Road Blocks

I know you have hit them as have I. You have been working so hard at the gym, eating all that gross healthy food and for what...your not seeing the results you want fast enough. Being healthy should be your first goal, you may not have rock hard abs right now but inside your body is changing and becoming that well oiled machine it should be. Your heart has less stress on it, your lungs are more open, and your digestive system is on point. Keep working hard and the inside results will start to show outside.

If your bored with your routine, get with a trainer for a session and let them expand your mind and refresh your workout. If you feel like you hit a plateu you need new routine to get those muscles out of that comfort zone and working hard again. Dont give up!!! Anything worth being proud of is going to take hard hard work, this could be 6 months or a few years until you hit those goals but I promise you, you can hit them! Its amazing what you can do once you stop making excuses and really apply youself so stop it and get it done.

Call me for a free first session, amazing rates after that to keep you focused and on the road to success. Dont ever think you are alone, we all get discouraged even me! But if you keep your eye on the prize I promise you, you will get there. Have a great weekend everyone, if you need some motivation, tips, encouragement, a pat on the back shoot me an email, text, or call 484 794 2902   jenkfitlife@yahoo.com     I'm here for ya! You guys make me proud and keep me doing what I love to do everyday :)

TRACK WORKOUT DO WORK STYLE!

Have you ever been in this scenario...Look at the clock Ahhhhhh its 8pm and you havent hit the gym yet. Here are your choices A: Get in the Car drive there do a workout thinking about how late it is B: Hit a local track or feild and enjoy the quiet of night while kicking your butt outdoors! Well last night around 9pm I opted for B and it felt great. Here is the workout I did, took about 30 min and was so relaxing. Try it out if you dare!!

Ran to the Track about 2 blocks (warm up)

In feild of the track

-Walking Lunges
-High Kick Walks
-Standard Pushups
-Wide Pushups
-Triangle Pushups
-Crunch with Flutter kick
-Plank UP*Downs
-Crunch with one elevated leg and twist

-Go Run one lap around the Track


Repeat this 4X and boom, you did an intense strength workout and ran a mile. CONGRATS!!!!

It was dark, no cars around, no people, no heat. Great workout, little time, enjoy nature. Try this out and let me know how it goes. I may make it a weekly thing if you want to come join feel free! Get out there today and make me and yourself proud, DO WORK!

Lets Talk Calves

Good morning! Did you know that you have two calve muscles that operate in two completely different ways? This means you cant train them in the same way...standing calf raises or seated alone will not cut it...you should incorporate both.

Gastrocnemius--> This is the one you see when you flex or lift. You use this muscle to stand, walk, run, and jump. Fast twitch muscle which means you need to hit this one hard. Very heavy weight Very low Reps. Thick heavy muscle, tires easily.

Exercise- Standing Calf Raises

Soleus--> This is your spring muscle, it supports old Gastrocnemius. This is a fast twitch muscle which is activated by medium weight and very high reps I like to go 25-30 on this one. Its a crazy burn but it works. This muscle gives you speed and power to make you explosive. This is the muscle that helps your legs not tire from walking, running, or jumping. Its a lighter muscle and doesnt wear out like the Gastro does.

Exercise-Seated Calf Raises

These can all be modified to be done at home, at the park, wherever you are...If you need tips let me know! Now go train those legs and hit the calves hard!

THIS COULD BE YOUR KID!

AMAZING WORKOUT KID

HEAT WARNING!

DO NOT WORKOUT/RUN/BIKE IN THIS EXTREME HEAT TODAY. ITS NOT WORTH IT AND YOU MAY EVEN BE DOING REVERSE WORK AND DAMAGING YOURSELF. STICK TO THE GYM OR YOUR HOUSE TODAY! FOLLOW THE BELOW WORKOUT AGAIN AND FEEL GOOD :)

30 MIN CIRCUIT YOU CAN DO ANYWHERE NO WEIGHTS NEEDED!

Here is a quick circuit you can do anywhere! Even on your lunch break in the office if you need to, maybe at the park while the kids play, anywhere! It will take you about 30 min to do try it out!

