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Supplement Talk Part 1

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Hey guys! Happy Star Wars Day!! Haha, i heard that on the radio today. I’ve never actually seen Star Wars, but I’m celebrating anyways. Join me? 😉

I get a lot of questions from friends, fellow gym members, and readers about supplements. Most of the questions involve the NEED to take certain supplements. Without them, you couldn’t possibly get the results that you want, right? Well, no. Not at all, actually.

Supplements are just that: supplements. Let’s break it down:

sup·ple·ment (spl-mnt)

n. 1. Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole.
A supplement is something used in ADDITION to the most important pieces of your program. It is the icing on the cake, not the batter.
 
There are literally THOUSANDS MILLIONS of different supplements. Natural supplements, artificial supplements, plant and fruit extracts, vitamins, minerals, food derivatives, YOU NAME IT. I guarantee that for any thing you can think of, someone has made a “necessary” supplement to help, treat, cure, fix, screw up blah blah blah you get the point.
The amount of supplements on the market are enough to make you dizzy. I should know, I could open up a store with the amount of supplements in my kitchen, b ut that’s beside the point. The true point is that first of all, we don’t know the safety of most of these supplements. Very few studies are done on supplements and the FDA does not regulate them, so you can pretty much put anything in a bottle and say what you want about it. There are quality supplements and there are definitely things that can help you acheive your goals, but they are NOT NECESSARY.
What is necessary?
A clean diet(diet meaning the way you eat, not a “diet”), an active lifestyle(activity level is different for every single individual based on goals, age, desires, health etc. ) and a healthy mind. That one is probably the most important piece. The rest of it follows when your mind is in a good place.
The next time someone tells you that you HAVE to take a certain supplement in order to acheive your next goal, come back to this post. Like I said, supplements CAN help and sometimes it is the boost that pushes you forward a little bit, but without a solid foundation, those supplements aren’t going to do a thing. Set your foundation, then you can start peaking into the supplement world, but until then. EAT  CLEAN AND WORK HARD 🙂
Posted in Abs, Chest, Running, Stairmill, Star Wars, Supplements, Uncategorized, Workout

Cali!

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Hey guys!

I’m sitting at my older brothers apartment in Santa Monica. Just cleaned the kitchen and getting ready for bed. I am SO lame!!! Haha. Ohhh well.

We got in late last night and I crashed out immediately. I slept horribly for some reason, but woke up before 6am as usual. Emily(roomie) and I got up and ate and headed to Iron to workout. Got a great shoulder/tri/ab workout in followed by 50 minutes of cardio on the treadmill.

Afterwards, we got coffee, came home and ate, and I took a 3 hour nap. Life of the party?? I think so.

Anyways, just thought I’d drop in to say I’m alive. A lot of really great things are going on for me and I couldn’t be more excited.

Along with Fit Gems Nation, I will be writing a monthly blog for Xyience. I’m SUPER excited because they happen to be the makers of that energy drink I’ve been obsessed with! I am capping those at 1 per day because of my caffeine sensitivity, but I just don’t have any desire to give them up right now. They taste good and give me a huge dose of energy, so for now, I’m keeping them 🙂 Keep a look out for my articles. I’ll post a link when it’s up 🙂

I’m 13 weeks out from USA’s tomorrow! Things are going really well. Time is flying and I’m really excited about the next few weeks especially. I can really tell my body is changing and I can also feel that it is about to change a lot more. If you’ve been through a prep, you know what I mean. You can just tell when your body is going to start dropping, and I feel that coming!

Anyways, I’m gonna get to bed. I’ve got an early morning workout and a comedy show to go to tomorrow! Speaking of comedy shows, I’ve got something up my sleeve. I’ll update you soon 😉

If you haven’t checked it out yet, read my post at FitGems Nation here.

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Early Mornings

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So I’ve picked up a few of the opening shifts at the gym. I did it for two reasons: I can workout on my shift and technically that means I’m getting paid to work out, and because I feel bad that our manager has to open the gym(meaning wake up at 3:15am) every day during the week.

