Foods with richer vitamin C than oranges

A lot of people automatically assume that when they hear the word vitamin C they automatically think of oranges. But what you may not know is that their are many other foods that have more vitamin C than oranges. Vitamin C is great for growth and repair of body tissues. Vitamin C is also beneficial to people who’s immune system was weakened due to stress.

While vitamin C may not be the cure to the common cold there is a lot of good research that shows that it helps reduce the risk of developing further complications when you do get sick. Vitamin C is a very strong antioxidant in it’s self that can help boost your blood antioxidant levels which in turn help reduce risk of chronic disease.

One small orange has 51.1mg vitamin C and a medium orange has about 69.8 mg vitamin C. The minimum requirement that a human should consume is about 75-90 mg a day.

Below are some of the vegetables that contain more vitamin C than an orange are :

Bell Pepper 341mg
Broccoli 132mg
Strawberries 85mg
Kale 80mg
Pineapple 78mg
Kiwi 64mg

Hopefully this article convinces you enough to start thinking about your vitamin C intake. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Coach Q

How the brain benefits from exercise

While a lot of people exercise for their physical appperance and looks a lot of people may not know that it is also very important for healthy brain function. Exercise has been shown in many different studies to improve moods to energy levels to even cognitive functions. I know for myself after I workout I am always in a better mood than I was before.

Some of the benefits are

Exercise can improve working memory
It will improve your mood and fight depression
Increases concentraion and focus
Shown to improve overall conginitve performance
Boosts energy level
Helps maintain brain volume and healthy brain aging

Onr of the major factors that shows how exercise can increase the production of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF protien helps regulate synpatic plasticity which is very important for learning and memory. It also helps with growth and helps the brain mature as well. The higher the levels of BDNF in the brain are often lead by better learning and memory retention.

Overall exercise will improve the functions of the brain in many different ways. Next time you go workout take notice of how you feel before you workout then notice how you feel after! I promise you will see a major difference

Hope you find this article helpful, and I will be back to blogging everyday now! Talk to you all soon

day 3

When my alarm clock goes off today I didn’t feel like moving at all. I took a nap the previous day and my plan was that when I got up this morning my body would feel less tired but man was I wrong. After staying up until 1AM watching the basketball game last night I knew that this was going to be a struggle for me. My alarm went off at 4:30 like it usually does and today it seemed like my body was just dead. So once again I snooze it until 4:45 and then I attempt to get up so I can wash my face and start my stretching routine. While I was stretching I thought that my body would kind of loosen up so I could have some sort of energy to get to the gym and start my workout. But today was not that day. All I wanted to do is lay back down under my covers and sleep my day away. Also with the rain down pouring this morning I really did not want to walk to the gym at all and wanted to skip it entirely. But I told myself that I made a commitment to the class to push through so mentally I got myself together and told myself to get through it. As I’m leaving to walk to the gym I try to put on some music to see if it can help motivate me to get me over the emotional struggle that I am dealing with. Going through my playlist the first song I chose that I had on repeat the whole time while I was going to the gym was called blue laces by Nipsey Hussle. Arriving to the gym I thought to myself how can I get quick energy to help me get through the workout? The first thing that came to mind was drinking a monster energy drink. Never having one before I was thinking it would help me out and give me a good energy boost. So I take a couple drinks and proceed to the weight room, then about 10 minutes in my stomach starting hurting and bubbling. I’m not sure what your experiences are with energy drinks monster specifically but as for me this was one of the worst things I could of done. Maybe it was because I was drinking it on an empty stomach and I had just took creatine before my workout, I’m not really sure but what I do know is that it did the opposite of what I wanted it to do. I started sweating randomly so I tried to drink a bunch of water to try and get it diluted in my stomach. I ended up feeling better after about 30 minutes thankfully but as I learned Monster Energy Drink is not for me. I plan on going to sleep early thursday night so I can have a success story for you guys on friday!

