According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, seven out of 10 adults say they experience stress or anxiety daily. While there is no quick solution to completely remove stress from your life, there are ways to better manage stress. We asked our Gold’s Gym fitness experts and brand ambassadors for their best tips to reduce stress.

1. Maximize music

“Music is a mood booster and pain reliever, and it keeps you moving efficiently,” says Erin Gregory, Gold’s Gym fitness program national development manager.

Laura Micetich, a Gold’s Gym brand ambassador, agrees. “Create an absolutely killer playlist filled with your favorite hype songs. Listening to music will help time fly as well as ensure you get in a great workout.” Check out Laura’s go-to workout playlist here, and try out the  GOLD’S AMP™ digital training app, which offers workouts along with thousands of DJ mixes.

2. Eat well

“Stress creates inflammation, which adversely affects energy levels and risk of chronic diseases,” says Connie Cheng, Gold’s Gym wellness director. There are small changes you can make to your eating habits to combat inflammation caused by stress.

• Increase fiber from complex carbohydrates (e.g., whole grains), plant foods (e.g., fruits and vegetables), nuts, seeds and beans.
• Consume alcohol in moderation.
• Limit saturated and trans fatty acids (mostly found in highly processed, packaged food products).
• Meet the recommended intake of omega-3 fatty acids. If using supplements, take a 500-milligram dose twice a day with meals.

3. Get more sleep

Andy Coggan, director of the Fitness Academy at Gold’s Gym, suggests getting at least seven hours of sleep each night. “If you cut your sleep short for too long, it will catch up to you and your stress will rise.” And remember, exercising can help you get better rest.

4. Go outside

Coggan also recommends going for a walk with a friend or family member as a good way to stay active, get some fresh air and talk about potential stressors. GOLD’S AMP™ Coach Lee Wratislaw also recommends getting outside to reduce stress. “I like to do an outdoor running workout on GOLD’S AMP™ to reduce my stress. It feels great to get outside and push myself on a run.”

5. Take 5!

You don’t need a significant amount of time to reap the benefits of working out. The same study from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America also found that just five minutes of aerobic exercise can provide relief for stress and anxiety. Exercise can also help you think more clearly.

National Ice Cream Day is July 21^st. If you’re thinking there’s no way to indulge in this treat without freezing your healthy eating habits, there’s good news. We asked Gold’s Gym Registered Dietitian, Kritikaa Agnani, for ideas on how to make homemade ice cream healthier.

• Use Fruit. If you are making your own ice cream, incorporate fruit instead of using sugar. Agnani suggests experimenting with non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) like Splenda. “Unlike sugar, NNS, which have little to no calories, won’t cause a spike and crash in your energy level” says Agnani. You can also try using avocado to provide a creamy consistency.
• Use nonfat or low-fat milk. If you are making a milky type of ice cream, you want to avoid the saturated fat that is prominent in dairy products. Agnani suggests milk alternatives such as soy milk, which is high in the “good” unsaturated fat.
• Add matcha. You can add it into your homemade ice cream to add color and extra nutrition.
• Try a one-ingredient sorbet. Add frozen fruit to your food processor and blend! Agnani likes to make a banana sorbet and blends frozen bananas.
• Finally, treat yourself! If you prefer ice cream the way it is, there is nothing wrong with enjoying it on occasion. You deserve it. “Listen to your body when it’s had enough and eat slowly to savor your treat,” Agnani says. It’s important to be mindful on how much you are consuming and avoid getting to the stage where you feel stuffed.
• One more tip! Be sure to eat well the rest of the day, with plenty of nutrient-dense foods such as greens, whole grains and lean protein. That will help balance out your day.

Anique Reese is unstoppable. At 56 years old, she does things today that she thought she’d never do. She became a Gold’s Gym certified personal trainer. She started working as a model after a photographer captured her dancing. She went to South by Southwest, the music and film showcase she used to think was for younger people. And she had the confidence to travel by herself to Europe, including her native France.

She wasn’t always this way. Four years ago, life seemed to come to a halt. First, her mother, Annette, died. Weeks later, Anique lost her husband of 21 years, Todd. She had trouble coping.

“I was going through grieving,” says Anique, who lives in Austin, Texas. “I’ve always been a really positive-thinking person, and I didn’t feel like myself.”

