exercise – Page 9 – Be Well Solutions

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 [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, exercise, hiit, interval training|

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|

Build to your First 5K

The weather has finally warmed up enough to get back into your walking routine! How will you build on last year’s progress? One option is setting a new goal, like a 5k (or 10k!) event. Although you could always walk a 5k, learning how to run the 3.1-mile distance offers a new and exciting challenge. You may also improve your cardiovascular endurance, boost your self-esteem, and make new connections with runners in your community! Not to mention having an event on the calendar to train for provides additional motivation to stick with your exercise routine. But before getting started, check with your physician to ensure you’re cleared for exercise. When you’re ready, take these steps to build up to running your first 5k. First, pick an event. Choose one that’s about 6-8 weeks away, depending on your fitness level. This [...]

Tags: 5k, corporate wellness, couch25k, exercise, running, training|

Lunging Around

Lunging Around The best strength training exercises make daily activities like walking and climbing stairs feel easier. It’s even better if they don’t require added weight or lots of floor space. Bodyweight lunges fit the bill perfectly! The classic forward lunge closely mimics the movements used when walking, making them a smart option for walkers looking to include more strength training in their routine. Strength training each muscle group (arms, shoulders, chest, trunk, back, and legs) at least twice per week helps preserve lean muscle mass, strengthen bones, and prevent cognitive decline. Standard lunges fire-up two of your major muscle groups – legs and core. Abdominal and lower back muscles assist in stabilization throughout the movement. If you’re traveling, can’t make it to the gym, or need to wake-up your legs and core after sitting at your desk for too [...]

Tags: cardio, corporate wellness, exercise, lunge, muscle|

HIIT Workout

One of the most commonly cited reasons for not keeping physically active is just not having time. If this doesn’t apply to you, congrats! You’ve beaten one massive hurdle to regular physical activity. If it does, scientists have thoroughly investigated a style of exercise called high-intensity interval training, or H.I.I.T. (pronounced “hit”), which involves short intervals of all-out, maximum effort exercise flanked by longer bouts of lower intensity exercise. For example, a H.I.I.T workout could be repeated intervals of cycling as fast and as powerfully as possible for 20 seconds, then cycling at a slow, relaxed pace for 60 seconds until you’ve cycled for a total of 15-20 minutes. These workouts come in many forms (find free full H.I.I.T. workouts here) and can last minutes to hours, but if you truly give your all during the high-intensity portions, you likely [...]

Tags: circuit training, corporate wellness, exercise, hiit, intense workout, interval training, quick workout|