We all know it’s not easy thinking of a gift to give Dad, especially since you want to make it a special one for the man who’s been there for you, every step of the way that you took on your own. Even if you may not have caught him checking on you, or your progress through out your life. But he’s always been there for you and now its time to say a big Thank You to Dad on this Father’s Day!

But what to get him? If your lucky, your dad has taken on the responsibility of keeping himself in good shape, both physically and mentally. A good tip may be to help him stay in shape, and if he’s not, then now is a good time to offer a little “nudge” in the right direction so he gets off the couch, putting down that bag of buttery popcorn, along with that sugar soda beverage.

Whichever type of father you have, athletic, couch potato, or one who wants to test himself by taking on a triathlon event, there are plenty of gift possibilities out there, you just need to decide which one is the best fit for YOUR Dad!

No matter what condition your father is in, a good way to help him get in better shape, or add a couple of miles onto his run is a good smartwatch! One that ranks right up there with the best is the Garmin Forerunner 245 GPS Running Smartwatch  Your dad can run, walk or jog safely with the Garmin Forerunner 245, because of its advanced safety and tracking features, including incident detection, which can send your real-time location to emergency contacts through your paired compatible smartphone!

And while your dad is out there, putting himself through the paces he can track his progress, the 245 Smartwatch evaluates his/yours current training status to indicate if he’s undertraining or overdoing it. And he won’t feel like he’s doing it alone either, because he can get free adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach, or create your own custom workouts on our Garmin Connect™ online fitness community. While providing advanced running dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio and more (When used with Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Run™or HRM-Tri™monitors (sold separately).

And not to have him feeling daunted, this smartwatch is easy to use and can provide him with all the stats he’s ever going to need to up his game as far as fitness goes. All he needs to do is put one foot in front of the other and rely on the Garmin Forerunner 245 to keep him on track with his distance, pace and calories he’s burning!

This makes it even a great incentive for your father to get moving, even if he’s never taken his health and fitness seriously! It’s a great easy to use a smartwatch, even for a beginner to fitness. But it’s just the kind you want if you want him to take his fitness seriously and its all he’s going to need as he progresses and gets the fitness bug and wants to test himself again and again!

So what are you waiting for, after all, Father’s day is just about here, so why not click on the link below to go to HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com and order one today!

With their Free Shipping on a purchase like this, you can put a smile on your Father’s face knowing that he’s getting what he really wants, and not just another tie!

If you’re like me, this weather that’s finally arrived has me itching to get out and do something. Whether its lacing up a pair of running shoes and hitting the trails or a running path throughout the neighborhood or getting my bike down from its hangers and taking it out for a spin on the open road or mountain bike trails. All I know is winter seems to be finally behind us and I want to get out and enjoy the sunshine and feel nature hitting me in the face!

If it was a long winter for you and you’re seeking some new ways to exercise outside, why not do so with your significant other? It’s long been known that there are some serious benefits to getting healthy with your partner, including a better maintaining that urge to be active outside by being able to support each other's individual fitness and diet goals. Not to mention that couples that are active together have been shown to be 90% more likely to stick to a routine than if they were going it alone. So, use that enthusiasm that's got you itching to get outside and be more active by encouraging your partner along with you for that ride, jog, even rock-climbing, but do it together and you’re going to increase that feeling of wellbeing two-fold!

Besides, it's a known fact that some outside activities also build strength and stamina, the more you do them and to the greater length that you push your bodies to increase the duration that you're participating together to meet your pre-set goals. 

Endurance: Endurance activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Building endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities.

Brisk walking or jogging: Getting those running shoes on is always a good feeling. After all, going for a good run is a great way to get your heart pumping and getting the kinks out after being cooped up in your home during the winter months. But as always, you need to work up to last years pace and distance and knowing just how well your doing is important in order to set realistic goals for yourself.

