Fitness For Freedom Tips

Today's question is in from Debbie: How can I make exercise fun?

This might be our most passionate episode yet.

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Here's the deal, you want a stronger core. How do I know this, because every time I ask someone if they want a stronger core they say 'yes'. In fact, I've never heard any one say, 'No, my core is strong enough I don't need to strengthen it anymore.' All that to be said most people only target their Rectus Abdominis which is their '6 pack' muscle. I know a '6 pack' is important to many of you, but if you're really interested in a '6 pack' go back and listen to any of our episodes that have to do with nutrition and weight loss, because that's where the '6 pack' magic happens. But if you want a strong core, one that keeps your back stable and gives you power to do the things you love, like pick your kids up and down off the ground, swing a golf club or carry heavy boxes from your car to the garage you need to listen to this episode because you're going to learn something new about training your core.

Safe Core Exercises

Exercises in Case You Have Hurt Your Lower Back

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There's this type of martial arts training called Iron Vest Training. Iron Vest Training is this training where you get beaten with a small stick or piece of wicker until your body starts to become bruised and bloodied. Then you let your body heal and once you're healed you get beaten with a slightly larger stick until you become bruised and bloody. Then you let your body heal again and you go back and you get beaten with an even bigger stick until your bruised and bloody. You keep doing this over and over again until your body starts to adapt and eventually the smaller sticks no longer leave you bruised and bloodied, but you continue to get hit with bigger and bigger sticks. Over time you build up such a big tolerance that even the big sticks no longer leave bruises or make you bloodied and it is at this point you obtain iron vest status where your body can actually withstand huge amounts of pressure and force without becoming injured and hardly feeling pain. The purpose of exercise is to do the exact same thing to your body, to break it down a little bit and let it heal back up and then break it down little bit more and then let it heal back up and then eventually your body becomes a machine that is incredibly difficult to break down, where you can now do workouts that used to make you vomit, without much effort at all, this is an episode about the exact opposite of that.

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Today's episode is a short one about the powerful and underrated benefits of walking and how one of my client's is noticing the impact of not doing it anymore, but she doesn't realize it. The lead character in this story is Roberta and of course this isn't her real name.

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Everyone wants to be one of the cool kids, a sexy protein that gets all of the attention, an energetic carbohydrate that bounces of the walls and the once shunned kid fat is finally coming into his own, now that he's better understood. But what about fiber? Fiber is that nerd at the high school party no one pays attention to, but ends up making millions of dollars after they graduate. So you should listen to him, when fiber grows up you want him on your side, because at the end of the day he's writing some pretty big cheques.

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Today's question is in from Sid: How well do push-ups carry over to bench press? Sid this is a great question because sometimes we want to improve our bench press, but we don't always have access to one. In this episode we're going to talk about how well your push-ups carry over as well how you can improve your bench press without actually doing it and by doing push ups instead. This will be a really good episode especially if you find regular push-ups are getting too easy and you don't necessarily have weights to move up to.

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Push-up Video

On The heels of the injury show I thought it would be a good idea to talk about balance, since one of the biggest reasons people injure themselves is through some form of falling, whether it's slipping on a wet surface, tripping over an uneven walkway or falling off a stool, all of these things can be prevented or at the very least the seriousness of them can be significantly reduced with proper balance and strength training. When most people think of balance they think of standing on 1 foot, which you can do and it will improve your balance, except there's more to it than that, because very rarely are you just standing on 1 foot when you fall. I mean when was the last time you said to yourself, 'hmmmm, I'm going to do this activity on one foot because that will make it easier.' The short answer is never, so standing on one foot can't be the only way you practice your balance. Usually you're moving or reaching which puts you in a precarious or awkward position that ultimately leads to a fall. Luckily you can train for that moment.

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Injuries suck, they make it hard for you to move, they make it painful to do things you love and they can impair your life like you wouldn't believe. When you're in pain it makes it hard to do anything, let alone exercise. Today we're going to talk about what you can do when you're injured and how you can continue to exercise to avoid becoming injured again. If you've ever had an injury or you're trying to get through an injury right now you need to listen to this episode.

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Warming-up is really important and in Episode 19 we talked about how to do it effectively for your exercise program, but we didn't talk about sports and recreational activities. It's probably more important to warm-up for recreational activities, because they are so multi dimensional, often you go from doing nothing to sprinting, jumping and changing direction quickly in short periods of time. Which is the best and easiest way to injure yourself, and since I know for a fact no one like's to get injured, we're going to go through how to decrease your chances of becoming injured in whatever recreational sport you like to do.

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There are 100's, if not thousands of ways you can workout and be active, but what makes a great workout, a great workout? Even the most fit and most active people can find themselves a little unmotivated form time to time, stick around so you can find out what floats your boat when you exercise, so you not only have a great workout but also a workout you will do.

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