A gorgeous afternoon to beach comb - Naples Beach @ 5 Ave S - Friday, Sept 22, 2023. 
Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

Coping with stress is a major life challenge.

Without some stress, life would be dull, but you need to make certain your stress is working for you, not against you.

When you begin to feel the walls closing in, it’s time to take a break and get away from it all to maintain a healthy life-fitness balance.

Take these opportunities to practice healthy habits that not only reduce your stress but also leave a positive impact on your general well-being:

Breathe purposefully —

Did you know the average person takes a breath 20,000 times a day?

For such a practiced activity you would think we would have it perfected. But just because we do it all the time doesn’t mean we’re good at it.

Do you breathe well?

If you find your heart rate racing and your breaths become shallow, breathing from your chest, you could benefit from purposeful...

Enjoying a beautiful Florida summer bike ride - Fort Myers, Florida - August 2023.

If you’ve experienced a bad injury, you know how frustrating it can be to not be able to workout.

This is especially true when training for an event.

There is also a lot of conflicting information about what to do and when.

Let’s clear up the confusion.

In the first few days after an acute injury, the body will go through the first stage of healing, the inflammatory phase.

If you’ve had a sprain or strain in the past, you might remember that the first 3-4 days are usually the worst in terms of pain, stiffness and swelling.

To protect the injured tissue from further damage and avoid any subsequent bleeding, the advice is to avoid ‘HARM’ for 72 hours.

The acronym HARM stands for:

• Heat - Avoid any heat packs, prolonged hot showers or hot baths.
• Alcohol - The less the better - that unfortunately includes that post-game beer with your mate.
• Running - Try to avoid...

A beautiful ride along the Caloosahatchee River (W. Riverside Drive, Fort Myers). Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

Go green, minimize your carbon imprint, recycle are common words and phrases we often here in relation to the environment.

But have you ever considered going green with your workouts too?

Nature has very powerful well-being benefits.

Whether you’re going for a run, riding your bike, taking a personal training session in the park or doing boot camp on the beach, there are countless opportunities for Floridians to get outside and exercise.

More than just a popular training environment, it turns out that people who exercise outdoors in their natural settings are benefiting from more than just their sweat efforts.

Research has repeatedly shown that time spent in nature has numerous well-being benefits, including everything from reduced blood pressure readings to heightened immunity and improve mood.

Despite our largely indoors, air-conditioned lives, getting...

Hydrotherapy is one of the most effective and therapeutic ways to exercise and rehabilitate from an injury in a cool and relaxing atmosphere.

The water’s buoyancy decreases the load which passes through weight-bearing joints by up to 90%, allowing for more activities and movement with less stress and bearing on the joints.

Exercising in water can be just as intense as an on-land workout, without the physical impact on our bodies.

Bringing your workout or rehab session into the pool has an array of health and therapeutic benefits. These include:

Improving muscular strength, stability and balance. 

The resistance of the water challenges your body’s strength and stability through a natural, constant resistance. Studies have shown significant gains in strength, flexibly and agility after 12 weeks of regular aquatic exercises. 

Relief from pain, swelling and muscle tension.

The warmth and support of the water helps to stimulate blood circulation, reduce muscle...

A beautiful early March sunset in Lakes Park, Fort Myers, Florida. Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II

It’s 5 a.m. and your alarm goes off. You immediately begin the battle of whether to get up and exercise or not.

You know you’ll feel better if you do, but why?

This is your brain on exercise.

The reason that we feel so good when we exercise and get our blood pumping and our muscles firing is that it makes our brain feel good.

Essentially, building muscles and conditioning the heart and lungs are bi-products or side effects from exercise as there is a biological relationship between the body, the brain, and the mind.

It can be said that a key point of exercise is to build and condition the brain.

The relationship between food, physical activity, and learning is hardwired into the brain’s circuitry and therefore to keep our brains at peak performance, our bodies need to work hard.

Fitness: What to do when your workout stops working

The reason physical activity is...

