Pre and Post Workout Meals for Maximizing Metabolism and Results

Whether you are starting a new exercise program, or already an old pro, it is important to pay more attention to your nutritional intake. When you are eating proper foods, you will see exponential results from your program as nutrition can actually account for up to 90% of the progress you see.Two of the most critical times for taking in proper nutrition are right before your workout session and immediately afterwards.


Why Do I Need these Pre and Post-Workout Meals?


The pre-exercise meal/snack will help provide your muscles with the fuel they need to perform vigorous exercise as well as help offset any muscle loss that may occur during the workout since weight lifting is a catabolic (breakdown process) in itself. Plus it will keep you from feeling weak and lightheaded.
The meal after the workout serves to supply your body with new energy that it will use to either refill its muscle glycogen stores or to repair the damaged muscle tissues.

One of Life's Unsolved Mysteries

For most people, the challenge of finding and maintaining motivation in fitness is one of life’s unsolved mysteries. However, I believe this is a puzzle that can be solved, and when it is, it can be dramatically life changing and quite rewarding. The factors that motivate one person may be entirely different than what motivates another. But no matter what, personal motivation is as unique as each of our fingerprints. Pinpointing exactly what ‘IT’ is that motivates us is a real challenge, but I am confident that each one of us can find it and that it is well worth the effort.

In Search of the Perfect Gym Buddy

Last week we stressed just how important INTENSITY is in your workouts. Of course you don’t need to be going out there and killing yourself every day, more in that 2-3 of your weekly workouts need to get you working HARD. This is especially true if you only have limited time to get those workouts in…you need to squeeze every second out of those precious minutes.
Besides, upping the intensity in your workouts gets your body burning more energy which translates into more calories burned. Additionally, when you do workouts like intervals and plyometrics it’s been shown that your metabolism is elevated much higher for the hours even after you have finished…talk about a win-win! But motivating yourself to push it can be difficult, especially if you’re just having one of those ‘ugh’ days. That’s where having a workout partner can help.

How to be Caffine Free: 5 Ways to wake up without coffee

Caffeine gives many people the perfect morning jolt they need to make it through until lunch hour…but for some, the dreaded “caffeine crash” that comes along with a cup of coffee is just not worth the high it initially provides. Try one, or all, of these tips this week in those early morning hours rather than reaching for your usual cup of java.

1. Take a cool shower - not a cold shower! A freezing cold shower will shock your body (making you less than happy) but a cool shower will rev up your senses for the full day of work ahead of you. The clean, refreshing feeling that you experience after taking a shower will energize you and kick-start your day.

Makeover Your Routine for Results

Unless you're training for a marathon, skip long, slow, distance running – sprints and intervals burn more fat and calories and build more muscle tone! AND YOU’LL SAVE SO MUCH TIME, what’s not to love?
My Suggestion Add a few 10- to 60-second sprints to your run, slowing down just long enough to catch your breath between the sprints. (Try a 30 minute run with 10 sprints throughout)

 OR


Add a few Intervals (an interval is longer than a sprint and slightly slower – think 5km race pace- you should not be able to hold a conversation while on an interval).Intervals range from 90 seconds to 6 minutes typically.
One of my favorite running workouts (can be done on an elliptical too):
10 minute warm up run+2 minute interval+90 second recovery+2 minute interval+90 second recovery+90 second interval+1 minute recovery+90 second interval+1 minute recovery+30 second sprint+1 min recovery+30 second sprint+1 min recovery+5-10 minute cool down.

Lose 3lbs Fast

It seems everyone wants to know how to lose a lot of weight FAST! Usually the person asking the question has a big event coming up, such as a wedding or party, coming up in the next few weeks. However, what people tend to lose sight of, is that getting to a point where you are 20 or more pounds overweight didn’t happen overnight, and losing it successfully cannot happen overnight either.


Unfortunately the truth is that there's no quick fix answer, substantial weight loss IS absolutely possible, but it takes dedication, discipline and effort. Heck, if there was a quick fix, gyms would be out of business and we’d all look like a bunch of fitness models. Most people simply aren't prepared physically, mentally, or emotionally. They end up discouraged and giving up.