Ready by Shara

Wellness and Nutrition Coaching

"SHEEEEESH"...the story behind it and a friendship that sparked a life changing love for fitness

May 25, 2021  /  Shara Smith

We end the Month of May with an interview with two funny fellows named Tyler and Josue. Their friendship started just as co-workers and has grown into a bond and love for fitness. I asked them a series of questions about how this all started, what their routines are and what nutrition plan they fallow. They both are honest and thoughtful in their answers and give great advice on how to get started and keep focused. They were generous to give photos of there progress as well. Enjoy!

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How did your fitness journey start?

My fitness journey started around October of 2020. I started going to the gym because around this time I was working from home, working 8 hours at my desk was brutal. I used the gym as a way to pass time, and something to look forward to at the end of the day. I knew I was going to stick with it because it was something I wanted to do for a while. 

How did your partnership come to be?

My partnership with Tyler came to be because we both follow the same bodybuilder, Chris bumstead. He came out with a pre workout and Tyler bought. I asked him to let me know how was it, but that turned into a “hey let’s go hit the gym” 

What is your gym workout plan?
My workout plan is a push pull legs. Push is shoulders, chest and triceps. Pull day is back and biceps. Legs, I like to have a quad focus day and hamstring focus day. 

How do you fit workouts in to your schedule?

The way I fit lifting into my schedule is seeing what time I go in and what time I’m off. If I go in to work early, I’ll go lift after work. But if I go to work late, then I’ll go lift in the morning 

What is your morning routine?
My morning is not too crazy. I usually try to wake up an hour and a half before work and stretch and maybe go on a walk 

What is your nightly routine?
I don’t really have a night routine. I’ll just eat some almonds and a protein shake about 30 min before going to bed. Obviously, brush my teeth too lol 

Supplements?

The supplements I take are creatine, protein shake and pre workout 

What is your diet like?
My diet is the same everyday. Lunch: egg whites, bagel and protein shake. 1st dinner: chicken, white rice and bell peppers. 2nd dinner: ground turkey, white rice and peppers. Snacks: rice cakes, pop tarts, almonds, rice cakes, halo top ice cream. Snacks vary day by day 

What results have you observed from your fitness journey?

Well I have definitely seen how my body has changed because of lifting. I also have noticed that I am more disciplined, not only with eating and lifting but with life overall. I’ve also made a lot of friends through the gym, which is great because even though we are doing different things, we can all relate. 

Advice?

The advice I would give someone about is be patient. Everything takes time. And do compare yourself to others. Everyone has a different goal, all you have to do is focus on yours. Ask for help, everyone is there to help you 

How did the SHEEEEESH sweatshirts come to be?
The “sheeeeesh” hoodies came to be because Tyler and I would always say it. Tyler has done a lot for me, so I thought it would be a great idea to get some hoodies made for the both of us. Why not make a hoodie about a word we always say lol 

What are your future goals with your fitness?
My future goals with lifting is to keep on going and see how far it takes me. At the moment I’m doing it because I really enjoy it and being a able to lift with Tyler is great. It’s helped us get closer as friends. Later in life, hopefully in 2 or 3 years, I would like to compete for a bodybuilding show. 


How did your fitness journey start?
- I started watching a lot of YouTube videos by a few fitness related people, Jeff Nippard, Chris Bumstead, Greg doucette. I’d previously been relatively active in weight lifting, and wanted to get back in to it. I also had some interesting life experiences come around that the gym was a good outlet for.

How did your partnership come to be?
- I came back from my career experience and I totally forget this every time, but somehow Josue and I just hit it off one day. At some point we hit the gym together, bonded over memes and “sheeeeesh”, a weird love for Chris Bumstead, and the rest was history.


What is your gym workout plan?
- I run a pretty consistent PPL (Push, Pull, Leg) split. This would mean that on a Monday I do push related exercises, things like bench press, shoulder press, tricep extensions, etc. On a pull day I’d do seated rows, lat pull downs, curls, etc. On a leg day, I’d do a solid amount of squats, Bulgarians, cardio, lunges, leg press, etc!

How do you fit workouts in to your schedule?
- I removed video games entirely one day, and just decided to focus on fitness, now its more a habit than anything else. You always have some time for fitness, no matter what your schedule looks like. There is always time on a schedule to get to the gym if you’re really about it.

What is your morning routine?
- Depends entirely on if I open or not. If I open, then I try to be up by 6:00 AM to get solid food in. Typically we aim for 600~ calories, and a low amount of caffeine early in the day. If I don’t open, I sleep in until 7:00 AM~ and attempt the same thing, with a gym session early in the morning. If I have a full day off, we sleep until 8:00 AM, open the day with a coffee or tea, read something or listen to a podcast and get everything set up and taken care of. Getting stuff done in terms of laundry, cleaning, meal prepping and etc makes it easy to relax and be in a good headspace for lifting.

