Last week, we released a new video on our YouTube channel. If you want, rather than reading this quick article, you can watch that video HERE. In the video, we talk about what trainers (and gyms) shouldn’t be showing on social media. Why?
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Win a MONTH of Coaching! (and save cats)
The pandemic is throwing a wrench, at the very least, in almost everyone’s life. Non-profit organizations, who are always strapped for resources, are especially hurting right now. Feral cats aren’t going to stop giving birth to kittens on the streets because of the coronavirus and Kitty Bungalow cannot stop saving the most at risk population of “domestic” animals. As a result, they’ve rolled out an amazing raffle to help raise funds to keep saving lives. We’ve teamed up with them to offer a training package that hasn’t been available for a long time. Find out more information by watching me talk about it HERE ON YOUTUBE.
Then, once you’re done with the video (or when you’ve heard enough). you can ENTER HERE and be a total hero for cats!
5 People to Follow for Quarantine Workouts
We know that it has probably been really challenging for you to adapt to major changes since this pandemic really took off. Some of us are more impacted than others, but most of our readers from major cities don’t have access to gyms because of mandated closures. That is, however, no excuse to let you goals and level of fitness fail. There are countless trainers out there, who can’t work right now, making amazing content for both their followers and the rest of the public. Here are a few that have been putting out amazing workouts with little to no equipment, for even longer than the quarantine.
Stop Being Ashamed of Your Cellulite
ATTENTION MOST WOMEN, SOME MEN: STOP BEING ASHAMED OF YOUR CELLULITE.
Our society has many body-shaming problems and a big one is cellulite. Yes, cellulite, that dimpling of the skin in fattier areas. Guess what, it doesn’t mean you have a bad body, are fat, or that you need to do anything about it. Women, mostly, are ashamed to have it, yet 90% of women have it! It’s yet another impossible societal standard that people are kept to. And guess what, it’s nearly impossible to remove because it’s so natural to how our cells are formed. I am so sick of people (especially women) being embarrassed of it. Perfectly fit people have it–I have it! 90% of women!
Is Body Fat Percentage Important?
Yesterday was a rest day, but it started with a relatively in-depth test called a DXA Scan. This seven minute x-ray gives you more detail about your body composition than calipers, scales and hand-held devices and while it costs $45, there are massive benefits to using it. While we generally don’t find it necessary to track every rep and count every calorie, measuring your progress and results are often crucial to success. When you consider someone who is extremely fit, you might think of an Olympic decathlete. Whether they’re throwing, jumping or running, the world’s best measure every inch and second, because that allows them to improve.
‘Measurables’ hold us accountable and therefore allow us to get better every single session. If you lifted 10 lbs for 10 reps one day with a certain technique, you wouldn’t necessarily be very happy if you used that same technique and only lifted 10 lbs for 9 reps the next time you performed. You’d want to either lift 11 lbs for 10 reps or 10 lbs for 11 reps, if you’re maintaining all of the other factors taken into consideration while exercising, such as rest intervals and technique based numbers such as eccentric/concentric timing, etc.
Lunch Break Meditation
Hooray! It’s lunch time! Or even if it’s not, hopefully you have some break throughout your day for a bite to eat and a breather. You might have five minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour. Use some of that time to nourish your body with filling, healthy food. On top of that, I’m challenging you to also nourish your soul with a lunch break meditation. The day’s event can sweep you up into a tide of stress and imbalance. Maybe you haven’t really taken a second to step back and catch your breath or allow your shoulders to lower from your ear lobes.
Whatever your day is–work or not–it’s important to take a break. And one of the most productive breaks you can take is a meditation break. It will refresh mind and body. You don’t need to sit in the middle of your office floor, legs crossed, shoes off, and be humming an ‘om.’ You just need a quiet place where you won’t be bothered for a few minutes. Maybe that’s your desk, a conference room, a table outside, even the bathroom. Find a spot. You don’t even have to be seated. If it’s loud around you and you can’t escape the sound, listen to some calming music. I have a “yoga” Spotify playlist that has some wonderfully soothing tracks (such as Home Again by Drala). Try to block out the outside noise, but don’t stress if you can’t. This will only take a few minutes, but try to give it your full attention.