-Pushups (standard hands in line with shoulders)
-Wide Pushups on a chair, bench, etc. ( hands should be about foot from your shoulder width wise)
-Desk/bench/monkey bar/chair pull ups
-Desk/Bench/monkey bar chin/chair pull ups
-Tricep Dips
-Prisoner Squats
-Alternating Lunges
-Flutter Kick with a Crunch
-Plank up downs
-Standard Sit ups

Do each exercise for 1 min straight go around 3X and feel the burn! Great way to get a workout in a busy day with no equipment just your body. If you have any questions or need pics email me! Thanks everyone and have a great workout!!!  DO WORK!

YOU CAN TRAIN ANYWHERE!

Good morning/afternoon/evening World! Did you know that you can do a full body workout anywhere you like? NO GYM NO PROBLEM! Its true, it doesnt take much to get your body pumped up and that heart beating fast. Tonight I am going to head to the track and put together a little workout video to post online about how to do this. You can do this will all body weight but if you have some bands thats perfect! So check out my blog tomorrow I should have the video up and going. It will be a quick circuit incorporating full body movements followed by a mile track run. Stay tuned and keep moving! You guys are rockstars!

SLEEEEPPPPPPP....SO IMPORTANT

Its the one thing we all desire more of...sleep....there are just not enough hours in the day to sleep as long or as sound as we all would want. However, if you are trying to lose weight, get fit, etc. you need it! Make time for it, change your schedule and hit the hay check out this info below:

Sleep loss appears to do two things:

1. Makes you feel hungry even if you are full. Sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake.
   
2. Increases fat storage. Sleep loss may interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step into the development of diabetes.

Why would an overweight person tend to have sleep problems? There appear to be several reasons why this may occur:

• Many people who are overweight have sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing starts and stops during sleep, consequently causing numerous awakenings. This may occur hundreds of times a night, without your even knowing it. So you can imagine how sleepy you could feel the next day.
• Some who are overweight have low back pain, making lying comfortably in bed and getting a good night's sleep difficult.
• People who are depressed or otherwise worried about their weight may have insomnia, or the inability to fall asleep.

Losing weight can improve sleep. An Australian study of more than 300 obese people showed they had significant sleep problems that were reduced after weight loss surgery:

• 14% reported habitual snoring, down from 82%
• 2% had sleep apnea, down from 33%3)
• 4% had abnormal daytime sleepiness, down from 39%
• 2% reported poor sleep quality, down from 39%

It is also important to realize that the quality of sleep (that is, getting the right amount of "deep sleep") is just as important as the quantity of sleep. For example, decreased amounts of restorative deep or slow-wave sleep have been associated with significantly reduced levels of growth hormone, a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle during adulthood.

Sleep Tips to Help You Shape Up

Specialists recommend that people who vow to lose weight should adjust their sleep habits as well as their eating habits. The following are useful tips to help shape up.

• Don't go to bed feeling hungry, but don't eat a big meal right before bedtime.
• Exercise regularly, but no sooner than three hours before bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol in the late afternoon and evening.
• If you have trouble sleeping at night, don't nap during the day.
• Establish relaxing pre-sleep rituals, such as a warm bath or a few minutes of reading.
• Create a pleasant sleep environment. Make it as dark and quiet as possible.
• If you can't sleep, don't stay in bed fretting. After 30 minutes, go to another room and involve yourself in a relaxing activity until you feel sleepy.

If you have trouble sleeping for more than a few weeks, or if sleep problems interfere with daily functioning, speak with your doctor.

Fell Ill

Good morning Everyone! Sorry I havent posted in a few days I have been out sick. Im feeling better and will resume Monday :) Keep working hard and making me proud!

STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE WORKOUT

Good morning everyone! So as promised here is a routine categorized in the strength and endurance protocol discussed yesterday. This should be done 3-4 sets  15-20 reps with <30 sec rest in between. I like to do it as a circuit run through the entire thing three times instead of three times each individual exercise. DO WORK!

