We all have been waiting for the summer to get here and now that it is here you may want to dial back your exercising if you're not doing it in a controlled space like a gym or climate controlled training facility. After all, with the summer also comes the humidity and that intense sun that drives up the temperature along with the ambient heat index. Both of which can cause some serious problems if you’re not watching out for them.

Exercising in hot weather puts extra stress on your body. If you don't take care when exercising in the heat, you risk serious illness. Both the exercise itself and the air temperature and humidity can increase your core body temperature. To help cool itself, your body sends more blood to circulate through your skin. This causes the heart to pump faster and for the blood to start rushing through your veins. If you’re not in good physical condition to start with, you need to dial back your exercising a bit in order to reduce that extra stress your heart is going to be facing. This time of year, most ER's see increasing patients brought in to them with heart-related conditions brought on by overexertion in the extreme heat.

And that myth that the more you sweat means your burning more calories is just that, a MYTH! Sweat is not a gauge of how hard you are working," Scott says. (Jenny Scott, MM-HR, NASM-CPT, CES, PES, FNS, Education Advisor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine) "Our bodies produce sweat as a way to cool down, so if anything, it's an indicator of how hot your body is. And hotter core temperatures don't equal more calories burned.

In fact, the fitter you are, the less you probably sweat. "As your body becomes more conditioned, it takes more intense exercise to increase your core body temperature and produce sweat," she says.

Still, if you're a hot, sweaty mess 10 minutes into your workout, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not fit. Different people have different numbers of sweat glands, so even a brisk walk to the mailbox can trigger sweat production in some women. On the flip side, if you're working hard and hardly sweating, you might be super-fit, blessed with minimal sweat glands, or dehydrated. After all, sweating depends on having water to spare.

To keep your tank full, Scott recommends downing about 24 ounces of water (that's about how much most sports bottles fit) before your warm-up and drinking about 8 more every 30 minutes throughout your sweat session. Keep sipping throughout the day, and keep in mind that if you feel thirsty, you're probably already dehydrated.

It’s important to realize that a climbing heat index needs to be taken into consideration when your exercising. Whether you're running, playing a pickup game of basketball or going for a power walk, take care when the temperature rises. If you exercise outdoors in hot weather.

To help cool itself, your body sends more blood to circulate through your skin. This leaves less blood for your muscles, which in turn increases your heart rate. If the humidity also is high, your body faces added stress because sweat doesn't readily evaporate from your skin. That pushes your body temperature even higher.

Heat-related illness
Heat cramps
Heat exhaustion
Heatstroke

Under normal conditions, your skin, blood vessels, and perspiration level adjust to the heat. But these natural cooling systems may fail if you're exposed to high temperatures and humidity for too long, you sweat heavily, and you don't drink enough fluids.

The result may be a heat-related illness. Heat-related illnesses occur along a spectrum, starting out mild but worsening if left untreated. Heat illnesses include:

Heat cramps: Heat cramps, sometimes called exercise-associated muscle cramps, are painful muscle contractions that can occur with exercise. Affected muscles may feel firm to the touch. You may feel muscle pain or spasms. Your body temperature may be normal.

Heat syncope and exercise-associated collapse: Heat syncope is a feeling of lightheadedness or fainting caused by high temperatures, often occurring after standing for a long period of time or standing quickly after sitting for a long period of time. Exercise-associated collapse is feeling lightheaded or fainting immediately after exercising, and it can occur especially if you immediately stop running and stand after a race or a long run.

Heat exhaustion: With heat exhaustion, your body temperature rises as high as 104 F (40 C), and you may experience nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache, fainting, sweating and cold, clammy skin. If left untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heatstroke.

Heatstroke: Heatstroke is a life-threatening emergency condition that occurs when your body temperature is greater than 104 F (40 C). Your skin may be dry from lack of sweat, or it may be moist.

You may develop confusion, irritability, headache, heart rhythm problems, dizziness, fainting, nausea, vomiting, visual problems, and fatigue. You need immediate medical attention to prevent brain damage, organ failure or even death.

Pay attention to warning signs
During hot-weather exercise, watch for signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. If you ignore these symptoms, your condition can worsen, resulting in a medical emergency. Signs and symptoms may include:

Muscle cramps
Nausea or vomiting
Weakness
Fatigue
A headache
Excessive sweating
Dizziness or lightheadedness
Confusion
Irritability
Low blood pressure
Increased heart rate
Visual problems

If you develop any of these symptoms, you must lower your body temperature and get hydrated right away. Stop exercising immediately and get out of the heat. If possible, have someone stay with you who can help monitor your condition.

