Kalev Fitness Solution is excited to announce we will be joining the masses on June 23rd for “probably the hardest event on the planet.” Tough Mudder

- Training starts this Saturdays at 9:00am for $99 (for 14 weeks)

- $125 race entry fee (optional, you don’t have to join our team)

- Race Day June 23rd in Whistler, BC

Click Here to sign up or email schedule@kalevfitness.com or call 604.568.6006 this week to sign up or find out more about how you can join us.  Training starts this Saturday so hurry!

Tough Mudder is not just a  race, but a mental and physical challenge designed by British special forces to  take you through mud, fire, ice-water, and 10,000 volts of electricity. But the best part?  There is beer, live music, and a whole team of cheering fans waiting for you at the finish line!  We want to invite you to join us, and complete this amazing, fun, and probably most physically challenging event you will ever participate in!

-Studies have shown that injury, pain, and degenerative diseases increase with decreased pH levels. That being said, choose foods that will keep your body more alkaline rather than acidic.

-Stay hydrated!!

-Increase omega 3 fats because they reduce inflammation.

-Avoid over using non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) because they can inhibit repairing tissues in your body.

2) Use proper technique

-Have your trainer pay close attention to your technique and try to reproduce that action when you are working out on your own.

-Warm-up so that your muscle are ready to work.

-Cool down to avoid blood pooling and light headedness.

3) Listen to your body

-Avoid overtraining.

-Respect your abilities and orthopaedic status. Progress into more difficult exercises; don’t try too much too soon.

Written by Christian Kubas

In each muscle cell (called a sarcomere) you have long fibers and filaments. Those long strands of proteins are called myosin and actin. When myosin and actin move past one another, this is when you get muscles moving.

The best analogy of how this process works is to imagine that myosin is a row boat, and actin is the water. While myosin is actively rowing, that is when you get a muscle contraction.  More specifically, a concentric contraction. The catch is that myosin can only row in one direction.

If you recall from an earlier posting about muscle contractions, concentric contractions are usually ones where muscles shorten. This is the power contraction where force is generated. Concentric contractions utilize lots of energy (called ATP – saving this topic for another week’s blog), since this is the part when myosin is actively rowing and generating a lot of force. Think of the boat having to row upstream against a constant flow water when you are lifting something. The force of the river is the resistance on muscles (either gravity or weights).

Now you know what happens in a concentric contraction, but what about an eccentric contraction? If myosin can only generate force in one direction, how do muscles allow us to do things like lower weights we just lifted, or walk down stairs?

It really isn’t fully understood how muscles work in eccentric loading, but many guess that it works like the following: I’ll try to explain this by using the rowing analogy again. The direction the boat wants to travel  in this scenario is with the flow of water even though it is still facing upstream. It can also still only row upstream.  In an eccentric contraction the way your muscle would work is it would row every once and a while, alternating between fighting the current and letting it move the boat to slowly move downstream.

Knowing the process of muscle physiology at this level is very important when deciding how you choose to load your muscles in order to achieve your health, sport, and fitness goals. For example, with this knowledge you can design a workout using only eccentric contractions to train yourself to do a normal concentric pull-up! This is really useful if you can’t do a single push-up. Cool, eh?

Written by Sean Conner

Exercise Intensity:                  Low                    High

Total Calories Burnt:               225                     315

Total Fat Calories Burnt:        90                        95

Percent of Fat Used:               40%                     30%

If we look at the table above, we see that at low intensities, a higher percentage of fat is burnt. At high intensities, a lower percent of fat is burnt compared to the total calories but overall, more fat was utilized. The key is more total calories were burnt in the session and greater fitness levels will be achieved also. Talk to your trainer about what the proper speed for you to exercise is at and remember fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates!!

Written by Christian Kubas

We arrived at 8am and not long after we set ourselves up at the booth Laura was on stage leading the competitive athletes through a quick warm up! We also ran the warm up for the non-competitive athletes and between these we gave free on the spot assessments to participants and entered them into the draw to win a free week of our executive gym membership!!

We had a great morning at the Stairclimb, more fun than we could have expected.  Laura particularly enjoyed the use of a microphone

for the warm ups, not that she needs one! We look forward to being involved next year and hope we can get a whole team of clients to join us and climb for a cause!

Water for Weight Loss

You heard right! Drinking water will help with your weight loss. If you are eating right and exercising with your trainer on a regular basis then try drinking more water. Many people don’t drink enough water daily which means their bodies aren’t functioning at optimal capacity. Therefore, their metabolism is not burning as many calories as it could. Some studies have also shown that thirst and hunger sensations are triggered together which means if you are slightly dehydrated, you may very well feel hungry also. When you are feeling hungry, try drinking some water 15 minutes before eating and see what happens to your appetite.

