1: Have A Goal! If you don’t know where you are going, how are you going to get there! this goal needs to be something that you actually want. There are going to be times when you are tired or feeling lazy or “busy”. You need to have a REASON/GOAL that is motivating you get after it every day!

2: Get A Game Plan! Do you think that Coach Peyton of the New Orleans Saints walks into his games on Sunday and says “Ok guys, what are we going to do today?” Come one, Get your mind right! He knows what he’s doing and so do all his players. So get a game plan! And then it makes it 10x easier to execute that plan when you get into the gym!

3: Use the Buddy System! Did you know that you are 3x more likely to succeed when you have a friend working out with you? What?! That’s right, 3 TIMES! So get a friend and motivate each other to come to the gym!

By doing these 3 simple things you’ll be motivated and reach the RESULTS you deserve.

RJ Rice – PT Director

1: Set a Goal: Make a plan and set a goal that will keep you on track.

2: Mix up your Exercise Program: To improve your overall fitness, have a variety of workouts to keep your body “guessing”.

3: Stay Hydrated: Keeping your body hydrated will help you perform at the best level.

4: Don’t use Exercise as an Excuse: Exercise is just a part of a healthy lifestyle. Don’t use it as an excuse to eat badly, go to bed late, or damage your body in other ways.

5: Don’t overdo Aerobic Exercise: If losing weight is your goal more interval training is what you need.

6: Get Plenty of Rest: Whether it is interval training or aerobic exercise take time to recover. Your body needs time for recovery so that it can be stronger.

7: Don’t Skip post Workout Meals: Though you may not be hungry after an intense workout, it’s important to eat something healthy with a good mix of protein and carbs.

8: Include Strength Training in your Workout: Don’t just go all Cardio. Weightlifting is a great way to build strength and lose weight.

9: Don’t Forget to Stretch: include some posture-correcting and stretching exercises in your routines. This is also one of the best ways to prevent injury.

10: Get your Friends and Family involved: Having people to workout with will keep you motivated and will make Fitness FUN in 2012.

Many people begin a fitness program to meet certain goals and immediately drop the program as soon as those goals are met, or burn out quickly without accomplishing their goals. How do we keep exercising through the tough times or create the consistency that’s necessary for the level of health we desire? These three guidelines will help you develop a lifetime fitness lifestyle:

1. Choose the right reasons. If you’re exercising to lose weight, that’s great. But if your reasons don’t change, you’ll likely stop exercising as soon as you hit your goal. Exercise because you love the way it feels to get up and move, because working out makes you feel better about yourself, or because you know you’re good at it: you’ll have a much stronger chance of continuing your workout program for the rest of your life.
2. Exercise for you. Much as your mom, dad, personal trainer, professor, or the cute guy or girl at the water cooler might give you the push to start exercising, eventually the burden of motivation needs to fall on you. In fact, being motivated by others often leads to resentment or demotivation. Exercise because it feels good: exercise because you deserve good health.
3. Add the social element. Without leaning on others for motivation, get a running buddy or someone to spot you at the gym. Take a class, join a league team, or just find someone to get up and out with you in the mornings. And then, have the courage to keep on the path even if others around you don’t.

No matter where you’re at, it’s fundamentally important to get started. Every time you come into the fitness center, your lifetime health habits improve.

Running a marathon is one of the most rewarding endeavors in fitness. But if you train incorrectly, it can be a perfectly miserable experience. If you can’t run a mile today and intend to run a marathon in three months, now is the time to redesign your plan. Follow these three steps to train smarter:

1. Give it some time. If this is your first long race, give yourself 4-6 months to train before the race. Training too fast is a recipe for burn-out. After all, it’s not a sprint – it’s a marathon.
2. Taper. It may seem logical to simply run a little farther each day, but don’t fall for it! First, your body will adapt better if you run different distances on different days of the week. Designate one week-day for long runs, two for middle distance runs, and two for short, fast runs. Your body will thank you, your fitness will improve globally, and you’ll perform better on race day.
3. Eat right. You may have heard of runners “bonking” or “hitting the wall” during a race – suddenly losing all energy and focus midway through the race. This occurs because a runner’s muscular glycogen stores run out when under constant duress. It’s important to consume lots of complex carbohydrates while training to build up glycogen stores. Cut back on simple sugars, and eat like your mom taught you to.

It never hurts to get the experts on your side. Many of our personal trainers are marathoners themselves – stop into a Riviera gym to get the skinny on marathon training from a pro.

1. Start small. If your wedding is coming up in two months and you’d like to walk up the aisle
   looking like Rambo, that’s fine (just don’t injure yourself). The best thing, however, is to create a
   lifetime habit of anaerobic health. It’s healthy to take small steps every single day – consistency
   is key! According to many psychologists, it takes twenty-one days to make a habit: make sure
   your daily fitness goals are reasonable enough that you’ll be able to make it through those first
   three weeks.
2. Determine your goals. Do you want to focus on a particular area? Are you most concerned with
   strengthening your core? If you want to improve your tone and endurance while maintaining a
   lean physique, you’ll want to focus on doing more reps with less weight. However, if you want to
   bulk up, you’ll want to do fewer reps with more weight. Ask one of our personal training experts
   to help you draw up a plan to create the body you’ve always wanted for yourself.
3. Get help on your side. Muscular training can be dangerous business – torn muscles, tendons,
   and worse are common occurrences among those who aren’t careful. The personal trainers at
   your gym will help prevent injury while providing encouragement and showing you the smart
   way to exercise.

