Author: Remson

7 Ways To Cut Negativity Out Of Your Life

Post author By Remson
Post date June 11, 2017

7 Ways To Cut Negativity Out Of Your Life

Let’s talk about 7 ways to cut negativity out of your life. Negativity is successes worse enemy. It has the ability to destroy virtually anything positive and prosperous. The truth is that negativity is only as dangerous as you allow it to be. Us as individuals have the ability to completely control and cut out negativity with just a decision and a few simple habits.

Let me put a little disclaimer here and let you know that the only way to effectively remove negativity from your life, is to change yourself, not anyone else. Make the internal changes and the rest will fall into place.

1. Change Your Environment

If you’ve been getting overrun with negativity, chances are you’ve been marinating in it, literally, and environmentally. Remove yourself from toxic social circles, or any place where you can see, hear, and or feel negativity. Find a peaceful, quiet place where you can focus on cultivating a positive mindset.

2. Keep Your Living Space Clean

Have you ever given your place a complete overhaul? I mean a thorough cleaning top to bottom, dusting, organizing,etc. How did it make you feel? Personally, it brought me great joy and clarity. I felt like I could breathe and get my life together. If you’re bogged down by negativity and need to feel that mental freedom and clarity, start picking up after yourself and get to cleaning. Let your living space reflect how you want to feel.

3. Start Working Out Daily

Endorphins are a type of hormone that causes a state of euphoria throughout the body. Things like sex and exercise are two of the main activities that can cause an endorphin rush. I recommend exercise here because unfortunately, not everyone has such a booming sex life.

A big part of shedding negativity is physical self transformation. People tend to have weight and body image issues which lead to low self esteem, and ultimately negativity. If you’re not happy with yourself, you may project those negative feelings onto other people, judging and criticizing them. Getting in shape gives us a sense of achievement, making us feel competent, resulting in positive self perception.

4. Avoid Negative Media

Everything we expose ourselves to will always effect our state in some way shape or form. Many of us have a tendency to gravitate toward drama, and violence in the form of entertainment. This constant stream of negativity shows up in our behavior. It effects our mood, our ability to learn, and our productivity.

Watch enough war movies and you might start to develop a fetish for guns, be desensitized to violence, or even develop aggressive behavior towards others. All the time we spend watching negative nonsense is opportunity we miss to engage in something positive like learning and working towards our goals to reach a sense of fulfillment.

Everything we partake in, comes down to making a choice between positive and negative influence.

5. Stop Participating In Negative Speech

We get easily sucked into a prolonged state of negativity due to the fact that words have more power than we realize. Hearing negative speech has the capability of reprogramming our thought processes over time. Whether its someone else’s speech or our own, it works just the same and needs the same level of vigilance. This means that you have to avoid entertaining the negative speech of others, and it also means, no negative speech from you either.

You can either give thanks for the good in your life, or you can complain constantly and be consumed by how bad you feel about what you don’t have.

6. Speak Positive To Yourself, About Yourself

No one is going to take care of you better than you can take care of yourself, therefore we should treat every morning that we wake as an opportunity to empower ourselves. Speak love to yourself, look in the mirror and speak words of confidence to yourself. “Nothing has the right or ability to defeat me!” “I am powerful, unique, and filled with greatness!” “I am getting everything I want out of life!” Repeat words like this to yourself daily and habitually without fail and watch your life change.

7. Listen To Positive Audio Everyday

Speaking positive to ourselves is powerful without question. Now couple that with the power and encouragement from others and you have the ability to completely erase and repel any negativity. To provide that external voice of power, very successful life coaches and motivational speakers have created audio books and things of that nature. In a world where negativity is so easily thrust onto us, empowering speech is mandatory for all of us, no exceptions. Even the most successful people on the planet abide by this rule and invest in positive audio. From personal experience I can tell you that applying this ritual everyday, is life changing.

Apply these methods and incorporate them into your daily life, and watch your life change drastically.

Drop a comment below and let me know which ones of these you see helping you.