Knowing she needed a change, she made a positive commitment to herself. “I’m a big proponent of self-care, so I decided I was going to go ahead and hire a personal trainer,” she says. “It was going to be a gift for myself.”

She had no idea what was in store. But it wasn’t the first time she challenged herself to change.

‘I’m done being big’
As a teen, Anique struggled with her weight. She would wear a T-shirt to the pool and said she didn’t want to be seen. In college, after she couldn’t fit into a size 16 anymore, she vowed to change. “I’m done,” she told herself. “I’m done being big.”

Weighing around 150 pounds, she set a goal of 120 pounds. She started doing aerobics and eating more balanced meals. Once she began losing weight, she vowed she wouldn’t gain it back. And she didn’t.

Years later, as a mom, she began going to Gold’s Gym because of its child care. She soon made friends with other moms and created a real community with them. They would do BODYPUMP® classes together and have lunch at one another’s homes.

Through her 40s and early 50s, Anique stayed in moderately good shape and continued with her Gold’s Gym membership, but she hadn’t made a serious commitment to the gym. She had used cardio machines and attended classes, but she didn’t know what most of the machines and equipment were for. When she signed up with a personal trainer, Wayne, she was afraid she wasn’t ready. But she received instant encouragement.

“My first session, he says, ‘I know I can take you to the next level of fitness,’” she says. “He had so much faith in my ability. And because he believed I could do it, I believed I could do it.”

Eye-opening progress
Wayne showed Anique the proper form for a variety of exercises, introducing her to TRX® straps, kettlebells, free weights and other devices she had ignored for so long. “Suddenly, the gym was like a candy store,” she says.

He would push her and work with her to make progress, always believing in her ability to do more, and she continually surprised herself along the way.

“I never considered I could do 30 pull-ups or 50 push-ups or squat 130 pounds,” she says. “I had never done anything like that before. The fact that I could do that was so illuminating for me.”

It was revealing to others, too. Anique says regular gym-goers in the weight section would say, “How are you doing things we can’t even do?”

As she grew in physical strength, she also grew in emotional strength. “I became so fearless,” she says. When she had a life challenge, she would say to herself, “If I can do that, why can’t I do this?”

Her work with Wayne was the springboard. “I got offered a huge promotion at work,” she says. “It literally stemmed from making my body stronger.”

Once she had that inner fire, she says she realized she could do the things she really wanted to do.

Passing it on
Not long ago, Anique went for a physical. Her doctor said her labs reflected those of a 38-year-old. “I used to think my 50s were going to be one foot in the grave, but they have actually been my best years,” she says.

When other people in the gym would compliment her strength and ask for advice, she was always ready with a tip or exercise for them to try. Seeing how comfortable other members were with Anique, Wayne asked her if she’d be interested in becoming a certified trainer for Gold’s Gym. She hesitated, but after mulling it over, she thought, Why not? She wanted to help others feel the way she felt. She enrolled, studied and easily passed the exam.

Her clients today include a woman who has lost 100 pounds. With all of her clients, Anique uses the same approach she used when she worked as a teacher years ago: Show them, do it with them and then watch them do it. And it’s fulfilling for her to help others transform, just like Wayne helped her.

“I had no idea that working with a trainer would change my life.”

Cardio can be confusing. Because of the popularity of high intensity interval training (HIIT), some people may think that traditional cardio is a waste of time. They are wrong. Whether it’s in bursts like HIIT or a continuous steady state, cardio not only increases your heart strength and the capacity of your circulatory system and lungs, but also reduces your risk of developing heart disease or diabetes.

Still, it can be mystifying to figure out which kind of cardio is right for you. So we asked two Gold’s Gym fitness experts to get different perspectives on what cardio to do and when, based on what your goal might be.

Best cardio for weight loss

Jackie Vick, Gold’s Gym Fitness Expert and GOLD’S AMP™ Coach:
Add HIIT training into your regimen. One of the main benefits is EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, where your body continues burning calories even after your workout because it’s working to return to its normal metabolic function. It will take longer to get back to your resting heart rate. It could go on for one or two hours. You’ll be watching a movie, but your body is still burning calories!

Andy Coggan, Gold’s Gym Fitness Expert:
Cardio is just one element of a successful weight-loss journey, along with resistance training, healthy eating, movement quality and rest/recovery. I recommend at least three cardio sessions per week, for a minimum of 30 minutes each. The key is to find an approach that is sustainable and enjoyable, because if you find a cardio activity that you love doing, you’ll be more inclined to keep doing it. The most effective cardio is anything that’s enjoyable and gets your heart rate up and keeps it up for a sustained period of time. For weight loss, we’re really looking at burning calories, so you can go long and slow or fast and intense to burn additional calories to move closer to your goals.

