What is the power of habit creation?

I use habit creation to make the changes I want to see in my life.

With the help of Leo Babauta’s work on his website Zen Habits. (You can learn more about his work here.)

Habits are now running my life.

They tell me when and what to eat. They tell me when and how to exercise. I have no say. I try and fight them but I can’t, I am powerless.

Hard to believe?

I don’t set an alarm clock. I’m always up before 4:30 am, sometimes earlier, much earlier.

First thing I do is drag myself to the coffee maker. I do it first thing EVERY morning. No thinking, no objections.

I then catch up on emails and plan for the day.

I’ve recently added writing for 30 minutes.

When I’m done using my brain, I’ll start my movement practice and then take the dogs out for a walk. All before having breakfast.

I do this every morning, weekday or weekend, it doesn’t matter.

It’s what my habits tell me to do so I do it and I don’t mind, not at all.

Creating Habits

Habit creation is a powerful technique that has forged my morning routine into one that starts my day off on the right track.

This can help you too.

They can help you put everything on automatic.

I head to work every morning knowing that I’ve already accomplished a big part of my daily goals.

I also know that in the long run, I’ll make significant progress in both my writing and movement skills.

And if I can do it, I know you can too.

Three Reasons to Start Creating Habits

1. Your brain loves habits.

Habits run the mundane everyday tasks for us.

They can take over the menial tasks that we repeatedly do (like brushing our teeth) so our brains can focus on more important tasks or problems.

This allows you to dedicate your time and energy into creatively solving the BIGGER problems in your life.

2. Motivation not required. 

As you know, fitness isn’t a one time thing. Like any pursuit, it has to be practiced every day and it only works when you’re consistent.

There’s no other way around it.

Your habits allow you to keep moving forward with or with out motivation.

Just think of the results you would if you can create a healthy habit of exercise even when you’re not feeling up to it.

This can work wonders for your consistency, and consistency will work wonders for your goals.

3. Long term results.

When you create a habit you reap the rewards forever.

What a deal, right?

Just put in the hard work upfront and you’ll see a lifetime of benefit.

I know it’s not easy; building habits or even replacing bad ones takes time and being patient enough to see it thru can a be a big challenge.

It is however worth it.

Because the other option is to get rapid results using extreme measures.

But what happens in the long run?

You can’t keep up with the unrealistic demands so you drop out and go back to your old habits.

And now you’re back to square one.

You can avoid all of this.

Instead, work on the process of building healthy habits so the results you do get, you get to enjoy and keep forever.

(I wrote a post on how to create habits, you can read it here.)

The Power of Habit Creation

This is why I let healthy habits run my life. It frees my mind to focus on more complex tasks, it keeps me consistent and that consistency pays off big time.

It may take time and a lot of effort up front but once you create a habit, you get results for the long term.

Isn’t that what you really want anyway?

Ed Scaduto

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT training is another type of cardiovascular training and it’s the exact counter part to (slow long duration) SLD cardio. If you missed the blog post about SLD cardio you can read it here.

The best way to describe a HIIT workout is to think of performing periods of high intensity work followed by a specified recovery time. This combination of work and rest intervals is highly effective for conditioning the cardiovascular system and for revving up your calorie burn.

The Benefits

In a 6 week study comparing 45-60 minute cardio sessions to HIIT workouts, the HIIT participants showed significantly higher oxidative enzymes in the mitochondria. Mitochondria is the energy factory of our cells where fat is turned into usable energy. HIIT also created a greater increase in the amount of blood pumped per beat as well as improved oxygen uptake (15% compared to 9%).

The real magic of HIIT is the post exercise calorie burn. The workout creates such an energy deficit that your body will increase the intake of oxygen (think extra calories burned) until the debt is paid. The higher the intensity the greater the debt and more calories are burned to help your body recover.

Before you run out there and start your HIIT workouts, check out these guidelines.

The Guidelines:

Follow these three steps to make sure your HIIT workouts are both safe and effective:

1. Build your cardio base first – Train with steady state cardio training for one to three months. This is the type of training where you work out at steady speed or resistance level for 20-60 minutes. Your body needs this type of training to prepare itself for the higher stress and effort required for HIIT workouts.

2. Pick a safe modality – Because you will be working at a very high intensity, choosing a safe vehicle in which to do so is paramount. I suggest starting with a stationary bike. It allows you to work at max levels without worrying about falling off equipment or stumbling while you’re running.

