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Juice Feasting 101

Sometimes it’s nice to give your body a little break…a break from food. I’m not talking fasting. I’m talking feasting: juice feasting.

Juice feasting, done mindfully, can be incredibly cleansing in mind and body. Feast on only the finest fresh, organic fruits and veggies to increase your supply of greens and their healing properties. By consuming fresh pressed juices you really boost your intake of nutrients, especially alkalizing minerals. Also, the lack of fiber in the juice slows your metabolism, allowing your body to use its energy to cleanse rather than digest.

How long you juice feast is up to you. A standard, manageable time-frame is usually about 4-6 days. Sure, you’ll be hungry. Yes, you’ll experience cravings. However, this shouldn’t be too painful or overwhelming if you are consuming enough juice. Also, it’s wise to start tapering off your caloric intake a few days prior to the feast so that the shock to your system isn’t too intense.

If you take on a juice feast to lose weight, you might be disappointed. You will shed some pounds, but it will mostly be water weight. Once you take on your regular diet, the pounds will surely return. So, weight loss isn’t necessarily a sustained result of a juice feasting protocol. Juicing could, however, be approached as a starting block or catalyst to a weight loss program.

Admittedly, there’s a lot of debate on juice fasting/feasting/cleansing. Some people swear by it. Some people deem it insane. It’s a popular, relentlessly discussed topic.

That being said, it’s important to do your own research and realize that what works for one juice feaster won’t necessarily work for you. Everyone is different. Your body may respond very differently to a juice feast than another body. So, keep that in mind. Proceed with caution. Don’t be an extremist. Don’t have too high of expectations. Just see how it goes.

What’s more, it’s very important to back off on physical exertion during a feast. Your Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym workouts should be less intense. Light exercise, such as walking or a Greenville gym yoga class, is ideal during juice feasting periods.

 

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11 Reasons to Do Pilates

  1. Get stronger. Develop greater overall strength, especially in the core.
  2. Fire up your core. Challenge and sculpt your midsection by working the deep core muscles of the body.
  3. Be comfortable. Most of the movements are gentle and are performed in a seated or supine (reclining) position. The impact is low and the weight bearing materials are minimal making this form of exercise incredibly safe and supportive. Plus, there are many modifications for the practice allowing you to work where you are at and slowly build the intensity. Due to its accessibly, Pilates is a great tool for physical therapy.
  4. Improve balance. Enhancing your abdominal strength and building deep core support will strongly benefit your ability to balance.
  5. Increase body awareness. Become more connected in mind and body.
  6. Move with greater ease. Re-train the body to maintain proper alignment to move more safely and efficiently – a great tool for injury recovery, sports and Greenville gym performance, proper posture, and overall health and fitness.
  7. Achieve body symmetry. Correct muscular imbalances and remove blockages i.e. tight shoulders, hips, hammies, etc.
  8. Pain relief. Do Pilates to find relief from certain types of back pain. Many people use Pilates to actually manage the symptoms of their back pain. For some, it has proven incredibly effective.
  9. Reduce your risk of injury. Creating a body of equal flexibility and strength strongly reduces your risk for injury while you’re working it hard at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym.
  10. Boost your game. Enhance your sports performance and your Greenville gym activity as a result of all the benefits Pilates will provide you, including greater agility, strength, balance, concentration, and flexibility. This is why many professional athletes turn to Pilates. It is a great preventative tool and also, great for overall mind and body enhancement.
  11. Learn to breathe. Pilates will teach you how to develop more efficient breathing. Each movement is connected with the breath, thereby enhancing mind-body unification and flowing, unforced movements. Also, breathing reduces stress and refreshes the mind and body.
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Psych Yourself Up for the Gym! – Part 2

Last week we shared three super simple tips that can help put you in the right frame of mind to start coming to the gym. And remember, this isn’t necessarily just useful for potential new gym members. If you’re already part of our Pivotal Fitness Greenville sports club, but you’ve fallen behind, these methods can help you regain some of that all-important motivation.

Here’s the second half of these exercises, designed to help you visualize yourself as a healthier person — which is half of the battle to becoming one.

