February 27th, 2009 No
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A Baby Driving a Truck!

No workout scheduled for me today. My shoulder is still bothering me and I will try to get to the gym tomorrow and work lower body if I can get out the door,

read on to see why…

I was inside with the baby all day and never got out much because we are getting nailed with a snow storm with heavy winds and a heavy snowfall warning of 15-25 cm.

Then Saturday it’s going to dip down to a frigid -43 Celsius with the wind!

So Matea and I spent lots of time playing with her toys and riding around the house on her little toy truck. Oh the life of a stay-at-home dad…

Being such a blustery winters day it was a perfect day for breaking out the slow cooker and making something hot and bubbly, and of course nutritious.

Nothing says home like a hot bowl of hearty soup. But I didn’t just make soup, I made what I call Snow Storm Soup. It’s a mix between soup and chili!


Here is the rundown:

I fried up a pack of lean ground turkey in grapseed oil with 1 onion.

Chopped up 2 sticks of celery and some baby carrots.

Added two cans of Alymer Chili style crushed tomatoes, 1 can of Campbells tomato soup, 1 cup of whole wheat elbow macaroni and 1 can of kidney beans to the crockpot.

Added the cooked turkey and veggies to the crockpot.

Threw in a dash of sea salt, ground pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano and basil.

Then added 1 cup of water.

Mixed it up and let cook on low for 4 hours. Supper was ready and waiting when my wife got home from work!

Another hot and hearty meal Dad Fitness buy Erin Brockovich style that your family will love on those stormy winter days.

Get your kids involved in the kitchen when it’s too stormy for them to get outside. Crock Pots are great for this as there is no risk for little hands to be around hot burners or stoves.

Always add your ingredients to the cold crock pot, then throw on the lid and turn it on your desired setting.

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

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February 27th, 2009 No
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Get Some R&R- Rest and Recovery

Despite suffering from some pain in my right shoulder I still managed to get to the gym today.

With my wife working I dropped Matea off to my moms for an hour. She loves to have her visit and with my Dad Fitness workouts only being an hour, 3 times a week it isn’t a big hassle.

My right shoulder has been acting up the last few days. I haven’t had any shoulder pain in a long time. I don’t remember doing anything specific. I just think it soon maybe time for a week off from the gym.

I usually try to take a recovery week off from the gym every 8-10 weeks just to give my mind and body a little rest from a couple months of hard training.

You can still do some light bodyweight workouts and stay active during your week off from weight training, just stay away from intense workouts.

I also find this a great time to try some different activities during my would-be workout time or even catch up on some reading as well as plan my next phase of Dad Fitness Workouts.

Today I started a new set of workouts and plan on doing them for the next 3 weeks if my shoulder don’t get any worse.

Day 1 is Max Effort Upper Body

Day 2 is Max Effort Lower Body

Day 3 is High Rep Day Upper Body

Here was my workout for today. I was able to do these exercises without much discomfort.

Max Effort Upper Body

Barbell Floor Press, 1 max set of 3-5 reps
Decline DB Press, 4 sets of 6-10 reps
Chest Supported Barbell Row, 4 sets of 10-15 reps
Bent Over Lateral Raise, 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Cable Crunch, 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Here is a fitting article for today’s post.

Get Some R&R- Rest and Recovery
By Sean Barker,CPT

It happens to us all every now and then, even the most passionate of trainers. We reach a point in our workout when we lack motivation to train, eat right and we feel tired or come down with the flu.

These are usually the symptoms of over training or lack of recovery. But it is not always solely based on “over training”. It’s usually a combination of a lot of things. This is mostly based on the “Training Triangle”. Training, Nutrition, Recovery.

You’re probably training too much, too often. Not getting enough of the proper nutrients your bodies needs to recover from hard training. Then recovery is short changed by the lack of the first two. Also, doing the same routine for a long period of time will make you mentally stale as well as physically. Most experts agree that you should change your workout routines after every 4-8 weeks. Then you should also take an entire week off from hard training every 8-10 weeks.

