Gym Zodiac

If this offends anyone, I apologize, it is just a joke kind of thing that most of you can relate to the other people you see when working out.  Keep in mind these are all in the context of the gym and try to LAUGH, its an important part of your health too! 


Gazelle - you may as well be attached to the treadmill, you run for hours And never lift weights, but will occasionally switch cardio machines. 

Gorilla - you walk around with your chest pumped up and make lots of noise while lifting and also in between sets, you have great muscular structure but can sometimes be rather unintelligent.  


Cat - you are somewhat spastic when working out, all of you movements look awkward, your form sucks because your back is always arched.  
Raccoon - you wear lots of make-up to the gym and are very nosey, you pick things up, look at them and put them back down; and occasionally you take other peoples food. 

Chimpanzee - the curious one, watches and imitates people's exercises and workouts, and occasionally you will eat a banana post-workout, but only because you saw some else doing so.

Zebra - all you try to do when you come to the gym is blend in. 

Parrot - you fly from exercise to exercise, however, your main objective is talking.


Owl - you always go to the gym late at night when no one is around. 


Wolf - you travel in packs, never come to the gym alone, and you follow the alpha male. 


Frog - the only thing you do in the gym is jump... jump... jump, so much plyometrics. 


Turtle - slow and steady wins the race?, well when you stay on one machine for what seems like an hour, I'm not so sure you are getting a very good workout, try changing things up, for everyone's sake.


Snake - you are very sneaky and sometimes creep around the gym, you aren't necessarily mean or rude, but you usually don't speak to many people, and not many people know you.


Goldfish - you are in your own world, slow mover depending on your mood, big googly eyes and yet you still never see any one waving at you to say hi. 


Human being - you come to the gym to workout, you work hard and get things accomplished, you aren't rude, and only talk to people when appropriate (not during sets!), you enjoy working out and it one of the best times of your day, you come in with a plan of your workout for the day and you get it done and leave. 

Blueberry Bliss

Blueberry Protein Muffins - 4 scoops myofusion vanilla - 1 whole egg - 5 egg whites - ½ cup egg beaters - ½ cup greek yogurt - 1 cup blueberries - 1 tsp baking soda - 4 tbsp milled flax - 1 ½ cups blended oats (food processor until flour consistency) - 3 tbsp cinnamon Makes about 18 muffins w/ the following macros (approximated): Protein: 8g Carb: 8g Fat: 1.5g Calories: 75 1. Mix all dry ingredients into a large bowl. 2. Add in liquid ingredients and stir until makes even batter. 3. Add large spoonful into muffin cups in muffin pan 4. Bake on 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes or until done.

Crazytown, Population: ME. Effects of Stress on the Body

In honor of exams, pop quiz time.  What is the one thing that everybody has, nobody wants, and with time we all get more.  It is dynamic, always changing, and unique to the individual.  It is a five letter word sometimes preceded by a four letter word, haha yep you guessed it, STRESS!

Stress is the major enemy in all of our lives.  Good stress, bad stress, too much stress, not enough stress, stress, stress, stress.  As a bodybuilder and athlete, stress has detrimental effects on my body’s ability to build and maintain muscle mass.  Working out extremely hard is a double edge sword.  Bodybuilders must be cautious of training hard and keeping the workouts to an optimal time and intensity to ensure enough rest post workout and also to avoid complete depletion intra workout.  This is an example of physical stressors on the body, but we all know that mental stressors can be just as difficult, if not worse at times.  Cortisol is the hormone that is often associated with physical and even mental stressors that you experience. 

So, before we can go into detail about how Cortisol can affect your workout and training progression lets learn a little about cortisol and the physiology behind it.  Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands via influence of other endocrine glands secretions.  This secretion of influencing hormones is stimulated by intense physical exercise.   It is important to note however, that intense physical exercise such as heavy resistance training is necessary to produce muscle hypertrophy and physically visible changes in muscle mass.  But the proper and optimal level of intensity need be determined to prevent over training, which could be result of continuously elevated cortisol levels in the absence of proper and adequate nutrition.  Normal when the body experiences physical exertion, it uses fuel sources in the following order, carbohydrate, fat, protein.  However, with intense physical exercise such as heavy weight lifting this order is thrown out the window and is actually reversed.  The more intense the exercise the higher the protein degradation is, thus creating a catabolic effect.  The catabolic effects of cortisol can negated the anabolic effect of resistance training if the athlete is not aware of the intensity of the workouts, proper rest and nutrition.  Being a bodybuilding we basically have this phobia of all things catabolic or anything that will result in less muscle mass than we already have.  That being said, it is important for us to reduce the amount of mental stress we experience so that our training can get dibs, for a lack of better words, on our energy and thus resulting in an overall lower stress and cortisol production within the body. 

