Nutrition

Try Exercise To Fight Depression

Try Exercise To Fight Depression

Depression can occur from many causes. It might be rooted in a personal loss, whether a loved one, job, or relationship. In some cases, depression is purely physical and occurs due to health issues. Once you go to your healthcare professional to rule out a physical illness, consider ways to deal with the depression. In most cases, exercise can help. That doesn’t mean it is a substitute for severe depression. You should seek professional help for that. Mental health professionals often suggest exercise as an adjunct therapy. It works better than many medications without any side effects.

Exercising improves circulation.

Exercising boosts circulation. It causes you to breathe deeper, providing even more oxygen. The oxygen and nutrient-laden blood goes to all parts of the body. It causes an increase in blood flow to the brain to provide more nutrients and oxygen necessary for the brain to function at its best. It helps improve cognitive functioning, memory, brain health, and the growth of new brain cells and neural pathways.

The new neural pathways and brain plasticity can help rewire the brain.

All types of exercise can help rewire the brain, but the best ones require learning new moves, such as dancing. Using new twists to well-known forms of exercise helps. If you walk for exercise, focusing on turning it into a HIIT—high-intensity interval training—workout helps. You can use it for any exercise. It’s alternating between peak performance for a short period and a recovery pace for the same time or longer. Focusing on the exercise diverts thoughts of depression.

Exercise, particularly intense exercise, increases the neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate.

The increased production of these two neurotransmitters improves mood. They can eliminate mild depression and reduce the symptoms of severe depression. Intense exercise has also proven beneficial for people with other disorders like bipolar disorders and schizophrenia. It boosts BDNF, a protein that regulates mood, adding to the changes already discussed.

  • Exercise boosts the number and variety of beneficial microbes in the gut that affect your emotions. Your gut microbes produce waste and enzymes that trigger a brain reaction that can improve your mood.
  • Exercise can help you burn off the hormones of stress. Stress can cause depression. Exercise also causes the body to release hormones that make you feel good and at ease.
  • Exercise improves your posture. You’ll look more confident and walk taller when you exercise. That confident posture makes people treat you with more respect, which causes you to feel more in charge and less depressed.
  • You don’t have to exercise for hours every day to reap benefits. Just 150 to 300 minutes of mild exercise a week can help. Take opportunities to increase your activity if you don’t want a formal exercise program. Take the stairs instead of the elevator and find ways to walk more.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Throw Away Your Pain Pills

Throw Away Your Pain Pills

Whether you’ve gone a few rounds in the ring, did too much physical activity the day before, or have a condition like arthritis that can cause pain, you often find yourself reaching for pain pills to soothe the burning pain. Not all people in Stamford, CT, do that. Some look for natural pain relief that may have dangerous side effects. They use natural methods to deal with pain that provide relief and other benefits.

What type of pain do you have?

Is the pain chronic or acute? If it’s chronic, do you know the cause? If you have chronic pain from arthritis or back issues, exercise can help. Do you have muscle pain triggered by exercise or an awkward movement? Many of these pain types can be helped with exercise and other natural techniques, such as hot and cold compresses, a massage, regular exercise, a healthy diet, or a recovery workout. If it’s abdominal or chest pain unrelated to bloating, see a healthcare professional.

Exercising boosts the production of natural pain relievers.

If you’re in pain, usually, the only thing you want to do is lay on the couch. Rest is important but so is circulation. If it’s a severe muscle strain, take it easy. Stay hydrated, rest, ice the area, use compression or elevate the area if necessary. If the pain isn’t too bad, increase your circulation and help the area heal with active recovery. Walking and pool exercises are two active recovery exercises. Don’t do any intense workouts.

Is arthritis or joint pain your problem?

Exercise helps the muscles and the joints. If you have arthritis, exercise helps by boosting lymphatic flow and increasing synovial fluid flow to lubricate the joints. The increased lymphatic flow reduces inflammation. Exercise triggers the release of natural pain killers that also bring relief. It helps arthritis in the long view by strengthening muscles and ligaments that relieve pressure and more wear and tear on the joints.

