Fitness & Wellness

Can I Do Cardio With My Planter Fasciitis?

Can I Do Cardio With My Planter Fasciitis?

If you’re constantly pounding the pavement or doing cardio that involves jumping repetitively, you could end up with plantar fasciitis. The plantar fascia attaches to the bone in the heel and goes to the base of the toes. This ligament absorbs the shock of both jumping and running. That impact can cause tiny tears and gets inflamed, which causes it to thicken with scar tissue, creating even more damage.

Take the pressure off your feet in water.

Not every cardio workout involves sudden pressure on the foot. For instance, running in water involves almost none. If you don’t want to test the potential for injury, just go for a swim both are exceptional cardio. Try doing battle ropes from a seated position or modify others that don’t cause chronic pressure, by going on the balls of the feet and suddenly turning or eliminate the potential of pounding. .

More traditional cardio workouts don’t involve the feet.

A rowing machine doesn’t require you to balance on your foot or move them. Neither does elliptical machines or step machines. These are all good forms of cardio exercise that don’t require any impact on the feet. Standing in place and doing extended jumping jacks, without the action of jumping, which means you just move your arms up and cross at the top and then bring them down to cross at the bottom, can also provide a cardio workout.

Build the strength in your plantar fascia with stretches.

While none of these should ever be used without checking with your health care professional first, these are useful for slowing the progress of plantar fasciitis. Toe curls are done sitting up straight with feet flat on the floor, as you raise your heels, keep your toes on the floor and then squeeze the heel and ball of the foot and lower. Stretching the big toe, wiggling your toes and stretching them, towel pulls, wall pushes and rolling a tennis ball on the arch of your foot can strengthen and relax the muscle.

  • Do you do standing butt kicks and find they cause some pain? Switch them out. Replace them with donkey kicks done on the hands and knees.
  • Not only can stretching help keep your feet safer, so does wearing good shoes. Wearing ill fitting shoes or ones that aren’t supportive can cause more damage.
  • You can change strength training to a combo strength and cardio. Use lighter weights and more reps or create a circuit training workout with little rest between exercises.
  • Getting cardio doesn’t have to be hard. While running and jumping may be out, eliminating jogging and things like basketball. You may have to modify your workout to avoid any potential pounding, but it’s worth it and not really difficult.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Chino


Best Exercises For A Defined Back

Best Exercises For A Defined Back

If you’re putting on a swimsuit or other revealing clothing, like an evening gown with an open back, you want every part of you to look fabulously fit. That’s why we focus on a full body workout at One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA. We provide exercises for all types of fitness and all parts of the body. We even provide exercises for a defined back that will also help prevent muscle injuries and back pain.

Just like having a six-pack, nobody sees the definition if it’s covered with layers of fat.

Having a great looking back takes two things. It takes the right type of exercise and a lean body. That means you have to do more than just exercise, you have to take off excess fat that might be hiding those gorgeous muscles. Back fat, like any type of fat, is layered over the muscles, making definition almost impossible. Eat a healthy diet filled with fruits and vegetables and lean protein. Normally, the last fat that disappears seem to be around the middle, both in front and in back.

Exercises that tone the back, shoulders, upper arms and core muscles tone your back.

Step two in getting a more defined back is the actual exercise. Strength training is one of the best ways to do it. You can do bodyweight exercises that work the three muscle groups in the back, which are the upper back, mid back and lower back. The muscles are the trapezoids, deltoids, the latissimus dorsi, lower trapezius, rhomboids and erector spinae. Exercises that involve twisting work the obliques and side abdominals, to give that V shape to the body. Hold your hips in stationary position and twist your upper body from side to side. You can even do it seated.

Exercises that require pushing or pulling are good for the back.

You can use a cable machine to do both upright standing row and close grip row. Pull-ups are also another good exercise for the back muscles. Now switch to pushing by doing a push-up. It strengthens the core muscles, which includes the back muscles. All types of planks from full extension planks to forearm planks, help define the muscles, as they burn fat.

