Signs You’re Working Out Too Much

Published by superadmin on December 10, 2023 | Leave a response

Sacramento, CA, and the surrounding area have some of the most “can-do” determined people in the world. They put their heart into everything they do. I’ve met quite a few at Team ISC. Many people come here to start a program of fitness. Occasionally, we get someone who is seasoned, but not making the progress they want. They’re pushing it to the limit, but instead of getting fitter, they seem to lose muscle and endurance. I immediately recognized that as one of the signs they are working out too much.

It doesn’t happen very often, but you can push too hard.

Every vocation and advocation has people who are overachievers. That’s a great quality, but when they’re trying to get fitter, it can work against you and slow progress to your goals. Your muscles need time to rest and repair after an intense workout. Strength training causes microtears in muscles. They heal to create mini scars that build muscle and strength. For strength training, that repair takes 48-72 hours. The more intense the workout, the longer the repair time. Give it time to heal instead of constantly re-tearing the muscle.

Your body will constantly fight to repair itself and that causes stress.

Not only will your progress slow or even reverse, but over-exercising can leave your body in a constant state of stress. Stress can affect your immune system. It leaves you more prone to colds, flu, and other illnesses. Exercise normally burns off stress hormones, but if it’s too strenuous, too frequent, or too long, it can cause more stress. During muscle repair, your immune system isn’t as efficient. It may take as long as 72 hours to get it back to normal after an intense workout. If you do intense workouts daily, you won’t have time to recover and are more prone to illness.

Several other signs may appear if you over-exercise.

Mood swings can be an obvious sign of someone over-exercising. It can cause anxiety, irritability, confusion, anger, and depression. Over-exercising can also cause chronic fatigue and delayed recovery time. If you aren’t recovering as quickly as usual or feel exhausted following a workout when you used to feel great, you might be pushing yourself too hard.

• Instead of hitting the gym every day, workout two to three days a week and do recovery exercises like moderate walking on the other days. If it’s continued for a while, cut back on all activities and rest.
• Get more rest. Your body heals when you sleep. Too much exertion can affect your sleep pattern negatively. Insomnia is another sign of too much exercise. Muscle loss, belly fat accumulation, and decreased thyroid output are also signs.
• Track your resting heart rate. A high resting heart rate indicates you’re over-exercising. If you’re fit, it should be between 40-60 bpm. If it jumps to 75 bpm or higher, it’s time to take a break.
• If you do strength training daily, alternate between upper, lower, and core muscles. We can help you with a program that works you to your maximum potential but never too hard.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Mindset

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The Best Outdoor Exercise For Fall

Published by superadmin on November 25, 2023 | Leave a response

Getting outdoor exercise in Sacramento, CA, in the fall can be extremely pleasant. The weather is cooler and it isn’t the rainy season yet, although the winter fog season has started. It’s the perfect time to get out in nature and enjoy the changing of colors and beauty. Capitol Park is an excellent place to start. Take a walk and enjoy the history of this 40-acre area. Each section has a story to tell. You’ll be getting fresh air and some sunshine before the clouds of winter bring rain.

Ride your bike or hike the trails of a park.

Lake Natoma is a good place to pedal your way to health and absorb the inspiration that such beauty holds. It offers both hiking and biking paths. You’ll see a vivid display of color from the changing leaves as you pedal through the park. The background of the peaceful lake adds to the scenery. Pack a healthy lunch and enjoy the day with your family or friends. The relaxation and exercise from the hike or ride provide the perfect combination for good health.

Pick your snacks and get more exercise.

Visit the apple orchards at Apple Hill. Apple Hill is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains foothills and offers pumpkin patches, vineyards, and apple orchards. You can pick your apples straight off the trees in the orchard. The walking, picking, and carrying the bag provides exercise. If you’re just starting your fitness regimen or plan on picking several bags of apples, find an orchard that provides wagons for those who need them. If you have young children, it’s a good idea to have a wagon to transport them when they’re tired.

