Cons to going to the Gym on the late late night:

The first con is an obvious one and that of course is being “out late on a school night.” It is perfectly fine to go out on the weekend. Hoot and holler until your lungs and adrenaline give out around 3 AM because you have the ability to sleep it out the next day and restore your REM sleep cycle back on track. But coming out of the gym any time between 12AM-3AM for an optional workout routine doesn’t necessarily work for the huddled masses that get up at 6:30 AM in the morning to go to work.  I am one of those people and let me tell you it took me a couple weeks of adjusting my sleep and nap habits to work around this schedule, which was a rather tiresome endeavor at first. But for many people they do not want to schedule their day around a gym routine. Instead they want to  schedule their gym routine around what ever else they have planned for the day. This plays on the another downfall which is:  if you don’t get a grip on juggling this routine with sleep, meal times, and personal time, then it is even quicker progress to the “itis” than just trying to go to the gym after work.

First, if you are not getting proper sleep and it comes 10 PM at night, guess what, the first thing to go is going to be that trip to the gym.

Second, if you are a person that is greatly affected by their nutrition cycles in regards to balance of periods in which you ingest your nutrients, needs to be somewhat strict, this will definitely throw you off. You can eat your three meals a day, but more often or not you are going to take a nap if you are a 9-5er so that you are not a complete train wreck. When you do this, even if it is only a two hour nap, you run the risk of working up another appetite after you complete your workout. And it is a well know fact that it is not good to eat right before you go to sleep. If you read my blog then you know that I never claim to be an expert and to tell you the truth I have done no scientific research on this. But I will tell you one thing, what I just mentioned is something that I battled personally for about a week and half to two weeks when trying to find my groove in this cycle. In fact I was flat out miserable until I found my “late night gym chi” and was able to finally center myself.

Another downfall stems from one of the benefits of going so late at night, and that is all of the janitorial work that goes on late at night. Because there are so few people there at that time, it is the perfect opportunity to thoroughly clean the gym without interrupting a lot of people at once. Of course anyone who is cleaning does their best to not disturb you while you are working but at the same time when no one else is there it can be quite disturbing to have someone going to town with the cleaning duties. The crazy loud vacuum that is used is definitely enough to throw you off. During the day there are a million other people and it doesn’t really bother you if someone asked you to move so that they can clean real quick, because you feel a little bad because this person is trying to do their job with all these people everywhere which is almost impossible. But when no one else is there you feel like “really,” all this open space to clean and you have to ask me to move from this tiny little area?” I am being more than a borderline ass by saying this because obviously the gym has to be cleaned but I know I am not the only one who is thinking it. To tell you the truth though this is not even close to being a big deal to me but I have noticed that some of the few people there that late at night are really kind of put off by the fact.

Obviously, this plan is not for everyone. But honestly I believe that if you are dedicated to the fitness lifestyle the pros out weigh the cons 7:3 – in my opinion. This route definitely takes some dietary and sleep adjustments but after about a week or so you should properly adjust and it then it should just becomes like clock work for you. If this option isn’t for you either, then hopefully this last one will be. Once again these are simply the opinions of a guy has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

Pros to going to the Gym on the “Late Late” night:

The local gym becomes a completely different place late at night, especially if it is open past 12a or if it is 24 hours. The best part about going to the gym this late (around 10:30p or later), as you can probably figure out, is it is an utter ghost town. All those pesky little things that I wrote about so frequently during the “Do’s and Don’ts series” are almost irrelevant when it is only you and 1-3 other people in an entire section – unless of course you are the one who is committing these indiscretions. Every piece of equipment at your finger tips with absolutely no wait times. On many occasions when I want to go to the gym I crave that feeling of solidarity. The ability to be in my own world and get done exactly what I need to get done. Many times this desire gets lost among the mad house crowds, the ambient howl of busy conversations, the sharp clinking of machines, and the lack of being able to do what it is that you need to. It’s really easy to scrap a game plan and fall short of a new one if you are rerouted at the gym. If you set up this entire workout and by the time you are on your last leg someone is using your first and second options in machinery or weights, you are going to be more than inclined to skip it if you are in a pinch for time. But during the late night you don’t run into any of these little dilemmas because like T.M. “The World is Yours”, pertaining to the reality of the gym at least (don’t get carried away now). This is also perfect for anyone who is trying to get into cross fit type workouts because you have the freedom of using up three to six different things at one time because no one else is there, and you can’t be the ass that hogs all of the equipment if no one is there to call you out, right?

