Line Doucet Virtual Fitness Blog

Practical Tidbits: What Causes Cramping?

September 17th, 2012

Line

Readers want to know:

"What causes cramping?"

The number one reason for a leg, calf, or foot cramp is dehydration. The easiest way to resolve this problem is to drink more water. If consuming more water does not resolve the problem, consult a physician, you might be mineral deficient.

Most people drink just enough water to survive during the day, and many drink alcohol at night. Because no one wants to get up several times per night, little or no water is consumed at dinner. If you have consumed very little water during the day, then you start the evening dehydrated. If you drink alcoholic beverages in the evening, you should drink one glass of water for each alcoholic drink in order to break even. Otherwise, since alcohol dehydrates the body, you could cramp all night and be left wondering why!

Cramping is no surprise when you look at it from a hydration point of view, right?

Here is an important truth to remember:

Hydration is essential for the health of your body and muscle function.

If your muscles are screaming at night for water, you must not forget that your heart is also a muscle, so drink more during the day when you can run to the bathroom.

Another good reason to drink more water is in the interest of weight control or even weight loss. It is a proven fact that if you increase your water intake by only one extra bottle every day, at the end of the year, you will be 5 lbs lighter without even changing your diet.

Lastly, dehydration causes low blood pressure which is very dangerous – so please, please, drink more. When you sweat this summer playing or working outside, drink more water.
If you run outside or live in a dry climate, drink even more than you think you want! For you gym goers, when you do cardio machines at the gym, you should drink at least half of your water while performing on your cardio machines since you are breathing heavily (as you should be).

Bottom line: Water is essential and it is easy to flavor to satisfy your childlike preference if you wish, but whatever you do-drink more water!

To your health!

Who Needs To Stretch?

September 17th, 2012

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Who needs to stretch and why is it important?

Stretching is a best friend to someone who is flexible, and an enemy to a person who is stiff.

It is immensely pleasurable to stretch when your muscles are limber and you can bend effortlessly into any position. The majority of people practicing flexibility on a regular basis are pretty limber in the first place. What about stiff people?

How do we get a stiff person to enjoy stretching?

We can encourage them and reward them. We can drug them so they don’t know they are stretching (hahahaha). Or we can trick them into a game like Twister. The reality is that stretching will hurt; it will be hard and awkward, but it is still worth the effort and discomfort. Here is why. Stretching…..

Prevents injuries;
Is calming and is often complimented by meditation;
Helps the opening and stabilization of important joints such as knees, ankles, hips;
Improves posture;
Is good for balance, both structurally and physically;
Will prevent tendonitis;
Will help prevent bursitis;
Will prevent muscle tears and pulls;
Improves overall strength ;
Improves muscle growth;
Improves speed and reflexes;
Will prevent premature wear and tear on joints

When you’re young, you don’t think about a short fall; but when you mature, you are concerned about joint replacement. The more you overuse a joint, especially without good flexibility, the more you tighten your muscles and joints which then encourages cartilage damage. Once the cartilage is gone, you need a new knee or hip – and there goes your freedom. New joints are terrific and give mobility back to thousands of people, but there is nothing like your original parts, so take care of them!

As my dentist friend says to his patients, "only floss the teeth you want to keep"! I will say, only stretch the body parts you care about.

By the way, don’t forget the shoulders and chest area. For good posture, you must stretch them daily.

Everyone needs stretching, regardless of age. At a minimum, you should commit to a few basic stretches daily. If you always use the same 6 stretches, you need to step it up and ask questions, hire a trainer, or join a basic beginner yoga class to learn how to stretch well and safely. Once you understand what to do, you can maintain the discipline on your own for a while until you adjust for your gain in flexibility.

If you want a great flexibility routine designed for your age and needs, contact us at virtualfitness1.com or call us toll free at 1-888-691-6610.

What Exactly Is Fitness?

September 17th, 2012

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Fitness is a broad term utilized for almost anything relating to being in motion or to weight loss.

The medical dictionary offers this definition:

Fitness is the state or condition of being physically sound and healthy, especially as the result of exercise and proper nutrition.

The Webster dictionary says that it is:

"the capability of the body of distributing inhaled oxygen to muscle tissue during increased physical effort."

Although fitness means different things to different people, fitness professions generally divide fitness into five categories.

Can you guess what those are?

Fitness professionals say that in order to be fit, you must master five elements and most people may have one or two, but very few have all five. How about you?

The five categories are:

Cardio-vascular efficiency or (effective oxygen to muscle distribution/ heart rate ratio)
Muscle strength
Muscle endurance
Flexibility and range of motion
Core strength/balance/stability

I have known athletes who could run indefinitely, but could not hold more than 15 lbs over their head or touch their knees-much less their toes-while bending over. I have known athletes who could surpass power lifting records for their age group, but were incapable of doing any exercises for more than 15 repetitions. It is not because you look thin and well defined that you are fit all around. Let’s face it: when you hike a mountain in Idaho, your heavy weight training is not going to help you unless you need to move a log that is blocking the path on the way up the mountain.

The best philosophy is balance, and that applies to all aspects of life, including fitness, health, and nutrition. Be sensible and make sure that you have plenty of variety as well as occasional obstacle course workouts. The key is to change your approach regularly. Get inspired by fitness magazines, books, fitness instructors or friends, but change your program often to assure that it includes all aspects of fitness and give yourself the fit test.

The fit test will be on our blog soon. Stay tuned or contact us on our website with any questions at www.virtualfitness1.com.

