Fitness

Five Full Body Exercises for the Office

December 2, 2020/in Fitness /by admin

Sitting at your desk for hours on end is quickly proving to contribute to a long list of serious ailments and diseases. Stagnation leads to inflammation, which if chronic, plays a role in almost every major disease, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and even depression. Read our article, Why Sitting is Bad For You and 5 Ways To Fix It.

A healthier, and more productive way to work, is to do concentrated, undistracted bursts of work followed by short periods of rest and recovery. One optimal timing is to do 90 minutes of undistracted work (notifications off), and then take a 10-minute break to replenish yourself. Another popular ratio is 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest. Try both and see what works best for you.

Eating healthy snacks is a wonderful thing to do in your 10-minute break, and so is stretching and exercising. Additionally, along with your physical health, your mental health also needs to be revitalized during these short breaks. Learn 18 Ways To Improve Your Mental Health When Working From Home.

Below, find 5 full-body exercises that are easily done from your desk and will get your circulation going.

5 full-body exercises you can do anywhere, including your home office.

1. Shoulder Blade Squeeze

The shoulder squeeze exercise strengthens your back, shoulder blades, and core. You will also get a great chest opening stretch from this exercise.

Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
Reach your arms straight out to the sides. Make sure your shoulders do not creep up – pull them down and away from your ears.
Engage your core. A great way to make sure your core is engaged is to exhale sharply like you’re blowing out a candle.
Now, slowly bring your hands together behind you by drawing your shoulder blades together. Pull your shoulder blades towards each other as if you were trying to hold a pencil between them. Your hands may not make it very far, just go as far as you can and hold there for 5 seconds. Then, bring your arms back in line with your shoulders and repeat.
Start with 1-2 sets of 10.

2. Lunges

Lunges work your calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes – as well as your core, and stabilizer muscles. You’ll also get a nice stretch for your hip flexor muscles.

Begin with your feet hip-width apart and your arms at your side, on your hips, or in a fist in front of your chest.
Engage your core, with your shoulders back and down.
Take a large step forward, while maintaining your posture. Keep your hips square/level and facing forwards. Engage those glutes!
If you feel like you’re on a tight rope, widen your stance slightly.
Without bending over your front leg, bend your front knee to 90-degrees while also bending your back knee. Attempt to lightly touch the ground with your back knee before rising back up to the top of your lunge.
Make sure most of your weight is in the heel of your front foot, and while you drive upwards use your glutes.
Start with 2 sets of 10 for each leg.

3. Cat-Cow

Cat-Cow strengthens and stretches your lower back. While also working your arms and abdominal muscles.

This exercise requires you to be on the floor. If you need support for your knees, grab a towel or a mat.
To start, get down on your hands and knees. Making sure your hands are directly beneath your shoulders, and your knees are directly below your hip sockets.
While breathing in, lower your belly and dipping your back into a “U” shape, and hold for a few breaths. Continue to breathe, then arch your back up so that you resemble a cat stretching, hold this and repeat.
Flow between the “cat” and “cow” poses 10 – 20 times.
Remember to keep your shoulders away from your neck!

4. Plank

Plank is a challenging exercise because it works the entire body. Everything from your toes to your fingertips is engaged in balance to prop yourself up, fighting gravity.

Start in on all fours; like for cat-cow, make sure your arms are directly beneath your shoulders.
Step one foot back at a time so that your heels are directly above your ankles.
Maintain a straight line from your head, along your spine, to your ankles. To achieve this: engage your core, draw your belly-button to your spine and squeeze your glutes.
Look straight down at the ground, and not at your toes to maintain your straight spine.
Hold for as long as you can, then lower your knees for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times.
If this hurts your wrists, or you begin to get tired, lower to your elbows and/or your knees.

5. Tricep Dips

Tricep dips are a great way to strengthen your upper body and – obviously – your triceps! It’s a great exercise for small spaces that will challenge you and get your heart rate up.

