Your pre workout nutrition is designed to fuel your body for performance. Whether you’re running, lifting, or a combination of both, this meal should give you enough energy to sustain the session.
When putting together your pre workout snack or meal, think about incorporating an appropriate balance of macronutrients one to two hours before your training session:
Protein: 20 to 40 grams or one to two palm-sized portions. This measurement will be based on bodyweight, so if you’re lighter with a moderate amount of muscle, opt for the lower end measurement.
Carbohydrates: 25% of your daily intake. Focus on simple carb sources that are lower in fiber so as to not impede digestion. If this meal is more than two hours prior to training, don’t worry too much about simple carbs and focus more on carb sources that make you feel good and sufficiently fueled!
Fat: 10 grams or 1 tablespoon. We’re keeping them on the lower end as they are slower to digest
If you’re an early riser and find yourself training first thing in the morning, you can opt for fasted training. The important thing here is to see how your body reacts to no pre workout fuel. However, if your overall goal is to build muscle, your best bet is to opt for an easily digestible snack with protein and carbs, such as a protein coffee and banana, or cream of rice with egg whites.
Looking for some pre workout fuel inspiration? Check out these ideas to get you started!
½ cup rolled or instant oats
1 tbsp ground flax
½ tsp cinnamon
½ to 1 scoop protein powder
Sea salt
1 cup oats
½ cup almond or peanut butter
4 Medjool dates (softened - remove pits and soak in boiling water for 5 minutes)
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 scoop protein powder
2 tbsp cacao powder (optional for chocolate)
2-4 tbsp water, as needed
Sea salt
Your post workout nutrition is designed to refuel energy stores within the muscle and stimulate growth through muscle protein synthesis.
The two hours after your workout are an important window for nutrient absorption, so consider incorporating lots of protein and carb into your post workout meal.
Protein: 20 grams or one palm-sized portion. This will ensure recovery from muscle damage, as well and kick start the process of building new muscle.
Carbohydrates: 25% of your daily intake. This is the same as with your pre workout intake, but the focus is shifting from providing energy for immediate work to replenishing energy stores for later. These carbs will also initiate the process of muscle recovery
Fats: 5 grams or ½ tablespoon of fat. As we now know, fat slows digestion, and we don’t want to impede the metabolism of our valuable carbs and protein.
Shaking up a post class smoothie is a great way to make sure you’re meeting these guidelines. The shake at the OA Cafe has a good balance of post workout nutrients to aid in your recovery, so that’s a great way to cap off a class!
Looking for some post workout snack or meal ideas to kick start your recovery? Check out the recipes below!
1 scoop protein
¼ cup egg whites (optional)
½ to 1 banana
1 cup milk of choice
Other fruits for added micronutrient value
1 chicken breast, baked
½ sweet potato, baked
2 cups mixed greens
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Food is a valuable tool for optimizing your pre and post workout nutrition. Nutrient timing and macronutrient balancing can be great strategies for eating smart and crushing your goals, but always remember that these are guidelines. As coaches and everyday people, we must emphasize consistency, not perfection. Ensuring you don’t hold the concept of “perfect” dietary habits on a pedestal fosters a healthy relationship with food and day to day flexibility.
This information can be a lot to digest, and adjusting measurements to your personal needs might be a bit of a guessing game. If you’re not sure where or how to start, reach out to our team about one-on-one nutrition. And don’t forget to pop by the OA Cafe to see our current offerings!
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If you haven’t tried us yet, here’s a little breakdown: HiFLUX® is our four-week training program that evolves alongside your newly improved fitness - it doesn’t get easier, you get stronger.
Each week of the program manipulates different elements of training to create meaningful adaptation while also managing fatigue. The changes will vary from class to class, depending on whether the focus is on strength or conditioning, but the bottom line is that you’re always pushing through plateaus.
For a block of HiFLUX® strength classes, you’ll start with an accumulation phase in weeks one and two, moving to an intensification phase during weeks three and four.
TIP: Get a hands-on example by booking a HiFLUX® strength class, like Strong, Hump Day Pump Day, or Upper Body Jacked.
For HiFLUX® conditioning classes, the approach is the same but the variables will differ. These classes demand variation across pace and effort, which will be influenced by the goal of the session. You’ll always be working to increase elements of fitness such as endurance, speed, agility, or explosiveness, but focused on different aspects depending on the style of the class
TIP: With every conditioning class, push your effort to new heights and a better score with more rounds, reps, and distance. Doing at least one continuous and one interval class every week provides you with a baseline that you can build off of for the next class.
Whether you’re new on your fitness journey, a seasoned lover of exercise, or actively signing up for races, the HiFLUX® training methodology at One Academy is for you!