3. Use a heart rate monitor. – You’ll need a heart rate monitor to get the most out of this type training. An important part of HIIT is performing work at the recommended level of intensity (between 75-85%) of your max heart rate. You can’t stop your training to check your pulse manually but you still need an instant heart rate reading to make sure your balancing working hard enough without working too hard.

The Workout:

Remember it’s not how much time you spend doing the exercise, it’s the stimulus created and how many calories you burn when you’re done.

This program is ideal if you’re just getting started with HIIT and can also be scaled to higher fitness levels. All you need is stationary bike.

Here’s the program:

• Do this three times per week.
• Perform 4 to 10 intervals of 30 second maximal effort cycling. This is at 75-85% of max heart rate
• Follow each maximal effort interval with 4 minutes of recovery at 50-65% of max heart rat

It’s required that you give everything you have for thirty seconds to elicit the post exercise calorie burn.

Start with 4 intervals per session if you’re new, then you can increase by 1 more 30 second interval every week or two or when you feel your body is ready for it.

With HIIT sessions, you’ll become a metabolically efficient, fat burning machine and will spend less time doing it. The shorter length of time (20 minutes to start) lends itself to be an ideal choice during the work week when you have less time to work out.

When and how much you train depends on your fitness level and where you are with your fitness goals. Start at appropriate levels and don’t over do it at the start. If you apply HIIT workouts appropriately you’ll soon find yourself making progress towards your goals.

If you have any specific questions in how best to make cardio training work for you please contact me. I would love to hear from you.

Edward Scaduto

Move Well, Live Better

What’s the best form of cardio training when you want to reach your goals safely and quickly?

There’s basically two types of cardio training; High intensity interval training (HIIT) and traditional steady state cardio. HIIT is all the rage right now but if you walk into a big box gyms you’ll see rows upon rows of “cardio” machines touting the benefits of long steady state cardio.

So what’s the right one for you?

Lets look at Slow Long Duration (SLD) endurance training first.

It’s aptly named because you usually do it for a prolonged period of time and at a lower percentage of heart rate. It’s when you go to the gym and jog on the treadmill at 4.0 mph for 20 minutes or longer, usually longer.

It has a bad (but undeserving) reputation in some training circles for the few reasons discussed below.

The bad of Slow Long Duration Endurance Training

1. It takes a long time to do – Not everyone has hours to do cardio plus your taking a big chunk of time away from strength training. All those hours training can also be difficult to fit into a busy schedule making it less like to stick as a habit.

2. It can burn muscle – This was one reason we’re told not to train cardio so long. It’s possible when doing sustained cardio that your body will use amino acids, the building blocks of muscle, to fuel your exercise. Not an ideal situation if you’re trying to gain muscle. This however is really only a factor if you’re a physique competitor trying to greatly increase muscle mass otherwise a good strength training program will counter the effects of muscle loss.

3. Increase risk of repetitive stress injury – It’s been said that it’s not if an endurance athlete will get injured it’s when. The injury rate for runners is 75% due to the many steps repeated (2,000 per mile) under load in only one movement pattern. That’s a lot of specific stress on the muscles and joints, so much that it’s easy to develop muscle imbalances and over use injuries.

It’s not all bad news though, there are some big benefits as to why SLD endurance training should be a part of your program.

Please read on.

The Good of Slow Long Duration Endurance Training

1. Increases maximum cardiac output – Long endurance training gives your body something HIIT can not. An increase in maximum cardiac output or the amount of blood your heart can push at any one time. In a comparative study, the long endurance group was able to increase this by 9% where the HIIT group was not able to increase this at all.  This shows that SLD cardio elicited a greater response for the strengthening of your heart and central cardio vascular system.

2. Creates the foundation – Long slow endurance is also used to create a cardiovascular base for increased performance in the future. Think of it this way, like a triangle, the greater the size of the base (foundation) the higher the peak. You’re cardio fitness works in this same manner. The larger the base you build in the beginning the greater the peak or your fitness potential.

3. A Safer method of training – SLD training is safer because you can perform it simply by walking (briskly if needed) or by using a cardio machine. Both of these modes of training are relatively safer than doing sprints, burpees, plyometrics and other high intensity exercises. You’re also less likely to have a complications with your breathing or heart at lower heart rates than at higher ones. This lends SLD as the type of cardio to begin your training or if you’re needing to work around an injury.

Recommendations for SLD:

1. Stay with between 60-70% of your max heart (220-age) during the duration of the session.

2. Going too high with your heart rate will cause you’re body to fatigue and you won’t be able to sustain the exercise for the duration of the workout.

