Eat for Energy in the Morning!

Whether or not you should eat before your morning workout is an easy question to answer.  Yes you should!  What you eat before your workout will contribute towards the amount of energy you have to execute the workout at the right intensity to trigger the desired response.  You may get away with doing a shorter duration activity without compromising muscle maintenance or gains.  In most cases we all need energy to move after a 6-10 hour overnight fast, depending on how long you sleep.  What you eat before you workout does not necessarily have to be breakfast but it should compliment the level of activity you plan to do.  If your stomach does not agree with this advice, go light and simple no matter what.  Something is better than nothing so go bananas, a slice of bread with spread, or even an energy drink if you are not used to a morning meal.  Eat a light carbohydrate rich snack before morning workouts and your meal afterwards can be a wholesome protein packed breakfast.  In the morning you are more likely to burn off what you eat easier than in the evening because, workout or not, your body needs fuel to do any activity.  Calorie consumption is always better for fat loss in the morning than at night. Food is your body's fuel for the mind and body. In the morning you will be more focused and have more energy if you eat before you train.

The Age of Fitness Trackers

 

Start off the year solid and set your fitness goal to be in top shape.  Let us forget about scales and the way you fit in your year old jeans.  Let us be motivated by monitored performance and reaching higher levels of intensity.  Tracking your heart rate during a workout is a great way to gauge whether you are working hard enough to build muscle, burn fat or to do both at the same time.  We cannot make any progress focusing only on day to day body weight and tape measurement readings. These devices as well as your perceived level of intensity are misleading  Confirmation should come from the fact that you have completed a greater amount of work in the same amount of time you take to workout.  Your goal should be to work harder, lift heavier, run farther, or faster than you ever did before.  You cannot do this unless you consistently track your progress and exceed your recorded limitations every workout.  To be better you must do better.  The future of heart rate monitors, fitness bands, and activity trackers are on the rise.  If you have not invested in one yet, you should.  Using these devices will make your workouts more challenging and meaningful.  You will be sure to force yourself out of your comfort zone knowing that your fitness tracking device has record that you have reached a certain intensity before.  The added benefits to your workout that a fitness tracking device can bring are exponential.  Seeing is believing!  Once you invest in a fitness tracking device and see how it works you will believe that you can do what it takes to be in top shape.

The Ultimate Fitness Goal

The Ultimate fitness goal is to live a long healthy life of fitness with minimal injuries and maximum abilities.  To reach this goal you have to live a lifestyle of fitness with deliberate practice while taking little breaks.  Easier said than done!  The necessary steps to succeed and conquer the ultimate goal can seem boring and monotonous.  To be consistent with practice you must enjoy it.  There are benefits in not only the exercises we do but also the interdependent components of each exercise.  In order to do what is needed to reach the ultimate goal, respect and recognition must be given to the simplest parts of practice.  Having a fundamental focus is the key to staying consistent in practice and steady progression for a lifetime.

Improving movement patterns while also building integrity in the platform that supports all body movements will enhance the efficiency and coordination of any movement.  A stronger frame and core around it will last longer and will allow you to sustain less injuries in a lifetime.  Once you balance and stabilize your core you can progress to body movements that involve integration and coordination.  This focus will make the smaller steps that you must accomplish to reach the ultimate goal more meaningful and challenging. 

Your focus should not always be the end reward.  This can seem unattainable.  Building a passion for improving the interdependent segments will simplify your path to success and pose as a bigger reward.  More can be accomplished in your life through fitness if you break everything you do down in it's simplest form and strengthen each component individually inside out.  You will realize that the true value in practicing fitness comes from the effort that you put into fundamentals.  Your motivation to stay consistent on a path that leads to the ultimate fitness goal will come from the passion built from focusing on each interdependent segment of the whole. It will come from within you. 

The Many Benefits of Bilateral Training

If it is hard for you to get that sore feeling, you used to get, a day after your workout and you rarely ever increase the weight you lift, it is definitely time for change.  Variation is the best way to continue your progression no matter what your fitness goals may be.  A great way to add variety to your fitness regimen is to do all your exercises bilaterally or using one arm or leg at a time.

 

Here are 9 benefits of bilaterally training:

1. Improves neural drive to the muscles
2.  Activates internal and external oblique
3.  Training one limb will enhance neural drive to the opposite limb
4.  Promotes intramuscular coordination or neuromuscular efficiency throughout the entire body
5.  Training in all 3 planes of motion at one time. (Front to back, side to side, rotating side to side or diagonally)
6.  Increased stability, strength, and power when performing the same exercises unilaterally(two limbs at a time)
7.  Improved movement efficiency and exercise economy 
8. Creates balanced strength on both sides
9. Adds more variety to your fitness routine that will minimize the risk of a plateau.  You Keep Getting Muscle Soreness!

