@FitnessHeroics.

The most important to eat is breakfast because you are BREAKING- the fast from dinner, sleep, and your morning. If you are an athlete and workout regularly, I would have to argue that the post workout recovery meal(s) are the most important for you to be focusing on. After a hard workout, your body can use up all your stored glycogen (carbs), easily sweat over two liters of water, and break down both muscle and red blood cells. This is why what you as an athlete consume in the minutes and hours after your training or competition is so crucial to both performance and recovery. So the key here is proper nutrition to support your goals and gains in the gym.

Recovery is defined in the Webster dictionary as “the act of regaining or returning toward a normal or healthy state.” In recovery nutrition the foods we choose to consume have been shown to positively affect recovery and an athlete’s future performance.

“Recovery” covers a range of processes that include:

• Replenishing the muscle and liver glycogen stores
• Consuming protein to assist with muscle repair
• Restoring fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat
• Supporting the immune system to handle the damage

Post workout your body is in need of glycogen to start the repair and rebuild process. Ingesting carbohydrates after training is critical because if you don’t replenish these stores for your next performance, you can be compromised in future sessions of training. When you are working out muscle protein is broken down due to high intensity or prolonged exercise. This makes recovery nutrition important in helping to rebuild. Once the recovery phase begins the catabolic processes reduce while anabolic processes increase and continue on for at least 24 hours after training. Hence why you see so many people drinking a post workout recovery drink such as a kill cliff or protein to start the rebuilding phase as fast as possible.

One of the most overlooked components to recovery is hydration. If the hydration deficit is not corrected it can have a significant impact on future training sessions. In order to rectify this deficit you should aim to consume 125-150% of the estimated fluid lost over a four to six hour period post exercise. But not only is water lost but so is sodium due to sweat. You now need to think of adding in electrolytes back into your body to help recover faster. Another alternative is consuming foods that contain sodium along with recovery fluids to achieve this required amount.

If you workout, you should try to stick to foods that are as natural and real as possible. This is because it also allows you to meet the daily nutritional needs of essential vitamins and minerals, and also stock up on much needed antioxidants like vitamins C and E that help reduce oxidization caused from the stress of exercise. Working out suppresses the immune system and you need to be cautious of how your body is adapting to this stress.

Practical considerations of recovery nutrition also need to be taken into account. Believe it or not, issues like a lack of appetite, unavailability of food, and being unprepared can all play a part in an athlete failing to meet recovery goals. With a little planning these challenges can be nothing more than bumps in the road. Once you  notice the benefits oh how your body should feel in a recovered stated you can take the steps to meet those needs.

 

 

If you want to take your training, recovery and nutrition to the next level you need to be supplying it with quality products that increase your energy and endurance as well as fights inflammation from lifting!! When you are building muscle you body needs extra nutrients and sometimes no matter how healthy you eat during the day, you will not be able to account for all the vitamins and minerals along with BCAA’s and inflammation support from food alone.

Part of the problem might not be your eating however the food we eat is not as natural as we think. Improper farming practices deplete the soil of nutrients.  When plants are repeatedly grown on the same land, the soil loses nutrients faster than they can be replaced.  Over time, the plants have fewer nutrients to grow.  Fertilizer contains just enough nutrition for the plant to survive until harvesting, but not enough to support human health.  This results in plants that have 75% fewer micro-nutrients. Did you know most modern fruits and vegetables are grown to increase their sugar content and not their nutritional content?  This means they are higher in high fructose corn syrup and have a decreased amount of the the healthy nutrients your body needs.

Your body needs nutrients to deal with toxins from the environment, stress, and exercsise.  When more toxins are present, you need more nutrients.  Here are just some of the things your body has to contend with:

1. Xenoestrogens (plastics, BPA, some molds, petroleum products).
2. Industrial solvents and cleaner
3. Unnatural lighting
4. Food toxins
5. Stress and lack of sleep.

There are hundreds of other sources of unnatural stress that increase the body’s need for proper nutrition.Our bodies weren’t designed to deal with these toxins using only nutrition from food. This is where supplementation occurs !