Day 2 on 5 AM Journey

My alarm goes off at 4:30 once again and my eyes are heavy. I reach for my phone to push the snooze button and then I doze off again. 8 minutes later the alarm goes off again and now I attempt to wake up. I find that this is still the hardest part for me because it is like trying to get back into a routine. I know that if I can just make it to the bathroom and throw some water on my face I will be able to make it to the gym on time but at this moment I just couldn’t. So I snooze the alarm one more time and now it’s almost 5 o’clock and I am losing some time that I usually devote towards stretching in the morning. So after my daily morning routine I come back to the room and start to stretch my body and see what parts of my body are tight. After taking the weekend off and letting my body rest my back is not in pain like it once was. As I go through my stretching routine I find that my hamstrings tend to be a little tight so I focus more on them today than I normally would. As I pack my bag for the gym I hear the birds start chirping near my window. As I open my window a cool breeze brushes my face and as the birds get louder This is a clear sign to me that the weather is being nice. The weather has always been a big motivator for me when it comes to waking up in the morning for the gym. ‘I discovered that the more nice the weather is the easier it is for me to transition from my room to the gym. The gym from my dorm is about a 5 minute walk so I try to put on some good music that will motivate me to get there. This has been something that I used to do to help distract me with the time. The cool breeze sends shivers up my spine because I left my room in shorts thinking it was warmer than it actually was. Getting to the gym I start with my warm up around the track to loosen my body. Today is shoulder and back day so I plan to hit the weights hard. Concluding my workout my body feels exhausted. I am literally drained and arms feel like noodles. It is hard to even lift them up. But I can’t wait to share with you guys about my experience on Wednesday!

First day on my 5 AM Journey

As I wake up today it’s 4:45 and my head is pounding. Feels like someone is hitting a hammer to the back of my head with a nail over and over again but I know I have to workout. I wake up at 4:45 so I can give myself a little extra time to stretch and get myself mentally prepared to go outside and walk to the gym. Today is a little foggy outside because of the rain and my lower body is still sore from a workout that I did a couple days ago. Still wanting to be dedicated to the gym like I said I would be I proceed to get myself out of bed and get myself to the gym. The one thing that I hate about going to the gym here at school is the actual walk. Living on campus the walk is literally all downhill. So during this walk especially today my lower body is just aching with pain but I know right now that it is all mental for me. This is how it’s always has been even this year during basketball season I found out that even when my body is hurting if I can find a way to push through it and distract my mind it dosen’t hurt as bad. Proceeding into the gym I noticed that my lower back is aching as well but after doing deadlifts two days ago after not doing them since basketball season ended I figured this is something that might occur. My warm up on the bike got my body lose and my headache seemed to have gone away and 30 minutes in I seem to feel like I’m going to power through this workout. Today was an arms day and I wanted to do a little bit of abs at the end of it. But while I’m breezing through as I’m moving onto abs I realize that my back start aching again. I think I came up too fast while I was doing a russian twist and it literally feels like something is stabbing me in the lower back. Now having to cut my workout short I move onto the foam roller to try to loosen it up a bit and try to get the pain to calm down. But it seemed like the more I foam rolled then the more it hurt so eventually I just called it quits for today and what was supposed to be an hour and 10 minute workout turned into 45 minutes. And when it comes to working one thing about me is that I hate when my workouts are cut short especially due to something that is out of my control. Being an athlete a part of me wanted to keep going but then again I know my body’s limitations. I hope over the weekend I can get enough rest and recover so I can give you all a better story than today!

Benefits of cold showers

Most of us have heard of either cold tubs and know most of the benefits from them. Not many people know about the benefits of cold showers. I know for myself my thing has always been hot showers. I enjoy them a lot but it wasn’t until recently when I did the research on cold showers that I actually seen the benefits from them. Some of the benefits are below

Increases Alertness

Taking a cold shower in the morning and feeling cold water go down your body seems more discomforting than soothing. However the deep breathing that happens during this process when our body is in shock helps us keep warm and also increases our overall oxygen intake. This gives us the energy boost we need for the day.

