How Many Reps, Sets, Rest, and Weight Should You Do?

Every workout has one thing in common: It has reps, sets, rest, and weight. Some workouts may differ from others in their acute variables (rest, set, reps, weight) and it can sometimes get a little confusing to understand WHY!

Well, there is a reason to doing a specific number of each and it all had to do with your goals!

REPS

Let's talk about reps for a second. Reps or repetitions are the number of times you complete a movement. Doing many reps can help you build endurance while doing fewer reps can certainly boost muscle growth and strength.

When I took my NASM personal training course, they STRESSED each acute variable, but especially reps. 

Here are the basic guidelines to how many reps you should do to get the desired results:

Endurance/Stabilization: 12-20 reps
Strength Endurance: 8-12
Hypertrophy: 6-12 reps
Power/Maximal Strength: 1-5 reps

Does this make sense? 

Basically, if you want to gain endurance (times you can lift the weight without getting tired), burn farn, and aren't too worried about putting on some muscle, then make sure your reps are higher.

On the flipside, if you don't care about endurance as much and rather grow some muscle and really tone up that body, then do less reps.

SETS

Sets are the number of times you complete one round (or designated reps) of an exercise. The most common number of sets you will see are 3 sets in a workout. 

Ideally, most people who do more reps tend to do less sets.
Opposite, most people who do less reps tend to do more sets.

Here are the general guidelines from NASM:

Endurance/Stabilization: 1-3 sets
Strength Endurance: 2-4 sets
Hypertrophy: 3-5 sets
Power/Maximal Strength: 4-6 sets

If you are new to working out, I would honestly suggest fewer sets and more reps since you need to get your body well conditioned first and foremost. Build up that endurance and then proceed.

REST

Rest plays a huge factor when it comes to working out. It can either help you or hinder your workout goals.

Rest interval between sets determines to what extent energy resources are replinished before next set. 

Shorter rest intervals mean that less energy will be available for your next set of reps.

However, if rest periods are too long, potential effects include decreased neuromuscular activity and decreased body temp.

Here are the general guidelines from NASM:

Endurance/Stabilization: 0-90 seconds rest
Strength Endurance: 0-60 seconds rest
Hypertrophy: 0-60 seconds rest
Power/Maximal Strength: 3-5 minutes rest

You might be wondering, why so much rest when aiming for maximal strength? Well, when you are lifting a lot of weight in a short period of time, it really burns up what energy your body has stored to complete the movements. Simply meaning: it takes a LOT out of you. 

Just like the endurance phase, but not as much. Classic endurance training (light-moderate weight, 15-20 reps) draws much of its energy from aerobic metabolism. This means your body burns carbs and fats in the presence of oxygen.

Basically, endurance training is aimed at making your muscles more resistant to fatigue. Without going into complicated details, a major cause of fatigue in endurance activities is lactic acid build-up. Regularly lifting weights in a 15-20RM makes your body more efficient at clearing lactic acid from the muscles by boosting your body's hormonal and vascular systems

WEIGHT

Something that is and will always be complicated to answer is, "How much weight should I do?"

As much as I like to say to lift what you are comfortable with and slowly graduate, you need to start off with BODYWEIGHT exercises FIRST.

Before ever trying to figure out how much weight you can lift, make sure you know how to do the movement, as flawless as possible, without any weight at all. If you can't do the move with bodyweight, what makes you think you can do it WITH weights?

