Summer is over, now get your fitness back on track!

Fitness and health are often compared to that of a roller coaster or set of stairs rather than a slope or straight line as we all wish it could be. What this metaphor refers to is a regression or plateaus that occur during a plan to achieve a goal. Many things can get in our way as we attempt to lose 10 lbs. or make strength gains, some of which completely derail your program, such as an injury or surgery, while some are expected but can be avoided like a training plateau. During the summer months, our biggest obstacles are distractions and libations.

There aren’t many things I like better than a cold maragarita on a hot summer day, but when I decide to drink alcohol, I’m putting my training and diet on the back burner, at least for a short period of time. Now that the summer months are over we can easily start making excuses for not working out or following our nutrition plan because, hey it’s Oktoberfest or football Sunday, or the crush, etc. Instead what we should be doing is making new commitments and goals to get back on track, first starting with a plan.

The best thing to do is identify what your fitness and/or health goals are at the moment. From here you make a S.M.A.R.T. Goal and create a timeline of which you would like to achieve said goal. Restarting is always difficult though, so my advice is to find or create a support group to help each other stay on track and motivate one another to do your best.

If you want to run more, join a track club. If you want to lose weight, join a boutique gym. Many gym and training facilities do weight-loss programs in the fall to help prepare for the holiday season and restart their current member who let things go a bit during the summer.

The most important thing to remember when getting back on track is that consistency is key. No matter if your workout is 15 minutes or 50, the important thing is that you are creating a habit. As I always say, it’s easy to workout when you want to, the days you don’t want to are what make the biggest gains. Going from thinking about to doing something every day is the important step every one must make personal progress, so stop reading about how to restart and go for a run!

How to tackle your diet on Super Bowl Sunday

It’s late January. You have been hitting the gym 5 days a week and while you are feeling stronger and more energized, the visual results haven’t been what you expected when you decided to never eat a carb again. Monday workouts are no longer something you look at as a “great way to start the week.” Your somehow skinny friend has been enjoying beer and nachos during the NFL playoffs while you have been avoiding a social setting where you might break your dry January streak and ruin all the hard work you have been putting in. Still, your pant size hasn’t dropped a singe-digit to the odd-number scale. Super Bowl Sunday is this weekend and along with a hopefully great game comes an equally as great spread. Dry January will be over and your no-carb diet is hanging on for dear life. Is it time to give up and indulge as any true American should, or do you stay the course and pray this all pays off come Memorial Day?

I’m here to tell you, enjoy yourself!

Goals are not reached in a linear manner. Weight-loss, strength gains, and flexibility don’t improve on a daily basis over the long-term. Not all aspects of your training will increase at the same rate so we can’t expect one day of indulging (or over-indulging) will ruin your progress. If anything, this might be exactly what your body and mind need. Like a mini vacation from the routine of eat healthy, workout hard, drink protein, sleep 8 hours. Much like returning from a vacation and feeling motivated to kick-ass at work, sometimes a vacation from your fitness and diet program motivates you to get back in the gym and doing an extra set of everything.

Come Super Bowl Sunday, start your day with a long run (60+ minutes) with some hill sprints thrown in or a dynamic METCON workout at your local fitness studio (i.e. Fast as F*ck | @glidetrainingco) to establish an increased metabolic rate for the rest of the day. Then show up to the party with a 6 pack of your favorite beer, enjoy some wings, and hope you win some money in a super bowl pool. Then Monday morning do a workout to get the week started off great.

Toned in 20! Day 1

Hey guys! So excited for #tonedin20! Check our Facebook page every day for the next 20 days for a workout of the day!  

Post a selfie doing the exercises of the day each day to win a prize at the end! 

Each workout will be a little bit different, but they will all target your arms, abs, butt, and legs to get you bikini (or swim trunk) ready!

TODAY'S WORKOUT: 

10 exercises.....

:45 per exercise/:15 break in between

x2

1. Mountain Climbers!  

Focus on maintaining your tempo throughout the whole :45. Keep your core tight and keep your shoulders square over your hands. 

2. Plank with hip extensions

Focus on maintaining your pelvic tilt- so no sagging in your low back and no arching when you lift your leg!  This exercise is meant to work your booty and your core! 

3. Squats

Focus on keeping your weight on your heels, chest up tall, tight core!

4. Sumo Squats

Wide stance, toes turned out, chest up tall, shoulders back, tight core: working your inner thighs and booty!

