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Articles by Melissa Allen

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14 articles by Melissa Allen · showing 14

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By Melissa AllenSep 21, 20091 topic

Take Safety Precautions When Exercising

With the weather getting warmer, and more people exercising outdoors, it is important to remember to take safety precautions. Just this afternoon as we were skating around Lake Murray, a man on either inline skates or a bicycle, wrecked and fractured his arm. I wasn’t present when the accident actually happened, so I can’t say whether it could have been prevented, but my point is to stress to you the importance of taking safety precautions so that when the unavoidable hap

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenFeb 16, 20091 topic

Getting Started

The other day someone approached me asking how to get started with a fitness program, and so I thought I would cover some of the basics in this week’s column. I highly recommend seeking the help of a qualified fitness professional to get you going if your budget allows it, even if it’s just a single session to get you on the right track, after which you can then carry on independently. The program should incorporate some form of resistance training, cardiovascular conditi

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenDec 23, 20081 topic

The Psychology of Fitness

It’s become more apparent to me lately just how many people have difficulty either getting started with a fitness program or simply adhering to one. I’m coming to believe that there is a certain mind set, or psychology let’s call it, behind the problem. For most athletes, fitness and sports have simply been part of their lives for as long as they remember. And because of this, workouts are something they just do, and don’t analyze. nnSomewhere along the way, they bega

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenJul 23, 20081 topic

Breathe Some Life Into Your Workout

When meeting new clients for the first time, they often tell me that they have tried working out on their own in the past, but find it very difficult to adhere to a regular program. Although I have always been an advocate of scheduled workouts until you are at least past the initial dropout phase (the first 6 months), I am going to change my philosophy. I am recommending that you incorporate some flexibility into your training regime by going beyond your current perspective o

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenApr 2, 20081 topic

Activating Your Office Job

Many long hours in front of my laptop, along with some advice from my best friend, inspired this article—how to incorporate fitness into your office job and break up the hours spent on your computer. Lately it seems that time jumps leaps and bounds ahead whenever I sit down in front of my own computer. I think it possesses some type of special powers that lure me to log onto it and then keeps me there for hours on end. That got me started thinking about how many people out

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenJan 5, 20081 topic

What You May Not Know Could Hurt You

While the obvious benefits of exercise are well known by most, many people are still unaware of the not so obvious. Let’s start with the heart—our body’s greatest muscle. According to the surgeon general, aerobic exercise, also known as cardiovascular exercise, must be done on a regular basis in order to maintain a healthy heart and lungs. Doing so will strengthen the heart, as lifting weights does for the body, thus making it easier for you to breath while increasing y

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenNov 7, 20071 topic

Exercising The Buddy System

How many of you reading this finds it difficult to adhere to a fitness regime? If you’re like most Americans, you probably find it at least challenging, some may even go so far as to say impossible. From my experience, I find that you must adhere to a program for at least six months before it becomes routine, and several years before it becomes a lifestyle. For most people, this is challenging to say the least. If you’re lucky, you may have a circle of friends or an activ

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenSep 25, 20071 topic

Child Obesity

Have you noticed more children with weight problems today than ten or twenty years ago? If so, it’s not your imagination, child obesity is a bigger problem now more than ever before. Some of you may know a child with a serious weight disorder, or maybe you even have a child of your own with a weight problem. Just the other day I read a couple articles focusing on this very subject, and thought to myself that it is definitely well worthy of addressing in my column.nnTo give

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenJul 26, 20071 topic

Keeping Exercise Fun

As you may have discovered for yourself, sticking with an exercise program long enough to make it an actual habit can be difficult, to say the least. While hopefully most of you reading this are either currently exercising or planning to start doing so in the near future, almost all of you will at one time or another grow tired of your current fitness program. That is the point that will either make or break you. In order to make fitness a lifestyle and develop a new and last

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenMay 17, 20071 topic

Women's Weight Lifting Phobia

I've noticed that a lot of the women I've trained with over the years suffer from weight lifting phobia. By that I mean that they tend to be overly concerned with developing muscularity, as if itís a bad thing. I guess a lot of women are under the misconception that the development of muscle is simple and happens overnight. The truth is that muscular development takes a combination of discipline, proper food intake, and training, and to develop huge muscles takes genetics or

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenMay 7, 20071 topic

Get in Shape for Under $30!

While you can find plenty of expensive fitness equipment to spend your money on, it may surprise you to know that you can get started with a few choice items, each for under $30. Many people think that you need to spend a lot of money on equipment in order to get in shape, but in reality, you can do a lot with very little. While training in a gym environment can be motivating, there is plenty you can do on your own with just a little self-discipline and some creativity to hel

Primary topic: Exercise Equipment
Exercise Equipment
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By Melissa AllenApr 10, 20071 topic

It's Easy to Burn Fat!

Cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that involves an elevated heart rate. Walking, running, swimming, and boxing are all examples of this. This is only one part of a balanced fitness program, however, with the other three parts being flexibility, resistance training, and nutrition. Cardio is what is responsible for burning the fat off of our bodies. Our bodies' first choice for fuel is carbohydrates, then followed by fat. That means you are more likely to burn stored body

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenApr 9, 20071 topic

Women - Increase Your Upper Body Strength!

I recently began surfing, and I have to say that I love it! Surf Divas in La Jolla specializes in teaching women and girls how to surf, and they do an excellent job at it while having a great time. One thing I did notice, however, was that many of the students lacked upper body strength. nnThe sport of surfing requires the surfer to paddle out into oncoming waves to get to the outside area beyond the breaks. This requires upper body strength in the shoulders, chest and upper

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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By Melissa AllenMar 13, 20071 topic

Do You Meet the New Exercise Standard?

According to the most recent government survey conducted by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, Americans need to exercise at least an hour a day. This nearly doubles the previous recommendation.The study was published in a 1,000-page report that came out just a couple weeks ago. nnFor many people, this will mean a significant change in lifestyle in order to accommodate the additional exercise. Rather than focus on the various exercises you could do, or t

Primary topic: Fitness and Exercise
Fitness and Exercise
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