Yesterday, I gave a few helpful concepts around maintaining health and wellness throughout the holidays. In this week’s episode of the Fitness, Wellness, and Longevity podcast, Scott and I share our best tips for surviving the holidays with some simple fitness and diet hacks!
Holiday Survival Guide
You have all the best intentions of sticking with your healthy habits through the holidays, and then WHAM! You look down on the scale on Jan. 1 and you put on 10 lbs.! How can this be?
Putting on weight (or losing muscle mass) during the holidays is a common thing, but we can take some simple steps to minimize drastic changes. Here are my 3 fitness tips to survive the holidays.
Keep getting your workouts in-Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean you skip your workouts. Set your alarms, put it in your calendar, or tell a loved one/friend that you need to stick your your workout regimen. Yes, you might celebrate a little more during this time of the year, but setting aside 30 minutes to an hour four times per week to get a sweat in will set you up for success when the holidays pass.
Drop the Guilt and Shame-Having a few drinks or enjoying the holiday cookies WILL NOT derail all of your progress. However, hanging on to guilt and shame for enjoying yourself will. All G and S will do is pull you away from what you truly are…a healthy person! Drop these two unwanted guests during the holiday time and when the new year hits, you’ll be off to the races.
Enjoy, but don’t make it a sport-Like I said above, enjoy your favorite desserts or a drink with your friends, but don’t make it a contest in how full or drunk you can get. The simplest way to avoid this is TRACK YOUR DRINKS/DESSERTS. I know that seems odd, but yes, if you track these things it will prevent you from overdoing it. How? Awareness. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked clients how many drinks they have in a week and they have undershot by 50-100%! If you track your metrics, you will minimize the damage while still being able to love the holidays. During the next holiday party, cap your adult beverages to 2 (preferably something will low sugar content) and move on!
With a few simples steps, you can make it through the holidays and actually feel MORE motivated when the ball drops. Of course, having an experienced coach to guide you through uncharted waters makes things A LOT easier. Click the link below to receive world class coaching today!
Just 10 minutes...
Running may be a useful activity to undertake for better mental health. University of Tsukuba researchers have found that only ten minutes of moderate-intensity running increases local blood flow to the various loci in the bilateral prefrontal cortex -- the part of the brain that plays an important role in controlling mood and executive functions. These findings may contribute to the development of a wider range of treatment recommendations to benefit mental health.
To test their hypothesis, the research team used the well-established Stroop Color-Word Test and captured data on hemodynamic changes associated with brain activity while participants were engaged in each task. For example, in one task, incongruent information is shown, i.e., the word red is written in green, and the participant must name the color rather than read out the word. To do so, the brain must process both sets of information and inhibit the extraneous information. The Stroop interference effect was quantified by the difference in response times for this task and those for a simpler version of the task -- stating the names of color swatches. Coincidentally, this test is used by friends of Floch Fitness Rewire Fitness App to improve cognitive abilities and decision making.
My Take: I have always felt anecdotally that whenever I got an easy mile run or a quick bike ride in when I was stressed or feeling fatigued I always felt better and more mentally sharp. Now, the research has caught up to these n or 1 studies. The next step is understanding how to leverage this information. Two uses come to mind: 1. First thing in the morning, get a quick sweat in. Going for an easy 10 minutes run or bike ride gets the blood flowing and puts a vote in the ballot box of being a healthy person. 2. As a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Instead of reaching for that extra cup of coffee in the afternoon, lace up your shoes and go for a quick jog (or 20 minute walk).
There are plenty of hacks that you can use to live a more healthy and impactful life. Having a coach to guide you along the way and hold you accountability is invaluable. Click the link below to get started on your fitness journey today!
Exercise Produces Cannabis-Like Effects In The Body....
In a recent article published by Nottingham University, a study was highlighted connecting exercise to decreased inflammation and increased cannabinoid receptors. In a new study, published in Gut Microbes, experts from the University of Nottingham found that exercise intervention in people with arthritis, did not just reduce their pain, but it also lowered the levels of inflammatory substances (called cytokines). It also increased levels of cannabis-like substances produced by their own bodies, called endocannabinoids. Interestingly, the way exercise resulted in these changes was by altering the gut microbes.