Cortisol levels are also the method behind the madness of the infamous post workout shake! Because cortisol is released when the blood glucose level is low and aims to produce an energy source by breaking down muscle into amino acids, you can negate this by eating as soon as possible after you finish your workout.   By eating you are introducing an alternative energy source for your body to derive fuel from instead of catabolism of your muscle tissue! 

I know this is a very, very simple over view of the mechanism of action of cortisol but I try to put into simpler terms so that you can understand and get enough out of the science information before you give up on reading what its about.  But if you have any further questions regarding the topic I would be glad to try to answer your questions.  So, don’t be afraid to ask more questions, but in the mean time just try to stress less! 

Recipes Mania

Sometimes I like to start my day off with a little cardio and then food prep for the next few days.  Today I got creative and whipped up a ton of new recipes on the fly! They turned out amazing so I thought I would share all three of them with you this morning.

Recipe #1 - Sweet Mexican Tilapia

Ingredients:

-       -  Mango Peach Salsa

-       -  1 ½ lbs tilapia

-       -  lemon juice

-       -  black beans 1 can

Directions

1.    1.  Get a bake safe rectangular dish to put the fish in.

2.    2. Put the fish in this dish with a dash of lemon juice in the bottom.  (this is preference but I have found that it keeps the fishy odor to a minimum and also doesn’t allow the fish to dry out).

3.     3. Atop the fish put however much Mango Peach Salsa that you would like.

4.     4. Also for a little extra kick I added Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle spice on top.

5.     5. Bake on 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes

6.   6.   Plate with black means and additional salsa.

Recipe #2 – Almond Crusted Chicken

Ingredients

-       - handful of plain dry roasted almonds

-       - 1 ½ lbs chicken

-       - 1 packet Justin’s maple almond butter

-       - 1 tbsp mustard

-       -  2 tbsp vinegar

-       -  1 tbsp soy sauce

-      -   lemon juice

-      -   4 tbsp water

Directions

1.    1. Use bake safe dish to cook the chicken in.

2.     2. Place chicken in bake safe dish with a dash of lemon juice in the bottom (keeps the chicken from drying out too much).

3.     3. Now mix in a separate small bowl all the other ingredients.  This makes a sauce that you can now pour over your chicken.

4.    4.  Blend up the dry roasted almonds in food processor and drizzle over the coated chicken.

5.    5. Bake on 350 for 25 – 30 minutes.

6.    6.  Plate and server with favorite veggies and glass of water!

Recipe #3 – Broccoli Egg Bake

Ingredients

-       -  4 egg whites

-       -  1 cup broccoli

-       -  ½  red/yellow peppers

-       -  1 tbsp feta cheese (reduced fat)

-      -   1 – 2 tbsp low fat Mexican mixed cheese

-       -  cooking spray

-       -  Bake-able bowl (example: Corning Ware)

Directions

1.     1. Spray bake safe dish with cooking spray.

2.     2. Crack egg whites into a bake safe dish.

3.     3. Pre-steam the broccoli so that it is soft and easy to cut up.  I usually just toss it in the microwave in a covered glass dish so its easy to steam.

4.     4. Chop or mash up proccoli and add to the eggs in the bake safe dish

5.    5.  Also add the peppers and feta cheese.

6.     6. Stir up these ingredients and top with the 2% Mexican mixed cheese (optional).

7.    7.  Bake on 350 for about 15 minutes.

8.    8.  Ready to eat when comes out of the oven! BE careful though its HOT!

Hope you all enjoy these recipes today!

Gym Etiquette/Tips For Your Safety AND Ours

So this was a blog that I was almost sure I wouldn't find the need to rewrite about, however, time and time again adults have proven their foolishness in gym on a regular basis. The sad part is, it's only part foolishness and the other part is either straight up rudeness or ignorance. I like to give people the benefit of doubt so let's pretend they are just ignorant. And if you are those people reading this, just consider yourself briefly educated by the end of this article!

That being said lets start off with some simple etiquette tips. Mirrors. Mirrors are located conveniently in the gym on the walls so you can look at your beautiful self while you workout. Most importantly I recommend their use for being able to concentrate on your form!  I'm sure you can use them to check your make-up and do your hair but do that at home! More importantly next time you step in front of the mirror to watch yourself, be aware of other people.  I realize your ego may not have quite fit through the door when you walked in, but next time leave it in the car! Don't step right in front of people's line of sight in the mirrors!

