Should you count yoga as a workout

From the outside looking in yoga used to be looked down upon. I know I used to think that it was only for women because when I would look through the glass and see the people doing it that’s all I would see. It was almost considered sissy like for a man to be in a yoga class but now times have changed. Now that men are starting to see the benefits from yoga it has started too make it become more popular. Now yoga classes are very diversified and more welcoming to all ages and genders. Now the question that I have come across, is yoga considered a workout?

With the various different yoga programs out there there are numerous ways that yoga can be considered a workout. There are programs that challenge your strength and endurance. Eventually though you may want to incorporate different exercises to strengthen your upper body. One of the main downsides of yoga is it doesn’t include any upper-body pulling movements (such as pull ups and bent-over rows). Yoga may also offer balance, mobility and flexibility benefits.

Ultimately yoga can be considered a good workout but I wouldn’t rely on it for your strength training. Yoga is good for relaxing the body and allowing you to become flexible and use parts of your body you wouldn’t necessarily use during a normal workout.

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Why consistency is greater than hardwork

A lot of people look at the most powerful people in the world and they think wow they must work hard everyday to get to where they are at. Which yes this is the case but what a lot of people over look is the consistency aspect of the hardwork that they are putting in. When you look at some of the great athletes in the world, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry these guys are masterminds at their craft but what a lot of people don’t realize is that they do NOT TAKE A DAY OFF. Every day they are in the gym getting shots up working on their craft. When I look at my college basketball career is was not a coincidence that I magically had a career year my junior year. I was literally up everyday before practice shooting at 5 AM. And the days that I had to miss because of the snow, I did form shooting in my room. There was not a day that went by that I did not touch a basketball.

There is power when you are consistent with what you want to do in life. Whether it is lose weight, gain muscle, become a millionaire, become successful at your craft, you have to indulge yourself in this process and make a promise to yourself that you won’t take a day off. Because one thing my pops always told me growing up when I was training is that the minute you take a day off there’s a kid on the other side of the world waiting for you to take a break so he can catch up to your greatness and take your spot in the world. So everyday you have to make sure you live by this thing called consistency. Yes when you first start off there will be a lot of discouragement and a lot of excuses will arise that will want you to take a break. But if you can make yourself become diligent and have will power to resist the temptation of breaking consistency I promise you that your reward will be great on the other side.

Nothing worth having comes easy and it damn sure doesn’t come in a short period of time. But whatever your goals are in life, if you can promise yourself that you can start today and work towards your goal everyday I promise by the end of the month if you are consistent you will see great progress and will feel good about yourself. Stay positive and stay motivated!

Coach Q

Misconception of small waist big booty

The question that I get asked the most is, “how do I lose weight, get a skinny waist and get a big butt?” I am sure a lot of you reading this are wondering the same thing. Especially in today’s society that specific look is considered “hot.” Every girl wants the Kardashian body & booty. These women are perceived to be “goals” of what the human female body should look like. But in reality, it’s called money. Every day women are going to the gym and running on the treadmill and doing squats until they die because this is how they think they will create the perfect body. Yes, they are losing weight but they are losing it in the wrong places. Excessive cardio can break down muscle tissue causing you to lose whatever gains you are getting.

Let me break this down. I am going to explain to you the 3 different body types that we have. They are Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph.

Ectomorph is somebody that is small and skinny, they have a hard time putting on weight, have a very fast metabolism and have a lean muscle mass.
Mesomorph is somebody that has very defined muscles, they are athletic and strong, and are able to gain muscle easily – they gain fat more easily than ectomorphs.
Endomorph is somebody that has a round physique, stocky build, gains muscle and fat very easily, soft and round body and has a slow metabolism.

Now with this being said, I am not saying that somebody who is an Endomorph can’t bust their ass at the gym for a couple of years and turn into a Mesomorph or vice versa. I am simply putting this here to give you a better understanding of what kind of body types are out there and how they work.

The Solution

The key factors to making your butt grow are very simple. There are 3 main butt muscle groups:

Gluteus Maximus: The largest muscle that makes up the majority of your butt

Gluteus Medius: The second largest muscle that lies near the outside of the pelvis

Gluteus Minimus: The smallest of the 3 main butt muscles, which lies underneath the gluteus medius

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me.

