CategoriesLive Fit. Nourish.

Why Spot Reduction Doesn’t Work

Why Spot Reduction Doesn’t Work

One common question we get at Flow is how to lose fat in a specific area. We hate to break it to you — but it’s impossible to spot-reduce fat. So you can stop doing endless crunches to melt belly fat, or eternal tricep dips to slim your arms. Instead, focus on overall fat loss through a healthy balance of nutrition and exercise.

Nutrition is crucial to fat loss. It’s simple math: To lose body fat, you need to eat less than you burn each day (known as being in a “caloric deficit”). Keeping a food journal is a great way to track what you’re eating, which keeps you honest and focused on your goals. When meal planning, make sure your plate has a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat. This will roughly look like:

  • A palm-size serving of protein.
  • A fist-size serving of carbs.
  • A thumb-size serving of fats.
  • …and, of course, a large handful of veggies for each meal. 

Aside from what you eat each day, make sure you’re drinking enough water. Water helps flush out toxins while keeping you hydrated, which is very important when thinking about fat loss. 

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

4 Easy Ways to Reduce Stress

As we enter the month of February and the craziness of the holidays, New Year’s resolutions and finding a new routine start to fade, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed. Perhaps you’ve fallen back into old habits, or are disappointed that you haven’t started working toward your health goals for the year. If this sounds familiar — you’re not alone!

 When stress starts to creep in, I like to use these four methods to refocus and clear my mind:

            Meditation/Yoga

Slowing down and taking time to connect with your mind and your breath is a great way to de-stress. Yoga helps Improve circulation, which can help reduce cortisol production (stress hormones) and ease stress-induced digestive issues. Whether it’s on your lunch break or at the end of a busy day, I highly recommend adding breathwork and mindful movements to your weekly routine to relax and restore you.

Get to the Gym!

It’s easy to stay inside in the winter when it’s cold and rainy, but we are not meant to stay cooped up. Going to the gym and getting your heart rate up will help decrease cortisol production and increase endorphins (your “feel-good” hormones). — giving your mood a natural boost and clearing your mind. Try taking a spin class or lifting weights to break a sweat and feel rejuvenated.

Journaling

Sometimes the best thing to do when we’re stressed is to write down our feelings. Maybe you feel overwhelmed, but don’t know why – so just start writing, and see what you can figure out on paper. This is a great tool to use at the end of the day, when you can reflect back on sources of stress and then let them go.

Write Down Accomplishments

My last tip is probably the most challenging, but it’s definitely worth a try. Stress makes it easy to dwell on feelings of negativity. When this cycle starts, take a time-out; find one thing you’ve accomplished that day or week, and write it down somewhere that’s easily visible. The next time you’re stressed, you can see this reminder of something positive you’ve accomplished to help ease your mind.

Try using these tips the next time you’re stressed — and remember to take care of yourself this month!

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

Sleep: Your Most Important Training Partner

By Flow Coach, Mackennon Klink, B.S., CSCS, PN1

Did you know that roughly 30% of adults sleep fewer than 6 hours each night?
Poor sleep quality and quantity can have a huge effect, both inside and outside the gym.  Poor sleep is associated with negatively impacting your workouts, recovery, sex life, mood, dietary decisions, and can lead to other potential health problems. 

Outside of these issues, sleep duration and quality are often the forgotten, neglected aspect of training.  Why is it so important?  Your body’s growth hormones are peaking while you are sleeping, which means you will maximize your fitness by sleeping.  That’s right – by sleeping seven-nine hours each evening you will see a decrease in both body fat and increase in lean body mass. 

During your training (and in life), sleep is your best friend and if anyone tells you otherwise, they’re confused.   In fact, sleep should be your most important training partner.  How can you prioritize sleep?If you’re having difficulty sleeping, or need some tips to develop a sleep routine and get better quality sleep, read more here.

  What are your favorite ways to improve your gym performance?  Let us know in the comments below.

