Helping you achieve a healthy lifestyle through movement and nutrition

Monthly Archives: December 2016

Set SMART Fitness Goals For 2017

Posted on by Posted in Goal Setting Leave a comment

Goals- Some people set them, most people don’t.

It’s that time of year again where many people will try to set goals and resolutions for the new year.

The only problem is, most of these resolutions fall flat on their face in a few weeks.

Are you looking to get into fitness for the first time? Have you fallen off track a little bit and are trying to get back into the swing of things?

Either way, taking a SMART approach to goal setting will ensure your lasting success and results.

 

SMART goals

SMART is an acronym that stands for the following:

Specific

The goal must be specific so that you know when you have achieved it. Don’t set a goal to “get toned” or “lose some weight and be healthy”. These goals are too vague and you will never know when you have achieved success. Instead set a specific goal such as “I will weigh 130 pounds” or “I will squat 400 pounds”.  As Brian Tracy says, vague goals produce vague results.

Measurable

For a goal to work it must also be measurable, meaning that you must be able to track its progress. If your goal is to weigh 130 pounds, you would measure this at predetermined intervals to make sure you are on the right track. So, weekly weigh ins would probably be the best bet for that. For squatting 400 pounds, every once in a while do a test to see where your strength levels are at.

Attainable

An attainable goal is one that is not too insane. If you currently squat 45 pounds, setting a goal to squat 400 by June is very unlikely to happen. It’s good to know where you stand and make goals that are attainable and not too unrealistic.

Relevant

Make goals that are relevant to you! Don’t try to lose weight because someone else wants you too. The goals you set should be for you and should help motivate you. If you are setting a goal for someone else, you may achieve it but you will dread every second of it.

Time-Bound

Lastly, set goals that have an end point. “I want to weigh 130 lbs by March 31”. Beautiful. It is specific and has a time frame to help motivate you to keep going. Having that time frame will help motivate you to keep going. If you set a goal that is indefinite you are less likely to ever achieve it knowing you have all the time in the world to get it done.

 

Wrapping it all together

So let’s go ahead with the above examples and see what a fully written SMART goal looks like.

“I will weigh 130 pounds by March 31. To achieve this goal I will eat 500 less calories per day, follow a lifting routine, and do daily cardio. To track my progress I will weigh myself weekly.” To make this realistic let’s assume this person is currently 155 pounds which makes it roughly 2 pounds per week to lose from now, which is healthy.

“I will squat 400 pounds by March 31. To achieve this goal I will follow Jonnie Candito’s program with weekly tests to see where I’m at strength wise.” Again to make it realistic let’s say this person already squats 375 which is not too far a stretch.

 

So that’s all there is to it. Don’t randomly cut carbs on January 1st to “lose some fat”. Don’t eat 1200 calories a day and start running 6 days a week when you haven’t done any activity the last year. These things will backfire and you may end up worse than when you started. Fitness is a lifestyle, it takes time and consistent effort to see results- so don’t be in a hurry.

Just remember, when you sit down to set your goals for 2017-be it fitness or for other areas of life-make sure you set SMART ones to ensure your success.

 

Are you setting SMART fitness goals? Do you struggle with goal setting? Comment below!

How to Stay Active This Winter

Posted on by Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment

You cold enough yet?

 

I know I am…. the garage is pretty darn chilly when it’s like 9 degrees outside.

Don’t even get me started on gripping an ice cold barbell. Brrr! Even Frosty wouldn’t like that.

 

The low temps lately have got me thinking about training in the cold weather. It definitely is not pleasant and I won’t try to defend that.

BUT my goals as far as training are much more important than being comfortable and cozy and wasting time and money at a commercial gym, so I’m cool with it.

Or maybe I’m just insane- jury is still out on that one.

 

Now you may not be as crazy as I, out in the cold Pennsylvania winter pumping iron. But there are still many ways to stay in shape this winter without even having to go out into the cold or the gym.

 

Enter: Home Workouts

Working out at home may be just what you need. It’s cheap, effective, and challenging if you get creative and are determined.

This is what I originally started doing back in the day with just a set of adjustable dumbbells.