A good way to do this is by monitoring your progress with a good, accurate smartwatch. One equipped with a GPS and heart rate monitor to let you know just how far you’re going and how well your body is reacting to the stress you're putting on it. One good all-around monitor is the Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS Watch  It’s a great all-around activity monitor that’s simple and easy to use. It has a built-in GPS function that tracks your distance and allows you to plot your course for repeat runs, or walks. This activity monitor also doubles as a heart rate monitor as well and it’s doing this right on your wrist, no more chest straps are needed. Using Garmin's Elevate wrist heart rate technology. It can keep track of your heart rate when you’re really moving and even at rest, so you know the kind of stress you're putting on yourself. And it has an "All-day” activity tracking capability that counts your steps, calories and intensity minutes and reminds you when to move. And if you desire, it automatically uploads your data to Garmin Connect, where you can see how you’re doing against your friends if you choose to allow them to view your progress.

Yard work (mowing, raking, digging) is another form of outdoor activity that can get your blood pumping while getting your place in order. After all, your yard probably needs a lot of attention if you’ve been stuck inside all winter. Now is the perfect time to get those fall leaves off of the grass, and pick up the fallen branches and sticks and give the yard a rake before you try starting that lawnmower of yours. And if it’s a pull crank, you may just be looking for a little help in yanking on that cord to get it started after its been hibernating like you this past winter season!

No matter what you're looking at doing this spring to get outside and be more active, you also need to remember to provide the fuel your body’s engine is going to need to make all of these things happen. One good form of energy to have on hand is GU Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel.  This smooth, great-tasting gel snack that not only tastes good but also gives you a kick of energy! The perfect fuel for those looking for a snack that can also be a benefit to not only their workouts but provides a boost for those that are working their muscles outside doing routine clean up chores that require hours of work to get the jobs done.

So, you can bet you’re not going to be alone this spring as the sun begins to climb higher in the sky every day, and sets a little bit later each day. Taking advantage of the springtime warmth to get back to being outdoors and active is going to be on everyone’s agenda. The key is to keep your activities in moderation as you build up your body’s stamina and in time you're going to be back up to speed to where you were when the leaves started to drop last fall.  

Today, more than ever childhood obesity is becoming a real problem with children from every facet of life. Even though schools are making strides to improve the lunch and snack fare available to them during the hours that our children are under their care. It seems like more and more children, from elementary through middle-school are experiencing medical issues such as stage 2 diabetes.

Nearly one in six of all U.S. children and adolescents are obese, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control. And with some struggling schools forgoing traditional physical education classes, health experts view this issue as a growing concern. The regular physical activity encouraged in PE classes not only helps build and maintain healthy bones and muscle, it has also been shown to improve students' academic performance.

"Research shows that school is one of the first places where kids establish health habits," says Jen Ohlson, co-founder of Interactive Health Technologies LLC (IHT), a company pioneering customized P.E. curricula through the use of heart rate monitoring. "As a solution, many health advocates are turning to physical education to positively impact adolescents' overall health. With the right tools and resources available in school that can extend to home, teachers and parents alike can reach students on an individual level, helping them achieve their own fitness goals."

This of course needs to be actively pursued by both parents and the school systems. Today’s children need to be shown that being more physical can help them both in the classroom and out of it as well. Especially if we get them motivated to join in available school sporting venues. We need to get them off the couch and outside participating in physical activities that get them breathing a little hard while using muscles that just aren’t being used when their sitting on a couch watching a movie, playing a video game or simply texting their friends who are also just sitting around their homes.

Physical activity, along with a sensible diet, rich in good proteins, the right carbs and even the right amount of fats will go a long way into allowing your child’s body to function the way it was designed to. You just can’t get fit by playing an action hero in a video game without you taking part in any REAL ACTION!

Set measurable short-term goals.
Motivation is all about goal setting. Teaching your kids to evaluate their habits, showing them just how much out of the day they’re just sitting around, being non-active as sort of a wakeup call, and showing them how they can make little changes that will improve their wellbeing is important and if explained correctly they just may surprise you and start listening to you about how they need to change up their lifestyle.

