My 5 Most-Effective Ways to Avoid Weight Gain this Holiday Season...and Beyond: Tip #2

Today's Tip:

Ramp up the metabolic resistance workouts and ease up on the cardio

Metabolic resistance training (MRT) is a type of training protocol where you perform a series of resistance-training exercises for reps or for time, resting as little as possible. MRT is an effective way to burn fat while simultaneously building muscle to improve body composition and overall work capacity. Because you are resting very little and moving either your bodyweight or some external weight, MRT leaves you breathless. This is the idea: you should be gasping for air.

MRT can be performed on its own for a short, effective workout, or you can add a session onto the tail-end of a lifting workout as a potent finisher. When you perform MRT, your aim should be to get as sweaty as possible and work as hard as possible. You get the benefits of cardio via the heart-pumping pace of the workout, and spend much less time to achieve the desired effect.

This is me completing an MRT circuit of ME (max effort)
box dips & OH squats

By cutting back on cardio, you will experience fewer negative effects like exercise-induced cravings and hunger. You'll also find that you need fewer calories to get through your workouts because they're shorter, so you'll naturally be less hungry throughout the day. When you improve the ratio of body fat to lean muscle tissue, you will increase your resting metabolic rate so you burn more calories throughout the day. Plus the increased ratio of lean muscle mass to body fat means that your body can withstand a few extra calories here and there without any discernible negative physique changes.

Stay tuned for the next tip! It's going to be a good one!!!

My 5 Most-Effective Ways to Avoid Weight Gain this Holiday Season...and Beyond: Tip #1

Happy Monday, ya'll!

I hope you had a great weekend. I spent mine coaching bootcamp, meeting with clients, revisiting the American Museum of Natural History and buying and decorating my first Christmas tree! I say first because I've never had one in my own apartment before. Since I go back to Maine for the holidays, I've always just waited until my Christmas vacation to trim the family tree. It's a nice tradition: the adult children coming back to decorate the tree and listen to Christmas tunes. I realized that the only drawback is that I end up suspending my full holiday immersion: it's like I can't fully embrace the season until I get back to Maine. Because I'm eager to get into the spirit a little earlier this year, I bought my own little Charlie Brown-style tree which I'm in the process of decorating with red lights and hand-strung garland. My hope is that this little tree, along with the smell of pine, gets me into the holiday mood (and hopefully motivates me to finish my shopping!).

Want to know what doesn't need to be motivated to get into the holiday spirit? My stomach, LOL. This time of year is like an endless smorgasbord, and I'm sure you can relate when I say that it can be hard--like really hard--to stick to our healthy-eating goals.

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But if you know me you know that I love a challenge, which is why I am not only aiming to maintain this holiday season, but lose a little extra fat. Don't misinterpret this, though!: I am not passing any judgement on myself for "letting myself go," or making this out to mean anything other than what it is. I'm a wee bit softer than I prefer to be right now, and that's it. No guilt, no shame, no judgment, just a fact.

To help me shed this holiday season, I'm employing some of my most helpful strategies to avoid holiday weight gain by actually putting the seasonal indulgences to work for me. These tips have helped me to lean out, stay energized, and avoid any crazy, neurotic behavior that's derailed past efforts. Over the next couple of days, I'll share with you my most effective tips 'n' tricks for healthy fat loss that you can use any time of year. Whether it's spring time and you wanna shed a little fat before hitting the beach, or the holidays when food is abundant and willpower is at a minimum, these strategies will get you on track without diminishing from your quality of life!

Today's Tip:

Structure your indulgences around your workouts

Carbs are often vilified in the fitness industry, but when it comes to making gains in your training, carbs are your friend. Consumed prior to a workout, they'll provide energy to get you through those long lifting sessions or killer metcon workouts. You'll lift heavier, jump higher, sprint faster, and perform better when your body has that immediate source of energy at its disposal.

Consequently, after a heavy workout, our bodies tend to be more glycogen-depleted we deplete our glycogen stores. Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrates, and it is the primary form of energy that your body accesses in order to perform. Intense exercise vastly diminishes these reserves. When glycogen stores are in this depleted state, you can afford to eat more carbs because your blood sugar levels won't rise as fast or as high, so you're not going to experience that damaging insulin spike. In fact, post-workout nutrition can help to optimize the release of insulin and human growth hormone to help promote muscle synthesis.

