How To Properly Track Your Fitness Progress

 Earlier this week I passed along four success stories from readers who saw freaking awesome results in just six weeks.  Last month, I shared my talk at Google that contained more success stories with fellow nerds who made incredible changes and drastically changed their lives over the course of a few months.

Some people gained strength and muscle while others lost tremendous amounts of weight and body fat; despite the differing goals and vastly different results, they all made one specific change that helped them truly get the results they wanted:

They wrote everything down.

If you’re serious about making changes to your life and getting in shape, I cannot stress enough the importance of tracking your progress, and I don’t mean just stepping on the scale every morning and freaking out every time it goes up 1/10th of a pound.  I’m talking about a plan that allows you to find and stay on the right path.

Luckily, I’m here to help you start putting these practices in place TODAY.

In the immortal words of that overweight Italian plumber, “here we gooooooo!”

The Importance of Tracking Everything

Does this sound familiar?

1. You decide you want to get in shape
2. You go for runs every day for a week and try to eat less food
3. You step on the scale every day for a week and the numbers go down. Yaaaay!
4. You go to a cookout on a Sunday, step on the scale on Monday, and its higher than before!
5. You freak out, go crazy, and fall off the wagon
6. Lather, rinse, repeat

I’d guess this is 80% of people who try and fail to get in shape. Fortunately, you’re reading Nerd Fitness which means you’re most likely smart, incredibly good looking, humble, and aware that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is the definition of insanity.  On top of that, you understand and value the importance of tracking your progress – as the saying goes “that which get measured gets improved.”  This is true specifically for these reasons:

• Scales don’t tell the whole story. I’ve already covered my thoughts on scales. If you are training the right way (with an emphasis on strength training), your weight might not drop as fast as it would if you starved yourself and ran 20 miles a day.  Heck, you might be getting stronger and more muscular but the scale refuses to budge.  Now, if you only had a scale as your ‘measuring stick,’ you’d probably get super discouraged and depressed at the lack of “progress.”  However, if you were tracking your body changes properly, you’d realize that you are making far more significant and healthier progress by doing things the right way.  At the end of Saint’s journey to the Ab-promise land, his weight WENT UP while his body fat percentage went down.  The scale can lie!
• You don’t know if you’re on the right path. Along with the scale not telling the whole story, it’s tough to tell if you’re losing the right kind of weight in the right kind of places.  There are so many other aspects to consider other than the number on the scale, including how you look, feel, and where the weight loss is coming from – your muscles or your stored fat.  It’s like driving cross country without a map, compass, road signs, or land marks to use – how do you know you’re going the right way if you have no idea where you were or where you’re headed?
• You don’t know how much you’re eating. If you’re overweight, you probably don’t realize how many calories you consume on a daily basis.  If you’re underweight and “can’t gain weight no matter what you eat,” you probably don’t realize how many calories you consume on a daily basis.  Americans have such a warped sense of reality when it comes to proper “portion size” and what constitutes a meal.  We need to be better informed.
• You can’t tell if you’re getting stronger. Our bodies need to be constantly challenged in order to adapt and get stronger.  If you do three sets of 10 push ups every day for a year…you will just be really good at doing 3 sets of 10 push ups and nothing more.  You need to constantly increase the difficulty of your workouts in order to get results.  If you didn’t know how you did last time, how the hell are you going to know if you’re doing better this time?
• That which is measured gets improved! I’m sure there are actual psychological reasons behind why this works, but I know that I get better results when I exercise if I know EXACTLY what I need to lift or how fast I need to run to get stronger and better.  If I did 30 push ups in a row last week, then this week I have “31! 31! 31!” emblazoned in my mind while doing them…sure enough I’ll get to 31.  On top of that, if you’re constantly keeping track of what you eat, taking measurements, and tracking your workouts, you will always be thinking “healthy!” and thus make healthier decisions on a more consistent basis.

Hopefully at this point you’ve at least come to the conclusion that maybe you should start tracking your progress.  “Yes Steve, I have seen the light and I’m ready to start tracking my progress…tell me what the hell I need to do!”

PERFECT.  Here’s how to do it.

Track Your Body

THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE DOES NOT DEFINE YOU! When you strength train and eat properly, your body tends to only shed fat while keeping the muscle you already have.  Compare that to crash dieting and hours of cardio where your “weight loss” will be greater…but you’ll be losing both muscle and fat (and leave you looking and feeling like a weakling).

