Fitness Cure

Here’s my column in the last issue of Max Sports and Fitness Magazine!

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Becoming a Leader.
By Maria Kang

As I write this column my mother is in the hospital. After a kidney transplant late last year, she endured a heart attack in recovery and has been re-admitted twice due to internal bleeding. Unfortunately, it’s “normal” to see my mother enduring health issues. Most of my life she has suffered from diabetes, heart disease and kidney failure.  She had her first minor stroke in her 30s and endured a series of small heart attacks in her early 40s. While it’s painful to watch your mother suffer, it is especially difficult when your mother is only 48 years old.

I want to say that she had a genetic disposition that led her to become so sick…or that she wasn’t provided enough time to undue her bad habits. But I can’t.

All of her health issues today could have been prevented in her past. Simple symptoms such as high blood sugar, rising blood pressure, increased weight gain and chest pain forewarned her of a finite future. Instead of recognizing her poor habits, she focused instead on living”in the moment”, most often without contemplation of their consequences.

My mother is the number one reason why I am so passionate about health and fitness today. She planted the desire within me to figure out the cause – and the solution…to our health-related issues today. I believe we can prevent diseases and live quality lives if we eat nutritious food, workout and ensure we are consuming enough vitamins and minerals.

While I feel there are many things that influence a person to behave better and build healthier habits, one of the biggest things I accredit someone’s fitness success (and most especially, their continued success) is their ability to internally lead themselves and externally lead others to live healthier lives.

Leading yourself.

The first person you need to lead in your fitness journey is YOU. It’s much harder than you think. After all, YOU are the reason why you haven’t accomplished your fitness resolutions in the past.  You are the one who convinced yourself that you’re busy, tired, stressed, unmotivated or intimidated to take physical action on a daily basis. You are the one standing in your own way.

Leading yourself requires you to have “self talks” every day. However psychologically unstable that sounds, it is a necessary act that will assist you in providing daily positive thoughts. Instead of saying, “I’m tried”…you have to say, “I’m energetic!” Instead of saying, “I’m fat” you have to say, “I’m FIT!” I am a firm believe that anything you think internally will eventually manifest externally into the physical world. You have to truly believe what you want to become.

Leading others.

One of the most influential techniques you can use to make you adhere to a fitness program is becoming a LEADER of somebody…to anybody.  When someone gives you positive recognition for being their motivation and inspiration, it’s almost impossible not to succeed. For our Franchisee’s in this issue, many of them are not only internally motivated to be in great shape, but they are also externally expected (by all of you) to be in shape. After all, they are the ambassadors of the Max Muscle product and representing fitness, health and wellness in their regions.

Some of you are parents and have children who look up to you.  Other’s have friends who take blood pressure pills or have some extra girth they can do without. Whatever the case, there is always someone who is more need than yourself that you can become a role model to. Not only does that person help build personal accountability, but it allows you to give back in the “circle of life” in this teacher-student relationship.

Becoming a Leader.

New journeys begin when you decide you want to leave the place you are in right now. You are only able to confidently move forward if you have faith in what you foresee in your future. When you get there…when you’ve succeeded… those who desire to complete your same journey can benefit from the road you left in your tracks.

check it out!

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Read all about what makes a successful leader here!

HOW FIT ARE YOU?

By: Maria Kang

How do you determine how fit you are? Do you compare your biceps with Jay Cutler? Do you measure your waist against Kate Beckinsale’s? Are you the fastest at swimming or the strongest at rowing? Most people define how fit they are by how much they weigh. However, how fit you are depends on several different variables. You should measure your body composition, your vital statistics and your fitness level. Once completed, stack your results against the recommended average and see how fit you really are!

Your Body Composition
Body Mass Index (BMI)
The most popular test physicians have used is calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI). This test uses a mathematical formula that takes into account both a person’s height and weight. BMI equals a person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. (BMI=kg/m2). While this test is widely used, athletes could be cited as overweight due to extra muscle, which is why it’s important to utilize several different tests versus just one. If your BMI measures 18.5 to 24.9, you are of normal weight, anything more is considered overweight or obese.

Body Fat
In addition to your BMI, measuring your body fat is also an important tool to help you see how much of your weight consists of pure fat and solid muscle. Some of the instruments you can use are skinfold calipers, hydrostatic weighing and home body fat scales. Most gyms will have one of these methods on hand for you to use without much cost. For a fit male adult, a healthy body fat percentage is 14 to 17 percent. For a fit female adult, a healthy body fat percentage is 21 to 24 percent.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio
Once you’ve figured out your BMI and body fat levels, the last thing you should measure is your waist-to-hip ratio. You can probably take a good look at your body’s composition and see where your fat storage lies. To determine if you have a healthy waist-to-hip ratio, use a measuring tape to measure the circumference of your hips at the widest part of your buttocks. Then measure your waist at the smaller circumference of your natural waist, usually just above the belly button. To determine the ratio, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. Research shows that people with “apple-shaped” bodies (with more weight around the waist) face more health risks than those with “pear-shaped” bodies who carry more weight around the hips. read the rest of my article here.

