3-Exercise Workout You Can Do Anywhere

Alright, no excuses on this one, guys! We’ve been moving around a lot and traveling lately, so that means we don’t always have a steady gym or equipment to rely on. Instead of giving up or making an excuse about not having the right stuff, let’s adapt! That’s what humans are so good at, after all–we face adversity and adapt to overcome the challenge. Now, not having equipment may not be an extreme adversity, but it’s a challenge to overcome!

This workout is so simple you can do it anywhere: a hotel room, a park, a bedroom, or any place at all! All you need is a piece of ground long enough to fit your body and preferably a cushion of some sort like a mat, a blanket, and a towel. That’s it. Otherwise, it can be ANYWHERE. It’s going to be an epic muscle endurance workout. Ready? Here we go.

Jun292017

5 Health Benefits of Chiropractic Care

The spinal column, also known as the backbone, serves as the main support of our body’s skeletal structure. We can stand upright, move, bend, and twist, all thanks to the spinal column. But because it goes through so much, it can get injured and serious injury could drastically affect other functions of our body. This is why we need chiropractic care.

Pain is one of the ways in which our body is telling us that something is wrong. Back pain can result due to minor injuries as well as severe injuries to the spine. The absence of pain, however, does not immediately mean that you are healthy. But regardless of the cause, back pain can affect your body’s movement and prevent you from doing other activities. The good thing is that chiropractic care can relieve you of your back pain using a drug-free approach.

Here are five health benefits as to why you should get chiropractic care now:

Jun282017

How Does Exercise Impact Sleep?

Being in the fitness industry, we know how important sleep is for the body. Getting fit doesn’t just happen in the gym, it also happens at home in your bed. Recovery is a huge part of fitness and if you just work out with no recovery, you can only get so far. Your body needs to recover, rebuild muscle proteins, and get proper rest. Good recovery tools include foam rolling sore muscles, icing and heating, proper nutrition intake, massage, and SLEEP. Want to build muscle? Get a good night’s rest. Exercise and sleep affect each other.

We would like to share an awesome resource and article with you guys to underline our point of how sleep can help you get fitter. The scientists behind the Casper mattress created a sleep blog called Van Winkle’s to share their science, health, and cultural discoveries with health communities like ours. If you haven’t already heard of Van Winkle’s, you should check them out here. They recently posted this article “7 Things to Know About the Sleep-Exercise Connection.” Did you know the reason “why” you workout also contributes to your sleep quality? Who would have thunk it? See below. Check out the article and tell us if any of these points resonate with you. And as always, stay hungry and fit!

“In one study, participants who got the best sleep reported getting (a lot of) exercise from leisure activities. People who were active for other reasons, e.g., due to occupational demands, reported worse sleep, as did people who didn’t exercise at all.”

Jun202017

How to Convert Leftovers into a Masterpiece

So you’re sitting there thinking, how the heck am I going to make this leftover restaurant food taste good? First, don’t you dare put that fish in the microwave. Or those fries. In fact, I’d avoid the microwave when reheating leftovers (especially from take-out/delivery/etc) because it’s going to have an awful texture. Fried food won’t be crispy, just saturated in oil. Proteins won’t be juicy, just rubbery. No one wants to eat a tire.

While this might only be one recipe, it should inspire you think about what you can do with those leftovers to… make them even better than when you first had them. That’s our goal at home and my challenge every night. For this particular recipe, we had some spinach & artichoke dip from a crummy pizza delivery night, but we turned it into a fine dining experience. How? Here you are.

Jun182017

#8 Greatest Movie of All Time

We’re one more down in our incredible Top 10 Movies of All Time list with our superstar cast! This list may not be full of the most critically acclaimed movies, but it’s definitely full of loved movies. We all have different takes on what we like and that’s what keeps it interesting. Check out #9 and #10 if you missed them the previous weeks. Sit down and watch what we have in store for you this week!

Kai – “The Social Network”

Jun162017

TGIF Workout

Thank goodness it’s Friday! Another week has passed and I hope you have some fun (or relaxing) things planned this weekend. Get jazzed up! But you know what will make this weekend even better? A TGIF workout. Yep, you knew it was coming. No, it’s not just because we’re fitness freaks. Getting some exercise in before a weekend can make you feel so much better. We tend to get a little lax when it comes to eating over the weekend, so doing a workout beforehand can remove some guilt that may creep up. This one is for anywhere, you just need to find some type of hill! If you are using a treadmill, just put that incline up!

Jun082017

Meditation to Find Your Center

In this rough and tumble world, it can be exceedingly difficult to find grounding. Most of us live in an environment of stress where it feels like we are just bouncing along and unable to get a grip. The stress whips us up and it’s hard to find grounding and perspective. The tornado of stress is the center of our attention and everything else falls to the wayside. It feels turbulent, dangerous, and unsettling. There could be a myriad of factors that play into this: your work, your partner, your boss, family life, money, and so forth. Unfortunately, the list of stressors is a lengthy one.

I find that the meditation below helps calm the world around me down and reminds me that everything I need is already inside of me. I hope you find it useful.

Jun062017

KISS Workout!

No, this has nothing to do with the band or the action. And no, this isn’t a risqué workout to do with your partner (but you can totally do it with your partner!). If you’re a chef or a fitness person, the phrase KISS means… keep it simple, stupid. That is exactly the point of this workout and while we are going to give you an actual workout to do, this is more about considering an extremely different approach to your training sessions, no matter what your level of fitness is.

A handful of people in the gym will go on a piece of cardio equipment for an hour, a handful of others will perform 10-15 different exercise just for their biceps, and a handful of others will try whatever circuit they read about in a health magazine. Sure, there are tons of others as well, but here’s a different way of considering a workout.

Take some of the best exercises possible for a muscle group and focus on those few movements. Perform at least 4 working sets, which involve a high level of effort… warm-up sets don’t count towards that goal of 4. Push yourself by going heavy and hitting a high(er) rep range (8-12) and give yourself ample rest in between sets. This is a hybrid-style workout in some ways.

Jun012017

When to Prioritize Cardio & Strength Training to Fit Your Goals

It’s hard to know when to work out or even what to workout. Our goal is for you to be hungry and fit, and whatever we can do to take out less work and thinking for you, the better! Should you focus on cardio or strength training? How often for each? We want you to be able to dive into a plan of action without having to do too much studying up on something. This is why we are happy to share an awesome infographic with our friends from Health Perch to make it simple as possible to recognize your goals and go forth and achieve them. You can click on the actual article to find more sample workout weeks. Enjoy!

“When to Prioritize Resistance and Aerobic Training to Fit Your Goals” on Health Perch

May312017

Our 3 Favorite Breathing Techniques

If you’re a regular reader, you probably know we are fans of meditation. We may not be perfect at it, but we try every day to deepen, or at least continue, our practice. It helps us find focus, grounding, and perspective. When the world threatens to put everything on your shoulders, it helps to sit down and take a breather. It puts everything in perspective and reveals that all is not lost, that there’s still hope. It gives you some space from all the stresses and anguish that may be coming down on you. It also helps you realize that this is just a current mental state and that it is and always will be fluid.

To get into a meditation practice, it’s always a good idea to start with breathing. This helps calm the mind down and pushes it to focus on one thing: your breath. Below are our three favorite breathing techniques to clear the mind: