Spunk Fitness Golden Ring

Few of us care to live without coffee, yet it supposedly has negative health effects: dehydration, caffeine dependence, interference with sleep, and high blood pressure, to name a few. At the same time, others tout the health benefits of coffee, such as its antioxidants. Which should we believe? As it turns out, they’re both right. In moderation, coffee has many health benefits. You might be surprised to learn that coffee can even boost your fitness gym workouts. Here’s how. 1. Coffee boosts mental alertness to get you moving early in the morning. We don’t drink coffee just for the taste: it’s a proven pick-me-up that helps burn off the grogginess of sleep and get us moving in the morning. If you find it difficult to get out the door to the fitness center before work, try sipping a cup of coffee first thing. 2. Coffee keeps you (ahem) regular so it doesn’t interfere with exercise. Exercise isn’t the only type of movement coffee will help you with. Let’s face it – the rest of the day ju...

If you’re confused about whether late-night snacking is good or bad for, or whether the timing of your snacks will impact your fitness center goals, you’re not alone. Late-night trips to the refrigerator are often associated with weight gain and even poor sleep (which, ironically, often triggers the midnight munchies). Some health experts go as far as to pinpoint a certain time you should stop eating, usually several hours before bed time, while others say it’s okay to have an evening snack. First, dispel the myth that it’s always bad for you to eat anything late in the day. The timing of your snacks is more a matter of personal preference than science. Rather than timing, the problems with late-night snacking have more to do with what you’re eating, how much of it, and how these impact your sleep patterns. Snack-Size, Not Meal-Size Eating a heavy snack (or meal, rather) later at night does activate your digestion and can keep you awake. Insufficient sleep, not eating too many calories...

Now that winter is in full swing, many people are feeling the impact of the colder weather and shorter days. It is common for people to experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD) during the winter months. SAD is a type of depression that occurs at the same time of year, every year. While most people experience seasonal affective disorder during winter, there are also individuals who experience it in the summer. You may find that during certain times of year, you begin to feel moody and depressed, but feel better once the next season rolls around. If this is the case, you may have seasonal affective disorder. Who gets SAD? Seasonal affective disorder can impact anyone, but it is more common in certain demographics. For example, women are more likely to get SAD, as well as people who live farther from the equator and therefore, experience much shorter days during the winter. Additionally, the risk of SAD decreases as you age, so people between the ages of 15 and 55 are most likely to g...

Do you ever wake up in the morning with the intention of working out, but find yourself hitting snooze five times instead? You’re not alone. Motivating yourself out of bed is hard on most days if you aren’t an early bird, and this can be doubly true when you have a fitness class to attend or a jog to go on before you start your day. However, having time in the morning to workout has many benefits. Not only can you anticipate having more energy throughout the day, you don’t have to worry about hitting the gym after work when your couch sounds so much appealing after a long day. If you are ready to reap the benefits of a morning workout but lack the motivation to do so, read these tips to help you get out from under your comforter and lacing up your tennies in no time. Visualize If you have ever sought out advice for self-motivation before, you are probably familiar with visualization as a tool. You’ve heard of athletes picturing winning the big game and making it a reality; you can do t...

Starting a new fitness journey at the beginning of the year will ultimately yield results in your energy levels, cardiovascular endurance, strength, and overall health -- but it’s also the prime time to experience injuries. Although even the most fit person at the health club can get injured if they don’t use proper form, over-exert themselves, or put in too many training days, it’s the beginners who are out of shape who face the highest risk. The possibility of getting injured isn’t a reason to quit working out or lose momentum; it just means you’ll need to be more careful starting out. Here are a few of the most common newbie gym injuries and what you can do to prevent them. Back Injuries Back injuries are among the most common when you start to hit the fitness gym regularly again, and the key reason is our modern lifestyle. Sedentary jobs that require long hours of sitting, hunched over with poor posture, weaken our back muscles. Hitting the gym after work may be good for your fitne...

 You’ve been putting in the work for several weeks or months, and you still can’t see the results. Instead of quitting (as many people do when they face this discouragement), looking for simple things you might be doing wrong (or at the wrong time) could help you quickly and effectively solve the problem and start seeing those gains and losses you’re looking for. Consider these 5 ways you may be sabotaging your workouts at the fitness center. #1: Talking and Socializing Too Much During Your Workouts Before you start looking at your form, frequency, or intensity, look at the obvious. Is your jaw moving more than your body? Do you find yourself getting a little too absorbed in your conversations with your gym buddy? It’s hard to be objective about this one, so stop and think about your breathing while you’re talking with a friend and working out at the same time. Are you breathless, or is it no trouble to talk, at all? Just as it can be used to gauge whether you’re working out too in...

