SilverSneakers Celebrated Fitness program's first anniversary

The SilverSneakers fitness program celebrated its first anniversary at the Field House Sports and Fitness Center last week with a cookout in Hinkston Park, Waukegan.

Program members work out three days a week at the Fitness Center. Besides the physical and health benefits, participants develop real camaraderie and friendships, according to Michael Wirsing, fitness center supervisor.

SilverSneakers is the nation's largest fitness program geared to help older adults stay fit, strong and active.

Residents with Humana Medicare Advantage, Humana Team Care Gold, Humana Team Gold, AARP Medicare Supplement, Secure Horizons and United Healthcare Group medical coverage are eligible to obtain free SilverSneakers memberships at the Field House Sports and Fitness Center.

For more information about the program, call (847) 782-3300 or visit the Fitness Center, 800 N Baldwin Ave., Waukegan.

Source:
Suburban Chicago News

Team Fitness America Announced - Personal Trainer Of The Month June 2010

Motta has received notable client reviews and continues to show success with helping clients with their fitness goals, making him Team Fitness America June Personal Trainer Of The Month. Team Fitness America offers fitness throughout 17 states.

Team Fitness America announced their June Personal Trainer Of The Month out of New York City. Victor Motta, an ACE certified personal trainer, was chosen among the several hundreds of personal trainers that were eligible for the prestigious award. Motta is the first personal trainer at Team Fitness America to put New York on the map with the award.

Motta was nominated by each of his Team Fitness America clients along with the area’s Fitness Director. He has mastered every requirement of Team Fitness America while going above and beyond their requirements for customer service skills. Motta started out five years ago at a local YMCA where he jumped right into training people with disabilities and learned to modify his routines to meet their needs. He moved on to an athletic club where Motta learned martial arts and boxing to add to his fast growing repertoire later finding himself earning at spot with Team Fitness America while broadening his horizons.

Certified through the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which is the oldest certification body in the nation, and also enrolled at Brooklyn College, where he is working on a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science, Motta is well rounded. He combines his passion for helping others achieve their goals with his knowledge of both fitness and nutrition to create an amazing program for his clients. Motta has received notable client reviews and continues to show success with helping clients with their fitness goals, making him Team Fitness America June Personal Trainer Of The Month.

Team Fitness America offers clients the prospect to experience fitness training with one of their stellar personal trainers throughout 17 states. They started announcing a top Personal Trainer Of The Month to illustrate one fitness trainer’s ability to provide not only a satisfying workout with measurable results but also great customer service. Each month they announced top personal trainers from places such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Jersey, and Miami, but this month the city of Manhattan takes the first place prize from housing the top personal trainer.

For more information please visit:

http://www.i-newswire.com/team-fitness-america-june-2010/43384

Four Tips to Start Your Exercise Program

Often, the hardest step to take is the first one. Follow these 4 simple ideas to get you started on the road to fitness.

For the beginner, getting to the gym is the hardest part. Most of the time you just don't want to go and when you do, you don't know where to start! There are a million other things you could be doing with that time for work, for the kids, or just to relax. The thought of losing 20 or more pounds can really be overwhelming and that is why most people don't even try. You really just have to buckle down and determine to better yourself so make use of these helpful hints:

Make it Easy: The biggest reason most people don't get to the gym is inconvenience. This can easily be solved by joining a gym close to your house or work so it's not out of your way to get there. That will eliminate probably half of your excuses, which are only making you your own worst enemy.

Get a Partner: Hiring a trainer is awesome, but you don’t have to train with Jillian Michaels to see results. Even a workout partner will do. If you need motivation, team up with someone who can help you.

Make it a Habit: Make your gym time a part of your routine and go every day you say you will. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, be it good or bad. This is simply you forcing yourself to create good habits. Exercise offers so many benefits for your health that you can't afford to put it off any longer.

Educate Yourself:Invest in magazines, fitness websites, or fitness tv shows to learn more about healthy eating, exercise, and the human body. The more you know, the more you will be able to stick to the plan because you’ll know why.

In order to get somewhere, you have to start. The weight loss may not be fast, but it will be rewarding. Take it one day at a time and eventually you will reap the benefits of hard work, and remember - the most effective piece of equipment you use on your fitness journey is a positive attitude.

Probiotics may help fat and weight loss

Daily supplements of Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) may help weight loss in people with obese tendencies, says new science from Japan.