Halloween may be over, but a walk in a spooky area is always in season.

Going to Old Sacramento is always fun, but when you make your main destination the Haunted Fort in Old Sacramento, you’ll get a chance to learn history, while enjoying a few spooky stories. The fort is in the State Historic Park. It’s been around since the early 1900s and was a military base during the gold rush days. There are many legends surrounding the fort. You’ll learn those and other interesting, yet spooky, facts taking a walking tour. There are even tunnels under the fort that will give you goosebumps. Put on your running shoes—just in case!

• If you want to test your endurance, sign up for the Apple Hill Harvest Run. It’s a 3.6-mile run across the beautiful countryside with tasty rewards for those who finish.
• Take your exercise outside. Instead of working out inside, find a place outside where you can do your exercises and breathe in the fresh air as you do. You’ll also do some grounding if the area has grass and you exercise barefoot.
• Exercising outside can help reverse mental burnout and bring stress relief. It doesn’t matter whether you’re riding a bike, walking, or doing calisthenics. Jumping rope is an activity for inside or outside that will increase your heart rate and get you into shape quickly.
• If Rover is getting pudgy, take him for a run with you. Walking and running your dog helps you both burn calories and get into shape. If Rover hasn’t been on long walks for a while, start him off easy, and the same goes for you.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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Treats You Can Have In Moderation

Published by superadmin on November 10, 2023 | Leave a response

Holidays and delicious treats go together. It’s part of Americana. Learning the treats you can have in moderation that won’t break the calorie budget can be a real benefit during holiday time. It lets you make the smartest decisions when you choose your food, especially if you’re going to splurge a little. Choose treats with portion sizes that keep the calorie count to 100-200 calories. Even if you ate one daily, it may slow weight loss efforts, but won’t stop progress completely.

Who says treats can’t be healthy?

When you think of treats, you usually think of sugary snacks made from processed white flour. That isn’t always the case. Some treats can be healthy options, but ones that add a few additional calories. Cooked-then chilled—baby asparagus with lemon butter dipping sauce is one of those examples. If you go heavy on the lemon and light on the butter, lemon-butter asparagus easily fits into your healthy eating plan. Another healthy option is fresh veggies and dip. Make a lower-calorie dip and you can make this treat a daily option.

Nuts may be higher in calories, but they’re filling and healthy options.

It’s easy to misjudge the amount of nuts you eat and why packing them in individual serving sizes is best. A bag of nuts may contain 16 ounces. If you only eat a one ounce serving, you’ll consume approximately 200 calories. What if you ate the whole bag or even half the bag? It’s easy to do. You’d consume between 1600 and 3200 calories, enough for two days’ worth of meals. Divide the bag into serving sizes and put those in individual plastic bags.

Fruit, nuts, and veggies are okay, but what if you miss cake?

Knowledge is king when it comes to eating healthy. Angel cake is truly an angel to dieters. Slice a 12-ounce angel cake into twelve servings. Each one is just 72 calories. You can make it even more special by slicing strawberries on top and putting two tablespoons of aerosol whipped topping on it. Eight large, sliced strawberries are 66 calories, and 2-T of aerosol topping is 20 calories.

• Make trail mix and bag it in 100-200 calorie serving sizes. You can include dried fruit, nuts, pretzels, popcorn, and even bits of semi-sweet chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is high in cacao and low in sugar.
• Microwave popcorn is another safe treat you can eat in moderation. Make it yourself by putting 1 ½ T of popcorn in a microwavable bowl with a loose lid. Three cups are just 72 calories. Spice it up with popcorn toppings.
• Make a healthy parfait. Put a layer of plain Greek yogurt, fresh or frozen fruit, and a half banana. Top with another layer of yogurt and a handful of nuts. Put the lid on it and store it in the refrigerator for snacks. It’s approximately 120 calories.
• Melt dark chocolate bits or a chocolate square high in cacao in the microwave and dip fresh strawberries. You can even freeze a half banana on a stick for dipping.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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How To Stay Healthy As A Busy Mom