2. Refines Hair and Skin

When it comes to hair and skin, one of the most natural ways to maintain it is with cold showers. Ever wonder when you take a hot shower and you get out and you become ashy and your skin is dry? That is because it is drying out our skin. Cold water on the opposite hand tightens up our skin and will tighten our pours which will prevent then from getting clogged. The same thing goes for the scalp where it prevents dirt from getting in it.

3. Simulates Weight Loss

Cold showers can help weight loss in an unexpected way. The human body contains two types of fat tissue white fat and brown fat. White fat is gained when we consume more calories than our body needs to function and we don’t burn off these excess calories for energy. This body fat piles up in a variety of places in our body and is hard to get rid of. Brown fat is good fat which generates head to keep our bodies warm and is activated when exposed to extreme cold temperatures.

#4 Eases Stress & Helps recover faster

Jumping into the shower without letting it heat up or going into a pool without slowly acclimating to it can help increase tolerance to stress and even disease. Also as you may all know ice baths are something that athletes do to help their body recover faster but if you are not at that level yet, cold showers can have the same affect.

Try a cold shower in the morning and see how alert you are for the rest of the day. A lot of you depend on coffee and other energy boosters to help you. But from my past experiences I have been way more alert after a cold shower than any other drink could do for me. And if you can just jump right into a cold shower, start gradually. Try a luke warm shower and then move it to a little colder.

Any questions or advice feel free to contact me on instagram

@lefthandedassassin

Coach Q

Importance of Eating breakfast

All my life growing up I have never been someone who liked to eat breakfast. I never saw the point in eating cereal or anything of that matter in the morning. It was never for me I always thought that I could skip breakfast and just eat things in the afternoon, little did I know that I was starving myself. Think about it growing up if you didn’t eat breakfast if you were lucky enough to go to a school where you would get a snack break in elementary school sometimes middle school if not you would have to wait until 11 AM to eat your first meal. And growing up when I would get light headed or feel dehydrated it would be because of either I’m not drinking water or I’m waiting too late in the day to eat my first meal. It wasn’t until I got to high school and realized that when I don’t eat breakfast and wait until 11 to eat my first meal that I realized that I was literally starving myself for 8-9 hours. There was no wonder why I would have no energy to go to the gym in the morning or even feel light headed. So when I realized how important it was too eat breakfast I thought about some simple ways that I could fix this problem of not eating in the morning and I wanted to share them with you:

#1. You can drink a protien shake. Every morning I wake up I try to drink at least 2-3 glasses of water on an empty stomach. After that is when I would suggest drinking a protien shake so you could at least have something in your stomach. If you are like me I’m not a big fan of food in the morning so eating a big breakfast is something that I never do. A protien shake can be a subsitute and should hold you over until your next meal.

#2. Bring mini snacks with you to eat throughout the day until your lunch time. Whether it is eating a banana and bringing bags of nuts or different fruits with you to work or put it in your gym back, it is always important to have some sort of filler snack that you can eat that can hold you over until the next meal. I’d rather you do that than to be so hungry after the gym that you go eat fast food.

Drinking a protein shake or eating a variety of fruits and nuts in the morning or even eating something light as yogurt is something that I think is very beneficial to you. A lot of people over look breakfast as I once did and I think this is one of the worst things you could do. Breakfast provides you with a variety of vitamins and nutrients that you miss out on if you wait until lunch. Now of course if your fasting or doing some sort of dieting program than their is exceptions.

Hope you find this beneifical to you.

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The benefits of deadlifts

The deadlift it is an exercise that has many benefits too it that people over look. I know when I first started out weight lifting dead lifts is something that I hated doing. I would see it on my college lifting workouts and automatically skip over them because I never saw the benefit from them. It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I started to taking deadlifts serious. Below are some benefits that I’ve discovered during the process.

#1. Better Posture

Deadlifting increases your core strength and also adds to core stability. While performing this exercise it targets all of the muscles responsible for your posture and enables you to keep your back straight during your daily activities.

