A healthy diet has a wide range of benefits including body composition (fat percentage), longevity (live longer), reduced likelihood of many diseases (such as diabetes), feeling better (improved mood and more energy), and more. Having a healthy diet means eating mostly healthy foods, but knowing how healthy foods are is not always so easy.
Barbell Selection: A Guide
Strength training is essential to developing and maintaining the ability to perform both daily functional activities (like lifting a bag of groceries or a child) and recreational activities you enjoy. One of the best ways to build strength is by lifting some form of weight, and the barbell has become the standardized weight implement used in competitions: the Olympics and powerlifting.
If you are considering adding a barbell to your home fitness collection, there are two main options: the standard bar and the Olympic bar. Overall, the main distinction between the two comes down to size: the standard bar is smaller in various ways.
Should You Count Exercise Calories?
In order to lose weight, we need a caloric deficit. That is, we need to take in fewer calories than we burn.
Calories_In – Calories_Burned < 0
The usual approach is to reduce calories consumed (“diet”) and/or increase calories burned (“exercise”) often summarized as, “Eat less, move more.”
Pain, No Gain
No that's not a typo. We've all heard, "No pain, no gain!" relating to fitness, usually strength training. But grueling workouts aren't necessary to make progress, and can be particularly counterproductive after 40. Moreover, workout "pain" is almost always a bad thing.
Training Unique Snowflakes
Snowflakes are the most common metaphor for uniqueness, as in no two snowflakes are the same. It's not hard to find references to people being like snowflakes, since we are, after all, unique. But does the unique snowflake analogy apply to fitness and movement?
Anatomy of a “Wike”
When does a walk become a hike?
Generally, a “hike” suggests both longer distances and rougher (or at least unpaved) terrain than a “walk”. But there’s no definitive distinction. (Also, terminology varies in different parts of the world. For example, in New Zealand they go “tramping.”)
Since there’s no clear delineation between walking and hiking, it’s reasonable to suggest that a journey can include some of both, making it a walk/hike or a “wike.”
Heavy Bag Training: Keeping It Simple
It's been a while since the post on getting equipped for heavy bag training. That post dealt with different types of bags, gloves, mounts, etc. Now that you're set up to do some hitting (aka "wapping"), what should you do?
It seems that most people will try to "fight" the heavy bag, throwing whatever random strikes at it that may pop into their heads (or hands). While this can be entertaining to watch, it rarely leads to a good or sustainable workout. At StrongFast Fitness, we keep most of our bag training simple.