  • Is your back making your life miserable? Doing exercises that stretch the muscles and strengthen them can help relieve back pain. Rolling your shoulders and neck exercises can relieve headaches.
  • Eat anti-inflammatories foods like fatty fish, berries, avocado, and broccoli. They can help reduce inflammation and pain. Avoid food with added sugar and highly processed food that can cause inflammation.
  • Drink more water, especially if the pain is in your joints. Mild dehydration can cause joint pain due to low synovial fluid. Rehydration increases your body’s fluids, which helps reduce the pain by creating a buffer.
  • One study followed 121 people with arthritis for a week and found cold showers helped reduce pain and improve sleep. Other studies show hot showers help relax muscles and improve sleep.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Do You Have A Custom Workout

Do You Have A Custom Workout

It is unusual to find two people with the same needs, goals, and fitness level. It’s why a customized exercise program is vital for progressing toward a goal. A custom workout considers all aspects of the person. If they want to lose 50 pounds and have never exercised, their workout will be different than someone with the same goal who has spent hours in the gym exercising. People have different habits, needs, preferences, and goals. It makes sense to address those issues.

You won’t get bored or feel lost when your workout is designed for you.

Have you ever been in an exercise class where everyone else seems to know what to do, and you’re still trying to figure out what a push-up position is? Maybe your problem is the opposite. You’ve been doing burpees and one-handed push-ups forever and have to sit through a class teaching the push-up position. Both are classic examples of people whose programs don’t match their fitness level. Neither person is getting the maximum benefit from their exercise time.

If your goal is to build muscle, but all you do is cardio, there’s a problem.

Your workout program should match your goal. If you want to build muscles, doing excess cardio will thwart your progress. Even though cardio is a necessary part of everyone’s program, you can overdo it if your goal is weight loss. Cardio burns hundreds of calories but doesn’t discriminate where they get those calories. They come from both fat and muscle tissue. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue, so the more you have, the easier it is to lose weight. Too much cardio and too little strength-building can make weight loss even harder.

If you have physical limitations, your workout should address the issue.

If you have knee pain, understanding the cause is vital to choosing the best exercise. It might come from lifestyle issues, like standing all day. You can strengthen the muscles by doing wall squats. If it’s from an injury, do bodyweight squats, but only squat as deep as you can without pain. Pain from inflammation, like arthritis pain, benefits from water exercises. You can modify the form, such as knee-bent push-ups instead of regular ones, or the intensity of the workout.

  • When you have a customized workout, remember it was created for one point in time. The more you exercise, the more fit you’ll become. You should adjust your workout for your new fitness level.
  • You’ll progress faster when you have a personalized custom workout. You are building weaker muscles that need help and are not continuously creating an imbalance. You’re addressing your goal as you continue to aid your entire body.
  • Having a trainer helps. Trainers can help you identify your fitness needs and establish your fitness level. They create customized workouts and track them. Trainers also provide motivation and help you keep focused on your goal.
  • Exercise is only part of a fitness plan. To make improvements faster, you have to eat healthier. If you’re trying to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories. If building muscles is your goal, you need extra protein.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


What You Do When You Don't Feel Like Working Out

What You Do When You Don’t Feel Like Working Out

At one time or another, most people don’t feel like working out. It often happens early, before you see any results, although even seasoned veterans have those times. The difference is that people with more experience usually have techniques to get them going. Setting a big goal and breaking it down into smaller goals you track weekly is one way to boost your enthusiasm. You may not see any difference in your body in the first few weeks, but you’ll see your success on paper. It turns fitness into more of a game.

If you know your reason for getting fit, it’s easier to stick with your program.

Everyone starts a fitness program for different reasons. Some want to build endurance. Others want to build muscles. There’s no right or wrong reason. You need to identify that reason and keep it in the foreground. You can put Post-It notes everywhere or create a vision board and put it where you can see it. Some people hang them on their bedroom wall so it’s the first thing they see in the morning. A vision board is a collage you create with pictures and phrases reflecting your goal.

Find a workout buddy.

You’ll have more incentive to go to the gym if someone is there to meet you. It makes exercising more fun when you’re doing it with a friend. It also pushes you to work harder. Besides holding you accountable, working out with a friend motivates you both. You cheer each other on to victory and call each other out for not pushing hard enough.

Take a picture. It lasts longer.

Creating a photo journey to fitness is both motivating and fun. Your body changes slowly. That makes it hard to notice any improvement. If you take a picture once a week and keep it in a file on your phone, you can compare your new picture with the first one to see how far you’ve come. Share your pictorial journey with a friend.

Identify the reasons you enjoy working out and focus on the positive things. If you dread going to the gym one day, think about how good you feel when you finish. Sometimes, just changing your mindset is all it takes.

