You ever have one of those days when you just “got nothin’”?  Do you force it in the gym or do you know how to adjust your training?  How in tune are you with your body and your goals to be able to change things up at a moment’s notice?  The robot mindset has got to go.  Read on…

 I get lots of questions all the time about people’s training: when they should train harder or how to get stronger and etc.  And if you have ever been unfortunate enough to ask me whether you should train or not when you are sick, you know it can be as painful as performing a bikini wax on Sasquatch—really, don’t ask! 

 People can talk about common sense and intuition and all that jazz but I want to talk about your goals.  Are they really that important that you lose all sanity and consider hacking up a lung on a cardio machine or tossing an 8 pound weight around because you can’t imagine lifting anything heavier?  Really?  No, really?  And do you really have to ask someone if you have to work out or not?  The fact that you look like the poster child for the H1N1 vaccination is not enough of a deterrent for you; no you have to go and do that work out because your paper says so.  See, it says it right here, “Legs on Monday.”

At some point in your training you are going to have to take responsibility for your results…because they are your results.  No matter how good your trainer is, the results you walk around with are yours.  You did the cardio.  You ate the food.  You lifted the weight.  Yes, we guide you and we love to do it, but we are only with you 1 to 3 hours per week and we guide your plan from afar the rest of the time.  If you have any trainer worth their salt then you should be learning as well as you are doing.  We honestly don’t want you as clients for life that just aimlessly move from exercise to exercise in the gym. (Well the paper said leg press 3 X 10 and the machine was broken so I just skipped it.  OY VEY!)  Instead we want you to own your program and all that comes with it.  If you feel like crap—back it down!  If you feel like a hero and it’s an off day, switch your schedule around!  Start listening to your body and all that it tells you so you can help us to help you more.

I’m not saying add in extra volume or begin to make up a new program, I’m saying if you are scheduled to work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you feel like crap on Wednesday but Superman on Thursday, then switch it up!  Change what you do when you need to so that you have ownership of your results!  Also, if you already know that Thursday is going to be a draining day in work and Friday’s workout is psychotic, change it around ahead of time.

I wish I could predict how you are going to recover from a work out or an activity.  I wish I could look at you and say, “By the 3^rd week you will be ready to progress to the next level.”  Umm, I can’t do that—but you can.  So let’s take this one step further.  What happens if you are on a program that has you upping the intensity the same week that you are moving from one place to another?  Do you really think that you can increase your volume/intensity that week and then on Saturday and Sunday successfully move a bed, 2 couches and a dining room table up two flights of stairs?  Think again killah!  You’ve got another thing coming.  Or better yet, Hercules, you do it but then find yourself on the injured reserve list by Sunday and cannot imagine why.  Now all of the gains you made are out the window because you are now couch bound for 2 weeks.

It’s not that hard to stop and think about what you really want out of your training.  A hot body.  More strength.  Visible muscles.  Basically you want a return for your effort.  You know how I feel about the machine we call the body and how we need to respect it or it will demand that respect from us in a most unpleasant way.  So knowing your goals, your restrictions and knowing that we are entering into the flu/holiday/busy season, all I’m asking is for you to work with us fitness professionals and try a tiny bit of self regulation.  Pull out the common sense, warm up the notion of taking responsibility, shake out the desire to get some real results and become proactive in your life!  Own your training, ya hear me?

With that being said, do you think I should lift tomorrow?  I’m awfully tired…;o)

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We’ve talked about sleep before and how important it is to your well being, but now as an athlete it takes on a whole new dimension.  Your workout plus your recovery equal a training effect.  If you have a workout sans recovery, you really did not do much of anything.  Recovery is where the magic happens.  If you desire to be a better athlete and want to Perform Beautifully, it is important for you to realize that recovery is more than just resting, it’s knowing what to eat, when and when to drop back on intensity and volume with your workouts.

