Tag: Stamina

Fitness

5 Benefits Of The StairMaster

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5 Benefits Of The StairMaster

The StairMaster is a cardio machine that mimics stair climbing. It provides a low-impact, high-intensity workout that targets the lower body and several muscle groups. A session on the StairMaster is a great way to burn calories and build strength. It’s a great choice for people of all fitness levels. Like treadmills, a StairMaster has a variety of settings to mix up your workouts. You can adjust the speed and select the duration by programming the number of minutes you want to exercise. If you’re just starting out, you can set the machine to go for 5 or 10 minutes and work up from there. Stair-climbing on a StairMaster helps your body release endorphins. So although you may feel exhausted at the end of your stair-climbing sesh, mentally, you’ll feel ready to take on anything!

Burns calories: Depending on your weight and how hard you go, you can easily burn hundreds of calories in just one session! The faster you climb and the more stair-climbing sessions you fit into your weekly exercise routine, the more calories you’ll burn. Most machines have a built-in calorie calculator, which will tell you how many calories you’ve burned in each session.

Improves cardio: Climbing those stairs will boost heart health and will get your blood pumping around your body. When stair climbing, your body works harder than when walking on flat ground because it has to push against gravity as it goes up each step.

(Photo credit: Amie-Johnson)

Kinder to your body: Running staircases and hills can be tough on your joints, muscles, and tendons. The StairMaster is more gentle on your body since you are only stepping up and up. Try not to miss your step though, being face down on The StairMaster isn’t the best look!

Strengthens calves and glutes: Each time you lift your legs to climb a stair, you engage your glutes and calves. The glutes is a muscle that help move and support your hips. They’re essential for stair-climbing, as they power each step you take on the stair machine. Your calf muscles are two muscles at the back of your lower legs and stair-climbing helps strengthen them.

Improves overall fitness: Regular stair-climbing helps to improve your overall fitness levels. You’ll burn calories, build strength and power in your legs, increase stamina and speed, and gain better coordination. And you can mix it up with various settings to keep it interesting.

Plus, stair-climbing can provide an escape from day-to-day stressors and help you to relax, especially if your session involves listening to your favourite workout tracks.

Shelley & Michelle xx

Fitness

5 Benefits of Cardio Training

by shelleyandmichelleLeave a Comment on 5 Benefits of Cardio Training
5 Benefits of Cardio Training

We love to get a sweat on, and we get just that during a cardio workout. Aerobic exercise is also known as cardiovascular fitness. Cardio helps improve heart health, tone muscle, and support weight loss. It is said that regular aerobic activity such as walking, cycling or swimming, can help you live longer and healthier. Cardio is great in getting the blood pumping around your body, and also gets your large muscle groups working.

Photo Credit: Florian-Kurrasch

If you are just starting to get into fitness, or have been inactive for a long time. Always remember to start with small steps and begin exercising slowly. For example take a brisk walk on the treadmill for five minutes, and the next time add another few minutes and pick up the pace a bit. If you do this frequently you will see and feel the benefits.

Increases your stamina, fitness and strength: You may feel tired when you first start regular cardio exercise. But if you keep at it you will enjoy increased stamina and reduced fatigue. Cardio combined with a healthy diet also helps you lose weight and also keep it off.

Photo Credit: Victor-Freitas

Helps with sleep: If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, it is said that regular cardio is an effective treatment for insomnia. Certain studies suggest that moderate-intensity cardio is better than more intense exercise for sleep. Exercising too close to bedtime may make it more difficult to sleep so try to finish your workout at least two hours before bedtime.

Get the kids moving! Cardio is great for most groups of people (when done in a safe way). The exercise is recommended for those who are older and it’s great to get the kids involved in regular exercise that they enjoy, including swimming, running, cycling, skipping and dancing. Aim to get them moving for at least 60 minutes or more each day, three days each week. It will tire them out and give you more of an evening to yourself!

Photo Credit: Mariano-Nocetti-

Affordable and accessible workouts: You really don’t need any fancy equipment or a gym membership to work out. Getting daily exercise can be as easy as taking a walk or going for a run. One of our fave workouts to do at home is browsing Youtube for a 10-20 minute Hiit workout, and if you have the energy push yourself for a longer workout.

Slows aging: Research shows that regular exercise can help slow the body’s aging process. Moderate to intense exercise may even slow aging by 10 years!

