It’s the end of the school year, and the hazy, lazy days of summer will be here before we know it. For athletes, summer often means less practices to attend. Without your teammates pushing you to achieve every day, it can be hard to stay in shape.
Unfortunately, when you stop exercising, you often start to lose a significant amount of the strength and endurance you trained so hard for all year. When you’re no longer training, you could start losing muscle mass and cardio endurance in as little as three weeks!
Now for the good news: there are simple steps you can take to make sure you stay in shape all summer long. Since athletic gains can so quickly be lost, here at Medford Fitness we’ve set up a special summer Sports Training Clinic just for teen athletes. Call today to reserve your spot, and check out a few more of our favorite ways to stay in shape:
Recruit a friend.
Working out in the summer doesn’t have to be a solitary activity. Exercise is healthy, but so is hanging out with friends. When you work out with a partner, you not only you enjoy each other’s company, but you can also hold each other accountable. In fact, one study conducted in 2016 found that people who exercise with a “gym buddy” exercise more than those who prefer to workout alone! If you own an Apple watch, you can even challenge each other through the watch’s built-in fitness app.
Reward yourself.
We get it: motivating yourself to hit the gym isn’t always easy, especially during the summer months. If motivation is a problem for you, think of a way to reward yourself for exercise. Members at Medford Fitness enjoy free WiFi, so if you prefer to build your reward into your gym time, you can use your smartphone, tablet, or the built-in screens on our treadmills to binge your favorite shows while you workout! You can even indulge in a tasty and healthy post-workout smoothie at the re:fresh Recovery Bar and Cafe located right inside Medford Fitness.
Hit the trails.
If you love summer sunshine, consider using the great outdoors to complete your cardio routine. Running, biking, and kayaking all allow you to increase your heart rate while enjoying the great outdoors at the same time. Bonus: even a short time spent outside can lead to serious benefits for your mood, memory, and even attention. After your cardio routine, make sure you work in some strength training, too. If you live close enough, you can even walk, jog, or bike to Medford Fitness and complete your resistance training here. Medford is the perfect place to enjoy nature!
Coach Tim Welsh, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) will head up an athletic performance training clinic this summer for athletes ages 12-18. During the six-week program, you’ll learn effective sprinting fundamentals, safe lifting techniques to increase speed, and even proper skills associated with your sport. The clinic will run on Monday’s from 6:00 – 6:45 or 7:00 – 7:45 from June 25th to July 30th, and space is limited. Call us today at (609) 654-1440 to reserve your spot!
Summer might be a time for relaxation, but it doesn’t have to be time wasted. Staying fit when school’s out can take as little as an hour or two each week of your time. When sports’ season starts again, you’ll thank yourself for staying so disciplined all year long.
Here in New Jersey, the blueberry season will be here before we know it. Their sweet flavor is only one reason to love blueberries. It turns out these juicy berries also provide some pretty sweet health benefits, too!
Add blueberries to your home smoothies or order a freshly made blueberry smoothie at the re:fresh Recovery Bar and Cafe inside Medford Fitness for these 5 health benefits:
1. Drink Your Antioxidants
Antioxidants help protect our bodies against oxidation and damage from free radicals. They can also fight inflammation in the body. Blueberries pack a powerful antioxidant punch, providing greater cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) than most other fruits and vegetables.
2. Lower Your Cholesterol
If you’re looking for an additional way to lower your cholesterol, blueberries can be a helpful addition to your diet. Consumption of blueberries may help decrease LDL cholesterol, which has been linked to heart disease.
3. Protect Your Heart
Blueberries contain flavonoids called ‘anthocyanins.’ Although anthocyanins have not been proven to affect cardiovascular health, some studies suggest they may help to prevent a heart attack.
4. Keep Your Blood Sugar Down
While factors like ripeness can affect a fruit’s sugar content, the glycemic index (GI) of blueberries is estimated to be around 53. Fruits and vegetables with a GI lower than 55 have a relatively small effect on blood glucose levels. The low glycemic load of blueberries may be of benefit to people suffering from Type 2 diabetes.
