Tips for a better night's sleep

As you saw in our previous post, sleep is crucial to reaching your health and fitness goals and just health in general. But it doesn’t always come as easy as we would like. So, lets talk about some ways that we can help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed.

Creating better sleep habits will be a great place to start when it comes to a better nights sleep. One of the best things you can do if you are having trouble falling asleep would be get the screens out of your face. Yea, I know, TikTok is really hard to put down but the sooner you let your mind get into night mode, the faster you will fall asleep! When we have these lights in our eyes, our brain thinks that it’s still day time and this can trick us into feeling more awake and takes more time to wind back down. Meditation is another great way to get your mind to calm down, unwind, and to get your phone out of your face. These two things will be a great benefit when it comes time for you to fall asleep.

Another great habit is going to bed at a consistent time. A sleep schedule can help to set your circadian rhythm and will lead to you consistently being more tired around the same time every night. You will notice it will be easier to fall asleep quicker than before and this will also help with waking up! If you are able to fall asleep and wake up at consistent times you will be able to wake up more energized and less groggy than before. Plus, avoiding the snooze button will help when it comes to falling asleep the next night! So wake up, don’t hit the snooze button, and put your feet on the floor. It’s time to get up and attack the day.

We all knew this one was coming, exercise! Exercise can help you to expend that extra energy and wear your body out. I recommend doing your workout earlier in the day but if you are doing it later, stay away from the stimulants. Caffeine will keep you up longer and decrease your sleep quality. If you are able to get in some intense exercise daily, your sleep will not only come easier but should be deep and restful while your body rebuilds itself.

Have you ever had a meal and right after thought, I could totally fall asleep right now! Eating a little food before bed can help you to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, especially for those of you on a caloric deficit. DO NOT eat a huge meal before bed. Just eat enough to be pleasantly satisfied and not too hungry or full to sleep. This is great for those of you who wake up at 1am and raid the fridge! Eat a little before bed, work it into your daily calories, and you will feel much better after getting a full nights sleep without any interruptions.

Cut back on the water and alcohol. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be drinking water, you should be trying to get in around a gallon per day. You also need to keep in mind your bed time. I recommend really decreasing your water intake after about 5pm. This gives you time to get all of those would be pee breaks out of the way so you can sleep all night consistently. When it comes to alcohol, your quality of sleep is much lower, leading you to feeling exhausted when you wake up. It is also a diuretic and can lead to light night bathroom stops, again interrupting your sleep.

When it comes to waking up, please stop setting 10 alarms for 5am, 5:05, 5:10, 5:15, 5:20…. YOU ARE NOT GETTING GOOD SLEEP!!!!! Save yourself the hour of waking up every 5 mins to hit the snooze and just set your alarm for 6am. Then when it’s 6am wake up, turn off the alarm, put your feet on the floor, and get up. It starts your day with the maximum sleep possible and with a win! So claim that win and stop letting the alarm rob you of your sleep.

I know these can sound kind of common sense, but I hear of people making these mistakes all the time. Stop torturing your body and actually give it what it needs, sleep. If you need to, set an alarm to tell you its 30 mins until bed time so it’s time to start winding down. This can start your meditation or journaling or reading time. Set the same alarms every day for waking up, even if you don’t need to be up that early (it’s ok to take a day off here and there). Focus on setting your bedroom up for sleep by keeping it dark and cool. And for the love of god, spend some money on your bedding. Stop sleeping on that 1990 waterbed. Get a good mattress and sheets and comforter. Sleep is so important, spend the money on it please! So, take the time right now to get things set up. Set your alarms now and get started sleeping how you should be.

Get Some Sleep!

Sleep is an important aspect of life. It can have an effect on our physical, emotional, and mental health! This is why you have heard me talk about how important rest is. I know some of you have heard me talking about getting the right mattress for your sleep style, setting up a night routine, and setting up a wake routine all in an effort to improve your rest and recovery.

So, let’s talk about what I work with most, physical health. When it comes to rest, this is when we recover and rebuild our bodies. This is very important for recovery after workouts and to rebuild that hard earned muscle mass. Studies have shown that individuals on a calorie regulated diet, those getting only 5.5 hours of sleep had 60% less muscle mass at the end of the study and those sleeping 8.5 hours 40% MORE muscle mass! This is due to the ability to have more intense workouts as well as helping the body to produce Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH helps to regulate fat storage and muscle growth as well as bone growth at younger ages and other aspects of our metabolism.