Using a non-rolling chair, bench, or sturdy table, begin by sitting on the edge of your seat with your hands right next to your hips.
Grasp the edge of your seat and shift your body so that you’re hovering over the floor.
Keep your elbows close to your body.
With your knees bent at 90-degrees, lower your upper body straight down by bending your elbows. Then, push down into your hands to lift your body back up. Repeat without rest 10 times for 1-2 sets.

In Addition: Walk the Walk

The American Health Association recommends a person take a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. But the average North American is walking half that. Ten thousand steps may seem daunting considering it’s about the equivalent of 30 city blocks but the best way to tackle them is to break them down over the course of the day. The moment you decide to walk upstairs instead of taking the elevator, park a bit further away from the front door of the grocery store and go for a walk around the block after dinner, you’ll find yourself reaching 10,000 steps no problem.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

What The Navy SEALs Can Teach You About Yoga

September 7, 2020/in Fitness, Tips & Advice /by admin

Strong Man Practicing Yoga bend over grabbing toes

The Navy SEALs practice yoga in a very specific way to create balance across their physical, mental, and emotional abilities. So should you.

While the Navy SEALs are some of the toughest, strongest, most resilient people on earth, Clair Diab, a former military yoga instructor notes “they often need more flexibility and balance.” Due to the high-stress nature of their job, a lot of SEALs constantly battle anxiety, poor sleep, and potentially, PTSD.

Recently, the SEALs incorporated yoga into their training. But not just any yoga—they introduced a highly specialized practice with specific means to a specific end. They found that sensory-enhanced yoga not only improves flexibility, posture, and balance, but reduces anxiety, improves sleep, and helps the SEALs feel calmer. Their practice includes a unique combination of physical yoga (Hatha), breathing techniques (Pranayama), meditation, and relaxation. Additionally, they brought breathing, meditation, and visualization into combat-conditioning exercises to improve mental balance, focus, and control in all circumstances. Combining the physical prowess of a Navy SEAL with the mental clarity of a monk is a strong recipe for success. But it’s not just any yoga that drives these results. It’s a specific practice or combination of practices that led to their success, and the same should be true for you.

Yoga Roots

Think of yoga as a tree. Its roots go back to India some 3,000 years ago when meditating monks noticed how stiff they were getting from sitting for long hours each day (sound familiar?). Observing how flexible the wild and even domestic animals were around them they started incorporating animal-like stretching. Hatha, or physical yoga, was born and became the first root of the tree. Over time, Raja yoga was developed with more of a focus on meditation. Bhakti yoga rested in the emotional and devotional sphere. Jnana yoga anchored in the scriptures and wisdom path. Karma yoga rooted with an emphasis on selfless service, and Tantra brings an esoteric and ritual approach to meeting the Divine in all aspects of life. These forms of yoga became the other roots of the tree.

Evolution of yoga

Over centuries Hatha yoga has evolved. Hatha now incorporates a lot of other, less physical, forms and techniques. For example, Shavasana pose, where you lay on your back and attempt to find complete stillness in mind and body, was not originally part of Hatha yoga. Today, this pose is included at the end of almost every yoga class. In the 1950s, Hatha yoga was brought to the west, and it’s evolution accelerated. Over the past 70 years, Hatha has morphed into almost as many versions as there are types of fruits.

This evolution provides you an opportunity to do exactly what the Navy SEALs have done, and find or create a unique practice. Discover a practice that will not only benefit your specific body, but also your specific mind, heart, and soul. Perhaps that is found at one studio, or you find a combination of two or even three practices that help you strike a balance and take your health to the next level. The teacher will be a key component of your safety, enjoyment, and health benefits. So, don’t be afraid to try a few different classes to find a yogic style, and instructor, that is right for you.