CategoriesBlog

Transform Your Life in 90 Days – Starts January 7th

Create changes that will last a lifetime

This program is tailored for those who are tired of the quick-fix, fad diet, or weight-loss challenge. If you are looking to make sustainable changes to enhance your lifestyle, and would like the guidance of nutrition and fitness professionals, this program is tailored for you.  It is NOT focused on short-term results.  Through our 90-day program, you will be empowered with the knowledge and confidence to live your healthiest life, with enough momentum to maintain the health habits you’ve established during the 90 days.

By signing-up for this program, you will receive:

  • Fitness Assessment and Strategy Session
  • Three Fit3D scans to track your progress
  • Weekly sessions with a Certified Personal Trainer
  • Bi-weekly semi-personal training sessions
  • Bi-weekly consultations with Nutrition Health Coach
  • Unlimited access to the gym and classes

By the end of the program, you will be empowered with the knowledge and confidence to:

  • Create a fitness routine you enjoy, that can change your body shape and support a healthy metabolism
  • Fuel your body for your lifestyle, by eating healthy, nutritious foods
  • Establish new habits that support your health goals, and enable you to continue on your transformation journey, long after the 90 days are up

Your days of diets, strict cleanses, and the weight-loss mentality are behind you. You’ll have a team of wellness professionals supporting you along the way, with the tools necessary to transform your lifestyle.

Program dates:  January 7th-April 7th

Investment in yourself:  $600 per month  for 3 months (24% off the regular value of $780).

There are only a few spots left so register now!   

Questions?  Email info@flowfitnessseattle.com

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

#thelast100days: December ~ Renew You

December is here, and we invite you to consider Renewal.

Renew (verb): to restore or replenish

What do you do to restore your vitality?  This isn’t about being well, but it certainly contributes to your well being.  Renewal practices are like hitting the reset button.  Not something you do every day, but reserved for “every now and then”.  A cleanse, floating or that book that you read every year.
This month, we’ll offer up a few ideas in the form of workshops: Gut Health, Living Your Mission or Solstice Flow.  We’ll also have coupons in some classes (stay tuned!) and ideas on social media – AND, we’d love to hear from you.

How do you hit reset?

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

Three Quick Tips to Develop a Meditation Practice

written by, Flow Coach Nigel Bryant

Feeling stressed lately? Like all humans, we go through the ups and downs of life and sometimes our mind gets the best of us. This is something that while can be inhibiting, is totally normal. Especially with regard to exercise. Your mind can make or break your work out.

For me, developing a meditation practice has helped calm my mind and my soul. I aim for twenty minutes in the morning when I get up, and twenty minutes before I go to bed. It has been a calming and satisfying experience, and as our society becomes more technologically advanced, I’d encourage you to embrace a meditation practice as well. With that said, meditation, like exercise, is a process and a journey and will not happen overnight. Furthermore, with regard to exercise, most of my meditation routine comes from using the foam roller.  This practice works for me – what routine and technique will work for you?

Three quick tips on finding you own routine and technique to lead to successful meditation are:

Find a quiet place

Keep your phone AWAY from your meditation

Be as STILL AS POSSIBLE.

These three tips in my meditation journey have proven fruitful and necessary. A quiet place gives you the serenity and composure to feel calm and gives your mind, body, and soul a place to relax. Keeping your phone away from your meditation practice will help you avoid those annoying pings and dings that will cause a distraction from your meditation practice. Lastly, and the most important but will most likely be the most difficult is being STILL during meditation. For me this took four weeks to master, as in our technological driven world we are used to being on alert. Taking time to meditate and be still will help you slow your mind and body down from life’s everyday stress and also be a catalyst for less stressful life and kickass workout! Meditation has several benefits that enhance your mood and overall work/life balance.

