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Enjoy part 3 of Mary's at-home program geared toward seniors!
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Enjoy Mary's second installation of her at-home workout routine for seniors (and anyone who wants to try it!). If you live in Evanston, chances are you know super trainer Mary Cox of MPower Fitness. If you DON'T know her, here's your chance! Mary works with many senior clients to help them maintain and better their strength and mobility. Considering this current CoronaClimate, Mary has created a series of at-home workouts geared specifically for seniors (though anyone can do them) to help manage stress, to help people continue to move and stay healthy. We'll be posting Mary's videos as they come out so for now, enjoy Part 1!  A friend of mine let me know she hadn't had any human contact with anyone in 5 days. Not a single high five or hug... And this friend loves hugs. Needless to say she's -- WE'VE -- been going through lots of emotions lately and the thought of limiting our human interaction for who knows how long can feel... Well, I don't have to tell you. We need a hug. And mental clarity. And, from what I've heard from at least three people today, we need to get the kinks out of our necks that have settled in from less-than-ideal posture. Enter the Egg Roll, one of my favorite Original Strength moves! I'll tell you why I love it below but if you're in a hurry to feel better, here's how you do it:
Watch this video below: Here are a few reasons I LOVE this movement:
Practice this rad move for a few minutes per day and let me know how you feel in the comments below! Stay safe, stay healthy and keep moving!  Dear TruFit community, Like you, we have been preoccupied with the ever-changing and evolving information about COVID-19. I have been monitoring the guidelines outlined from the WHO and CDC as well as our local Evanston government officials. Our priority is providing the TruFit community with a comfortable and safe environment. We want you to get healthy here at the studio and stay healthy outside of it. With that in mind, we want you to be aware of how we are working to reduce the risk of communicable disease at TruFit:
This situation remains fluid, with constantly changing information. Our promise to you is to be as transparent as possible as we make the best decisions that we can to keep our studio a safe place for all of us. With warm regards and clean hands,   The people who walk into TruFit’s doors are an adventurous bunch. Our community has trained here in preparation to hike through England, Switzerland, Alaska, New Zealand. Our clients have also gotten strong enough to hike Yellowstone after a stroke and some have trained to hike up and down their own stairs after double knee replacements. So, yeah, we know a thing or two about getting people ready for lots of strenuous activity. The fall weather is starting to settle in which means our outdoorsy friends are getting in all of the camping and hiking they can before winter comes. And while you can do all the work ahead of your trip to make sure you're ready to climb and get your heart rate up, it's still going to be important to let your body prepare for and calm down from the day's activities! Here are five seemingly simple movements that have big effects on your body that you can do in a tiny space (like your tent!). Try these in order before you start your day and reverse the order before going to bed! 1. Turtle BreathingChannel your inner turtle: Get onto your hands and knees with hips either on top of knees or sitting back toward feet and shoulders on top of elbows. It’s easy to collapse into your shoulder blades and look down but try not to do that; you want shoulders away from your ears and your eyes on the horizon. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth as you breathe in and out through your nose. Feel your breath fill up not just the front of your stomach but your sides and back, too. Breathe in for 5 seconds and exhale for 6-7 seconds. Do this for two minutes. 2. Neck Nods and Look-AroundsSet yourself up in a sphinx position with your elbows under or slightly ahead of your shoulders and your shoulders away from your ears. If you feel a lot of back pinchiness, feel free to scoot your arms a little further forward. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth as you breathe in and out through your nose. Look up at the ceiling with your eyes and let your head follow. Then, look downward to your belly button and let your head follow. Repeat 10 times or so at a nice, slow pace. Then, look over your shoulder to see what’s behind you (a bear?!). A lot of times we want to look downward as we look around but really try to look up and over those shoulders. Your eyes start and then let your head follow and then let your spine follow after that. Repeat this about 10 times or so. 3. Shinbox-Position Hip RotationsSit tall with one leg bent in front of you and one behind you. I typically teach this with both knees at 90 degrees to help stretch out the glute more but the point of this shinbox exercise is for your long leg bone to rotate internally and externally in your hip socket. Place your hand on your back hip and then, using your eyes, look over your shoulder and behind you as the back hip rotates inward; then look over your other shoulder as that back hip rotates outward. This does not have to be a big movement at all but you want to feel as though that leg bone is gliding and mobilizing. Do this for 30-60s on each side 4. Lego RockbacksYou’ll not only be connecting your hips with your shoulders with Lego Rockbacks but you’ll also be adding LOTS of movement through your ankles and toes. The foot has 26 bones and 33 joints so you can imagine how thankful your feet (and the rest of your body!) will be to get so much love and attention after being stuck in hiking boots all day. Do 10 or so on each side. 5. Walking Dead BugsLay on your back with your arms and legs up, knees bent (as much as you can depending on what your tent allows…) Extend one leg and your opposite arm down in the same direction and then bring them back up. Alternate sides. You want to keep your ribcage pressed against the ground during the whole exercise. Also keep the arm that isn't moving reaching up to the sky; it's common to let that arm move, too. Do this 6-8 times on each side. We hope this has been helpful to power your body up, power it down and let you hike to your heart's content. If you have any questions and/or want to meet with a TruFit trainer, please leave us a comment below, email us, call or text us!   