Celebrating the history of the USA and fitness.

It’s July and we are approaching the nations Independence Day this month. We are celebrating 248 years of growth (more to come) as a nation and as a fitness industry.

250 years ago, fitness wasn’t even a thing, not even close. People physically moved throughout the day, working to survive. With the beginning of the industrial revolution (first “factory jobs”) kicking off people were working hard in the factories and fields, in their trade shops, working for food, all without machines to do the work for them. Life was physically demanding, why workout when your daily routine was filled with physical labor.

The first time we start to see “fitness” is linked to the military during WWII. 90% of men called into action would be turned away due to deficiencies in health and fitness (1). As war developed, so did these tests and when the soldiers returned, they too continued their...

Rules of engagement with the sun

The summer is here and we are often concerned about many things associated with summertime. Target number one is the SUN! Let’s take a look at the benefits of the sun and ways to maximize it without causing damage.

BENEFITS OF THE SUN 

1. SUN + VITAMIN D Sun increases your vitamin D. We have all heard that we absorb vitamin D from the sun, but really, we consume vitamin D through our diet and then the sun activates it. Vitamin D helps with heart health, increase your immune function, strengthen bones, and increase mood. To consume your “preD₃” eat fish, mushrooms, and eggs, plus fortified foods. Then just a few minutes in the sunshine for activation!
2. SUN + MOOD The sunshine increases mood by increasing serotonin and dopamine levels. These hormones play a key role in the “reward center” and memory, movement, learning and motivation. You are rewarded when doing things you need to survive.
3. SUN + MORNING LIGHT Morning...

How to maximize your garden this season.

It’s May and if you haven’t started your garden yet, no worries there is still plenty of time.  

Many of you may be thinking is a garden really worth it. Won’t I spend more time and money tending to my garden that I will actually harvest food to eat?  The quick answer to that may be a yes, but there is more to a garden that harvesting food and if done right you can really maximize your space and amplify your harvest.

Let’s take a look at 5 tips to make your garden worth it this season: 

3. The benefits of gardening goes beyond the food you’ll produce. Working in the garden exposes you to physical activity, sunshine, and a plethora of new and beneficial bacteria! Working in the dirt exposes our skin (largest organ of the body FYI) and therefore our microbiome (natural “good bacteria” found on/in our bodies. The bigger variety the better) to a whole new set of microbes. One gram of...

How to make shopping the big box stores easier. 

With so much out there on what to buy and where to shop and even what is “healthy”, taking a trip to the market can be a daunting task. 

Let’s take some time today to break down the typical market and how to navigate it and leave with the healthiest cart possible!

The grocery store is a landmine for disease. Everywhere you turn you’re hit with “fat free”, “Heart Healthy”, “gluten free” and more trigger sayings to encourage you to buy their product. Little does the mainstream buyer know, these are unregulated sayings and used freely by the industry to entice you to buy more. Be cautious and aim for WHOLE foods, where you can pronounce and recognize all the ingredients.

Fun Fact: Most foods placed in the inner aisles are filled with corn and soy, the top farmed crops in America. Many of these products have them added as a syrup or filler, hidden from the general...

Spring Cleaning

For your diet, house  and fitness routine

Happy Spring… Cleaning

Happy Spring TOA community! We love spring as it brings fresh growth to the land and the promise of sunshine. It also brings a sense of new beginnings and with that the urge to clean out the old; the house, the old diets, and the old fitness routines.

So, let’s talk about spring cleaning; the benefits, the areas and the tips to make it last all year long.

YOUR HOME

Clutter around the house has been shown to increase stress and internal turmoil leading to a mind that is not very calm. If we cannot calm our minds, we cannot fully rejuvenate at the end of the day.

A tip I once heard was never leave a room without taking something to put away. Having kids, this is always on the table as a possibility. Their stuff spreads like wildfire. If you are heading to another room, you might as well put something away. Procrastination is another reason our homes become cluttered; so...

