HowardPower Fitness

08/15/2024

Sometimes a tight muscle is a weak muscle

Find out how to strengthen your hip flexors to reduce discomfort. Boost performance and improve stability with these five hip flexor exercises.

08/14/2024

Load those joints (safely) if you want them to be more resilient!!!!!!!

Developing stronger leg muscles could help slow or prevent knee osteoarthritis, a new study found. Performing strength training to build muscle mass is key.

08/13/2024

Love this visual!!!!! 100g for most people should be the minimum!!!!!

This visual guide is a great place to start to make sure you eat enough protein.

08/13/2024

According to social media, I am doing the wrong things for my health and wellness.

1. I eat meat. Ribeyes 😍😍😍😍

2. I eat dairy everyday. Never giving up my whole milk

3. I eat pasta and other carbs

4. I don't count calories

5. I don't lift hard every workout

6. I don't do cardio everyday

7. I eat fast food from time to time. You'll have to pry a McDonalds fish fillet from my cold dead hands 🤣🤣🤣

In spite of all my wrongs, I am in the best shape of my life, not in much pain, blood work is great and I've kept 10-15lbs off over the last couple of years. My point is that while smart advice is good and should be factored, we have to find what works for us individually. Stop trying to live your life differently based on the hottest trend of the day. Build YOUR system and execute!!!!!

08/12/2024

Interesting

Study shows 'bulking and cutting' could make it harder to lose fat around your trunk in the long run, even if you lose the same amount of weight every time

08/09/2024

Live look at my clients when they thought the workout was over and I tell them it was the warmup

08/08/2024

Folks will do anything except what they need to do 🤣🤣🤣🤣

It’s just a tad disgusting.

08/07/2024

I'm sorry but this is hilarious 🤣🤣🤣🤣

If you spend any time looking at diet and lifestyle content on social media, you may well have encountered a variety of weight loss "hacks".

08/06/2024

More is not always better. Be careful when using supplements!!!!!

More than 15 million Americans may be putting their liver health at risk, simply by trying to better their overall health. New research has revealed the extent of the damage being caused by taking popular botanical supplements including turmeric, green tea, the stress-relieving ashwagandha and…

08/05/2024

Instead of jumping around from diet to diet and workout plan to workout plan, I dare you to just be consistent with the basics. For the next four weeks:

1. Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night

2. Eat on a regular schedule

3. Add an extra serving of vegetables/fruit to your meals

4. No snacking

5. 2-3 days of strength training and 2-3 days of cardio

08/02/2024

It's Friday and you have done an amazing job of getting closer to your goals. Here are some ways to keep the momentum going through the weekend:

1. Pick ONE meal on ONE day to what you want but cut the portion in half

2. If you have slacked on exercising then add in a few long bout 60-90min sessions. If you have hit your exercise target the focus on low impact cardio, stretching and mobility

3. Take your behind to bed at a reasonable hour. That show will be available to watch the next day

4. Plan how you are going to attack the next week

07/31/2024

This is just one example of your scale only being as accurate as you are consistent. Scales like Tanita that measure body fat, muscle mass, body water, etc use bioelectrical impedance analysis. Without getting too deep in the science, that is where a small electrical charge goes through the body and the voltage is measured to calculate the resistance of the body. The assumption is that a more muscular person will have more body water which will lower the resistance and someone with more fat will have less body water which will increase resistance.

However, your data will be off if your weigh ins are not consistent. As you can see, I "gained" almost 3% body fat over night. The difference is that I "lost" over three pounds of water. How did that happen? The most logical thing is that based on the time, I probably had not ingested as much at 930a as I did at 4p. Other examples could be that you went on a low carb diet (less carbs means less water), fasting (food accounts for 20-30% of your water intake), water loss/gain with exercise, etc. Here are some ways to make your weigh ins more accurate:

1. Pick a weigh day and time and stick to it.

2. Weigh prior to working out to reduce chances of hydration changes mixing up your numbers

3. Track data over a long period of time

4. Track but do not put a lot of stock in big fluctuations. It is really hard to lose/gain 5-10% body fat in a month or two.

5. Relax. Not really a tip to make weighing in more accurate but don't put all of your eggs in the scale basket. Look at how clothes are fitting and take progress pictures when you can

07/29/2024

Your visible success will be due to your invisible work!!!!!

07/24/2024

Yes, a calorie is a calorie BUT some calories are more nutrient dense than others. An easy way to maintain or lose weight/fat is to practice more volume eating to support high calorie foods.