If you wake up, step out of bed onto the floor and scream from a searing pain that's burning up the bottom of your foot, you may be suffering from one of THE most annoying body buggers of all time: Plantar Fasciitis. If you have NOT been afflicted with PF in your life, consider yourself fortunate and know that this post is still for you! Here are some fun Plantar Fasciitis (PF) facts featured in this article from a large national survey taken in 2013:
Y'all: The weather is finally nice enough to walk/run/bike/play outside in. Do you want PF to stand in your way of living your best life? We didn't think so. First things first: We are not doctors. We are not diagnosing anyone. We are not prescribing anything at all. We also know that the resets below from Original Strength are amazing in and of themselves, whether you have PF or are hoping to prevent it. You can do one reset or all four in a row! Do the resets for 30 seconds or two minutes! You can even check out trainer Kathryn's own foot-happy resets that she shared with us here! See what helps YOU feel better because you are an individual who might react really well to one thing and less to another! Without further ado, here is a short routine to help your body and feet get along with each other again! SINGLE LEG ROCKBACKS WHY?: Because rockbacks connect the shoulders to the hips and when we're not feeling great, it can feel like our body gets disconnected. An added bonus to this particular rockback variation is that we're adding leg extension with dorsiflextion for an added foot/calf stretch which, whether or not you have PF, can feel super yummy. LEGO ROCKBACKS WHY?: Like every other rockback variation, we're still connecting hips with shoulders but we're also adding LOTS of movement through the ankles and toes. The foot has 26 bones and 33 joints and when our plantar fascia is all gunked up and stuck, our poor foot's actually screaming out for locomotion. So let's give it just that! ROCKING CHAIRS WHY?: If you read our post from "National I Love My Feet Day" (you KNOW we celebrated that day!), then you'll know that the fascia that runs under our feet goes all the way up our calves, hamstrings and keeps traveling until it goes over our head and into our eye sockets. Everything is connected so why not give all the nerve endings in the back of your body some love with this reset? And just remember: The site of pain is often not the cause of pain so don't forget about the rest of your body parts. ELEVATED ROCKBACKS WHY?: We can get really down on ourselves when it hurts to load our bodies vertically (like, when we're walking or running or squatting at the gym). We're throwing this reset into the mix to throw in a little challenge into the mix! We're still extending the undersides of our feet here, which can feel good, and we're also adding load (our body weight)! So we're not just moving to feel better but we're also continuing to get stronger! Injuries can hold us back for a variety of reasons. So can the FEAR of injury. Let's agree, though, that if we don't move it, we lose it. We hope these OS resets help you feel good/better/the best!
Tried these out? Have other movements that helped you out? Let us know in the comments below!  Warmer temps are upon us and that means picnics, baseball games, neighborhood block parties, street festivals, hanging out at the beach, dining outside… For some, this also means it’s the season for rosé and margaritas and ice-cold beer. Yes, summer can be a veritable smorgasbord of sweet and boozy sippers, and we can have them readily available on ice, frozen, even served in "bottomless" quantities (gulp)! Enjoying indulgent summer drinks can be a lovely bonus to good weather and good times, but are there non-alcoholic cold beverages that can feel similarly delicious and celebratory? Ones that provide more hydration, less calories and sugar, and even have health benefits? This is what we asked the TruFit trainer crew and here were their three favorite go-tos:  1) ICED TEA Walking through the tea isle at the grocery store is like walking through a rainbow of flavor options. You've got your Earl Greys and Oolongs AND you've got Sugar Cookie and Black Cherry Berry. The options are endless and creativity with your iced tea flavors can leave you feeling like a little kid! Trainer Megan's favorite: Making her own blend by taking black tea bags and raspberry tea bags and brewing them together! Boil some water and steep 2 bags of each flavor for at least five minutes; the longer the steep, the stronger the taste. It's OK to get a strong, punchy flavor if you plan on serving the tea over ice!  2) KOMBUCHA Kombucha has been around a long time (according to Wikipedia that means anywhere from 200-2,000 years) but has taken over the local market in recent years! The pros: HEALTH BENEFITS. "It's fermented," explains Evanston's own Chiropractic First owner Dr. Meggie Smith. "So you get all of the microbiome benefits of fermented foods which can be good for GI, skin, digestion, etc." FIZZY & COMPLEX. Thanks to its fermentation giving it some fizziness, it can feel like you're enjoying something close to a soda or beer (and, yes, I did say fermentation and, yes, kombucha does have a tiny amount of alcohol content but it's usually closer to 0.5% vs around the 6ish% found in craft beer, which is why anyone can buy it at the store). Note: Dr. Meggie says kombucha helped her kick her 20-year soda addiction! FUN FLAVORS. Since it IS so popular, many kombucha makers are coming out with lots of different flavors to distinguish themselves. Local Evanston family-owned Kombucha Brava has flavors like Vanilla Pepper and Apple Carrot Ginger! Trainer Kathryn loves Cardamom Mint for its light and refreshing flavor as well as the Lemon Ginger flavor. If you live in Evanston, you can check out Kombucha Brava at its own tasting room as well as the Evanston Farmer's Market, to name a couple spots!  