Improving Your Heart Health

In the month of love

Happy love month!

In this house we really take each day to share our love and gratitude; so, Valentine’s Day and the month of love are not really on the docket. But we will totally take this month to reassess our hearth health and cardiovascular endurance.

Let’s chat about cardiovascular health, what it is, what it implies and how to make it better!

Cardiovascular health is measure by your resting heart rate, blood pressure and your heart rate recovery after exercise. Please note, this article is not meant to diagnosis or treat any conditions, please reach out to your doctor for any concerns. 

Resting Heart Rate

Your true resting heart rate is right when you wake up, before you even move or sit up. This is very hard to measure because, I mean you’d have to roll over to grab your watch to start counting. So, we can simply sit down, feet uncrossed, for a few minutes taking some slow breaths. Then by...

New Year Goals

Are they worth making?

Happy New Year!

It is a new calendar year, and we are all starting fresh. Or are we?

We often take this time, the turning of a calendar year, to set new goals to make resolutions,

long lists of things to achieve in the new year. The question remains if this is even worth it, as

many of us never make it past the first month with goals still in hand. So is it? Are setting new

goals at the turning of the calendar worth it?

I flip flop back and forth, as ANY TIME is a great time to re-evaluate and set new goals. Why

wait for the year to change? If we are committed to making a change, start today! Any day! As

action today is better than a plan for tomorrow. But in the end, I do make New Year goals,

they might not be what you’re thinking though.

I start very typically, making a list either on paper or in my head of what I want to accomplish

this next year, what I want my life to look like at the end of the year. The list...

12 Days of Health

Making it through the holidays.

The holidays have hit us full swing and for some reason they all revolve around food! I mean is anything really better than a homemade pie? No, so, I totally get it. But how are we ever going to survive the holiday season without gaining weight from the food or the missed workouts due to all the extra scheduled holiday events?

We have out together some easy steps for you to follow to add to your toolbelt during the holiday season. 

1. Prioritize your workouts. Sounds simple, but when we get busy, we often give up the things that take more effort and energy and convince ourselves we need to “rest”. Let me be the first to tell you that is FALSE! Your workout will energize you through the day, it will pump up your body and push it along. By foregoing your workout, your body slows and enters the slug stage, were it moves extremely slow.
2. Take a walk, a weighted walk. When you start feeling stressed about the holidays...

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Everything in your life is connected.

We all know the song Head Shoulders Knees and Toes as a silly way for our toddlers to learn the basic parts of the body. But let’s take this song and apply it to life. Does it still work? Is everything really all connected?

As we approach this holiday season missing one of our major players in our family; Robert’s father Richard, we are starting to get a little sadder, a little more nostalgic. We’re also a bit achier, some old ailments are starting to flare up. Could this be connected, a coincidence or maybe simply the cooler weather?

Stress is looming in us all, at varying levels. Put there by the challenges of life and cleared away by our positive healthy routines of eating right, exercising and meditating. When routines slip, emotions are left un-checked and your mental and physical stress begins to build and your body starts manifesting disease.

 Stress is the biggest pre-curser...

Fall is Finally Here!

But that doesn’t mean, we need to start falling!

Welcome to October, it’s Fall Prevention Month at TOA

Fall prevention is just one aspect of the training we do here at TOA, albeit a BIG one. We work on it daily; you might not notice, but daily we do. Every year one, or more, of our clients is likely to take a fall. Luckily, all have recovered and are back in the gym kicking butt. Why? Because we train for fall prevention.

“It never says: Fall Prevention on the board, are we really training for that?”

The answer is YES!

We have many tricks up our sleeves when accomplishing this goal but our favorite sneaky three exercises to help you lower your fall prevention risk are the kickstand RDL, the goblet drop squat and drop step lunges.

The kickstand RDL is one of my favorites. I can go heavy and boy do I feel the glutes the next day! In this movement, we are able to reach deeper into the hinge, training the muscles deep within our...