The Best Fitness Gift for the New Year: It’s been said that striving to be perfect rather than continuous improvement is the highest form of self-abuse. That oppressive voice that screams misconceptions in your head like, “You aren’t good enough unless or until you…” will derail you from achieving your goals. What’s worse, setting unrealistic, unattainable,…
Prepare Your Family For The End of Daylight Saving Time At 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2015, it’s time to once again turn back your clock to signify the end of Daylight Savings time. That means, practically, you’ll want to go to sleep on Saturday night, October 31st,…
It’s Not That Older Folks Need Less Sleep. It’s That We Get Less Sleep! Many older adults enjoy, like younger people do, about 20% of mind-restoring sleep. But deep sleep occurs less than 5% of the time as we grow older If you are in the group I’ll refer to as “active aging,” you…
Find The Internal Motivation To Get Back In Shape You’ve seen the workout motivation quotes to promote your fitness goals and give you inspiration to stick to your goals. If only these memes and motivational quotes worked. We know the dirty little secret, don’t we? They’re cute. We…
Ironically, the question of how to get a good night’s sleep seems to keep a lot of people up at night. My experience tells me that the secret sauce of restorative sleep is to first find genuine inner peace in order to have that good night’s sleep that’s truly peaceful.
If you are tossing and turning, not getting your 7 or 8 hours of commonly suggested sleep, it may well be due to a lack of a peaceful internal dialogue with yourself…and with others. Blame your lack of sleep on all of the things you have to do (even that notion is inaccurate). The list of inner strife about life goes on and on into the wee hours of the morning. You run out of sheep to count before you have to get up and drag yourself into another sleep-deprived day. See? No inner peace leads to no resting in peace.
Wouldn’t you rather prevent a problem instead of spending time and effort managing one? Why “treat” a disease when you can avoid it in the first place?
It’s the same thing with stress. That’s right… Those who sell stress management and stress reduction tools, seminars and supplements may not like to hear this, but stress doesn’t have to ever disrupt your life if you are equipped with the tools to prevent it in the first place. Read on and get ready to live stress-free.
In the 25th Anniversary edition of my 1988 original, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff P.S. It’s All Small Stuff, I point out that stress is a perspective on life.
Voltaire wisely noted, “Life is a shipwreck, but we must still sing in our lifeboats.”
But Michael, my life is crazy, my boss drives me nuts, the kids are always sick, I can never make it to the gym and our finances are stressing me out…I don’t even see a lifeboat!
When it comes to stress, there definitely is a lifeboat. You see, the Greek philosopher Epictetus was 100% right when he observed, “People aren’t disturbed by outside things and events, but by the views which they take of them.” There’s a lifeboat all right, and it’s right there behind your eyes, and between your ears.
Have you ever stopped to think about how your frame of mind is impacting your workout?
Answer these questions about yourself:
Simply put, this set of beliefs or thoughts – which can be summarized by either “I can improve” or “I cannot improve any further” – is called “mindset.”
If you are one of the few people left who think that trendy workout clothes only belong in the closet or in the gym and not on the sidewalks, in coffee shops or roaming around shopping malls, you may be in for a shock.
Popular brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Lululemon, Gap’s Athleta, Urban Outfitters, and even Costco’s Kirkland brand, are out to extend workout clothing into every nook and cranny of life they can find.
Those keeping an eye on this industry estimate that the U.S. athletic apparel market could grow by 50% in the next six years, hitting $100 billion in annual sales. The denim manufacturers do not like this too much. The trendy look of gym and yoga clothing on the streets is being blamed for a decline in denim sales, which fell 6% in 2013.
This isn’t a fad where the novelty falls off in a year or two. No, this is a trend, growing for more than a decade with widespread popularity continuing to take hold among celebrities, athletes, CrossFit followers, bootcampers, everyday gym rats, at home workout folks, members of Silver Sneakers, and even the two thirds of American that struggles with “overbesity” (overweight and obesity) find comfort in “plus size” workout clothing.
Business casual in many companies has come to mean any variety of Lululemon’s Find Your Bliss Jacket, All You Need crops, Easy Breezy Pant, The Principle Tank, No Limits Tank, Pure Balance Sweater, a scoop back tank, a Vinyasa scarf, and maybe even a pair of Minnetonka Moccasins.
The trend, it seems, is definitely on a brightening trajectory, not just in bright, daring colors, but in technology as well. I’m wearing a pair of workout pants lined with antimicrobial silver and a compression shirt, both quick dry, odor controlling and moisture wicking. I thought about wearing those compression shorts but after a weekend of visiting (ok, eating our way through) the San Diego County Fair’s fried food extravaganza, the workout pants were a better choice. Oh, and a shirt I just ordered is all set to “talk with” my Apple Watch — only thing is I don’t have one of those. Yet. Accepting all gifts, however.
My wife, a personal trainer, loves the Gap Athleta line for everyday fashion and workout comfort, but also pulls out her Nike, Adidas and Under Armour head band when she’s really pumping up a new Les Mills routine. She just told me about a company called Naked Sports Gear that makes sports bras that promise that UV rays will get through to ensure an “all-over” tan.
While we aren’t seeing the legwarmers of the 80’s any longer, yoga pants and leggings have taken over and show up everywhere—literally, including in Houses of Worship, weddings, formal dinners, all with the latest fabric technology, of course.
Sound familiar? Of course it does. Not having time to exercise is the number one excuse people give for not working out.
However, there’s nothing better than exercise to improve your health, mood, stress level, brain fitness, memory, learning skills, attention and concentration, weight management, sleep, energy, productivity, self-esteem, relationships, and even your sex life. Want some motivation? When inactive people increase physical activity just 15 minutes a day, they reduce the risk of premature death by 14% and increase life expectancy by three years. Fifteen minute bursts of exercise every day for three years of life is not a bad trade off!
Optimizing your life to be balanced and healthy requires that you make time for exercise and physical activity. Motivation often starts for an external reason and quickly moves into something deeply internal — “I want to fit into that dress for our daughter’s wedding” turns into “I want to see my grandchildren someday.” So, another way to have more time is to reconsider how you think about your time, and what you consider to be exercise.
Is there anything you don’t know about your body’s health and fitness functioning? Free fitness apps and those that cost a premium can inform you of your blood pressure, steps walked, stress level, floors climbed, hours of sleep, heart rate, indeed, the myriad of the 211 million complex fitness analytics and refined health apps out there can help you keep track of more than 150 parameters of your body’s functioning. It seems that just like everyone knows exactly how much gas they have in their cars, the explosion of fitness apps and trackers now keep you as informed about your body as your car—and actually far more informed.
There is some recent data out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Integrated Innovation Institute that suggests that 66% of people who maintain a healthy diet find fitness apps and trackers helpful to monitor diet and exercise, but 67% of people who don’t maintain a healthy diet don’t find apps helpful. This seems to suggest that the apps provide the most motivation and help for those already healthy!
I’ve scoured the wearable market, spoken with some of the country’s top fitness gurus, checked in with fit tech folks and based on all of that, here are my top six recommendations:
