Shhhhh I’m trying to sleep!

sleeping_catSleep quality is important when it comes to health and even more so when you are working out and building your body. The three important elements to reshaping your body are diet, exercise, and sleep. Without one, your efforts will be lessened if not wasted completely. It is during sleep that your body and brain repair themselves and your muscles begin to grow to be able to deal with the stress you have been putting them through. Without proper quality sleep, your muscles will not be able to repair themselves and your mind will suffer as well causing you to be stressed out during the day, irritable, or in a bad mood.

Here are some of the methods that I have used to help me get good quality deep sleep. You are welcome to try one or all of them and comment on what has worked for you in the past or what you will be trying.

1. Keep a regular schedule. Changing your bedtime every day will have your body guessing if it’s supposed to be asleep or awake, causing you to stay up when trying to go to sleep. I know it may be difficult to go to sleep at the exact same time every day, but that is the goal. Try to come as close as possible to going to bed at the same time every day. It can vary, like for example 9 o’clock one day 10 o’clock the next, but try not to make it too drastic of a change. Your body has biological clock that works with the circadian rhythm in order to know when you’re supposed to be asleep and when you’re supposed to be awake. This has lots to do with light and temperature which leads to number two.

2. Dim the lights. Our body’s circadian rhythm works with light to know when you’re supposed to be asleep or awake. Therefore, dim your house an hour or more before bedtime as bright lights represent wakefulness to our brain. When our brain sees that the environment is dark, it begins to make the hormone, Melatonin which is the sleep hormone. More on that later.

In contrast, make sure you get plenty of bright sunlight in the morning! This is important to ensure that your circadian rhythm is on track to make you sleep at night. Indoor lights are not bright enough to trigger our brain that we are supposed to be awake, so going outside for a brisk walk first thing in the morning is a fantastic way to get sunlight into your brain. Be sure to face the direction of the sun instead of walking with your back to it. Just don’t stare directly into it, ok? 🙂

3. Cool off before bedtime. Our bodies are programmed to get sleepy when the temperature starts cooling off and when it begins to get dark. This has been established through evolution as a survival mechanism. We need to sleep, and it’s safer to do so at night when you can hide in the dark from predators. During the day when the sun is out is when we’re supposed to go out and hunt for food because we can see our prey better so that is when we are programmed to stay awake.

You can ensure that you are not sabotaging your evolutionary programming by making sure that your room or your entire house is cool around an hour before you go to sleep—no hotter than 72°. When the brain senses that the body is cooling down it begins to make you sleepy. One good trick is to take a hot shower right before bed. When you walk out of the hot bathroom and into the cool bedroom your body will begin to cool down. This cooling down of the body is what will trigger you to become sleepy. The worst thing you could do is warm up your bedroom so that it’s somewhere in the mid to high 70s because that is associated with daytime warm temperatures and being awake.

4. Wind down before bedtime. Do not stimulate yourself with high-energy music, crazy action movies or TV shows, or physical activity that requires a lot of energy. You can wind down by doing a mindless activity like washing dishes or folding clothes; anything where your brain is barely required and you tend to let your mind wander.

Another good thing to do after you have cooled the house down and turned the lights down is to meditate. Now if you are not into meditation and think it’s a little goofy, that’s OK, you don’t have to do it in a goofy way where you are saying weird, unnatural things or sit in a weird, unnatural position. I simply sit in my desk chair and listen to YouTube videos about meditation and hypnosis as well as brain waves to make me sleepy. Here are two of my favorites:

^ This one is great. Relaxes me completely, prepares me for sleep.

^ This is Delta Waves music. If you’re not familiar with brain waves, I’ll do my best to explain or you could just click on the link in the sentence for a fantastic and more in-depth explanation.

