Tag: fitness

Having trouble sleeping?

They say on average most healthy adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night to function at their best. But, if you are somebody like me you often find yourself scrolling through your phone late at night and then the next day complaining that you are tired. Am I right? So, because I was up until midnight or later my day is a complete struggle. My solution to that is to come back to my dorm after my classes are finished and take a nice long 3-hour nap. That 3-hour nap that I took has now messed up my sleep schedule once again because now I am not tired enough to go to bed at a decent time. 

Lack of sleep can cause confusion, lower your immune system, and effect with your ability to get tasks done. People do not understand that sleeping is a habit just like eating healthy and exercising daily. Now I’m not saying that you missing a few hours of sleep is going to kill you but if you continue to miss the needed hours of sleep regularly this can cause an increase in serious health concerns. 

Below are some tips to help you get better sleep and stay asleep. 

1.    You can schedule your sleep, set up alarms on your phone just in case you get carried away with different tasks during the day which will remind you to get into bed in an hour. That way you can prepare yourself and get ready to transition into getting in bed a lot more easier. 

2.    Try to stay off of your phone before bed. When using your cell phone it produces a blue light which affects your internal clock. When you are on your phone it will cause you to be more alert when you should be winding down. Also, you can find yourself losing track of time while your scrolling through your phone which will cause you to stay up past the time you were trying to sleep.

3.    Exercising on the regular will also allow you to go to sleep better. If you find yourself being exhausted from your workout during the day you will find it very easy to fall asleep at night because your body is tired. 

4.    Lastly, I would suggest using sleeping apps that track your sleep cycle. These sleeping apps allow you to use different settings such as an alarm clock that progressively gets louder so you can wake up from your sleep in a calming way.  

Hopefully you find this helpful, any questions or concerns feel free to contact me!

Coach Q

Workout tips for beginners

Everyone who goes to the gym has two agendas in mind, they either want to lose fat or they want to gain weight. The hardest part when wanting to make a lifestyle change is consistency. Someone once told me a little piece of advice that has stuck with me. That advice was the only person who can stop you, is you. Till this day I truly do live by that statement. During my basketball career, I learned that I had to somehow get an advantage over everyone that I played against. One of the things I learned was how to plan my workout and stay consistent with them. Waking up at 5 AM to train was one of the hardest things I had to do at first, but then, I realized that once I dedicated myself to doing it every day it became easier. 

So, one of the first things that I suggest doing is going to the gym every day (7 days a week). Even if it’s going in there and doing something productive for 30 minutes, and on the 7th day you go in and use that as your recovery time and stretch. It’s the idea of being consistent that is most important. Another thing I suggest is to stay loose while you’re at the gym. Focus on the muscles you are exercising and relax the rest of your body. Being too uptight can hinder your results. When I first started working out, I would always overly concentrate on certain workouts wasting unnecessary energy whereas now when I go in there I can focus on my body and figure out what is tight and what I need to focus more on. 

Some things that I would advise you not to do in the beginning is be glued to the treadmill. When you are constantly just walking or running on the treadmill you will get bored and tired of it. Once this happens your motivation to go to the gym will start to decrease and you will find yourself not wanting to go to the gym all at all. Therefore, you will begin to make excuses as to why you can’t go. A popular line that I am sure all of you have heard or even have said yourself is, “I’ll just go longer tomorrow,” or “I’ll just go harder tomorrow.” When in reality there should never be a time when you are “going harder” every time you hit the gym you should be giving it your all. That’s if you’re serious and you really want results. The last thing I suggest is going to the gym with a positive attitude. As long as you have a positive outlook while you work out, you will enjoy the results more. Of course, your body is going to be going through aches and pain but as my dad once told me, “If it were easy everybody would do it.”

Hope you find this information helpful, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube fitness page as I will be providing free weekly workout videos. Any questions or concerns feel free to contact me

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4w3oinzSGf_GWcu8tWWrlQ

Best Regards,

Coach Q