What is your nightly routine?
- Check calories and what I’m missing from a nutritional point of view, take my capsules for various supplements, get in some stretching if I really feel like going the extra mile. I love to be asleep by 9:30/10:00 at the latest, sleep is almost more important than anything I do in the gym.

What is your diet like?
- When I originally started it was kind of insane. We pushed to 3500~ calories per day, it was an extremely clean 3500 calories a day as well. Chicken, rice, potatoes, salmon, avocado, whole wheat toast, hard boiled eggs, almonds, coconuts, etc. We removed soda and energy drinks entirely (relatively easy, I don’t enjoy carbonated drinks). Cooking that much food took a lot of time, and was pretty involved, the way I motivated myself was by thinking, “I’m not going to go to the gym and crush my body for 2 hours and then eat like garbage.”

Now I tend to just have it mapped out in terms of what I need to steadily gain, versus rapidly gain. Today for example, we had a protein shake, protein bar, applesauce and two eggs for breakfast. For lunch I had an açaí bowl, brownie, and an undertow. For dinner, I’ll likely have ground turkey, white rice, potatoes, and a veggie medley.

What results have you observed from your fitness journey?
- I gained a ton of weight, and its heavily muscle based. I’m sure anyone that follows me on instagram has seen a progress photo from me at some point, it is very nice and an encouraging thing to go through. I feel as though my goals are constantly being reached, and it motivates me to not make excuses for myself. When I was much lighter, I used to make excuses for not eating right, not working out, etc, saying I had a fast metabolism and I ate a lot. Now I genuinely do eat a lot, and I workout correctly, with intention. It is very nice.

Advice?
- Just start doing stuff. You don’t have to go to a fancy gym, or even go to a gym at all. We have Apple Fitness+, we have personal at home gyms, etc. Start with just eating better, or educating yourself using someone like Jeff Nippard. Figure out what motivates you, and really double down on it, for me its Chris Bumstead, for you it might be a six pack.

How did the SHEEEEESH sweatshirts come to be?
- Josue literally made them with his family and gave me one, G.O.A.T gym partner.

What are your future goals with your fitness?
- Ideally, I’d like to end up sitting around 165 lbs, I’ll go through a bulk phase this winter and attempt to push in to the 190lb range for body weight. A bulk includes putting on a fair amount of fat as well, and working mainly strength related things. Then during the summer you cut down on the fat content and lean out, which I’m super excited for.



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Their energy is infectious and more people have joined in on their quest for fitness. They have quite a SHEEEEESE movement happening. If you are lucky you can join in and be apart of what they have created and most luckily build some muscle, get support and laugh so hard that those dream six pack abs will become a reality.

Happy Wellness Wednesday!

Shara

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tags / Fitness, Nutrition, Interesting People, Gaining Muscle Mass

Exercise Science Training Principles

May 18, 2021  /  Shara Smith

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This Wednesday we will learn about a very core theory in Exercise Science called the Training Principles. If you where ever trained by a personal trainer or played college sports you will have an understanding of what these are. You may not know what the exact definition or know that they have a clear objective but your Coaches and your Trainers do. I feel that this knowledge can be helpful to anyone on a Wellness journey. So many people start working out and either get bored, injured or aren’t challenged enough and quit. Once you understand these Principles you will understand when your workouts are failing you because you dont have the knowledge to keep them interesting and progressive to see clear results.

Pictured is one of my favorite humans. Her name is Wendy Whelan and is a retired Ballerina from the New York City Ballet. She made history by being one of the longest performing Dancers in the world with a 30 year career. She retired at 47 which is un heard of in the Ballet world. Wendy is a pure example of what Athleticism is. She was not a Phoneme by any means she happened to be blessed with long legs and a shorter torso, but trained and took care of her body to dance as long as she did. She took ballet classes for hours but is a long time practitioner of Yoga, and Gyrotronics. She also rides bikes, walks all over New York City and eats appropriately and doesn’t do the stereotypical starvation Dancer diet. Her favorite way to fuel her mornings is eggs and avocados with whole grain toast. Her drink of choice is water and lots of iced green tea, no soda or sweet coffee drinks to keep bone loss at bay. She is a pure example of the Principle of Specificity because if you want to be good at something you need to do it a lot and practice, practice, practice along with a proper balance of other forms of fitness to keep you successful.

