Downtown Athletic Club Amarillo - Blog

It's Not All About The Scale

10/18/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

Losing weight comes with its own motivation. The more you see the number on the scale go down, the more motivation you have to stick with the workout and food plan you've been following so diligently.

But what happens when the weight loss slows down or stops, even temporarily? We've all hit the dreaded plateau at times and it can be a motivation killer. That's when it becomes important to not just focus on your scale, but also on the signs that you're much healthier than when you started.

You're better, faster, stronger
Everyone has their own milestones when it comes to exercise gains. It could as simple as not breathing heavily whenever you walk up and down stairs, or it could mean running a certain distance without stopping. Celebrate those activities that you were once unable to do.

Your body composition has changed
If you're doing a lot of strength training the scale might not move downward as quickly as you'd hoped, because you've gained muscle (along with losing fat). But investing in a smart scale, or a set of body calipers that enable you to measure body fat, can help you really see your improvements.

Your clothes fit better
There's nothing better than fitting comfortably into clothing that had become too tight. Have you lost inches from your waist and other parts of your body? It's a great indicator of the positive impact you've made on your health.

You no longer dread working out
There may have been times, especially in the beginning, when you felt like you had to drag yourself to the gym. There may be days when you still feel that way, but chances are you look forward to your workouts and actually miss them when you can't be there. That it's become a habit and part of your regular routine is progress in itself.

Exercise is part of your identity
Your weight-loss journey has probably made you part of a fitness community, whether it's a yoga class, high intensity interval training, and more. In other words, exercise has become part of your identity.

You pass up your favorite 'bad' food
We all have foods that we find it hard to say no to. It could be chips, cookies, cupcakes, a fast food hamburger and fries, you name it. But now you're able to resist those foods and maybe are even a bit repulsed by the thought of eating them. Again, that's progress.

The Downtown Athletic Club of Amarillo is a professional, upscale club that focuses on group fitness, personal training, nutrition, and more. The DAC offers personal training seven days a the week.

7 High-Protein Snacks To Keep You Going

10/11/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

eggs

If you're like most people, your day is jam-packed with activities — work, kids and family, household chores. Keeping yourself at a high-energy level can be challenging, to say the least, but eating the right foods can keep your metabolism revved up.

That said, protein is an essential part of a healthy diet, so much so that up to 35 percent of your diet should consist of it, and boosts your metabolism. Here are 10 high-protein snacks to help keep you going.

1. Celery with peanut butter
Celery is not only a low-fat food, it's also a big-time metabolism booster. A tasty snack of celery and peanut butter will keep you energized.

2. Nuts
Whether it's almonds, walnuts or pistachios, whole nuts are a healthy high-protein snack. They're also full of heart-healthy fats. But don't overdo it, because their calories can add up quickly.

3. Chia seeds
Chia seeds can be categorized as a "super food" considering all of their health benefits. They're high in protein, fiber and healthy omega-3 fats.

4. Greek yogurt
Greek yogurt has rapidly risen to the top to become a supermarket staple. Because it's thicker and creamier than regular yogurt, it's a more satisfying snack - plus it packs a heavy protein punch.

5. Cottage cheese
The virtues of low-fat cottage cheese are well-known, including that it's high protein. Pair it with diced fruits and vegetables, or eat it just on its own. Either way, it's a great snack that will keep you satiated between meals.

6. Hard-boiled eggs
Hard-boiled eggs used to get a bad rap because of their cholesterol content, but studies today say the saturated fat — rather than cholesterol consumed in food — has a greater impact on raising cholesterol levels. And just one whole egg contains 6 grams of protein.

7. Edamame
Just half a cup of edamame or soybeans contains 8 grams of protein and has only 100 calories. Add some flavor by sprinkling on a touch of sea salt.

The Downtown Athletic Club of Amarillo focuses on fitness, overall wellness, personal training, and much more. The DAC's personal trainers are available seven days a week.