Some articles on this topic get into the minutiae of post-workout feeding, arguing that a high-glycemic carb source paired with a fast-acting protein (like whey protein isolate) will most effectively promote muscle synthesis post-workout. I'm sure there's an ideal ratio to best exploit the glycogen-depleted state, but I'm a firm believer in both feeding my muscles and appealing to my palate. If I can sneak in some of my favorite foods and mitigate their effects, I'm not going to worry too much about the macronutrient make up of my post-workout. In other words, #justfeedmecarbs

In conclusion, there are a couple of ways to strategically indulge over the holidays to both avoid weight gain and even lose some fat. By structuring your treats around your heavy workouts, you benefit by either increasing the stores of energy accessible to you during your training session or taking advantage of a state of glycogen-depletion where a heavier meal won't hinder your fat loss efforts, and may in fact spur muscle growth and protein synthesis! 

just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there!--object permanence as metaphor for establishing a healthy mindset

Until about four months of age, babies' cognitive development is lacking such that they can't recognize that just because they do not see an object doesn't mean it no longer exists. In other words, when you show an infant a stuffed animal and then place it out of view, that object all of fails to exist in the baby's mind: it's as if it never was. As the child's cognitive abilities develop further, she begins to display what psychologists call object permanence, or the child's capacity to understand that the object still exists even though she cannot see it. This is the stage at which the child would look around in search of the missing object because she recognizes that it's been obscured, not destroyed. 

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The Important Lessons I've Learned as a Reformed Fitness Infomercial Junkie

Recently while training a client in her living room, I caught the majority of an infomercial for a popular workout method. I won't name-names, but suffice it to say that the fitness personality behind the product is well-known in the industry and has her name behind many other workout programs and products.

While watching this infomercial, I had a couple of thoughts: 1) The people who produce these infomercials have the delivery down to a science; and 2) Wow, I totally used to fall for this, hook, line, and sinker! It's true, I'll admit it: at one point in my life, I was a fitness-infomercial product junkie. I fell for all the hype, believed all the wild claims, and bought into the amazing transformation stories. I remember the emotional highs I would experience when I watched these infomercials and saw what I thought were the faces of people who were fundamentally transformed by their experience with this or that program: to be blunt, I was gullible and every marketer's dream. 

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Not long ago, I was in Maine visiting my parents and going through old boxes of my stuff. I came across my collection of informercial purchases, including:

1) Billy Blanks' Tae Bo-->

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2) Mari Windsor's Pilates-->

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3) Greer Childers' Body Flex-->

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I remember distinctly being totally loca for these programs: I'd watch the infomercial over and over again. I don't know how I convinced my parents to allow me to order all these videos, but in their defense, I'm sure it pleased them that I was more interested in working out in our basement than engaging in other, less savory activities! 

In retrospect, the anticipation of waiting for the videos to arrive and unwrapping them was more exciting than actually working out to them, ha! This was especially true of the Body Flex videos which promised a leaner, healthier physique by performing various breathing techniques. I'll never forget one called Lion's Breath: the sound that she instructed us to make was a cross between a wheezing bulldog and a cat in the midst of coughing up a hair ball. This was supposed to make me lose weight!!! I can't help but laugh now! 

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I remember being really jazzed about the workouts for several weeks or months, and then my interest would eventually wane. After all, who could stay motivated by a video that promised great results by making sounds like a dying animal?!? Now, it's much easier to say that it's no wonder my efforts failed since they were built on the unrealistic premise that my results would we swift and informativeness. However, back in the day, I was quick to blame my lack of results on myself: my lack of discipline meant that I was an intrinsic failure. As a result, I continued to look at and be seduced by infomercials, perpetually in search of the one that would "work" for me. This was a self-fulfilling cycle which only served to keep me dependent on the external as the means of achieving my goals, and if you been reading the blog for awhile, you know how that turns out. 

The Unconventional Inspiration that Changed My Mind About Women and Weightlifting & Boosted My Self-Confidence x100000

Several years ago when I decided that it was time to get myself "in shape," I, like many other women, assumed that more cardio would help me achieve my goals. I eschewed lifting weights because I didn't want to "get bulky." I thought, incorrectly, that lifting weights would made me gain weight and develop an unsightly jawline or some other equally-masculine and unfavorable attribute. 

How I used to think weight training would make me look...[Source]

Ha, I have to LOL just thinking about it. 

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It also never occurred to me that what I ate could make or break my success to such a dramatic extent. I assumed that as long as I "burned off all the calories" I ate, I wouldn't have to give anything up. So I didn't. But I also didn't account for the way my excessive cardio habit would make me crave carbs constantly; experience intense and persistent cravings; and experience such extremely low-lows and high-highs in my energy. I never could have predicted all the nagging injuries that would plague me when I was running 15-20 miles per week (go figure), or how much the cycle would affect my self-esteem and body confidence. Plain and simply, I had very limited amounts of both and normal, everyday interactions with others would often send me into a tailspin of self-doubt. 

After I run, I wanted ALL THE FOODS! [Source]

It was so hard for me to see it then, but what I was doing wasn't working--for my health, my psyche, or my waistline! If you can relate to this at all, here's my advice to you: if what you're doing isn't working, it's time to reassess. For me, this mean reevaluating my workouts first: endurance running just wasn't getting me the results I was after, so I started strength training more earnestly. Of course, everyone is different, so if you're happy with your exercise regimen and it happens to involve a lot of running, more power to you and keep rockin' the  miles. If you like how you look as an endurance athlete and your physique leaves nothing to be desired, GO YOU! That's amazing! If you manage your cravings and your energy levels aren't all over the place, and nothing about how you feel physically seems off, you are doing something right and I commend you.

