Inspiration

There are plenty of people in this world who wish they were blessed with the ability that we all have, as well as the passion, heart, determination, desire, and focus. Some are blind, some paralyzed, some who have degenerative diseases. Realizing this, what we get to do is and will always be a blessing. Live every moment like it was your last. If you left this earth tomorrow, what would you want people to say about you? "he/she was going to do the Ironman, but the training was too much", or "he/she pushed so hard and worked their behind off to realize their dream, at least they always gave 100% and went down with a fight, kicking a screaming". Who do you want to be? There will always be adversity in life: in our personal lives as well as training. It's how we respond to that adversity that makes us who we are, and helps us realize who we were called to be on this earth. Happy training, get your behind out there and finish, and when you look in the mirror at night you can look at yourself and be proud, knowing that you gave your heart and soul, along with everything else you have to realize your goals and dreams as well as helping others to realize the same thing in themselves, we all feed off of one another! TRAIN HARD AND SMART!

BQuick

Health in its many forms and TOTAL HEALTH....

In order to understand total health, we need to understand all of its components. There are several types of health that make up the overall healthy person as a whole. They include: metal health, emotional health, spiritual health, and physical health. All of these factors affect and can affect the other. Think about the physiological effects on the body from a single thought! Our heart rate can go up, breathing rate can increase and change, or if it's a relaxing thought, our heart rates and blood pressure may drop. It is important to keep all of these things in perspective when analyzing where your total health is at this point. Just step back and say: where am I emotionally right now? mentally? spiritually? physically? What you do or don't do in each one of these will effect the other.

BQuick

Holiday Parties

Everyone makes so many excuses this time of year about going to parties, and they can't stick to their diets and nutrition plans because there is "nothing good to eat" at parties. Most of the time this is a false statement. There is always something healthy you can eat. Smoked Salmon, Vegetables, some cheeses, fruit, salad, finger sandwiches on wheat (turkey, chicken salad), etc. Some parties actually have good gourmet food. Either way, there are always healthy choices when at a party or eating out, but the people going to them don't always make the healthiest choices! Eat well, be merry!

Cline Jenkins
This is one of my hardest working clients and we should all look up to him! Cline works so much harder than you always ask him to, doing extra reps, sets, sprints, etc.! He has had a couple setbacks: having surgery on both shoulders, one about 3.5-4 months ago now. None of that has stopped Cline. As soon as he was given the release from the Doc for PT he started back with us, and did his PT as well as he continued to work towards his fitness goals, never letting his injury slow him down! Most people today would have used that injury as a crutch to NOT exercise, whereas he used it as fuel for his fitness fire! Ever since I have known him he has been passionate and driven towards achieving every goal he has and will not stop until he achieves them! He is the definition of drive, commitment, passion, heart, desire, and hard work and we should all learn some positive lessons from him and his positive attitude and outlook not only on life, but also achieving our goals! Cline's shoulder is a lot better because of his hard work, both in strength and Range of Motion (flexibility), and it's because of his commitment, hard work, time and effort! Cline reminds us all that success is always preceded by hard work! He is the definition of this and I know he will continue to work towards his goals each and every day! Take a lesson from Cline and his commitment: don't be lazy! There are a lot of people in the world a lot less fortunate than you are! God has blessed a lot of you with the gift of health, and Cline teaches us that even if you do have an injury, there are still things you can do and there is still work to be done! Continue working hard, and if you are not sure if you should undertake an exercise program, give us a call and consult with professionals about how to go about doing things the right way!

Training Tips:

Here are a few tips if you are implementing an exercise program into your life or if you have already been at it for a while:

 

1.)  Ease into things:  If you have not trained in a while, make sure to ease your way into it, especially the older you get (because as we age our growth hormone levels lower, which impairs our ability to recover as fast).  A great example is my father.  He will lay off of exercise and running for a year or two, then go out to the track thinking he is in world class condition like Usain Bolt!  He will go out and try to run 2 400's, 2 300's, 2 200's, and 2 100's on the first day.  This is why he came back the last time with a torn hamstring which was black and blue from his knee to his glute up the back of his leg.  Ease into it for better results later in your program.  Build a great, solid base and you will thank yourself later.

 

2.)  Make sure that your program is well balanced with all of these things:  Diet, Cardiovascular Training, Strength Training, Flexibility Training, and Education.