Enjoy a fast-paced walk, stopping to do some Calisthenics (or body weight) training in a park!  A great well rounded exercise. Photo courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

With so many of us hunkered down and working from, it can be challenging to find a workout to fit your space and fit your needs.

Not to worry.

You already own the most versatile and potentially challenging piece of equipment available today...

Your body. 

If you’re not sold, think ‘Cirque Du Soleil’ meets ‘American Ninja Warrior’?

The unique combination of strength, stability, and control required to perform such acts is unlike anything else.

Visually, it’s one of the most eye-catching feats of strength possible, but being able to suspend yourself in mid-air is much more than just showing off your strength.

Training the body without the use of external resistance equipment, such as free weights, dumbbells or cables, is known as calisthenics. It’s been...

A nice view from the bridge of John Yarbrough Linear Park in Fort Myers, October 2022.  A great running & biking trail!  Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

With the cooler, less humid weather, here in Southwest Florida, and your bike in hand, this is the absolute perfect time to get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors.

Few things compare to the exhilaration of riding your bike:

• fresh air in your lungs,
• wind in your hair and
• sun on your face.

However, bicycling is a learned sport, and there are definitely a few tricks you should learn to ensure every ride is a success.

Never underestimate the importance of a good bike fit.

Your bike fit is paramount to comfortable and safe riding. You will go faster and much further on a cheaper bike that fits you well rather than on a spec’d out high priced model that doesn’t.

It is so important for both comfort and safety that you find an expert who can direct you properly.

Bike fit is not something you can...

Be sure to enjoy everything nature has to offer - including smelling this delight - Sweet Almond! (This particular tree is in the Children's Garden in Lakes Park - Fort Myers, FL).

The management of shoulder injuries is one of the most challenging in physiotherapy.

With the complexity of the shoulder joint and the wide variety of injuries and conditions associated with the shoulder, it can make diagnosing shoulder pain tricky.

The shoulder joint is one of the most mobile joints in the body, which, unfortunately, also makes it one of the most unstable joints and therefore highly susceptible to injury.

Shoulder injuries make up a large proportion of the musculoskeletal injuries, with nearly everyone between the ages of 18-88 experiencing at least one shoulder injury in their lifetime. 

Regardless of whether the pain is felt directly in the shoulder, there are several different anatomical structures that can trigger pain.

In some cases, the source of pain may be referred from...

Practically every Sunday morning, our GearedUp Family runs in beautiful Lakes Park... Join us!

Whether you are just beginning or are a more advanced enthusiast, there is nothing more satisfying than reaching your training goals.

However, to do this, you must be training efficiently.

If you’re part of the population working out non-stop yet seeing little results, this article is for you.

First, always include mobility and activation warmups.

Warmups are typically done haphazardly, if at all.

How often do you see people wander into the gym, walk immediately up to a squat rack, and start pumping out reps?

If you’re doing this, you’re not only drastically increasing the risk of seriously injuring yourself, but are also not able to exercise to your full potential.

On the other hand, those who do warm up may be doing some cardio and a few stretches, but current research suggests that including mobility and activation work within your warmup is the way to get results.

...

A Beautiful Early June 'Walking, Running or Biking' Day in Lakes Park.  Photo Courtesy of Charly Caldwell II.

The amount of water you need to drink on a daily basis is often the subject of widespread confusion and debate.

We all know that proper hydration is important but how essential is it to your fitness?

More specifically, how does hydration status affect athletic performance, recovery between workouts and is it sport specific?

First, it is widely accepted and understood that water is a medium for numerous physiological process in the body.

Therefore, it makes sense that exercising in even a mildly dehydrated state puts extra strain on the body and in turn affects exercise performance, outcomes and recovery.

Also, being poorly or inadequately hydrated impairs the body’s cooling system. If we cannot effectively cool our bodies, our core temperature, heart rate and perceived exertion all rise as well.

This means that exercising at any given intensity will feel more...