Tags mindset, personal development, stress relief

Fitness & Training

The Most Important Training Factor For Muscle Growth

Post author By Remson
Post date June 8, 2017

Tribe By Noire

The Most Important Training Factor For Muscle Growth

You can go on google right now and type in “the best way to gain muscle” and all types of different answers will pop up. This is one of the reasons why most people have no idea what to do. What I aim to do here is simplify this topic as much as possible. I’m going to give you just ONE thing to focus on. So let’s talk about the most important training factor for muscle growth.

Focus On The Muscle Contraction

Focus on the muscle contraction! Sounds simple enough right? You see, training just serves as a form of stimulation, so greater stimulation naturally leads to greater gains, assuming you’re eating the right foods and sleeping enough. What I’ve come to notice in my years of training clients is that most people don’t really have this understanding, so they never really focus on the contraction of the muscle they’re targeting. Maybe you’re guilty of this also.

What To Do When You're Not Feeling It

Its actually pretty common for people, especially beginners to not really feel the muscle working. The reason for this is a lack of what we gym rats call “The Mind Muscle Connection”. You have to develop a connection between your mind and whatever muscle your targeting. This can pretty difficult to do during complex movements. Pretty common examples of this are.

Not feeling your butt, or hamstrings during a squat or deadlift.
Not feeling your lats and mostly feeling your biceps in a row or pulldown.
Only feeling your shoulders in a chest press.

If you identify with any of these examples, I’d advise you to take some time out in the beginning of your workout to do some isolation exercises that specifically target those dormant muscles. Some examples of that would be.

Hip Bridges and/or Donkey Kicks to target glutes.
Single Arm Lat Pulldown with a lateral torso flex to target lats.
Neutral Grip Cable Flys to target pecs.

*Become a member at Tribe By Noire to get video tutorials for all of these exercises and more. Extensive training programs are also included.

Take your time with each rep while performing isolation exercises to get the most benefit to your mind muscle connection.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, mass gain, muscle growth, power building, training strategies

Fitness & Training

3 Reasons To Not Do Cardio Before Lifting

Post author By Remson
Post date May 8, 2017

Tribe By Noire

3 Reasons To Not Do Cardio Before Lifting

One of the most common mistakes that people make in the gym is setting cardio as priority number one. The first thing most people do when they first enter the gym is hop on a treadmill, elliptical, or recumbent bike. In a society plagued with overwhelming levels of obesity, cardio becomes an obsession, due to the belief that its the best and quickest way to lose weight. The truth is, resistance training should be priority number one if your goal is weight loss, and body re-composition. Let’s talk about 3 reasons to not do cardio before lifting.

Lifting is way better than cardio for weight loss

First lets talk about cardio and its primary focus. The purpose of cardio is implied in the name “cardio” as in training your cardiovascular system. There is great benefit to improving your cardio performance, and you’ll even lose some weight from it, but primarily focusing on cardio for weight loss will cause you to neglect training the bodily systems that use the most fat for energy.

Its during rest and other low intensity activities where you burn the most fat. This is why cardio activity like running isn’t the best for fat reduction and definitely not good for your knees. You’re better off walking long distance rather than running. During your workout, your body will use carbs for energy which brings me to my next point. If fat is mostly used during rest, it would be wise to prioritize the activity that causes the most energy usage after the workout (rest). That activity is weight lifting, or resistance training in general.

The reason for this is recovery. It takes longer and requires more energy for the body to recover from lifting than cardio does. I wouldn’t tell you to completely cut out cardio, but if you’re gonna do it, do it at the end of your workout, or on days where you’re not lifting.

3 Reasons To Not Do Cardio Before Lifting

Cardio Before Lifting Will Hurt Your Training Performance

You only have a certain amount of energy to give within your workout, so you don’t want to be wasting it on cardio if you’re trying to build muscle and drop body fat. Lifting or any type of resistance training only builds muscle if the muscle is challenged and stimulated enough. You won’t be able to really challenge your muscle enough if you’re fatigued.

Cardio Before Lifting Will Hinder Movement Quality

When I say movement quality I mean muscular function and range of motion. The reason why this happens is because pre-exhausting the body will cause certain muscles to not fire with the amount of force that they are supposed to. For example, running can cause fatigue and tightness of the quadriceps and calve muscles, often results in excessive stress at the knee joint, hip, and lower back. This will not only hinder movement and create discomfort, but it often results in various injuries.