  1. Think about wardrobe. You need certain apparel and accessories to come to the Greenville gym. Don’t let this be an excuse that keeps you from your health aspirations! You should figure out if you have the correct shoes, shorts, leggings, undergarments, headbands, water bottles, mats, etc. necessary for the type of fitness you wish to perform. You can make a list of things you need and begin checking them off.
  1. Share your plans. Talk to someone you know about the fact that you’re considering a gym membership. They may raise questions that you haven’t thought to ask, and they can lend support. You might want to talk to someone who already belongs to a gym, and you can ask that person questions as well. Saying them out loud can help make your plans seem more like a reality.
  1. Make an appointment. Now you’re ready to come by our Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym for a look around. Even before you’re ready to fully commit, it’s important to come get a tour so that you can fully realize the look and feel of our layout and equipment. You can ask questions and witness others working out. This visit will help you visualize yourself coming by on a regular basis.

Once you’ve gone through all of these exercises, it will be much easier to envision yourself going to the gym on a regular basis. And remember, you get a week long free trial membership to come try it out, too — so there’s absolutely no pressure if you just want to find out in person if a healthy gym lifestyle is right for you.

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Do You Feel Shy at the Gym?

Canadian researcher Marianne Clark recently published an article about how shy women can be in a public changing space – like the locker room at the gym. She says that ladies go to great lengths to avoid undressing with anyone else around them. She adds that it’s “all about showing as little skin as possible.” Although she doesn’t suspect it will keep health-minded women away from joining fitness clubs, it may impact their overall experience and cause them to choose less convenient options, such as entering a bathroom stall to change.

In other public spaces, women aren’t necessarily considering their appearance or comparing themselves to others – but this thought process comes to the forefront as soon as women enter the locker room and realize they need to get undressed.

It’s not just insecure women – and it’s definitely not just you! Clark found that even women who feel very confident about their looks simply give pause when it comes to stripping down in a common area. It’s just built into women’s wiring to second-guess themselves when confronting a moment that’s all about baring their bodies.

And it goes both ways. Subjects also reported that they felt awkward when seeing others around them undressing, especially if it’s an acquaintance or someone they might see again outside of the locker room.

We know that you’re not only sometimes shy about changing your clothes in the locker room. Sometimes working out in front of others can seem nerve-wracking, too! Whether you’re comparing your body size or your technique while working out, it’s all too easy to be sidetracked by the presence of strangers around you while you’re covered in sweat and prioritizing your appearance. And let’s not forget about all of those mirrors everywhere. But don’t worry, it’s completely normal – and it doesn’t have to get between you and your workout goals. Even the most confident-seeming person standing next to you probably has the same fleeting doubts. And there are ways to overcome them.

If you’re worried that self-consciousness might impede your health and fitness development, please feel free to speak with one of our trainers for some motivational tips and tricks that can help you surpass your fears and succeed at getting the body you want.

Plus, membership to our Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym means that women have access to a ladies-only gym that can minimize the distractions and self-doubt that might particularly have to do with working out alongside men. Ask for more info!

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Healthy Heart Rates

Cardio equipment – like a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike – comes with a lot of bells and whistles these days. You can choose your terrain and how long your course will last. You can base your settings on how much weight you’re trying to lose and how challenging you’d like your particular workout to be. You can even add warm-up and cool-down times.

People often base their workouts on this data that’s provided through the screens and consoles attached to their machine. They try to push themselves to go the extra mile or burn off a certain amount of calories. But there’s one piece of useful information that often gets overlooked, and that’s the heart rate monitor.

Most of the workout equipment at our Greenville gym shows you numbers portraying your approximate heart rate. It’s important that you understand what these numbers mean, and track your progress as you exercise. You might be feeling fine in terms of energy, endurance and muscle strength. But that isn’t a completely accurate summary of how well your body is coping with the strains of your fitness regimen. You could be getting close to your body’s breaking point and not even feel like anything’s wrong until you’re suddenly dangerously short of breath or extremely dizzy and tired. But this can be avoided if you track your heartbeat.

