5 Ways to Stay Feeling Full Longer

 

I am one of the hungriest people you’ll ever meet.

Not even exaggerating, I probably eat at least once every two hours. I’m always carrying snacks with me and munching on something or other. I used to be pretty embarrassed about it—but now I tell people it’s just as much for their sake as mine since I get pretty… well… grumpy when I don’t eat.

But while eating every two hours may seem like a lot now, it’s a huge improvement from the days when I was hungry immediately after my last meal.

It’s taken me a long time to figure out how to stay full for more than two seconds—but since I’ve finally figured out ways to keep feeling full longer (which in turn keeps me happier, less grumpy, and in better shape), I figured I should share what I’ve learned with you guys.

Here are five ways to stay feeling full longer:

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100 Burpee Challenge (And an Android App Update)

100 burpee challenge

So you guys know how much I love burpees, right?

Well, today I’m excited to announce that starting tomorrow, we’re going to be doing a 100 burpee challenge on the first Friday of every month. That gives you an entire day to mentally prepare for the first one… woohoo!

Doing 100 burpees in a row is an awesome way to gauge your fitness level, so I’d really encourage you to do the monthly challenges with us and keep track of your times and how you felt during each one. I’d love to get you guys posting your times in the comments every month so we can all motivate each other to push as hard as we can (yes, I’m going to be doing it too).

Aim for progress, not perfection

If you even attempt the 100 burpees challenge, you are a seriously awesome person and true badass. 100 burpees is tough—both physically and mentally—so I’m automatically proud of every single one of you who tries it. And if you can’t finish it this time around, don’t worry—just write down your time and how many you ended up doing, and try again next month. You will get better, I promise.

For those of you who do end up completing the challenge, here’s a rough benchmark system to help you gauge your current fitness level:

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How to Do a Perfect Push Up

  Let’s face it: there are a lot of misconceptions about what a push up really is. But it’s time to clear that up. Because while it’s absolutely fine to be less than perfect when you’re first starting out, you should know what to aim for in the future and focus on building up the strength …

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7 Tips For a Better Handstand

 

Unless you were a gymnast most of your life and have always been comfortable being upside down, the first time you try a handstand as an adult can be a bit scary, to say the least.

Heck, it’s a miracle if you even get into a handstand in the first place, let alone discover you have the necessary shoulder strength to hold yourself in that foreign position for more than just a few seconds.

And if you did a handstand for the first time ever recently, you are awesome. Seriously. You should be really, really proud of yourself.

But just like as with anything else, as you get better, you’re going to want to up your game. There’s a reason you flop around and fall whenever you try a freestanding handstand (speaking from experience here)—because your form is probably lacking. Get the form right, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your handstands begin to improve.

Here are 7 tips you can apply to your handstand training starting today for a better, more solid handstand:

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From an Hour on a Treadmill to 12 Minutes a Day: Misty's Success Story

Misty

One of the questions I get asked most from readers is whether these short HIIT workouts are really enough to get in shape. 

Because until you try them for yourself and realize just how tough they really are, most people don’t believe that 12 (or 10-20ish) minutes a few times a week is all it takes to get fitter and stronger and in better shape than ever before.

Misty was skeptical at first, too. After recently having a baby (her second), Misty says she fell into a bit of a slump. Although she’d always been in good shape prior to her pregnancy, her recent family addition threw off her schedule, and it became more and more difficult to fit in her workouts. So after feeling like she needed a change, she gave the workouts a shot anyway—and I’m so happy to be able to say, got her time back.

No, Misty isn’t some huge weight loss success story. She’s always been pretty healthy and fit. But she no longer has to spend an hour on the treadmill plus a half an hour or more lifting weights—which, for any new parent, entrepreneur, or generally busy person, is incredibly awesome.

Even better, since doing the workouts, Misty says she’s gotten slimmer, trimmer and harder than ever before. Her husband even calls her the Queen of the Kettlebell!