The benefits of meditation that have been researched and documented:

  • Clear mind
  • Less stress
  • Decreased blood pressure
  • Increased brain activity
  • Increased Sleep
  • Increased energy

One last key that I would advise you guys on your meditation journey is to stick to twenty minutes. If you know you have a meeting in the morning that might be stressful, get up twenty minutes early and MEDITATE! If you come home after a long day, take the twenty minutes and MEDITATE! We have all heard the phrase “your body is your temple”. I also subscribe to the notion the your mind is a temple and having a clear, conscious, and focused mind will help you in being the best version of yourself possible. BE WELL!

Success Through Stillness by Russell Simmons and Mindfulness an Eight Programme for a Frantic World are two books I highly recommend for your journey. These two books will help give you the tools and guide you in the right direction in regards to honing meditation and it’s benefits, as I personally believe meditation and exercise go hand in hand.

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

#thelast100days: November ~ Be Well.

As we move into November, we shift the focus from Move More to Be Well.

Every day, you make hundreds of decisions, whether you realize it or not, on being well.  With each choice, you move toward wellness (eating greens), or further away (sitting for hours on end).

As we move through this month, we invite you to consider your habits.  Are they contributing to your health & wellness practice?  Because that’s what this is:  A practice.  Something you repeatedly do, and hopefully, feel better for it.  You may not always get it right, but you keep experimenting and find what works for you and your body.

Your practice may include going to the doctor or the dentist regularly, a monthly massage, eating mostly unprocessed foods, moving your body daily and perhaps a little chocolate (because who doesn’t need a little sweetness?!).   There are thousands of ways to be well.  Explore what works for you this month.  The Flow team will provide suggestions, workshops and some tips and tricks that we use – and we’d love to hear from you. This month, try something new – or at the very least, schedule your doctor’s appointments!

What will you do to be well?

CategoriesBlog Live Fit. Move.

Seven Gym Mistakes to Avoid

By Flow Coach, Mackennon Klink, B.S, CSCS, Pn1

As you begin to move more, you will make many mistakes on your journey. And you know what? Good. This is totally normal. Every mistake you can possible make hasbeen done a thousand times before. However, ifwedon’t learn from our past or history, we are doomed to repeat those same mistakes over and over. To make progress, there are mistakes that can easily be avoided. Let’s bring to light a few common gym mistakes that will derail your training and bring your gains to a halt.

  1. Not Using a Training Log

“What gets measured, gets managed.”Peter Drucker
This is a cardinal sin within the gym. How do you know if you are making progress if you are unsure what you did last week orat which weight? To make continuous progress, write your workouts down. Track your weights, reps, sets, and even how you’re feeling pre/post workout. Stop making this cardinal mistake. Write down your damn workout!

2) Working out without a Goal or Vision

Not planning your workouts in advance (also known as programming) always leads to mediocre results because there is no direction or focus. Regularly strolling into the gym and then using whatever machine and/or weights are available will usually lead to a less than stellar workout and not be an efficient use of your most valuable asset. TIME! Plan and know what each workout will consist of, so you can be mentally prepared and take the guess work out of the equation.

3) Program Hopping

Ignore the latest fitness trend or fad. Discard the “flashy” exercises and stick to the essential movement patterns: hip hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull, and carries. Just because you saw an exercise on Instagram doesn’t mean you should do it. As a rule, you should stay on the same program anywhere between 6-12 weeks before changing it up. Stay on course, be patient, be consistent, and you will get great results.

4) Ignoring Progressive Overload

To improve mobility, increase strength, and make gains in your overall conditioning, you must force change. You need to push your body to work harder than it is used to, otherwise it will not adapt. Progressive overload is the most basic training principle and goes hand in hand with using a training log (See # 1). Your training should be challenging yet allow enough recovery between workouts, so you can continue to increase your level of intensity.