Setting goals can be a fun project for teachers and parents along with the students so you can all work collaboratively on making sure the goals are measurable, timely and realistically achievable. In order to track everyone’s progress. Yes, we said everyone because its not only the kids that are migrating to a larger pant size, it’s the adults as well. So we can all get on the same bandwagon and start getting in better shape by following through with the goals we mentioned above are so important to make.

Tracking Your Goals:
Use technology to help them understand.
"Research shows kids and adults in the U.S. are spending more than 7.5 hours a day using technology. Alarming as it may sound, we see leveraging that technology as an opportunity to help kids and the adults get and stay active," Ohlson says. Using activity trackers, that also have the functionality of a wrist-based heart rate monitoring device for PE, can make using wearable technology to motivate students and adults to exercise to their own individual potential. Harnessing the power of heart rate zone training, you can reach your goals by running around, jumping, dancing, really any activity that raises the heart rate.

One such tracker, maybe better suited for the adults is the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker. This SmartWatch with GPS, Tracks steps, distance, your sleep and has more than 15 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps, including yoga, running, swimming and more

You can monitor your fitness level with Vo2 Max and fitness made estimates, plus keep an Eye on how you handle stress with the Stress Indicator feature by First-Beat Technology. This little feature alone can help you stay focused on what you need to be able to do in order to reach your fitness goals.

Now depending on the age of your kids, for those aged from 5-10 years old you can look into the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 : Kid's Interactive Activity Tracker  Parents manage their kid’s activity tracker by using the free app. Add multiple children, and see their steps, sleep, daily activities, and chore data when it syncs to your mobile device.

You can, Assign tasks and chores, set schedule alerts, find out how many reward coins each child has, access adventures, and even invite the whole family to compete in daily step challenges together, all from your mobile device.  Keeping track of just how much your kids are actually doing and then offer a reward for good performance.  Making a game out of being active, will jump-start their "Competitiveness-Mode" which will keep them looking to outperform their siblings, and or, friends.

So, now that you have a couple of tools available to you to inspire both your children and yourselves, what are you waiting for. Go on, get yourself motivated and get stepping, as a whole family!

Now that Spring is beginning to make itself felt across the country, you can now get outside and begin working on getting more activity, while enjoying the sun and warming weather. People that know they need to become more active because of yearly visits to their physicians who warn them that their current lifestyle is not providing enough physical activity to get their blood pressure under control. If you don’t know what your numbers are, you should not wait to find out after you’ve experienced a medical incident. Make an appointment with your physician and get an overall physical and let them tell you the results of how you fare and what if anything you need to be aware of.

High blood pressure or hypertension (blood pressure greater than 140/90 over a period of time) affects nearly 78 million Americans. Although it’s the leading cause of death worldwide (13 percent), about 30 percent of adults don’t even know they have high blood pressure. Many of those who are aware aren’t taking control of their disease. If left untreated, hypertension can increase your risk for heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease (decreased blood flow usually to the legs and feet).

If after visiting your physician and you are told that you indeed are part of those 78 million you need to not only work at getting your blood pressure under control but you also need to monitor it so you can react if your blood pressure rises or falls so that you can take necessary action.

Using a home blood pressure monitor is a good idea so that you can track your blood pressure on a regular basis. Your doctor can advise you how often you should check your pressure and what to do if it rises or falls. One such monitor that can easily be used is the LifeSource UB351 Automatic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor  It is a wrist based monitor that will alert you of the presence of an irregular heartbeat and provides blowrist-based and pulse rate measurements even if an irregular heartbeat occurs. It can also calculate the average of the total readings stored in its memory; a convenient way to get a snapshot of your measurements over time and provide you with an average of just what your blood pressure is over a specific timeframe.

How to use a home blood pressure monitor
Be still. Don't smoke, drink caffeinated beverages or exercise within 30 minutes before measuring your blood pressure. Empty your bladder and ensure at least 5 minutes of quiet rest before measurements.

