Archive for the ‘Fitness Tips’ Category
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
This will be a quick post inspired by a mistake I often make in my own training.
Warm Ups are important. Getting tissue warm and ready for exercise is important for maximal performance and injury prevention, especially if that warm up is dynamic and mimics the kinds of movement you are about perform in your exercise routine.
With that said, after you have warmed up and performed a lighter warm up set with a specific exercise for a specific muscle group, GET TO YOUR WORKING WEIGHT.
For example, I was squatting today. I really do not like (the act of performing) this exercise. I found myself warming up with 135. I went to 185 next. Then 235. Then 285. Then 335, which is my working weight for my target reps number of 8. So, I ended up with one set at my max potential weight of 8. That’s one working set out of 5! That’s not good.
To force an adaptation (change) in your performance or physique, you have to work out at your max potential for all sets except for a warmup set (or 2 for bigger movements like deadlifts or squats).
I see people in the gym doing “chest day” where they will perform 3-4 warm up sets for every single exercise, even though they are training the exact same muscle group at a slightly different joint angle. At the end of the day, a routine like this will give you 5-6 sets that have a potential to change anything, with the rest acting as a combination of warm ups and calorie-burning weight lifting.
The point: Warmup and get to the point. If an exercise routine calls for 4 sets of 8 reps, that means 4 sets to failure at 8, which is your MAX weight, not a slowing ascending ladder of arbitrary sub-max loads.
Matt Pirtle, MA, CSCS
Tags: Angie Nation, athlete, bodybuilding, Emerge, Emerge Fitness, Emerge Fitness Training, fitness, functional training, Matt Pirtle, muscle, personal trainer, personal training, Personal training Saint Charles, power, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles, st. louis, trainer, training, weight loss, workout
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Sunday, August 21st, 2011
I am 20 weeks pregnant this week and not a lot of changes except watching my stomach grow daily. We had our 20 week ultrasound this week and everything is perfect. Baby is perfect size and growing. I have gained 6lbs at my 20 week mark. At 20 weeks with Charley I had gained 10lbs. I’m hoping for a 20lb weight gain. My doctor is extremely happy with my progress.
I felt good this week and had good energy and that is all due to the fact that I had a good week of exercise and diet. I got in all my cardio for the week and even had time for a few extra strength training workouts. Cardio is down to running outside with my two dogs or on the treadmill running at a 5.0 for about 20 min. Some days are easier than others but I listen to my body and when I need to I walk I walk. My walking is a 11.0 incline at 3.0 mph on the treadmill. With my stomach getting bigger I am feeling more tightness in my lower abdominal when running and that is when I take it down to a walk.
My core and strength training workouts have not changed. I feel just as strong as I did before being pregnant and have not had to make modifications. My main goal is to maintain my Lean body mass and not loose muscle. I stick to compound movements with 10-12 reps and still lift to failure and the end of a set range. I circuit train the big muscle groups. Today was a circuit of chest, shoulder, and legs followed by a 10 min run on the treadmill. I do lots of push ups, pull ups, shoulder lateral & overhead movements, lunges, and squats. I was able to get 3 body weight pull ups this week. Don’t know how much longer that will last. I was doing about 3 sets of 8 pull ups before pregnancy.
I kept my diet clean all week and splurged with pizza twice over the weekend and peach pie.
I eat the same thing everyday and this is a sample of my diet Monday-Friday
Breakfast
1 scoop Jay Robb protein powder with h20 or almond milk + 1 pc cinamon raisin ezekial toast
Mid Morning between clients
20 gram protein shake + 1 peach
Lunch
1-2pc of ezekail bread ( depending on how hungry I am) with chicken or turkey, low fat mayo, tomato, pickle, and lettuce. I load my sandwiches up with veggies it makes them so much better and takes care of my big appetite. I also have a handful of Rice Works chips. I get these at Dierbergs or Costco. They are very good and are made from brown rice which has a better response with blood sugar spikes and digestion compared to regular potato chips. That is my lunch every day.
Mid Afternoon
I eat again around 3pm and it is either a smoothie made with 1 scoop of Jay Robb protein powder, h20, and frozen mixed berries or 1 pc of ezekiel bread with almond butter and a low sugar strawberry spread.
Dinner
Dinner is me and Matt’s favorite time of the day. We enjoy cooking together and its the only time of the day that we get to spend together. Our dinners are always healthy and planned during the week. We do our grocery shopping on Sundays and plan the whole week. If we are unplanned and no food in the house that is when the diet goes bad and we are eating out and pizza deliveries. Bad Bad. Dinner is always a lean protein (lean red meat, chicken, turkey, fish), vegetables, and a salad. We keep it simple but cook with lots of spices and seasonings to add flavor.
