Michael Vazquez – The Ultimate Bodyweight Fitness Platform https://www.michaelvazquez.com The Ultimate Bodyweight Fitness Platform Wed, 16 Nov 2022 01:19:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Michael Vazquez – The Ultimate Bodyweight Fitness Platform https://www.michaelvazquez.com 32 32 Why Quality Sleep Is So Important (And How To Get It) https://www.michaelvazquez.com/why-quality-sleep-is-so-important-and-how-to-get-it/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/why-quality-sleep-is-so-important-and-how-to-get-it/#respond Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:26:31 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=248141 In the world of health, we place heavy focus on major variables like diet, exercise, supplements, and even activities for mental health like meditation.

And, while these are all big players when it comes to our overall health, one major variable is often left out:

Sleep.

Sleep is fundamental and critical not only for basic health, but also for any progress in your fitness or weight loss journey. In fact, if you feel you’re doing everything right but are still plateauing or feel off, you may want to look at your sleep.

Here we’ll dive into why sleep is so important, as well as how you can get the best night’s rest possible.

Encourages Fat Loss

Believe it or not, not getting quality sleep can actually interfere with fat loss. One study found that not getting enough sleep reduced the amount of fat participants lost by 55%, while another found that getting a good night’s rest reduced participants’ calorie consumption by 270 calories.

Pretty wild, right?

The reason sleep influences fat loss and calorie consumption may be due to a few factors. For one, not getting enough sleep is stressful one your body, which may keep your cortisol levels elevated. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and is also known to contribute to fat storage, especially around your belly.

Secondly, not getting enough sleep can also lead to a lack of energy. Your body may try to make up for this by getting more energy through food. This is possibly why getting enough sleep caused participants in the above study to eat less calories.

Keeps Hormones Balanced

The link between your hormones and your circadian rhythm, or sleep and wake cycle, are tightly linked. On one hand, fluctuations in your hormones can affect your sleep, while not getting enough sleep can also affect your hormones levels!

For instance, not getting enough sleep can cause cortisol (also known as the stress hormone) to rise. This is because lack of quality sleep is a type of stressor on your body.

If this is temporary, it isn’t that big of a deal. But, if cortisol is constantly high, it can begin to impact other hormones, such as insulin and leptin. Disruptions in these can then cause blood sugar issues, which can ultimately lead to weight can and other health issues.

Getting quality sleep helps your body rest and repair from the day, which can help normalize cortisol levels. This can help you avoid other hormones becoming unbalanced.

Stabilizes Mindset

We’ve all been there: when we’re running on a few hours of sleep, and small things become incredibly annoying. Our patience is zapped, and our motivation has left the building. The last thing we want to do when we haven’t been sleeping is work out, or worry about our diet.

As you can see, aside from simply zapping our energy, lack of sleep also affects our brain, mindset, and emotions. In fact, survey studies on patients with insomnia have found that lacking sleep can result in higher levels of psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression.

On the flip side, getting quality sleep is more likely to result in a content or positive mindset, as well as more physical and mental energy. This can mean the difference between having enough energy to go for our goals, and avoiding them due to fatigue.

The Best Tips To Get Quality Sleep

If you find yourself not sleeping well or feeling rested, there may be several reasons why. Below are some tips and tricks that address common (but not well-known) reasons our sleep can be interrupted.

Remove All Light Sources

As a society, we’ve become so accustomed to having lights on at all hours of the day that we typically don’t consider how it can affect our sleep.

In reality, even the smallest amount of light has been shown to affect our sleep cycles by disrupting our sleep hormones. This includes light from our phones, laptops, street lights, alarm clock lights, and night lights. In essence, any light in your room at night can potentially be keeping you from a deep sleep.

Why is this? Because the hormone melatonin, which is responsible for helping us get to sleep and stay asleep, is regulated by light. When it begins to get dark, our body starts releasing melatonin in order to help us fall asleep. However, when we are using our electronics in bed or have lights on before bedtime, we delay the production of melatonin. And, if we have lights on in our room at night, or light coming in from our windows, this melatonin production is being constantly disrupted, which keeps us from deep sleep.

For this reason, try to avoid using electronics at least one hour before bed. If you can’t do this, invest in “blue blocking” glasses that help filter out the light color spectrum that impacts melatonin the most.

Also be sure to use heavy blackout curtains if you have a lot of light coming in your windows.

Make Sure The Temperature Is Ideal

Like light, temperature can also disrupt your sleep. Specifically, being too hot seems to be the most common temperature that keeps people awake.

The reason for this is because our body temperature naturally dips during sleep, and rises in the morning to prepare us for waking up. When your body is simply overheated due to the outer temperature, it mimics this rise in temperature in the morning, which then keeps you awake at night.

To avoid this, I personally can’t recommend Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover more. This unique cover technology for your mattress dynamically cools and heats each side of your bed (perfect if you have a partner). It uses a Temperature Autopilot setting to adjust your sleeping temperature to your individual patterns, supporting your unique sleep cycle to maximize recovery and keep you comfortable throughout the night!

SAVE $250 on Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover through this link

Not to mention, the Pod Cover also monitors your sleep metrics, such as your heart rate, sleep stages, and respiratory rate, without having to wear any devices (which can be uncomfortable and end up waking you up).

Plus, The Pod is a mattress cover, so you can simply slide it on top of your current mattress! Because of this, it’s honestly been a dream (pun definitely intended). Sweating at night wasn’t uncommon for me and always disrupted my sleep before I started using The Pod. If that sounds like you too, remember that you can snag it here and get $250 OFF.

