Studies show that couples who workout together increase their chances of long-term exercising by 90 percent. 

Here are some reasons why couples have more staying power:

1)      You have a common goal to work on, which creates an atmosphere for success to flourish.

2)      It’s more fun and encouraging to work out with a partner.

3)      Whether they shame you into going or drag you out of bed, you each have someone else to help get you to the gym.

4)      You’ll feel great and want to eat healthy foods.  Living well makes you both feel well.  The cycle continues and y’all are happier. You’ll find yourselves on the fit, happy train and not ever want off.

5)      You’ll have more energy, be more productive, and feel more patient. Your relationship will become stronger; you’ll have a lot to talk about. More, please!

Each February, we offer the O3 Nation a chance to bring in your spouse, partner, or friend to workout with you – for FREE for one week.  All you do is let us know, then bring them with you to your personal training sessions or boot camp.  All at no charge. Just bring them with you each time you come in to workout. 

Happy Valentine’s Month to you and a partner.  We care about you and the persons in your lives.

One of the hottest fitness trends in the country is Small Group Training. It’s effective, affordable, and motivating. And O3 is the first in Asheville to offer this practical solution to one-on-one personal training on a budget.

Many people like the benefits of working out with a personal trainer as well as the motivation that comes with exercising in a group.  When you’re with friends, competing and working together towards a common goal, your mindset changes from “How many more do I have to do?” to “Come on, we can do this!” Friends push each other new heights.  

And if you are having fun, you’re going to keep coming back.  Pretty soon, you find yourself stronger, leaner, more energetic, and happier.

It’s this easy: Get together a group of 3 or 4 friends, family, co-workers, or whomever you choose, and sign yourselves up for a consultation. Or you can tell us you’re interested in small group training, and we can match you with a group when we have others sign up. Our certified personal trainers will find a time that works for your group and design a workout specifically for you.

You will receive the expert guidance to reach your fitness goals at an economical rate, and you’ll have company. It’s a win-win situation.

We waste money and time in the pursuit of the perfect body. Well-known diets, often  based on some sort of deprivation set the hook and reel you in.  But you almost always find yourself back in the dieting rip current.

So what’s the right way to shed pounds and make your body healthy and strong?

Our resident Health Coach, Samantha Pollack, can sift through the jargon and decode the diet dilemma.

Discover what will truly work for you….and gain the tools to create a manageable plan of action for the new year.  Sam is hosting a free seminar on Wednesday, January 25, at 6 pm, at O3 Health and Fitness (Riverside location).  Learn to effectively reduce body fat,  boost your metabolism, and gain a positive body image through a lifetime habit of healthy decision-making.

Bring a guest with you, free of charge. Samantha’s approach is going to be the most effective effort you’ve ever made towards reaching your goal. Please RSVP by mailing Samantha directly: skpollack@gmail.com.

Researchers have found that when people sit all day, their buttocks cells enlarge and form fat droplets. The longer you sit, the more the cells stretch and produce bigger fat droplets.

Even if you come to boot camp or are working out with a trainer, most likely it is, at the most, for 1 hour/day, 3 to 5 days/week. But the other hours in the week are important too. Working out is not a pass for being able to sit on your butt for the rest of the workday or on the weekend.

The fact is, prolonged sitting can even negate some of the positive effects that exercise provides.

The American Cancer Society has recently published the results of a survey of how prolonged sitting outside of work affected mortality rates. Participants had no history of major health issues and were studied over a 13-year period.  Mortality rates of men and women who sat more than 6 hours/ day were found to be higher during the study period who sat fewer than 3 hours/day.

New studies from the American College of Cardiology show that prolonged sitting is now being linked to increased risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and even early death. 

So what do you do? Get off your butt.  Get up from your chair any chance you get and walk around. Whenever you get the blood pumping and moving, it stimulates the organs to do things that are healthy.

Keep moving and stay healthy.

I wonder how my chickens get around on those skinny legs.  I can’t exactly get them to do calf raises to build up their muscles.  And they can get hurt, too, if they walk on slick surfaces or run into something (like a car or bear).

We humans have tricks to maintain healthy knees. Prevention is better than cure at this point, so listen up and you may well keep them in good shape as you age.

1. Warm up before you workout.  The synovial fluid that lubricates joints will start flowing through them; you will experience less friction than if you started working out cold. As you jump or run or squat, your knees absorb from 3X to 6X your weight; in time, that friction can wear on them.
2. Maintain a healthy weight.  If you’re thinking about a big ol’ handful of chips, don’t.  The more weight you carry, the more your knees get stressed.
3. If your hip function is good, your hips will absorb some of the pressure of standing, walking, lifting, etc.  The glutes and hamstrings we trainers love to work on support the hip function.
4. Listen to your trainer; we almost always have you position your knees at the same angle as your foot, with your knees behind your toes. 
5. If it hurts when you do a certain exercise, stop.  Whatever is causing you pain could damage your joints. 

Take a lesson from my chickens: stay away from something that will eat you and don’t eat what we tell you not to.  More holiday eating tips coming!

