I have been doing a lot of Yoga lately. I love how yoga makes me feel. It is such a spiritual experience for me. I don’t compete with anyone or anything, including myself. I can fully relax, and not worry about anything except my time with myself. I don’t care that I can’t do a posture completely, or I fall when I try others. It is for me to improve myself. I do a local class that is called a Hot Power Fusion class. It is a hot style Yoga that is a mix of power hatha, vinyasa and ashtanga yoga. It is the perfect combination of breathing, meditation, flexibility and strength exercises. But this type of class isn’t for everyone. Some people can’t handle the heat. Others can’t do the strength. Others can’t do the flexibility. Some want to concentrate only on meditation, while others don’t care about the relaxation and just want the workout. So this “poses” the big question: What is the best type of yoga?

The answer to this questions is based on a complete personal preference. But let’s start creating your preference with some education. First, what are the main types of yoga out there? There are actually many different types of yoga, and new ones are being started all the time. Some of the oldest, most mainstream types are:

• Hatha – This your basic, slow movement, gentle, beginner yoga. It focuses on uniting the body, mind and soul in a slow, controlled movements.
• Vinyasa – This type of yoga focuses on breathing. Typically, your movements are synced with your breaths. Every breath in is a movement, and every breath other is a movement. You move with your movement for a total flow and rhythm through the entire yoga session.
• Ashtanga – Better know as power yoga, this type focuses on fast, intense poses and movements. It is a series of poses in order, at a strict and vigorous pace.
• Iyengar – This yoga focuses on body alignment. The main emphasis is for holding poses for a longer period of time, in the correct posture, rather than moving from one to another.
• Bikram/Hot yoga – Bikrams is a hot style yoga that uses a series of 26 poses in a hot room (usually around 108 degrees). There are other styles of yoga that are considered “hot” yoga that are variations of Bikrams. It is basically a yoga style done in a heated room to promote increase in body temperature for cleansing and stretching purposes.

I am not a yoga expert. I know there are many other types of yoga and many others being formed as we speak. These, to me, are a broad description of the types of yoga that are out there. Every time there is a variation done on a specific type of yoga, it is called something different and is a “new” type of yoga. So what is the best type of yoga for you? The one that you like the best.

I highly suggest trying all the different types of yoga classes you can get your hands on until you find that perfect mix for you. If you want to focus on flexibility, try out a basic yoga class and work your way up. If you want a full body workout, try a power yoga. If you want to meditate, try a flow style yoga. If you aren’t sure what you want, try them all! You should be able to leave the class and not only feel like you got a workout, but you should have a complete body/mind experience. You should want to go to the class every time it is offered. Most yoga places offer a free trial week that you can try their classes out. If not, ask the instuctor if you can sit in on one of the classes to ensure it is the right class for you.

The most important thing to remember when finding is a class is what you want. Yoga isn’t about how much you can lift or how fast you can run or anything else. It is a set amount of time where you can dedicate a workout to you. You aren’t competing with anyone else, including yourself. You shouldn’t get frustrated when you fall out of a pose. You shouldn’t be self conscious that you are dripping sweat when doing Bikrams. You should take the time of yoga, clear your mind, and do it for you. That is what makes yoga such a “spiritual” experience. It is you, and yourself. Whether it is a gentle yoga outside, or a power class in the heat. So go out and find a class, and do it for you. No one else.

Most people take their breathing for granted. Our body is smart enough to keep us breathing without us really thinking about it. If we had to try to concentrate on breathing, and having our heart beat, while we think, walk, or really do anything else, our mind would go into overload. Are you breathing? Of course you are, but have you ever really noticed your breathing?

I am guessing the answer to that is probably not. But you should.

When I say you should, I am not talking about just sitting in your cubicle and saying “Yes – I am breathing”. What I want you to do is truly feel yourself breathing. And here is how to do it.

Once a day (or more if you can), really focus on 10 consecutive breaths. If  you are at a place where you can, close your eyes while you do this (obviously don’t do this while driving!). Take 10 slow, deep breaths. Why you do this, think that you are letting in oxygen into your system, which is vital to life and letting the bad CO2 out. Focus on feeling the cool, clean oxygen into your mouth, and the hot, dirty CO2 out. Corny I know – but trust me, this will help you consciously know you are breathing if you can visual something like that.

So why focus on breathing? Well, the biggest thing is this is a great way to relax. If you feel yourself getting stressed out, focus on your breathing. 10 slow, deep breaths will help you regulate and even out your breathing, which will help you to relax. Another reason is the body/mind/spirit relationship in regards to your health. Breathing is something that we do naturally, but is a HUGE part in the functioning of a body. So why not take the time to realize what your body is doing. This will help develop a sense of your body that most people don’t ever develop.