 

If you are interested in supporting your goals with supplements you need to use all natural ones that work with your body and not against it. I would reccommend using products by AdvoCare because they are supported and tested by 3 different companies that prove what is on the label is what your ingesting into your body.

You don’t have to be a professional athlete to experience the benefits of incorporating Performance Elite products into your supplement routine. If you’re wanting to add muscle, enhance workouts, or efficiently recover from strenuous activity these are the perfect addition to your diet. From products like  O2 Gold for endurance, Nighttime recovery to help you sleep and Muscle strength for some serious gains you can’t go wrong. Don’t forget to check into the wellness and active lines for Spark, Fish Oil and many other products that will enhance your performance !

Click here https://www.advocare.com/150545920/default.aspx  to check out the awesome products that AdvoCare has to offer you!!

If you know the movement pattern and the ROM that you need if you don’t do it when your doing a WOD is that fair to count it ? Sure it seems harmless but you need to have some integrity to continue to get better. One reason people cheat a little bit is that we want to feel good about yourself. You don’t want to think of yourself as a cheater, but some can cheat a little and still feel like a good about their performance. Another mechanism to condone cheating is using rationalization. We can rationalize a little cheating a little by using statements like : “If I hadn’t screwed up that one double under, I would have been twenty seconds faster.”

Oh and in WODs this  “fudge” factor occurs quite often.  The score changes by only a little bit and some people might notice a little. You might have someone who says: “Wow, you were quick onto that second exercise. I was only at ten reps and you had finished all fifteen.” This should maybe raise a red flag to yourself and the people around you. So what if your not the first on the whiteboard, our records are there for you to get better in the long run!

So why shouldn’t you cheat ? First off it’s contagious. Just think if you see one person get away with not performing the exercise correctly and they didn’t get a NO REP then why shouldn’t you just cheat a little too? However this also works both ways, so when you hear a coach cue that you should be reaching a fuller ROM this is a hint they see you but don’t want to call you out just yet !

Be a good example for others by doing things in correct form and function. If you are performing good reps, the people around you will tend to follow suit. Athletes who pay attention to those around them will see that the integrity of the gym also goes up. Learning to set high standards for the gym, athletes and yourself is important in keeping everyone safe and performing exercises correctly.

Learning to NO REP yourself is actually a good thing. It proves that you have a good understanding of the ROM and the function of the movements.  It takes a lot to really NO REP yourself especially in a workout and more important in moves that you already struggle with.

We can reduce the fudge factor with a few simple changes:

• Make notice of incomplete movements to show that others notice and care.
• Discuss how important integrity is to the community.
• Use an integrity pledge. Keep it above where scores are entered. Athletes to put a check mark next to their name indicating they followed the integrity pledge.
• As an athlete, you are an example to others. If you practice integrity in the gym it can be contagious to others. Don’t let someone with a bigger fudge factor determine your actions.
• Determine how others act based on your good example.

So next time your in a WOD be a great example to others, choose to NO REP yourself and have integrity for your gym, coaches and fellow athletes around you!

The sumo deadlift is one variation that you can incorporate into your regular lifting routine to build strength and power. In order to achieve any training related goal whether it is size, strength, structural balance, and/or performance, the one thing you should be training the hip extension movement pattern. There are 2 different styles of deadlifting: Sumo and Conventional. You are more familiar with the conventional style deadlift in which the feet are under the hips just like a clean set up would start.

Watch the following video of how to perform the sumo deadlift and some of the common errors to avoid when performing this movement !! And pay attention you will be seeing these very soon!

 

https://youtu.be/ioo4LKjwQfg

Many CrossFit boxes post their workouts a day ahead of time, so if you are like me and have to check and see what the WOD is, sometimes you might feel a bit disappointed when you see an EMOM. One of the biggest misconceptions is that every workout in CrossFit should just leave you spent on the floor with sweat buckets and the feeling of overcoming death. Even though having tough workouts is great, every once in while EMOM’s take the center stage !

