Quinoa!

I've had quinoa on the brain for the past few weeks and thought I'd share its history! Below is Karen Railey's history of quinoa and why it's not only the best thing since sliced bread, but way better!

While the recipes below the articles can make for amazing meals, you can also simply prepare quinoa similarly as you would rice. Rinse, then boil cup quinoa to 2 cups water until fluffy and delicious.

Alcohol

The consumption of alcohol, while enjoyable in moderation, has detrimental effects on your health goals. These next two articles go over the caloric and metabolic cost of alcohol, demonstrating that alcohol is not only empty calories, and can affect fat storage and muscle maintenance. We should make a strong effort to decrease alcohol use as much as possible for best health.


Caloric cost of alcohol

Alcohol and Metabolism

Monitoring exercise intensity

This next article discusses different ways of monitoring cardiovascular exercise intensity in order to make training most effective.

Heart rate and exercise intensity

Why do muscles tighten up?

I recently wrote this post for the American Council on Exercise discussing muscle tightness, whether it be due to limited range of motion, cramping muscles, or muscle soreness. It's my first publishing with ACE, so I am ecstatic.

Why do muscles tighten up?

Core Training

This article highlights the importance of viewing the core as a group of muscles that are all interconnected. Doing exercises that involve more of the core muscles will lead to a more effective workout and a stronger core. Not only that, but with the increasing intensity of the multi-joint core exercises, more calories will be burned, resulting in a loss of body fat, and possibly even leading to the appearance of washboard abs.

Read Up:
Good Core Training Takes More than Ab Exercises

Here are a few of my favorite core exercises:
Ab Roller: with a stability ball or with a wheel
Dynamic total body exercises like the bear crawl, inchworm, spiderman, and crab crawl

Weight and Attitude

Here's an article from the ACE (American Council on Exercise) Fitness website. ACE was my first personal training certification and I've always liked their professionalism. The article is about our attitudes toward body size, and how despite an ever increasing number of diet products, exercise methods, and lower fat foods, the American waistline is only increasing. The article reminds us that the focus shouldn't be on dropping to a smaller size, or hitting a lower number on the scale. The focus should be on healthier living. With the focus on healthier living, the inches and pounds will both drop, without a concurrent drop in self-esteem.

An attitude adjustment in the right direction is something we all need.

Cardiovascular exercise and insulin sensitivity

We've long known the benefits of cardiovascular exercise in its prevention of heart disease. Here is a recent study linking the benefits of cardiovascular exercise with the prevention and possibly even treatment of Type II Diabetes. Cardiovascular exercise was shown to increase insulin sensitivity in all the trial subjects, but especially in those with a previously higher insulin resistance. Although the article only specifically mentions the benefits for women, that is the nature of scientific research, and the findings of the study can also be assumed for men.