Measuring core body temperature with a rectal thermometer is essential to accurately determine the degree of heat injury. An oral, ear or forehead thermometer doesn't provide an accurate temperature reading for this purpose. In cases of heatstroke, due to confusion and mental status changes, you won't be able to treat yourself and you'll require emergency medical care. The most effective way of rapid cooling is the immersion of your body in a cold- or ice-water tub.

In cases of heat exhaustion, remove extra clothing or sports equipment. Make sure you are around people who can help you and assist in your care. If possible, fan your body or wet down your body with cool water.

You may place cool, wet towels or ice packs on your neck, forehead and under your arms, spray yourself with water from a hose or shower, or sit in a tub filled with cold water. Drink fluids such as water or a sports drink. If you don't feel better within about 20 minutes, seek emergency medical care.

Keeping an eye out for any of the above signs will give you a heads up to take the necessary steps to get your core body temperature down. But another good way to stay on top of your body’s stress while exercising in warmer temperatures is to keep an eye on your heart rate as well. One good way to do this is with a good Heart Rate Monitor, one like the Garmin Vivosport GPS Sport & Activity Tracker  This Smart Activity Tracker has a wrist-based heart rate monitor that uses Garmin's new "Elevate 24/7" wrist-based heart rate monitoring. With the heart rate data it collects, Vívosport is able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age, 2 indicators of physical fitness that can improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your HRV (heart rate variability), which is used to calculate and display your stress level. Which is something you want to keep an eye on with the warmer weather. The goal of this continuous monitoring is to make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

With the information available from your Garmin Vivosport along with paying attention to your physical condition while exercising you should be able to get the most out of your exercise routines while being safe as you exercise in this summertime heat.

Be smart, pay attention to your body, it will let you know when it needs attention, so DON’T ignore any warning signs it’s giving you!

It seems like it’s taken forever, but spring has finally arrived here on the East Coast of the U.S.! I think we can safely put away our snow shovels, the rock salt and pick up the rake, and gas up the lawn mowers. Now that the temperatures are finally staying locked in the 60’s to 80’s we can all soak up that sunshine that’s been hiding out on us since St. Patrick’s Day.

But with all the schools starting commencement practice, and with Memorial Day just a few days away, summer is not that far off. And is your body ready for the beach and all that it has to offer? Or are you going to be hiding it under a t-shirt or worse when you and your friends hit the sand and surf?

Well, there are quite a few among us that might have put off getting to the gym or hitting the pavements early this year because of the cold, wet, snowy conditions that seemed to hang over everyone this year. But you can still pull off a pretty good-looking presence once the volleyball nets get strung and the shoes get swapped out for a pair of flip-flops. Here below are a few exercises and tips that can give that body of yours a little definition. After all, we don’t want anyone kicking sand on your beach towel now do we?

Getting fit and toned requires the right balance of weights, cardio, and the right nutrition, to get your body working correctly in order to tone and shed that extra fat that you’ve grown accustomed with over the winter and sloppy spring months! Studies have found that incorporating into your fitness routines, strength training, it can have your metabolism working overtime, instead of just doing cardio all by itself.

A study at West Virginia University supports this. They found that people that incorporated a regular regimen of lifting weights, peeled off an average of 14.5 kg and watched their metabolisms speed up by 4 percent. The reason for this? Well, the more you incorporate weight training, the more calories you'll burn during everything you do. Lifting your coffee mug or watching your favorite show suddenly becomes more productive as you burn fat for free.

The people in the study who did just aerobic exercise, such as running, lost more weight, on a faster scale, but that also included four kilograms of muscle. Consequently, their metabolisms slowed down by an average of 14 percent. In the future, they'll have more trouble keeping the weight off, if they slack off on the amount of running they do in a week/month. The key to successfully losing the dead weight, which we call fat can be avoided if you build muscle, along with the cardio.

Keeping track of this crunch-time fitness activity can be a challenge without the help of a good activity tracker/monitor and one that also tracks your heart rate can be very beneficial when you're looking at the stats to see where you're improving and where your not hitting your mark.

One that I like and keeps me on track with my fitness goals is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch  It not only tracks various kinds of cardio exercises like running, (It has a great GPS, built right in) but it also is waterproof, so swimming laps is a no-brainer. And with its multiple performance features and the benefit of having a wrist-based heart rate monitor, you can plot just how well you're doing using the data calculated from your VOC max estimate, and lactate threshold.