  • Schedule your workout at the same time each day. Write it in your calendar as an appointment. Maintaining a consistent time can make it a habit. Habits are hard to break.
  • When you exercise, focus on each muscle movement. Notice how good it feels to control that movement. See if you can differentiate each muscle as it moves. Feeling more in control of your body helps you stick with your exercise program.
  • Note other things besides losing weight or gaining muscle. Track how long it takes to climb stairs or how quickly you finish mental tasks. Regular exercise not only helps your body function better, but it also helps improve your cognitive functioning.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Free And Fun Ways To Improve Your Fitness This Year

Free And Fun Ways To Improve Your Fitness This Year

Fitness may be serious business, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. There are many ways to improve your health, build energy, and improve your physique in Stanford, CT. Some of those are free, which makes it even better. Traditional workouts improve specific things, like endurance, strength, and flexibility. So do fun workouts. They may focus on one area of the body, such as building upper body strength. Many of the ways to get fit that are both free and fun are total body conditioners.

Take a hike.

Walking may seem mundane compared to other strenuous activities. Still, it does provide good exercise and is especially beneficial when you do it in beautiful surroundings like Commons Park, Kosciuszko Park, or Mill River Park. We have so many walking trails in Stamford you’ll surely find a favorite. Go with friends and bring a healthy picnic lunch for after the walk. Time yourself to make it more fun. The natural setting will relax you, and a vigorous hike on uneven terrain will help you get fit faster.

Dance the night away.

You don’t have to go to a club or special celebration to dance. Pull up YouTube, turn on the music, and dance in your living room. Get the whole family involved and make memories. Pull down the shades and dance alone if you’re worried anyone will see you. Dance like nobody’s watching because they won’t be. You can focus on your footwork if you’re a boxer or flexibility stretches. It’s fun. Best of all, it’s free.

Swimming boosts total body fitness.

When you work out in the water, its resistance makes you work harder, but your body’s buoyance makes it easier on the joints. You don’t have to swim. You can exercise in the water or walk. It’s far more difficult to walk when most of your body is in water than when you’re on dry land. Play water games with the kids or do water aerobics with friends.

  • Shoot some hoops at Barrett Park or one of the many parks in Stamford. It’s fun, competitive, and exceptionally beneficial for building endurance, speed, and balance. Playing B-ball relieves stress.
  • Get a Hula Hoop and start rotating. It’s not free, but close to it if you purchase the less expensive type. Jumping rope is another inexpensive workout that builds endurance, focus, speed, and explosiveness.
  • Use playground equipment as your gym. Take the kids and play with them on the monkey bars or do chin-ups. Use the benches for dips or the stairs for step-ups. Put one leg on the swing seat and do a plank. Climb up the slide instead of sliding down.
  • Take Rover for a romp or get kitty fit by walking around with a laser pointer. Juggle tennis balls or pairs of rolled-up socks. Before you start any fitness program, always check with your healthcare professional first.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Should I Cut All Grains From My Diet?

Should I Cut All Grains From My Diet?

Most people starting a diet worry about the number of carbs or calories the diet contains. They often cut out grains to reduce calorie or carb count. Some people eliminate grains for digestive issues. Gluten intolerance and celiac disease can be serious issues. Some people have health issues that limit whole grains, while others shouldn’t eat processed grains. People with specific health issues have valid reasons to avoid some grains. There are also reasons to include them in a healthy diet. It’s all about the type of grain you choose.

Mother Nature protects seeds.

Grains are seeds. In nature, the species’ survival, whether plant or animal, rules. Everything to accomplish the goal has been done through centuries of change. Propagation is ensured by scattering seeds so the plants can thrive. Birds or animals eat grains. The hard shell and enzyme inhibitor prolamin, a type of lectin, protects seeds so they travel through the digestive system unscathed until the bird or animal excretes them. When excreted, the seeds are surrounded by waste that acts as fertilizer. If there’s adequate soil and water, it grows. If conditions aren’t right, the enzyme inhibitor prevents the seed from sprouting. That same inhibitor blocks digestive enzymes and interferes with digestion.

Grains contain phytic acid, complex proteins, and lectins.

Phytic acid is an antinutrient. It minimizes the absorption of magnesium, copper, calcium, iron, and zinc. Some contain gluten, which is a complex protein. Gluten is difficult to digest because it combines two proteins that can cause glycation. It leads to AGEs—Advanced Glycation End Products. AGEs increase the risk of diabetes and digestive inflammation. That can lead to intestinal damage or an autoimmune response. Most of today’s wheat is a hybrid containing higher amounts of gluten to give it the stretchiness. Another lectin in grains is agglutinin, a natural pesticide.