After Dinner
I don’t eat after dinner and if I feel like something sweet I have a piece of gum.
Next weeks blog I will be adding dinner and breakfast recipes and also write about my experience with feeding my daughter who is 14months and her eating habits. Thanks for following my blog. Please feel free to share any comments on pregnancy experiences or email me with any questions.
Angie Pirtle
Emerge Fitness
Angie@EmergeTraining.com
Tags: Angie Nation, Angie Pirtle, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, Exercise and pregnancy, Matt Pirtle, Pregnancy, pregnancy angie pirtle, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles
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Sunday, August 14th, 2011
This is week number 19 and the weeks are passing quickly. This was not one of my best weeks as far as exercise but I kept a clean diet. The days that I could have made time to exercise I found myself on the couch. I had a week of low energy and trained a lot of clients which left me tired at the end of the day. Today is Sunday and the start to a new week and I am going to pull it together. The one day of exercise I did was a 20 min interval run on the treadmill with my top speed at 6.5. I followed my run with a full body weight training circuit including core training.
Last week I wrote in detail about the protein powder supplementation that I use in my diet and today I want to write about the role protein plays in a pregnant and non pregnant diet.
Protein plays an extremely important part in pregnancy and the development of your baby. The amino acids which make up protein also form the basic building blocks of your body’s cells which in turn also form the building blocks of your baby’s body too. A diet low in protein can result in low birth weight.
During the second and third trimester is when you should make sure your protein levels are where they should be, especially as this is when your baby will be growing it’s fastest and that means placing more demand on you. It is recommended that you get about 70grams of protein a day.
Protein is also very important for maintaining and building lean body mass. A lack of quality protein will result in the loss of muscle tissue, muscle tone, a reduced immune system, slower recovery and a lack of energy. If your goal is to put on muscle and increase strength or even reduce body fat, while keeping definition and tone, extra protein from high quality sources is an absolute must. This is important pregnant or not pregnant.
The best sources of complete protein are found in animal foods such as meat, fish, shellfish, poultry and dairy.
Eggs are the best source of protein as they contain the highest amount of essential amino acids. Fish is the next best source and is then followed by meat, milk, soy beans, oatmeal, rice, peas, lentils, and kidney beans. If you are not getting your protein from food that is why you need a protein supplementation. There are lots of different kinds of protein supplementation on the market make sure to ask a professional which protein powders are best for you.
I enjoy sharing my journey and next week will be sharing more diet and exercise tips. I see my doctor tomorrow for my 20 week ultrasound. I will be posting pics and weight gain at the half way point in next weeks blog also.
Angie Pirtle
Emerge Fitness Training
Tags: Angie Nation, Angie Pirtle, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, Exercise and pregnancy, fitness, functional training, Matt Pirtle, personal trainer, Pregnancy, pregnancy angie pirtle, Pregnant, Saint Charles Personal Training
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Sunday, August 7th, 2011
Tags: Angie Nation, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, Exercise and pregnancy, Matt Pirtle, personal trainer, Pregnancy, pregnancy angie pirtle, Saint Charles Personal Training
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Monday, August 1st, 2011
With the over-abundance of fitness and diet advice floating around in the gym, in magazines and on the web, it can sometimes be difficult to filter out the good information from the bad (and sometimes, dangerous). There is no shortage of advice in the local fitness facility or online from “experts” touting the latest sure thing diet plan.
With all of this (sometimes conflicting) information, certain fundamentals of fitness and nutrition will always be the basis for any further discussion, a “fitness axiom.” These things are true whether or not you want them to be. This will be the jumping off point for my experiment in intuition diet.
Intuition always assumes a certain amount of learned information. For example, a person might intuit that the moment is wrong to cross the street just before a car speeds by. The knowledge that streets are for cars and they often drive on them is understood first. My intuitive diet plans works this way, except I have had a LOT of time studying the street and the probability of a car approaching. Some information is learned, and intuition is driven by that knowledge.
I started this experiement in early July with nothing really to lose. In the past, a diet for me meant I was preparing for a show (on stage in basically bikini underwear). There was a lot at stake. This time, with the stakes smaller, I tried a different approach to my RIGID competition dieting regime.
I took the basics of nutrition and the metabolic functioning of the human body and applied the knowledge to a day-to-day “guideline” for my diet.
