Tone and Tighten

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Archives for February 2014

6 Tips To Keep You Knees Healthy – Tone and Tighten on KUTV Fresh Living

February 22, 2014

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Recently, I was invited to come onto Fresh Living (a local Utah lifestyle show) to discuss some tips and advice about how to keep your knees healthy throughout your life. The following video is a quick segment of what we discussed, but I also thought it would make a great post here on T&T where I can elaborate in a little more detail (without the stress of three cameras in my face!). That being said, today’s post is 6 tips to keep your knees in the best condition possible throughout your life. Remember, you’re as old as your knees feel!
 

When properly cared for, your knees can serve their valuable roles throughout your whole life. Here are my top 6 tips to maintain healthy knees:

1. Stay at a healthy weight. Every extra pound you add on puts about 4 extra pounds of pressure on your knees when you walk or take the stairs. Oftentimes when people come in to see me with knee pain they mention that they’ve recently put on some weight. All of the sudden that’s a lot more for your joints to support and can add some serious pressure in your knees. Once you shed that excess weight, though, symptoms improve—and oftentimes even disappear.
2. Strength training. Simply stated: strong knees are healthy knees. The mechanics of the joint improve greatly if there are more efficient forces acting on them. Keep in mind that while the primary movers of the knee joint (quads and hamstrings) are important, they’re not the only players in the game. Maintaining strong hips and ankles is also vital; which brings me to tip #3…
3. Don’t look at knee pain with a microscope– Knee pain can actually be a manifestation of a problem elsewhere. When people come in to see me for their knee pain I actually start by having them take their shoes and socks off and looking at their foot and ankle alignment. This is where the “rubber hits the road” in movement; oftentimes fallen arches and weak ankles can lead to knee pain. I would say the primary source of knee pain, though, comes from weak hips. The abductor/adductor groups and glutes are vital in healthy knee function (maintaining proper alignment, healthy running, endurance, etc). If your knees are painful consider an aggressive hip strengthening and ankle stabilization program. The outcomes may really surprise you!
4. Proper form is vital: Now that I’ve talked up exercise, it’s important that I put in a word for good form. While exercise is a vital part of healthy knees, doing exercises correctly is IMPERATIVE to proper strengthening. Speaking specifically of two of my favorite exercises, squats and lunges, my key cues to remember are make sure your knee stays directly over your toes (lunges) and don’t let your knee advance past/in front of your toes (squats and lunges).
5. Don’t stop running: So distance running has to be horrible for your knees, right? The answer is actually surprising: there is no correlation between distance running and knee osteoarthritis (OA). It’s actually quite the opposite! Runners have less incidence of knee OA than those who are sedentary (it’s the whole “maintain a healthy weight” thing I mentioned in point #1). Getting up and being active is a lot better for your knees than sitting around doing nothing. Of course keep in mind that running form is important to maintain healthy knees, but that’s a whole other post for a whole other day!
6. Genetics do play a strong role in knee health: The bottom line is genetics play a huge role in many facets of our lives. Everything from heart disease to cancer has a strong genetic component; oddly enough knee pain is the same way! If mom and/or dad had some knee pain due to arthritic changes, chances are their pain will be in your future as well. If I can offer one piece of advice when things do start to get painful: don’t stop moving! The biggest problem that I see in the physical therapy clinic with people who have arthritis is they stop doing any activity because they’re scared of perpetuating the problem. Keep in mind that your joints thrive on movement. Motion is the key factor that keeps joints healthy and lubricated. If you do have pain, my advice is to find some way to stay healthy and active that decreases as much pressure on your joints as possible. My go-to exercises are swimming in the pool and cycling. These are great, non-weight-bearing activities that allow your joints to move and your muscles to work without putting a large amount of stress on these areas.

You don’t have to live with pain in your knees! I urge you to contact your medical provider about any pain you may be experiencing and get started back to a healthy lifestyle! As always, if you have any questions you think I may be able to help you out with I encourage your emails and/or comments: toneandtightenfitness@gmail.com.
 