#truthbomb [Source]

However, if this does not describe you, take it from me: there is another--heck, there are many other!-- way to do fitness. If you're scared to try something new because of what you've heard, or what you've read, or what worked for your friend or your cousin or your neighbor, think about how much scarier it would be to be in the exact same place years from now than it would to just try some other way. Seriously, no one's holding a gun to your head--if you hate it, you can always go back to the old way; it will be there for you. I'm giving you the advice that I wish someone had given me or I'd encountered when I was really struggling because I was sososo reluctant to try anything different. I was scared because my self-esteem was so low that I actually didn't think that I deserved to feel better about myself, either physically or emotionally. I thought it was cross to bear, when in reality I deserve to be as happy, confident, and at peace with myself as anyone else does...

AND SO DO YOU. 

Forget What Your Doctor Told You: Reducing Your Sodium Intake Alone Won't Cure Your Hypertension

At 23, I was diagnosed with hypertension. My doctor prescribed meds, and advised me to lose weight if I wanted to avoid any further health complications, including preeclampsia if I ever got pregnant. 

She also told me to curb my salt intake.

It's well-intentioned, but this "scare-tactic" propaganda does
more harm than good

Obviously, this diagnosis was heartbreaking for someone as young as I was. I immediately adopted a strict "low-sodium" diet and a rigorous distance running schedule, thinking that this would surely help me drop some unwanted lbs and control my blood pressure. The problem was that the excessive cardio ballooned my appetite, made me crave carbs and other sugary, processed treats, and tanked my metabolism. Despite my best efforts to be conscientious about my sodium intake, my blood pressure remained high. I would experiment and go off my medication for several weeks at a time to prove to myself that I could control my blood pressure, but I kept getting consistently high readings. I was so frustrated. 

How I felt...

and how I looked. The photo on the left is June 2009;
the photo on the right is August/September 2015. I am now
healthier, happier, and medication-free!

Fast forward a few years, and I've transformed my body, my mind, and my health prognosis! I ditched cardio in favor of heavy weight training and body weight exercises to improve my athleticism; I cleaned up my diet and eliminated most processed food, while simultaneously working on my mindset to get at the real reasons why I turn to food when I feel emotionally-vulnerable. It's a journey of constant self-discovery and it's wonderful!

Novelty is Seductive, but it can be Detrimental: Tips to Get Your Health Priorities Straight and Avoid the "Shiny Objects"

Last week, I was having a conversation over lunch with a co-worker. He's over 50, and was lamenting how a lot of his friends his age aren't able to join him in the active pursuits he enjoys because they're in poor health. My coworker is in great shape, works out often and eats a healthy diet. He said that his friends frequently complain about their health issues, and as much as they talk about their desire to "do something about it," their efforts never seem to stick. He said that they often get seduced by the marketing for one health product or another and convince themselves that this will be the thing that finally inspires them to get in shape. Then in a few months after the novelty wears off, they're back where they started. 

Fitbits definitely LOOK cool, but ask yourself, for yourself:
Are they a tool or a distraction

He explained that most recently, the novelty was the FitBit. Several of them were immediately attracted to its sleekness, utility and ease-of-use. They were so die-hard that they actually convinced him that he "had" to get one because he works out a lot and would love all the features. Their enthusiasm rubbed off on him and he said he was on the FitBit wagon...

...And then it dawned on him a few days later: he doesn't need an inanimate object to beep or buzz on his wrist to motivate him to move, walk or exercise more. He doesn't need any fancy technology to give him feedback about his habits. His motivation to workout and eat healthily is intrinsic: it's just what he does. 

More likely than not, we've all been where my coworker's friends are. We've all operated under the pretense that the solution to our health problems is external to us. There is something alluring about the "hot new program" or solution or product: I call this the "Shiny Object Theory." Novelty is alluring and seductive. We're hard-wired to seek it out,  which is why infomercial health products and programs sell so well: they're marketing to us a dream, a vision of a different reality in which we are happier, thinner, healthier, and better-looking. All we have to do is buy the product.

No caption needed :-)

I know I don't have to, but I'm going to tell you right now that there is no product out there that is a proxy for the mental and physical work it takes to achieve sustainable weight loss and better health. There are products out there that will enhance your efforts and make the process more fun, but when all is said and done, they are distractions. They will not help you overcome emotional eating; they won't help you learn how to assess your hunger, energy and cravings so that you're less likely to binge at night; and they won't hold you accountable to your goals: that has to come from within. 

It's hard to have the courage to try another way to her healthy that is devoid of "shiny objects": I certainly know this from experience, and have an expensive heart rate monitor that's collecting dust on my shelf to prove it! My costly gadget kept me entertained for a few months, but the work I've done internally has done more to sustain my results than any device or program or 30-Day Challenge. 

