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What YOU eat is your business !

March 17, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

What you eat is none of anyone else’s business! One of the BIGGEST pet peeves of mine is when people who “think” they understand nutrition and eating healthy decide to push that way of thinking onto you. You might think you are helping someone out by offering good nutritional advice, but until you fully understand the full foundation of nutrition as well as how it responds to your body in training, you should allow that person to seek someone with more experience.

Here is why you should keep YOUR diet and what you eat to yourself because it may come off as ignorant to others who may not understand nutrition.

-We all have a different physiology. You do not know their internal body functions such as hormones, metabolic rate, age, genetics and activity levels. ALL of these things play into your nutrition. That is why what works for one will not necessarily work for someone else. First ask yourself this: Do you know how your body reacts to carbohydrates? Increased training? Do you look better with more fats in your diet or less? What is your caloric intake? If you can’t answer that for yourself, don’t preach it to others!!

-Goal. Point blank.. do you know your goals? Do you want to build muscle? Lose weight? Be more metabolically fit? Does your nutrition match your goals? Do you even know this for yourself? To meet different aspirations for fitness, body composition and competition, you have to eat according to your goals. Their are a mix of domains from powerlifters, weightlifters, bodybuilders and CrossFitters who train together in the same facility. How do you know what “look” or goal they are trying to obtain? Each and every fitness domain has a way of eating to support goals in the gym. If you are eating for a powerlifitng meet or bodybuilding competition, you will NOT be eating in excess. Most of the time you will be in a deficit! So remember that you might not know what someone is trying to achieve !

-Values. Believe it or not there are people out there who train to have fun and just don’t have a desire to compete for anything. For all the focused competitors with year-long plans to meet specific goals, such as doing a bodybuilding show, powerlifting or qualifying for regionals, there is a specific outcome they are trying to reach. However, there are people who turn up just to relax, have fun, and work out. Those people will not need to have a strict meal plan or even care what they look like. The way they live and eat wouldn’t work for you and the likelihood is the way you live and eat wouldn’t work for them, either.

For those of you willing to take on the challenge, dieting is still hard. No one wants to put themselves through it without an endorsed guarantee that they will get the results they’re looking for. That’s where qualified nutritional coaches come in or wellness / lifestyle coaches such as myself can help you reach those goals. But understand this does not mean your revelation will hold true for your unsuspecting victim. People ask for help, and can only be helped if they want it. Discovering what works for them with their own agency is fundamental to individual empowerment and the success that follows.

Battle Ropes!

March 15, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

One of my FAVORITE exercises is using battle ropes especially at the end of my shoulder / press training day ! The concept of using battle ropes as fitness equipment was pioneered by John Brookfield. He discovered that by maneuvering the ropes in a variety of both linear and circular motions, it created a peak heart rate in the athlete. Today, battle ropes are commonly used for high intensity interval training to develop power and explosiveness, as well as anaerobic and aerobic endurance.

There are tons of benefits to using ropes in your training, but here are 5 good ones:

1. Improved Cardiovascular Capacity
The high intensity, high-speed movements will get your heart rate high and increase your cardiovascular capacity very quickly.

2. Maximum Caloric Burn
When small muscles have to do big work it drives up caloric expenditure fast. With the forearms, biceps, triceps and shoulders moving at a high speed under tension you will burn a lot of calories in a short period of time.

3. Improved Body Composition Changes
Ropes will help you burn fat and build muscle at the same time. Add in the EPOC (Excessive Post Oxygen Consumption), aka “after burn”, you get from this versatile tool, and you will be burning more calories even after your workout is over.

4. Improved Timing & Coordination
Rope training is guaranteed to improve timing and coordination, which can help you in your sport and in daily life. Add jumps, shuffles, kneeling, and moving backwards and forwards into your rope training, and it becomes a full-body functional workout.

5. Improved Mental Toughness
When it comes to making gains and getting results, never underestimate the importance of mental toughness. An intense workout using battle ropes will test your mental willpower without running your body into the ground.

Working for longer than 30 seconds usually leads to form breakdown, so shorter work periods are going to be more affective. For example, 20-30 seconds of maximum effort and intensity is better than 60 seconds or more with improper form. Keep the intensity high, and the work and rest times low.

Tips for using ropes:

• Keep your core tight the entire time
• Move through the shoulders, relax your arms
• Use short, quick movements
• Aim for quality over quantity
• Don’t forget to breathe!

Willpower 101!

March 10, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

You need more WILLPOWER! Yes you can do it! You have all the ability in the world to become great at anything you put your mind to! If you want to accomplish your goals, sacrifices will need to be made. If you consider willpower to be “the ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals,” then you have to consider how to best utilize your ability to resist temptations. So, let’s talk about specific things you can do to optimize your willpower.