Wendy Whelan danced with the New York City Ballet for three decades Photo Credits: Paul Kolnik/The George Balanchine Trust Credit/Abramorama

Wendy Whelan danced with the New York City Ballet for three decades Photo Credits: Paul Kolnik/The George Balanchine Trust Credit/Abramorama

This principle is pretty clear. If you don’t use it you loose it. Consistent weight training with proper rest keeps you building and maintaining muscles. So if you over train and become exhausted and then take too many days off then the hard work you did actually does nothing to keep you fit. This is why it is so important to come up with a fitness schedule when you start a new exercise routine. Being exhausted is going to do the reverse of what exercise is supposed to do which is to make you feel strong and give you energy.

This principle is about adapting to repetitive movement where it becomes second nature to your muscles. You have probably heard about muscle memory that your muscles remember receptive movements. In the beginning when you are starting a new form of exercise your muscles become very sore and can be painful because you are training your muscles to move different then your normal movement patterns. Once you do the exercise over and over again you aren’t sore anymore and your body has learned the movement. People that swim, play basketball, golf and baseball wherever specific skills need to be developed for receptive movement.

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The Principle of Progression is build muscle, skill and techniques over time and to not overload the body to stay injury free or keep injuries at a minimum. At the same time not to go too slo or too fast a moderate clip is what you are looking for. For example going to one Vynasa class a week is not going to improve your flexibility, strength or balance. You need to either go to a few classes a week or do some at home classes and then go to in studio to get the benefits of this type of yoga practice. Another example is a weekend warrior with Mountain Biking or Road Biking. Going hard on the weekends and not doing any type of riding like a spin class or strength and cardio training durning the week will guarantee injury and limit your progression.

This Principle is one that goes overboard when we dont do it properly. Many people’s fitness journey starts in a gym setting and with weight training and cardio machines. The Overload Principle states that we must stress the muscles with heavier weights or in different ways to improve fitness, strength and endurance. People can accomplish this not only by lifting heavy weights but with high intensity interval training, Pilates, Vinyasa Flow classes as well for people that want to become more lean but not bulk up.

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I also see this happen quit a bit to individuals. People start fitness programs but want to go at the same rate as others in a group class or or they might have teamed up with friends to do exercise together with. The Principle of Individual Differences is the idea that we are all different in size, weight and athletic ability and are not going to move, train and gain muscle or skill at the same time or at the same pace. So when you are picking a training partner look for someone similar height and build so you can make gains together. If you take a spin class or join a run club don’t be surprised if you are making faster progress than others in the group say if you are tall with longer legs. Also Women need more recovery time than Men do because of our hormones. Older adults need more recovery than younger adults just because older adults have used there bodies for many more years then younger. Our genetics also have a great deal to do with our performance as well. Some people are blessed to be stronger or have quicker reflexes than others. Also some have had a childhood of athletic training so there muscles have more memory for movement and strength and will make training gains faster than other that grew up playing video games.

Have a great Wellness Wednesday! Hopefully learning about these principles will have an impact on your fitness goals and keep you happy, healthy and injury free for many years to come!

Shara

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Cross Training for Recovery and Performance

May 11, 2021  /  Shara Smith

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I think most of us work out or have played sports and danced growing up. The people that had an edge on others are the people that cross trained. I remember when I was running track in high school and dancing through college that my performance only improved with doing a completely different type of fitness along with my training. Once I started weight training, pilates and cardio on the elliptical did my balance improve, my turns become sharper and my recovery from a rough two hour Ballet class become quicker and not as grueling.

This theory comes from the Principle of Adaptation which means once your body becomes use to a specific form of exercise your body does not progress in performance and injury is at a much higher rate. So if you are a swimmer and you just swim and do nothing else you will stop building muscle and burning negative fat stores and over-use injuries occur. So swimming not every day and doing resistance training, yoga and have rest days will create a more injury free experience. Even for a non-professional athlete these techniques should be into practice. We are starting to see more and more over-use injuries even in childhood sports. I have friends that played baseball since they where five and blew out their shoulder and where not able to play in college, which was the ultimate goal and possibly go professional from not cross training and doing proper recovery. Their coaches over played him and over trained him and now he can barely hold his new baby even after extensive surgery and rehab. He pledged that he would not let that happen to his children. I have seen it in swimming, friends that played football and soccer. In the dance would you see it over and over as well. This could happen to a normal gym goer. If you do not vary your gym workouts you can create over use injuries, and stop seeing the results you first saw when you started going to the gym regularly.

Below is a sample of a work out plan that keeps your body guessing:

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Doing exercise with different kinds of equipment is also an easy way to keep your muscles challenged and your body burning last nights pizza and wine! Below are examples of equipment you have seen at the gym and some could be used in your home gym to mix it up and make your workouts more fun and challenging.

Mini Trampolines or “rebounders” are huge in the work out scene right now. They help with many things. It stimulates the lymphatic system which flushes out diseases and keeps cancer cells from forming. Its easier on your joints and gives you a total body work and still gives your muscles a great workout. Bye, bye running and the tread mill this is all you need! Even Vogue did a a write up on the benefits click here to read more.