  • If you have access to a rowing machine, it’s good for the middle back. Back extensions, Superman and knee rolls are good for the lower back. Practicing good posture helps the upper back and aids in defining back muscles.
  • Using weights to workout is the quickest way to get a more defined appearance for your back. You can target certain muscle groups better as you burn extra calories to lose weight.
  • When you do exercises that bring your hands behind your head they help develop the back muscles. Try doing jumping jacks, but instead of clapping at the top, cross your arms both at the top and bottom. You can even skip the jumping and get good results.
  • Compound exercises are the most efficient ways to get back muscles toned and burn calories. They work several muscles, ligaments and joints at once.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Chino


How To Get A Healthy Workout While Seated

How To Get A Healthy Workout While Seated

Each person is unique. That’s the guiding force at One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA. When people come for personal training, each person gets an individualized program. Some people who are desk bound all day want a workout they can do while seated. It’s also true of people who are just recovering from surgery. Sitting too long is a problem, even if you workout regularly, so I created some exercises you can do at your desk for a few minutes every hour. It helps boost circulation and makes weight loss even easier.

Your chair can be an effective workout tool.

Don’t worry about these exercises, you won’t have to get down on the floor to do them. You can sit in your chair and do many of them. One is to lift yourself off the chair. Grasping the sides of your chair, either on the cushion or top of the arms, lift your whole body off the chair, keeping your knees bent and thighs at a 90 degree angle to your calves and parallel to the floor. You can also grasp the cushion, scooting yourself to the front edge and pushing your legs out straight with heels on the floor. Lower your body, doing a dip and lift it back up again. Make sure your chair isn’t on rollers.

Do leg extensions.

Your core muscles will benefit from leg extensions. You can do them seated anywhere without anyone knowing. Sit forward on the chair with your arms by your side. Have one leg extended straight with heal on the floor, while the other is bent in normal position, foot flat on the floor and knee bent at a 90 degree angle. Lift the extended leg as high as you can and hold for a count of ten. Repeat it several times and switch legs, extending and lifting the other leg.

Keep tension away with upper body stretches.

You’ll boost your productivity, circulation and feel better throughout the day if you take time to stretch and move a bit every hour. Rolling your shoulders, turning your head side to side—attempting to touch your ear to your shoulders—or extending your arms and rotating them in circles can certainly get the circulation going and help relieve or prevent upper body tension and headaches. Stretching throughout the day is important.

  • Work on your posture while you’re sitting. Stay seated, putting your arms out and bending them at a 90 degree angle at the elbows, so you look a bit like a goal post. Push your arms back, making your shoulder blades as close together as possible.
  • Do isometrics, tightening your muscles to stay into shape. As you work on your posture, pull your stomach in and tighten it. Hold for as long as you can. Squeeze your glutes, holding them for a count of ten.
  • If you don’t have an audience, doing a windmill or jumping jack can benefit you. You can also benefit from doing the jumping jack without the jumping, doing squats, overhead presses and arm raises. When put together, they’re known as the nitric oxide dump that can help lower blood pressure.
  • While doing exercises when seated can help keep you in shape throughout the day, it doesn’t replace full body workouts at the gym. It’s an addition to that workout.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Besides Your Weight, You Need These Measurements

Besides Your Weight, You Need These Measurements

Your weight isn’t the ultimate in judging your progress. While it does play an important role if you’re trying to lose weight, there are other measurements that can also help you judge your progress and will give you a more complete picture. Sometimes the numbers on the scale can be devastating, but they shouldn’t be if you’ve followed a healthy diet and your exercise program. You may have water weight gain or replaced your fat tissue with muscle.

Check your measurements on your fitness journey.

Muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, so it takes up less space per pound. Think of your body like a container designed to hold a pound of feathers. It will be larger than it would be if it were designed to hold a pound of steel. When you workout, you build more muscles and like the steel, they weigh more. You’ll be surprised at how much the measurements show about your fitness progress. You’ll look thinner, even if you never lost a pound.

Your waist circumference tells a lot about your overall health and BMI.

