Archive for exercise
Exercise Training: No Joy in Soy
Posted by: | CommentsSomeone once told me, “If you can learn from a mistake someone else made, that is one less painful experience you have to endure”. Do you remember when soy milk first hit the market? I certainly do because it happened to be one of the best days of my life. Why? Well, lets just say me and regular milk don’t really agree with one another, so soy milk was my savior. I would guzzle it like no tomorrow, until I started doing some research and uncovered all kinds of startling things about soy. Take a look and listen to this video it will change your mind about soy. Women please pay close attention to this report as your thyroid plays an important part in regulating your metabolism. Start checking your labels and you’ll be surprised at what products contain soy. What are your thoughts about soy? Until next time..see you on the lean side.
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Nutrition and Weight Management Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
Exercise Training: Women and Exercise… 1 hour?
Posted by: | CommentsI rarely watch the News. Why? I think the News is negative and I want to stay away from negative things. I do think things happen for a reason. I happened to be watching the news the other day and saw a report which commented on women and exercise. The report was quite disturbing as it put a negative spin on women and weight loss. In the report, it explained how women are likely to put on weight as they age. Hello! Men and women are likely to put on weight is they age. I know women may have some special circumstances such as childbirth and hormones that might work against them but maintaining and losing weight is realistic.
For the most part, we all live sedentary lives. Exercise is more important as we grow older and for women it can be the difference between gaining pounds or maintaining an ideal weight. Women will gain weight as result of childbirth and this is unavoidable but I think the female population suffers from a lack of knowledge when it comes to fitness. What do I mean by this? For example in the report I watched and later read, it made the point of convincing women an hour of exercise is too much. You might even think so as you are reading this but the fact is it really isn’t too much time if used wisely. How do you use it wisely?
As a woman ages, “strength training” becomes important. Many women are afraid to pick up a weight or lack the knowledge to use weight machines in an effective manner. This is why females are more susceptible to all the crazy diets. Here is the truth in simple terms. If women participate in a progressive strength training program it is much easier to maintain weight or lose weight if so desired. Women and men need to be educated about the right foods to eat and sadly most don’t have a clue when it comes to this. An hour a day is not too much to exercise if you have a plan and know exactly what to do. Time is a four letter word but when the time is spent wisely and not haphazardly its not a waste. We can find the time for anything we want, it just has to be made a priority. Until next time, see you on the lean side.
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Nutrition and Weight Management Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
Exercise Training: I had a dream?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat if we advertised healthy foods like we advertised bad ones? I was recently sitting down and saw a commercial for a candy bar and it got me thinking about the possibility of this. The candy bar commercial was humorous and rightfully so, as it needs to be to persuade you to eat something that is unhealthy for you. Hmmm… notice I used the word persuade just now, is that a coincidence or not? Its not a coincidence that commercials are the way retailers persuade you to use their products through the use of words and images. What if this power of persuasion was used to promote healthy foods? I can count on one hand the amount of commercials in which healthy food or products appear, why is that?
So picture this. You are sitting at home watching your favorite drama and all of sudden a stalk of broccoli appears on your screen. It tells you its an excellent source for vitamins and can even help prevent cancer. It spins around on the screen and has some little characters marching around it. Once the commercial ends, it says,” eat to live”. How do you think that would affect you especially if comes on numerous times like McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s commercials do? Until next time, see you on the lean side.
Exercise Training: Critical Thinking
Posted by: | CommentsEvery Year the city of Miami Gardens hosts a festival called, “Jazz in the Gardens” and I attended it yesterday. I got a chance to see Mary J. Blige and Robin Thicke. I am from the “old school”, so it was really great to see Teena Marie doing her thing at the festival as well. Jazz in the Gardens was complete with all the trimmings including vendors and food. This festival was attended by “grown folk” and even some younger adults. I don’t know if I am being a bit too critical and maybe its because I am a health nut but 90% of the people there were overweight. It was really sad and it left me worried and wondering why people don’t take better care of themselves. If you have the answer for me, please send me a comment because I really would like an answer. It is a known fact that obesity is now an epidemic and my eyes were really opened as a result of attending this festival. Is growing old a rite of passage to get out of shape? It seems that way by what I saw yesterday and I am starting to believe that people don’t really care. I even saw some younger adults in really bad shape. I wonder if this would have happened years ago?
I was very discouraged by what I saw out there. I carry my business cards with me all the time but I just don’t think I had enough cards to give out on this day. I could have given out 5,000 business cards easy at this event and still would have needed to give out another 5000. What is the problem with our society? Why is it not an option to have healthy snacks and healthy food at these events instead of fried foods and sugary drinks? I guess it is just not as enjoyable as the bad stuff. What do you think? Until next time, see you on the lean side.
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Nutrition and Weight Management Specialist
Exercise Training: “Mind Chatter”
Posted by: | CommentsI hope your week is off to a great start! An interesting thing happened to me last week while I was working out in my garage. I was doing a circuit of exercises back to back with no rest in between, it was a 8 total exercises to be exact. Its called the crazy “8” and was invited by Craig Ballantyne with Turbulence Training. You may think it is easy to do but think about this, you are challenging your body to cardio and resistance in the same workout. Its only eight exercise but I can tell you after I finish four rounds of “Crazy Eights” I am exhausted to say the least! Well, this isn’t about “Crazy Eights,’” although I am going to give you a link where you can get the workout and try it for yourself at the end of this blog post. This is about what happened in my mind as I continued to work through the circuit and got tired. I started to hear what I call “mind chatter.” Have you ever experience this phenomenon?
Mind chatter for lack of a better word, is the place within you that tells you to give up. I have experienced it on several occasions during some grueling workouts. I start hearing this little voice saying, “quit” and “its not worth it”. I am not going to lie it is hard to ignore it, but I do. Why? I like a challenge and I want to improve. What about you? Do you listen to your “mind chatter?” Has it ever gotten the best of you? I believe people listen to it way too soon and normally it occurs just before a major breakthrough, but its hard to fight through the pain, right? Yeah, it is… but it is in these times that you’ll find what you are made of and if you are going to sink or swim. Do you sink or do you swim? I would love to hear about your experience with “mind chatter” and whether you listened to it or ran right through it and how it affected you. Until next post… see you on the lean side.
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Nutrition and Weight Management Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