Click to see largeYour brain emits electro-impulses resembling waves depending on what state it is in. Normally throughout the day we are in beta mode or alpha mode if we are in a relaxed state. That means we are awake and alert but relatively calm. You want to get into Theta or Delta brain wave mode so that your mind is quiet and calm and falling asleep. The video above emits Delta audio waves which your own bran will synchronize to while wearing earphones.

It is crucial that you wear earphones because that’s how brain wave therapy works. The left and right channels are given a different frequency so that the difference of the two is the target brainwave. In this case the target brainwave is Delta, the deepest sleep brain wave. Your brain will synch itself to this delta brain wave because it is separately receiving the two different signals in its left and right ears. I listen to this and then remove the earphones and go to sleep. you can try wearing the earphones to bed but I find them incredibly uncomfortable, specially ear plugs which tend to dig in when I turn to my side.

Other ways to wind down are playing Tetris or other highly repetitive games, crossword puzzles, or watching old black and white reruns of comedy tv, reading relatively boring stuff like science or history (lol don’t write me angry letters, I’m comparing these subjects to more stimulating subjects that may cause you to think all night).

 

5. Get plenty of tough exercise during the day. Walking in the morning is good for getting air, circulating the blood, and getting those sun rays in your brain but it’s not really going to tire you out for the night. Be sure to get a good workout in every day (you can take a couple of full rest days throughout the week). Lifting heavy weights where you really push yourself for half an hour, then doing some rigorous cardio where you are sweating bullets is a great way to make sure you’ll be tired and sleepy at night. If you sit at a desk all day like most of us do, chances are you’re not pushing your body to do very much throughout the day, so invest in the time to take care of your body and it will take care of you.

rowsWrongWorking out at a gym is great because of the selection of equipment and inspirational environment, but you don’t need a gym membership; you can work out at a park play ground, in your house with a pull-up bar or simply run upstairs or a steep hill. But it is important to get your muscles to do more work than they’re used so that your brain to feels the need to sleep deeply in order to recover from the workout. Be sure to finish your workout at least three hours before bedtime so that you’re not too energized.

 

6. Bedtime tea. Bedtime teas like Yogi Bedtime Tea and Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night Tea contain passionflower, chamomile and Valerian, three herbs that are known to promote relaxation and sleepiness. A cup or two before bedtime relaxes you and helps keep your brain from overthinking.

yogi_soothing_caramel_bedtime_teavalerian_nighty-night_tea

 

7. Supplements

theanineTheanine. Theanine is an amino acid that is found in teas and is pretty much the magic of why teas do not make you jittery like coffee does. Theanine counteracts the jittery, nervous feelings associated with caffeine causing you to get the positive effects of caffeine like alertness and higher cognitive abilities while not being nervous or anxious. This is why many people take theanine (100-200mg) with their morning coffee. Now, theanine does not promote sleepiness so that’s not the reason I’m suggesting it here. I’m suggesting it because it does however, promote relaxation of the mind and since you are not drinking caffeine before bedtime, taking theanine will help your mind begin to slow down and prevent you from overthinking when trying to go to sleep. 100mg or 200mg is all you need. Studies show that taking more than 200mg did not make a difference so save your money. Get Theanine here.

 

 

valerianValerian. This herb is derived from the root of the Valerian plant and is used for its calming and sedating properties. Valerian does make you sleepy, at least that’s the idea. It’s found in the teas mentioned above, but I take 2 pills (800mg) most nights. Great to have pills for when it’s too late to brew a cup of tea or you just don’t want that much water in your stomach which may cause you to awaken to go to the bathroom. Research shows that the effects begin to take effect after 2 to 3 weeks so it looks like your body has to get its fill before it begins to benefit but when it does, it appears to really work well. Plenty of Valerian supplements to choose from here.

