@FitnessHeroics.

Did you even know there was a difference in how you train your muscles? Do you have goals in mind of what you want your body to DO or how you want it took look? Your goals need to reflect your training and your training need to enhance your goals. Knowing what you want your body to look like or how to perform must be in direct correlation to how you train. If your goal is to get stronger without much concern of how you look then your training needs to come from a place of functional fitness.

Everyone should know that big muscles mean nothing if they cannot be used properly. Also, not everyone is cut out to be a bodybuilder.  Training functional movement increases quality of life by making everyday activities easier because life is all about movement. There are six types of movement that can transfer to everyday activities and will also help improve your lifts in the gym if added to your program.

1.) Carry -A carry is essentially walking with heavy weights while keeping a tight core to avoid any lateral spine movement.

2.) Lunge-When things fall down you lunge to pick them. Bending with your back will only lead to eventual back pain. The same applies to tying your shoe, it is much better to spare your back by lunging to tie your shoes. Lunge training can also be considered to be unilateral training, and there is a wide array of benefits that come with it.

3.)Push -You can train push in horizontal direction (push up) or vertical (overhead press).

4.)Pull- It’s a basic movement however people tend to not train it often. A pull can be performed in both horizontal (rows) and vertical positions (pull ups).

5.)Hinge -When you maximally bend at your hips with little bend in the knees you have a hinge. A hinge is typically usually used when there are very heavy weights on the ground and a lunge isn’t possible.

6.) Squat-A squat is maximal bend at the hips and the knees. It is often hailed as the king of lower body exercises by many and not without reason! Squatting has multiple benefits and is the basic movement that can be seen in everyday life. Everyone squats daily when going to the toilet and to sit.

Training for performance is primarily done through the nervous system. Strength gains are therefore not due to muscle growth nearly as much as stronger and more efficient signals from the brain to your target muscles. This will happen somewhat in people training for aesthetics but not to the degree if you training for performance. This neural efficiency carries over to skills where this rapid firing of the nervous system is needed, such as in sport.

Now if you are interested in a LOOK, your training needs to have deliberate meaning behind it. Training for size means training to increase the size of muscle cells. This is done through damage of the cell. It therefore comes back bigger and through proper recovery to make sure it doesn’t damage the next time. Training for a certain can become boring as you are doing the same routine each week for about a 4 week cycle. Think of doing legs, back, chest, arms, and shoulders on different days of the week. Your training is more specific to a muscle group rather than functional fitness.

Which type of training is better? The answer is two fold. One, what are your goals? And, what are you looking to increase ? Your strength or functional fitness? From there you then create a plan for you to move forward and train for the results you want to see !

Having an extra hour with the time change was so nice until you realize that extra hour of daylight that’s lost in the evening and it’s dark, EARLY !!! Oh, goodness, it’s only 5:30 pm and dark ?:?? And it sure makes your evening workouts darker which is why we need to talk about safety in the darkness.

3 ways to stay safe in the dark !
– Be visible. When you’re running or walking at night, the number one way to stay safe from traffic is to be seen. Visibility isn’t just about having reflective pieces on your gear, it’s about having them placed in the right spots so that others can recognize that you’re human and moving. Make sure that you have some type of reflective gear on your shoes or clothes!

–Know some moves. We’re all about being strong from  inside and out however you need to know how to protect yourself. Knowing the basic moves such as how to defend yourself if someone grabs you is essential when running or walking in the dark. Just remember the move Miss Congeniality and use the acronym SING ! Soler plexus (stomach), instep, nose and groin !!!

–Let your tech keep you safe.  The Mace Wear Pod can be worn as a headband, wristband, key chain, belt clip or pendant and only weighs 0.3 ounces. The Assult alarm is a mobile app that you can activate when needed by hitting the alert button, shaking the phone, dropping the phone when in a specified mode or missing a check-in time that you set. Also you want to be more cautious wearing headphones. Know your surroundings and where you are going.

 

Also, if you can tell someone where you are going and when you are going to be back can also be of great benefit to you. You need to have people that can be alerted if you don’t return at a specific time just in case. Better to be safer than sorry !

CrossFit has picked up so much popularity that now you see it everywhere. From new boxes in your local neighborhood to seeing programs online to follow, you have endless opportunities for success.  Everyone wants the “NEWEST” and “BEST” programming to take them to the next level. With online programs offered from coaches all over, you might want to reconsider what YOUR personal goals are. Do you want to get stronger ? Do you need more endurance? Does your gymnastics skills need more work ? There are a lot of elements that you should be thinking about when following a structured plan. If you are looking for the best results for you, then you should consider working one on one with a coach to program an athlete driven approach to your goals.

 

An individualized data plan is made specific to YOU and your needs. You are an individual athlete with specific goals that you want to accomplish. Plans are developed off your strengths and weaknesses to help you balance out your training and get the optimal results from the programming.

The FIRST step is to know your goals. What do you want to accomplish and what is realistic to your accountability to the process. If you can only make it to the gym 2 days out of the week, your goals need to reflect that time constraint which might make your time frame longer.  All elements of your life such as sleep, stress, training, nutrition, recovery habits, hydration, other training and your medical background are all needed for a coach to develop a solid plan to fit your individual needs.