 

3.)  Diet:  this is the most important aspect of your regime.  you get out of your body what you put into it.  I know people who cycle 150 miles per week, weight train, run and swim several miles per week and are still obese.  They wonder why, and the first thing I always ask people is, "what is your diet like?".  Then they smirk, roll their eyes and before they say anything I know they eat whatever they want whenever they want it.  This will simply not work.  Diet alone can change someone's body composition tremendously even without exercise.  Don't take that the wrong way, i firmly believe in exercise but am trying to explain how important diet is!  Eat right--lean and clean always!  No excuses, such as, "I am always eating out".  There are always alternatives and things you can eat that are great for you while at restaurants:  fish, vegetables, lean meats, etc.  Eat well always and reap the benefits, both in body and mind.  Nourish your, body, your brain, and all functions of the body by ingesting the RIGHT things!  Yesterday, i saw a young girl I know who has hypothyroidism, standing by a cotton candy station at an all sports fair.  She ate some until it was gone, then put more on her stick and slammed it.  Her mom said nothing to her!  OOOOOOhhhhhhh, that heats me up, but, i threw in my two cents and told her how bad it was for her.  The cotton candy man didn't think that was a good comment to throw out amongst all the other kids too, so I had to explain myself to him.

 

4.)  Cardiovascular Training:  the heart is the most important and underlying muscle in the body that supplies the rest of the body's musculature, organs, etc., with blood, fuel, and much, much more.  We need a healthy blend of working both energy systems and its corresponding musculature.  This can be achieved by incorporating 1-2 days per week of continuous, aerobic training, holding a nice consistent pace on cardio of your choice (60-80% of heart rate max).  Second, we need a good 1-2 days of tempo work, where you hold that nice consistent pace, but increase your intensity every so often to increase your heart rate, then return to the consistent pace, then repeat.  The last 1-2 days should be spent at a higher heart rate for a certain duration of time (80-90% of heart rate max), or you can sprint several times until you achieve and reach your heart rate max.  Doing all of these things will ensure you are burning a healthy blend of protein, fats, and carbohydrates for fuel.

 

5.)  Strength Training:  will help to increase your metabolism not only during training, but throughout the day as well.  Strength training helps us to get stronger and sculpt our bodies.  It also has several other benefits:  injury prevention, bone density, strengthening the tendons, joints, ligaments and overall musculature of the body, etc.  Core work/Core Training is also included in this and is also one of the most important aspects of your strength training.  Every movement in your body is initiated from your spine and its surrounding musculature (CORE), which is why it's so very important to train the CORE in its entirety.

 

6.)  Flexibility Training:  for health, vitality, and longevity.  This will help you to recover from the others demands that you place upon your body.  It will limit the chance for injury, and, the longer your muscles are, the more force they can generate.  I call this the rubber band principle:  the more you stretch out a rubber band, the more force it will generate, which is the same as your musculature.  There is also a core element to the flexibility training when doing yoga and pilates.  Dynamic Flexibility (flexibility in motion) can be done before exercise or moving, or simply as another form of flexibility work for variation.

 

7.)  Education:  educate yourself on all of the previous things so that you too can make informed decisions at they relate to your health, wellness, and fitness goals.  Education is empowerment.

 

8.)  Variation:  vary what you do within each of these components.  From changing what you eat, to changing strength training routines, this will help ensure that you do not hit plateaus (sticking points in your progress), and will also help to cut down on boredom since you will always be changing it up and doing something new and exciting.

 

9.)  It's not a bad idea to hire someone to help you with this:  hire someone to give you a little help with all of these components.  Let a health and fitness professional guide you in you journey, lending a helpful ear and a helpful hand in what you are doing, making sure you are doing things safe and the right way.  We can provide internet coaching, 1 on 1 training, group training, program design and implementation (where we design a program specifically for you and implement this program with you, making sure you understand each and every aspect of it.  Even if you hire someone for 1 hour per week or month, it will help you in all of your health and fitness endeavors. 

 

Give me a call, shoot me a message here, or email me for help with any and all of the above.

