Exercise of the Week: Bench Glute Bridge

Here's a good exercise to target the all important glutes. Think about driving the heels into the floor and locking the glutes up in the top position to prevent hyperextension of the lumbar spine.

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Be Prepared

So you know what to eat. You know how much to eat. You know when to eat. All this knowing is actually the easy part. Actually doing what you know is the hard part and it becomes even harder if you are not prepared. Dr. John Berardi says, "Sometimes good nutrition is not about the food as much as it is about making sure the food is available when it's time to eat". You can not expect to carry out good nutrition by just winging it. You have to have good foods available. You have to know what your next meal or snack is going to be. Even better you should know what your next 3-4 meals or snacks are going to be.

If you are looking for some magical preparation strategies there really is none. Good preparation strategies consist of habits such as: having a grocery list, cooking up some meals on Sunday for the upcoming week, getting up a bit earlier to make sure you're prepared for the upcoming day or maybe having some supplemental protein at your disposal.

Being prepared will help you develop consistency. Developing consistency will help you be successful.

Exercise of the Week: TRX Circuit

My version of "cardio":

15 Bulgarian Squats each leg

15 Fall Outs

15 Glute Bridges

15 Suspended Push Ups

15 Inverted Rows

3-4 times through the circuit with 90 seconds of rest between each circuit.

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Simple Carb Cycling

If you have established sound nutritional habits on a daily basis (examples: eating breakfast, protein at each meal, 7-10 servings of fruits or vegetables a day, etc.) you might be free to consider some more specialized nutritional strategies. One of the strategies that I'm actually in favor of is carb cycling. It can be made to be as easy as you want or as hard as you want. I'm going to give you the easy version that I feel is effective for most individuals. It's as simple as this: Consume a higher amount of carbs on training days and consume a lower amount of carbs on non-training days. Dr. Jon Berardi sums it up nicely when he says, "Your carbs have to be earned".

First let's understand what a training day is. A training day is a day where you got a fairly intense workout in. It's not a day where you did some light aerobic work, went for a walk or played a round of golf. In your heart and your mind you know what a training day is. Second, let's understand that carbs have two very potent properties which both come from their effect on the hormone insulin. They can be anabolic in nature helping you build lean muscle mass. Or they can help you store body fat. So on training days we want to take advantage of carbs in helping us build lean muscle mass. On non-training days we want to lessen the chances of storing body fat.

On a training day you can allow yourself a higher intake of carbs preferably ingesting that higher intake around your workout window: pre-, during and post-. It's a day where you can allow yourself some starchy carbs and more fruit than usual. If carbs are up on these days you want to keep fat intake down and protein intake up.

On non-training days, try to limit your intake of carbs from starches. Your primary sources of carbs on these days are fruits and vegetables. Your fruit intake should be a little lower than that of a training day. Protein intake should be maintained on this day and you can allow yourself a higher fat intake.

One more thing to consider. The leaner you are to begin with the higher amount of carbs you consider consider on each day. On the other end, the more body fat you're carrying around the smaller amount of carbs you may want to consider on each day.

Remember, "Your carbs have to be earned".

Exercise of the Week: Prowler Chest Press

Just another use for the Prowler in addition to pushes and drags. This is an exercise that can be used on an active recovery day, as a high rep finisher at the end of a workout or part of a medley of exercises.

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Post-Workout Nutrition

The most important time of the day to get your nutrition right may be during the post-workout period. Let’s think about it. You’ve just put yourself through a fairly intense workout. Energy stores are down. Cortisol levels are up. Protein breakdown is occurring. To counter these side effects from your workout you want to provide yourself with some nutrition that will: bring cortisol levels down, bring insulin levels up, increase protein synthesis, replace depleted energy stores, enhance recovery and preserve lean muscles mass. All of this can be accomplished through a post-workout shake consisting of protein and carbohydrates. Yes, I said carbohydrates. This is the time of the day where you may be the most insulin sensitive meaning that the carbs ingested are going to be directed to skeletal muscle tissue.

The preferred type of post-workout nutrition is in liquid form since liquids are more easily absorbed than whole foods. The quicker the nutrients are absorbed post-workout, the better. In regards to quicker absorption rates, you may also want to go with whey protein since this a faster digesting protein than other proteins. Again, the sooner the better in regards to post-workout nutrition.

Another benefit to a potsworkout shake is that it can bring up your daily overall protein intake for those who are having a difficult time doing so. Remember, a healthy, active individual should be aiming for around 0.8-1.0g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Exercise of the Week: 20/10 Battling Rope Intervals

Here is some upper body conditioning you could do with the Battling Ropes:

20sec work, 10 sec rest. Repeat for 8 rounds. Rest for 2min. Repeat for another 8 rounds

You could use any patterns you want. In the following video I use four different patterns: in/outs, circles, alternating waves and slams.