One of the most unhealthy types of fat is visceral fat. It crowds the organs and is hard to lose. It gathers around your midsection, which means the bigger your waist. The danger comes from abdominal obesity, which is labeled between a waist measurement of 31.5 to 35 inches in women and 35.5 inches to 40 inches in men. If your waist circumference is shrinking, congratulate yourself and smile. You’re making good progress.

Take a picture of yourself or judge by your clothing.

When you start your workout program, dig out the tightest clothing you can find. Snap a picture of yourself in this clothing. A month later, use the same clothing to judge your progress, also taking a picture in the same spot to compare how you look. If it seems like your clothes are growing, that’s fantastic! The picture is a good way to judge how you look and compare the changes month to month.

  • If you’re using how clothing fits to judge your progress, when your first outfit becomes too loose, buy another tight article of clothing and use it. Don’t put a lot of money into the purchase, since you won’t be wearing it long.
  • Judge by your energy level and endurance. Sometimes, people just want to feel better and weight loss isn’t nearly as important. Track your workout progress and note how hard or easy it is to do an exercise. Take a flight of stairs or two of stairs every week and judge your endurance.
  • Measure the amount of subcutaneous fat that you have under your skin. Can you pinch an inch or more around your midsection, thigh, tricep or hip bone?
  • Just because scales lie sometimes, they don’t do it chronically. If you’re not getting the progress you want, check with the trainer and find ways to change your program to reach your goals.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Important Things You Should Know About Supplements

Important Things You Should Know About Supplements

I’ve worked with a lot of people through the years at One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA. The people that get the best results also focus on eating a healthy diet. Diet is important for building strong muscles and losing weight. One question I’m frequently asked is about the use of supplements. Supplements can include everything from protein supplements to the multivitamin you take in the morning. There are pros and cons to using supplements and people that need them and those that don’t.

You may need to supplement at different times of the year.

While it’s not as much of a problem in Chino Hills because of its latitude, getting adequate vitamin D can still be hard to do. Exposure to sunshine is the best way to get vitamin D, but overcast and rainy days, clothing that covers most of the body and sunscreen can make it hard. To add to that, people with darker complexions and older people naturally don’t get enough. Many foods are vitmin D fortified and other foods that contain vitamin D include fatty fish, such as salmon, eggs and mushrooms. However, studies show that there’s a vitamin D deficiency in 50% of the population. Supplementing with vitamin D may be prudent, since it’s important for immunity, heart health and bones.

A healthy diet should provide most other nutrients, unless you have a health condition or are aging.

Older people and those with health conditions such as IBS or other digestive issues, may require vitamin and mineral supplements. Besides vitamin D deficiency in many seniors, a large portion of older women also have magnesium deficiencies. Soaking your feet in Epsom salt is one solution, Women who are about to become pregnant or are pregnant may need vitamin B12. Always consult your health care professional first.

It’s more than just vitamins and minerals.

Supplements can include protein supplements. In most cases, people eat adequate protein. You can increase your protein if you are older and have problems absorbing the protein or are trying to build muscles, but don’t go overboard. You can get too much. While you can get too much vitamin A from supplements, you can’t overdo it when you eat carrots. Phytonutrients and phytochemicals are not vitamins, but chemicals that also help you stay your healthiest and not often found in supplements. Many of these nutrients increase the effectiveness of other nutrition found in plants, so eating the actual plant is far better since they act in synergy with each other.

  • You can get too much of a good thing. Fat soluble vitamins are stored in your body. Too much vitamin A, E, D or K can cause dangerous health issues. Water soluble vitamins flush out in your urine, but some water soluble vitamins can have dangerous side effects if too many are taken at once.
  • If you want to improve your recovery after a tough workout, add a scoop or two of protein supplement to your diet and increase vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids.
  • Some supplements may help avoid sickness from viruses. Vitamin D and zinc are said to be helpful, as well as vitamin C. Be aware that some people experience stomach cramping and diarrhea from vitamin C supplements.
  • A healthy diet is always the best way to boost your nutrition, as long as you have no other issues. Always check with your health care professional first, since some interact with other medications or may not be right for you.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Is Intermittent Fasting Good For You?

Is Intermittent Fasting Good For You?