When this happens it’s time for change. Usually this means taking some time off from the gym. You will need more than a couple days; usually a week or two is needed. This will give your mind and body time away from the gym to regroup. After a week or two away you will be anxious to get back into the gym and hit it hard for another couple months. But, before you do you should change up your workout program. Whether it’s exercises, or the days of the week, this will keep you mentally fresh to attack your training.

So when your body starts to tell you it wants a break from your weightlifting workout, listen to it!

It’s the only body you will ever get…

Someone likes her R&R

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

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February 25th, 2009 No
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Breaking Bad News…

Yesterday started out like any normal day here in our house since I became a stay at home dad.

I got up at 5am before anyone wakes up, to work in my home office until 7am.

Being a busy dad who needed to find more time to get things done and work on my online business and writing projects for magazines, this is how I “made” more time in my day. I got up earlier.

Think about this the next time you say I don’t have time to exercise. Make the small sacrifice and stay up a little later or get up a little earlier so you can get in a short workout.

Yeah it might seem tough at first, but if you want to be successful in whatever you work towards in life you have to be willing to do what others are not willing to do.

So after having breakfast with our baby daughter my wife headed off to work and Matea and I headed downstairs to play.

Unfortunately, that’s when I got the phone call, and it wasn’t good news.

My aunt Violet, who is my mother’s closest sister, passed away in her sleep…

At 65 she had been battling blocked arteries and a bad heart and encountered many health problems over the years including brain surgery many years back.

She was also a long-time heavy smoker who didn’t take good care of herself.

I could go on about how this can happen to you if you don’t start living a healthy lifestyle, but I won’t because I think these events speak for themselves.

To make matters worse my mother was out running errands and we needed to get a hold of her to break the bad news.

As I was trying to put Matea down for a mid-morning nap, Mom happened to drop in for a visit… Now I was the one who had to tell her she just lost her sister!

Well as you can imagine, we all had a sad day here yesterday. Our thoughts are with my uncle Dallas (her husband) and the rest of our extended family.

Aunt Violet was the nicest, warmest, person you could ever meet. She came in to visit us from Montreal many times for Christmas, my high-school graduation and I will never forget how she catered to me in the summer of 88 when we stayed at their cottage on vacation and I came down with the chicken pox!

Give your family a big hug today, because you never know what tomorrow will bring…

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

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February 23rd, 2009 No
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5 Exercises You SHOULDN'T Be Doing

================================
5 Exercises You SHOULDN’T Be Doing
by Sean Barker, CPT
================================
Old habits are hard to break. But if you keep doing these 5 old school exercises in your muscle building workouts you will be breaking more than old habits.

1. Leg extensions- Unfortunately this exercise seems to be the extent of most guys leg training. Probably because sitting down and pumping out reps of leg extensions are a lot easier than squatting down with hundreds of pounds on your back.

Despite the “burn” you may feel from your upper thighs when performing this exercise, it is not a very efficient leg exercise as it only isolates the muscles above the knee.
The only time this exercise has much benefit is in a rehab setting where these muscles directly surrounding the knee need to be developed for stability and strength. Otherwise opt for any variation of the free-range squat.

2.
Behind the neck pulldowns- This is another exercise that I still see people doing in the gym. I cringe every time I see someone take a wide grip on the angled ends of the pulldown bar and start pulling it down behind their neck.
The angled ends of the bar are an outdated design and are not where you should be gripping the bar. This puts your shoulders and rotator cuffs in a very vulnerable position. Putting most of the stress on the shoulders and limiting range of motion away from the back muscles this exercise should be crossed off your list. Work on being able to do bodyweight chin-ups instead or at least pulldowns to the front.


3.
Behind the neck shoulder press- Similar to the behind the neck pulldown, the behind the neck barbell shoulder press places your shoulder in a delicate position. It is basically the same movement but by adding additional weight to the bar and pushing up in the vertical plane you are putting your rotator cuffs at an even greater risk of injury.
With the extra weight you can pile on the bar with this exercise, trying to even unrack the bar will soon send your shoulders screaming in pain. Switch to the safer option; the front barbell shoulder press.

