Summer is Coming. What’s Your Exercuse?
—Apr 26, 2010Well, it won’t be long now. Pretty soon it will be time to go to the beach or the pool clad in your favorite bathing suit. Just for fun, when nobody else is home, get in your bathing suit and take a good long look in a full length mirror. You can stop moaning, groaning, screaming and crying now. Take heart. There is still time to get that bod back in shape. But you know something? How you look isn’t all that important…except for your ego.
Your mind, body and spirit all need exercise. Sure, it’s going to be great to strut down the beach with that perfect buff body in a couple of months. (Take note that I am projecting positive energy your way…I know you can do it!) Yes, looking good is a great motivator, but what’s going on under the skin is infinitely more important to your quality of life. Exercise needs to be part of your lifestyle…as natural as breathing. So why isn’t it already? That’s simple. You have a really good reason for not exercising, don’t you? It’s called an Exercuse.
Here’s a few examples:
a)I don’t have time. [A rift in the time-space continuum has left me with less hours in a day than everyone else on the planet.]
b)I have more important things to do.[ My favorite rerun of Lost is on again.]
c)I don’t need to exercise. [Yes, I am immortal!]
Okay, enough exercuses! Set aside 20 minutes a day to walk, bike or do some floor exercises. Workout with a friend. It’s a great way to keep each other motivated. Cut back on the carbs, eat less at night and you will drop a few inches between now and those lazy days of summer!
— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA
Filed under exercise
Click here to subscribe to the Wellness Wave blog.
Top 10 Reasons to Exercise In The Morning
—Mar 05, 2009If you want to start the day on the right foot, exercise has a lot of advantages over staring into that steaming cup of coffee.
Here are the Top 10 Reasons to Exercise in the Morning:
10. When it comes to health, exercise is the magic bullet. It lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
9. Regular exercise improves your odds of living a longer, healthier life.
8. A few minutes of exercise will wake up you…even if you’ve run out of coffee.
7. If you have arthritis, exercise is the best way to take the stiffness out of the joints.
6. Exercise improves mood. Numerous studies have shown that exercise may be one of the best ways to fight depression.
5. Exercise improves mental clarity. Don’t be surprised if you get your best ideas while you’re working out.
4.Trying to lose weight? Morning exercise increases the body’s metabolism for the entire day.
3. A morning exercise routine doesn’t need to take a a lot of time. You can squeeze a quick workout in while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.
2. It gives you something to brag about at work. Besides watching your co-workers turn green with envy, your example might start a healthy trend for the entire company.
And the number one reason to exercise in the morning…
1. You’ll actually do it. Telling yourself that you’ll exercise later in the day is a lie told often. After a day at work, most people are out of energy. Exercise becomes something to do tomorrow…the tomorrow that never arrives.
Make every day special. Start your day by accomplishing something that most people never do…exercise.
— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA
Filed under exercise
Click here to subscribe to the Wellness Wave blog.
Strong to the Core. Get ready for Summer fun
—Jun 20, 2008Summer family vacations are right around the corner. If you want to get ready for activities like swimming, hiking, surfing, sightseeing, tennis, golf, touch football that’s means exercise. When your body isn’t ready for all of the summer fun and games you feel it the next day. That’s when getting out of bed is a challenge. Your back isn’t happy and you didn’t have the foresight to bring your chiropractor with you.
Of course it doesn’t have to be that way. A little bit of preparation now will save you a whole lot of pain down the road. The key is the core. Strengthening the middle of your body is one of the best ways to prepare it for the rigors of playing hard all summer long.
Here is a list of a few classic core exercises. Remember the key to exercise is to begin slowly. If you try to do too much too fast you will end up very sore and are more likely to give up. Do a little bit each day and add repetitions as the exercise gets easier.
The Mayo Clinic has an excellent slide show of 13 core exercises complete with pictures and detailed instructions for each. Click here to visit their site.
— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA
Filed under exercise
Click here to subscribe to the Wellness Wave blog.
Walking More, Driving Less
—Feb 12, 2007The old expression, every cloud has a silver lining may be true but it sure is tough to unearth that lining sometimes. I’ve been thinking a lot about the price of gasoline. Not surprising since I just came back from Jersey (BTW gas prices are about 15-20 cents cheaper a gallon in the Garden State—don’t ask me why).
Anyway, if there is one piece of good news in this raid on our pocketbooks, it’s this: We may be forced to use the legs God gave us a bit more to get around. I remember a TV show a couple of months ago. It was called Fat City and was comprised mainly of interviews with folks living in Houston (that has the distinction of having the most overweight people in the entire country, hence the name Fat City). There was one guy who drove his Hummer down the driveway to get the mail. Most of us haven’t gone this far but we are guilty of smaller excesses—hopping in the car to visit a neighbor down the street, that type of thing.
Well, it’s time to dust off our traveling shoes and pump up the tires on your forgotten bicycle. Instead of just gnashing your teeth over the current $3 per gallon, get out and walk. Take a friend with you. Then you can have someone to commiserate with while you both get healthier. Added bonus: Exercise reduces stress—even the stress that the unmitigated greed of the oil companies has forced upon us.
— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA
Filed under exercise
Click here to subscribe to the Wellness Wave blog.
