Have you ever had a day exercising where you just have zero energy? No matter how bad you want to workout you just don’t have it in you. You will try and try but you just seem to be coming up short on reps or weight.  There are many factors that can keep you from performing to your maximum potential. Not getting enough sleep, rest in between workout sessions, hydration and nutrition are some of the key factors that can impact your workouts. I’m going to focus on fueling your exercise with the right foods before your workout. It’s much more involved than just eating something before you train. The outcome depends on what and when you eat. 

You may be thinking, “If I need energy for my workout, I’ll just drink a soda, energy drink or eat a protein bar!” While that quick burst of sugar will sure enough give you an energy boost, but it won’t last very long. They are all filled with simple sugar and will spike your insulin levels which will give you that initial boost of energy but after that spike you will crash, your body’s fuel tank will be on empty. The best thing to eat before a workout is complex carbohydrates. What are complex carbohydrates you ask? Complex carbohydrates are foods in the whole grain form. Oatmeal, fruits, bran, legumes and even whole grain pasta are complex carbohydrates. You should try to eat a serving about an hour or so before you train. This will fuel your body through the workout and allow you to exercise longer without fatigue. Complex carbohydrates should ALWAYS be an important part of diet.  

Below is a few links that will also give further information as well as give you lists of good complex carbohydrates to fuel your exercise with.

Eat healthy and train hard!

 

 

 

 

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When it comes to finding motivation for anything in life the best thing to do is first set a goal. What is it that you wish to achieve? It could be anything from getting in shape, losing weight, excelling scholastically or learning to play an instrument. It’s very easy to get frustrated and give up on things you are trying to achieve especially if you don’t have a direction. It’s always good to set S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

Smart being an acronym for:

S=Specific

M=Measureable 

A=Attainable 

R=Realistic 

T=Timely. 

Using the goal of weight loss as an example, people may want to start to eat better, exercise and lose weight. An example of a SMART goal for this would be “I will exercise 2 times a week, reduce my caloric intake to 1,500 calories per day and lose 15 pounds by September 1, 2011.”  Now you’ve set a S.M.A.R.T. Goal and have something to strive for.  You are able to envision and track the progress. Tracking the progress makes it easier to see if what you are doing is working for you. This progress will help you decide if there are other steps you need to take along the way to help achieve your main goal. You’ve also given yourself a deadline.  A deadline will help you stay motivated and work hard to meet it. If there are time constraints many people tend to give more effort than with an open-ended goal. A goal without a deadline is just a dream. Be careful to keep your goals within reason. A goal of losing 100 pounds in 4 months is not realistic. Start off small!  Set mini goals along the way. Set a mini goal to lose 1 to 2 ponds a week. When you get close to your primary goal, it is a good time to reevaluate and change it. Many people reach a goal and think of it as an endpoint and become stagnant or complacent.  Give yourself another goal to strive for, change it and make it different. Or when you reach the goal of losing 15 pounds and you’re happy with your body weight, set a new goal of toning up and building muscle and continue to get in better shape. 

Now that you know how to set a SMART Goal, you will always have something to strive for you will always be in the process of bettering yourself.  Always have something to strive for.  Keep the progress moving

For moor information about S.M.A.R.T. Goals check out the following web sites:

Over the last couple weeks many people have asked me for fitness tips. Most of the questions were, “How do I lose fat?”  I’m not a registered dietician, but it all comes down to basic common sense. There is no magic pill, nor is there a secret diet that will shed 20 pounds over night. Fat gain comes from the excess intake of calories over and above what your body needs to maintain itself.  The loss of body fat is simply the reverse process.

It is especially easy to take in excess calories, with the vast availability of calorie dense food. There are fast food restaurants on almost every corner as well as pre-made processed foods in every grocery store isle. This makes it very easily intake more food than the body needs..

The only way to reduce your body fat is to cut your caloric intake. You may think this will leave you hungry and cranky but there are ways around that.  By making healthier food choices you’ll find you will cut a lot of calories out of your diet without going hungry. There are many options that are not only healthy but actually taste good.

Some substitutions you might want to try are eating oatmeal with some fruit in the morning rather than a popular sugary breakfast cereal, toaster strudel or bagel. Oatmeal is high in fiber and full of complex carbohydrates that digest slower and will help stabilize blood-glucose levels. This will give your metabolism a nice kick-start in the morning and give you energy that will last through out your morning.

For lunch instead of eating a large hoagie, try to first just cut down the portion size. If you eat only half of the hoagie you will relieve your hunger while only taking in half of the calories. You could also substitute it entirely for a light salad and even add some chicken if you like. Be careful, one mistake people make when eating salads is overloading on the dressing. Try low fat dressings, as they are lower in calories. Also reduce the amount of dressing you use on the salad, remember, the more you add, the higher the calories in your salad.

When it comes to being hungry between meals, you don’t have to feel guilty. It’s natural! Try eating multiple smaller meals through out the day rather than 3 large ones, this helps curb your appetite and level your blood sugar. Between meals it is a good idea to have a low calorie snack.  Make it healthy, low calorie, high volume nutritious snack and it will suppress your appetite longer. If you’re like me your first choice may have been a candy bar or a bag of chips. But to reduce your body fat, it’s much better to grab reduced calorie yoghurt, fruit or maybe some low calorie trail mix. Peanuts and other nuts are also a great snack, but it is better to reach for the unsalted ones, as large amounts of sodium will tend to make you retain water. One of my favorite snacks is Jello with a Light Cool Whip topping. I find it to be a great substitution for a bowl of ice cream. Jello is low in calories and very flavorful.

I don’t recommend this is all you intake, these are just a few suggestions and some general ideas to consider. If you want to reduce your body fat, you have to take in fewer calories. It comes down to making different choices that you can live with.

When trying to reduce your fat, it is a great time to start an exercise routine. There are many advantages to exercise.  Also when most people start exercising they tend to become more aware of food choices.

Life can get pretty hectic at times. With all the responsibilities people have to take care of i.e. work, kids and other responsibilities, people fine themselves short on time to take care of themselves. The thought of spending an hour or more in the gym four or five days a week can seem like an unreachable goal. That’s where High Intensity Training (H.I.T) comes into play. A lot of people find it hard to believe that you can get a great full body workout in about half an hour. If you have perused other Vertex Blogs you may have come across Christine’s Blog entitled “The Relationship Between Frequency, Duration, and Intensity” [Christine Griffith's Vertex Fitness Blog] It explains the science behind how you can get the same results of your average (1 hour x 5 days per week) routine in just 2 or 3 thirty-minute H.I.T workouts per week. The biggest difference being, you save yourself from spending hours of time in the gym allowing you more time to tend to outside responsibilities. H.I.T. is also a safer option than some people would think. The words High Intensity seem to scare people. The movements in High Intensity Training are slow and steady movements done in proper form. The goal is to keep momentum and force out of the movements, as we just want to keep tension on the muscle throughout the entire range of motion.  Some of the common injuries that result from resistance training are due to improper technique or contracting the muscles in fast forceful motions putting extra stress on the  tendons and ligaments. It’s like pulling a rope, the rope is more likely to snap when there is slack and then you pull on it hard rather than when there is constant pulling at a slow even speed. Injuries could also affect your hectic schedule even more, which is why you would want a safer option like H.I.T. Now with injury you’re not completing tasks as fast and efficient slowing you down and cluttering your schedule more as well as having to fit in doctor’s appointments. So get healthy and stay healthy with High Intensity Training!

Growing up in a family plagued with diabetes, I've seen first hand the devastation it can cause to a persons health and quality of life. Unfortunately some diabetic patients think the diagnosis is a life sentence to an uncomfortable life. It doesn't have to be so! Along with medications a proper diet and exercise can help control diabetes. In fact according to an article I found on the American Diabetes Association website (via. WebMD) exercise can reduce the risk of diabetes as well as improve insulin and blood sugar production for those who already have the condition. Diabetesincontrol.com, another diabetes support site, explains why high intensity resistance training is beneficial for people stricken with this disease.  They explain how with proper resistance training you can put on muscle mass which helps with absorption of glucose in the blood as well as improving insulin sensitivity. Along with putting on muscle mass other benefits of resistance training can include weight loss, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and it could possibly reduce the amount of diabetes medicine your physician prescribes.

Anyone with any health issues should always check with their physician before starting an exercise routine. If you're new to exercise, it's also advised to seek out professional training for proper exercise technique as improper exercise could lead to injury.

It's important to know which muscles to work first when resistance training. You should always start off with your larger muscle groups first. The larger muscle groups would include your legs, back, chest and shoulders. Along with knowing which muscle groups to work first it's also important to know which muscle groups are coupled together. You always want to work both sides of a joint (i.e. chest/back, hamstring/quadriceps). It's important to work both sides of the joint as to not cause muscle imbalances throughout the body. For example: If your exercise your back more frequently than you do your chest you will tend to try to recruit your back muscles to help force the weight up when you do a chest press. Muscle imbalances often result in the promotion of poor exercise form, which can result in injury.

You should choose whether you want to work your upper or lower body first. I tend to recommend the lower body as you can usually lift greater amounts with your legs than your upper body which expends a lot of energy. Again you want to work both sides of the joint so if you do the quadriceps first follow it up with the hamstrings right after. You can also do a compound movement like a leg press to further work both of the areas. For optimal results it's always good to do a pre-exhaust exercise on the portion of the compound movement you want to work. For example: if you were to do a row to work the laterals and back muscles before doing a pull down you will get a better back work out on the pull down. The pull down exercise is a compound movement. Not only are you working your back but, you are working your forearms and biceps as well. If you were to do a pull down when fresh you will find that usually your biceps and forearms will tire before your lateral muscles do. Some of that has to do with proper form as a good amount of people who are untrained tend to do this exercise incorrectly. But, the main reason why your biceps and forearms tire out first is because they're small muscles group which are prone to exhaust faster than the larger muscle groups.