 

 

melatoninMelatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that is formulated naturally in the body at night. If you ruined your circadian rhythm by staying up late, sleeping during the day, not getting enough bright sunlight during the morning hours, or traveled and feel jet lag, melatonin is right for you. Taking melatonin at night will ensure that your body’s natural clock is where it should be; making you sleepy at night and awake and alert during the day. I take 3 to 6mg (1 or 2 tablets) depending on how bad my sleep has been lately. If I’m on roll of sleeping and waking at the right time for a few days I don’t take any at all, specially when I get plenty of sunlight in the mornings. Get melatonin here.

 

 

 

 

zmaZMA. Zinc, Magnesium, B6. Studies are mixed on the effects of ZMA with more of them leaning toward the conclusion that ZMA does not make a difference, but in real life (outside of studies) bodybuilders swear by it! Magnesium is known to make you sleepy and the proponents of ZMA claim that taking this combination and amount will help you get deeper and more REM sleep. It’s more of a bodybuilder’s sleep and recovery supplement and since this is a fitness site, I’ve included it here.

The other claim is that it fixes hormone imbalances and raises testosterone levels, probably due to the zinc and magnesium aspartates but also due to the deep sleep you may gain. I’ve seen friends begin taking it and blow up, increasing their lean muscle mass by a huge amount. It has not made much of a difference for my particular body, but results may vary. The caveat is that you should take it on an empty stomach and should not take this if you just drank milk since it will null the effects. This is not as important as the other supplements but if you are working out hard, whether you are male or female and want to tighten up by recovering from hard workouts with deep sleep, ZMA is good to try. I am currently taking it, let me know your results! ZMA can be found here.

 

Yes, I take all of those supplements to help me get a good night’s sleep. I consider sleep ultra important for everything from body recovery, testosterone and other hormonal balance, and specially mood and mental health so I really don’t mind taking all of these.

 

8. Rain sounds. I like to play Youtube videos of rain and distant thunder because it is very soothing to listen to while falling asleep. These are usually long enough to still be playing when you wake up in the morning. I make sure they are not too loud, but loud enough thta I can hear even if I cover my head with a blanket. Some of my favorites:

And there’s a continuous “live” stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfDfv3LiZo4

Go ahead, give these a whirl. Aren’t they relaxing? Nice.

 

Let me know in the comments which of these methods you already use, or which you’ll likely be using and let us know how well they worked! I also welcome other suggestions. Have a great sleep!

 

 

Definitely a health thing, the Refresh-It Bidet is the latest home product that the 10in30 Fitness team fully endorses. I for one, am more proud of this purchase than many of the fitness products I’ve tried lately.

The fact that we Americans do not use bidets is unbelievable. Cleaning ourselves with dry toilet paper is hygienic and healthy? I don’t think so. Using wet wipes is better, but not good enough because paper does not clean as well as water does. But you don’t have to buy an expensive and separate bidet to have a completely clean butt. TheRefresh-It Bidet costs under $40 and attaches itself in around 15 minutes to your regular toilet. I installed mine and now I can’t wait to poop! 🙂

It needs no batteries. It attaches to your regular water line that’s already attached to your toilet. You mount it using the two seat cover screws in minutes.

Here’s a video of some poor chap named Matt who’s demonstration didn’t go too well:

And here’s a video with a girl wearing white pants demonstrating the Refresh-It Bidet. You know she uses the bidet or she wouldn’t be wearing white pants, right? Am I right?

https://youtu.be/s-7-w-_NWaQ

   

Get your butt completely clean (finally?) by getting your own Refresh-It Bidet here:

Yes! I want a clean buttocks!

 

 

 

Apparently, you have been pooping all wrong and in an unhealthy way. The angle of your legs at the hips determines how efficient your bowel movement will be. So, according to the research done by the Squatty Potty people, your knees need to be by your shoulders in order to relax the colon muscle and and deliver total elimination.

The Squatty Potty is a toilet stool that allows you to do this much better than an ordinary stool because of the cut-away design that let’s it position right up to the toilet. I have one and let me tell you, it is great.

