Many of us have post workout routines that we feel are important for our fitness. From stretches and yoga to meditation and even meals or protein shakes, the things we do after our workouts are just as important as what we do during them.
The reason? Fitness is 20% about what we do in the gym and our exercises, 80% about what we eat and put in our bodies, but 100% mental. The post-workout routine is filled with these mental and physical exercises and practices that remain critical to our fitness success.
What can we add to our post-workouts for better fitness and for stress relief? Surprisingly, one answer is blogging. Why? Because it combines some of the mental tasks above with habitual practices that make your workouts more productive and help you keep track of the things you want and need to accomplish. Starting a blog, choosing a domain and website host and designing your site are all pretty easy. Once you get going, blogging can be addictive just like exercise.
How does post-workout blogging help improve your workouts? Here are a few ways. (more…)
Working out without music would be miserable. Workout playlists make time pass faster and help you pump yourself up for the next rep! If you’ve ever tried to workout with the wrong pair of headphones, you know just how frustrating it can be. Whether you hate dealing with a cord in your face or you sweat all over bulky over-the-ear headphones, you know you need something that can handle your level of workout.
It turns out not all headphones are created equal! Some headphones are best used for certain types of workouts, and that’s why you need to learn more about what kind is right for you. Here is a guide to the best headphones for every type of workout! Take your workout to the next level with these tips.
We recently published a post at Project Swole about treating many comment mental well-being complaints with Xanax, and of course, we all know how well exercise helps with anxiety.
Here are some additional tips for battling anxiety and other mental health issues, ranging from sleep to meditation to alternative supplements.
Keep your mental health strong and your physical health will follow! (more…)
Nootropics are supplements or drugs that enhance memory and cognitive development. They are also known as the smart drugs. The mechanism and actions involve increasing the number of neurochemicals present in the body that will cause the increase of oxygen supply and stimulate good nerve function.
This memory-enhancing supplement is often prescribed to dementia patients and individuals that are known to have a below average IQ. In some cases, this drug is also taken by gym buffs who want to give their mental focus a boost. But, contrary to the belief that this will make people intelligent, Neurohacks.co says these supplements serve as stimulators or a nourishment that bridge the gap in the synapse and, therefore, cause an increase in the mental and intellectual function of an individual.
People decide to hit the gym for various reasons. The majority do it to keep fit and healthy, others try to lose weight, and others for personal reasons which include health reasons. After you set your goals, such as aiming to shed a specific number of pounds of weight or achieving certain levels of body strength, you may feel highly motivated, but the motivation may be short-lived. To achieve your goals, you must be consistent doing workouts and check your diet.
Getting yourself to the gym or your working-out place is the most difficult part of exercising. So, what is the secret to get yourself motivated to go for the workout?
The following are some steps to keep your motivationalive:(more…)
I always tend to find workouts at the gym very stressful when visiting at peak hours. There are so many people grunting and grinding, dropping weights and chattering. I really can’t concentrate on my own workout when noise is all around me. It increases my heart rate and makes me nervous and uncomfortable. Yet because of work schedules, I often find that the only time I have to visit the gym, is during the peak hours, along with everyone else.
This is where my cell phone comes in to save my day (and sanity); I simply plug in my headphones and turn up the volume for 45 minutes until I am safely out of the gyms doors. I know this is sounding terribly unsocial of me, but the gym at peak hours isn’t a calm social gathering to me, its prime purpose is unwinding and letting go of the days stress.
Testosterone is popularly referred as an epitome of manhood, that doesn’t mean testosterone isn’t found in women. It’s just that testosterone is found in large quantity in men, while it’s in trace quantity in women. You might be aware of the fact that testosterone plays a vital role in enhancing your sex drive and muscle building, no wonder why most men have greater muscle mass than women.
It’s almost mythical to learn the true power of testosterone and its ability to burn body fat and boost your muscles. Testosterone also comes in handy to increase your libido, sleep, mood, and your quality of life. However, testosterone declines in most men after they hit 30 years, which isn’t good for health.
