Tag Archive for: fitness

Living For The Weekend: Why Your Attitude of Restriction is Killing Your Progress

Oh the weekend. You have been crushing it in the gym, crushing it at work, and have stuck to your new fangled ketogenic, yerba mate, no dairy slightly dairy free diet to perfection. You are the pinnacle of health and human accomplishment! And after a week of holding this high standard, you deserve to cut some slack and let loose on the weekend, right?

 

Wrong.

 

One of the number one mentalities I see people struggle with is the “Living for the weekend” state of mind. They restrict and they work and restrict a little more, building up this big meal or drink or activity they simply CAN NOT DO during the week.

 

A tray of brownies, 5 margaritas, and a very questionable Great British Baking Show binge later….all of the progress you’ve made from doing things “right” over the past week is gone. And even worse than starting over, you now feel like shit. You feel like you’ve wrecked some great strides that you made, like there’s something wrong with YOU.

 

There is nothing wrong with you. But there is something wrong with the way many of us go about trying to make healthy choices and trying to limit bad foods. Now don’t let anyone lie to you and say that to be healthy you don’t have to restrict yourself. You do. But just because being healthy involves some restriction, it doesn’t mean you have to live your entire life without eating any of the foods you love or doing the activities you enjoy doing. That not only sets you up for failure, but in all honesty some unhealthy stuff is just plain awesome. I don’t care how many people say high quality, single source, all natural almond butter is delicious. Peanut butter is better. 95% dark chocolate will never be as good as red velvet cake. NEVER. And beer? Beer is just fuckin awesome.

 

By restricting ourselves during the week so harshly we set ourselves up for failure on the weekend and ultimately, failure overall. You’ve built up these foods and drinks to be some forbidden fruit, or possibly a reward for a week on the right track, and now when your willpower is at its worst and your activity level is at its lowest, you break. And when it breaks it don’t break pretty. Too often a cheat food turns to a cheat meal which bleeds into an entire cheat weekend. This unhealthy relationship with food continues and turns itself into a vicious cycle until inevitably, your willpower breaks. Your cheat weekends have turned into a cheated life. And your health, the thing you set out to protect, is the thing that will suffer.

 

The key to maintaining good health over a lifetime is learning to take power over your own choices and avoiding the circular nature of restriction and binge behavior. It’s learning to enjoy the unhealthy treats and drinks in great moderation while building the base of your health on good, whole foods. So have a brownie tonight. Drink a cocktail on a Wednesday. Loosen the reigns a bit during the week and gain a tighter grip on your ability to eat confidently and enjoy life!

 

How to Conquer the Morning (And the Rest of Your Day Too)

I haven’t always been an early riser. In college I partied quite a bit and getting up for an 8AM class was a struggle. Unfortunately I fell in love with a profession where my day starts before the sun rises. This required me to not only address my sleeping schedule, but also the way I started each morning.  And though my morning routine has undergone changes and modifications over the last several years, several things have remained constant. Below you’ll find my three biggest tips to starting each day with intention and setting you up for success!

  • WAKE. THE. HELL. UP.

This one seems super obvious. But how often do you hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off? How about grabbing your phone and checking the news, scrolling your Facebook feed, or reading any emails you may have gotten over night? Before you know it that hour you gave yourself to get ready is down to 35-40 minutes because you couldn’t get up!

 

Start your day with intention and the rest will follow suit. When the alarm goes off, feet hit the floor. It’s tough. The air is cold and your eyes are tired. But just do it. Wake the hell up.

 

  1. The Perfect Morning Cocktail

Ok I’ll be honest this one is a little misleading. As awesome as a mimosa or a Screwdriver would be (no Bloody Marys because those are trash and I will fight anyone who says otherwise) this is a non-alcoholic cocktail. But boy is this thing a game changer and I promise you won’t regret it!

 

It’s three simple ingredients: Water, sea salt, and lemon juice. I could go full super nerd and explain in detail the merits for all the ingredients, but I ain’t no freaking nerd so I’ll keep it simple. Water to replace all the water we lost in our sleep, sea salt to help retain the water we are taking in as well as maintain electrolyte balance, and half a squeezed lemon for some flavor and to help prep our digestive system for our morning constitution!

 

That’s it! Drink this, let it settle, and you are more than ready for your last piece to the ultimate morning routine which is…

 

  1. Move Yo Body!

I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet. Get moving. Whether it is a short walk, some body weight pushups and squats, or my personal fave burpees, get some movement! Getting a little movement in the morning will help improve circulation throughout our body flooding all of our extremities with nutrient rich blood, as well as releasing endorphins which will leave you feeling happy and sharp between the ears!  

 

So there it is. No real magic formula or secret pill. Just some easy and basic tips to get your body and mind prepped in the morning so that you can dominate the rest of your day! So give it a try, who knows maybe you’re a morning person after all!  