So sleek, so shiny, so...wait, why did I buy this?

In my opinion, your hard-earned money that could be spent on the newest "shiny object" is better saved, and your energy allocated to figuring out the deeper whys: Why do you want to be healthier? Why have you struggled so much up to this point? Why is it so hard for you to stay motivated? Give yourself permission to save a few dollars on that new gadget and invest it in yourself: buy a journal and start writing down three things each day for which you are grateful. Not only will this give you a more positive outlook, but gratitude has been linked to a better immune system and improved heart rate variability which may reduce the risks of sudden death in those with chronic heart disease, and may be beneficial in the treatment of hypertension [Scientific proof that gratitude is healthy!]. A journal is also a great way to start playing detective: you can keep track of your hunger, energy levels and cravings and the situations that trigger you to eat or drink certain things. This biofeedback is essential if you want to break the cycle of binge-or-emotional eating, improve portion control, and get the most out of your workouts. Journaling about what makes you unique and what you love about yourself is also a great tool to shift your mindset from a place of unworthiness to a place of fundamental worthiness. It will help you to acknowledge all the wonderful things about you that deserve recognition beyond your weight. And that, my friends, is going to assure you greater long-term success with your health goals than any "shiny object," I promise!

Your Body Is Your House: Build A Strong Foundation

I love the gym. 

It’s a sanctuary for me, a place where I can go and hit ‘pause’ on whatever may be bothering me that day. When I’m in the presence of the iron, nothing else seems to matter except the pursuit of strength, but strength that is two-fold: strength of body and strength of spirit. What’s so amazing about strength training is the transformative effect it can have on other parts of our lives. I’ve spoken to many people, women specifically, who talk about how getting stronger physically helped them become stronger mentally, feel more capable, and experience more confidence both inside and outside the gym than ever before.

I can certainly attest to this fact. Strength training helped me discover my passion for fitness, and realize my desire to make a career out of it. The strength I’ve built in the gym helped me develop the confidence to try all kinds of techniques and methods, including power-and-Olympic lifting; barbells; kettlebells; and more. I’m more willing to try exercises and lifts that intimidated me before, and I approach challenges with enthusiasm and curiosity.

Most significantly, however, is what strength training has done to connect me to my body. Of course I love the aesthetic results of my efforts, but I feel more attuned to my body now than ever before. Now, I desire to work with my body, not against it: I train because I love what my body can do, not because I resent it for not looking a particular way. Strength training brought me to terms with my body, by which I mean that it has given me a renewed appreciation for everything it can currently do, as well what it will be capable of in the future as long as I train intuitively and listen to its needs.

One aspect of this is listening to my body’s cues about how it wants to move, which lately I've interpreted as “simply.” As much as I love all the gym “toys,” trying new techniques, and practicing the heavy barbell lifts, my body craves the fundamentals. It desires a more stripped-down version of traditional strength training that revolves around bodyweight movements that, while simple, are not easy and never boring.

5 Travel-Friendly Workouts for Summer Vacation!

August is a great month, wouldn't you agree?! It's finally hot enough for beach days, and it's the unofficial "getaway" month when most of use our accrued vacation days to do just that! Yes, ladies and gentleman, August is the height of the summer travel season for most Americans. Now through Labor Day, families pile into the minivan to go and visit loved ones; groups of twenty-somethings rent a car and go cross country; and single folks like yours truly go back to their hometown to spend some good, old-fashioned bonding time with the folks!!!

Now, don't get me wrong: I am psyched to be spending the following 2+ weeks in Maine. How lucky am I that my parents still reside in arguably the most beautiful, pristine, and unadulterated state in the country? People flock from all over to visit Maine in the summer--to eat our lobster, swim in our rivers and lakes, hikes our trails, and pick our berries. After all, it isn't nicknamed "Vactionland" for nothing :-)

Sure, I'll be taking advantage of the myriad summer activities that my home state has to offer when I'm there this summer. I'll also be sure to get plenty of R&R because those two Rs are key components to a sustainable healthy lifestyle, and keep me motivated and committed to my fitness goals. You can't just go hard all the time and expect to progress without building in time for recovery! That being said, I will not use my vacation as an excuse to give up on my fitness efforts. Sure, I may not have access to a full gym whenever I want, but there are alternatives--lots of them!

To be honest with you, I kind of get excited when I travel because it's like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" scenario: you never know what you're going to encounter in terms of equipment, space, or time, which means you get to be super-creative and do things you may not normally do! I'm not suggesting to your that you fly by the seat of your pants--at least not entirely!!--when it comes to travel-and-vacation fitness endeavors. But getting in daily movement outside of your regular environment doesn't have to be anxiety-inducing, and can be quite fun and sweaty!

I've said before on this blog how much I enjoy cycling through the conditioning workouts from Jen Sinkler's Lift Weights Faster and Lift Weights Faster II workout libraries: they're both a God-send when I travel because they're organized by 1) available equipment, and 2) time, so I can always find something to do that gets me sweaty and feeling super-strong, in the time that I have, with the equipment (or lack thereof) available to me. It's a win-win-win!!!!

