exercise Archives - Page 8 of 11

New Move: Jump Rope

Jump Rope Jumping rope isn’t just for kids. Jumping rope is a simple way to incorporate aerobic (cardio) exercise into your day without going to the gym. Regular aerobic exercise lowers the risk of developing certain diseases including heart disease and diabetes. Three Reasons to Jump Rope Convenient: Going on a business trip or short on time? Pack a jump rope for a quick and efficient workout while on the road. Effective: Jumping rope burns calories similar to other cardio exercises (running, biking, etc.) If you’re new to exercise, jumping rope is a great way to kickstart your exercise routine. Start off slowly and increase your time as your endurance improves. Fun: Want to play with your kids but still workout? Make a game out of it and include your family for a fun activity. Bored with your regular exercise [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, exercise, fitness, jump rope|

Try a New Move: Bob & Weave

Bob & Weave When it comes to getting fit, we most commonly choose exercises that favor forward motion like walking, cycling, and running. We may move backward when doing reverse lunges or a backstroke, but lateral movements become an afterthought. Think about the last time you purposefully moved side-to-side. It might be challenging to recall! When we favor one plane of motion, the same dominant muscles get bigger and stronger, while smaller stabilizer muscles don’t get challenged and stay the same. Don’t get us wrong, forward and backward movements are invaluable, but moving in other directions comes with benefits. For muscles in the lower body, lateral motions even-out strength imbalances by working stabilizing muscles on the inside and outside of the legs. The “bob and weave” is a lateral (sideways) single leg muscle-strengthening exercise that requires heavy use of your [...]

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Try a New Move: Prevent Knee Problems with Step-Ups

Prevent Knee Problems with Step-Ups Many people with knee problems end up avoiding exercise altogether, but many resistance exercises, like step-ups, strengthen lower-body musculature resulting in improved knee function and decreased knee pain. Step-ups (with or without weight) Stand with your feet hip-width apart. If you’re using weight, hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand with your palms facing inward. Step your left foot onto a platform, such as an aerobic stepping box, plyo box, or stair. Keep your torso vertical and align your knee over your toes. Push off your right leg to lift your body onto the platform beside your left foot. Shift your weight onto your left foot and slowly lower your right foot back to the starting position. Repeat on the opposite side. Try using bodyweight first, then add weight if it feels too easy. [...]

Tags: box, corporate wellness, exercise, fitness, knee pain, plyo box, step-box, step-ups, steps|

Try a New Move: Core Strengthening for Everyone

Core Strengthening for Everyone What are your fitness goals? Some of us want to run hundred-mile races or squat twice our body weight. But most of us have simpler goals like getting to a place where taking the stairs or getting down on the ground feels comfortable, and that’s OK! Wherever you are in your fitness journey, build a foundation that allows you to move how you want. An excellent place to start is building up your core strength, which can protect your spine, ease lower back pain, and improve balance, stability, and posture. We need some degree of core strength and stability in nearly every move our body makes. A weak, tight, or unbalanced core can undermine your ability to comfortably perform everyday activities like bending, lifting, twisting, and carrying. Even sitting and using a computer or taking phone [...]

Tags: abdominal muscles, core strength, corporate wellness, exercise, workout|

Soreness Reducing Dynamic Stretches

Soreness Reducing Dynamic Stretches Almost everyone who’s started an exercise program can tell you about how sore their muscles felt a day or two following their workout. Fitness professionals call exercise-related soreness delayed onset muscle soreness, commonly abbreviated to DOMS. DOMS might catch you by surprise because you feel fine the day you worked out, but very stiff and sore 24 hours later. DOMS is an entirely normal body response to exercise and can last from 48- 72 hours. Doing a workout that you haven’t tried before is most likely to cause muscle soreness. You might also experience DOMS when you do workouts with lots of sets and reps or strengthening exercises that stretch your muscle tissue, like deadlifts or push-ups. If you find that DOMS is mild and goes away in two-to-three days, this can be a sign you’re [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, dynamic stretching, exercise, exercise warm-up, streching, warm-up|