Speaking of the hormone HGH, there is much more to it than just increased production, we also want to help balance our hormones! Sleep studies with nurses getting 5 hours or less of sleep have shown that they were 15% more likely to be obese than those getting 7 or more hours of sleep. In this study they weren’t quite sure as to why they gained weight but the cause was most likely hormonal.

Leptin and ghrelin, known as your hunger hormones. Ghrelin is what lets your brain know that you are hungry and Leptin is what helps tell your brain that you are full. When you are sleep deprived these hormones can get out of wack! You end up making more Ghrelin and less Leptin, leading to over eating. This is something I have personally noticed when being low on sleep, that feeling that you just cannot stop eating no matter how full your body feels. What makes this even worse is that as you get more sleep deprived, the decision making part of your brain reduces function and leads to less ability to fight binging. It can be a rough cycle of feeling incredibly hungry, overeating, and knowing that you should stop but not having the willpower to do so. Studies of individuals getting only 4 hours or less of sleep would eat 22% more calories than those getting 8 hours of sleep.

Lastly, lack of sleep can lead to lower calories burned. This could be due to a reduction in resting metabolic rate (RMR) and/or less physical activity performed. On the RMR side, some studies have shown that when participants had less sleep, they lost weight at a lower rate. They also found that RMR dropped much more after eating than normal with the lower sleep group. As far as calories burned, it would seem that you could burn more calories if you were awake more hours of the day. The fact is that we become to run down to perform at the same intensity as normal. This lower intensity causes less calories to be burned throughout the day. So it is much more effective to get a full nights rest and come into the next day full of energy.

The main point here is that if you aren’t sleeping, you are working against your goals. You will reduce your ability to build muscle mass, burn fat, and perform to your fullest. This combination is brutal for fat loss and basically causes everything to work against you! You will also feel broken down constantly. Your mind will be foggy. Your ability to perform to the required intensity to promote muscle growth will be greatly reduced. The cravings will increase. Your willpower will be low making it hard to say no to those binge urges. That likelihood of getting sick will increase. Etc. So please… GET SOME SLEEP! Your body will thank you.

Weekend Binge Killing Your Progress?

After a long week, sometimes it's nice to unwind with some not-so-health-conscious food and drink decisions. Maybe you are taking a weekend trip and not planning on holding back in the diet department. This situation is very common and is sometimes a much needed break from the day to day. But is it keeping you from reaching those goals you set for yourself? If done incorrectly, these "cheat days" could cause some major issues.

Let's talk about how to bounce back after a weekend of letting loose.

I am going to start off with a little reminder. All of us need to fuel our bodies for our specific goals and sometimes we need to have a meal that doesn't quite "fit the diet."

No matter our goals, if our diet is unsustainable because it's too restrictive, we are setting ourselves up for failure! BUT a binge weekend should be a rare and extreme circumstance within the diet and should be avoided as much as possible. I totally understand that special events and holidays come up, but it's all about making the best choices in that situation so that you can reach your goals! You can do this by being mindful about what you are eating and drinking. Limit portion sizes of poor food and drink choices. Increase your water intake to fill up and stay hydrated. Limit the damage by saving some extra calories throughout the day when you know you will be breaking the caloric bank in the evening.

Now let's go over how can we put together a strategy to get back on track after one of these rare and rough weekends.

First things first: Remember that today is a new day! Instead of beating yourself up over the weekend, focus on getting back on track ASAP. If you aren't careful, your mind can be your biggest enemy and lead to reoccurring binging.

Get some sleep and drink more water! Studies have shown that lack of sleep can affect our hunger hormones Ghrelin and Leptin. Getting more sleep can help to bring those hormones back in check and help you fight off those late night cravings.

Often after an off-track weekend, we forget to keep up with our water intake and become dehydrated. This is exacerbated when drinking diuretics like alcohol and caffeine. As noted above, water can also be a great tool for reducing calories after a weekend of excess.

Some other ways to get back on track include starting your day off with a healthy breakfast, ramping up the veggie intake, making sure to get enough protein, starting the week with a workout, and avoiding skipping workouts.

Binge eating does more than just increase your calories. Binge eating can lead to GI issues, fatigue, depression, anxiety, feelings of shame, and an overall higher rate of occurrence due to feelings of "falling off track". If binges continue and become more frequent, side effects such as weight gain, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, heart disease, and more can occur.