I See You One Hour and I Raise You Two

For all intents and purposes in this post today, I will be addressing the recreational athlete.  Since most of the folks out there are not trying to become the next Lance Armstrong, I am going to tailor this to the girl/guy at the office who likes to run a triathlon or two a year as a hobby.  Knowing that, recovery becomes less scientific (i.e. 2.8g of carbs for every blah blah) in the beginning and more about setting and keeping good habits. 

To start, recovery begins before the workout.  Let me say that again.  Recovery begins before the workout.  Before you go for a long run, a tough hockey game, a pickup basketball game or a grueling leg work out, you had better started fueling your body at least an hour before.  Depending on how long you are going to perform, decides what you are going to eat but for us right now, we are going light.  We have a 90 min. run in front of us and we need some fuel.  Sounds like a good time for a quick shake made with protein powder and juice with a 100% SG WW bagel.  Lightly buttered to perfection, toasted just enough to melt the butter.  YUM.  For the pre and post meals you want to think: 

Small amount of protein, 2 to 3 times the amount of carb.  So pp=approx. 20g of protein and the juice and the bagel provide about 60g of carb.  Keep it simple.

What I really want you to remember is for every hour of exercise you do, you need to have that much time in recovery as well.  So we’re going for a 90 min. run, we’re going to recover a bare min. of 90 min.  Let’s see what that looks like:

Immediately after work out:  Gatorade type drink with a bit of protein added (like ½ scoop)*, or chocolate milk

            *premade versions of this exist already,

Within a half hour:  a plate full of food where 1/3 is filled with a pure protein source and 2/3 of your plate is filled with             starches and veggies.  Small chicken breast with brown rice and roasted root veggies.  A grilled chicken sandwich on 100% whole grain bread stuffed with lettuce and tomatoes and a side salad.

Within an hour of that:  a small snack like a yogurt or high protein granola.

This is great if you work out to enjoy yourself but still be competitive amongst your coworkers and friends.  Your reality is much more different than that of a professional athlete.  You still have to go to work and feed your kids every day.  You have obligations outside of yourself that demand your time.  Because of this, you do not have the desire to sit down and calculate pound for pound what you need to succeed.  You are looking for a quick effective formula that is going to give you that edge over the chic that doesn’t have kids and thinks she’s better than you.  (Make sure she doesn’t read this, too;). 

Looking Past Today

The other part of recovery is knowing when to back off so as to improve upon your fitness level.  Almost every athlete I come across thinks the same thing:  every workout needs to harder than hard and the more I do the better I am.  Neither one of these can be further from the truth.  So let’s just cut right to the chase and put it out there:

Yearly

Make sure you have a distinct offseason/recovery time.  It needs to be at least 4 to 8 weeks in length where your exercise does not reach anything close to race/game time or pace. 

Monthly

You need to have one week per month that is easy.  I mean easy.  Go in the gym and kick some tires, run some laps at half of race pace, work on just your shooting—nothing full court, does not matter the sport, just make it easy.  This takes many forms so become a friend of cross training and you will accept this better.

Weekly

You need to have at least one day of a four day schedule to be easy.  You may break a bit of a sweat but you did not set a record here in any way.  In fact, you should feel like you did not work out at all and wonder why you changed your clothes.

If you can incorporate this into your training schedule, you will begin to see changes in your athletic ability and in your body composition as well if your diet is spot on.  That is, of course, assuming you are sleeping and planning your menus!

Stay tuned for more!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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If you are anything like me (and Lord have mercy if you are!), you are one active son of a gun.  You most likely do more in one day than the average person does in 3 days.  Knowing this, sleep may not always be your priority.  And if this is the case, you are really doing yourself a disservice.

Honestly, I can almost say with some level of certainty that the majority of us know that we should get a good amount of sleep every night and how truly important it is to our success.  And if you truly do not know and are sitting there still scratching your head as to what I am talking about, here are some quick facts for you:

*        You do not grow, lose weight or repair muscle tissue while you are awake—you do it when you sleep.

*        You eat more junk when you are tired—whether you want to or not—due to elevated cortisol levels.

*        You have better cognitive function after a full night’s rest.

*        Your workouts are better.  Your diet is better.  Your mood is better.  Must I go on?

