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The Top Benefits Of Walking For Fitness

The Top Benefits Of Walking For Fitness

Published by on January 25, 2024

It’s so beautiful in Honolulu, HI, that it’s amazing more people aren’t walking to their destinations but using their cars instead. There are so many benefits for overall fitness, physical and mental. Walking may be inconvenient if your errand involves bulky boxes or is at a distance, but for short distances, it saves gas and improves your fitness. Barring physical limitations, it’s an easy exercise almost everyone can do, providing cardio and weight-bearing benefits.

Walking is an excellent supplement to a traditional exercise program.

Exercise is all about being more active. If you’re already pursuing a scheduled workout program, you can supplement it with walking. It increases cardiovascular efficiency, extends endurance, and boosts leg strength. Walking is also a good recovery activity. If you’ve overworked your body doing traditional workouts, resting the next day is advised. That doesn’t mean laying on the couch. It does mean doing light activity that stimulates circulation to speed recovery. That’s the perfect description of walking.

Walking can help prevent osteoporosis and slow or reverse it once it starts.

Weight-bearing exercises like walking can help prevent the bone-thinning of osteoporosis. Exercise causes muscles to tug on the bone. That tugging causes the bone to uptake calcium for strength to resist the tugging. If there’s no exercise, there’s no tugging. Calcium is leached from the bone causing bone thinning and osteoporosis. Walking builds muscle tissue to prevent osteopenia, the loss of muscle tissue that precedes osteoporosis.

You’ll reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes when you walk.

Making your heart work a little harder is a good thing. If you don’t increase its efforts periodically, it becomes inefficient. Just like any muscle that you don’t use, it gets weaker. Walking keeps the heart pumping harder, boosting its strength. It also helps lower blood pressure by working large muscles in the legs. They produce nitric oxide that causes blood vessels to expand, making it easier for blood to flow and lowering blood pressure. It reduces bad cholesterol levels, helps you lose weight, and helps reduce the risk of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.

  • Walking improves circulation, sending oxygen and nutrient-laden blood to all parts of the body, including the brain. Research shows that daily exercise like walking reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, improves dementia, and lessens the symptoms of depression.
  • Make your walking more effective by turning it into a HIIT—high intensity interval training—session. Just alternate the pace between peak intensity and recovery to do that. It burns more calories and gets faster results.
  • For people who are overweight or those with joint issues, walking is superior to running. It’s a low-impact exercise so there’s no pounding motion.
  • Walking also boosts your digestion, improves immune response, and reduces the risk of certain types of cancer. You can increase benefits by adding arm and leg weights when you walk.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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Most Effective Core Workouts For A Stronger Body

Most Effective Core Workouts For A Stronger Body

Published by on January 15, 2024

Your posture, digestion, and even your entire body are affected by the strength of your core muscles. That’s why workouts focusing on the core are so valuable. Every movement you make uses core muscles in one way or another. These muscles include the pelvis, lower back, hips, and abs. The abs and back muscles work together to keep you in balance, in an upright position. If one group is weak, it makes the other group work harder. It can force the back muscles to pick up the slack when the abs are weak. They must do extra work to maintain good posture. That can cause back issues and pain. It also affects your posture and makes you look heavier.

One of the best core workouts is the plank.

You’ll find a variety of plank modifications, but the basic plank is the most used for building abdominal and other core muscles. It’s simple enough. Get on the floor, lifting your body until your weight is on your forearms and toes. Keep your body straight, your arms bent at the elbow, and your upper arms at a 90-degree angle to the shoulders. That’s a low plank. For a high plank, continue lifting your body until your arms are straight and your weight is on your toes and the palms of your hands. Hold that position as long as possible, attempting to increase it as you get stronger.

Improve your core muscles by riding a bike and focusing on posture as you walk.

While it won’t give you flat abs immediately, riding a bicycle can work your abs and improve your core strength. The action of pedaling requires the use of several core muscles, but the real workout comes from balancing your body on the bike, especially during turns. You’ll only get that workout from riding a traditional bike, not the stationary bike in the gym. Combining bicycling as an aerobic exercise with ab workouts like the mountain climber provides the most benefits.

Do a glute bridge or burpees to build core strength.

A glute bridge starts by laying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. You lift your buttocks, holding your abs and glutes tight until your body creates a straight line from your knees to your head. Hold that position as you squeeze your core muscles as tightly as possible, then slowly lower your body.