It’s a broad statement, but we promise it’s true. Our HiFLUX® classes are the only place where you can be posted up at a squat rack next to an obstacle course champ or relaying a partner workout with a first timer. The only thing better than the workout itself is the camaraderie that comes along with this mix of fitness lovers!
Our Two-Week Trial is the best way to jump into the HiFLUX® training methodology at One Academy. Get your two weeks of unlimited group training now to see what our community is all about. Don’t forget to follow us @oneacademylife on Instagram for sneak peeks to special programming and schedules.
Looking to learn some more? Drop us a line at info@oneacademylife.com - we would love to hear from you!
By: Sarah McManus
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Feeding positions often require a rounded posture, so it’s important we know how to support ourselves during this important time for baby’s growth and development.
If you find yourself continuing to round your shoulders during feeding time, consider some exercises and light massage techniques to help support your posture:
The position that is safest in which to lift your baby will depend on their position in relation to your body. If you’re lifting from the floor, your movement pattern will be close to what your deadlift looks like. Consider these points as you set up for your grab-a-baby hip hinge:
If you’re lifting from the crib, consider that while the baby is closer to you, you have to maneuver around the crib railing:
Diastasis recti is the natural separation of the abdominal muscles as the body makes room for baby to grow. It is present in every pregnancy over 35 weeks, and can lead to improper coordination of the core muscles, resulting in back pain
In addressing diastasis recti, the goal is not to close the gap! With exercise, the gap may lessen, but the focus should be on activation and strengthening exercises that support a strong core:
Mother’s thumb, or De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is the aggravation and inflammation of the tendons that run along the side of the wrist to the thumb. It is caused by repetitive loading at that tendon, such as the position of picking your baby up.
If you’re having issues with Mother’s thumb, here are a couple quick remedies to help calm that tendon down:
Taking care of baby is a feat of mental and physical strength, so make yourself the strongest version of you by protecting and supporting your body!
If you’re looking for some pointers, the Wellness and Coaching teams at One Academy can be a valuable resource. Book your chiro or physio appointment today, or work one on one with a coach!
By: Dr. Julia Marshall
]]>You have a goal, and you’re ready to crush it with an OA Coach. The best way to conquer any goal is to break it down and focus on the foundation. So, we’ve designed 3 brand new Focused Foundations Packages with niche goals in mind:
Have you been trying to push and pull some heavy weight, but hitting some roadblocks? It’s time to leave the nagging injuries, strength plateaus, and form breakdown behind by working with an OA Coach to find your 1 rep max in a safe and controlled environment.
Finding your 1 RM (or even 3 RM) plays a critical role in how you move forward in training. These numbers will inform the load and intensity prescribed in the rest of your training sessions, and push you to beat plateaus and hit new personal bests in class!
By the end of this Focus, you will walk away with:
Looking to beat your best score in Marathon or Everest? When it comes to machines, it’s more than just cranking the resistance to 10 and trying to stack those calories as fast as possible. Focusing first on the numbers, and second on what your body is actually doing, is likely resulting in inefficient movement and wasted energy.
The slightest adjustment in technique can be the thing that shoots you to the top of the leaderboard, so let an OA Coach share the secrets to machine mastery so you can crush your conditioning!
By the end of this Focus, you will:
We use our bodies everyday and continuously move impressive weight in class, but getting your first pull up, push up, rope climb, or rig run can be quite the challenge.
If you’ve hit a plateau in your progress for any of these bodyweight movements, or are just not sure where to start, our OA Coaches are here to help you zero in on any limiting factors.
By the end of this Focus, you will walk away with:
The idea is that you get the support you need to crush your goal in three sessions. What happens after? If you wish to continue with your OA Coach, then awesome! But if classes are more your thing, you’ll be leaving with a new skill, a detailed account of how you built that skill, and the knowledge to confidently progress in your workouts.
Yogi Berra famously said “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else,” and nothing rings more true for your training. How will we know where we are going? Meaningful, session-based goals!
With the Focused Foundations Package, you’ll be given a playbook so you and your Coach can design some specific and measurable goals. Your primary goal will be what you intend on achieving within the three sessions of your Focused Foundations Package. The magnitude of the goal, as well as the work that needs to happen to get you there, will depend on where you are on your fitness journey. Nevertheless, your coach will provide you with training tips to get you there.
You can also write yourself a secondary goal. This might be something that you can achieve alongside your primary goal, but it also might be a larger goal for which your primary goal is a stepping stone.
For example, your primary goal is to work towards your first full push up, but your secondary goal is to work towards a weighted push up, a clapping push up, or a higher total on your bench press. For all of these secondary goals, a solid push-up is a great foundation to have!
