Tag Archives: carbs

Aerobic Stamina is Key to Your Success

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Stamina is really just a combination of energy, physical endurance, and mental tolerance. Having a large amount of stamina will allow you to work out longer, more often.  If you can exercise more, you’ll see better gains in your fitness – especially as you start to see the diminishing returns losing weight and gaining muscle.

It really plays a large part in most aerobic exercise.  The single biggest muscle in your body that affects stamina is your heart. Have a healthy heart, and you’ll see tremendous gains and feel amazing too. You’ll also be protecting yourself from illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure.

Energy

Consuming energy producing nutrients in the few hours before exercise will boost your energy. Consume foods high in electrolytes and carbohydrates.  A turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with veggies on the side. Have a nice tall glass of milk with that too.  I prefer skim milk myself.

The best place for electrolytes is not a drink by the way.  Get some real vegetables or something that has a lot of flour in it. Don’t get conned into the Gatoraid thing – although that is also a decent place to get them, it’s not the ONLY place.

Physical Endurance

Your physical endurance is affected things like the health of your heart and muscles. It also includes things like injuries or physical condition. What do I mean by physical condition? Fore example: are you dehydrated? If you’re low on water, you’ll perform miserably and probably quit early.

The only way to improve your physical endurance is to challenge yourself daily and increase the health of your heart and muscles. Observe good habits that keep your body feeling good too, like a healthy diet.

Don’t overdo the physical challenge. If something is just beyond your reach, dial your routine back a bit. If you’re running, run slow (don’t run less, just run slower). If you’re walking at an incline, shallow it out a bit. You will have good days and bad days.  Listen to your body and perform at your maximum for that day.

Mental Tolerance

When exercising, there are two mental roadblocks that rear their head.  They are: boredom and the pain of real gains. The only way to truly overcome them is to attack them head on and use willpower to get through.

You can help stave off boredom a little bit by watching TV or listening to music while you work out, but ultimately that just distracts you and will affect your performance. You know when you’re driving and don’t really remember the last few minutes even though you know you were awake? Go for that kind of autonomy during an aerobic workout.  You might not want to check out during strength training though.

Bringing it Together

Actively work towards increasing the performance of those three facets of your stamina and you’ll see gains.  When you increase your stamina overall, you’ll see an acceleration in your overall fitness gains. Be careful you don’t overdo it and be safe while you’re training. Are there other ways you work to increase your stamina? Let me know in the comments.

11 Simple Tips to be More Fit

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Looking back at what’s been done so far, I thought I’d give you ten easy tips that will help you be more fit:

  1. Be in the right mindset. Getting your mental game together will go a long way in improving your physical performance.  If you’re not where you need to be, identify the problem and neutralize it.  You mind can be the biggest hurdle in making yourself better.
  2. Drink enough water. Water is the thing that gives all things life.  It cleanses your system of toxins and allows you to extract energy from your food.  If you’re dehydrated, you’ll feel horrible and perform even worse.
  3. Work out. Really? Exercise is the basis of being fit coupled with a good diet. Get into a routine of working out at least three times a week for at least a half hour.  That’s a minimum.  If you can do more, do it. If you don’t exercise, you’ll never gain muscle and always be low on energy.  Don’t just exercise your body either.  Make sure you exercise your mind daily.
  4. Only eat carbs for energy and don’t over-do it. Having too many carbs will promote fat growth, but having too little will leave you starved for energy during your workouts.  You need carbs to build muscle.
  5. Use biofeedback to get the most out of your workout. Listening to your body is the best way to increase gains when you’re working out. Do range of motion tests before each exercise in your workout and you’ll get maximum results.
  6. Pick a diet that works for you. I’m talking about vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous diets here. That whole South Beach, Atkins, Peanuts Only thing is just a gimmick.  Pick the one that fits your lifestyle and is the easiest for you.  I’m an omnivore myself.
  7. Eat high protein foods before and after you work out to build muscle. Get those proteins three hours before you work out and three to four hours afterward.  You’ll get maximum synthesis then and see excellent gains in muscle growth.  Of course only do it if that’s what you’re going for.
  8. Vary your workout to give tired muscles time to rest. If you give tired muscle groups that time to rest you can keep your heart rate up and give them some R&R at the same time. That will maximize your time to gain ratio.
  9. Don’t just worry about weight loss. Keep your mind on fitness, not weight loss.  Unhealthy weight loss can cause health problems later. Don’t sweat it out or starve it out.  Earn it.
  10. Cut out the alcohol. This is the single easiest way to lose weight and feel better. Alcohol dehydrates you and adds a ton of extra carbs and calories to you body that you don’t need.
  11. Strive for perfection and perpetual progress. This is the most important point.  Striving for daily perfection is what will keep you going forever. This will keep you from slipping back into your old habits. When applied to other facets of your life, you’ll only see positive things.

If you exercise (hah, see what I did there) those ten tips every day you will be well on your way to becoming more fit.  What tips do you have?

Ups and Downs of Carbohydrates

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There are a lot of theories about how carbohydrates affect your fitness.  Basically they are complex sugars and usually occur in baked products, but also occur naturally in fruits and vegetables like potatoes and bananas.  This doesn’t mean you should shy away fruits and veggies, because there are different types of carbs.

There are simple carbs and complex carbs, and the complex ones are the ones you want to watch out for, because they’re converted to fat the easiest.  Fruit and vegetables tend to contain simple carbs, while baked goods like pizza and bread tend to be made of complex carbs.  Stepping back your complex carb intake can drastically affect the amount of hydrated fat on your body.

Cons

There are various diets out there, like the South Beach Diet, which prohibit the intake of carbs to lose weight.  The Atkins diet is another take on that same theory.  The basic idea is that if you don’t take in complex carbs they can’t be converted to body fat.  If your food can’t be converted to body fat, you won’t gain weight.  That’s not entirely true, but it kind of works.  I’m not saying it’s healthy though.

Alcohol is probably the most common carb out there and is the biggest culprit for gaining weight.  There is a reason they call it a “beer gut”.  As you drink beverages with higher and higher alcohol content the carb ratio goes down, but it never goes away.  Also remember the alcoholic drinks are very high in calories.  Some shots of liquor can have upwards of 150 calories!

Pros

Carbs and sugars also provide you directly with energy.  That’s why you see people who run marathons taking in a large amount of calories, most of which are carbs.  If your body is using the energy, they are the easiest form of food to convert.

When you’re going to the gym, if you eat a carb heavy diet about three hours before you go, you’ll feel more energized and probably perform better while you’re there.  It’s good to eat a larger amount of them in the morning and cut back on them at night.  This way you’ll have the energy for your day, but not convert them to fats while you’re sleeping.

The Take Away

Basically you need to remember that carbs aren’t as bad as some diets make them out to be, but they can be bad if you don’t moderate them.  Remember that they are in most foods and beverages – especially alcohol.  The easiest way to lose weight is to cut alcohol from your diet.  For some people it’s also the hardest thing to give up.

There really is a lot of science that goes into figuring out how many to eat and when you should eat them.  When you combine something complex like the science of consuming carbs with the science of drinking water or other consumption habits, it’s easy to get confused.  We’ll try to break down those barriers for you and make it simple.

Need more help figuring out all of this?  Just hit us up with your questions.