Nov 15

Slam a Glass of H20 First Thing in the Morning After You Open Your Eyes! Maintaining Healthy Hydration Status

Establishing our hydration needs throughout the day is a little challenging.  Sometimes we forget to drink water because we get so busy with our everyday lives at our jobs, with our families or dealing with other concerns during the day.

One recommendation for the amount for daily water intake an individual should be consuming would be about 3 liters or .5 oz. multiplied by your body weight in pounds.  Some recommendations suggest 2.7 liters for females or 3.7 liters for males.  3 liters is a lot of water. So, if all else fails, just go with the 3 liters of water per day approach.

Well, there are many different recommendations for water intake, it might be obvious to some people who are reading this article that they do not consume the recommended amount of water.

Water is important for many functions throughout the body.  Research about the anatomy of her body suggest that we are made up of 65 to 75% of water.  One can imagine that having a deficient amount of water throughout the day good negatively affect the functions of our body.

Having done my Master’s thesis on the effects of exercise induced dehydration, I have observed some research in which water can positively affect an individual’s performance throughout the day and negatively affect someone’s day as well.  An example of being hydrated suggest that your blood will flow at a more efficient rate coursing throughout the body from head to toe. This means that you will have a better supply of oxygen rich blood going to the muscles, nerves and vital organs.  Some research suggests that being dehydrated will decrease blood flow to the brain and muscles.  You could imagine that decreased amounts of blood to the brain would cause symptoms of lack of concentration and just feeling overall crumby.

So how do we remedy some effects of dehydration throughout the day.  Without getting too much into it, one suggestion that is easy and can be applied immediately would be to drink a full glass of water every morning right after you get up from sleeping.  Waking up from 6 to 8 hours of sleep without drinking anything it is a great time to replenish your fluid levels with a full glass of water.

Go ahead and practice this method. Put a large glass of water next to your bathroom sink.  After you wake up fill up that glass of water and slam it before you start your hygiene routine to begin your day.

If I have learned anything from doing a 6-month research project on the effects of exercise induced dehydration.  I have learned that water is good.

Nov 10

Manageable Daily Fitness Routines: How to Keep your Physical Activity in Check

Finding ways to establish a fitness routine that one can and adhere to is always a challenge.  One of the best ways to adhere to a routine that will elicit substantial benefits for your body is to develop a very brief daily exercise routine.  Performing at least a 30 second exercise routine everyday will help the body to become stronger and develop lean muscle mass.  Of course, developing lean muscle mass will lead to decreased levels of cholesterol, better balance of insulin and controlling one’s weight.  These things can lead to helping the effects of diabetes, obesity and other conditions that will affect the body such as arthritis or old age in general.

So, what are some easy exercise habits that can help us maintain lean muscle mass and strength in the body?

Getting in three workout sessions per week that concentrates on lower body movements and upper body pushing and pulling movements through resistance should be implemented in someone’s life.  However, with busy schedules that have to do with work family and social life these things are never easy.  To counter that the “I don’t have time” issue, adhering to specific modes of exercise that take no more than 30 seconds to one minute every day are a great way to help your body stay in motion.  In addition to helping your body stay in motion, doing exercises that take 30 seconds to one minute every day will also keep the thoughts of maintaining your 3 times a week exercise routine hot on your mind.  A good way to help maintain your exercise routine is to keep your mind percolating on the thought of exercise.  If we can keep exercise just as much as a necessity as water or food, we will live healthier and more fulfilling lives when implementing physical activity in our everyday lives.

Some examples may include planks, push ups, squats or a stretching routine (like the ones shown below) before you even hop in the shower in the morning and do your hygiene routine.

daily-fitness-routine-blog-jake-and-daugther-stretching-hamstring-stretch daily-fitness-routine-blog-jake-and-daugther-stretching-childs-pose daily-fitness-routine-blog-jake-and-daugther-stretching

One such example is 30 push ups before you go into the shower.  If you can’t do 30 push-ups on the ground, go ahead and do 10 push-ups from the counter top. 

Another example would be to do 30 seconds of straight arm or elbow plank.  Once again if the difficulty is too hard to do it with straight legs just simply go from your knees you can refer to the video that I made about planks:  https://youtu.be/uMR-B8lJEjU

Another routine would be to do 10 – 20 body weight squats.  Or you can do 10 to 20 calf raises.

