Nutrition Tip – Plant Based Diets

If you have decided to minimize or eliminate animal products from your diet and start on a plant-based diet then it’s important to know that you may not be getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals. The nutrients that are often low or missing are vitamin B12, fruitVitamin D, Calcium, Iodine, Omega-3 fat, and Zinc. You can increase your intake of these nutrients by eating more vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and fruits or through supplementation if you can’t get enough through food.

Cross Body Punch Jump Squat

Hey everyone!  I’m back with a new Home Exercise of the Week and this time I have a great full body exercise for you to try called the Cross Body Punch Jump Squat.

This exercise will work your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, obliques, deltoids, and triceps as well as giving you a great cardiovascular workout.

If you have problems with your knees then I would suggest not doing the jump squat and instead just do a stationary squat.

Let’s take a look at the key points to doing the Cross Body Punch Jump Squat properly.

  • stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart and your fists up in front of you
  • rotate your body to the left while rotating your right foot and extending your right arm out to a punch
  • make sure that you are flexing your abs throughout the entire movement
  • return to the starting position then rotate your body to the right while rotating your left foot and extending your left arm
  • return to the starting position again and go in to a deep squat making sure you are sitting back on your heels
  • in one explosive movement jump up as high as you can and then land back in to a deep squat
  • repeat for the desired amount of reps

There you have the Cross Body Punch Jump Squat.  Add this exercise to your full body routine and get those muscles working!

Exercise Nutrition Tip – Recovery Drink

What you eat before and after exercising is very important in your recovery and progress. 20150316_143902-1[1]If nutrition at these times is neglected then consequences such as extended muscle soreness, fatigue, overtraining symptoms, decreased performance, loss or minimal gain of muscle mass, and impaired metabolism may occur. To avoid this make sure you are consuming an appropriate amount of protein and carbs during this time. A good baseline recovery drink recommendation after your workout is for each hour of exercise cosume 600mL of water mixed with a quality protein powder that gives you approximately 30g of carbs and 15g of protein.

Health Tip – Carbohydrate and Water Storage

For every gram of carbohydrate that is stored in your body, 3 to 4 grams of water are also weightscalestored. Therefore high-carb diets can lead to an increase in fluid storage. When starting a low-carb/high-protein diet like the Atkins diet for example, the increase of protein will stimulate fluid loss and the low amount of carbs reduce the water storage. You may lose some weight quickly from this diet at first but keep in mind that this is water weight and your fluid losses will stabilize after the first few days. As always, a more balanced diet combined with a solid exercise plan will lead to true fat loss.