Energize Fitness Solutions

Oh, how I loathe that word, “toning.”  It is a combination of two different things.  Both maintaining (or even gaining) muscle while losing fat.  Muscles aren’t “toned”.  Muscles either get bigger or smaller.  There are no two ways around it.  If you want your muscles to show better, get rid of the fat on top of them.

For some reason, folks don’t always believe me when I tell them this.  I don’t know if people think I’m just trying to make their life harder and I’m holding some super-secret formula to make the big bucks.  I’m not driving a flashy car so let’s assume that I’m not lying to you.  If you still won’t believe me every time I run across another author saying the same thing, I’m going to post it.  Here’s one already this year:

http://www.bettermovement.org/2012/some-myths-about-toning/

I won’t lie, I love caffeine.  There’s a host of reasons, but I like feeling energized.

Science Blogs has a nice article about optimizing caffeine usage and also how to prevent/minimize it’s addiction.  Give it a read.  Definitely some good info in there if you’re a caffeine lover, like myself.

Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired

We’re in the “Diabetes Belt.”

Who would’ve thought that the good old country food that we’ve been eating for years was unhealthy for you.  Fried chicken, green beans cooked in bacon fat and desert of fried twinkies and elephant years.  Nah.  Surely that can’t be bad for you.  C’mon people.

Elite Fitness Training Systems (www.elitefts.com) has a wonderful series called “So You Think You Can Squat.”  It’s a fabulous video series that details learning how to squat.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen just some atrocious squatting (if you can even call it that) being done/taught in the gym.  This lays it out nice and easy and should be required viewing for anybody before getting in the squat rack.

This is for the Ladies!

This is an excellent article.  I can’t tell you how many times I have to convince women that lifting something heavy won’t make them big.  Hell, for that matter, men too.  ”I don’t want to get big.”  News flash, it won’t happen.  You have no idea the amount of time and dedication I’ve put in to look only slightly larger than most.  To get huge… ha!  Not happening.  Lifting heavy things does have a great impact on the body and produces a whole set of adaptive responses that will make you feel and look better.

Again, read and then re-read this article.  Please.

WebMD has a nice article up on diet sodas and weight gain.  It mentions that if you do a search for diet sodas and weight in popular web search engines that the returning hits all point to a couple poor studies that might lead one to believe that diet sodas have something to do with weight gain.

More than likely people are assuming (and you know what they say about assuming) that since they aren’t drinking any more calories that maybe they can get away with eating a few more calories.  Inevitably, the consumed calories are just too much.  Here’s a hint: it isn’t the calorie free drinks that are making you gain weight.

I spend countless hours scouring the internet for information. Mainly fitness related as this link is. I’m constantly harping on increasing protein intake for the majority of people. Post workout is no exception and is probably the most important. Want proof?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21092368?dopt=Abstract

This kind of combines a couple different things.  This is a series from diet guru Lyle McDonald that deals with his experience in volunteering at his local Animal Shelter.  I’m a big proponent of animal rescue and coming from a diet guy, it kind of ties in two subjects I spend a lot of time studying.

Part 1:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/miscellany/volunteering-at-the-austin-humane-shelter-part-1.html

Part 2:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/miscellany/volunteering-at-the-austin-humane-shelter-part-2.html

Part 3:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/miscellany/volunteering-at-the-austin-humane-shelter-part-3.html

He’s updating it with 2 more parts later this week.  Please read these and the upcoming ones.

Will.

It happens every year.  New Year’s resolutions come and go.  In the gym we see some that stick with it, others we see fade within a couple months.   What keeps people coming back?

Goals.  Specific goals.  You want to lose a little weight and get healthier.  That’s great, but how much weight do you want to lose?  When do you want to lose it by?

Ask yourself, where do you want to be in an month?  3 months?  A year?  Now that you know where you’re going, you can begin to map out the journey.