Fitness & Wellness

Best Exercises For Lower Back Pain

Best Exercises For Lower Back Pain

Published by on December 10, 2021 | Leave a response

At RC Fitness in Houston, TX, we help people reach their weight loss goals, transform themselves and look their best, but we also provide guidance to help keep you healthier and feeling good. One o the leading causes of work disability claims is back pain. In our sedentary society, it’s easy to understand why. You need to keep muscles strong and flexible in order to avoid injury. There are exercises for lower back pain that bring relief and help prevent future injury.

If you’ve had back pain in the past, do this to help prevent it in the future.

Exercises for lower back pain can bring relief immediately. Doing them on a regular basis can prevent future injury, too. Do you sit all day? That can be part of the problem. People no longer move a lot in their job or do anything physical, so learning some stretches and doing them at least once an hour can help. Get out of that chair and stand, putting your hands on your hips, with fingertips touching the small of the back. Lean forward, then backward, arching your back as you do. When you feel the stretch, hold and return to starting position. Repeat several times.

This quick exercise on the floor will get you up and walking with ease.

You might have to do it several times, but you’ll get more and more relief the more you do it. You need a towel for this one. Roll the towel, holding one end in each hand. Lay on your back. Bend your knees with your feet flat on the floor. Create a sling with the towel, lift one foot and loop the towel around the foot, with the sole pressing on it. Gently pull the towel toward you as you straighten your leg, lifting your foot at the same time. Attempt to straighten it completely and make it perpendicular to the body. Go as high up as you can without pain, then lower and do the other side.

Relax the muscles while you’re down on the floor, do the cat/cow poses from Yoga.

Some yoga poses are excellent for relaxing the back. The combination of the cat pose and cow pose can ease pain almost immediately. You do both on hands and knees. Start with the cat pose, arching your back and lowering your head. Hold it and go back to neutral then drop your tummy down and lift your head as you go into the cow pose. While it might be called a cow, it has the appearance of being a sway back horse with its head lifted high.

  • Other yoga poses that are also good are the standing forward fold, the downward facing dog and the plank pose. These are better to start when your back doesn’t hurt to help prevent future problems.
  • The extended puppy pose is also good for back pain. Stay in the same neutral position for the cat/cow combination, but then walk your hands forward, raising your hips and lowering your upper body. Relax as you rest your forehead on the floor. Breathe deeply and hold for seven breaths.
  • You can follow up the extended puppy pose with a child pose. Just lower your bottom down to rest on your thighs, keeping hands outstretched and forehead on the floor.
  • One more traditional exercise that also helps relieve back pain starts with you laying on your back. Pull your knees to your chest put your arms around your lower legs and hold. You can also drop your knees from one side to another to help relieve the stress.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness

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Are There Diets For Unique Skin Types?

Are There Diets For Unique Skin Types?

Published by on November 25, 2021 | Leave a response

While you can’t control everything that happens to your body, you can control a lot with a healthy diet and regular exercise. Even your skin can be helped based on what you eat and what you need. There are diets for unique skin types that can aid those with oily skin and those with dry or combination skin. You can even help prevent or treat acne with the right diet. While diets can help you lose weight, they also can aid your skin, which is the biggest organ of your body.

It all starts by knowing your skin type.

Your beauty treatment should not necessarily be like your best friend’s or even your parents. Age, genetics and diet make a difference in what you need. No magic cream can offset the damage from a bad diet, since beautiful skin starts from the inside of your body. While good hygiene does play a role, without the right type of diet for your skin, all the creams and cosmetics in the world won’t give you the look you want. Is your skin oily? How do you know? Start with a clean face, washing it thoroughly and dry, but don’t use anything else. Wait for an hour or two then look at your skin. Does it feel tight and flaky with red patches? It’s most likely dry. If some areas are oil, such as around the nose, but other areas, like your cheeks are dry, it’s combination. If you put a tissue on your face and there’s oil left on the tissue or there are shiny signs of oil everywhere with visible pores, it’s oily.

Dry skin can occur for many reasons.

If you’re mildly dehydrated, it can be just one reason you have dry skin. Keep water with you and sip frequently. Shy away from alcohol and drinks with caffeine, which may add to the problem. Add more juicy, nutritious fruits and vegetables to your diet, such as oranges, melons and grapes. Sweet red peppers, broccoli and spinach are other options. Like the fruit, they add vitamin C and A. Eat more healthy oils. Try avocado or salmon to increase your omega 3 fatty acids and unsaturated fat.

