Weekend Warrior Workout

 

Own your weekend with this fat torching Kettlebell and Battling Rope Workout!

What You’ll Need:

  • Battling Rope
  • Kettlebell (12-24 kilos)
  • Timer

The Workout:

  • 30 Seconds Battling Rope Slams
  • 20 Kettlebell Swings
  • 10 Kettlebell Goblet Squats
  • 5 Kettlebell Clean & Presses
  • Rest 60s, Repeat for 5 Rounds

 

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Recipe of the Week – Tasty Healthier Peanut Butter Cups

This weeks recipe of the week comes from PNF Member Angie DeMaster. Thanks for sharing this great recipe for Peanut Butter Cups.

Give these a try for a healthier peanut butter and chocolate fix.

For the chocolate:

  • 1 cup dark chocolate, chopped (Endangered Species, 72%)
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the peanut butter:

  • 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Muffin tin and muffin tin liners, needed

Preparation:

  • Line a muffin tin with muffin liners
  • In a bowl or measuring cup, add the dark chocolate and 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • Microwave for 30-second intervals until melted, stirring each time
  • Add vanilla extract
  • Pour half of the chocolate mixture into the liners – just enough to cover the bottom of the liner. Save the other half for the top layer.
  • Freeze for 15 minutes
  • In a bowl or measuring cup, add the peanut butter, honey, and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.
  • Microwave 15 seconds or until slightly melted and easy to pour
  • Pour evenly into the muffin tin
  • Freeze for 5 minutes
  • Pour the remaining mixture on top of peanut butter layer
  • Freeze until firm, about 1 hour
  • Store in fridge or freezer until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:

https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-fitness-kickstart/

Do Less, But Better

Do less, but better.

Fitness is the result of quality, not quantity.

It seems like every time you turn on the TV and see something about fitness is a clip of someone punishing themselves in a grueling workout.

Scroll through Instagram and you will find a young 20-something doing some cool looking exercise. While these may look cool and even be appropriate for some clients, it typically isn’t right for the client over 50.

Then you have the promotion of all that matters is calorie burn and heart rate intensity.

None of this is what fitness is about and it is all this false info that is making the general population believe they have to work themselves to exhaustion to get into shape.

You don’t have to workout everyday to get results. Three times per week with an average heart rate in the 60-70s most of the time is perfect.

It is not the workouts intensity or kicking up the cardio that gets results. We see over and over that those who get the best results are those who focus on strength, resting between sets and allowing their heart rates to come back down get leaner and those who don’t lose muscle and gain body fat.

It doesn’t matter how high of a calorie burn you get. The higher the hungrier you get and the more you eat.

Fitness is not a competition. It is about giving you the ability to live your best life and having the energy to be activity and experience all that life has to offer.

Fitness is not a punishment for bad eating. It is a tool for a healthier more active life living on your terms.

In a world full of “experts” we have made fitness much more complicated than it has to be.

If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:

https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-fitness-kickstart/

Too High, Too Hard, Too Often

Fitness is dose specific and you can get too much of a good thing.

More than 3-4 days a week of strength training doesn’t make you leaner or more muscular. In many cases more than the recommend 3-4 days will cause you to either gain body fat or lose muscle, or both.

Keeping your heart rate in the 80’s and 90’s for the entire workout and not letting it come back down to a resting rate in between sets doesn’t make you more fit. It makes you more hungry and causes you to overeat. Which is counterproductive for weight loss.

High intensity done all the time doesn’t make your body stronger. It causes damage to all of its tissues. There is even evidence beginning to come out that those who do a lot of high-intensity interval training for years on end damage their heart.

Fitness isn’t about burning a high number of calories. It’s about strengthening and improving your body.

Fitness is a lifelong journey where slow and steady wins the race. There can be periods of increased intensity, but they need followed by periods of decreased intensity. If this doesn’t happen the body breaks down, gets injured, and burns out.