-Split Squat with a Side shoulder Raise

-Hamstring Jackknife one leg

-Box or Step jumps

-One Leg Chest Press Standing with band

-Lawnmower Back Rows with a kickback

-Bicep Curl to a Hammer curl again one leg

-Tricep Pull Downs

-Dips

-30 pushups

-30 one leg ground crunches

-Weighted Side bends (abs)

-30 second v sit hold

Do it all again!!!! This is an exercise you can do easily with a band anywhere you are…I do  this one at the park all the time its fun and people stare and make funny faces hahahaha. Try it out, you’ll feel amazing and look great too! If your not sweating your not doing it right. And as always this should be followed by at least 20 minutes of cardio. Let me know if you have any questions. Any questions about the exercises check out the link below  www.exrx.net awesome exercise instruction website with pics and vids or just ask me! Jenkfitlife@yahoo.com . I will not be posting tomorrow I am taking a day to go play outside in this beautiful weather but Thursday Ill be back with a Hypertrophy routine. Have a great one everyone!

-Jen

Fitness Plateu

We’ve all heard it before, I’m not getting the results I want why isn’t my workout working! What you have to understand is that your body is very smart and very adaptive. The more you punish it with the same routine its going to get used to it and program itself to that routine. The only way to see real results is to keep it on its toes by switching things up. Everyone from body builders to soccer moms have once hit a plateau in their routine. Your body works hard all day long to exude energy as well as store it, in other words it doesn’t want to lose weight.

 There are three different categories of exercise and its important to switch around to hit them all. We have Strength and Endurance which is your circuits, full body workouts, high cardio fat burning routine. Then we have hypertrophy which is simply muscle growth. Lastly Strength, this is the 1-5 rep heavy heavy weight routine to make you stronger. Ask your trainer to set up a routine and plan for you not just a workout once and done. Getting fit is a long journey its never going to happen over night or even in a week. You need to commit and understand what your getting into. Getting on the treadmill everyday for 40 minutes does not constitute a workout. You need to work your muscles in order to hit those goals and get good results.

Try that out and see how it goes, I will post a workout tomorrow based on the first exercise category on the list and then the others there after. Have a great Monday, start the week off strong and get moving!

Lets Talk Nutrition

How important is your diet in relation to reaching your fitness goals? Well, let me ask you this….how important is air in order to live? You can’t survive without air, and your goals are never going to be met unless your diet is on point as well. Keep a food journal for just 2-3 days, you will be amazed how many things add up and the little things that add fat and calories. I’m talking the cups of coffee or tea a day you drink, think of all the sugar and cream you put in. The mayo or ketchup on your sandwich, how often you reach for a handful of chips or wheat thins. These little things add up and heavily affect your success.

 The key is to eat foods that will keep you full for a longer period of time, foods that provide satiety. Oatmeal is my bff….best friend forever, this is a power food that has actually been proven to reduce belly fat. I am amazed every time I eat breakfast, my body immediately feels more energized and warmer! The fiber benefit alone should be reason to add this to your diet. Fiber contains only 1.5 to 2.5 calories per gram, while other carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram. Fiber-rich foods also necessitate more chewing and slow the passage of food through the digestive tract.

The fiber in carbohydrates helps prevent those peaks and valleys in blood sugar levels that can cause cravings and poor food choices. They also may stimulate a satiety hormone in the brain.

Carbs or no Carbs? Listen people you need carbs to survive, they provide most of your energy and without them you will be a zombie. Now there is a difference between good carbs and bad but don’t cut them completely. Try to avoid refined carbs (white bread, white rice, white pasta, sugar). Refined and simple carbs can wreak havoc on satiety (feeling of being full) by causing rises and falls in blood sugar triggering hunger every few hours.

Good Carbs: Veggies, Fruits, Oats, brown rice, yams, lentils, whole grain breads and pastas, potatoes.

Pre-workout is all about providing an energy source for your workout. While fatty acids can provide much of the required energy, once a certain intesity level is passed carbohydrates are required to provide the additional energy. If no carbohydrates are available, you release cortisol in order to break down protein (muscle) into glucose. Low GI carbs are a good choice pre-workout because they provide that energy source with less of an insulin response.

Post-workout is all about recovery. The faster you recover, the sooner you will be ready to workout again. Insulin is required for fast recovery as it allows carbohydrates, fats and protein to enter the individual muscle cells that are doing the work. Simple carbs at this time trigger the pancreas to release more insulin, especially if taken with protein.

A great website to use to monitor your food intake and calories used is myfitnesspal.com I use it all the time and recommend it to everyone.

Any Questions feel free to contact me. Jenkfitlife@yahoo.com, have a great weekend everyone!