Sit correctly. Sit with your back straight and supported (on a dining chair, rather than a sofa). Your feet should be flat on the floor and your legs should not be crossed. Your arm should be supported on a flat surface (such as a table) with the upper arm at heart level

Measure at the same time every day. It’s important to take the readings at the same time each day, such as morning and evening. It is best to take the readings daily however ideally beginning 2 weeks after a change in treatment and during the week before your next appointment.

Take multiple readings and record the results. Each time you measure, take two or three readings one minute apart and record the results. If your monitor has built-in memory to store your readings, take it with you to your appointments. Some monitors may also allow you to upload your readings to a secure website after you register your profile.

So just what are the numbers to be aware of? We have them listed Below:

NORMAL LESS THAN 120 and LESS THAN 80
ELEVATED 120 – 129 and LESS THAN 80

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 1 130 – 139 or 80 – 89

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 2 140 OR HIGHER or 90 OR HIGHER

If you get a high blood pressure reading:
A single high reading is not an immediate cause for alarm. If you get a reading that is slightly or moderately higher than normal, take your blood pressure a few more times and consult your healthcare professional to verify if there’ s a health concern or whether there may be any issues with your monitor.

If your blood pressure readings suddenly exceed 180/120 mm Hg, wait five minutes and test again. If your readings are still unusually high, contact your doctor immediately. You could be experiencing a hypertensive crisis.
If your blood pressure is higher than 180/120 mm Hg and you are experiencing signs of possible organ damage such as chest pain, shortness of breath, back pain, numbness/weakness, change in vision, difficulty speaking, do not wait to see if your pressure comes down on its own. Call 9-1-1!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the American College of Sports Medicine all recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both for adults.

Intensity – Exercise at a moderate level. Use the “talk test” to help you monitor. For example, even though you may notice a slight rise in your heart rate and breathing, you should be able to carry on a conversation while walking at a moderate pace. As you walk faster, you will begin to breathe faster and have difficulty talking. At that point, you’ve achieved moderate intensity or “somewhat hard.” Vigorous exercise causes a large rise in heart rate and breathing. At this intensity, it would become difficult to talk. Most people would rate this as “hard to very hard.”

Time – Exercise 30-60 minutes per day. You can do it all at once or break it up into a few sessions of at least minutes each.

Type – Do rhythmic exercises using the large muscle groups. Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active
lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to keep your program more enjoyable.

Start by exercising on your own. Begin walking or another form of activity that you can integrate into your daily routine.

Do rhythmic exercises using large muscle groups:
Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to
keep your program more enjoyable. All you really need, though, is a good pair of shoes
to get started walking. Use a Pedometer or other activity tracker to monitor your progress. Slowly work toward a goal, like maybe 10,000 steps per day.

If you have been inactive for a long time, start with short sessions (ten to 15 minutes). Add five minutes to each session, increasing every two to four weeks. Gradually build up to being active 30 minutes a day for most days of the week. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after exercise, especially if you plan to exercise on a hot day or for a
long time. Always cool down slowly.

If possible, measure your blood pressure before you exercise. Do not exercise if your resting systolic blood pressure (the top number) is greater than 200 or your diastolic blood pressure
(the bottom number) is greater than 115. Contact your doctor!

So, getting back to where we started, now that you have some beneficial information about how and why you check your blood pressure. It's important that "Knowing" your numbers and keeping them in line will allow you to help yourself by being more active and getting your body in better shape.

And what better time to get started then in the Spring of the new year? By walking at a brisk pace,  eating healthy, lowering your stress all these things combined can help keep you living a more healthy and active life for years to come!
 

A lot of us think we’re in pretty good shape, especially if we like to keep ourselves active, watch the carbs we eat and exercise on a regular basis. But, if you’re in the right age group, which is between the ages of 18- to 35 and 35 is pushing it! You may want to see just how good of shape you really are in by taking the Army’s new physical fitness test. You can see how well you measure up against those young men and women that would like to be all that they can be by joining the army.

