5 Tips To Make Your Life Healthier

Getting into and staying in shape requires not only the motivation to hit the gym after a long day of work but the willpower to make the small changes to achieve a healthy lifestyle.  Small changes over time create big results. Here are a few things our coaches do daily to make them healthier.

Exercise in a Group

As coaches at TS, it may seem obvious that we encourage our clients to work out with others but the benefits are too great to ignore. If you find yourself at TS Fitness during the afternoon, you will even see Coach Lee and Coach Elvin finishing their own routines together.

Studies show that athletes tend to push themselves harder in a group setting due to their competitive spirit. In our HIIT classes, we incorporate partner exercises to capitalize on this motivation.  Second, working out with a friend creates a system of accountability and will likely help you to meet your goals. If you know your gym buddy is going to meet you at the gym, it is much hard to flake on your workout. Our motto is Together Stronger so we are always encouraging our clients to make new friends in our classes as well.

Mobility Work at Work

We’ve discussed the importance of the warm-up before a workout but we cannot stress how crucial it is to think about your mobility throughout the course of the day. Many of our clients have desk jobs and spend the majority of their day sitting in front of a computer. The health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle are well known so anything you can do during the course of the day to improve your mobility is a great step.

We recommend doing neck nods, shoulder rolls and external hip stretches to help your mobility as well as taking frequent walks around the office or even the block. Try standing up for at least 30 to 40 minutes a day. A standing desk is also a good option as it will help you become more aware of your posture and engage your core muscles.

If you are a GPT client, our coaches provide you with corrective exercises to improve your mobility. Make sure you are doing your corrective exercises each day!

Noam details methods for neck nods, shoulder rolls, and hip stretches in this video below.

Take a Deep Breath

Managing stress in your life is a great way to improve your overall health. One method of handling your stress during the workday is diaphragmatic breathing (using your diaphragm to breathe instead of your chest). By practicing diaphragmatic breathing, you can provide your body with more oxygen, slowing your heartbeat, and possibly lowering or stabilizing blood pressure. This way of breathing also activates your core and releases some pressure from your neck and traps.

Diaphragmatic breathing is easy: Breathe through your nose and make sure that the air is inflating near your stomach instead of your chest. Push your stomach outwards to draw air through your nose and then exhale through pursed lips longer than your exhale (4-5 seconds). Try for 60 seconds and then resume your normal breathing routine.

If you are not in the office, you can also work on improving your overall breathing through a movement called the crocodile breath. Just like any exercise you do at the gym, breathing can be improved upon through training.  

For the crocodile breath: Lie face down and rest your forehead on your hands and with your stomach pressing into the floor. Focus on taking deep breaths that expand your belly into the floor. Since your body is touching the ground, you will have to breathe through your diaphragm. The crocodile breath provides you with tactile feedback from the ground on your breathing method.

To learn more about how to improve your breathing, check out this article in the Huffington Post featuring Noam.

Ditch the Shoes at Home and Rollout Your Feet

The health of your feet is often overlooked. We spend most of our day wearing shoes, ultimately weakening our feet. The bottom of the feet are the most nerve-rich areas of your body and are desensitized by wearing shoes. The impact of weak feet can impact your gait (the way you walk) and can lead to your body compensating and possible injury. Try to spend time as possible barefoot. By forgoing shoes at home, you will work on strengthening the muscles of your feet and create more awareness of your environment.

Additionally, we also recommend rolling your foot out on a tennis or lacrosse ball to help reduce tightness in tissue and muscles, especially in your plantar fascia. Starting on the inside arch, roll the ball back and forth slowly while applying pressure.

Noam demonstrates below:

Find a Nutrition Plan that Works for You

There are so many different types of fad diets and nutrition advice to be found on the internet so it can be very hard to find clear advice. Our recommendation is that you find the nutrition plan that works for you and your body. Just like we create a personal workout routine for our GPT clients, a nutritionist can create a plan that fits your body and lifestyle. We also recommend that you find a nutrition plan that is actually sustainable and not a quick fix. The key to long-term success in maintaining your goals is to find a plan that you can integrate into your life. We will dive more into this in upcoming blog posts