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(Source: katlaydee, via acquiringfit)

treehuggingdirtworship:

fitnessloveaffair:

Yoga for the Splits

Print this out and practice these poses everyday to gain flexibility for the splits. Start by holding each pose for 30 seconds on each side. Work your way up to 1-3 minutes as your muscles start to open up. When you’re ready to try the splits use a block or pillow under your front leg for support until you feel ready to go without.

Need more help? Check out my favorite stretching videos.

This! :)

(via curvecreation)

Ever get confused on what you should be eating pre and post workouts and what you should be avoiding?! With so many sports drinks, bars, supplements and powders out there it is no wonder one would be unsure of what is best for them.

What you eat before and after your workouts can be more crucial than you may think. Eating right before will help give you the energy to power through your workout, and eating right after the workout will help your muscles to recover faster and come back stronger.

Characteristics of Pre-Workout Meal

According to this article written on WebMd, there are an ideal 5 characteristics for a pre-workout meal: low fat, carbohydrates and protein, low fiber, contain fluids, and made up of familiar well-tolerated foods. Meaning this is not the time to be introducing new foods that you are unfamiliar with how your body may react to. Also stay away from fried or greasy foods that will be hard on your stomach during your workout.

Now whether you are powering through a heart pumping cardio treadmill run, or working on building up those biceps depends on the ratio of carbs to protein you should be consuming before your workout. When you are building muscle you need a higher supply of protein for tissue repair. While on the other hand, you will need more carbs for energy supply when powering through a cardio session.

Pre-Workout Meal for Strength Training

Depending how intense your strength training workout may be depends on how much protein you’ll need. You’ll want to consume at the very least 50% of your meal as protein, the other 50% as carbohydrates, as you still need energy to get through any workout. If your workout is more intense, feel free to bump up that protein intake to 75%.

You will want to consume this meal about 1-2 hours before your workout to make sure you have a reserve supply of protein ready to for the upcoming workout. Some great suggestions would be an egg white omelet with toast and skim milk. Or greek yogurt topped with walnuts and honey. Depending on if this is your meal or snack for the day will determine how much you should be eating.

Pre-Workout Meal for Cardio

Now with cardio sessions, you will want mostly carbohydrates to make up your pre-workout meal to boost blood sugar levels to give you enough energy to make it through your workout. Aim for about 75% carbohydrates for your pre-meal. You want to still add protein to your pre-workout meal to help prevent any fatigue that could be caused from consuming an only carbohydrate meal. Meals such as oatmeal or whole grain cereal topped with raisins and walnuts with skim milk should do the trick. This needs to be consumed about 30-60 minutes before hitting that treadmill.

Post-Workout Nutrition

After your workout there is a time period called the “recovery period”. This time is crucial for refueling and replenishing your body with all the nutrients that were lost in the workout. Again it depends on if you were doing a cardio or strength training workout.

After Strength Training Meals

You have about an hour or two after an intense strength training workout to repair your muscles, replenish the glycogen stores, and prevent muscle soreness. This is the prime time where protein is used to build lean muscles instead of being stored as fat, so you will want to take advantage of this time.

Protein shakes are always a good choice to help get in your protein as a quick fix, yet whole foods are going to be your best option in providing you with more nutrients. Food items such as: eggs, fish, chicken and cottage cheese will not only supply you with ample amounts of protein for your recovery, but they will also provide you with essential vitamins and nutrients.

Try out this Chicken with Black Bean Sauce dish, it has tons of protein to help your muscles recover faster, yet carbohydrates to help restore your glycogen as well. It’s also loaded with vitamins and nutrients that protein shakes won’t be able to supply you with. This is the sort of dish you are going to be looking for in a post workout meal.

After Cardio Meals

When it comes to cardio workouts your goal is again to replenish the glycogen and energy stores. Try foods with whole grains, fruits and veggies. Piece of whole wheat toast, banana, or small sweet potato are all great examples.

With both cardio and strength training workouts you are going to want to make sure you rehydrate. A large amount of water is lost through perspiration, especially in cardio workouts. Pure water is the best source for the average exerciser. Although if your cardio session is lasting longer than 2 hours, you will want to rehydrate with electrolytes as well, sports drinks will be your best bet here.