5) Resting too much (or too little)

Rest periods are integral and have a huge influence on overall progress. Unfortunately, most people don’t know if they are spending either 45 seconds or 5 minutes between sets. To build strength, you’ll need to“earn your rest”by feeling stimulated, not annihilated while being specific to your goals. We recommended having a stop watch with you while you train. Here are some guidelines to determining rest periods based on your goals :

  • 0 – 30 seconds for circuit and metabolic conditioning •30 seconds – 2 minutes for muscle building (hypertrophy)
  • 2 – 3 minutes for strength training
  • 3 – 5 minutes for power training
  • 5 – 10 minutes for maximal intensity strength and/or power training

6) Sacrificing technique for Weights

While it is important to track your weights, beat personal records and add weight to the bar, it is more important to improve the quality of each rep. Focus on perfecting technique and mastering mechanics. If unsure, go to one of our Strength Camps sessions or hire a personal trainer.

7) Doing Everything at Once

No one can completely overhaul their life overnight. You cannot go from 0 to 100 with your fitness aspirations without causing a complete burnout. Instead, take one small step. Do something more than you were yesterday.

This is not the end all, be all list of gym mistakes. There are hundreds of thousands of different mistakes individuals make within the gym, both beginners and veterans. However, the biggest difference between beginners and veterans are beginners are discouraged by their mistakes, while the veterans use their previous experience and the wisdom of other coaches to get better. Within the fitness world, there is very little black and white, only shades of grey.

CategoriesBlog

Yin Yoga vs. Yoga Flow vs. Power Yoga: What’s the Difference?

The history of yoga dates back over 5,000 years, originating in India with deeply spiritual and philosophical roots. What we see as yoga today is a conglomerate of thousands of ideas, texts, and teachers and the evolution of practices from around the world. Practicing yoga has been proven to assist with flexibility, strength, balance, and mental health, with approximately 20 million Americans participating each year. It may seem like yoga styles are all basically the same, but in reality more than a hundred different schools of yoga exist. Read up on the three main yoga styles that Flow Fitness offers, and decide for yourself which one seems right for your needs.

Image via Pixabay

Yin Yoga

Founded in the 1970s by Taoist yoga teacher Paulie Zink and based off of centuries-old techniques practiced in China and Taiwan, this style has twenty main poses, but can sometimes expand to upwards of forty. Yin yoga is a slow-paced practice that encourages holding postures for five, ten, or sometimes even up to twenty minutes. These positions are most beneficial when you relax your muscles into the pose, deepening the stretch and finding your balance. Yin yoga’s main focus is calming the mind, reducing stress, and entering the mentality of focused meditation. The movements target the body’s connective tissues in order to regulate the body’s flow of energy and promote balance and flexibility. Yin yoga is oftentimes an excellent choice for athletes and other individuals with physically active lifestyles. It also is an effective way to work through anxiety, trauma, addiction, and emotional issues because of its focus on meditation and stillness.

Flow Fitness has recently added yin yoga to our Fremont studio’s weekly class offering!
Yin Yoga – Deep Stretch with Jenelle is offered weekly on Sundays from 5:30pm to 6:30 p.m.

Yoga Flow

Also known as “Vinyasa” yoga, this style is referred to as “flow” because of how smoothly the poses run together. Yoga flow classes are one of the most popular modern styles of yoga, and you can find them at almost any studio. Classes do not have set poses, giving each teacher the unique ability to personalize their practice, sometimes moving quickly through positions, and other times maintaining a slower, steadier pace. Regardless of preference, all yoga flow instructors know that this style of practice focuses on breath synchronization. Movements between positions are matched with inhalation and exhalation, making the class an almost choreographed experience. Oftentimes yoga flow sessions are held in studios heated to around 80 or 90 degrees, which is warm enough to relax muscles, increase flexibility, and provoke detoxification (but not as hot as Bikram yoga, which is usually practiced at a steamy 104 degrees). Yoga flow welcomes all levels of experience, and encourages going at your own pace and making modifications to fit your needs. Resting in child’s pose is always an option if at anytime you need a break.

Flow Fitness has several yoga flow classes at both our Fremont studio and our South Lake Union studio.

