No Time? No Equipment? No Problem.

I constantly hear from people who claim they can’t train because they have no time, or no equipment.  Well, I’m here to tell you that’s a bunch of crap.

First off, no time.  Really?  I’ve written about this before, but it could probably stand to be revisited almost daily.  Everybody thinks they are sooooo busy.  And I agree, most people are.  However, I don’t believe that anybody is too busy to squeeze in a little exercise.  Think what happens if you don’t. . . you start falling apart and taking years off your life.  You can’t spare a few minutes every day to increase your martial arts performance and your quality of life?  I think it’s time to check your priorities.

Now you don’t have any equipment either?  Ever heard of a pushup?  Bodyweight exercises can be performed anywhere, and most of them with no equipment.  In fact, I do the majority of my sessions with only bodyweight exercises.  I love the way I can work my entire body in minimal time and feel great afterwards.

Here’s how you put it together.  If you really have “no time”, just look for opportunities for movement throughout the day.  If you have an extra 30 seconds (and I know you do) then drop down and do some pushups, or squats, or hold a plank.  Just pick a few exercises and cycle through them throughout the day.  You won’t get hot and sweaty if you’re at work, and they’ll give you a great boost of energy.  In fact, you might feel so good after doing exercise during your day that you find some extra time and energy to do more when you get home.

I know it doesn’t seem like a few pushups, etc can do much, but if you add them up over the course of the day/week/month you’ll be doing quite a bit. 

So, if you don’t have a lot of time, try making just a little time as you go about your daily routine.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t do a ton of reps, just start making it a habit and you can always add to it later. 

Remember, even a few seconds is an opportunity for you to do some movement.  You might get a few weird looks, but that’s half the fun.  Maybe you can introduce somebody to your particular art when they start asking you what on earth you’re doing.

Go exercise and enjoy.

Train Hard.  Train Smart.

-Chris

You Need to Eat!

So get this.  I was poking around online and ran across an article talking about dieting and how to cut calories, deal with hunger, etc.

One of the questions was what to do when you feel hungry after a workout.  The article went on to explain how you should eat something pre-workout (good advice) and that should help to stave off any hunger post-workout.  After all, you don’t want to put more calories in your body after you just worked so hard to burn them up.

Are you kidding me?!

Eating a post-workout meal or shake is the best thing you can do for yourself.  Think about it, you just beat the crap out of your body with an intense workout.  So what does your body want to do?  Heal.  Recover.  If you don’t eat, how do you suppose you’re body is going to get all of those nutrients to heal?  Post-workout is prime time for eating…your body is screaming “FEED ME!!”

So what do I eat then?

Glad you asked.  It’s not all that complicated.  Just make sure you have something that has a good balance of protein, carbs, and fat.  Notice I said BALANCED, you don’t need tons of protein.

You can mix up a salad with beans and nuts on it.  You can try a spinach shake (frozen spinach, frozen banana, protein powder, etc).  I also suggest a post-workout recovery shake (make sure you get a good one).  I like the one’s from Advocare.  www.advocare.com/07033424

Here’s the moral of the story – Be careful where you get your advice.

Train Hard.  Train Smart.

-Chris