Your Weekly Serving of Ry Bread

Adversity: It's How You Overcome It 10/15/17 It is something that we have all faced at one point in time in our lives. Whether it be when you got sick, when an injury has happened, when a relationship has ended, when a close one has passed away, these are all signs of adversity in some form. These are all tragic events that can change your life in some way and it does take time to recover from them. But, that is the important part: how do you overcome the adversity! Don't be the person who let's the adversity take over their life and effect what they do and how they react. What are you going to about it is what you should ask yourself every time a road block like this comes in your way. Learning how to overcome adversity is what builds character and resilience. Being able to handle these challenges and difficulties in our lives is what will strengthen our will and confidence so we are able to tackle future obstacles. The qualities of strength, courage, character, an...

Italian Turkey Meatloaf: A Healthier Version to Your Mom's  10/14/17 Being raised in a Pennsylvania Dutch family, I had a lot of meat and potatoes meals. My favorite meal was my mom's meatloaf! I mean who doesn't love meatloaf?! I use to eat almost half of the loaf by myself and then go sit on the couch for an hour afterwards always with a satisfied feeling in my stomach while watching SportsCenter highlights. But then I grew up and now a lot of red meat at once really gets the digestive system acting up. I can still have red meat once in a while, but I usually will save that for a steak. So today I was like, "Let's find a recipe to bring back the memories of mom's meatloaf, just not the after effects." Italian Turkey Meatloaf. This recipe   is another alternative for people who do not enjoy eating red meat or suffer stomach problems from too much of it. Beef does have more vitamins and minerals compared to turkey, but I find ground turkey digests e...

The JC Gauntlet: Brutal Cardio and Leg Finisher 10/13/17 Looking for a metabolic finisher that will test both your conditioning and your legs as well? Enter the JC Gauntlet! The JC stands for Juan Carlos named after Juan Carlos Santana who is the owner of the Institute of Human Performance and is referred as the "country's leading practitioner in functional fitness." I recently viewed a webinar that Coach Santana did a presentation on "Metabolic Training for Fat Loss: HIT Millennium Style." Metabolic Training is a training style that is repetitive in nature, that is done at high speeds with sustained contractions, that is greater than 30 secs in time, and that will not only challenge the body but the mind as well. The JC Gauntlet consists of four exercises: Speed Squats, Burpees, Jump Squats, and Squat Thrusts to Jumps. You can do anywhere from 10-20 reps of each exercise. Even if you just choose to do 10 reps of each exercise your heart rate should shoot ...

Dark Chocolate: Can I Eat it Everyday?! 10/12/17 Everyone loves chocolate! But are you eating the right chocolate? Yes, there is such thing as right chocolate. The one I'm referring to is actually considered a "superfood." Everyone always wonders how much can I eat or how much is considered good for me or what kind should I eat? Well you are about to get your lesson on chocolate right now! Dark chocolate has become an acceptable snack for wannabe health eaters. However, you really need to know which kind of chocolate is good for your health and which one is good for giving you diabetes. When choosing which dark chocolate to snack on, the number you need to look for is at least 70% cocoa on the label. The higher the cocoa percentage the lower the sugar content will be and the higher the fat content will be. However, the higher the cocoa percentage means the chocolate will have a more bitter taste to it. When you get the right dark chocolate, you are setting yours...

Tabata with Battle Ropes: HIIT at its Finest 10/11/17 Tabata workouts are a great way to finish off a workout or to help you get in a quick one if you are strapped for time. Tabata is a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout that lasts four minutes. Tabata training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a group of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sport in Tokyo. They conducted research studies on two groups of athletes testing for improvement in aerobic and anaerobic systems. One did moderate intensity exercise, one group did Tabata style (HIIT) training. In the athlete group that did Tabata style training, they saw a greater increase in both aerobic and anaerobic systems than the group that did moderate intensity training. So if you want to improve both cardiovascular systems, Tabata should be included in your training. You can change up the time lengths depending on the skill level of your clients. For example, you could do 20 s...