SUPERMAN PLANKS AND OTHER ABS

Superman Planks. Very fun different workout for your abs, hits pretty much every muscle in your abdominals and also works on stability. The entire time your doing this exercise your body is fighting for control to keep you from tipping over. I would not try this if you’re a beginner it can be difficult and discouraging.

What your going to do is get in the normal plank position, hands flat, on your toes, belly sucked in, back flat. From here your going to extend your either right or left arm straight ahead. Next you want to elevate the opposite leg straight up in the air as high as you can keeping your back straight. Hold this pose for 30 seconds then rotate. This is a core killer and if your into trying new fun exercises you’ll love it! Here are two more ab exercises to complete this circuit.

-Super man Planks  (above)   3 sets 30 sec each side

-Weighted Crunch (hold a med ball, dumbbell, or plated weight over your abdomen while doing a crunch) 3 sets 30 reps

-Weighted Flutter Kicks ( lay on your back lift your legs 6 in off the ground, hold the weight above your abdomen, bring your shoulders off the ground, kick your legs slowly up and down) 3 sets 30 sec each

Have an awesome day, any questions please feel free to contact me. Also if you are interested in setting up a session with me I have some openings first one is free to try out we can discuss rates from there. I can guarantee compared to the area  you wont beat them!! Look forward to hearing from you.

-Jen

Its Summer...workout smart outside

Good morning World! So if your anything like me you love to run outside. The treadmill and the tv shows and the ladies gossiping at the gym get old. You want fresh air, cool breeze, and a nice trail to run on. Well thats all good and fine but it has been hot and humid! This can be extremely dangerous if you are not properly hydrating. Did you know that when you feel thirsty your already dehydrated? Dehydration can make your muscles cramp up and be sore longer, fatigued, and lethargic. Who would have thunk a few more bottles of water a day and youd be chipper and feeling great. Not to mention staying hydrated is better than any lotion for your skin out there.

How, why is water involved in fatigue?

Did you know that water is a nutrient, a source of energy, not just a carrier and metabolizer of nutrients?

It activates electrical and magnetic energy in our cells.

It is needed to extract energy from the food we eat.

It gives us the energy needed to move, think, concentrate. Dehydration could lead to "attention deficit disorder."

Reasons for fatigue when dehydrated

The 3 main effects of dehydration that contribute to dehydration fatigue and fatigue disorder:

*Dehydration reduces blood volume so less blood flows to vital organs and body parts.

*Dehydration of tissues slows enzymatic activity. Enzymes are vital for the production of energy.

*Dehydration of the brain leads quickly to the perception of fatigue.
Dehydration fatigue disorder may be nothing more than a symptom of chronic dehydration.

General fatigue, for no apparent reason, is a sign that you need to drink water. It's also a result of lifestyle imbalances that need to be addressed.

Drinking coffee as a substitute for water, which is quite common, is a good example.

For caffeine drinkers, more and more is needed to fire up cells, a job that should fall to water. The brain is especially needy when it comes to energy-producing substances.

Eventually, if cells dependent on caffeine, become too fatigued, there is never enough caffeine, leading to general fatigue disorder.

Fatigue after exercise

A certain amount of fatigue after exercise is normal

This section addresses over-fatigue to exercise and how to bounce back quicker.

Exercise leads to dehydration. The intensity of the workout, the level of hydration before, during and after the workout will help determine how quickly and completely you recover.

The problem with exercisers -

*Underestimate the effects of workout on hydration level.

*Misunderstand how drastic the effects of even mild dehydration are on the ability to workout.

*Underestimate how much water is being lost and drink too little to replace fluid loss.

A major reason for fatigue is the lost electrolytes in perspiration during exercise. The electrolytes lost include:

*Sodium

*Potassium

*Calcium

*Magnesium

*Chloride

*Bicarbonate

*Phosphate

*Sulphate

Briefly, research shows that there is 10% decrease in performance and work capacity for every 1% loss of body fluids. For more on dehydration fatigue and exercise, click here.

The following effects accompany water and electrolyte loss:

% Body weight lost as sweat---Physiological Effect

2%----------------------------Impaired performance

4%----------------------------Capacity for muscular work declines

5%----------------------------Heat exhaustion

7%----------------------------Hallucinations

10%---------------------------Circulatory collapse/heat stroke

More--------------------------Death