Cardio Before Lifting Can Lead To Over Training & Muscle Loss

Overall work volume is a big component to effective training. One of the fatal flaws that hold most people back from their fitness goals is doing too much! Doing cardio and then pushing your body through a rough lifting session on a consistent basis can lead to over training and muscle loss. A lot of work and not enough recovery leads to frustration and often causes people to lose motivation and quit. For more info on how over training works, read this.

The Perfect Warm Up

As far as warm ups go, the best way to warm up is to work your way through a couple of dynamic mobility exercises that specifically prep the muscle groups you’ll be using in that training session. For example, if you’re going to be doing legs, prep and get blood flow to the muscles that move your hips, knees and ankles.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fat loss, fitness tips, muscle growth, powerlifting, training strategies, weight loss, weightlifting

Nutrition & Supplements

Lose Fat And Fix Your Gut With Prebiotics

Post author By Remson
Post date May 8, 2017

Tribe By Noire

Lose Fat And Fix Your Gut With Prebiotics

Anyone who has taken an interest in gut health more than likely has heard about probiotics and the benefits of them. If you don’t know, the live bacteria of probiotic foods help tremendously in fighting off any issues in the gastrointestinal tract and maintaining a positive environment in the digestive system which ultimately lead to fat loss. They also play an important role in strengthening your immune system. Probiotics are found within the cultures of dairy foods, and yogurt also. However there is the vital resource that is not nearly as popular, but just as important, prebiotics. This guide will teach you what you need to know about prebiotics, how they are related to probiotics, how they help you, and the abundance of foods that contain them.

How Are Probiotics & Prebiotics Related?

Probiotics and prebiotics are essential to healthy gut function. Probiotics are live microorganisms that live in your gastrointestinal tract. They help the digestive process by cleaning out the gut so things can continue to flow smoothly. Like any living organism they need to be fed in order to survive and grow. This is where prebiotics come in. Prebiotics act as a food source for probiotics.

How Do I Get Prebiotics?

Prebiotics are un-digestible plant fibers that live inside the large intestine. When you consume foods high in prebiotics, those prebiotics will then fuel the growth of probiotics, resulting in healthy gut function.

You’ve more than likely already ingested prebiotics and not even realized it. Prebiotics are found in a variety of foods, mainly in high fiber vegetables. Vegetables that are high in fiber are typically also high in probiotics.

Here's A List Of My Top 7 Prebiotic Foods

Raw Chicory

You can find chicory root in healthy food stores as a supplement or in grounded form. People often use it as a replacement for coffee because it tastes like coffee, but without the side effects that some people experience like jitters, headaches, and trouble sleeping.

*The prebiotic statics of Raw Chicory Root are, 65% weight in fiber. Amount of daily serving needed would be 9.3 grams

Raw Jerusalem Artichoke

It looks more like ginger, but its name comes from it tasting like an artichoke. You can put it in salads and you can also boil it, satee it, or roast it to get a creamy potato. The Jerusalem Artichoke has a low glycemic index so it can be a good alternative to potatoes for diabetics.

*The prebiotic statics of Jerusalem Artichoke are, 31.5% weight in fiber. The daily serving amount needed is 19 grams.

Raw Dandelion

To get the prebiotics of Raw Dandelion Root into your diet try putting it in with your salads, sandwiches, stews, casseroles, soups or herbal teas. The taste of it can be a bit acrid so to deal with that, you can blanch them in boiling water for 10 – 20 secs, but not too much, or you’ll neutralize the prebiotics.

*The prebiotic statics of Raw Dandelion Root are, 24.3% weight in fiber. The daily serving amount needed is, 24.7 grams.

Raw Garlic

Add Garlic to your diet in many different ways.

Guacamole
Hummus
Vegetable Stir Fry
Add it to pasta for some extra flavor.

*The prebiotic statistics of Raw Garlic are, 17.5% weight in fiber. The daily serving amount needed is, 34.3 grams.