What Gluten Is Anyway?

10/4/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

food label

One food trend that has emerged in recent years is the move towards gluten-free food products. Ostensibly, this is because of gluten’s effects on the body. In a 2014 Pedestrian Questions segment, Jimmy Kimmel Live made fun of the many people who claim to be on gluten-free diets without being able to answer the question “what is gluten?” As with many trends, people tend to jump onboard without learning about the factors involved. All of this leads to the big question:

What Exactly Is Gluten?

Gluten is a collective name for proteins found in wheat and its derivatives as well as in rye and a few other grains. It can also show up in foods that do not include any grains due to contamination in a kitchen. Gluten works as a kind of glue to help foods hold their shape. It provides the elasticity seen in pasta and allows bread to rise.

Who Needs To Be Concerned About Gluten?

The people who need to avoid gluten include people who have an autoimmune condition called celiac disease. Celiac disease makes it difficult to digest gluten and affects about one percent of the population. People with the condition have difficulty absorbing the nutrients in their food. The symptoms of celiac disease include bloating and fatigue.

Recently, another condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity has been making the headlines. Relatively little is known about this condition except that people with it do feel better when they stop eating foods that contain gluten. It has contributed to the popularity of the many gluten-free food products on the market. Not much is known about non-celiac gluten sensitivity. How much gluten is needed to cause its symptoms is still unknown and no one is certain that it is even related to gluten consumption. In addition, no one knows how many people have the condition though some experts estimate that as much as six percent of the population could be affected. While celiac disease appears to be hereditary, non-celiac gluten sensitivity does not appear to be connected to genetics at all. The conditions do share many of the same symptoms such as bloating and fatigue.

Are There Benefits To A Gluten-free Diet?

For people who have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, yes. For everyone else, the answer is no. Eating foods without gluten provides no health benefits and is just a waste of money, especially since gluten-free foods are often more expensive.

For help with achieving your fitness goals, contact us today at the Downtown Athletic Club in Amarillo. Our professional trainers are ready to help you on your journey to good health with both exercise and nutritional advice.

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Can Meal 'Replacements' Help You Lose Weight?

9/27/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

There's more to meal replacements than offering the convenience of not having to cook when you don't feel like it. Even more attractive to many (if not most) consumers is that they promote weight-loss while providing proper nutrition. The question is, how effective are they when it comes to peeling off the pounds?

What Are Meal Replacements?

Meal replacements are usually shakes or bars that are made with a certain amount of calories and nutrients. Not all meal replacements are created equally as products may have different purposes and target markets in mind.

SlimFast, for example, advertises itself as a low-calorie meal supplement to help aid weight loss, while others like Soylent market themselves as nutrient supplements for those who aren't eating enough.

Are Meal Replacements Effective For Weight Loss?

The jury seems to be out in terms of the effectiveness of meal replacements when it comes to weight loss. Some evidence has shown that meal replacements help with weight loss for up to a year — as long as they're used as directed. And some health experts say that meal replacements are particularly effective when it comes to jump-starting a weight loss program, especially since they help you keep a tighter reign on your daily caloric intake.

One study showed that people who used meal replacements actually lost a little more weight than those who followed a more traditional diet plan. But the overall caloric intake varied widely between individuals in both groups.

Advantages
Convenience, as mentioned, is one advantage of meal replacements, particularly for people who either don't have an interest in cooking, and/or the time to do it regularly. This is particularly important if you're consistently missing a certain meal, such as breakfast. Most are relatively high in protein and leave you with a feeling of fullness.

Disadvantages
While convenience is a definite draw to using meal replacements, critics argue that replacing meals isn't going to help you learn healthy eating habits that will enable you maintain long-term weight loss.
Others also argue that they don't contain all the nutrients you need for a balanced, healthy diet, including the fiber and phytonutrients that you find in fruits and vegetables.

Another potential disadvantage is that people can experience "taste fatigue" with meal replacements because of consuming the same type of food day after day. Cultivating long-term healthy behaviors, such as a healthy diet, is considered to be a more sustainable form of weight loss.

The Amarillo Town Club can help you lose weight through a combination of proper diet and exercise. Contact the ATC today.

Can You Lose Weight Just By Walking?

8/29/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

Walking is an excellent form of exercise but is it an effective way to lose weight? Absolutely! Whether you’re a beginner or already have a fitness routine in place, you can benefit from walking. Here’s how to make it part of your weight loss plan.

For Beginners

According to the Centers for Disease Control, increasing physical activity reduces your risk for many chronic diseases. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle and are trying to get into an exercise habit, consistent walking paired with a healthy diet is a good place to start.

Especially at first, being consistent is what will make a difference. We all know there is no magic formula for instant weight loss, it happens over time. You have to be consistent throughout the week to get your physical activity in and you have to do it week after week. Walking is often appealing to beginners because it is easy to do, requires no special skills or equipment, and is not as hard on your body as more intense exercises. All those things make it easier to be consistent.

If You Already Have A Workout Plan

If you’ve hit a plateau, want to try something different or want more activity without more intensity, walking can help. You can add walking on days when you’re not doing more intense exercise.

If your job requires long periods of sitting at a desk or in a car, work walking into your daily activities whenever possible. Break up long periods of sitting with a couple 10-minute brisk walks. Walk to work, the store or a friend’s house when possible. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Get off the bus or train a stop before you normally would, or park further away from the building.

How To Get The Best Results

Walking can be paired with other exercises like strength training for a complete fitness plan. But here are a few ways to make the walking portion of your workout more effective, too.

Walking on different surfaces and across varying terrain challenges your muscles to work in different ways, resulting in a more effective workout.
According to research done at the University of Virginia, higher intensity power walking three days per week, along with moderate intensity walking two days per week is the most effective combination for weight loss.
Another study done at Ohio State University found changing pace several times during a walk can burn up to 20% more calories.

Downtown Athletic Club is the perfect place to get in a workout before or after work. Our facility has a wide variety of equipment and fitness classes, so there’s something for everyone. Contact us today for more information.

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7 Healthy, Kid-Friendly Foods For School Lunches

8/22/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

school lunch

The back to school season means many things, including making sure your child has healthy lunches packed for every school day. Experts stress that children, especially younger children, need plenty of fiber (up to 20 grams) in their diet every day, and one way to help ensure it is by adding certain foods to meals and snacks.
Here are some of those foods, which can easily be included in your child's school lunch.

Apples
The skin and the flesh of an apple are two different kinds of fiber and are a great addition to a school lunch. Just be sure to leave the skin on — that's where much of fiber is contained.

Raspberries
You won't find many better fiber-filled fruits than raspberries. Just one cup has eight grams of fiber.

Pears
Like apples and baked potatoes, much of the fiber in pears - and just one medium pear has a quarter of the fiber kids need each day - is in the skin, but the flesh is likewise tasty and healthy.

Popcorn
Children obviously love popcorn and it's a healthy, low-cost snack that can easily be included in school lunches. Three cups popped have about 3.5 grams of fiber.

Oranges
Children love the sweetness of oranges and one orange contains two to three grams of fiber. Choose the fruit and not the juice, however, since orange juice has practically no fiber at all.

Raisins
Raisins are sweet but have no added sugar. Moreover, they're a good source of fiber and also contain iron.

Nut butter
Look for brands of nut butter that contain only nuts and salt while avoiding those that have extra sugar and oils. Nuts are a great source of fiber, protein and healthy fats.

The Downtown Athletic Club of Amarillo focuses on fitness, personal training, as well as nutrition and overall wellness. The DAC's personal trainers are available seven days a week.

Burn Fat With These Bodyweight Exercises

8/15/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

Burning fat doesn't always require a combination of strict eating, fancy equipment and expensive running sneakers. It is possible to burn the blubber with some fairly simple exercises. Let's take a look at five easy exercises anyone can perform to get in shape.