A normal heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute at rest, according to the Mayo Clinic. An athletic adult, or someone who’s in better shape with a healthier heart, will have a lower resting heart rate – and this can even be as low as 40 beats per minute. But when you’re working out, you want to see that your heart rate is 60% to 80% of your maximum heart rate. You can quickly estimate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. But remember, your workout heart speed should not exceed about 2/3 of this number!

However, a doctor or fitness trainer can help you figure out a more exact number that takes into account your overall health, including factors such as gender, strength, diet and other lifestyle factors. Feel free to ask any expert at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club for more advice on tracking and targeting your ideal heart rate.

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Tips to Combat Holiday Weight

Uh-oh, it’s time for the holidays. Does that sentiment sound a little absurd? Aren’t holidays supposed to be about joy and merriment? Well, if you’ve spent all year working on getting your body in shape, you may see the upcoming celebrations as a daunting parade of dinner parties, buffet tables, second helpings and must-taste desserts. Sometimes it can be fun to loosen your belt and chow down – and we certainly wouldn’t want to dissuade your ability to enjoy your festive events. But there are some tips that can help you make smart choices even in the midst of endless edible temptations.

  1. Keep track of what you eat. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in accepting bites from passing trays or trying all of the delicious options that people have made for the occasion. Sticking with small portions and eat slowly throughout the night is useful, but may lead you to lose track of your overall intake – as opposed to one main meal where it’s easy to see what’s on your plate. Keep in mind what you’re eating, and it will naturally result in making smarter decisions.
  1. Remember the hidden calories! You may know to stay away from the chocolate mousse, but do you know how much sugar even a dry white wine can hide? Fill up on water between your other drinks and try to choose the food with the most fruits and veggies. Another area to look out for is dips and dressings; aim for those that are thick and vegetable-based, like hummus or a tomato salsa.
  1. Parties also provide plenty of opportunities to keep moving! Stay on your feet as you mingle, offer to help bring in those extra chairs or fetch someone a new drink – and of course, always be ready to hit the dance floor.

And of course, it’s vital that you keep up your visits to our Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. We advise adding an extra visit right before your major feasting events; some people promise themselves they’ll go afterward, but it’s much harder to follow through when you’re already in the mindset of stalling and you’ve already indulged. By coming in and preemptively attacking those extra calories, you’re already off the hook. So you can nosh on hors d’oeuvres and eye that second slice of pie to your heart’s content – guilt-free. And hey, if you also want to come in again right after your indulgence, you’ll only feel even better about yourself. How many holiday bingers can say that? Well, Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym members can.

We’ll follow up with more smart holiday eating and exercising tips as the months progress, so check back for even more motivation!

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Health Benefits of Pivotal Fitness Greenville Yoga

As discussed last week, a diverse cross-section of gym-goers are working yoga workouts into their routines – and falling in love with it – each month. And don’t worry about filling up our classes, because we’re happy to add more as demand increases. We try to spread them out at different intervals and different times a day – such as Sunrise Yoga – to target all the different participants who might be interested.

Last time we talked about some of the reasons that yoga is gaining popularity and even provided an overview of how it can improve your health. This and next week, we want to expand on that theme by discussing some of the top ways that yoga can benefit your well-being in areas you might never have anticipated.

Physical Benefits

Yoga is extremely beneficial to the human heart. It helps slow your pulse and reduces blood pressure. It also decreases bad cholesterol while improving good cholesterol. From there, it actually improves blood circulation through the body. In the pursuit of controlling your heart rate, you also learn to control your breathing, which is ideal for respiratory ailments. With calm, balanced breathing, you have a calibrated amount of oxygen deposited into your body and bloodstream. This also has a calming effect – both in terms of your emotional state and in terms of getting your body to relax and open up.

The motions and poses help you stretch and condition muscles all throughout your body, making yoga a comprehensive exercise plan. As you tone your body, you also gain strength and learn how to apply that strength in everyday activities, from loading groceries to picking up your pet. You also learn to identify your muscle groups and then use them in harmony, whether you’re taking a scenic stroll or heading into the gym to complete further workouts.