By tracking your body composition in more than one way, you’ll have a more accurate view of what’s working and what’s not working with your training.  If after a few weeks you’re not losing the right kind of weight, you’ll know that you need to make some adjustments.

Before we get into metrics, let’s set one ground rule: Don’t track everything on a day-to-day basis.  Our bodies are incredibly complex pieces of machinery where all kinds of crazy stuff happens all day and all night.  Our weight can fluctuate by many pounds over the course of a day.  Measuring EVERY day will promote an unhealthy OCD behavior where every tiny little change will be scrutinized and blown out of proportion.   So, measure yourself once a week at the same time, I advices after you wake up and before you eat breakfast.  Depending on your schedule, I’d either pick Friday or Monday mornings to track all of your measurements – if you tend to let yourself go on the weekends, I’d advise doing your measurements on Friday morning so that you’ll have a whole week to get back on track and see long-term changes.

Here are the best ways to track yourself OTHER than a scale:

Take a picture – My favorite method.  Stand in front of a mirror in a bathing suit or your underwear with your cell phone camera and take a picture.  Then turn to the side and take another picture of your profile view.  You might not like what you see.  You might not want to look at it again, and you probably won’t want to show it to anybody.  THAT’S FINE.  Just take the picture, hide it in a folder on your computer, and add to it once a week.  You live with yourself (duh), so it’s tough to notice changes on a day-to-day basis.  However, if you have two months of week-to-week photos to look back on, you’ll be able to tell if your body is transitioning in the right way.

Take measurements – Go to a craft store and buy a cheap tape measure or buy one of these self-help tape measures.  Make sure your measurements are taken in the morning and not after your workout.  Also, make sure you measure the same location each week – kind of weird, I know, but I pick freckles on my arms and legs so I know exactly where to measure each week.  Take a circumference measurement at each of these spots and write it down:

-Neck (for most people, this is the thing that connects your body to your head)
-Shoulders (both arms down at your side, at the widest point from shoulder to shoulder)
-Chest (lift up your arms, wrap the tape measure around your chest, just above the nipple, and then lower your arms)
-Bicep (either left or right, but be consistent)
-Waist (at the belly button for consistency)
-Hips (measure the widest part of your hips)
-Thigh (left or right, but pick the same spot on your thigh each week)

Measure your body fat percentage – This one is a little tricky depending on your resources and financial situation.  If you are severely overweight, start by I’d put your focus on measuring inches and how you look with your pictures and then add this one in once you’ve had some success.  Now, if you ARE interested in tracking your body fat percentage, your best bet would be to purchase a simple body fat caliper if you’re strapped for cash.  If you want to be more accurate, pay $40-60 per visit and get your body fat tested at a Bod Pod Location – a wise investment once a month (or every other month) to make sure you’re on the right path.

I am NOT a fan of body fat calculators that are built into your scale as I find them to be wayyyy too hit and miss.

Important info about body fat percentage tracking – no test is truly 100% accurate, and the specific number isn’t nearly as important as how it’s changing from month to month.  If you do the body fat caliper method, make sure you measure in the same place each time, take multiple readings, and get an average.  Even if your method of tracking your body fat percentage is less than optimal, you can at least make sure you measure it the same way each time to measure if it’s trending in the right direction.

In my opinion, measuring inches and observing changes in pictures is a far better estimate.

Track Your Food

Are you aware of how many calories you eat on a daily basis? When I talk to somebody who is trying to gain weight/lose weight, the response is the same: “I eat enough for my goals, but I’m not getting results…I guess it’s genetics!”  Unfortunately, 95% of the time, it’s usually ignorance and not genetics.  Unless you’ve taken the time to actually count calories for a few days of your normal eating schedule, you probably have no freaking clue how many calories you eat!

You CAN’T outrun your fork – 80% of your successes or failures will be a direct result of how you eat. Although the quality of your calories consumed is incredibly important, the quantity of calories you consume is the first thing that needs to be fixed.  Think of your stomach as a muscle that adapts to its surroundings.  If you continually shovel 4000 calories down your throat, your body will start to crave 4000 calories even though it doesn’t need that many.

Most people eat the same few meals over and over again on a weekly basis – I do.For that reason, I don’t think it’s necessary for you to track ALL of your calories EVERY day for months and months.  However, I think spending a week writing down every calorie is incredibly important for your education and awareness on what you’re eating.  I’m talking every freaking calorie: that half of a Kat Kat bar at Judy’s desk when you stopped by to grab some cover pages for your  TPS reports, the handful of M&Ms you ate while watching 30Rock reruns on NetFlix, the five cans of Coke you drank while finishing up that late night project, and the six beers and three slices of pizza you crushed to celebrate afterwards.