Published by superadmin on October 25, 2023 | Leave a response

Busy moms fail to take care of themselves. They focus all their energy on keeping their family healthy and happy and fail to take care of themselves. If you aren’t healthy, who is going to take care of your family? It’s one reason many women get help at Innovative Strength and Conditioning in Sacramento, CA. They provide a program that includes both diet and exercise, plus coaching that helps keep you on track. People of all fitness levels benefit, whether they’re a beginner focusing on the basics or seasoned athlete who wants a better performance.

It’s not selfish to take care of yourself.

Moms often feel that doing something for themselves is selfish. The opposite is true. If you don’t take care of your health, someone has to take care of you. Eating nutritious meals and exercising regularly can boost your energy level, so you’ll get work done quicker and have time to enjoy yourself with your family. Besides taking time to exercise and focusing on healthy meals, moms also need to get adequate sleep. It’s not noble to burn the candle at both ends. It makes you less effective and crankier. When you do the things to keep you healthy, you’ll get more done in less time and be less prone to making errors.

Learn how to be healthier and teach your children.

Staying healthy sets a good example for your children. Kids learn what they live. If you stay active and eat healthy meals, it becomes part of your child’s life. You can even involve kids in active play and get them away from the computer. Nothing makes memories quicker than fun playing ball, hiking, or doing other active things with the family. Serving healthy meals increases their chances of eating healthy.

Find a time to work out regularly.

You might think there’s no time to exercise, but when you look for a time in your schedule, you’ll probably find it. Maybe you have to get up early before your family gets up. If your kids are school age, wake them up and have them join you or exercise together in the evening, before supper. Put exercise on your calendar and treat it like you would any appointment. Call it your health appointment to make it more important in your mind. Staying healthy is mandatory, not an option.

• Get more from your workout in less time. Circuit training, kettlebell training, and HIIT—high intensity interval training—get maximum results in less time. The higher the intensity, the less time needed.
• You’ll have more energy to deal with problems and be less likely to respond with “less than adult” behavior in tense situations and more likely to show grace under pressure.
• Always keep healthy snacks available. Have fruit, vegetables, and nuts ready to eat to avoid the temptation of junk food. Have water in the refrigerator instead of soft drinks, juices, or sugary drinks.
• If you can’t carve out time for a full workout, carve out several 10-15 minute sessions throughout the day. Walk your kids to school to get in extra steps or exercise while watching TV with the family.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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How Alcohol Causes Weight Gain

Published by superadmin on October 10, 2023 | Leave a response

If you’ve noticed you’ve put on a few extra pounds, but you’re eating healthy and working out regularly, maybe there’s another reason besides diet and activity level causing it. Are you having a few drinks containing alcohol to wind down when your day is done? That regular consumption of alcohol may be the cause of your weight gain. It’s more than just about the calories it contains. It’s about how the body digests the alcohol.

Yes, some alcoholic drinks offer benefits, but don’t let that fool you.

A glass of red wine may provide some health benefits from the resveratrol it contains, but you can get those same benefits from drinking grape juice, or better yet, eating grapes. One study focused on moderate drinking compared to those who abstained. One drink or less a day for women and two drinks a day or less for men is moderate alcohol consumption. They found drinking in moderation reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia. While it may provide health benefits, so do other foods and drinks that don’t cause weight gain.

Consuming alcohol slows the fat-burning process.

When you drink, your body burns off the alcohol first, before it starts on the energy from other food. That causes a problem with how the body uses glucagon. Glucagon works the opposite way insulin does. It helps prevent blood sugar from being too low and increases blood sugar levels. It also burns off fat. Your body processes glucagon first to eliminate it from the body, just like any toxin. When it’s doing that, it ceases other functions, such as burning fat. Digesting alcohol spikes blood sugar levels, which also means they drop dramatically. That leaves you ravenous, even though the drink may have contained several hundred calories.

