Enhance Personal Training and Athletic Performance, Inc. © 2009

Live Healthy This December

What do the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have in common?  Three different organizations, three different objectives, but one general, shared mission…to encourage Americans to live a healthier lifestyle.

I recently looked at the AHA, ACS, and USDA websites to get a better understanding of how they promote living a better, fuller, and healthier life.  This shouldn’t shock you, I have been promoting these guidelines for a while now, so I am just using these three organizations as a resource to back up what I tell you.

Guidelines to live a healthy lifestyle:

1.  Practice fitness and physical activity

• Set goals to maintain a healthy weight
  

• Strive to become more physically active
  

• Aim for fitness everyday (30 to 60 minutes)
  

• Include cardiovascular, strength, flexibility, and balance exercises in your workout routine
  

2.  Choose most of the foods you eat from plant sources

• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables
  

• Shoot for five or more servings of vegetables per day
  

• Eat a variety of whole grain products
  

• Eat a variety of seeds and nuts
  

3.  Improve your animal product intake

• Look for leaner cuts of meat with little fat
  

• Avoid high calorie products, saturated fats, cholesterol and fatty meats
  

4.  Stay away from processed food with very little nutritional value

• Eliminate foods that contain trans fat
  

• Avoid foods high in sugar and salt
  

• Look for foods without made ingredients (dyes and preservatives)
  

5.  Limit the amount of alcohol consumed

6.  Get a good amount of sleep

• Get eight to ten hours of sleep per night
  

• Try for 15 to 20 minute power naps
  

Fun Winter Excercise to Prepare for the Slopes

Snowboarding and Ski season is here, so, before you hit the slopes, here are two (squat base) exercises that will help you get down the slope with ease.  Need more exercises to conquer the slopes? Contact Enhance Personal Training & Athletic Performance, Inc.

Elevated Heel Squats – Downhill skiing and snowboarding uses muscles that we normally don’t stress everyday.  One muscle is the Vastus medialis and elevated heel squats work that muscle.

• Find a platform that will elevate your heels off the ground about a half inch (I use 5 pound plates).
  

• Place both heels on top and the rest of your foot on the floor.
  

• While keeping the knees behind the toes and the back flat, lower the body to where the upper leg is parallel to the floor or at 90 degrees (if you cannot reach that point, lower yourself as far as you can).
  

• Hold lower position for about two seconds then extend the legs back up to the ready position while maintaining proper form.
  

• Repeat.
  

Squat to Rotational Press – skiing and snowboarding is a little on vertical and a lot on rotational, so it is very important to work on your stability and rotational strength to get down the slope with ease.  (Progression: per form exercise on Bosu Ball.)

• Hold dumbbells with the medial grip close to the shoulders.
  

• Descend into a squat.
  

• Once at 90 degrees, squeeze up with the glutes and pivot foot while lifting one dumbbell across the body (eyes are following the dumbbell).
  

• Switch sides and repeat.
  

December 2009 Enhance Fitness Newsletter