But it does include my grandmother’s roast beef and gravy, hot yeast rolls, and three kinds of pies.

So what’s a fit body to do when faced with going over the river and through the woods to family dinners galore? Say no? No way. Try one of these:

1)      Treat your holiday meal like an average dinner party: Eat what you’re comfortable with and leave what you’re not.  Focus on dinner company, not the contents of your plate. See it as a social affair, not just a food orgy.

2)      Practice the art of refusal:  If Aunt Marge pushes you to keep eating, repeat this mantra to yourself: “I’m not responsible for their happiness”.

3)      Don’t go to dinner hungry. It’s tempting to skip meals in anticipation of eating a ton of food, but, frankly, that’s a personal setup.

4)      Talk, talk, talk during dinner.  Bore your table with stories.

5)      Go into the corner and take a deep breath or take a short walk for the fresh air. Excitement can sometimes cause frenetic eating.

6)      You only get to do it once a year, so be grateful for the deliciousness, but mindful of the portions.

Fact: Sugar consumption is a resolution killer.  When you ride the sugar roller coaster, you crave more and more and your body slows down to combat the highs and lows.  Along with sunlight deprivation, sugar binges cause a drop in serotonin, a chemical in the brain that regulates sleep and appetite.  When you are deprived of serotonin, you do not feel calm and in control, which leads to depression.  When you feel depressed, you crave sugar and alcohol to boost serotonin levels. 

Resolution: a) Nip depression and weight gain in the bud and, ideally, don’t eat anything with raw sugar in it.  b) Boost your seratonin level naturally with small but frequent meals throughout the day that include starchy veggies that contain complex carbohydrates.  c) Control blood sugar levels (i.e., the shakes and the spacey head that makes you reach for bad food choices) by eating small quantities of lean protein 3X per day: egg whites, turkey, fish, low-fat cheese, peanut butter, etc.

Fact: You’ll feel like a slug if you eat too much and don’t exercise.

Resolution: Keep up your regular exercise during the holidays and no excuse.  Regular exercise (not knee-jerk trips to the gym) boosts endorphins. When endorphins are high, you’ll cope better with stress.  Ideally, exercising an hour a day during the holidays will burn calories and elevate your mood.  Brisk walk, run, bike-ride, football in the yard, anything.  Get up and out.

Fact: Eating moderate amounts of fat will satiate the appetite and prevent overeating of empty, sugary, carb-laden foods. 

Resolution:  When you go to a party or holiday dinner, think protein. Resolve to eat only the snacks that have protein in them. They will have a little fat to satiate you and protein to control blood sugar levels, and they probably will not contain a lot of sugar. We’d rather see you eat a mini quiche or a couple of sausage balls or some cheese and crackers than candy and cheesecake. But don’t reach for complete carb snacks that have no protein, like chips.

Sometimes people resist change; sometimes we welcome it.  We’d like for you to bear with us as we create a better space for working out – whatever your program. 

Without that dividing wall, several positive changes will occur for both zones:

1)      Airflow will improve between the front and the back; the air conditioner and heater will work more effectively. The air will smell cleaner.  When we open the front and back doors, a breeze will waft through our space.

2)      No more claustrophobic classes.  As our classes grow, we will not be squished into one room.  When appropriate, some machines may be put into use during your class.

3)      Weight training will still be a private experience. Most of our clients are not training when bootcamps are in session. And we are including plans for strategic placement of shelves and other aesthetic “dividers”.

4)      We can add more fun toys for you to tinker with.  With the wall down, we are planning to add some storage for your personal belongings.  We are sketching out better arrangement of equipment and mats in the weight room, as well as planning on the purchase of a few more torture devices.

Without change, there is no growth. Progress is what we are after, and we are making things better with the resources we have. 

Thank you for your patience during our progress!

Most of us don’t connect the dots of physics and sweating or huffing and puffing. We don’t think about the very basis of weight lifting, functional and resistance training being dependent on mechanics.  Physics is the law of levers and an integral part of the movements. Everything you do in the gym involves levers and the forces that act upon them. Designing weight machines takes extreme knowledge of physics.  And our fitness training at O3 is founded on safe biomechanical execution.

Here’s a fun fact about one of our favorite toys, the TRX.  Using basic laws of physics, a former Navy SEAL cut and pasted parachute nylon and webbing into a way for him and his troops to stay in peak condition while they were on missions with limited space and no access to fitness equipment. It can be adapted for every fitness level. 

The rope is another suspension training tool, and it has been around for ages.  (I believe there is one in the Biltmore home gym.)   It, too, provides a high intensity metabolic workout with little to no impact on the body. You generate power and velocity all with your own body’s pulleys and levers.

That’s why we use more than weight machines to train your body for heart health, strength, balance, flexibility, and core strength.

Next time we give you a big ball and tell you to kneel on it, don’t think, just do it. It probably won’t help to figure out the mechanics of the challenge.  Trust us; as Wendy says: the body can do it.