Now you analyze and asses your goals along with your program through data. Data driven programs are an assured way to get results.Want to make gains or see progress?  Then keeping up with your results, or testing, and re-testing methodically is what you need do. Consider the benchmark “Girls” WODs in CrossFit, for instance.You have your Fran, you have your Grace, your Helen, your Isabel.These are tests you know full and well, and like your bench or squat personal record for your lifts, your time on these little testers, in essence, defines your CrossFit game right?However, while tests, benchmarks and even going for a new PR, are all great endeavors in the gym but how do you know if you are really getting there ? How do you know if you are making progress towards benchmarks over the course of your day-to-day training? The answer? A data-driven program.

A data-driven program.

More than just showing up to the gym to do work or exercise, your training sessions involve progressive training plans targeted at building upon your current strengths and improving your current weaknesses.Data may be collected for all sorts of movements:From your 500-meter, or 1-min max watts rowing splits; to the amount of 1-legged split squats you are able to complete with good form, gradually increasing the load or reps over the weeks; or the number of reps you can do parallel bar dips; to the length of time you can hold your chin over the bar…

Little testers such as these play a larger role in the bigger picture of your program and performance and working towards your bigger goals such as, improving your strength on your squat or overhead push press, enhancing your anaerobic power output on your row, or even improving your Fran time.

The key factor in data driven programs? A clear picture of data that you are able to compare week to week and not just guessing, or making up a workout day to day, or randomly doing whatever is assigned on the whiteboard and not seeing that movement again for a week or two, or just squatting all day until the cows come home but really not getting any stronger (as fast as you would like), etc. You need progress and you need data to compare and keep moving forward. If you have a goal and you want a way to achieve that, you need to have a plan that is structured and well rounded.

Don’t guess or speculate on results. Know what you are working on, what you are working towards, and you will get there.

We at Fitness Heroics have a great community of people and support. But sometimes, what we as CrossFitters actually consider “normal” inside the box is entirely inappropriate when being practiced in the outside world.

 

1.) We all know that the first rule of CrossFit is to never shut up about CrossFit, but it seems that unfortunately most people outside of your box do not want to hear about it. But hey, you know that all of your CrossFit family would love to discuss ad nauseam how awesome being a CrossFitter truly is! From the inspiring body transformations to the endless fodder for jokes that CrossFit brings, please indulge these aspects of our culture, just try to keep your audience in mind!

2.) Chalk fixes everything. The more chalk you use the better you do. Well that might not be all true but if you are in the box chalk everywhere means you just killed a great barbell WOD or pull up day . However walking around with chalk all over is not the best fashion accessory that you can wear.

3.) Post WOD sweat angels appear after a hard WOD. In life when you exeperience a hard task it’s not normal to just fall over. In CrossFit at the end of a hard WOD, laying down asking yourself how you didn’t die is a great accomplishment !!

4.) You start talking about the WOD’s like they are your friends. How long did it take you to do FRAN ? What about Grace ? Oh Muph just sucks. Be careful of who your speaking with because they just might think you don’t like your friends.

5.) 3..2…1.. GO OMG I just PEED a little. Telling people how you accidentally peed in the middle of 200 DU is completely acceptable in CrossFit. On a social level people wouldn’t understand that when you jump around a lot things happen and your time is more important than your dignity at that moment.

6.)Bacon is Paleo so I talk about it ALL the TIME ! Yes Paleo and bacon are besties when talking CrossFit. Just don’t start talking about your bacon obsession with a Vegan who has a different opinion about your bacon addiction.

7.) Sometimes our ling gets a little raunchy. It’s hard to get through a tough workout when you have a “that’s what she said” joke running for the daily WOD. It might not be a good idea to say things like “Make sure you get deep enough with your thrusters.” or “I prefer the snatch, but I also love jerking.” when talking to your boss.

8.) It’s WOD time.. SHIRTS COME OFF ! It’s like all of a sudden you realize you can’t workout and have a shirt on at the same time. While the taking-off-of-the-shirt mid-workout is common at most gyms, and in my opinion it signifies that things are starting to getting real, I would not recommend this action during a PTA meeting or while you’re waiting in line at Starbucks.

9.) We GRUNT, YELL, SCREAM and CRY… a lot. In a hard workout you just need to let the emotions roll. Sometimes that grunt at the end of a hard lift is all you need to stand it up. However, you wouldn’t want to be grunting all the time in your daily living because you would just seem obnoxious.

10.) The infamous DU WHIP. You just got done with Annie. Doing 50-40-30-20-10 of DU and sit ups. You leave the gym with whip marks all over your body and head into your daily life. People start to wonder “what” extracurricular events you are doing in your free time !

 

Sometimes the HARDEST part of a fitness routine is finding the time to give your body a break and recover. Yes, you should be finding ways to let your muscle, mind and body just relax but that doesn’t me you have to just lay on the couch everyday. A lack of proper recovery and conditioning can lead to plateaus. If you are having problems that are reoccurring over time,packing heavy weight on a dysfunctional movement can and probably will lead to injury.  So what does recovery really mean and what do you do on a recovery day ?