The more choices you have, the more mental energy you expand in assessing those choices. This activity wears down your willpower. If you only have a certain pool of willpower, you don’t want to drain that pool. Avoid decision fatigue!

If you only have one pool of willpower for all tasks, then you need to be smart. Put the important stuff first and concentrate your energy on those priorities. For most of us the problem is not a lack of goals but too many of them!!!

Do you have a FitBit? Or use My Fitness Pal to track your macros? If you find yourself with depleted willpower and your buddies are all heading for Happy Hour, you could say, “I’d love to go, but I need to get more steps in so I’m going to take a walk.” Turn down that second serving of chocolate cake because “it doesn’t fit my macros.”

Hold yourself accountable. Let your friends and family know that you’re trying to eat better, move more, and take better care of yourself. “By going public, you’re not just exposing yourself to potential shame, ” writes Baumeister/Tierney, “You’re also outsourcing the job of monitoring, which can ease the burden on yourself.” Simply put: Let other people help. If someone asks you about your workout, you’ll want to tell them what you did, not that you skipped it.

Don’t beat yourself up, and don’t abandon your plans. The worst thing you can do is fall into a “What the hell” mentality and then eat everything and/or stop moving. Extremes are hard to navigate. Stay to the middle of the road, and if you veer off, veer right back on.

Are you a victim of BLACK AND WHITE? Our brains have a hard time with absolutes. Never feels like deprivation, and we want to rebel. But later? Later seems okay to us. You’ll have that dessert later. You’ll take a rest later on this walk. Sometimes you will come back and not want it !

Pre-Commit ! YES ! Before you give yourself an option to say no, say yes first ! You’re “precommitting” because you’re setting yourself up to commit to the right decision when your willpower is low.

Keep track, reward yourself often (for the psychological benefits), and use your willpower in the smartest way possible. We might not have pastures of willpower to harvest, but we can all do better with what we already have. Keep going! You got this!

The Booty Pop

March 8, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

Goodness, the way I stand is ruining my body ! The One Leg Booty Pop.” Technically called “hanging on one hip,” it is where the entire body weight is shifted onto one weight-bearing leg. This posture causes the pelvis and hip to be in a position of adduction, and it is wrecking all sorts of havoc on you and your body. This is how I always stand.

Remember doing this: kicking in someones knee from behind? It buckles they fall and then it takes a second for them to stand? In other words, he or she is not using any active muscular control at the knee joint. This is why the knee buckles and why it takes a second before the muscular control kicks in to prevent a fall. The same thing happens when you hang on your hip. Instead of using your muscles, you rely on the ligaments, hip capsule, and bones to support your body weight.

It’s SO easy to get into this habit. You might even be doing it now. If you are on your feet a lot, you might not even notice it anymore. Some of the biggest issues are new moms carrying their kids, heavy purses or bags and law enforcement holding their belts.

The problem with hanging on one hip in this adducted stance (also known as the Trendelenburg position) are numerous and significant. They include knee pain and arthritis, hip joint dysfunction, gluteus medius tendinopathy, low back pain and nerve impingement, muscle strains, and of course all of the compensations that occur with each of these injuries.

One of the most important ways to prevent these problems is to simply be aware of your posture throughout the day. Most people have no idea they hang on one hip.Just to reiterate – the most important way to counteract those awful negative effects is to stop the one leg booty pop. If you continue to adopt this stance, you will be fighting a battle you can’t win. Make the change today

Grip Strength Training !

March 3, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

3 Benefits of Grip Strength Training

#1 – Bigger lifts

When you have a strong grip, you’re able to move a lot more weight in the gym. The big compound movements like deadlifts, bent over rows, bench press, and weighted pull-ups all go up when you’re grip strength improves. More strength equals more muscle.Not to mention you can hang onto the bar for longer and get more reps.

#2 – Better endurance

The stronger your hands, fingers and forearms the better your endurances becomes. Have you ever lost a deadlift becomes your grip gave? Have you ever had to let go of the pull up bar because your grip went before exhausting your back muscles? Have you ever had to put the kettlebell down before you completed all the reps? Have you ever had to put the dumbbells down in a farmer walk before you were really fatigued? If so, your grip is the limiting factor. By bringing your grip up, you’ll be able to move more loads over longer period of time. When your hands are strong, you can perform more reps and sustain under a load longer than someone who has a weaker grip meaning more PR’s and more strength gains.

