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...