 

3 Guidelines to Not Be A Shitty Human

You probably opened this thinking I was going to get on some moral high horse or tell you not to cut people off in traffic or something. Nope. I want to talk about health optimization. I kind of vomit a bit in my mouth saying it. It’s a bit of a millennial, entrepreneur, bullshit bio-hacker buzzterm right now. You can find articles and videos everywhere telling how you can optimize your entire life or bio-hack your way to the body of your dreams. And they aren’t totally wrong! I just have a problem with how they present it.

Now I understand that making outrageous claims gets clicks and that for some people those clicks equals money. So go on playa, get you some money. And if I’m being honest the title to this very article was SOMEWHAT clickbaity in nature. That’s not really the issue though.

My problem is that they make it sound so damn SIMPLE. If you just add this one thing or do this one activity, and BOOM! Life is different! But that’s just not the reality. Your body is a complex organism with a wide array of needs that change on a daily basis based on a million different factors. You need to have A LOT of things in line to optimize your health. I like to think of it like there is a little engineer inside of me turning dimmer switches up and down based on the input I give to my body. Do more things that it needs? More dimmer switches get turned up and I just feel better. Do less things right and those switches get turned lower and my health and performance suffer. That is optimization. It is finding the things that work and sticking with them, as well as finding what doesn’t work and learning to minimize its presence in your life.

I want to talk about things that work. Not for everyone and not for forever. But for most people and for most of the time.The tried and true activities and habits you should be doing to, gulps, optimize your health. These aren’t super stringent. They aren’t exact and your ability to wiggle within them gives you some room to breathe. But if you operate within their lines you should be good to go!

Get Some (more) Sleep

Are you a living, breathing, human person that has stress and obligations in life? Well then you probably are not getting enough sleep. Maybe you’re getting enough to make it through the day by the skin of your teeth, but much like living paycheck to paycheck, it aint a whole lot of fuckin fun.

Sleep is important for mental focus, hormone regulation, and recovery from vigorous activity. So if you are walking around cloudy, cranky, and sore I would recommend getting a little bit more sleep in your system.

 

Take Care of Yo Gut

You know how I said your body was a complex organism that has a variety of needs that can change often? Yeah you can thank your stomach for most of that. As strange as it seems when we first hear it, your stomach and the functions it does is the tone setter for your body and will determine how well the rest of your body operates. You should probably take care of it, right?

There are several ways to do this but none are easier than probiotics. Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that can aid in gut health. Your stomach is full of bacteria both good and bad that help aid in digestion as well as help create 90% of your immune system (yet another minor function of the stomach), so logic would say supplementing with good bacteria would probably be a good idea. Good sources of probiotics are quality yogurts, kombucha, and other fermented foods such as sauerkraut or sourdough bread!

 

Probiotics aren’t the only way to take care of your gut though! It is also very important to make sure you are eating foods with a low inflammatory profile and that are of a good quality. Here is an article from Power Athlete that gives a very starting point for what should be eaten in quantity, limited amounts, and what should be avoided all together. It is very similar to what we would recommend to any of our clients.

 

Get Mobile, Agile, Hostile!

Left side! Strong side! No one else was feeling the Remember the Titans reference? Ok, that’s cool, my feelings aren’t hurt…much. But seriously people, we need to get active. Whether it is walking, running, playing with your kids, or lifting some heavy ass weights, getting movement is key. Each activity comes with its own set of benefits based on its movement patterns and intensity level, but ensuring that you get some movement in your day is key. Whether it’s building muscle and strength through strength training, cardiovascular health with running or biking, or simply learning to move properly by following the lead of a fuckin baby, just move! The endorphins you will receive will leave you feeling more positive and the challenge to your bodies status quo will spark physical and mental change that helps lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle!

 

Now remember I said these things are flexible WITHIN THEIR PARAMETERS. No exact thing will likely work forever, but an activity with these rules should always lead to a more optimized mind and body. You don’t have to add this stuff in all at once. You can do it bit by bit and see what works for you and what is most sustainable for you and your lifestyle. But try and live a life that follows this advice and i guarantee you will be happier, healthier, and  on the road to being the best human you can be!

The 5 Best Ways to Be Responsible For Your Health Without a Coach

So I have been on a bit of an abstract, more mindset driven kick with my writing lately (when I have actually been writing that is). But today I wanted to tackle one of the biggest questions we get and, truthfully, one of the biggest complaints we as professionals have regarding clients. What exactly should you be doing on the days you are not training with us?

The specifics of the answer will vary from coach to coach as each probably has very specific (or intentionally non-specific) things they like to recommend for their clients, but the underlying fundamentals of each coach’s advice should be the same. Those fundamentals are what I want to cover.

Most of these fundamentals are not exclusive to “off” days or days you are by yourself. To be honest most of them are just good guides to general health and wellness. But lord knows someone needs to hear them in THIS context so they don’t operate under the assumption that non-training days are a good day to just fuck off and not do anything. News flash, they aren’t.