3. Aim for 45 minutes or longer. Adjust according to what’s appropriate for your fitness goals.

4. Ideal for walking, hiking, jogging or spending time on your favorite piece of cardio equipment.

5. Perform one to two times per week, ideal for weekend training sessions when you have more time or when you want a more enjoyable type of exercise experience.

As you can see, there may be a couple drawbacks to SLD training but there is also a very big upside too. Especially when you consider how important it is to safely build your cardiovascular base and burn calories when you’re just starting out.

Even if you’re an experienced endurance athlete SLD will have a place in your cardio training program because you can’t run at high intensity all the time.

In fact, many elite runners use this method of training the majority of their training time!

In a world full of high intensity workouts and gyms, don’t neglect one of the most powerful ways for you to improve your health and fitness.

If you have any specific questions in regards to cardio training please feel free to leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

Edward Scaduto

Move Well, Live Better

How much protein do you need to eat on a daily basis?

The following recommendation applies if your looking to lose weight or maintain your muscle mass.

Let’s start by doing the math, get your calculator, I mean your smart phone, and let’s do some work on the equation.

The equation

You need to eat .8 grams of protein for every Kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body mass. (Take your body-weight divided by 2.2 and multiply it by .8)

This equates to 55 grams of protein for a 150 pound individual.

I do want to stress that this is the minimal amount recommended to stave off deficiency for a sedentary person.

For a physically active 150 pound person the requirement may be close to 1 gram of protein for every pound of body-weight. That would be 150 grams of protein!

As you can see that is quite the range. You’re looking at a 100 gram difference between the low recommendation of 55 and the high recommendation of 150.

The thing is we are all different and your body may need a little more or a little less.

You’re going to have to adjust according to what works best for you based on how you feel.

If you find yourself constantly sore, not recovering between workouts, or even having cravings for certain food, these can all be signals from your body that you need more protein.

The Habit

One of the eating habits you need to adopt, regardless of your goal, is eating protein at every meal. In order to meet your requirement you’ll need to have this habit in place.

It’s partly because it’s a numbers game.

It’s very difficult to meet your daily requirement of most nutrients in only a couple of meals.

Eating large amount of protein at a single meal can also be very difficult to digest.

With an average size chicken breast having only 20 grams of protein you can see where you have to have your protein multiple times through out the day.

Closing  Thought

Keep in mind, we are applying a mathematical equation to a human body so the formula is not going to work out exactly. Instead, use this equation to give you an estimate of where to start.

Then rely on the feedback from your body and adjust until you find the amount of protein that’s right for you.

If you have any further questions with diet or nutrition, please feel free to contact me.

I’d love to hear what works for you.

Ed Scaduto

Have you ever noticed when it comes to setting fitness goals your motivation is always so high at the start? You get this feeling that you can accomplish anything no matter what. Nothing is going to stop you!

It’s always like that at the start. You’re motivated and your hopes and dreams for the future seem bright. It’s all going as planned until BAM! You hit some major resistance.

Then it’s like your motivation starts to slowly decrease day by day, hour by hour. You start to notice that you’re getting back to your old habits, the cravings are getting intense and the lethargic energy that prevents you from exercising is back.

Does this situation sound familiar to you?

Don’t worry you’re not alone with this, it happens to all of us. One second we’re doing great and the next the rug gets pulled out from under our feet. It’s natural to start any process with high amounts of motivation only to see it slowly dwindle away. That’s why I’ve put together a list of 3 principles that I use to help me keep my motivation levels where I need it. You can use it to keep you going when times get a little rough and you need an extra boost.

1. Release the pressure of perfection.

Nothing stifles motivation more than the desire to do things perfectly. It prevents us from taking action due to the paralyzing fear of not fitting this self imposed idea of perfection. It also guarantees that you’ll feel discouraged at some point even when you’re making progress. That’s a boat load a pressure that you don’t really need.  This mindset will not serve you on your journey and it really does more harm than good. So let it go, you can do it.

2. Celebrate every small success.

Did you make it to the gym today? Celebrate it. Did you walk a mile? Celebrate it! Did you reach a major goal or accomplishment? Then you need to go right now and celebrate it. You see when we don’t celebrate the small victories we end up feeling like we haven’t really accomplished anything. This makes it harder for us to keep going. Every little success is a step closer to your goals. Each step provides a little burst of momentum that keeps you moving forward. Recognize that progress every step because no success is too small to celebrate.