Mental Benefits

Yoga is peaceful and meditative in nature, and can put you more in tune with your needs and desires. It can help you focus and redirect your thoughts into positive channels. This can ameliorate depression and reduce anxiety. Yoga instructors often talk about self-actualization as you turn your thoughts inward for self-exploration and recognition. This can help you build self-awareness first, followed by self-esteem. Both because of this dedicated “me time” and due to endorphins released while you move, you’re likely to leave class in an elevated mood, which stays with you well past the end of your Greenville yoga session.

Believe it or not, next week we investigate even more benefits of yoga! Don’t miss it.

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What Does It Mean To Be “Healthy”?

Most of us aspire to be healthy, but we all define this goal in different ways. For some, this means seeing the doctor every six months, while for others it means hitting the Greenville gym three times a week. For some it means not smoking, while for others it means an organic diet. So how can we know if we are being healthy or when we’ve achieved this elusive goal of “good health”?

Nutrition

The USDA does not currently restrict the word “healthy” when it’s applied to food labels, which is one confusing aspect of eating right. This can refer to calories, fat, sodium or well-rounded, vitamin-rich ingredients—just to name a few. New guidelines published in January have recommended basic rules for eating healthy. Specific emphasis was placed on lowering sodium—especially in frozen, canned and preserved foods—and always aiming for fewer than 2,300 milligrams of salt per day.
Exercise

When it comes to exercise, setting goals is a very personal matter. How much or how often you should work out depends on your body type, activity levels, health and schedule. There aren’t specific guidelines regarding how muscular a person should be, but there are regulations regarding weight according to height and size. The Body Mass Index is a general, objective tool that can tell you if you’re proportionally healthy.

Medicine

For all other health concerns, it’s important to regularly visit your doctors. Typically, individuals see their general health practitioner every 6-12 months. They may visit the dentist every quarter-year, half-year or—in rare cases—once per year. Specialized visits, from cancer screenings to chiropractic visits, vary by person—but it’s always important, especially as you get older, to stay on top of any dramatic changes in your health and speak with professionals about how long you should go between doctors’ appointments.

The most important thing when it comes to being “healthy” is to know that there is no one-size-fits-all definition. Typically, you want to increase your lifespan while improving your quality of life. But striving for impossible goals can be detrimental to your health and morale. Following the latest health news is the best way to know about nationwide developments. You should consult with experts—from doctors to your personal trainer or nutritionists—to be sure you are taking active measures stay healthy.

Please never hesitate to ask the professionals at your local Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym how we can help you target and meet all of your health goals. Check back next week for a more expansive look at the USDA’s recently published dietary guidelines for healthy Americans.

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Boot Camps Will Take Your Fitness To The Next Level

Exercise boot camps are all the rage these days for good reason. These high intensity exercise programs guide you through a variety of exercises that provide core strength and conditioning, enhancing your overall level of fitness. At Pivotal Fitness’ Greenville health club our boot camps incorporate a variety of weight lifting, aerobics, body sculpting and core training activities.

The great thing about the boot camps at our Greenville gym is that it is appropriate for all fitness levels. Whether you are beginning a fitness routine or are trying to take your fitness to the next level, boot camp classes at Pivotal Fitness will help you reach your goals. No class is the same! We will constantly be mixing up your classes so you can work out your entire body without boredom.

At Pivotal Fitness’ Greenville fitness center, we strive to provide all of the latest fitness classes so you can incorporate some variety into your workout routine. Many companies now strictly offer boot camps or yoga classes, but at Pivotal Fitness, we have it all. Your monthly fee gets you access to great equipment, a variety of fitness professionals and group training classes galore. So stop wasting your money paying for separate classes all over town and let Pivotal Fitness be your one stop Greenville fitness facility!

Helpful Tip: If you miss a class, you can visit the blog of our Group Fitness Coordinator, Lisl Windham, where she posts the latest exercise routines from the boot camp classes and much more!

Visit http://www.lovetogetfit.blogspot.com/

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