Get Out There and Make Some Friends... It's Summer!

Caught a neat little bit in a health magazine the other day titled, "Social Interaction Prevents Obesity" the entire thing is super short here it is word for word...

"Loneliness increase the risk of obesity, cancer, and premature death. A study on mice from the Ohio State University showed that social stimulation helped the animals convert energy-storing white fat to energy-burning brown fat. Consequently, the animals lost weight. Researchers achieved greater social interaction by housing 15-20 animals together rather than in individual cages. If these results apply to humans, you should strive for more social interaction rather than communicating with people on the computer or cell phone. (ScienceDaily, September 6, 2011).
<"Social Interaction Prevents Obesity." Fitness Rx Jan. 2012: 22. Print.>

So get out there either with your friends or by yourself and make some new ones! If you live on a coast then there's no better place then the beach this time of the year!

Beach'n It!

Even with the crazy and random weather we've been getting here on long island that past couple of weeks this weekend was bright and sunny; so a couple of other trainers and I hit up the beach. While we were there we were challenged to a game of football by some other dudes and after about an hour and a half to no surprise we emerged victorious! The reason why I bring this up though is for the past 2-3 days my entire lower body has been so sore it's pretty much crippling sometimes! Everything from my quads, hammys, glutes, hips, and calves are all fried! You have to understand though that these are all regular body parts that I train in the gym, and I train them hard for that matter and I never get this sore. The reason being why I'm so sore is due to the running and jumping around on the sand. Beach sand is a great proprioceptive (unstable yet controllable) environment, that helps engage and utilize muscles that you rarely ever use just doing regular cardio on the treadmill for instance. By running around on the sand you're working on your stability muscles, which gives you better balance, reaction time, and of course stability. You'll burn a lot more calories doing exercise on the sand because your body uses up more energy always trying to balance and stabilize itself out.

Some simple and easy exercised you can do when you go to the beach are... Sprints, jogging, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, pushups, plyometric pushups, burpees, 1-leg and 2-leg side hops, or even play a little game of volleyball, soccer, or football and work on your juking skills; you'll really feel it the next day! So get out there and enjoy mother nature, and workout those dormant muscles!