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Want to Live Longer?

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Recently I read an article from TIME Magazine with this exact title and it listed 5 habits that if adhered to, can add about 10 years to your lifespan. Here is a summary of what the article said in regards to the 5 habits and what research says about living your fullest, longest life.

Eat a Healthy Diet

Diet is strongly linked to longevity. The article explains that research shows the best diet is one that includes lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and healthy fats and does not include much sugar or processed food, naming the Mediterranean diet as the diet that fits this best. To keep it simple, just eat real food and control your portion sizes. Eat Smart, Eat Often and Eat Small. Have you heard that before?

Exercise Regularly

“Working out regularly is a boon for both your physical and mental health, boosting everything from cardiovascular fitness to mood and energy – so it’s no surprise that it can also extend your life” the article says.
Current activity guidelines recommend aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week plus 2 weekly strength training sessions for best health and longevity benefits. It also says that even if you don’t exercise now, its not too late and that research shows that there are longevity benefits to both long term exercisers and later in life exercisers.

Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

If you follow the first two recommendations, this one will take care of itself. Being overweight is linked to many chronic conditions which all have the potential to shorten your lifespan. Eat well and exercise regularly. That is the secret sauce of weight management.

Drink in Moderation

More and more the research is coming out on alcohol consumption that is in support of limiting alcohol as much as possible. It used to say that moderate consumption was ok, healthy even. Now researchers are starting to sway in the opposite direction. Last year a meta-analysis of prior alcohol studies concluded that there is no safe amount of drinking, because the net risks outweigh any potential benefits.

No Smoking

Smoking is associated with serious health problems making it a serious threat to your life longevity. If you do smoke, experts recommend quitting as soon as possible to minimize any threats to your long-term health.

And there you have it, straight from the latest research. We do have a lot of control over increasing the odds of living a long, healthy life if we follow these 5 recommendations. None of this is new either, we have all heard this before and we have been helping people take back control of their health with these exact habits for over 33 years.

Are We Making Things Too Complicated?

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Over the weekend I attended the Can Fit Pro 2019 Conference in Toronto. Here are a few of the takeaways:

  • Over 70% of our population is considered overweight or obese
  • 19% of the population has a gym membership
  • The average person consumes about 66lbs of added sugar per year
  • Sugar sweetened beverages are the main culprit when it comes to added sugar consumption, making up 47% of sugar intake. Next is sweets and snacks at 31% of sugar intake.
  • People who consume 2 or more sugar sweetened beverages per day have a 31% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease and each additional sugar sweetened beverage increased risk another 10%

None of these statistics is really that surprising. We all know that as a population our health is declining and just by looking at this data we can attribute it to not being active enough and consuming too much sugar.

Look at how much of an impact just switching out sugar sweetened beverages for water can have on your health. For the average person that would cut sugar consumption in half!

Another observation I had while walking around the expo was that it seemed to me like everything new coming out in fitness is mostly made towards the already fit. For someone who was new to fitness, most of these gadgets are completely intimidating. It was intimidating for me and I have been around fitness my whole life! Maybe 80% of the population doesn’t exercise regularly because we have scared them off making health and fitness seem complicated with all of these machines, gadgets and electronics.

Let’s keep it simple.

  1. Get your heart rate up with some movement daily. Go for a walk, bike ride or some chores around the house. Make it a goal to move more then you sit.
  2. Eat well. Eat real food that is not processed as much as possible and keep portion sizes in check.
  3. Lift heavy weights 2 or 3 days a week.

Do those 3 things consistently and you have all the tools you need to be healthy.

No need to make it complicated!

The Importance of a Good Warm Up

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Before jumping into your strength training routine, you should always begin your exercise session with a light warm up of some kind. The warm up often gets skipped, especially if time is short but it is a very important piece of your exercise routine that should be incorporated every single time.

When you warm up you are taking your body from a resting state and getting it moving. This usually means some kind a cardiovascular activity. It can be walking, running, biking, jumping jacks, skipping, anything to get your body moving. You don’t want to surprise your body at the beginning of a workout by walking into the gym and beginning with weight lifting.

Once you start moving a few things happen. Your heart rate will start to elevate from it’s current resting state. This will get more blood flowing out to your muscles which helps to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to your muscles during exercise.

Your body temperature will begin to rise. This gets your muscles warmer and better prepares them for the exercise ahead and helps to prevent injuries from loading cold, unprepared muscles.

The third and one of the most important reasons for a warm up is to give you a few minutes to get the days worries, stresses and demands out of your head and to switch your focus to the workout ahead. Clear your mind and mentally prepare for your workout. You don’t want to be distracted during your workout and mindlessly go through it. You should be focused to get the most out of it.

For a good warm up all you need is 5 minutes of continuous light movement that gets your heart rate up, gets you feeling warmer, maybe even a light sweat started and lets your body and mind know to get ready for exercise.

Fasted vs. Fed Cardio for Weight Loss

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I have been asked this question quite a lot over the years, if doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is better for weight loss.