An example of that is pairing strawberries with almonds. You get good fats from almonds to go along with the vitamins from the strawberries. That combo will also fill up your stomach for less calories than just relying on almonds and other types of calorie dense foods

07/18/2024

This is how a lack of sleep can cause weight gain, stall weight loss progress and/or decrease exercise performance.

I was charged up and ready to go last Friday, but the Wednesday workout was a struggle after getting six hours of sleep and having a long workday.

The difference is clear. Same exact workout, but calories per minute, peak HR, and average HR are all down.

Think about the weight/fat loss/maintenance implications. What if you thought you burned 500 calories per workout but only burned 300? What if you ate like you burned 500 calories while only burning 300? That is a 400 calorie "error" minimum. Multiply that by just 25 days, and your calculation is off by 10000 calories.

Your sleep matters!!!!!!!

07/17/2024

This is great advice

https://www.newsweek.com/doctor-shares-three-things-you-should-eat-optimal-health-1922188

Dr. Amy Shah spoke to Newsweek about a nutrition concept that she believes should be taught in elementary school.

07/15/2024

Two diet changes that will make it easier to either lose weight/fat or maintain are:

1. Cut your meals in half. Put it in a to go box as soon as it comes out. Easily a 500-1500 cal savings

2. Eat regularly on Sunday. You can eat an extra 5000-10000 calories over maintenance if you take a "break" from Friday night through Sunday night. Then you spend Monday and Tuesday trying to recover. Start strong on Sunday to make your week easier

07/11/2024

Why does one hour of weight lifting feel like ten minutes but ten minutes of cardio feels like one hour 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

07/10/2024

Maturing is realizing that neither food is better than the other. I'm sure someone is going to say that the salad has more vitamins, minerals and fiber than the pizza, which is logical. I would counter that I could add 2 cups of broccoli as a side to the pizza and be good to go. We need to stop assigning morality to food and focus on what fits our own personal needs on a daily basis.

07/08/2024

Fasting has become a hot topic so I will share my experience.

I do a 24hr fast once a week and have been doing it for almost three years. Here is how it benefits me:

1. Reigned in my appetite. I don't need nearly the amount of food I thought I did. The day after you think you are going to be hungry but I can go for another day if I wanted

2. Mental push. Around 7-8pm I get really hungry. Being disciplined enough to avoid eating has translated to discipline in other areas

3. Digestive health. I generally don't have any issues but certain things bother my. After 24hrs it does feel like my stomach has been reset a bit

Just because I get these benefits does not mean everyone should do it. In fact there are some people who definitely should not be fasting (diabetics, folks with history of eating disorders, people taking certain meds, etc). If you want to try it, first ask your doctor and then start small.

06/26/2024

One of the biggest misconceptions is that your metabolism drastically drops as you age. There is some adaption as you age due to muscle mass, lack of appetite, etc, BUT in my experience, the biggest factors are lifestyle.

Before you try the newest diet or fitness class designed to melt stomach fat, do these three things:

1. Strength train 2-4 times per week

2. Walk 30-90 minutes per day

3. Aim for 75-125g of protein per day

Don't just do it two weeks and expect miracles. Do these three things for a minimum of 6-12 months and your life will change!!!!!

06/21/2024

We NEVER stop 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

06/20/2024

Here is the mathematical reason why eating off track for a few days can absolutely negate being in a calorie deficit for a week or two.

06/19/2024

For all the folks that say they are eating a lot less calories and not losing weight/fat......are you really because the math does not add up?

It's the size of the meal, not the size of the person, that determines how people underestimate calories, Cornell study finds By Susan S. Lang November 1, 2006 Researchers have observed that overweight people underestimate how much they eat by twice as much as normal-weight people do. So are heavier...

06/12/2024

A lot of SMALL changes will equal BIG change!!!!!!!!

Being overweight was all Leah Mancuso had known. In many ways it was her comfort zone, she told Business Insider.

06/11/2024

Very solid tips!!!!

You don't even need to go to the gym.

06/10/2024

Well said

Try these simple tweaks to help your weight loss journey if you’ve hit a wall.

06/07/2024

Not saying I was in a mood this week but I might have said this exact thing 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

06/05/2024

This is so real!!!!!!

For three quarters of my life, there was nothing to suggest I would ever get into shape. Then, bit by bit, I began to change. Here is how it happened

06/03/2024

Three 20oz sodas per day will cost you around 700 calories or 255,500 calories and $2700 per year. It is not always the big things that keep us falling short. Most of the time, it is a lot of the small things. Get to work!!!!!!!!!