Surprisingly these are just a few of the many benefits that you get from training with one limb at a time.  Just working out consistently with variation in general will lead to even more of the many benefits.  Sometimes all you need is a tip like this to accelerate progression, prevent injury, and stay motivated.

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone!

If you have been doing the same exercises over and over to the point where you can do them with your eyes closed without breaking a sweat, it is time for you to change it up.  Your comfort zone is not where you want to be when you are working out.  You get the least amount of results in this zone because your body expends the least amount of energy and it takes less effort for you to perform an exercise.  The only people who should be exercising in their comfort zone, periodically, are aerobic endurance athletes.  They need to improve the economy or efficiency of the movements used in competition as well as their endurance level.  If your goals is to get stronger, lose weight, or build endurance you have to change it up often.  Your body needs to be challenged by a different level of intensity or a new movement to trigger an adaptive response and to allow change to occur.  A little bit of change in your program can make a big difference in your results and keep you motivated. 

 

Here is a great way to get out of your comfort zone! 

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Your Weekend Gains Not Losses

The last couple of weekends you have let yourself go and had to regain the level of fitness you lost at the beginning of the week afterwards.  If this is you, you are wasting your time and going in circles.  Weekends can make you or break you.  Working out and eating healthy is easy from Monday through Thursday.  A challenge, amongst all the challenges you deal with to get and stay fit, is to extend your fitness regimen over the weekend.  If from Friday to Monday you take a break from either cardio, a balanced diet, or weightlifting you could lose hard earned progress and the motivation to continue working out.  Why put so much time and energy towards fitness and get nothing in return. 

To get what you want out of your hard work and time spent in the gym you have to keep it up over the weekends.  You must sacrifice everything that you do that minimizes your gains over the weekends.  Your body will only adapt to what you do consistently.  If your goal is to build muscle and you are lifting weights three times a week but also drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy three times a week, it will be hard for your body respond and adapt to your weightlifting.  Take control of your gains.  To be more fit you have to dedicate all of your time to fitness.  Do what it takes Monday through Sunday to reach your goals.  You know what it takes and if you do not, find out.  To much energy is put towards fitness not to be getting results. 

If you want to grow strong and lean with a low percentage of body fat then you are going to have to sacrifice all the things you do, usually on the weekends, that take away from all that you gained.  This sacrifice will lead to you getting faster results.  The results you get from your hard work will keep you motivated and energized to stay consistent.

Seven Days of Cardio Training!

I hope you are not surprised by the heading.  If you want to start getting more results from your fitness regimen, you cannot exclude cardio! Cardiovascular endurance training is an integral part of your daily fitness routine that increases your daily calorie expenditure while also enhancing your weight lifting routine.  If you do cardio consistently your muscles will recover faster between sets which allows you to do more work during the time you have to workout.  Doing consistent cardio is the number one way to burn fat, if done correctly.  For however long you spend doing cardio, you must have your heart rate at 65-85% of your maximum heart rate for the duration.  It is good to be at your target heart rate zone at 5 minutes into your cardio training.  Being in this heart rate zone will allow your body to sustain force by using mostly stored body fat as energy.  Doing cardio on a consistent basis also allows you to sweat regularly.  Sweating is good for your skin and also a good way to release toxins, excess sodium and free radicals from your body.  Cardio is also the best exercise for maintaining a healthy heart and lungs.  There are many more benefits from cardio, but to get the most out of cardio training you must do it everyday.  A good tip to keep you entertained week by week is variation.  Switching your cardio routine up daily will motivate you to challenge yourself.  Consistent cardio training may be what you need to get the results you are looking for.  Guaranteed results come from doing everything the right way and cardio training is equally important as resistance training and your diet.

WANT MORE RESULTS?!  Below is a sample cardio training routine that you can follow for the next 7 days or 7 weeks to get faster results:

MODE (select 1 mode per day or the same mode every other day)
Stationary bike
Treadmill
Stairmaster
Track running
Elliptical

Day 1
Pace/Temp
30-45 minutes
Target HR = 70% of Max HR

Day2
Interval Training
warm up 5 minutes
2mins 85% of Max HR (high Intensity)
2mins 65% of Max HR (low intensity)
repeat 5 times
cool down 5 minutes

Day3 (choose different MODE than Day 2)
Pace/Temp
30-45 minutes
Target HR = 70% of Max HR

Day 4
Interval Training
warm up on MODE 5 minutes
2mins Jump Rope
2mins Burpees
Rest 1 min
(Repeat 5 times)
cool down on MODE 5 minutes

Day 5 (choose different MODE than Day 3)
Pace/Temp
30-45 minutes
Target HR = 70% of Max HR

Day 6
Interval Training
warm up 5 minutes
2mins 85% of Max HR (high Intensity)
2mins 65% of Max HR (low intensity)
repeat 5 times
cool down 5 minutes

Day 7(choose different MODE than Day 6)
Long Pace/Temp
45-60 minutes
Target HR = 70% of Max HR