5. Stay Hydrated Post-Workout
After a workout, your body needs to refuel. Your post-workout routine should include adequate intake of water. Blueberries contain about 85% water, making them a refreshing way to hydrate your body.
Can Mindfulness Help Kids Thrive? Science Suggests It Can
Magazine covers and news reports tout the benefits of mindfulness for everything from easing chronic pain to improving work performance. Recent research suggests it might benefit kids, too. Could mindfulness help your child?
What Is Mindfulness, Exactly?
Mindfulness can be practiced through a variety of means, including meditation, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and yoga. A person practicing mindfulness will often use a physical focal point to center his or her self in the present moment. Usually, that center point is the breath.
Children’s natural propensity for physical activity has led some researchers to conclude that mindfulness-based programs that include a physical component (like yoga) may be more effective than sedentary mindfulness programs. Yoga may even be more effective than other forms of exercise for treating anger and depression in adolescents.
How Can Mindfulness Help Kids?
You might assume mindfulness is too complex for kids to understand, but recent research suggests otherwise. In fact, some studies have shown children both capable and open to learning the concept. Moreover, a growing body of research suggests mindfulness may have several benefits for kids, including:
Treating Externalizing Disorders: In 2008, researchers conducted mindfulness training on a group of adolescents diagnosed with varying disorders, including oppositional-defiant disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Prior to the start of the study, all of the children displayed externalizing behaviors, which occur when individuals direct their negative emotions outward. People with externalizing disorders display verbal or physical aggression toward other people or objects in their environment.
Following the eight-week mindfulness training program, the adolescents reported improved ability to achieve their personal goals as well as increased happiness. The children’s parents reported not only improvement in their children’s goals, but interestingly – improvement on the parents’ goals as well. Children and their parents also reported improvements in areas like attention, self-control, and externalizing behaviors.
Reducing Anxiety: Unfortunately, one in eight children in America suffer from an anxiety-related disorder. Often, anxiety leads to more than just discomfort. Children with untreated anxiety disorders are more likely to suffer from substance abuse issues and poor academic performance.
A 2014 meta-analysis of current research on mindfulness meditation found some evidence that mindfulness can alleviate anxiety-related symptoms in adults. Mindfulness may provide an effective treatment for people suffering from anxiety, without the risks sometimes associated with pharmacologic treatment.
But can the same be said for children who practice mindfulness? Some research suggests so. The results of a small 2005 study showed mindfulness potentially helpful for the treatment of anxiety in children.
Increasing Compassion And Empathy: Some research suggests mindfulness meditation can lead to increased compassion in adults. Interestingly, adults who undergo mindfulness training often demonstrate not only more compassion toward others, but also greater self-compassion.
In 2015, researchers set out to answer whether mindfulness could also lead to increased compassion in children. The researchers randomly assigned a group of fourth and fifth graders to either a mindfulness-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program or to a social responsibility program that did not include mindfulness.
Following completion of the two programs, children in the SEL program demonstrated significant improvements in a number of areas, including empathy. These kids also engaged in more pro-social behaviors, which refers to actions performed for the benefit of others. Children in the SEL program were also perceived by their peers as more pro-social than children who completed the social responsibility program. Moreover, kids in the SEL program also demonstrated improvements in their school self-concept, suggesting greater compassion toward themselves, too.
While it may not be for everyone, it’s clear mindfulness will continue to help many people – including kids. With so much anecdotal evidence backed by scientific research, we now know that mindfulness has the potential to help kids thrive. Mindfulness offers a number of benefits, in addition to treating externalizing disorders, relieving anxiety, and increasing empathy. And if you decide to practice mindfulness or yoga, you may find your own improved state of calm strengthens your parent-child relationship. Your child just might “catch” your calm, too!
Here at Medford Fitness, we offer a number of children’s programs designed to help kids thrive, including yoga for children ages five through ten. Kids’ yoga is held on Wednesdays from 4:15 to 5:00 pm.
Call (609) 654-1440 today for a FREE week trial of kids’ yoga!
