5 Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

1. Don't eat just because it is there (and free!)
The functions over the holidays usually have a focus on food – and plenty of it. Drink plenty of water and have a large meal before you attend, and you will be less likely to snack. If and when you do snack, put food items on a plate so you can see exactly how much you are consuming, rather than just picking up items arbitrarily.

2. Keep up your regular fitness routine.
Or at least some form of it. If time becomes scarce as we venture deeper into the holidays and your fitness time decreases, increase the intensity of the workout. Incorporate a fast-paced, high intensity 30 minute circuit with weights and cardio rather than long, drawn-out cardio session. www.acaintraining,.com is offering 30 minute Holiday Express Exercise for $25 from December 1- December 30 (one-on-one or two-on-one). Contact for more details

3. Don't hold off on your goals until the New Year.
Don't overindulge with the idea that you will resolution yourself back to fitness.

 

4. Choose your alcoholic beverages wisely.
2-3 drinks have the potential to completely waste your workouts as they are high in calories. Avoid binging, or choose lighter drinks such as spritzers, vodka with diet drinks or even water and lemon.

5. Exercise at home
Incorporate body resistance exercises, outdoor running/walking or other physical activities you can do in your home if you cannot make it to the gym. See posts below for ideas.

 

Plan ahead, make healthy decisions and enjoy your holiday season!

Alli Cain, B.A.Kin, C.K.
Personal Trainer
www.ACAINtraining.com
905-806-7198

Sedentary lifestyles and associated muscle imbalances.

Your job requires you to sit in a chair all day, probably stare at a computer screen, or maybe talk on the phone for extended periods of time. You might get up, go to a meeting, take the elevator down to grab some food and then position your butt right back in that great groove you've worked so hard on. You then get up after an 8-hour day (if you're lucky) and sit in your car on the 45 minute commute home.

 

Is this you? If it is, I bet you complain of aching hips and tight hamstrings and here's why.

In order to sit down in a chair, your hamstrings must shorten in length. Even when sitting with good posture (shoulders back, head up) your hamstrings remain in this shortened position. In a day when professionals are sitting at their desks for hour on end, this can lead to chronic tight hamstrings.

 

In this sitting position, the hip flexors remain in a flexed position – causing associated problems as well. A hip that is constantly flexed, and hamstring that is constantly shortened can lead to all sorts of problems, and the one that you feel most – which is pain and lack of range of motion.

 

The main extensor of the hip is the gluteus muscles, the strongest muscle in the body. Weak glutes cause the secondary mover, the hamstrings to become the prime mover of the hips. Here is where the problem lies, as the already tight hamstrings are not designed to perform this load of work leading to more problems.

 

Ways to counteract these muscle imbalances:

·      Strength training

·      Stretching

·      Frequent moving and

·      changing positions when sitting
Going for a short walk throughout the day

·      Doing anything that builds strength:
- stairs instead of elevator
- walk instead of drive

 

Contact me if you would

like more information

Alli Cain, B.A.Kin, C.K.
Personal Trainer
www.ACAINtraining.com
905-806-7198