Let's take a look at what alcohol does to our bodies.

Alcohol contains roughly 7 calories per gram. That is almost as many as fat, which contains 9 calories per gram! On average, there are 14 grams of alcohol in a 1.5oz shot. That 1.5oz shot is equal to 98 calories! Add other sugary soda and juice mixers to make your favorite cocktail and you will likely have a fairly high calorie drink. 

Alcohol effects

• Brain: Short-term, alcohol can interfere with the transfer of short-term memories into long-term memories, which causes blackouts. Even retained memories may be fuzzy. Speech, judgment, physical coordination, and thinking are all impaired when a person is intoxicated. Long-term, too much alcohol can change the function of various areas in the brain, permanently impairing memory, cognition, and emotions.

• Liver: Binge drinking can overwhelm the liver, so if a person suffers from alcohol poisoning, they still have several servings of alcohol in their body that have not yet been processed, which can make poisoning worse or lead to death. Long-term, people who drink too much can develop fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, liver failure, and liver cancer.

• Heart: Short-term, being drunk or binge drinking can raise blood pressure, change heart rate, and increase the risk of heart attacks from underlying heart conditions. Long-term, cardiomyopathy (or drooping heart muscle) will develop as well as arrhythmias, chronic high blood pressure, blood clots, and an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes.

• Cancer: Alcohol abuse increases the risk of all kinds of cancer, including cancer of the stomach, liver, mouth, throat, esophageal, and breast.

• Fat Storage: Alcohol is a toxin to your body and forces your body to focus on getting rid of it before all else. This can lead to storing calories as fat due to your bodies immediate need to rid itself of the alcohol.

Other effects:

• Increased skin breakouts

• Higher levels of stress or anxiety

• Extreme fatigue or sleep disturbances

• Inflammatory reactions inside the body, causing digestive problems

• Increased chronic pain from inflammation

• Dehydration

• Salt imbalance that can increase the risk of seizures

• Erratic blood pressure

• Muscle weakness

• Headaches

• Increased mood swings

• Depression

• Hinder Testosterone production

As you can see, one fun weekend can create a habit if you let it and that habit can really wreck your progress. Balance is very important when it comes to staying on track. Falling into the traps of excessive restriction or off-diet binges can create problems that are harder to bounce back from than just sticking to your diet would have been.

This is why all of us at Relentless Fitness push sustainability! If you can find something that is sustainable when it comes to diet your chances of success go up exponentially!

If you need help with finding what works for you just let us know.

Nutrition basics

Nutrition

Nutrition is often what people refer to as “Diet” but I am not the biggest fan of the word diet because it implies something that is not a lifestyle, it implies something that is a fad or something that you are doing just for now. Nutrition is key to success in meeting your goals and it can, in most cases, be more important than the exercise portion of your health and fitness. If you can’t stick to your nutrition, then we need to figure out what it is that is keeping you from staying with it. If your nutrition is too limiting, as most peoples is when they are “on a diet”, it causes them to fall off and usually binge and end up worse than when they started. Finding a nutrition plan that you can stick to that meets your nutritional needs is the key to success. To help show you how we need to start looking at our nutrition I am going to show you the Nutrition Pyramid, and no it’s not the government fruits, veggies, ten tons of grains, meat, and dairy one. This one is all about what the government guidelines leaves out, calories, macros, micros, timing, and supplements.

As you can see this isn’t your normal government issued food pyramid, this is a more important pyramid that tells you how you should look at your nutrition. As with most pyramids we start at the bottom with the most important facts. As you can see behavior and lifestyle are at the very bottom and holding the whole thing together. This means that your behavior/adherence and lifestyle change are key to making your nutritional changes work. At the base we see energy balance AKA calories as the foundation of pyramid. After that we have your Macronutrients (Macros). Macronutrients are your Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats. These are where you are getting your calories from (as well as from alcohol for some of us). If your calories aren’t at the right amount the macros don’t matter but once your calories are correct then you can start looking at your macro breakdown. If you are hitting your macros then we look at your micronutrients, your vitamins and minerals. Once you are hitting those bottom three then we can look at meal timing such as when you break your fast, eating before and after a workout, and eating before bed. Then at the very top we have supplements. I bet most of you thought it would be lower on the pyramid, and that’s totally normal with how much advertising we get for supplements. The sad reality is that they do little to nothing, especially if we don’t have everything else on track. Let’s take a look back at those calories, the foundation of our nutrition, and see how we can use them.

