Who doesn’t love a good Super Bowl party? I may not be rooting for the Giants or the Patriots this Sunday, but I still plan on tuning in for the excitement of getting together with friends for football and of course, Madonna. Along with the commercials, another highlight of a good Super Bowl party is the food. Typical football foods include an array of high-fat chips and dips, fat-laden fried…
Hello tweakfit.com followers. After the hustle and bustle of the holidays and a recent move to the beautiful island of Oahu, I am back with more tips to keep you all fit and fierce. As I am writing this post, I am in a hotel room in Honolulu, since the lease for my apartment does not begin until February. One of my biggest challenges over the past week has been…
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It’s been 2012 for almost three weeks. How are your New Year’s resolutions going so far? If you’re the type to use the New Year as an excuse to redefine your fitness goals, I imagine you’re still mostly on track. But if you haven’t been severely challenged yet, or haven’t thought about abandoning your resolution altogether, you likely will in the near future.
The one-month period is a critical measuring…
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If you’re seeking to get stronger, build muscle, reduce your risk of injury, improve your posture, or just generally feel better, weightlifting is an effective means to accomplish these goals. Sometimes walking into a gym for the first time can be overwhelming with so many machines and stations available. Here are some helpful tips to get you started, as well as a sample program you can follow in your first…
Working at a health club for the past two years has provided me with a little extra insight on people’s work out routines. With 2,000+ members at our club, I see just about the same few hundred people every day. The others? I’m sure some are here in the evenings after I leave work or perhaps just come on the weekends. However, there are also quite a few who simply…
Ever wonder why you seem to prefer those early morning runs, or tend to work out harder late at night? A recent review, published in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, highlights yet another factor that can possibly be contributing to your ability to perform your best in the gym. A group of researchers from New Zealand believe that by understanding your body’s natural rhythms and response to light,…
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It’s a story I hear all the time… You’ve spent the entire day focusing on eating right- you started out the day strong with a balanced breakfast, packed a healthy lunch, even ate baby carrots for a mid-afternoon snack. You did everything right, then just around 9pm,the sure-tell cravings begin…and they aren’t cravings for more baby carrots or even sugar plums…you’ve got visions of sweets and carbs dancing in your…
Some days an extra ten minutes on the snooze button is enough to leave me running around flustered trying to get out the door in the morning. However I always make it a priority to make sure I have a lunch cooler filled with nutritious and filling foods to get me through the day at work. The key to healthy eating is planning ahead, but we have all encountered the…
Protein bars can be a great snack or meal substitute for people trying to lean up and lose belly fat. Although most bars will be a good source of protein, some can also be packed with calories, contain little fiber, and as much sugar as a candy bar. Below I have compared several different common protein bars to help you find the best fit for you. Take my advice, reading…
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An increasing body of research (e.g., Karp et al., 2006; Pritchett et al., 2009) is supporting the effects of chocolate milk as an effective post-workout beverage. One group of researchers from Indiana University investigated the effects of drinking chocolate milk following a workout in a group of elite cyclists. Following a series of interval workouts, one group of athletes consumed servings of chocolate milk while a control consumed another commercial…
As a Registered Dietitian, one of the questions I hear often is concerning Vitamin D. How much Vitamin D is too much? Where do I get it? Why is it important? Vitamin D, also known as the “sunshine vitamin” is a fat-soluble vitamin that comes in several forms. One of the largest roles Vitamin D plays in the human body is in calcium metabolism. Maintenance of blood calcium is vital…
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In order to reduce body fat, you should steer clear of a number of foods. Two categories of foods, in particular, can have a particularly adverse effect on body fat: most white foods and foods high in sugar — especially fructose. White-colored foods are often high in the carbohydrates starch and sugar. Carbohydrates are an essential component of a healthy diet, but many people are not active enough to burn…
Running requires endurance and flexibility, but strength also plays a significant role in running performance — especially for women. Because women carry the majority of their weight in their hips and lower body, strength in these areas can enhance their running stride and efficiency, while minimizing fatigue and injury.
You can improve both muscular strength and endurance in the gym through resistance training. To improve endurance, however, you first need…
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The goal of building muscle in weight lifting is known as hypertrophy. Different than simply increasing strength or power, hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the muscle’s contractile area as a result of greater contractile proteins and a greater number and size of myofibrils in each fiber. Unlike maximal strength training, hypertrophy is best-achieved with just moderate loads. Therefore, to build the most muscle, you don’t always need…
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Have a big competition coming up? Or are you simply an active person and want to eat in a way that will provide a maximum amount of energy for the day? For optimal energy, you need to master the art of the pre-competition meal. Much of the pre-competition meal is common sense, but some popular misconceptions exist as well. Follow these guidelines to have your body ready to perform at…
People are often confused when I tell them that I am a Registered Dietitian and a bartender. While I first got into the bar industry to help support myself through college and my dietetic internship, I found that my creativity and passion for nutrition, actually helped me to create healthier and creative drinks for my customers. At my nutrition job at Devon Fitness Club, located in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, there is…
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The rise in “functional” exercises in recent years, or that which emphasizes exercises that transfer to real-life movements, has produced a nation of fitter, more athletic women. The days of women going to the gym, lightly working out on a cardio machine, and performing a few resistance training exercises on machines are becoming a thing of the past. Instead, more and more women are performing high-intensity circuit training, and even…
In his book, “The Essence of Bodyweight Training,” Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist Juan Carlos Santana regales of the time he and his fellow coaches designed and implemented one of the most successful conditioning programs ever for a large high school in Florida. Several of the athletic teams at this high school went on to win championships that year, and Santana was lauded for his fitness contributions. There was just…
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A long-held belief in the health and fitness industry is that to lose weight, you simply need to burn more calories than you consume through food. Over time, accumulating this caloric deficit, either through restricting the food you eat or increasing your daily exercise, would result in weight-loss. A recent study, conducted by nutrition experts at Harvard University, reached some conclusions that may counter this supposedly tried-and-true method for shedding…
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As Tony Horton says, “Rome wasn’t built in one day, and neither was your body.” Improving your health takes months of dedication to make a lifestyle change. Don’t listen to those infomercials out there saying how you can get a slim or rock solid physique in 30 days using their new equipment X for 10 minutes a day. It’s just all marketing to try to get you to buy their…
