Physical Education & Fit Living

Are you one of the 65% of Americans who encounter sleep problems? Sleep is essential to fight off sickness, decrease risk for obesity as well as depression; it is also an important time for your body to rest and recover from the day’s activities. 

Here are six bedtime habits that are ruining your sleep.

• Reading books in bed. It is okay to read before bedtime, just take it out of the room or bed.
• Working on computer before bed. The brightness from the screen stimulates your brain, so keep it simple and keep it off.
• Buying cheap or incorrect mattress and pillow. Choose the correct firmness in mattress and pillows.
• Using bright alarm clocks: cover the alarm clock or buy a small traveling clock. The light emulating from the clock can distract you. “If I go to sleep right now, I’ll get 5 hours and 32 minutes of sleep before I need to wake up.”
• Counting sheep: if you have been in bed trying to go to sleep for 30 minutes, get up, find something mundane to do, and you’ll find yourself crawling back into bed.
• Exercising late at night. An intense workout raises your body temperature and boosts your energy level, making it hard to calm down and go to sleep at bedtime. Try to keep workouts at least three hours before bedtime.

Oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits are delicious, refreshing, and nutritious! 

• One medium orange contains more than 100% RDA for vitamin C.
• May shorten length of symptoms from the cold or flu.
• They boost good HDL cholesterol and lower bad LDL cholesterol.
• Water and fiber within these fruits will help you feel full longer, resulting in possible weight loss.
• Use citrus juice instead of salt on your next meal.
  May help reduce cancer.

http://health.msn.com/healthy-living/the-power-of-citrus

Try something new and different to your workout that works your core, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Better yet, finish off your old workout with it. Place a heavy plate 20-35 pounds on top of a towel. Put your hands on the plate and drive with your legs, pushing the plate quickly across the floor, about 25 to 40 yards. Repeat two to five times only resting 60 seconds between each circuit. For best results, keep elbow straight, push with long strides and keep hips lower than shoulder (similar to a plank).

After your regular workout try to finish off with a quick burst of energy to increase your heart rate and burn more calories. It will only add an additional five minutes to your workout but give you quicker results.

Think of circuits in 20 second or 30 second increments with only 10 second break between each workout. Go through each movement twice.

• Speed Squat: feet hip-width, bend knees 90 degrees, return to stand. Remember to keep chest upright.
• Squat Thrust: feet hip-width, bend knees and place hands between knees on ground, then kick legs back to push-up position (increase difficulty by bringing legs back to squatting position, then exploding up with both hands in air as high as you can jump…called burpees).
• Mountain Climbers: in push-up position, bring knees up to your chest, alternating, similar to running in place.
• Speed Skip: skip in place bringing knees up to chest.

There is a unique balance of dietary intake before a run or workout. You need to have the nutrients necessary to get you through the workout or run, but not something that will make you feel heavy, increase chances of side-aches, or slow you down. Here are three easy ideas for a pre-run/workout snack. Suggestion, eat one hour before your workouts.

• Glass of milk and a couple graham crackers
• Whole grain waffle and peanut butter
• Trail mix (make your own with ½ cup cereal, 2 tablespoons nuts and 2 tablespoons dried fruit)

The sooner you intake your post-workout food the quicker your recovery will be, which means the sooner you can jump back into your training. Here are some suggestions that include protein and carbohydrates:

• Low fat chocolate milk
• Brown rice pudding with bananas
• English muffin with cheese and egg

There is one form of exercise that can be cheap, easy, and available. Running. All you need is a pair of tennis shoes and the open road, sidewalk, or trail. Running is a great calorie burner, can be done morning, day, evening, or night, and even begins right out your front door (no driving to the gym). Don’t be intimidated if you have never been a runner. Here are some easy guidelines to get you started.

• Head out for a 30 minute walk/run. If you walk the whole time, no problem, keep it at a brisk pace.
• The next time you head out for your 30 minute run/walk, run for 1 minute, then walk for 29 minutes.
• If you feel good while walking, run another minute or two, then walk. Slowly build up the number of minutes you are running.
• Pretty soon, you’ll be running the entire 30 minutes and loving it as well.
• Sign up for a local future 3K or 5K to give yourself something to accomplish at the end of your training.

Are you stuck in a monotonous rut? Does your exercise start to feel more like a chore than something you look forward to? There is a quick and easy way to help you get out of that rut…CHANGE IT UP! Muscle memory starts when you get comfortable with your workout and the workouts become less challenging. This is the point that you should try something new in order to prevent your betting getting to use to a workout.

• Aerobic/Runners: change up tempo, uphill, downhill, sprints, biking, spin class, step-aerobic, kickboxing, go run outside vs. treadmill.
• Muscle strengthening: try kettlebells, resistant bands, bar bell, dumb bars, medicine balls, whatever method you currently are NOT using.
• Stress relaxation and flexibility: yoga instead of Pilates, meditation.

If intimidated to try something new on your own, call a friend and follow their exercise plan. Try a new fitness class. Change it up and get yourself out of that fitness rut.

It’s heart month—and we don’t just mean Valentine’s Day. February is American Heart Month. Below are recommendations from the CDC to show a little love to your heart this upcoming month.

• Be active! Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
• Eat a diet high in fiber, fruits, and vegetables, and low in sodium and fat.
• Know your ABCS:
  o Ask your doctor about Aspirin therapy
  o Control your Blood pressure
  o Manage your Cholesterol
  o Stop Smoking

Learn more at www.millionhearts.hhs.gov

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”—Confucius

The American Council on Exercise is helping you give the first step of a fitness journey to your loved ones. Visit http://www.acefitness.org/holiday/default.aspx for FREE fitness coupon books to give to your family, significant other, coworkers, or even yourself!