Here’s a video explaining the whole thing on the TV show “The Doctors” as they have fun with the Squatty Potty:

   

Get your own Squatty Potty in many sizes and designs to choose that can’t be found in stores from like bamboo, wood, travel (inflatable) and more by clicking here:

Poop Better

 

Summer’s here! Time to exercise outdoors. You can get a really good body weight workout at the park and you can burn a lot of fat fast while preserving lots of muscle.

The key to losing fat fast his to do HIIT cardio. That’s high intensity cardio that uses your fast twitch muscles as well as your heart. One of the best ways to do HIIT is to make your entire body fly through the air with high jumps.

If you’re not familiar with box jumps or any kind of high jump where you land on a platform, start by jumping onto the seat of the bench or another short platform that’s probably lower than your needs. Do 10 of those, rest for around a minute and then do 10 more.

If you can handle it do 20 at a time before resting for a minute. Work your way up to the point where you’re able to jump onto the table itself. Of course, the difficulty depends on your height.

The goal is to do 10 table jumps at a time. When you land on the top of the table be sure to extend your legs so that you are standing upright.

Let me see your table jumps! Record yourself doing these and post it on YouTube, then leave the link in the comments. Show off your awesomeness!

How much power does it take to toast a single slice of bread? Robert Förstemann, an olympic cyclist with ridiculously huge 30″ thighs attempts to toast his bread the old fashioned way: BY EARNING IT.

Can he do it? Find out.

Here’s a sneak peak at our super secret members-only Circuit Workout. This is one of five Circuit workouts that are members-only (totally free):

Circuit 1: 18-24 Minute HIIT

Circuit 2: AB-solutely Awesome

Circuit 3: Butt and Leg Killer

Circuit 4: Suspended This!

Circuit 5: TNT arms

To see the rest of the Circuit workouts signup to our newsletter. You’ll get an email with a link to access the Premium section with all of the Circuits and more!

Circuit 3: Butt and Leg Killer

Remember that all of these circuit workouts are whole-body workouts, but each one emphasizes a body part group more than the others. This one will shape your butt and upper legs tight in no time!

Perform indicated reps of each exercise, then move on to the next exercise. Rest at the end. 

2-3 rounds!
1. Burpies

No pushup and be sure to jump high at position 4.

12 reps

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2. Kettlebell  2-handed Swings

12 reps. No kettlebell? Substitute with a heavy weight plate with handles or a dumbbell held vertically by the top. Careful not to throw it at anyone. Make sure you are “hitting hard” when you thrust with your hips by clenching your butt muscles (glutes). This will propel the weight upward, allowing you to use heavy weight.

_________________________________________

3. Kettlebell or dumbbell Front Squats

(kettlebells in front of chest)

With a heavy kettlebell or dumbbell squat all the way down like the man. Keep your back arched like the woman, but don’t stand all the way up. That’s resting. Instead, stop when your thighs are at around 45° to the ground.

12 reps

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4. Plank Madness

 
 

This will be a timed exercise. Get on your elbows as in picture 1 and raise your butt up and down by crunching your abs every second until you survive 30 seconds. Make sure you’re concentrating on contracting and squeezing your ab muscles to raise your hips. Super hard.

Then, without pausing, get on your left elbow like in picture 3 and raise/lower your hips again, every second until you hit 30 seconds/30 hip raises. When finished, switch to your right elbow and do the same. Then rest 30 seconds. Do this whole thing twice.

Wanna be a superhero? Add a weighted ball for the side raises. No ball? Raise your feet.

Reps: 30 hip raises in 30 seconds, each side (Straight, Left, Right)
Sets: 2
Rest: 30 seconds after Straight, Left, and Right sides are done 

_________________________________________

5a. Doggie Glute Lifts

(if you are a man or otherwise don’t want to do these, see 5b)

  1. On hands and knees. Raise foot behind you by curling it like a scorpion. Really crunch it. Hold 1 sec.
  2. Back down, knee to chest. (foot doesn’t touch ground, keep raised)
  3. Kick leg straight out & high, then lower to almost touch ground. Raise & lower 5 times.
  4. Back down, knee to chest. (foot doesn’t touch ground, keep raised)
  5. “Doggie peeing”. Return knee to bottom but keep it suspended, then lift to side and straighten leg. Raise & lower 5 times.