4. Concentration Curls
- Probably the most popular bicep exercise for beginners wanting to “get the pump” and get Arnold-like biceps. It’s too bad a lot of experienced trainers still waste their time on this exercise.
No matter how many reps of concentration curls you do, you won’t get that bicep peak like the Terminator, as muscle SHAPE is genetically determined. Muscle SIZE on the other hand can be increased through basic exercises that allow a heavy weight while using many muscles instead of isolating one smaller muscle.
Standing barbell or dumbbells curls are a better choice for bicep development, but better again are close grip chin-ups, which put a lot of stress on the upper arms while working many other muscles.


5. Crunches
- It would be nice if all you had to do to get that ripped six pack would be to lie on the floor and pump out hundreds of reps of back breaking crunches. Despite what the infomercials want you to believe, this is NOT true!
You wouldn’t build your biceps by doing 100 reps with no weight, so why would you think you would develop your abdominals by doing 100 crunches or more? Your abdominals primary purpose is to actually stabilize your spine and to keep your torso from twisting in half under times of physical stress, not lift your neck off the floor.

Overall, the best exercises for your abs are exercises that allow your body to use your core the way it was meant to be used: for stability and support. Bodyweight planks, and compound exercises like squats and overhead presses will work your abs better than any crunch will ever do. Combined with a clean diet you might just see those abs looking back at you in the mirror.

…OK quiz time. Do you see a trend with these 5 exercises?

They all involve sitting or lying down, (which we are all experts at already) and they work only a small section of muscle, allowing you to pump out endless reps without much effort.

For you busy guys who want to get the most out of your short fat loss workouts, stop wasting your valuable time on these old school exercises that break your body down instead of building it up…

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com

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February 22nd, 2009 No
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Food, Fitness and Family


Had a relaxing night at home with the family last night, rented the flick Lake View Terrace, it was pretty good.

Samuel L Jackson is an awesome actor and made the film for sure.

We put baby Matea to bed around 8:30pm and she stayed asleep so we managed to get through it without any interruptions. Not a common occurrence with a 9 month old.

With both of us home together this weekend we got up this morning and cooked a breakfast of bacon and blueberry pancakes. This is an occasional treat and can be part of living a healthy lifestyle if you exercise consistently and eat these foods occasionally.

Try to workout on the days you decide to eat a reward meal so your metabolism is elevated and primed to burn up some extra calories.

I hit the gym this afternoon and had a great workout of:

Trap bar deadlifts
Bulgarian split squats
Leg Curls
Heavy DB Holds for time

I also used my new Crock Pot that we picked up yesterday. I have put off getting one of these despite how great they are for easy cooking healthy meals only because I actually enjoy cooking and putting meals together!

For busy families a Crock Pot is awesome for hearty and healthy meals that can be thrown together in the morning and ready when everyone gets in the door. Just “set it and forget it!”

But I am glad I finally got one as I whipped up some tasty chili this morning in the Crock Pot before I headed to the gym and a few hours later I am enjoying a tasty and healthy bowl of chili and a cold certified Coors Light while watching my Pittsburgh Penguins play the Washington Capitals.

Matea cheering her team.

Not a good day for the Pens as they just lost 5-2. They are certainly not helping their chances at getting a playoff spot.

Here is a funny commercial I just saw during the game that all you hockey dads will appreciate!

Oh well it was a great weekend of food, fitness and family.

Amadeus movie That’s what I love about living the Dad Fitness Lifestyle.

Sean Barker, CPT

Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com


PS
– If you are still frustrated and don’t know where to start…

…please remember that you have 8 weeks to try out Dad Fitness to see if you like it.

If you don’t, just let me know and you’ll get all your money back and you can keep all of the programs and bonuses (just in case you ever feel like giving it another try in the future).

You have nothing to lose. That’s my promise to you.

And if you are still skeptical about Dad Fitness and how it can make you the strong and healthy Dad you want to be, you can take the $4.95 trial offer and test out Dad Fitness for 21 days.

Get your trial offer here:

=> Click here for the Dad Fitness Trial Offer

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