Raw Leeks

Aside from the fact that raw leeks are a great source of prebiotics, they actually taste pretty good and go well with just about anything. Try’em in garden pastas, salads, and also as anedible garnish if you feel like getting fancy.

*The prebiotic statics of Raw Leeks are, 11.7% weight in fiber. The daily serving amount needed is 51.3 grams.

Raw Onion

Most of the flavonoids are in the outermost layers of the onion, so try to peel off as little as possible before chopping, dicing. Onions are a tremendously potent food and are a great source of prebiotics, but cooking them will lower the nutritional quality and kill off a large quantity of the prebiotics.

*The prebiotic statistics of raw onion are, 8.6% weight in fiber. The daily amount needed is 69.8 grams.

Raw Asparagus

Raw asparagus is another great source of prebiotics. For many of us, raw asparagus is tough to eat, but it can be pretty tasty and less tough when its fermented. You can also try blending it into a smoothie.

*The prebiotic statistics of raw asparagus are, 5% weight in fiber. The daily amount needed is 120 grams.

How Much Prebiotics Should I have?

In order to get the full effects of prebiotics, you should try to consume at least 5 grams of prebiotic-dense foods per day.

*Note that cooking these food source can also lower the quantity of prebiotics in them, so I’d suggest eating raw if you can.

Over all, prebiotics is the key to having a healthy gut and speedy metabolism. Eat your greens and get lean!

For more info on gut bacteria and the micro biome, click here.

Hope this helps you guys out!

-Remson

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags diet strategies, fat loss, gut health, improve metabolism, nutrition plans, plant based diet, vegan, vegetarian, weight loss

Nutrition & Supplements

5 Important Things To Know About Fiber

Post author By Remson
Post date May 7, 2017

Tribe By Noire

5 Important Things To Know About Fiber

Generally when people talk about diet, they talk about protein, carbs, fat, and calorie counting. You may even hear a general mention of fruits and vegetables, but when was the last time you heard an in-depth discussion about fiber and gut health? Well if its not something you’ve heard about often, I want to talk to you about 5 important things to know about fiber.

1. What is Fiber & Where Is It Found?

Fiber is basically the threads that make up the tissue of plants. In regards to your diet this fiber is known as dietary fiber, or roughage. Its a type of carbohydrate that can not be digested by the human body. Due to the fact that it can’t be broken down by our bodies, it passes through our digestive tract pretty much intact, but what it does along the way is what’s important.

Here are some of the functions of dietary fiber.

Regulating digestion
Regulating blood sugar
Maintaining cholesterol levels

Dietary fiber is exclusive to a plant based diet and is not found in meat, dairy, or eggs.

2. Soluble Fiber & Insoluble Fiber

There are two different types of fiber that both important to have in your diet called soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Most plant based foods have a mixture of both even though its not specified on the label.

Soluble Fiber

Soluble fiber dissolves or swells in water almost becoming a gel like substance. This is also soluble fiber interacts with the fluids in your gut. To give you a quick visual, think about the consistency of oatmeal when it sits in water. That’s a sign of a particular food being high in soluble fiber. Soluble fiber reduces cholesterol levels and stabilizes blood sugar levels. Foods that are high in soluble fiber are beans, fruits, and oats.

Insoluble FIber

Unlike soluble fiber, Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water. The purpose of insoluble fiber is to add fecal bulk which is great for preventing constipation. All plant based foods, especially vegetables, wheat, wheat bran, rye, and brown rice, are full of insoluble fiber.

3. Fiber Fermentation & Gut Bacteria

Fiber fermentation is a process that both soluble and insoluble fiber goes through in the large intestine that result in the production of certain gases and acids that have many significant health benefits. Here are some of those health benefits.

Stimulation of good bacteria production in the colon
Stabilization of blood glucose which helps people avoid diabetes
Suppression of LDL (bad cholesterol) which helps avoid the hardening of arteries and heart disease
Increase of lower gut acid levels, which protects against cancerous polyp formations and helps the body absorb essential minerals such as iron, calcium and magnesium
Inhibition of inflammation by improving the protective layer in the lower gut
Stimulation of the immune system by boosting production of helper cells and other antibodies
Reduction in the number of dangerous conditions associated with an unhealthy diet, including obesity and a diverse array of gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

There are 7 foods that are highest my list in regards to fiber.

