Sleep and Fitness

Today’s bog is all about getting a good night’s sleep. Over the years, I have helped a lot of clients to achieve their fitness goals, but some clients, even when they receive the proper nutrition and perform the right exercises, still don’t seem to be able to reach their goals.

After further review, I find out that they are not getting the amount of sleep that they need to achieve the results that they want. I don’t know what’s keeping them up at night. They might be bothered by personal concerns or money problems or troubles at work.

I can’t help you to manage any of those situations, but, what I can do is tell you how important sleep is to your being able to achieve your ultimate fitness level.

Sleep is crucial. It is huge! Your body needs that down time to rebuild, recover, and regenerate. So, here are a few tips to help you to develop better sleeping habits.

Sleeping Tips

1. Do something every day, no matter how small, to relieve the pressure in your life so it doesn’t convert to stress. You cannot do this when you are lying in bed, but you will sleep better when you know that you had done something during that day to relieve the stress.
2. Do not consume any caffeine, MaHuang, or Guarana products after 3 PM and don’t rely on alcohol to put you to sleep. That’s a definite no-no.
3. Just as you set your alarm clock for the morning so that you get up, go to work, and do your exercises, you want to program your body to get to sleep at the same time each night.
4. Last, but not least, it’s just my recommendation: remove the TV and the laptop from the bedroom. If you do work in bed, your mind will be on work all night. The bedroom is for two things, and one of them is sleeping.

Now it’s time to make it happen!

In-home Exercise of the Week
Skull Crushers (lying triceps extensions)
Level: Intermediate
Equipment Needed: Dumbbell or Barbell, Bench, Floor, or Stability Ball

Here’s the most effective exercise of the week: Skull Crushers (lying triceps extensions). We’re going to work on the largest muscle group in the arms. No, it’s not the biceps. It’s the triceps. The Skull Crusher is a great exercise for the triceps. Not only can you work on the triceps, but you’re going to get a great stretch! For this exercise, you must control the weights.

All you are going to do is to lie flat on the floor or on a bench. I’m going to recommend that you start off light so you don’t run the risk of hitting yourself in the head with the weights. You can do this exercise with a set of dumbbells or barbells, but just don’t let this exercise live up to its name; it’s not called the Skull Crusher for nothing. Contract the triceps at the top of the cycle, and then slowly bring your arms to the sides of your head, and then back up again.

That’s the most effective In-home Exercise of the Week!

Product Review of the Week

The product of the week is the Power Block. Much as the Bose Entertainment Company has taken all of that high-quality sound, and put it into a small device, the Power Block Company has done the same thing. It has replaced a room full of dumbbells with a set of Intelligent Dumbbells. At first, I was a little reluctant to use this device because of the size, but now, I use them on a regular basis, and so do my clients. I certainly recommend them. Using them will save you a ton of money and a ton of space, and that’s the Product Review of the Week.

Factor Follow-up

A little while ago, I talked about integrating exercise into your lifestyle, much like brushing your teeth or having a cup of coffee in the morning. I am not recommending that you have a cup of coffee every morning, but, if you do, make sure you take in at least ten ounces of water before you have that cup of coffee because that caffeine is only going to dehydrate you.

Most Outrageous Product of the Week

In this week’s Most Outrageous Product of the Week segment, I am going to prove to you that not all of the shysters are on television; some of them are at your local “remedy” store. I work with a lot of clients for whom getting to sleep is a challenge, so I headed into town to the local nutrition store.

I asked the lady behind the counter, “Do you have a product that will help me to increase my sleep?”

She said, “Sure. I have the product just for you, Revitalizing Sleep Formula. It’s going to take you from Fatigued to Fantastic.”

I said, “Are you sure this product is really going to work?”

She replied by saying, “It tends to work a little bit better with those with a higher IQ.”

So, I thought, does this mean, if the product doesn’t work for me, I have to head back over there, and tell the lady that I have a low IQ? I looked at the ingredients listed on the box, and I saw that the main ingredients are root extract and passion flower. I wondered, “Is this going to take me from Fatigued to Fantastic?”

Outrageous? You decide.

Factor Mail

Shaun from Cyberspace sent me a great question: “Do you prefer the treadmill or the elliptical for burning calories? Every time I do the treadmill, the little read-out says I burn more calories. Which one do you recommend?”

Shaun, great question! First off, don’t rely on that treadmill for an accurate calorie expenditure. To answer your question, I recommend all forms of cardio: biking, swimming, treadmill, ellipticals, jumping jacks, jump rope….You see, the main goal is to keep your body from figuring out what you are doing. The body’s main goal is to survive and to use the least amount of energy as possible, so, if you do the treadmill each time, it’s going to figure that out, and the next time you do the treadmill, it’s going to try to use the smallest amount of energy possible. So, do the treadmill once, use the elliptical the next time, do some jumping jacks, and jump rope. Change it up variety is the spice of your cardio life.

That’s the most effective way to do your cardio exercise.

Make it happen!

Corey Ritter

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