One of the most talked about methods of weight loss is intermittent fasting—IF. Since there are several ways to do it, the pros and cons vary. For instance, if you actually fast for 24-48 hours each week, or even more, it does have a potential for sending out a starvation message to the body that slows metabolism. To avoid that, you have to have a day of feasting and the rest eating normally. Other types of intermittent fasting include eating within a specific window of time, such as eating during an 8-hour period and fasting for 16 hours. It’s called circadian fasting.

Losing weight can occur when you fast.

Of course, most people realize that you’ll lose weight if you don’t eat. But that’s not why intermittent fasting works. If you only eat within a certain window, such as between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., you’re still eating that day. It may help you lose weight because you’ll be eating less, since you have less time, but scientists think it’s because your body learns to burn fat as fuel, rather than glucose from food. It helps lower insulin levels, which can help prevent belly fat.

There are a lot of animal studies on IF.

Clear back in the 1940s scientists were doing animal studies on the effects of IF and what it did to the aging process. A study at the University of Chicago did a study where they fed one group of rats on alternate days and the other on demand. The rats fed on alternate days lived longer and aged slower. Early man and animals didn’t eat regular meals and normally skipped days, so it may be a natural function of the body. IF helps reduce insulin resistance, lowers blood sugar levels and lowers the risk of cancer by improving the removal of damaged cells.

Not everyone should fast or do intermittent fasting.

Diabetics, particularly those taking medication, need to be careful when they do intermittent fasting and should only do it under a doctors care. If you’re taking blood pressure medication or heart medication, you should consult with your doctor on how IF might affect you and the effects of the medication. Since IF can be taken too far, anyone with an eating disorder should be discouraged from fasting of any type without medical supervision. Also, pregnant or breast feeding women shouldn’t fast. While the safest type of fasting is the IF where you eat only within an 8-hour window, if you have any of these medical issues, always consult your health care advisor.

  • No matter what type of IF you choose, you still need to eat healthy meals when you eat. Cut out sugary products, junk food and highly processed foods to be your healthiest.
  • For prediabetics and those with insulin resistance, IF can actually help you to be healthier. It reduces blood sugar levels and insulin levels to help your body reboot, while also boosting your physical and mental energy.
  • A circadian fast of just 16 hours can cause changes within the body. It triggers cell repair, increases hormones to burn fat and boosts human growth hormones—HGH–five fold. HGH helps develop thicker hair, aids sleep pattern, boosts skin elasticity and for men diminish erectile dysfunction.
  • Intermittent fasting can help fight inflammation, which can cause or aggravate conditions like autoimmune disease, asthma, heart disease, cancer and IBS. The heavier you are, the more prominent the results.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Do Resistance Bands Actually Work?

Do Resistance Bands Actually Work?

There’s a lot of ways to build muscles and strength. Battle ropes, bodyweight workouts, resistance bands and weights are a few. Some people focus primarily on free weights, since they’re a time tested technique, but you can exercise muscles on a variety of planes when you use resistance bands. Unlike weights, you don’t simply use gravity as the resistance. It’s all about the stretch. At One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA, we help you with a variety of ways to boost your fitness and help you with ways to do it when you can’t come to the gym.

Let’s start with some of the benefits of resistance bands compared to free weights.

Free weights are good, they’re time tested. As noted before, you use the stretch as the resistance, so you can pull and push in all directions or at any angle on both horizontal and vertical planes. Resistance bands come in a wide range of resistance, levels. Each band has a different color, which indicates a different amount of resistance. Unlike a collection of free weights that require at least a corner of a room, storage is very easy. A whole range of options can be folded and put in a drawer, with room left over for other items.

Do you want to build large muscles?

Some people love the strength-building options, but aren’t necessarily looking for bulk. Resistance bands are perfect. If you want to build large muscles, it’s doable with resistance bands, but requires a little more thought that it would be with free weights. You need to focus on progressive overload, increasing the intensity, while also increasing sets and reps as you improve.

It’s all about working your muscles to failure or close to failure.

