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Best Foods For Healthy Skin

Published by superadmin on March 10, 2024 | Leave a response

Food can improve your health or cause health issues. A healthy diet positively affects all of the body, including the skin. While many fitness centers only offer an exercise program, we offer a personalized diet and exercise program at VIP Fitness in Fort Lee, NJ. You’ll be amazed at the difference eating healthy can make. It can make weight loss easier, improve health issues, and even make your skin look its best. Good nutrition builds strong cells and improves your complexion from the inside. It can improve your skin far better than any expensive cream or lotion.

Knowing your skin type can guide you to the best diet.

Most people know whether they have dry or oily skin. It’s as simple as washing and drying your face, waiting a few hours, and then examining it. If your cheeks look dry and flaky, it’s dry. If it’s oily around the nose and above the brow—the T-zone—but the cheeks are dry, it’s a combination skin. If you place a tissue on your skin after two hours and the tissue sticks due to grease and oil, it’s oily. A healthy diet can deal with each type of skin and help troubled skin that is prone to breaking out.

Include a wide assortment of colorful fruits and vegetables.

Plant phytonutrients can determine the color of the produce. For instance, a deep red, purple, or blue color indicates anthocyanin, a powerful antioxidant that also makes blueberries blue. It’s anti-inflammatory and can help reduce skin irritation that causes breakouts. Orange fruits and vegetables contain beta carotene that converts to vitamin A and is a natural sunscreen.

You need fat in your diet, but it needs to be healthy fat.

Most people get upset when they hear the word fat but you need healthy fat. Healthy fat is necessary for burning body fat and plays a vital role in attractive skin. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce or eliminate inflammation. That can reduce the risk of acne and keep skin clearer. Zinc, vitamin E, and protein are also necessary for healthy skin. Walnuts and fatty fish provide these nutrients. Avocados provide healthy fat that protects the skin by keeping it supple and moist.

A study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics noted that food high in sugar, including highly processed food, increased the potential for breakouts and complexion issues. Consuming food lower on the glycemic scale improved skin.
The older you are, the more water you need to drink to plump skin. Seniors tend to dehydrate faster and that shows by creating lines and wrinkles. Adequate hydration can plump skin. Including juicy fruit and vegetables in your diet also helps hydrate skin.
Red and purple grapes contain resveratrol that’s an antioxidant. It’s an antioxidant that can slow skin aging. Eating probiotic foods such as yogurt or kimchi helps balance the body’s microbiome to prevent damaging bacterial growth.
Don’t forget to include foods high in vitamin C, like broccoli. Vitamin C is necessary for collagen production. Collagen improves skin hydration and elasticity. Bone broth is another collagen source.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness, Nutrition

Tips For Beginner Runners

Published by superadmin on February 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Before beginner runners put on their shoes for their first run, they should learn a few tips to make their journey better. When running is one of the exercises chosen to boost fitness, it has some pitfalls. People who start a program of running often begin excited and ready to tackle this activity. They often just start running without creating a plan ahead of time. It can mean they go full steam, thinking they’ll maintain that pace throughout the entire run, but the body often doesn’t cooperate. Dividing your run into sections and speed walking some of those sections and running others is a big help.

What you wear makes a difference.

Your shoes are the most important part of your run. You need shoes designed to run on the surface you choose. If you’re running on gravel, asphalt, or a rocky trail, the type of shoe you choose makes a difference. You need a good shoe that fits your foot properly. Getting it from a store that specializes in running shoes can make all the difference. Those stores often provide a gait analysis to provide a shoe that’s suitable for both the surface you run on and your gait.

Eat a snack an hour and a half before you go for a run.

Hydrate well, too. Keep the snack light. It should be between 200 and 300 calories and be high in complex carbohydrates and some protein. Don’t include fat in your snack and beware of too much fiber. Fat and fiber take a long time to digest. Don’t eat too close to the run. Both of those things will cause digestive issues. Do eat something, especially if you’re running a distance, so you don’t run out of steam before the run ends.