All I ask is that you try it for 1 week. 7 days, and see how you like it. Once a day, take those 10 breaths, focusing on breathing deep and slow and let me know how you feel.

People often hear the word meditation and get scared. They think it is some zen/religious practice that they want no part of. Others think it is a waste of time. And still then, there are those who just plain think its weird to do.

Meditation, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a mental discipline where by the practition attempts to get beyond the reflexive “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation and awareness.” In other words, it is going to your “happy place”.

Mental health is often over looked when people want to try to get healthy. Relaxing is an important part of being healthy. It reduces stress, and clears the mind for increased mental health. And you don’t have to sit cross legged on the floor humming in order to reach this state. Think of a place where you go that you are completely relaxed. Some people meditate in silence. Others in noise. Some in the gym. Others outside. Some by themselves. Others with people around. It all depends on you! Meditation is nothing more than blocking every stress that you have in the world out, if only for a moment, and focusing on relaxing and letting nothing get to you.

One question I get asked when I talk about meditation is “How do I know when I hit that mindset”? That is a hard question to answer. It totally depends on what your mind thinks is relaxing. For me, it is getting my mind to “vacation mode”, even for a brief moment. When I go on a vacation, I don’t have a care in the world. I don’t think about work, stress, projects, deadlines, or anything else. I am fully in the moment and am completely relaxed. That is the place I try to get to when I meditate. I can’t go on a vacation every time I get stressed out. That is why meditating is so helpful. If you get stressed, and you need to relax, a quick meditation session can work wonders. Daily meditation will help you to be less stressed overall throughout your life.

Still struggling on the whole meditation concept? Just try this for starters: Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated or anything of that nature, think of a few of your favorite things. It could be “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” (I kid). Or your grand kids, your wife, a place that you love, a time in your life where you were on cloud nine. Whatever makes you the happiest is what you are going to focus on. So when you are feeling stress, focus on that one thing as hard as you can. Try to get yourself to actual FEEL like you are there in the moment. Listen to the sounds of that moment. Feel the feelings of that moment. For example, if your place is the beach, feel the sun on your face, hear the ocean crash down, feel the sand in between your toes. Really get yourself into that place that makes you happy, even if just for a brief moment in time. Your mood/mind set will start shifting and you will start to feel better. You will know that your stresses and frustrations are little things in life and the important things are really the only things that matter. Stress doesn’t solve anything. Take a deep breathe and get back to whatever you were doing with a fresh new mindset and start kickin’ butt.

So in order to start getting your mental health as good as your physical health, start trying to meditate once in awhile. It will help clear your mind and relax your body.

The term “Health and Wellness” is starting come into main stream as of late. Most people just relate it to their health and “wellness”. But do you really know the meaning behind “health and wellness”? It goes deeper than you would think.

I recently posed the question “What is the definition of health and wellness to you” on facebook and twitter. People came up with some great responses:

Here is my definition of health and wellness: Getting the whole pie.

Health and wellness has 5 categories mixed into one.

• Mental health-the ability to learn and develop intellectual capabilites
• Spiritual health-The belief in a unifying force-Godline for some, nature for others, even science.
• Social health-The ability to interact and develop interpersonal relationships.
• Physical health-To supply the body with the nutrients and activity to ward off illness and disease, supply energy and maintain bodily function for maintenance and growth.
• Emotional health.

Health and wellness is making sure you have a full balance of every aspect of your health. Most people get too caught up in their diet. Or their workout. Health is not one thing. If you really want to get healthy, you need to take into account every single aspect of your life. If you are highly stressed at work, that effects your weight. If you are over weight, that more than likely effects your social health. If you are overweight, your hormones are not in check and that effects your emotional health.

It is time that you get serious about your health. Start today. Start looking at every aspect of your life and finding ways to making it better. This can be a very difficult task to do on your own. If you find yourself struggling, or just plain don’t know where to start, drop me a line at Zach (at ) nintemanfitness.com. When you email me, I want you to give me a list of all (when I say all, I mean ALL!, every single one) the things in your life you want to change. Your email is only between you, and me. So don’t hold anything back. Remember, PERSONAL training needs to be personal. So get personal with yourself first, then get personal with me so I can help. Dig deep and really think about everything from family, social, health, business, anything in your life you want to change. We will start with this list and start adjusting the things that we can. I cannot help with every single aspect of your life, but I can get you walking and you can start running with it.

Again, email if you need. zach (at) nintemanfitness.com.

It is your life. You only have one. Make sure it is the best ever. Period.

There is so much conflicting information out there when it comes to the topic of building muscle, and sometimes it can be very difficult to know where to start. If you’re beginner looking for some basic guidelines to follow in the gym, the following 8 points will start you off on the right track.