Whether you use dumbbells, barbells, sandbags, resistance bands or weighted medicine balls, the theory is the same. Use your muscles to move something that provides resistance. That resistance can come from the rubbery stretch of resistance bands or the weight of the object against gravity. Focus on pushing your muscles to failure or close to that level, which is progressive overload. How you get your muscle to that point isn’t as important as getting it there and making it work.

When you workout with weights or kettlebells, your muscles are being worked the minute you lift them. That doesn’t occur with resistance bands, you only get a workout when they’re stretched to the max.

You’ll train differently with resistance bands. Resistance bands provide a more well-rounded workout, since they include stabilizing muscles. They’re versatile and can be even added to bodyweight workouts.

You can use resistance bands for flexibility training, too. There’s extremely versatile. They’re also good to use when traveling, since they take little room in your suitcase.

People who are more seasoned at fitness may want to add resistance bands to their workout for variety. I’m always finding new ways to challenge my muscles with this tool. They can provide variety.


Splitting Your Workout Days For Faster Results

Splitting Your Workout Days For Faster Results

There are people that firmly believe that full body workouts are the only way to go and those who believe you should be splitting your workout days for faster results. Which one is the right way to go? There are good reasons for each type of workout. What is a split workout? It’s where you divide or split your workout into various target areas, such as upper body days and lower body days, with abs on either or both and focus on that one area each workout. A full body workout is just like the name implies, you work all parts each day.

Split workouts can help you focus on specific muscles or muscle groups.

People who want to contour their body more, such as a bodybuilder, normally use a split workout. It lets you focus more intensity on that particular muscle or muscle group. It’s good for balancing muscles and fix imbalances. You can stimulate the muscle or group of muscles to fatigue, stimulating growth and repair. Building bigger muscles is also a benefit of splitting your workout. You can also rest your muscles for longer for recovery.

If your schedule is tight, full body workouts are the answer.

Are you restricted to three days of exercise a week by a tight schedule? Split training may not be the right approach for you. You can always switch later if you choose. You may not be searching for perfection, just a better build, weight loss and good health. A full body workout can do all three, with less time in the gym. You can spend those extra days doing fun things, like kickboxing…which is also a full body workout. Full body workouts burn a lot of calories, since it works more muscle groups and joints at once. It’s great for a beginner.

If big guns are your focus, you’ll get faster results with split workouts.

There are a number of different types of split workouts. I’ve mentioned the upper/lower body type, but there are also push/pull workouts where you train opposing muscle groups. You work muscles that have opposing actions, such as hamstrings and quads. If big guns are your goal, focusing on biceps and triceps is a good example of an antagonistic workout that you can do.

  • Your goal determines the best type of workout, and if it’s to build a specific area of the body, then split workouts are best. For overall fitness and weight loss, full body workouts are best.
  • One problem with using a split routine is flexibility. If you skip a day at the gym, it can throw off your schedule. It can slow your progress tremendously.
  • People who use split workouts often spend six days a week at the gym, so they can focus on different major muscle groups each day. It does build larger stronger muscles in a shorter amount of time and is good for both weight lifters and bodybuilders.
  • For most people, the type of workout you choose isn’t nearly as important as getting exercise. Doing something you enjoy should also play a big role in your regimen. It’s one reason why people include kickboxing in their workout program. It’s fun, so they’re more likely to stick with it.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Prepackaged Sports Bars - Good Or Bad?

Prepackaged Sports Bars – Good Or Bad?

I know that I’m constantly focused on eating whole foods and avoiding prepacked, highly processed ones, but there are some exceptions. Salads premade in the grocery may be healthy, just as prepackaged sports bars can be good or bad. How do you tell the difference? One way is to read the labels. Everyone is rushed for time, so finding a pre-workout or post workout snack that’s quick can be a big benefit. Here are some ways to identify healthy and unhealthy ones.

Read the ingredients and check for added sugar.

You may find several different names for sugar, which range from corn syrup, maltose, to glucose, fructose and dextrose, just to name a few. Learn the variety of names for sugar and when you find more than one on a label, you know they’re trying to hide the sugar content, by breaking it up to several types, so all are lower on the ingredients label and it doesn’t look as bad.