Another awesome thing about going to the gym on that late, late night tip is the switch up in atmosphere. There are only one or two employees at the gym and true personalities come out. At both of the main stream chain gyms that I go to, I have witnessed workers in their late night element and their normal hour element. And with out sounding too cliché, the difference is day and night (awful pun intended). During both of these shifts, employees are pleasant and nice, but during the day, you get that forged, almost forced smile and conversation with the staff that is written right into their contracts.  During the night shift people get real, like Chuck Klosterman, and it actually looks like they genuinely enjoy their jobs.  They are always doing batty things like dancing around and revamping all the equipment. Keeping real conversations around your workout and not trying to make what they say take precedence over your gym routine. They are helpful and offer a lot of different tips. This goes for both male and female co-workers at the gym. I have had this interaction with both. Grave yard shift workers of any kind know how to entertain themselves which from what I can gather makes them quite interesting people. I would think that you would be a little more reclusive if you worked one of these type shifts, but clearly that is not the case here.

Something else that I really enjoyed was that you let you entire day’s food intake have more than enough time to go through its proper digestion cycle before you workout. You essentially get the chance to work it all in at one time instead of splitting it. I can guarantee this is a mental victory and not an actual proven physical one, but I definitely feel more complete when I am able to finish a work out and know that I am not ingesting any more for the day, other than a protein shake to close it out.This state of mind definitely plays to the side of vanity though, in the sense that I like this because when after I am done working out and when I wake up the next day I know what my body looks like: it is not really going to change like it would if I ate two meals after I worked out. This might just be a personal satisfaction but nevertheless it is something that I see as being a positive.

The last thing that I noticed I appreciated about going to the gym late at night was the media controlling ability that you have. Because it is a ghost town you can ask the workers to put on any station you want on the T.V.s, any radio stations or Music lists that you prefer. I have been in there when I heard 10 songs in a row that I really loved. I asked the worker what type of mix that was and he simply told me that it was a CD that he had made. I know, everyone and their sister Jane (including me) has an iPod “so what’s the big deal right?” Well, sometimes I don’t feel like bringing my iPod to the gym. Sometimes, I feel like the iPod slows me down (on contrary, I also believe that it speeds me up a lot of the time) and when I feel that I will go to the gym without it. When that happens I depend on the music that is playing or the T.V. programs that are on, to get me through my workouts.  But this might not be for you, and the next blog might show you why it might not be for you. But no matter what, I believe that one of the four suggestions will fit your lifestyle.  Once again these are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

Cons to going to the Gym before you go to work:

Like I stated in my last blog, “getting up and going to the gym early and getting it in before you go to work can be an absolute godsend.”  But the kicker in this statement is the word “can.” I specifically worded this sentence this way to convey its duality, like a crafty politician or like the statements in those medication commercials right before the onslaught of all the negative affects it can have on you. Just like working out in the morning before work can be a godsend, it can also be that hellish beast that kicks you in the teeth when you are down. But one of the worst things about this particular option to fighting the “itis” is that while a large percentage of the time it works it can also progress the “itis,” in the same way that antibiotics can make your immune system worse if you take them too much.

The number one downfall to this option is of course, waking your ass up earlier than normal. I found that even though I woke up earlier, I didn’t necessarily go to bed any earlier, which poses a problem when discussing the burnout and its correlation with exhaustion. If this cycle progresses, you are much more likely to hit that snooze button and when this happens the gym is the first thing to go. You are not going to sacrifice the other things you need to do in the morning and just go to the gym, if you oversleep your alarm or keep hitting snooze. Let’s face it you are not going to substitute a bicep workout for smelling, looking and feeling awful at work. So lets say you skip the morning work out because in theory you have so foolishly convinced yourself that you will just catch a workout when you get off of work, you are still faced with the original “Itis,” because you never know if you will have the standard 8 hour easy breezy day or if you will have the dreaded 12 hour, employees in your ear every minute, reports piled on the desk that never diminish, day from hell. And so even though you set out to combat this phenomenon you end up once again in a vicious washing machine cycle of displacement.

Another downfall is the morning food intake problem. Many people cannot start the day with out a meal and for the most part they use this meal to boost their brain and body power while at work. But if you eat this meal depending on its size, you are likely to cramp up or feel like crap while you workout at the gym. And then on the flipside, if you wait and eat your food after the gym, you are likely to feel like crap because you are depriving your body of the normality it usually feels from the time you wake up to the time you eat. Vice a Versa you could be like me and be on the other side of the spectrum, where you can’t eat in the early morning because it messes with your stomach. Usually, you are fine because you start your day and have just enough energy to go about 3 hours without eating until your stomach adjusts and then you snack on something until lunch. This works fine for the most part for your work schedule (depending on your job), but it’s a whole different ball game when you try this and immediately wake up and go to the gym. You have absolutely no energy the entire time you work out, and because you have drained that last bit of energy while working out you don’t always get that “pumped up” feeling when you are done and you start your work day exhausted. So in this regard it is extremely important to find a balance as soon as possible.

The other downfall that I came across is gym proximity. Meaning that your gym might not be close to your home or your work and may be completely out of the way making it inconvenient to go in the morning when time is of the essence. I myself do not experience this but after snooping around and asking people about it like I tend to do, I found that it becomes a big problem for many. Waking up early to go to the gym is a problem for many but compound that with waking up even earlier to travel out of the way to get there, you simply have a mute point.

To go to the gym in the morning you really do have to way the pros and cons and see if it is a fit for you. It by no means is the best option for everyone. Once I started doing it on the regular it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If this option isn’t for you then hopefully one of the next two will be. Once again these are simply the opinions of a guy has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

I personally hit the wall after a 9-10 hour day at the office and the last thing I want to do is go to the gym, but I try and force myself to make that journey because my physical fitness is something that I value very much. But if I have anything else that I need to do when I get home from work, the gym is the first thing that goes because I know I will be an absolute wreck if I don’t get some rest at some point. This “itis” is a creeper, and it can gain on you in rapid time and without any warning. For instance, about a month ago (before I initiated a comprehensive game plan to battle this) I had 30 minutes left at work and was really excited about going to the gym, which is literally about 2 blocks from work, the second that I got off. But when that clock struck 5 PM I got into my car and saw that the left turn lane that leads to the gym was just a little too long for my liking at that particular moment (which in reality meant that I would have to wait about 1min- 1.5 min – normally not a big deal). So I thought to myself “screw it” I will just drive home and work out at the gym at home. I got into the house and my roommate was eating a fantastic dinner and I thought to myself again, you know what, I need some dinner: I will just go after I eat. Well, turns out that if you eat a whole meal and a half from “Wings and Things” and work a 9 hour day and then plop down on the couch, you are pretty much guaranteeing that you are going to be stuck for the night – and I mean embedded into that couch like Wiley Coyote at the bottom of a canyon after trying an Acme flying device.

If you can’t tell by my blogs I am a very motivated person, especially when it comes to fitness. But scenarios like this one and others that tend to poke their heads about from time to time seem to take root within my fitness routines on a weekly/monthly basis. And if you are anything like I am one day of getting hit with this “itis” can throw your whole weeks routine off and in many cases you are not able to meet your weekly goals. So about a month ago, specifically right after I realized how much the disease affects me “on the reg” (i.e. the instance described above), I started to develop several different methods to help me curb this mini plague and it’s horrendous effects.  So for the next for the next four blogs I will be offering up some suggestions about how I go about battling this illness. With these quips of advice I will also be offering some pros and cons that come with each. And as usual I will have my relentless and unfiltered opinions about it all as I go down the line.  Once again these are simply the opinions of a guy has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

Fix Your Goals

Not reaching your fitness goals? The problem may not be with what you’re doing — it may be with the goals themselves.

The fitness goals you set need to be SMART: Specific, Motivating, Achievable, Relevant and Trackable.

Specific: What exactly do you hope to achieve? Instead of making the mushy goal “I want to get healthy,” say “I want to lose five pounds, drop an inch from my waist, be able to run five miles, and eat five servings of fruits and veggies per day.

Motivating: You need to be excited about what you want to achieve! If the idea of walking regularly on the treadmill makes you want to snooze, even if it’s a goal for a lot of fitness buffs, maybe it’s not the right goal for you right now.

Achievable: Nothing is more discouraging than a goal that’s too difficult to achieve. No one can lose 20 pounds (healthfully) in a month or be ripped in a week. Give yourself a break!

