Post Workout Boost…
After Your Done Training For This, Your Muscles Might Be a Little Sore…Sip Caffeine!
Caffeine in Coffee and Other Beverages Reduces Exercised-Induced Muscle Pain! It’s healthy, it’s not healthy, it’s healthy, it’s not healthy. It seems that new research is coming out every day on the effects of coffee. But latest research shows that it’s probably good for you in a number of ways…and good for your muscles, too!
It eases the muscle pains of exercising, confirming research that coffee might literally be a brew that promotes health.
Researchers found that caffeine intake is associated with pain reduction in both individuals who take in lots of caffeine and also in those who don’t.
They signed up 25 fit, college-aged individuals to take part in experiments that required them to exercise. Some were regular caffeine users — drinking the equivalent of four cups of coffee a day on average — while others weren’t used to consuming much if any Joe.
The volunteers completed an initial exercise test on a stationary cycle to test for maximal oxygen consumption. Then they returned for two monitored, high-intensity, half-hour exercise sessions. Each session was separated by a week. They were asked to refrain from caffeine, alcohol, and exercise prior to the testing days.
For one testing session, the individuals were given a placebo pill an hour prior to the high-intensity exercise. For the other session, they were given a caffeine pill (with the same amount of caffeine in 2.5 to 3 cups of coffee) prior to exercise.
The researchers questioned them at regular intervals about their perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain while they collected data on oxygen consumption, heart rate, and work rate.
The researchers found a statistically significant reduction in quadriceps muscle pain after giving the caffeine compared to the placebo pill. Both those accustomed to consuming caffeine and those who were not habitual caffeine drinkers demonstrated reduced pain with caffeine ingestion prior to exercise testing.
How Does Caffeine Reduce Muscle Pain?
It’s become increasingly common for athletes to consume a variety of substances that include caffeine, motivated by the notion that it will help you metabolize fat more readily. But that idea isn’t supported by compelling research.
In earlier research it’s been shown that caffeine affects a system in the brain and spinal cord involved in pain processing, which led researchers to speculate that it could reduce pain.
Caffeine-naive individuals and habitual users have the same amount of reduction in pain during exercise after caffeine.
More research might answer the question of whether a reduction in pain could result in an improvement in performance of athletes.
If you go to the gym and you exercise and it hurts, you may be prone to stop doing that because pain is an aversive stimulus that tells you to withdraw. So if we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the amount of pain they’re experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that exercise.
So sore after your workout? Reach for that cup of Joe…it just might perk those muscles right up!
Are you a Mom looking to get a good workout in? Become a Power Mommy! 
Come join us outside this summer for our ever-popular Power Mommy! It’s like a bootcamp, but for you and your little one!
**You MUST pre-register to attend. To participate in the summer session, at any time, you MUST be pre-registered by June 1st…registration for the entire summer is cut off that day. To do so, simply contact us at 614-735-9890 or 614-746-9185 or you can shoot us an email at info@power-flex.net
-Biometric Assessments
-Fitness Instruction that focuses on endurance, agility, core and power, fat loss and lean muscle retention
-Pilates and yoga based instruction
-Nutrition
-Supplemental health & wellness topics
-Must bring your own mats
-Fun filled atmosphere where you build friendships, camaraderie and share your goals with like-minded moms and their little ones
-Bring your little one to incorporate into your workout…use your Bjorn, backpack, stroller or just freestyle it. Little ones 5 and under only please.
Summer Session Start & End Date |
Monday June 4th 2012
Friday September 28th 2012
Get your workout in in the morning or evening |
8:00-9:00 a.m or 6:00-7:00 p.m.
4 Days a Week |
Monday – Tuesday – Thursday – Friday
2 Convenient locations |
Carriage Place Common Park; 4900 Sawmill Road; Columbus, OH 43235
AND
Goodale Park; 120 W. Goodale St; Columbus, OH 43215; Southwest Corner by the old baseball diamond/backstop
4 Convenient Packages |
One Session $17
One Week of Sessions (4) $60
One Month of Sessions (16) $192
One Summer Unlimited (May-Sept) $499
1 Power Sale Going On |
Buy 1 single session, get the 2nd session FREE = 2 sessions for $17
Buy 1 week of sessions, get the 2nd week at 1/2 off = 2 weeks for $90
Refer a FRIEND |
Bring a friend and get your session for FREE. Refer a friend and get CASH BACK. Contact Power Flex for details.
**You MUST pre-register to attend. To participate in the summer session, at any time, you MUST be pre-registered by June 1st. To do so, simply contact us at 614-735-9890 or 614-746-9185 or you can shoot us an email at info@power-flex.net
**Space is limited in each Power Mommy, so sign up today! See you Monday the 4th!
Strong Mom – Strong Baby!