Early Monday Workout

I hopped out of bed at a whopping 3:15am today, and dragged my ass into the kitchen to cook some breakfast for after my cardio. I don’t prefer to do empty stomach cardio, but I also don’t like eating that freakin’ early in the morning.

I got to the gym to find people waiting for me to open it. They are nutz I’m tellin ya. It was 4:15 am when I got there…Crazy people.

I did the normal opening duties and headed to the stepmill for a 50 minute sesh. I had my iPod on and it actually went by pretty quickly. That early in the morning, sometimes I think I’m still half asleep while I’m doing the cardio and don’t really remember much of it.

Afterwards, I head to the front desk to eat my food: egg whites with spinach and red cabbage, and rolled oats. Lurvely.

I let that digest and then hit up shoulders!

Shoulder Boulders

-Push Press s.s. w/ Upright Row

-DB Arnold Press s.s w/ DB Lateral Raise

-Cable Front Raise s.s. w/ DB Rear Delt Raise

Twas a hard one. I’m really noticing my shoulders popping out and my upper body is leaning out really well. My stomach is also leaning out and my abs are starting to make an appearance again. I missed those babies. In a few more weeks, maybe I’ll get ballsy and post some progress pics.

I’m currently a little under 14 weeks out and feeling really great. My coach thinks I’m right on target, and of course we are going to kick things up even more come 12 weeks out, but for now, the weight is falling off and I’m happy with the way things are going.

I’m heading to LA yet again this weekend with the roomie and can’t wait!! The gym we train at when we’re there is down the street from where we’re staying, so we can walk, which is perfect. I think i actually may be going to the lake Thursday before I leave for california too…might be a little bit of a crazy day..but I can’ t pass up the lake! It’s my favorite place in the world! 🙂

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Buyer Beware

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I was learning about how supplement companies are able to market their products and how they get their ingredients. Basically, companies see that “X” is the hot new product on the market. Hot product=pricey, and as long as there is a “dusting” of that product in their ingredient list, they are able to put it on their Proprietary Blend. Beware of proprietary blends!! You don’t know how much of a product is in there, and it could be so minute that it wouldn’t do anything=Waste O’ Money. I’m not saying that all companies do this and it also doesn’t mean that all proprietary blends are bullshit….all I am saying is buyer:beware.

With that said, not ALL companies are like that. One company in particular is quite the opposite and makes sure that their products are made with quality ingredients AND with the consumer’s health in mind. This equates to heavy testing and trials before being put on the market. I spoke with the owners directly and got a really great vibe about their goals and dedication to what they are all about. Smith-Bryant Labs makes some really great products and if you’d like to try them out, right now Promo code: Lean will get you 50% of the LEAN product and Promo code: Rush will get you 25% off the RUSH product.

*I am not a doctor and you need to check with a doctor before taking any type of supplements. No matter how well tested, any supplement can have an adverse effect on someone. We are all different and different products will affect each person differently. Just like food allergies, not everything agrees with people. I am also not saying that you NEED to take supplements. Some people prefer to take them when they are having trouble pushing through a plateau, and others don’t feel comfortable taking them and that is PERFECTLY OK. Again supplements are there to SUPPLEMENT, they are not a cure-all and you have to exercise and eat well to get great results.

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Flexibility and Muscle Fascia

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Today has been a pretty long day. Another 3am wake up call and off to work I went. I swapped legs out yesterday because my hamstrings were STILL sore from my workout on Sunday. Not just a little bit sore either, like hurt to the touch sore. Today they were just a little bit sore, so I went ahead and did my quad-focus leg day.

I was asked why I split up glutes/hams and quads. The reason I do this is because I love training legs and want to make sure I make every single rep and exercise count. With that being said, I can easily spend 2 hours training legs if I were to do them all in one day. That would be excessive and probably not very helpful to my physique. If I try to hit all angles and shorten the workout, I feel a little gypped, so I split them up and I do about an hour each time and feel like I get a very thorough leg workout each time.