  • Consider doing walking lunges to improve your core muscles. Take a long stride forward as you lower your body into the lunge position. Raise your hands over your head to increase the effort to balance and work the core muscles more.
  • Walking and focusing on good posture can build core strength. Your head should be level with the floor, your shoulders should be back, and you should pull your abdomen in tightly.
  • Jump rope or use a hula hoop. You don’t have to have expensive equipment to improve core strength. Doing boxer jumps or high knee jumps can help.
  • We can create a workout program that increases strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance. It will improve overall strength and include the best core strength exercises that get fast results.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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The Best HIIT Workouts To Burn Fat Fast

The Best HIIT Workouts To Burn Fat Fast

Published by on January 5, 2024

If you want to burn more fat, you have to burn more calories. One way to do that is by using HIIT, workouts. HIIT is an acronym for high intensity interval training. It’s not a specific workout but a way of doing any workout. It modifies the intensity throughout the workout by alternating between high-intensity to a recovery pace throughout the exercise period. The high intensity session can’t be achieved for long periods, by alternating between it and a recovery pace, you can exercise at peak intensity longer.

Using HIIT for running burns more calories, but does it burn more fat?

While you’ll burn tons of calories when you run, not all those calories come from fat. Some come from burning lean muscle tissue. Muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance than fat tissue does, so the more you have, the easier it is to lose weight. How do you ensure that you’re burning more fat than muscle, whether you’re doing HIIT workouts or steady-state workouts? Do strength training.

Using HIIT to do strength training can ensure you’ll burn fat while you build muscle tissue.

One of the easiest ways to change a strength-building workout to a HIIT workout is to shorten the rest periods. It prevents the heart rate from dropping down to resting mode and keeps it moderately high at a recovery rate. It increases heart efficiency, burns fat, builds muscle tissue, and improves your endurance. You can also use cardio between sets as the recovery exercise. Pumping iron for a minute and switching to jumping rope for a minute is an example of a HIIT workout using strength-building.

Add weight to your HIIT workout.

Wearing weighted vests, wrist weights or ankle weights can burn extra calories and more fat when you do cardio HIIT workouts. Adding kettlebells to your workout program is another example of increasing cardiac fitness as you burn fat. Several kettlebell movements combine intensity and strength-building. You can also add movement to your dumbbell or barbell workouts. The combination of movement and strength-building makes it perfect for HIIT.

  • Alternating between push-pull exercises is similar to HIIT and burns fat. You’ll burn extra calories from compound workouts. When the pressing muscles work, the pulling muscles rest. That keeps your heart rate high.
  • Add weights to calisthenics. Do lunges holding barbells, going as fast as possible, then slowing to a recovery pace. Doing goblet squats holding a kettlebell or dumbbells also can be an effective HIIT workout.
  • Modifying any strength-building or cardio workout by three sets at peak intensity for one minute, moving quickly from one to another, then taking a one-minute break and starting the cycle again.
  • The amount of time spent at peak performance and recovery pace varies for each person. Get your heart rate high for as long as possible and switch back to recovery. Modify the time you spend at a recovery pace by how you feel.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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Should You Be Stretching More?

Should You Be Stretching More?

Published by on December 25, 2023

When people in Honolulu, HI, start a workout program, they often begin with calisthenics or take up bicycling or running. Some venture into lifting weights. One area often overlooked is stretching. You can stretch to increase flexibility or use it as warm-up and cool-down exercises. Before a workout, stretching boosts circulation and warms the muscles to prepare the muscles for the task ahead. Stretching at the end of a workout acts as a cool-down exercise and also increases the range of motion while the muscles are warm and more flexible.

Stretching when you first wake up prepares your body for the day’s activities.

When you sleep, your body temperature drops. Your muscles relax completely. The first thing in the morning, you may yawn and stretch. It’s a natural reaction. The stretching warms the muscles and prepares them for use, and the yawn increases the oxygen intake in preparation for the activity. Stretching does the same thing for muscles before intense exercise. Circulation increases and sends adequate nutrients and oxygen. The muscles are more relaxed to help you perform the exercise and prevent muscle injury.

Stretching helps prevent muscle injuries.

If you don’t prepare your muscles before a workout, it can result in injury. The increased circulation increases the oxygen flow. If there isn’t an increase in oxygen, lactic acid can build up in the muscles. When you have a mild workout, the build-up is minor and clears quickly. That’s not what happens if the workout is intense or you’re out of shape. It builds to the point where the body can’t remove it quickly. If you stretch before working out and afterward, it helps with the process. When too much lactic acid builds, lactic acidosis occurs. It causes a pH imbalance that makes moving painful and increases recovery time.

Stretching can be done without other exercises to improve posture and reduce injury.

If your muscles are tight, doing simple activities like bending to tie your shoes or picking up a package can trigger pain, making every move unbearable. It can also cause bad posture that leads to difficulty breathing, constipation, heartburn, and incontinence. TMJ, a disorder of the muscles and joint in the jaw, can be caused by poor posture. It loosens the muscles and helps the body realign. Combine it with strength-building exercises to align the body and relieve many problems caused by poor posture.

  • You’ll prepare the heart for more strenuous exercise. The mild increase in circulation slowly builds the effort of the heart so it doesn’t suddenly have to go from resting to maximum effort, which can spike blood pressure.
  • Dynamic and static stretching are warm-up and cool-down exercises. Static is a cool-down exercise. It’s a stretch-and-hold exercise like toe-touching done after exercise when the muscles are warm. Dynamic exercise warms the muscles and involves movement, like lunges.
  • Stretching before doing strength-building workouts can speed the process of muscle-building. It increases the range of motion so there is fuller muscle extension and lets you work the muscles on all planes.
  • People with a desk job or sedentary lifestyle should stretch and move about once an hour. It helps prevent back pain and improves overall health.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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Best Pre-Workout Foods

Best Pre-Workout Foods

Published by on December 15, 2023

Pre-workout foods can fuel your body through a grueling workout so you don’t hit a wall mid-session. You have to time the snack or meal properly to ensure it doesn’t upset your stomach. It takes a combination of protein and carbs to fuel your body through the session. The carbs replenish the glycogen stores and keep you fueled throughout the workout. It can improve your performance. The protein helps jumpstart your recovery by providing the necessary amino acids.

The snack should be between 100 to 200 calories unless you eat a full meal 2 to 3 hours earlier.

If you have a meal or snack, it should contain 60% carbohydrates. Snacks can be anything from apple slices with a spoon of peanut butter to a cup of Greek yogurt with fresh or frozen fruit. A slice of whole wheat bread spread with peanut butter and topped with some bananas or fruit puree is another good option. You can slice a pitted date and put nut butter in it. A broiled chicken breast, salad, vegetables, and fresh fruit can be a good pre-workout meal. Avoid any heavy gravies and excess butter. Too much fat can make you feel sick.

The quick fuel provided by the carbs is the key.

The protein starts the recovery process early, but the carbs are why you need a pre-workout snack. Make it healthy carbs. Simple carbs like sugar or sugary treats can leave you feeling shaky. Fruit is different. It contains fiber that slows the absorption of sugar and keeps your blood sugar level. On hot days, freeze banana slices, blend them, and top them with nuts for an ice cream-like treat that feels almost decadent.

Smoothies are a great option.

You can make a smoothie at home and drink it right before you leave for the gym. Include nuts, protein powder, or milk products like yogurt for the protein. The fruits and vegetables in smoothies provide the natural sugar to provide the necessary energy. You’ll also get health benefits from the phytonutrients in the fruits and vegetables. A hard-boiled egg with avocado toast. The avocado spread can be made from mashed avocados, some lemon juice, salt, and pepper, or other ingredients such as garlic.

  • Veggies and dip can be a good pre-workout snack. Make hummus from chickpeas as the dip or use yogurt as the base. You can even make cucumber slices topped with halved cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley, or olives.
  • Overnight oats or a cup of oatmeal make a good pre-workout snack. You can sweeten it with sweet berries as the carb. Since the oats are high in fiber, it slows glucose absorption. Adding a little honey for sweetness won’t give you the shakes. Just don’t add too much.
  • Don’t forget to hydrate when you eat your pre-workout snack. Staying hydrated during your workout is as important as the snack itself.
  • Chicken breast on whole wheat toast is another good pre-workout snack. A small omelet with some broccoli, red pepper, and cheese can also boost your energy in the gym.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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The Benefits Of Group Fitness

The Benefits Of Group Fitness

Published by on December 5, 2023

There’s no denying the benefits of private training with a personal trainer. You have a plan designed specifically for your needs, someone who holds you accountable, and watches to ensure you do every exercise correctly. Personal trainers also provide information to help you learn how to make dietary changes and eat healthier. Joining a group fitness class directed by a personal trainer can also bring those same benefits and add a few different ones.

Personal trainers still provide individualized programs for each member of the group.

It may look like everyone is doing the same thing in a group session, but that’s not necessarily true. While everyone may be doing push-ups, each person will have a different number of repetitions. Some may be doing modified forms of the push-up, such as bent-knee push-ups that are easier and better for beginners who lack strength. Others might be doing traditional push-ups or if they’re extremely fit, one-arm push-ups. Each person will work toward their maximum abilities, but still safely within their range.