Regardless of the routine that you choose from some of the examples that were listed, it is still a good idea to find some way to adhere to physical activity that is outside your normal scope of activities that you do throughout your day.  Sure, you may walk a half-mile during your work day when you’re in the office.  You may pick up a few heavy objects throughout your day as well.  However, this is different from the what exercise training is involved with.  Training your body will make walking during your work day easier. It will make picking heavy objects up easier. It will make the feelings of soreness tightness pain easier it will make your fatigue levels go down throughout the day you will have more energy.

Implementing an easy exercise habit that you can do at least ONCE during your day will benefit your physical well-being tremendously throughout your life.  So, pick something easy that you can adhere to such as what was listed.  Remember just 30 seconds of exercise before you hop in the shower and perform your morning hygiene routine will make a significant difference in your daily life.

Oct 26

The Art of Omelet Making

Sometimes making your own breakfast can be a bear.  It could be challenging to think about what some of the right items to eat would be.  However, if you enjoy eggs and fresh vegetables, then this is a great post for you to read.

You don’t need many items to create a healthy omelet.

In this video I’ll show you how to make a healthy omelet step by step.  Even though this video is a few minutes long, after you get this technique down it can take you less than 5 minutes to make.

Remember that making your own breakfast is way better than stopping by Starbucks and getting bagels or a pre-made breakfast sandwich.  When you have control over your own food choices it will be easier to maintain a healthy weight and also live a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, it may take you a little longer to make an omelet then to pour a bowl of cereal with milk, but the health benefits are astronomical when choosing a breakfast, you made from scratch.  Pouring a bowl of cereal over milk will not only give you a huge influx of calories but will also spike your insulin and leave you feeling hungry an hour later.  In addition, processed and pre-made foods are usually not the best sources of food because they have preservatives and other fake crap in them.

Developing habits to create your own breakfast each morning will be a pivotal part of starting your day off right to keeping a healthy weight, maintaining lean muscle mass and be energetic and effective throughout your day!

Sep 14

Can I burn fat with resistance training alone?

The topic of how to optimally burn fat and get results efficiently is always a popular one.  One question that I commonly get asked is:

“What mode of exercise is the most efficient way to burn fat and maintain lean muscle mass?”

While basically every mode of physically activity will utilize fat as a fuel source, there is a common misconception that doing high repetitions of simple movements to get your heart rate as high as possible is the best way to shed extra fat on unwanted areas of the body.  While maintaining a high heart rate is critical for burning calories, other forms of exercise such as resistance training with weights, yoga and steady state cardio (like swimming or running) are very effective ways of shedding fat and maintaining lean muscle mass.

It is true that increasing the heart rate through exercise will burn calories.  However, there is a certain point at which an increased heart rate will utilize carbohydrate in the body more that fat.  When the heart rate goes above a certain threshold of about 70% of the participants maximum heart rate, the body will go into utilizing an energy system called the anaerobic energy system to use more sugars as a fuel source.  Maintaining a heart rate below about 60% will utilize more fats in the body as a fuel source.  Research has shown that low and slow modes of exercise can utilize more fat as a fuel source for intra exercise calorie burn.  In contrast, more intense modes of exercise have been revealed to utilize increased amounts of carbohydrate and less fat as a fuel source during workouts.  While it seems that higher intensity cardio session may burn less fat throughout the workout, there is an increased amount of calories from fat being used as a fuel source for human performance AFTER a high intensity cardio session has been completed.

Enter High Intensity Interval Training (or HIIT).  HIIT is a very popular form of exercise that involves exercise being performed at high perceived exertion level for a period of time followed by rest.  These intervals are repeated a certain amount of time throughout the workout to make the heart increased rapidly and then decrease during the rest period.  An example of HIIT might look like this:

  1. Burpees for 40 seconds

-Rest for 20, then immediately start:

  1. Jumping Jacks for 40 seconds

-Rest for 20 seconds, then immediately start:

  1. Step Ups for 40 seconds

-Rest for 20 seconds, then immediately go back to exercise #1

And then repeat this same circuit 4 more times.

Now looking at the exercise mode listed above, let’s compare it to a form of resistance training involving weights that uses sets and repetitions as its variable of exercise completion:

  1. Squats- 3 sets of 10 repetitions (with a 30-45 second rest in between sets)
  2. Push Ups- 3 sets of 10 repetitions (with a 30-45 second rest in between sets)
  3. Dumbbell Row- 3 sets of 10 repetitions (with a 30-45 second rest in between sets)

Looking at the rest period, they appear kind of similar to the HIIT, doesn’t it?  The only difference is that the repetitions are being counted… not timed like they are in the HIIT training.