Explore the many varieties of yoga

Listed below are a few class types to consider as you build a practice that creates balance in your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health:

Iyengar: fundamental beginners focus on holding and exploring the alignment and basic structures of the poses (asanas), gaining flexibility, balance, natural posture, and inner and physical strength
Vinyasa: links asanas together with the breath into a gentle flow
Ashtanga: adds a more athletic approach to the Vinyasa flow
Bikram: a 105 degree heated room warms the muscles and adds sweating as a detox benefit to the mental and physical stamina gained from holding the same 26 poses each class
Forrest: one of many ‘hot’ yogas but adds emotional exploration to the physical challenge
Ishta: a flow sequence with added meditation, breathwork, and Ayurvedic cleansing techniques
Jivamukti: a physically rigorous and intellectually stimulating focus with chanting, breathwork, and spiritual alignment to ‘non-harming’, supporting veganism and animal rights
Kundalini: a rigorous collection of asanas, meditations, and intense breathwork designed to awaken ones psychoenergetic force (Kundalini) for spiritual elevation

So, while your local yoga gym may be full of lululemon-laden warriors pumping through a yoga class just to tone and tighten, remember there is a vast world of yoga out there waiting for you. A world that will lead to balanced health across your mind, body, and spirit. Take a step into the unknown and enjoy your exploration.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia and featuring daily sunrise yoga and night-time restorative yoga, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress, anxiety, and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

How To Reset Your Health In 48 Hours

July 25, 2020/in Fitness, Habits to Health, Nutrition, Recipes, Sleep, Tips & Advice /by admin

It’s perfectly understandable that spending an entire week eating healthfully, hiking through lush nature, sleeping well, exercising, and detoxifying will do wonders for your mind and body. But you might be shocked to hear that with the right strategy and a little bit of motivation, you can make a profound impact on your health in just 48 hours. That means that in just one weekend, you can right the ship, take the reins, and restore the balance of your health. It’s not a walk in the park (well, you actually might take a walk in the park) but your body will thank you for dedicating just one single weekend to yourself.

We’ve been running our Basecamp weekend retreats in response to the COVID crisis. Guests spend one weekend (Friday 3 pm – Sunday evening) following our program and working virtually alongside our expert team. And we have to say—the results have been absolutely amazing. Participants are feeling significantly lighter, recharged, and reset. We’ve distilled this amazing weekend into an easy to follow 4-step guide so you can reset your health in the span of 48 hours, and emerge from a healthy weekend feeling like the best version of yourself.

Step 1) Make a bulletproof schedule

The last thing you want to be doing all weekend is constantly trying to decide “what’s next”. This will prevent you from fully sinking into the weekend. Sit down and write your 48-hour schedule on a piece of paper. Make sure to include the following critical elements:

Nutrition

Eat 6 times per day, starting immediately upon waking, and consume your calories within a 12-hour window. Give your metabolism a break for the other 12 hours (Intermittent Fasting). Eat most of your calories early in the day and then taper off moving towards night-time. Eat organic, plant-based food when available, and avoid processed food, added sugar, and alcohol.

Move your body as much as possible throughout the day. We weren’t designed to sit, so let’s try to do as little of that as possible this weekend. Time your exercise for after your meals to begin understanding the value of food as fuel, not a coping mechanism. Begin your day with yoga (after a smoothie), then after breakfast do a HIIT or other functional fitness class. After lunch, spend a long time outside in nature, walking for either 40 minutes at a vigorous pace, or 90 minutes at a leisurely rate. Then, following dinner, tackle one more functional fitness class and end your night with restorative yoga.

Sleep

After a full day of exercise and eating properly, you have some building blocks for great sleep. Ensure you not only get enough hours of sleep, but also a deep sleep. Take a warm bath with Epsom salts and lavender oil 90 minutes prior to bed, don’t let your phone cross the threshold of your room, ensure your room is the right temperature and is dark, and do a relaxation technique while laying down. Read our full guide to great sleep for more tips.

Stress relief/management

Make sure to include relaxation time. Mindfulness is a highly potent tool for stress relief. If you already have a practice, carve out a large chunk of time of your weekend to dive deeper than you have in the past. If mindfulness is new to you, take this weekend as an opportunity to dip your toes in. Schedule a couple of 5-10 minute guided meditations sessions, ideally early in the morning and then again before bed.