A group of scientists, led by Professor Ana Valdes from the School of Medicine at the University, tested 78 people with arthritis. Thirty-eight of them carried out 15 minutes of muscle strengthening exercises every day for six weeks, and 40 did nothing.
At the end of the study, participants who did the exercise intervention had not only reduced their pain, but they also had more microbes in their guts of the kind that produce anti-inflammatory substances, lower levels of cytokines and higher levels of endocannabinoids.
My take: Yet another reason you should be exercising regularly. However, this study details the mechanisms in which the body manifests the positive benefits of exercise. What would be interesting to see in a future study would be an exercise protocol compared to anti-inflammatories in managing pain and inflammation in the body.
If you are looking to reap the rewards of regular exercise but don’t know where to start, I’m here to help! Click the link below to get started today!
Aerobic Capacity
Welcome back!
In this week's episode, we dive into Aerobic Capacity training from world renowned Crossfit endurance coach Chris Hinshaw (Aerobiccapacity.com). In our discussion, we cover Chris's protocols for muscular endurance, potential limitations of this type of training, and Scott discusses a new testing protocol that he is using for his clients.
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See you next time!
How Long Can We Play?
I recently read a fantastic article written by Chris Ballard in Sports Illustrated titled, “How Long Can We Play?” The article is very well written and I recommend giving it a read as it highlights many areas that we cover here are Floch Fitness for ageless athletes. Ballard’s article focuses on various recovery pieces and their efficacy, how sporting organizations are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to combat injuries in sport, and how all of this eventually trickles down to the general public like you and I.
It did get me thinking though, “What advice would I give to myself in my earlier years to ensure that my later years were less painful and more fruitful athletically?” Here are the three tips I would give myself:
Form first, then intensity-Like many people, I thought that getting strong was an overnight process. I went way too heavy way too soon and this naivety ultimately capped my overall strength because my mechanics as I aged became my limiter. Don’t get me wrong, there were certain movements, specifically the bench press, that I excelled at. My senior year of college I bench pressed 275lbs. for 8 reps at 175lbs. bodyweight. That sounds awesome until you consider that I probably couldn’t back squat that weight for eight reps, especially if I need to go to a full depth squat. Instead of adding weight, I would work thousands of more reps focus on form, precision, and explosiveness so that the strength training would have better carry over onto the field.
Stretch my lats and pecs more-I did thousands of push-ups and pull-ups in my early career, and overtime this affected my upper body mechanics profoundly. My shoulders became tight and my lower back became more and more overextended to compensate. If I were to do it all over again, I would have spent more time letting go of lats and pecs and instead worked more core muscles like the obliques to ensure my posture was strong, and my overhead mobility didn’t diminish.
Work On Running Mechanics-Until I became a triathlete in my early 20s, I assumed you ran the way you ran because that’s how everyone does it. This strategy left my with debilitating shin splints throughout college and into the begging of my triathlon career. I would have to taken 2 or 3 Advil every morning just to get out of bed. Then I would mummy wrap my shins just so I could practice. In reality, my over-striding to go “faster” was causing my shins to take a beating during sprint work. It wasn’t until I studied Pose Method that I realized cadence, technique, and posture were integral to speed and injury free running.
There are many more lessons that I would have shared with my younger self, and I will continue to share these lessons with you over time. That is the benefit of working with an experienced coach and athlete. I have tried everything and found out what works and doesn’t work and save you from that pain! If you’d like to start personal training or a personalized exercise program, click the link below to get started today!
Do You Have High Ferritin?
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In this week's episode, Scott and I cover what high ferritin levels mean in your blood work, what issues they may cause, and a simple way to fix it!
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How I Calculate My Calories
Earlier this week, I talked about how you can leverage particular foods for muscle gain and fat loss. I used the term “maintenance calories” to describe the number of calories you need to take in to remain the same weight. To determine quantity of maintenance calories, I use the calorie estimator from Precision Nutrition.
The calculator is super simple to use, and will give you an estimate of calories based on your goal (fat loss, longevity, performance, muscle gain, etc.) and factors like activity level, exercise frequency, and exercise intensity. It even gives you the breakdown of macros and what that looks like in a simple comparison to your hand (For example how many palmfuls of protein you should be having daily).
This information is only as powerful as the person who wields it. If you need help identifying road blocks and coming up with strategies to overcome them, I’m here to help! Click the link to start working on your nutrition today!