 

Brandt Quick

504 451 5391
bquick@bquickfitness.com

REST

Rest is one of the most overlooked, most important parts of a training program. Our bodies adapt to the demands placed upon them when we rest. There are a couple forms of rest: complete rest and active rest and recovery. Complete rest is when we just do that, REST. Lying around, hardly moving, and allowing our bodies to adapt to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual demands placed upon them. Last week was exam week for most students, and as you know this can take a toll on you mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if you are praying very hard for the ability to study longer and asking to be guided through the process of studying and taking the tests! This mental, emotional, and spiritual stress and tension can lead to physical exhaustion when it's all said and done. Complete rest days are to be taken advantage of with: Epsom salt baths, whirlpool therapy, contrast (hot/cold) therapies, dry saunas, steam rooms, ice/heat, floating around in a pool, massage, laughter, light stretching and deep breathing with an emphatic emphasis on deep breathing.

Active rest and recovery is when we do light, gentle yoga, light blood flow workouts to flush out the metabolic waste from our tissues, light swimming, eating the right foods for recovery (pineapple has an enzyme called bromelain, which is a natural anti-inflammatory) and any activity or sport that we deem fun and enjoyable.
Please do not ignore this very important component of your training program as it is one of the most important. Schedule your rest days accordingly, just like you plan your weekly workouts! Please let me know if you have any specific questions or concerns and have a great day! SMILE! It's contagious

Deep Ujiyah (Yoga) Breaths

During this time of stress and uncertainty in our lives with the hurricanes (and everyday life if you are not affected by the storms), take a step back and take at least 5-10 deep belly breaths as many times per day as you can. If you ever look at a newborn baby while they are sleeping or lying on their backs, you will see that as they inhale their belly rises away form their spine and the floor, and as they exhale, their belly button moves toward the spine and floor. As we grow and develop and get enveloped into everyday human life, we lose this natural belly breathing. Notice when you get in a stressful situation what happens: your breathing will start to shallow and hyperventilation occurs. This is not optimal for performance. Performance in life or in anything that you do. Why? By filling the lungs to capacity on a inhale, several things happen: 1.) Our lungs are lengthened (if we inhale until we can fit no more air in the lungs) which helps to improve the amount of oxygen you can consume in a minute, which, if improved will improve your VO2max and how efficient of an athlete/active person you can be because you fitness levels and thresholds will improve as well. 2.) By filling the lungs and fitting this excess oxygen into the lungs and body, this excess oxygen will help us to be more efficient and recover quicker because that oxygen works to nourish every cell, tissue, and organ of the body. This happens because the fuels that we put in our bodies are transported by the amount of oxygen that we can consume, so, if we can consume more oxygen, our fuels will be delivered more efficiently and more often to the places in the body that need them, both during exercise and at rest. 3.) Finally, when stretching and doing yoga, our breath can help us to lengthen our tendons, ligaments, and musculature more and allow us into positions that would not otherwise be possible for us unless we were inhaling to the capacity of the lungs which will help us create a greater capacity for our lungs. By emptying the lungs completely on a exhale, several things happen: 1.) We release toxins from the body through our expiration, in the form of CO2 and other metabolic waste. 2.) We allow the body to internally decrease space so that we can move through different ranges of motion when doing yoga, stretching and even doing core exercises and other activities. 3.) by detoxifying the body we allow the body to be more efficient in everything from cognitive function, to neuromuscular impulses, to muscular contraction, and a decrease of free radicals in the body which are the agents that cause disease, sickness, and cancer. This detoxification can also help in many other areas as well.

Theses full, deep breaths, when combined with a full inhale and exhale help to relax the mind and body, no matter where or what situation you are in. Even in stressful situations be mindful of your breath and what it's doing and always come back to those deep ujiyah breaths. The physiology behind the full, complete, deep breath is this in addition to all of the aforementioned: when we inhale, our diaphragm drops to facilitate the oxygen moving into the body. It does this to allow your body to take in as much oxygen as possible. When this happens, all of our organs drops to the lowest possible place in our bodies allowing our body to be nourished by that oxygen. When we exhale, our diaphragm is pulled in and up as high into the ribcage as possible (keep in mind the diaphragm is a muscle). When this happens our pelvic floor, or perineum, is lifted and all of our organs lift. If we exhale to the point where we have to almost gasp for our next inhale, our organs are squeezed, and rung out like a wet rag, releasing those unwanted toxins from where they are being held. So, with a full complete breath, our breath will work as a pumping mechanism used to nourish all the tissues of the body (inhale) and rid the body of all of the toxins (exhale). Try to get in at least 5-10 long, deep, ujiyah breaths everyday!

