More than just Beauty Sleep
I always look forward getting my beauty sleep at the end of each day and I love naps. I’ve taken plenty of them, especially after a game or a tough training session. And although sometimes I plan to sleep for 30 minutes and end up sleeping for more than an hour and half, I always feel better. The power of sleeping and recovery is under appreciated and most athletes don’t even know what they’re missing out on. Like many of us, athletes face problems with sleep, ranging from having trouble falling asleep
How Difficult was that Exercise?
“On a scale ranging from 1 to 10, how difficult was that exercise?” That’s the most common question I ask throughout the day. From youth athletes looking to get stronger, to the athlete making the transition from high school to college, to the everyday man or woman just trying to improve their health in our fitness classes, that question will be always asked to help the person grow. Like everything else in life, we have to want to challenge ourselves and step out of our comfort bubble in order to truly improve.
Rebuilding Our Relationships with Food
Food. Food is delicious. Food is comforting. Food is fuel. Food is needed. Food connects us to others. It helps us stay connected with people, whether it’s family dinners, holiday celebrations or even a good night out with friends. Just as these relationships have an impact on our health, our relationship with food also plays a major role in our overall wellness. How often do you stop and really think about your relationship with what you’re consuming? Are you eating to live? Or do you live to eat? It can be hard to face and may be ignored by
Stop letting your core training go to waste!
Good form is always the most important thing in exercise. It’s more important than your range of motion, it’s more important than how much resistance you can use, and it’s more important than whether or not you finish all of your reps. If you can’t maintain proper form then an exercise becomes useless in the sense that it simply reinforces bad movement patterns. When someone doesn’t understand what an exercise should feel like and you tell them to move a body part from point A to point B, their body
Covid-19- The real problem, and the solution, may have been right in front of us all along
Let me start by saying that this should not be mistaken as an article telling you not to take Covid-19 seriously. People are dying and that should not be denied, nor minimized. Our nurses, doctors and first responders are putting their lives on the line against an invisible enemy every day. Our teachers and parents are doing their best to help a young generation build their educational foundation against all odds. Business owners are trying to figure out how to operate with the seemingly random and prohibitive rules created by
Injury Prevention: Why Do We Work on Single Leg Balance?
Successful single-leg balance can be defined as your ability to maintain upright body posture without having to step down or grab onto something. In more scientific terms, it refers to the ability of your central nervous system to keep the body’s center of mass within safe boundaries above the base of support (your foot) during or after perturbation. Perturbation is commonly defined as a disturbance of motion, course, arrangement, or state of equilibrium. Some examples of disturbances include an unstable surface, body contact with another athlete or an unexpected obstacle, or
3 Exercises for Improving Your Hip Hinge
In part one, we focused on the hip hinge as it relates to deadlifting and athletic performance. In part two I’m writing for the average gym goer; Those who aren’t young athletes, but want to reach a high level of fitness without getting hurt. To review, a hip hinge is the ability to move the hips without allowing the low back to flex along with it. The failure of the hips to move can often be the chief culprit for low back pain. We typically see tight hips in those
What Are Macronutrients and How Do You Count Them?
PART II – Calculating Your Daily Caloric Needs Calculating your unique macronutrient intake can be a challenging thing if you are not familiar with what to do and how to do it. It can be confusing, and it requires doing some math which a lot of people seem to dislike. But, don’t worry! I am going to walk you through it. The first step in counting your macronutrients is to find out how many calories you need to be consuming each day based on your activity level. Take a moment and write down your age, weight,
3 Exercises That Your Athlete Must Avoid At All Costs
When training an athlete of any level and age, the number one goal is to ensure that they don't get hurt. Whether it's on the field or in training, an injury that keeps an athlete off the field makes them less valuable to their team. Training to prevent injuries on the field is a little more complicated than avoiding training injuries because of the uncontrolled nature of competitive sports. The weight room however, is a controlled environment, and a controlled environment is a much easier place to prevent injuries. It
It’s more than a chore, it’s your life.
It’s more than a chore, it’s your life. It sounds super dramatic but movement and overall health are intertwined. Whether any of us like it or not, if we want to have a long and enjoyable life, we have to move. We all spend enough time in static seated positions like at our desks during work, behind the wheel while driving, or even on our couches watching Netflix. I bet if we calculated the time we spend sitting down all week we would all get a number that would scare us. Our