Get to know your body and how it responds to exercise to know what you need to give your body to perform its best. Every one’s body is different and every workout may need different things to replenish. Find what works best for you. Eating the right things during the right times after your workout is crucial to keeping your energy up, your workout performance high, and your body in fat-burning mode

(via eatcleantrainharder)

chasefear:

Easy Run: These light runs are best done at a conversational pace. Meaning, if you can’t run and recap last night’s episode of “The Bachelor” at the same time, you’re going too fast!

LSD: Excuse me?! No, not that LSD. In this case, the acronym stands for long slow distance, or the week’s longest run. The only kind of trippin’ runners might be doing out on the road is over their own shoelaces.

Recovery Run: Also lovingly referred to as “junk miles,” a recovery run is a short, slow run that takes place within a day after a long, harder run. This teaches the body how to work through a fatigued state - a dress rehearsal many runners will be thankful for at mile 19 of a marathon!

Speedwork: Aimed at improving running speed, these types of workouts can include intervals, hill repeats, and tempo runs (all explained below). In addition to getting faster and increasing endurance, speedwork, well, usually hurts a lot, too!

Interval Training: By alternating specific time periods of specific high and low intensity during a run, intervals are just one way to get faster, build strength, and see calories melt away.

Hill Repeats: Runners make like Jack and Jill and go up the hill (again and again) in this other cruel form of speedwork. Heading up at a 5K pace and recovering down at an easy jog or walk, the number of hill repeats per workout depends on experience and fitness levels. But the benefits from the pain? Speed, strength, and confidence!

Fartleks: A fartlek not only makes us giggle, it’s an easier form of speedwork for beginners. Meaning “speed play” in Swedish, fartleks are easy runs broken up by quick sprinting bursts. When changing speed though, the runner calls the shots (unlike more rigid intervals). So newbies can make it as fast and as hard as they can handle. That’s what she said.

Tempo Run: Usually done just once a week, tempo runs are a tougher form of speed training. Runners challenge themselves to hold a “threshold” (or comfortably hard) pace for a 20-minute period during a run - along with a good warm-up and cool down, of course.

Pick-Ups: Short, gentle increases in speed, or pick-ups, at the end of a run help aid recovery. Sorry, they unfortunately have nothing to do with these cheesy lines.

Strength Training: Runners need muscles, too! Among its many other benefits, strength training, or exercises performed with or without weights (think push-ups, squats, and planks), helps runners become stronger and prevent injuries. Their bodies take quite a beating while hammering it out on the road, so they need all the help they can get.

Cross-training: Runners should also squeeze in time for cross-training, or sports and exercises other than running that improve overall fitness and strength. Great examples of cross-training for runners include cycling, swimming, yoga, water running, and weight training.

Rest Day: Choosing the couch over the road at least one day a week allows a runner’s body to recover and repair muscles. We say rest days can still be all about marathons though - a “Friday Night Lights” marathon, perhaps?

(via makingabetttterme)

itstheskinny:

99lbss:

ribcagebeautiful:

Reblogging for future use

this is useful. 

BC SOMETIMES YOU NEED ANOTHER MODE TO CHECK PROGRESS BESIDES WEIGHT!

(via doingthisforcree)

mebuthealthy:

MBH Does Tips

One of my friends has extremely wide hips, and the other day said “they’re 35 inches!” This baffled me, because my hips are 36.5 inches and I’m significantly narrower than her. It turns out she was measuring herself wrong.

If you use measurements to gauge your body changes, it’s really important to:

Learn to measure yourself accurately.

1. The bust measurement goes over the highest part of your boobs.

2. The waist measurement is roughly at the belly button, and is the narrowest part of your torso.

3. The hip measurement is over the widest part of your hips and bottom. I think about this logically - if you buy pants or a skirt based on this measurement, you need to make sure they will go over your widest part.

4. Place a tape measure on your skin, but don’t pull it too tight to minimise the measurement. It should be snug, but not tight.

This is probably basic information to most of you, but I thought I’d share given that I had to give my friend this lesson anyway!

Want more tips?

(via curvecreation)