The reason resistance training is being compared to HIIT training is that the modes of exercise are very similar to where the body will be under tension and exertion during exercise for a certain period of time followed by a specific rest period.  The timing might be slightly different, but the body will still be exerting itself and then resting in both applications of exercise.  This means that both modes of exercise will invoke a high amount of oxygen that will be consumed throughout the participants day following the exercise session.

So resistance training alone CAN elicit losses in body fat and maintain lean muscle mass that are similar to other modes of exercise.  Of course, performing resistance training is not the only way to burn fat.  Every human body and human mind reacts differently to exercise.  Perhaps doing Yoga or Barre classes are more beneficial for certain individuals then resistance training and vice versa.  The key is finding a balance among which mode of exercise will stimulate the mind and body the best to maintain lean muscle mass and burn excess fat at the same time.

Jul 31

Breakfast! The Most Important Meal of the Day!

Breakfast is sometimes stated to be one of the most important meals of the day.  There is a lot of truth to this statement.  The first meal of people’s day is a breakfast type meal like cereal, eggs or something on the run like a breakfast granola bar… most of the time.  While there are certain individuals who skip breakfast and wait until their second hour of being at their job or the lunch hours, more often than not people will eat something after waking up from their nightly slumber.  Consuming a meal after you wake before you begin the activities of your day is a key component to putting your body in an efficient performance mode of human physical activity throughout the day.  In this BLOG, we will talk about some of the benefits of consuming a meal after waking and some different options on how to prepare a well balance and efficient breakfast before you start your day.  This way, your body can be productive physically, emotionally, and physiologically to help you kick butt during your day.

So why is breakfast such a big deal?  Why do your parents, Facebook posts, Men’s and Women’s Health magazines, and myself say that breakfast is sooooo important?  There are too many reasons to mention.  To touch the surface though, here are three key components you can take away after reading this:

  1. Understand why eating in the morning is good for rebuilding what was depleted from after waking up from 6-8 hours of sleep.
  2. Understand what the hormone insulin does to the body.
  3. Understand how the addition of regular exercise will compliment eating a well balanced breakfast.

Understanding what insulin does to your body is an important component of achieving an optimum level of health for pretty much every individual who lives in today’s society, especially with all of the commercialized junk food that is increasingly present on the shelves of our stores that we visit to buy our groceries from.  In fact, I feel that the understanding of insulin and how it affects the performance of your body should be common knowledge taught in high school courses.  But hey, who am I to say what’s important in schools or not.  Insulin is what we would call a potent anabolic hormone. Insulin is produced after we eat a meal involving a food that has a “glycemic response.”  Certain foods have different levels of glycemic responses, which are rated by a scale called the Glycemic Index.  When we eat a certain food with a glycemic response, the hormone Insulin will be released into our blood stream and attach onto cells throughout the body and trigger those cells to uptake sugar into their cell body.  That sugar will be used as a fuel source for those cells to grow.  When the cells grow, they are in what is called an “Anabolic State.”  Now let’s clarify something, certain foods have different glycemic responses.  These glycemic responses are rated in their potency of Insulin release from 1-100.  For example, a Pop Tart will have a Glycemic Index of 100, while Steel Cut Oatmeal has a Glycemic Index of 35 or so.  Therefore, after ingesting the Pop Tart, your cells will receive a huge Insulin spike signal, telling cells to absorb a huge concentration of sugar.  On the other side, eating something like Steel Cut Oatmeal, your cells will have a more gradual uptake of sugar into cells rather than all at once.

Why is this so important?

Well, once your body get’s a huge Insulin spike from eating something ridiculously fake and sweet like a Pop Tart, the body will absorb way too much sugar WAY TOO FAST, leaving the body in a state of shock.  When the absorption of sugar happens in this aggressive manner, one can get really hyper from the immediate influx of sugar into cells due to the Insulin spike and then crash… and you will feel like crap, depleted and probably be a jerk to your peers because you feel so weak and deprived of energy.  Consuming something in the morning with a lesser glycemic Index value will cause a more efficient uptake of sugar into the cells, instead of all at once.  With a more steady uptake of sugar into the cells, you don’t have to worry about energy levels plummeting like you would after eating a Pop Tart.