It’s all about the processing and type of grain.

If you have gluten intolerance or celiac disease, avoid grains with gluten. If you want to remove phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, or lectins, soak the grain, sprout it, or ferment it before grinding it. For the heart-healthy benefits, choose whole grains. They contain all parts of the grain. These include the bran, germ, and endosperm. The bran is fiber. The germ has all the nutrients. Highly processed grain only contains the endosperm containing starch, a small amount of protein, and a bit of oil.

  • Seeds found that were thousands of years old. They were still viable. They were in sealed containers in the pyramids and sprouted once watered. That’s proof the enzyme inhibitors did their job.
  • White flour is bleached and contains additives that extend its shelf life. Most foods containing white flour have empty calories from the flour and added sugar. Both increase health risks.
  • People with gluten intolerance can eat grains without gluten. These include millet, amaranth, oatmeal, sorghum, brown rice, barley, and kamut.
  • Sprouted grain has more folate, fiber, beneficial amino acids, and polyphenols are available. Dry and grind them to create a more nutritious flour.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Strategies To Burn Fat And Keep It Off

Strategies To Burn Fat And Keep It Off

Developing your boxing skills at Revolution Training in Stamford, CT will help you burn fat and keep it off. Pushing hard in any physical sport and eating healthy are the keys to never worrying about weight gain again. You’ll do workouts like HIIT boxing that torch fat and build muscle. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to shed even more fat. That’s because muscle tissue requires more calories than fat tissue does, so you’ll be boosting your metabolism as you change your body composition.

Increasing your physical activity helps with fat loss.

That’s especially true when you alternate your workout intensity. The Focus HIIT workout does exactly that. It pushes you to the limit with high-intensity exercise and shorter recovery periods. It burns the maximum calories and fat. All our sessions, from Boxing Bootcamp to the Workout of the Day, push you hard. Whether you’re a man or woman, boxing is the ultimate HIIT workout to build muscle and burn fat. Your speed and intensity constantly change throughout each session.

Don’t diet, eat healthy.

If you want to lose fat, focus on a healthy diet and avoid a starvation diet. When you eat too few calories, your body burns both fat and muscle tissue unless you focus on strength training to rebuild that muscle. If you starve yourself too long, your metabolism slows. It’s a survival technique that saves valuable calories to keep the heart, brain, and other vital organs functioning. Eat quality protein and avoid processed foods. Steer clear of sugar that can spike your blood sugar and increase the potential for insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can increase your waistline with visceral fat, the most difficult type to lose.

Get adequate sleep.

Lack of sleep increases ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry. It diminishes leptin production, the hormone that makes you feel full. You’ll be hungrier and tempted to eat more calories than you need. You’ll also be tired, so exercising to your maximum potential is more difficult. That causes a reduction of calorie-burning intensity. When you sleep, your body heals, including your muscles. It’s a time for recovery and muscle-building.

  • Exercise increases the release of the hormone irisin. It improves blood sugar regulation, is anti-aging, and helps burn fat. It converts white fat to brown fat that burns 20% more calories.
  • Consider intermittent fasting using an 8:16 schedule. You eat in eight hours and fast the other sixteen. You don’t limit your food, just the time when you eat it. In this case, it might be between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
  • Vitamin D is necessary for weight loss. Studies show there’s a link between obesity and vitamin D deficiency. People with a deficiency have a more difficult time losing weight.
  • Skip sugary, alcoholic, and fancy coffee drinks. Soft drinks, frappuccinos, and sugary alcoholic beverages are empty calories that can pack on the pounds and increase your waistline.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Sculpting And Toning The Body

Sculpting And Toning The Body

Most people want a great-looking body. That takes sculpting and toning. There are many types of exercise. Muscle tone is not special. Every time you exercise, you help do it. Muscle tone is a continuous partial contraction of the muscle. It’s the muscle resistance to stretch when in a resting state and the muscle stiffness. Your body composition and the amount of muscle mass you have determines how it looks. When you have weak muscles with very little mass and are covered with a layer of fat, you won’t have a sculpted appearance. Sculpting your body takes it a step further to refine the appearance of each muscle group by reducing fat and increasing muscle.