The main reason the army is changing up their fitness tests is to make it a more overall test of a recruit ability to perform so that they are ready for combat. The current one that had been modified in the 80’s does not measure how well a soldier will perform under fire. The service has spent more than a decade looking for a better way to not only measure combat readiness but also to train soldiers to that standard while reducing injuries.

Now, the army has a core fitness program that they feel addresses this obstacle to helping instill stamina, strength/ and agility training into a fitness program. They’ve created a 6-module exercise readiness test that consists of 6 fitness sets. They have called it the “Army Fitness Readiness Test”.

The way this was created is that When you reverse-engineer combat specific tasks, you end up needing to train five different domains of physical fitness, Lt. Col. David Feltwell, the principal doctrine developer for the Army ‘s physical readiness program. Those domains include muscular and cardiovascular endurance — which is measured by muscular strength, explosive strength and agility.

There were a lot of difference choices to represent all of those types of fitness.

“We then selected somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 field-expedient tests — everything from pullups and sit-ups to bench press and dead lift, to vertical jump to sumo squats — and we administered those to a large sample at Fort Riley [in Kansas] in 2014,” East said.

They narrowed those options down to six:

1. A two-mile run.

2. A 250-meter sprint/drag/carry. Soldier begins in the prone position, stands up and sprints 25 meters to the far line, returns to the start line, pulls sled backwards to the far line, returns backwards with sled to the start line, grasps two 30-pound kettlebells and runs 25 meters to the far line, returns with the kettlebells to the start line, drops kettlebells at start line, turns and sprints 25 meters to the far line, and returns to the start/finish line.

3. A maximum weight deadlift.

4. The leg tuck. Soldier grasps a climbing bar with alternating neutral grip in the dead hang position; flexes with elbows, hips, and waist to bring knees up, touching both elbows with knees; and returns to the dead hang position. Repeat.

5. Standing power throw. Soldier tosses a 10-pound medicine ball backward.

6. T-pushup. The soldier begins in the down position, pushes the body into up position, lowers body to the ground, extends arms out to the sides into the T position, and then returns to the starting position

“The sprint/drag/carry is actually pretty rough,” said Sgt. Thomas Masi, of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. “I didn’t think it was going to be that bad.”

A 2017 Best Ranger Competition winner agreed that it was the most challenging event.
“I think the sprint, drag and carry — just because it’s an all-out event and incorporates a bunch of different muscle groups so it stresses you more than just an individual muscle group,

“When that test was developed, they were still under the guidance of zero equipment,” said East, the research physiologist at CIMT. “What we know is that we can’t assess muscular strength with no equipment. You have to pick something up and put it down.”

If in looking at this test you recognize the fact that it is pretty similar to a “HIIT” exercise program. (High-Intensity Interval Training) which has gained in popularity with fitness buffs over the past several years.

So, you don’t have to enlist to go through this grueling test. You can join a gym or fitness training group and see just how well you measure up against what the new army recruits are doing to get in the best possible shape to defend our country.

Keeping track of your results as you put yourself through the paces of a HIIT workout is important to make sure your performing at your maximum, and also that your rest periods are also being taking at the right time and right duration. In order to track these results properly using an Activity monitor with a heart rate function along with V02Max functionality can be beneficial to your end results. One such device is the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  With help from Elevate™ Wrist-based heart rate technology², Vivoactive 3 lets you monitor key aspects of your fitness and stress to show how your body responds under various circumstances. For example, it’s able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age, 2 indicators of physical fitness that can often improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your heart rate variability (HRV), which is used to calculate and track your stress level. Vivoactive 3 can make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

So with using a fitness tracker like the Vívosmart, you can monitor your progress as you put yourself through your own PT training. Then you can prove it to yourself that you are really performing at your peak and being “All That You Can Be”!