Don’t run every day at first.

When you start, only do it three or four days a week. On the other days, use two for other activities and take at least one day off from exercise. Your body needs time to heal and build endurance. Keep your runs shorter initially and work toward more time as you get stronger. Running every other day initially and doing strength training, flexibility training, or active recovery on the other days can boost your progress safely.

Create a running schedule that’s attainable. Limit your distance and focus on running form initially. Your form will determine whether you end up prone to injuries as you increase your running time.
Keep a water source with you at all times or plan your run around areas with fountains. Don’t drink too much right before a run can leave you searching for a bathroom.
Modify your run by alternating between peak intensity and a recovery pace. It turns your run into a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout that can get you into shape faster.
Always warm up before a run and cool down afterward. Don’t run at night without reflective clothing. Always tell someone where you’re running and allow someone to track your phone if you’re running alone.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

See Yourself As Better And Become The New You

Published by superadmin on February 10, 2024 | Leave a response

If you’ve been out of shape your whole life or tried to lose weight before and failed, it can be difficult to see yourself as better. “If you can believe it, you can achieve it,” is real. That belief can help you become the new you. We help people in Fort Lee, NJ, change their self-image to a more positive one and finally believe in themselves to boost their chances for success.

You have to look past the mirror into the future.

When you look in the mirror, you often don’t see what others see. You see the image in your head. When you’re on a fitness journey, it’s even worse. The change is so slow that it impedes a clear mental image even more. It can convince you that weight loss or fitness is impossible and make it hard to get excited about working out. One advantage of working with a trainer is the belief in the trainer, even when you don’t believe in yourself. That belief in the trainer can put you on your way to success.

There is power in belief.

It’s not magic or anything particularly mystical. The power of belief is real but for very down-to-earth, concrete reasons. When you believe something is possible, you continue to try to achieve it. Consider the legacy of Roger Bannister, the man who ran the first four-minute mile. Runners had been chasing four minutes or less since 1886, and it took until 1954 for Bannister to do it. It took almost seven decades for Bannister to break four minutes, but once he accomplished it, people believed it possible. Within a year, four other people broke four minutes. It was all about believing it was possible.

Create a goal and the steps it takes to reach that goal.

One way to boost your belief is to create a path to your goal. Decide what you want to accomplish. Would this goal be possible for others to achieve is another way of asking if it is realistic and doesn’t require self-belief. Once you have the goal, break it down into smaller steps that are easier to achieve. It’s now your roadmap to success. Like any roadmap, it can keep you on the road to success in your journey. Creating goals makes success more believable.

Listen to your self-talk. Are you your best friend or a condemning judge? Create positive statements to replace the negative ones and repeat them to yourself liberally.
If you don’t have a support system that believes in you, find one. We can provide that support. Our trainers will believe in you until you can do the same.
Change your attitude toward exercise. Don’t think of it as punishment for overeating or being lazy. Feel every movement and feel joy that you can do them.
Get introspective. Do you use your lack of fitness as an excuse? Does it prevent you from doing something you don’t want to do? Are you afraid of the success that comes when you achieve your goal?

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Importance Of Proper Form In Your Workouts

Published by superadmin on January 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Using the proper form for each exercise can make the difference between successful workouts and unsuccessful ones. The way you move during an exercise affects the way the body works a muscle. If you’re not going deep enough on squats, you won’t get the benefits. If you’re lifting something heavy, it makes a difference how you lift. Lifting the wrong way can cause injury. The same is true when you exercise.

The benefits occur when you do the exercise properly.

The reverse is also true. If you’re not doing an exercise right, it can cause injury that puts you out of commission for months. Something as simple as arching your back or hunching it during pulling exercises with weights can create back issues. If you don’t have a neutral spine position during lifting, it causes you to arch your back or hunch it. That can damage your spine by pulling muscles, injuring the nerves that surround it, or causing disc problems. Focusing on your form before adding extra weight can prevent the problem.