Try Herbs or Supplements

Sometimes, vitamin or mineral deficiencies can interfere with our sleep. One of the biggest culprits in this case is magnesium. Around 50-75% of the U.S. population is deficient in this essential mineral, which plays a huge role in sleep.

Magnesium helps regulate your nervous system, including your heart rate and stress hormones. Taking a magnesium supplement before bed may encourage relaxation and deeper sleep. Plus, as a bonus, it may also help ease sore muscles.

Other herbs known for helping with relaxation and sleep include:

• Lemon balm
• Chamomile
• Valerian root
• Passionflower

At the end of the day (can’t help myself with these puns), sleep is one of the most essential elements to not only performing and training well, but living a truly healthy life. Give some of these tips a try and note how improved sleep may be helping your gains, as well as your mindset.

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Recovering From Burnout https://www.michaelvazquez.com/recovering-from-burnout/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/recovering-from-burnout/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:28:24 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=242406 It’s no joke that overwhelm is real, whether it’s overwhelm of our bodies or minds.

Modern culture can be extremely demanding from all angles. Aside from the demands of your career, finances, family, etc … the demand to get and keep our bodies in top physical shape 24/7 can also be damn intense.

Being motivated to change and be your best self is one of the most awesome traits to have; however, this mindset can also cross a line into a place that is stressing you more than it’s serving you!

Enter “burnout,” a phenomena that occurs when we over-work (this includes overdoing workouts) and overwhelm ourselves in the name of success.

Yep, it’s real, and I’m breaking down how to know if you’re close to it, and what you can do about it.


Symptoms of Burnout

Now I want to mention that experiencing burnout and having a bad or low-energy day once is a while isn’t the same. These symptoms tend to become chronic (aka: they aren’t going away) for an extended period of time. If you notice them popping up more often, that is your chance to reevaluate your routine and potentially ease the pressure before you start experiencing full-blown symptoms!







Symptoms of burnout include:

• Nagging/repeated injuries
• Chronic Fatigue
• Sleeplessness or insomnia
• Heart palpitations
• No energy for workouts
• Feeling overwhelmed by life
• Irritability and anxiousness
• Loss of appetite
• Unable to break through a plateau
• Weight gain or weight loss

The first thing you should know is that you’re not alone if you’re experiencing these! I can remember pushing myself too hard with over-training in the past, and my body reacted with similar symptoms. It’s easy to fall into the mindset of (especially when it comes to fitness) “MORE is always BETTER.”

The typical line of thinking goes:

“HIIT workouts are working? Do more of them.”

“Lowering calories or eliminating macros is working? Lower and eliminate more.”

Also, we can assume that if we hit a plateau in our training, doing more workouts or cutting food even more will get things moving again. While there is merit to pushing harder to achieve results, that doesn’t actually equal doing MORE.

Plain and simple: you need to rest as hard as you work. If you’re taking out rest time (this also includes mental and emotional rest) to add in more work, you’re setting yourself up for burnout … because the body grows and recovers during rest.


How to Recover from Burnout

Burnout is essentially the result of chronically elevated stress hormones due to over-training or overwhelm in your life. So, the foundational step in recovering from this overwhelm and reducing stress hormones is to rest.

When we’re training hard or having a stressful day at work, stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, are elevated. This is a normal response to stress, however: it becomes a problem when the elevation is excessive (extreme stress) or chronic (prolonged).

Elevated cortisol in particular can disrupt your hormonal system, interrupting your sleep, causing your body to hold on to fat, and causing exhaustion, as well as many other symptoms on the above list.

When you relax and rest, you give your body the opportunity to stop pumping out cortisol, and instead activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which tells your body it is safe to “rest and digest.”

Try these tips to wind yourself down, and begin the recovery process:

1. Take a week off training. No, this doesn’t mean become vegetative on the couch, but simply to stop intense training in favor of long walks and slow, relaxing movement like yoga (no, power yoga is not included in this! haha).

2. Try deep breathing exercises. One that has shown to help reduce cortisol is called Diaphragmatic Breathing, or “belly breathing.” For just 5 minutes a day, sit comfortably in a chair or lie down. Place one hand lightly on your chest and one on your belly. Breathe in deeply into your belly – your belly should expand outward fully as your diaphragm expands. Hold for a second, then exhale fully, drawing your navel in. Repeat for 5 minutes. This is incredibly effective to do anywhere, including at work.

3. Supplement with magnesium and take Epsom salt baths. Magnesium helps soothe the nervous system, and a large percentage of the U.S. is deficient in it.

4. Try adaptogen herbs. This class of herbs is well-studied and helps your body adapt to stress more effectively, reducing its negative effects on your body. Options include: ashwaghanda, rhodiola rosea, schizandra, and ginseng. (Many of these, as well as anxiety-reducing herbs, are found in Onnit’s New Mood below).

5. Eat more. If you’ve been restricting your food or carb intake, try adding more clean calories and carbs now. Notice I didn’t say binge on junk: think things like more healthy fats and carbs like sweet potato.

6. Get out in nature. Even if it’s just for 5 minutes, add a little nature to your day. Take your lunch break in the park. Put your bare feet in the grass.

7. Come back slowly. When you do start working out again, start slowly. Gradually increase your intensity, and be sure to avoid doing extremely high-intensity workouts more than 3-4 times per week, depending on your current conditioning level. Be sure to add in a full rest day, as well as short periods of relaxation throughout your day, or even before bed.

At the end of the day, know that you have to embrace rest in order to grow. If you have a burnt out foundation, it’s highly unlikely you’ll have the energy and resources to more to a higher level anyway! Rest, reclaim your life, and push yourself … but don’t overdo your training!

Use code: MV10 to save on Onnit’s New Mood:

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Primal Movements And Why We Need Them https://www.michaelvazquez.com/primal-movements-and-why-we-need-them/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/primal-movements-and-why-we-need-them/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2021 19:09:29 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=222782 What does it mean to get “primal” in our movements?

While the word primal might bring up images of cavemen, in the fitness word, this word simply relates to foundational and functional movement patterns.

Integrating this style of movement into your regime has an immeasurable amount of benefits, so I wanted to go deeper into the topic here!

So, let’s get primal.

What Are Primal Movements?

Primal movements are foundational movement patterns that humans have been practicing since, well … the dawn of humans! If you’ve ever heard of primal movements, you may be familiar with the “7 Primal Movement Patterns,” which include:

• The Squat
• The Lunge
• Pushing
• Pulling
• Bending
• Twisting (core)
• Locomotion (jogging/walking/etc…)

Now of course, most of us have done every single one of these movements, whether it was during a workout or not.

The key with truly practicing primal movements, however, is to focus on combining them. For an example-in-action, check out this video:

As you can see, every movement contains within it a primal pattern. When we move through these patterns without isolating them, we move in tune with nature and holistically build our bodies. This is another reason functional workout methods have exploded in popularity in recent years: isolating muscles and movements can be beneficial for building strength in that particular muscle, but it doesn’t help to build overall strength, agility, flexibility, explosive power, and other markers of holistic fitness.

Why Try Primal Movements

Have you ever watched an infant or toddler move? You likely noticed how flexible they were, and how many variations of movements they are able to perform with ease. This is because they are constantly flowing through the basic movement patterns, which keeps them flexible as they grow.

As adults, we become conditioned to performing only a specific set of movements, since we’re rarely crawling on the ground and willfully bending in certain poses. This creates less range of mobility in our muscles and joints, leading to stiffness and less efficient movements. It’s also why even yoga can feel difficult for us as beginners: we’re no longer accustomed to twisting and bending in all of the ways the human body is designed to.

When you begin to practice primal movements, you also strengthen your entire core by engaging in rotational (twisting) movements. Instead of only working your frontal abs and obliques, you target the entire corset of muscles running along your back and your sides. This aids in developing massive stability AND flexibility, which can help you push more weight and master movements that require balance and agility.

Primal movements also combine aerobic (locomotion) with strength and mobility moves, leading to the ultimate synthesis of fitness. This enhances coordination abilities, since you’re training your body to engage in several types of movement patterns at once, rather than isolating them. Here you increase your range of motion and stamina simultaneously, leading to better performance in and out of the gym.

And we can’t forget one of the most important things: primal movements are FUN! In a way, they are reminiscent of dancing, as one movement flows into the other. They are also similar to Eastern styles of movement, like Qigong, and even martial arts. As the mind is connected to the body, these styles of movement also encourage fluidity and decompression of thought, which is why they are utilized in meditative physical practices like Qigong.

Try out the video above a couple times a week, or even develop your own (or freestyle!) primal movement sequence. You’ll likely notice how great you feel afterward – almost like you’ve had a full-body massage!

Let’s get moving: Hit your goals with me in my Total Body Program, available on the MV Fit App!

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How To Improve Your Jumps https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-improve-your-jumps/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-improve-your-jumps/#respond Thu, 05 Aug 2021 20:35:41 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=222447 I get a lot of questions on how to get better at explosive movements (vertical jumps, flying pushups, etc …), and I understand why: it took me some effort to optimize my body to be able to hit these moves effectively!

If you’re struggling with clap pushups or box jumps, I have some tips that can help you fly higher.

How To Lift Off

It’s easy to get discouraged when you see someone in the gym who can clap an entire symphony between pushups … while you’re still struggling with one clap. Or to see someone who makes box jumps and tuck jumps look like cake. But I’m here to assure you: their ease didn’t happen overnight.

So, when you get in to these tips, remember that developing new muscular firing systems (in this case, fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are responsible for explosive movements) takes time.

Step One: Lean Out

This isn’t meant to be a dig or anything of the sort, only to point out that excess weight that isn’t muscle can, well, make it harder to propel yourself into the air. Typically, the leaner you are, the more explosive and agile you can be. Take note: that doesn’t mean go on a crazy strict diet to maintain a ridiculously low body fat percentage so you can increase your plyometric (plyo for short) abilities – it simply means structure your diet correctly, get into doing some of my HIIT workouts every week (check them out on the app here), and focus on practicing as you lean out!

Step Two: Add Eccentric and Plyo Moves

Research on professional gymnasts (who perform a ton of jumps) has shown that the combination of plyometric movements and heavy strength training produces more “power generating capacity,” which is the very thing that will propel you into the air.

Plyo movements are essentially high-impact, jump-based movements, which are heavily incorporated into my own training, while eccentric moves are a little different. Eccentric training puts the focus on the extension, or lowering, phase of movements. For instance: instead of lowering into a squat and pushing back up at the same speed, you would lower slow and controlled into the squat, then push back up.

Studies have shown that eccentric training is one of the most effective ways to increase strength – even more effective in some instances than “standard” training. The reason for this is that lowering slow and controlled puts your muscles under a unique (and tremendous) amount of pressure, causing more muscle fibers to be utilized.