1) Train With Weights and Focus On Compound, Free Weight Movements.

If you want to make solid, noteworthy gains in muscle size and strength, you should train with free weights and focus on basic, compound exercises. A compound exercise is any lift that stimulates more than one muscle group at a time. Examples of these lifts are the squat, deadlift, bench press, chin up, barbell row, overhead press, dip and lunges. Compound movements allow you to handle the most weight and will stimulate the greatest amount of total muscle fibers. Plus, these exercise focus on big muscle groups, which helps you build a significant base.

2) Be Prepared To Train Hard.

One of the biggest factors that separates those who make modest gains from those who make serious gains is their level of training intensity. In order to stimulate your muscle fibers to their utmost potential, you must be willing to take every set you perform in the gym to the point of muscular failure.

Muscular Failure: The point at which no further repetitions can be completed using proper form.

Sub-maximal training intensity will leave you with sub-maximal results, plain and simple. If you want look hard, you need to train hard.

3) Track Your Progress In The Gym From Week To Week.

Our bodies build muscle because of an adaptive response to the environment. When you go to the gym, you break down your muscle fibers by training with weights. Your body senses this as a potential threat to its survival and will react accordingly by rebuilding the damaged fibers larger and stronger in order to protect against any possible future threat. Therefore, in order to make continual gains in muscle size and strength, you must always focus on progressing in the gym from week to week. This could mean performing 1 or 2 more reps for each exercise or adding more weight to the bar. Keep a detailed training log to track your progress as your strength increases over time.

4) Avoid Over training.

Over training is your number one enemy when it comes to building muscle size and strength. When most people begin a workout program, they are stuck with the misguided notion that more is better. They naturally assume that the more time they spend in the gym, the better results they will achieve. When it comes to building muscle, nothing could be farther from the truth! If you spend too much time in the gym, you will actually take yourself farther away from your goals rather than closer to them. Remember, your muscles do not grow in the gym; they grow out of the gym, while you are resting and eating. Recovery is absolutely vital to the muscle growth process. If you don’t provide your body with the proper recovery time in between workouts, your muscles will never have a chance to grow.

5) Eat More Frequently.

The main area where most people fail miserably on their muscle-building mission is on the all-too important task of proper nutrition. Training with weights is only half of the equation! You break down your muscle fibers in the gym, but if you don’t provide your body with the proper nutrients at the proper times, the muscle growth process will be next to impossible. You should be eating anywhere from 5-7 meals per day, spaced every 2-3 hours in order to keep your body in an anabolic, muscle-building state at all times. Each meal should consist of high quality protein and complex carbohydrates.

6) Increase Your Protein Intake.

Of the 3 major nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) protein is without a doubt the most important for those who are looking to gain muscle size and strength. Protein is found in literally every single one of the 30 trillion cells that your body is made up of and its main role is to build and repair body tissues. Without sufficient protein intake, it will be physically impossible for your body to synthesize a significant amount of lean muscle mass. If your body were a house, think of protein as the bricks. A general guideline is to consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day from high quality sources such as fish, poultry, eggs, beef, milk, peanut butter and cottage cheese.

7) Increase Your Water Intake.

If you want a simple, easy and highly effective way to maximize your muscle gains, drinking more water is it. Water plays so many vital roles in the body and its importance cannot be overstated. In fact, your muscles alone are made up of 70% water! Not only will drinking more water cause your muscles to appear fuller and more vascular, but it will also increase your strength as well. Research has shown that merely a 3-4% drop in your body’s water levels can impact muscle contractions by 10-20%! Aim to consume 0.6 ounces for every pound of body weight each day for optimal gains.

Be Consistent!

Consistency is everything. Those who make the greatest gains in muscular size and strength are the ones who are able to implement the proper techniques on a highly consistent basis. Simply knowing is not enough, you must apply!

Building muscle is a result of the cumulative effect of small steps. Sure, performing 1 extra rep on your bench press will not make a huge difference to your overall results, and neither will consuming a single meal. However, over the long haul, all of those extra reps you perform and all of those small meals you consume will decide your overall success. If you work hard and complete all of your muscle-building tasks in a consistent fashion, all of those individual steps will equate to massive gains in overall size and strength.

So you want to get in shape, huh? Want to start living healthier? Here are a few things you can do to start living a better life NOW!