Lets Talk Calories

Calories can be used for losing weight and gaining weight/muscle mass. We do this by having more or less calories that what our total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is. Say we want to lose a healthy 1 lb per week. There is an equation I will show you all or you can use calculators online to figure out your TDEE. Once you have your TDEE then you want to subtract 500 calories from that number. This will be your total daily calories. Now 1lb of fat is valued at 3500 calories, so you have to have -3500 per week to lose that 1lb per week. So if your TDEE was 3000 and we took 500 we have 2500 per day and a weekly drop of 3500 calories! Now this works to a point, but if you keep pulling down your calories your body will fight back. There is a number called your Basil Metabolic Rate or BMR and that is the total number of calories your body needs to function without you moving at all, your breathing, heartbeat, brain function, digestion, are all things that need energy to function. So what your body does when it notices you are getting less calories than it needs to survive it will lower your metabolic rate and lead to fat storage. This means YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT! Plus, if you are eating your performance in your workouts will stay up, your hormones will stay in the proper ranges, and you will be much more mentally stable, not to mention able to do this the rest of your life! Trust me, those fit friends of yours haven’t been starving themselves the last few years, it’s not how it works. Now when you look at fitness models and competitors that is a different story and is not something that they do for life, it is something that they peak at for a day or two and then rebound back to normal. Keep that in mind.

Ok so let’s get your calories figured out. You have two options, go to http://www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ , or you can use this equation below.

  1. Determine Basal Metabolic Rate

(I recommend the Mifflin-St. Jeor Method for determining basal metabolic rate.)

Men: BMR = 10 * weight(kg) + 6.25 * height(cm) - 5 * age(y) + 5

Women: BMR = 10 * weight(kg) + 6.25 * height(cm) - 5 * age(y) - 161  

2. Multiply BMR by your activity levels to determine Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

This will give you your maintenance calorie intake aka your TDEE. From this point we can decide how fast we want to lose weight by using percentages. If you are overweight and new to tracking, you can take your TDEE calories and multiply them by .15 up to .25 to get the amount of calories you should cut per day. If you are pretty lean already it might be best to do .1-.15 so that you can hold on to more muscle mass as you cut the weight. Fun fact, as you cut calories and start to get lean your body will start to eat the muscle as it is not as necessary and can cause your body to burn more calories by keeping your metabolic rate up. So be sure to lift weights to combat this muscle loss and slowing of your metabolism.

We should have our calories set at this point. Now it is time for us to figure out what percentages of our calories should go to what macronutrients. This is something you will have to play with and that will change due to your metabolic typ. In this e-book I do not go into how to figure that out but I usually start myself off with 40% of my calories coming from carbs, 30% coming from protein, and 30% coming from fat. To figure this out all you have to do is multiply your total calories by .4 and that will be for your carbs. Next divide that left over number (the 60%) in half to get your calories for your protein and fats. Once you have your calories divided up into the three percentages, you will then divide the calories according to the number of calories per gram in each macronutrient. This means you will divide your carbs by four, your protein by four, and your fat by nine to find your grams for each macro nutrient. Fat is the most caloric dense so you will have the least amount of grams when it comes to fats. An example of what your macros could look like would be 3000cal carbs: 300g, protein: 225g, and fat: 100g.

I know that was a lot to take in but it is the foundation to getting your nutrition started. Other than adhering to your program for nutrition, calories and then marcros are the most important thing you can do to get you to your goals. Also be sure to get yourself a food scale so you can weigh out your food to get the most accurate measurements and track it in the app myfitnesspal. It makes it really easy to enter and keep track of your calories and macro nutrients. I don’t go over it in this book but I have information on how to get your myfitnesspal account set up to track your macronutrients and I tell you what to look for as well.

Below you will see some sample healthy, fair, and poor food choices as well as a sample day of eating. It is important to know what foods are healthy so that you can pick them up when you are shopping and substitute in the healthy for the not so healthy options. It is also important to take some time to read nutrition labels. This is key to finding out what is really in that box you throw in your cart every week. In this e-book I do not cover the labels or grocery store navigation but it is a very important part of eating clean. For now, take a look at the food options and sample day of eating listed below.

Healthy Food Choices

Studies show that those who keep journals are more

Successful in any pursuit. Study’s also reveal that

those who document their food and beverage intake

may lose more weight than those who do not.

Tips to Remember for Your Success:

-Try to walk in the morning before eating. 10-30 min.