Borrowing from Ms. Sinkler for inspiration, I've created a few conditioning workouts for my summer travel arsenal that I'm so happy to share with you! 3 of the 5 workouts require nothing but your bodyweight and you can do them anywhere, including the comfort of your own hotel/motel room. Another requires nothing more than your own body and a moderate flight of stairs! So what're you waiting for?! Pick a workout, give it a spin, and let me know what you thought on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

6 Reasons Why YOU (and you and you and you) Should Squat!!!

I love to squat; that's a fact. I also love to talk about squatting because I think that everyone--yep, everyone--should be squatting in one form or another for their greater health. While there may not be one single best exercise, the squat comes pretty close (even the NYTimes agrees) because it is a total-body exercise that can build both core-and-lower-body strength; develop lower-body speed and power, improve balance; reduce lower-extremity joint pain; increase bone density; and improve libido. What other exercise can do all of that?!

Everyone can benefit from including squats in their resistance training program, but not everyone should be squatting from the same position. Not everyone is going to be able to squat "ass to grass," nor should they. When it comes to squatting, much like any other exercise, you should follow the advice of the late, great Arthur Ashe: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

Anyone--and everyone!--can squat!

In addition to the reasons listed above, the squat is great because it is accessible to all and there are innumerable variations. This means that as long as you're creative, you'll never get bored with the squat!

Some squat modifications and progressions!

Beyond infinite progressions--and the fact that squatting just makes you a total badass--here are some of the other fantabulous benefits of squatting:

• Your Core Musculature Will Be Stronger: When most folks think of the core, they think of the abs. However, the core is actually comprised of your entire trunk, i.e. everything except your arms and your legs:

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You recruit your core to initiate nearly every movement, so having a strong core is key to moving well and pain-free. When you squat, you engage the core to stabilize your trunk through your available range of motion. Core engagement keeps your pelvis in a neutral position throughout the movement so that you don't dip into the lumbar spine, increasing the risk of low-back injury. In this strong, engaged position, your joints remain properly aligned, the ideal position from which to transfer and generate force. In other words, a strong core will increase your rate of force production in both static and dynamic positions so you'll feel stronger performing activities ranging from Olympic lifts to reaching for a can in the back of the pantry.

You're Not Strong For a Woman...You're Just Plain Strong

Physical strength and feats of athleticism have long been measures of a group's position in the social hierarchy. To conquer the weak one must be mighty, and to be mighty is to be strong. From the ancient Roman and Greek games to the Olympic games, major sports, etc., societies have defined themselves by the strength of their inhabitants who, by being strong, foster pride. Strength as a metaphor establishes and reinforces cultural identity and justifies the subjugation of those who are not as strong, through war or other versions of cultural slavery.

We've come a long way, baby! (At least in terms of
clothing and footwear!)

To an extent, these ideas about strength persist to this day. Athletes are idols to millions, and are often lauded to a point of being above the law; people spend billions to attend and watching sporting events year-round; modern-day Olympic medalists are heroes who bring glory to their countries like warriors of the ancient world. In this world, winning is everything and to win, you not only have the be the best but the strongest.

This way of thinking is short-sighted at best, and dangerous at worst. It becomes dangerous when it's used to justify foreign wars, conflicts, and acts of terrorism. It's short-sighted because it does not take into consideration that there are several different types of strength, an act that reinforces gender stereotypes and establishes very narrow parameters within which to be a woman in modern society.

When strong=best, it follows that stronger=better. Historically, men have placed themselves in a position of power over women because they believed they were stronger than women physically as well as emotionally. From ancient civilizations through the present day, men have justified the subjugation of women because of their perceived weakness. This mentality established a division of the sexes along several lines, many of which are deeply entrenched and pervasiveness that they are commonly accepted as fact.

One of these lines that divides the sexes is in terms of physical strength and the perception of such. Society dictates how women "should" look in order to fit a certain prescribed version of femininity: women shouldn't be too strong, nor should they appear so physically. Women who don't fit this narrow definition are often ridiculed, gawked at, questioned, gossiped about, written about, analyzed, threatened, or worse. Far too often, women in modern society are judged because of how they choose to look, act, and train.

Amen!

It's a sorry state of affairs, but things are changing. These days, more than any other time in history, women are being recognized: not for being strong for a woman, but for being strong, period.  Many women are doing their part--as are sports like CrossFit, powerlifting, and Olympic lifting--to change the narrow definition of what strong looks like:

• Marisa Inda is an accomplished body builder, figure competitor, powerlifter, and overall badass. Her complex and gravity-defying feats of upper-body strength on the pull-up bar caught the attention of the producers of the show Ellen, who had her on as a guest in the fall of 2014. Her body is not considered very feminine by the traditional standards, nor does she train in a manner oft-prescribed for women. She eschews these conventional standards of femininity and shows that there are a whole lot of ways for women to look that are beautiful, sexy and worthy of praise. She is a woman who doesn't apologize for her physique, nor should she: she is a absolute beauty, inside and out.