Chicory Root
Jerusalem Artichoke
Dandelion Root
Garlic
Leeks
Onion
Asparagus

For more information about how to fix your gut health and increase good gut bacteria, read this article here.

4. How Much Fiber Should You Consume Daily?

Statistically the average adult only consumes about 15 grams of fiber per day which is nowhere near enough. I won’t give you an exact cookie cutter amount, but a good baseline minimum is around 20-25 grams per 1000 calories. This is only a minimum and in reality your fiber intake should end up much higher than this on a balanced plant based diet.

5. can you consume too much fiber?

Having too much fiber in your diet is a very unlikely circumstance, but it is possible. This can be caused by overeating foods that are very high in fiber. Here are some signs that you’ve consumed too much fiber.

Gas and bloating – caused by the expansion of soluble fiber.
Loose stool – caused by excess water retention in your fecal matter
Constipation – soluble fiber absorbs water and too much water absorption can harden fecal matter
Dehydration – fiber uses up a lot of water in your system so increasing fiber intake without increasing water intake can deprive your organs of water.

In order to avoid these issue, increasing fiber intake should be gradual process, not anything drastic because your body needs to acclimated to these dietary changes.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags diet strategies, fat loss, gut health, improve metabolism, nutrition plans, plant based diet, vegan, vegetarian, weight loss

Fitness & Training

Top 3 Mistakes In Gaining Muscle Mass

Post author By Remson
Post date May 6, 2017

Tribe By Noire

Top 3 Mistakes In Gaining Muscle Mass

I want to talk about the top 3 mistakes in gaining muscle mass. I get questions all the time about how to gain muscle mass and what the best rep scheme is. Understand that there isn’t a one size fits all kinda program, but there are certain key mistakes that most people make that hurt progress the most.

How Muscle Growth Works

The brain sends an electrical impulse down the spine and through the nervous system.
The nervous system then commands muscle to contract.
That contraction then produces force and creates resistance.

THE 2 REASONS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH

To produce force in order to move the body or other objects in a given environment.
To resist against force from external objects and gravity.

TRAIN & HUMAN ADAPTATION

One thing that the human body does extremely well is adapt to a given environment or lifestyle. These adaptations are a biological survival mechanism that make it easier for us to do what we do. The whole premise of training is to intentionally create these adaptations to get a desired result, like muscle growth.

TRAINING TO IMPROVE FORCE PRODUCTION & RESISTANCE CAUSES MUSCLE GROWTH

In order to facilitate maximal force production and resistance, the body increases the size of its muscle. When you look at the purpose of muscle, it becomes obvious that strength training is the key to muscle growth.

Now that we’ve got that squared aware, let’s talk about the 3 biggest muscle mass killers.

1. Over Training

You want to work hard in the gym and challenge the body to grow, but you can definitely overdue it. This can be doing too many reps and it can also be lifting too much weight. The biggest causes of this is over zealousness and poor or no programming.

Strength training should be tested, calculated, tested, and then recalculated. It shouldn’t be a string of randomly chosen days where you just go to the gym and try to lift as heavy as possible. Get a good strength training program that is no less than 4 weeks and stick to it all the way through. Document the final results and continue from there.

For more on over training, read 6 signs of over training

2. Poor Eating Habits

There are so many different theories on how to eat, when to eat, and what to eat, but I want to dispel some myths about diet in regards to muscle growth.

YOU DO NOT NEED 1 GRAM OF PROTEIN PER POUND OF BODY WEIGHT, OR EVEN HALF THAT

The myth that you need to eat so much protein is straight up bro science and its dangerous. Too much protein intake causes fat gain, kidney disease, cancer growth, and other issues.

In order to calculate your protein intake you need to find out what your lean mass index is. You typically need 1.5 – 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of lean mass per day.

This is a big part of the reason why I recommend following a vegan diet because meat, dairy, and egg eating tends to result in excessive fat and protein intake which results in all of the health issues we have today.

