What can I do on a Sunday? Go for a walk with your pets in your local park! When you get there, find the playground and do some push ups using the equipment to raise yourself up a bit. Jog a bit with your pets, unless they are a lizard then they will be awful workout partners! 😀
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Don’t have time for 20 minutes? To put it into perspective 20 minutes is 1.3% of a day. You can totally spend 1.3% of your day taking care of yourself! Do it for you! You got this.
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…begins with never stop learning. When you stop learning, you say that you know everything there is to know. This will be the beginning of resentment of whatever it is you “know” everything about. Be willing, be observant, and most of all be open minded. You never know where or who you’ll learn from.
This is one of the easiest things to answer. Lifters document things for a variety of reason.
Now, I have no problem with you wanting to track things on your phone. There are a lot of great apps out there built just for this, but in my personal opinion writing things in a physical journal will benefit you in the long run. Why? Because you’ll be able to flip through the pages very quickly to see previous workouts as well as be able to document another important thing. For example, I lifted 185 on deadlift today. It was heavy, but not so much that I was completely dying. You can jot a note to the side that says to increase weight next time.
Paper beats digital every time!
Marley
There are so many conflicting articles out there about this subject! Which one is right for you?
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is a modest 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. The RDA is the amount of a nutrient you need to meet your basic nutritional requirements. In a sense, it’s the minimum amount you need to keep from getting sick — not the specific amount you are supposed to eat every day. – Harvard.edu
How do you figure out how much that is? Easy we can do some simple math to figure out how much you need to just not get sick.
First Multiply your weight by .453592. This will convert your weight from lbs to kgs. Then take that number and multiply it by .8. It is as simple as that. To not get sick your body needs this amount of protein to do basic repairs to your tissue.
Now for people who are active, it is recommended that you take in 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight! To top that if you are extremely active it is recommended that you take in 1.8 grams! This is from PopSugar.com. This is also to just maintain muscle mass.
On Bodybuilding.com, if you work in a sedentary job, but work out at a moderate level they recommend, for muscle gains, to consume approximately 2.3 grams per kg! That’s a ton of protein!!!! If you are even more active that number goes way up all the way to 2.8 grams. Here is the handy calculator I used on Bodybuilding.com.
Now before you start protesting that I’m insane, I want to remind you that we get protein from a variety of sources. It’s not just animal products that contain protein, grains like quinoa pack quite a bit of protein as well as the obvious nuts and beans.
My recommendation for how much protein to eat lines up with the studies used for my training with ASCM. I’ll include the pdf below.
To increase muscle mass in combination with physical activity, it is recommended that a person that lifts weights regularly or is training for a running or cycling event eat a range of 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, or 0.5 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Consequently, the same 75 kilogram individual should increase their protein intake to 75 grams (300 calories) to 128 grams (512 calories) in order to gain muscle mass. This level of intake can generally be met through diet alone and without additional protein and amino acid supplementation.
protein-intake-for-optimal-muscle-maintenance
Happy Exercising!
Marley
To anyone that follows me here on wordpress:
I will be transitioning soon to using my website as my primary blog. http://www.rpgfitnessks.com
We’ve all seen them, the workout plans in magazines used to promise us the same thing. Toned Arms in 30 Days! Get a Great Butt This Month! Flat Abs Before Summer! The amazing thing about the internet is you don’t have to buy the magazine anymore to get your hands on all sorts of these plans. Pinterest, the internet’s premiere website for quotes, crafts, and fitness window shopping. (You know it’s true!) Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest and use it quite a bit myself, but what I’d like to warn you about are the quick fix snake oil like workout plans that promise you something with a picture of flat abs or a sexy body. NOT ALL WORKOUTS ARE EQUAL! And more importantly NOT ALL WORKOUTS WILL WORK FOR YOU! “But why, Marley? Isn’t the point of me working out to get stronger and be able to do more?” Yes, but it’s at a pace that works for you. Don’t believe me? Check these out below.
What I love about the squats progression is it’s much more gentle in some ways, but this kind of progressive overload is still going to make things very difficult very quickly especially if you have knee issues.
I was online with the Focused Fire Team crew (shout out to my buddies there) and one of the hosts Justinsane0516 started asking me about fitness and how to gain weight. Seeing as I hadn’t actually done any articles about this I figured it would be a good time to start.
The Most Important Parts Of Building Muscle
Eight words: Eat quality food. Increase your protein. Train hard.
Those rules may seem obvious, but here’s the catch: the order they’re in matters. The fact that I stay lean eating sometimes more than 5,000 calories each day surprises people. But, the more muscle you have, the more you have to feed. The key is feeding your muscles consistently with high-quality fuel.