In many cases it becomes an issue and leads to testosterone replacement therapy, which some studies claim might also not be good for health. Sometimes we need to try to find ways to naturally enhance the testosterone level in the body.
Here’s a list of 7 ways to increase your testosterone naturally:
As we grow old, it is important to stay active and healthy, but you should not just concentrate on enhancing the body. The mind is just like any other organ and needs stimulating to keep it working at its best. There are some simple things that you can do to keep yourself fit and healthy in body and mind.
Eat the Right Food
There is real evidence to suggest that eating healthily and having the right foods can help with your brain’s health. People who eat fish once a week, for example, have a 60% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This is because fish has omega-3 fatty acids that help to slow brain degeneration.
Everyone knows that they should be exercising, yet most people dread the very idea. The sweating and strain aside, working out is just boring. Think about the people you see running or at the gym, they look bored of their skulls. If you are going to keep at any exercise routine, you will need to find some way to combat the mind-numbing madness that comes with it.
When it comes to lifting weights, most people have the wrong perception. Weight training does not necessarily equate to bodybuilding and its benefits are not limited to aesthetic muscle growth either. It is a principle that can be used to achieve a variety of goals for both men and women. In fact, all kinds of athletes and sportsmen use different variants of weight training to boost specific aspects of their game. As the general consensus is that the only ones who lift are the people who want to get jacked, let us take a closer look at what else weight training can do to help your health.(more…)
It’s 5am, and you are standing in the light of your fridge, with a ladle in the Nutella jar, greedily chomping down any hope that you were going to eat well that day.
“Maybe tomorrow will be the day I lock down my nutrition,” you tell yourself.
“There, there—of course tomorrow will be the day,” the not-so-helpful you replies, the ladle craning towards your mouth, brimming with that sweet, sweet hazelnut spread.
If this feels familiar (and lawd knows it does for me), you aren’t alone.
We all struggle mightily with our nutrition at one point. Or many points. Or all the fuckin’ time.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. And before you laugh and shuffle off to another one of the 7 tabs you have open, you should consider starting a food diary.
Maybe you’ve thought about writing your food before.
Then you were like, “Nah, I ain’t got time for that.”
Or you snickered at the idea of keeping a “food diary.”
Sounds kinda prissy, right?
But really, put aside giving a baker’s hoot what others may or may not think for a moment.
If you want to feel metric butt-ton better, have higher and more consistent energy levels over the course of the day, and you know, beast at a 20% harder rate*, then start putting pen to paper and unleash this certified and proven weapon for kicking names and taking ass—err—in the kitchen.
* Anecdotal approximation. See a doctor if it lasts longer than 4 hours.
Here’s how a food journal will help you open a can of whoop-ass in the gym and in life:(more…)
Being fit and achieving your goals is no easy feat, even if the basic idea is simple. Eat the right foods and push yourself. It doesn’t take a lot of time to figure these things out, especially with experts to guide you. It’s the execution where most people fail.
It’s hard to get fit, and it’s easy to skip that morning workout. It’s too cold, you need to go decompress after work, and the gym will be too crowded anyway… We make up a lot of excuses to get out of pushing ourselves. But the truth is, barring some serious circumstances, there isn’t an excuse.
While heavy gains require sticking to a fitness routine, if you really can’t make it to the gym, you can still maintain your fitness and be productive around the house. Homeowner projects provide plenty opportunities to maintain fitness, you just need to recognize that opportunity. (more…)
In cold weather climates, many runners log a large number of kilometers on the treadmill, and most of them complain that treadmill workout is rather boring. If you have the same problem and want to beat boredom while running on a treadmill, try the following tips. They will certainly make your treadmill running more fun.
Run with friends
If you have a friend who also trains on the treadmill in the same gym, you need to get her/him next to you. This way you will likely motivate each other as well as provide distraction in order to make your workout more efficient and faster. You do not have to run at the same pace with your friend(s).
If you truly want to become fit, there is more to it than just jogging or doing a few sit up every day. As a matter of fact, the food you eat can also cause you not to be fit. The best way to do this is to hire a personal trainer than will help you get a handle on your diet and what you need to know about nutrition in order to become healthier and fit while losing weight or just toning your body.