Toned muscles aren’t necessarily bulky muscles.

Women often worry that they’ll build too much bulk doing strength training. That’s never a problem if you’re doing a traditional exercise program. You may see women bodybuilders with a lot of bulk, but that takes a special and rigorous exercise plan, a special diet, and often some chemical intervention. Hormones prevent women from building muscle mass. It’s why men build muscle so much faster.

Do strength training exercises but focus on more repetitions and lighter weights.

When building strength, you focus more on fewer reps and progressive overloading. You may use lighter weights and more repetitions to tone muscles. For sculpting, isolation exercises are necessary to ensure you work each muscle to get the effect you want. Doing compound exercises works muscles in a general area. Doing isolation exercises works a specific muscle. A compound exercise like chin-ups tones and builds the upper body. Tricep kickbacks concentrate the effort on one muscle to help sculpt the body.

When you tone your muscles, it also improves your health.

Besides looking great, good muscle tone improves your health. It helps you with posture, which improves breathing, reduces backaches and headaches, and improves body composition by reducing fat and increasing muscle. You’ll improve your stamina and energy. It also reduces your potential for obesity and the risk of serious conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Sculpting your body takes exercise a step further. It’s about working toward a more perfect appearance.

  • There are about 750 named skeletal muscles. They’re almost half your body weight. Each has nerves, blood vessels, and tendons. Each muscle responds better to some exercises than others. That plays a role in sculpting muscles.
  • Boxing training tones and sculpts the body. You burn fat as you build muscle tissue. The more you train, the better you’ll look. You’ll also have more energy, which also makes you look attractive.
  • Both toning and sculpting involve burning calories and building muscles. It takes strength training and building endurance. Adapting your workout to circuit training or HIIT—high intensity interval training—boosts your success.
  • Our trainers help you get fit, excel in the ring, look and feel your best, and achieve your fitness goals. We offer yoga for toning and sculpting. It gives your body a lean, sinewy, muscular appearance. Boxing training tones and strengthens.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training


Secrets To Effective Workouts

Secrets To Effective Workouts

Our goal at Revolution Training in Stamford, CT., is to provide the most effective workouts. Why spend hours at the gym not getting the maximum from your workout? The intensity, type of exercises you do, and the correct way to do each exercise are vital to your progress. You need a plan that includes all exercise types: endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. Every minute should count, including the five minutes of warm-up and cool-down.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—maximizes your progress.

You can make any workout a HIIT session. It’s all about alternating the intensity from peak intensity to a recovery pace. You can’t maintain maximum intensity for long. Alternating between recovery and maximum intensity allows you to extend that time and maximize the returns. People often use it for cardio and running, but you can use that format for any exercise. It turns a strength-building exercise into one that also builds endurance. You get more for your time spent exercising.

Have a cup of coffee and a snack before and after your session.

Pre-workout and post-workout snacks are vital to your workout. The pre-workout snack provides the fuel to keep you going so you do your best. It also helps boost recovery. The post-workout snack is primarily for recovery. It supplies the raw material to improve recovery, muscle protein synthesis, muscle repair, and glycogen stores. A cup of coffee before exercising stimulates the nervous system and gives you a boost or a better performance.

Focus on your form first.

The way you do any movement makes a difference when you work out. Improper form, whether landing a punch or doing a push-up, can reduce the effectiveness. If you’re doing strength-building exercises using weights, use lighter weights initially until you’ve conquered the form. For other types of exercises, go slowly, do fewer reps, and make sure the proper for becomes instinctive. As your fitness improves and your form comes naturally, then push yourself. Track your workout. Winners keep score. Track the number of sets and reps you do for a visual representation of your progress. When you have your workout written, you can seamlessly move from one exercise to another.

  • Do more compound movements. Full-body workouts and compound exercises work more than one muscle, ligament, and joint at a time. It cuts time spent in the gym compared to isolation exercises.
  • Reduce the rest time you have between exercises, sets, and repetitions. Circuit training helps boost your effectiveness. You can make it even better by resting less between stations. You’ll get more done in less time.
  • Add weight to bodyweight exercises. If you’re doing squats, they’re harder to do and will improve your progress if you have weights in your hands. If you’re walking, ankle and wrist weights help burn more calories and improve strength.
  • Schedule your workout at the same time each day. When you do, it helps it become a habit. Habits are hard to break. It also elevates the importance of your workout since it’s an appointment.

For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training