5. Reverse sit-ups

Slowly lower yourself back into a reverse sit-up until you feel like you're as far as you can pull yourself back up, keeping your elbows wide! *for more support, have a partner hold your feet!

6. Bicycle Crunches

Keep your elbows wide and chin up so you don't pull on your neck!

7.  Ab Wipers

Maintain your pelvic tilt, slowly lower your legs to either side, pausing in the middle *to increase difficulty, perform with straight legs

8.  Thrusters 

REALLY focus on making sure your back doesn't sag on the jump out, keep your core tight, and shoulders over your hands!

9. Hydrant Kicks

Pelvic tilt, "PEE ON THE HYDRANT", "KICK THE HYDRANT" ;)

10. Glute pulses

Make sure your hands are shoulder width, and focusing on glute contraction NOT using your low back :)

How Much, How Often?

Most people aren't gluttons for punishment and prefer not to dedicate the necessary amount of time to create serious bodily changes. In fact, most people also want to do the bare minimum and yield the most results. Unfortunately for these types, that isn't how the body works. Our body's respond to stress. The more we apply the more it will adapt, but if we apply too much stress the body can fail. Over-usage injuries such as stress fractures and tendonitis are the most common, but major joint injuries can also occur due to too much progressive overload. So how much time should we dedicate to see solid results? That number you should aim for is 10 hours per week of fitness related activity. That's right, 10 hours! This may sound very unrealistic, but if we break it into days, we are looking at less than 1.5 hours per day. Here is how you can split up your fitness schedule to make that 600 minutes per week easily attainable.

1. Get your cardio in every day! Mix it up so that it doesn't become boring and redundant. Try something like an easy Fartlek workout on Monday, 15-20 minutes of Stair Climber on Tuesday, a 45 minute Spin Class on Wednesday, Track or Treadmill intervals for 30 minutes on Thursday, an easy jog or bike ride for 60 minutes on Friday, and a  hike or trail run on Saturday.

This should total about 3.5-5 hours of your fitness for the week. The more weight you are looking to lose, the more cardio you should be putting in. Also, adding cardio DOES NOT mean taking time off from your other fitness activities.

2. Make your resistance training short and sweet but also very intense. I suggest at least 3 "hard" workouts per week. Hard is obviously a relative term but and good indicator of a "hard" workout is at the end of 30-40 minutes you have only taken a total of 5 minutes of combined rest time. These fast-paced workouts will boost your metabolism while also increasing the bodies ability to recover.  Do your hard resistance workouts on days that are easier cardio days. You can also combine cardio and resistance into circuits to save time.

Interval workouts and Fartleks are great cardio workouts to mix resistance training and cut down on the amount of time spent in the gym.

3. The most common workout to skip is probably the most important to hit, our corrective exercises. We all make it to the gym for our favorite grueling HIIT class, but most people usually just squeeze a couple corrective exercises in at the end of their workout. While I would never say thats a bad thing, it is much less effective to do 2 exercises than it is to do 2 sessions of correctives. Allowing yourself to focus on what ever muscle imbalances you may have, or joints with a lack in range of motion helps prevent injury and will increase efficiency in the body mechanics.

4. Lastly, the therapeutic aspect of your fitness must be addressed, stretching and myofascial release. I have never told a single person that they foam roll too much. It doesn't matter where or when, but daily stretching and massage will help your body wake up easier. Stiffness and tightness can be mistaken for soreness and lead to skipping your daily fitness fix. 20 minutes per day is all you need. This can even be broke into two 10 minute sessions at the beginning and end of the day. If you really don't like to do it, ask your trainer if they offer stretching sessions. We saw a huge increase in the amount of activity our members were engaging in after the started signing up for 1-2 stretch sessions per week. We also saw a huge decline in the number of complaints about lower back pain, shoulder impingement syndrome, and knee soreness. 

By splitting up our fitness into daily goals we can manage our time better and get great results without risking injury or burn-out. Don't expect to hit 10 hours every week, but make it a goal. Some weeks you will do much more and some weeks you might come up a bit short, but sticking to this goal will create healthy habits. Good luck!