Anabolic is a term that can mean the promoting of growth of the cells in the body.  When the body is depleted, it is only natural to want to build it back up through a process of regeneration.  A great way for the human body to recognize that it should be growing is to consume a meal after it has been a depleted state.  In this case, we are talking about the first meal after 6-8 hours of sleep.  If we look at in the way that your body has been fasting for this prolonged period of time, you can understand why you wake up really hungry.  In the morning after you wake is one of the most absorptive states that your body will be in.  Every cell in your body is ready to absorb calories, vitamins and minerals like a dry sponge absorbing water.  This is the body’s natural instinct to survive; the body has been deprived of vital nutrients and calories for 6-8 hours of fasting while you have been asleep.  By feeding your body a properly portioned meal with equal amount of carbohydrate, proteins and healthy fats, you are telling your body to start rebuilding what has been depleted over your 6-8 hours of sleeping through the night.  Eating right after your wake does not only rebuild, but now your body is going into a more anabolic state to start building more throughout the day.  So what you have done is trigger an anabolic response for your body to go into cell reconstruction mode.

You can supercharge this cell reconstruction mode with exercising regularly throughout your week.  With the addition of regularly training and putting stress on your muscles through some form of exercise training, you can now imagine where these calories are going to be transported to rebuild what the body has lost over it’s fast and what will now be triggered to be built more, LEAN MUSCLE!  With the addition of lean muscle, your body will now consume fat at a more efficient pace due to this anabolic response you have induced upon it by consuming a meal to “jump start” your anabolic metabolism in the morning.  Therefore, exercise + eating a balanced breakfast will put your metabolism into an efficient mode of utilizing calories to rebuild the body throughout the day.

Understanding the function of Insulin can be a useful tool of how it will affect your energy throughout the day and how it plays a role in burning/storing fat and building lean muscle mass.

It is important to ensure that your breakfasts are balanced in the amount of protein, low Glycemic Index carbohydrates and healthy fats.  Here are few examples of balanced breakfasts that will level out your Insulin release throughout the day and encourage the healthy rebuilding of your body throughout your day.

  1. ¼ cup steel cut oats w/ blue berries and chia seeds + 2 egg spinach omelet
  2. ½ cup of sautéed sweet potatoes w/ red onion + 2 scrambled eggs
  3. Smoothie- ½ cup almond milk, ½ cup water, ½ cup blue berries, 2 tablespoon almond butter, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, banana

Jun 24

Push Ups and Planks are Hard!  Always Room for Improvement!

 

Planks and Push Ups are forms of exercise in which one holds themselves up in a prone position.  The prone position of the body is when the front of the body is facing the ground or laying face down on the ground.  Supporting oneself in this position requires a particular set of coordination and muscles acting in unison.  Strength in the prone position can benefit our performance as humans in many ways throughout our everyday lives.

First, let’s look at why you would need to strengthen your body from this position.  Many movements throughout the day require you to be able to manipulate and stabilize objects that are in front of you.  For example, reaching out to get something, turning your steering wheel on your car, doing the dishes, pushing your BBQ to the other side of the deck…  These activities require performance from the pushing muscles of the upper body.  Some of the main pushing muscles are the pectorals, deltoids and triceps.  Extending the hands out and pushing something or reaching for an object uses the muscles responsible for arm extension and pushing movements.  In the case of this article, one can see that supporting the body from a prone position with the elbows locked out can help strengthen these examples of our pushing muscles’ performance.

Another reason to why it is important to strengthen your body from this prone position is because the posture of the trunk and core must be correct to perform the Plank and/or Push Up exercise safely and effectively.  I like to call the linear relationship between the thighs and upper body the “trunk-to-floor” angle.  By maintaining a straight trunk-to-floor angle while performing a plank; you will be activating the postural muscles surrounding the spine which are critical for good posture when standing or sitting throughout our stressful days.  As humans in this very busy era, we stand a lot and work very long hours in our jobs and activities.  Throughout the day, we can let gravity get the best of us and forget to have good posture.  An example of forgetting about good posture might be sagging forward at the head and chest region or sitting in slouched position with the shoulder blades rolled forward and neck drooping.  By performing a plank exercise in the prone position, we are putting positive stress on the muscles that we use to stabilize ourselves when standing and sitting throughout the day.  This positive stress will strengthen the postural muscles of the abdomen region and the muscles going up and down the spine.  Therefore, exercising the muscles of postural stabilization that we use while in vertical position throughout our day will substantially benefit our performance in our everyday lives when standing or sitting.

