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I’m lifting with my full capabilities,
Using all the equipment inside my gym facilities,
But some don’t agree with how we do this,
We use lifting for meditation like a Buddhist.
-Dr. Dre (probably)
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each Friday’s N.W.A. Newsletter will have 3 parts:
- A Nutritional Tip to help make your diet healthier and easier to stick to.
- A Workout Tip to help make your training sessions more effective and fun.
- An Attitude/Mindset tip to help you strengthen your greatest asset – your mental toughness.
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I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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N.W.A. Nutrition Tip Of The Week:
Today’s nutrition tip if short and sweet.
If you want to be naturally leaner, take smaller bites, and chew your food more.
While those 2 items don’t seem to have much to do with each other, your bite size and how long you chew your food has a pretty big impact on how many overall calories you eat.
Chewing more, and chewing slowly, has a rather large effect on your behavior, appetite, and digestion system, and taking smaller bites and/or chewing more could be a simple habit that really moves the needle for you.
In 2009, a study was done on the effects of food chewing and overall calorie consumption.
Participants were split into 2 groups.
One group was fed small mouthfuls of chocolate custard (5 grams).
This group was told to swallow their custard within 9 seconds of putting it into their mouths.
Another group was fed large mouthfuls of chocolate custard (10 grams).
This group was given much less time to eat the custard – they were instructed to swallow after just 3 seconds of putting the custard into their mouths.
After this was done, the participants were given as much custard as they wanted to eat.
The results were certainly interesting.
The group that ate smaller bites and chewed their food for longer consumed 294 extra calories’ worth of custard.
The group that ate larger bites and chewed their food for less time consumed 447 extra calories’ worth of custard.
The group that ate quickly with large bites ended up eating 52% more calories than the group that ate smaller bites at a slower pace.
Wow – that’s one heck of a difference!
I’ve certainly noticed this before with my own eating behaviors.
If I’m “piling” food into my system, I’m barely even realizing I’m eating it.
I know I consume way more calories naturally that way.
I won’t lie, though – the 52% is even higher of a number than I would have guessed.
Being mindful when you’re eating is extremely powerful.
Often times, the simplest advice is the advice that gets ignored.
In 2022, chew your food slowly and take your time.
You’ll likely end up naturally eating less food as a result, and your waistline will thank you for it.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
Warming up is an important part of training.
However, I would suggest skipping “static warm ups” and instead focus on “dynamic warm ups”, specifically when preparing to lift weights.
A “static warm up” is the type of warm up we generally associate with working out.
Static warming up is often casually called “stretching”.
You know the type – where you do the butterfly stretch to loosen your groin, you bend over and try to touch your toes to loosen your hamstrings, etc.
Contrast this to a dynamic warm up.
With a dynamic warm up, you warm up by practicing the lift you’re about to do by using a lighter load and working your way up to your first working set.
Static stretching has been studied for a long time.
At first, it was thought to be a good idea to warm up your muscles and prepare yourself for exercise.
Recently, however, as exercise science and improved, it’s become clear this isn’t the best way to get ready to train.
Static stretching ends up taking the elasticity out of your muscles when it’s sorely and desperately needed – when you’re about to lift weights.
Take the bench press for example.
As you lower the barbell to your chest, your pectoral muscles are stretched out and become elastic.
When you touch the barbell to your chest, you will have a bit of elasticity, or “bounce back” in your chest ligaments and tendons.
This elasticity helps you drive the weight forward when you’re at the bottom of your lift.
The same is true for your hips when you squat deep – there’s a touch of a “bounce” at the bottom of the squat which should help you explode out of the hole.
But static stretching robs your muscles of their natural elasticity – specifically in exercises like bench presses and squats.
Instead, give dynamic warm-ups a try.
With dynamic warm ups, you begin with just the bar and build your way up to approximately 75% of your first set weight.
In practice, it might work like this, if your goal is to bench press 175 pounds for 8 reps:
Start with just the bar (45 pounds) for 6-8 reps.
Then, do 95 pounds for 3-4 reps.
Then, do 135 pounds for 1-2 reps.
Then, rack the weight, put 175 pounds on the bar, and be sure you’re totally recovered and rested.
Then, it’s game time with your first working set of 175 pounds.
Warming up in this fashion primes your body for explosive power.
You’re getting yourself locked in mentally and getting ready for “take off”, if you will.
If you’re finding your strength to be lacking currently, and you’re spending a lot of time stretching in the traditional sense, try dynamic warm-ups in your own sessions, and watch your strength shoot through the roof.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
Practicing gratitude is one of the simplest and easiest ways to feel less anxious, less stressed, and to have a greater overall sense of peace and happiness.
While some people prefer to keep a gratitude journal, or even create a daily list of things they’re grateful about, I prefer a different approach personally.
I’ve recently started reminding myself to take time out from each day to say a short prayer, and express my gratitude for all the good things in my life.
It’s easy to forget all the good we all have around us.
We get caught up in all the negative details, stresses, and anxieties of our busy lives.
This is common and natural – we’re all busy people with a seemingly never ending list of things to do.
If we’re not careful, we can get “sucked into” negative thought patterns that impact us poorly.
It’s easy to get swept into being rushed all the time, and worrying about things we can’t do anything about.
It’s these moments where I really try to take a step back and thank the man upstairs for giving me this opportunity to grow.
I won’t lie – this isn’t easy for me to do.
Like most people, I have to “check myself” regularly to keep a positive mind frame and remind myself to be grateful more frequently.
But I always find when I remember to give thanks and express my gratitude out loud, in words, there is a real sense of calm that comes over me afterwards.
It’s really a pleasant feeling, and it’s something you should begin doing right away if you currently don’t.
Let’s be real – you’re reading a weekly, fitness based newsletter from your phone (probably) or computer (less likely).
All in all, things can’t be too bad if that’s your reality.
In 2022, let’s all focus on the things we have, and be grateful for those things.
We all could have it a lot worse, that’s for darn sure.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
My brain at first:
“It’s Leg Day. Leg Day sucks. You haven’t missed a workout in a month. Take the day off.”
My brain, after it realized it was making a weak-ass excuse:
“Shut the f*ck up, get up, and get your ass to the gym.”
Shut your brain off.
Do it anyways.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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One of the best gangster rap scenes in movie history came from Eminem in the movie 8 Mile.
In the final, rap battle scene, he goes toe to toe with “Papa Doc”, a member from a rival gang who recently had beaten Eminem up.
This scene is a great example of how one of the best ways to diffuse a situation is to be a bit self-depricating.
Eminem tells Papa Doc (aka, “Clarence”) that yes, he knows he’s a skinny white dude from a trailer park with a lot of issues, but he STILL doesn’t care and will stand up for himself no matter what.