#2 More Muscles are being worked

The deadlift works more muscles than any other exercise believe it or not and that is also including the squat. While doing this exercise the lift engages all of the major muscle groups. When you are performing this exercise you may notice that your upper and lower body parts are being worked which is contributed to this workout.

#3 Increases Hormones

When doing at least 8-10 reps of deadlifts with a significant weight you can increase the amount of testosterone and growth hormone that is produced in your body. Testosterone increases muscle growth and improves muscle. So if your doing deadlifts and after a couple sets seems like your what I like to call “in the zone” it is because your body is producing testosterone at a high level.

#4 Prevents Injury

The deadlift can help prevent injuries by increasing the strength of your muscles around certain tendons and ligaments. After pulling my hamstrings and even partially tearing one during my basketball career when I found this out deadlifts became my best friend, They have helped me a lot during my career and I think it is something that is very vital to having strong hamstrings.

Overall I know deadlifts are one of the most important exercises that can benefit you when done correctly. Some people tend to put a lot of weight on and their form ends up being horrible and they end up hurting themselves. The best advice I can give is to do what is comfortable for you and more importantly make sure your form is correct.

Benefits of Squats

Builds Muscle in your whole body

Squats obviously help build your leg muscles including your quadriceps hamstrings and calves but they also create anabolic environment which promotes body-wide muscle building. In fact when squats are done properly they trigger the release of testoterone and human growth hormone in your body which are vital for muscle growth and will also help to improve muscle mass when you train other areas of your body aside from your legs. So in the end squats can actually help you improve your upper and lower body strength.

2. Burn more fat

One of the most time efficient ways to burn more calories is to gain more muscle! For every pound of additional muscle you gain youe body will burn an extra 50-70 calories per day.

3. Maintain Mobility and Balance

Strong legs are crucial for staying mobile as you get older and squats are a fantastic way for increasing leg strength. They also workout your core, stabilizing muscles which help you to maintain balance and also improving the communication between your brain and your muscle groups which helps prevent you from falling.

4. Prevent injuries

Most athletic injuries involve weak muscles, ligaments and connective tissues which squats help strengthen. They also prevent injury by increasing your flexibility and balance.

Hopefully you find this informal, also check out my YouTube video on how to strengthen your legs

Coach Q

Take a nap or power through?

Everyone tends to know how important sleep is but a lot of people tend to not have a lot of knowledge of how important naps are. Some people love them and others hate them or they think napping as a whole is a bad thing and others tend to think they are great. But the real question is who is right? And in reality the answer is everyone is correct depending on the situation.

The key answer is if you can easily fall asleep between 11 am and 3 p.m. in a comfortable place with the lights out for exactly 20 minutes then yes a nap can work wonders for you, if not then you are better off just staying awake and powering through. Our circadian rhythm has two natural stages of sleepiness which is during the middle of the night and the other one is post lunch. So whether you believe in napping or not you can eliminate the guilt you feel when you start to lose focus early in the afternoon. If you have a quiet place to lay down you shouldn’t fight the feeling to nap.

If you want to get the maximum benefit out of your next nap then I would suggest the following

#1 The time matters

This may sound contradictory but the proper nap length is either 20-30 minutes or 90 minutes. It will take you 90 minutes to go through the full REM sleep cycle which allows you to have the same benefits of having a full 8 hours of sleep. If you wanted to take a short nap then I’d suggest taking a nap for 20 minutes because you will be less likely to deal with sleep inertia which makes you feel groggy when you wake up.

#2 Nap in the right evnorinment

I know for myself sometimes being at school it is hard for me to get time to nap because during the day is when people are most active and more importantly the sun is out. This causes my room to not be completely dark causing it to be hard for me to go to sleep. I’d suggest finding a room with the least distractions.

#3 Know when to nap and when to power through

Don’t nap too late in the day if it is after 3 p.m. because if you do then your more than likely going to shorten your ability to fall asleep at night. Often times when I get tired after 3 p.m. I try to go to the gym or take a walk to wake myself up.