Some of the very basics:
1) Calories taken in must be less than calories expended.
2) A carbohydrates main function is energy, your body converts them into glucose for use.
3) Protein is essential for strong bones, skin and MUSCLE, and the body needs amino acids from proteins every day because they cannot be stored like carbs and fats.
This, along with some smaller absolute rules, was the information referred to the most in this experiment.
So I began on July 8th.
Next update soon….
Matt Pirtle, MA, CSCS
Tags: Angie Nation, calories, competition, competitor, diet, dieting, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, exercise, fitness, functional training, healthy, Matt Pirtle, saint charles, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles, st. louis, training, weight loss
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
I am back blogging and sharing the journey of my second pregnancy. Today is day 119 of my pregnancy which puts me at exactly 17 weeks. I wanted to wait until I was far enough along before I started blogging and today is day one. As like my first pregnancy this also has been a great experience so far and I want to share. There is never enough information out there on how to have the best healthy pregnancy possible. To give a little history about myself my daughter Charley was born June 30, 2010 and I had the best experience from beginning to end. I gained very little weight, had great energy, exercised the entire pregnancy, and worked up until the day I had her. After I had Charley I thought I was going to be so motivated to get back to exercising and loose the baby weight and that was completely opposite. I struggled to find the time and energy to even do 20 min of cardio a day. I only gained 22lbs with Charley so the weight I had to loose was very little but it was still hard work and keep in mind I am a personal trainer and have all the tools and knowledge at my fingertips. By the time Charley was 8 months I was finally down to my goal weight of 126 and on a consistent strength training/cardio program. This took me 8 months. My advice to the moms out there that say they are just gonna take it easy and enjoy being pregnant and eat what they want and worry about losing the weight after the baby is born, good luck.
I was lucky to get my body back to where I wanted it before getting pregnant the second time. I started this pregnancy out at 126lbs and as of today I have gained 5 lbs. My goal is 20lbs. I had a major appetite increase the first trimester and could not get enough calories. The overly tired and constant hunger was a struggle but I made it through and it only lasted 12 weeks. The one thing I did different this time is I did not change my exercise program. My first pregnancy as like others I was very unsure and did not know what to expect and always had the fear of overdoing it and harming the baby. I went into this pregnancy this time with a different outlook and wanted to continue everything I was doing and not make any modifications. I love to run and when I got pregnant with Charley I quit running for the first 12 weeks and started a walking program on the treadmill. This time I did not do that. I have continued my interval running just at a less speed while keeping my heart rate at 150. I run 4-5x a week for 20 min and continue my core and strength training program 3x a week with no modifications. I get about 3 runs a week outside so my body can stay acclimated to the heat.
I keep my calories around 1800 a day making sure I get plenty of protein and eat every three hours to keep my blood sugars level. My carbohydrates come mainly from fruits, vegetables, Ezekiel bread, and brown rice. My protein comes from chicken, fish and on occasion a lean red meat. I use a protein powder supplement that is free of sweeteners. I have also added acupuncture with Dr. Marcy Cooper once a week. This keeps my body in line and significantly helps my energy levels.
Just like my first pregnancy I feel great everyday and most of the time forget that I am pregnant. I am very fortunate not to feel all the awful pregnancy symptoms that women go through but I know it’s all about my diet, exercise and taking care of my body. I will keep you posted weekly with how I am progressing with my diet and exercise followed by pictures.
17 Weeks Pregnant
Fitness Professional
Angie Pirtle
Emerge Fitness Saint Charles MO
Tags: Emerge Fitness, gyms, healthy, Matt Pirtle, pregnancy angie pirtle, st charles personal training, weight loss
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Thursday, July 14th, 2011
In my ten years of personal training hundreds of clients, I have had the following discussion many, many times:
PT: Alright, I understand your number one goal here is to lose weight, primarily body fat, correct?
Client: Yes
PT: Ok, the first thing to look at no matter your goal, but especially this one, is your diet.
Client: Oh, trust ME, I eat healthy.
PT: Ok, lets hear your average days diet, from breakfast to bedtime.
At this point the client will give a rundown of an average day and, yes, it is full of very healthy food choices.
And then I explain that they can expect to gain steadily unless their activity level raises dramatically.
You see, it is possible to eat yourself obese with very healthy foods.
This is because, at the end of the day, it is not WHAT you eat, but HOW MUCH you eat. If you eat more calories than your body uses during the day, you will gain weight. If you eat less, you will lose.