Oily skin doesn’t necessarily come from oil in the diet.

Greasy fried food, like French fries and onion rings shouldn’t be part of your diet, but that doesn’t mean you have to ditch the healthy oils, such as flaxseed, avocado or salmon. The fats they contain are anti-inflammatory, which can help improve acne and other skin problems. Whole grains are another good option, choosing them over the refined grain. Some studies sow that cutting out milk products can also help with acne, while other studies show Greek yogurt may help. Also skip red meat or reduce it in your diet significantly.

  • Those with combination skins fight a double battle. Healthy eating, avoiding sugar and including healthy fat is the best diet. Avoid foods that are highly processed, since they cause inflammation.
  • If you have acne, you may or may not have oily skin. Bacteria and inflammation cause acne. To fight it, increase vitamin C and zinc in your diet. Citrus fruit, red bell peppers provide C and pumpkin seeds offer zinc.
  • Oxidation causes dull looking skin. Choose red foods that contain lycopene to give your skin a boost. Are wrinkles a problem? Add collagen to your diet. Bone broth is one good example of how to increase it.
  • We have meal plans that will help you. Most healthy diets will dramatically improve your skin as you lose weight. It’s often the additives, highly processed foods, low nutrition and foods that cause inflammation that are the cause. You won’t find them in a healthy diet.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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Can Healthy Food Feel Indulgent?

Can Healthy Food Feel Indulgent?

Published by on November 10, 2021 | Leave a response

At RC Fitness in Houston, TX, eating healthy food doesn’t mean you have to eat food that tastes like cardboard. In fact, many of the recipes offered taste absolutely indulgent. They provide a blend of flavors that will tickle your taste buds and textures that will please your palate. For instance, if you want something crisp and creamy, try sweet potato fries seasoned and baked in the oven, then served with a delicious avocado dip for an appetizer that’s amazing.

Take simple high calorie, lower nutrition snacks and make them better.

Nachos are a favorite snack, appetizer and sometimes meal. You don’t have to worry about nutrition or calories when you add a touch of magic by piling on the veggies and switching in chicken for the ground beef. By using a thinner layer of tortilla chips, cilantro and extra vegetables, such as corn, lettuce, tomatoes, black beans, onions and avocado thinly sliced. Plus switching out the beef for seasoned fajita chicken strips cut into quarters and then topping with mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, which are two of the lowest calorie cheese available, besides Swiss and feta.

Enjoy the delicious taste of pasta without all the calories.

Pasta is a favorite staple in many high calorie-high carb meals, but you can make them healthier and lower in calories. Just swap out the pasta for some vegetable alternatives, but loaded with more nutrients. You don’t have to invest in store bought “special” noodles, you can make them yourself. Spaghetti squash is a starter. Make it with an eggplant marinara topping for elegance or eat those tasty noodles as the base for shrimp scampi. Other veggies make great pasta substitutes, like zucchini noodles—zoodles—carrots, kohlrabi, butternut squash, beets or sweet potatoes.

Use cauliflower in your mashed potatoes.

Cauliflower is a great substitute for potatoes. In fact, to make mashed potatoes a little healthier, do a combination of potatoes and cooked cauliflower. You can add in broccoli and carrots in the mix if you aren’t going for the appearance of potatoes. Processed cauliflower also substitutes for white rice in fried rice dishes to increase the nutrient content. Teriyaki cauliflower steaks on the grill or portabella steaks are a good fit for vegetarians. So is healthy vegan strawberry cheese cake made with microwaved grated cauliflower and soaked unsalted cashews as the main ingredients that are processed until smooth.

  • If you’re following a keto diet, try making cloud bread, coconut flour bread, or almond flour bread at home. There are several versions of cloud bread, with the later creations more tasty and like regular bread.
  • Tomato Parmesan stuffed spaghetti squash is delicious and easy. Roast the spaghetti squash with garlic and remove the garlic, adding it with canned tomatoes, dried fennel, smoky paprika, bits of basil and other spices. Top the halved squash then add Parmesan, mozzarella and bread crumbs.
  • You don’t have to get exotic or substitute when it comes to baked salmon. Think baked salmon with lemon pepper or almond baked salmon with herbs and served with roasted vegetables and salad.
  • Take the skins off chicken breast and marinate for a delectable high-end restaurant flavor. Serve it with a shaved Brussels sprout salad or lemon, Parmesan roasted asparagus.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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Safe Pregnancy Exercises