Creating a schedule can be difficult, so we’re happy to share ours. If you actually want to follow along, all of the recipes and exercises are linked (click the image first), and you can find a shopping list below

Step 2) Prepare for success

Once your schedule is in place, it’s time to commit and get ready to immerse in the weekend. There are three critical components to preparing:

Ensure you have the right equipment—for our schedule, you need the following:

Kitchen with basic cooking tools
Blender
Yoga mat
Yoga strap (could be a belt or tie, etc.)
Firm blanket or pillow (for morning yoga)
3 large firm pillows (e.g. couch cushions—for restorative yoga)
Light weights (2-5lbs) or substitute (soup cans or water bottles)
Running shoes
A chair (used for stability during exercise classes)
Water bottle

Shop for your ingredients 2-3 days prior to the weekend

View a shopping list for our schedule

Remove as many distractions as possible

Carve out this time for you. It’s only 48 hours, so almost everything can wait. Tell your friends, family, and colleagues that you are going to immerse yourself in this experience and request they only call, text, or email if it’s an emergency. This will reduce your stress and anxiety. Get baby sitters for the kids if you have them, or make a plan with your partner to watch them for the weekend. Be selfish for just this one weekend.

Step 3) Instill accountability

We’ve talked the talk. It’s time to walk the walk. While investing in an experience like Mountain Trek and spending time with our expert staff, whether that be a full week at the lodge to really dive deep into your health transformation or just a weekend for a quick tune-up, will provide you the accountability you need to succeed, it isn’t always an option. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and tricks to instill accountability on your own:

Form a “tribe”

The best thing you could possibly do is gather a small group of your closest allies and do the healthy weekend reset together. Sharing your experience with others has been proven to dramatically increase your chances of success and will make the experience more memorable and enriching. Create a group text thread dedicated to the weekend and have nightly Zoom calls to touch base and discuss your experience and progress.

Share your intentions

If no one is able to join you, share what you are attempting to accomplish with a close friend, family member, or colleague. Detail to them what you are doing the healthy weekend and what you are hoping to accomplish. Ask them to check in with you on Sunday about how it went. Just knowing that someone else is aware of your goals will hold you accountable.

Set a reward

Completing your healthy weekend reset is a big deal and a positive experience. These accomplishments deserve rewards, not only to keep you working towards the goal but to create a positive association with accomplishing such endeavors. Write your reward down prior to beginning your weekend and stick it on the fridge as a reminder.

Step 4) Turn healthy actions into habits

Once your 48-hours are up, you need to capture the momentum you worked so hard to create to ensure your health stays pointed in the right direction. A 48-hour reset is not a justification to go binge on bad habits—it is a leveling-up, a beginning of a new chapter, a fresh start. To keep your compass pointed towards your “true north”, we need to cement your new habits so they become part of your lifestyle.

Building habits is a skill and can be tricky at times. At Mountain Trek, we follow a six-step process to build healthy habits—ones that are truly sustainable:

1. Identify your health and wellness goals

This one is easy. Just write down all of your goals. Try to be as specific as possible, however.

2. Redesign your goals to optimize for success

Make sure your goal is SMART; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-anchored. Setting a SMART goal immediately doubles your chance of success.

3. Simplify

Pick a maximum of two goals from step 1.

4. Set a weekly target

Start small. Aim for doing your healthy action two, maybe three times each week, then grow from there.

5. Monitor your progress and adjust if needed

Write your goal down in a journal, keep a piece of paper handy with a tally, track it using your online calendar, or, you can use either Mountain Trek’s Health & Habit Building App, which will keep track of your progress for you, or our simple goal tracker. Whatever tool you decide to use, it’s important to monitor your activity, notice when you’re falling behind and congratulate yourself when you are achieving your goals.

6. Reward your intention

Whether you are successful or not, you need to reward yourself for your intention to do your best. Rewards can be small or big, simple, or complex.

You now have a proven strategy to reset your health in the course of just one weekend. We hope you take the time to invest in your health, you need and deserve it now more than ever. Be compassionate to yourself throughout the process and don’t worry if it doesn’t all go to plan. There will most likely be hiccups along the way. The important part is that you committed to a healthy weekend—to yourself—and you made your best effort.