Eggs: The Whole Yolk and Nothing But 10/10/17 What came first: the chicken or the egg? Either way you should be eating both of these foods almost everyday. But let's talk about the eggs. Eggs are given a bad name because they are supposedly high in fat, supposedly high in cholesterol, and supposedly cause heart disease. Well let's break this down: 1) Eggs are high in fat but they contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and keep cholesterol levels at bay. 2) Speaking of cholesterol, yes eggs are high in it; but one egg isn't going to raise your blood cholesterol levels. If you have high cholesterol or are cholesterol sensitive, then maybe opt for egg whites or mix 2-3 egg whites with one whole egg. 3) Eggs do not cause heart disease. Everyone is worried about the saturated fats and high cholesterol but like I said in the statement eggs contain the good fats your bodies need which will not cause heart disease but actua...

Band Pull-Aparts: Help Out Your Shoulders With This Mobility Exercise 10/9/17 How many of you deal with nagging pains located in the front of your shoulders? Do you have a job or lifestyle where you always sit or slouch way too much? Chances are your shoulder blades have been in a rounded forward posture position for long amounts of time where the muscles have become functionally weakened, which is bad for stability and strength of the shoulder joint. This is a common reason why when people bench press (which they shouldn't) their form sucks and they complain of feeling the whole movement in their shoulders. If there was one mobility exercise to help fix all this wouldn't you want to do it everyday? Well there is...here is the band pull-apart. Band pull-aparts are great for retraining your shoulders to move around pain by getting them to move in the opposite direction where they should be most often. A traditional band pull apart is great to add into a program as a warm...

Try vs. Do: The Difference Between Them 10/8/17 I think Sundays are becoming my favorite day for the blog; well other than those pumpkin cookies i gave yesterday so maybe it's a close second to Savory Saturday! Anyways today is another great way to shape your mentality on how to turn attempts into accomplishments. It starts with changing the word "TRY" and replacing it with the word "DO." The word "try" is a word I hate. Once you say you are "trying" to do something you are building up the intention for potential failure or limited success. For example, if you are fed up with your eating habits and you want to make a change, saying the line "I'm going to TRY and eat better" is basically you saying "I'm probably not going to change my eating habits." Now that doesn't really issue a lot of confidence in yourself to be able to eat better. You are telling me that you are going to attempt to eat better, but ...

Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies: Because it's Pumpkin Season!! 10/7/17 I know I'm going a little overboard on the sweeter side of things with these recipes as I'm giving you another baking recipe but I can't help it! I feel that is where a lot of us struggle with our nutrition. We get these temptations for something sweet and we end up caving for a huge piece of pie with ice cream or a chocolate bar that has no real nutritional value other than a ton of sugar and fats! Well since it is pumpkin season I figured let's go and see what pumpkin recipes are out there and boom I found this one. OATMEAL PUMPKIN COOKIES . These are so simple to make and is a very nutrient dense snack for either before or after a workout or if you need to stop a sweet craving. Here is the list of ingredients and how to prepare them: Ingredients: 1.5 cups old fashioned oats 1 can of Libby's pumpkin 4 scoops of vanilla protein powder A splash of vanilla extract 1/2 cup raw organic ho...

300 Yard Shuttles: A Great Test of Speed, Power, and Conditioning 10/6/17 Want to test your stamina and speed? Then try out the 300 Yard Shuttle. The 300 Yard Shuttle helps build endurance and increases your ability to be able to recover faster from sprinting situations. It also improves your speed, acceleration, and agility. The 300 Yard Shuttle is used for athletes of all levels from high school to the professionals and is also used as a test in the armed forces. How to Perform the 300 Yard Shuttle: Put out two cones either 25, 30, or 50 yards apart. If 25 yards you do 12 sprints, if 30 yards you do 10 sprints, if 50 yards you do 6 sprints. Sprint as fast as you can back and forth between the two cones or making sure to touch each one each time sprinting towards it. You will do it once. Rest five minutes, and then perform it one more time. You will then take the average of the two and that is your time. For your results, here is where you can determine how high ...

