The Art of Healthy Gift Giving

Love it or hate it, it’s time to give and receive gifts.  Of course, it is easy to go right for the holiday chocolates or multi-flavored popcorn bucket!

But with a little effort, you can find some gifts that will help your friends and family be more healthy, not less!

And there is no greater gift than good health.  What could be more precious than that?  Just make sure that you are buying the right gift for the right person.  While these gifts will not provide an immediate pay off like a tub of popcorn, finding a way to gently nurture your loved ones aspirations towards health and fitness is a beautiful thing.

Here is a list of my 3 favorites.  I love shopping on Amazon, because of convenience and reliability. If you order within before December 16th, your gifts will arrive before XMAS.

The 3 Best Gift’s in Health & Fitness 2009

The Best Gift for the Foodie or Cook in the Family

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of 4 Meals – I have never read a book that immediately changed my behavior so drastically.  It will change the way you look at food and eat forever, and following its principles will ensure good health for the eater and the planet.

The Best Gift for the Sedentary Adult in the Family

Pedometer- Getting people to move around and walk is a major 1^st step towards being healthy.  The health benefits associated with walking are well documented and low impact/low risk.  This pedometer is a best seller; it only costs $20 and is ranked 4.5 stars out of 5 based on almost 2500 reviews.

The Best Gift for the Cardio Fanatic in the Family

Hear Rate Monitor- this heart rate monitor is great and it only costs $32!!!  That is a steal for a tool that is indispensable for anyone who wants to lose weight, race in competitions, or break through a training plateau.  Monitoring your heart rate ensures that you are training hard enough and with enough variety to stimulate your hear & achieve your goals.

Happy shopping!  Give gifts for health, not tubs of popcorn

Please leave some comments.  What gifts for fitness did you buy?  Are you having trouble finding or giving health Christmas gifts?  Let us know!

Until next time, train smart.

Jonathan Angelilli has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 7 certifications, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale lifestyle consultation service in NYC.  He works hard to match up people, luxury buildings, private gyms, concierge companies, and corporations with a personalized team of empowering health and fitness professionals.

Part 1. Preliminary Considerations

You may not have jumped rope since grade school! But you can learn jump rope FAST.

Jump rope is a great exercise for anyone who want to lose weight, get in shape, stay in shape, and/or perform better in sports.

And it is cheap, portable, and fun!  Often, the most simple solution is the BEST

This video answers these questions about how to jump rope:

• Who should and shouldn’t jump rope?
• What goals will jumping rope help you achieve?
• How long should your jump rope be?
• What kind of jump rope should you get?
• What other factors should you consider when learning how to jump rope?

Leave some questions in the comments and I will get right back to you!

• Why do you want to learn how to jump rope?
• What is the biggest challenge you face?
• Any questions about picking a jump rope?
• How does long jump rope sessions affect your mood?
• Let me know how jump rope has changed your life!

Watch the video above, learn jump rope, get fit.  It’s that simple

Until next time, stay fit.

Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has personally witness the power of personal training to transform people’s bodies, minds, and lives.

The Best Way to Unlock Exercise Motivation

The simple truth is that the world we live in today does not reflect the world our body needs.

Our 200,000 year old body expects to be physically & mentally challenged, at the same time, almost every single day.  Our hunter gatherer ancestors may have traveled up to 20 miles per day:

• hunting
• gathering
• building
• climbing
• running
• jumping
• carrying

Just reading about it is tiring!

The Power of Primal Fitness

The original exercise motivation was survival.

Michael Pollan, in his book bestselling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, writes that “Under the pressure of the hunt… the human brain grew in size and complexity”.

As we all know, humanity has survived (and thrived) because of it’s intelligence and brain size.

And our brains grew because of hunting.

Therefore…

We survived because our brains grew because of intensely focused group exercise.

Kinda funny, right?

Find a way to tap into these emotions and level of intensity, safely, and you will feel satisfaction and happiness from working out.

Engage your intelligence and focus; the human brain, while representing only 2% of the bodies mass, uses 18% of the calories we consume.

Focus on each exercise throughout the workout,  you will burn more calories and time will fly by. And you will see just how motivational fitness can be.