You don’t have to lift weights to have a problem with form.

Squats are popular, with and without weights. They work several joints and muscles at once to maximize the benefits. If your body position isn’t correct or your feet are placed improperly, it can cause the knees to cave inward. That can limit their strength and size or even cause injury to the joint. Practice as though you’re about to sit in a chair, with the weight of your body on your heels. You should be able to see your toes when you do. If you’re too far forward, you won’t be able to see them.

You won’t get the results you want with poor technique or form.

If just moving your hands further out or further in during push-ups or the placement of the feet during a push-up affects the muscles worked, it’s easy to understand how poor form can affect the outcome of any exercise. The correct form gives you better results without as much strain and focuses on the muscles you want to exercise.

One of the benefits of having a personal trainer is learning to do each exercise correctly. Not only are you guided through the exercise, but also the trainer watches to ensure you’re doing it right.
Any muscle weakness will reveal itself in your form. If you’re lifting or doing squats and can’t get the proper form, it may be due to weaker core muscles. Identifying the problem and working toward strengthening those muscles helps improve your entire workout.
Rather than trying to force proper form when the muscles aren’t strong enough, use a modified form of the exercise. If you can’t do a traditional push-up, opt for the modified form on bent knees.
Before you start any exercise program, talk to your healthcare professional. If you have any physical limitations, always tell the personal trainer. The trainer can modify your workout to accommodate you.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

How To Overcome Plateaus In Your Fitness Journey

Published by superadmin on January 10, 2024 | Leave a response

People in Fort Lee, NJ, often face plateauing when they’re getting fit. They may face stalled weight loss or the inability to progress further in strength, flexibility, endurance, or balance. If you face those same struggles, don’t worry. You can overcome plateaus in fitness by making a few changes. Identifying the type of plateauing you face determines the solution.

Are you having problems with stalled-out weight loss?

Weight loss doesn’t occur in a straight decline. Some weeks you’ll lose more weight than others, despite doing identical workouts and eating the same amount of calories. Sometimes, you are losing fat and gaining muscle. Since muscle weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, you’ll look thinner but weigh the same. That’s not a problem. In that case, you’re making progress. Other times, you’re doing neither, building muscle or losing weight. You have to reevaluate your program to solve that problem.

Both weight-loss and workout plateaus have similar causes.

If you’re not varying your routine or making it more challenging, you’ll plateau. Your body becomes efficient at the workout you’re doing so it burns fewer calories. You may maintain your endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility level, but won’t get any better. The more you continue the same routine, the fewer calories you’ll burn and the less muscle you’ll build. Make your workout more challenging and vary your workout more often to overcome the problem.

Over exercising can lead to plateauing.

If you’ve changed your workout and are pushing hard, maybe you need to look at your workout schedule. Are you working at peak intensity every day without giving your body a chance to rest and recover? That can also lead to plateauing. Overtraining exhausts the body, especially when you’re doing high-intensity workouts and strength-building exercises. Strength training causes micro tears in the muscle that require 48 to 72 hours to heal. If you don’t allow enough time for recovery, it can cause plateauing and even loss of progress. That can lead to weight gain, loss of muscle tissue, and burnout.

Plateauing can occur if the workout you’re doing isn’t effective. It can also occur when you’re not exercising consistently, pushing yourself enough, or increasing the reps, sets, or amount of weight used.
Lack of sleep can affect your progress. When you sleep, it allows your body to heal. Lack of sleep can also affect your energy level and the intensity of your workout.
Maybe your plateauing isn’t starting in the gym. Maybe it occurs because of an unhealthy diet. If you’re eating too many calories, you’ll gain weight. If you don’t have enough protein, you’ll lose muscle mass.
Our trainers at VIP Fitness will create a personalized program that includes dietary help. We track your progress to ensure you’re making the fastest progress possible and make the changes necessary to avoid plateauing.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Tips To Make Your Workout More Effective

Published by superadmin on December 25, 2023 | Leave a response

At VIP Fitness in Fort Lee, NJ, we focus on ways to make client workouts more effective. Some of the ways involve how you do a workout and some are specific to our training. Other ways are for people who work out on their own without a trainer. One example of the second group is simple. Make every minute count. Have a plan of action and a list that includes the exercises, number of reps, and number of sets.