So how much water should we drink daily? I’m sure everyone has heard the “8 glasses a day” saying but water is also obtained from the foods that we eat. A better way to monitor how much water our body needs is through our urine! It should stay clear with a slight yellow tinge. The darker in yellow it is, the more dehydrated you are.  Other benefits of water are:

-Regulating appetite
-Boost energy levels
-Alleviate some headaches
-Help reduce blood pressure and high cholesterol
-Decreased chance of developing kidney stones

Written by Christian Kubas

1) Follow a healthy eating pattern – emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy foods. It is very important to reduce sodium in your diet. Foods today are loaded with extra salt. Limit yourself to roughly 2000-2200mg per day.

2) Maintaining a healthy weight – Become physically active! Get a trainer if you need motivation or structure. Losing even 10 pounds will have a drastic effect on those who are overweight.

3) Limiting alcohol intake – Drinking too much can raise blood pressure as well as a number of other things. One drink per day for women and two for men should be the maximum. One drink is equivalent to 5 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer.

4) Quit smoking – Smoking injures blood vessels and can cause atherosclerosis which increases blood pressure

5) Cope with stress better – Try yoga to help yourself cope and relieve stress more effectively

Written by Christian Kubas

I recently made this dish for a potluck, and someone had asked for the recipe. I don’t cook with recipes usually, but here is generally how to make this very tasty and nutrient dense dish. The serving size was about 4 people.

Begin boiling water for the quinoa and couscous. I went about 50:50 with the quinoa and couscous mixture, for a total of approximately 2 cups worth (dry). And roughly a 2:1 ratio of water to quinoa-couscous mix. More is not necessarily bad here. Leave uncovered to boil.
—Fun fact: Quinoa is actually not a grain, but a grain-like pseudocereal of the chenopod family.

Then get moving on the homemade peanut sauce (or you can just buy some, but it’s pretty easy to make). I’ll do my best to approximate amounts used in “[..]” beside the ingredient.
The ingredients for the sauce include:
-Peanuts finely crushed (and/or peanut butter) [1 cup]
-Coconut milk [1/2 cup]
-Sesame seed oil [2 tablespoons]
-Soya sauce [4 tablespoons]
-Ginger & garlic [1 tablespoon each]
-Lime juice [3/4 of a lime]
-Chilli flakes [1 tablespoon]
These tend to mix best over very low heat in a sauce pan, but you can add them and mix in a bowl.
—Fun fact: Peanuts are rich in nutrients, providing over 30 essential nutrients and phytonutrients. They also are naturally free of trans-fat and sodium, and contain about 25% protein (a higher proportion than in any true nut).

Check the quinoa-couscous mix. You should be able to kill the heat for now and cover the pot with a lid.

In a large frying pan over medium-low heat, add a little olive oil. Let the oil begin to ripple.
—Fun fact: Using olive oil for high-heat cooking is actually bad. It’s smoking point is low, which means it will turn into a trans-fat.

Then add:
1 diced red onion (let caramelize to release the sugars before adding…)
5 julienne carrots (let them start to soften, then add…)
3-6 finely chopped leaves of kale.

You can now add the sauce to the veggies and warm until the sauce is starting to simmer. At this point I put the quinoa-couscous into a wok and add low heat to get rid of excess water before adding the sauce/veggie mix.

To garnish, I added loose and fine crushed peanuts, chilli-flakes, and limes.

Bon appetit!

Yours in health,

Sean Conner

Kinesiologist
Twitter @SCKinical
sean@kalevfitness.com

When it comes to exercise, variety is very important. It forces your body to adapt to different types of stimulus, thus preparing you for more types of activity! Don’t just walk on the treadmill, increase the incline. Don’t just go for a run outside, challenge yourself on a hill, or climb the steps in your apartment. If you regularly lift weights, go see a trainer for a few sessions to get a fresh look at your program. Do you always run outside? Try taking a small group session at your local gym, a boxing class or a spin class. Whatever it is that you do for exercise, each day try to modify it just a little bit to make sure you are constantly adapting and improving.

For more information our 3D approach at Kalev Fitness Solutions Click Here

Week 4 Tip:

Stretching Click Here

Week 3 Tip:

Incorporate squats and single leg step-ups Click Here

Week 2 Tip:

Focus on two different days of cardio into your work-outs. Click Here

Week 1 Tip:

Plan 5-6 weeks ahead. Click Here

Stretching and flexibility are crucial parts of your fitness and preparation for exercise. Good flexibility can help prevent injury, and allow proper balance between muscle groups as you strengthen!

• Do lots of stretching of the quads and hamstring. This will help keep you flexible and prevent injuries.
• It’s important to warm up your body before stretching so your muscle become more pliable.
• After warm up but before your exercise use dynamic stretching (stretching that involves movement)
• After exercise try static stretching (traditional stretching)
• Hold stretches for 30 sec+ to achieve optimal benefit.

Standing quad stretch.

Laying down hamstring stretch with a rope or towel.

For more information on stretching try taking a core and mobility small group training session at Kalev Fitness Solutions to help with your flexibility! Click Here

Week 3 Tip:

Incorporate squats and single leg step-ups Click Here

Week 2 Tip:

Focus on two different days of cardio into your work-outs. Click Here

Week 1 Tip:

Plan 5-6 weeks ahead. Click Here