Image via Pexels

Power Yoga

This particular type of yoga was popularized in the 1990s and marked the start of yoga being perceived as a physically intense workout rather than a purely meditative practice. It was adapted from the Ashtanga school of yoga in order to be more accessible to Western students, with less rigidity in regards to poses and more of an opportunity for instructors to personalize their class. Power yoga goes through a sequence of poses dependent on the teacher, with a quick pace and rhythm between postures. Rather than focusing on stillness and meditation, it places importance on the body and movement. Power yoga is good for strength training because the number of planks and sun salutations you go through requires you to constantly be lifting and holding your own bodyweight. Studios can also be heated like a yoga flow class based on the instructor’s preference, but either way, in power yoga muscles warm up quickly, and each position helps develop strength, alignment, and flexibility.

Flow Fitness has power yoga classes available at our Fremont studio on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6 to 7 a.m. with Asia and Natalie.

Try out all three types and figure out your best yoga fit, but always remember to listen to your body and take time to rest. Whether you’re looking for a yoga practice that helps you destress after a long workday and calm your nerves, or wanting a more intense cardio workout, come visit the Fremont or SLU Flow Fitness center so we can help you find the class that best suits your needs.

CategoriesBlog Live Fit. Move.

Five Warm-up Tips to Boost Performance & Avoid Injuries

Getting hurt sucks! We exercise to lose weight, build muscle, feel better, and improve quality of life.  However, it is tough to do any of these while sidelined with an injury. Though it is next to impossible to prevent ALL injuries, there are steps that we can take to reduce the likelihood and, in the process, increase results. One of the most important and often overlooked of these steps is properly warming up prior to activity.

To set the record straight, hopping on the elliptical/treadmill for 10-15 minutes to “get a good sweat” before heading to the more intense part of your training is an unproductive way to warm-up. If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. Flow Fitness has you covered with these 5 tips to help you prepare your body efficiently and effectively!

  1. Don’t Static Stretch – Prior to most physical activities you want your nervous system to be “excited” which in turn will lead to better recruitment and activation of muscles. To achieve this, any ‘stretches’ that you do must be dynamic in nature. For example, instead of sitting and holding a straight leg hamstring stretch for 1-2 minutes, do walking (or skipping) leg swings, which not only improve hamstring and hip flexor range of motion, but also gets the body ready for the more intense parts of your workout while increasing core temperature and heart rate.
  2. Be Multi-directional – Most activities require movements in different planes. This is one of the major reasons that hopping on a bike or treadmill is an inefficient way to warm-up as you are only working in one direction. Instead try to incorporate dynamic side to side (shuffles), diagonal (medicine ball chops), front to back (lunges), and rotational (hip twist) movements.
  3. Activate ‘Sleepy’ Muscles – Warm-ups are much more than just getting sweaty. It is also necessary to prime the muscles that will be active during most of your workout. For example, if you plan to do squats and lunges which relies heavily on the glute muscles (which have been inactive during 8 + hours of desk work), then it would be wise to include exercise such as clam shells and glute bridges to ensure your body performs optimally. So always think about what exercises you are doing and what muscles you need to be “awake” to ensure success.
  4. Groove the movement – Along the same lines of muscle activation, it is also important to take the body through a “less intense” version of the movements in your workout to fine tune the mechanics.  If you are doing a large compound exercise such as the overhead press, always do 1-2 warm up sets with very light weight prior and then another 2 workup sets with a slightly heavier weight, before diving into your more intense working sets. These sets will help reinforce proper form and address any areas that may need additional activation or range of motion.
  5. Be Mindful of Time – Though important, your warm up should be between 6-15 minutes in duration and not consume your whole workout.  However, you can always add mobility and activation drills in between sets of an exercise. For example, band pull aparts following 8 reps of bench pressing can keep shoulders mobile and primed for another set.

Properly warming up prior to working out is the most important thing you can do.  The truth is this:  If you do not have the time to warm up, then you do not have time to work out.  Warm ups can keep your joints healthy, increase range of motion, help prevent injury and improve performance.  So, incorporate these 5 warm-up tips into your training plan and see how far you will progress!