Love her! What an inspiration!

• American Ninja Warrior finalist Kacy Catanzaro, the gymnast and first female to qualify for the finals of the show back in 2014. Kacy came, saw and conquered the course that had formerly humbled many a male contestant. At under 5-feet tall and approximately 100 lbs, Kacy redefines what "strong" looks like. Although she didn't win the ultimate prize, her appearance on a nationally-televised show forced America to challenge conventional notions of female strength and power.

A whole lotta brawl in a cute, petite package!

• Women like Jen Sinker of Thrive with Jen Sinker, Jill Coleman of JillFit Physiques, and Neghar Fonooni of Eat, Lift & Be Happy have made it their mission to educate and encourage women so that they can shine bright and be the best versions of themselves. Mindset, movement, and nutrition all play an important role in these women's lifestyle philosophies, all they're all doing their part to help women design the life they love to live and own their strength, inside and out. 

Love these ladies!

• Communities like Girls Gone Strong and Fonooni's Lean & Lovely Community strive to provide a forum and space on the web where like-minded women can unite under their belief in female empowerment and strength. These communities provide well-curated content on topics ranging from strength training to proper nutrition to mindset and finding balance. These communities make it possible for women to feel supported and encouraged in an environment whose sole purpose is to encourage strong women to forge their own paths to health and wellness.

• In the past couple of years, the number of women who participate and compete in powerlifting and Olympic lifting has grown substantially, thanks in large part to CrossFit. The popularity of CrossFit, the uber-trendy exercise philosophy and competitive fitness sport, attracts women and men alike because it provides a like-minded community of individuals who train together, support each other, and encourage strength gains and feats of athleticism regardless of gender. Apart from CrossFit, more women than ever are using their bodies to make a statement about what is beauty and strength by entering physique, figure, and bodybuilding contests.

In short, these are exciting times to be a woman in strength sports! While there may be a long way to go in terms of shifting the image of femininity in the fitness community, it is a challenge that I--one among many!--take on with pride, determination, and a whole lotta grit! 

How Lifting Weights Saved Me From Myself [and a product plug!]

Sometimes I wonder where I would be right now if it weren't for weightlifting. While I will never know for sure, I imagine that that I would be much less content, more self conscious, and less confident. I've said it before but it bears repeating: physical strength begets mental fortitude. Lifting weights made my body strong, but it's done more for my mind than hours of therapy! It's kind of embarrassing to admit that even with the sheer amount of privilege my life circumstances afforded me, I was an unhappy person whose focus on what she lacked prevented her from enjoying the blessings of what she had. I can truly say that all this changed when I discovered the bar and all the other implements of strength that set me off on this remarkable journey of self discovery.

You gotta get your mind right first. 

One thing that's particularly powerful about the iron is that it's working on you when you least expect it. Gaining physical strength made me question some of my most fundamental beliefs about the world and my place in it. It fulfilled my deep desire to feel worthy of every dream and hope that I had. More specifically, it made me believe that the achievement of my goals was not only possible by inevitable. It made me a better friend, daughter, sister, lover and citizen of the world because it revealed me to myself. It helped me to realize that authenticity is the key to true happiness and fulfillment.

Before I started weight training, exercise was a necessary evil. I loathed it because it felt like a punishment. Oh, you ate that pizza? One hour of cardio, then! I hated exercise but I hated myself more. This led to being eating and then more anxiety and guilt which was the only emotion that got in the gym. The vicious cycle led me to the emergency room and a diagnosis of hypertension. I was in my early twenties and I had the blood pressure of an elderly, overweight woman. It was so shameful. But the shame did nothing. You can't shame yourself into weightless of living healthily. What I didn't know then was that lifting weights would ultimately rescue me from this binge--guilt--self-flagellation cycle of despair.

I wish I'd embraced this sooner, but better late than never!

I can't overestimate how weight lifting saved me, nor can I express adequately here how much better a place I believe that world would be if more women embraced the iron. Of course, I think everyone should lift, but women stand to gain so much more from it, like self confidence, self worth, strength, independence, and passion are just a few of the positive side effects.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of deep-seated dogma out there that discourages women from getting and being strong. Many traditional values regarding where and how women should exercise persist. Many gyms are designed in such a way as to separate the sexes into their "expected" roles, with men crowding the weight rooms and women relegated to the cardio equipment and group exercise classes. This is a particularly sad fact as it perpetuates the belief many women hold onto that cardio exercise is effective for fat loss and lifting heavy weights will only make them "bulk up." I would never blame any woman who believes this propaganda because I used to believe it, too. I never could have imagined that I would do a complete 180 and actually seek out the weight room, let alone seek out the heaviest dumbbells I can safely manage! If you'd told me that I would high off an upper arm or glute pump, I would have laughed!