Sleep: An Important Factor of Why You Are Not Losing Weight or Gaining Muscle 10/5/17 There are two main things that dictate what we do each day: 1) how much money we need to support ourselves and 2) how much time we have to do everything. Schedules get hectic when you have to fulfill a full time job, family and kids, and personal life on top of that. One thing that always gets pushed to the side is sleep. So many adults are getting less than the 7-9 hours of recommended sleep they need each night for their bodies to function properly. But when you are training, whether it be for muscle gain or fat loss, and don't get the proper sleep, it's like you are shooting yourself in the foot because how you recover from sleep is far more important than spending two hours at the gym killing yourself. The saying "what you do outside of the gym is the most important" is very true. Along with nutrition, sleep is needed to be able to recover properly from a workout or even ...

Kettlebell Swings: Hip Hinge Power 10/4/17 Kettlebell swings are a great hip hinge exercise for developing explosive power. The problem is so many people don't know the term "hip hinge." Also, so many people are caught up in the crossfit phenomenon and they see them do their swings where they are squatting and bring the kettlebell above their head?!?! Talk about an injury waiting to happen. The difference between a squat and a hip hinge is a squat places more emphasis on the knee joint (top picture on side) where you get far more knee bend and loading of the quadriceps. When hip hinging, you prioritize the use of your posterior chain by loading the hamstrings and glutes (bottom picture on side.) What I am going to do is break down each part of the kettlebell swing so you can see how each part is done correctly and then you can combine it all together: 1) Setup and Hiking the Kettlebell:  You will start in a position like your are going to "hike a football...

Omega 3's: Start Taking it Everyday! October 3, 2017 Do you always feel like you are bloated or have inflammation? Are you sick of feeling tired and run down all the time? The truth is your diet sucks then! You are filling your body with tons of foods that are processed, filled with added sugars, contain too many Omega 6 fatty acids, and aren't probably hardly consuming any Omega 3's either. That is leaving your body an inflamed mess on the inside! We live in a world now where a lot of things come in boxes and bags because it is cheap to produce these items. If it's cheap to produce then it can be sold at a cheaper price and when people see the price tags on these items they can't help but grab a box or two to take home with them. Instead of looking at the ingredients list on packages, people are too focused looking at the price tag and are not caring what they put into their bodies. Well folks crappy foods give you crappy bodies and the only one that can c...

Ankle Dorsiflexion: Help Improve Your Deadlift and Squat 10/2/17 Having low back pain when your deadlifting even when your form is good? When you squat is it hard to get below parallel unless your heels pop up off of the ground? Good chances are that your ankle dorsiflexion could be the problem. Ankle mobility has been a problem for me for many years. For so long, I always thought my hips and hamstrings were the problem (they are still tight) but I finally figured out my ankle dorsiflexion was absolutely atrocious! Poor ankle dorsiflexion can be caused by numerous things including: 1) Tight calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) 2) Joint restriction which could be caused by a tight joint capsule or from prior surgeries/ injuries 3) Slouching when you are sitting which causes the ankle to plantar flex to balance out your poor posture 4) Other injuries to the lower body which will cause you to limp to avoid discomfort. This causes the ankle joint to tighten and limits the ...

What is Your Purpose? October 1, 2017 Happy Sunday everyone! Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far! Today is Stimulus Sunday which is a motivational topic day and I think a good one to start out with for the first Sunday is "What is Your Purpose?" A purpose in life or for whatever you do is a very important sense to have. Without purpose, we lose our way and become demotivated and depressed. You don't just wake up one day and say "I'm going to become (this career)", or "I'm going to start doing (this activity)." There is always a reason or purpose behind everything that you do. Living a life of purpose can influence physical, emotional, and psychological benefits including: 1) Living a longer life 2) Protect against heart disease 3) Prevent Alzheimer's Disease 4) Handle pain better 5) Lead to better relationships with people 6) Have a good effect on your retirement 7) Promotes resilience The quote I found above re...