YOU CAN NOT SPEED UP MUSCLE GAIN BY EATING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Muscle gain happens when you’re in a caloric surplus, but excessive eating causes an increase in body fat. The key is to slowly increase your caloric intake. For example, if you’re consuming 1800 calories per day to maintain your current body weight, increase it to a solid 2000 – 2100 calories for four weeks and document your results.

Typically you’ll gain an average of 1 lb of lean mass per month. Anymore than that is more than likely water and fat. When taking measurements, I would recommend circumference measurements, a skin-fold test with calipers, and obviously stepping on the scale.

JUNK FOOD DOES NOT HELP MUSCLE GROWTH

Eating junk food can inhibit muscle growth by bogging down your gut with toxins. Poor gut health hinders nutrients absorption and creates inflammation which leads to excess soreness, and low energy levels. All of your calories should come from nutrient dense foods.

For more info on how to improve gut health, read Fix your gut and lose fat with prebiotics

3. Lack Of Sleep

Muscle does not grow in the gym, it grows at rest. The training in the gym is only to stimulate the muscle to spark the process of adaptation, but the building and repairing of muscle happens in bed with a good night’s sleep.

Lack of sleep disrupts homeostasis which is the body’s natural state of balance. If this balance is disrupted, the body will reduce or even shutdown muscle growth in order to prioritize getting back that natural state of balance. This ultimately leads to over training, so they pretty much go hand in hand.

From what I’ve seen in my own personal journey as well as my clients, is that going to bed in between the hours of 8 and 10pm and waking up between 4 and 6am yields the most results. While following this type of sleep pattern, you may notice that you have twice as much energy as usual, a higher sex drive, more mental clarity, increased fat loss, and an increase of muscle size and strength.

Avoid These Pitfalls By Prioritizing Stress Management

Train with a mindset of self love and gratitude rather than a mindset driven by frustration and discomfort. Learn to enjoy the process and stay focused on all the positive changes you will experience in the future.

Eat foods that heal and cleanse the body and avoid toxic foods at all costs. Take control of your diet by cooking all of your own foods. Take time to be aware of what you eat and have an honest dialogue with yourself about your lifestyle. That is how you begin to break bad habits.

For more on breaking habits, read How to rid yourself of bad habits

Manage your time as best as possible by scheduling out your days. Schedule everything! Set a limit to how much work you’re willing to take on in a given day and set a reoccurring bedtime. Setting boundaries is a great way of reducing the stress in your life.

For more on reducing stress and even reducing negativity, read 7 ways to cut negativity out of your life

Thanks for reading, I appreciate you!

-Remson

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, muscle growth, training strategies

Fitness & Training

The Truth About Squat Depth

Post author By Remson
Post date May 5, 2017

Tribe By Noire

The Truth About Squat Depth

How deep should you squat? This is a question I get very often and its also a pretty loaded question. There is an ideal form of squat depth, but you also have to work within the confines of your mobility all while working to improve your mobility. So let’s dive a bit deeper into the truth about squat depth.

3 Things You Need To Know About Squat Depth

1. We all have the same parts, but we also have those parts in different measurements. Our proportions range differently from person to person which means our squat depth should as well. Even though our depth will range from person to person, it does not serve as an excuse to squat shallow.

2. Ultimately you should be able to sit in a squat position comfortably, pretty much how a toddler normally would. When did we lose our ability to sit in a proper squat position? Probably when we started spending most of our days sitting in a chair. That 90 degree knee bend, inherited from the chair has now become most people’s standard for squat depth.

3. Squatting to full depth is only bad for your knees if you have imbalances like, weak glutes, overly developed quadriceps, and/ or limited ankle limited ankle mobility. If your bottom position feels uncomfortable, mobility is definitely an issue and needs to be addressed on a daily basis.

Learn To Squat Like A Toddler

Watch a one year old squat down to grasp something from the floor. Their feet stay roughly at hip distance, their knees abduct from their mid-line, and their hips drop to a full knee bend. Try to copy it and make note of where you feel the most discomfort.