Relevant: The goal needs to make sense for you. If you choose some pie-in-the-sky goal because it looks good on paper, chances are you’ll ditch it within a month.

Trackable: If you can’t measure or track your goal, how will you know when you’ve achieved it? We’re talking numbers here! Instead of setting a goal to get fit, resolve to lose a certain amount of weight by the end of the year.

More on the Motivating goals: The reason we don’t reach our goals may be that they’re not exciting enough to motivate us. If this is the case for you, heed my life coach, who recommends setting big, audacious goals. For example, instead of making a resolution to walk three times per week, how about vowing to train for a triathlon? Instead of losing five pounds, why not resolve to enter — and win — a fitness competition? And rather than making the vague goal to nosh on more veggies, why not promise (as I’ve been doing for the last month or so) to eat a big salad every day of the week.

A quick note: I’m taking a hiatus from the Designer Way blog due to other commitments. I hope to see you — and motivate you — again soon!

Stay healthy,

Linda

Remember: ALWAYS be safe and cautious when exercising and to make the most of it drink a PROTEINWATER or PROTEINBLITZ after!

If you have any questions please post them here and we will have one of our team of experts answer them for you!

Thank You

DESIGNER WHEY

 Maybe: who knows maybe there are several well known and published pieces of literature that hesitant or first time gym goers frequently buy on EBay, created by gym elitists.

Probably: there is probably a rule in the fine print of your gym membership that states you cannot occupy five different machines at once if people are trying to use them, but do people read and follow these things – for the most part no.

  It depends: whether or not you should act differently in the gym is all about how you yourself perceive it. Meaning, are you the type of person that knocks a drink over at the party or a restaurant/bar and doesn’t pick it up because they paid money to get in and serviced, therefore, it is now someone else’s responsibility. Well if you are then you are most likely the same person that doesn’t re-rack weights or wipe off machinery or who takes up five machines at once. You may act a certain way in the comfort of your own home that doesn’t necessarily match up to the standards of society and I say great. But when you have to share common communal property with others you should be aware of how your actions are affecting that said shared space. It’s something funny like gym etiquette but it trickles further into the cracks and accurately reflects societal depictions in some cases. So in that sense, if you are aware that you share this common space with others and you respect that notion of shared community so to speak then no you don’t have to act differently, you can simply apply your everyday rational into your gym interactions and it will be fine – it’s not rocket science.

 People’s reactions: you don’t have to be a fitness guru to notice when you are doing something improperly at the gym, you just have to not be brain dead. Whether it is using a machine the wrong way, taking someone’s spot or just about anything “deemed” un-gym like you can tell immediately by how people are reacting around you. When you are screaming during your sets (for whatever reason people seem to do this) to the point where its probably noticeable from the other side of the gym you can guarantee that everyone around you will at one point in the 30 seconds of actually screaming or the 30 seconds that proceed the screaming, stare at you with a dumb founded expression like you came to the gym without pants on. Then about three quarters of those people will in fact shake there heads in disagreement or make hilarious comments to their workout buddies about how dumb you look. You might care you might not – it is completely based on individual circumstance. This is how etiquette for the most part is defined in the gym and how it works itself out – people’s reactions and their responsiveness to your reactions.

 I write this as an intro to segment that I am about to do on a personally studied phenomenon, appropriate behavior concerning the communal gym. I am no expert but after asking the opinion of different gym goers, gym employees and every day Joes who occasionally go to the gym, and watching the different reactions that the gym masses have to certain behaviors, I feel pretty confident about giving out an outline of behavior for people to think about the next time they work out. For the next 6 to 8 weeks I will be writing two “do’s” and two “don’ts” per week on behavior at the gym. You can take’ em or leave’ em, either way doesn’t matter to me but at least it will be out there.

For the longest time, I was a breakfast person: Every morning I would make whole wheat toast with peanut butter and berries, scrambled eggs, whole wheat French toast, or multigrain blueberry-walnut pancakes.

Then, one day, I suddenly couldn’t stomach the idea of eating in the morning. And I was also too busy for lunch, so I would get up every day, skip breakfast and lunch, and not eat until around 4 pm — and then pig out on fatty foods because I was ravenous.