-Drink lemon water in the morning before breakfast

-Jot down which proteins, carbs, and fats you select.

-Record the amount of water you consume each day.

-Get in the habit of checking nutrition labels and

 ingredients before purchasing items.

-General rule of thumb. No more than 7 ingredients

Protein

Meat and Poultry

Best Choices (low in saturated fat)
Beef (range fed or game)
Ground beef (Less than 10% fat)
Chicken breast, skinless
Chicken breast, deli-style
Turkey breast, skinless
Turkey breast, deli-style
Turkey, ground

Fish and Seafood
Best choices (high in O3 fats)
Bass
Bluefish
Cod
Haddock
Halibut
Lobster
Salmon
Scallops
Snapper
Swordfish
Shrimp
Trout
Tuna (steak)
Tuna, canned in water

Fair Choices (moderate in saturated fat)
Beef marbled cuts
Chicken, skinless, dark meat
Corned beef, lean
Duck
Ham, lean
Ham, deli-style
Lamb, lean
Pork
Turkey burgers
Turkey, skinless, dark mea
Veal

Poor Choices (high in saturated fat)
Bacon, pork slices
Beef, fatty cuts
Beef, ground (>20% fat)
Hot dog, beef or pork
Hot dog, chicken or turkey
Pepperoni
Salami
Sausage, pork link
Sausage, pork patties
Prepackaged deli meats

Eggs

Best Choices
Whole egg

Vegetarian
(always check package labels)
Protein powder
Soy burger patty
Soy Canadian bacon slices
Soy hotdog links
Soy hamburger crumbles
Soy sausage
Tofu

Fat

Best Choices
(rich in monounsaturated fat)
Almond butter
Almond oil
Almonds
Avocado
Cashews
Guacamole
Macadamia nut
Walnuts
Olive oil
Peanut butter, natural
Pistachios
Sesame oil
Coconut oil
Flax seed oil

Fair Choices
Canola oil
Sesame oil
Soybean oil

Poor Choices

Bacon bits, imitation
Butter
Cream (half and half)
Cream cheese (REG or even Lite)
Lard
Sour cream
Vegetable shortening

Carbohydrates

Vegetables

(Best Choices)
Artichoke
Asparagus
Beans, green
Bok choy
Broccoli
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Chickpeas
Eggplant
Hummus
Kale
Leeks
Lentils
Mushrooms
Onions
Okra
Spaghetti squash
Spinach
Swiss chard
Yellow squash
Zucchini

Raw Vegetables
Alfalfa sprouts
Bamboo shoots
Bean sprouts
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Celery
Cucumber
Green or red peppers
Jalapeño peppers
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Onions
Radishes
Salsa
Snow peas
Spinach
Tomato
Water chestnuts
Water cress

Vegetables
(use in moderation)
Beans, baked
Beans, refried
Beets
Butternut squash
Carrot
Corn
Lima beans
Parsnips
Peas
Pinto beans
Potato
Sweet potato

Fruits
(Best Choices)
Apple
Apricots
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Grapefruit
Kiwi
Lemon
Lime
Nectarine
Orange
Peach
Pear
Plum
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tangerine

Fruits
(Fair Choices)
(use in moderation)
Banana
Cantaloupe
Cranberries
Dates
Fig
Guava
Honeydew melon
Kumquat
Mango
Papaya
Pineapple
Prunes
Raisins
Watermelon
Keep fruit juice to a minimum.

Grains
(use in moderation)
Steel cut oats
100% Whole grain/wheat bread
100%Whole grain/wheat pasta
Try to keep fiber content high if eating grains.

Grains
(poor choices)
Bagel
Biscuit
Cereal
Cornbread
Cornstarch
Couscous, dry
Cracker, graham
Cracker, saltine
Cracker, Triscuit
Croissant, plain
Crouton
Doughnut
English muffin
Granola
Grits
Melba toast
Millet, dry
Muffin
Noodles, egg, cooked
Pancake
Pasta
Pita bread
Popcorn
Rice
Rice cake
Rolls
Taco shell
Tortilla
Waffle

Others/sweets
(Avoid at all cost)
Cake
Candy bar
Chips
Cookies
Ice cream
Jam or jelly
Molasses, light
Relish, pickle
Sugar latent products
Syrup

A Sample Day

This is an example nutrition plan for a day; Use the many healthy choices for each macronutrient listed above and create your own healthy meals that will fit your lifestyle. You don’t have to eat 6 times a day. Just try to ensure you hit you calorie count everyday

Breakfast

A 3-egg omelet mixed with some green veggies and cooked in 2 teaspoons of olive oil.

