ELIMINATING EXCUSES | fitness

It’s Friday! Hopefully, the weather is beautiful where ever you are. For those June babies born on June 1st, I wish you a happy birthday! For those born on June 2nd or 3rd, I wish you an early happy birthday! Party like a rock star (without the excessive alcohol, drugs and other unsafe behaviors)!

We have to start the weekend proper by continuing with our Friday workout. Today, I have another winner for you, compliments of Arnold Schwarzenneger. We are going to work the deltoids with an exercise called the arnold press. This exercise take the shoulder press to the next level of intensity by increasing the range of motion and by forcing you to expend more effort controlling the weight as you rotate your wrists. You’ll need a chair and some dumbells. If you don’t have dumbells, find a convenient substitute (canned goods, gallon of water, melons, etc.). Sit in you chair with your back straight. Pick up your weights and bend your arms infront of you so that your palms are facing toward you and you are looking at weights (your forearms should be perpindicular/orthogonal to the floor). Life the weights upward and begin to rotate your wrists as you move the weight upward; rotate your wrists 180 degrees. Stop short of locking the elbows out; keep them bent. As you bring the weights back down, rotate your wrists 180 degrees again as you return your arms to the starting position. I’ll thank Arnold on your behalf; DO SOMETHIN’!

Here’s another good one! Let’s hit the triceps today with skullcrushers. This exercise isolates the triceps allowing you to improve your tone, strength and definition. Let’s get that horseshoe!!! You’ll need some weight for this exercise and a open area. I recommend that you use dumbells. Lie on the floor with your weights in your hands (your legs can be straight or bent). Extend you arms upward and incline them towards your head so that they form a 45 - 60 degree angle relative to the floor. Keep your elbows in the same position for this entire exercise; don’t allow them to bow outward. If you allow your elbows to bow outward, you will minimize the amount of work done by your triceps. Bring the weights down toward your head just till they almost touch your head. Then bring the weight back up to your starting position. Man, that’s all tricep? Feel that? DO SOMETHIN’!

Game time everyone! Let’s do it! Today we are going to hit the abs with an exercise called the bridge. This simple exercise will improve your tone and definition. All you need is an open area. Stretch out on the floor with your stomach facing down and support your weight on your forearms and your feet. Your feet should be positioned as if your were doing a push-up (without crossing one leg over the other). I prefer to have my feet touching but you can space them out also (no more than 12 inchces/30.5 cm). Make sure that your back is in a comfortable position. Be careful not to arch it upward or downward too much. Once you have a comfortable position, flex your abs and hold it. Try to hold this position for at least 1 minute. Do 4 sets and rest 60 seconds between each set. I know it feels good; you don’t have to tell me.

DO SOMETHIN’!

Yep, it’s that time again! Today we are going to work our forearms with an exercise called a forearm roll. This exercise is simple yet great for improving tone and strength. You will need a chair and a dumbell. If you don’t have a dumbell, a gallon of water could make for a decent alternative. Sit down and take the dumbell in your left hand. Rest your left forearm on your left leg and allow about 4 inches of your arm to extend beyond your knee. Allow the weight to roll down to your fingers and slowly roll the weight back up; that’s 1 rep. Remember to work both your right and left forearm. Let’s do burn out sets today. Hit 3 sets on each forearm with an many reps/set as you can. Rest 1 minute between each set.

DO SOMETHIN’!

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. For those in the US, I hope you had a relaxing memorial day weekend.

Today we’re going to work the serratus muscles with an exercise called a serratus press. This exercise will develop more tone, definition and strength in your serratus muscles. As always, if you experience any pain or discomfort, I recommend that you do not do this exercise. You will need some weight for this exercise and a bench. I recommend that you use a dumbell for your weight. Lay your shoulders on the bench and extend your body outward. Bend your legs at yours knees so that you are also supporting your body weight with your feet. Space your feet about 12 - 24 inches (30 - 61 cm) apart. Flex your abs to straighten your lower back and to prevent it for arching. For a brief moment, rest your dumbell on your chest and wrap your hands around one end of the dumbell. Lift your arms up and move them and the weight behind your head. Go as far back as your can without causing any discomfort and without allowing your back to arch; but don’t allow the weight to touch the floor. Bring the weight back over your head and to your chest without allowing the weight to rest on your chest. Be careful with the weight so that you don’t hit yourself in the head or the face. Go for it. DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food and beverage choices.

So, we are at the end of another week. You have plans to hit the dance club tonight, followed by a mellow lounge and then who knows what next. But before you head out, you cook a healthy meal so that you can continue with your good nutrition. Unexpectedly, the meal seems a bit bland. What should you do? A: Keep eating because the meal tastes good anyways. B: Poor copius amounts of hot sauce on your meal. C: Add some salt to the meal. The choice is yours, but I want to make a few comments about salt (I would choose A).

As you know, salt contains sodium. Sodium acts an electrolyte in the body and assists in the maintenance of the acid/base balance and is essential to nerve transmission and muscle contraction. In general, foods contain adequate amounts of sodium, especially processed foods. Approximately 75% of a person’s sodium comes from processed foods. The remainder comes from what you add to your food and that which is naturally in food itself. About 10% of your sodium comes from that which is naturally found in food. So the salt you add to your food will provide the remaining 15% of your sodium needs. Based on this ratio, you should use salt sparing as you cook and season your food. Excess salt intake can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure).

