Join "The Trainers" Group on Facebook and get Cutting Edge Fitness Information

If you'd like to get the inside scoop on the most cutting edge fitness information (other than the Fitness411 blog of course!) available, then join "The Trainers" group on facebook.

I've invited some of the best trainers that I know from the Silicon Valley to join this group with the goal of all of us sharing as much training information as possible. And then it hit me, why limit it to trainers? Why not invite create an exclusive group for the IPF community so they can learn with us as well?
 
So I did, and the result is each week the trainers in the group post:
- articles we read
- the RSS feeds/blogs we follow
- books we like
- podcasts to listen to
- continuing education things we are reading/watching
- great DVD's
- topics for discussion
- we field any and all fitness questions that you've got

The group was put together with the goal of the IPF Community learning together, trainers and trainees alike. A foundation of fitness facts if you will.

Some of the info is pretty dry, and will help you cure insomnia, but some of it is pretty entertaining. Either way, join the group, and learn a ton about strength and conditioning from the biggest names in the industry.

After you join, ask as many questions as you can! We want some great discussions started!

• Email questions: thetrainers@groups.facebook.com
• Join the group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/thetrainers/

See you online!

Got Water?

Water makes up approximately makes up 60% of your body. Water! No wonder it’s so important to drink water. By drinking water you are keeping your body hydrated, allowing your body to function as it should. Drinking enough water throughout the day keeps your body hydrated, which does more for you than most people would think.

Our brain’s consist of at least 70% water. This water helps protect the brain, your very important spinal cord, and other sensitive tissues. Water acts like a cushion in our body. Not only does it protect our nervous system, but water also cushions our joints. The fluids (aka water) around your joints is what keeps them moving smoothly! 

And of course there are the obvious reasons to why our body needs water to keep going. Water is what moves the waste out of your body, it flushes the toxins out and eliminates the waste! 

Water is also what helps keep our body’s temperature regulated. Water helps keep our body cool, especially during hot days and intense exercises. Plus if you’re sweating during an intense work out, it’s going to be the water your drinking that keeps your body from losing too much liquid. 

I know, water is not the most exciting thing to drink. I personally don’t care for water at all unless it’s the middle of a hot summer day and I’m in the sun, or I just finished a tough work out, so I found a few tricks to make hydration more delicious. By adding a tiny bit of lemon juice to the water, the water automatically becomes even more refreshing, and has more of a taste to enjoy. And on days where I have time, by adding some strawberries, cucumbers, or mint to the water creates I sweet healthy way to drink water as well! I know not everyone needs this, but I find that with these tricks I usually double the amount of water I drink in a day!

When we don’t drink enough water throughout the day, or drink beverages with a dehydrating qualities (like coffee or soda) that water in our body begins to get used up, the percentage goes down, and we become dehydrated. Being dehydrated is not good! So make sure you keep drinking!

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Chrisi Keating

Santa Clara University

Communications Major

Increase your Metabolism

We all know that an increased metabolism leads to easier weight loss and makes it easier to keep weight off. Our metabolism is the process used to break down the foods we consume and produces the energy your body needs to make it through the day. By increasing our metabolism we are speeding up how quickly our body is breaking down the foods. The quicker the metabolism, the shorter the food sits in your body. Not everyone is lucky enough to be born with a great metabolism, for some people it does not matter what they eat or how much, their body will just burn it off. However for many of us in order to have a fast metabolism we need to do something in order to increase it.

The most obvious way to increase your metabolism of course is to increase your body’s need for energy. If your body needs energy it’s going to burn the food you have in your body and the fats you have saved up. You can increase your body’s energy needs by exercising! That was obvious, I know. But what you probably didn’t know is that the more muscular you are, the higher your metabolism will be. We are all constantly burning calories, and every pound of muscle in your body uses approximately six calories a day to sustain itself. The more muscles you have, the more calories are going to be burned to feed those muscles.

It’s hard to find time to exercise everyday. We all have other things we need to do, like go to work.. Thankfully exercise is not the only way to boost your metabolism, though it is one of the most effective! Adding some spice to your meals will help you boost your metabolism as well! Adding a few chili’s or something spicy to your meals will surprise your body and will speed up your heart rate causing your body to burn food faster to produce energy for your body.