The Workout

Barbell Squats, Hack Squats, Smith Machine Split Squats, Leg Extensions(different variations), and single leg Leg Press.

You might be thihking…umm squats work your glutes/hams too. Well hell yes they do, and they are extremely effective at doing so. The reason I do them on my “quad focus” day is because deadlifts and squats are my biggest lifts, and it is tough to do them both on the same day along with the other exercises. That is exactly why I call it a quad FOCUS day..I try to focus on my quads, but obviously it is hard to single out the quads besides leg extensions and such.

Cardio was also done at about 4am, and I barely remember it, but I do remember that I was a sweaty mess. I dominated that stairmill today!

Flexibility

It’s not secret to those that know me, that my flexibility…how should I put it….sucks? blows? isn’t-up-to-par? Put it however you want it, but I am not a flexible person. I lift heavy and hard(insert dirty joke here) and don’t stretch, foam roll, ice, soak, etc NEARLY enough. In fact, it’s pretty pathetic how little of that I do. It is something SO important and I am completely aware of that. I would almost go as far as to say it is the most important thing to do, because if you aren’t healthy you can’t perform.

That brings me to my next point. Although I’m not very flexible in most areas, I have particularly tight hips and come to find out, a tight lower back(who knew?). I was made aware of this yesterday at my first appointment with my flexibility coach.

I tweeted that and got responses ranging from “that’s ridiculous, why don’t you hire an astrologist” to “i don’t stretch and i’m flexible.” Let me clarify, a flexibility coach doesn’t just stretch you out and send you walking. Bill worked on releasing my muscles and breaking up the fascia. Muscle fascia is a connective tissue that helps support your muscles.

“Definition: Fascia is strong connective tissue which performs a number of functions, including enveloping and isolating the muscles of the body, providing structural support and protection.

Deep fascia covers the muscles in connective tissue aggregations which help to keep the muscles divided and protected. On occasion, this fascia can create tight knots or connective adhesions which act as trigger points which can cause pain ”

Basically, my muscle fascia was/is knotted and bunched up throughout my back and needed to be released. Bill worked on my upper back, lower back, shoulders and glutes and although it is somewhat painful during the treatment, you feel wonderful afterwards. Dare I even say I feel looser today than I did yesterday, after only one treatment. I am a little bit sore from the pushing and poking(wow this post is starting to sound like the intro to an amateur porno.) but I can tell that this is going to be a huge help for me.

So why is flexibility SO important?

Among(decided today that among is one of the weirdest words EVER) MANY reasons, this is the one I like best: Range of motion is what allows you to activate certain muscle fibers. When you do a squat and you go ALL the way down, you are contracting your glutes much more than if you were to only go half or 3/4 of the way down. If you aren’t even flexible enough to perform a squat, how do you expect to fire those muscles? You physically CAN’T. If you want to increase your performance, try to increase your flexibility. You might be surprised.

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Sunday/Monday Workouts + JUST START

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Good morninggg! Okay seriously, it’s 3AM and I’m wide awake. Not by choice, but because I am opening at the gym today. Lovely. To be honest, I don’t really mind. It really means I get to do my workout and get paid for it, since not too many people are there this early, but moving on…..

Sunday Glute/Ham +Sprints

Sundays are definitely my favorite day of the week now. I used to hate them because Monday was the next day, but I love the places I work so the week is never a bad thing for me. Reason #1 to do things you love people!

I woke up Sunday morning and headed to the gym to get a short but sweet glute/ham workout in. Instead of doing marathon workouts for my glutes/hams, I cut them down but make them really tough. Tough as in I’m dripping with sweat by the end, and it only takes me 30 minutes.  I did:

 stiff legged deadlifts superset with prone ham curls

Bosu hip thrusts with barbell superset with quadruped hip extension under the reverse hyper.