A personal trainer will not only help you learn about nutrition, but will start you on a fitness program that will fit your own personal goals. Some people without specialized diet requirements may need to hire a personal nutritionist as well, but many trainers, as I personally did, also receive certifications in sports nutrition and other nutritional disciplines in order to offer the most effective diet advice possible and in some cases even write personalized nutrition plans.
In the majority of cases, you will need to start out slow both with diet and exercise, especially if you have not exercised or followed a health eating plan in a very long time. The good news is that you can choose a private, semi-private or group training session so you can train along with a friend and not feel so alone. On the other hand, if you want to work alone with a trainer that can also be accomplished.
An interesting fitness trend that I’ve seen popping up in since around 2010, is the idea of betting on yourself to lose weight. Say you want to lose 25 lbs in 6 months. You might bet $200 on the goal and when you accomplish it, you collect $400.
That’s a win-win situation, and will help to hold you more accountable for attaining your goals. Who wouldn’t want to lose weight and gain money, at the same time?!
Don’t get the wrong idea, this is not an industry full of gamblers and junkies – in fact it’s just the opposite! These websites and applications offer a social point for each individual to share his or her progress, they offer camaraderie and inspiration that you may never have had nor felt before. Diet betting communities allow you to connect with like minded folks who are committed to succeeding at the same goals as yourself.
Before you gamble WITH your life, gamble FOR your life. Winners on average lose about ten pounds and double their initial investment. Over 40% of participants usually win something and always lose at least a little weight.
There are even incentives for participants to stay healthy. In some cases you become disqualified if you lose too much weight. Dangerous weight loss behavior is flagged for losing, for example, more than 12% of their body mass in 4 weeks.
If you’ve never kept a blog before, the idea of documenting your fitness progress online could seem a little daunting. In fact, to some, blogging itself may seem somewhat intimidating or confusing. But, blogging is actually quite easy – especially with the help of user-friendly blogging platforms such as WordPress. The best part is that a blog is actually a wonderful fitness tool because it allows you to document your progress and motivates you to keep going. It also doesn’t hurt that you can make money blogging, turning your fitness or health blog into a full-time job. After all, who doesn’t want to turn their passion into a business?
Starting a Weight-Loss Blog
More and more people are realizing the benefits of documenting their weight loss progress on public platforms such as social media or blogs. Learning how to start a lifestyle blog is a great choice, as it gives you complete freedom to write stories and include information about how you’re feeling, which recipes you’ve tried, new workouts that you’ve had a go at in the gym or even display before and after pictures and progress pictures of yourself fitting into clothing two sizes smaller. (more…)
TBT: This is a post I wrote back in May of 2007. These were my thoughts on motivation, prioritization, and how to make the most of your training. It pretty much all still holds true.
Priorities
We all have priorities in life. Some of mine include finishing the move into my new house, running a successful website development business, keeping my girlfriend happy, spending time with my son, staying strong and healthy, and not getting fired from my day job. What are yours? Can you list your top 5 and assign priority values to them? I have done this, and what I have found is that staying strong and healthy continues to drop below those tasks that involve either family members, or putting lOOt in the bank (or more accurately giving lOOt to bill collectors).
How can we reprioritize in order to keep our gym goals intact?
I don’t want to get small or weak or fat, and neither do you. In my time, I have seen too many men with joint, neck, back, or hip issues, or perhaps they are just overweight with big pot bellies. Years ago I swore this would not be me. So, how can we redirect some of that focus back into the gym? How can we, when faced with working 14 hour days in order to make a million dollars by age 40, still exercise? Where can we draw some of this motivation that I am talking about. I have a couple suggestions that you could try, some of which I am testing out right now.
Get a lifting partner that will show up on time for each workout. Find someone that isn’t going to talk about his/her friends, or work, or a party, or kids… find someone that wants to FOCUS on training when it’s time to train.
Tell others about your plan (blog about it?). If you tell others what you plan to do with your body, you will hold yourself more accountable for your own progress. After all, no one wants to be embarrassed by failure.
