BY: Jaci Sellenrick

As the length of this article will attest, short and concise can often be more effective than long, drawn out and laborious. Especially when it comes to your fitness training.

Do you want to improve your overall endurance or your energy level? You can with shorter, high-intensity workouts. In a study by Medicine & Science in Sports & Science magazine showed that endurance leads to higher intensity workouts. After one month, people who did 30-minute interval cycling workouts three days a week improved their VO2 max twice as much as those who biked at a steady pace for one hour four times a week.

What is VO2 max? VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport oxygen during exercise, which will reflect the level of physical fitness of that individual. A higher VO2 max allows your heart to pump more blood with every beat. Which means you can exercise longer and go faster with less effort.

Try to increase your speed and resistance level during your workouts. This will be a shortcut to a slimmer you!

By: Jaci Sellenrick

Everyone knows that exercising takes a lot of mental confidence just to feel comfortable at the gym. The more confidence and desire you have in yourself, the more likely you will be engaged in physical fitness. People with low confidence and poor self-perception will tend to make excuses not to exercise. What can be done to help boost your confidence and desire to exercise?

1. The need for health promotion programs will help enhance your confidence and motivation. Providing education on health benefits of physical activity will help you have that desire to increase your fitness by staying healthy.
2. Social support and availability of programs will help create a positive desire to exercise. The more people that are around you that give you positive reinforcement will help your confidence level grow in terms of exercising. The more possible fitness programs that are available to you, the more options you can find an exercise workout to fit your fitness level.
3. Creating goals will create that desire and confidence level to get to the gym and workout. Writing down what you want to accomplish in the gym, the days of the week you want to work out or even the exercises you want to do will help enhance your fitness. Writing down your goal weight or body measurements you want to reach will help you stay motivated while you exercise as well.

These are a few options to help you increase your confidence and boost your desire to stay active. Remember to be true to yourself and stay motivated each day to make time for physical activity each day!

If you're running around the house with a facemask and a Lysol sprayer, you're not alone. I was glued to the TV as the World Health Organization raised the current level of the flu's pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. Translation: The flu's widespread human infection from its outbreak in Mexico has been jumping from person to person with relative ease. When I heard that the flu had infected hundreds of people in 11 countries—with over a hundred cases and at least one fatality in the U.S.—I started avoiding crowded places, and my ears perked up whenever I heard a cough or sneeze.

Then I started to worry about the kids. Nearly 300 schools with confirmed or possible flu cases were recently closed—including New York, California and Texas. Presently, the Health Department is investigating an alleged swine flu outbreak at a prep school in Queens, where 100 students missed classes because of flu-like illness. The good news: The majority of cases are occurring in adults between 25 and 44 years of age.

As a health conscious person, I'm watching for flu symptoms. Things like fever, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. And I do what I can to protect my family. That means I avoid anyone who has flu symptoms. If I touch a public doorknob, armrest, gym equipment, shopping cart or any countertop, I keep my hands away from my eyes, nose and mouth. Then I wash my hands as soon as I can with soap and water. If I suspect I'm getting the flu, I'll see my doctor and stay home.

In love and good health,
 
Fran Dean Bishop, Award winning Coach and Creator
contact [at] aerobodies.com

Many people want their ‘core’ muscles to look better, yet few realize how important these muscles are to overall health. Your core muscles run the entire length of your torso to stabilize your spine and pelvis. They allow you to stand upright and move on two feet. They also help you transfer energy, shift body weight and move in any direction. All the more reason to strengthen and condition these specific muscles. The goal of core stability is to maintain a foundation from the center of the body out to the limbs. There are many different muscles that make up the core. They include:
•    Rectus Abdominis
•    Erector Spinae
•    Multifidus
•    External/Internal Obliques
•    Hip Flexors
•    Transverse Abdominis

Your abdominals don't deserve all the credit for your core. The back is a major foundation of strength, yet it's also an area of weakness for many people. Weak, unbalanced core muscles are linked to low back pain. So the stronger your core muscles become, the easier it will be to maintain your posture and reduce the strain on your spine. Training your core muscles can correct postural imbalances that could lead to injuries. But the biggest benefit of core training is to reach a level of fitness essential to daily living and regular activities. So be active every day. Go to the gym, take an abs class, or run outside or on a treadmill. Strengthening your core will eventually lead your torso to work as a solid unit, with the front and back muscles contracting at the same time.  

