Save $$$ on your gym membership

With summer officially here, many people want to step up their fitness level by joining a gym. But gym memberships are expensive and many gyms abuse your credit card / bank info and keep charging you after you cancel your membership. So how do you save money but still get access to a gym?

Here are some good ways to get a gym membership without burning a hole in your pocket.

Campus Gyms

University and college fitness centres are often much cheaper than a regular gym and they won't rip you off by overcharging your credit card like a big box gym will. If you're an university or college student, you probably already have access to a gym on campus that you might not have realized is available. Admission might already be included in your student tuition, or you might qualify for a hefty discount. If you are a former student then graduates can also qualify for an alumni discount, so don't be afraid to ask.

Ask your Employer

Some companies offer fitness benefits - such as discounts on gym memberships or fitness equipment, exercise classes, or they might even have facilities in your office building. Take advantage of these employee discounts and freebies.

Negotiate with a Local Gym

Some gyms are willing to negotiate a better rate if you can prove that there's a cheaper, comparable gym elsewhere. Do your research by checking out your local gyms to compare membership fees, contract length, early termination penalties, hours of operation, types of equipment and classes available, as well as the little things like locker and towel fees.

Always Pay Cash

Never give a big box gym like Extreme Fitness, GoodLife Fitness, etc your credit card or bank information. No matter what discount offer they might give tempt you with. Just tell them you prefer to pay with cash and if they insist on getting your credit card or bank info then start walking for the door.

Ask for a discount

If you are a student, a senior, a family of 2 or more, or a foreign visitor then ask for a discount rate. eg. If you are just visiting Toronto for 6 months, ask for truncated rate on the regular 12 month contract. A shorter term contract will save you money in the long run and you won't be locked into a contract - and remember, pay cash even on a contract.

Don't pay for what you don't use

Gyms often offer a wide range of amenities, such as dance classes, martial arts, pools, saunas, hot tubs, massages, towel service, personal trainers, and more. The more that a gym offers the more expensive the membership will be. However if you don't need all that go to a gym that has only what you need and see the huge price difference.

Try the gym before you buy

Get the free membership for 1 day, 3 days or 7 days - whatever the gym is offering. If after the trial period you don't like the gym and / or feel it is overcharging then you can always buy fitness equipment for yourself and train at home.

Use the gym as an add-on to your routine

Your gym should not be your only means of exercise. It should compliment your jogging, cycling, rollerblading, home exercises / weightlifting, yoga, sports and whatever else you do. Thus if you only go to the gym once every two weeks you can save a bundle by only getting one-day passes at your local gym - and only paying for the days you use. If you start to go there more often - like every day or 3 times per week, then get the monthly membership.

Splitting an Arrow Down the Middle

Splitting an arrow down the middle is something usually only seen in movies. It is very for archers to do it. Usually it is by accident, not on purpose.

What is more likely to happen, especially with modern arrows, is for an arrow to damage the nock of another arrow and then keep going. Or the arrow might strike another arrow on the shaft, possibly denting or breaking the shaft.

Or, like in the photo below, it might hit the nock and drive in far enough that it stays there.

In order to actually split an arrow lengthways - down the whole shaft - it would need to be following:

#1. The arrow would need to be made of wood.

#2. The arrowhead would need to be razor sharp (typically made for hunting).

#3. The shot would have to go not only at the right spot, but also drive inwards at the right angle. A degree or two up or down and the arrow which just damage the arrow it is hitting without driving its way down the shaft.

Fixing a Crooked Nose using Nose Exercises

Q

"Hi!

I found your nose exercise page this morning. Cannot wait to try them. Are there exercises for my crooked nose? Picture attached. 

Thank you.

Steff"

SEE NOSE EXERCISES TO SEE THE PAGE SHE IS TALKING ABOUT.

PHOTO OMITTED FOR PRIVACY'S SAKE

A

Hey Steff!

Is it the bone or cartilage that is crooked or just the muscles that are imbalanced? Usually it is just the muscles that are imbalanced (one set of muscles on one side is stronger than the other). However if you've suffered and injury to your nose (such as being punched there really hard) it could be the bone or cartilage that is the problem.