Coach Q

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How to stay motivated for the gym

A lot of people often ask me how do they stay motivated for the gym and I often start to ask them numerous questions such as, what is their reason for going to the gym or how many days do they go to the gym. Often times when you break down these questions you will soon start to realize the reason why people are lacking motivation for the gym. Below I will give you some key tips that will help you stay motivated throughout your journey.

One of the things that you will soon realize that is a major key to staying motivated for the gym is that you have to have a reason on why you want to get into the gym. Whether it is wanting to lose weight or simply doing it for yourself to gain more confidence you have to have that reason engraved in your mind. Because trust me, there will be days when you just want to forget about the gym, Your body will be aching and you will be you will need that extra boost of motivation which will come from having the reason why you want to go in the first place. Playing basketball all my life I had to learn this lesson early. One of the things my dad always told me when I didn’t want to get in the gym is you can either be like everyone else and do what is required and leave or you can want to be the best and do what others won’t do. And that is what drove me to stay consistent and wake up at 5am every morning and not miss a workout.

Another thing that will help you stay consistent is by doing workouts that you enjoy doing. If you hate the treadmill do another form of cardio and if you hate lifting weights then do body weight training, there is always an alternative that you can do to get around something that you hate doing. But the key is to not get emotionally drained because you will eventually tap out mentally and dread the gym and once you get to this point it is a hard place to turn back from.

Lastly I think a key to staying motivated for the gym is having someone that will hold you accountable. Whether it is your friends or a trainer like myself I think when people have someone that will hold them up to a certain standard then it will be hard to let that person down. So you will make sure that you get the workouts in and stay consistent and be true to yourself.

The secret to losing weight

The big question people always tend to ask is, “how do I lose weight?” A lot of people tend to think that the major issue is their caloric intake. Calories play a factor but is not the main factor. A lot of individuals are being deceived by the people that work in the vitamin stores. They tell them all they need to do is take a certain pill and in days, weeks, or months you will start seeing results. There is WAY much more involved to losing weight. Losing weight involves many other factors such as eating a clean diet and working out regularly. But guess what… I have found a secret.

Have you ever eaten a meal in the morning and by the afternoon you felt like you were ready to crash? What I am going to talk to you about is one of the major reasons why you may have felt like this and how it can keep you from losing weight. The key component is called insulin. We all have it naturally in our body. Some of you may not be familiar with what insulin is so let me break it down to you. Insulin is released from the cells in your pancreas and into the blood stream when your body senses blood sugar has been increased. Very high blood sugar levels are not good and insulin acts as a bridge between cells and the sugar found floating in your blood. Without insulin however your blood sugar would be extremely high and your body wouldn’t be able to get that sugar into the cells. Before insulin starts forming blood glucose into fat cells, it first stores as much as possible into the liver for a later use. Unfortunately the liver can only hold a limited amount of blood sugar then the excess starts getting dumped off into muscle cells. Muscle cells can hold more glucose than liver however they also have their limit. Once the limit is reached, there is a “spill over” that happens when most of the sugar from carbohydrates in your diet will begin to be stored as fat cells in order to lower to lower your sugar found in your blood stream back to normal.

Therefore, if you control the food you consume you will have low levels of insulin making it easier to burn that unwanted fat. It is high insulin levels that block you from burning fat. Limit your carbohydrate intake and you will see a major change in your weight. Also, it is a good idea to stay away from starch such as potatoes, rice, and bread.

Gives this a try for 2-3 weeks and let me know your results! Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Coach Q

Importance of patience

A lot of people including myself made decisions off of emotions instead of logic. A lot of times we set plans and tell ourselves that we have a set goal but then when things don’t go our way we take our eyes off of our plans and tend to do things for temporary satisfaction. All of my life this has been my weakness. God knew that when he put me on this earth that this would be my weakness. I hate when things don’t go my way and especially when things are out of my control.

When I look back at my life if I were to practice patience I feel like a lot of things would have been different. Simply looking at my basketball career after my junior year of college I told my parents that I wanted to transfer to the school that I played against that year but the reasoning that I wanted to leave was the wrong one. I had just the best year of my career my family and everyone close to me was telling me to stay there because now I had everything I ever wanted. But because of my greed and wanting to have more of a social life I transferred and ended up being injured my whole senior year. Now was this a sign from the man above telling me to listen to him instead of moving on my emotions? Maybe it was but the point of me telling you this is that I made a decision based off of my emotions instead of thinking logically and now my path of becoming a pro basketball player has become harder because of my injuries.

