Resolutions.. Solutions... Solutions..

Resolutions... 

Solutions... Solutions... Solutions...

www.PLYOGAFitness.com

Life is all about overcoming various obstacles, whether large or small, to beat the odds and accomplish whatever it is that you consider success.  Many times all that stands between you and what you want is how bad you want it and how much merit you are willing to give to your excuses.  There are various stories about the human will to push past what they thought was previously possible.  I can not give you that inspiration through a single blog post, but I can give you some great first step realizations that you can identify with.

"The Gym near my house has no classes I like and I can not afford to pay the monthly membership"

That may all be true.  You might hate your gym's old school class schedule and they might charge you a top rate membership to go to their dumpy place.  Let me tell you all about how you need 4 square feet in your garage or living room to get a fantastic workout.  PLYOGA can give you that and so can various other very reputable fitness programs.  Every fitness movement can be modified so there is no truth to the point that you can not participate in these programs.  I encourage every single one of you to truly understand yourselves and really take a deep look as to what is holding you back inside of your head.  The gap between where you are and where you want to be is the decision to start on your journey.  "Your Body is Power."  You better believe that this includes your mind.

"I have injuries (bad foot, knee etc) that prevent me from getting back in shape"

Injuries do prevent you from doing certain high intensity movements.  High intensity movements are not the only way to get fit though.  With that being said, you can do everything that is involved in a high intensity workout except those things that involve your compromised joint or bone or ligament.  Often times, people think that the first step to getting back in shape is running.  January 1 is when you see everyone out there in the cold jogging along their neighborhood with their new resolution.  Running is not the only gateway to fitness.  Running is highly demanding on the body and requires you to strengthen certain aspects of your core and your legs before you can adequately get out there without risking injury.  Cardiovascular exercise is usually the first level of attack to anyone with a new fitness resolution.  Almost every recent fitness study shows that quick muscle confusing weight resistance workouts are the pinnacle to fat burn and athletic versatility.  Do 1 of 2 things while you heal.  1. Nurture your body with healthy nutrition and call me (732) 691-9559 or email me at PLYOGAFitness@gmail.com for suggestions.  2. Nurture your body with healthy nutrition and look up ways to use full body core workouts.  

" I am too tired after work to get in a workout"

Most people do not realize this, but I will give you a guarantee that you are too tired to do anything after work because you DO NOT get exercise.  Your blood flow, the chemicals in your brain that create happiness, your metabolism, and your immune system rely heavily on you creating a way to put your body in motion.  It is hard work for those first 7 days or so to try to get yourself mustering up that energy that is not there.  Trust me.  It will not be long before you feel as though you need your workout to get through the day, rather than in spite of getting through the day.  You can do it!

"I'm getting on a diet in January"

A diet is a program that is set up to help you eat a lot of the same foods you currently eat, but just in moderation.  You usually have to buy pre-portioned meals or cut something that plays a significant role in your long term health goals.  Don't choose a new diet, choose a new eating lifestyle.  A diet is a short term solution.  An eating lifestyle is long term solution.  Adopt something that you can live with forever.  I will tell you that adopting a new eating lifestyle is a progression just like a new exercise program.  You can not go out and do jump knee tucks if you have never even done high knees.  With a similar frame of mind, you can not go from eating fast food, fried foods, and soda as your beverage to all organic, unsweetened food with water, without feeling discouraged.  Take it in moderation and make your transition deliberate and achievable.  Do not let too drastic and quick changes destroy the path to your goals.

"These fitness and health journey's are lonely.  My friends don't respect my goals"

There are other transitions to being healthy.  Its funny, I have found that when you get married you lose 1/2 of your friends.  Then, when you start having kids, you lose 1/2 of the remaining friends.  Whenever you make major changes to you lifestyle, you need to align those changes with people who accept them and are willing to understand.  

People are always teasing me because I don't want my chicken cutlet fried or I won't let my young child eat junk etc..  I promise you that you are on the high road and you just need to remember that.  Just like anything, people that share your same objectives are out there.  The fitness community is huge and strong and there to support you.  Often, fitness people are more exciting friends too.  They are the kind of people who like to do adventurous things because they have the energy to take these routes.  Never feel isolated with your objectives.  There are 2 ways to make sure you hit your goals whether in fitness, business or in life. 