Typical dudes, bangin' weights

Seriously, what are they even doing?!

It takes effort to bulk up! If you start lifting, you'll look more like this
sooner than you would ever look like a bodybuilder!!!

Why did we stop listening to our
elders?! This lady knows what's up!

And yet, here I am: stronger, leaner, fitter and happier than ever before in my life. I can't say that I owe it all to the iron, but I certainly give credit where credit is due! What's most surprising to me from this transformation is that despite not doing much of any traditional cardio for the last two years, I have better stamina, endurance, and lung capacity than when I was training for distance races and racking up the elliptical and treadmill miles. I recover so much faster between sets and after my workouts, and I don't even experience that gnawing hunger that inevitably set in an hour or two after a long run.

Why and how is this possible???!! It's possible because I discovered the most effective way to burn fat and build strength simultaneously using a method best summed up as Lifting Weights Faster. One of my fitness idols, Jen Sinkler, who I've mentioned numerous times before on this blog, coined the phrase when a reporter asked her during an interview, "But, what do you do for cardio?" Jen, in her signature style, answered honestly, "I lift weights faster!" And the rest is history. Since then, Jen has shared tons of free workouts, exercise demos, and pointers through her website and social media in an effort to spread the message about the effectiveness of this training method. Whether you call it circuit training, metabolic resistance training or lifting weights faster, the premise is to move weight as quickly as possible in the safest way possible. That weight can be anything from your own bodyweight to barbells and kettlebells: whatever you have at your disposal. What I truly love about it is that it truly democratizes exercise; anyone, anywhere, can get an effective, total body workout that builds muscle and burns fat.

Best collection of conditioning workouts that you'll find anywhere!

Last year, Jen launched Lift Weights Faster, a conditioning workout library complete with 180 workouts, an exercise glossary, and demo videos. Last week, Lift Weights Faster 2 dropped, and it lives up to a predecessor! If you're looking for something to add variety to your conditioning workouts, or you just want to get stronger, faster and leaner in much less time than you probably currently spend in the gym, I can't recommend LWF or LWF2 more! Click here to buy and join me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to check in about the awesome workouts you're doing!

Talk soon!

P.S. I'm not being compensated or anything for the opinions in this post. As always, all opinions are my own. I just think this product is too good to keep to myself!!!

How To Do: The Turkish Get Up

Hi, friends!

I've been feeling lately like this blog's title and catch phrase aren't quite as aligned with what I post about as I'd like. For the most part, the blog has been a personal exploration for me as a new fitness professional, trying to figure out my niche and carve a place out of this cyber universe that is uniquely mine. It's been a great place to vent, get out my frustrations with the current state of industry, explore my anxieties/fears/dreams/wishes/hopes, etc., and subsequently, grow. And the thing about growing is that it shifts your perspective on things. I want the blog to more keenly reflect my belief that fitness should be a happy, enthusiastic endeavor. It should be something that you look forward to, that enhances your life in ways that extend past the gym door.

One of the best ways that I can think of to convey my enthusiasm about health and hopefully help you to catch the same bug is to share more tangible aspects of health and fitness with you. That is: workouts, exercise tutorials, form cues, recipes, fitness-related products that I like and use regularly, etc. Since care of the whole person involves much more than physical health, I'll still post my personal musings here and there. I'm just eager to make this blog a more valuable resource to you as an individual pursuing a higher expression of yourself through health. I hope you enjoy what I come up with!

The 3 Most Important Elements of a Metabolic Resistance Workout

Hey there :-)

As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I am a big fan of strength training. Whether it's heavy lifts with the barbell, complexes or combos with kettlebells or dumbbells, or a do-it-anywhere bodyweight blast, I'm a fan. Typically, I like my workouts to be short and sweaty: 25-30 minutes of hard work does the trick most days. I'll sometimes do a longer lifting session 1-2x per week, but more often than not, my preference is for shorter and more intense (and sweatier!) sessions. Once, I was leaving my gym and a man who saw me come in exclaimed, "What?! You're finished already?!" I replied, "It was short, but it did the trick!" My comment likely made no impression on him whatsoever. But it did serve to remind me of the fact that while there's no one-size-fits-all strength training program, there is a very effective protocol that can help you burn fat and build muscle simultaneously. What's it called? Metabolic Resistance Training.

Metabolic Resistance Training, or MRT, is basically performing weight-bearing exercises quickly with the goal of getting really sweaty. MRT sessions can be completed on their own for a quick sweat session, or added onto a longer lifting session where the heavier, single-joint lifts are completed first (think squat, deadlift, bench press). MRT exercises tend to incorporate the whole body to get more bang for your metabolic buck, so to speak, and are grouped into circuits of 3-5 exercises. MRT is an effective fat loss, strength-building tool because it combines multi-joint movements under load (weight) with short rest periods: the perfect combination to produce greater metabolic disturbance. Another way of defining MRT would be "cardio weight-lifting" because you're getting the benefits of cardio (greater cardiovascular health, improved work capacity, etc.) and weight-lifting (more muscle mass, stronger bones, efficient metabolism), all in one workout!

