The Gym Alone Isn't Enough...

Gray Cook says it best... 

“We can’t fix everything with corrective exercise. If somebody’s sleeping 2 hours a night, if they’re dehydrated, or only getting half the protein of their dietary needs, then the things we do in exercise or movement correction probably won’t have the fertile soil to grow anywhere.”

 ⠀ The same goes for regular exercise and with the goal of changing body composition, getting stronger, dropping body fat etc. ⠀ 

    You can’t just put all your eggs in the workout basket and think that’s enough. Exercise alone is amazing for you, but it’s only a very small percentage of the bigger picture. Optimize the rest your lifestyle and reap the benefits. 

⠀ If you’ve been struggling to lose weight, if you’ve been struggling to get lean, build muscle, if you’ve been dealing with nagging injuries or pain then don’t just look at your exercise or rehab alone as the fix. Hit your nutrition targets, your rest targets, and your hydration targets and watch just how great you feel and perform! ⠀

 SOURCE: FMS Level 1 Course Curriculum. 

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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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!

Make it Routine... a Part of Your Life.

The other day I was on Instagram looking at various and famous fitness enthusiasts profiles. One thing that they all had in common was that in their pics or in their captions there was always some motivational quote or jargon; most of them seemed pretty over dramatic and cheesy but there were a few good ones don't get me wrong.  I realized that when it comes to fitness there's so much motivational and inspirational media and marketing out there. I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all, but whatever your goal may be exercising, getting in shape, building muscle, etc. it's like it almost sets up everything to be this huge, dramatic, daunting, journey, where you'll suffer, and want to quit, but you'll have to prevail against all odds if you're going to reach your goals; it reminds me a lot of Lord of The Rings!

Now motivation is good, but don't fool yourself right out the gate, see what you're doing for what it really is! Yes it's going to be tough, yes you're going to put in a lot of work, yes you may want to give up at times, but if you look at it in that way then you have already failed at reaching your goals in my opinion. You shouldn't hate coming to the gym, exercising, dieting, and whatever else your goals entail; it shouldn't be seen as a huge hurdle that you have to get over... All you simply have to do is make it routine. give yourself 1 hour for 5 days where you bust your ass exercising and that's it; there's nothing more to it, it's not a Hollywood drama movie production! Take a little extra time to clean up your diet, and prep your meals, it really isn't hard! Bottom line if you really want it, whatever your goal may be, you're going to be wanting to bust your butt in the gym, wanting to eat the right foods, and not looking for outside motivation from pictures or videos, which makes the task at hand seem so much more dramatic.

Basically my reasoning for writing this entry was because I came across a quote by a guy who went by the name Zyzz, who has since sadly passed away, but he was an inspiration to millions of fitness enthusiasts across the globe... Now you'll notice this isn't your typical "inspirational" or "motivational" quote... There's no corny lines like "fight through the pain when you feel like giving up", or "no pain no gain" and so on. He simply states it for what it is...

"I wouldn't even use the word motivation. I don't need motivation now, as training is a necessity in my life. It's all a part of my lifestyle, and I couldn't imagine any other life than the gym/training/dieting lifestyle, as it is rewarding physically and mentally in ways beyond measure, you would have to experience it yourself."

Now I don't want to contradict myself here, but I guess the point I'm trying to get at is a spade is a spade, call it for what it is. Reaching your goals is only hard if you make it hard, if it's your passion then virtually nothing will get in your way; if it's your passion it will become routine, apart of your life.