Good Vibes Meditation
Life is this unruly, un-tamable, do-what-it-wants wild thing. It doesn’t really care how you feel, it does what it wants. Sometimes, it is great. Life is on your side, the birds are singing, you got your flow on, and you smile at the world. And then, well, life is moody, so it changes on you in a flash (whether that’s a death, break-up, job loss, or anything else). Where once the birds that sang to you now crap on you and it’s hard not to raise a fist to the world. We’ve learned (through much failure and struggle) that we can’t control life or what happens to us (to a certain degree), but we can change how we react to the world. I love this quote by Maya Angelou:
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.“
And that’s what we’re here to do today. Maybe life is treating you well, maybe you’re on life’s bad side right now, either way, it helps to spread some good energy. So let’s get going on a good vibes meditation.
Why I Train and How I Train
This is going to be a very bloggy blog… if that makes any sense. Sorry for the few days off; it has been a crazier-than-normal past week or so.
As you can see from the picture below, last week, I was “forced” into action when we were taking Noke for her morning walk. A genius couple decided to “tie” their 120+ lb Great Pyrenees to a ~15lb garden table that wasn’t anchored to anything, while they went inside together to get their morning coffee. The dog must’ve planned on greeting Noke, even though we tried to avoid her, and everything went downhill quickly from there. When the table hit the ground, Daisy (the huge white cloud of fur) ran and, thinking that the table was chasing her, wouldn’t stop. The male owner ran outside the coffee shop, freaked out and started chasing her.
Please consider that this is happening on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood (Los Angeles, California) so the chance that Daisy ran into the street and got hit (by a car) was extremely high. They had a 3-5 second head start before Fit gave me that look and told me I had to help. With my torn calf and handful of other injuries (I’ve only been doing PT and rehab exercises the past three months) I chased after Daisy and the table she was pulling down the sidewalk. It took about two seconds to pass her owner and caught up to her a few seconds after she turned onto a side street that leads up to the Hollywood Hills… phew! Unfortunately, the table provided a barrier between us and when I reached to grab her, I fell THROUGH THE TABLE and onto the concrete.
How to Measure Your Fitness
Hungry and I make goals every month in a few different categories: Personal, Hungry & Fit, Home, and Fun. This month, one of my personal goals was to create and follow a training program that would help me with the upcoming Tough Mudder we have in a month. Yeah, probably left it a little bit late to start training, but better late than never, right?! Well, as you know from being a loyal subscriber, we are both personal trainers. So in all rights, I could make myself a training plan–I’ve done it many times before. However, even trainers need trainers and I happen to be married to a pretty fantastic one. I whined about making one so he took a pad of paper and drew one up for me instead. Perks!
The first part of this training plan is measuring my fitness aka performing an assessment of sorts. Luckily, since I am a trainer and I know my away around a gym and loads of exercises, Hungry doesn’t have to stand over me and watch. It’s good to do this before and after a training program to test that program’s effectiveness. So if you’re gearing up to start a new training plan (perhaps from us), make sure to do this assessment first.
How Much Do You Bench?
Hungry talking here. We receive a lot of questions through our various platforms. While we’re most responsive to email and text/phone calls (as long as it isn’t blatant spam), we try to give as many personal responses to comments on the blog as well. Sometimes, Facebook Messenger, YouTube comments, Instagram direct messages, and Twitter whatever-they-haves (plus all of the other platforms… LinkedIn, etc.) are lost, and we apologize if you’ve never received a response.
Often, these questions are repetitive. That is, if you weren’t aware, one of the reasons that we created the blog. As we moved across the country, and left clients behind in the process, we decided to use the blog as a way to communicate with our former clients. When the blog picked up, and we started seeing tens of thousands of views in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, we decided to use the blog to provide free advice.