With that being said, here are The 5 Best Ways Not to Screw It Up When You Aren’t in The Gym.

  1. Do SOMETHING Physical

This is an easy, yet often overlooked, portion of the client/coach relationship. There are 168 hours in a given week and only 2-4 of those hours are spent with a coach. I’m sorry, but if you are a person who would like to see some semblance of physical change, you are going to have to do a bit more than that.

Now this doesn’t have to turn into you becoming the ultimate workout warrior and running 5 miles a day or doing 500 pushups, 500 situps, and 500 crunches. This can be as simple as adding a 10 minute walk several times a week. It could be adding an additional yoga class one day. It could be taking a hike, chasing your kid, literally ANYTHING! My only caveat would be to consult your coach or trainer about any additional highly rigorous resistance/metabolic workouts you want to add to maximize the benefits of them as well as minimize the risk of injury. Other than that, let her rip!

 

  1. Stay Hydrated

This should be an obvious priority, not only on off days from the gym, but in general. And I’m not going to go into the issues surrounding a lack of hydration as they can basically be summed up in, you’ll feel and perform like shit!

Now most people have heard of the 8 – 8 ounce glasses of water a day rule, and this is a fine place to start if you are just getting used to proper hydration. But for the hard charging athlete this won’t do. Individual needs will vary based on the types of off day activities you are participating in, but generally men should be getting somewhere around 130 ounces of water a day, while women need 95 ounces. These numbers are not exact and need to be tweaked depending on certain factors, but they are good general guidelines.

  1. Do Some Light Mobility Work

Now this one could really fall under the first point of getting some more activity, but I felt like it needed some love on its own. Because if we are being honest, exercise is easy. Or at least the FUN part of fitness. Mobility is boring. It’s slow and uncomfortable and it doesn’t really give you abs. So why the hell would I waste time on it? Because big sexy muscles are cool, big sexy muscles that can move joints through their full range of motion are way cooler.

       Having more mobility within your joints not only allows you to reduce your risk of injury during vigorous activity, it also allows you to get more out of your exercise! Muscles that have the opportunity to go through a greater range of motion have even more opportunity to get stronger at a longer muscle length. And since a lack of flexibility is often caused by muscle weakness at a particular muscle length, increasing a muscles strength at more ranges of motion can lead to improved flexibility! More mobility = greater range of motion = stronger muscles at longer lengths = more freaking mobility! Isn’t the body cool?

Now how do you go about practicing this mobility? Static stretching is a good place to start. Finding a routine like this one to do daily can give you some great benefits. But the best way is to truly focus on taking your joints through their full range of motion. Circle your wrists, ankles, and hips. Swing your arms in light circles. These are the joints you need to focus on. You can feel generally the directions they like to move in. Now focus on this and do it often. Becca has a great video focusing on your hip capsule and restoring it to its full range of mobility. Foam rolling and using tennis/lacrosse balls to pinpoint muscles for a little massage can also be beneficial.

There are a million ways to skin the mobility cat, you just have to find what works for you!

 

  1. Don’t Eat Like A Dick Head

Once again, this is not just an off day rule, but an every day one. Don’t eat like an asshole. Eat lots of high quality animals, veggies, dairy (as you can handle), and fats (avocado, olive/coconut oil). Limit fruits and nuts. And avoid most wheat and processed sugars (and dairy if you can’t do it, like yuh boy).

Now don’t get your panties in a wad saying Jake is being too mean and restrictive. These are guidelines for people that fall in that big fat middle of the bell curve. There will always be outliers and people who need more or less of certain foods. These also aren’t things that must be followed to a T all the time or else you’ll die. But this what you should have MOST of the time.

Your body is a machine. Give it quality fuel and you will perform for a lifetime. Give it shit and you’ll be stuck in the scrapyard.

 

  1. Go to Shleeeeeeep

Ok, now I want you to go back and read everything I’ve said up until now. You do it? Good. Now literally throw everything I said out. This is what you need to do if you aren’t getting enough sleep. Sleep is the king of human performance, the true difference maker in ensuring you are the best human you can be. It’s so dang important, that yours truly wrote an entire article  on why it’s so important and how to do it better!

Whether it’s finding a little time in the day to sneak away for a nap, or ensuring you start your bedtime routine a little early to ensure you get at least 8 hours, making sure that your sleep is taken care of should be priority number one when you are thinking of ways to help yourself outside of the gym.

 

Now ultimately your days off at the gym are yours. Life is about a lot more than ultimate human optimization and the best off day routine or protocol is the one that prepares you mentally, physically, and emotionally for whatever you have coming up in life. If you need to sloth once in a while, do it. If you need a little junk food, go for it. These 5 rules are a guiding light, not an iron cage, and thus are meant to be broken from time to time. Except sleep. Because sleep is awesome.