How to Make Exercise Sticky

So, how do you empower yourself to workout consistently and connect to the concept of primal fitness?  Lots of ways! (Please share yours in the comments).

1. Welcome to Reality – our bodies are meant to move every single day.  If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have survived.  This is what Primal Fitness means; move it or die. The same applies today, except a quick death by saber-tooth tigers has been replaced by the slow death of disease.

2. The Best Ab Exercise in the History of the Universe- does not exist! Period.  Don’t focus so much on finding the “best workout”, what is great for one person is no so great for another, and no matter what, you will need to progress any exercise or program to avoid getting stuck in a plateau. Try different things, go slow at first, respect your bodies limits, and build from there.  It is easy to get comfortable doing the same workout all the time, but it is hard to get results doing that.  Remain curious in the gym and while working out and try different things.  It is easier to maintain exercise motivation when you are not overly focused on immediate results.

3. The Quick Fix vs. Patience- make listening to your body and learning to exercise a higher priority than achieving some superficial goal in a short amount of time.  Focusing on the quick fix leads to mediocre success.  What’s the point of getting in great shape for summer, if you can’t maintain it?  This cyclic approach often leads to joint issues, and each year, it will get harder and harder to get back what you lose during your down time.  It’s way more effective to stay consistent.

4. Social Fitness – Back to the whole aspect of primal fitness; we survived through evolution by working together.  Hunting, gathering, carrying, building, these are all things we did together.  Adding a social element to their experience is a great way to keep yourself motivated and focused.  This can mean working out in tandem, at a group exercise class, bootcamp, or  a running group.  Either way, it helps make exercise more fun and less boring, which makes it easier to stick too. Social workouts = motivational fitness.

7. Goals and Competitions – Finding opportunities to compete is a great way to connect with the concept of primal fitness.  Weight loss contests, races, and exercise competitions are great ways to keep yourself motivated consistently. (Check out http://www.active.com for events in your area) You may think “I could never run a marathon” but that is not true.  We are all have the potential to do it, or our genes would not have survived this long.  Start very slowly, break your goal into little sub goals, and you will be running a 5k in no time and on you way to doing all kinds of thinks you “THINK” you could never do.  What’s really crazy is you will start to like it.  SHOCKING! But our bodies are meant to move, we can’t be happy without health and exercise. You will start to experience how motivational fitness can be, even if you think of yourself as a non-athlete.

8. Connect to Your Joy – Yes, most of us want to get in better shape to “look better naked”, but the simple truth of the matter is that you cannot be happy without being healthy and fit.  NO EXERCISE = NO HAPPINESS.  Your brain, not just your body, needs the physical stimulation to be happy and balanced, and your body needs it so that it does not fall apart.  What are your life goals, what hobbies or physical activities do you enjoy, what sports did you used to play?  Training to better perform activities you enjoy is a great way to stay motivated and stick to the program.  It can even be as simple as wanting to have more energy to pick up and play with the grand kids.  Whatever your initial exercise motivation may be, as you exercise consistently, you will find your mind at peace and happier more often.

9. Workout for a Cause, Not Just Because- Last but not least, we can be leaders and help others while getting in better shape and pushing our limits.  There are numerous races and physical events were you can raise money for a great cause and be more involved in your community.  This is a great way to meet other active people and feel really good about exercising consistently.

What do you think?  Try out some of these ideas and let me know how it is going in the comments, I would love to hear about any success stories, questions, or challenges that you are facing.  Connect with your primal fitness, discover the motivational aspects of fitness, and exercise motivation will come easily and consistently.

SHOW ME YOU ARE ALIVE!

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness

Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has personally witness the power of personal training to transform people’s bodies, minds, and lives.

Aerobic Exercise is PROVEN to Reduce Anxiety & Stress

Maybe I am thinking about stress because of the holiday season.

Must Find Gifts!

Anyway, i just read this great article about how exercise relieves stress.

Is there anything that exercise can not due!?!?

Seriously, the research is clear.  Aerobic exercise makes are brains more resistant, and less traumatized by all kinds of stress.

So exercise for stress relief, and exercise for stress reduction!

Isn’t that amazing?