I hope you’ll be as inspired by Misty as I am—she works hard, and it shows. She’s not intimidated by tough exercises, and her fitness level continues to improve because of it. And best of all, she does it in way less time than before, giving her more time for her family and all the other things she enjoys in life. 

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Learning to Box: The Basics

 

Today I’m really excited to have the first of many boxing tutorials for you.

Boxing is one of my favorite sports and activities of all time and not only is it an awesome way to burn a crapload of calories and get rid of any stress and anger you have, it’s also just plain fun.

There are so many things to cover when first learning to box, but you’ve got to get the fundamentals down first. We’re going to focus today on boxing stance, hand placement, and then end with the two basic punches, a jab and a cross.

Oh, and we’re going to do this all without a punching bag—because shadow boxing is a really legitimate way to learn to box.

Watch the video tutorial to see me being a total dork showing you how to box in my garage:

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How to Work Out Like an Olympian

 

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m crazy excited that the Olympics are here once again.

The amount of talent and dedication that it takes to become an Olympic athlete just blows my mind. From an incredibly young age, Olympic athletes dedicate their entire lives to their sport, sacrificing so much along the way—things that you and I take for granted, like nights out, and hobbies, and not getting up at the crack of dawn every morning of our lives to train.

It’s incredibly inspiring, to say the least. 

And while none of us is likely to go to the Olympics any time soon, we can work out more like an Olympian:

Focus on performance, not physique

When Olympic athletes train, they don’t worry about getting too muscular, or losing too much weight, or whether one exercise is going to make their biceps pop more than another.

Olympic athletes only care about how they perform in their sport, nothing else. They get stronger, fitter and leaner because it helps them be a better athlete—and as a result of their dedicated training, their amazing physique occurs naturally.

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Eating Healthy While Traveling: It’s Not As Hard As You Think

 

Over the holidays this year, I traveled for pretty much three and a half weeks straight with only a day or two in between each trip.

And although I love to travel, every time I take a trip I quickly become aware of how much harder it is to maintain my healthy eating habits and keep up my regular workouts than it is when I’m in my normal routine at home.

In fact, traveling is one of the main reasons people give for not sticking to their normal healthy eating or fitness habits.

And while I’ll certainly admit it’s harder to eat healthy while you’re on the road, it’s not impossible. Here’s how to keep eating healthy even when you’re traveling, working a lot, or just don’t have access to your normal healthy foods:

Pack food to take with you

Whenever I travel, no matter where I’m going, I bring an embarrassing amount of food with me.

That picture at the beginning of this article? Those were just some of the food items I brought on my recent trip to Las Vegas for a blogging conference. In no particular order of importance, the items are:

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How to Get Started With Dips

Want to get crazy strong triceps and build up strength to do the ever elusive muscle up?

Yeah, me too.

Dips are one of those old school exercises that calisthenics masters like Al Kavadlo love—and for good reason.

Not only will dips build up your triceps strength like no other exercise can, they’ll also work the front of your shoulders (anterior deltoids), your chest (pectorals), and your back muscles (rhomboids) as well as your abdominal muscles and core strength. Plus, they’ll get you more functionally strong than any machine-assisted triceps exercise ever will, and should be a staple of your training regimen.

But although a lot of gym goers are familiar with the modified bench dip, most people don’t actually know the best way to scale up the exercise and build up to the full dip using a dip bar or p-bars.

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12 Minute Athlete Full Workout Videos Are Here

12 Minute Athlete videos

Ok guys, you asked for it, and we listened: 12 Minute Athlete full workout videos are finally here.

So many people have told me recently that they’d like me to post videos of the entire workouts so they can follow along or just see how all the exercises fit together in a 12 Minute Athlete workout. So, I’ve made it a goal this year to post a new one every week or so starting now.

Here’s the first one from last Friday’s Speed Demon AMRAP Challenge workout in case you missed it:

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