Very recently, I’ve been getting lower back spasms. It doesn’t happen all the time, just sometimes at work when I’m sitting. It’s particularly worrying to me because those kind of things don’t really happen to me. Sure I’ll hurt myself doing something, but I don’t get chronic pain or ongoing behind-the-scenes stuff. Because it was so concerning to me, I wanted to get to the bottom of it immediately before anything got worse. So I got to thinking…what could of caused this? I looked up symptoms, treatments, causes…tight hamstrings, lack of strong core, poor posture. I then thought through my lifestyle lately, and realized I haven’t really stretched or done yoga in about 6 months. Yikes.
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Don’t Lift Those Heavy Weights!
Last night while getting back into squatting regularly, someone else was making some serious mistakes in their form and training program. I was concerned for their health and said something to their friend, hoping he could convince him to clean up his act for his own good. Then, the friend asked me about his own issue relating to some pain in his shoulders when he is doing what his demonstration seemed like dual bent over posterior deltoid flyes with 35 lb dumbbells.
This all leads to my point, to stop lifting heavy weights… if you’re not ready for it. I know you want to get big and strong fast, but this process is a progression that needs to be taken slowly. The muscles in your chest are large and can handle a significant amount of weight, but with poor form (or even with proper form) your shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints might not be conditioned to do the same. It will take correct technique and a significant amount of training to make sure your stabilizing muscles that protect your joints are prepared for a larger load.
Here are five tips to protect yourself and maximize your effort!
1. Warmup! It’s important to perform warm up exercises to loosen muscles fibers that are shorter, tighter, and colder from inactivity. Some internal and externals rotations can really help maximize your bench results without fatiguing your shoulders for the lift.
2. Set a rep range and stick to it. If you’re going for five reps of 135 lbs on the bench press, you’re doing that for a reason. Make sure you can perform all of those repetitions almost perfectly before considering doing five reps of any more weight in the same exercise.
3. Use assistance when necessary. I’m not telling you to let your spotter row the weight from your chest, but protect your joints when performing heavier weights or higher repetition ranges. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of using belts, straps, and wraps often (because I want to strengthen my core and stabilizer muscles), but it’s important to protect your body!
4. Rest! Someone at my facility benches and curls weights every single day of the week. When you isolate a body part and damage muscle fibers to the point that they need to be repaired, you actually have to let them repair before you hit that muscle group hard again! Don’t waste your progress by being reckless.
5. Do it properly! When you walk in the gym, leave your ego at the door. No one is going to be impressed by your 1/3 squats with two plates on each side. Well, no one who knows what they’re talking about. Ask for advice, learn proper form, use a coach, and make sure you are getting the most out of the exercises without risking getting injured.
So there you have it. Be smart. Condition your joints and strengthen your stabilizer muscles. Everyone complains about elbow pain after doing chest and triceps with flared elbows and heavy skull crushers. Everyone complains about their lower back hurting when they deadlift and squat. Avoid being sidelined and train smarter! And as always, stay hungry and fit!
Fit’s Birthday in Pictures
Guide to Hungry and Fit’s Posts
Here at Hungry and Fit, we give you a large variety of posts. From recipes to workouts to movie reviews to video game nerd alerts, we give you it all. However, after some discussion, we’ve decided to bring you more of a “routine” regarding our posts. I’m sure we won’t always follow it, but it will be our guidelines. So now we bring this guide to you.
Mondays: Entertainment (movies, video games, tech, Weekend in Pictures)
Tuesdays and Thursdays: Related to food–recipes, suggestions, reviews, etc.
Wednesdays and Fridays: Related to fitness–workouts, reviews, advice, etc.
Saturdays and Sundays: Anything or nothing–we could post something random or not post anything at all!
Pretty simple, huh? I’m excited for this. I think it will be a lot of fun for us and for you. We will see how long we follow it and how much we can stick to it, but for now, I’m liking the plan. Hope you are all having a great Saturday. As always, stay hungry and fit!
*Question of the Day: What’s on your agenda for the weekend?
BONUS KITTY PIC
Our Weekend in Pictures
Our Weekend in Pictures
Work with Us!
Happy Tuesday (at least in Colorado)! We just wanted to send out a short post letting you know that we have (finally) put up our official “Work with Us” page. You can find it by clicking here. We wanted to write up an official page to make it easier for others to work with us and find us in order to establish opportunities and so forth. You will find our contact information and various options of what we are open to (anything from food to fitness to travel to nerdy stuff!). And besides…who wouldn’t want to work with us?!? (See below picture…yikes)
We also updated our “Contact Us” page where you can find every which way to contact or follow us be it instagram to email to YouTube. Click here to see that page. We would love to hear from you in whatever you have to say! We are all ears! So please stop by those pages and give it a looksie.
As per our workouts this week thus far, we have stayed pretty true! I did legs and went for my run and Chris was able to get his back workout in. Trying to keep up the good work! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
- Question of the Day: What did you workout Monday?
BONUS KITTY PIC
Happy 1st Birthday, Hungry and Fit!
Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us! Wow! We made it one whole year of posting and you actually listened to us that whole time! Starting and continuing this blog has been an absolutely treasure for us and we appreciate our followers so much for their support and willingness to try new things. I can’t believe a whole year of blogging has gone by already! Time flies when you’re busy and having fun.
We originally started this blog to share our food and fitness knowledge and to discuss our journey–all which we’ve done with flying colors I believe. When we first started this blog, we were broke and jobless–using the public library to get our blogging needs done. Now we’ve moved to a new apartment (bigger and nicer than previous), gotten several jobs and moved up the chain in those jobs, becoming directors and coordinators of departments.