Eat For Your Goals

September 17th, 2012

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Not everyone has the same goal in life. Some of us would love to lose weight, where others would prefer to gain weight or muscle mass. What is your goal?

Food is essential for survival, but besides that, a lot of people eat as if they were about to go into starvation and therefore overeat. Slow down people-we are not going to run out of food anytime soon! In my 25 years of fitness experience, what I can count on is encountering people who skip meals. By the time they eat, they allow themselves as much as they want simply because they are starved.

You must ask yourself a simple question:

Is what you are doing giving you the result you want?

If the answer is no, make a change. If it has not worked so far, it is not likely to work anytime soon.

Diet seems to be the topic with the most sought after information and generates countless best seller books yearly, although it is not rocket science. If you are over weight, you are taking in more calories than you need considering your lifestyle, or your metabolism is sluggish.

We must always consider age, activity level, hormone function and desired goal.

Bottom line, everyone can be helped and the right plan will give you results. Are you ready to get what you need and feel good about it?

In the fitness arena, I have met people of all ages who need all sorts of nutrition plans based on their needs. Everybody is a little different when it comes to food. We are talking about much more than nutrition; food is also an emotional life jacket.

Food quality and quantity is a choice and you might have to compromise a little by eating less of your favorite foods in order to achieve your goal and stay at your desired weight.

You should eat the food; the food should not eat you! The right food choices should make you feel good, look good and above all, be healthy.

For more information, contact us at VirtualFitness1.com or call 1-888-691-6610.

You are Never Too Busy To Feel Good.

Practical Tips About Fitness

September 16th, 2012

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The first question I get from new clients is “Where do I begin?” Perhaps you’re experienced at working out or you may be rather new at this task and still don’t know about the basics because no one ever explained the following to you:

When you begin a fitness class or program, make sure that it is not beyond your capability. For instance, if you are as tight as a drum, do not start with heated yoga. Why? It is generally more advanced, requires low blood pressure and a minimum cardio vascular stamina and will require difficult poses a beginning student cannot perform. So pick your program wisely for your safety.
Most trainers are specialists in their approaches and these may or may not be compatible with your goals. If you want to tone, do not hire a weight lifter specializing in body building because his training approach is the opposite of what you want. If you want tone but no bulk, find a body-sculpturing trainer, and look for high reps and lower weights.
Variety is best and will provide faster results. Doing the same workout weekly will give you results for a while, but shortly after, you will plateau. The more variety you give your workout, the greater progress you will see. What I suggest is to use heavier weight for two weeks with fewer repetitions, then lighter weight for two weeks with higher repetitions, and do two weeks of obstacle-course functional training. Challenge your muscles from muscle strengthening to flexibility, to core and agility, and back to heavy weight. Interchange the muscle combination during your workout and so on.
Stabilize your joints and strengthen your core so you can expect your body to perform with certainty and prevent injury.

For more information follow our blog or contact us.

Fitness, the fountain of youth.

April 30th, 2012

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Youth and Fitness happen to be the topic of many conversations as well as debates about the various options for achieving optimum health. Some of these options can cost in excess of thousands of dollars a year and range from legitimate products and services such as spa treatments and plastic surgery to other methods like: pills, growth hormones, injections and more…

None or those will give you permanent benefits of more energy, better sleep quality, freedom of motion and longevity as Fitness will.

It is wise to grasp the big picture, and know that it is never too late to feel good.

We often take for granted that the perfection of our body’s design is such that it heals itself automatically, and not even a thought is needed for the body to renew itself. You might have noticed that the renewal process seems to slow down as we age. There are many reasons for that since the body is so complex, but no matter what problem we have, it is safe to say that breath, more precisely, oxygen plays an instrumental role in:

Following any type of surgery, the recommended care is to breathe into a little apparatus in order to measure your lung capacity which encourages deep breath. The deeper you breathe, the faster you get rid of anesthesia, and the faster you heal.

Birthing since it is about breath, no breath no life.

The Lamaze method is mostly about breath for rhythm, strength, and to prevent panic, or hyper ventilation.

The treatment for cancer prevention and post treatment. Cancer cells do not like oxygen.

Yoga, re-birthing, meditation, martial art, long distance sport performance and more.

Bottom line; the more fitness activity you perform, the greater your lung capacity, the higher the blood oxygen level. This blood is carried to the entire system and renews the cells with greater fuel which promotes healing, better skin ,youthful color , thicker hair, relaxation, a less constricted body, better sleep, less snoring(maybe), stronger muscle, better stability, more stamina, slower heart beat and lower blood pressure.

Exercising will also usually help with meeting new friends or work contacts and help you accomplish far more in all areas of life due to more energy.

Fitness will keep you young and filled with vitality, not to mention that it will save you years of pain and money in care to correct the alternative options.

So what are you waiting for? Today is a good day to start. There are gyms everywhere, Yoga studios, Pilates classes, and a variety of exercise classes you can choose from. If you are like a lot of people who are intimidated by gyms or who know that the commitment won’t last more than a couple of months, or don’t have the required time for this, visit my website at www.virtualfitness1.com . Get your workout done in a half hour from the comfort of your home or wherever you are. It’s easy, personalized one on one and very effective. You need no other reasons; go to www.virtualfitness1.com .Your complimentary consultation is awaiting you.

You are never too busy to feel good.

Let’s face facts; fitness and health equal better quality of life and more years to enjoy your freedom.

Line Doucet, PFT, AFT, MT,

Master Trainer, Bio-mechanics Specialist

Founder and CEO