Do a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout.

HIIT isn’t a special workout but a way of doing workouts. You do an interval of high-intensity exercise, followed by a recovery period, and then go back to high intensity. You alternate between the two throughout the workout. Most people use it for a cardio workout, but you also can use it with strength-building exercises by combining it with a full-body circuit Just go at peak intensity and slowly reduce the rest between exercises.

Do compound and full-body exercises.

Compound and full-body exercises work several muscles, joints, and ligaments at one time. Because you have to use more energy to move more parts of your body, you burn more calories. You’d be amazed at how many workouts there are for each muscle. If you only work on individual muscles, your workout will keep you in the gym forever. Lunges and burpees are examples.

Have a cup of coffee and a pre-workout snack before exercising.

It’s all about the caffeine in the coffee. It stimulates the central nervous system to give an extra boost to your performance. The pre-workout snack should be a combination of protein and carbohydrates that keep you going at peak performance. It can be as simple as apple slices spread with nut butter. A pre-workout snack also jump-starts the recovery process, especially when you follow your workout with a post-workout snack.

Cut the rest time between sets and repetitions. Five minutes may be best if you’re doing an intense workout, but if the workout is moderate, cut that time in half.
Add weights to your workout. Bodyweight exercises bring admirable results, but if you’ve been exercising a while, you may need more challenges. Combine bodyweight workouts with weights.
Get down to business. Turn off your phone, and don’t stop to talk to anyone until after your workout is complete. Too often, people spend hours at the gym but get less than an hour of exercise.
Track your progress. Winners keep score, and you should too. Log the number of reps and sets for each exercise. Once the exercise feels easy, increase your efforts to match your new fitness level.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

How To Perform A Perfect Squat

Published by superadmin on December 10, 2023 | Leave a response

Squats are part of a group of several exercises that everyone should do. They’re functional fitness exercises that help prevent injuries from falls and strains by improving balance. When you can do a perfect squat, you’ll improve the potential of independent living. It’s a very basic move that most people can do as a baby but lose that ability as they grow older. It requires muscles from both the upper body and lower body that you use doing daily activities.

Boost your nitric oxide with squats.

When you move your muscles during exercise, you increase the nitric oxide in your system. Nitric oxide expands the blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. The larger the muscle, the more nitric oxide you produce. Squats work large muscle groups. Squats work the glutes, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, calves, and adductors in the lower body and the core muscles.

Focus on the starting position.

The correct starting position can determine whether your squat will be perfect or a dud. The perfect squat starts by holding your trunk straight, your head up, and your shoulders relaxed and back. Your lower back should have a slight curve. This is the neutral position where your spine is in line. It’s the position your upper body should maintain when you squat. Some people bend their heads backward or tilt them forward. That diminishes the benefits. You only bend at the hip.

Start with the basic squat.

There are all types of squats but the basic squat starts with toes slightly pointing outward with feet a little wider than shoulder width. Variations may use different foot widths and positioning. As you lower your body, bending at the hip, keep your abdomen tight with your stomach pulled in to maintain stability as you protect the spine. Lower your hips while keeping your weight on your heels. Keep your knees in line with your big toe and no further out. When your hips are parallel to the floor, push up with your heels back to the starting position.