In addition to stabilizing oneself in this plank position assisting posture and coordination in pushing movement, planks in the prone position can assist us in an underrated exercise that a lot of people are afraid to admit they need improvement in.  This technique is the PUSH UP.  The Push Up is a very complete upper body pushing movement.  While performing a push up, the triceps, pectorals and anterior deltoids are utilized in unison with the muscles of postural stabilization.  This is common exercise that is avoided because it is challenging for most people.  This challenge is usually seen as a daunting, scary task… so people unfortunately avoid it.  However, there is a solution to make the Push Up more manageable… and that is by doing the Straight Arm Plank.  By maintaining a plank with arms extended for a prolonged period of time, the triceps, pectorals, core and thighs are being isometrically contracted.  This means that your upper extremity muscles, trunk muscles and lower extremity muscles are still doing work, but not to the extent of work that they do when performing a full push up.  Therefore, by holding still for period of time, you are working the same muscles that one uses in a push up.  These are the same muscles, just worked in a different fashion.  The Straight Arm Plank is more manageable than a standard push up.  To get better at Push Ups, put Straight Arm Planks into your weekly fitness routine.  Over a series of a few weeks, you will notice a huge improvement in your Push Up performance.

Sometimes a Push Up can be a challenging and daunting task.  To get better at this movement, you have to start somewhere.  That is why instilling these little habits into your program will help to improve your efficiency and effectiveness of the Push Up.  Remember, practicing these sometimes overlooked movement and slowly sprinkling them into your exercise routine will make a more improved individual physically in the future.  Perhaps do a set of 30 seconds of Straight Arm Plank before your exercise routine.  2-3 days a week of this will make significant improvements to your fitness and physical performance.

Here’s a great video on some instructions on how to properly perform and modify the Elbow Plank and Straight Arm Plank.

 

Now go do some planks.

Jun 06

Fitness with your Kids: Stay Young at Heart!

So obviously if you’ve clicked on the link to look at this blog post, you have some fascination with exercising with your children.  You are more than likely either a parent, sibling, aunt/uncle, baby sitter or possibly a teacher.  Well, if you clicked on this link, you’re pretty awesome at your relationship with the youngsters that are part of your lives.

Why?  For many reasons!  Here’s just a few:

  • You obviously care about the physical and developmental well being of the children in your life.
  • You want to stay in shape while still being to interact with the youngsters around you.
  • You want to have fun with the youth in your life and you are also intrigued by physical activity.

These are some very good reason to try to incorporate your fitness with the children of your life.  Let’s approach this topic first off by discussing the way this will improve your lifestyle as an individual.  First off, engaging in interactions with kids who are in different age groups gives you a sense of where you are in your life both physically and mentally when it comes to physical activity.  For example, let’s say a 10 year old boy asks you to go race him outside on the street.  Depending on your age, injury status and athletic background, this could be a very serious decision.  You could go at it all hardcore and smoke the kid at a forty yard dash… or you could not.  Perhaps pull a hip flexor, hammy or trip… that would not be good.

So what can we do prepare ourselves for competing in a sprint race against a 10 year old kid?  My answer would be, go out and interact in their world of fitness and physical activity more frequently.  This means go play catch, build sand castles at the beach, play kick back with a soccer ball, wrestle with them, do quick little fun races and “let” them win.  Do the easy and fun stuff!  More of it! These activities will prepare you for when your younger accomplices want to randomly go outdoors to have fun with their parents and/or older peers.

In other words, keep up with this stuff.  Something that would cause a detriment to your recreational performance with kids would be to just avoid them.  If you were to steer away from physical activity with the kids in your life, the likelihood of you growing further away from their level of fitness is at a threatening level of increasing.  Granted you might not be able to execute a somersault or cart wheel as well as your 10 year old son or daughter, but you can at least stay active enough to be around them and engage in their activities a little.

Engaging in physical activity with kids will keep you “young at heart.”  This is pretty darn true.   Going outside and running around with a bunch of over adrenalized kids will definitely get your heart pumping, which is a great form of aerobic exercise.  In addition, this can help keep other variables such as agility, awareness, coordination and balance in check as well.