Get in three workouts per week, give about 70% effort most of the time and you will see the best results.

 

If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:

https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-fitness-kickstart/

Never Diet Again

8 Exercises For An AWESOME Core!!

Give these 8 exercises a try to build a strong core.

 

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https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/12-week-professional-weight-loss-guidance-program/

 

 

You Are Wonderful

Fitness is not perfect. Fitness is wonderful.

To be perfect is not the goal of getting fit. You are already perfect the way you are. Perfection is unattainable. There will always be someone skinnier, stronger, with a nicer butt, better arms, and a perceived better life.

Chasing perfection is a no win game, because no one is perfect. We all have our imperfections and things about our bodies that we don’t like, but it’s those imperfections that make us unique and who we are.

Using fitness to try to build the perfect body shouldn’t even be the goal, but yet that is exactly what the magazines portrait that you should chase.

Instead fitness should be used to make you wonderful. It should make you feel wonderful. It should make you feel like you are a better parent because you are in shape and able to play with your kids without getting tired. Fitness will give you the ability to experience more in life and have wonderful moments. It is in these moments that life will feel perfect.

Nothing will ever make you perfect, but with fitness we are going to make you feel wonderful.

 

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Recipe of the Week – Mason Jar Chicken Burrito

Skip Chipotle and give this Chicken Burrito recipe a try for a healthier version.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1
tablespoon lime juice (from ½ lime)
  • 2
tablespoons olive oil
  • ¼
teaspoon cumin
  • ¼
teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼
teaspoon honey
  • ⅛
teaspoon salt
  • ¼ 
cup diced red bell pepper
  • ¼
cup fresh or frozen corn, thawed
  • ¼
cup black beans
  • ½
cup cooked brown rice
  • ½
cup cooked, shredded chicken (such as rotisserie chicken)
  • 1
cup chopped romaine lettuce
  • 2
tablespoons shredded Mexican blend cheese
  • ¼
avocado, chopped into small cubes
  • ¼
cup crumbled tortilla chips

 

DIRECTIONS

Combine the lime juice, olive oil, cumin, chili powder, honey, and salt in the bottom of 1 quart wide-mouth mason jar. Stir with a fork to combine.

Add the bell pepper and tomatoes. Top with the corn, black beans, brown rice, and chicken. Add the romaine, pressing to pack it down, then top with the cheese, avocado, and cilantro. When ready to eat, pour salad into a bowl and top with crumbled tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

 

Recipe Source: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/mason-jar-chicken-burrito-bowl

 

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PNF Workout of the Week

PNF Met Con “Workout of the Week”

  • Battling Rope Slams
  • Box Jumps
  • Kettlebell Swings
  • Kettlebell Squat & Press
  • TRX Rows
    • 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off, 6 rounds

Enjoy and be awesome this week!

If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:

https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-kickstart/

Gluten-Free Doesn’t Mean Healthy

A gluten-free diet is not a weight loss plan.

While some individuals have a gluten allergy and must avoid gluten from their diet, which typically results in weight loss. For those who don’t have this allergy this isn’t necessary for weight loss and can even be misleading as to making food choices.

A quick walk through any grocery store will turn up gluten-free cookies, muffins, pancakes, pasta, bread, and yes-even beer. Just because these items are gluten-free doesn’t make them any better for you than non gluten-free counterparts.

When it comes to weight loss it is better to focus on eating unprocessed foods and not focusing on eliminating one thing.

Breads and pastas are always good to reduce or remove because they are highly processed, which is why the removal tends to lead to weight loss. Not the gluten.

Meats, vegetables, and fruits tend to keep you feeling fuller longer than processed carbs and don’t make you crave more. This results in eating less total calories, which leads to weight loss and leaning out.

Just because a food is gluten-free doesn’t make it healthy and eating a gluten-free diet doesn’t guarantee weight loss.

Weight loss and body fat reduction are the result of the quality of foods choices made, not the diet followed.

 

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https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-shape-up-challenge/