We’ve been through some rough times and some great times and we’ve both grown in our first year here in Colorado. We’ve achieved great fitness goals and killer recipes. There was the point when we hit 1k followers, and now we’re up to 1,500! We’ve expanded a great deal with different social medias in our Hungry & Fit Nation. We’ve extended our services as personal trainers and become friends with other businesses. We get 400 views a day! Pretty good first year I’d say. And tons of “bonus kitty pics” (obviously the best part of our posts).
And let’s look at the very first post we wrote…”Welcome to Boulder“. Awww, isn’t that cute! It’s fun to look back and see our journey from Day 1 to where we are. Fresh out from college (me anyhow–Chris was one year out), living on our own, and creating a life together. Pretty exciting stuff to think about. We’ve now surpassed a half million views and we are ecstatic about how well our blog has taken off. We’ve gotten some attention from sponsors and ad agencies, but we do this for the love of creation and helping others. And we plan to keep it that way.
It’s a lot of work to blog every day (or so we try), but it’s something we think worth doing and we truly do enjoy it. You gotta do what you love and love what you do. But YOU guys help us keep going. So thank you so much for supporting us! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
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BONUS KITTY PIC
Facebook: Come Like Us!
Since the conception and foundation of Hungry & Fit, we have worked hard to expand our reach to more and more people through various ways. Although we are nowhere near content with our progress, we are excited to announce that our Facebook page is officially ready to go. It might be rather skeletal and boring but it’s another work in progress.
It’s similar to the Twitter and YouTube accounts that have not quite yet picked up as a result of our lack of effort. The YouTube is one that haunts me everyday since I have been on YouTube for so long. We are currently working with a start up company called NationBuilder in order to tie together all of our branches so that we can manage them together and keep things sync-ed. We also have our Bodyspace accounts on Bodybuilding.com but that’s less of a business related and more of a personal thing. All of this information can be found on our “Nation” page.
Facebook is an international social media entity that is a great way to stay in touch with individuals from all over the world. Although it is not a tool that we have personally used for the past three or four years, I still have my friends on it and have used it to spread the word about Hungry & Fit. So if you are on Facebook, please friend “King Tucci” in order to find out more about Hungry & Fit! Every and all likes towards our page will be appreciated and hopefully returned!
Keep an eye out for our YouTube channel’s latest additions and Facebook page if you are interested in staying hungry and fit!
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Fast & Furious 6 (Hungry’s Movie Reviews)
I will try to make this a review for all, although it will be difficult to do so since I am a huge fan of the series and have seen all of the previous 5 installments, most if not all in the theaters when they were released. Initially, I have really good feelings toward this picture, although if you haven’t seen any of the prequels then the story will not mean as much to you. Justin Lin returned to direct his fourth straight film while Chris Morgan wrote his fifth story for the franchise. This duo has done a tremendous job tying one movie into another and creating a true series, not just a run of sequels. Even though the franchise continues to grow in revenue, budget and Hollywood flair (big booms) it is still true to the originals that focus on street car racing and a love for cars and family.
A majority of the cast returns to reprise their roles and the series stands out in my mind by never replacing characters with new actors or actresses. Even minor roles like the one played my Eva Mendes in the second film is renewed with a cameo in the end of the fifth. I am obsessed with attention to detail in series such as these, so bringing characters back wins points in my book. Also, this movie has everything I need. A fitting but ridiculous soundtrack, a true villain, a set of heroes, ideals to explain and follow, romance, adventure, and more. It also has the Rock, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. I love action movies and these guys have been there for me since I was a teenager struggling to find myself. I am not saying that I necessarily use their characters as role models but I definitely pay great attention to them. The supporting cast is tremendous as well and my positive feelings towards the characters that have developed throughout the series brings constant laughs and smiles to my face throughout the movie.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
The standout moment of this movie came towards the end when they continued to advance this series. They finally brought the third film, Tokyo Drift, into the timeline seven years after its release. Tokyo Drift was truly an outcast but now it is right there, as a buffer in between the sixth and upcoming seventh film. Jason Statham looks to be the new villain, playing the brother of the villain in this sixth film. He seems to be out for revenge against Dom Toretto and he instigates a conflict by killing a member of Dom’s family. We all knew Han died in Tokyo Drift but now we know why and how. It is somewhat of a fitting death after the death of his girlfriend in the end of this film. That was definitely one of the sadder moments in the franchise but I’m sure it will be touched on in potential Han flashbacks in the next film. Unfortunately, Universal was greedy and wanted to film immediately so Lin and the Rock definitely won’t be returning.
Diesel, Walker, and Statham are the only confirmed stars for the next film and Morgan will be writing the story, thankfully. I cannot wait until July of 2014 to see where they go. In the end of Tokyo Drift, Dom returns to Tokyo and this is likely where the story will pick up. Killing a member of his family was a mistake that Ian Shaw (Statham) will regret making by the end of the next film. The theme of the series is strength in family and cars are merely a medium they use to explain that bond. Dom always does whatever it takes to maintain the bond within his family, especially take revenge.
All in all, it was a complex and fun film for fans but might have been nothing more than explosions and vroom vroom sounds for non-fans. Fit had only seen the previous prequel and gotten an in-depth explanation of the story from myself. She seemed to enjoy it since it was a fun and humorous adventure. She thought of it as Ocean’s Eleven in fast cars. I absolutely recommend seeing the previous movies (not Tokyo Drift… watch it after, I wish I knew what they were planning so I could have) before this one. I wouldn’t say it’s a must see in theaters although the effects are not bad. Definitely gets a thumbs up from Hungry due to my love for the series.
Drive safely in order to live hungry and fit!
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