Like sugary products, most alcoholic drinks contain empty calories.

If you consume empty calories, you only get energy without other nutrients. The body focuses on burning the alcohol first, so the calories from other food are stored as fat. If you’re a female with low estrogen levels, those calories are stored as fat around the midsection—belly fat—due to an enzyme called Aldhlal—Aldehyde Dehydrogenase lAl.

• Drinking alcohol can stimulate the appetite. One study compared people who had an alcoholic drink before dinner to those who had a soft drink. Those who drank alcohol ate more than those that didn’t.
• Even if you drink moderately, if you do it regularly, the alcohol still spikes your blood sugar levels, which can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. Insulin resistance makes weight loss more difficult.
• Consuming alcohol can reduce metabolism by making it more difficult to build muscles. It reduces the body’s testosterone levels. The lower the testosterone levels, the more difficult it is to build muscle tissue.
• Each gram of alcohol has two times the calories of protein and more than most carbohydrates. It’s slightly less than fat, but still very close to it with fat containing 9 calories per gram and alcohol containing 7 calories per gram.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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Hormones, Health And Behavior

Published by superadmin on September 25, 2023 | Leave a response

When people hear the word hormones, they think of sex hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone, but hormones do more than just control sexual development and function. Some play a vital role in good health and some hormones affect behavior, mood, and cognitive functioning. Hormones may make you overeat. Ghrelin is a hormone that makes you hungry, while leptin makes you feel full. Lack of sleep can increase the hormone ghrelin and reduce the production of leptin, making weight gain more probable.

Insulin is one of the best-known hormones, next to sex hormones.

When the body doesn’t produce any insulin, you have type 1 diabetes. Too much insulin is also bad. The body can develop insulin resistance that can turn into type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, the body can’t produce enough to open the cells to uptake glucose from the bloodstream and use it for energy in both situations, lack of glucose causes cell damage and death. It can cause damage to all parts of the body.

An overproduction of stress hormones can create physical and emotional issues.

Cortisol is one of the better-known stress hormones. The adrenal glands create it. It gets the body prepared to run or fight. When you do either one, it burns off the effects of cortisol. You need stress hormones to survive, especially if you face a life-threatening experience, but not all stressful situations are life-threatening. Traffic jams, angry bosses, and crying babies certainly aren’t, yet they cause stress. If you don’t burn cortisol or other stress hormones, it can create anxiety and even depression.

Hormones play a role in almost all functions that affect your physical and mental well-being.

Adequate sleep is necessary to avoid irritability, mood swings, weight gain, and poor memory. Serotonin helps you get that sleep. Some hormones affect where you store fat. Sex hormones and cortisol are two of those. HGH—human growth hormone—is called the “fountain of youth” hormone. It helps build muscles and affects fat metabolism, and body composition. There’s no evidence it turns back time for your body, but people still buy HGH tablets, even though stomach acid destroys it. The best way to boost the body’s HGH is through exercise, particularly HIIT—high intensity interval training.

• What other hormones can affect your mood and behavior? Dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine, and of course serotonin all do. Low levels of serotonin are linked to depression and dopamine is known as the happy hormone because it makes you feel good.
• High levels of testosterone can make you aggressive and angry. High levels of estrogen can make you irritable. When your sex hormones are out of balance it affects your mental and physical health.
• Exercise and a healthy diet can help keep hormones regulated. Exercise helps you sleep better, to keep ghrelin and leptin in check. It also burns off the hormones of stress. A healthy diet can help prevent problems with insulin.
• Your thyroid gland creates hormones that help you stabilize weight gain or weight loss. If it’s not producing enough, it can cause weight gain, dry skin, fatigue, and hair loss. Too much can cause hyperthyroidism with heart palpitations, weight loss, and other symptoms.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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Are You Wasting Your Time With Cardio?