If you feel the bone with your fingers in the top of your nose and anything feels off centre, you will know which it is.

With crooked noses its usually the nose tip area which is crooked, which means it is the muscles that are too strong on one side and too weak on the other. So what you need to do is "equalization exercises" to correct those muscles. It is a bit like weightlifting / resistance training for your nose.

The exercises I recommend you do are:

#1. Squinting the Nose <-- This is the really important one for fixing a crooked nose, although the others help too to keep things "balanced".

#3. The Nose Shaper

#4. Nose Narrowing

And nose wiggling wouldn't hurt either.

Do #1 twice per day, #3 and #4 once per day, nose wiggling will help too, although that is easier to do with a mirror. Keep doing all of them every day for a month and you should start to see results. Keep doing that for several months and the nose muscles on each side should balance themselves out.

Note: If you underwent nose surgery very recently I would wait 2 weeks before starting the exercises. Your nose will need time to heal first.

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

Want to learn more on this topic? Visit the NOSE EXERCISES post.



PERSONALIZED HELP

I am getting a lot of requests from people wanting personalized advice about their nose and what nose exercises they should do, how often they should do them, special circumstances,  etc. My advice is to follow the instructions listed above and on other posts I have made about nose exercises.

If you are contacting me asking me for personalized help - basically asking for my services in aiding you with your nose exercises, then I will need to charge you my personal training rate ($50 per hour) for my services.

I know this is not the answer many of you are looking for. I have already answered many of the frequently asked questions in the comments section of various nose exercise posts, and answered many emails from people asking for help with their nose exercises - but I am a busy person and the emails have reached a point where I need to start charging for this service because I cannot answer all of them.

Best of luck with your nose exercises!

DIY Fusion Workout

Lots of Toronto gyms offer fusion workouts.

But maybe you don't feel comfortable exercising in front of other people.

Maybe you have time constraints.

Maybe you just prefer to workout at home for any number of reasons.

Thus being able to create your own fusion workout at home - instead of going to a Toronto gym - means that you can control which exercises you are doing and the environment you are doing them in.

Fusion workouts are great for trying more than one style of activity at a time, but they are also used to maximize results in one of the most time efficient ways available.

Focusing on a single exercise all the time gets boring and gets very little results because there is only so much muscle tissue your body can grow in one body part during a night's rest - but a variety of exercises allows you to grow muscle tissue in multiple locations by focusing on different muscle groups.

It makes the workout much more enjoyable because you have more variety with what you are doing, it raises your endurance level, and improves the speed of your progress by using exercises which double or triple up on different muscles groups.

Examples of Fusion Style Workouts:
-Strength training and then running every five to ten minutes. for example, work out your chest and back, then run. Go back to strength training and do some squats and lunges, then run. Next, work biceps and triceps, then run again. This will allow a great weight workout, cardiovascular training for great fat burning, and it builds endurance. Do some stretches afterwards to maintain your flexibility.

-Weight Training and Yoga. It's great to stretch after every strength exercise, so use yoga poses to get stretching in, and improve your yoga practice.

-Alternate Skipping or Jumping Jacks with Pushups, Situps, Chin-ups and other body weight exercises. No equipment necessary and you get both cardio and weight training. For fun add in shadow boxing or dancing with the music on your stereo turned up really loud. :)

You can really do almost anything you want with fusion workouts because they're very flexible. Just get out all of your exercise equipment and spend 5 to 10 minutes on each exercise.

Swagger while you Walk

An 150 lb person walking on level ground, at a slow pace of less than 2 mph burns 136 calories per hour.

However if they swagger while they walk (swinging their arms a lot more, moving their sides and shoulders with their arms in a macho swagger) they will burn 150 calories per hour.

The reason is because swaggering engages the obliques side muscles as you twist your body every step you take. It is a small twist, but it shifts the weight of your upper torso on a constant basis - and thus counts in a small way as resistance training, as the obliques are effectively being used to twist the weight of the upper torso.

A person who walks with a swagger 2 hours per day will burn 10,199 extra calories per year compared to a person who doesn't who doesn't swagger.

That is a difference of roughly 2.9 lbs of fat per year.