Try this workout to get an idea of the types of moves you should be doing. You’ll notice there are both plyo moves combined with eccentric moves, such as when I lower slow and controlled into a squat (eccentric) and spring up into a full jump squat (plyo):

Step Three: Mobility and Agility

Mobility and flexibility are two things that are going to help you be able to move through full ranges of motion. This is important when it comes to executing explosive movements, as your ability to spring high relies on your ability to first go deep.

To give an example of this, if your hips are very mobile and flexible, you’ll be able to sink lower and deeper into a squat. This will then provide you with more possible momentum as you thrust up and out of the squat, resulting in a high jump. However, if your hips are stiff, you may not be able to lower as far, which could provide less momentum to propel you higher!

Agility also plays a role in explosive movements, as it helps train your body to react quickly and efficiently. This builds your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are critical in any fast or explosive movement.

Try adding both mobility training and agility training into your weekly regime (you’ll also find these in my app! Grab the FREE trial below). You’ll notice your strength gains will likely benefit as well.

And Finally: Practice

To master the moves you want to master, you have to start, well … trying to do them! Even if you have to add adjustments to make them easier for now, don’t let pride stop you: DO IT! It’s the only way you’re going to be able to execute them. Starting where you are is the most important thing.

Download my MVFIT App for more of the moves you need to take your jumps and agility to epic heights (p.s.: you get a bonus 14-day FREE trial when you sign up here):

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Why You Need To Know Your Motivation Type https://www.michaelvazquez.com/why-you-need-to-know-your-motivation-type/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/why-you-need-to-know-your-motivation-type/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2021 22:36:27 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=222291 Motivation: that elusive force that has the power to transform our entire lives when we have enough of it … or leave us at the edge of a plateau when we’re lacking it.

And unfortunately for many of us, motivation is a touch and go experience. Some days we have a lot, while other times we can’t find the push to get to the gym.

Why is that? And, better yet, what can be done about it?

Well, it turns out there is a secret regarding motivation: there are actually two different types, and if you’re using the wrong type for yourself, you’re going to always feel like you’re lacking it.

Let’s dive in.

Types of Motivation

In general, there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Within these two types are various subcategories, but we’ll get into that in a moment.

Intrinsic motivation is essentially internal motivation. An example of this is someone who completes a fitness challenge because he or she internally desires to: there is not outer motivator.

Extrinsic motivation is motivation received from an external source. An example of this is someone who completes a fitness challenge in order to, say, win a bet, or to win one of the challenge prizes. The motivation is something external.

Neither type of motivation is right or wrong, it’s simply a difference in what pushes each of us! I want to get a little deeper into these though since they are a little general, and get more specific to what type of motivation applies to fitness.

Why? Because think about it: being fit and healthy is a lifestyle. Even if you’re motivated internally, there will be plenty of days you won’t feel like working out. And, if you’re externally motivated, you won’t have an external pressure or challenge every day of your life to keep you going.

As such, let’s dive in to positive and negative emotion.

Are You Positively Or Negatively Motivated?

Over the years I’ve found that discovering whether you’re positively motivated vs. negatively motivated is one of the best ways to help yourself get and stay motivated.

Now, these are different than what you may be thinking. To be “negatively” motivated doesn’t mean that you’re motivated by negativity, but simply that things that exert a pressure on you are more likely to motivate you. For instance, you may be ultra-motivated in a competition, where another person could “beat” you. Or, you may be motivated to eat healthier due to, say, diabetes running in your family.

For a negatively-motivated person, affirmations and positive self-talk, or positive talk from others, is not likely to light their fire.

For a positively-motivated person, however, affirmations and praise are their bread and butter – they need that positivity to push forward.

As you can see, these two types of motivation are very different, and if you’re struggling with motivation, it may just be that you’re trying to make the wrong type of motivation work for you.

For example, perhaps you’re in a group fitness situation (at your gym or otherwise) and everything is oriented around praise and cheering each other on. This is epic and awesome, but if you’re negatively motivated, it may not light that spark. To get yourself into gear, you may want to consider forming a challenge within the group, or a competition of some sort, and if you lose, you have to part with a few bucks!

On the flip side, if you’re positively motivated and are surrounded by negative pressure such as heavy competition with threat of loss, you may not thrive. Consider changing your environment to incorporate more collaboration, and be sure to listen to motivational podcasts, etc …

Changing what you’re doing to motivate yourself, plus switching up your environment to support your motivation type can be the game changer you need to actually stay motivated for the long haul.

The same goes for things like diet. If you’re negatively motivated, you might want to focus on the dangers of continuing to eat a bad diet, vs. focusing on the benefits of healthy foods. And on the flip side, if you’re positively motivated, focus on all of the benefits you’ll gain from eating healthy.

How To Know Your Motivation Type

The key with knowing whether you’re positively or negatively motivated is observation. This may take a couple weeks, but you need to truly observe what lights a fire under you and what doesn’t. What gets you out of bed in the morning: is it encouragement or competition?

Remember, neither type is wrong. Many people will have you believe motivation is one-size-fits-all, and that encouragement is all you need, when in fact, you may need something competitive to light you up.

Watch yourself and structure your motivation as needed!

Download the MV Fit App and choose a goal-oriented program that keeps you lit and gets you fit.

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How To Eat Healthy On Road Trips, Plus My Go-To Outdoor Workouts https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-eat-healthy-on-road-trips-plus-my-go-to-outdoor-workouts/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-eat-healthy-on-road-trips-plus-my-go-to-outdoor-workouts/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2021 17:36:55 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=221563 It’s summertime and the temps are fine … which is why it’s one of the best times to plan a road trip!