Published by superadmin on September 10, 2023 | Leave a response

Don’t stop doing cardio if you’re already doing it. It’s vital for good health. However, if running through the streets of Sacramento, CA, is the only exercise you’re doing, increasing it without adding other forms of exercise is wasting your time. There is also such a thing as too much cardio, just as there is too much strength-building. If you aren’t doing other types of exercise, you’re not doing your body a favor. Even if you’re doing all four types of fitness workouts, balance, flexibility, strength, and cardio, doing it too much each day and not giving your body a chance to rest is counterproductive.

Cardio burns tons of calories.

That sounds fantastic, but there’s one fact missing. Cardio gets calories from both lean muscle tissue and fat tissue. When you burn lean muscle tissue, it can make weight loss harder. Muscle tissue requires more calories than fat tissue does. The more you have, the more calories you burn 24/7, even when you’re sleeping. Since cardio burns both fat and lean muscle mass for calories, you’ll have less muscle mass. That makes weight loss harder.

Strength training is a calorie torch, too.

Just like cardio, strength training torches calories. The biggest difference is it also builds muscle tissue instead of tearing it down for energy. That can help boost your metabolism. One way to get the benefits of both is to change your strength-building workout into a HIIT workout. HIIT—high intensity interval training—uses any type of exercise but alternates it between high intensity and a recovery pace. Doing bodyweight, dumbbell, or kettlebell exercises in this manner provides the best of all worlds.

Don’t quit cardio, it does provide benefits.

Yes, cardio does burn calories, but you also need it for other reasons. It builds endurance, improves heart function, and helps lower blood pressure. Cardio also improves brain functioning, reduces stress, and diminishes the risk of dementia. It helps control blood glucose levels to reduce the risk of diabetes. It also improves lung capacity and reduces the risk of heart attack.

• Both strength training and cardio burn calories while you’re doing it. Intense cardio and strength training also burns calories for up to 72 hours after exercising ends. It’s called EPOC pr afterburn.
• Cardio trains the body to be more efficient so it burns the fewest calories possible. It’s vital for heart health, so continue it, but not necessarily the best for weight loss.
• Cardio is best for accomplishing two goals, burning off stress hormones and improving sleep. Both can help you lose weight. Cortisol, a hormone of stress, causes belly fat. Adequate sleep lowers the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone.
• If you live a sedentary lifestyle, walking, a form of cardio, can help you get on track to good health. Doing something is better than doing nothing, but you’ll maximize benefits with a well-rounded program is vital.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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What Vitamins Are Vegans Missing From Their Diets?

Published by superadmin on August 25, 2023 | Leave a response

If you’ve decided to follow a vegan diet, you’re like many people in Sacramento, CA. It takes both dedication and planning. If you don’t plan carefully, vitamins and other nutrients could be missing from your diet. Vegans use no animal products, so they have to find plant sources for protein. It’s one of the reasons planning is so important. Getting all the necessary vitamins is another problem requiring some navigation.

While the sun can provide vitamin D, many vegans still have a deficit.

You don’t have to be vegan to have a vitamin D deficiency. It’s harder to get adequate sun in Sacramento in the winter than in the southern part of the state. Safe sunning can provide vitamin D in the summer, but it’s different in winter. People must turn to food. Most sources of vitamin D have animal origins, so consuming fortified foods or shitake mushrooms is mandatory. Vitamin D activates calcium for strong bones and teeth. It improves the immune response and can help keep you healthy.

One of the biggest problems faced by vegans is consuming adequate vitamin B12=cobalamin.

Animal products provide vitamin B12. It’s necessary for nerve, muscle, and heart health. It’s vital for metabolism as well. Many vegans have a B12 insufficiency. It’s not found in traditional vegan food sources. Algae, like humans, also need B12 and they get it from their environment. Not all types of algae offer that benefit. Chlorella is one type of algae that is the best source of this nutrient. While other types of algae, such as spirulina, contain a form of B12, it’s a pseudo-cobalamin that humans can’t use.