Rounding of the back and falling backwards is usually a sign of limited ankle flexion. Push your knees out more and lean forward. If you can’t push your knees apart, it means you need to stretch the muscles in the inner thighs.

Grab hold of a door frame, or a pole fixture of some kind and use it to hold yourself up while you practice sitting in that bottom squat position. It may be tedious at first, but if you’re serious about getting good at squatting, you’ll stay consistent and work at this habitually.

Here’s a look at what the technical anatomy of your squat should look like. When working on improving your squat depth, record yourself in video form and see how close to this illustration you get.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, muscle growth, power building, powerlifting, training strategies, weightlifting

Fitness & Training

2 Reasons Why You Should Use Unilateral Exercises

Post author By Remson
Post date May 5, 2017

Tribe By Noire

2 Reasons Why You Should Use Unilateral Exercises

Unilateral training is absolutely essential in the gym. In fact, not using unilateral exercises in your training at all can be detrimental. In this article I’m going to explain what unilateral exercises are and 2 reasons why you should use unilateral exercises.

What Are Unilateral Exercises?

Unilateral is basically a technical term used to describe something as one sided. This can be any exercise that is performed using only one arm or leg like a split squat or single arm press. These exercises are more time consuming and often more difficult, but the benefits far outweigh the cons.

2 Main Benefits Of Unilateral Exercises

1. IMPROVE CORE STRENGTH & TORSO STABILITY

During a unilateral exercise, the load or weight is distributed unevenly causing a greater challenge to maintain balance. This means that all of the muscles in your torso now have to work harder thus causing greater strength adaptions and a more define core.

2. IMPROVE SHOULDER, WRIST, HIP, AND ANKLE STABILITY

Working one side at a time allows for greater concentration on the muscles you are targeting on that side. I’ve had clients who have only trained bilaterally (both sides) for so long that they’ve developed some serious imbalances that hindered their progress in some major way.

One side ended up being way stronger than the other and even way bigger than the other. I’ve seen size difference of up to an inch and a half! This is a huge tell because if the muscle on one side is way bigger, this means that side is working a lot more and this often causes injury to the dominant side.

Unilateral training fixes this imbalance over time when implemented consistently. It allows you to more specifically train your central nervous system (CNS) in regards to a movement pattern on a given side. The results I’ve seen from this are

A more proportionate look
Over coming strength plateaus
Reduction or elimination of injury and/or joint pain

When Should You Do Unilateral Exercises?

You don’t have to do unilateral exercises every time you train, but I would advise you to incorporate them into your routine on deload periods, or on weekly intervals like every 3, 4, or 6 weeks as maintenance. However, if you have some major imbalances, you should be working on them daily.

Simple as that Tribe!

Drop a comment below and let me know if you’ve found this helpful, or if you have any other questions on this topic.

Thanks reading! I appreciate you

-Remson

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags fitness tips, muscle growth, training strategies

Fitness & Training

3 Essentials To Building A Strong Functional Back

Post author By Remson
Post date May 5, 2017

Tribe By Noire

3 Essentials To Building A Strong Functional Back

Building your back is vital to developing a strong and balanced body, yet so many people neglect it. Its common for people to train the muscles they see the most, like chest, arms, and abs, but understand that your back muscles are just as important and in some cases, should be trained more often than the muscles on the front. Moving forward I’m going to explain the 3 essentials to building a strong functional back.

Some Perks Of Training Back

Training your back will change your posture in a way that will make you stand more upright which will cause you to appear more confident and strong. Your posture actually effects how people behave toward you which is why this is so important in terms of social encounters. Weak back muscles lead to a hunched look that can cause you to look weak and timid.

Developing a strong back can relieve shoulder and neck tension by strengthening the muscles that pull your shoulders down and back in to place. Weak back muscles lead to overactive upper trapezius muscles and this greatly contributes to stress headaches and bunch of other issues.

Improving the strength of your back muscles will increase the integrity of your spine and greatly improve your joint function. This means that you greatly decrease your chances of slipping a disc, or getting a shoulder impingement.

Obviously there is a major aesthetic appeal to developing a strong sexy back. Whether you’re a woman who wants to wear that new backless dress, or a guy who wants that broad shoulder look with the V Taper, I’d advise you to get to pulling.