Best cardio to complement strength training

Vick:
If your goal is to add mass, do cardio but keep it steady. Try an inclined walk or stairs. Or try some steady-state (traditional) aerobic training. Just do the treadmill, the stair climber or elliptical to maintain. It’s going to be great for your heart health and blood pressure. You need weights to build your muscles, but you need cardio for your heart health. Heart health means reducing risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Cardio lowers blood pressure, lessens the chance of heart attacks and keeps arteries from clogging. Cardio is for the long term.

Coggan:
Although cardio training isn’t typically associated with this goal, it can greatly benefit a person looking to increase strength. Cardio training improves the body’s ability to deliver blood to working muscles, which can directly benefit a person who’s training for strength. It can increase the volume of work they are able to accomplish in a given workout time period and improve the quality and efficiency of muscle recovery. I have worked with many strength athletes who saw long-term performance improvements return after a lull once they focused on improving overall cardiovascular fitness. They all reported generally feeling much better as well.

Best cardio for heart health

Vick:
Frequently, people with this goal have high blood pressure or cardiac disease, or they have had a heart attack. Your resting heart rate should be between 50 and 80 beats per minute. If it’s 90 or 100 or 110, you want to get that checked. So talk to your doctor first. Walking is going to be the easiest form of cardio. Think about walking a certain number of steps every day. See how you feel. Monitor your heart rate. Take a 15- or 20-minute walk. Progress into an elliptical or a stationary bike. After a month, start progressing and adding an extra day and checking your heart rate. A healthy adult should walk five days a week for 30 minutes each day.

Coggan:
To train the heart and lungs, you want to give them a sustained workout using heart rate zones that are between 50 and 80 percent of your max heart rate. It is also important to vary the type and intensity of the workout to get the most benefit. You might have a couple of lighter recovery days in the 50–60 percent zone (light walks with your dog or a friend), a day in the 60–70 percent zone where you go at a greater pace for 30–60 minutes (light jog), and then a couple of days in the 70–80 percent zone where you train at a tough steady-state pace that challenges you for 20–30 minutes (challenging run or jog). HIIT done above 80 percent of max heart rate can be used one to two times per week, as well once a person has built up the cardiovascular health to handle this type of challenge.

Best cardio for overcoming a plateau

Vick:
First, evaluate your situation. Are you dedicated? Are you doing the same forms? If you’re doing steady-state exercise, I would try something else like HIIT. Every four weeks, change up one or two things. If you do interval training two days a week, you could add a day. But I wouldn’t do more than two or three days of HIIT training. If you’re already there, try switching to a steady-state workout. You have to keep changing things.

Coggan:
Any kind of cardio can help bust through plateaus. It can help a strength athlete recover better. It can help a stressed-out executive find release. It can help an athlete improve their muscular endurance and stamina. Bottom line: Cardio is not just for the amateur exerciser. It can help anyone improve what they’re doing when programmed effectively by a fitness professional.

Best cardio for emotional well-being

Vick:
Most of the time, wanting to feel good and improve emotional health are real reasons people come into the gym. Maybe they need a support system or some kind of accountability. It could be a trainer or a workout buddy. Sometimes it’s hard if you don’t know where and how to build those relationships. It can be intimidating to go into a group class. But if you surround yourself with positive people, your emotional health will go toward the positive. If you don’t know where to start, try the GOLD’S AMP™ app. You’ll get inspiration from the trainers and motivation without the intimidation of talking to people. Start with low-intensity workouts, and get yourself feeling good.

Coggan:
Although this question depends highly on the individual, it is very common for people to see cardio training become a form of stress relief or meditation once they have achieved a baseline of fitness and enjoy what they are doing. Once again, the key is finding the right activity that allows you to just enjoy the release it brings and not think so much about what you’re doing. Music is a great way to facilitate this feeling through exercise. A great workout will also release dopamine in the pleasure centers of the brain, giving you a very real reward.

Read more Gold’s Gym stories:

Learning Self-Love at Gold’s Gym
How Exercise Tamed Her Anxiety
What to Expect in Your Next Group Exercise Classes

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