5 Fruits & Vegetables that Support Your Fitness

What we eat is as important as our fitness routine for ensuring we are growing and improving as planned. Food is the most basic foundation of fitness that fosters muscles growth and pliability. Fruits and vegetables have been known to encourage better overall health but not everyone has heard of eating them for muscle growth. Getting the proper dose of fruit and vegetables will give a few steps forward on your goals.

A study conducted on college students found that those who ate appropriate amounts of fruit and vegetables had better BMI and lower weight than those who don’t (Gilmore, et. al. 2008). Ensuring you obtain the right vitamins, anti-oxidants, and calorie amount appears to support your fitness goals. Loosing fat and gaining muscles is part of a solid fitness plan and fruit and vegetables provide the catalyst for doing just that.

The five fruits and vegetables you should not do without are:

Oranges: Vitamin C to thwart disease, magnesium to lower blood pressure, and anti-oxidants (1).

Bananas: High carbohydrate food that restocks glycogen levels that cause muscle breakdown (2).

Apples: Burn fat and support skeletal strength (3).

Blueberries: Antioxidant that helps recovery after workouts (4).

Carrots: Low fat that provides fiber (5).

An article entitled 5 Tips to Build Muscle Strength in the Harvard Health Letter further emphasizes how eating right and building muscle protects against future injury (2014). The food we eat has a large impact on our ability to maintain a healthy body and meet our fitness objectives. When engaging in multiple physical sports and activities it is important to ensure that the required strength is gained to compete effectively.  

Fitness requires the ability to create small tears in the muscle and allowing those tears to heal. Nutrients are used to repair those tears and build muscle. Without eating right the muscles cannot build properly and tears don’t repair effectively leading to fatigue and possible future injury. It is even possible to cannibalize current muscle growth. Incorporate fruits and vegetables into your program so that you are using your time most effectively.  

Gilmore, et. al. (2008). Selected health behaviors that influence college freshman weight change. Journal of American College Health, 56 (4). 

No Author (2014). 5 tips to build muscle strength. Harvard Health Letter, 39 (5).

Walking as a Fitness Augmentation to Sporting Activities

Those who engage in high intensity sports like self-defense, running, fencing, dance or anything else love to push their bodies to the limits in terms of cardiovascular exertion, flexibility, and pace. There are times when simply augmenting a regular fitness routine with walking is a benefit to both recovery as well as future growth. All bodies must slow down for a short time to regenerate and prepare for better performance in the near future. Walking is one way to stay active while still affording an opportunity to continue conditioning for peak performance. 

Let us assume that you had a rigorous week engaging in one of your sporting routines. You pushed your body to the limit and you have that achy feeling that lasts past 2 days, thirsty, and lethargic that may indicate that you are over trained (1). You will need some time to recover but don’t want to sit on the couch for days on end. You may want to consider walking as an alternative until your body recovers. 

Besides recovery, walking can also improve coordination, balance, health, weight loss, and bone strength (2). Therefore, your time at rest is not really at rest but refocusing on different aspects of your body. This is helpful in balancing your sports routine to ensure that you are not overly redundant on a single movement or activity that leads to injury. 

Walking should be brisk, raise the heart rate, and engaged in 3-4 times a week for 30-60 minutes. This allows for fill-in sports activities as well as general improvement in health. Before starting one should buy proper shoes and loose fitting clothing that help to avoid injury while still maintaining a reasonable level of activity. Try walking on different types of terrain such as a park or mountain to change intensity. 

Another option for walking is to use it as a warm up before engage in a more rigorous sporting activities. For example, before you play basketball, tennis, fencing, self-defense or anything else that will require high exertion you may want to walk for a half hour first to warm up the body, stretch the legs, and reduce chances of injury. 

According to the U.S. Surgeon General nearly half the population doesn’t engage in any fitness routine or regular physical activity so you should feel proud of your accomplishments (3).  This means that a great portion of society is a risk for various types of diseases and ailments that may be avoided. Proper eating and consistent fitness routines are important for overall mental and physical health. 

Your employer may also enjoy your activities that can improve their bottom line. Regular fitness improved productivity $2,500 a year while each $1 spent reduced medical costs by US $3.27 and absenteeism by US $2.73 (4). Walking is a win-win for you, your employer, and your goals. Use walking as an augmentation to other life and sporting activities.