When it comes to weights, there are really no set guidelines for what weight you should be doing. Here are tips that I have personally used when I started weight training:

• When using dumbbells, start off with a 5lb dumbbell first. If you cannot do 5lbs, grab a 2lb. If the 5lb. dumbbell is too light for you, grab a 10lb. dumbbell and see how that feels. Still too light? Move up another 5lbs and see how that feels.
• When using a barbell, start with the bar first. Too light? Add 2.5 or 5 lbs plates to each side of the barbell. Still too light? Try 2 10lb. weight plates on each side and see how that feels. 
• Make sure that whatever weight you choose, it allows you to complete your exercises in the appropriate form. 
• Just because some of you have asked: I personally lift 15lb dumbbells and use a T-Grip barbell with 50lbs when I squat and bench press. Not much, but just enough for a petite lady like me.
• When you get comfortable with the weight you are using, say after 4 weeks, upgrade 5-10 pounds. This is called progressive overload and is the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training. This is good since it gives your body time to respond to the stress placed upon it.
• Sore after your workout? It means you have placed new stress on your body that it is not used to. DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) with usually go away within 72 hours. This is why rest days and switching up body parts per day is so important! The next time you lift or go heavier, do expect to have a little soreness the next day as its just your body's signal that something has changed.

General rule of thumb: 

For beginner, endurance, and stabilization, choose lighter weights since you are doing more reps. 

For muscle building and strength, use heavier weights since you are doing less reps.

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All programs are bodyweight exercises only-NO GYM REQUIRED! You can simply do these at home within the comfort of your own home. 

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*The Armed & Fabulous program does require one set of dumbbells only.

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"Can I do all 3 workout programs together?" Absolutely! You can actually alternate them and do your butt program one day, arms the next, and then abs. Then start over! 

How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog!

No.. this is not a fitness related post (sorry, fitness peeps!). I often get asked about blogging and so, to cater to my blogging peeps, I like to post every so often on the topic.

Today, I will discuss with you the most effective ways of gaining traffic to your site. I always get asked, "How do you get so many followers or visits?" 

Like I tell all of my clients who blog, creating the blog is the easy step, but to create a daily stream of readers who actually want to come back to your blog for more is a whole 'nother story!

These days, I get almost 1.5 million views a month, on average. Not bad for blog in its 3rd year, huh? But it really took some trial/error on my part and a LOT of hard work.

Here are my steps to gaining more followers to your site:

1. Blog and blog OFTEN. Unfortunately, some bloggers are too busy selling programs, guides, and plans that they forget to POST! In my first two years of blogging, I was posting a new blog post DAILY. Sometimes, I would even post a few per day. Posting reminds your followers that you have very vaulable infortmation to share with them. Posting also tells your readers that you have more to bring to the table than just trying to sell them a plan. Give the people what they want! Watch your stats on each blog post and listen. This is your non-verbal feedback. I have almost 2,000 blog posts from the time I started my blog back in March/April of 2013. You do the math.

2. Give things away for FREE. Who doesn't LOVE free? Seriously. Whatever your blog or site has to offer, do a giveaway or create a free program/guide to hand out. People will flock to you pretty quickly if you are known to give good tips or product-for free. Now, don't give EVERYTHING away for free because this will ultimately hurt you, but create a good balance between suiting your needs as a blogger/business owner and making your followers very happy. Here is a sample of my newest giveaway.

3. Use social media DAILY. Try to post to all social medias several times per day. If this seems like a huge task for you, then download programs or apps that can schedule your posts ahead of time. Facebook business pages already allow you to schedule future posts-for free-and that has made my life sooo much better! You have got to be active and it may feel like you are stuck to your phone (the bad side of blogging), but you have to let the people know you are there. Pinterest has personally been a favorite social media of mine! People repin your pins and it pretty much does the work for you. You can see from the image below the different forms of social media that brings traffic to my blog.

4. Talk to your people DAILY. Yes-if people ask you a question or post a comment, ANSWER or REPLY. In the very least, try to acknowledge it by hitting the "like" button. This lets them know and understand that they are of value to you and you are happy that they are there! Answer emails the best you can and create live Q&As where people get to jump in such as Periscope or Webinars.

5. Be INTERESTING. This sounds like a lame tip, but it is SO true! I also see it in myself when I choose to follow someone else. I like to follow people who post interesting, cool things. Have something neat to share or offer. Share your personal life-people love learning about you and knowing what you are really like. Like I said before, give the people what they want. Sometimes, as a blogger, they just want more of YOU! Also, BE REAL and RELATABLE.

