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Power up Your Breakfast

As many of you know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is amazing how many people skip this valuable meal. Whether you are a bodybuilder or not, breakfast plays a vital role for your metabolism and over all health. Let's just take the time to look at the word itself, "Break-Fast". That is essentially what we are doing in the morning when we eat. We are breaking the fast our bodies go through from our last meal the night before, through the 8 to 10 hours of sleep we get a night.

 

During Your Sleep Period

 

During the night, especially for body builders, your nitrogen balance fluctuates from a positive balance into a negative nitrogen balance. Nitrogen balance is when a person's daily intake of nitrogen from proteins equals the daily excretion of nitrogen. A negative nitrogen balance occurs when the excretion of nitrogen exceeds the daily intake and is often seen when muscle is being lost. On the other end of the spectrum, a positive nitrogen balance is often associated with muscle growth. In other words our metabolisms turn catabolic (breakdown of muscle tissue for energy metabolism) during sleep, a condition no bodybuilder wants to be in if he/she desires maximum muscle growth.

 

 

What happens is your hard-earned muscle tissue is robbed of important amino acids to be synthesized into glucose to fuel the brain, nervous system, and other organs and tissues. Don't panic, this is a natural process our bodies go through to sustain life every day. Our goal is to keep the state of negative nitrogen balance to a minimum and throw that balance into a positive through diet and nutrition and by making sure we eat a well-balanced breakfast.

This however should definitely assure you to think twice before skipping breakfast. Breakfast feeds your body the fuel it is in need for and serves to jumpstart and speed up the metabolism. Just by eating breakfast, containing all of the three main components (protein, carbs, and fat) can raise your metabolism 60-100%. So with this in mind it would sound foolish to even think about skipping the most important meal of the day.

This will take you out of the negative nitrogen balance (Catabolism, breakdown of protein), and hopefully switch you into a positive nitrogen balance (Anabolism: process of building up complex materials (proteins) from simple materials). Positive nitrogen balance is the environment you want to be in to promote lean muscle mass and accelerated fat loss.

O.K., now that we know the importance of breakfast for your health, metabolism, and fitness gains, we now need to know what to eat for breakfast. A lot of people think a bowl of hot cereal and a piece of fruit is a nutritious breakfast. Guess again! Yes these are healthy choices, but the meal is incomplete. Breakfast, along with the rest of your meals, should contain a balance of protein, complex carbohydrates, and fats (which usually occur naturally and do not have to be added). I'll give you an analogy.

Your car needs water, oil, and gas to run efficiently. If you leave one of those three properties out, your car is not going to run. The same goes for our bodies. We must include all three nutrients, especially protein and high-fiber complex carbohydrates, to function at peak performance and to get all the benefits of your weight and aerobic training. So if you are just eating a bowl of oatmeal, you must include a protein source along with that. Here are some examples of protein sources you can have for breakfast.

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Principles of Stretching

Before we became such a highly industrialized, automated, and sedentary society, most Americans spent most of their day doing some form of physical activity. Today, with the exception of those who exercise regularly, few adults do much in the way of movement. For example, a typical business person drives to work in the morning, sits at a desk all day, drives home in the evening, then reads or watches television until bedtime. This routine is repeated over and over throughout the midlife years until one day we discover that we don't move very well. We feel tight and tense, and we may experience a variety of aches and pains, especially in our hip, back, neck, and shoulder areas.

What happens is a classic example of the use it or lose it principle of human physiology. Unlike automobile engines that wear out with use, our musculoskeletal system seems to rust out with lack of use. This is why it is so important to do strength training to maintain muscle tissue and bone density. However, it is equally essential to do stretching exercise to maintain joint flexibility and functional movement ability.

For example, many people have become aware of neck inflexibility when they have to turn their whole upper body to check traffic when backing up their vehicles. Others experience stiffness in the morning or after sitting for extended periods of time. Some people become abruptly aware of their rigid bodies when they take a ski trip, go sailing, or hit a few tennis balls. The first golf or softball game of the season can also be a rude awakening, resulting in injuries to tight muscles, such as the lower back and hamstrings.

Unfortunately, as movement becomes more difficult, people tend to move even less, leading to further debilitation and lifestyle limitations. There is good news, however, for those who are willing to work towards better musculoskeletal function. By systematically stretching the muscles, they can become more extensible and the joint structures can become more flexible. Regardless of age, muscles have the ability to respond positively to a progressive program of stretching exercises. Let's take a look at how to improve joint flexibility in a safe, effective and efficient manner.