Twelve weeks of consuming a fermented milk product containing the Lactobacillus strain was associated with a 4.6 per cent reduction in abdominal fat, and a 3.3 per cent reduction in subcutaneous fat, according to findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Furthermore, body weight dropped by 1.4 per cent and waist size decreased by 1.8 per cent, report researchers from Snow Brand Milk Products, Kyushu University, Nippon Milk Community Co., Iwaki Meisei University, and Isogo Central and Neurosurgical Hospital.

The study extends previous findings from Kyushu University researchers, which showed LG2055 may reduce fat levels (adiposity) and fat cells in animals (British Journal of Nutrition, 2009, Vol. 101, pp. 716-724; 2008, Vol. 99, pp. 1013-7). In addition, Snow Brand scientists have reported that LG2055 in fermented milk "has the ability to establish in the human gastrointestinal tract and alters the composition and metabolism of the intestinal microflora and physical characteristics of faeces", (J. Appl. Microbiol. 2001, Vol. 90, pp. 343-352).

Potential

With the World Health Organization estimating that by 2015, there will be more than 1.5 billion overweight consumers, incurring health costs beyond $117 billion per year in the US alone, the opportunities for a scientifically-substantiated weight management food product are impressive.

A breakthrough paper published in Nature in December 2006 (Vol. 444, pp. 1022-1023, 1027-1031) reported that microbial populations in the gut are different between obese and lean people, and that when the obese people lost weight their microflora reverted back to that observed in a lean person, suggesting that obesity may have a microbial component.

A recent study, published in Science Translational Medicine (Vol. 1, Issue 6, 6ra14), advanced this by successfully showing that the human gut microbiota can successfully be transferred to germ-free mice, and that this can then be passed on from mother to offspring.

Study details

The Japanese scientists recruited 87 overweight people with an average BMI of 24.2 kg/m2 to participate in their multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled intervention trial. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 200 grams per day of fermented milk with or without LG2055 day for 12 weeks.

At the end of the study, significant decreases were observed in the Lactobacillus group in body weight, BMI (1.5 per cent), waist circumference, and in the hips (1.5 per cent). No significant reductions were observed in the control group, however.

"The probiotic LG2055 showed lowering effects on abdominal adiposity, body weight and other measures, suggesting its beneficial influence on metabolic disorders," concluded the scientists.

Source:

http://www.dairyreporter.com/Products/Probiotics-may-help-fat-and-weight-loss-Study

Taking Steps to Lose Your Weight With a Walking Workout

If you would like to lose a little weight and generally get into better shape, like many of us would, then it is very simple. You must consume fewer calories by eating and drinking than you expend as a result of physical exercise. Do this consistently over a period of time and you will be certain to lose weight. There is no big secret, no wonder drug and no miracle health supplement involved.

Basically, if you want to lose weight, then you need to eat and drink less (diet), burn more calories (exercise) – or both. In fact, the best solution is very definitely to do both simultaneously. Taking regular exercise will increase your metabolic rate – the rate at which you burn calories. As long as you exercise on a regular basis then you will burn calories at a greater rate when you’re not exercising, for example sitting watching the TV, typing on your computer or even sleeping.

Of course, the very thought of exercising can be off-putting for many people – but there’s no reason to avoid exercise, it needn’t involve getting all hot, sweaty and out of breath. One of the very best exercises that you can do is walking, something which the large majority of us do every single day. You just need to walk a little more often and a little further and you will soon reap the rewards – and there are numerous benefits available to anyone who walks on a regular basis.

The recommendation of many health and fitness professionals is that we should try to walk 10,000 steps a day. That equates to a distance of between four and a half and five miles for the average person. It sounds like a long way – but you may be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to achieve. Remember, that 10,000 steps is the total distance, it includes the normal walking that you do every day anyway. You aren’t starting from scratch.

Leave the car at home and walk to work – or get off the bus a couple of stops early and finish the last part of your journey on foot. If you do decide to take the car then just park it in a faraway corner of the parking lot so that you need to walk further. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Take a fifteen minute walk at lunch time. It all adds up.

Other than a comfortable pair of shoes, no special equipment is required to start a walking exercise program. However, you might find it useful to invest in a pedometer – especially if your walking is broken up into short sessions throughout your day. It will help you to keep track of your progress and to stay motivated.

If you are able to fit longer walks into your day then you might also want to think about getting an mp3 player if you don’t already have one. The miles and the time will pass much faster when you’re walking along listening to your favorite tunes.

Source:

http://news.netstrife.com/taking-steps-to-lose-weight-with-a-walking-workout/417/