Knowing all these things, I am not going to lecture you about the health benefits of sleep.  Instead, I am going to appeal to your sense of vanity and tell you what you are missing out on when you do not get a full 8 hours of sleep a night:

Ø  Tight abs

Ø  Tight butt

Ø  Bigger shoulders

Ø  Leaner physique

Ø  Better perf4mance

Then, I am going to proceed to yell at you to go to bed.  No need to beat around the bush!

I already know what you are going to say because I used to say it to so let me just beat you to the punch, “But Jodi, I don’t need that much sleep.  I function fine on 5 to 6 hours a night.  When I sleep more than that, I am actually tired.”  I knew you were going to say that!  However, it’s not true.  You really do need about 8 hours per night—if not more—if you truly want to Look Good Naked.  You can get away with 6 to 7 for a while, but true success comes from 7 to 9 hours every night consistently.  Having one random 8 hour night only increases your fatigue because you begin the process of healing (i.e. catching up on the lost sleep) and then cut it short before you truly finish the task.  You then believe because you are more tired that you slept “too much” and somehow you are now suffering for it.

I say this all the time but it bears repeating, if you go on vacation and you lose weight, you are not getting enough sleep.  If you take a week off from the gym and you lose weight, you are not getting enough sleep.  If you feel like Night of the Living Dead after a full weekend of sleeping, you are not getting enough sleep.   I am sure right now that you are reading saying to yourself, “Thanks Capt. Obvious, I know I am not getting enough sleep!  But…”

There are no “buts”.  I have spent the past 4 years of my life saying BUT.  There is no time like the present.  At this point you are a hamster in a wheel.  All I can hear is George Jetson yelling, “Jane, stop this crazy thing!”.  Remember when I spoke about ‘I want what I want’…here is a perfect case.  You will not achieve what you want to achieve without going to sleep so…

ü  Create a schedule that truly works and is realistic.  If you cannot make it happen right now, don’t write it down.  This isn’t the Make A Wish Foundation so be honest and forthcoming with your daily schedule.

ü  Set real boundaries that you will honor.  If you know you have to watch a certain show or go to a certain class and etc., don’t try to cut that out and think you will stick with it.  You won’t!

ü  Do not try to radically change your schedule.  Life is habitual.  Trust me, you won’t do it if it causes you mental stress just trying to remember all that you have changed.

ü  Cut the stimulants at night: caffeine, thought provoking shows, bill paying (oy vey)…  Start winding down at least an hour before you want to go to bed.  Invest in some fuzzy slippers.  Buy a Snuggie (I’m obsessed).  Put on some Jammies.  Get comfy and you will knock out.  Better yet, simulate your desk at work in your home somewhere and sit at it.  I give you 5 min. and you’ll be out! J

ü  Try audio books.  I know folks say reading puts them out.  Not me.  You want to knock me out?  Have me try to concentrate on listening to an audio book.  There is something about listening to someone blather on and on about a topic without being able to see them or read the words that just knock you right out.  It’s a shame!   

It took me a long time before I was truly honest with myself as to how important sleep was to my everyday bodily functions.  My brain power alone improved by leaps and bounds just by getting 8 hours of sleep every night.  This is not a lecture folks, this is a demand.  And this is not a fluffy, “How sleep can benefit you…” type of article.  This is me yelling at you with my finger pointing in your face saying, “Stop lifting more!  Stop doing more cardio!  Stop trying to cut your cals!  Stop looking for the next best supplement to increase your run time!  Your biggest hold up is your lack of sleep—not your program!  Go to bed and make a hot body, will ya?”

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Today was an interesting day for me.  I went “home” (it’s 17 min. by highway from where I live—not much for travel this weekend, lol) to a family fun field day at my old neighborhood’s park.  It was great to see so many people that I grew up with at this event and to see their children.  It brought back lots of great memories and it was just a feel good time for everyone. 