Again, this is nothing but a tool, albeit a great tool for helping you get that body of yours in shape in time to feel confident as you walk the beach.

Now, It's Crunch Time!
The whole idea of this type of training, is to combine a weight regimen routine along with your regular cardiovascular sessions, just break out two-three days a week to add in the weight training, and in no time, you should start to see a faster reduction in your weight, while seeing the results of a more toned body frame.

You'll combine these lifting workouts with short, sharp interval training sessions. Research at Laval University found this burns fat, up to three times faster than exercising at the same pace.

This three-pronged attack is a surefire way to earn you more muscle and less fat. Repeat this workout 3-5 times per week to keep building muscle and burning fat, or alternate between the workouts listed below.

WORKOUT PRACTICES:
Choose a weight that's 80 percent of the most weight you can push or press just once.
Do just one set of every exercise using 8-12 reps.
When you can do 12 reps, add 5 percent more weight.
Take four seconds to raise the weight and four seconds to lower it.
If the routine takes more than 45 minutes, you're taking way too long.
Do 3-4 workouts per week, leaving a day's rest between each one. This is your light running day!
If you want to do cardio, do it after lifting to burn more fat.  But monitor your stats so you don't push yourself over your limits!
Don't rest between sets. The setup time for a new exercise is enough.
Push out the reps until your muscles fail and cry for mercy.
Use perfect form for all exercises to avoid injury.  

Recommended Weight-Related Exercises:
BARBELL SQUAT
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL DEADLIFT
1 set of 8-12 reps
SEATED LEG CURL
1 set of 8-12 reps
SEATED CABLE ROWS
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL BENCH PRESS - MEDIUM GRIP
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL SHOULDER PRESS
1 set of 8-12 reps
PARALLEL BAR DIP
1 set of 8-12 reps
BARBELL CURL
1 set of 8-12 reps
SIT-UP
1 set of 8-12 reps

Remember, you’re going through this fitness routine, in order to get your body beach ready in a short amount of time. Once you reach the level of muscle tone and weight to mass ratio, that you’re looking for. Then slack off a bit and get back into your regular cardio/running routines, if that is your main fitness passion. Just remember to work in at least two days a week of weights, at a lesser pace and weight amount than we recommended above, just so you keep those muscles you've worked so hard on to tone up these past few weeks, in the same great shape!

 * If you search YouTube, for the above weight training exercises, you will be able to see the correct posture and stance that you need to maintain in order to not only do the exercise correctly but to avoid injuring yourself!

 

Ok, we get it. The cold winter winds of January are blowing outside, well, maybe not really, but it is colder than you would like it to be. But are you using the cold as an excuse to dial back on, or putting off your exercise routine now that it gets dark earlier, and a little frosty outside?

Well, whether you know it or not. Since Christmas, the daylight is taking a rebound, and each day will see a minute or two more of sunlight. Yes, the natural order of things is still working. And that means you can count on the high summer sunshine to bring that heat come July and August in the northern hemisphere, and sooner if you pass through Florida and places south.

If you want to make sure you look good in that suit this coming summer, and not embarrass yourself so that you need to have one of those 3 sizes too big t-shirts on, as you’re walking down the sands of the beach. You need to get yourself in gear and commit to working on getting that body toned and defined so you feel confident as you walk down that beach, who knows, you may even turn a head or two as you walk by. That is of course if they’re looking for all the right reasons and not looking at you because there is soooo much of you!

It may be the middle of January but before you know it, it’s going to be time to book that vacation to sunny places. And with January here, you have 6 months before most of us are thinking about getting “This Year’s” swimsuit! For the procrastinators, who put off dialing up the exercise routines, the time to think about a spray-on-tan will be here before you know it!

So, what do you do? Well, if you’ve been working out now and then during the warmer months of the year. Nothing has really changed. If that is, you used to go to the gym on a regular basis. But maybe with the holiday season that just ended, so did your gym membership. Well, you need to do what you did last year and shop around. But you need to hurry, because most of the gym membership sales will soon be going off. After all, they are geared to taking advantage of all those New Year resolutions that have just been made and offering their memberships at a low discount rate, at least for the first 1-3 months.

So go and shop around if your workout routine means taking advantage of all that in-house weight reduction equipment. But if you are a workout at home type of person. Who has a few weights at home but use them mainly to help give your muscles some tone, and are usually hitting the streets, or mountain paths on a running or jogging routine. Then you don’t need to worry about looking for any membership incentives. Your whole incentive is just plain getting yourself back in shape so you won’t be embarrassed when that guy kicks that sand in your face out on the beach.