1st Essential - Horizontal Pulling

Horizontal pulling is basically any kind of rowing motion. The key elements here are scapula retraction and shoulder depression. Good cues to keep in your head for these kinds of movements are to keep your chest out and your shoulders down as you pull towards your belly. Make a double chin throughout the movement to keep from sticking your neck out.

2nd Essential - Vertical Pulling

Vertical pulling is basically any kind of movement where you pull against resistance from an overhead position. The key elements here are scapula retraction/downward rotation, and shoulder depression. This can be pull ups, lat pull downs, high rows, etc. Again, keep your chest out and your shoulders down and make a double chin, but this time you’ll be pulling to your upper chest.

3rd Essential - Spinal Extension & Stabilization

Good examples of spinal extension and/or stabilization would be deadlifts, goodmornings, prone extensions, etc. The unique thing about these kinds of movements is that their primary function in regards to the back is to strengthen the spinal erectors and this requires little to no movement of the arms.

Putting A Back Routine Together

Putting together a back routine is fairly simple. Typically what I’d do is take 1-2 exercises from each of the 3 categories. The weight and reps would be set depending on the current goals of the program.

As long as you structure your workout around the essentials, you’ll be able to put together an effective and balanced back workout.

You can also add unilateral training to your workout structure as well. For more on that topic, give this article a look. 2 reasons why you should use unilateral exercises

Thanks for reading! Get to pulling!

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, muscle growth, training strategies

Nutrition & Supplements

Improve Gut Health With These 5 Plant Based Fermented Foods

Post author By Remson
Post date May 3, 2017

Tribe By Noire

Improve Gut Health With These 5 Plant Based Fermented Foods

More and more now, scientific studies are showing the importance of bacteria in regards to gut health. This information is changing the way we view food and the approach to diet. Fermented foods have been in human history for generations, but now the science has brought them into the spotlight. Let’s talk about fermented foods and how to improve gut health with these 5 plant based fermented foods.

Why Are Fermented Foods Good For You?

Fermented foods are foods that have been through the process of lactofermentation where natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates all kinds of beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics.

The natural fermentation of foods has also been shown to preserve nutrients in food and break the food down to a form that’s easier to digest. This, along with the cultures of probiotics created during the fermentation process, is why the consumption of fermented foods leads to the improvement of gut health and digestion.

Simply put, fermented foods are nutrient dense foods that end up being alot easier to digest and absorb because of the fermentation process. For more information on gut bacteria and digestive health, read my article on gut flora and the key to gut health

5 Great Feremented Foods To Put Into Your Diet

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage that comes very thinly sliced. Its loaded with vitamin C, B, and K. It also contains a ton of probiotics, including leuconostoc, pediococcus, and lactobacillus. If you decide to go to the store and get some of this stuff, make sure you get it unpasteurized because pasteurization kills the good bacteria. Look for it in the refrigerated aisle.

Kimchi

Kimchi is an extremely popular South Korean food that they typically eat as a side dish. This type of fermented food is made with cabbage, radish, or cucumber. It’s packed with flavor, filled with vitamin C and carotene, and can either be eaten on its own or incorporated into a whole wide array of different dishes.

Miso

Miso is made from fermented soy beans and is often used in soups and can also add a nice flavor to other dishes like miso hummus. Its packed with micro nutrients like manganese, zinc, and antioxidants.

Coconut Yogurt

Coconut yogurt is packed with probiotics, and since it’s non-dairy, it’s a great vegan alternative and a lot easier to digest than conventional yogurt. Coconut is antiviral, anti-fungal and antibacterial, plus it’s high in calcium, potassium and magnesium.

Pickles

Pickles are filled with active bacterial cultures and enzymes. Like sauerkraut, buy lacto-fermented pickles unpasteurized from the refrigerator section, not the kind made with vinegar. They may taste similar, but they don’t have the same health benefits. Its also a good idea to drink the pickle juice.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags diet strategies, fat loss, gut health, improve metabolism, nutrition plans, plant based diet, vegan, vegetarian, weight loss