Pain

In one of my books, "The Breath of God", Swami Chetanananda illustrates and writes as one of his journal entries that "Pain is God's Love". Nothing could be closer to the truth. Pain is a reminder that we are human beings. Without it, all of us would be perfect and would already be at our greatest potential. Think about it: many of the experiences that we learn from are painful experiences. When we think of pain, we think of primarily physical pain. Although that is one type, what about the emotional, spiritual, and mental pain that we may experience as a result of many different situations. These pains also help us to grow and become who we are, and are a sign of God's love toward us. Without these "pains" or tension in our life, we may not have learned the lessons we were supposed to, or helped a friend in need, and ultimately, would not have learned and become who we are supposed to become as part of God's ultimate plan. Doing what I do, I see a lot of each of these pains everyday. Not only do I see the physical pains, but while people are moving, sweating, and hurting physically, all of their mental, emotional and spiritual pains are expressed and dealt with. As coaches, trainers, and health wellness and fitness professionals, we also become psychologists in a way, who lend an open ear to our clients, young and old alike, when they do open up and spill a lot of these pains and tensions to us.

Tension

Swami Chetanananda also talks about how tension is just crystallized energy. Think about it, tension is crystallized energy, what does this mean? Tensions in our life are usually things that we hold on to, and do not let them go or have resolve by communicating them to someone or simply to pray or meditate on that particular tension until it is released. Just like pain (tension is pain in a way just not the ideal pain we think of), tension can manifest itself in several forms: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Examples of this include: Mental--being stressed out about school, work, performance etc., and holding on to that tension instead of resolving it or letting it go. Physical--having tightness, or tension, in the joints, musculature, or intestines. Sometimes one tension or tensions can lead to others. There is usually a way to resolve these tensions without using prescription drugs, or the infamous ibuprofen. Yoga, Pilate's, hot/cold contrast therapies, Epsom Salt baths and other treatment modalities (which are all natural) can be used to treat and help alleviate your physical tensions. Emotional--sometimes we have strong emotional tensions and turmoil, which usually starts itself out as a mental tension of some sort. This mental tensions cascades into emotional tensions. Just like mental tensions, if we reflect, pray and/or meditate on the certain tension and letting it go, we usually realize that its not that important to hold on to and there are more important things in life that we should shift our focus to, to get away from that tension, such as, family, friends, what we love doing, helping others in need etc. Spiritual--people have spiritual tensions in many ways. Sometimes situations arise that make individuals question their faith. Remember, pain is God's love. Life is not always going to be easy. I tell our athletes, if we were already perfect, we would have nothing to work on or shoot for, and life would be boring. We are impermanent beings. What does that mean? We will all die someday. Death is a part of life. It will come for us sooner than others, and sooner than we would like for some of our friends and family, and is something that we do not talk about a lot because we want to believe that we'll live forever and we are never going to die. Let's be real, and truthful though. A lot of people question their faith at these trying times and gives rise to spiritual tension. Others question their religion, and religious practices of others etc. Many people ask for God's help with several things, but how much do you take a step back, sit in silence, and listen to God? Try that, and not just for 30 seconds. Sit in silence and breath for at least 10 solid minutes, with an objective mind. As a thought arises, recognize that thought but don't hold onto it,let it go and let another arise or if there are no thoughts that's fine too. Do not look at your thoughts subjectively and analyze them, simply recognize them and then let them go. Hopefully this will help you with some tensions in your life! Have a great, tension free day!

Sun Salutation

This is one of the most basic forms of yoga. It is movement with every half of a breath, and will help to increase lung capacity, flexibility, suppleness and pliability of the spine, increase cerebrospinal fluid production, and promotes a great overall feeling of well-being!

Sun Salutation: Start in a standing position with your hands by your side and take about 5 deep breaths in and out through the nose, remember that the breath is the most important part of stretching and yoga, try to stretch your lungs with every inhale, and exhale until there is absolutely no more air in your lungs. Inhale arms up overhead, exhale bend forward, inhale halfway up flat back, exhale hands to the floor, step back to push up position, big inhale then exhale to hover, inhale up dog, exhale down dog, exhale walk feet to hands, inhale halfway up flat back, exhale palms to floor, inhale arms up overhead, repeat as many times as tolerated, REMEMBER THAT YOUR BREATH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS FLEXIBILITY AND RECOVERY WORK! I have had several clients come to me with back pain for various reasons. This is the prescription that I give and teach them to do every morning in order to take some of the tension out of their backs. Even if you do not have back pain now, do this as what I call prehab, so you never have to go to rehab!