Group workouts can save money without skimping on benefits.

You’ll get the same benefits as private training, but it won’t cost as much as a private session. Some trainers provide nutrition training that is also personalized. You’ll learn how to cook healthier and make dietary changes with consideration of food allergies, intolerance, and preference. The benefits may be the same, but it costs far less since everyone in the group shares the cost of the trainer’s time. Getting fit is far less expensive in group sessions.

Group sessions can be fun.

There’s a lot of comradery and even some competition in group classes. People often cheer each other on to new personal victories or challenge each other to improve. Sharing your journey toward fitness can be invigorating and confirming. The others keep you accountable and know when you don’t show up or are not putting in full effort. Working out with others can make it more fun.

  • Working in a group can help you create new friends. Unlike working out in a gym, where it’s impersonal with few people talking. People in a group class share the same goal to live a healthier lifestyle and often learn more about each other.
  • Getting help with nutrition can be even better when you’re learning it with a group. People can share ideas and recipes. They even can identify the foods that taste the best and their family loves.
  • You’ll still get individualized attention. The trainer first shows you how to do an exercise and then watches to ensure you do every movement correctly. Doing an exercise incorrectly minimizes the benefits and can lead to injury.
  • Group sessions can build long-lasting friendships. The friends you make also help you maintain your fitness long after the classes end.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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Can Vegans Lose Weight Easily?

Can Vegans Lose Weight Easily?

Published by on November 25, 2023

At one time, vegans limited their intake to more natural food options. They ate whole foods, which made them lose weight easier. Today, it’s not that cut and dried. Many vegan options are as unhealthy and highly processed as non-vegan foods. They contain processed flour, high amounts of sugar, and unhealthy oils. If you’re opting for veganism because you think it’s better for weight loss, reconsider your decision. There are many healthy reasons to choose a vegan diet, but it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll lose weight. Just like non-vegan diets, it all depends on the food you eat, not whether it’s animal or plant based.

It’s all about what you eat, not what you don’t eat.

Animal products tend to be higher in calories than unprocessed fruits and vegetables. If vegans ate only those, it would be difficult to overeat. That’s not true of other vegan foods. Sugar, for example, is plant-based. A high amount of sugar in your diet isn’t healthy. Nuts and nut butter are vegan, yet they are higher in calories. So are avocados. These foods, however, are also higher in fat and fiber, so you get full faster and stay full longer. The high fiber of a vegan diet is one reason it’s easier to lose weight.

You can veganize any type of junk food.

People tend to be too smart for their own good. They took a healthy eating option and created a monster, veganizing donuts, ice cream, and confectionary treats. French fries are made from potatoes, so they’re automatically vegan. The new Impossible burger that tastes like real meat is vegan and while it has the same calories as a burger, is higher in sodium. Regardless of being vegan, these foods can add pounds and contribute to a growing waistline.

It’s all about making the smartest selection of food.

Vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous diet titles don’t automatically cause you to lose weight. It’s all about the food you consume. Eating less processed food closer to its natural state makes a huge difference. Choosing complex carbohydrates instead of simple carbs—like sugar—can help keep pounds from accumulating and make weight loss easier.

  • It may be harder to continue a vegan diet since it is more restrictive and harder to follow. It’s also harder to ensure you get all the essential amino acids that are automatically in animal products.
  • Not all vegan food is healthy. You have to choose wisely, just as you do with any diet. Consider the ingredients and how it’s cooked. If it’s deep-fried or cooked in vegetable oil, it’s automatically unhealthy.
  • A bag of vegan candy is just as bad for your health and weight as a similar amount of non-vegan candy. The same is true of vegan donuts. Vegan milk options often have added sugar to improve the flavor, making it less healthy.
  • Increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet that aren’t highly processed can benefit everyone. Both fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients and fiber, which aids weight loss.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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How Processed Food Affects Your Health

How Processed Food Affects Your Health

Published by on November 15, 2023

You’ll find all types of cuisine in Honolulu, HI. The traditional Hawaiian diet was extremely healthy, but the food has changed with the mixing of cultures. Some of the additions were healthy, but other additions, like processed food, were detrimental to health. Many highly processed foods became local food, which is different from traditional food. Spam became a popular addition to the diet. It lasted forever when unopened and reduced food insecurity during and after WW2. It’s included in the unhealthy additions to the Hawaiian diet.

Much of the problem with processed food comes from what’s in it.

