Fitness — FRESH! Fitness - A division of FRESH! Wellness Group

And 5 Healthy Substitutes

The world of fitness and weight loss is often confusing, with contradictory information swirling about. I’m going to cut through the confusion and make things really simple for you.

Below is a list of 5 foods that you should never eat.

These foods will derail your fitness and weight loss efforts every single time. [Read more...]

Another Body & Lifestyle Transformation at FRESH! Fitness Calgary

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Meet Lindsay. In one year, she lost over 47 pounds, completely transformed her lifestyle, and gained a new perspective on life. She is finally happy with her self, her body, and loves what the future has in store for her!

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Thanksgiving Fitness & Nutrition Tips

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Happy Thanksgiving from FRESH! Fitness Calgary!

Happy Thanksgiving Long Weekend from the Team at FRESH!

It’s a great time of year to spend a few days with those we love and to give thanks for all of the privileges we enjoy in life. Like most holidays, it’s also a time of indulgence and plenty. While indulging is a great thing to do, it doesn’t have to be a complete disaster for your fitness and nutrition plans. In fact, if you are on a proper plan and not some crazy crash diet, indulgence is a regular part of your life and will make you more successful in the long run. (FRESH! believes in the 90/10 rule. Each clean 90% of the time, and your body will easily handle your indulgences 10% of the time)

At FRESH!, there are a few key principles we follow that guide our actions each day and help our clients see such amazing results! In this post, I’ve compiled a few of these gems and also added in a couple great Thanksgiving workouts for you to do (because exercise and physical activity should be a regular part of each day). [Read more...]

Resistance Training Principle #12: Warm Up and Quit Being A Statue!

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We’ve all seen it before…the person who gets to the gym, heads right to the weight room and just starts lifting? Well, this situation creates many challenges and risks, including decreased performance, higher potential for injury and poor development of key movement skills.Your body does not respond very well going from complete inactivity to an intense level of output. Your musculo-skeletal (muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, cartilage and tendons), cardio-respiratory (heart and lungs) and your metabolic energy pathways (where you get your energy to workout) need a gradual stimulation in order to function optimally. You should always start your resistance (and higher intensity cardio) training workouts by performing some simple movement and balance activities in addition to general activities such as, walking on a treadmill, or climbing on the stepper for a few minutes.

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4 Ways To Burn More Fat

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There is nothing quite as frustrating as seeing your results fizzle out.

This is a common place to end up, usually after a few months on the same exercise routine. In the beginning your body responds to your routine with lost pounds and gained muscle tone, then one day all results screech to a stop.

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Resistance Training Principle #10: Avoid the Overtraining Trap

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A couple posts ago, we discussed the principle of Over training. Although it is important to regularly overload the body, there is a difference and a fine line between overloading and over training and it’s important that you know the difference. As previously mentioned, Overload is when you push your body slightly past its current physical baseline in an effort to create an adaption effect. This results in increased levels of fitness over time.

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Resistance Training Principle #8: Ninja Mind Control Tactics for Better Fitness!

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The understanding of the mind-body connection discussed in Principle #7 has wide reaching implications. In fact, it is intimately connected with virtually EVERY aspect of your life!As professional Personal Trainers, we hear from clients all the time that they feel they are NOT genetically gifted and those those who get results are just lucky, born to be fit, or many other excuses. This could not be further from the truth and is one of the key reasons people fail to see fitness results, develop socially, intellectually, or professionally. Basically, they lack the self confidence, self-image, and mindset to overcome their fears and negative self-talk.

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Resistance Training Principle #7: Do Your Muscles Talk? Practice Neuromuscular Facilitation

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I know, it sounds complicated, but really it is quite simple. This term simply means, putting your mind into it. Neuromuscular facilitation is just a fancy way to say “Smart Muscles” or teaching your muscles to contract more effectively.Even though it may not seem that way, when you begin a workout plan, your muscles are under direct control from your nervous system (brain)!. In order for you muscles to contract, a signal from your brain (nerve stimulus) must be sent to the muscle with the “instructions” that cause it to fire at the correct intensity level. So, the coordination between your muscles and your neurological system is critical to maximize any movement or exercise.

That’s why at FRESH!, our goal is to teach proper movement and coordination first. In other words, we teach your brain and muscles to communicate more effectively. Once we accomplish this goal, EVERY other fitness and body awareness improvement is MUCH easier to make! This muscle-nerve relationship can be used to your advantage to maximize the effectiveness of your workouts. [Read more...]

Resistance Training Principle #6: Throw your Program in a Blender to “Mix it up”

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In Principle #5, we discussed the concept of Overload and its importance to experiencing ongoing results. You can maximize the Overload principle by regularly changing and updating your program. You see, the only perfect training program is one that changes continuously.A program that we design today, may be perfect today, but in about 4-8 weeks, it will no longer be able to produce the results you want. It doesn’t take major changes to ramp up the results again. Even subtle “tweaks to the Frequency, Intensity, Time, or Type of activity will work. Even the order of the exercises and rest breaks you take (between sets, exercises, and workouts) are great ways to “mix it up” and keep your body “guessing”. The options are limitless.

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Resistance Training Principle #3: Sets and Reps

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One of the first questions asked in the weight room is “How many sets and reps should I do?” Well, let’s start by first understanding the difference between these two terms.The number of repetitions refers to the number of times you perform an exercise without stopping. The number of sets refers to the number of times you perform a complete series of repetitions. For example, you may perform 2 sets of 10 reps.

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