 2 diabetes. Not only does exercise help you lose weight, reducing the risk of obesity, the leading cause of preventable deaths, it increases longevity in other ways.
Exercise is half the dynamic duo that helps you live healthier.
Both a healthy diet and regular exercise are a combination that is known to increase life expectancy. While a healthy diet is the most important, exercise is a close second. Not only does it help lubricate joints, relieving many aches and pains, it also lengthens telomeres. Telomeres act like aglets, those plastic tips on shoelaces. Just like aglets, telomeres protect the DNA and keep it from unraveling. The longer the telomeres, the longer the cell lives and replicates, which slows the aging process by keeping chromosomes intact.
You may have heard of stem cells, but did you realize the adult body continues to create them?
Even seniors still have some stem cells. If they’re active, they have more than people who aren’t active, according to studies. Today, stem cell therapy is used to repair joints and other problems. Before the stem cell therapy, doctors suggest the patient increase activity. That helps the body to increase stem cell production to replace the older cells lost during exercise.
Even couch potatoes can increase exercise, but need to start slowly.
If the hardest thing you’ve done the last few years is lift the remote, you need to increase your exercise, but start slowly, especially if you have a health issue. Increasing the number of steps you take daily is one way. A study in Australia showed that when people went from no exercise to 10,000 steps a day lowered their mortality risk by 40%. Just increasing activity by 3,000 steps lowered the risk of dying significantly, according to another study. You can start with walking and after a few weeks, start a program of exercise in the gym.
- People with arthritis often forego exercise to avoid pain, but studies show that exercise can actually bring relief. The same is true of back problems. You should work with a trainer to ensure you use the right type of exercise that won’t exacerbate the problem.
- Exercise helps lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. It boosts nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide causes blood vessels to relax, so they expand. That makes blood flow easier, lowering blood pressure in the process.
- The increased circulation caused by exercise can deliver oxygen and nutrient rich blood to all parts of the body. It helps boost brain power, while also boosting overall health of the body.
- Stress is a killer and exercise is a stress buster. When you’re under stress, your body prepares for fighting or running. Exercise burns off the hormones of stress to help your body return to normal and reduce the risk caused by the changes stress makes.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Everything You Need To Know About Manuka Honey
Whether you buy local honey in Louisville, KY, or choose more exotic types, the honey is often named for the type of plant that the pollen and nectar comes from that bees collect. Worker bees collect nectar and mix it with enzymes, while also collecting pollen for the bee larvae. The mixture is passed by mouth to others in the hive. It’s deposited in the honeycomb in the hive and dried by other bees flapping their wings to produce honey. Manuka honey comes from the pollen of the manuka bush found in New Zealand. It has some exceptional health benefits.
Manuka honey is antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and has antioxidant properties.
There are several substances that provide these properties. For instance, the dihydroxyacetone—DHA—converts to methylglyoxal—MGO. That provides antibacterial benefits. The DHA is found in high concentrations in the nectar of manuka plant flowers and that converts to the antibacterial properties of the honey.
Some of the most difficult wounds to heal are diabetic sores.
Even the FDA—Federal Food and Drug Administration—approves of using manuka honey for treating wounds. It’s more than just the antibacterial properties that make it so beneficial, but also the antioxidant and the lower pH of the manuka honey. In fact, the pH is lower than most other honey, which makes it ideal for healing wounds. It speeds the healing process and can be particularly effective in reducing pain and speeding tissue regeneration on burns.
It’s hard to believe that something sweet can promote oral health.
While the research is limited, it does show that manuka honey can help prevent the buildup of dental plaque, which in turns, prevents gum disease. It’s been found even more effective than chewing sugar free gum. Even scratchy throats can be helped with manuka honey. The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties help bring sore throat relief. It even reduces the amount of Streptococcus mutans in the throat to reduce the potential for a sore throat.
- Ulcers related to diabetes are hard to heal and may even cause amputation if not treated properly. One study shows using manuka honey to heal heals the ulcers more quickly than traditional treatments.
- Unlike diabetic ulcers that are more likely on the bottom of the feet, gastric ulcers are in the lining of the stomach. Manuka honey can help reduce inflammation by increasing certain enzyme levels to prevent oxidative damage.
- Acne may be helped with manuka honey. It not only helps decrease inflammation and reduces the levels of bacteria, it also helps hydrate skin. In fact, many skin care products now contain it.