1. Take a walk-Enjoy nature!
2. ride a bike-ENJOY NATURE!
3. Walk your dog-Enjoy nature and your best friend!
4. Eat Breakfast-The don’t call it the most important meal of the day for nothing.
5. Drink Water-It does more than you thinks.
6. Take a multivitamin-Fill in the holes that your diet leaves.
7. Hug someone you love-Nothing is better than hugging someone close.
8. Hug someone you don’t love-Never underestimate the power of a hug.
9. Eat fruit-5 a day keeps the doctor away. Fruit is a great snack throughout the day.
10. Spend 30 min outside everyday. Rain or Shine (Ever danced the salsa in the rain? Give it a shot!)
11. Take some quiet time for yourself-Some call it meditation. Others call it relaxation. Whatever you call it, it clears the mind and is a valuable part of health.
12. Sleep-Sleep refreshes your body.
13. Don’t oversleep-You need just enough sleep to refresh yourself. Too much sleep and you will become over tired.
14. Breathe-take a few minutes every day and focus on your breathing. Concentrate on the breath in, and the breath out. This will remove any stress at the moment you are having. Just breath.
15. meditate-Or relax. Do whatever you call it to have some time for YOU!
16. read-Flex those intellectual muscles!
17. Turn OFF the tv-It is a waste of time. Most channels offer condensed versions online. Why do you need to sit for an hour doing nothing?
18. Smile-It keeps you in a positive mindset, which is critical for having a happy health life.
19. Call your family-Mom, dad, brother, sister, friend that is like a brother-Call to check is a great way to relieve stress.
20. Stay positive-See Smiling. Thinking positive is one of the most critical parts to living a happy, stress free life. It is all mental.
21. Drink Less Alcohol-Alcohol in moderation is not a bad thing. But too much, even just a bit too much-throws you over the edge.
22. Be grateful for the day-You are alive. You are working on your health. You have things you appreciate in your life. Be grateful for those things. Say it out loud-”I am grateful for….”
23. Eat less-Simple and effective. Moderation in everything and everything in moderation.
24. Eat Green Leafy veggies-Salads are a great source of fiber, calcium and iron-essentials for a health body, especially for women.
25. Quit smoking-HUGE! If you smoke, you are hindering yourself from getting healthy. If you need help, get it. Quiting smoke (although I know easier said then done) is a huge way to instantly increase your health.
26. BONUS!: Enjoy life. It is a gift.

While reading an article by Mike Zimmerman in Men’s Health, I came across an article on “feel better in 5 minutes” and had to share the list. Tell me how many of these you agree with!

1. Sit in silence and count backwards from 300. That’s a good 5 minute chunk of life gone to the gods, buddy. Do you miss it? Good. Now you see that killing time is a subtle form of suicide.
2. Hey, see that car wash? PULL IN! a shower and a shave for your ride polishes that brass on your balls. EVERYONE LOVES TO RIDE CLEAN!
3. Grab your girl and do whatever playful think it is you do to brighten her day. A quick tango. A well timed foot rub. A little flailing in the foyer. Attack now!
4. Unless you’re lunching with the boss, no workday mean needs to last more than 5 minutes. Trail mix, yogurt some fresh fruit at your desk. Now you’ve saved time to exercise and get home at a reasonable hour.
5. Coffee-free break #1: Put your favorite song on headphones. LOUD. Some Sympathy for the Devil perhaps? Feel better? Good, now get back to work.
6. Tell the younglings and anytime, anyplace story. Start with “Once upon a time, a man rode a horse into a forest.” Make up the rest as you go. Marvel in how quickly they shut up.
7. Shred some old bank statements. Feels good, right? Very Enron-After-Dark.
8. Go to an online bank site like INGdirect.com and open a savings account that will automatically deduct 5% of your net pay from your checking account every payday. Now here is the important part: FORGET THE ACOUNT EXISTS!
9. Return one call that you don’t want to return. Cut it off after 5; you now officially have better things to do.
10. Put up a new light fixture. You’ll transform the room’s dynamic. And it impresses women because any man who can perform basic electrical work is a man without fear.
11. You owe somebody, somewhere a thank-you note.
12. Stretch your hamstrings. It makes every muscle feel better.
13. Self-abuse never hurts.
14. Coffee break #2: Three sets of 20 pushups. You don’t even have to loosen the tie!
15. Great game when you are stuck in traffic: “What’s that guy got that I haven’t?” Whatever it is, note your attitude toward that item or trait. You now have a good idea what’s motivating you these days.
16. Coffee Break #3: Keep a funny book on hand. Some George Carlin. Some David Sedaris. Some old Calvin and Hobbes? Make 5 pages your 3 pm ritual.
17. She won’t mind when the alarm  clock goes off 5 minutes early tomorrow if she goes off soon after it.
18. While  you are in line at the store, zone out on what’s bothering you most about life. Give yourself from now until the checkout cuie scans your first item to decide how you will solve the problem. See, you already know what the hell needs to be done, you are just not doing it yet.

Try a few if these things in order to feel better in 5 minutes.