All you really need are a set of those and some resistance bands like this:

 

I personally have this set and they are great for all kinds of exercises like rows, curls, face pulls, and lat pulldowns. Combined with dumbbells and your bodyweight you have all you need at your disposal.

 

I will make a video in the future going over these bands and the various ways to use them but I highly recommend getting a pair!

 

If you or anyone you know needs any help setting up a workout routine or diet tips to reach your goals, don’t hesitate to contact me as I’d love to help.

 

That’s all I got for today so if you found this article helpful like, share, and make sure to subscribe to my email list to get the latest updates. You can find my fitness page on facebook and I am on Youtube, instagram, and twitter as well.

 

 

How to Do Your First Pullup

Posted on by Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Pullups are my favorite exercise (besides the squat).

 

Nothing has built my back up more over the past few years than simply doing a lot of pullups. They are the best upper body exercise in my opinion.

 

Yet there was a time – probably about 7 years ago – that I could not even do one.

 

Even when I started working out at home with just a set of dumbbells it took me some time to do one, let alone a few. I eventually got it a few months after getting started lifting but stalled out and struggled in the following years up until recently.

 

I want to share this with you in the hopes that I can help you achieve success with getting your first one quicker than I did.

 

There are two main factors at play in the pullup:

  1. Are you strong enough to pull yourself up
  2. Are you light enough to pull yourself up

 

For the rest of this article I’m going to focus strictly on increasing strength as fat loss could be a whole blog series of its own.

 

Strengthen Your Back

If you are a beginner you can make all kinds of gains in a short amount of time. I can attest to this; when I was 17 and first started hitting the weights hard I saw great increases in size and strength within 7 months of dedicated training. At the beginning, I couldn’t do one pullup. By the end, I could do about 10. The funny thing is I didn’t even train pullups that much!

By increasing your overall strength and specifically the muscles that are worked in the pullup, it will help you get one.

Eventually you do want to train the pullup more specifically, but just getting stronger back muscles will help. Any kind of rowing or pulling exercise are your friend here.

Now let’s get specific to the pullup.

 

Concentric, Essentric, Isometric 

If you are new to fitness you may not know these terms but they are important to understand. So let’s define them.

The concentric part of the movement contracts the muscle against the pull of gravity. An example concentric portion of a lift is a biceps curl from the bottom up.

Essentric is just the opposite; it’s the movement with gravity. Lifters have to control the weight amd slow down the movement in the Essentric portion. Continuing with the biceps curl example, it’s lowering the weight back down to the starting position.

Isometric is the pause in between concentric and Essentric. Isometric training is very common amongst gymnasts who hold their position without flexing. Some powerlifters use this as well with pause versions of big lifts.

Every exercise has a concentric, eccentric, and isometric portion to it. These are variables we can manipulate to produce a different stimulus depending on the goal. You should use all three of these movements to strengthen you back to do more pullups.

 

Strengthening the Concentric

First, get some resistance bands. I have these Functional Fitness bands I ordered from amazon:


They are great not only for pullups assistance but you can also use them for stretching and mobility. If you are unable to do any, wrap one around the bar and put a knee or both feet into it. It will assist you by taking some of the load off your muscles. If it gets too easy with one, use the next size down until you are doing them freely.

 

Strengthening the Essentric

Another great thing to do is negative reps. To do this, get a chair or bench and start by holding yourself at the top of the bar. Step off the chair or bench and hold yourself there, slowly lowering to the bottom. Repeat this for several reps.

 

Strengthening the Isometric

To increase isometric strength, simply get yourself up to the bar and hold in a flexed position as long as you can. To work different areas of your back and arms, be sure to vary the grip as well as the height of the hold each time.

 

Greasing the Groove

If you want to do more pullups do more pullups! If you have a pullup bar in a doorway at home, make it a goal to crank out 5 every time you go through that doorway. Or do several sets as part of your warm up, then during your workout, and after. The best way to get better at something is to practice it.

 

Pullups are a fantastic exercise that everyone should be doing. It can be demoralizing when you can’t do one or that many though, believe me I know. I hope these tips help you see success with them and if you like this article please like, share, and let me know.