Strength:

Push Press 5 x 3

For time:

2 minute Sit-ups

Tabata Front Squats

2 minute Sit-ups

Yvette Willis working hard on keeping her elbows up during the front squat.  Tomorrow you will get plenty of practice with driving those elbows up from the bottom of the squat all the way to full extension at the top.  We are working with lighter weights during the Tabata’s so you guys can practice this technique.

Know what #’s you are going for on your Max Push Press.  Check out your last Push Press strength set from Jan 11th.

What about calcium?

To kick off our WEEK OF DAIRY, we are going to discuss the issues between dairy and calcium.  Whenever people learn that I recommend avoiding or limiting their dairy products, the first question is, “How am I going to get enough calcium?  Mark’s Daily Apple gives us some insight on building strong bones without taking in all the dairy.  Read here to learn what to add and what to eliminate when trying to maintain calcium levels.  Food, exercise, and supplements are the topics of discussion.

Spinach has just as much calcium as milk.  There are more advantages to getting your calcium from fresh green leafy vegetables than from milk.  First of all you don’t have to deal with the antibiotics and hormones the cows are given, plus you don’t have to worry about vitamins, minerals, and enzymes being destroyed as they are during the pasteurization and homogenization processes that cow’s milk goes through.  Spinach contains betacarotene, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, multiple B vitamins, Folate, Vitamin D, and Vitamin K just to name a few.  What else, besides calcium, can you get from milk?  After milk goes through the process of pasteurization, how much calcium is really left anyways?  This process heats the milk to destroy bacteria, but in the meantime destroys the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes milk claims to have.  Overall, we can see that one example, such as spinach, trumps milk when it comes to getting the most bioavailable nutrients in your body.  Try adding in some spinach to an omelet this morning, have a spinach salad for lunch, or saute’ spinach with some olive oil and vinegar tonight for dinner.  Or try out this SPINACH BREAD recipe for a nice bread substitute.