Let’s talk about that! You can get a lot done in three sessions, but don’t forget that the work you do outside of your sessions can have a meaningful impact on reaching your goal. Coaches will make suggestions about what you can do differently in class or your independent training, but we’re going back to our roots with the Focused Foundations Package - homework!
This homework is different, though. I don’t know any kids who ever had a long division goal, but the goal of your Focused Foundations is one that you’ve decided to work towards, and every session is based on that. The homework given to you by your Coach will be tasks that support your primary (and secondary) goal. If your goal is to get your first push up with pain-free wrists, then your Coach might have you working on wrist stabilization and strengthening between sessions.
Any exercise prescriptions that your Coach wants you to roll into your daily routine can be noted by you in your playbook - so keep it close!
You’ve completed your three sessions, and you’ve determined a one rep max for your big lifts, or you’ve mastered the cardio machines, or you’ve crushed that pull-up… what now?
The choice is yours! Your playbook will have all the information about how you achieved your goal - warm ups, exercises, key takeaways, things to work on. Take this with you and use it as maintenance, or revisit the program if you feel your skills need some polishing up.
Your Coach will also provide you with homework notes for your final session; these will be things to work on as you move forward in your training. Everything from morning mobility, pre-class warm ups and activation, to post-training stretches will be noted in this part of your playbook.
But maybe you crushed an impressive goal, and want to continue conquering more mountains with your Coach. That’s great! Our PT program has a range of training packages available, and our Coaches are always here to help you put in the work.
If you’re looking to work alongside an OA Coach to find your 1 rep max, master the machines, or hone your bodyweight skills, look no further than the Focused Foundations! Our Coaches are here to help you crush your goals. Fill out our intake form to get more information, or drop us a line at info@oneacademylife.com
By: Sarah McManus
]]>It’s that time of year again: New Year, new routine. And the messaging is everywhere - do this, eat that, and crush your resolutions so you can be a better you in 2023!
And while it is indeed about you and your goals, it’s not about the gimmicks and it doesn’t have to be about sticking to that scary R word. It’s about making small, and meaningful changes in your life as you see fit. So, without further ado, here are the our 5 tips for creating good habits (and sticking to them!)
Just like learning to walk - it’s one step at a time. When it comes to making meaningful changes to your routine, it’s all about tackling one change at a time. Change is naturally one of those things we don’t enjoy, so why try to upheave parts of your life? It might take longer to cross things off your list, whether you’re trying to start something or quit something, but these habit changes will be long lasting if we give them the undivided attention they deserve!
As with making one change at a time, start off by making them small! Starting with small goals sets you on a good trajectory and gives you the confidence to take on larger habit changes down the road. Additionally, revisiting these little goals every day will help hold you accountable. Trying to drink more water? Leave a sticky note on your washroom mirror reminding yourself to drink a glass before you brush your teeth. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to have another couple classes at lunch. At the end of the day, ask yourself if you hit your personal target. If you did - awesome! If you fell a little short - tomorrow’s another day to crush it!
Tying into our ‘small goals first’ point, this is how you make your larger goals just as crushable as your small ones. And we do this with everything - lift small weights before big weights, run a 3k before a 10k. This is also true for the reverse: if you’re trying to break a habit, going ‘cold turkey’ isn’t always the answer. Cutting down on a bad habit that you expect may be compromising your progress will most often be more effective than kicking it completely from the jump.
In science, we always look at what external circumstances may have impacted our results. When it comes to creating (and maintaining) healthy habits, it can be difficult to drive success when some other less-than-healthy habits may be holding you back. And don’t just think about the typical ‘smoking’ or ‘passive snacking’ that are often framed as the bad habits in question. This could also include things like negative self-talk or self-doubt. Leave those suckers in 2022, because 2023 you has no time for that!
No one is perfect, and trying to be takes up a lot of time and energy that could be better spent lifting weights, running tails, or petting dogs. Being consistent is the name of the game when it comes to maintaining healthy habits and crushing your goals. If you’re a visual person, set out your goals and get yourself a calendar; mark off every day that you manage to tackle your bite sized goal - a blue checkmark for your water, a green checkmark for your protein. Look at how many checkmarks you after one week, two weeks, a month. Tracking your consistency will help you let go of that odd day you did hit a goal - one day is never going to break your progress, but showing up for yourself as much as possible will make it!
Need a hand getting started? Our Coaches do more than just write your workout and nutrition programs! One-on-one personal training and nutrition sessions are designed to help achieve your goals, and our coaching team is here to cheer you on! Ask us how to get started!
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