3. Remember your reason why!

What’s the big picture here anyway? Are you just working out to lose a few pounds or are you making lifelong habits that will have a tremendous impact on your life? The reason for doing something, your why, has the biggest effect on the motivation you put forth. Wanting to be a good role model for your children or wanting to achieve your full potential are great reasons as to why you need to keep moving forward because it has more to do with an internal drive to be better rather than just to look better. Though looking better will be the end result, you need to have a strong enough why to keep moving forward when the times get tough.

When you reach that struggling point and we all will, remember to let go of any ideas of perfection, celebrate every small success and keep reminding yourself of your reason why because you are worth the work!

I hope this can help you on your journey and if there’s anything else I can do to help you along, please let me know.

Edward Scaduto

Move Well and Live Better!

Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions?

What’s the best way to lose weight? How do I get my energy back? Can I recapture the strength and vitality I had when I was younger? I want to feel like I did when I was 20, is that possible?  How do I work around this nagging injury? What’s the best way for me to get back into shape?

Whether you’ve asked yourself one or more of these questions there is one simple answer to them all.

Move well and Move often.

The Movement Connection Between Every Fitness and Performance Goal

You see, before you can lose weight, improve your fitness or athletic performance you must have a solid foundation in proper movement.

Before you can be flexible your joints must feel safe enough to allow full range of motion in the joints. In order to increase your strength your movements must be resilient enough to tolerate the constant stress of resistance training.

Trying to build endurance? Can your joints remain healthy while absorbing the enormous amounts of stress from the many steps, miles, or reps of Burpees that you may do.

And what about athletic performance? You’re going to need optimal levels of stability, flexibility, and strength for your body to generate the power needed at high levels of performance.

You need proper movement patterns to reach any of your goals, with out it you’ll plateau and greatly increase your chance of getting hurt.

Why the Movement First Approach Will Work for You:

1. Learn the Fundamentals: Mastering the fundamental movement patterns will open the door for you to safely progress to the more challenging exercises and movements. I know, I know the basics can be so boring and even a bit tedious but if you stick with them you’ll get the results you want in a safe and effective manner.

2. Pain Relief: Often times the pain we feel in our body is due to a muscle imbalance which alters the way our joints are moving. The end result we put undue pressure on our joints and less on the muscles designed to handle the stress. By taking a look at your basic movement patterns it’s possible to identify areas that need attention and with a movement focused program you can bring your body back into balance.

3. Results with out Injury: On your journey to improvement the last thing you need is to get injured. By keeping the focus on the quality of movement versus the quantity (weights, sets, reps, time) you can achieve the results you’re working towards and significantly reduce the chance of injury.

4. Keep the Focus on learning movement skills: There’s a difference between working out to acquire movement skills and working out to just burn calories. If you’ve ever done a martial art, played a sport or musical instrument, you know what it’s like to struggle, to practice until you improve and then to finally get the technique correct. It provides a great sense of accomplishment and talk about sustaining motivation, it’s like nothing else. Your exercise program should be no different. It should provide a challenge and a sense of accomplishment that only smart work and movement mastery can provide.

How to Apply the Movement First Approach

Allow yourself the time, no matter your goal, to master the basics of movement. Get help if you see or feel that your movements just aren’t where they need to be, especially if you have had injuries in the past or are currently working around painful areas. Finally, keep your focus on the quality of your movement patterns and you’ll increase the enjoyment and effectiveness of your exercise program.

Move Well, Live Better

Edward Scaduto

As part of our complimentary fitness consultation we offer a  7 part movement screen that will help identify movement patterns that you may need to improve. If you’re interested you can sign up below. 

Focusing on workout recovery will help you show up to your workouts feeling rested and ready to work. That’s what it takes to make consistent progress in your fitness program.

How can you ensure that you’ll do your best at every training session?

By making sure you’re properly recovering between your workouts.

It’s often an overlooked aspect of training yet small changes to your workout recovery can yield big results in how you look, feel and perform. It can be achieved with simple changes to your post-workout nutrition.

Get this right and it can help you recover and allow you to maintain high levels of training more often and for longer periods of time.

The window of opportunity

You have a small window of time to get nutrients into your body after your workout. Miss out on this chance to refuel and it will take you twice as long to recover from fitness sessions. Whether your training to lose weight or increasing sports performance, if it takes you 48 hours to recover instead of 24 hours, you’ll be missing the intensity you need during your workouts which can limit your results.

Timing is everything

Get your nutrition within 30 to 45 minutes after your workout. You can even start immediately after you stop exercising. As soon as you stop moving, your body begins the recovery process and it starts to look for nutrients immediately. Make sure your body gets what it needs, when it needs it.

