Wellness Blog

Spring into Fitness!

If you block out the cold, wind, and snow and listen really closely you can hea rthe birds singing of spring. Yes on paper it is spring, even though Mother Nature is no tco-operating. That means it is time to give up on all those road blocks to exercise that are a natural part of the winter season (see below).

Most people gain about five pounds over the winter months. If that wellness hibernation, which includes lack of exercise and inappropriate eating, continues into spring and beyond, you don’t need to be a statistician to understand how it can become 10, 15 ….

For many people spring is when they are motivated to get back “into shape.” Many of the roadblocks that we all must overcome in the winter come down in the spring – holiday season, bad weather, shorter days, cold and flu season, football season, etc. So the “rebirth” of spring should apply to you and getting re-motivated about taking care of yourself.  No one else can do it but you. If you find what works for you and what you enjoy, maybe it will be something you can carry through next winter and we won’t have to talk about it again next year.

If you need help to grow your fitness this spring contact us at the Wellness Clinic at 274-1301 or wellness@ithaca.edu or stop by and talk to one of our Fitness Specialists in person.

Believe it or not the rest or recovery from exercise is as
important as the training stimulus. This allows the body to
adapt to the workouts/stress you have been subjecting
it to and become more fit.  Too much training without proper rest will lead to
Overtraining or Staleness.  Such signs or symptoms of overtraining
could be fatigue, lethargy, insomnia, loss of concentration, performance decrement,
injury or illness.

The best thing to do is listen to your body. If you are getting some of these
signs or you all of a sudden are having difficulty getting motivated then you
need to change up what you are doing, decrease the volume or intensity of
your workouts, do something different or take a day or two off to re-energize your batteries.

Remember you should look forward to working out and feel energized from
it. If not it is time for a break.

With that being said I hope you all enjoy Spring Break in some way.

Frank

So I am definitely not a cutting edge guy as far as
technology goes, or most anything else, and as a matter
of fact I am proud to think of myself as being old school in most
things I do. It takes too much time and energy (not to say money)
to know that I have to have an I-Phone or Pod or that I need to take my
daughters to a Hanna Montana concert.

You would think I would know what the hottest new supplement is or what class is the
one you have to be in if you really want to get fit. But is being on the cutting edge necessarily being in the know, especially when we are dealing with health and fitness? Usually those people who are on top of the fads as far as diet and exercise goes are those that eventually drop out until the next fad sweeps them up a year or two later.

So I thought it might be a good idea to use cutting edge methods (although
blogging is probably back page news to many of you) to get the old school
mentality out to the IC community in regards to health and fitness.

We know what it takes to lose body fat safely for example. Will eating appropriately and exercising consistently work as quickly and effectively for you? Maybe not, but taking the new “magic potion” may not only not work but it could be dangerous. In most cases it comes down to a little cutting edge knowledge and a lot of old school consistency and dedicated to reach our fitness goals.

Desire needs no gimmicks!

So what do you think? The Wellness Clinic will put out a blog every Monday

on some health/fitness related topic at www.ithaca.edu/wellness to help our community be informed and be well. Please respond with comments and questions to wellness@ithaca.edu

Frank