5 reps, switch legs

5b. One Legged Lunge Jumps!

No weights. Lunge deep down, most of your weight on your front foot, rear foot barely touches the ground with your toes for balance.

JUMP up high enough so that your leg is straightened and land on the ball of the same front foot, (not the heel) immediately hopping back up into your next jump.

10 reps, switch legs

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6. Lunges/Step Ups Superset

Lunge Step-Ups

Video

Stand with a barbell on your back and have a Step ready in front of you. The step should be high enough so that your upper leg is near parallel to the floor when stepping up.

Step forward with your left leg and go down slowly almost letting your right knee touch the floor. Then in one motion, stand up by bringing your right leg all the way forward and up onto the step. Now power yourself onto the step and bring your left leg up as well. You’ll now be standing completely on the step. Don’t just stop and rest up there! Immediately come back down slowly with your left leg so that your right leg is working hard to lower yourself. Don’t just drop! Now bring your right leg down and all the way back to its starting point while bending your left leg slightly so that you’re doing a reverse lunge. Lastly, slide your left leg back to the starting point where you stand up straight.

That’s HALF A REP! You now have to do it again but lead with the right leg. The full rep is done when you do both legs, “One—one. Two—two. Three—three”.

Just like the squats, use light enough weight so that you can do 3 sets of 10, but this time with only 30 seconds rest in between. If you’re starting to conk out during your 2nd or 3rd sets, you can adjust the weights accordingly.

Reps: 10
Sets: 
3
Rest:
 60 seconds only after both legs hit the 10 reps
Pace: 
around 1.5 seconds per move, non stop.

 

 

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7. Dumbbell Squat, Curl & Press

This next exercise combines squatting, biceps, triceps and shoulders in a lighter, faster exercise for maximum fat burn! Grab a pair of light dumbbells.

squat curl and press
squat curl and press

Video

How to do it!

  1. Stand holding light dumbbells at your thighs. Women use 3-5 pounds, Men: 10 pounds. Adjust as necessary.
  2. Lower yourself to a squat position while curling the dumbbells.
  3. HOLD the squat to where your upper legs are parallel to the ground or at least 45°, do not rest your elbows on your thighs, don’t sit on your ankles.
  4. Extend your arms and rotate the wrists so that your arms are at a 45° angle to the floor, palms facing down.
  5. Still holding the squat, bring the dumbbells right back to your shoulders.
  6. Now stand back up slowly and controlled while uncurling your arms
  7. Right back to standing position, dumbbells at your thighs.

 

REPEAT!

No stalling, no pit stops. Each rep should consist of four 1-second moves (or faster. one second is a bit slow). This exercise will concentrate on speed and getting your heart rate up, thus burning a ton of fat while maintaining muscle! This isn’t meant for you to grow some huge shoulders, quads, or biceps or you’d be lifting real heavy for failure at around 6 reps. You’re still working on those muscles, but the fast, non-stop movements will ensure major fat burning throughout!

Reps: 10
Sets: 
3
Rest: 
30 seconds
Pace: 
steady 1 second per move or faster x4 moves per rep

You don’t have to risk your life to have fun exercising outdoors like these guys although it looks like a lot of fun, right?

 

Amazing display of athleticism along with insane courage but how about not breaking your neck and instead doing the 10in30 Bleacher Blast outdoor workout?

https://10in30.com/premium/workout-of-the-week/bleacher-blast/

^ You have to be logged in since this is Premium content. As a subscriber you already have access, so if you haven’t subscribed and chosen your username, go here.