Every. Single. Calorie.

Once you have an idea of how much you eat regularly, take a look in the mirror.  Do you like how you look?  If so, GREAT!  Keep doing what you’re doing.  If not, it’s probably time to make some changes.  Start by eating less, and training your stomach to expect less.  Once you have your numbers under control, you can startmaking some other healthy changes.

I understand writing down your calories can  be a pain in the ass, which is where sites like DailyBurn.com, SparkPeople, and the DailyPlate come in handy. They all have massive food databases that allow you to simply plug in what you ate (Big Mac, one apple, a gallon of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, etc.) and it keeps track of calories, protein, carbs, and fats for the day.

If you eat out a lot, you’ll have to do some research – go to the restaurant’s website and they’ll probably have nutritional information on there.  If they don’t have it online, do your best to estimate by picking a similar meal option on one of the sites listed above and use its meal information instead.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but tracking your food for just a few days could be one of the most eye opening experiences you have when it comes to getting in shape.

Write it down, sucka!

Track Your Workouts

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

When you exercise, do you do so with purpose? Do you know exactly what you’re going to do and how long it should take you?  Or do you kind of wander around the gym like a lost sheep, trying to figure out which machines look fun to use that day.  If you’re serious about getting in shape, you need to start tracking your workouts:

• If you did 3 sets of 10 push ups last week for a total of 30 push ups, you need to be able to do 31 total push ups this week to be stronger.
• If you did squats with 135 pounds last week, this week you better be squatting 136 pounds or more
• If you did 3 pull ups last week, you know you need to get to 4 this week if you want to be stronger.

Have a plan, know what kind of results you need to get in order to be better today than you were yesterday, and then GET THERE!  You can certainly use any of the sites listed above for diet tracking to keep track of your workouts too, but I personally prefer just using an Excel or Google document (when I’m strength training), or a simple new entry in Evernote (when I’m exercising while traveling).  I always know exactly how I did in my last workout so that I know what I need to do in this workout to get stronger.

As we’ve learned from the Spartans, “appearance is a consequence of fitness.” If you are focusing on getting stronger and faster, taking a more active role in how you eat, and you are consistently tracking your progress to make sure you are heading in the right direction, you WILL get the results you’re after.

6 Tips For A Healthier Eating Lifestyle

When you think of summer weekends, what food pops into your mind? Barbecue, beer, and macaroni salad? When you think of eating on the road, is fast food the first thing you think of? This summer, don't eat foods that will leave you feeling depleted, bloated, and tired. Making better food choices will have a positive impact on your leisure time. As athletes know, healthy food and plenty of water sustain your energy levels, fuel your muscles, and help you recover quickly. The food you eat on the road will serve as your traveling repair kit. Here are some tips to help you eat healthfully while you're traveling or vacationing this summer:

Healthy eating starts where you stop. If you're on the road and stop at a fast-food joint, your food choices will be limited to fast food. But if you stop at a grocery store that offers whole or healthy foods—fruits, bagged carrots, nuts, hummus—or a supermarket that features a salad bar, you quickly expand your choices (and reduce junk-food temptations).

Eat frequently, and in smaller amounts. Eating small amounts of healthy foods throughout the day sends a signal to your brain that the food supply is plentiful, so it's okay to burn through those calories quickly. Limiting your calorie load at a single sitting also gives you lots of energy. Eating too many calories in one meal—even if they're healthy calories—sends your brain the message that leaner times must be around the corner, so those calories will get stored as fat. Eating too much at one sitting can also make you sluggish and sleepy.

Eat plenty of protein. Eating the right amount of complete protein for your weight and activity level stabilizes blood sugar (preventing energy lags), enhances concentration, and keeps you lean and strong. A complete protein is any animal and dairy product or a grain plus a legume (such as whole grain bread with nut butter, or corn tortilla with beans). When you need energy for a long hike, a long drive, or a day at the beach, stoke your body with high-quality, lean protein.

Pack snacks so you're not skipping meals. Often when we're traveling, we don't have access to food at regular intervals. Or worse, we skip meals so we can have that big piece of chocolate cake later. The problem is, your body responds as if it's facing a food shortage and your metabolism slows way down to prevent you from starving. To keep your mind and body humming, pack healthy snacks in your car or backpack. Examples are almonds, raw vegetables and hummus, yogurt and berries, fresh and dried fruit, and hard-boiled eggs.