Safe Pregnancy Exercises

Published by on October 25, 2021 | Leave a response

It’s not only safe to exercise during pregnancy, it’s healthy. However, not all exercises are free from risk and not all situations are the same. If you’ve exercised on a regular basis before you became pregnant, your workout will be different than someone who has never exercised. Exercise can help prevent gestational diabetes, excessive weight gain and a cesarean birth. It can reduce the risk of low birth weight, postpartum depression and make recovery faster. The key is to find safe pregnancy exercises and that is created specifically for the expectant mother.

Were you physically active before you became pregnant.

In most cases, you can continue your activity. However, if you’re involved in contact sports or ones that could lead to falls like competitive skiing, you need to discontinue that activity. Other activities that shouldn’t be done are those that are extremely rigorous or ones where you lay on your back too long. Always consult your health care professional about your particular health and situation.

Whether you’ve exercised before or not, it’s safe to participate in moderate cardio workouts.

Whether you’re extremely fit or completely out of shape, moderate cardio, such as swimming, riding a stationary bike or walking is not only safe, but quite healthy. You need at least 150 minutes a week. Doing exercises that strengthen the abdominal muscles to help support your growing abdomen better and those that strengthen the pelvic floor are also important. During the early period of pregnancy, kneeling push-ups, pelvic curls and even squats can be done.

After the first trimester a lot of changes.

If you’re jumping rope, running or doing high impact exercises, stop. The second trimester and third are times to avoid high impact workouts or any workout that pushes you past exhaustion. You can still do some exercises, like those done in the first trimester, just not ones that make you bounce or jar your body. Stretching exercises can also be quite comforting and help your body adjust to the change in the center of gravity and new ways you have to move.

  • The final trimester should focus on abdominal strength and mild cardio. Pelvic floor exercises, bodyweight workouts and walking or swimming are examples.
  • Other examples of exercises for the third trimester and bicep curls, standing should press with light weights, bodyweight squats, modified planks and wall push-ups. It’s important to keep moving, but not to push too hard.
  • If you’re exercising, always make sure you warm-up and cool-down. Warming up can help loosen the muscles so you don’t strain them and cooling down can help prevent dizziness and falls after exercising.
  • Your center of gravity is changing throughout the pregnancy, which makes you more susceptible to falls. Be aware of that every time you workout. Always listen to your health care professional for guidance about the safety of certain exercise regimens.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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Make Your Health A Priority

Make Your Health A Priority

Published by on October 10, 2021 | Leave a response

You’ll love how you look and how you feel after following a program from RC Fitness in Houston, TX. Best of all, you’ll be healthier and nothing is as sexy as healthy. You need to make health a priority, since it’s necessary to live a full life with energy to tackle all the other goals you want to achieve. Just being thin isn’t enough. Thin and sickly isn’t attractive. Fit, slim and healthy is. So how do you start focusing on health? You begin by switching to a healthy diet and exercising.

You can start all at once or ease into a healthy lifestyle.

While some people can change their lives overnight, it’s rare. Most of us make small changes one at a time and whether it’s for the good or bad, the process is in constant change. Making wise lifestyle changes to live healthier doesn’t have to start with working out every day or honing in on only healthy eating. It can start by dipping your foot into the pool of good health. Give up sugary products first or start a program of increasing your activity, walking thirty minutes a day. Once you adjust to those smaller changes, you can build on them.

Make two or three changes at once to help ensure success.

If you’re trying to quit sugar, alcohol, drugs or tobacco, combine it with a program of exercise and healthy eating. Many of these addictions lead to nutritional deficiencies, so focusing on a healthy diet can be a huge benefit for your health. An exercise program can also help take off the edge of withdrawal, and while that might not sound like something you’d expect when giving up sugar, it’s real. Sugar is addictive and affects the opioid receptors in the brain, causing a burst of dopamine that makes you want more. Exercise can help with the stress of withdrawal and get you through the cravings initially.

Look at your hydration and sleep.

A healthy diet, giving up unhealthy addictions and exercise are just part of the picture. Are you drinking enough water? Adequate hydration is important to your health. Increase your water intake to approximately 8 glasses of water a day. If you don’t like plain water, try homemade infused water. Adequate sleep is also important. Too little sleep can increase the hunger hormone and diminish the hormone that makes you feel full.