Coffee! Believe it or not coffee can help boost your metabolism. The caffeine in coffee is believed to boost your metabolism up to 5% on any given day. Not only does coffee increase the metabolism, but it is believed to act as an appetite suppressant, saying that with coffee in your system you are less likely to have as big of an appetite as you would without the coffee. And for all those non coffee drinkers Green Tea revs up your metabolism as well as burns fat!

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Chrisi Keating

Santa Clara University

Communication Major

  

Easy ways to program a week at the gym

I was talking about this the other day with someone, and it actually turned out to be a useful use of words. So, without further ado, here are some easy ways to program a week at the gym.

If you organize it around upper body press, upper body pull and lower body it is a lot easier. For instance, for a three day a week program:

Day One
Push where you do two pushing exercises, one pull and one lower body

Day Two
Leg day with two leg exercises, one pull and one press

Day Three
Two pulling exercises, one press, one leg exercise

Two days a week:
Day 1 Legs (2) + pressing (2)
Day 2 Legs (2) + Pulling (2)

If you use body weight exercises for your "unloading movements" you can work in the core, and put together a killer workout that will get you in and out of the gym in 45-50 mins.

These books are pretty top notch in regards to programming, and can easily help you create a pretty solid program:

• "Power Training" by Kevin Dos Remedios
• As Always, "The New Rules of Lifting" series (5 books with a 6th on the way)
• If you are more experienced with your lifts, "Maximum Strength" by Eric Cressey 
• If you are an extremely experienced lifter and have PERFECT deadlift/hip hinge form, "5/3/1" by Jim Wendler is great. It is EXTREMELY ADVANCED, but really good if you need to break through training plateaus at a high level.

These eight books can easily fill an entire year of programming for strength training, and get you some killer strength gains. Enjoy!

Halloween Candy

Halloween is one of the hardest times of the year to avoid sugar!! Candy is literally everywhere; offices have bowls of candy corn out, teachers throw candy around for well answered questions, and chances are you have a big bowl of candy at home just sitting there waiting for trick or treaters to come by, just sitting there teasing you. How do you not grab a piece or two or ten? With that candy sitting there, just waiting to be handed out, it’s hard not to eat some. And then, the next day you’re faced with dilemma of what to do with the leftover candy that you still have sitting around, or the buckets of candy your kids brought back! It’s impossible to avoid the candy!

It’s hard to stay away from the candy, so the best thing to do is set guidelines! Make little rules for yourself when it comes to candy, or else you’ll find yourself halfway through the bucket of candy before you even realize it! 

By giving yourself a few simple guidelines it’s easy to stop yourself from indulging to much into all the sugar. Only choose the best treats and candies to eat! It’s easy to see candy and want to eat a piece even if you’re not necessarily a big fan of the sweet. Choose you’re favorite pieces, and stay away from the rest! Don’t waste yourself on the candy’s that you don’t even like! It’s an easy way to avoid the extra sugar you don’t need! We’ve all done it before, we’ll grab the candy that we see, even if we’ve had it in the past, and know we don’t care for it, we grab it anyway figuring it’s still candy. But there’s no point in eating candy you don’t like! Save your splurging for the candy you actually like!

Think about making room in your diet for some candy! You know that the Halloween candy is around and you’ll probably snack on some, so think about cutting out a different splurge you usually have! 

Halloween is the slow start into the holiday season’s so it’s good to start preparing. It’s candy now, but soon the pumpkin pies, gingerbread houses and Christmas cookies will be showing up so it’s good to prepare! If you’re trying to stick to a diet it’s good to remember to make some room in your diet for the sweets. Or make sure you pick and choose what sweets you want! There’s no reason adding some sweets into you’re diet should lead to over eating. Just make sure to stay balanced, having only sugary things in your diet never leads to any good….

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Chrisi Keating

Santa Clara University

Communications Major

Mac n Cheese

Ingredients

4 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1 1/2 pound squash)
4 cups of low- fat milk
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
9 ounces of cheddar cheese
1/4 cup (1 ounce)  of finely grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 pound uncooked your favorite pasta
1 head of cauliflower finely chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the squash, and milk, in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, being careful not to scorch the milk. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat.

Blend the milk and squash until its smooth. While it’s still hot, add in the 9 ounces of cheese.

Cook the pasta, with the cauliflower according to package directions, and drain well.

Combine the pasta and cauliflower mixture with the squash mixture, in a dutch oven.

Bake for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.