Over a 10 year period a person who constantly walks with a "confident swagger" in theory, assuming two hours of "swaggering" per day, will be roughly 29 lbs of fat lighter than a person who doesn't swagger at all.

And they would have stronger obliques, and to a lesser extent stronger abs, shoulders and arm muscles.

The big thing really is whether a person can use those oblique muscles while they walk and get used to having a constant swagger. In the beginning it would be difficult to walk like that all the time (because your obliques would get sore), but after a week or two of walking like that regularly your oblique muscles would grow stronger and your body would become more accustomed to it. So yes, with regular practice a person could develop a constant swagger.

I will note however that deliberately swaggering while you walk at first feels a bit silly. (And you might wonder if other people are watching you and thinking if you are doing that on purpose or if you really do walk around like you own the place.)

Honestly, who cares? It is your body! If you want to lose fat, grow stronger obliques over a longer term period, then absolutely go ahead and do this as an exercise. Another side benefit to obliques is that they improve your balance and flexibility. Useful for many activities.

The end result is that you gain a lot of physical benefits from swaggering - and losing weight and becoming stronger, you will likely feel more confident and feel like swaggering anyway.

Using Playground Equipment as your Personal Gym

Tired of paying gyms to exercise there?

Playground equipment is free.

Better yet some parks now have playground equipment designed for adults who want to exercise. Use them! Or encourage your local politicians here in Toronto to support adding more adult exercise equipment.

I think someone should create a charity dedicated towards collecting money to add more adult exercise equipment to Toronto parks and recreation areas. And if successful, the charity could expand to the rest of Ontario and Canada so people can all benefit from such exercise equipment.

The photos below are just a sample of what you can do.

Exercise Wisdom from Bruce Lee

"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."
-Bruce Lee

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."
-Bruce Lee

"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
-Bruce Lee

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."
-Bruce Lee

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."
-Bruce Lee

"Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick."
-Bruce Lee

"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."
-Bruce Lee

Preparing Nutritious Meals with Little Time

Diet is a huge part of controlling your weight.

One of the most common obstacles is preparing healthy meals - and finding the time to do so. Many of us don't have the time to fuss over recipes in the kitchen. After a long work day many people are starving and don't want to spend the extra time chopping vegetables, cooking rice, etc - and thus reach for unhealthy fast food. It's completely understandable.

However I can give you tips on how to make better use of your time so you can food prepared in less time / optimizing your kitchen time, so it is there ready for you.

Tips For Preparing Meals / Snacks When You Lack Time

#1. Optimize Your Boredom

Even when you are really busy most of the time there will always be gaps in your schedule wherein you are bored and waiting for something else to happen. eg. The movie doesn't start for another 20 minutes, so why not chop veggies while you wait and then stick then in the fridge to stay cool.

#2. Rewatching Old TV Shows

Are you the type of person who loves rewatching your favourite TV shows and movies? Chances are you've already seen the show a dozen times and can recite the script - which means you can do other activities while watching it. (Note: You might just as easily use this time for exercising instead of healthy food preparation, both are good for.)

#3. Reading Time

Do you make time in your schedule for reading? Try an audiobook instead so you can listen to the audiobook while you have fun in the kitchen making healthy food.

Secondly, try reading some healthy recipe books for fun instead of the usual books you read for fun. They will give you more ideas for things you can make in the kitchen which take less time - or foods that can be made in advance and stored, making it easier to just warm it up later.

#4. Canned Soups and Stews

If you are going to make any kind of "fast food" at all I recommend healthy soups and stews. Open the can, pour in contents, add some extra chopped veggies (or peas, beans, pre-cut carrots), heat, stir continuously, cool and consume. Yummy and healthy!

#5. Peas and Beans

Seriously. They require no cutting. Just rinse with water and boil.

#6. The Sunday Night Action Plan

What do you do on your Sunday nights anyway??? Instead of relaxing and dreading Monday take ten minutes or so and create a work week meal plan. Aim to make something for dinner each night that will make good leftovers for lunch or even the following day's supper. You can even plan part of this in your head while driving or on the subway.

#7. Off from Work Early

If you get off from work early take that extra time to make a healthier meal. Plan for more time spent on a meal when you get off work early, and a really quick dinner when you get home late (soup and stew is great when you get home late).