Lunch

A grilled chicken spinach salad with 4 ounces of chicken breast, some olive oil and vinegar dressing, and fresh fruit for dessert.

Dinner

12 ounces of salmon covered with a tablespoon of slivered almonds, 2 cups of steamed vegetables.

Snack only if necessary. We want to keep insulin levels low as much as possible.

Drink at least 64oz of water per. 96 if exercising.

Sample recipe

Here is a good idea for breakfast or snack!

1/4 cup quick oats
1 egg (sub. 1/4 egg beaters for less calories)
small handful of blueberries
little bit of brown sugar/stevia (optional)
1 tbsp soymilk or regular milk(for added moistness!)

Mix it all up into a coffee mug!
Put it in the microwave for 1 minute, make sure it doesn’t overflow! Add an extra 30 sec if it needs to firm up. Here is a good idea for breakfast or snack!

Wrap Up and Moving on to Training

As you can see from all the information provided on Nutrition it is key to your success when it comes to reaching your health and fitness goals. Once you have your nutrition on track you will start to see results and is actually the biggest reason people reach their goals, especially weight loss. A lot of times you will see people working out very hard but using that workout to justify eating poorly and they never get results no matter how hard they train. Speaking of training let’s take a small look into how training falls in the pyramid of health and wellness.

Fitness Basics

Training

First we will take a look at a few pyramids to show importance of each part of health and fitness/ training as well as take a look at some very basic programming for training sets and reps based on set goals. First we start with our foundations pyramid for reaching your goals. The pyramid shows the hierarchy of importance of nutrition, exercise form, strength, endurance conditioning, and then looking to reach your end goal. In the full book included with training we go in-depth on why the pyramid is set up like this and what it means.

Muscle and strength

training pyramid.

In this pyramid we see the factors from most to least important when it comes to building our training program. As you can see adherence is once again the key to success and the foundation to both nutrition and training. This is a major part that is covered in the online training and is huge in the end when it comes to success. This will all change depending on your sport/health and fitness goals. The rest of the pyramid is covered in the online training.

The diagram above is all about the different styles of training and how to set them up depending on your goals. As you can see the variables are reps, sets, and time of rest. This should give you a basic idea of how your program will look depending on your specific goals.

Rating of Perceived

Exertion or RPE

RPE is used to determine how hard you are working on a particular set, exercise, or workout. This means that when you are doing an exercise or workout you should be putting in an amount of effort between 1-10, 1 being so easy you could do it all day and 10 being so hard you feel like you cannot do it anymore even if your life depended on it. A 1 would be walking around at a very slow pace inside of the mall for example. A 10 would be like sprinting up a huge hill as fast as you can, giving it 110% like a massive mean dog is chasing you! This rating should change depending on your workouts that you are doing because the amount of effort you put in affects different things such as your aerobic and anaerobic states, your nervous system, and your muscle fibers all differently.

Training when sick

When it comes to working out when we don’t feel the best there are many different ideas of what we should do from sweating it out to sleeping until you feel 100% better no matter what. I have a few guidelines that might help you determine if you should be active or take a bit of rest to get you back on track as soon as possible.

Let’s start with what exercise does to your body/immune system. Light to moderate exercise such as yogo, Zumba, light weights, moderate cardio activity such as walking or jogging, biking, swimming, can all either maintain or even boost your immune system. Very hard and prolonged exercise can do the opposite and actually lowers your immune system. This does not mean that you should not exercise hard, it just means if you are exercising very hard and you start feeling the symptoms coming on, be sure to slow things down to the before mentioned boosting exercise options. If you are already sick with a fever, then it is time to rest rest rest to let your body recover. Also keep in mind that if you are feeling sick that you should avoid working out with others so that you do not spread your sickness. As you start feeling better increase your movement from low intensity non weighted movement, 30 minutes of light exercise, and then to moderate exercise for 45-60 minutes. If you take the time to recover you will get back on track much faster than forcing yourself back into it. Also be sure to pay attention to these factors: Age, stress, sleep, gender, and training age. These can all be factors that can help you figure out if you should get back to working out sooner, let you know if you are at higher risk of getting sick, and will help be your guide for getting back on your feet. Remember to listen to your body!