What works best

Here’s what the research has shown. A 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein works best. For example, if you take in 40 grams of carbs, add 10 grams of protein and you’ve provided your body the perfect ratio to jump start the recovery process. Use higher glycemic carbohydrates (rice, pasta, bananas, etc) after your workout because it elicits a greater insulin response which is necessary to trigger the replenishment of energy stores. Remember to keep the fat intake low because it buffers this insulin response.

How to do it

You can either eat your post workout nutrition or drink it, it’s totally up to you. If ingesting whole foods right after your workout is difficult then have a nutrient enriched drink instead. Think along the lines of a meal replacement shake or even Gatorade recovery. The advantage of liquid nutrition is that it makes it easier for your body to digest and deliver the nutrients to your cells.

Taking these small steps of eating a higher carb meal or having a post workout shake within 45 minutes after your workout will help you take full advantage of your body’s ability to heal and recover. Using a 4 to 1 carb to protein ratio with little fat will ensure that you get optimal recovery between your training sessions.

Cheers for better recovery!

Move well, Live better

Ed Scaduto

Building strength is important for everyone. Especially if your goal is to look and feel better.

But hey, I’m a little biased. I admit it.

There’s a reason I’ve been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist for over 10 years. Building strength is the base of every exercise program I create with my personal and small group training clients. It’s because resistance training is both time efficient and extremely effective.

If you’re going to spend your limited time working out or spend your hard earned money on a gym membership don’t you want the best results for your investment?

Of course you do. You want the biggest bang for your buck.

You want resistance training.

Why resistance training?

Resistance training is crucial element to moving better, feeling stronger and looking younger. The outcome of resistance training is bigger, stronger and faster muscles. Those bulging muscles not only help you look great but they also make you feel strong, confident and provide you the ability to function at higher levels, even if it’s only in your daily activities.

Here’s the kicker. Without resistance training, your muscles will atrophy by becoming smaller and weaker. If your training program isn’t focused on building muscle, chances are you’re likely losing it.

And if you are 30 years old or older, you are definitely losing muscle, unless you are training hard to build it. Beginning in our 30’s, muscle mass is slowly lost every decade which decreases our strength, energy and metabolism. That’s the bad news.

The good news, any one can start a resistance training program, no matter the age, the body type, or the experience. It doesn’t matter. With so many different types of resistance training programs and exercises available, you’re bound to find one that fits your current fitness level. And when you do, you’ll not only hold off muscle atrophy as you age, you’ll gain a host of other benefits too.

Here are few of the benefits of resistance training:

• Prevents muscle loss and begins the muscle building process.
• Makes daily activities easier.
• Increases muscle strength.
• Creates greater bone density.
• Improves balance and coordination.
• Builds muscles which will burn more calories, even while resting.
• Increases your metabolism.
• Decreases blood sugar. Muscles use sugar to perform their job. This helps to balance and maintain healthy sugar levels.
• Improves your aerobic capacity.
• Enhances your athletic ability.
• Raises your energy level. The more strength you have the less effort you exert and the more energy you’ll have available.
• Increases protection against falls and fractures.
• Burns more calories after exercise than you would with cardio training.

These are some of the important physical benefits of resistance. As if this wasn’t enough to make you want to go out and lift some iron, there’s more.

Here’s a few non-physical benefits of resistance training:

1. Improved confidence. Resistance training builds strength and muscles. With improved strength gives you the confidence to participate in the activities that mean so much to you.

2. Resilience. Over time resistance training builds resilience by conditioning your body and mind to work hard and push your limits over and over again.

3. Bouncing back after failure. The challenge of lifting a weight you couldn’t imagine lifting a few months ago is real. You learn to give your all without hesitation and you may not succeed. Through resistance training, you learn that even though you’ve failed today you’ll be back to try it again tomorrow. You’ll go back to your training program and within a few months, you’ll manage to succeed where you have previously failed.

So if you’re thinking of starting an exercise program or you don’t feel like your building the athletic, strong body and mind that you want, start a resistance training program today. Place the emphasis where it should be, where you’re going to net the biggest return for your time and effort.

Start building up your strength with resistance training today.

If you have more questions please feel free to give me a call (719) 640-0141 or write me a quick email info@precisionfitnesstrainer.com. I’ll be happy to help out in anyway that I can.

Move Well, Live Better

Ed Scaduto

photo credit: RambergMediaImages via photopin cc