Archive for October, 2010
How To Turn Endless Weight Loss Efforts Into Successful Weight Control Outcome
What’s the magical formula to achieve your weight goals? Everyone is looking for the easy diet or pill to lose extra pounds. With all the media hype about new products and diets, it’s easy to forget the basics.
Weight maintenance is really a simple matter of energy balance. Energy balance is achieved when “energy in” is equivalent to “energy out”.
“Energy in” comes from food you consume each day, whereas “energy out” is the number of calories you expend each day.
Eating fewer calories than you expend results in weight loss, whereas consuming more than you expend results in weight gain.
Three factors that have an impact on your energy expenditure are:
- Basal metabolic rate – the number of calories the body needs to maintain body functions while at rest.
- Thermic effect of food – the number of calories required to digest, absorb, transport, and store food.
- Physical activity – the number of calories expended during daily activity, lifestyle and exercise.
Is there anything you can do about it? Are there things you can do to help boost your body’s calorie-burning power? Let’s try to figure it out.
Finding the Best MMA Information for Conditioning
Please forgive me in advance for venting my frustrations to you. Providing martial artists with mixed martial arts information that will improve their conditioning is an extremely rewarding career. However, it does come with its own set of frustrations.
Here is a conversation that I’ve had with a potential client in the gym:
Potential Client (PC): Hey Billy. I’d really like your help with preparing for my next fight.
Me: OK. How’s your current level of conditioning?
PC: It’s really good (potential client lifts up shirt to show a ripped 6 pack).
Although being lean and having a 6 pack can certainly impress a few ladies at the beach, it will do very little to help you win a fight. Unfortunately for all that time spent on wasted crunches, the fighter could be spending time researching effective MMA information and developing proper conditioning techniques that result in superior fighting ability. These strategies include interval and proper core development.
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The Combat Sports Guide to Staying Motivated
One of the first individuals who studied the relationship between motivation and behavior was philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the 1800s. He described motivation as being “moved into action.”
Two very different paths
I have always been curious as to what causes people to take specific actions. Let’s take jiu-jitsu for example: How come when one practitioner is injured he may “hang it up” while another may face the same obstacle but go on to be a champion? I have gone as far as getting formal education on the psychology of motivation in addition to studying the lives of many successful people.
Here are 3 tips that you can begin taking immediately to get closer to your combat goal:
MMA Strength and Conditioning – How to Reach any Performance Goal through the Habit of Consistency
“Success consists of a series of little daily victories.”
-Laddie F. Hutar
When I first began training in BJJ I was hooked immediately. I trained every possible chance I had and as a result made quick progress. Somewhere along the way for a variety of reasons I became inconsistent with my training. It was a real wake-up call when I realized that guys who started training after me were slowly and steadily passing me by. At that moment I re-committed to my training. I began competing as much as possible and set specific measurable training goals for myself.
Everyone I know who is successful in their given field takes consistent action. There are no exceptions. This principle isn’t limited to MMA strength and conditioning. My accountant is a former client of mine and a partner in a successful accounting firm on Long Island. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he used the same persistency in his fitness program that he used to get ahead in the business world. It’s been over 10 years since I first trained him and if I call his office at 7 AM on any given day I can expect 2 things — He will personally pick up the phone (he likes to beat the Long Island traffic and get to work early) and he’ll tell me all about the intense workout that he did earlier that morning.
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Preventing Lower Back Pain in Grappling and Martial Arts
It is no secret that many people suffer from back pain and it’s no different for students of grappling and martial arts. The sad part is that most of the time it can be prevented. If you have lower back pain, it is your job to educate yourself about what specifically is causing the pain and what you can do to eliminate or reduce it. All too often, people with back pain walk away from physicians and chiropractors with no clue as to what is causing them pain and more importantly, what THEY can do to prevent it.
Just taking some pain killers or seeing a chiropractor three times per week for adjustments is not really addressing the issue at hand. Hopefully you will find the following 6 tips helpful in preventing and relieving lower back pain.
