My Top 5...

...ways to burn calories around the clock and not just during your workout:

1. Increase your protein intake. The thermic effect of feeding for protein is almost double that of carbohydrates and fat, meaning it requires more energy to break protein down.
2. Strength Train. Strength training is going to do two things. One, it's hopefully going to add some lean muscle mass which is metabolically active tissue. Fat is not. Two, a hard strength training session can elevate your metabolism for up to 36 hours post workout as your muscles undergo the repair process.
   
3. Use high intensity interval training for your "cardio". Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption is more related to intensity of the exercise session than the duration of the session.
   
4. Drink some green tea. There are numerous benefits to drinking green tea, one of which is providing a slight boost to your metabolism. Switch out some of your coffee for a cup or two of green tea a day.
5. Eat breakfast. Get that metabolism jump started first thing in the morning and get it jump started right by including some source of protein.
   

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Ipsilateral DB Bulgarian Squat

I hate having to use the term "ipsilateral" and I hate having to use four words as part of this exercise's name. But it is what it is. And in simple terms this is just a different version of a Bulgarian Squat. The Bulgarian squat can be loaded in may different ways including: a barbell, a pair of dumbbells, one dumbbell and placing a weight overhead. With the ipsilateral version, one dumbbell is used and it is held on on the same side as the front leg. This just requires a greater amount of stabilization through the hip and core areas.



Whichever way you load it, the Bulgarian squat is one of my favorite exercises for developing single leg strength.

Another Nutrition Tip from Dr. John Berardi

Tip #16
Don't Displace, Dummy!
by Dr. John Berardi

There's a big difference between a healthy diet to which treats are occasionally added and an 'all-treat diet.' In the former, unhealthy foods are consumed rarely and in addition to healthy foods. In the latter, unhealthy foods are consumed often and instead of healthy foods. This is called 'food displacement' and must be avoided if optimal body composition and health are your goals. Don't displace nutrient dense food with empty calories!

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition - my pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want -- guaranteed.

You Can Keep Training

Just because you may have suffered an injury doesn't mean you have to cut back on your training all together. There are always way to work around or with your injury, unless you look at being injured as an excuse to not work out. But I'm not buying it. And just because you're hurt doesn't mean you're limited to spending your time on a boring piece of cardio equipment If you suffered a shoulder injury you can still do some lower body training and work the non-injured side. And vice versa if you're suffering from a lower body injury. Or may be the injury has brought some awareness to you that you have to work on some mobility or stability issues that lead to the injury in the first place. You can even work the injured area by implementing some corrective exercise. There's always options, it's just about finding the right ones.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Barbell Box Squat

I like to rotate the Box Squat in from time to time as a different squatting variation. Besides just being another squatting variation I'll use it to teach a client how to move their hips down and back in order to involve more of the glutes and hamstrings. I'll also use it if a client is complaining about knee pain with regular old squatting. The Box Squat keeps the shin in more of a vertical position throughout the movement, thereby placing less strain on the knees.

You can squat to any depth, but if possible in the bottom position the crease at your hip should be at about the same height as your knees. You're also going to take a slightly wider stance than you would with with an Olympic squat and have the toes pointed out slightly. As you descend, think about forcing your knees out to get more of the glutes involved, sit down and back and then reverse the movement while thinking about pushing your knees out again.

Things I Do Not Like

You knew this post was coming after I made a similar post a couple of weeks ago, Things I Like. So let me give you an idea about some things within the fitness and training industry that I am not particularly fond of, to put it nicely:

• The Bosu Ball: Before I say anything bad about this thing, I will admit that I'll use this piece of overpriced, inflatable rubber for one exercise, push ups with hands on the Bosu Ball. But that's it. You'll never catch me or one of my clients standing on this thing on either side. I watch people who can barely handle an exercise standing on solid ground try to do the same thing standing on this unstable surface. This is not balance training. This is not functional training. This is circus training.
• Nike Shox: A good amount of knee, low back and hip injuries can be traced back to dysfunction at the foot and ankle areas. And a lot of these foot and ankle dysfunctions are a result of today's footwear including the Nike Shox. What they are is basically a high heeled version of sneakers that can cause a shortening of the calf and Achilles area which in turn causes limited dorsiflexion, which in turn can cause knee tracking issues, which in turn can cause hip stability or mobility issues, which in turn can cause low back problems. Follow me? And just because they cost close to $100 or more lends nothing to their ability to improve function. In fact, some studies have shown that as the price of sneakers has gone up, so has the incidence of foot and ankle injuries.
• Cereal: I do not consider cereal to fall under the category of breakfast. Cereal is a way of food manufacturers to disguise insulin spiking sugar in a bowl. You've heard before that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So why then would you choose cereal to make up your breakfast? Yes, there are some good cereals out there. But I know very people who are eating them because they taste like cardboard.
• Toning: You can not be "toned" without having some muscle mass and a fairly low body fat percentage. And neither one of those two things is going to come from lifting light weights for high reps. But somehow that's what the ability to become toned became associated with. A better way is to aim to get strong, clean up your diet and do some form of energy system training a couple of times a week. Then you might actually get lean, which sounds a lot cooler than being toned.
• Overanaylsis: It's great that we have so much training and nutritional information available today, but it's also become a hindrance in getting people to their goals. Another way of looking at it is what can be called paralysis by anaylsis. You become bombarded with so much information that you don't know what to do with it. In my opinion there are very few advanced trainees out there. There are far more beginners. Beginners that should be getting the basics in play first and leaving the thinking and analysis up to the experts.
• Youth Specialization: Kids should not be be focused on one sport or activity for prolonged periods of time. The only thing kids should be focused on is complete development. Kids should be playing different sports with each season and taking part in as many different activities as possible. They should be exposed to as many things as possible. Instead we're seeing a trend towards kids specializing in one sport year round. Where has this gotten us? The childhood obesitty epidemic isn't coming down and the incidence of overuse injuries amongst children is going up. A child should never develop an overuse injury. And I hate to break the news to you. You're little Johhny or Jenny has a very small chance of making it to the big time.
  

And one more thing I do not like, but can not be included on this list because it has nothing to do with fitness or training: the Yankees. Go Sox!!

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Single Leg Squat from Box w/Resistance

I love using body weight exercises in any training program. But body weight exercises don't have to stay body weight exercises forever. They can eventually be progressed to adding some sort of external resistance whether it's dumbbells, a barbell or may be even an X-Vest. In the following video you'll see me demonstrating a single leg squat with some external resistance, a pair of dumbbells and an X-Vest.





You'll also realize why I'm always working out with my IPod on if you happened to catch Boyz II Men playing in the background in that video. Very hard to get motivated by "End of the Road".