- While manuka honey is a sugar and increasing your sugar intake can lead to weight gain, there’s nothing wrong with using manuka honey as a substitute sweetener instead of cane sugar or applying it externally.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
How Chia Seeds Could Be A Game Changer
No matter where you talk about chia seeds and the benefits, someone will bring up the chia pets that are so popular around Christmas. They extend beyond the animal world into the world of Star Wars and politics, with Bernie Sanders chias and Chewbacca’s. But chia seeds provide benefits for good health when you eat them. They’re not just meant to create hair on a clay Elvira or David Hasselhoff. They have a long nutritional history, starting by being a mainstay of the diet of the Aztecs and Mayans.
Chia seeds are high in nutrients, including antioxidants, fiber, minerals, omega-3 and vitamins.
These tiny black seeds were used for many things, from medical treatment to food, in ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations. There’s a good reason they were so popular. They are loaded with nutrients and provide healthy calories. Two tablespoons of seeds have 4.7 grams of protein, 8.7 grams of fat and 11.0 grams of carbs. It has 138 calories and 5 grams of ALA, alpha-linolenic acid. There are 9 grams of fiber, high amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, B1 and B3.
If you’re trying to lose weight, chia seeds may come to your rescue.
With a high content of both fiber and protein, both of which keep you feeling fuller longer, it’s easy to see why chia seeds could be a huge benefit for dieters. Several studies have focused on chia seeds and weight loss. One had participants mix chia with yogurt. They reported feeling fuller longer. Another six month study focused on obese or overweight type 2 diabetics. It showed those adding chia seeds to their diet significantly increased weight loss. Another study showed there was no significant difference in weight loss or reducing inflammation markers.
Adding chia seeds to your diet may improve heart health.
Just like many scientific findings, more research needs to be done, but preliminary studies show that chia seeds may be beneficial for heart health. They’re high in fiber, which reduces cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease. They’re also high in omega-3s in the form of ALA, that also lowers the risk of heart disease. A small sampling of studies show chia seeds may benefit heart health by reducing blood pressure.
- Your bones and teeth will benefit from adding chia seeds to your diet. They contain calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, all of which are important for bone health. In addition, the ALA also improves bone density.
- Maintaining blood sugar levels is important for diabetes and pre-diabetes. Chia seeds contain fiber that can help you do that. Animal studies show it also can improve insulin sensitivity, to aid in stabilizing blood sugar levels.
- Chia seeds protect you at the cellular level. They’re high in antioxidants that remove free radicals. The antioxidants contained protect the heart and liver, plus provide protection from cancer.
- Inflammation can damage your body and chia seeds have anti-inflammatory properties from the caffeic acid it contains. Adding chia seeds to your diet offers only benefits and no drawbacks and it’s easy to do.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
Animal Vs Plant Protein
It doesn’t matter whether it’s animal or plant protein, certain factors determine what’s best. For instance, does it contain all nine essential amino acids. The essential amino acids are ones the body can make itself. They must be consumed as food. Some essential amino acids are used more often than others are, such as glutamine compared to tryptophan, which isn’t used as often. The amount necessary for the body should also be considered. Animal protein sources are complete, while only a few plant sources are and they must be combined to make complete proteins.
If your body can’t digest the protein easily, it may not get all the benefit.
Even if the protein is complete, your body may not get all it needs. It has to be in a form the body can use. Some are easy for the body to digest and you get the maximum benefit, while others aren’t easily digested and you may get just half the amount available. In this case, pea protein is far more digestible than beans, rice or nuts, which may offer only provide a 50% usability rate compared to 95% of pea protein.
Protein can cause inflammation.
Inflammation is necessary to protect the body, but chronic inflammation is bad. It can cause serious conditions and prevent proper absorption of nutrients, slower metabolism, heart problems and achy joints to name a few problems. Wheat protein known as gluten and milk protein like casein are highly inflammatory compared to other types of protein.
What’s the best protein, plant or animal?
There are reasons animal protein is excellent and also ones that make plant protein superior. A plant based protein diet may help lower blood pressure, reduce body weight, reduce the risk of stroke, heart disease and cancer. However, it all depends on the type of protein consumed and how it’s cooked. Plant based protein may help prevent type 2 diabetes, too. However, a diet rich in fatty fish may also help prevent heart disease and mental decline. Animal protein can also increase lean muscle mass and prevent muscle loss from aging. Eating both types of protein can be beneficial.
- Choose both animal and plant protein that has low levels of toxins. That means choosing organic vegetable sources and animal protein sources. Grass fed and free-range animal protein options also offer even more advantages.
- When you choose your protein sources, look for other benefits, like the nutrient density. It should have healthy fat, vitamins and mineral.
- High quality protein doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You can use canned tuna and wild caught canned salmon, free-range eggs or make it a meatless night with beans and rice, quinoa or buckwheat.
- Organ meat from grass fed, organic animals is less expensive but contains tons of nutrients. Beef and chicken liver and hearts are high quality nutritious protein sources that don’t cost a fortune.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training
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