Yoga has become one of the United States’ most popular exercise methods. It has been praised for its physical, mental, and emotional benefits. But where does it come from? And does it really work? See for yourself:

The History of Yoga

The Sanskrit word “yoga” literally means “yoke” or “harness.” A yoke is necessary to make use of horses or oxen – it helps people to guide and discipline the animals. Similarly, the practice of yoga was meant to help its practitioners make use of their bodies and minds to obtain a higher truth. Originally, the practice of yoga consisted in meditation while in the seated position. As early as 600AD, however, Hatha Yoga emerged, which encouraged mediation using a variety of different positions.

Yoga became well known in the west when American interest in eastern spirituality reached its peak in the 1960s. Dean Ornish helped Yoga on its path to even greater popularity in the 1980s by connecting it to heart health. Hatha Yoga is by far the most popular type, espousing the use of a wide variety of asanas for the purification of both the body and mind.

Does it work?

Worldwide, experts have extolled the physical and mental benefits of the practice of yoga. Yoga has been instrumental for cancer patients in decreasing depression, insomnia, pain, and fatigue. Yoga has been shown to improve cognitive function and reduce stress. Studies indicate that yoga may enhance cardiac rehabilitation in heart patients and bring down high blood pressure. Yoga can improve musculoskeletal and mental health and even mitigate the symptoms of asthma!

For more information, or to add yoga to your fitness routine today, visit your nearest Riviera fitness center.

1. Exercise slows the rate of cognitive decline in aging adults. According to the senior author of
   the study, “If an inactive 70-year-old is heading toward dementia at 50 miles per hour, by the
   time she’s 75 or 76, she’s speeding there at 75 miles per hour. But the active 76-year-olds in
   our study moved toward dementia at more like 50 miles per hour.” That means that, while
   sedentary adults start losing mental function rapidly with age, active adults remember much
   better from year to year.
2. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous to be effective. Just as little activity as walking can be
   powerful in maintaining the sharp mind and memory necessary for a high quality of life. This is
   good news for those of us intimidated by intense exercise: a little bit of work each day goes a
   long way.
3. Muscular activity, such as lifting weights, tends to be more efficacious than aerobic activity.
   Both are still fundamental to a healthy lifestyle, but weight-lifters at the gym tend to have just
   slightly higher cognitive function than those who restrict themselves to an anaerobic workout.

1. Drink up! Often, the feeling of hunger is just a sign of thirst. According to a study by Cornell University, 75% of Americans suffer from chronic dehydration, and in at least 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is mistaken as hunger. You should be drinking at least half a gallon of water throughout each day.
2. Focus on protein. The fuller you feel, the less your cravings kick in. Fortunately, there is a way to feel full faster. Eating protein will give you a feeling of satiety faster than eating carbs or fat (but that doesn’t mean you should cut out carbs and fat completely). And proteins aren’t just in meat, either: beans, nuts, peas, spinach, and broccoli are all great protein sources as well.
3. Make the switch. Craving is a function of habit: by eating something healthy on a regular basis rather than your problem food of choice, you’ll actually begin craving the healthier food in its stead.

For more diet tips and to start on your fitness journey, check out your nearest Riviera fitness center.

“I AM SOOOOOO STRESSED OUT!!!”  Have you ever thought this or are you currently thinking this right now?  In today’s society, stress is coming into our lives whether we like it or not.  Here are five ways to help you rid yourself of bad stress… 

1- Stop, Drop and Roll- You can do this while on fire but also when you are under stress. What I mean is Foam Roll and Stretch.  A foam roller costs $20 and it will be one of the best investments you have ever made.  Stay tuned to our Facebook and Youtube pages for techniques on Foam rolling and stretching.

2- Breathing Exercises- This is pretty simple, breathe DEEPLY! But if you want to make it a little more complicated/fun then try this one. Count to ten as you breathe in, hold your breath while counting to ten and then count to ten while blowing out. Do this ten times and you’ll start calling me Dr. StressNoMore.

3- Meditate- If you’ve never sat by yourself in complete silence and thought about nothing, you are really missing out on an exciting time! This will allow you to clear your head.  Start with 5 minutes a day and see where it takes you.

4- Circle of Concern vs. Circle of Influence. Stop worrying about things that you can’t control! No, stop it right now! I’m serious! STOP! Take a second and think about the things that you worry about. If you can’t control it, then stop worrying about it! Examples: weather, plane flight delays, traffic, and so many other things!  Like I said, if you can’t INFLUENCE it then don’t CONCERN yourself with it.

5- Exercise- What type of PT Director would I be if I didn’t mention exercise every time I write something down?! This is one of those forms of GOOD stress that can help rid the BAD stress. 

So get your mind right with these five great techniques.  If you aren’t hanging out with the Dalai Lama by the end of the day, you did something wrong.

RJ Rice

Director of Personal Training

1. Calorie Counter by FatSecret: not sure how many calories you just ate? How about how many
   you just burned? It’s easier to work toward your fitness goals if you know your exact caloric
   balance at the end of each day. The Calorie Counter will also help you determine how many
   calories you should be shooting for.
2. “The Daily”: this video app serves up a new exercise to try out each day so you don’t have to do
   the same workout over and over.
3. miCoach: A more built-out workout planner, miCoach allows you to input your fitness goals,
   then spits out a workout plan that should work well for you. One feature we like especially well?
   It tracks your shoe usage so you can know when it’s time to buy a new pair!
4. Nike Boom: Designed specifically for sports training, Nike Boom focuses on providing you with
   exercises to help you become the best you can be in your sport of choice.

Don’t try to go it alone when trying to get fit. For fitness training and sustained motivation, check out
your local Riviera fitness center or gym today.