Choosing Pretzels as a Healthy Snack Alternative

Finding healthy snacks that go along with your fitness program is not easy. The amount snacks with bad carbohydrates, processed and fatty foods are everywhere and making better choices is difficult. Americans suffer from extra pounds that are caused by a lethargic lifestyle and poor food choices. Pretzels are a great alternative to what you might find on your local supermarket shelf.  Whole wheat pretzels offer an even better snack option. It is these small decisions on an everyday basis that culminate to higher level of fitness and health. 

A 100-gram serving of pretzels (16) has about three grams of total fat and no cholesterol with 88%  consisting of healthy unsaturated fats while a comparable portion of potato chips have 36 grams of fat (1). Saturated fats and deep frying oil, often found in potato chips, add to cholesterol and body weight. Many pretzel brands are baked which lowers the negative effects. 

You may be concerned over the salt on pretzels. Sodium is a mixed debate in the health fields. For decades people believed that sodium raised cholesterol and blood pressure. According to research, when people cut back on sodium they experienced a 1% drop in blood pressure but also raised cholesterol levels by 2.5% and triglycerides by 7% (2). Salt is a mixed bag and doesn’t appear to have a positive or negative effect when eaten in moderation. 

The type of pretzel you buy appears to be the most important consideration. Some are processed flour, others sourdough and still others are whole wheat. The 100% whole wheat varieties are best. When they are sesame sticks, no trans fat, no cholesterol, no artificial colors, and no preservatives you have made the best choice. If you are a snack person, focus on making those small choices that lead to higher health instead of trying to change your entire diet all at once. When done well you can reduce heart disease by 25-46%, stroke 37%, type 2 diabetes 21-27%, cancer of digestive system 21-43%, hormone related cancer 10-40%, and obesity (3).

10 No-Gym Exercises that Condition the Body for Higher Fitness

At its most fundamental level fitness is about getting the body and blood to move within the system. Slow and methodical movements do provide a benefit but that benefit is much lower than what can be found in a higher paced fitness plan. The speeding of the heart and allowing it to rest a few minutes conditions the body for even more rigorous activity.

Conditioning is important for sporting activities. If you enjoy sporting outside of health the overall conditioning helps to improve upon your general performance across a broad range of activities. It provides higher levels of endurance, speed and sustained movement that can push your tennis game, martial arts, or swimming to the next level. 

It is recommended that people receive at least 2.5 hours of moderate exercise a week. If you raise the quality of that exercise you may need a little less. However, the more you do the better as long as you are targeting the right areas of the body and going for maximum gain. 

A problem that many people face is finding the time and money to go to the gym. The truth is that most workouts, other than heavy muscle building, do not require a gym. The far majority of exercise can be done almost anywhere under most circumstances. Below you will find ten fitness moves that will raise your hear and condition your body. 

Walk in Place: Start in standing position. Lift your right knee as high as you can and then place the foot back down on the ground. Raise your left knee as high as you can and then place back on the ground. Repeat.

Jog in Place: Lift right knee up to 45 degree angle and place back down and lift left knee up to 45 degree angle and then place back down. Swing arms while completing the motion. This should look like a jog. 

Alternative Knee Lifts: Stand and bring one knee to chest while twisting opposite elbow to knee. Repeat on the other side. 

Inchworm: Stand and then bend over until your fingertips touch the floor. Walk forward while keeping your legs straight all the way till you reach a push up or plank position. Walk your hand back until you are in the original position. Stand up. Repeat.

Jumping Jacks: The traditional jumping jack with feet starting together and then jumping your feet outward just past shoulder width with arms swinging up in the air in a Y shape. Jump back to traditional position and repeat. 

Diver’s Push-up: Start in the downward dog yoga position making a downward V with the body. Slowly drop the stomach to the floor creating an upward dog position. Repeat. 

Side Lunge and Windmill Arms: Standing position with legs spread as though you just made a jumping jack. Bend the right knee into a side lunge while taking the left arm down to the foot. Return back to original position and repeat. 

Mountain Climber: Start with hands and knees on the floor. Bring left knee to chest and keep right leg straight. Put left knee back creating a push up position and repeat on the other side. 

Squat-Thrust: Start in standing position and squat down and place your hands on the floor next to your feet. Jump feet backwards into push-up position. Jump feet back to squat position and stand up. Repeat.

Burpee: Start in squat position with hands on floor by your feet. Jump back to push-up position and quickly jump back to squat position. Jump straight up with arms in the air till you come back down to squat position and repeat.