Identify unhealthy fat and poor protein sources.

If the protein bar lists partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, and any other partially hydrogenated oils it is probably a source of trans fats. Always check the label to see if it has any trans fats. The government recently required the labels show how much, but if the amount is under 0.5 grams per serving, the company can show 0 grams. Again, check to see how many servings per sports bar. If it’s more than one serving, they may be hiding something.

Look for sports bars with few ingredients and ones you can recognize.

So many of the “healthy” protein bars have a list of ingredients an arm long, many of which you can’t pronounce. Opt for ones where the ingredients are recognized, like organic flax seed, organic dates or organic oats. The healthiest ones have whole foods with the sweetness coming from dried fruit. You’ll recognize them immediately when you can visualize every ingredient. Most don’t contain added protein in the form of casein, which can cause stomach upset, but get the protein from nuts, seeds or collagen from grass-fed animal sources.

  • Some of the healthiest sports bars or energy bars may also be more expensive. It’s worth the investment. Often the cheaper options are more like eating a candy bar after a workout or a run.
  • The sports bar is used for refueling, not for a complete meal. The ratio of carbs to protein should be approximately 4 to 1. Don’t go for energy bars that are high in fiber and fat, as they can affect your digestion and cause GI problems if you eat them before a tough workout.
  • Avoid all sports bars that contain artificial sweetener. They may be lower in calories, but there are several studies that show they aren’t healthy and can actually cause you to gain weight around your middle, while messing with your metabolism.
  • Companies often make several types of sports bars, some are healthier than others. Just because one bar in their line is super healthy, it doesn’t mean all of them are. Read the labels for each bar.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club


Exercises To Relieve Stress

Exercises To Relieve Stress

People come to One Love Fit Club in Chino Hills, CA, for a number of reasons besides just getting fit. I have clients who are in great shape come in every day to stay fit and relieve stress. Exercise is a great way to help burn off the hormones stress creates. The hormones come from the fight or flight response that prepares your body for either if you’re facing danger. Today, fighting or running isn’t a logical response to many of the modern stressors, like traffic jams, angry bosses or an overdue bill, so your body never burns off the stress hormones and doesn’t return to normal. Exercise helps you do that.

Running is a great way to burn off stress.

What better way to mimic running in fear than running for exercise. Running is just one aerobic exercise that burns off stress hormones, but probably the simplest and most familiar. It gets your heart pumping and makes you breathe heavily. Other aerobic exercises, including brisk walking, will provide the same benefits as a run. Studies show that all types of exercise that gets your heart pumping and increases your breathing can help with anxiety, which often comes from stress.

Alternate your intensity for maximum benefits.

If you do a steady state run, you’ll get the benefit of burning off stress, but switching your run to a high intensity interval training—HIIT—-run, then back to moderate, can bring even more benefits. When you alternate your intensity from peak intensity to a moderate recovery intensity and then back again, you work your body harder, burn more calories and increase the fitness benefits you’d get from a steady state workout. You can HIIT for any type of exercise, including walking.

Do something you enjoy.

Any tough workout, whether it’s weight lifting or calisthenics can burn off stress hormones, but so can fun activities. Riding bikes, dancing to fast music and playing team sports work well, too. While coming to the gym can help ensure you get a full exercise program, on your days away from the gym, do something you love that is also active.

  • Exercising outside in nature can also relieve stress. It combines the relaxing aspects of nature with the stress hormone burning workout. Some find that grounding, exercising on the grass in bare feet, also increases positive energy.
  • Burning off stress is important for mental health, but it also is important for physical health. Stress hormones, such as cortisol, are associated with the accumulation of visceral fat—abdominal fat—the most dangerous type to your health.
  • You can get too much of a good thing. Doing tough strength training two to three times a week is important, but it’s not good every day. It actually increases your body’s stress because you don’t give your muscles time to heal.
  • If you’re having trouble finding ways to burn off stress at home, turn up the music. Fast dancing and getting into the music is like an HIIT workout. You adjust the intensity continually.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club