The next time lil’ Johnny asks you to play a game of Two Square, take him up on that.  You will be helping shape the future of humanity and also getting some much needed exercise for yourself as well!

 

pics 065

May 12

La Crosse Ball Hip Self Massage Techniques!

The hip joint can be a troublesome area for a lot of people.  There are times when hip pain can really impede the progress of a person’s day.  Common symptoms of hip pain can be tight hip flexors, sciatica, or tight IT bands on the sides of the leg.  A great way to alleviate that pain is by performing a self-massage technique on that area.

The theory behind performing self massage on a muscle group is that by pressing down on the muscles in and applying enough force, the blood vessels that supply blood flow to the muscles will dilate and the flow of oxygenated blood will travel to the massaged area more efficiently.  More oxygenated blood is theorized to delivery more functionality to the muscle.  With the muscle becoming more functional, it will likely be able to repair itself faster and move easier.

Sensations of tightness can be alleviated by performing self massage techniques such as foam rolling and/or La Crosse ball self massage.  In this particular case we are talking about tight hips.  By following the instructions on the video below, these techniques can help alleviate hip pain, sciatica and lack of mobility in the hip joint.  These exercises can be performed before exercise to help warm up the muscles and “wake up” the hips a little.  This routine can also be used in a mobility improving routine by performing this routine 2-3 times a week on a consistent basis.

Feel free to contact me and let me know if you have any further questions about the techniques or any suggestions on what you would like to know more about.

Hips hips hips!

Mar 31

Bored? Reached a Plateau? Do Resistance training and cardio equally for better results!

There is a 3 headed approach to why some people are not getting fit and trimmed and fed up with their work outs not having any results.  Poor results lead to a decrease in motivation and physical activity.   The three reasons are:

  1. Not enough cardio,
  2. Too much specialized training
  3. And not enough heavy lifting.

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about burning fat is the amount of resistance training people ignore because of the thought that it does not burn calories to shed the same amount fat like cardio does.  However, the more muscle you have on your body, the more fat you will be able to shed after a good cardio work out.

Another factor that is commonly misconceived about resistance training is the thought that the higher reps one performs with weight lifting, the better it is for burning fat and getting ripped.  This is true to a point.  However, when lifting with lower reps, testosterone levels are increased which helps to speed up the metabolism and blood flow to the working muscles.  Increased metabolism leads to more calories being burnt before and after your workout.  The increase in muscular density will help to burn more calories and fat while doing a cardiovascular workout, such as jogging or utilizing an elliptical trainer.

Too many specialized workouts are another activity people are doing in the gym that was written in this article.  Sure, standing on a medicine ball with one leg up and doing a dead lift while holding a medicine ball over your head looks like it will work a lot of muscles and be an insanely intense workout.  But in reality, unless you are an elite athlete, you probably will not do one rep of the previously listed exercise the correct way.  If you are not a quarterback for the NFL, go back to the basic weightlifting and see the satisfying results you can get from doing some cardio and good old fashioned resistance training.

People think that cardio is the best way to stay lean and fit, so they focus only on cardio four to five times a week.  In some cases, this where cardiovascular exercises can become bland and boring (no offense to all the marathon runners!)  Cardio is not supposed to have a bad reputation.  Just make sure to incorporate a hybrid of resistance training exercises and cardiovascular fitness to help shed fat and increase the body’s metabolism.   They work harmoniously so well to give you the results in strength and fitness we all strive for!   So in the long run, take out a day or two of cardio and fit some sort of weight lifting in your routine one or two days and you’ll definitely see a world of difference!

So why not throw a little variety into your training regime?  Not only will it get you feeling and looking better, but it will also put some excitement into your life by bringing in some new activities into your exercise routine.

Jan 21

What are “Good” Carbs and what are Bad “Carbs”?

pepper patties vs. banana

Sugar.  Sugars are carbohydrates.  When speaking in terms of exercise physiology and the function of a carbohydrate, they are used to create energy for various purposes inside the human body.  Carbohydrates are used to provide energy to create muscular movement so the human body can move effectively in our everyday lives.  Carbohydrates are also used to create chemical reactions in the human body that are involved in muscle resynthesis, the repairing of damaged muscle cells.  In addition, when looking at how carbohydrates are utilized during physical activity, they play a large role in making the body perform during athletic activity and exercise.