 Have you ever noticed you feel stronger on one side of your body than the other? At the fitness center, can you lift heavier weights with your left arm than your right? Does one leg muscle look visibly larger than the other? If so, you might be experiencing a common training problem – muscle imbalances. We all struggle with muscle imbalances at some point because we have the tendency to favor one side. For instance, if you’re right-handed, your right arm (and maybe your entire right side) is probably stronger than your left. Usually the difference in strength between the two sides is so slight we don’t notice it– until we hit the gym and start lifting weights with numbers on them. So, what’s the big deal? Since we rarely isolate one side of our body for routine activities, it might not seem like an issue to be concerned about. But it is. If you have a muscle imbalance, your stronger muscles are constantly forced to work harder to make up for weaker ones, pulling your body out of a...

 In the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion of interest in probiotic-rich foods like kefir (fermented milk), yogurt, sauerkraut, and other sour or fermented foods. Some people take daily probiotic supplements, and food manufacturers are even starting to add them to processed foods like snacks and juices. So, what’s all this hype about probiotics? Do we need to eat more probiotic foods and supplements for health? Can they help with weight loss? Here’s the rundown on what probiotics are all about, and how they may or may not affect your health and fitness goals. What probiotics do for you Probiotics are the blanket term for certain kinds of helpful live bacteria, also called gut flora, or the microbiome. There are more than 10 trillion of these found naturally in our digestive system, and we’re only beginning to understand their role in our health. At the very least, these types of bacteria help us break down and absorb nutrients, enable vital chemical reactions and processes, an...

 If one of your fitness goals is to tone up your legs, you may be impatient to see results. Even if you are never skipping leg day, it could be a while before you feel confident rocking short shorts. If you are eager for your strong, sexy legs to make an appearance come spring, read on for some tips for toning your legs as fast as possible. Focus on Your Lower Body During Every Move Because your lower body has so many muscles (more than 200, in fact), there are many different exercises you can do to tone it, even if they are designed to focus on the upper body! Every workout you do, focus on making sure your lower body gets some attention. For example, when you do shoulder presses, you could stand on one leg, or you could incorporate squats into your bicep curls. Do more full-body workouts rather than focusing solely on your upper body, and you will see the results more quickly in your lower body. Use Your Core You know that it’s essential to train your core, but did you know that ...

Imagine this scenario: you’re stiff and sore from yesterday’s lower-body work during your fitness gym session, you think you might have tweaked something in your lower back, and you didn’t sleep well. Despite these warning signs, you agree to your friend’s invitation to check out a new killer boot camp class after work. Does this sound like someone who’s listening to their body? Of course not. And it’s a recipe for burnout, plateaus, and –worst of all – injury. Intuition about what’s going on in our bodies is something all of us need to cultivate both in and outside the gym, and that’s why more and more trainers are encouraging fitness gym regulars to practice intuitive training . What Intuitive Training Means Rather than blindly following a program or jumping on every new fitness fad regardless of its safety or required fitness level, intuitive training caters each workout to what will best suit your current (as in, daily) condition and abilities. In our example, that might mean promi...

Cellulite is a word that strikes fear into the heart of every woman, no matter how fit she is. Appearing as unsightly dimples in the skin is, cellulite is the term for free-floating fat cells. As women age, their skin loosens and the fibrous support tissue that keeps fat cells in place weakens with it. It’s also tied to genetics and hormone levels, which is why some women seem to struggle with it more fiercely than others. Contrary to what the health and beauty industry would have you believe, there’s no magical “cure” for cellulite you can slather on your skin, but there are three key ways to combat it naturally – from the inside out. 1.     A balanced diet with plenty of leafy greens and fruit Getting your eating habits under control by cutting out processed food, watching portions, and eating a balanced diet with a special focus of fruits and vegetables is a sure way to get leaner. Eating cleaner will also help reduce the appearance of cellulite as your body elimi...

Most of us have a favorite brand and model of workout shoes for every activity, whether running, lifting weights at the fitness center, or playing sports. In fact, we simply won’t workout in anything else! This isn’t just a matter of preference or style, but comfort -- everyone knows that if your feet aren’t happy, it makes for a miserable workout. So, after a long search to satisfy your feet’s needs for support, cushion, flexibility, etc., you’ve just discovered the company that sells your favorite shoes has discontinued them. Now what? This can be a frustrating situation, especially if you’ve just worn through your last pair and have a race or competition to train for. Don’t panic. Here are a few ideas to help you work through your shoe crisis with the minimal amount of discomfort and expense. 1.     Search online for closeout deals and buy up the last of the stock. If you’re dead-set against changing your shoe model or brand just yet, look around. Even if the manu...