1. Write down your goals and the timeline that you have in mind for achieving them.  It puts a visual understanding in your head (and you head is your only enemy)

2. Tell lots of people about your journey.  When you tell people, you are now accountable to them.  You may say, "I don't care about what other people think about me," but sometimes your journey matters to people.  Many people share the same worries or obstacles and you are a beacon of hope for them.  Fitness is all about helping others, and when you find that you can use your journey to inspire others, you stay accountable to you as well.  

   

           

Health Tips for the Holidays

 

The Holidays tend to be a time for all of us to get caught up in the routine of chasing down all of our plans, trying to secure those last minute gifts, and racking our minds to find time to spend with all of the people who we would like to see. Often times, we forget during this time about the important things that give us the focus and the energy to conquer this busy and unique part of the year.  Here are some tips to help you capitalize on your personal goals while you tackle the Christmas season.

EXERCISE EARLY

You may be the kind of person who likes to go to classes at the gym in the afternoon or when you get out of work.  You have recently been learning over the last few weeks that getting to that class when you have so much to do is highly inconvenient or impossible.  The solution is to either make it a priority or to wake up an hour earlier, (even if your bed is warm and soft) and get to that morning class or to a place in your home to get it done.  The chances of being interrupted early in the morning are very slim.  Businesses are closed, your friends are sleeping, and your kids are either still in bed or at school.

PLAN YOUR HOLIDAY EATING

It is said in business that if you do not sit down and come to a conclusion as to your plan of attack, it is rare that you will conquer what you are trying to conquer.  The same really goes for anything.  We all know that we are going to indulge for the holidays.  The key is finding that balance.  When you are about to go to a cookie swap and figure that you will likely be testing the creations of your friends or family, make a commitment that you are not going to also be drinking alcohol that night and overloading on sugar.

Plan for every holiday event being loaded with sugary treats.  Don't drink any kind of soda (if you do that) because a soda has dozens of grams of sugar and you will be consuming more than your regular intake of sugar from your treats.  

There are ways to bake in such a way that enables lighter and healthier options that only you will likely know you used.  Perhaps use 1/2 applesauce instead of all butter or use agave nectar or sugar in the raw instead of regular sugar.  Use whole wheat flour instead of just white flour.  The health differences are significant and you will not even notice the difference in taste.

Drink lots of water.  Sweets and fatty foods are actually toxins that are hard to avoid around the holidays when people are all around you with their decadent cooking styles.  Sometimes your choice of a dish is between unhealthy and unhealthier.  Resort to water and cleansing to make the difference and keep you moving forward. 

BUDGET YOUR TIME

You can budget your time to eat better and to install a little exercise into your busy week.  When you have been rushing around doing things continuously, you actually start to do everything a little faster, including eat.  SLOW down how fast you eat when you eat your holiday meals and allow your body to let you know that you are full.  When you eat fast, you tend to overindulge, and then quite typically spend the remainder of the day feeling bloated and uncomfortable.  Take your time.

When you get that chance to take a breather and potentially relax at night watching your shows on DVR or whatever you do, consider ways to incorporate easy exercise.  Perhaps hit some minor core exercises like controlled slow bicycles, leg lifts, oblique twists, etc.  Maybe you have been rushing around and your body feels like it has been tied in knots.  While you are out in the stores or running from point A to point B, make a point to stop and get a foam roller.  They are terrific and fairly inexpensive.  That way when you are relaxing at night, you can incorporate this invaluable method of muscle release.  It is slow moving, addictive, and incredibly effective for stretching your muscles, increasing body symmetry, and enhancing your well being the way a fancy massage would.

PLYOGA

PLYOGA is a transitional system using plyometric movement as the foundation for a workout that features yoga as active recovery.  If you just have 20 minutes to do something and you can not get to the gym, think of some quick twitch movements that can allow you to transfer with ease into a similar styled yoga posture.  In 20 minutes, you will be allowing yourself to enhance so many of your personal fitness pillars.  Endurance, Agility, Flexibility, & Balance.  Check out the video at www.PLYOGAFitness.com for some ideas.      

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

from PLYOGA Fitness 

  

"I Can't Afford It"

 

 "I CAN'T AFFORD IT"

There are a whole bunch of busy people in the world who, in all likelihood, have realized already that there are not enough hours in the day or enough dollars in their wallet.  We are going here and there and everywhere and often have a litany of excuses that we have enabled ourselves to believe about our lifestyle and how healthy eating and exercise does not fit in to the plan.

• "I can't afford it"
• "I don't have time for exercise.. you see how busy I am"
• "Yeah. That would be nice if I had time to make dinner at night"
• "Those fancy clean foods are too expensive.  I'm not rich"
• "I don't have the money to join a gym"

Today I want to address these falsehoods that we tell ourselves regularly to put a barrier between what we do and what we should do. 
The truth in the matter is that clean, "Real" food is more expensive than fast food (FOR NOW!). 
The truth is that most of us don't have time for the gym (UNLESS WE PRIORITIZE FOR WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO US!). 
Gym memberships these days are $10 per month and those who don't have the money to join a gym often have plenty of beer money for Friday nights. 

The purpose of this blog post is not to be "Preachy" or to put down the lifestyle of those who do not value the same standards as others.  The purpose is to show people that although a healthy life is slightly more expensive on the front end, it is significantly cheaper on the back end... and the back end is not too distant. 

There is one thing amongst many things that people who eat clean and exercise regularly will never encounter.  They will likely never give themselves Diabetes (Type 2)

Type 2 Diabetes has become a desperate problem in America, especially among young children who previously never had this disease.  Many people live a fairly active lifestyle and still manage to be part of this demographic, but the overwhelming majority of people who suffer with Type 2 Diabetes live a fairly unhealthy and stationary life.  How does this tie into the blog "I Can't Afford It?"

8.3% of Americans have Type 2 Diabetes.  This group consists of people who likely make many of the excuses above on a regular basis.  Want to know what you can't afford? Diabetes.

Diabetes costs the USA $245B in 2013, which is up from $174B in 2007 (41%)  Those figures largely represent what comes out of the taxes in the nation.  The question is, what does Diabetes do to the wallet of the people who have it?  If this group can even secure health insurance, it costs them an average of $7900 per year more than those who not have Diabetes.  That's about twice what everyone else pays.  That does not include the gas money and days off of work due to doctor's visits and sicknesses that are associated with Type 2 Diabetes gone wild.

Type 2 Diabetes is directly the cause of Hypertension, Stroke, Blindness, Kidney Disease, Heart Disease, Heart Attack, Nervous System Failure, and Early Death.  Lets pretend you are rich and don't care about $.  How much is your life worth? 

In addition to the $7900 extra per year that a Diabetes' sufferer pays for healthcare, one with hypertension usually spends another $733 more than those without these preventable problems.  That is $8633. (Did you know that Hypertension was on 61,762 people's death certificate in 2011?)  A gym membership and healthy foods from the grocery store probably add about $1680 to my life per year.  Unhealthy people who disregard their health and quality of life for short term savings actually wind up costing themselves nearly $7000 more per year as time goes on (if life goes on).

$7000 MORE ANNUALLY TO BE UNHEALTHY!  This is my thesis.  It doesn't take someone long to get to this point.  It is not an old age thing.  You can get to that $ number by ignoring your well being for just a few years.

I know that most people who read this fully understand these implications and live healthy lives.  The reason I put this research together is because you need to be informed when you talk to your clients or people you care deeply about who don't understand.  When you know that the only thing that is going to keep that person motivated is personal training with you, and the reason they can not continue is "I can't afford it," you are now armed with the information about what they can not afford.

Information is invaluable, because the war on childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabetes is a war we are losing.  It is a war we are losing because it is easier for people to not care about themselves, and pretend that they have valid excuses.  Make the best of every day.

Knowledge is Power! Your Body is Power! 

 

What is Your Core and How Does it Work?

I have had the opportunity to work with many people who I would have assumed to be very strong and well put together.  These people can lift significant weight at the gym and would give the impression that they are the epitome of fitness.  The irony of it all is that when I started to work with them, I realized that the most essential areas of strength in the human body were lacking in these big strong people.

One can potentially be able to lay down on a bench press and put up 250 pounds, while they can not even turn over and do 5 push ups.  Holding a plank for any length of time was certainly out of the question.  The people in this situation had built a big strong body that wanted to collapse like a house of cards.  What holds all of this up, creates balance, enables maneuverability, and acts as a primary stabilizer in the body?  The Core!

What is the core?  I am going to use regular terminology to keep this article simple, but also because I am not a doctor.  My goal is to inspire personal fitness revolutions and not to confuse you with technicalities.  The core is your abs as well as all of the muscle structures that support your spine and neck.  Often times, people feel as though they are toughening their core by simply doing crunches, sit-ups, or utilizing their gym's fitness machines.  You will see a lot of people who have the top four abs in place as they stroll the beach, while that lean waste line, the obliques, and the bottom of their abdominal set are missing. That is because they have fallen victim to thinking that working core is applying a few sets of various sit-up options after a day of arms.

You can theoretically take an entire day at the gym to dedicate to working your core.  There are so many dimensions to your core (which is nearly every muscle that is not part of your legs and arms). Applied core functions working your lower, middle, and upper back, your sides, and your entire abdominal set are available to you with a little research. Here are some suggestions:

Obliques:
One Arm/Elbow hip raise
Laying down knee to elbow on both sides

Upper and Lower Abs:
Standing Knee raises to elbow (hands behind your head)
Bicycles
Scissor Kicks
Leg Raises

Full Core:
Planks
Mountain Climbers in Plank

Spinal Muscles:
Laying down on medicine ball pulsing your upper back up
Superman (Laying on stomach with arms and legs raised)

The aforementioned workouts are just 10 of 100's of potential core enhancing workouts.  It is important to educate yourself on various types because mixing them up and giving yourself variety is key to success.  A successful core set is essential to living a fully mobile and healthy life.  So if variety = success, and success = essential to health, then variety = healthy living.  You like that?

A strong core will change your life and have you doing things you never thought possible.  People have said to me, "I'm 45, I'm not going to ever be able to do the things you do."  That is simply not true.  Building the fundamental elements of your body's support system will slowly and progressively begin to show you very surely that age is irrelevant when it comes to fitness.  The reason people start to lose their mobility more and more as they age is because they do not realize this.

Questions, email PLYOGAFitness@gmail.com or visit us at www.facebook.com/PLYOGAFitness



  

The No-Fat Revolution created a Sugar Addicted World

I am not a scientist or a chronologist, but I have seen the way of the world, and people are slow to move in the direction of health.  The reality of this is not that people are largely lazy and stupid, it's that understanding what healthy means has been largely confusing.  Decades ago, it became popular to make an enemy of fat as a food quality on a label, no matter the brand of fat.  Trans fats are linked directly to heart disease, which is the #1 killer of women in America.  There are saturated fats, which should be avoided whenever possible, and then there are the good fats (mono and polyunsaturated).  Some good fats are essential parts of our diet.  Regardless of what your walk of life is, you probably understand "fats" and what they mean to your health.  What you likely don't understand is that looking at a label for fats, calories, and carbs, and rendering something adequate on that wavelength alone is risky business.

SUGAR is the real enemy.  Type 2 Diabetes is steadily on the rise.  Obesity amongst children is at an all time high.  Many people try gimmicky diets and workouts and get no where and then give up.  9 out of 10 health foods on the market are low in calories, carbs, and fat, but are loaded with sugar.  Those who don't list sugar as a direct ingredient often want you to believe that the sugar listed in the nutritional information box is all natural from fruits that are in your supplement, while they disguise the word sugar with titles like "evaporated cane juice" or "corn syrup" etc.  You may see 0 grams of  sugar on the label and see none of the aforementioned culprits in disguise and think you are safe, only to find when you look close in your ingredients, that you have these guys:

• Methanol
• Glycol
• Glycerol
• Erthritol
• Threitol
• Arabitol
• Xylitol
• Ribitol
• Mannitol
• Sorbitol
• Galactitol
• Fucitol
• Iditol
• Inositol
• Volemitol
• Isomalt
• Maltitoland
• Lactitol

This list is a compilation of some of the most popular sugar alcohols used in todays food.  They are especially present in Fitness Supplements, Sugar Free gum, and effectively most processed things you eat.  How can one remember all of these names in their ingredients?  You probably can't, except for the fact that most of them end in "tol."  Let that be your first red flag.  Why is this so important?

It is essential that we get our sugars from complex/natural sources and do everything we can to get away from simple sugars and artificial sweeteners.  The reason is that sugar is toxic to our body.  If you are trying to get fit, and you have a body full of sugar, you will always be burning sugars in the gym instead of burning fat.  You get curious about why you are not getting the results you want and it can get frustrating.  Sugar is a big factor.  A diet high in sugar was never part of the plan until everything needed to taste like candy in order to eat it.

I am not a doctor or a dietician, but that next time you are around one, ask them how a diet high in sugar leads to obesity.  Their explanation will likely sound a bit smarter than mine, but we'll be on the same page. 

If you want some healthy eating tips or fitness help, please email me at PLYOGAFitness@gmail.com