Mini Trampolines or “rebounders” are huge in the work out scene right now. They help with many things. It stimulates the lymphatic system which flushes out diseases and keeps cancer cells from forming. Its easier on your joints and gives you a total body work and still gives your muscles a great workout. Bye, bye running and the tread mill this is all you need! Even Vogue did a a write up on the benefits click here to read more.

Bands are are a great way to do alternative resistance training in creative ways. Also you can do them anywhere because they are so compact. You can usually by packs of three to six with different levels of resistance. Kyra Stokes has the most comprehensive library on how to use them in workouts if you want to give these a shot. Click here to find out more in an article by Shape Magazine.

Bands are are a great way to do alternative resistance training in creative ways. Also you can do them anywhere because they are so compact. You can usually by packs of three to six with different levels of resistance. Kyra Stokes has the most comprehensive library on how to use them in workouts if you want to give these a shot. Click here to find out more in an article by Shape Magazine.

The Pilates reformer is a great way to take boredom out of a gym weight training routine. It has springs inside that make the tension and intensity the movement harder and believe me will challenge you and your muscles on a different level. Pilates is also great for Golfers and Tennis players that have to use a different muscle groups to articulate fine movements. Swimmers, Road Bikers, Triathletes, benefit from this form of exercise, not just Dancers that it is traditional known for. I recommend taking either a private lesson or doing a few beginner small group classes to get the technique first before you take more challenging classes.

The Pilates reformer is a great way to take boredom out of a gym weight training routine. It has springs inside that make the tension and intensity the movement harder and believe me will challenge you and your muscles on a different level. Pilates is also great for Golfers and Tennis players that have to use a different muscle groups to articulate fine movements. Swimmers, Road Bikers, Triathletes, benefit from this form of exercise, not just Dancers that it is traditional known for. I recommend taking either a private lesson or doing a few beginner small group classes to get the technique first before you take more challenging classes.

I know people have seen these in Gyms and always wondered what they do. They aren’t just for up your push up and pull up game but can do many other exercises. TRX’s are almost a complete home Gym piece of equipment. You can pretty much use it anywhere that has a place to attach it to like a door, tree, play ground equipment. Doing a quick search on the web your can find many work outs for it. Click here to find out more.

I know people have seen these in Gyms and always wondered what they do. They aren’t just for up your push up and pull up game but can do many other exercises. TRX’s are almost a complete home Gym piece of equipment. You can pretty much use it anywhere that has a place to attach it to like a door, tree, play ground equipment. Doing a quick search on the web your can find many work outs for it. Click here to find out more.

We have all scene this scary thing at the gym. Well, skip the treadmill and try this out instead. These large stair steppers are wonderful for cardio but also developing stability in your hips and strength in your joints. Anytime I am on vacation at a resort that has one of these, I jump on for about thirty minutes to burn off any Margaritas I had the night before.

We have all scene this scary thing at the gym. Well, skip the treadmill and try this out instead. These large stair steppers are wonderful for cardio but also developing stability in your hips and strength in your joints. Anytime I am on vacation at a resort that has one of these, I jump on for about thirty minutes to burn off any Margaritas I had the night before.

I know what you are thinking. What is this? Well this is Gyrotonics the Gyrotonic Expansion System. This is a the ultimate in fitness because the system is designed to exercise fine muscle groups and also the larger ones to. The system combines, yoga, pilates, dance, gymnastics, swimming and t’ai chi. There are a couple of places locally you can take private lessons to try this out. Forbes even did a whole write up on it you can read click here to read more about. There is so much research about how high impact exercise like HIIT is actually causing more stress then benefit on our bodies and workouts using this equipment gives us better performance without sacrificing strain and injury. Also if you have any type of back issues this is also highly recommended as well.

I know what you are thinking. What is this? Well this is Gyrotonics the Gyrotonic Expansion System. This is a the ultimate in fitness because the system is designed to exercise fine muscle groups and also the larger ones to. The system combines, yoga, pilates, dance, gymnastics, swimming and t’ai chi. There are a couple of places locally you can take private lessons to try this out. Forbes even did a whole write up on it you can read click here to read more about. There is so much research about how high impact exercise like HIIT is actually causing more stress then benefit on our bodies and workouts using this equipment gives us better performance without sacrificing strain and injury. Also if you have any type of back issues this is also highly recommended as well.


Hopefully this information will make you think about your workouts. Maybe you will try different things like equipment or types of exercise next time our work out. Doing the same type of exercise all the time will keep your body from performing and getting the results you are looking for.

Have a great Wellness Wednesday!

Shara

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categories / Wellness Wednesday
tags / Fitness, Cross Training, Performance Recovery, Athletic recovery