It is popular lately for people to claim they do not count calories, because what matters most is just eating healthy.
True. But not for weight loss.
When someone is eating something they KNOW is bad, they tend to be very aware of the caloric value of that food. That’s a good thing. Even though it’s not conducive to weight loss, at LEAST they are aware of exactly what they are doing.
That is usually not the case for those under the illusion that simply eating healthy will drop pounds on the scale. Most tend to disregard quantity and nutrition information when eating bowls of fruit, nuts, oils and other “healthy” food items. After all, its health food!
Salads are the perfect example. A salad like the California Chicken Salad at O’Charley’s sounds great on paper. Romaine lettuce, walnuts, cranberries, mandarin oranges, grilled chicken and balsamic vinegrette dressing sounds pretty healthy. It’s also 800+ calories. Thats almost half a days calories for the average “diet.” Those calories can add up fast.
When losing weight, you MUST BE aware of total caloric intake. You can certainly eat healthy, but the calories for the day must put you at a deficit or you will not lose weight. Period.
Matt Pirtle, MA, CSCS
Tags: Angie Nation, counting calories, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, functional training, Matt Pirtle, nutrition, personal trainer, personal training, Personal training Saint Charles, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles, st. louis, training, weight loss, workout
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Monday, July 11th, 2011
Click the ATP logo to view the listed set of exercises.
The first exercises covered in the EMERGE instructional video series are:
1) the barbell deadlift
2) the hang clean
3) the jumping shrug
4) the barbell squat
5) the barbell lunge
1) The cable wood chop
2) The reverse crunch
3) The ball crunch
4) The plank
5) V up dumbbell rotation
1) The dumbbell stool up/down plank
2) The kettlebell Hitch
3) The ball russian twist
4) The ball pike
5) The jumping RDL
Tags: Angie Nation, athlete, bodybuilding, dudas, Emerge, Emerge Fitness, Emerge Fitness Training, fitness, functional training, Matt Pirtle, Matt Wirth, personal trainer, Personal training Saint Charles, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles, training, weight loss, workout
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Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Reconsider your stretching routine just prior to an event that requires high froce production. STATIC stretching of a muscle can reduce force production by decreasing neural drive to a muscle. Dynamic warm ups to increase muscle temperature is a better route to prepare the muscle for these tasks.
Check out this article for more info.
Tags: Angie Nation, athlete, competition, Emerge, Emerge Fitness Training, fitness, fitness competition, functional training, Matt Pirtle, personal training, power, Saint Charles Personal Training, st. charles, weight loss, workout
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Thursday, June 9th, 2011
In athletic training, it’s vitally important to define, exactly, what you are attempting to achieve out of an exercise program. Just “lifting weight” and running will not produce the same results as a structured exercise regimine designed to attain a specific goal.
With that said, one of the main misconceptions in athletic training is the distinction between strength training and power training.
Without going into deep detail, the force-velocity curve is a graph that illustrates that as force production goes up, speed will go down. For example, an athlete maxing out with a 1 rep 315 pound bench press is creating a lot of force, but very little speed. If that same athlete dropped the weight to 185 and pressed with max effort, the total force would be less (dictated by the smaller weight) but the speed of the movement would rise dramatically.
Power production is a key component to almost all sports, especially basketball, volleyball, football, baseball, golf, tennis and many more. To train your body to move powerfully on the field or diamond or court, you have to train that muscle with high velocity in the weight room.
To be clear, strength is an important element in these sports as well, but a year-round strength training program with low regard to power with leave an athlete performing below their potential during the season.
A perfect example is the ever-popular “big four” lifts seen so often in high school weight rooms. The big four consists of the barbell deadlift, barbell squat, barbell power clean, and the barbell bench press. These exercises are typically performed with 1-5 reps. Besides for being a non-functional way of training for athletics, these slow grinding movements with max weight DO NOT train an athlete to move powerfully. The athlete may be able to move a mountain from a to b, slowly, but they won’t be trained to move quickly (which is generally the more important aspect of most sports).
Make sure you understand what your training regimine is attempting to achieve, and time-out the program so that you are moving optimally with speed just before the season so you can realize the benefits of those changes when it most matters.
Matt Pirtle, MA, CSCS
Emerge Fitness Training
Tags: Angie Nation, athlete, Emerge, Emerge Fitness, Emerge Fitness Training, fitness, functional training, Matt Pirtle, personal training, Personal training Saint Charles, Saint Charles Personal Training, sports performance, st. louis, studios, workout
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