And I don’t know about you, but as much as I love road trips and traveling in general, I always have the thought in the back of my mind, “Will I have access to clean food? Will a trip be a setback on the path to my goals?”

This is a valid concern, as you never know what type of food will or will not be available, and also whether or not you’ll be able to hit a gym or find a space to work out.

Because of this, I want to share some tips and tricks I’ve learned from years of eating and training on the road, without letting it interfere with my goals.

Tips to Eat Healthy On Road Trips

1. Snacks, Snacks, and More (Healthy) Snacks

The nightmare scenario: you’ve been driving for hours without a meal, and your stomach is growling. Unfortunately, for the next several hours, it looks like you’ll be passing nothing but gas stations and fast food joints.

In these moments, having thought ahead and packed an abundance of healthy snacks can save your diet. Be sure to grab a small cooler before you hit the road (this will give you much more snacking variety, trust me), and fill it with your perishables: fruits like apples and berries, snacking veggies like carrots and celery, as well as things like hummus, olives, etc … Also consider bringing more satiating snacks like avocado, non-dairy yogurts, and even cold cuts.

Outside of your cooler, pack your protein bars, your healthy cookies, your jerky, (aka: your Erewhon haul. If you live in Cali, you know what I mean).

Packing plenty of snacks takes the stress out of trying to find food and worrying about whether you’re putting a wrench in your progress by indulging in gas station snacks.

2. Embrace The Fast

Most of us are aware of the benefits of intermittent fasting … and these benefits are something to keep in mind when you’re on the road and will be out of food for several hours!

Now, I’m not saying starve yourself, but I am saying that waiting several hours to eat until you reach the next town with better food options is usually the better option than eating extremely low quality or junk food. Not only will your body not enter starvation mode (this takes several days to occur), but will also begin the process of using the energy you normally use for digestion on cleaning up your body and burning fat!

When we fast, our body begins a process called autophagy, where it starts removing built-up cellular debris throughout your body, helping everything run smoother, including your digestion and metabolism.

Sounds like a great reason to hold off eating for just a few more hours to me!

3. Bring A Small Grill

If you plan on camping, bringing a small electric grill you can fire up by plugging in to your car or truck can take your food experience to a whole new (delicious) level.

By doing this, you’ll go from eating mostly snack food to being able to grill up meat, tofu, veggies – whatever you pack in that cooler!

4. Download Your Workouts

This is a huge reason I created the MV Fit App. Lack of WiFi can be a serious hangup when it comes to your workouts, especially if you’re in the middle of doing a workout program online!

On the MV Fit App, you’re able to download each workout to watch without WiFi, so you can train in the middle of the woods if you need to.

Try a 14-Day FREE Trial of the app here!

Outdoor Workouts To Hit On the Road

Whether you’re road-tripping, camping, visiting family, etc … below are some workout samples that are perfect for the outdoors (or a living/hotel room)!

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to outdoor workouts is that natural objects can work for you! A log can become a barbell, a rock can become a heavy ball, a stump can become a box, and even a bench can become a platform for your feet for elevated pushups.

In short, nature is your playground, so get creative! And, if you’re in the city but don’t want to do a day membership to a gym, be sure to check out local parks, which typically have trails and things like monkey bars (or even a small outdoor gym).

Take these workouts along with you for inspiration, and let’s hit the road!

1. 22-Set Bodyweight Killer

2. 15-Minute Full Body Bodyweight Workout

3. At Home Bodyweight Exercises

Also, be sure to check out my Body and Burn Ultimate Bodyweight Course, which is filled with regimented bodyweight workouts you can do anywhere, anytime, with just your bodyweight!

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3 Mistakes That Stop Your Shred https://www.michaelvazquez.com/3-mistakes-that-stop-your-shred/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/3-mistakes-that-stop-your-shred/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2021 14:57:23 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=221016 We typically focus on things to add to our lifestyles in order to lose fat.

And, while this is effective when we consider adding in workouts and healthy foods … I’ve often found it’s actually isolating and correcting the mistakes we don’t even know we’re making that have the biggest impact on shredding success.

Here I’m breaking down the TOP mistakes that stand in the way of your shred.

Let’s get ’em.

Top 3 Mistakes That Stop Your Shred

1. Not Tracking Your Progress

A popular mistake I often see in clients that keep hitting plateaus is a failure to track their progress.

Now, many people may prefer to not track, say, their weight too closely so that they don’t become obsessed with numbers, and that’s fair.

However, you have to have some type of way to track what’s going on, otherwise you will never know why a method is or isn’t working for you!

For instance, if you aren’t keeping track of your diet, workouts, and some type of progress (whether it’s tracking inches or how your clothes fit), you aren’t going to be able to see what is working and you need to continue, or what may not be working so that you can change or correct it.

And, another angle to this: if you don’t track your progress, you may not even realize how far you’ve come. Even if you haven’t reached your ultimate goal, being able to recognize specific milestones can give you a huge motivational boost to keep going!

I recommend you always track your progress, even if it’s just a brief weekly rundown of whether you lose any inches, how your diet is making you feel, etc … I also recommend writing this down so you can reference it during your journey.

2. Switching Programs Too Often

This is another common one, and I think we’ve all been here at some point in our journey. In our “instant” society, we’ve been conditioned that if anything is taking “too long” to occur, we must be on the wrong path, using the wrong approach, are in the wrong program, etc …

However, when it comes to biology, and especially weight loss, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

At the end of the day, lasting results take time. There is NO way around this.

Now, depending on the program you take and the style of training, you may get results fast(er) than other programs (this is why my Body and Burn Course uses unique, rapid-fire movements to help shred fat faster) … but we’re still talking a month or so to see visible changes!