Avoid "feel bad" foods. You know what these are: They're foods you crave, but after you eat them you feel sick or depleted. When you're on the road, it's particularly essential to avoid foods that drain your energy and deflate your mood. Foods to avoid: (1) simple carbohydrates or high glycemic foods, such as fruit juices, sodas, refined grain products, or sugary snacks; (2) anything deep fried; (3) nonfat desserts and sweeteners, which are loaded with chemicals that your body can't easily metabolize; (4) anything partially hydrogenated (this includes nondairy creamer, Jiffy-style peanut butter, margarine, and most packaged baked goods); and (5) excess alcohol.

Drink lots of water. Yes, water is a food. The body needs water for virtually all of its functions. Drinking plenty of water will flush your body of toxins, keep your skin fresh, and help you eat less. It will also help you avoid travel lag, symptoms of overexposure to the heat or sun, and junk-food cravings. Believe it or not, many of the unhealthy cravings we experience on the road can be satisfied with a refreshing drink of pure water. 

originally posted by mensfitness.com

Dont forget to DEADLIFT

Here are 7 reasons why the Deadlift is a superb exercise for serious Athletes…
1. If you’re a bodybuilder, or a guy who wants to be JACKED, very few things add slabs of granite-hard muscle to your body like heavy deads

2. If you’re a powerlifter or strongman – your sporting success depends a lot on how good your deadlift is. The deadlift is where power meets are won and lost and in any given strongman competition, one or more events are strongly deadlift based

3. Deadlifting builds a pretty decent grip; at least once you get fairly strong at it. In most sports, having a stronger grip will make you a better athlete.

In fact, my friend Elliot Newman recently spoke with Dr Stuart McGill and ‘Stu’ said that one very common thing he sees in many ELITE athletes is a lack of grip strength. So making those paws stronger is good – no matter what level you’re at

4. If you program your deadlift training sensibly, it will make you a lot STRONGER from head-to-toe. In particular – your glutes, hamstrings, entire back, core, forearms and grip will get stronger.

And when you get stronger, good things usually happen. For instance, you’ll probably notice that you get FASTER and more POWERFUL too. Faster, more powerful athletes are always better athletes.

5. The deadlift is relatively simple to learn (at least compared with many other barbell lifts). Sure, not everybody is ready to pull from the floor, but there is a variation to suit everybody – even if their mobility totally sucks.

The short learning curve and adaptability make the deadlift a great choice for athletes because it means that they don’t have to spend months drilling the exercise before they can actually load up some weight and see a meaningful improvements in strength, muscle mass and sporting performance.

6. The deadlift teaches AGGRESSION. If you aren’t aggressive with a heavy pull – it isn’t gonna budge an inch. This aggression is something that many sports require, so there’s a nice carry over effect.

7. The deadlift really hits the posterior chain hard (the back of the body). So if you’re one of those guys who has over-trained the ‘mirror muscles’ (front of your body), incorporating deadlifts into your training is a great way to bring balance back to your physique.

Of course – to be a good athlete – one who performs like a BEAST and is resilient to injury… it helps to be balanced.

So there you have it…

Now, before you rush off to pull a Deadlift PR, I need to tell you a couple of important things…

• You must deadlift with good form. Failure to do so can result in some extremely nasty injuries. Go to enough powerlifting meets and sooner or later you’ll see lower back injuries, tweaked hamstrings and torn biceps galore.Not fun.BUT… the prevention method is simple – deadlift with good technique!
• You must program your deadlift training sensibly. Seriously, get it wrong and you’ll likely end up overtrained faster than Usain Bolt runs the 100. No joke.

Original Post By: http://jasonferruggia.com/ Edited By: WNY MMA

Eat Well = Fight Well at WNY MMA & Fitness

Here at WNY MMA & Fitness we encourage a giving 100%, 100% of the time. And that's not possible without proper nutrition. And something we see all to often people not fueling themselves properly.We’re sure that between all the grilled chicken breast, cans of tuna, egg whites and both pre and post workout shakes, you’ve got no time for anything else but protein. Well if you’re looking to get more toned, fiber may just give you an advantage as an appetite suppressant and it’ll also provide you with a multitude of additional health benefits as well.

So How Does Fiber Help?

First things first, traditionally, foods that contain a significant amount of fiber take longer to eat. They tend to be somewhat chewy and that can give someone the feeling that they’ve eaten more than they really have.

Also, foods high in fiber typically take a longer time to digest, ultimately leaving you with the feeling that you’re full for longer.