  • Don’t set yourself up for failure. If eating healthy is a goal, buy healthy foods and have them ready. Don’t forget snacks. Have melon balls, veggies and dip or fruit salad in the fridge for a snack.
  • Cut out stinking thinking. Change your attitude about diet and exercise. Rather than dread it, think of it as something that’s making your fabulous and enjoy.
  • Put your workout or exercise program into your schedule and treat it like an appointment. Make it the same time every day until it becomes a habit.
  • Success with a program that makes you healthier breeds success in other areas. You can do it and once you know that, you can change your life for the better in other ways.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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What Is Your Sweat Telling You?

What Is Your Sweat Telling You?

Published by on September 25, 2021 | Leave a response

Sweat is good. That’s one of our mottos at RC Fitness Houston, TX. When you sweat, it means you’re working hard and doing what it takes to get into shape. When your body is getting overheated, particularly if you’re in a tough workout, sweat comes to the rescue to cool it through evaporation. While people who sweat a lot may have an odor, it doesn’t come from the actual sweat. The odor comes when it mixes with the bacteria on the skin, clogged pores and dirt.

There are two to four million sweat glands in the body.

You have two types of sweat glands. Eccrine sweat glands are located on your palms, the soles of your feet, your forehead and armpits. The apocrine glands are larger and located in areas with more hair, such as armpits, groin and the breast area. The sweat from those glands is smellier. There’s more hair in those locations. The more hair there is in the area, the more potential for bacteria that can produce a more potent smell. There are also two types of sweat. The first is regular sweat to cool down, which is primarily water and salt, and the second is stress sweat which is thicker and evaporates more slowly, giving it time to combine with bacteria and produce odor.

Some people smell worse than others do.

Genetics plays a role in whether your sweat smells bad, so does your gender. How dirty you are, what you ate and your overall health, also affect the smell of your sweat. The sweat from apocrine glands starts out odorless, but when it hits the surface and mixes with the bacteria on the skin, the bacteria breaks down the sweat to produce an odor. People with diabetes, an overactive thyroid, kidney or liver dysfunction or genetic disorders may have a uniquely smellier sweat.

You can learn a lot about your body if you investigate your sweat.

If your sweat is far smellier, maybe you have clogged pores, need a shower or exfoliation. Profuse sweating can be an indication of hyperhidrosis, a medical condition causing a person to sweat as much as four times more than the average person. It’s embarrassing, but not normally dangerous. Hypohidrosis, also called anhidrosis, is characterized by too little sweat. That can be dangerous and come from conditions that are also dangerous, such as a metabolic disorder, connective tissue disorder, diabetic neuropathy, a central nervous disorder, such as a stroke or Parkinson’s or dehydration.

  • A cold sweat leaving you feeling clammy may be caused by low blood sugar, low blood pressure or other serious condition such as heat exhaustion, a heart attack or a serious allergic reaction.
  • If you suddenly start to sweat, even though you’re not anxious or too warm, and have a sudden increase in your heart rate, it may be an early indication of a heart attack.
  • If your sweat is smellier than usual, check what you eat. Food high in choline, such as meat and eggs, secrete choline in their sweat and smell fishy. Low carb diets create a fruity smell, while sugary treats may increase yeast overgrowths to increase BO.
  • Some medications can cause increased sweating and odor, such as Tylenol, meds for ADHD, birth control pills or allergy meds. A magnesium deficiency increases odor. Eating flax, sesame seed, raw almonds or dark chocolate can help.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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You Can Make Changes At Any Age

Published by on September 10, 2021 | Leave a response

Don’t spend your life looking backward and wishing you had done one thing or another. Instead, look ahead and move toward those things you want to accomplish. You can make changes at any age, even ones that affect your fitness and health. Too many people spend time waiting for the next big moment or looking back at what might have been. It’s time to stay in the present and focus on what you can do today. You’ll live your best life by realizing you have control of today, not the actions of yesterday or the promises of tomorrow.

The older you get, the harder it is to get and stay fit.

Everyone wants to look their best, no matter what they say. Everyone wants to feel good and have energy. It’s a universal desire. Getting fit, losing weight and boosting your endurance and strength goes a long way in improving your daily life. When you pass the age of twenty or thirty, your hormone levels begin to drop and the harder it becomes to build muscle tissue. It may be harder, but not impossible. It may take longer and require a bit more dedication, but it’s well worth the effort. It will make you look and feel younger than ever. It can keep you independent longer and put pep in your step.