#8. Make Food in Advance

Breakfast foods like Swiss Muesli can be prepared in advance and then stored. Certain kinds of soups can also be made in advance and stored (eg. Lentil soup).

#9. Ask for Help

It's so simple but if you have a teenager at home before you, ask them to chop vegetables. If they are too lazy to chop peppers then there is something wrong with them. You can also ask them to pick up healthy items at the grocery store, create the meal themselves (make a rule "You can make whatever you want as long as its healthy."

Nobody cares if the peppers look like they were cut by a blind woodcutter. Praise your teenager for a job well done.

#10. Use Frozen Vegetables

Frozen veggies are just as nutritious as fresh - especially if they are flash frozen. The freezing process does remove a bit of the taste, but all the nutrition is still there. If you're not entertaining then its no big deal to use frozen instead. Canned beans, legumes and chickpeas are also handy.

#11. Invest in Appliances

Handy things to have: A rice cooker, food processor, vegetable chopper, hand blender, pressure cooker, and crock pot. Or even just a big old stew pot - good for making one big soup which lasts multiple days.

#12. Combine Your Exercise and Cooking Time

One of the things I like to do - and you may find this silly - is that I will boil something in the kitchen and then do a series of weightlifting exercises while I wait. This saves me time overall and helps build my appetite.

#13. Make Smaller Meals

If you get home and are feeling starved drink a glass of milk first (or juice). It will fill up your belly part way so you don't feel as hungry. Then make a small or medium sized meal.

If you get home and are starving chances are more likely you will want to make a BIG meal - and making a big meal takes more time. By making something smaller you are doing yourself a favour by eating something that is more balanced size wise - and saving yourself time in the process.

#14. Make a Quick Caesar Salad

Another thing to do when you get home and are feeling starved make a quick caesar salad. A handful of lettuce, some croutons, some pre-chopped carrots, a little caesar salad dressing and that will sate your hunger.

While you eat your salad you can make something else that is nutritious that goes with it, eating while you cook. Saves you time and guarantees that you are eating a healthier balance. Combine #13 and #14 and you can - drink a glass of milk, eat a quick salad, make the healthier meal while eating your salad - and you will save both time and feel less hungry during the process.

#15. Buy Fruits and Berries Regularly

For snacks try buying fruits like apples, oranges and grapes regularly. Berries are also great, especially with yogurt.

Do Hot Saunas burn Fat? Myth Busting

No.

It is true that people lose weight while in the sauna. But it mostly water weight and sodium, which your body quickly replenishes when you drink water and eat anything with salt in it.

Sweating, by itself, does not burn fat. It doesn't even burn calories.

It is true that many people exercise, their muscles overheat, and they get very sweaty because their bodies releases sweat in an effort to cool them down.

The problem however is that excessive sweating can lead to dehydration, heat stroke - and even death. What happens is once a person sweats out a lot of their water reserves they have so little water left in their system that if they overheat they will start to feel the effects of heat stroke. Mild heat stroke causes confusion, headaches, dizziness. Severe heat stroke can cause a person to faint, and if left untreated it can kill them.

The problem with saunas is that due to the heat and humidity sweating doesn't actually cool the person down. So a person can overheat in a sauna very easily - and fainting is not uncommon.

All of this is exacerbated by the myth that people can lose weight by sweating a lot in the sauna. Sweating doesn't burn fat. It removes water and sodium ( and it is good for the pores ), which the body quickly replenishes later when you drink and eat - often causing the dehydrated person to over-drink and over-eat.

The Benefits of Saunas

- Good for cleaning the pores.

- Kills bacteria (the sweat kills bacteria on the skin).

-  Sweat flushes away toxic metals from the skin.

- A good way to heat up after being outside in the winter.

But burning fat is not one of the benefits.

YMCA free one week gym and pool membership

Want to use the YMCA facilities in Toronto free for a week?

Go to http://my.ymcagta.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=487

Print the document, fill it out, take it to the membership desk of your local Toronto YMCA and get a free week.

Offer expires June 30, 2013, so if you want to take advantage of this act quickly. :)