Gone are the days when pregnant women were told to ‘Get Your Rest’; ‘Don’t Reach Your Arms Above Your Head’; ‘Have Someone Else Lift/Do That’, etc. Today’s moms-to-be and new moms are more active, more fit and more healthy than ever…and it’s showing in their babies!
For several years now, professionals and doctors have told expectant moms to get up, get moving and exercise (within reason and within each individual’s own limits); but now researchers say that a pregnant woman’s workout will also aid her baby’s nervous system.
A recent study found that compared with those of sedentary women, exercisers’ fetuses had better control during breathing movement, a sign that development of their respiratory and central nervous systems was on track.
They also had significantly lower average heart rate and more heart rate variability, both promising predictors of health.
The exercising moms-to-be (between the ages of 20-35) walked at a moderate to vigorous pace, did stationary cycling or ran at least 30 minutes three times a week and supplemented these cardiovascular workouts with strength training exercises.
And what about supplements for mom & baby? It’s common knowledge that folic acid is a must-take when pregnant to prevent certain birth defects. But this vitamin is believed to be even more vital than ever. Women who hope to become pregnant that take the vitamin for at least a year before conception also reduces the risk of preterm birth by at least 50%.
Did you know that if you are an expecting mom and considered obese, 20% is is a number you need to be aware of? It’s the percentage of decrease in an ultrasound’s ability to detect fetal problems in obese women compared with normal-weight women.
20% is another percentage women who take antidepressants throughout pregnancy need to know. They’re 20% more likely to give birth prematurely. However, surprisingly, the same % of depressed women who aren’t treated for depression while pregnant will experience pre-term birth. These numbers are compared to only 6% of women who aren’t depressed give birth prematurely.
So what does all of this mean for expecting women? These findings and statistics may seem overwhelming, especially considering everything else you need to learn and prepare for to give birth. But having a good fitness, nutrition, stress management and overall wellness plan in place for your pregnancy is key to keeping both you and your baby happy and healthy, both during the pregnancy and after…and is the absolute best gift you can give your little one! So if you need help with your plan, don’t hesitate to contact us…we can help. We hope these stats gave you something to think about and consider if you’re pregnant or expecting to become pregnant!
On the flip side, after all that careful planning during the 9 months (and sometimes earlier), not much prepares you for losing the baby weight after delivery. We can help with that, too. Check out our awesome Power Mommy class (and check out the awesome sale we have going on right now – details at the bottom)…
It’s like a bootcamp, but for you and your little one!
**You MUST pre-register to attend. To participate in the summer session, at any time, you MUST be pre-registered by June 1st…registration for the entire summer is cut off that day. To do so, simply contact us at 614-735-9890 or 614-746-9185 or you can shoot us an email at info@power-flex.net
-Biometric Assessments
-Fitness Instruction that focuses on endurance, agility, core and power, fat loss and lean muscle retention
-Pilates and yoga based instruction
-Nutrition
-Supplemental health & wellness topics
-Must bring your own mats
-Fun filled atmosphere where you build friendships, camaraderie and share your goals with like-minded moms and their little ones
-Bring your little one to incorporate into your workout…use your Bjorn, backpack, stroller or just freestyle it. Little ones 5 and under only please.
Summer Session Start & End Date |
Monday June 4th 2012
Friday September 28th 2012
Get your workout in in the morning or evening |
8:00-9:00 a.m or 6:00-7:00 p.m.
4 Days a Week |
Monday – Tuesday – Thursday – Friday
2 Convenient locations |
Carriage Place Common Park; 4900 Sawmill Road; Columbus, OH 43235
AND
Goodale Park; 120 W. Goodale St; Columbus, OH 43215; Southwest Corner by the old baseball diamond/backstop
4 Convenient Packages |
One Session $17
One Week of Sessions (4) $60
One Month of Sessions (16) $192
One Summer Unlimited (May-Sept) $499
1 Power Sale Going On |
Buy 1 single session, get the 2nd session FREE = 2 sessions for $17
Buy 1 week of sessions, get the 2nd week at 1/2 off = 2 weeks for $90
Refer a FRIEND |
Bring a friend and get your session for FREE. Refer a friend and get CASH BACK. Contact Power Flex for details.
**You MUST pre-register to attend. To participate in the summer session, at any time, you MUST be pre-registered by June 1st. To do so, simply contact us at 614-735-9890 or 614-746-9185 or you can shoot us an email at info@power-flex.net
**Space is limited in each Power Mommy, so sign up today! See you Monday the 4th!
A Hotter Body – No Sweat!
