Aminos and Fat-burning Exercise!

Tuesday turned out to take a toll on my body!  I was feeling great IN class, but after 3 classes, Wednesday was tough.  I decided to try out Anabolic Amino Rush, which is an Apex product sold at 24 Hour Fitness (click here for $4 shipping or I can get it to you with a discount and free shipping!).  Here's what it does and why I decided to try it: 

In your body, amino acids that are either produced in your body (non-essential) or are needed in your diet (essential) to be used as the 'building blocks' or proteins and for metabolism.  Basically, they control every cellular process that goes on in your body.  What an important role!  Specifically in regard to exercise, your body needs those amino acids to help repair what you have 'broken down' in your workouts.  

This is where Amino Rush comes in to play.  This powder has a great ratio and just the right amount of aminos to help your body repair.  Leucine, Iso-leucine, and Valine, are all vital in that process (Leucine being the MOST important).  Leucine is essential and we can get it through our diet*, but it would take a lot of dietary leucine to do its job effectively.  As you work out, your body breaks down glucose in your muscle tissue and creates the byproducts pyruvic acid and NADH (electrons).  Leucine binds with pyruvic acid to reform properties in your muscle tissue.  So, instead of your body having to clear away that byproduct, leucine helps reuse it to repair the muscle damage faster.  What is even cooler, leucine is able to do this process in adipose and muscle tissue!  

Since I have been doing a lot of exercise through classes, I wanted to see if it would help reduce muscle fatigue and increase my strength over a prolonged period of time.  Basically, I don't want to feel like I got whiplash every Tuesday!  I'll keep you updated :)

*some dietary sources include:  fish, peanuts, wheat germ, soy beans, and beef 

On to another study related to exercise!  Have you seen this music video? 

 I love that they used treadmills :)  

Freemotion Fitness, a company that produces and sells great exercise equipment, has a research link that I have found interesting.  They are 'famous' for their incline trainer, which makes the average treadmill look lame.  Their trainer can take you on inclines as high as 30, where a normal treadmill goes to 15...

Here is a synopsis on their research: 

As a trainer, I take different energy systems into the equation when helping someone to their goals.  The most common goal is weight loss, so I often turn to High Intensity training to help them burn the most calories and gain muscle under a short period, but also tell them to use this tool to stress a different energy system.  Let me back up...

Here are your three energy systems, or rather, how our body uses energy in any activity:  ATP-CP, glycolysis, and oxidative.   Although all are used at any given time, one of them will be stressed and used more than another.  The oxidative process is what I want to look at here for fat burn.  

Oxidation takes a slow and steady rate of exercise and produces enough energy to keep you going through oxygen (hence the name!).  Walking is a great example.  

However, it takes a VERY long time to burn lots of calories.  And how do we burn calories?  We use as much muscle as possible.  This is where the incline trainer research is great!  They took the need for a slow oxidative exercise while increasing muscle being used and found that walking at a very steep incline reaches that need!  Their studies found that walking at an incline anywhere from 18-24% and at a speed of 2-3mph activated more muscle and utilized more fat as energy.  

If you want to use this in your fitness regime, walk more than 30 minutes at an incline of at least 18% at 2.4 mph and you will use 6 cals/min of fat versus a meek 2 cals/min of fat at a flat 6mph jog.  Have fun inclining!  

Embrace Recovery for a Stronger You!

Hello Everyone!

I am at the local library today.  Not only did my car break down, but my computer cord isn't working (at least, I hope its just the cord!).  What a great reason to head to the library for some research :)
No pictures today, but I wanted to talk about proper recovery.  Sometimes it is important to listen to your body and slow down when necessary, especially if you are highly active, have little time between workouts/exercise modes, and if you are new to fitness and feel the effect of delayed soreness.  When you exercise, your body breaks down proteins necessary to repair the muscles you used during your workout.  Especially if you use eccentric movements, that is, movements where you are lowering your body or weight (pushups, squats, and the downward motion of most exercises), you will feel DOMS kick in.  DOMS stands for delayed onset [of] muscle soreness.  When you try a new exercise, or maybe if you worked REALLY hard, you will feel the effect of DOMS.  There are a few things you can do to help facilitate healthy recovery:

1.  Mild stretching after exercise.  Studies are unsure as to the role stretching plays in the recovery process, but it can't hurt to increase your range of motion and cool down after your workout. 

2.  Cool down and warm up!  Sometimes you can be sore because you didn't warm up properly.  I tell each of my clients to warm up on something 'easy', like an elliptical, or start off slow to let your body pump more blood, get your joints loose, and feel your heart ready climb STEADILY.  That way, you will be primed for a great and intense workout.  Same thing goes for afterward.  Hope on that same elliptical, jog slowly, or walk to let your heart rate drop, clearing away any acidic byproduct of lactic acid. 

3.  Ice baths, ibuprofen, and refuel.  These are in the same category...maybe you need an extra boost in your recovery.  Especially if you KNOW you did something hard, like a race or a new and intense form of exercise.  You NEED to refuel.  I could spend a whole post (and maybe I will) on how refueling your body with the proper nutrients is vital.  Ibuprofen can help with the feeling of soreness and reduce inflammation caused by the workout.  Ice baths are sworn to help by many elite athletes, especially the endurance group. 

4.  Drink plenty of water and sleep!  Water is vital and not limited to how your body brings nutrients via the bloodstream.  There are so many functions in the body that rely on water.  So if you don't like or can't find ways to drink enough, chug!  Or brew some herbal tea.  Just please drink enough to rehydrate that water-depleted body.  Sleeping is essential and it is for a REASON.  There are so many things that take place in sleep for your body to repaire itself.  Let it rest and get the full amount of sleep!

5.  Take supplements.  I am not a huge fan of being dependent on supplements, but there are two things I swear by: vitamins and BCAA's.  Vitamins are important because you would need to eat a TON of leafy greens to get everything you need to function.  Maybe you are tired and sluggish because you don't have enough vegetables and essential vitamins and minerals through your diet.  Get them through some high quality multi's.  Apex and GNC are the best, highest absorbing multi's on the market.  BCAA's are great and that would take another post, so read this to hold you over til then.  It is a great article on why they are important and how it facilitates your health. 

What a wordy post!  Hopefully these things help you in your active lifestyles and journey through fitness.  Any questions?  Comment below!  We need to get this comment thing going ;)  Comments help facilitate more thoughts on this topic so ask away!  Have an amazing Tuesday!

(P.S., that salad in a jar I made yesterday was an AMAZING combination-delish!  Check it out!)