What is RPE? ⠀

What is RPE? ⠀

RPE stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion. In other words how subjectively hard an exercise or workout is relative to the person doing it. 

Trainers/Coaches use RPE with clients to help with programming or making exercises easier or harder. 

0 - 3) Nothing at all, light/easy. 

4) Recovery, not hard, high rep sets. *RPE below four isn't important. (1) 

5 - 6) Moderate intensity. Most warm-up weights.

7) Hard, but maintainable, 70% intensity/capacity. 

8) Heavy/Hard intensity, but 2–4 reps left in the tank, 80%. 

9) harder, but still one rep, or a little gas left in the tank. 

10) Very hard, maximum intensity nothing left. 100% effort.

A simple scale of 1-10 is used, with 1 being easy, think sitting down relaxing. Whereas a 10 means you’re going to pass out, vomit crap your pants and/or both. A level of activity/exercise that is extremely intense and that you can’t keep up. Think maximal effort sprinting/exercise or weight lifting. 

In order to elicit specific adaptations to be made, like strength or positive body composition changes (like more muscle) you generally want things to be on the higher end of the RPE scale for some, but not all of your workout. 

Being that the basis for the RPE scale is perception, this generally means that the person should have a decent level of self-awareness related to exercise, rather than someone totally new to it. Though I still love to use it with beginners and or people who tend to surrender too early in a set. Why?...

Because good programming has slow, adaptable, forced progression in it. So even if a person cries out that an exercise was super hard, 10/10 difficulty, we slowly and safely progress them 1 rep or weight over time to the point where it is no longer difficult. ⠀ 

*SOURCE: (1) Tuchscherer, Michael "The Reactive Training Manual: Developing Your Own Custom Training Program for Powerlifting." c. 2009

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Should you eat before you workout? ⠀

Should you eat before you workout? 

The short answer: In most cases, yes. 

The long answer: There are a lot of dependent variables such as:

 -Your planned workout intensity 

-Workout duration -Time of your workout 

-If it's been longer than 2-3 hours since your last meal 

-If you are working out hard to try and make changes to your body to name just a few. ⠀ 

No matter your goal, even if it's weight loss/fat loss, having a balanced meal of quality protein, quality carbohydrates and healthy fats 1-3 hours before your workout has been shown to: 

-Boost performance 

-Allow you to workout harder 

-Reduce muscle breakdown/preserve muscle 

-Reduce soreness after a workout 

-Speed recovery ⠀

 The notion that when you workout in a fasted state you'll burn and lose more fat is somewhat flawed, and the few studies on the subject show mixed results at best. Ultimately, if your goal is weight/fat loss, the biggest determining factor is that you remain in a calorie deficit regardless if you train on an empty stomach or not. 

Everyone is different, and what works well for someone might not be very effective for someone else. In my personal opinion/experience, I always perform and feel better with something good in the tank before a workout. I consider Pre and post workout meals the two most important meals of the day. ⠀ ⠀ 
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Low Carb Lunch in a Hurry!

It's that time again, summer is upon us and many of you have already started and many more are sure to follow with the dieting! Trying to clean up your bodies and shed some of that winter flab you've accumulated. One of the popular diets people like to go on is the low carb or ketosis type diets because they're generally believed to yield faster results; I myself am guilty of this trend to sometimes as I do find that it does help lean me out a lot faster. I usually will low to no carb diet for only 3-4 days and then then gradually reintroduce carbs back into my diet at the right times and ensuring that they are all quality complex carbs (oats and yams being my favorite). I find that by doing so I don't deal with all the pains and risks of living the low carb lifestyle, and I still get a lot of the benefits, but I will get into that at another time! Today was very busy for me and I didn't have tine for hardly anything let alone to eat so I rushed over across the street to pick these things up and still stick within my low low carb regimen at the moment, not bad right? Just keep an eye out for your sodium intake as the rotisseries have a lot of salt in them. Also finding precise calorie information for a rotisserie chicken is a little difficult, I found several different calorie amounts for the same thing... the average was about 150 calories for 3oz of the breast meat.

8.5oz of rotisserie breast meat and 4.5 tbsp. of guacamole = ~750-800 calories

Know How Much You're Eating with a Food Scale!

8.6oz of rotisserie chicken which has around ~450-550 calories

First things first guys, for the average, everyday client I normally don't advocate using food scales and measuring your food and knowing all of your macros that you're eating down to a T! A lot of the time it's just too much for first time clients to take in and do right away. In reality it isn't necessary for many, not all, people to measure their food precisely, and you can still achieve amazing results and look great in the mirror.