Spam is a perfect example of a popular locals food. It’s made with a mix of pork shoulder and ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, sodium nitrate, and sugar. The high nitrate and salt content can increase high blood pressure. The more salt you have in your diet, the more you crave it. The sugar content of spam also plays a role in its negative health effects. Like salt, the more sugar you have, the more you want, but for a different reason. Sugar links to the same brain receptors as opioids. The sugar can lead to diabetes, add to the risk of high blood pressure, and cause depression, dental caries, obesity, and acne.

Another problem comes from what’s not in it.

Highly processed food has the healthy part of the food removed. Highly processed flour and food made from it is missing the bran and the germ that contain nutrients, such as B vitamins, protein, antioxidants, and healthy fiber. What’s left is the endosperm, which is primarily starchy carbohydrates. The fiber in whole grains keeps you full longer, so you eat less.

Sugar is toxic, and the new fake sugars are worse.

There’s a trend for manufacturers to add HFCS—high fructose corn syrup. While you’ll hear it’s a natural sweetener, it isn’t. Like many of the Frankenstein foods created in a lab. Manufacturers add a bacterial enzyme to the glucose from corn and potatoes to increase the fructose and sweetness. That’s combined with pure corn syrup. The result is a sugar between 43 and 55 percent fructose with the balance from glucose. It increases the risk of serious conditions, is linked to obesity, increases liver fat, and metabolizes differently.

  • HFCS is added to many foods since it’s inexpensive to make. It’s added to everything from cereal to fruit juice. It’s also in condiments, salad dressing, bread, crackers, and applesauce.
  • Combining highly processed flour that contains additives with sugar to create baked goods creates a triple threat to your health. It spikes blood glucose levels that drop quickly, leaving you hungry again.
  • Today’s processed foods pack on the pounds. It’s why there’s an epidemic of obesity around the developed world. Obesity increases the risk of debilitating diseases that can shorten your life.
  • Even no-calorie sweeteners aren’t the answer. Studies show that people who drink diet sodas made with artificial sweeteners have a larger waist circumference than those who don’t. It’s from visceral fat—belly fat, the most unhealthy type.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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How Intermittent Fasting Helps With Weight Loss

How Intermittent Fasting Helps With Weight Loss

Published by on November 5, 2023

Intermittent fasting—IF—is a term used to describe an eating pattern. Food consumption occurs within a specific time window. Some intermittent fasting eliminates food for a day or two and returns to normal for the rest of the week. Others limit food intake to specific hours each day, fasting the rest of the time. One of the most popular types limits food intake to an 8-hour window each day, fasting the other 16 hours. All types of IF can improve weight loss if you eat healthy meals the rest of the time.

Eating is one way to lose weight.

When your diet is healthy, you’re more likely to lose weight. However, you can increase the benefits by limiting your food intake to certain hours or by alternating the days you eat regular meals and fasting the other days. Why does that work? There are several theories. One that’s proven is that you don’t eat as much, even on the IF, where you only eat within a time window. It’s especially true for people who snack at night or start the day with a big breakfast and eat large meals throughout the day.

Studies on IF aren’t new.

Early studies on rats began long before obesity was an epidemic. They showed that fasting and calorie-restricted diets kept rats younger looking longer and extended their lives by 83%. They had darker fur and fewer signs of aging. Newer studies have come to similar conclusions and even found fasting was beneficial for weight loss. Studies have shown it can help obese people improve health indicators. It helped reduce visceral fat and prevent oxidative stress. It improved metabolic disorders and increased insulin sensitivity.

It all depends on what you eat when you do eat.

If you only consume fries, burgers, and sweet treats when you eat, you probably won’t lose weight and definitely won’t be healthy. However, when you use IF, you don’t have to log in every calorie, but eat healthy meals and include more vegetables and fruit in your diet. People who use IF as an addition to healthy eating don’t feel as deprived as others on calorie-restricted diets.

  • IF helps the body remove cellular waste more efficiently. It increases beneficial hormones like HGH—the human growth hormone. Additional HGH can increase muscle mass and decrease body fat.
  • IF isn’t for everyone. If you’re taking blood pressure or heart medication, have an eating disorder, are diabetic, or are pregnant and nursing, always check with your healthcare professional first.
  • If you choose IF, don’t forget to include a snack in your meal planning. A healthy snack mid-afternoon or mid-morning can help stave off hunger so you don’t overeat at your next meal.
  • Recent studies show that people who use IF for 12 weeks or less can reduce body fat by 16% or more. Using it also can result in weight loss of up to 8%.

For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!

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