If the above is daunting to tackle on your own, we would be more than honored to have you join us for one of our upcoming Basecamp weekend retreats, where our expert team will do all of the work listed above for you, so all you need to do is show up and give it your best.

Good luck, stay healthy, and keep moving!

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Q&A: What is a benchmark workout?

July 23, 2020/in Fitness, Tips & Advice /by admin

Q: What is a benchmark workout and is it important?

A: You’ve probably heard of the term benchmark. Whether it be CrossFit and maintaining a WOD, achieving a lower boy fat percentage on a body composition analysis, or a fitness test compromising of a series of bodyweight exercise repetitions to complete according to age/sex, benchmarks are simply the finish line. Benchmark is a term that factors in measurements regardless of the category. It can range from numbers on the scale, girth of your waist, or repetitions in your bench press.

Most can likely recall physical fitness testing in grade and high school. The 12-minute run, beep test, chin-ups, sit and reach, and body fat % to name a few. These kinds of values can give a starting point and upon working on our fitness level, can retest and compare to test for improvements.

Benchmarks are milestones to measure progress.

A benchmark is also considered a milestone, synonymous with a goal, the means to the end of the achievement. This is a great way to improve current fitness levels because the body is constantly adapting to new stimuli. What once was difficult, say running a mile, after time becomes an easily achievable parameter. Just don’t set your sights too high from your current level. Be realistic and meet your body where it’s at.

An important factor to consider is your level of fitness. If you have been sedentary (a couch potato, if you will) you can simply set a goal for how many times a week you break a sweat or participate in continuous activity. According to the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine, guidelines recommend that all healthy adults 18-65 engage in either 30 minutes of moderately intense cardio 5 days a week or intense cardio for 20 minutes 3 days a week. So for a beginner, these benchmarks could be a great starting point. At Mountain Trek, we recommend upping that to 40 minutes and shooting for a “perceived rate of exertion” of between 6.5-8.5 out of 10. That means you are exerting between 65% and 85% of your maximum output for 40 minutes straight. This will go beyond just maintaining your cardio health and will give you the opportunity to get to a “fat-flush” state, where you will reduce your body fat percentage.

Benchmarks are not only about strength or rep counts.

There are a number of physical factors you can test, mainly: strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and body composition. Average norms can be found for comparative values. For example, the Mayo Clinic uses the push up for the Muscular Strength and Endurance Test. They also provide “good fitness results” for both men and women according to age. So for a 45-year-old woman, 14 push-ups and 16 for a man would be considered “good muscular strength and endurance”. They also suggest retesting yourself on physical parameters every 6 weeks to check for improvement. Again, at Mountain Trek our goal is to push you past “maintenance” and into “growth” so we can increase muscle mass and help balance hormones, especially as we age, so we might raise the bar on these standards, again.

A franchise that loves their benchmarks WODs (workout of the day) is CrossFit. Named after traditional women’s names such as Fran and Angie, these workouts have very specific parameters and standard units of measurement, so strength and endurance can easily be measured and compared over time. The workouts hold space for improvement from beginner through advanced by adjusting the workout through duration, weight, or reps. Each successive benchmark workout should surpass the last—that is when you know you are making progress.

Elite athletes also use benchmarking as a way to monitor improvement over time. Standards specific to any sport are available at all levels, including World, Olympic and National records that they can use for comparison to train for competitions.

In summary, a benchmark is a standard exercise that you repeat in order to measure progress.

Benchmark workouts should be very personal, and regardless of the category of fitness you fall under, it’s all about setting both short-term and long-term goals and reaching them all in the name of health and fitness progress. Whatever the goal, it should be relatable to your life and needs, whether it be being able to pick up the grandkids or benchpress 250 lbs. To learn how to set a good goal, read our article, How to Build Healthy Habits in 6 Steps.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Struggling With Your Fitness + Nutrition Regimen? Ask Yourself These 6 Questions.