Let’s be realistic here. You don’t drop 2 jean sizes in 1 day. You won’t lose 50 pounds in 1 month. You’re going to binge every now and then. You will go a day or two without working out. Your weight is going to fluctuate here and there. You’re going to try new techniques and they’re not going to work. You’re human. You’re going to fail. But nothing great is ever accomplished without a few obstacles.
CHILL. You got this. You’re AWESOME!
Now that we’ve established that, want to know 5 little tricks that you can use to help get that body you want for summer that isn’t about dieting or working out? Sure you do.
With that being said, we’re NOT saying you can have the body you want by eating crap and being stationary or downright lazy. Like I said, nothing great is ever accomplished without a few obstacles. But there are awesome little tricks that you can use to melt away the fat on the days after you’ve eaten and worked out like a champ. After all, our body really starts to change form during the recovery after the workouts. So on your post-hardcore workout days or down days, do this…
- Massage It Out — Massages boost strength recovery by 60%. It reduces inflammation in the tissue and increases blood flow to the area, which is what actually speeds up recovery. If you’re having a massage immediately post-workout, let your muscles cool down for a few hours first. You don’t even need to see a therapist…DIY rubdowns provide the same benefits. Set aside 10 minutes on off-days to use long, smooth strokes over muscles worked. You can also use a foam roller and/or massage balls. For acute soreness, apply a cold compress or ice for about 20 minutes to further decrease inflammation.
- Boost Your Water Intake — Dehydration substantially slows your metabolic rate, so even if you’re doing everything right in the gym, you could be negating the calorie-burning advantages if you’re not drinking enough water. An the old rule you’ve heard time & time again about 8 – 8-oz glasses a day is so last century. You should consume 1/2 your body weight in ounces. That is, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should have 75 ounces per day. PLUS, you should have an additional 16-20 ounces for every hour you train. Need some other reasons to get your daily ounces? Check this out: http://wellness-edge.net/blog/?p=133
- Log More Zzzz’s — I know you’re crazy busy and pressed for time. But if 7-9 hours of shut-eye still isn’t a priority, here’s some incentive…deep sleep kicks up the production of tissue-repairing growth hormone, but lack of is a weight gain double whammy! Not enough sleep prompts your body to consume more calories and shuts down its ability to recognize a full stomach. When you’re tired, your gut produces a chemical that triggers sugar cravings. It causes your body to seek quick energy from food to try to keep you awake. Meanwhile, fatigue suppresses leptin, a fat-cell hormone that tells your brain “OK, stop eating now”. Need some additional tips on getting more Zzzz’s? Check this out: http://wellness-edge.net/blog/?p=85
- Get Going…A Little — You may feel like rewarding yourself with some downtime, but doing a low-key activity the day after a big workout will prolong the muscle-sculpting perks of increased circulation. Fresh blood flow brings fresh nutrients to your muscles and helps flush waste products like lactic acid. Staying active has also been proven to reduce post-exercise muscle soreness and suppress nervous-system activity that can result in poor sleep. Take an easy yoga class or go on a walk at a conversational pace. If you’re sitting behind a desk all day, stroll around the office for 10 minutes every couple of hours to promote fresh blood circulation. Then you can prepare for a different kind of reward…a less painful gym session tomorrow.
- Upgrade Your Post-Workout Snack — We know that having a bite after exercising helps promote muscle repair. An even more compelling reason…less belly fat. Exercise activates cortisol, a stress hormone that gives you extra surge to push until the end of a hard workout. But lingering in that state for too long can backfire; cortisol not only inhibits the muscle-repair process, but also alters your metabolism so that your body stores more calories as fat (typically in the abdominal region) instead of burning them off. Chowing down on protein within 20 minutes after workout will prevent these effects. Some suggestions…hard boiled egg, protein smoothie, protein bar, 1 cup of almond or coconut milk. Starbucks fan? You’re in luck…a non-fat mocha latte will give you protein plus caffeine. One study found that when ingested with carbs, caffeine increased muscles’ energy production by 66% more than carbs alone.
So there you have 5 awesome tips to help burn that fat, get lean and get sexy…all on your off days.
By the way, are you a Mom in the Columbus area looking to burn more fat all week long? Then you have to come check out our Power Mommy classes. Fitness, nutrition, assessments, wellness topics, fun, fun, fun. We’re only taking registrations for summer session from now until June 1st, so make sure you reserve your spot today…spaces are limited. For more information, check out our Power Mommy blog post, or contact us directly.
Until next time, stay healthy & active!
Greg
Brown Fat – It CAN Make You Thin
Fortunately this is NOT the type of Brown Fat we’re talking about.
What is Brown Fat? Can it be the key to weight loss? Can it really make you thin? We weigh in on this topic with today’s blog: All About Brown Fat!
Brown Fat is a type of fat found most abundantly in newborns – presumably to help regulate their body temperature. Adults are believed to have little amounts. Unlike more recognizable white fat, which stores surplus energy, brown fat burns energy to generate heat.