MRT circuits can be completed for reps or time. I typically set a timer for 25-30 minutes and complete as many rounds of the selected exercises as possible. I keep rep ranges low to moderate--between 8-12--but if you're new to this type of training, I'd recommend starting with 8-10 reps. Here's an example of an MRT circuit I like to do in the comfort of my own home:

Courtesy of Neghar Fonooni

Can You Make Your Hips More Flexible?

When I was in college I took advantage of a lot of free stuff, one of which was free fitness classes. One particular class--cardio kickboxing--I loved to hate. It was physically challenging, but made me feel like a bada$$ at the same time. I attended this one as regularly as my schedule--and willpower--allowed.

For whatever reason, these classes weren't super popular. Occasionally, I was the only person in the class! One such time, the instructor (a slim and trim upperclassman who was also a member of the popular all-girls modern dance troupe) introduced a new and complicated sequence. Being the only student in the class, it must have been painfully obvious to her that I just wasn't getting it. This particular sequence involved a side kick-roundhouse kick-combo. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get my leg "up to there" or my hip and knee to externally rotate enough in order achieve the desired height, at least not without teetering precariously on the standing leg! None of her cues helped, and she eventually gave up. I remember leaving that class feeling totally inept and defeated.

Yeah, my leg doesn't go up to there!

It wasn't until much later, and with consequently much more knowledge about exercise physiology and basic anatomy, hat I realized that there was--is--nothing wrong with me.What was wrong was letting my so-called 'failure' at cardio kickboxing determine my self-worth. The idea that I should be able to achieve some specific feat of athleticism because someone else can, despite the fact that our bodies are built completely differently, was pure insanity! It was insane for me to attempt, over and over again, to achieve this arbitrary goal when a simple lesson in anatomy would have put the whole charade to bed.  If I'd only known then what I know now: that my lack of cardio kickboxing skills is dependent almost exclusively on physiological factors out of my control.

The reason I can't do a perfect side-kick-roundhouse kick combo is because I have limited flexibility in my hips. Flexibility refers to the length of a muscle. Factors like like joint structure, age & gender, connective tissue, and muscle bulk & weight training all affect an individual's flexibility. The size of our bones, their density, the elasticity & plasticity of our connective tissue, the angles of our joints and their relative alignment, the length of our muscles...these configurations make us unique, too. Any number of these factors may contribute to, or take away from, our individual ability to complete a particular movement or exercise.

In my case, it means that I can't fully externally rotate my upper thigh without compromising my joint alignment or stability. Like any movement restriction, this is frustrating, especially for an athlete. As you've already read, this aspect of my anatomy burdened me for years. That is, until I realized that it had nothing to do with my actual ability.

The Best Way to Burn Fat and Build Lean Muscle, Part II of II

In Part I of this II-Part post, I discussed the diet and nutritional considerations for effective fat loss. I delved into why diet is important to achieve leanness; why eating too little, too much, or the wrong foods all together can derail your efforts; and touched on why the persistent "calories in, calories out" paradigm is not an effective approach for fat loss. In this post, I want to further explore what is inherently wrong with the "calories in, calories out" model; the difference between weight loss and fat loss; and the type of exercise that is scientifically-proven to help you lose fat and build muscle simultaneously. In other words, you must both EAT and MOVE to achieve the optimal conditions for fat-burning and muscle-building!

In my previous post, I alluded to why the "calories in, calories out" idea as an effective fat loss tool is flawed. I also explained that creating a calorie deficit can be an effective way to spur fat loss when/if you hit a plateau. While these two ideas may seem contradictory, they are not. Case in point: If you eat well and enough; exercise for fat loss (more below); and aren't seeing the results you want, monitoring your portions and/or counting macros may enlighten you to the fact that you're actually consuming more than you think. In such a case, a moderate calorie deficit may do the trick to get you where you want to be. Once you're there, it's a matter of maintenance and you can probably be more flexible with your diet. When you ascribe to the method of "calories in, calories out" as the primary way of creating a calorie deficit that you run into problems (pun intended).

Take this advice to tweak your regiment and you'll be on
track in no time!

First of all, there is a difference between losing weight and losing fat. When you lose weight, the number on the scale always goes down because you have reduced the force that your physical body generates against gravity. When you lost fat, however, you may not lose weight. Depending on where you're starting out from, you may even gain weight as you get leaner and lose inches. This is because when you lose fat, you replace it with muscle tissue which is much denser. We've all heard the phrase "Muscle weighs more than fat" and likely seen some iteration of the photo below:

Credit

While it's not true that muscle weighs more than fat (5 lbs is 5 lbs, after all), muscle takes up less space than fat. This is why building muscle makes one look more fit and "toned." For example, observe the following picture:

Credit