I hope these tips really helps you guys on your journey to blogging or business. Remember to never give up-gaining traffic simply takes TIME.

If you are interested in creating a blog and making a profit off of it, I have a small ebooklet that you can get that will tell you not only HOW to start a successful blog, but also how to get traffic and make a little money on the side. It has helped to jumpstart many blogs already and I am always so happy to help!

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3 Easy Edible Sensory Activities for Toddlers

Yesterday, my husband worked 14 hours. 

That means 14 hours with a toddler, all by myself. That would have totally been fine if I didn't have a business to run, work to do, and a house to clean all at once.

BUT.. Instead of waking up and already wishing my husband were home to help, I decided to wake up with a positive attitude. I decided that my son and I were going to go on a date!

We began our adventure by going to our water park and playground where Grey got to play and run around. Afterwards, we went and got frozen yogurt as a treat and shared a bowl. He loved it!

Then, we went to the grocery store and shopped for a few ingredients to make some fun activities that I saw on Pinterest for 18 month old toddlers!

Here's what we made:

Edible Playdough

• 1/2 cup Marshmallow Creme
• 1/3 cup Cornstarch 
• 2 tbsp. colored icing
• 1 1/2 tbsps. oil

The first step to making this homemade "playdough" was to mix the ingredients, by hand, in a bowl. You will have to knead this into a dough as you would if you were making pie crust. Use the oil as needed to help form the mixture into a ball. If your batter is too sticky, add more cornstarch. If it breaks apart easily, add more creme and a little bit of oil. 

The end result was almost like the marshmellow fondant that you see on some cakes!

My son loved it! He squeezed it, poked it, and even ate it. Usually, I would havea heart attack feeding my kid marshmellow creme, but sometimes you just have to pick your battles. Yesterday was one of those days. Breaking the rules was sort of fun :)

YUMMY! We stored the rest in an air tight container for the next day.

Spaghetti Sensory

• Spaghetti
• oil
• food coloring

Our next creation was quite simple! All I did was boil the spaghetti, drain, and returned to a bowl where I added blue food coloring and a little bit of oil to keep it from sticking.

He had a blast "hiding" behind the noodles and playing with them.

Yummy!

Moon Sand

• 6 cups of flour (any kind)
• 1 cup of cooking oil

This was a SUPER basic moon sand recipe. Some recipe calls for coloring and glitter, etc, but we wanted to go the old fashioned route and make it look like real sand since my son just LOVES to eat the sand here on our beaches (YIKES).

Though it is edible, it does not have the best taste since its just flour and oil. Some recipes call for brown sugar, but I already had my son hyped up on sugar from the play dough (good job, me).

The sand was easily manipulated and molded! You could build things out of it and shape things. The texture was so soft, too.

Someone instantly loved his mini "sandbox."

This is a great sensory activity for toddlers, though it may get a little messy. Play outdoors or on a hard floor surface.

As you can see, we ended up having a GREAT day. I wish everyday could have been like this. The activities kept him busy for an hour or so and I personally enjoyed creating them, myself.

Workout & Diet Plan Bundle GIVEAWAY!

Good morning ladies! 

I will be giving away the ENTIRE workout/meal plan bundle to one of you awesome chicks. All you have to do is follow the directions on the Rafflecopter widget below. Each task that you complete will give you one extra entry into the drawing!

Good luck and happy Sunday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Track and Keep Up With Your Macros (Part 3)

I have spoken a LOT on what macros are, why to count them, and HOW to go about counting them. Now, here is the third and final part to the whole IIFYM (If-It-Fits-Your-Macros) process.

I won't lie to you-tracking macros is hard. It will take you a while to figure out what to eat in order to get your numbers perfect, but practicing with each new day will get you there!

