Strickland Fitness

I read this great article about an application that can be your workout companion.  Anything that will help you stay on track to your fitness goals, I'm a big fan of.  Check out this article and please post your comments.  

~ Chad

By TOM SIMS

HONG KONG — Don’t tell my trainer, but my smartphone has become my favorite exercise companion. To novices, that may sound lonely and pathetic, but it’s nearly 2012 and the technology on offer is extraordinary. I have discovered a few high performing fitness apps that motivate and teach like a professional. They go where I want, when I want, at very little cost, and record my every move so that I can track my progress. And they’re fun.

Take it from a self-proclaimed appaholic and get with the program. Here are a few of my favorites:

Endomondo is an app that derives its name from “endorphin,” hormones that are released to the brain during sports, and “mondo,” Italian for “world.” It’s quite a kick for the globally minded.

The app primarily maps and records your physical activity with GPS, but it does much more. Endomondo broadcasts your route to your worldwide network of friends, and even strangers if you allow, while you are on the move. Friends can track you and give you a pep talk along the way.

When I travel, I can peruse the app’s Web site for routes that locals have taken, download them and follow. No maps needed. Just the app.

One of its strengths is data collection.  For more on this article, please go here.

Ready to belly up to the bar without the belly out? Check out these tips.

Happy Hour Fitness?  It's always the same reaction. 

"She can't talk about cocktails and nachos. She's a fitness coach and fitness coaches don't talk about cocktails and nachos. They just don't!"

I will agree, it's a bit unconventional. I mean, when was the last time your trainer gave you a "how to" guide to the bars?  Never? I guess that's why I'm the renegade trainer. The way I see it, and proven through six years of bartending, people will go out to happy hours and someone's got to teach these poor little moths how to stay on track.

As the renegade fitness coach, my goal is to enlighten you with the best options for food and drinks. Shaving off calories here so you can splurge a little there.  Although those skinny jeans you haven't worn in 10 years aren't necessarily waiting for you at the local watering hole, here are 10 tricks, tips and secrets to bellying up without bellying out. 

Does Alcohol Have Calories? Darn it! Without adding the orange juice to your screwdriver or the Coke to your whiskey, your standard, 80 proof bar shot (1.5-2 oz of vodka, rum, tequila, whiskey, gin, etc.) has about 80 calories. Keep in mind that the sweeter the drink, the higher the calories.   Although peppermint schnapps might momentarily diminish that dragon breath, it's a mini cup of sugar, weighing in at about 140 calories. 

This article was written by Jaime Jereb.  For more on this article, click on this link:  http://poway.patch.com/articles/happy-hour-fitness-how-to-choose-the-right-cocktail

I like this article written by Jaime Jereb.  She helps make us a little more aware about the calorie content of the drinks we ingest during happy hour.  I think most people are aware of calories regarding food, but when it comes to drinking, somehow they don't end up counting those…as if they don't count.  I know several people that eat very clean, but they drink 6 beers a night!  This will go right to your belly.  When you're looking at nutrition, be aware of everything you're ingesting.

Happy Training, 

Chad

Weight Loss Resolution?

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight? The best way to conquer this goal is to slowly change your lifestyle. What most people do is immediately go on a diet. Let’s just say the diet works and you reach your ideal weight. What do you do then? Most will fall back to old habits and gain all the weight back. That is why they don’t work in the long run. Diets are just a short term solution. If your resolution is to lose weight, try changing it to lose weight and keep it off.

Losing weight and keeping it off comes from changing your lifestyle. Healthy eating habits, getting plenty of rest, having a consistent cardio and resistance program, and keeping stresses down are all the components of a healthy lifestyle. These are the things that will help you lose weight, keep it off, and live a healthy life for good. You will feel great and you will look great.

How do you successfully change your lifestyle? The answer is to set yourself up for success. Most people use the New Year to try and change everything all at once. This is a very difficult thing to do. The best way is to make small changes over time to give you and your body the time to adapt and implement them into daily life. Make a list of all the things you need to do or change in order to meet your goal. Then start with one. Once this change has become part of your new lifestyle, move to the next one. Move through each change as the previous one becomes normal to you. Over time, all the changes you have made will not feel like changes anymore because they will be part of your lifestyle. Have you ever noticed how gyms get really crowded at the beginning of the year and then taper off to normal crowds by March? This is a perfect example of people trying too much all at once. They give up because they say it’s too hard to do all the things needed to reach their goal. This may not be the fastest way to lose weight, but it will have the longest success.

Bored?

Have you just hit the top of the boredom mountain when it comes to your workout routine? Take a bite out of the conventional workout book and bring fun back into your fitness time! While working with a new client today, I was struck with the fact that there are a lot of people out there that are bored with their routine, do it anyway, and never look forward to going to the gym because they know they will do it again! While training, my client said to me today, “I have never done any of these exercises before. I love it!” And then she continued to say, “This is what I have been looking for. I have been doing the same stuff and I was so bored.” This client went from wanting to train twice a week to four times a week. That’s what I call looking forward to going to the gym and working out!!! Besides mixing up your routine for the purpose of bringing enjoyment back into your regiment, that change will also help you to avoid hitting plateaus; thus, getting you that much closer to hitting your goals. Our bodies are used to being in auto pilot. This means the body going through motion in the most easy and energy efficient way. That’s not what we want our bodies to do when we are working them. We want the body to be under constant demands from start to finish, burning calories, and putting on lean muscle. Search for new ways to work the body. And a final good reason to change it up is because our bodies are made for it. Think about this: Most traditional exercises are very one dimensional. The body however, moves in three dimensions. The best results, both functionally and physically, will come from training it that way. This will help to strengthen support muscles, increase flexibility, and help to reduce the chance of injury. The next time you are doing a lunge for instance, lunge forward (1^st dimension), lunge to the side (2^nd dimension), and then turn and lunge away from your original position (3^rd dimension).