What if you're looking to take your fitness goals to the next level though? Then you should get a food scale! When I say take your fitness goals to the next level I'm talking about getting super lean, getting ready for a bikini or physique show and so on, or I can be talking about someone who wants to build strength and muscle while minimizing fat gain. With all of these goals the bar is set higher and harder to achieve; you really have to zero in on your diet to see spectacular results. Now most of the foods we eat today all have nutrition labels, with the helpful information like serving size, calories, fats, carbs, proteins and so on, but when you're strict diet most of those foods with labels become obsolete. You'll find that you're eating mostly meats, none of which are created equal in size or calories, veggies, and healthy fats. None of these things have nutrition labels and if they do they usually go by ounces or grams, how the hell are you supposed to know how many calories you just ate? I don't know about you but I sure as hell didn't know what 8oz of chicken looked like, or 3 grams of almonds looked like when I first started. That's why having a good food scale really helps, preferably one that can measure in pounds, ounces, and grams. You weigh your food and you either google the calorie information or you can download one of the many apps for your smartphone, my favorite is "myfitnesspal" and search on there, and viola now you know how many calories you have in front of you.

In the case of these almonds you could either use a measuring cup or weigh out 30 grams worth, which I had no idea what 30 grams of almonds looked like, but now I do! 1 serving of almonds, or 30 grams has approximately 27 individual almonds and has about 170 calories, and now I'll remember that forever! This is why having a food scale is beneficial; after a while you start to get familiar on your own with portion sizes, and how many calories certain sizes of foods have, to the point where you won't even need the scale anymore!

Do More with Your Meat!

Summer is right around the corner, and for a lot of people that means it's time to clean up there diets a little and start cutting down their body fat. For many people that means low carbs, lean protein, veggies, and some healthy fats, but are you tired of eating the same things over and over? One thing that I constantly get tired of is eating eggs; they can get bland, boring, and even gross for some people after a while. Despite the millions of things you can do to spice up an egg, one of the things I like to do is throw in meat to make an omelet with additional protein. I'll throw chicken in my eggs, I'll throw in steak, and I'll throw in ground turkey. The different meats really switch up the flavor and the texture and make eating eggs good again! The meat I use is precooked of course, and usually just left over meat I have for meal preps. In this case here I have 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, with ground turkey burger thrown in the mix!

T-Fal OptiGrill Review... Best in Home Grill/Griddle in The World!

I had been hearing a lot about the T-Fal OptiGrill for a while before I decided to actually go out and buy one. I was getting tired of always baking my meats, it always came out dry and I rarely ever looked forward to eating a dry piece of chicken with rice. Normally I could use the grill outside but with the winter and spring weather we've been having here in NY that's still out of the question. So I went and picked up an OptiGrill. Upon opening it the thing reminded me pretty much of the George Forman Grill. The thing that set it apart were the buttons and what they called the "Cooking Level Indicator Light". Each button had a picture of a different meat or item ranging from chicken, to a steak, to a burger patty, fish, even a Panini and so on. The way it works is you plug it in, press the power button and select the meat you'd like to cook. By selecting a certain button it heats the grill to a certain temperature ideal for that meat to be cooked to perfection. By paying attention to the cooking level indicator light you'll know when your meat is either Rare, Medium, Done and, or Well Done, the choice is yours. This feature is one that really one me over, because I'll admit it I totally suck at cooking meat  and usually hate it. This makes it so much more worry-free, easy to do, easy to clean, and efficient as ever!

Now for how the food came out; what would be the point of a fancy grill if the food the came out sucked? Well you don't have to worry because I was amazed at not only how fast, and perfectly well done the T-Fal OptiGrill cooked all the meats, but also just how delicious they all were. I had never cooked chicken, steak, and turkey burgers so well before. They were all so juicy and savory, easy and enjoyable to chew and they stayed like that even after being in the fridge for a couple of days after. All you have to do is select the type of meat your cooking, wait for the grill to preheat to the right temperature in a matter of minutes and viola! Throw the meat on there and keep your eye on the cooking level indicator light as whatever is on the grill will be cooked to perfection in a matter of minutes! The OptiGrill also melts away so much of the fat on the meats you cook and drains it into a catcher underneath the grill, you'll be amazed at just how much artery-clogging fat this thing saves you from consuming.

So in a quick summary...
- The T-Fal OptiGrill, is very easy and simple to use even if you don't have any previous cooking or grilling experience.
- It cooks meats perfectly, timely, and efficiently.
- Doesn't make a mess and doesn't require any preparation work.
- Easy and simple to clean.
So stop wasting time cooking and prepping your meals the old fashioned way and pick up an OptiGrill today, I can almost guarantee you will not be disappointed!

Eating Clean Can Get Boring Sometimes... Spice It Up With SRIRACHA Hot Sauce!!!

So no matter how you prepare it, when you're eating healthy for a steady period of time things can get pretty boring after a while... From time to time I love to use Sriracha, a super spicy and tangy tasting hot sauce that tastes so good on almost anything, especially meats! Also most of the time I don't have the time or patience to prepare finely made dishes of chicken breast and ground turkey, I like to just prepare them and cook them as quickly as possible because I eat so much of them. This another reason why Sriracha is great, it's simple and packs a lot of flavor, with a spicy kick that many of you who don't like spicy foods wouldn't be able to handle.



