Whether you’re just getting started in your fitness journey or have been working out for years, it’s crucial to understand the importance of proper form. While many people want to get in the gym and lift as much as they possibly can or do as many reps until failure, what matters more is quality over quantity. Having the proper form when exercising is beneficial for many reasons. Good form raises your performance level which helps you reap all the benefits of your workout while reducing your risk of injury and pain. Proper Exercising Form Reduces Risk of Injury When exercises are not done with the proper form, you greatly increase your risk of injury. This is particularly true as you start to lift heavier weights. Improper form can put a strain on your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. When you’re first learning an exercise, start with light weights that allow you...Read more

While getting fit and healthy seems to be on everyone’s to-do list, for many of us, it’s often not as easy as we’d like. Between finding the time to go to the gym, getting the grocery shopping done, and cooking healthy meals, it can seem nearly impossible to schedule in the time to workout, especially if you’re someone with an already packed schedule. If not having enough time in your day to workout is your main reason for getting fit and healthy, HIIT is perfect for you. High-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short, is a fast-paced workout that gets your heart rate up quickly without requiring you to spend hours on the treadmill, stair climber, or other cardio equipment. In fact, you don’t need a gym at all – you can do this type of workout at home in a pinch. The key to creating a good HIIT training...Read more

When the spring weather starts to push the snow and ice into the back of our minds, spending time outside becomes priority number one. For a lot of people, this means taking workouts outdoors. That’s especially true for runners and cyclists. And while it can be tempting to trade your strength training time for outdoor fitness activities, there are a few good reasons you’ll want to keep it in your workout routine. Foregoing your strength training, even if it’s just for a couple of months, puts you at risk for losing the progress and strength you’ve put so much effort into building up. In fact, when you stop strength training, you can start losing muscle tissue in just two weeks. When you’re thinking about how to maximize your workout plan in the months you also want to maximize your outdoor time, consider combining your strength training with outdoor runs a...Read more

If you’ve always been someone who works out solo, whether at the gym, on your at-home fitness equipment, or on your daily run outside, there are lots of reasons to consider mixing up your workout routine with small group fitness classes. Adding a weekly (or multiple times a week) fitness class to your workout plan is a great way to shake things up, give you a good balance between cardio and weight-training, and make sure you’re working all your muscle groups equally. Plus, researchers found working out in a group lowers stress by 26 percent and significantly improves quality of life, while those who exercise individually put in more effort but experienced no significant changes in their stress level and a limited improvement to quality of life, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. When you think about group exercise, you might think about...Read more