Stick with a goal until you’re successful.

Success breeds success. When you workout, you’re doing more than just building muscle tissue. You’re working toward a goal. The more you workout, the more confidence you’ll build. You’ll even walk more confidently, since better muscle tone improves you posture. As your body gets stronger, you’ll feel stronger and more capable. Once you accomplish your fitness goal, you’ll have the tools to create and conquer the next goal. Your success is a stepping stone to the next success, no matter what your age.

No matter what your age, you need a dream.

People get old because they have no dreams, challenges or goals for a better tomorrow. They don’t wear out, they choose to sit and rust out. Find your dream and set a goal to reach it. It can start with getting fit, which will give you the energy to follow through and reach that goal. No matter how big or small the dream or how old you are, having a dream and a goal to reach it will make life worth living.

You’ll feel better and less stressed when you workout regularly. Stress adds to the aging process and makes you look older. Working out increases the happy hormones that keep you relaxed.

Do you always see the negative side of life. You can change. Start everyday identifying all the blessings you have and avoid dwelling on what you don’t have. Develop an attitude of gratitude to make changes.

Besides getting your body fit, working out can improve your cognitive functioning. You can add to that change by making it a goal to learn something new every day.

Look at your diet and start making small changes. Cut out foods with added sugar for a start. It’s extremely hard, but well worth the effort. Once you’ve conquered sugar, move on to other highly processed food.

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Should We Work Out Every Day?

Should We Work Out Every Day?

Published by on August 25, 2021 | Leave a response

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, you need to work out at least 150 minutes a week for moderate exercise and a minimum of 75 minutes for vigorous workouts. How you divide that workout time depends on you. You won’t get the benefits if it’s done all in one day and it could even cause injury. Should you workout every day, or is every other day just as beneficial? There’s no real guidance on this but I have my own philosophy based on science.

Workout every day, but vary your workout.

Strength training should be part of your workout regimen. When it is, you need a day or two between workouts for the tiny microtears in the muscle to heal. Should you sit at home during those rest days? No! The days you aren’t strength training should be devoted to other types of exercise, such as flexibility training and endurance/cardio workouts. Remember, the 75 to 150 minutes is a minimum amount of exercise time.

Doing something every day is better than doing nothing.

While the minimum for moderate workouts is 150 minutes, I believe that between 240 and 300 minutes a week if far better, particularly if your goal is weight loss. You can also increase the intensity and reduce the amount of time spent every day. Vigorous exercise cuts the amount of time in half. If you do a half hour of exercise six days a week with three days of vigorous exercise and three days of moderate exercise, it’s like doing 270 minutes of moderate exercise for the week.

Exercise can include a number of activities.

You don’t have to do deep knee bends to get exercise. You can go for a walk, ride your bike or swim. If you’re running short on time, make your housework part of your regimen. Do it with vigor or turn on the music and dance your way through the tasks. Our programs can guide you with a program designed to help you get the right amount of all types of exercise and become your fittest quicker.

  • One interesting study found that you could break your workout into sections, as long as each was at least ten minutes long. If you don’t have time to walk for a half hour, go for three ten minute walks throughout the day.
  • As a general rule for those that want to lose weight, doing strength training two to three times a week, straight cardio two days a week and active resting–such as walking, is a good plan. I’ll create a plan designed specifically for you.
  • You might think that more is better and do hours of exercise every day, including vigorous strength training. Exercising, particularly strength training, too much can actually negate your efforts to get fit and cause muscle loss.
  • Make workouts fun and have a workout partner to share successes and goals. A workout partner will hold you accountable. Consistency and staying active are the keys to success.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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Could Resistance Training Be Right For You?

Could Resistance Training Be Right For You?

Published by on August 10, 2021 | Leave a response

If you want to transform yourself into the shapely you hiding inside, our program at RC Fitness in Houston, TX, can be the perfect option. It uses a variety of techniques and different types of fitness training. Resistance training, endurance, balance and flexibility are all important to be the healthiest, shapeliest and most alluring you.

Resistance training is another way of saying strength training.

Some people hear the words strength training and worry they’ll become muscle-bound and bulky. That’s just not true, especially if you’re a woman. A woman’s physiology and hormonal balance won’t let that happen unless you’re doing a rigorous workout regimen. If you see some of the women body builders, many are on a strict regimen that require hours in the gym daily. Some even use hormones, like steroids, to get that bulky, hulk type appearance.