And, while this seems abnormal to us, it’s actually not abnormal in the slightest. Our bodies were designed the way they are for a reason, and the time it takes to lose fat is a normal amount of time (UNLESS there is a medical issue or something is wrong – I’m speaking about those with healthy metabolisms who are doing everything “right”).

The point is: don’t hop from program to program every two weeks. This will never give your body enough time to start showing changes, and will never allow you to see what actually works for you and what doesn’t.

3. Not Learning From Failure

A lot of us tend to view failure as an ending.

“We tried, we failed, there goes that goal.”

I can empathize with this. For years I felt the same sort of discouragement when I would fail.

However … the only time I finally succeeded in ANYTHING was when I realized that this isn’t the point of failure. We aren’t doomed to failure just so we give up and immediately move on (in disappointment) to another goal.

No! Failure is a teacher. At it’s core, failure is presenting you with the outcome of something you tried that still has a variable that needs to be tweaked, eliminated, or fixed. It is a symptom of something you missed in the process, not a final outcome in and of itself.

Once you recognize this, you can find whatever variable it is that you missed, and correct it.

Learn from your “failures.” Find out why something didn’t work. If this means continuing to tweak your diet or regime, do that (just do it one step at a time, and give the process time to manifest results).

Between each tweak, I recommend giving your body at least 2 weeks (ideally a month) to show a sign of adjustment. If you don’t start losing anything after this point, it’s time to find another variable.

Another Crucial Tip

I had to include this here, because no matter how focused you are, or how hard you train … it’s nearly impossible to out-train a bad diet.

Now, you may think your diet is pretty clean, but if you feel like you keep plateauing, you might want to take a LONG hard look at what you’re eating.

The absolute number one thing to look for is if you’re consuming ANY excess or added sugars. You might be thinking, “No, of course not.” However, “sugars” aren’t found exclusively in pastries, ice cream, and candy, etc … I’m talking “sugars” as in how many added sugars are in your protein bars, in your flavored protein shakes, in your morning latte, in your salad dressing, and in your gluten-free, “healthy” cookie.

Sugar is found in nearly all processed and packaged foods, so your first order of business is to eliminate as many as possible, looking for protein bars with a very low sugar count, and sweetening coffee and smoothies with pure stevia.

Much of the sugar issue can be avoided by sticking to whole foods only: try to avoid boxed and packaged items as much as possible in exchange for organic meats, fish, fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, etc …

If you’re needing in-depth guidance on your diet AND want access to the program that will get you shredded like no other, get started on my Body and Burn Bodyweight Course now (also contains comprehensive meal guides!)

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How To Get Motivated To Workout https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-get-motivated-to-workout/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/how-to-get-motivated-to-workout/#comments Thu, 27 May 2021 18:32:48 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=220803 Staying fired up to accomplish your goals is, frankly, one of the most challenging aspects of having a goal. I’m definitely not here to tell you this type of motivation is easy to maintain, as I’ve been there more than once.

Most people see where I am now and only see the success, but the fact is, I started from the bottom of the motivational barrel. I had moments of total loss of motivation, and I remember very clearly how damaging it can be to progress and life in general.

Here I’m sharing the best tips I’ve ever experienced on increasing (and keeping) the motivation high as you work toward your goal: whether it be losing weight, gaining strength, or even starting a business or completing a project.

Let’s hit it!

Top Ways To Increase Motivation

1. Step One: What’s Getting In Your way?

Diving deep into the root cause of your lack of motivation is one of the most crucial steps to being able to increase it. After all, if you try to move forward on a path but there is a huge block in the road, you’re not going to get very far!

Lack of motivation typically stems from several factors, which is why it’s important to isolate which ones may be affecting you. For instance, you could lack motivation due to not truly believing that you can accomplish your goal, OR you could simply lack motivation due to burnout or not having enough time in your day to dedicate to your goal.

These are very different reasons for not being motivated, and as such, they each require a different approach! In the first case, you may have to ask yourself why you don’t feel like you can accomplish your goal, and then break down the goal into smaller, more achievable milestones.

In the second case, you would need to consider simplifying your workload in some way in order to support your goal, OR lengthen the timeframe toward your goal if necessary.

In any case, it’s extremely beneficial to identify what you believe is causing the lack of motivation so you can begin to address it directly and purposefully.

2. Create Milestones

Often, we can lose motivation when it seems like our goals are so far away from where we are now. For instance, you may have an extra 40 lbs to lose, and your goal is to reach a very low body fat. It can be de-motivating to think you’re likely going to lose only 1-3 lbs per week (if you want to be sustainable) on your journey, which can seem like a long time to wait.

This is why, in my opinion, creating milestones is so important! This is because when you reach the smaller, more achievable goals on the way to your bigger goal, you receive a boost of motivation and encouragement to keep going.

This can look like breaking down your weight loss goals into smaller goals, such as losing 5 lbs, or 1 inch, instead of 40 lbs and several inches. In this way, you can achieve the small goal, then set a new small goal, and repeat until you’ve reached the “big” one.

3. Create A New Routine

If you’re lacking motivation due to not having enough time or energy to progress toward your goal, try creating a new routine that incorporates the goal. This is sometimes hard to do if you’ve been in one routine for awhile, but often if you try to look at your daily or weekly schedule with fresh (and discerning!) eyes, you can find time slots to, say, get in a short workout or meal prep.