So what do my macros look like, you ask? As an economics major, you’d better believe I can tell you the numbers. But I’d prefer to tell you the priorities, because the way they break down for everyone is going to be different. Here are the three guiding principles that determine what goes on my plate: Balance meals around lean protein, Include nutrient-rich, low-glycemic carbs, Enjoy generous portions of healthy fats.
How to build muscle without adding fat. Bodybuilding.com Article by Hunter Labrada
Now I know what you are going to say, but I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder or maybe you do. My point is this the majority of your physique challenges has less to do with your calories consumed. It has everything to do with first and foremost the QUALITY of your food. If you 1000s of calories of crap your body will react like it’s crap. If you fuel yourself steadily (notice the new word, steadily) with good foods then you will begin to grow in strength. You still will need to workout (that’s what causes the stimulation for growth). Wait a minute…..
Let’s go into how the muscle actually grows/ gets stronger. There are two ways that we gain strength one) by neurologically becoming more efficient at the exercises and two) by breaking down the muscle through heavy lifting to create hypertrophy.
Type one: Neurological Efficiency
This can best be explained by the learning how to write analogy. When you were first learning how to write you were clumsy and didn’t write a lot. No dissertations at the age of 5. But, as you became more and more adept at writing your teacher would have you write more and more. “Practice makes perfect” remember? It’s this same idea the reason why we don’t continue to grip a pencil like it’s going to slide out of our hand if we move incorrectly is because of neurologically becoming more efficient. Our muscles know when to fire at the correct time to write our name and anything else we may want. It just takes practice.
Type Two: Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is created by making small micro-tears in the muscle. Yep, you are creating tiny injuries to force your body to rebuild stronger. Now this is a process. It doesn’t just happen by hurting yourself, that is not what I’m saying. The process goes like this: Create micro tears (by lifting nearly outside your limit), refuel the muscles (I’ll say why later), rest (oh thank god), then repeat. That’s it. Most people understand the workout and rest part of working out. Those are intuitive. “I lift heavy, therefore I’m sore, thus I must rest.” We get that. The key to actually gaining muscle is the second part of the process. Refueling. Anytime you are injured your body has to repair cells, this takes energy and more importantly certain chemicals (that’s a different blog post) to repair itself. If the body doesn’t have these things it takes one) longer to repair itself and two) it will take from other areas to repair itself.
Ok, I can go into more depth of that later, but for now, you’ve got the gist. Back to eating QUALITY, did I mention it has to be QUALITY, food. But first a word from our….
When a nerve impulse triggers a biochemical reaction within a muscle, Myosin molecules in thick muscle filaments stick to Actin molecules in thin muscle filaments and lock, pulling thick and thin muscle filaments together. When thousands of Myosin and Actin molecules lock and pull muscle filaments together, muscle is moved. Myosin does not release Actin until another molecule, a catalyst, comes along and grabs the Myosin molecules, forcing them to release Actin molecules. This catalyst is called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). Bodies make ATP using oxygen. Not only is oxygen important for nourishing cells in the body, oxygen is also responsible for muscle movement. In order for muscles to be built, the body needs protein. Protein is made of amino acids, so without protein and amino acids, the body could not build, repair, or even maintain muscle tissue. Protein also contains oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen. Having enough protein will put the body into an anabolic state, which allows the body to build muscle, and give it the oxygen it needs to move. When protein is eaten, hydrochloric acid from the stomach breaks it down into simpler forms, which the body has an easier time digesting. When muscles are strained, they rip a little bit. The broken down protein is then sent to the ripped muscle(s) and fills in the rips. The filling in of the rips causes the muscles to get bigger.
…nevermind. Ok so like the excerpt from chemistry is life says, you need amino acids, well more simply, protein. You need protein to repair the muscle.
Now you don’t eat only protein that will put your body into a ketonic state and that’s another article in the making. You need to have healthy carbs (not sugar) preferably low glycemic to provide energy. We can go into carbs and how the body uses them later…. man I’m getting a lot of article ideas from this. Then finally healthy fats, yes fats, to help keep the neurological system healthy. (all the articles)
Looks like I’m going to be busy for the next few weeks putting those articles together, but with this, I’ve got a decent start.
Changing your body in a healthy way can and most possibly will take a long time. Well, longer than you expect at least. This can seem really discouraging for those of us who are trying to be the change we want to be right now, but there are things you can do to make sure that you stay “hungry” for your transformation.
RPGFIT 