Weight loss is easier if you’re using resistance training.

When you do resistance training, you’re building muscle and burning fat. While cardio burns calories, the calories it burns come from both fat and muscle tissue. That’s not true of resistance training. The muscle tissue you build is sinewy and lean, so you look more toned than muscular. Why would you want to build more muscle tissue? The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you’ll burn 24/7. It boosts your metabolism. When you’re resting, a pound of muscle tissue burns between 35 and 50 calories a day, while a pound of fat only burns 3 to 5 calories. That’s ten times more every day. If you change five pounds of fat to muscle, you’ll burn enough calories to lose a pound in 15 days with no other changes to your diet or energy output.

Strength training is good for your health and can help prevent serious injuries.

The older you get, the more muscle mass you lose. That change starts at about 30, if you’re younger and sedentary, it could begin early and be extremely devastating. The muscles tug on the bone and trigger the hormones that cause the bone to build. If there’s no tug, the bone density decreases, causing weak bones and osteoporosis. Strength training also improves the muscle tone, so you won’t have as much potential pulling a muscle doing something simple, like picking up a bag of groceries or a baby.

  • While everyone needs some type of strength training, it should be tailored to your needs and situation. If you never exercised before, take it slowly and learn proper form to maximize benefits.
  • Strength training can also improve your immune system, so you aren’t as susceptible to illness, whether it’s the common cold or something more severe like diabetes, high blood pressure or a heart attack.
  • Strength training can help you shape your body and get that curvy appeal everyone wants. It can help improve your cognitive skills, burn off stress hormones and make you feel more relaxed.
  • You don’t need any equipment for most of the strength training exercises offered in my program. Bodyweight exercises like planks, squats and bridges build strength, tone muscles and burn tons of calories.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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The Scale Isn't The Only Measurement

The Scale Isn’t The Only Measurement

Published by on July 25, 2021 | Leave a response

Your weight isn’t the only measurement you use to see if you’re making progress, so why do you let the scale bully you and taunt you. Maybe it’s because you aren’t aware of the other options and really, how well they work, providing a more accurate idea of how you’re doing on your fitness program. The scale doesn’t also show the real progress you made, which can be devastating and the reason to use several techniques.

If you’re building muscle tissue, you may be getting narrower, but not losing weight.

The whole idea of working out is to tone your body and look fabulous. When you build muscle tissue, but don’t lose weight, you need to take measurements or judge by how tight your pants are. Muscle weighs more per cubic inch than fat does. Comparing a pound of muscle with a pound of fat is like comparing the size of a container that holds a pound of steel to one that contains a pound of feathers. Even if you weigh the same, you’ll look far thinner and wear a smaller size.

Take a measurement around your middle.

Waist circumference is an important measurement that’s quickly taking place of BMI or used in conjunction with it. Not only does it give you an idea of how much weight or fat you lost, it also is a good indicator of health. The fat that gathers around your middle is visceral fat, which is the most dangerous type of fat that crowds your internal organs and increases your risk for serious conditions. Pat yourself on the back if your waist circumference is getting smaller.

Snap a picture of yourself when you start.

Take a picture of yourself in the mirror or have a friend take a picture. Once every two weeks or once a month, repeat the process, in the same spot, wearing the same clothes and at the same distance from the camera. Not only will you have a good comparison you can go back several months and see a big difference in how you look. If you have a pair of pants you haven’t worn for a while because they don’t fit, use them as your measurement. When you can fit into those pants, buy another pair that’s too tight.

  • Even if you are making progress, sometimes scales lie. Your weight fluctuates constantly, whether from water retention and bloating or another problem. You’ll see those fluctuations if you weigh daily. Weigh once a week and use a second way to measure progress.
  • Can you pinch an inch. You can use skinfold calipers to see how much subcutaneous fat you have under the skin. Use it in the area above the hip bone, the tricep, thigh or abdomen.
  • Track your workout progress. If you could barely make it through the workout the first time and now you’re doing tons more repetitions without gasping for breath or begging to quit, you know you’ve made progress.
  • Use a fitness tracker to help you see your progress on your weight loss journey. Whether you use your fitness tracker to check your heartrate, blood pressure or how many steps, seeing the numbers you want can be encouraging.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

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