There is active recovery and passive recovery. Passive recovery is the use of fancy rollers, tools, equipment, massage, physical therapy. The types of things we do in class to help with mobility and increase your range of motion.  Active recovery refers to the the things you are personally doing to recover from a day of work, poor posture, or a training session. This means you are actively putting your body through movements that are raising your heart rate, increasing blood flow, training a particular skill and will create better movement patterns and prevent injury and inflammation. This is extremely important that your recovery program encompasses this theory. Most people are using passive recovery only.

 

Recovery relates to goals, and goals mean that everything you do has a purpose to reach that goal.”It is not how hard you train, but how well you recover.” I agree completely. If you don’t recover well, you won’t experience the strength, power, or endurance adaptations you’re in the gym for. Without adequate recovery, your musculoskeletal system, nervous system, and immune system become compromised, which puts you at a greater risk for injury, illness, weak lifts, and your mood will suffer. You should be contemplating how you are going to be moving the next day and set yourself up for success.How well you treat yourself ALL DAY, EVERY DAY is what creates athletes. That relates to sports, fitness, careers, and just being a good human being.

Ponder this:
Sleep = recovery from the previous day stress/training
Morning rituals = recovery from static sleeping and/or prepping for a AM workout
Pre-workout = recovery from demands of work
Post workout = recovery from training session

First step, learn to breath. Breathing creates mobility, it creates stability, allows for a clear mindset and decreases cortisol levels which is our stress response hormone. If you do one thing to recover, lie on a foam roller 2 times a day for 10 minutes and breathe. It can get more complex than that, but for beginners it doesn’t need to. Your body’s hormonal response to the deterioration of these systems is often a state of  “fight or flight” which floods your body with high levels of catabolic hormones like cortisol.

Your body is a machine, full of electrical currents  and impulses coming from your brain. It needs to be constantly tuned and it has limitless potential. If you are going into a workout and doing a complex lift, your mind and body need to be working in unison to make this happen. Your warm up should be specific to what you are doing to prepare yourself for the work ahead. Your muscles must work in proper synergistic fashion to obtain, maintain, and enhance performance. Corrective exercise can absolutely change the way your body performs and adapts to your workout program. You need to change the movement patterns of poor function to get better results when performing the movement in your strength workout.

Sleep is when your body recovers. You need undisturbed, deep, healing sleep. Your entire system of organs needs it. I’m sorry but if you are not sleeping, then you just won’t recover as well, will not train as well, and will eventually lead to pain and plateauing. You also have to think about what you are eating, every time you eat.your body needs fuel immediately when you are done training. If you want lean muscle gains, and not to let your body go into shock, what you do within 10 minutes finishing a workout is what you need to focus on. If you’re eating fake food all day and expect to have a good training session how can you when your body is in a state of inflammation from the foods you consumed.

If you want to perform at an optimal level, all things need to be in place. A healthy diet, a good sleep pattern, and recovery that helps you to move more efficiently ! You are then on the road to success!

There are now so many top fitness trackers on the market that choosing the best one can be difficult. You have ones for sleep, exercise, calories, walking and even how much time your spent sitting down. The choice is getting all the more difficult thanks to all the advanced techy features. If you are like me, I can’t tell the difference between any of them because I don’t know where to even start to look for one ! So I rounded up a few of the best to explain a breakdown of what each of them can offer you !

The FitBit Flex will cost you about  $100. It has  a slim, minimalistic wristband that makes it easy to wear anywerhe. It tracks your activity level, sleep quality, calories burned, and distance traveled; you can program the lights on the band to indicate real-time progress on hitting your goals. The Flex also vibrates to wake you up and wirelessly syncs to automatically update your stats whenever it’s in close range of the included Bluetooth-enabled wireless dongle, which plugs into your computer’s USB port; you can also wirelessly sync to your iPhone, iPad 3, iPad Mini, or Samsung Galaxy.

 

If you are a runner you will want to look into FitBit Surge. The Surge has a built-in heart rate monitor which keeps tabs on your pulse all day for super accurate activity tracking which can help you keep active throughout the day. It also has e has GPS for running, cycling and  works in the gym. Not only that, but the full OLED screen will display calls, texts and notifications in full, making this a true fitness super watch.

 

If you are a swimmer you need to check out the Moov Now. It is a small, round element, which you clip into a strap and wear around your leg and pair with a smartphone. The aim of the game is to keep your training plans moving in a forward direction which tracks your data. It will help you see where you can make improvements to your training and can help you excel in the sports you love.

 

If sleep tracking is what you are looking for, look no further than the Jawbone UP3. The UP3 is incredibly in-depth when it comes to tracking your sleeping patterns. It has the ability to  monitor your bpm, respiration rate, body temperature and galvanic skin response, it can give you your REM, light and deep sleep stats.

 

Using fitness trackers along with using apps like MyFitnessPal are great for keeping tangible data for tracking in the long run. You have a good idea of what you body is doing, how many calories you are burning and what you are consuming in order to obtain the most effective and efficient results !