September 27, 2018/in Fitness, Habits to Health, Tips & Advice /by admin

a person overlooking a rocky viewpoint to the ocean

Oftentimes conversations about health focus solely on physical needs; but in order to achieve true vitality, we must look beyond the basics of water, food, shelter, and sleep. Humans have mental needs (creativity, learning, meditation), emotional needs (relationship, sharing of feelings, feelings of belonging), and spiritual needs (need for inspiration, contemplation, beauty, and context). Checking in with the self to gauge whether your emotional, mental, and spiritual needs are being met is a crucial step in achieving total wellness.

Without a solid emotional, mental, and spiritual foundation, even the best, most well-organized nutritional and fitness regimens can become totally ineffective. If emotional, mental, and spiritual needs are not being met, you’ll feel stress and a lowering of willpower. Anyone that struggles with emotional eating can attest to that!

If you’ve been struggling with “staying on track,” ask yourself the following questions

Mental Health

Do you have a creative outlet of focus that brings joy to your daily work?
Are your ideas and talents welcome in your line of work?

Emotional Needs

Do you have people in your life with whom you feel close enough to share your dearest hopes and fears?
Human contact is incredibly important to wellbeing — are you getting touched, whether through intimacy or massage?

Spiritual Wellbeing

Do you set aside time regularly for solitude and contemplation?
Does your daily life contribute to a larger vision you have for your life?

If you want true change and balanced health and the journey towards transformation, it starts with this self-reflection. If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, take 20 minutes to journal about what you could do to create more time for yourself. Could you benefit from going to a painting or dance class? Taking more time to connect with loved ones? Thinking carefully about whether your work aligns with your personal values? If you want true change and transformation, begin this journey of introspection and self-reflection.

Much of Western culture teaches us that tending to the self shouldn’t be our priority. However, when we honor our own mental, emotional, and spiritual needs, we unlock access to our wisest, truest selves. This self-acceptance and self-love is the most solid foundation available to us for a lifetime of health and wellbeing.

Time for a more immersive return to the self? Join us for some of the best views in the world at our health, wellness, and stress retreat.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Our Favorite Bodyweight Exercises

July 20, 2018/in Fitness, Tips & Advice /by admin

It’s a difficult task to prioritize time for exercise and maintain fitness. Between work responsibilities, balancing home life, children, and travel, it’s easy to de-prioritize exercise. And when people do think about exercise, it’s often cardio. However, don’t forget stretching and support body strength. Many people are intimidated by free weights at the gym, but exercising needn’t always take place there! Here are some of our favorite exercises that you can complete almost anywhere — at home or on the road.

Plank

This classic bodyweight exercise strengthens your abdominals and your pelvic floor. Your body’s core is the foundation of a person’s strength: your core muscles support your spine and pelvis and are crucial for balance.

Start in on all fours; like for cat-cow, make sure your arms are directly beneath your shoulders.
Step one foot back at a time so that your heels are directly above your ankles.
Maintain a straight line from your head, along your spine, to your ankles. To achieve this: engage your core, draw your belly-button to your spine, and squeeze your glutes.
Look straight down at the ground, and not at your toes to maintain your straight spine.
Hold for as long as you can, then lower your knees for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times.
If this hurts your wrists, or you begin to get tired, lower to your elbows and/or your knees.

Traditional Squat

Strength training builds the muscles we need to burn calories and also helps counteract osteoporosis and the effects of a catabolic (or decaying) metabolism. The glutes are the largest and most powerful muscle system in the body! The traditional, unweighted squat is an excellent strength challenge for the glutes, quads, and hamstrings — it even strengthens your lower back and abdominals. As such, it’s an incredibly efficient bodyweight workout.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your toes facing forward. With, or without holding weights.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears and hold your arms by your sides.
Then, lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor, almost like you’re sitting down in a chair.
Keep your chest high and your weight in your heels, not your toes!
Slowly raise yourself to stand by pressing into your heels and engaging your glutes.
Make sure your pelvis is tilted forward to keep any strain off your lower back.

Challenging yourself? Try jump squats — squat deep, and on your way back up thrust yourself into the air, pointing your toes.

Side Lunge

So much of our daily movement is on the forward and backward plane of motion, leading to tight hip flexors and hips. This is an excellent exercise to stretch and strengthen your lower body and core.