So this next one I get most heated and amped up about so, excuse my excitement ahead of time.  My biggest pet peeve and what I think to be flat out inconsiderate is coming up to someone and striking up a conversation in the middle of a set! If you've done this to someone before please refrain from doing so in the future. It's for your own safety I assure you.  I have made plenty of friends at the gym, however, it is a gym and I go to work so ideally I am going to workout, not talk, and especially not at the same time.

So one more tip. I realize this I only three tips, but the last one got me pretty worked up so I'll have to think of more later and come out with an etiquette part 2 soon.  This is a tip for all you crazies who come to the gym seemingly not to work out. You will get more done if you don't read while working out, and no in not talking about on cardio equipment. Yes, this has happened, reading a BOOK while lifting on machines. I am all for multitasking don't get me wrong, but for your safety and courtesy to others I think you shouldn't read while on machines.  It results in you staying on machines entirely too long.

Oh and maybe just one more quick one. If you're gonna do karate, kickboxing, Kung-fu, tae kwon do, or whatever that craziness is, at least go in the aerobics room. No one wants to watch your untamed body fly around the gym or make those fake fighting noises. Plus, you're going to hurt yourself or someone else, so do us a favor and go somewhere where you've got a little more room to move!  This doesn't mean in front of the mirrors either! 

Muscle Fiber Type

Moving away from my tendency to speak about the biomechanics of weightlifting and such, I will this time talk about some exercise physiology that I believe you may find interesting.  I’ll say it now, I’m a bodybuilder by day and a nerd by night.  I truly enjoy the science behind the sport.  It intrigues me to see how intricately the body works and how I can change my body by diet and exercise.  Anyways, for this blog I want to talk about the two types of muscle fibers, slow twitch (Type I) fibers and fast twitch (Type II) fibers. 

Why the heck should you care about muscle fiber types right?  Well before I spoon feed you some more information about why the two different types are so great, lets first take a look at some of the basic physiology of the two types of fibers.  Type I are oxidative fibers and exhibit a large capacity for aerobic metabolism.  Aerobic metabolism is most predominant in these types I fibers due to the fact that they have lots of capillaries surrounding them, high mitochondrial enzymes and high myoglobin concentration.  Because these type one fibers are most active during and responsible for aerobic activities we see these fibers in higher percentages in distance runners as opposed to sprinters.  Why?  Because sprinters engage in explosive exercise, this explosive exercise is anaerobic.  Weightlifting is also an example of anaerobic exercise.   Type II fibers are utilized and most active during anaerobic exercise.  These fibers are fast-glycolytic fibers.  Type two fibers are categorized into type IIa and type IIx fibers.  Type IIa are sort of like an intermediate fiber or combination between type IIx and type I fibers and share characteristics with both.  Type IIx fibers, however, differ greatly from type I fibers.  Type IIx fibers have a lower number of mitochondria resulting in them being more anaerobic in powerful as opposed to type I fibers which have a high endurance to stimulus but aren’t as powerful.  The powerful component of both fiber types is result of the Vmax which is the speed of shortening of the muscle fiber itself. 

Now then the question remains, can you convert these fiber type from type I to type II or vice verse to tend to your fitness needs?  We do know that exercise induced changes occur in skeletal muscle and are specific to the type of training that is performed.  The most common example is the muscular adaptation to strength training, which is increase size and force production of the muscle.  This increase in muscular size is most likely due to hypertrophy, which I discussed in a previous blog.  Endurance exercise such as running, does not promote increased muscular size but does increase the oxidative capacity of the muscles used.  So can these two types of training induce the actual conversion of one fiber type to the other?  Recent studies have actually proven that exercise induced conversion of muscle fiber types do happen! Good news for those of us who train. However, most of the studies were conducted concerning endurance exercise and high intensity training (not in terms of resistance training).  However, this is promising research considering that older studies showed no conversion at all! 

Show me the GUNS!

Bicep curls are bicep curls right? Wrong.  All bicep curls are not created equal.  This does not mean one is necessarily better than the other because they are different entirely in what muscles they target within the upper arm. It would be smart and beneficial to you to incorporate all types into your training.

First of all lets consider the musculature and anatomy of the arm, more specifically the upper arm and elbow joint.    What most average gym goers would identify as his/her biceps muscles actual consists of two muscles, the biceps brachii and the brachialis.  In addition to thinking that the bicep is the only muscle that is on the anterior portion of the upper arm, most people also think it is the king of elbow flexion.  However, this is not so.  The brachialis originates on the distal half of the humerus and inserts on the coronoid process and ulnar tuberosity, thus making its sole purpose elbow flexion.  The brachilias is deep to the biceps breachiiThe biceps brachii originates on the surpaglenoid tubercle and inserts on the radial tuberosity.  While the biceps brachii also can perform elbow flexion, the nature of its attachment leads it to have an alternative personality, that alternative personality being the action of supination.  A note which will be important for the duration of the rest of this article will be to picture supination as palms up and pronation as palms facing down.