The Premium section also has Exercises of the Week, which show you an exercise you probably haven’t heard of, but are effective in changing up your routine. Exercises you can do outdoors include:

1. Stadium Jumps!

2. Swinging Leg Lifts!

3. Straight Arm Pullups!

4. One Legged Lunge Jumps!

– See more at: https://10in30.com/premium/exercise-of-the-week/#sthash.eJSROcNd.dpuf

As always, be careful, especially with the jumping exercises or stepping down from the bleachers. Be sure you’re stepping down forward in a straight line instead of at an angle as you don’t want your ankle to roll to the side with the force. I recommend leaning a bit toward the inside while stepping down from any high surface. Good luck, leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions!

MySupplements-1

Folks, be careful with trying new supplements. There are basically very few supplements that actually work so, to be safe, stick with the true and tried brands and products. The products in my pic above are all made by highly respected companies that most experienced bodybuilders and regular fitness fanatics have been using for most of our entire fitness years. The following article should remind you to be careful with new products, but not deter you from using the time-tested ones like those in my Supplements page.

 
Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

When the Food & Drug Administration recalls your “all natural” dietary supplement for containing prescription pharmaceuticals, you may think that ensures a rapid restoration of the misbranded product to its wholesome natural state, right?

Wrong, says a new study.

Several months after supplements were recalled for being illegally laced with prescription drugs, researchers bought them off the shelves and from the online inventories of supplement retailers and checked whether they continued to contain the illegal substances for which they’d been recalled.

In two-thirds of cases, the supplements did.

And in more than 1 in 5 cases, the researchers found a second (or more) illegal ingredients in the recalled products. Either the supplement maker had doubled down in the wake of the FDA’s recall, adding more illegal ingredients to the product, or the FDA had failed to flag the additional adulteration in the first place.

Those findings came in a research letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. More than half of adult Americans use nutritional supplements of some sort, mostly vitamin and mineral supplements. But products that often include herbal and botanical extracts and are marketed as bodybuilding, weight-loss or sexual enhancement aids are a multibillion-dollar business.

Unlike drugs, dietary supplements don’t have to be proved safe before being sold, and manufacturers can make general claims about health benefits. With limited powers to regulate nutritional supplements, the FDA in recent years has stepped up its recalls of nutritional supplements that are adulterated with prescription medications.

In the three years beginning January 2009, the agency demanded that 274 such supplements be withdrawn from the market until the prescription drugs they illegally contained was removed.

More often than not, however, the latest assessment suggests the FDA is failing to enforce its orders. The samples–roughly three-quarters of which were produced by American manufacturers–were drawn anywhere from eight to 52 months after recalls had been ordered. The average sample was taken about three years after a recall.

Of the 27 dietary supplements sampled by a team led by Dr. Pieter A. Cohen, 13 were sports-enhancement nutritional supplements, and 11 of them — 85 percent — continued to contain prescription ingredients (including anabolic steroids). Of nine weight-loss products sampled, six continued to contain prescription medications.

meridia“Natural” miracle cures peddled for weight loss can include any number of ingredients, ranging from unproven to outright harmful. The recalled products typically included sibutramine (marketed as Meridia) or phenolphthalein. Phenolphthalein is a laxative that is being withdrawn from over-the-counter medications as a possible carcinogen, and sibutramine was withdrawn from the market in 2010 after it found to have increased the risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke and heart attack.

Among the illegal substances found in the supplements were a sibutramine analog, benzyl sibutramine, that’s never been tested in humans.

Although dietary supplements marketed as “male enhancement” are frequently recalled for containing sildenafil (better known as Viagra), only one of the five such products sampled still had the prescription product in it.

If the FDA intends to protect the American public from products that could ply them with unknown prescription medications, Cohen wrote, it will need to increase its enforcement of supplement recalls and may need additional powers or resources to do the job.

(c)2014 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com