You’d think my weight would go down from eating one meal per day, but if anything, it went up. That’s because when we don’t eat, our body thinks it’s fasting and slows down your metabolism, so we’re burning fewer calories than usual. In addition, we tend to make up for skipping meals by overeating later in the day (like I did).

In a National Weight Control Registry study of people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off, 78% are regular breakfast eaters — so breakfast is clearly important. But what you eat is also important: According to an article in the Washington Post, recent research found that sedentary, obese women lost almost five times as much weight when they ate a big breakfast with carbs and lean protein as they did when eating a restrictive low-carbohydrate diet. The “big breakfast” included milk, three ounces of lean meat, two slices of cheese, two whole grain servings, one fat serving and one ounce of milk chocolate or candy (to help reduce cravings for sweets later in the day).

And in a study in the International Journal of Obesity, one group noshed on a bagel every morning for eight weeks while a second group had two eggs every morning for eight weeks. At the end of the study, the egg group showed a 61% greater reduction in BMI, a 65% greater weight loss, a 34% greater reduction in waist circumference, and a 16% greater reduction in percent body fat.

It’s clear from these studies that a healthy breakfast needs to have enough lean protein, fiber, and fat to keep us full until lunchtime — but all of this information isn’t much help when the thought of food in the morning makes your stomach turn. Why do some of us just not want to eat in the morning? My life coach theorized that I might be too stressed in the morning to be hungry, and the Washington Post article states that we may not feel like eating because our levels of the brain chemical serotonin are highest in the morning, which means our craving levels are at their lowest. (When serotonin levels dip during the day, cravings start.)

But whatever the reason for not wanting to eat, it’s important to have something to start off the day. I developed this recipe for an easy-to-digest smoothie that has enough protein, fat, and fiber to get me through to lunch:

Linda’s PB&J Smoothie (Makes 2 smoothies)

Add to the blender:

1 banana
2 heaping tablespoons natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1 1/4 cups frozen blueberries (frozen cherries also work well if you can find them)
3 cups 1% lowfat milk (or more depending on how thick you like your smoothie)

Blend on High for 1 – 2 minutes, pour, and drink!

Are you a breakfast person? What’s your favorite healthy breakfast? If you’re one of those can’t-eat-in-the-morning people, what do you do to keep your energy up until lunchtime? Please add your opinions and experiences to the Comments below!

Stay healthy,

Linda

Hi! My name is Linda Formichelli, and I’m the newest blogger on the Designer Whey blog.

I’ve gone through a lot of life changes lately: I recently turned 40, and my husband and I adopted a baby boy. As an “older mom” (though I don’t feel old), I’m interested in both boosting my energy and in keeping off the pounds that tend to creep on with age. My challenge — as for many working moms and dads — is time. It’s hard to find time to exercise and cook healthy meals when you work all day and take care of a baby at night. In this blog, I plan to explore ways to fit fitness into even the most hectic days.

Right now, I have even more of a motivation to get fit: I’ll be profiling a martial artist for a major magazine, and as part of the article I’ll be attending a couple of very intense martial arts classes next month. I have five years’ experience in the martial arts, but I quit last year when I hurt my back — and since then, my cardio has consisted of — well, pretty much nothing. As a point of pride I’d like to kick some butt in these classes, so I’ve made it my mission to build up my endurance and add some lean muscle — and to keep going even after my article is done.

Another challenge for me: nutrition. I’ve been writing about health, fitness, and nutrition for newsstand magazines since 1997, so I know what I should and should not be eating. But knowing and doing are two different things! I love eating at restaurants, and I’m sure you know how difficult it is to eat healthfully when you’re confronted with a menu full of creamy sauces, fried foods, and desserts that are bigger than your head.

My final challenge: I have an anxiety disorder, and it’s easy for me to get overwhelmed with stress. Stress has been implicated in causing health woes (like irritable bowel) and in making illnesses worse (like asthma). Stress also makes it difficult for us to lead healthy lives — after all, when we’re feeling stressed and rushed, it seems much easier to pick up a burger and shake at the drive-through than to create a healthy meal — so I’ll incorporate healthy mind-body tips into my blog posts.

I’ve already started making positive changes, which I’ll talk more about in future posts — and I’ve lost seven pounds in the last month!

My blog posts won’t be all about me: As a health writer, I have access to a lot of studies and experts, so I plan to include information you can use in every post. As I get healthier, hopefully you will too!

Stay healthy,

Linda