Now I know at times when we set goals for ourselves we often get put in tough situations where something happens suddenly and we have to make decisions right then and there but I’m talking about when there is no rush to make a decision and you’re making decisions because your impatient. And yes I know sometimes it hurts to wait but trust me if you can endure the pain that comes with this the blessing on the other side will be worth the wait.

Being around my mentor we talk about things like this everyday and he simply tells me it doesn’t matter what they think right now, it’s all about the end goal and as long as you work towards that everyday and put your head down and chip away one day you will look up and your goal will be attainable.

Writing things like this is tough for me because it is something I am constantly dealing with on a day to day basis and the only way for you to know how to truly get through something like this is personal experience. But if I can help you avoid missing out on your blessing and show you that in order to achieve some of the great things in life you sometimes have to wait it out. People will lie on you, talk about you, laugh at you, tell you it is not possible but if you believe in yourself and make yourself your biggest critic I promise you will get everything you want in life.

If you are reading this right now, you are alive and breathing which means you’re on this earth for a purpose. Go out and fulfill it everyday

I love y’all

Coach Q

Hot bath or ice bath which is better for recovery

Being a college athlete I always wondered which one would be better for my body after practice/ games. At times I would experiment with both and just put my ankles into a cold tub for 5 minutes and then into the hot bath the next day just to see how my body had adapted to it. So the real question is which is better for recovery?

The physiological effects of hot baths and ice baths differ. After a hard practice or run creates micro-tears in the muscles that cause an inflammatory response which is why you tend to see certain joints hurting or swelling. Ice baths are known to limit this reaction by constricting the blood vessels which could in turn reduce the onset of delayed onset muscle soreness. Which is why they are the best choice after post workout activities.

Hot baths on the other hand promote blood flow to the muscles by dilating blood vessels which is something that you do not want immediately after you exercise. However in the days that follow if you are still having pain a hot bath is recommended to increase circulation which helps the healing process.

So the best time to have an ice bath is when you need a quick recovery turn around time such as playing back to back games or your last hard training session before a big race. You will see the difference in your body and will feel a whole lot better.

The truth behind the growth of Gluten Sensitivity

Ten years ago few people knew what Gluten even was and you rarely heard people go into restaurants and ask if you had a “Gluten Free Menu”. Now recently you can find the terms gluten free being talked about everywhere

While we don’t know how many people have this celiac disease but it is estimated to affect 3 millions people in the world which is 1% of the population and has increased over the last 50 years.

Now the real question is, why is this becoming so popular now? Or has this had been an ongoing condition that was previesoly misdiagnosed? Now we will dive deeper into it

Gluten is a protein in rye, barley and wheat. It is also used in dough so the bread can rise, hold it’s shape and absorbs liquids like soup. It can also be used to make soup thicker as well.

Gluten-Sensitivity nor celiac disease are food allergies but they are two entirely different concerns. Some people who are sensitive to gluten may only experience mild symptoms such as an upset stomach.

Celiac disease is an inherited autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that can cause similar side effects but to a more extreme level that could lead to death. When they consume foods like gluten it irritates the gut and your body reacts as if a toxin is attacking it.

THE PROBLEM WITH GLUTEN

Some doctors and scientists believe there is an increase in gluten sensitivity due to environmental and food changes. These changes include

New wheat varieties have higher gluten content
Farmers are using wheat with higher gluten varieties because of their natural insecticide qualities
People are consuming more wheat-based products than previous decades

Some ways that we can solve this issue if you find yourself suffering from this is simply eating grains other than wheat. Healthy and gluten free options include brown rice, oats and millet. Many Gluten free products are higher in sugar,fat and sodium to make up for the lack of gluten and improve the flavor and texture.

Why you should foam roll everyday

Foam rolling is one of the most underestimated tools that people do not realize they have right in front of them. When I first started working out I never foam rolled. I would look at people who did it and judge them because they would do it so much. Little did I know this is one of the best things that I could do.

