Join US for a Tough Mudder in LA!

You’re going to find out how tough a Tough Mudder is. Well, if you’re in LA on March 4th, you can. Not only can you find out how hard a Tough Mudder really is, you can have support from both Hungry & Fit during the race. We both just signed up the Half Mudder (~5 miles) on the 4th of March, 2017, in the Los Angeles area. (It isn’t in Downtown LA!) Now, we want you to sign up, train with us and even race with us.

Back in 2009, Warrior Dash (basically) started the Mud Run movement in the United States. At that time, terms such as Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) and what not weren’t being thrown around since not many people knew about it. Hungry jumped into his first Warrior Dash in 2010 and the rest is history. Since then, not only have Hungry & Fit competed in everything from the Men’s Health Urbanathlon to the Bubble Run, we’ve also helped others tackle these challenges.

Dec062017

The Perfect Gift for Men

This week, we’re going to release our 2017 Guide to Holiday Shipping, filled with tons of ideas, most of which are available through Amazon. Before we get there, we want to take advantage of some amazing deals that one of Hungry’s favorite brands is offering right now. This might just be the perfect gift for men this holiday season. Why? Let us tell you!

Oliver’s Apparel is a higher-end men’s clothing company based in LA that makes all of their product in LA, which we love. They don’t have a ton of designs or crazy patterns, but everything is high-quality, durable, comfortable and multi-purpose. Hungry told you more about their other products HERE, but no matter what you decide to buy, you should do it now!

Dec052017

Effective Female Body Fat Recomposition

Please enjoy a friendly post from Gary at https://garagegymplanner.com/.

Body fat recomposition: a topic that garners very mixed reviews from people. While some think it’s a myth and cannot be done, there are others who claimed to have found the secret formula and seen some very promising results too. Both men and women have tried their hand at this process but, mind you, it’s not a very easy one. The whole process involves first understanding how the body’s fat storage works and then breaking it down using exercise and most importantly, diet.

Dec012017

Physical Exercise and Aging

Staying fit is a lifelong journey, but as we age, it can be more difficult to reach the same exercise goals than it once was. Aging causes more than just wrinkles—it can also cause losses in balance, muscle mass and overall strength, agility, and bone density, while also triggering weight gain. Because of this, people who have stayed fit their whole lives may struggle with these changes, while people who have been inactive often find themselves unable to enjoy the activities they once did, or experience major health problems. The good news? Engaging in regular exercise can improve health and even help seniors live longer. Just 3 hours of exercise per week can increase overall lifespan by about 5 years!

In 2010, there were 40.3 million Americans age 65 or older, and this number is growing every year, making education about the importance of physical fitness in maintaining quality of life very important. Of those seniors, just 28-34% of adults aged 65-74 were physically active, and 35-44% of adults over the age of 75 were active. Since 4 out of 5 Americans over the age of 50 have one or more chronic conditions, an active lifestyle can be a key factor in managing health.

So what are the benefits of staying active as you age? Better mobility, strength, and balance, weight maintenance, and better health overall. Exercise can help people manage chronic conditions and lower blood pressure, and can even help to build up brain volume!

Check out this awesome infographic from USC’s Gerontology Department to understand aging and exercise in a visual way:

The University of Southern California Online

Nov292017

Cardio and Core Workout: Get It!

Happy Workout Wednesday, everyone, and welcome to one of our favorite workouts! Everyone has a different approach to training, and it may take a trial with every single one of those to find out what works for you, but one popular tactic is taking care of two important aspects at once. Combining core and cardio can be effective, since they’re extremely important to overall health, but can be painstakingly boring. It’s like vacuuming and scooping litter at the same time, in a way.

Now, to be clear, core refers to exercises that will help strengthen muscles throughout your abdomen, on your front and back. That means, you’ll be working your abs, obliques, lower back, hips and even glutes since they all work closely with one another when you’re performing more complex, or demanding, exercises and activities. Cardio is a misunderstood and overused word that we’ll use today to refer to exercises that will help you elevate your heart rate significantly in an effort to either burn fat or increase your athletic performance by building endurance. I hope that explanation makes sense.

Nov252017

Advanced Boxing Tips

Jose James Hyland is an amateur boxer with a college degree, multiple certifications and years of experience as a personal trainer. He has worked with dozens of paraplegic and quadriplegic through the AXIS Project, helping them find their own form of fitness through boxing, with him as their coach. For those of you that aren’t working with a coach, but have practiced enough to no longer be considered a beginner, here are some more advanced tips to improve your technique. Essentially, if you’re just starting and don’t have the knack for boxing yet, you shouldn’t burden yourself with these more advanced ideas.