Planning: Nothing just happens, if you’re working towards the goal of getting yourself back in great shape in time for the summer sunshine, you need to “Plan for it!” If you’re going to a gym, plan ahead on what your routine is going to be and then get in there and do it! You need to make yourself accountable for the time and money your spending at that “Meat” processing plant. Cause that’s just what it really is. A good gym processes the raw material (your body) into a finished product. In your case, a well-defined, toned muscle based package that will be ready for the beach come July, early June if you really work at it.

Most gyms will give you the option to meet with a physical trainer, take advantage of this and ask questions and inform, him/her what your goals are, and what they recommend for the best machine circuit to help you achieve your goal. Pay attention to them, after all, this is what they get paid to do. And it might be a good idea to get on their good side, this way, they are more likely to offer some free advice if they see you are really trying to make good on their recommendations!

Accountability: This is the "keyword" in your whole arsenal of getting fit. You need to plan for that goal of getting your body in better shape and you need to have a tool that will track your daily routines so you can see your progress or lack thereof. The best way to go about this is with a good Activity Watch or one that provides a Heart Rate Monitor so you can see just how well your body is performing based on the amount of stress and physical activity you are subjecting it to.

One that I like and recommend to anyone who is serious about getting themselves in good overall shape is the Garmin Forerunner 920XT Multisport GPS Watch The Forerunner 920 offers the most advanced training features into one unit, like VO2 Max, running dynamics, and live tracking. The 920xt even has smart notifications to keep you connected on the run!

Another great, accurate Activity Monitor that also has a wrist-based heart rate monitor is the Garmin Vivoactive HR Strapless Heart Rate SmartWatch Your every active moment like running, swimming, (indoor pool naturally), and skiing is carefully monitored with built-in sports apps. With smart notifications, the status of these activities will be displayed on the colored touchscreen of this smartwatch. Apart from vigorous workouts, it also silently collects information like daily steps, floors climbed, sleep cycles and intensity minutes.

Taking your body-makeover routines seriously means a commitment on your part to follow through with making this fitness regimen a part of your normal, daily activity. Only in this way will you stay the course of getting your body in the shape you are looking for when that sunlight shines down on you, while you're enjoying those sandy beaches!

So, are YOU committed to getting that body of yours ready for summer? 

I know I am!

Summertime, just the word can make us feel so much better about this time of year. For most of us that long for the warm, hot weather, the winter months can seem to go on and on and on. It’s no wonder that not only our moods seem to get a lift this time of year but so do our bodies, which benefit from increased levels of absorbing vitamin D from all of that abundant sunshine!

This is a great time for us to get moving and get out and enjoy these warm,  hot couple of months before they’re gone. And it’s also a great time to start putting our bodies through their paces to make sure we are toned and in the best physical shape we can be in, as we take part in all those sport activities that seem to crop up along every beach, local ball park or local runs, walks, and marathons.

Keeping track of all of your activities and just how much you’re actually putting into your daily or weekly fitness programs is a must! And if you’re not keeping track of just how much you’re accomplishing with your fitness regimen you’re selling yourself short on making the most of what you're putting into it.

A great way to stay on top of your game is using a good activity watch or one that also monitors your heart-rate each and every day. One that we like to recommend is the Garmin Vivosmart HR+GPS 
Whether you’re going for a jog, playing a pick-up game with friends or trying out a new boot camp class, it quantifies the intensity of your fitness activities using intensity minutes!

It's able to track distance, time and pace for indoor or outdoor activities. With GPS, you can get even more accurate distance and pace stats as well as a map of your activity when running or walking outdoors. In addition to tracking your runs, steps, and calories, Vívosmart HR+ measures floors climbed and intensity minutes. So when you're wearing it, you don't have to worry about not keeping track of any physical exertions, throughout the day. 

With the Vivosmart activity watch, you're going to be able to take your fitness goals to the next level for all the right reasons. And besides its GPS capabilities, (you won't get lost), it allows you to monitor your heart-rate as you push yourself, and it’s also waterproof. So you can take it from the beach to the pools and stroke your way to increasing the number of laps you’re able to do today and every day you strap it on.

So, while the sun’s still shining and pouring down all that goodness on you. Get yourselves a Garmin Vivosmart watch today and see just how much you’re going to improve between now and Labor Day.

If you keep to a regimen of pushing your limits, you’re going to be impressed with your “End of Summer” results.

So, who’s up for a game of sand volleyball,,,, Are YOU?