You may have to get brutally honest with yourself here, and possibly make some sacrifices. Do you spend 30 minutes to an hour scrolling on your phone any time during the day? Do you watch Netflix more than a couple time per week? If anything like this is going on, you may have to put a cap on them until your progress toward your goal is getting accomplished.

4. Celebrate Your Wins

Remember the idea of creating smaller milestones within your goal? Make sure that you also celebrate them!

It can be de-motivating to never celebrate small wins or to forgo treating yourself, so don’t forget to gift yourself a treat once in a while (it doesn’t have to be food, it can also be a massage, a gift, etc …) when you do hit a milestone.

5. Make Your Goals Visible

We’ve all heard of vision boards, and while many people claim “envisioning” your ideal can be a little “woo-woo,” in truth, seeing what your working toward every day acts as a huge reinforcement for why you’re making sacrifices.

Save photos of the physique you want and look at them everyday, work out around people who have built the strength that you desire, watch videos, read motivational quotes or autobiographies: whatever you feel gives you that boost of inspiration to keep going.

6. Ask Yourself This Question Everyday

The cold, hard truth is: we’re all going to die.

Obviously, most of us know this, but we tend to push it into the recesses of our mind in order to avoid it. Why? Because facing it head-on would (or should) cause us to immediately set to work doing everything we’ve ever wanted to do, which requires a level of self-responsibility we don’t like to accept. .

So ask yourself: If I were to die 6 months from now, would I be happy with where I am? Really think about it. If you kept living the way you did this week, or this month, would you really be proud of yourself in 40 years? Would you be the same?

The answer to that is, yes, if you don’t choose to make a change now, you will likely be the same years from now.

If that’s not a motivating factor, I don’t know what is. So, if you’re ever feeling unmotivated, really dwell on this and remember that every day you put off is a day wasted of the person you could become.

Are You Ready To Radically Transform Your Entire Body From Head To Toe, With Just Your Body Weight? Join Body & Burn And Experience My Unique “Rapid-Fire” Training Method Proven To Get Results.

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When Is The Best Time To Workout? https://www.michaelvazquez.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-workout/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-workout/#respond Wed, 12 May 2021 19:31:59 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=220398 The question of what time of day is best to work out is one of the most popular questions I receive when it comes to training.

I wanted to take a moment to address it here in depth, as it doesn’t actually have a straight answer! Many factors come into play when we talk training schedules, so below I discuss each of them in order to give you a clearer idea of the ideal time for YOU to get your workout in.

When Is The Best Time To Work Out?

As you’ve probably noticed, most people have different opinions on when is the best time to work out. You’ll hear that training in the morning is always the best; that it doesn’t matter if you train in the afternoon or morning; that you should train in the evening due to hormones, etc …

While all of these perspectives are valid, this key factor remains: what time of day is “best” for training depends entirely on your goals, your current schedule, your natural biorhythm, and more.

Let’s dive in.

Your Goals.

Your goals are one of the most important factors when determining what time of day to train. Typically, we see most trainers and gym-goers claiming that working out in the morning (specifically in a fasted state) is the absolute best time to train.

However, the problem with this assertion is that this isn’t necessarily the best time to train as a whole, but the best time to train for fat loss. Training to maintain your weight, training to build muscle, and training to burn fat are very different goals that require different approaches.

The reasoning we often hear that the morning is the best time to train is because we have already used up a good deal of glucose after our night of fasting, so it makes it easier for our bodies to start dipping into our fat stores when we work out early in the morning before breakfast.

Another reason the morning is often considered the “best” time to train is due to the mindset and motivation aspect of getting your workout done early. By getting your goal-activity done first, you’re less likely to procrastinate and put off training later in the day, which then increases your consistency, results, and motivation to keep going.

As you can see, both of these reasons are awesome reasons for hitting the gym early, IF fat loss is your goal and/or you achieve better results by working out first thing. As of yet, studies show conflicting evidence as to whether standard training is more effective in the evening or morning, so if fat loss isn’t your goal, you don’t necessarily have to schedule your workouts in the early a.m.

They key here is to get very clear on your goals: Are you training for fat loss? Then evidence shows morning workouts before breakfast can be ideal for you, as training in the morning has been shown to reduce calorie intake throughout the day (aka: you’ll naturally eat less!).

Are you training for gains? Evidence shows both morning training sessions and afternoon sessions can be beneficial, so take your pick based on what you’ll be most consistent with.

Your Current Schedule.

Obviously your current schedule, whether for work or family, is going to have an impact on what time is best for you to work out.

If you can arrange your schedule to fit the time that best suites your goals, that’s amazing! If you can’t for various reasons, know that consistency is THE most important thing when it comes to making changes in your physique and fitness. Worry less about not being able to work out in the morning, and more about making sure you get a workout in, regardless of the time!

Your Peak Energy Levels

This one is important, as it can make or break your motivation to be consistent with your workouts.

Getting attached to the idea that you MUST work out in the early a.m. (or else) even though you are NOT an early-morning individual is a recipe for disaster. Now, there is a line between being “lazy” and just not wanting to get up and make time for your workout, and actually being biologically wired and more energized by getting more sleep in the morning.

As I mentioned (and I’ll keep mentioning), consistency should be your number one concern when it comes to your training. Often, we try to fit into the mold of someone else’s lifestyle and workout regime because we see how successful they are. However, in the process, we completely disregard what works best for our bodies, habits, mindset, and preferences.

There is absolutely nothing wrong or detrimental about working out in the afternoon instead of the morning, provided working out in the afternoon doesn’t cause you to procrastinate and blow off that workout. If it does, then you probably do need to kick yourself in the ass and get your training in in the morning!

