Putting the FORCE back into your LIFE through group fitness programs

Archive for the ‘Psychological’ Category

The Oil Billionaire H.L. Hunt once said

There are only two real requirements for success in life. The first requirement is deciding exactly what you want. Most people never get to that point. They never decide exactly what they want in life, and because of this they simply go around in circles. The second requirement, after a person has decided what he wants, is determining the price he’s going to have to pay to get it and then resolving to pay that price.

So if you want to have a new car, it is obviously going to cost physical money, but that may also mean working more overtime, not being able to go out to dinner as often, giving up a holiday or having to take a position with greater responsibility &/or commitments  etc in order to be able to afford that car. You can have just about anything you want, as long as you are able to and are willing to pay that price. And remember, nature always demands that you both pay the price in full & that you pay it in advance.

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Has anyone ever heard of the model ‘Energy In = Energy Out’ for weight loss or Strength gain? Simply put, it means that if your energy intake (what you eat) is balanced with your energy expenditure (how much you move), then you will remain the weight you are now.

-          However, if you want to lose weight, you need to either decrease your energy intake &/or increase your energy expenditure. Not too much either way or you may end up actually gaining weight. Sounds contradictory I know, but it can actually affect your metabolism in negative ways when gone to the extreme.

-          To gain weight (for putting on muscle mass for Strength & Fitness) you need to increase your energy intake & decrease your energy expenditure. That may sound like a good formula for putting on body fat. However with the correct type/amount of nutrition for muscle building (combined with the correct type/amount of efficient Strength & Fitness training of course), with the correct type/amount of adequate rest it will actually stimulate the need for muscle growth. Just eating more & moving less will just make you fat L Muscle building will still require you to work for it; you just need to make sure you eat more of the good stuff to tip the scales in the direction of weight (muscle, not fat) gain.

Either way, you’re trying to get your body to burn fat or build muscle & that means changing your body structure through chemical reactions. That is what your metabolism is. Basically it is a measure of how fast you are either breaking down fat cells, or building muscle cells. So the faster you can do this the quicker you’re going to get the Strength & Fitness goals you are after right?

There are many tricks that can be used to increase your metabolism.

• Eat more frequently;

o   Without increasing your overall daily energy intake too much. Know how much you should be eating in a 24 hour period & divide that into 3 main meals & 2 or even 3 other smaller snacks. Buy just ensure that the overall daily energy intake is correct for your needs. http://lifeforcetraining.com.au/category/nutrition-recipes/

• Eat enough;

o   If you eat too little, your body has to slow down it’s metabolism to conserve what little energy you do have. The trick is to eat just under/over what your body requires to burn fat/build muscle. Your body doesn’t want to change, so when you make little changes, your body doesn’t realise what’s happening & is happy to burn away.

• Drink Water;

o   Keeping your fluid levels up will keep your body running efficiently. You can lose up to 30% loss of performance, with only a 2% dehydration level. Maintain your hydration & your body will perform at its peak, which means burning energy.

• Get proper Sleep;

o   You want to burn the most amount of energy when you’re awake, so you need to be completely refreshed when you wake. 6 to 7 hours of DEEP sleep is much better than 8 to 9 hours of light sleep. If you are not rested from sleeping, your body will slow down when you’re awake.

• Eat early;

o   Your metabolism is at its lowest while you’ve been sleeping for the last 6 or 7 hours, you need to get it going as much as possible as fast as possible. Give it something to start burning.

• Eat Protein/Fibre rich food;

o   These Low G.I. foods make the body work harder to break down in the digestive system than High G.I. foods like processed & sugary foods. That means your body is working harder internally for longer, regardless of what you’re doing externally.

• Increase Muscle Mass;

o   You need money to make money – you need muscle to make muscle; why, because you need muscle to burn energy. You burn energy & you’re going to burn fat, & it also takes energy to build more muscle.

o   Legs are the largest muscle group of the body, so if you work your legs you’re going to build the greatest amount of muscle with each & every workout.

• High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT);

o   When you work at a high intensity (immediate increase in energy) for a short amount of time, then rest before repeating the process, your body’s metabolism goes up & down many times within your training session. When you stop training, your body doesn’t know what to expect, so it is at the ready & will keep burning energy for hours after you actually finish. Also known as Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC Training)

• Incidental Training

o   Increase Your Metabolism Through Incidental Training

Keeping fit and healthy is all about your body right? Wrong. Mind and body are interlinked in so many ways you wouldn’t believe!

Synergy is described in Wikipedia as

Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

So when life begins to get on top of us, why not use this to our advantage. Read the rest of this entry »