Kettlebells for a Kick’n Workout

Incorporate Kettlebells If you want to switch up your strength training or if you haven’t yet found muscle-strengthening activities you enjoy, find the kettlebells at your gym or health club! Kettlebell exercises are straightforward and faster to learn than many other resistance training techniques. Since a kettlebell’s center of mass is off-center, it offers a unique challenge compared to other types of free weights like dumbbells. The kettlebell is a cannonball-shaped ball of iron with a handle on top that has roots back to the 18th century. First used as a counterweight for weighing crops, people soon realized its potential for building strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance. In the late 19th century, it gained a spot in strength recreation and competition. Today, the versatile kettlebell makes for efficient strength workouts at the gym and at home. Strengthening exercises can be [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, exercise, kettlebell, weightlifting|

Your Brain on Exercise

Your Brain on Exercise If you read the BWS Newsletter even occasionally, it should be no surprise that exercise improves your health. Besides promoting a healthy body weight and helping maintain weight loss, regular exercise may also help reduce risk for chronic disease. For example, increased insulin sensitivity and HDL cholesterol from exercise give you a potent risk reduction for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. And without medication! If you need another reason to start and stick with an exercise routine, do it for your brain! Research shows that regular exercise changes parts of the brain’s structure, which can result in improved thinking and attention span along with a lower risk of cognitive decline. Avid exercisers will happily tell you about their boost in mood and energy levels following a vigorous workout. Exercise reduces stress hormones and increases levels [...]

Tags: brain health, corporate wellness, exercise, MIND, mind diet, physical activity|

Make Your Workout HIIT

Make Your Workout HIIT For those of us looking to do more to prevent disease, manage weight, and increase fitness, a type of training called high-intensity interval training (abbreviated HIIT) can help! Competitive athletes use HIIT to improve performance, but it has serious potential for anyone. What is a HIIT workout? A HIIT workout is one that involves intervals of all-out, vigorous-intensity exercise dispersed with bouts of low-to-moderate intensity exercise. In other words, after warming up, you exercise very hard for some time, then exercise easily to recover, then repeat. HIIT workouts most commonly use sprinting or uphill cycling, but stair climbing, swimming, bodyweight training, and weightlifting are all incredibly HIIT friendly! For example, many gyms now offer HIIT group classes that make use of bodyweight movements (i.e., burpees) and free weights (i.e., kettlebells). Since the goal is to [...]

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Is Your Workout Hard Enough?

Is Your Workout Hard Enough? You probably know that engaging in regular physical activity is an important step in reducing your risk for disease and early death. Keeping active can even help minimize or eliminate symptoms of chronic disease, if you live with one. But if you exercise at an intensity that’s too low for you, you’ll miss out on some important benefits. Adults need 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activityor 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity activitythroughout the week. This weekly exercise should include moderate-intensity or greater aerobic exercise and moderate-intensity or greater full body strengthening at least twice per week. As a rule of thumb, two minutes of moderate activity equals one minute of vigorous activity. People who want to lose more than 5% of their bodyweight or want to keep a significant amount of weight off might need more; [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, exercise, over-exercise, overexercise, stress|

Sit Less, Maximize Your Routine

Excessive sitting—coined “sitting disease”—is linked to over 30 chronic diseases and conditions. By some estimates, sitting too much can harm your health more than smoking! Over a half-dozen studies also report that prolonged sitting (and a low daily step count) can even undo the beneficial effects of exercise. There’s a simple fix that you can start doing today to protect your body from a sedentary lifestyle; find more ways to move! When you get up and move, all parts of your body benefit. Moving more increases blood flow to your brain so you release more feel-good chemicals that increase productivity, improve mood, and reduce fatigue and food cravings. You’ll also move more blood throughout your body, helping recirculate blood that may have pooled in your lower limbs while sitting. Standing will engage your core, activating your abdominal muscles, protecting your [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, exercise, standing desk|