Make it happen,
 
Jared

 

 By Jared Beckstrand

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To view the rest of this post, be sure to head over to www.tone-and-tighten.com.

Have a great day!

Jared

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Filed Under: Advice, FAQ, Fitness, Muscles, Physical Activity, Tips •

25 SKINNY Slow Cooker Recipes (all under 350 calories per serving!)

February 21, 2014

It’s the best of both worlds- 25 quick and easy slow cooker meals that are also low on calories! Each servings of these recipes has less than 350 calories (some have way less than that).
To see all the nutrition info for each recipe, click on the link below the picture and then click on the “Nutrition” tab. There you will find carbs, sodium, Weight Watchers points, and anything else you are looking for.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Healthy Recipes, Made From Scratch, Recipe • Tagged With: food, healthy, healthy recipe, recipe, skinny

Fitness Motivation – Slow Progress Is Still Progress

February 20, 2014

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Your fitness motivation for the week comes to you via slow gains. Personal fitness is tough. It’s a struggle. It’s a sacrifice. It’s easier to eat what you want than to eat healthy. It’s easier to relax on the couch or hit the snooze button than get up and workout. Why do we do it? Why do we choose the more difficult path vs the easy one? One word… results. You do it for personal health. You do it to look good in your swimsuit. You do it to play with your children. Whatever your reason may be, you workout to get some kind of result. But what happens if you don’t see the progress you’re expecting? What happens if you stall out and stop advancing towards your goals?
That brings us to today’s fitness motivation. Progress… no matter how slow… is still progress!!! Don’t let lack of advancement frustrate you to the point that you lose sight of why you started in the first place. Your results are attainable. As long as you’re facing the right direction and advancing towards your goals you are headed in the right direction! Be patient, be persistent, and never lose sight of why you started. Keep moving. Keep going. Keep progressing (no matter how slowly).

Click here for more great Fitness Motivation from
Tone and Tighten

Make it happen,

Jared

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By Jared Beckstrand

To view the rest of this post, be sure to head over to www.tone-and-tighten.com.

Have a great day!

Jared

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Filed Under: Exercise, Fitness, Motivation, Quote •

Standing Abs Workout

February 19, 2014

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Hate doing crunches?
Here is a killer core workout that doesn’t require you on the floor, doing a million crunches. I love that this workout also strengthens your back. It’s awesome.
 
Let’s rock this!!
 

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Filed Under: Abs, At-Home Workout, Beginner Workouts, Core Strength, Low Impact Workout, Video Workout, Workout • Tagged With: abs, at-home, core, exercise, workout

Top 10 Suspension Gym Exercises – Video Workout

February 18, 2014

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Suspension gym systems are becoming increasingly popular. You see them in gyms and health clubs; they even offer suspension training classes at the gym I belong to. I have had one for some time now and I can honestly say it’s the one piece of home gym equipment that I could not live without! I love mine because it was inexpensive, doesn’t take up a lot of room, and it’s extremely versatile! It’s amazing the number of exercises available with a relatively simple piece of equipment. Unfortunately, it seems like many people are not familiar with this system. “Cardio equipment? Check. Free weights and machines? No problem. Two straps suspended overhead that I’m supposed to do what with??” 🙂 I actually think that if more people knew exactly what suspension gyms were capable of that they would spend a lot more time using them. For this purpose I made this video of my personal “Top 10 Favorite Suspension Gym Exercises“. Well, that and the fact that we’re giving one away for free this week on T&T! Keep reading for more details…

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Filed Under: Advice, Core Strength, Equipment, Exercise, Products I Love, Strength Training, Video Workout, Workout • Tagged With: at-home, At-Home Workout, video, Video Workout, workout

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Hi, I’m Jared

 

I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy who specializes in exercise prescription. I love being active and love seeing my patients become more active and get into shape. I thought that this would be a good place to share my workouts and ideas with others.

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