Compliment Your MMA Fitness with Fat-loss and Muscle Development Using “Super-Set” Training
What is super-setting?
When most people begin weightlifting they use the straight set method where they perform one set for a specific number of repetitions. Then they rest and repeat. While there is nothing wrong with this method, I’d like to introduce you to the concept of “super-setting.”
A super-set is when you perform two exercises back to back with no rest between them. You would only rest after doing the final exercise of the super-set. For example, do a set of lunges and then immediately do a set of squats.
While there are many different ways to do super-sets, the program outlined in this article is based on the post fatigue method. In this approach you will do two exercises for the same muscle group. First you’ll utilize a compound movement (more than one joint and more than one muscle) to be followed by an isolation movement (one joint and one muscle).
Your MMA Fitness will improve by implementing super-setting.
Guide to Mixed Martial Arts Nutrition Planning
Proper nutritional planning is an important factor for all individuals who desire great health. The consequences of neglecting to plan and evaluate food intake can be severe. The following techniques in this guide to mixed martial arts nutri
tion planning will help ensure that you have an optimal performance as well as adequate recovery ability for your MMA training.
Plan your week in advance
Every Sunday or Monday (or whatever day works best for you) plan out your meals for the entire week. You can be somewhat flexible with this but at least you will have a basic guide to mixed martial arts nutrition that is tailored specifically for you and your schedule
Eat 6 small meals
I’m sure you have heard this by now since basically all sports nutritionists are in agreement about it. Eating smaller frequent meals as opposed to fewer larger ones can help curb your appetite and avoid binging. Also, eating small frequent meals can help keep your blood sugar levels stable, giving you better energy levels and keeping you in a fat-burning state.
Quick Weight Loss by Front-loading Your Day’s Calories
Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately most people don’t take advantage of it because they are so pressed for time. They either skip the meal completely or grab something quick as they run out the door. In fact, most people seem to eat 20% of the day’s calories at breakfast, 30% at lunch, and 50% at dinner. Eating in a crescendo with most of your calories being consumed at the end of the day is a sure fire way to avoid quick weight loss!
Fuel by day; eat less by night
Many people believe the myth that dieting starts at breakfast. Because they are so hungry from not eating enough during the day, these same people often over-eat in the evening. You want to do the opposite. Eat the bulk of your calories early in the day before training, working, or studying. Then at night you won’t be so famished and you’ll be content with a sensible dinner.
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How the thermic effect of foods can work to your advantage
Most diet plans fail to explain how the thermic effect of foods can work to your advantage – or to your disadvantage – when trying to lose weight. That’s because many are more interested in boosting their bottom line than in your health and well-being. The information gap used to work in their favor, but not any more. Sorry, diet product peddlers, now the tables have turned. No pun intended.
If you are seriously ready to lose weight, keep it off and live a healthy lifestyle, then you are ready to understand what foods you should eat and why.
The Thermic Effect of food (TEF), in a nutshell, is energy burned during digestion. The scientific definition is the increment of energy expenditure above resting metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for storage and use.
Say what? What does this mean to all of us regular folk? Well, from the time the fork leaves our lips to the time each bite works its way out the other end, our bodies are burning calories to process it. So, with that said, is there a way to eat certain foods that will take more energy to digest, boost metabolism, and take advantage of the thermic effect? The answer is, yes. Read the rest of this entry »
Increase Your Metabolism by Eating More Thermic Foods
You may have heard of something referred to as the “thermic effect” of eating mentioned in the gym, in fitness mags, or on various websites. But now I want to explain exactly what that means and what you can do to take advantage of it. If you have ever said, “I’m stuck with a slow metabolism,” you need to pay close attention. Believe it or not, there are many ways you can make your metabolism slower or faster. In other words, you are the creator of your present metabolism and can change it for better or for worse.
To lose weight, you need to have what is called a negative energy balance. That means that your calorie intake is less than your expenditure. That is true but there is more to the fat-loss puzzle than that.