(Also, please remember that an amateur boxer has more experience than an expert. By that, I mean, an expert in the gym with no fight experience, hasn’t competed at the level of an amateur boxer. It takes a lot of time and effort to become an amateur. Unless you’ve been registered, fought in the ring with a referee, and even seen your face on an official poster for the card of a legitimate organization, you are not an amateur boxer.)

You can check out more tips from Jose at Flexing Fitness but until then, enjoy!

Nov082017

Why You Aren’t Getting a Six Pack!

Recently, someone in the gym asked us about an exercise we were performing, specifically inquiring if it was targeting our abs and then questioning how it differs from the abdominal crunch machine he was using. We explained that this particular variation of the abdominal crunch would activate more muscles in his core, since the weight could force his body left or right as well.

When he showed obvious frustration and explained how he’d been using the machine for years with no progress, we asked how he was using the machine, specifically referring to how many reps and sets he was doing. When he told us that he performed 30-40 reps per set, we asked him if he was happy with his upper arms. When he said that he was indeed happy with that body part, we asked him how he trained his arms, specifically referring to how many reps and sets he was doing. When he told us that he performed 8-12 reps per set, we presented the question: why are you training your abs differently?

Oct262017

What Men NEED to Wear!

Okay, okay… I know what you’re thinking. Men are (generally) far more comfortable in the gym than women, but we’re not talking about that. Ladies, imagine if we told you how important it is to wear a good sports bra during a workout. Wouldn’t you agree with us? Well, for men, it is equally important to make sure the body is kept under control during a hardcore training session. The sweat stinging your eyes and that burning feeling in your throat is distracting enough, right?

Personally, I used to wear your typical briefs growing up and back then they only had them in one color… white. While all the other boys started wearing boxers, I stayed true to my briefs since I was an athlete and was most comfortable in them. Can you even imagine boxers under baseball pants? Yikes! Then, I came across boxer briefs and my world was changed. If you look in my underwear drawer, you’ll only find boxer briefs and trunks, which we’ll say are just slightly shorter than boxer briefs.

Now, we’ve all seen compression shorts gaining popularity over the past decade through exposure on social media. Since everyone wants to be like they’re favorite athlete, they start by dressing like them, but compression shorts are not only very expensive, but also aren’t necessarily built to last very long. Professional athletes can afford them, but not all of us have those huge contracts. So, we look elsewhere and find boxer briefs that provide us with that compression. That way, we don’t have to worry about shopping for so many different items and packing one of each in our work or gym bags.

Sep272017

The Next Big Thing: Stair Climbs

We remember back in 2008 when we were on our way to our first Warrior Dash. We really had no idea what to expect since obstacle course racing wasn’t really a thing in the US at that point. We weren’t sure how to explain it our family and friends. Fortunately, it was only $35 or so, so you wouldn’t feel too bad telling people who you were paying to run through mud and fire.

Fast forward nearly a decade and everyone is on the lookout for new competition. Everything that involves competition, with either yourself or others, is becoming increasingly more popular, especially in the world of fitness and athletics. Obstacle course racing is a hundred-million dollar per year industry. CrossFit has a national level competition to bring their top athletes into a professional sports stadium for their apex event. Even triathlon is becoming more mainstream as far from elite athletes are willing to shell out ten-thousand dollars on a top bike to compete at their highest level. Still, our attention span can be lacking and as everyone gets bored with the same old thrill, the question is… what is the next big thing?

Now, I’m not going to be so bold to claim that Stair Climbs are going to be anywhere near that level, but they’ll certainly become more popular than they are now. The Los Angeles YMCA has hosted their annual Stair Climb in the US Bank Tower, which is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, for the past seven years or so. We’ve been fortunate enough to compete in it the last three years, but we really only went for it this year. What do we mean by that?

Sep152017

Small Change, Big Gain

In health and wellness, small changes can make a huge impact. It’s all about baby steps and those baby steps eventually turn into significant changes to your health for the better. Changing soda for sparkling water. Reducing fast food. Going for a walk after work instead of plopping in front of the television. It’s these baby steps that turn into substantive lifestyle change. It develops your new lifestyle into one that’s sustainable and healthy. People often think they need a head-over-heels shake-up of their life to become healthy. That’s not it. That’s not sustainable. The important part is turning it into a lifestyle: not a diet or a brief workout plan. Slow integration is the way to do it.

We were featured in a really neat infographic from Elysium Health which is all about the small changes you can make. Elysium, themselves, are committed to this idea with their own daily NAD+ supplement leading to a big gain in the long term. It just takes a small difference to better your health and, thus, your life!