#3 – Better quality of life (in your later years)

Studies show that those who have a strong grip later in life provides an indicator for a better quality of life as they age. In a study done in 1999 this was revealed: “Among healthy 45- to 68-year-old men, hand grip strength was highly predictive of functional limitations and disability 25 years later. Good muscle strength in midlife may protect people from old age disability by providing a greater safety margin above the threshold of disability.”

So how can you build this up ? There are a number of exercises that you can do to build a better grip. Doing exercises with dumbbells is a great way to add in grip strength. You need to hold onto the dumbbells which requires your forarms to work. As you perform your reps your grip is the factor that controls the movement on the eccentric and concentric phase.

You can also do barbell holds. Simply forcing your body to hold onto the bar for an extended period of time will help strengthen your grip on multiple exercises.

Finally, the farmer carry. The farmer’s walk is deceptively potent. If you’ve built a baseline of grip strength and you can load a heavy carry, then farmer’s walks are a must for grip strength and overall physical capacity. It will work every part of your body – from your brain to your toes while every corner will feel the load of the farmer’s walk.

Grip training will build your fingers, hands and forearms. But that’s only the beginning. By giving your grip the attention it deserves, your pushing and pulling movements will improve. And when that happens, your own your way to building punishing power housed by a brick-house physique.

Healthy Eating on a Budget

March 1, 2016 by @FitnessHeroics.

Eating healthy on a budget is not only possible but it’s the only way I know how to shop! “Eating healthy is expensive.” Ever heard that before? Ever said that before?

Unfortunately, finding really good deals on chicken, broccoli, and sweet potato are rare. Whole Foods is often referred to as “Whole Paycheck.” And, fifty-cent vending machines rarely dispense fresh-squeezed juices or raw almonds. So often people complain about the expense of healthy eating, and yet, spend their hard earned dollars elsewhere:

Take a look at this list, maybe your guilty of a few of them?

Post-work happy hour cocktails
A daily $4-$5 Starbucks fix
Cheap fast-food, pizza deliveries, and non-perishable food-like products (chips, bars, Lean Cuisines)

Eating and cooking healthy, real food may seem like it’s more expensive in the moment because your spending $150-200 at the grocery in one trip versus $10-20 for each meal out, but in the long run, you actually can save money.

Here are a few simple tips and tricks for savvy shopping, while upholding the convenience, tastiness, and simplicity you value in the meals you eat.

When it comes to buying organic versus conventional produce, the general rule of thumb is to invest your dollars in organic versions of the “Dirty Dozen.” The Dirty Dozen is a list compiled every year by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The list consists of the most pesticide-laden foods in the grocery store:

Apples
Strawberries
Grapes
Celery
Peaches
Spinach
Sweet Bell Peppers
Nectarines (Imported)
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Snap Peas (Imported)
Potatoes

As for saving your money, rest easy with conventional picks if you so choose from the Clean 15, also put together by the EWG:

Avocados
Sweet Corn
Pineapples
Cabbage
Sweet Peas (Frozen)
Onions
Asparagus
Mangoes
Papayas
Kiwi
Eggplant
Grapefruit
Cantaloupe
Cauliflower
Sweet Potatoes
While you are at the store, stock up on grab-and-go healthy items that will definitely get eaten and save time and money, such as:

Chicken. Buy a few prepared rotisserie chickens from Whole Foods or another natural food store to keep in your fridge for easy snacking and meal supply

Hardboiled eggs. Trader Joe’s sells cage-free hardboiled eggs (yes, already boiled!) or you can easily grab some of these on a salad bar at the grocery store if you don’t like making your own.

Nitrate-free deli meat. Buy a package or two of nitrate-free turkey or ham slices (I like Applegate Farms) for a quick snack of turkey rollups.

Prepped veggies. When you buy your veggies, slice them up and put them in Ziploc baggies when you get home. That way you actually reach for them and use them (and they don’t go bad and waste your money).

Frozen meats. Keep some frozen nitrate-free chicken sausage, frozen turkey burgers, and/or other protein sources (fish, chicken, ground meat) in your freezer to easily break out and cook when hunger strikes.

Keep it Simple! Buy the basics, and if you need some creativity, use different spices or simple variations to change up the flavors.

Think:

Chicken and veggies, seasoned with curry powder for an Indian flair, coconut aminos for an Asian twist, or stuffed in a sweet potato for post-workout heartiness.

Grass-fed beef becomes chili, sweet potato hash, baked meatballs, or burger patties.

Fish can be served atop a salad, inside a coconut-flour tortilla, alongside roasted asparagus, or made into fish burgers.

Get to planning ahead of time and you will be ready for the week ahead !

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