But, first, if you are new, you may want to rewind and read these two posts firsts:

Part One

Part Two

Tired of not seeing results or changes in your body even though you are eating the right amount of calories AND exercising everyday? The problem may lie in your macronutrient ratios. If things are out of proportion, it can do your body more harm than good, pushing you away from your diet and fitness goals.

As stated in part one,"a macronutrient is any of the nutritional components of the diet that are required in relatively large amounts: protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous."

The Recommended Daily Allowances for Macros are as follows:
Carbohydrates: 45%-65%
Proteins: 10-35%
Fats: 20-35%

This is just a general guideline, as you can see the percentages vary quite a good bit. People who workout regularly need different amounts of macros than someone who is sedentary or has a desk job. You might be amazed at the number of carbs needed, but CARBS ARE YOUR FRIEND. They are supposed to be your HIGHEST macro because that is what you use for energy! Don't ever totally elimate a macro because this could do your body a lot of harm. 

The best ratio I've found to be effective for regular exercisers is 40% Carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. This builds lean muscle, sparks fat loss, and fuels your body with safe macronutrient ranges. This is a popular and recognized percentage range.

So, after you have completed part one and two of figuring our what macros are best for you, it is time to move onto the third and final step: TRACKING THEM!

The best way to do so is through a free and easy app (and website) called MyFitnessPal. You will also want to invest in a food scale to weigh your proportions. This may sound like a bit much, but you really want to give it your all when tracking your macros-plus, this is something you will be doing daily, so why NOT invest a little? The first step is going to your goals and inputting your macros. I will warn you-this won't be perfect, but try your best to get the right percentages of macros inputted!

Here is what your diet "dashboard" will look like. MyFitnessPal is so awesome that it will let you know how many calories you have left! But don't worry too much about the Summary view and stick to the Daily view as this will track your macros in detail DAILY. Also, you will be adding foods and snacks to your Diary, which you can see on the right. This breaks your meals down into great detail, thus helping you track calories and macros even more.

When you hear of IIFYM, you hear about people being able to eat poptarts, donuts, ice cream, and pizza-everyday. This is so dumb because you STILL want to make sure you are fueling your body with the best and leanest foods out there. Stick to complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lean proteins. Also, try to keep your sugar intake DOWN (less than 30 grams per day).

A couple of key points on tracking your macros accurately while using MFP:

Know your frequent foods. When you input a food, it will show up in your “recent” or “frequent” tab everyday. If you know what foods you will be eating regularly for the week, such as if you were meal prepping and have your meals pre-made, then go ahead and input those foods so that it will make the following days easy to track. This also helps keep you on track so no "surprise" foods pop up ;)

Try to hit the right number. The goal for tracking your macros is to make sure that you eat the set amount-no more than your goal and no less than your goal. This is not very easy to do, but with time, you can do it all! As a general rule of thumb, you want to try to stay within 5 grams of your protein and fat goals such as being over your goal by 5 grams or below your goal by 5 grams-never more or less. For carbs, try to stick within +/-2 grams. MyFitnessPal will track your macros to show you what is under/over daily. Then, you may adjust accordinly and maybe have that little cheat snack after all!

Get SUPER specific. When searching for a food, don't just search for "whole grain toast." There are probably hundreds of brands of "whole grain toasts" out there with different calories and macros in them. Search for the specific brand and product name. There's even a feature now that will help you get to most accurate foods by scanning the package with your smartphone! However, this will be a rare issue you might come across since there are THOUSANDS of brand names and foods already logged into MyFitnessPal's database!

The most important thing to remember when tracking your macros-however you decide to do it- is being accurate and accountable. If you do not use accuracy and track them everyday until you get the hang of it, your weight won't budge and your body will not change. 

It is a pain in the ass at first, but you will get to a point where a scale is no longer needed because you will be able to visually look at your food and say, "Oh! That is 20 grams of protein right there!" It just takes time.