Is Napping Good for You?

There are so many apps available to us today that allow us to track our food daily. At Axio Fitness, we use My Fitness Pal with our clients, but there is no shortage of options for anyone looking to begin tracking their food intake and totaling their calories for the day. If you have a goal of weight loss, logging your food each day has proven to be extremely effective in helping you make better choices and eat better options. What is even more effective than simply tracking is allowing someone else access to your food log. This is added accountability and motivation that we all need for our nutrition. At Axio Fitness, we ask our clients to track everything they eat for their first six weeks with us. This allows us to educate the client, make suggestions on different adjustments, and help them find ways to eat right for their goals. But the most effective thing about tracking everything our clients eat is the accountability that comes with checking the food logs. Whether you are an Axio Fitness client or not, simply logging your food is a great way to get on track with your nutrition goals. Try committing to tracking your food for the next six weeks and see if you notice better eating behaviors.

At Axio Fitness, we are big fans of cardio! With the weather changing and the ability to get outside and be more active, we hope you are motivated to do more walking or jogging around town, in the parks, or on the trails. You may be motivated to lose weight and you want to spend your time outdoors efficiently, therefore being motivated to run or jog. However, if you haven’t been very active in the last several months, it may not be a good idea to go right into jogging. Most physical therapists suggest being able to walk pain free for at least 45 minutes before attempting to jog. Meaning, if you get knee, ankle, foot, or hip pain after a 30-minute walk, you may not be ready to start running. When you do start jogging, be mindful of your cadence. If you have a smart watch, you can enter your runs in there and it will automatically give you your cadence. Suggested cadence to avoid injury is 160- 180 strides per minute. If you do less than 160, your stride is too long, and it can cause injury or joint pain. If you need help getting on a structured cardio plan, or if you need the accountability to do more walking and jogging this summer, Axio Fitness is here to help! We offer a service called Axio Cardio where we can structure a customized, personalized cardio plan for you based on your ability and your goals.

Most people have health and fitness goals. Even if they do not officially fill out a questionnaire or answer specific questions, everyone has ways they would like to improve their health and change their physique. Whether it is getting off medication, going down a shirt size or feeling toned, many people have something related to their health and fitness on their mind each day. However, in our experience, many clients come to us with specific goals and desires and the wrong understanding of how to get there. For example, someone may tell us they wanted to lose belly fat, so they bought a BowFlex. Others may tell us they want to be stronger with more muscle in their arms and legs, so they bought an exercise bike. We even see people do lots of stomach crunches and sit-ups because they want a flatter stomach, not knowing there are better ways to achieve that. Most commonly, people join a gym and only end up using the treadmill because they are too unfamiliar with what else they should be doing. Although all exercise is good for weight loss, toning, building strength and reshaping your body, many people do not understand the ways they should be exercising based on their body and goals. At Axio Fitness, we do thorough, scientific assessments with all clients. After that, we set 6-week goals, and we train the clients based on those goals. We also give them a cardio prescription and nutrition plan specific to their six-week goals. All exercise is good! But goal specific training will obviously be the quickest and best way to get you where you want to be. If you need personal attention and professional guidance, call Axio Fitness!