Begin with your feet hip-width apart, your hips square, and your shoulders over your hips.
Take a wide lateral step, and bend into that knee as low as you can without lifting your heels.
Engage your core to keep your chest high, and your weight in your heels, not your toes!
Feel the stretch along your inner thigh.
Slowly raise yourself to stand by pressing into your heels and engaging your glutes.
Repeat on each leg 10 times

Standing Hip Stretch

Flexibility is so important, especially as we age. If we don’t continue to lengthen our muscles, we’ll end up with less range of motion. Stretching should occur right when you wake up, intermittently throughout the day, before and after workouts, and just before bed — even if just for 5 minutes. When stretching, be mindful, focusing on the muscle you’re working. Relax with each exhalation, and don’t push too hard — this risks overextension. Ride the line of challenging yourself without putting yourself in pain.

One of our favorite stretches can be done anywhere. This stretch counteracts the rounding of the back that occurs while sitting at a desk.

Find a desk or table that is hip height. Alternatively, you can use a wall.
With hands firmly placed on the desk and your feet hip-width apart, walk your feet back, creating a 90-degree angle in the body.
Extend your sitting bones back, opening the chest and armpits while lengthening the spine.
Feel the stretch along the entire backs of your legs, your spine, chest, shoulders, and arms.
Take three big, deep breaths, and slowly walk yourself back to a standing position.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Our Nutritionist’s Favorite Pre- and Post-Workout Snacks

September 18, 2017/in Fitness, Nutrition, Recipes, Tips & Advice /by admin

a person tying up their running shoes

We know how critical what we eat is in energy management: Making sure to plan snacks well will make sure you’re properly fueling your body and optimizing your nutrient intake! One of the questions we most often hear is when and how to snack, especially before and after workouts. Our head of nutrition, Jennifer Keirstead, offers some tips below for making the most of your workouts with strategically timed snacking.

Pre-Workout: Fruit + Protein Source

Says Jenn: “Pairing a piece of fruit with a protein source is a fantastic pre-work snack. The sugars in the fruits act as a quick energy source, and since protein digests a little slower, combining these two helps stabilize blood sugar levels — this supports longing lasting energy (for example, an apple with almonds). Or try a homemade Coconut Apricot Bliss Ball!

Do your best to consume a small snack within an hour pre-workout — this way you’ll be sure to have quick energy available to burn.”

Post-Workout: Fruit or Vegetable + Protein Source

“Post-workout snack is similar to the pre-work snack. Either a fruit or veggie, paired with a source of protein. An excellent example would be a sugar snap peas with a hard-boiled egg.

A smoothie is another great option for post-workout — try mixed berries with cashew butter. Eating every 3-4 hours will support energy not just for exercise, but for sustaining energy levels throughout the day.” Click here to learn more about our approach to nutrition.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Engaging Your Core For Fitness

March 13, 2017/in Fitness, Tips & Advice /by admin

As the name suggests, our core is integral to every movement we make. It’s a complex series of muscles that extend well beyond your abs and include everything except for your arms and legs.

In this article, and in the video below, Mountain Trek’s fitness director Cathy Grierson talks about how to engage your core for whatever it is you’re doing, whether you’re walking, working out at the gym, or even just sitting at your office desk.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Staff Picks – Best Workout Music

February 12, 2017/in Fitness, Tips & Advice /by admin

It's no secret that music has a massive effect on our mood. If you're feeling low, an upbeat song can lift you right up. Or if you're feeling stressed, a relaxing tune can help soothe the soul. By coordinating the music you’re listening to with the mood you’d like to be in, you can train your brain to engage in positive vibes.

To that end, we asked the staff at Mountain Trek what kind of music they like to listen to when exercising. We all know it can be challenging to get up off the couch sometimes and what can help the process is cranking some tunes to get you motivated.

Here are our staff's picks for best workout music:

Jennifer Keirstead – Nutritionist and Guide

"These are the songs I like to play when I wanted to get pumped up! LOL. That said, I know everyone's taste in music is different but I think a lot of people will agree these songs definitely inspire you to move around."