There are a lot of different viewpoints on what carbohydrate would be the best to choose from to consume to benefit physical activity, exercise and athletic activity.  So what’s the best?  In order to get a better understanding of what a “good” carbohydrate is, we must first grasp how carbohydrates work to create energy for physical activity, how they help repair muscle tissue and how they can be converted to fat.

Carbohydrates are critical to creating movement in the body.  When we want to create a movement, carbohydrates in the form of glucose in the blood stream break down through a chemical process and produces ATP.  The ATP will disassociate and produce energy when we desire a certain movement.  In exercise we need to produce a sufficient amount of ATP to be able to run efficiently, perform resistance training and have an overall effective workout session.  In order to produce ATP, we need enough carbohydrate to be able to perform our desired form of physical activity.  When looking at carbohydrates in this manner, eating carbohydrates around exercise is a good thing.  Therefore, this would be a good time to consume your carbohydrates.

A beneficial time to consume your carbohydrates would be after a bout of moderate to intense physical activity.  In instances of moderate to intense physical activity, we are usually talking about after a 30 minute or more exercise session of prolonged running or resistance training. The rationale behind consuming a carbohydrate source after exercise is that the body utilizes ATP once again for repairing the muscles that have been stressed throughout the exercise session.  Muscles will bond onto sugars in the blood stream and break them down into ATP in order to fuel the muscle cells that have been stressed to latch onto proteins in the blood stream.  The muscle grab onto proteins in the blood stream to fill in the micro tears that have been induced by the exercise session.  Therefore, in the case of muscular resynthesis, the body will utilize carbohydrates after a bout of strenuous exercise to repair muscle.  This will benefit recovery after the exercise session and the days following exercise.  This is a very beneficial time to consume carbohydrates.

Now that we know when to consume a carbohydrate, let’s talk about what types of carbohydrates are the best to consume versus the one’s that will not benefit us before and after exercise or any other time.  Any carbohydrate that comes from it’s raw and natural state will always trump a carbohydrate that has been denatured or refined.  For example, fruit comes from a very natural state… “natural” meaning it came from nature.  I can go outside and pick an orange from a tree in my back yard.  Carbohydrates such as fruit and unrefined grains seem to be the safest bet because they sit well in your stomach and do not elicit a gastrointestinal distress syndrome as prevalently as refined carbohydrates.  These natural, unrefined carbohydrates do not seem to bloat the human body as much as carbohydrate such as bread, breakfast bars and pastries.  Most of the time, it appears that a carbohydrate that has not undergone a period of refinement or processing will digest in the stomach easier and not cause adverse reactions on the body.  Therefore, carbohydrates those come from natural sources, such as trees or the bulk section of a natural food store that have no other ingredients in them, are a “good” carbohydrate.

On the other hand, carbohydrates such as table sugar, cereals, breakfast bars and bread more often than not seem to make the body move slower, give individuals symptoms of bloating and gastrointestinal distress, like burping, farting and nausea symptoms.  Theories behind this rationale are that a denatured and processed food is more difficult for the digestive system to break down and utilize as ATP.  The other additives that are added into processed carbohydrates are believed to cause an inflammatory response in the digestive tract and cause bloating and gas like symptoms.  If there body cannot recognize a simple form of breaking a carbohydrate down to utilize for energy, it will delay the digestion process and also cause adverse reactions which will slow down efficiency during and after exercise.  In addition to slowing down energy production during exercise, the refined and denatured carbohydrates will be present longer in the stomach and cannot be utilized as energy as efficiently, leaving excess carbohydrate just sitting there.  When carbohydrates are not utilized in a timely manner, the body will recognize this as a means for storage, in which case fat cells will gladly convert left over carbohydrates to make themselves larger… and fatter.  Therefore, “bad” carbohydrates are refined and denatured carbohydrates that come in a package, cereal box or in the form of bread on the shelf.

Carbohydrates are a good thing for the human body.  We just need to discern when to consume them and make sure that we have a good reason to consume them.  Adopting a solid exercise routine will help our bodies to utilize carbohydrates and give benefits to the function of our bodies throughout our everyday lives.  We also need to know why certain carbohydrates make us feel the way we do after we eat them.  Just make sure to eat the “good” carbohydrates and exercise regularly and you should feel amazing more often than not when eating carbohydrates!

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