Afterwards I headed to the track for my FAVORITE workout of the week: SPRINTS. I am loving sprints so much. I haven’t jogged in about a month because I just got sick of it, and I am deciding that I really like sprinting effects better than jogging effects. Win/WiN!

8 x 100

4 x 50

4 x 10

4 x side shuffle to sprint

1 x 400

I had 2 people join me for the workout and we were all beat by the end. There are a few other people who are there every Sunday as well, who actually do track meets still(they are in their late 40’s…proof that it’s never too old!) These guys are in kick ass shape and their jog is my sprint. No joke. One of them actually thinks I should try to do a meet, so the seed is planted but I’m not making any promises. My age group would probably be the fastest one out there, and I think he’s on glue, because I’m seriously not a fast sprinter compared to those guys.

Monday Workout

Monday’s workout consisted of Shoulders and 45 minutes of cardio. My shoulders were sore 2 hours after my lift. Hot damn.(really? who says that?)

Afterwards, I SOO did not want to do any cardio, but before I let myself talk me out of it, I just hopped on the stepmill and before I knew it I had 6 minutes left.

Tip: You are not always going to WANT to work out. Even me, who LOVES working out, has days where I walk in the gym and just want to curl in a ball on the couch and do 4 sets of napping. Sometimes you just have to start and that’s all you need, sometimes you will dread it the entire time you are doing, but just turn your brain off and start moving! This doesn’t mean that if your body is truly telling you that you shouldn’t work out that you shouldn’t listen, because you definitely should, but when it’s just your mind that doesn’t feel like doing it, well JUST START.

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Where does the time go?

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The days, weeks and months are flying by right now! I haven’t posted in a few days and it seems so fast!

Wednesday I got a KILLER leg workout, and Thursday a KILLER back workout. Both left me insanely sore. I have been doing 45 minutes of cardio 6 days a week, and today I am taking my first complete rest day in 3 weeks!! Much needed, my friends.

Exciting Stuff

-I will be a contributor on a fitness competitor website in the coming months. I will give you the link when the first installment is up, but I’m really excited about it!!

-I am doing a photo shoot for a company I have worked with before in the next few months. It should be fun, and it will be out at the lake AKA: My favorite place ever!!!

-Working on some sponsorship opportunities so keep your fingers crossed for me :):)

Other than that, I’m still training hard and sticking to my diet. I did have one day of bad eating, but other than that things have been going smoothly and I’m noticing changes in my body which is ALWAYS FUN 🙂

I am exactly 15 weeks out today which is a lot of time, but no time at the same time.(Hmm, can I say time any more times?? AHHH haha i’m a dork.)

Do you have any questions for me? I’m putting together a Q&A Post with some frequently asked questions, so ask away!

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Prescott + Marvin

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I don’t have a lot of time but I thought I’d squeeze in a post. I’ve got two new clients and I need to get their initial meal and exercise plans written up this evening.

This morning I did 45 minutes of fasted cardio. I was absolutely starvin’ marvin only 5 minutes into it!! I pushed through and then devoured my food. Afterwards I did a so-so bi/tri workout. I say so-so because my heart wasn’t into it at all and I felt like I was just going through the motions, rather than really focusing. I still got a decent workout though:

I did 4 supersets, 3 sets each.

EZ Bar Curl/Rope Pulldown

Cable Side Arm Curls/OH Extension

Rope Hammer Curls/One arm pulldown

Preacher curl/bench dips

I finished the workout and headed up to Prescott for the day to hang with my little brother. He’s living up there right now and so far doing well. I had a really good time and the weather was perfect! We walked around the city and just hung out. Non-stop laughing=good times.

I’m off to finish up my work and clean. Tomorrow is LEG DAY, cardio, appointment with my academic advisor(wish me luck that they agree to what i want haha!) and then working the rest of the afternoon. Actually from tomorrow until Monday my days are JAM packed with the lake, work and a wedding. All good things, but it is going to wear me out I can tell! I will be looking forward to relaxing on Tuesday next week. Laytah!

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