"Sinnerman" – Felix da Housecat Mix feat. Nina Simone
"A Song for Our Grandfathers" – Future Islands
"Every Other Freckle" – Alt-J
"Is This It" – Asaf Avidan **Kulkid Remix
"I Don't Feel Like Dancing" – Scissor Sisters

Cathy Grierson – Head Guide & Fitness Director

"I like listening to music when I work out in the gym but it's a good idea to remind everyone to take the headphones off when hiking in nature so as to enjoy the sounds around you. Here are the songs I love best to workout to when indoors:"

"In2ition and misirlou" – 2 Cellos
"Jai ho" – Mumbai Dolls
"Running down a dream" – Tom Petty
"Runaway" – Ed Sheehan

Kirkland Shave – Program Director & Lead Guide

"These are the songs that pump me up!"

"Pump It Up" – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Chuis Bo" – PZK (feat. Dogg Soso)
"Jump In the Line" – Harry Belafonte
"Pipeline" – The Piperiders
"Eternal (Jusqu'au matin)" – Le Weekend
"Gumboots" – Paul Simon (with The Boyoyo Boys)
"Mr. Saxobeat" – Alexandra Stan
"Whip It" – Devo
"Mambo Con Dancehall" – Brooklyn Funk Essentials
"Sweet and Dandy" – Toots & The Maytals

Krista Van Ee – Hiking Guide

"These are the songs I like to listen to when running or working out":

"I've Got Your Fire" – Jenn Grant
"Happy" – Pharrell Williams
"Disperate Youth" – Santigold
"Beings" – Madeon
"Kamikaze" – MO
"Famous" – Charli xcx

Simon Shave – Sleep Specialist & Hiking Guide

"There are so many songs out there that get me moving but these are definitely my top five favourites right now."

"Move On Up" – Curtis Mayfield
"Behind the Mask" – Micheal Jackson
"Lose Yourself to Dance" – Daft Punk
"Runnin' (Bit Funk Remix)" – The Pharcyde
"Todd Terje" – Inspector Norse

And in case you want to have a listen for yourself. We put all these great songs into one easy playlist to help fuel your next workout.

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Fitness

5 full-body exercises you can do anywhere, including your home office.

1. Shoulder Blade Squeeze

2. Lunges

3. Cat-Cow

4. Plank

5. Tricep Dips

In Addition: Walk the Walk

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Yoga Roots

Evolution of yoga

Explore the many varieties of yoga

What is Mountain Trek?

Step 1) Make a bulletproof schedule

Nutrition

Fitness

Sleep

Stress relief/management

Step 2) Prepare for success

Ensure you have the right equipment—for our schedule, you need the following:

Shop for your ingredients 2-3 days prior to the weekend

Remove as many distractions as possible

Step 3) Instill accountability

Form a “tribe”

Share your intentions

Set a reward

Step 4) Turn healthy actions into habits

1. Identify your health and wellness goals

2. Redesign your goals to optimize for success

3. Simplify

4. Set a weekly target

5. Monitor your progress and adjust if needed

6. Reward your intention

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Q: What is a benchmark workout and is it important?

Benchmarks are milestones to measure progress.

Benchmarks are not only about strength or rep counts.

In summary, a benchmark is a standard exercise that you repeat in order to measure progress.

What is Mountain Trek?

Related Article: Wellness Questionnaire

If you’ve been struggling with “staying on track,” ask yourself the following questions

Mental Health

Emotional Needs

Spiritual Wellbeing

What is Mountain Trek?

Plank

Traditional Squat

Side Lunge

Standing Hip Stretch

What is Mountain Trek?

Related Article: Top 5 On The Go Snacks

Pre-Workout: Fruit + Protein Source

Post-Workout: Fruit or Vegetable + Protein Source

What is Mountain Trek?

What is Mountain Trek?

Jennifer Keirstead – Nutritionist and Guide

Cathy Grierson – Head Guide & Fitness Director

Kirkland Shave – Program Director & Lead Guide

Krista Van Ee – Hiking Guide

Simon Shave – Sleep Specialist & Hiking Guide

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