For me, that lasted about 30 min.  Then I started taking stock in the joint.  Who was truly taking care of themselves and who was not.  I want to make sure I point out that when I do this, I am not looking at monetary status items or etc.  I am looking at teeth, hair, nails, skin and etc.  This is my job!  Gotta stay on it!

But I began to notice a trend.  The ones that really looked good and were healthy all had some common traits about them.  I will call them the “Beautiful People” and the following is a list of their traits that help their cause.  First, so you know how I came about this list, I surveyed those that I could as to what they were up to nowadays.  Second, I remembered much about them from when we were younger.  Lastly, I have added my experience from working with other BP.  What I ended up with is a top 5 list of things they are doing that you may not be for you to review:

1.        Eating Fat

Honestly if you are not eating a source of good fat everyday you might as well just cut right to the chase by heading to your nearest vacuum cleaner and just manually suck the years off of your life now.  Why wait until your 45-50 years old?  Put a new vacuum cleaner bag on right now and just remove those precious years from your metabolic cup.  Sllllllpppppppppp!  Better yet, go buy a good face paint set from Silly Farms and draw the wrinkles in now.  Put 2 very deep creases on either side of your mouth, crows feet by the eyes and add at least 1 inch of extra skin on the belly that just hangs there.  Pretty huh?

2.       Sleeping

Here’s a hot one for you.  Now I am truly the pot calling the kettle black on this one because Lord help me if I sleep more than 5 hours a night, but I have made this a priority and I have gotten better at it as I am averaging about 7 hrs/night right now.  But if you really want to lose weight, maintain a great body or stay on the young side of life you will get in the bed now.  In fact, you’ll sleep at your desk at work too.  And when your mate breaks into a long winded story, you’ll check out for a few minutes there too.  Just don’t nap while driving because I will drive you right off the road and think nothing of it!  And stay out of rotaries…ugh!

3.       Dotting Their I’s

These people just do that little extra.  They measure their food, they seek out the best moisturizers, they plan ahead, they find the best places to shop, they get the best deals, they are always 2 steps ahead of you.  They are just connected!  Now…again, I am not casting stones here.  I am not this person.  Getting my underwear on without both legs in the same hole is an accomplishment for me.  It’s funny, I am a makeup junky who will have a perfect face for the day and will leave the house with a big ole’ stain on my shirt from oatmeal that morning.  Clearly I am not one of the Beautiful People.  When you find one, study him/her.  It will amaze you.  BTW, this is my husband.  Can someone just tell him to get over himself?  GRRRRRRRRR.;o)

4.       Optimizing

This is sort of an add on to #3.  Beautiful people are not impatient.  They do not become frustrated over little things.  If they do not like how an outfit looks, they will take it back and get another.  If they cannot find the right hairdo for an event, they try different things every night til they get it.  They take the time to lose weight, they take the time to pick out accessories, they seem to have a silent resolve that just puts a hush in the room.  They know what they want and they are not going to stop until they get it. So they are always improving and optimizing.  They understand that they are not going to get it right the first time around–even if they look like they do.

5.       Restoring

Not the same as sleeping, this one is almost baffling to me because I don’t understand why I do not do this as much as I should.  Beautiful People restore themselves.  They rejuvenate.  If you ever try to clutter up their day with a bunch of things to do, they won’t do it.  They’ll shut you right down before you get to task #3.  They do not over exercise, under eat, worry incessantly over details (because they took care of them already), miss their facials or manicures.  No, these folks understand that their maintenance is priority and you essentially are not.  Do not mess with their schedule, it has been set since last Sunday!

Standing there made me realize that those that were gorgeous when we were younger just “got it”.  They knew what was up.  And the rest of us are now just getting the memo.  Standing their talking to some of them go through their days and how they schedule and manage things made my head spin.  All I could think to myself is, ‘No wonder you are stunning.  I would be too if I could do half of these things.’  Ugh.

If you can get at least 3 out of 5 of these onto your schedule, you will be in good standing with the Beautiful People.  Anything more than that and you are living the life!  Let me know if you think I missed any!  In the mean time, I’m going to get some ketchup off of my pant leg.  *Sigh*

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