Other nutrients often missing from vegan diets include collagen.

Collagen is necessary for nails, ligaments, hair, and skin. It comes from animal products. A vegan source is now being created in the lab. It starts with genetically modified bacteria and yeast. Scientists then insert four human genes into the microbe’s genetic structure. That causes them to produce the basic building blocks of human collagen. A digestive enzyme, pepsin, is added to create collagen molecules that mimic human collagen. Taking vegan amino acid supplements or consuming food high in the building blocks of collagen, glycine, lysine, and proline, such as beans, seeds, and nuts, also help boost collagen.

• Eat chia seeds, walnuts, and flaxseed to increase omega-3 fatty acids. Most of the population, not just vegans, have a diet too high in omega-6 and too low in omega-3.
• When planning a vegan diet, ensure it includes adequate levels of zinc, selenium, iodine, and iron. Iodized salt can bring iodine levels to normal. Eating nuts, peas, spinach, and beans helps provide iron.
• Calcium is easy to access when dairy is part of the diet. It’s more difficult for vegans. The calcium in many vegan calcium sources is less bioavailable. Only ¼ the calcium in spinach is available for absorption because of the oxalate that binds to the calcium.
• Vitamin B2 is necessary for changing food to energy. If you’re a vegan, you can get it from spinach, nuts, and mushrooms, but it’s easier to get from animal sources.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition

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The Scale Weight Isn’t The Only Measurement You Need

Published by superadmin on August 10, 2023 | Leave a response

Whether your scale intimidates you or you weigh yourself fifteen times a day, you need to change the way you judge your progress. The scale isn’t the only measurement tool. Other ways might be better for you to use. It all depends on your goals. If you’re getting fit to be healthier, use your vital numbers, like blood pressure, heart rate, and blood glucose levels. There are several ways to judge whether you’re getting leaner that are far better than watching the scale numbers rise or lower.

Sometimes, the scale lies.

A lot of things can make your weight fluctuate. Water retention is probably the best known. If you’re weighing yourself several times a day, or even several times a week, you won’t get a clear picture of your progress. Instead, once a week take measurements. Measurements can tell you if you’re shedding fat and building muscle tissue. Since muscle weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, if you’re building muscle and losing fat, it might not show on the scale. It will show in your measurements. You’ll look thinner even if you don’t shed one pound.

Make a visual representation of your weight loss journey.

When you start a weight loss program, take a photo of yourself in revealing clothing, like a swimsuit or tight gym shorts and sports bra. Once or twice a month, in the same spot so you get the same perspective and take another picture. Most phones allow you to add a date and time stamp or note the date in the information section. At the end of several months, compare the pictures to compare the difference. You can even show off a bit and post them on social media.

Let your waist circumference tell the story.

Most people who want to lose weight carry it around their midsection. The body has two types of fat, subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat is directly under the skin and covers the entire body. Visceral fat is primarily on the midsection. It’s the most dangerous type of fat. It crowds the organs and is a factor in many health conditions. A waist measurement can help identify how much visceral fat you still have. It’s the hardest to lose, so if you’re losing visceral fat around the middle, you’re losing it all over your body.

• Weighing yourself too often can discourage you, especially if you’re building muscle and don’t see the weight loss you hoped to achieve. Even if you weigh yourself, track your progress in other ways, too.
• Use your favorite skinny jeans to track your weight. If you can’t zip them without laying on the bed or zip them at all, try them on once a week and record how comfortably they fit.
• Taking measurements can help you if you’re trying to build muscle. You can judge your muscle mass by measuring your biceps, chest, calves, and thighs.
• Change is slow and you can get easily discouraged in the initial stages of your transformation. Since your energy level changes first, before you see any physical changes, focus on that and note the differences.

For more information, contact us today at Team-ISC

Posted in Fitness, Mindset

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