Now it is something that I do everyday and is a very important routine of mine. This helps me with daily muscle relief, improves my circulation in different muscles and also very relaxing your body.

Just like stretching, foam rolling can be a vital part in injury prevention, increasing blood flow, decreasing soft- tissue density and reliving tight muscles. I would suggest doing this pre and post workout.

After an intense session at the gym foam rolling would reduce muscle soreness which is something a lot of people may not know. It can also improve range of motion. I know for myself after practice or a game if I foam roll when I get to my room my body is less sore than it would be if I just went straight to bed.

Try it out for a week and let me know how your body feels after!

How I dealt with depression as an athlete

Being an athlete I know for myself over my college career was tough at times. What a lot of people may find out if they don’t already know when they read this is what we go through mentally and the road blocks that we stumble across every day. Playing college basketball for me was a blessing in it’s self because not a lot of people where I’m from even had the opportunity to do that. But what some people may not know or realize is the amount of work we put in during the off season. And it’s not one of those ordinary gym sessions at the gym that people go through, WE DO THAT AND MORE.

Some people that are reading this may not be able to relate to what I’m about to say because during their careers or in life they were always content with being average. But the people I am writing this for know that when you want to be the best at your craft the amount you put into is endless. You literally work until your body is incapable of pushing any farther and your mind is telling you enough is enough but even then you still find some way to get one more rep in. No offense to any of the coaches that I ever played for but besides some of the assistant coaches that put in the work to get to where I wanted to be they could never relate to the amount of work I put in nor could they understand why I was the way I was.

With this being said there comes a point in time in your life as an athlete where you buckle down and just know you are about to have a breakout year. To me every year was like this because the amount of time and effort I put in the court and the weight room was ridiculous. I was never partying and if I was talking to some chick she had to understand my grind and she was more than likely in the gym rebounding for me. So when you put in time like this and train like this once the season comes mentally and physically you have a mindset of ” Nobody can fuck with me” and it shows by the way you walk and talk. And it is not being cocky or arrogant but it is having supreme confidence in yourself and your in another zone mentally. This is why people would often try to tear you down or say subliminal messages to try and get you on their level but often times it never works because your in another world of your own.

But then it comes to a point where politics get involved and you have to listen to someone tell you what you can and cannot do. This was my biggest issue because coaches can see when your on another level and putting in more work than anyone else and yeah they will commend you for it but if your not being a “Teachers pet” or talking with them everyday and sucking up to them then they will keep lowering and lowering your ego until you feel worthless. This is what happened to me and it got to a point of me saying “Was it worth me coming here” or “Do I even want to play anymore”. And once you start to question yourself and lose confidence in you, your like a dead fish in a shark tank. You are a target and people will see you differently.

Then things will happen like you’ll sit a whole game for no apparent reason or you will have somebody that you destroy in practice start over you in games and you start to think what is really happening. Then you fall into a pit and I was in a dark place where after games I would turn my phone off and ignore everyone and just sit in my room alone and not eat and have tears coming down my face because I didn’t understand. When you love a sport so much and you know your the best at what you do but you are unable to show that talent and ability when it matters it hurts. But not all coaches but some coaches don’t care and you will go through your entire season miserable.

Some ways that I got through times like this is for one you have to mentally detox from everything and everyone and remember all the work you put in. When you do this you will gradually gain confidence back because of the sweat and tears you put into your craft. Next thing I would say is too stay true to who you are. I never forget I had a conversation with my roommate my junior season and I only played 12 minuted in rival game and I felt as though I was not getting my fair shot and I honestly debated quitting the team and going home. Long story short I stayed in the gym and shot everyday and the next week something happened at practice and my senior point guard got suspended. So that weekend I started I had 15 points and the game after that I exploded for 35 points and I was never looked at the same. Moral of the story is that I could have lived on my emotions and quit and said forget this but I stayed deep in prayer and continued to trust the process and eventually I got the respect that I deserved.

I wanted to share this piece with you all so you have a better understanding of what us as athletes go through. And if your an athlete or someone who deals with depression whether it comes to work or something else feel free to contact my Instagram page @Quinnmitchellii so we can talk. I know this is something that we go through alone because I for one went through it and this is the first time anyone will ever know about it but I don’t want that to be the same for you.

Stay blessed

Coach Q