10 Minutes to Boost Fitness

10 minutes to Fitness

Getting in to the club, or starting a workout program can be a challenge - especially in the summer. Becoming physically fit doesn’t take as much time as you think. If you are thinking about starting a fitness program but don’t know where to start, here are a few simple exercises you can do at home.

Squats Keeping feet hip width apart, bend at your knees squeezing glutes and keeping shoulders square, return to start position and repeat. Do 15 – 20 reps working up to 3 sets. Exercising your legs is a great way to burn calories as developing the largest muscle groups has been proven to increase metabolism.

Wall push ups Stand facing a wall and ex¬tend your arms in front of you. Lean forward slightly and place your palms against the surface. Bend your elbows until your nose nearly touches the wall. Push back out to start. That's one rep. Do two to three sets of 15.
These are a great way to build upper body strength and work many muscles at one time.

Bicycle Crunches Lie on your back and lift your knees up to your chest. Put your hands behind your ears. Point your toes. Squeeze your abs and press your back flat into the floor. Lift your shoulders off the floor and twist to the right. At the same time, extend your left leg straight out. Now, twist to the left and switch legs. Your left leg should now be bent and your right leg straight. Continue twisting your shoulders and switching your legs as if you were pedaling a bicycle.. Start with 10 twists per side, or 20 in total. Keep the low back pressed down the entire time. Work at a moderate speed.

For more information, or to schedule a free consultation with a Boost Professional Personal Trainer, please email us at info@myboostfitness.com

White bread, rice, and other carbs boost heart disease risk in women

Women who eat more white bread, white rice, pizza, and other carbohydrate-rich foods that cause blood sugar to spike are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than women who eat less of those foods, a new study suggests.

In the study, published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed data from a large, ongoing study of nutrition and cancer risk. The researchers surveyed roughly 48,000 Italian adults about their diets in detail, noting the amount and types of carbohydrates they consumed on a regular basis. Not surprisingly - the study was conducted in Italy, after all - bread, pasta, and pizza were common sources of carbs. During the eight-year follow-up period, 463 people in the study - 65 percent of them men - experienced heart problems (including heart attacks), had angioplasty or bypass surgery, or died of heart-disease-related causes. The women who reported eating the most carbohydrates had twice the risk of developing heart disease as their counterparts who consumed the fewest carbs.
When the researchers broke the carbs into high and low glycemic index categories, the increased risk was even more apparent: Women who ate the most high glycemic foods had about 2.25 times the risk of developing heart disease than women who consumed the fewest.

For more information, please email ereardon@myboostfitness.com for nutritional guidance.

Sponsors step up for Northborough parks - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

Sponsors step up for Northborough parks - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

How to do Interval Training

How to do Interval Training
Warm Up
Before your begin the training you need to warm your body up, and prepare it for exercise. Warming up is very important as it helps prevent injuries.
1. Start by jogging at a slow pace for 5 minutes.
2. Performs some stretches for 5 minutes, paying particular attention to your calfs, hamstrings, ancles and buttocks. But don't forget to give your upper body a stretch too.
3. Slow jog for another 5 minutes.
Interval Training
Now the high intensity exercise begins. For each of the sprints try and run at 80% of your maximum capacity. This does not need to be an exact pace, but run at sprint speed whilst also knowing that you could run a little faster if you were being chased by an angry bull. Keep your breathing at a regular pace with you are running. Many people find it helpful to breath in over two steps and breath out over the next two steps, this way you will run four paces per breath.
4. Sprint at your 80% pace for 30 breaths or 120 paces.
5. Jog at a slow to medium pace until you have recovered your breath, which should be after about 3 minutes.
6. Repeat the sprint and jog cycle three times.
Warm Down
7. Jog for a further 3 minutes.
8. Stretch your muscles again for 5-10 minutes.
This whole routine should take just over half an hour and if performed twice a week should help you to burn the fat that you want to loose. The great thing is that not only is this the best exercise to burn fat but it is also the best for getting fit quickly.
If a program like this is still too much of a struggle for you and you need extra motivation, think about downloading cardio workouts to your mp3 player from www.iTRAIN.com. Its like a personal trainer but without the expense.
Please make sure you speak to a doctor before starting this or any other strenuous physical activity. Also do not push yourself to hard, if when exercising you experience pain then consult your doctor before continuing.

The Best Exercise to Burn Fat

We all know that exercise helps us loose weight, improves our health and increases our metabolism. But many people don't know that how you exercise, rather than how long you exercise, will have a big impact on how much fat you burn.
So what is the best way to burn fat? What is the right kind of exercise to do? A study at Laval University, Canada found that a group following a program of high-intensity intermittent-training lost nine times more fat than those following a normal endurance training program.
High-intensity intermittent-training also known as interval training or fartlek involves a combination of short sprints with jogging in between. The interesting thing is that during the training sessions the endurance group burned more calories than the interval training group. It would therefore seem sensible to assume that this group should have burned more fat; but over the course of the study it was actually the interval training group that burned the most fat.
The researchers discovered that interval training increases the bodies resting metabolic rate and so your body continues to burn fat after you stop exercising. This means that on an interval training program you can burn fat even whilst you are sleeping or watching television. It's like a weight loss dream come true. Well almost.

Young athletes’ injuries on the rise - The Boston Globe

Young athletes’ injuries on the rise - The Boston Globe

Hazards: Indoor Tanning Is Linked to Skin Cancer

Hazards: Indoor Tanning Is Linked to Skin Cancer
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: May 31, 2010
Those who used indoor tanning devices were more likely to develop melanoma than those who did not, a study found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/research/01tanning.html