As with most questions the answer I always give is “it depends”.

You do burn more energy from fat in a fasted state, so in theory yes, doing cardio fasted would use more calories from fat then had you ate something before your workout.

You have to also remember that weight loss occurs over time, not in a single workout. It happens from consistently repeating good habits like eating good foods in the right amounts and exercising regularly.

Exercising fasted gives a slight edge to you but it is by no means a solution for quick weight loss. You still have to follow the fundamentals.

Another interesting fact I learned a couple years ago listening to one of my favourite speakers, Dr. Len Kravitz, at a conference talk about this topic was that in his research he found that although a person exercising in a fasted state did burn slightly more calories from fat during the workout, the person who ate a small snack before exercise burned more fat throughout the entire day compared to the person fasted because eating kickstarted their metabolism sooner. He recommended eating a small snack before your morning workout.

For me there is no benefit, one over the other, it’s whatever you feel better doing. Some of us feel great working out fasted and other don’t. So, choose what allows you to have the best workout you can, whether that is fasted or fed.

If you choose to eat something, it shouldn’t be a big meal and it shouldn’t be consumed immediately before exercise. Try to eat 30-60 minutes before, and keep it small.

4 Keys To Achieving Optimal Wellness in 2020

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If you are looking to become the best version of yourself this year, try implementing as many of these key principles into your daily and weekly routines as you can. Start with one of them, schedule it as part of your regular routine, get consistent with it and then add another. Don’t overwhelm yourself adding all of them at once and understand that adding even just one of these ideas into your regular routine will have a positive impact on your health and well being.

There are no magic potions here, but these are all simple ideas that most of us know we should be doing, it’s just a matter of doing them and doing them consistently.

Here we go:

  • Move More, Sit Less

It’s no secret that replacing sitting time with more movement time will have positive results to our health. Again, we just have to do it. Try to set a goal of sitting for less then 3 hours a day, and when you are sitting at work to get up at least once every hour to walk around and move to break up the sitting time.

You can also track your steps and try to hit a daily goal of 10,000 steps to ensure you are moving enough.

  • Get Regular Exercise

Try for 3-5 cardio sessions a week which can be any activity that maintains an elevated heart rate for at least 20 minutes. Walking, biking, the gym, skating. Pick something you enjoy.

Strength train 2-3 times per week. Keeping your muscles strong is one of the most important things you can do for long term health, independence and confidence. Make sure you are getting all major muscle groups.

Stretch daily if you can. Keeping good range of motion helps you move better and stay injury free.

  • Rest

The body adapts and recovers while you rest, not while you work so make sure you are getting enough rest. Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, schedule regular rest days and even take a vacation once in a while to get away from the day to day stresses and focus on relaxing and resting.

  • Eat Well

Eat mostly minimally processed food, preferably real, whole foods. Eat lots of vegetables, get enough protein and limit your sugar intake. Make sure you control your portion sizes and eat regularly to maintain good energy levels throughout the day. (Eat Smart, Eat Often, Eat Small!)

That’s it. Start implementing these principles into your regular routine and reap the rewards in 2020!

Prioritize Your Workout Plan for Better Results

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Here’s some important information that will help you achieve your goals quicker if you are not already aware.

When I walk through the gym periodically, especially if I spend some time there, I notice pretty much everything. Usually, the things that I notice are the things I write about in these articles, and I do it to help, not to criticize.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that many members spend a substantial amount of time stretching and doing abdominal work on the mats. That’s all fine and good and extremely beneficial, but if your priority is weight loss, or fat loss is what I like to call it, then although stretching and abdominal work should be a part of your time spent in our gym, the priority should be strength training and cardio.

I feel that there are still a lot of people who believe that doing abdominal work will trim down their mid sections by reducing the fat that has accumulated there over the years. Nothing can be further from the truth. Spot reducing is impossible. The only way to reduce the amount of body fat you have is to get your body to use it for energy, or reduce your daily caloric intake, or better yet, a combination of both.

So having said that, if your priority is to lose body fat, then you should warm up quickly for no longer than five minutes. That’s all that is required if you put some effort into it. Break a sweat, yes a sweat, and get going on your strength training. Your strength training should last about 30 minutes or so which will leave you with at least 25 minutes of cardio to keep your entire workout at one hour. You can certainly choose to do longer cardio, there’s nothing wrong with that if you have the time, but we try to get members to do an effective routine in an hour, no more. There are many reasons for that, but can’t get into those reasons here.

This article is about prioritizing the components in your workout to better serve you, and that’s what personal training is all about. Even if you hire us to do a consultation and a program design, at least you will know that you are not wasting your time. Well worth the investment.

Now having said all that, priorities change. Hopefully, you follow our advice and lose the weight you want to lose, or at least most of it. Now it’s time to re-evaluate and change what is necessary to change in order to achieve your next goal which might be to get stronger, get more flexible, etc. Then and only then will the components in your workout change. \

Hope that helps,

Gino