3) INFUSED WATER Bottle and canned water companies have tried REALLY hard to make water more exciting, but let's face it: Sometimes we still need to intervene to help us get those 8 glasses every day. Just like brewing your own flavor of iced tea, creativity is your only limiting factor when coming up with what to slice up and put into your water! So grab a few of the following ingredients and get hydrated!: - Cucumber and mint - Jalapeno and strawberry - Orange and a cinnamon stick - Blueberry and basil Marketing coordinator Allison's current fav (pictured above): Fruity La Croix Spritz
 Available at Anthropologie The Power of Fun Glassware Sometimes the easiest way to dress up a beverage (and any food for that matter) is to put it in a fun, attractive container! Serving up your non-alcoholic beverages in special glassware can make it more, well...special! Try sipping one of our three favorite non-alcoholic summer drinks in a crystal tumbler, wine glass, or quaint decorative juice glass to add instant flair. We hope these summer beverage ideas help jog your own drink creativity and experimentation! What are some of YOUR go-to non-alcoholic and low-cal drinks for summer? We'd love to hear in the comments below!
 As personal trainers, we encourage our clients to move a little bit every day. We're also human; we know that time is precious and we might not have the luxury of spending it at the gym most days. We ALSO know that just because you can’t make it to the gym, it doesn’t mean you can’t get SOMETHING in! Exercise does not have to be 60 minutes, all or nothing. Exercise is movement, and movement can happen any time, anywhere (so, even at home), for any amount of time. We have plenty of ordinary objects at home that can be turned into surprisingly effective exercise equipment. Some of the TruFit trainers do or used to train people in their homes; Izzy remembers a day when she needed to improvise in someone’s kitchen, only using objects in that room: "Other than bodyweight, we used a gallon of milk (8 lbs), soup cans (2 lbs each), and towels." We’ve demonstrated a few of our favorite things to do with furniture sliders (especially useful if you have carpet) here and here. But here are four other moves you can try out with towels, something every home has! You can even put them all together to make a quick towel workout circuit! See? We love you all so much we took away any excuse NOT to move. ;) Enjoy the four towel exercise videos below! 1) Towel Mountain Climbers
2) Towel Reverse Lunges
3) Towel Russian Twists
4) One-Arm Sliding Towel Pushups
We hope this towel workout was helpful, and inspires you to play around with movement in places other than the gym.
If you try these towel exercises, or do the full towel workout, let us know in the comments below! Have questions? Don't hesitate to get in touch at info@trufitpersonaltraining.com! They say abs are made in the kitchen and we can assure you: It's pretty much true. You cannot out-run/out-squat/out-bench a less-than-savory diet if your goals involve weight loss or fat loss. You cannot expect six-pack abs to come in 10 days (sorry, Pinterest lovers).  Nope. We may have begun exercising to start reaching our goals. That's already HUGE. Then we muster the courage to confront our nutrition, so we look for help and guidance and see things like this:  Actual results I got when I Googled "What should I eat?" Rather than digging through endless Google results of fitness myths vs truths and random info, we're here to (hopefully) make the question of "what to eat" a little more simple. It doesn't require getting a food calculator out. And it doesn't require eliminating certain kinds of food* from your diet (I mean, you knew there would be an asterisk there, right?). Are you ready? 4 (Preliminary) Steps for Easier Meal Prep First, here are 4 preliminary steps for easier meal prep. I say "preliminary" in case this whole thing is totally new to you. You have to start somewhere and this is pretty much Ground Zero:
 Handy-dandy meal planning grid If all of the above is already pretty doable for you and you'd like to take it to the next level, read on! 4 Steps to Plate Portions for Weight Loss Here are the 4 steps to building a better plate that can get you closer to feeling and looking great:
What might that look like? Let's take a look... The exact amount of food you'll need will be dependent on your own body's metabolism, your lifestyle, and your goals of course, but we feel like this is the best place to start. For more help maneuvering through your nutrition and exercise, don't hesitate to contact us! We're here to help. * If meal prepping is new to you and you hate cooking but want to dial down portion sizes, go for it! We are all about making things easy--don't feel like you have to eliminate foods. That being said, if your goal is to lose weight and/or fat, please keep in mind the following facts:
** If you cook with oil or butter and are looking to lose weight or lean out, use caution with this step. For example, dressing your salad with about 1 Tbsp of olive oil counts as your healthy fat, so adding avocado or cheese to that salad may be a calorie bomb. Similarly, sautéing those greens in 1 Tbsp of olive oil counts as your healthy fat. Bottom line: Be thoughtful with your healthy fats :)
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