There are many different exercises to strengthen your core, as well as exercise equipment that will help in your training. Body weight exercises are very helpful in developing core strength (sit-ups, planks, pushups, back bridge, back extension). Some great products to enhance your core strength include:
•    Dumbbells
•    Stability Balls
•    Kettlebells
•    Medicine Balls
•    Bosu Ball, Balance Boards, wobble boards

It's never too late to make a difference for your body! Consider this a wake-up call to improve your core.  Strengthening and conditioning core muscles can help you maintain great torso and postural stability—and live a healthy life!
 

When you think of sodium, you should think of the amount of salt that is in your food.  Sodium is a nutrient that most of us eat too much of.  Salt helps to enhance the flavor of some foods, but it takes very little salt to accomplish that goal.  

Look at food labels to see how much sodium you are eating.  Foods high in sodium tend to be high in saturated fat.  A "low sodium" food contains less than 140 mg of sodium per serving.  Watch how much sodium you eat!!!

Task for you: Challenge yourself to cut the amount of sodium that you eat by not adding any salt to your food for one week.  See how different your food can taste and how you feel.

Try to do different daily activities to get your 30 minutes or more of physical activity in. Instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV, go take a ride with a friend on your bicycle.  You can go out for a nice walk, go on a hike, or even play a sport with former neighbors. Lifestyle activities can involve the family as well. Not all activities need to be just for one person. Getting others involved can help encourage a child, friend or family member to be less sedentary, which may help them become more active.

You all are very aware that video games are popular at a young age. More and more health clubs are inviting and creating daily activities for you to help you stay active. Health clubs have been offering workouts for popular video games like “Dance, Dance Revolution” or “In The Groove,” which have modes for calorie burning on the footpads. This is a great way to stay active and still get a great workout!

Be flexible and creative when picking YOUR daily lifestyle activity. Make exercise and physical activity a fun opportunity each and every day!

Exercise is important for everyone.  Whether it's dancing, playing soccer, tennis or field hockey, or just going for a long power walk, you may not always feel the excitement or motivation to get moving.  That's when having an exercise partner or fitness buddy becomes most important.

An exercise partner is someone who will tell you that you need to get up and get moving EVEN when you have no interest or energy to do so. Plus, a fitness buddy can challenge you to learn new ways of moving and staying in shape.

MECKids.com will be providing a great way for you to find new exercise buddies.

Set a realistic goals for yourself, such as fitting learning a new sport, joining a team, doing some form of exercise everyday with a friend. Write your goals on small, colorful index cards, and place them in easy to find places in your room, around the house or even in your locker at school, so they are always in view!

Setting a goal to learn a new exercise is a great goal. Have you tried Pilates (pronounced pa -la - tees) or stretching & toning?  Before you work out why not do some light stretching to loosen up your muscles and to prevent injury.  Make it a goal!  Research shows that people who write down their goals are more likely to fulfill them than those who do not.

Keep up the hard work!

Two, three maybe four!  Then here's your challenge for the next seven days try to do a different type of exercise each day for your daily workout.  Here are a six ideas but see if you can add at least 4 more:

o Ride your Bike       
o Go For a Hike
o Play Kickball
o Go Skating
o Take a Swim
o Run with your Dog
o Now add 4 more....

Did you burn more calories or increase your steps?  write to us [at] coach@aerobodies.com and tell us what happened!! We love hearing from you!

Keep up the hard work