Sleep, Rest & Recovery – What’s The Difference?

Sleep, Rest, Recovery - What's The Difference? By Evan LaBarre, CSC Personal Trainer

Within the realm of exercise and fitness these words and ideas get used interchangeably. So let’s take a quick moment to clarify. SLEEP While we all know what actual sleep is, to be clear rest and recovery are both occurring while we are sleeping. REST Rest is simply not being active or reducing our level of activity. Resting between sets of a strength trainingworkout would be short term rest, sleeping at night is an example of a nightly rest cycle. RECOVERY This describes the actual physical anatomical rebuilding and refueling process that take place while at rest and when while

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Why Walking is Wonderful

Why walking is so wonderful by CSC Personal Trainer Andy Konz

Walking is one of the most overlooked activities you can do to ensure your stress is in check and progress keeps humming along at a good pace. Intense exercise and dieting are both stressors. When added to an already stressful life, this can keep cortisol elevated, causing the body to revolt, thereby making the fat loss more difficult. Adding in lots of slow, leisurely walking will help negate the effects stress and elevated cortisol can have on the body, like fat storage, muscle loss, and sleep disturbances. Walking also increases blood flow to the muscles, which will aid in recovery

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Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?

What should I eat for breakfast by CSC Trainer, Tom Nyilis

It’s a fair enough question and like so many things with nutrition it is a complex one and different for different people. Here is MY personal take on the question. YES, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and a healthy habit for long term health, weight management, athletic performance and cognitive thinking. For example, one 2021 systematic review of 14 observational studies found that those who eat breakfast seven times per week have a reduced risk for: Heart diseaseDiabetesObesityHigh blood pressureStrokeAbdominal obesityCardiovascular-related deathElevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol Weight management---by having breakfast you have more control of your

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Exercising In The Summer Heat

Exercising in the summer heat

Working out is challenging enough, but working out in the summer heat can be hazardous unless you follow a couple of basic precautions. Workout Early: Working out early in the morning or before the afternoon sun can greatly reduce the risk of overheating as the sun has not yet peaked. Stay Hydrated: Staying properly hydrated throughout the day is always a challenge but it becomes a matter of life and death when we are being active in the hot sun for an extended period of time! Water is good but an electrolyte solution like Gatorade or Pedialyte is better as

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9 Foods To Help You Get Through Your Workout

9 foods to help you get through your workout

It’s quite simple, if you don’t have any fuel in the tank then your workout will suffer.  If you come to the gym at 6pm and the last thing you ate was a salad at 1pm your workout will suffer and you will be more susceptible to injury. Pre-exercise meals should be mainly composed of "slow-burning" complex carbs, such as fruits, vegetables, whole-grain bread, rice, pasta, and cereals. Given that they are your body's main source of energy, 65% to 70% of the total calories of your pre-workout meal should come from carbs. Complex carbs take longer to convert to

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Cold Shower Benefits for Your Health

Benefits of a Cold Shower

Cold showers are any showers with a water temperature below 70°F. They may have health benefits. Water therapy (also called hydrotherapy) has been used for centuries to take advantage of our body’s tendency to adapt to harsher conditions. As a result, our bodies become more resistant to stress. Increases endorphins Depression affects at least 10 percent of American adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many drugs treat depression, depending on the severity or duration of symptoms. One holistic method of treatment that’s gaining popularity is hydrotherapy. Taking a cold shower for up to 5 minutes, 2

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What is healthy?

You’re not healthy!  That might sound like a harsh way to start a post given the current social climate but it is most likely a truth the average person needs to hear. While the coronavirus pandemic plays out in packed hospitals and empty streets across the world, most of us have been left to self isolate at home following the story from our televisions, the internet, and social media. As a fitness professional stuck at home watching all of this play out one of the things I cannot help but notice is how deeply the media has discounted the word

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If you were stuck on a deserted island (or at home) with only one piece of exercise equipment what would it be?

At some point every trainer, coach, athlete, or fitness enthusiast has been asked, “if you were stuck on a deserted island with only one piece of equipment what would it be?”  Well right now many of us are living that while stuck in our homes with little equipment. For me the answer to that question is the TRX Trainer.  Although, if I can cheat and bring two items the other would be a Kettlebell.  One of the main reasons I am such a big fan of the TRX trainer is the versatility.  While many know it as a tool for

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Need a break from Coronavirus updates and worries? Try this meditation

Hey CSC family! Shaq Wùkōng Bennett from Commonwealth Sports club here bringing some Taoism to your day with a meditation focusing on creating the peaceful, harmonious and healthy environment within that we'd like to see reflected on the world during these times of crisis, pandemic and uncertainty. Since we're all being forced to slow down our lives, take a break and stay inside, why don't we take this opportunity to dive even deeper, turning to our own inner space to do some well needed maintenance and show ourselves some peace and love in a time where we’d like to see the same reflected

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How to be successful at the gym, Part 3: Consistency

It doesn’t matter what your goals are, consistency is key. That being said, it doesn’t mean that you can’t miss a workout (it happens to all of us). In that case, try to find a way to move a little more during the course of that day. Don’t think you need to start over and definitely don’t give up! Move on and understand that there will be thousands of other workouts to be crushed. Exercise Sometimes we get bored of our workouts and don’t want to repeat the same things over and over again. An easy solution to this dilemma

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