And when you consume foods that contain soluble fiber (think mature beans or oatmeal) you’ll be stabilizing your blood sugar as the day progresses. This can also keep you from feeling hungry.

If what you’re looking to achieve is control over your weight, you’d be mistaken to not include more fiber into your diet. Fortunately, to help prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other complications, you won’t have to eat an entire bowl of prunes and lettuce.

Here are a few alternatives that offer you a good source of fiber you may actually enjoy:

Cereal

Fiber: 7.7 grams (1 cup)

Some of our fighters here at WNY MMA & Fitness find it easiest to cram in a bunch of fiber first thing in the morning. This is easy to do because many breakfast cereals are loaded with fiber. Raisin Bran and all the other bran cereals on shelves everywhere offer you a pretty significant amount of fiber in a relatively small serving size. Besides just eating the cereal with milk, you could perhaps sprinkle some cereal as a topping on some yogurt!

Kidney Beans

Fiber: 5.7 grams (half-cup)

Be careful, the beans you’ll find in your burrito aren’t the type that’ll contribute to weight-management. Neither will the green beans. Look for mature or dried beans (kidney beans and chickpeas) for your source of fiber.

Mixed Vegetables

Fiber: 4 grams (half cup)

To add some variety, go to the frozen foods section and pick yourself up some mixed vegetables. Many of the vegetables you’ll find like beans, corn, etc. have fiber.

Nuts

Fiber: 4.5 grams (2 ounces)

We know how much protein means to a diet, so with nuts and other seeds, you’re essentially getting two for one. As opposed to meat, nuts have a ton of dietary fiber.

Fruit

Fiber: Apple – 5 grams, banana – 3.5 grams, orange – 4.4 grams

You can never have to many of these guys if you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle.Fruits that contain fiber, like bananas, apples, avocados and pears, can be especially beneficial. The skin cannot be discounted either, they’re good sources of fiber as well.

Gradually Adding Fiber to Your Diet

It’s not smart to one day just add a ton of fiber into your diet. It’s recommended that you begin adding it gradually. You can do this by supplementing a meal a day dedicated to good sources of fiber. This could mean adding kidney beans to a salad or a vegetable with your dinner.

Some other ways you can begin adding more fiber would be to supplement white breads with whole wheat bread or start eating oatmeal instead of frosted flakes.

It’s recommended that a grown man should consume somewhere around 38 grams of fiber per day. You shouldn’t over-do it, however you definitely shouldn’t leave fiber on the back burner

WNY MMA: Up and Coming BJJ Tournaments

WNY MMA: Up and Coming BJJ Tournaments

So, you guys already know about the MMA fights and who is competing where. But maybe, just maybe, you are a member of the grappling community and don't really care too much about mma. Well, I got something for you too, so sorry if i made you feel left out. There will be a number of Bjj tournaments coming up in the next few months that will definitely be worth your time and effort, so why not start training up for them. Ill give you a run down of the tournaments, the dates, and the locations. Remember who your information center is, wny mma and fitness that's right.

First up is the 2015 Ontario Open International Jiu Jitsu Championship will take place on May 2nd and 3rd at Brampton Soccor Centre, located at 1495 Sandalwood Pkwy. East Dixie Rd & Sandalwood Pkwy, L6R 0K2, Brampton, Ontario. It will be filled with Gi and Nogi matches over two days. There are competitors between the ages of 5 and 50 coming from all over Canada and the US, so why not make this a stop on your yearly tournament calender, wny bjj certainly will.

Also on May 2nd, the Hayastan Grappling Championship will be in full effect in Fredonia, NY. The venue of this gi gripping, arm wrenching tournament will be Fredonia High School 425 East Main St, Fredonia, NY 14063. Early registration and weigh ins will be that Friday, May 1st from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. There will also be event day registration for those who will be too busy living up their friday nights, Saturday from 8:30am to 12pm. For more information please click here for registration and prices. The question is, will you be gripping?

Last, but definitely not least. We have our very own Buffalo Classic BJJ Tournament on May 23rd, it will be located in downtown Buffalo's inner harbor at 359 Ganson St. Buffalo, NY 14203. Near the First Niagara Center where the Sabres play, just off the 190. All belt levels in the Kids, Youth, Teen, Junior, Adult and Master categories. Registration opens this month and will close several days prior. If you want to support your hometown, then you can either compete or support. All proceeds will go to benefit Vector BJJ, which is a nonprofit community youth development program. Last year Buffalo Classic raised $950.00 for the cause.