If you look at a class from start to finish you have the yoga/mobility part, warm up, strength/skill then the workout. Some days, depending on what is  programmed for  you to follow and what the goals are for the box, you’ll be working some of the pieces in  your strength training at 75%, or 85% and other times you might be working more for muscular strength and endurance.  One thing you need to understand, not every session should kick your butt!!! IF you are at a box or have a coach that is pushing you 100% every day, please reconsider in finding a new place. There is a reason to scaling down workouts, especially if the program was done with heavy loads, there might be a week of deloads to just reset your mind and body.

So what is an EMOM ? It stands for Every Minute On the Minute.  This means you are performing a task that is specific to each minute on the clock starting at 0:00.It’s fairly common to have a strength portion, then an EMOM, and then perhaps a short conditioning piece. When doing an EMOM they do not “feel” hard. They are designed for you to perform maximal effort for a given rep scheme and then rest for the rest of the time. The EMOM itself is the workout.  Some think that merely doing an EMOM is “not working hard” and that the EMOM is all you’re doing that day, BUT  the rest is part of the training.

Part of the reason EMOM’s might feel like an easier workout is because of the demands that you are placing on your CNS. You need to make sure your choosing weights that are challenging for the reps and that are going to make you push hard for that given time. Taxing that system with a heavy burst and adequate rest will allow you to push into either higher weight or more reps in a shorter period of time. Similarly, a ten-minute EMOM of five burpees and five box jumps will, when used effectively, can be a great aerobic training tool ! Remember the EMOM we did of Double Unders and Power Cleans? Your heart rate was up and you were challenged throughout the workout.

EMOM’s are a great part of training that can help you work on techniques more than just in the training aspect but they will challenge you to push harder due to a time restraint. Next time you see an EMOM just have fun with it and know it’s because your working on your skill and power output that will make you stronger and faster in the long run!

There are a few great things about learning how your body moves. Learning concepts of how your body should function and what it is doing during movements is key to fixing common faults and errors. I want to teach you 3 concepts of how to assess some common mobility issues and how you can work towards fixing them.

To start fixing your mobility, you need to understand these practical mobility lessons:

1. Take action and own your mobility and lack there of.
2. Ease in and be consistent with your efforts.
3. Always practice proper mobility and learn about your body.

So lets look into the first lesson, taking action and understanding your own mobility issues.  Don’t wait until you are in pain or get hurt before you start working on your mobility. There is a way to avoid potential mobility issues, unnecessary pain, and in the worst case, injuries. Get a proper assessment before you start adding in random mobility movements so you know what you should be doing to correct the issue.  You do not need someone in person to assess you, there are many tools online and techniques to check your form and range of motion.. Educate yourself and learn about your own body. Pick up only the most basic tools to start, and then work them daily, and with intention. The top 3 most common issues to check first are tight ankles specifically, dorsiflexion, poor thoracic extension which is a tight and rounded upper back, and poor shoulder flexion that causes trouble in the front rack position, and inability to raise the arms completely overhead.

 

Step 2 is just being consistent. You need to approach your mobility in steps and not just going in and fixing EVERYTHING all at once. In order to get better in your mobility, you need to make small changes and see if those changes are working to benefit your problem. This concepts is a better strategy than trying so many things that you have no idea what worked and what didn’t. If there’s something you need to improve, work at it simply and consistently. Track your efforts, take progress photos so you know how much work you’re actually doing. And most importantly, keep working at it until you’ve made real progress.

 

Last step is learning new mobility concepts and applying them to your practice. You should try to work hard to make positive changes towards better mobility and helping others along the way as long as they are willing to learn. Also, make use of your coaches because they WILL help you with any issues you are having. You can learn a lot by having someone watch and identify issues along with the proper knowledge to teach you why you should be doing something !

Make sure you are always on your learning game. As a coach, I love when I have athletes who come to me asking me about something they went to research themselves is an amazing experience. It’s important to want to learn as much as you can and knowledge is power !!!