Doesn't have to be pretty as long as it tastes good!

I use it the most on my eggs, bison patties, ground beef patties, ground turkey, and chicken breast, but there's a whole bunch of other options it can go with; a lot of people like to mix it in with their ketchup which also helps tamper down the heat. It's truly a life saver when it comes to eating chicken breast, which after a while can be so annoying bland to eat, almost like it's a chore; throw Sriracha on it and that's all over. Just be sure to have some water close by because things can get hot really fast!

To compare it to other hot sauces like Tabasco for example it's a lot different. It tastes different, and it's a lot thicker in texture than tabasco; also a lot tangier as well. I like Tabasco on some things, but I like Sriricha better. I'll put it to you like this... I don't always use hot sauce, but when I do I prefer Sriracha! Hands up if you got that one!

So just as a final warning Sriracha can be pretty hot, especially for those of you not used to spicy things, but it tastes delicious and is almost addicting I swear; so if you're daring enough give it a try! Plus you know what they say spicy foods can aide in speeding up the metabolism.

More Low Carb Ground Turkey w/ Peppers and Jalapenos!

Hey everyone so as you can see I've been eating a ton of ground turkey lately, but one problem you might run into I when dieting or trying to eat cleaner and healthier is that certain foods get dull or boring. So because of this you always have to be switching things up even if it means just changing a couple of the ingredients; for this dish I used 99% lean ground turkey breast, favorite seasoning, assorted bell peppers, and canned jalapenos for some tangy spiciness! I love spicy foods and I love jalapenos, they add a really nice unique and interesting flavor and you can even poor some of the juice into the meat for extra deliciousness.

The peppers are good for boosting your metabolism a little bit to keep that fat burning going strong. You can add some cheese, or a healthy fat like an avocado to the side as well, as there is pretty much no fat in this dish; and remember to burn fat your body needs to consume fat as well!

So just because you might think two or thee things together would be gross you might be surprised at how new and good tasting they can be; it can definitely bring a lot of new and good flavors into your regular boring dishes!

Chipotle! So Good, but Healthy Too?

It's highly unlikely that you haven't fallen into the Chipotle bandwagon yourself or at least heard of it
anyways. I think this place is delicious and I eat there at least 2 times a week! Question is though, is it healthy? You can see all the signs inside the restaurant saying things like "naturally raised chicken, beef, pork... No anti biotics... no rBGH... Grass fed beef" and so on... So in that aspect of things, sure it is good quality food, it's made fresh, and brought up clean, so I'd say it is "healthy" for you. What about when we talk about dieting though, is it still considered healthy? The answer is yes and no; just because something is healthy doesn't mean that you can't still get fat off of it, and with a lot of the ingredients chipotle offers you have to weary of that. I put a link straight from the Chipotle website, it's a nutritional calculator which will tell you exactly all the nutrients and calories in whatever you get!

Just a couple of tips...
- Always go with the bowl, as the tortilla has 9grams of fat and a ton of sodium!
- Go with chicken as it has the least amount of fat and sodium compared to the other meats they offer.
- Try and hold off on the cheese and sour cream (this one is hard), if you have to get it, get one or the other not both; as they both combined have 18.5grams of fat!
- If you're going low carb, cut down on the beans and rice.


http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx

Counting Carbs? Keep in mind NET Carbs...

This seems to be a new thing I'm noticing these days with healthy foods, you'll see a lot of packaging on foods that says something along the lines of "Only 5 net carbs"... Well what is a net carb exactly and how does it help you? A net carb is when you take the total number of carbohydrates in serving of food and subtract the amount of fiber from it; what you're left with is a net carb. For example if I was eating some whole grain tortillas and on the nutrition label it said 10 grams of carbohydrate and 5 grams of fiber for one tortilla then technically you're left with 5 net carbs. This is because your body can only absorb 5 grams of carbs due to the amount of fiber.

So why is this a good thing to know? Because today lower carb diets seem to be the way to go for those looking to lose the pounds and fast, and by knowing how to calculate net carbs you'll save yourself a lot of trouble and actually be able to eat more then someone else who was counting carbs but didn't know how to calculate net carbs. Another example of this is lets say 2 people were only allowed to have 40g of carbs per day while dieting. The first person knows how to calculate net carbs eats a total of 70g of carbs, but all from sources with a lot of fiber which added up to 30g of fiber... leaving them at 40g of net carbs taken in for the day! Now lets say the second person didn't know about net carbs and just eats 40g of carbs, but in actuality they ate 20g of net carbs then they technically could be allowed to have more!

Whether you have some extreme weight to lose, or you're simply trying to tone up while retaining muscle mass, keeping net carbs in mind can help you out a lot when choosing the right foods!