The key here is to know yourself, and gauge when you are most energized during the day, as this can be the best time for a workout. When you’re energized, you’re likely to push harder, thus resulting in seeing more gains.

On the flip side, if you’re tired in the a.m., you’re less likely to push yourself, which could result in subpar gains, even though you’re “working out early” or “fasted.”

The Bottom Line

The best time of day to work out is the time that aligns with your goals + the time that allows you to be the MOST consistent.

Sunup or sundown, let’s GET it!

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The Best Breakfast For Weight Loss https://www.michaelvazquez.com/the-best-breakfast-for-weight-loss/ https://www.michaelvazquez.com/the-best-breakfast-for-weight-loss/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2021 19:27:14 +0000 https://www.michaelvazquez.com/?p=219542 We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but when you’re rushing around in the morning trying to get stuff done and get ready for the day, it can be pretty easy to just skip it. 

If you’re looking to lose weight, however, you’re probably going to want to re-prioritize and make sure you’re squeezing it into your schedule. 

Getting a healthy, balanced breakfast might be the missing link if you’ve been struggling to lose weight because as it turns out, calories on their own aren’t everything when it comes to shedding fat. A high-quality, nutritious breakfast is well worth its weight in calories when it can set the tone for your eating behaviors for the rest of the day. 

So here’s why you should leave a little room in your morning routine for a weight loss breakfast. 

Why You Should Be Eating Breakfast 

Get that morning fuel in (and P.S., save 20% OFF FlexPro Meals with my code: MV20

It’s called the most important meal of the day for a reason. Eating a good breakfast helps with your weight loss goals because it can: 

Start your day off on the right foot. Eating a good breakfast definitely has its place in a healthy lifestyle. Getting up early, having a good morning routine, and eating a healthy and nutritious breakfast are all great ways to set the tone for the rest of the day. Researchers have seen that people who eat nutritious breakfasts tend to choose better foods throughout the day – aka less heavy-carb and heavy-fat choices, and it’s also been associated with better sleep patterns at night! [*

So as you can see, eating breakfast can set the tone for all the good habits that you want to establish when you’re trying to lose weight and get healthy. 

Keep you fueled for heavier workouts. There’s evidence that doing your cardio in the fasted state (in other words, having not eaten for several hours) is a good way to lose weight, but if you have an intense workout sesh planned (think HIIT or heavy lifting), you’re probably going to want to fuel up so you can stay energized. Even if you do choose to do an early fasted cardio workout, you can get the right nutrition to recover with a healthy breakfast right after. 

Keeps you full for longer. If you’re skipping breakfast, you might find that you’re feeling hungry, and that could be a recipe for disaster when it comes to cravings and overindulging later on in the morning. Choosing not to eat breakfast might make your appetite and hunger hormones increase, so you crave more throughout the day and feel less full even when you do eat. This can lead to overeating to satisfy that hunger, and that could essentially “cancel out” the calories you skipped for weight loss in the morning. [*]

Might even help you maintain your weight loss. Maintaining weight loss is a whole different monster than losing weight, and studies have shown that eating a high-quality breakfast is a common habit among people who managed to avoid regaining the weight that they previously lost.  [*

One possible exception to this is if you’re doing intermittent fasting. Many people who intermittent fast correctly and consistently choose to skip their breakfast and start eating later on in the day, and this comes with the benefit of eating fewer calories throughout the day when done correctly. Consistency is key, though, so you shouldn’t expect great results if you’re eating breakfast and intermittent-fasting sporadically. 

What Your Breakfast Should Include 

It’s really important to note, though, that eating breakfast doesn’t mean eating sugary cereals, pancakes, and piles of bacon every day. Just like any meal that you include in your diet when you’re trying to lose weight, it needs to be balanced and well-thought-out if you want to see any results. 

If you want to lose weight, your breakfast needs to be portioned and nutritious, and one of the most important things to make sure it includes is a good amount of protein. 

Eating a breakfast that’s high in protein can help your weight loss goals in a couple of different ways: you’re giving your body the refuel it needs to build muscles after a good workout, which also gives your metabolism a boost. High-protein breakfasts are also just more satisfying than carbs, and can help to manage your hunger hormones and even help process any higher-carb meal that you do eat later in the day! [*

Some good protein-rich foods to eat for breakfast include: 

  • Eggs 
  • Non-dairy yogurt 
  • Chicken 
  • Sausage 

As is the case with any meal you eat while trying to lose weight, make sure that you’re watching your portions and keeping an eye on your calories. 

Breakfasts To Avoid 

On the topic of things you want to avoid in your breakfast, you’ll want to minimize your intake of poor-quality carbohydrates. 

All those classic breakfast foods like pancakes, waffles, french toast, and sugary cereals might be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of breakfast, but those foods are going to be a good reason that you’re not losing weight. 

Not only do they not offer much in the way of nutrition, but highly-processed carbohydrates for breakfast can quickly elevate your blood sugar, which can make your insulin levels spike. [*] This is bad news for weight loss because high levels of insulin can lead to more fat accumulation. 

Instead, get your carbohydrates from healthier sources like fruits and vegetables, and make sure to pair them with protein to avoid intense blood-sugar spikes. For example: 

• Apples and almond butter 
• Non-dairy smoothie with berries 
• Eggs and sweet potato skillet 

The Bottom Line

A good breakfast can be a great tool to have in your weight-loss arsenal, but it truly should be a healthy and balanced breakfast if you want to see the results. Make sure to prioritize protein, choose high-quality carbohydrates, and pair with a good workout routine to start seeing some serious results! 

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