Researchers have studied brown fat for several decades in the hope that unlocking the mysteries of the unique fat could result in treatments to speed up metabolism & promote weight loss.
Promoting brown fat growth really is a plausible approach to weight control. It is attractive because of its simplicity. If more of our fat were brown fat, we would be leaner and better able to resist obesity.
Brown Fat Derived From Muscle
Professionals have identified what they call a “master switch” in mice, which promotes the production of brown fat. Brown fat and white fat have completely different origins. Brown fat is derived from muscle.
They’ve also described a different trigger for brown fat-the protein BMP-7, which is known for promoting bone growth.
By learning that we can stimulate the production of brown fat in mice in research situations, it is not unreasonable to think that we can also do this in humans.
Can Brown Fat Make You Thin?
Brown Fat Can Burn Off More Than 9 Pounds of Bad Fat Each Year
By activating the brown fat in your body, you could lose 9 pounds or more of bad white fat every year — without having to eat less or even exercise more.
New studies show that more than half of adult men and women have enough brown fat in their bodies to burn off substantial amounts of white fat — if the brown fat somehow is stimulated.
Brown Fat and Health
How does it work? Brown fat becomes activated when you’re cold. Activated brown fat burns white fat as fuel. It’s a very inefficient process that gives off heat — and consumes a lot of fat.
New studies show that:
- Obese people have less brown fat than lean people do.
- Men have less brown fat than women do.
- Older people have less brown fat than younger people do.
- People with high blood sugar have less brown fat than people with normal blood sugar.
It’s likely that more than half of all men and women have at least a third of an ounce of brown fat in their bodies — and that’s just in the neck, where brown fat is most easily detected.
If fully stimulated, they calculate that 1.75 ounces of brown fat would account for one-fifth of a person’s total resting energy expenditure — and that’s virtually all from burning off white fat, not sugar.
Finding ways to promote brown fat activation will have a major impact on the obesity epidemic.
So how can you boost your brown fat levels and burn off that white fat? Find out more by reading this article…
We’re just getting our blog started here at Power Flex and we have literally thousands of topics that we want to educate and entertain our readers on. But we’re always happy to hear from you, too. Have a topic that you’d like to know about? Question? Shoot us an email at info@power-flex.net. Give us a call at 614-735-9890 or leave a comment on any of our social media outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Until next time, stay healthy & active!
Greg
Why Power and Flex Go Hand-in-Hand
Training for any sport is multi-faceted. Skill training for your particular sport and often positions within your sport is necessary. Strength training is also very important; and speed and agility training has come to the forefront in recent years.
But one medium of athletic training that is often overlooked is flexibility. Athletes typically go through some form of warm-up and cool-down stretching, but these regimens are often antiquated and are performed with little or no instruction or enthusiasm on the athlete’s parts.
All that is beginning to change. Professional athletes have come to realize the importance of a good flexibility program, and athletes at the collegiate and high school levels are quickly catching on.
Exercise mediums such as Pilates and yoga have garnered national attention with the participation of high-profile athletes such as Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Tony Stewart and various teams. One member of the Cincinnati Bengals even opened a Pilates studio in the Cincinnati area.
So what’s making these athletes sit up and take notice of an exercise medium that was once thought of as something traditionally geared to the soccer moms?
Flexibility is needed for, among other things, improved range of motion and power output. Stretching properly allows the muscles to grow to their full potential providing increased speed and vertical height. It also prevents the possibility of over-training or likelihood of an injury. Here are some of the benefits Pilates and yoga have to offer:
- One session of yoga can provide dynamic stretching cycles for proper warm up, as well as static stretching poses more appropriate for cool down;
- Stretching cycles used in your yoga practice can be used to target different muscle groups to help prevent or overcome injury;
- Increased flexibility leads to better range of motion and core-strengthening leads to maximum power output, both of which lead to better performance;
- Having good flexibility and a strong core lead to decreased risk of injury and quicker recovery coming off an injury;
- Balance helps with agility and body control — both Pilates and yoga are exercise mediums that isolate balance exercises;
- Every form of competition is 90% mental – regular practice of Pilates and yoga works out your mind to improve concentration and mental focus;
- Regular yoga practice also helps with breath control – deep breathing techniques help deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles preventing fatigue.
The benefits of a good flexibility program, especially combined with a great core-strengthening program, are endless. Give your body the edge; athlete-based flexibility programs are available through our individual and group training, as well as our camps and clinics.
Thinking of starting a flexibility program but don’t know where to start? Contact us today, we can help you get that edge over the competition. In the meantime, stay healthy & active!
Erin Morrow and the rest of the Power Flex Team
-
Archives
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