Now, yes, the research was done on rats, but out genetics are very similar (about 70% to be exact).

They basically exercised some rats and not others, and then forced them all into a very stressful situation (evidently, rats hate water).  The effect was noticeable when the rats trained for 6 weeks.

These exercised rats showed less oxidative stress in the brain, which can lead to cell death, and they didn’t exhibit anxious behavior like hiding in the corner when confronted with a stressful situation. Talk about anxiety!

Check out this article and let me know what you think: exercise reduces anxiety

And when you are stress outed, head to the gym and get your heart rate up, it is the best way to manage your stress levels naturally and effectively.  Don’t let anxiety get you down, exercise for stress relief and stay happy and relaxed!

We all face stress situations; that is life.  But that doesn’t mean that we have to get stressed out

Leave me some comments, let me know your thoughts and I will get back to you.
Thanks.

Johnny Fitness

Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has personally witness the power of personal training to transform people’s bodies, minds, and lives.

Personal Training and Accomplishing Life Goals

My client Joe just competed in the 2009 NYC Marathon! Not only that, but he finished with a great time of 3 hours and 39 minutes! I am so proud of Joe, he worked real hard to complete this goal.

My client Joe with his NYC Marathon Race Bib.

Joe has been training with me for almost 6 years now. Running a marathon is something we have talked about for quite some time. But training to run 26.2 miles as fast as you can (without getting injured) is a major goal and takes serious commitment, what I call “Lifestyle Commitment”.

That’s right, a weekly commitment to a large goal: a goal that seems too big at first, until you break the goal up into a bunch of small steps. Joe ran 3 or 4x/week and strength trained 1x/week (should have been 2x at least, but hey, we are working on it!) We often feel like there is not time to exercise, but you actually only need to exercise about 3.3% of the time you have in a week.

His time is excellent, especially for a first timer. He basically ran at a 8:20 minute/mile pace the whole race, and did so without any major joint pain (an issue many runners have). I am so proud of him.

Run Baby Run!

You may be saying to yourself “I could never do that”, but the fact of the matter is, you can, it just takes commitment and consistent effort. We so often sell ourselves short. It is really that simple. Joe and I talked about him doing the NYC half-marathon for a while and when I could tell he was ready, I supported him 100%. The 2009 NYC Marathon is an awesome event, I am looking forward to doing it myself, and I am so happy and proud of Joe.

Real World Goals & a Powerful Secret

It is easy to be too focused on aesthetic goals and going to the gym. But by training for a competitive race, your focus shifts to performance, and your goals take on a more emotional element. This is a powerful tool to tap into. It can get very difficult to go to the gym over and over again, but when you have a “real world” or “external” goal outside of the gym, it is much easier to stay committed and motivated. This is a powerful secret that many top level personal trainers utilize with their clients; get the client focused on enjoyable activities outside of the gym, and they start self-motivating and exercising consistenly.

Of course, you do not have to run a marathon; you can do a swimming race, stair race, bike race, trail race, or a smaller running race, like a 5k. In fact, it is important to build up to longer distances, so try a 5k, then maybe a 10k. You will be surprised how addictive it can become and where it might lead you! That is another reason I am proud of Joe, he is now very motivated to work out on his own, something that was lacking the first 5 years we trained.

Some of the many advantages to competing in races are:

1. They bring out your competitive side and force you to push yourself.
2. They can be very social which makes it easier to be consistent (Joe had a running partner he trained with, in addition to our training).
3. They force you to commit. Yes, it can be a little scary, but a little bit of discomfort and pressure is the only way to achieve your fitness goals.

I hope this blog post inspires you to push yourself, safely, and expand the range of things you think you are capable of doing.

Do you like racing? What was your first race experience? When is your next race? Show me you are alive, I would love to hear what you have to say!

Until next time, keep your business fit.

Johnny Fitness

Jonathan Angelilli aka Johnny Fitness has worked as a full time trainer for over 8 years, has completed 9 certifications, trains several celebrities, and is currently the Training Director of Dynamic Results, an upscale fitness and lifestyle company in NYC. He has personally witness the power of personal training to transform people’s bodies, minds, and lives.