Push-Ups
Most people dread getting down on all fours and pushing their body weight up and down. However, there are few better exercises for the upper body than push-ups. You can do them just about anywhere and they won't put your shoulders in jeopardy like some other weight-bearing exercises. Push-ups require a controlled movement of your body weight up and down. Keep your elbows toward the inside of your body. Maintain a straight torso, neck, head and hips.

Jumping Jacks
Jumping jacks will help you burn away that fat and increase your flexibility. Don't make jumping jacks the core of your workout. Jumping jacks should be used as a means of warming up. They will get your heart going and set the stage for an intense fat-burning workout.

Jumping Rope
Jumping rope is easy, quick and cheap. Like jumping jacks, jumping rope is an excellent means of warming up for a workout. If you find that you become a bit bored while jumping rope, ramp up your speed, put on some music or adopt a new technique. Give it your all and you will melt away plenty of fat and calories.

Burpees
Burpees burn away the calories, build strength and work the entire body. Focus on your form and you won't find burpees to be as difficult as they initially seem. Begin in a squat position. When you reach the bottom of your squat, move your hands outward in front of your body toward the floor. Move your feet back as you would for a push-up, then move them right back to the squat position as quickly as you can. Return to the starting position and repeat.

Squats
Fitness experts swear by squats as they work an array of different muscles and burn away a ton of calories. We've all squatted as infants when learning to walk. All it takes is a planting of the heels, a lowering of the body and a pushing back of the hips. Bend at the knees so your thighs are parallel with the ground.

If you are like most people, you desire some fitness and nutrition guidance. Look no further than the Downtown Athletic Club's personal trainers and state-of-the-art exercise space. Contact us today to schedule a tour of our facility.

Why — And How — To Use A BOSU Ball

8/8/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

A BOSU ball is the nickname given to a BOSU Balance Trainer. This fitness training device has been around for 17 years yet it has only recently reached a mainstream tipping point.

Invented by David Weck, the BOSU ball is an inflated circular piece of rubber that is connected to a rigid platform. The ball's name is an acronym that stands for "both sides up.” "Both sides up” is a reference to the two ways the BOSU ball can be used for physical activity. Some people also refer to the BOSU ball as the “blue half-ball” due to the fact that it resembles a stability ball that has been chopped in half.

How To Use A BOSU Ball

When the BOSU ball's dome side faces up, it creates an unstable force yet the device itself remains stable. It is this blend of stability and instability that makes it possible for people of all ages to use the BOSU ball. As long as the dome side is facing up, the BOSU ball can be used for aerobic activities and various athletic drills. Users can also flip the ball over to allow the platform to face up. This position makes the device unstable, creating the opportunity to use it for other types of exercise. You can use the BOSU ball for anything from squats to curl lifts, overhead presses, deadlifts and beyond.

Why BOSU Balls Have Become Popular

BOSU balls are typically used for balance training and to improve muscle strength. Studies have shown that using the BOSU ball's unstable surface boosts activation of one's rectus abdominus, creating the potential for more intensive and extensive activity compared to what is possible when using a stable surface.

When exercises like curl-ups are performed on the BOSU ball, more electromyography activity is generated than when the same exercises are performed on stable platforms. The ball forces one to use the majority of his core muscles to attain balance. This is precisely why many football teams have incorporated BOSU ball workouts into their training sessions. Ask anyone who has used a BOSU ball and he will almost certainly testify to its merit. This ball is perfect for building up the core muscles, improving balance and maximizing explosiveness.

If you are looking for some guidance in terms of how to properly use a BOSU ball or other exercise equipment, make a beeline for the Downtown Athletic Club. Our physical fitness experts can help you shed weight, tone muscles and improve your balance.

How To Reveal The Steel

8/1/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

Your hard work in the gym has paid off with strength gains and greatly improved fitness, but there's still one thing missing: where's the muscle? Let's face it, we want to look as good as we feel and not seeing any noticeable gains in muscle is frustrating.

