Top 4 Workout Nutrition Tips!

18Aug10

Ok, time for a confession. I’ve belonged to some very nice gym’s ever since moving to Texas. I even used to where one the hats. That being said, I can’t really say that I ever really worked out there. I’d get in to the gym about twice a month, but most months – even that would probably be an exaggeration.

Well, here I am, over 70lbs lighter (yeah!) – I’ve gone from 44” pants to 34”. I’m off all of my asthma medicines and feeling great – and I pretty much did all of that by just jumping on to the Advocare eating plan and getting a lot of that solid nutrition in my body – but I realized over the last 4 months that I’ve pretty much plateau’d, and that if I really wanted to get my body to where I wanted it to be I’d have to try something new – and I figured, “hey – I could try this crazy idea and start exercising! I hear some people actually get results with that!” 🙂

It started when my wife asked me to run a 5k with her. I thought she meant complete a 5k – apparently she meant compete in a 5k. So we got a trainer, started meeting once a week with some friends (our team Momentum) and I finished the 5k in just around 32 minutes. I feelt really good about that – and we kept running about once a week with our friends even after the race was over. Well, the Texas heat decided to kick in and so we weren’t doing that anymore – I still don’t go to the gym, but I did want to start doing something.

So now I meat with a trainer about 3 times a week. I belonged to 24 hour fitness and went about 9 times a year. Now I meet with a trainer and go at least 3 times a week – what kick in the pants. The first 3 weeks were brutal, I burn close 1000 calories each time we workout (about 800 during the workout the rest in EPOC) and I could barely move after the first couple of times.

Now I’ve been going solid for about 5 weeks and each week and I feel and see the change – I’m getting stronger, and more importantly my body is able to recover from a brutal workout much faster!

OK, so here are my tips if you are going to start a workout routine!

First, talk to your doctor. I’ve dealt with asthma my whole life. I may be off of my meds (yes – I see the humor there), but I still meet with an asthma specialist regularly for check ups. The first couple of times that I did some serious workouts – I got really light headed (thought I was going to pass out) and had to stop – this is definitely something that I talked to my doctor about and he gave me some tips and also gave me the green light to keep going!

Second, find a good trainer that you can work with. Someone that has the proper training, certification, and will work with you can make all of the difference in the world. It’s not just having someone tell you what exercises to do or how many sets (that’s what I used to think they did). A good trainer will help you reach your goals much faster than you would on your own, they’ll make sure that you are optimizing the time that you are there, get the most out of your workouts – without hurting yourself in the process.

Third, I can’t imagine working out with out a heart monitor. I wear a Polar watch with chest strap – so that at any minute I know what my heart is doing and what zone I’m in. This is a huge thing for me, but especially in the Texas heat and doing any sort of running and cardio workouts – you want to know how you’re doing. It also keeps track of how many calories you’ve burned so that it’s easy to get a feel for what’s working for you.

Fourth – Workout Nutrition!

Stay hydrated. I drink plenty of water before, during and after our workouts. In addition to that I add Advocare Rehydrate. Rehydrate is super refreshing, and also get the hydration to your bodies cells way faster than water alone.

Advocare Catalyst was developed for the 1996 US Olympic Wrestling team (the year they took Gold) It basically feeds your muscle fibers with the nutrition that they need. I take 3 Catalyst 15 minutes before a workout and 3 after.

As soon as I get home from a workout and I get to treat myself. People have heard me talk about Post Workout Recovery – and friends, it is that good. It’s super creamy and delicious, but is also the absolute best thing that you can do for your body after a hard workout. PWR gives your muscle the additional key nutrition that can only be absorbed during that 30 to 45 minute window after a hard workout. It also helps speed muscle recovery so that you can move the next day!

In addition that, I take the Argentine Extreme, Spark, O2 Gold, Muscle Fuel and Muscle Strength. I just follow the instructions on the containers. I only mention those because the other day – we ran out of O2 Gold and wow – I could completely tell the difference in my workout. I was worn out and fatigued a whole lot faster.

Remember – the goal of the workout is to optimize the time that you are there, and to recover as quickly as possible so that you can get back at it. Every workout breaks down muscle fibers – the more quickly that you heal – that faster you’ll get results. Which leads me to my second favorite (right after PWR).

Nighttime Recovery – wow. I’m not gonna lie, these are horse pills – but they work amazingly well to get you back on your feet the next day. I’ll even take night time recovery if I just have a sore back or muscle twinge, even if I haven’t worked out that day – it works that well. Make sure you follow the directions. Nighttime Recovery should be that last thing you take, right before your head hits the pillow – then have a great night sleep!

Photo credit:
Yeah, neither of those guys are me, but you probably already knew that. 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/4127720231/in/photostream/

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Tags: advocare, excercise, weightloss