Finding Your Fitness Niche

It as long been questioned what the best strategy is to lose weight or achieve fitness goals. An answer I learned early in my fitness career was that the best exercise is the one that you will continue to do. This sounds simple enough right? Find out what form of exercise is fun and you will look amazing, be full of energy, and live much longer. Not everyone likes the burning in my legs and lungs I seem to enjoy when sprinting up a hill. While I find myself bored with the meditative practices and the long arduous holds so many yogis dedicate their lives to perfecting. Fortunately, our choice of exercise is exactly that, a choice. So here are my steps for getting the most out of your monthly gym membership fees.

1. Evaluate your goals with the good ol' fashioned S.M.A.R.T. method. 

Specificity

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

2. Research strategies used to achieve the goals you have. If you have a weight-loss goal, like most average american's then research successful nutrition programs for weight-loss. Many gyms and personal training studios offer specials for the New Year for specific diet programs aimed for a quick drop to start the year.

3. Be competitive. Whether it be "friendly" competition between you and your family members, or a challenge at a local training facility, beating other people is always a great motivator. Even if you don't win, beating others while also improving your health is twice as nice. The office is a great place to compete because of the built-in competitive nature seen between co-workers. Those who work together tend to do whatever it takes to win a competition, which makes for a fun team-building experience.

4. Choose a few different forms of exercise and decide which you want to continue, after a few sessions.  You don't need to try everything. We have a basic understanding of what we like and don't like, so pick a few classes at the gym, try something you don't know what the hell it is, then try something that sounds difficult. Many times something that is difficult can end up being your favorite. The struggle of mastering or improving is a great intrinsic motivator. And don't give up on your choices after one session. Sometimes you won't mesh with your instructor, or they have an off day, or you might be dying because it is your first time. Try a second o even a third class before giving up on our fitness choices.

5. Complete your objective. What is our objective here? To a fitness niche. Where do you fit into the fitness community. Are you a Pilates/yoga-goer, a runner who also does crossfit, or are you into outdoor activities no matter what it is? After you have immersed yourself into the fitness world you must evaluate all your thoughts and feelings. Are you happy with your results? Do you still enjoy what you are doing? Are there other fitness goals I want to attain along the same realm? If you can answer these questions, you can easily decide what your next SMART goal will be.

My Favorite Post-Run Snacks, Drinks, and Meals

Refueling post-run or post-workout is just as important, if not more important than pre-run. Our body will store reserves of glycogen(carbs) and adipose(fat) so that when necessary, the body has sufficient amounts of potential energy available. Because of this, fueling just before an event is not necessarily the most important time to ingest macros, but after. Here are my choices for post-workout eating:

SNACKS  

 After a hard interval workout, especially on a hot day, I don't have big appetite. I aim for something quick, small, and packed with protein and electrolytes. My go-to is a part-skim mozzarella cheese stick, kosher pickle spear(preferably Klausen), and poultry, usually chicken and always breasts. I add a side of mustard and horseradish for taste, sodium, and clearing my breathing pathways. Horseradish also has great joint healing properties and cancer fighting abilities. Check out this interesting article! 

DRINKS

Water is the obvious choice here, but sometimes our body can use a bit more than the clear stuff. I like to make a fresh antioxidant juice. I usually do a concentrated shot of fresh squeezed or I mix a 1:1 ratio with water to have as a drink. I also consume at least 16 oz. of water to replace what I lost in sweat. Pro-tip: infuse fruit into water for tasty, refreshing electrolyte filled hydration, Lisa's favorite is a Cuke Citrus Cilantro - this water hits all 3 of the main electrolytes used for exercise.

MEAL

I'm not one to eat a lot post-workout or race, but long grueling runs with lots of hills will leave your liver depleted of glycogen and eventually, for me about 45 minutes later, your stomach will begin begging for food. Also, if I'm training for a race my post-long run meal is much different than if I'm trying to shed a few pounds. When training I need to be able to get back to work soon, sometimes later in the day, so my meal will be a little more carb heavy (root veggies, beans/lentils, and antioxidant rich fruits), along with some good fats like avocado or coconut oil. If I'm looking to lose a few pounds I wait 45-60 minutes post-workout to eat because my body is working its hardest to convert stored fat into glycogen. During this window of time is when the body is most efficient at burning fat and replacing it's liver glycogen stores. Then I eat a meal that is protein and omega fatty-acid rich, like a Zuke, ham and egg white Scramble.

Glide Training Co. prides itself in providing high-end personal and performance training paired with nutritional guidance and injury prevention strategies to maximize the results of their clients and athletes.