Strickland Fitness

When we need to reach a goal, it is sometimes better to walk before we run and take it one step at a time. It's the same with working out and attempting to get healthy and fit. It takes every little step to make it and it might have to start with walking. Non-runners always ask me how they can become runners and I always tell them the same thing – start walking first and build up from there. Hope this story helps those who are trying to get to the path of health. – Best, Chad

It's really hard for many folks to stick with an exercise or diet program. It really takes strong willpower to stay committed to one's physical goals. As we head into May and closer towards summertime, here's a great piece on how to keep your willpower strong and steady as you start a new exercise program. – Make it a great day, Chad

By Christine Carter, PhD / Huffington Post

Who among us has not made a plan to get up in the morning and exercise, but then hit snooze one time too many, sleeping through our morning jog?

We may have been super-inspired by the incredible brain-boosting properties of exercise. We may have had every intention to start an exercise plan and stick to it. But then… We didn't. Our warm bed sucked us in. We'll exercise tomorrow.

What we need is willpower. Once we get in the habit of exercising — or of staying calm in the face of a toddler meltdown, of not checking our email after 5 p.m., or of doing anything else we want to have the resolve to do — we don't need to try so hard. But for now, because we are in the habit of pushing snooze — or yelling, or checking email compulsively all evening — we need self-discipline.

Here are five tips for strengthening your willpower.

1.Get enough sleep. That's seven to eight hours for adults, at least nine for teens, or 10 to 12 for elementary and middle school kids.

Sleep deprivation makes us susceptible to temptations like Facebook and that chocolate-covered cookie over there, for physiological reasons. Self-control takes a ton of brainpower, and when we are tired, our bodies don't tend to deliver enough glucose to our brain for it to get the willpower engine going.

2. Meditate for five minutes a day. Sit up straight and focus your attention on your breath. When your mind wanders, as it will, you'll be building willpower when you simply notice that your mind has wandered and you bring your attention back to your breath.

As Kelly McGonigal notes in her awesome book The Willpower Instinct, the worse you are at meditation, the better it is as an exercise for building self-control. Here's why: In order to check your impulsive tendency to snag that donut off the counter, you need to build self-awareness.

When you are aware of what you are doing (e.g., "I'm feeling tempted to scarf that down."), you're actually engaging the part of your brain you need for willpower, rather than letting your impulses take over. Meditation gives you practice at engaging your self-awareness; as a bonus, deep, slow breathing also helps strengthen your self-control.

3.Lay off the cocktails. Science of the blazingly obvious, I know, but face it: We often have a glass of wine right before we need willpower to make healthy choices at dinner. Alcohol lowers your blood glucose, which a series of studies shows can dramatically weaken your willpower. (You'd be better off drinking sugary soda before testing your will, although I'm not actually recommending that.)

Alcohol also reduces self-awareness, and it is self-awareness that we need most to bring us back to our goals. (See numbers 2 and 5.) Read the rest of this entry »

I wouldn't really say exercise makes one overeat as much as the extra activity and exertion might make one hungrier than normal. This piece highlights a couple of studies that show how exercise affects different people's brains. Interesting indeed. Please share and comment. – Best, Chad

By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times

Some people respond to exercise by eating more. Others eat less. For many years, scientists thought that changes in hormones, spurred by exercise, dictated whether someone’s appetite would increase or drop after working out. But now new neuroscience is pointing to another likely cause. Exercise may change your desire to eat, two recent studies show, by altering how certain parts of your brain respond to the sight of food.

In one study, scientists brought 30 young, active men and women to a lab at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo for two experimental sessions, where they draped their heads in functional M.R.I. coils. The researchers wanted to track activity in portions of the brain known as the food-reward system, which includes the poetically named insula, putamen and rolandic operculum. These brain regions have been shown to control whether we like and want food. In general, the more cells firing there, the more we want to eat. To continue reading, please click HERE.