Don’t overarch your back. Keep the natural curve throughout the exercise. You may try compensating for a weak back by overarching or leaning too far forward. Keep the weight off the balls of the feet and on the heels.
If your thighs are weaker, your knees will move inward when you squat. That can stress the joints and ligaments to cause injury. When squatting, lower your body as far as you can without feeling discomfort.
Always focus on the basic form before you begin any variations. Once you perfect your form, you change foot position, add weights, or even squat on one leg. You can even do jump squats.
Your core muscles act like a weight belt when you do squats. They hold everything in place, so keep them activated throughout the entire exercise.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Is It Possible To Eat Well While Travelling?

Published by superadmin on November 25, 2023 | Leave a response

If you focus on eating healthy at home but find that travel can end that, here are tips to help. You can eat well when you travel, but it takes planning. You don’t have to be on an extended trip. It can occur when you take frequent short trips. Whether it’s a quick lunch from a drive-through or food at the airport, you’ll pay a price for those unhealthy meals. No matter how you travel, focus on eating healthy foods.

Make a wise choice when you don’t have options.

Yogurt, some soups and salads, and fruit are good choices. Avoid fruit-in-the-bottom yogurt that has loads of sugar. Choose salads with a wide selection of vegetables and broiled chicken or tuna on top. You’ll find most of these things at food stations in the airport. Avoid creamed soup and opt for one with a broth base. You can get similar foods at drive-throughs but should check their menu ahead on the internet.

Traveling by car lets you pack your own food, but you can carry snacks to the airport.

It’s definitely easier to stop at a restaurant. It also provides a nice break from driving, but you’ll have more control if you pack your lunch. Find a park or place to stop to enjoy it. Get out and stretch your legs. That makes it even healthier. Prepare ahead with good refreezerable ice packs and a small cooler to take along. Include healthy snacks for mid-morning and mid-afternoon. If you need help planning, we provide nutritional advice.

If your trip is long, research for every stop along the way.

You can research local restaurants or do an internet search for farmers’ markets and groceries and make fresh meals. Most people make room reservations before leaving. If you do, check to see if they have a refrigerator in the room. You can purchase fresh vegetables, wash them, and slice them for dinner. If they have a microwave, you have even more food options. Make sure you have healthy snacks for the next day.

Drink plenty of water. If you’re driving, have a few in the cooler. When you take one out, replenish it. If you’re flying, take an empty water bottle through security and fill it up at a water fountain once you pass.
If you need a full meal and have a layover, check the menus at the airport restaurants. For instance, Newark Liberty International Airport restaurants have veggie triple deckers, steamed veggies, and harvest salad.
If you’re on a flight that offers meals, find out what they are ahead of time. Some are very healthy, and others aren’t. Eating light, hydrating, and eating healthy are necessary for digestion if you’re sitting a lot, which can cause digestive issues if you don’t plan well.
Avoid fried food and choose grilled or broiled instead. If you have a choice, opt for baked potatoes over mashed. Skip sugary drinks and choose water, unsweetened tea, or black coffee. Choose a vinaigrette dressing for your salad.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Is Cardio The Best For Weight Loss?

Published by superadmin on November 10, 2023 | Leave a response

For some Fort Lee residents, running plays a vital role in their lives. There’s nothing wrong with running. It’s a great cardio workout. If they do it simply for weight loss, other ways to achieve that goal can be more efficient. Only doing cardiovascular workouts isn’t a healthy option. Your body needs workouts to build more than just cardio endurance. It requires strength, flexibility, and balance exercises, too. All types of exercise burn more calories than you would watching television, but two of them are better. Cardio is one, and strength-building is the other. Both torch calories, but one boosts your metabolism as it burns extra calories.

Both cardio and strength training burn a lot of calories.

Whether running, bike riding, or jumping rope, you’ll burn more calories than you would doing yoga or stretching. You also burn extra calories doing strength training, too. There’s a reason to include both in your workout. Cardio burns calories but gets those calories from burning fat and muscle tissue. Strength training also burns calories.

What’s the difference between the two?

While cardio burns the most calories, it gets them from muscle tissue and fat. Strength training burns fat and builds muscle tissue. That’s important for your weight loss program. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn, even when you sleep. That’s because muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does. The more you have, the more fat tissue you burn 24/7. You get a boost to your metabolism.