Now you have the facts. Manage your salt intake wisely and enjoy the weekend! DO SOMETHIN’!

***information source: Macrobolic Nutrition by Gerard Dente with Kevin J. Hopkins

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food and beverage choices.

So you just finished a nutritious and delicious meal and you are thirsty. What are you going to do? A: Reach for a beer. B: Reach for a diet soda. C: Reach for a glass of refreshing water. D: Go to Starbucks. I hope you choose C. Even though water does not contain vitamins or minerals and it does not have any caloric value from carbs, protein or fat, water is an integral part of nutrition. It is the key enabler of many bodily processes like protein synthesis, energy metabolism and many other critical chemical reactions. Water is essential to human life.

Therefore, staying hydrated is critical. I recommend that you consume at least 8 - 10 eight ounce glasses/day. If you are very active or working out, you’ll want more since sweating is one of the key avenues for water loss. One way to determine if you are drinking enough water is to look at the color of your urine. If you are properly hydryated, you will have clear urine as long as you are not on any supplements or medication (they have been known to change the color of urine). Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink water and don’t stop drinking it because you feel that you have quenched your thirst. Research has shown that if you rely on thirst to determine when to drink water, you’ll put back only about 50 - 75% of the fluid you have lost; and thus you would start the next day already in a state of dehydration.

Now you have some key facts on water. DO SOMETHIN’!

***information source: ACE Personal Trainer Manual 3rd edition, edited by Cedric X. Bryant, Ph. D and Daniel J. Green

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food choices.

We all know our own eating habits and we know what our favorite foods are. Some of these favorites may not be the healthiest choices. I share tips on how to eat healthy so that you will have the infomation to make the best choices for yourself. However, I recommend that you don’t take nutrition too far and thus end up not being able to eat unless your grew the food in your own garden or unless you raised the animal yourself. Do your best to eat healthy, but allow yourself to eat foods that you enjoy occassionally even if they are not the healthiest choice. To be clear, I am not saying indulge but rather take a few occassions to treat yourself. I call this balanced eating. Balanced eating allows you too be healthy in a fun way.

DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food choices.

Throughout the day, we often get hungry and want something to eat that is not a full meal but sizeable enough to tame the hunger until we can get to a meal. It is easy to go to the store and buy cookies, pastries and various other heavily processed snacks. Be careful with these choices. Many of these snacks (if not the majority) have little to no nutritional value and will not support your work towards good health. These snacks are often high in fat, cholestorol, sodium, preservatives, artifcial flavors/colorings and sugar. They are usually made solely for the purpose of tasting good.

When you are at the store buying snacks, look for fruits (apples, oranges, bananas, pears, etc.), vegetable (carrots, celery, green peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, etc.) and nuts (pecans, almonds, peanuts, etc.). These choices makes for healthier snacks, especially when you can get these in their natural form (no insecticides, no salt, frozen as opposed to from a can, etc.). However, always remember to wash your fruit and vegetables before eating them. If it says “organic,” ask the questions to understand what that means. Yogurt also makes for a great snack. You can add your fresh fruit, nuts and/or honey to add more flavor without minimizing the nutritional value. I recommend that you get plain yogurt and read the ingredients to make sure that you are getting the natural kind (in some cases it may be labeled organic). Another alternative for a snack is to take a smaller portion of one of your healthy meals that you make and have that as a snack.

DO SOMETHIN’!

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food choices.

If you are like me, you love meat whether it be beef, chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, etc. Meats are an excellence of protein; and the body needs protein to build and maintain muscle, to form neurotransmitters in the brain and to create hormones. Meat is best for you when it is closest to its natural form meaning that it has not been processed and does not have any preservatives or other additives. To find the most natural meats, I recommend that you find a reputable butcher and buy as much of your meat from this individual as you can. Make sure to ask your butcher about how the animal was raised and what it ate. With this information, you’ll know more about what you are putting into your body.

Processed meats often included preservatives that can be carcinogenic (meaning they can cause cancer if consumed over a certain period of time or beyond a certain amount) and these meats can be higher in fat. Examples of processed meats are some lunch meats, hot dogs, some meats found in mircrowavable meals and fast food meats like chicken nuggets. Minimize your intake of these types of meats. If you can avoid them all together, that is even better.

Also be mindful of the ground meat that you buy. Ground meat often includes other parts of the animal that you might not find appetizing (hooves, parts of organs, snouts, etc.) and can have a higher fat content. The meat industry uses these techniques to help minimize that amount of actual meat per product sold, so companies can make more $/lb of actual meat sold. If you want ground meat, buy meat from your butcher and have it ground so that you know what went into it.

As for organic meat, find out what makes it “oragnic.” Usually, the food industry uses this term to describe what types of food the animal ate and how it was raised. So some organic meats can be healthier since the animals were allowed to eat healthier foods and were raised in more sanitary conditions. In the true sense of the word (how chemistry defines it), all meat is organic since this term refers to compounds that contain carbon (like the amino acids that make up protein in the meat). So don’t let these types of terms impress you. Dig deeper to get the details.

Yes, these recommendations I’ve made are usually the more expensive options. But, you and your health are worth it. DO SOMEHTHIN’!