Whatever you choose, it’s important to do it consistently. To stay motivated, choose an activity you enjoy or that you can do with a friend. And make exercise a priority by setting aside time for it in your day to day.

Shelley & Michelle xx

Fitness

OUR GO TO GYM WORKOUTS

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Exercise is great for your health and fitness and is also a good way to clear the mind. If you make new year resolutions and one goal of yours is to keep fit and healthy, then to stick to it is to not be in the gym from January 1st and give up by March. The best thing is to wean yourself into working out slowly and mix up your workouts so you don’t get bored. It’s always great to push yourself. So if you start by going to the gym once a week, the next week try twice a week, then three times a week and see how you get on.

Below are a few of our favourite gym workouts. We hope you enjoy and Happy New Year!

Boxing

If you want to have fun whilst working out and change up your routine then boxing is the one for you. Boxing requires strength, endurance and power. Boxing isn’t just for the hard-core athletes, it’s a great way to strengthen and tone the entire body.

Running Machine

Running outside or on a running machine is a good way to strengthen and tone your legs and glutes. If running is too much for you then begin walking, jogging and gradually start to run.

Seated Cable Row Machine

The Seated Cable Row develops the muscles of the back and the forearms. It is an excellent all-around exercise for developing mainly the middle back while offering useful arm work as well.

Air Walker Machine

The Air Walker Machine provides a total body, calorie-burning workout that is low-impact and is a great aerobic exercise. The machine is an alternative to walking or jogging. This form of low-impact aerobic exercise can burn a surprising amount of calories.

Skipping

Who would have thought that a skipping rope had so much benefits. Skipping is simple, easy and a whole lot of fun, plus you get to burn a lot of calories while doing so. It’s one of the best ways to shed fat as well as improving your heart rate and building stamina.

Exercise Ball

There’s nothing quite like stretching your spine on an exercise ball after a strenuous work out. The benefits of using an exercise ball is to improve back and spine health, core stability, posture and muscle balance. Training with an exercise ball, whether during Pilates, yoga or simple stretching is an excellent way to work your abdominal, back and lower-back muscles.

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Shelley & Michelle xx

Fitness

Our Favourite Three Workouts

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We enjoy working out, it’s part our weekly routine lol. It can be difficult trying to squeeze in a workout whilst balancing a busy lifestyle, but we’ve realised after exercising you never say to yourself ‘I wish I didn’t work out today’. Exercising clears the mind, makes you feel more energised as well as feeling fit. Working out 2-3 times a week for us is ideal, as we don’t like to overdo our workouts.

It’s always good to mix up your workout routine. We like to work up a sweat and enjoy high intensity cardio workouts for e.g. Spin and Legs, Bums and Tums (LBT). There is nothing quite like taking part in a high energy exercise class and getting those endorphin’s flowing, its a feel good factor. We do love a good stretch though. You find after a strenuous work out your muscles can tighten up. Always stretch before and after working out. Yoga or Pilates is a great way to stretch. Pilates not only relaxes the body but also relaxes the mind. Below we have put together the health benefits from our favourite three workouts.

SPIN

The benefits from spin are mind blowing. Spin is a great way to burn calories, they say you can burn at least 500 to 700 calories from a single spinning class. Not only is Spin a good exercise to help tone and lose weight its a great stress reliever. Having a great instructor who motivates you whilst playing the best tunes helps. Spin is a good way of keeping your heart healthy, your heart is the most important muscle in your body so keeping the heart in tip top condition is key.

 LBT

You can’t go wrong with Legs, Bums & Tums which concentrates on giving you that full body aerobic and toning workout. This class has a variety of workouts such as squats, lunges, hamstring curls, planks, crunches, curl-ups and many more. LBT has been a go to exercise class since the early 90’s and is still going strong. You can burn around 250-400 calories in just one class and is great for toning and tightening. LBT increases your stamina and endurance, builds strength increases energy levels as well as increasing your flexibility and mobility.

PILATES

If you want to improve your physical strength and flexibility. Then you will find Pilates is the workout for you. This form of exercise improves posture, balance, muscle tone and joint mobility. Pilates is great for the relief of stress and tension and focuses on strengthening your core. Pilates helps with the balance between your mind and body and gives you a sense of well-being. This exercise is beneficial if you suffer from lower back pain.



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Shelley & Michelle xx