It’s raining here in Saramento. It’s ugly outside – windy and wet! It was like this yesterday and it made me decided to not put on the rain jacket to head to the gym.

That was MY excuse yesterday.

The day before it was Sunday and God knows I never train on HIS day LOL. That was my excuse for Sunday.

On Saturday, while I was supposed to go to my kickboxing class, I didn’t have a babysitter and didn’t want to bring Christian to the kids club because he had a runny nose and I didn’t want him to get sicker – or get anyone else sick. So I wanted to train with a DVD at home – but it wasn’t hooked up.

So what did I do? I didn’t train!

UGH.

It’s terrible when you go 3 days in a row where you’ve made excuses…I usually feel my body after three days of non-exercising just dying to exercise!

My biggest excuse right now is

1) Busy-ness

2) Being pregnant and having a back ache (which is normally the case)

BUT I need to really attack these excuses. I should be sleeping earlier, waking earlier…and probably have a goal to really motivate me to GET UP and GO.

We all know what excuses we make in our daily lives. And what we need to do is really examine these excuses…and then PLAN to not allow it to happen again.

After all, the one that wins in the end, is the person who is abe to tackle and overcome every excuse they’ve made by creating a game plan, taking action and moving forward.

Stop thinking and start doing.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Have you seen these trends go up??

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John Rowley, best selling author of Climb YOUR Ladder of Success Without Running Out of Gas and Director of Fitness and Wellness at the American Institute of Healthcare & Fitness, provides the top 10 fitness trends for 2010 below – helping to shape the “New You” of 2010 and beyond.

The most important trend, Rowley notes, is that 2010 will consist of life altering, overall health and wellness plans; instead of the “lose 20 pounds in four days” diets.

Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2010: A Forecast for the Upcoming Year

1. Pumping Iron. Strength training builds healthy bones and muscles.  Your metabolism is driven by muscle and more and more people will be pumping iron in 2010.

2. Healthy Children Programs. As a society we are  seeing a an alarming trend with obese children.  I think we will see more and more programs tailored made for overweight and obese children and gyms that will cater exclusively to children.  They will make fitness fun and help them to develop a fitness lifestyle

3. Core training. This type of training works on conditioning the core muscles, including the obliques, pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen – all of which provide needed support for the spine.  A good well rounded fitness program will take care of this but since we have so many people with big bellies this type of program will have mass appeal even though spot reducing doesn’t work.

4. Medi-Gyms. This is the future of healthcare.  Medi-gyms bridge the gap between the Medical and fitness communities.  The baby boomer population is reaching retirement age and many are not ready grow old gracefully, they want to fight it every step of the way and are tired of going to 15 different doctors and then trying to figure out how diet and exercise  fit in.   Medi-Gyms like AIHF Wellness are beginning to emerge as the wave of the future where you can get a comprehensive wellness exams that address all of your healthcare and fitness needs and then you are given a lifestyle plan to enhance your health.

5. Functional fitness. This is a growing trend toward using strength training to improve balance and ease of daily living for everyone including older adults.  More and more trainers are focusing on this type of training using regular weights and kettle bells.  Kettle bells have reemerged after a few decades of being placed in moth balls.

6. Pilates. Incorporating core training using the entire body and these classes are very popular in many gyms today.

7. Group training. This trend reflects the economy and makes a lot of sense.  Instead of training one on one with a trainer you will work out with a small group with the trainer.  It makes training more affordable but also fun.

8. Fitness menu’s. More restaurants will offer foods that are in line with the needs of people living a fitness lifestyle.

9. Miracle potions. Unfortunately I think we will see more “miracle’ products that over promise and under deliver.  For example the berry that will not only have you loose weight but make you two inches taller and more handsome (only a slight exaggeration).  Fat burners that will not only have you loose 80 lbs in 12 weeks it will have all your body hair vanish and give you an incredible, vibrant tan  plus have you ready for the cover of a magazine (another slight exaggeration).  “Snake oil” products have been around for a long time and I don’t think they will disappear in 2010.

10. Repackaged Truths. Last but not least I think you will see old school training principles from the bodybuilding community renamed and sold for a huge profit to hungry consumers.

So many ‘lose weight fast’ programs!!! Do they work? Probably.
Will you keep the weight off? Probably NOT.