Now lets relate your daily dose of anatomy of the anterior upper arm to your weightlifting.  The straight bar or barbell is used for all kinds of exercises.  We want to focus on the barbell curl first.  When you curl the barbell in a straight bar curl, your forearms are fixed in a supine position.  In addition to being in a fixed supine position they also have no option of pronation, and cannot deviate from this supine position at all.  The barbell actually acts as a stopping point for extra supination.  Because you are curling the bar for an extended time, say 12 repetitions, your biceps brachii are constantly trying to continue to supinate the forearm even more, but the bar acts as a block to this.  For this reason, sometimes the wrists begin to hurt if the weight is too extensive because the wrists begin to try and counteract this constant supination force and begin to weaken and tire.  Because of the radial insertion of the biceps brachii, to flex the arm it first must act to supinate the arm.  Barbell curls with the hands fixed in a supinated position therefore target the biceps brachii. 

Next lets look at the prone curl.  Because the forearm is pronated in a prone curl this, for all intensive purposes, “deactivates” the innervation of the biceps brachii.  By pronating the forearm the biceps brachii no longer have an optimal line of pull due to the nature of the insertion on the radius.  However, the brachialis has no radial insertion and therefore is not effected whatsoever by the pronation and supination of the forearm.  That being said, when performing a prone curl you are isolating the brachialis when performing the exercise.  The straight bar curl however, does not isolate the biceps brachii because the brachialis will still be involved due to the fact it is not effected by the pronation or supination of the arm. 

The EZ curl bar exercise is more conducive to those who have wrist problems as opposed to using the straight bar.  The EZ curl does not necessarily target the brachialis over the biceps brachii.  By but allowing for only the slight supination of the forearm instead of the extensive supination as the straight barbell curl, there is less tension place on the wrist during this exercise.

So, as far as biceps curls goes, just be aware as with any other exercises that you perform, to change up the type of exercises you do.  Vary your workouts and vary the exercises you do.  This allows you to target all muscles that are involved in the movements of the body.  This is also why you shouldn’t just do your favorite exercises because as I once heard “the best exercises are the ones you aren’t doing”.  Can’t remember where and who I have heard that from but the idea is of the upmost important.  Change your workouts from week to week and be aware of your body position while performing each exercise.

Monthly Update #1

So it has been about one month since I have started my fitness tip/fact and blogging challenge.  It has been difficult some days but more often than not it is fun and I have enjoyed every bit of information that I have written.  I have discovered a new passion for writing and informing about fitness and exercise.  I hope my blogs and tips have helped many of you.  I have stuck with it for one month and will continue to do so for the next eleven.  That being said I want to emphasize consistency within workout and dietary behavior change or continuance.

Yes, starting and initiating a workout plan and dietary plan is difficult.  Maintaining this plan and not  straying too far from the plan will be hard.  However, you need to keep in mind the plan that you devise or devise with the help of a professional should be designed to be able to be maintained long term, and in this case long-term meaning life long.  If fitness was easy, there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic.  Fitness is not a goal but an on going journey.   Being a bodybuilder, competing is the prime example.   Even though we have an off-season and on-season,  and we have goals for a certain show, we constantly strive for improvement and the betterment of ourselves.  My point is that if fitness is your goal, be in it for the long all.  You can't get fit and then discontinue what you did to get fit and remain fit.  There is always room for improvement and if you have gotten comfortable, it’s time to change.  Change in the sense of switching things up, not in the sense of the cessation of your program. 

Change is the major problem with adherence to most health and fitness programs.  With the initiation of a new fitness program, it requires change from what you are currently doing and putting faith into something else entirely, something that you do not know.  We, as humans, innately fear the unknown.  It is a natural characteristic that we have.  Sometimes this characteristic prevents us from getting into troubling situations but it also can get you into some pretty tough situations.   So, I challenge you to welcome change with open arms.  Adaptation to situations and change is essential for maintaining an exercise and fitness lifestyle.  You have to plan things around schedule and be prepared to re-plan many times over when things come up.  But don’t get frustrated and quit all together.  I am doing this blog and posting on facebook for 365 days.  Granted this is no workout program, but for me to type an entry everday, it is a change from what I used to do.  I am doing this to prove a point.  Consistency, stick with it and you will see the results that you want and you will be able to do things you may not have even known you were capable of! Empower yourself and make a difference in your own life!