Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 17 of 21)

Shake it up

May 15, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Whether its work, school or children, outside factors can get in the way of healthy eating. You hear that six meals a day is the optimal for a healthy body, but as the hours in a day tick by, sometimes you might feel it’s impossible to even sit down and eat three times a day. With that said, a blender can be just as valuable in your kitchen as the burners on your stove.

Don’t underestimate the power shakes and smoothies can have on your diet. For one, they’re obviously quicker to make than cooking an entire meal. Saving time is usually what most people strive for and blending up a smoothie can take less than three minutes. Another benefit of shakes and smoothies is the amount of power-packed food you can put in them. Healthy diary products such as milk and yogurt, protein powders, peanut butter, and healthy carbs like fruit and oatmeal are all items you can whip up into not only a tasty meal, but a healthy and quick one too. Finally, shakes and smoothies fill up your stomach so you feel full longer and have the energy to stave off hunger until your next meal.

Here’s a recipe for a healthy smoothie packed with good carbs and protein. Feel free to change the serving sizes as you wish:

– Blend three ice cubes
– 1 Cup Frozen Mixed Berries
– 1 Cup oatmeal (you don’t have to cook it)
– 1 Container of yogurt (get a yogurt low in sugar)
– 1 Cup milk
– Blend on high until all the ingredients are mixed

Feel free to add a scoop of whey protein to insure you’re getting enough daily protein for those working out.

Diets, Drinks, Food preparation, Foods products, Nutrition, Protein

Decoding food labels

May 8, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

A sad fact in the food industry is how companies are getting away with using complicated terms and numbers on labels. These companies are basically confusing or misleading the public by highlighting words like, “low fat!” or “less sugar!” when the truth of the matter is these food products are still hiding dirty little secrets.

Besides cutting out sugary sweets, sodas and fast food, we must go a step further in our quest for a healthy body and start learning how to read labels. Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight, meaning we’re choosing to eat unhealthy meals, or are being fooled by what is being called “healthy” food.

Check out Men’s Heath Nutrition Label Decoder. It’s an interactive tool to help you learn how to read a label and how to differ between insoluble and soluble fibers, fructose, glucose and lactose sugars, and why not all fats are bad for you.

Cholesterol, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

The power of dumbbells

May 1, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

It’s often understated just how effect dumbbells can be to one’s workout. While a complete workout should tailor to barbell, machine and dumbbell exercises, the benefits of packing your routine with dumbbell movements are highly beneficial.

Just some of the key benefits to using dumbbells:

? Range of motion. Unlike most barbell exercises, which lock you into a fixed plane of movement, dumbbells require more of the smaller, stabilizing muscle groups to come into play. When you strengthen and build the stabilizing muscle groups, you can max the value of doing core exercises such as the bench press and squat.

? Isolation. When using dumbbells, you’re more apt to target the muscle group you’re trying to workout. When using a barbell during exercise, people have the tendency to overcompensate on one side just to get the bar moving. Dumbbells force you to isolate the muscle group you’re working out.

?Relatively inexpensive. Anyone looking to build a home gym or someone who just doesn’t have the time to get to the gym can benefit from a couple of inexpensive dumbbells. Depending on weight, dumbbells usually only range from $20 to $100, so there’s no excuse not to have a couple stored under the bed for quick workouts if you can’t get to the gym.

As previously noted, a complete workout should have exercises ranging in barbells, dumbbells and machines, but don’t be afraid to overload your routine with dumbbell movements. Click here to learn more information on dumbbell workouts and their benefits.

Exercise, General fitness, General training, Weight training, Workout programs

Mastering the Pull-up

April 25, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

As a beginner – or even if you’re experienced – nothing can be more embarrassing than jumping up on a bar and only banging out one pull-up. In fact, the average person approaches the pull-up bar like he or she is about to steal something, looking around to see if anyone else is watching before hammering out a sloppy, uncontrolled couple of sets.

Well, stop it, because you’re only hurting yourself by not maximizing the value the pull-up can bring. Your latissimus dorsi (back) is the biggest muscle in your body and if you want a V-shape torso, the pull-up can’t be viewed as the red headed stepchild of your workout any longer.

Here is an article from Men’s Health magazine dedicated to mastering the pull-up. It has a step-by-step guide on helping you improve add reps to your pull-up routine. It doesn’t matter if you can do 0 to 1 reps or 8 to 12, this article should help you maximize the benefits of the pull-up.

Here’s a taste of what the article offers. For the entire column, click here.

Your Best Effort: 0 TO 1
The problem: You’re not strong enough to lift your body weight.
The fix: Turn your weakness into an advantage with heavy “negatives.” Doing only the lowering portion of an exercise with a heavier weight than you can lift is a fast way to build strength.
How to do it: First, a couple of definitions.
– Chinup: This is the same movement as a pullup, but you’ll use a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Because your biceps are more involved, it’s a little easier than the pullup.
– Neutral-grip pullup: Again, it’s the same basic movement, but you’ll grip the parallel bars of the pullup station so your palms are facing each other. This is harder than a chinup, but not as hard as a pullup.
Now follow the workout schedule below, using this method of performing negatives: Place a bench under a pullup bar and use it to boost your body so your chin is above the bar. Then take the prescribed amount of time — either 5 to 6 seconds or 8 to 10 seconds — to lower your body. Once your arms are straight, jump back up to the top position and repeat. Rest for 60 seconds after each set.
Week 1: Chinup : 3 sets : 5–6 reps : 5–6 seconds
Week 2: Neutral- grip pullup : 3 sets : 5–6 reps : 5–6 seconds
Week 3: Neutral- grip pullup : 2 sets : 5–6 reps : 8–10 seconds
Week 4: Pullup : 2 sets : 5–6 reps : 8–10 seconds

Back, Bodybuilding, Exercise, Specific workouts, Uncategorized, Weight training, Workout programs, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

Keep it simple with your diet

April 17, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Anyone who has taking the time to do the research on getting into shape undoubtedly has come across general rules to dieting. Mike will often post on how important your diet is to either losing weight or packing on muscle. Dieting is the key to everything. Having the best workout plan and following it perfectly will crumble under a poor diet.

What people tend to have trouble with as far as dieting goes is that they think of it as a diet. Diets don’t work. Think of the way you eat as a lifestyle change and you’ll be more apt not to binge and have poor habits. If staying in shape and looking your best is worth it to you, nobody should have a problem with a complete lifestyle change as opposed to trying gimmicky diets.

I found a solid article at MSN.com about how to control your cravings. One of the general rules in the article is to eat approximately every three hours. As it’s detailed in the article, it can’t be stressed how important it is to continuously eat throughout the day. Eat four to six meals every day so that you don’t have spikes in your blood sugar, which causes you to binge it and grab anything and everything in your site (i.e. junk or fast food). I know, people work. But don’t use that as an excuse. Fight through it and find a way to bring small snacks to continuously eat throughout the day. Your optimum health depends on it!

Click here to check out the MSN.com/Men’s Health article.

Diets, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci