Strickland Fitness

Besides doing a little bit of cleaning around the house, Springtime culminates the season of new beginnings. Forget all the new year's resolutions you've already decided to drop (and forgive yourself, more importantly) and let go of any of your winter workout blues. Spring is here and it's a great time for a new start (or kick-up) with your workouts! Spring is a great time to get serious with your activities for a couple of reasons. One, summertime (aka bikini time for many) is just right around the corner; you can practically touch it. With it being this close, it gives you that extra motivation to step up your game. And two, although spring is this close to the sunny season, it still gives us a few months to get our workout on just in time and to prepare for summer. 

Spring Equinox is heading our way this week (Wednesday to be exact) and for those who are ready to stop hibernating, we suggest you start slow if you haven't worked out in a while. We also suggest that you take advantage of the better weather and go outside for your workouts! There's no better workout partner than the outdoors sometimes. If you are, however, live in one of the colder climates and would prefer to work out inside, here's a great video to get you moving. Enjoy the sweat!

Happy March everyone! Spring is almost here and this month there will be a lot of celebrating going on, courtesy of St. Patrick's Day. As with other special days we commemorate, St. Patty's usually calls for hanging out with family and friends and eating special meals – this time heaping servings of corned beef and cabbage, shepherd's pie, soda bread and beer. Lots and lots of beer. It's easy to get off your healthy kick when this Irish holiday comes around every March 17, but with some planning, you can avoid the pitfalls of these celebrations. It doesn't mean you should enjoy the festivities less. We're just offering a few suggestions that will help you feel better about what you eat and continue to stay active.

Above is a great video on a few useful tips that you can try when preparing your St. Patrick's Day meal. Since it's best to keep things in moderation and to never feel like you're "missing" out, it might be a good idea to incorporate a few of these ideas in your meal while leaving the most important dishes (i.e. the infamous corned beef and cabbage) in tact. Meanwhile, below is a short workout that you can do the day after eating all that yummy food (you can substitute the keg for weights). Enjoy.

 

It's officially fall and daylight is getting shorter by the week. Sometimes Autumn also ushers in the start of a workout hibernation for many. For a little inspiration, here's a story about a group of industrious (and busy) moms who make sure they're exercising, even during their busiest. Please share and comment. – Best, Chad

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — A new exercise class in Kodiak combines babies, strollers and running to help moms get in shape.

 

Stroller Strides is a new hourlong fitness class that allows moms to work out with their babies.

 

Jamie Herron and Brooke McLaughlin are the co-owners of the Stroller Strides franchise in Kodiak. Stroller Strides is a national company, founded in 2001 by a California mom. In Stroller Strides classes, moms use the natural environment, strollers and exercise equipment to get in shape.

 

"We provide the outlet that moms need to enjoy time with other moms, while also focusing on the much needed exercise to fuel their demanding lives," McLaughlin said.

 

A typical class starts with around eight minutes of warmups before the moms get into the harder exercises. Herron and McLaughlin then lead the women through power walking and jogging intervals with their strollers, and strength training like lunges and squats. McLaughlin and Herron sing songs to the babies and blow bubbles to keep them entertained while the moms are running sprints or doing jumping jacks.

 

The two women decided to start a business together after meeting online through a Kodiak Facebook group.

"We met on Kodiak Swip Swap exchanging baby items," McLaughlin said. "We were thinking, 'What can we bring to the community?' and this was our answer, a mom and baby fitness class."

 

McLaughlin and Herron aim to help moms make exercise a priority.

 

"Moms fall into the trap of saying they don't have enough time," Herron said. "They are juggling too many things — laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, paying bills while taking care of the children. They push their needs to the bottom of the list."

Herron and McLaughlin experienced that firsthand when they became new moms. McLaughlin has a six-month-old son named Kalsin, and Herron has a 15-month old son named Caden.

 

To get certified for the franchise, both women had to travel to San Diego, Calif. to be trained by Stroller Strides on general group fitness and special training.

 

___

Information from: Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com

 

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 »