So, what gives? Putting in the time but not seeing gains in muscle usually comes down to a few factors.

What's In Your Diet?

Or, more specifically, what's in your diet and are you consuming enough calories? Your nutrition is crucial when it comes to muscle definition, and improving it can mean increasing your water intake, incorporating more vegetables and lean proteins, while avoiding refined sugar, complex carbs and other foods that leave you feeling bloated.

Also, to build significant muscle you must provide your body with a calorie surplus by consuming more calories than you burn every day. If you're not seeing muscle gains it could very well be due to the fact that your calorie consumption is at — or below — your maintenance level. You can counter this by finding out what your calorie maintenance level is and increasing it by 15 to 20%.

What's In Your Cardio?

Cardio is important to your fitness routine for a variety of reasons, including that it helps your body transition from a higher percentage of body fat to one of lean muscle. Shedding fat enables you to see all the hard work you've done (that's been hidden by body fat). That said, up your cardio to at least three days per week.

Many experts also suggest that the intensity of your cardio workouts is more important than their duration. The longer you do cardio, the less muscle gains you'll have, but intense cardio workouts of 20 minutes or less won't decrease strength and muscle mass.

How Hard Are You Working Muscle Groups?

If you're only performing a couple of set per muscle group in each workout you won't get the kind of metabolic fatigue you need in the muscle to produce noticeable gains. Similarly, if you're training each muscle group once every 10 days or so, any muscles gains you'll experience will be gradual. Moreover, you want to train all muscle groups equally, while not just focusing on the more noticeable groups such as chest, biceps and abs.

Working with a personal trainer at the Downtown Athletic Club of Amarillo can help you reach all of your fitness and wellness goals. The DAC focuses on personal training, and nutrition, and much more.

5 Things That Mean It's Time To Ease Up

7/25/2016

By Dominic Zumbrun

Pushing yourself hard is certainly part of your overall exercise plan, but sometimes you can push too hard. A good workout isn't defined by how awful you feel after it's over, and overdoing it can lead to significant health problems.

It's important to monitor yourself when you're working out, and knowing the signs of overtraining is part of the process. Here's a look at some of those signs, although symptoms vary with each individual.

Muscle Cramps Or Soreness
Muscle cramps can be a sign of dehydration, heat stroke, or of an intensity overload. You're probably OK if the cramp isn't enough to keep you from moving, but you need to take a break if it forces you to stop. Never ignore a cramp that just won't go away. Additionally, if your cramps and muscle soreness last for 72 hours or more, it's a sign that your muscles aren't recovering.

Dizziness
Dizziness or being light-headed can be caused by a variety of factors, and shouldn't be ignored when the symptoms don't subside. Both can be a sign of low blood sugar, dehydration or heat stroke.

Shaky Muscles
Quivering muscles are a common occurrence during an intense workout and may be a sign that you've reached a healthy point of fatigue that can result in strength and endurance gains. The flip side, however, is when your muscles are shaking so badly that you can't control your movements and/or maintain proper form during the exercise. This also can be a sign of dehydration and low blood sugar, and it's a signal to take a break until the trembling subsides.

Side Cramps
Side stitches often occur while running or during other forms of cardio training. The good news is that they often subside as your fitness level increases, and can be prevented/reduced through proper warmup and hydration. But a side stitch is nothing to mess with if the pain sharpens and continues up to your left shoulder — it could even be a sign of a heart attack.

Nausea
If you're sure that your nausea isn't the result of something you ate, or didn't eat, then it could be a signal to lessen the intensity of your workouts. But you may feel queasy if you exercise too soon after eating, or when exercising on an empty stomach, so monitoring when you eat is another important factor to consider.

The Downtown Athletic Club of Amarillo offers fitness, training, overall wellness, and much more. The DAC's personal trainers are available seven days a week.

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