Hello hello hello! Welcome back to another round of the best Health & Fitness articles! Every week I pull the best health and fitness articles from around the internet so you have one less thing to worry about on your weight loss journey. Life’s hectic enough as it is and keeping up with the latest and greatest can end up being a time sink you don’t need!
This week we cover some great standing yoga poses for beginners, how a new supplement is boosting athlete endurance, getting off the couch to work out even when you don’t want to, and a delectable roast chicken recipe you can cook up this Thanksgiving season!
Best Articles From Last Week
8 Standing Yoga Poses for Beginners
Yoga’s benefits are impressive. It increases your range of motion, calms the mind, can relieve physical and emotional pain, reduces stress, and much more.
If you’re looking to improve your range of motion, flexibility, or still exercise when your body is recovering from a tough workout, look no further than yoga. I know that jumping right into yoga can be super intimidating, but there are a bunch of beginner poses that will not only help your posture, but strengthen the rest of your body to prepare you for more advanced techniques. These are also all standing poses which makes them super accessible to mostly everyone regardless of where you’re starting in your weight loss journey.
Don’t get discouraged if you can’t do these poses picture perfect, or your legs and arms start shaking, the first time. Yoga can be deceptively difficult, but just like starting anything new, if you stick with it it’ll get easier each time you do it. Just focus on form and holding them for as long as you can and I guarantee that you will see the benefits over time.
Beat the Burn: Beta-Alanine and Muscular Endurance
Focused training will, of course, improve and extend muscular endurance. But research seems to show that supplementing with beta-alanine may also improve the body’s ability to produce the energy necessary to fuel intense activity.
Why does your body give out quickly when you’re doing continuous high intensity workouts? Your body just can’t produce enough energy to keep your muscles pumping. How can you exercise for longer periods of time at this high level of intensity? Well, regular training for one. Strengthening your body and improving your stamina will help you work out for longer periods of time. But what else can you do? Load up on Beta-Alanine. What’s that? It’s a peptide that makes up Carnosine that acts as a buffer between your muscle and lactic acid. The science behind it is after the link.
How to Motivate Yourself to Work Out… Especially When You Don’t Feel Like It
There are days it seems almost impossible to muster up the energy to do anything other than veg out on the couch.
I get asked all the time about my motivation and how I stay on track with my workouts even with how busy my life is or when I’m feeling sick and it’s fairly simple. For me, it isn’t tough to make my workouts because I’ve been doing this for so long and I’ve made it a part of my life. My morning starts at about 4am and I’m in the gym by 6:30am putting in work. But what about if you’re just getting started? What can you do to stay motivated to workout even when you really, really, really, really don’t? Change your mindset and stop thinking in terms of your long-term goal. Focus on how your workout is going to benefit you today.
Maybe your morning jog takes you through a scenic part of town or you get to see / socialize with a friend that works on the other side of town. The point is that when your goal is weeks or even months away, it isn’t always enough to get your butt off the couch today. By focusing on how your workout is going to help you blow off steam, have more energy, improve your mood, or see a friend, you’ll be far more likely to just get up and knock it out.
Roast Chicken Quarters With Potatoes and Tomatoes
October’s almost over and that means Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. In just a few short weeks there will be seas of mashed potatoes, lakes of gravy, and pans of candied desserts beyond counting begging to be devoured. This is that dangerous time of year where your diet is dangling perilously over the precipice, but it doesn’t have to be! There are healthy, and delicious, alternatives like this recipe for roast chicken quarters with potatoes and tomatoes. In just 20 short minutes, you can have a healthy and flavorful meal that jam packed with antioxidants and won’t bloat your waistline.