Realize that you aren’t good to anyone else unless you are healthy. If you are always tired, hurt, or sick, you are no good to your family or co-workers. Suck it up and get healthy!
Sometime in your life, you will need to be strong. Perhaps something will fall on you or a loved one. Perhaps you will need to move the contents of an entire house by yourself. Maybe you will need to fight off an attacker, or push a car out of the snow, or rescue someone from a burning building. No matter what the aggressor might be, you will inevitably need to be strong for one reason or another. Why not prepare for it before it’s too late.
Find some good ass lifting music. I personally prefer Static-X, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold, Staind, Godsmack, Powerman 5000, Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, System of a Down, Disturbed, Nickelback, Type O Negative, Evanescence, Tool, Rage, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age, (Hed) P.E., Megadeth, Motley Crue, Stereomud, Lamb of God, Ill Nino, Sevendust, Faith No More, Hatebreed, Mudvayne, Shinedown, Taproot, Theory of a Dead Man, Foo Fighters, and Three Days Grace, just to name a few.
My Solution
I have a son that I want to inspire to be strong and healthy. I have a girlfriend that, quite frankly, I want to impress with visions of a Greek God, feats of strength to rival Hercules, and the skill to defend her from predators. These abilities prove to her that I am a male worthy of mating… frequently, if you catch my drift. I have this blog that visitors will be reading, and I don’t want to embarrass myself with failure. I have a business to run, and I want prospective clients to be wowed by my dedication to life and ability to multi-task. Finally, I want to get in better shape, faster, than the guy on Better Body Journal, for he is one of my nemeses in this game of strength.
Find your solution and make your own motivation. Formulate your goals, and make it happen!
We all have hectic schedules. That is just how our modern society is. Finding time to take care of ourselves sometimes takes a backseat.
Of all daily activities, fitness is often the priority that is sacrificed first when the going gets tough. If you have desire to get or stay fit, you can do it. There is always a way if there is a will.
Here are some ideas to help squeeze in some exercise that will not have a light impact on your schedule, but will also help you burn fat throughout the rest of the day.
Plan your workout: Write it all down, and know exactly what you are going to do, and how you will get it done.
Circuit training: Work the whole body and get the heart rate rocking by doing one set of exercise for each body part with no rest. When you have completed all, rest for one minute and do it again. Twenty minutes is not an unreasonable goal here.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Sixty minutes on the treadmill will drive anybody mad. Vary your speed every minute, working from a jog (slow/medium intensity) to a full sprint or at least 90% max intensity. A good rule of thumb is to maintain your sprint for 20-30 seconds, then reduce to Every five minutes, drop back down to the slow speed again. Twenty to thirty minutes of this will do the trick.
There is no excuse to slack off on exercise. Project Swole has just given you two workouts that when alternated will whip your body into shape in no time at all. Think about it, if you do this six days per week, you only spent a grand total of three hours out of your busy schedule for the whole week.
Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his own, ever again.
He stumbled upon an article about Diamond Dallas Page doing Yoga and decided to give it a try — he couldn’t do traditional, higher impact exercise, so he tried DDP YOGA and sent an email to Dallas telling him his story.
Dallas was so moved by his story, he began emailing and speaking on the phone with Arthur throughout his journey – he encouraged Arthur to keep going and to believe that anything was possible. Even though doctors told him walking would never happen, Arthur was persistent. He fell many times, but kept going.
Arthur was getting stronger rapidly, and he was losing weight at an incredible rate! Because of DDP’s specialized workout, he gained tremendous balance and flexibility — which gave him hope that maybe someday, he’d be able to walk again.
His story is proof, that we cannot place limits on what we are capable of doing, because we often do not know our own potential. Niether Arthur, nor Dallas knew what he would go on to accomplish, but this video speaks for itself. In less than a year, Arthur completely transformed his life. If only he had known what he was capable of, 15 years earlier.
Do not waste any time thinking you are stuck – you can take control over your life, and change it faster than you might think.
Hopefully this story can inspire you to follow your dreams – whatever they may be.