Change your workouts and burn more calories.

You can add one variable to strength-building and cardio workouts to make your body a virtual oven to burn calories. Instead of doing steady-state workouts, change the workout to HIIT—high intensity interval training. The difference between the two is the intensity level. For steady state, you continue at the same pace throughout the session. For a HIIT workout, you go at peak intensity for a minute, more or less, and then reduce the intensity to a recovery pace for that length or longer, returning to the high-intensity level. You continue to change intensity throughout the workout. It adds cardio to strength-building workouts and increases the calories burned for both types of exercises.

Don’t forget to add flexibility and balance training to your workout. You need all four forms of exercise. Flexibility training doesn’t burn extra calories. It increases your range of motion, so you don’t have an injury that can set you back for months.
No matter what exercises you do, consistency is the key to weight loss. Unless you regularly workout, you won’t get the results you want.
Intense training is the best for burning calories. It causes excess post-exercise oxygen consumption—EPOC. That makes the body burn extra calories for hours after quitting the workout. HIIT is one example of intense training.
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. No matter how many calories you burn, you won’t see results if you don’t change your dietary habits. It takes 2 ½ hours to burn off the calories of a Big Mac, small fries, and a small soft drink.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

How To Properly Detox

Published by superadmin on October 25, 2023 | Leave a response

There are many ways to eliminate toxins from the body. There are toxins in shampoos, cleaning products, and even your food. There are healthy ways to eliminate those toxins from the body. Exercising until you sweat is one way to detox. Many people in Fort Lee, NJ, opt for that and a healthy diet. Sweating out toxins is the basis for saunas in Scandinavia and sweat lodges of native Americans. Other types of detoxing were part of ancient traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines. It all starts with preparing the body for a detox.

Planning a detox and easing into it is the key.

Alcohol and drug abuse, sugar addiction, and tobacco use may be the focus of your detox. If you’re quitting smoking or giving up sugar or other addictive substances, start to prepare your body by cutting back on use. Start eliminating chemicals you use in the house and switch to more natural options. Instead of commercial cleaners, use distilled vinegar to clean and sanitize the bathroom. Toxins can be both external and internal. An overabundance of stress toxins can create as many health issues as other types of pollution. It’s an internal form of pollution. Learn deep breathing techniques, meditation, or other relaxation techniques.

Identify the day or days you’ll detox.

Your detox days should be free of other distractions. Schedule it when you can stay home or have a quiet time to relax. Look for the best detox program for your needs. Some people opt for ones that use only organic fruits and vegetables in smoothies or soups. Others use fasting. If you use fasting, always check with your healthcare professional first. If you exercise regularly, cut back on detox days and focus on mild exercise, like walking.

Detoxing provides a rest for your system.

While a detox flushes out the system, it does even more. A light diet or fast gives your digestion a chance to rest. Both animals and humans cease eating for a short time when they don’t feel good. It allows their body to focus on healing rather than digestion. Detoxing is similar, except you don’t wait until you’re ill to fast or eat lightly. Detoxing helps improve the elimination of toxins through the skin, intestines, and kidneys. It improves liver function and circulation.

If you’re detoxing with fruits and vegetables, focus on smoothies instead of juicing. The higher fiber will help with elimination and make you feel fuller. Drink plenty of water.
Detoxing isn’t for everyone. If you’re diabetic, pregnant, or nursing, have a medical condition, or are taking medication, check with your healthcare specialist. Stick with natural foods rather than commercial detox products. Not all of them are safe.
Life can become complicated. If you’re under stress or find your schedule suddenly crowded, put detoxing on the back burner until you have a break. Instead, focus on exercising and perfecting relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing exercises.
Detoxing shouldn’t replace a healthy diet and program of exercise. It’s a supplement. We can help you with our personalized diet and exercise programs that help reduce the toxins daily.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Posted in Fitness & Wellness