Sometimes it could be as simple as walking your beloved dog everyday to get back into shape. Instead of just waiting until Spot finishes his business, though, you might want to increase the walking time and enjoy the view (and health benefits). It wasn't a surprise to me that folks preferred their canine walking partners, per this article. Please enjoy the article and comment. – Best, Chad

By TARA PARKER-POPE, Editor

Is it better to walk a human or to walk a dog?

New research from the University of Missouri has found that people who walk dogs are more consistent about regular exercise and show more improvement in fitness than people who walk with a human companion. In a 12-week study of 54 older adults at an assisted living home, 35 people were assigned to a walking program for five days a week, while the remaining 19 served as a control group. Among the walkers, 23 selected a friend or spouse to serve as a regular walking partner along a trail laid out near the home. Another 12 participants took a bus daily to a local animal shelter where they were assigned a dog to walk.

To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a big improvement in fitness, while the human walkers began making excuses to skip the workout. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just a 4 percent increase among the human walkers.

“What happened was nothing short of remarkable,” said Rebecca A. Johnson, a nursing professor and director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “The improvement in walking speed means their confidence in their walking ability had increased and their balance had increased. To have a 28 percent improvement in walking speed is mind boggling.”

Ms. Johnson said that because some people are afraid of dogs, the participants were given the choice of walking with a human or a dog as the companion. Ms. Johnson said the dog walkers were far more consistent in sticking with the program than those who were walking with humans.

“In the human walking group, they were regularly discouraging each other from walking,” she said. “Missouri is a hot state. We would hear them saying: ‘It’s hot today. I don’t want to walk, do you?’ ”

The response from participants in the dog-walking group — and their dog companions — was very different.

“When the people came to the animal shelter, they bounced off the bus and said, ‘Where’s my dog?”’ Ms. Johnson said. “And the dogs never gave any discouragement from walking.”

Ms. Johnson said she suspects differences will show up in other areas, like depression and anxiety, although that data are still under review and the final study has not yet been published.

But there were also other subtle indicators of improvement among the dog-walking group. Many people in the dog-walking group stopped using canes and walkers. “They would say, ‘Now I’m physically fit enough to take my dog for a walk,”’ Ms. Johnson said.

Springtime's here and with the warmer weather comes renewed interest in fitness for a lot of folks. These three tips might help you stick to your workout and on your way to a beach-ready body. Please share and comment. Best, Chad.

By Joe Decker • For Active.com

It's that wonderful time of year when the flowers start blooming, the days warm up and many of us look in the mirror wondering how to lose that winter layer. Where do you even start? Have no fear my former hibernating friends. Here are some quick, easy and fun ways to get you out the door and into fighting shape come summer time.

Become Your own Drill Sergeant

When I joined the Army I was 80 pounds overweight and in terrible shape. My "friendly" drill instructor helped me not only lose those 80 pounds, but an additional 20 pounds. How? Tough love. He used it on me, I use in on myself, and now you need to use it on yourself. This means accountability. No more oversleeping or skipping workouts for happy hour. You need to make a plan to get into shape and stick with it. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I tell my clients not to focus on the scale. Focus on getting healthy and fit, and the weight loss will happen. Let weight loss be a by-product and incredible shape be your goal.

Keep It Simple

You don't have to purchase some fancy exercise gizmo or join an expensive health club. Use what's available. The oldest and most effective workout program in the world is the military Boot Camp style. You can make it as easy or hard as you want. Start out with basic calisthenics. My favorites are pull-ups or modified pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, dips, lunges and squats. For an example of a Boot Camp style workout check out www.gutcheckfitness.com

Where you begin depends upon your fitness level. Beginners may start with two to three sets of 10 to 15 reps. If you're more advanced, you can do 20 to 25 reps. For the highly advanced, I like to do a descending pyramid from 50-40-30-20-10. Is it tough? Yes. Does it work? Yes! I recommend doing your calisthenics circuit two to three days per week, such as M-W-F.

Tip: To make this more challenging and obtain better results, add a pair of 10 to 20 lb dumbbells to your routine. Or be creative and use whatever is available–rocks, bricks, logs, etc. It keeps it fun and definitely makes the neighbors wonder what the heck you're up to. Read the rest of this entry »