You’ve seen your friends or family members tackle obstacle course races (OCR). Their social media images from race day seem super cool. Now you’re ready to join in the fun.
 
But, how do you train for an obstacle course race like a Tough Mudder or the emPowered OCR at Clipper Magazine? Pre-race coaching, from nutrition to exercises, terrain readiness, mental preparation, and proper gear all play a role in successful OCR training.

Visit our emPower Training Systems Obstacle Course Race Training Page and learn how our coaching staff makes OCR training in Lancaster not only doable but also affordable and fun. We brought the first stadium-style obstacle race to Lancaster, PA, so we’re more than just experienced in OCR. We embrace it. 
Read further for training tips and techniques for obstacle course racing.

The show “American Ninja Warrior” inspired a lot of fans, including kids, to challenge themselves with obstacles from monkey bars to rock climbing.

Maybe your kid is among the hundreds wondering, “Are there Ninja Warrior gyms in Lancaster County?” Good news: Yes! emPower Training Systems is a local Ninja Warrior gym and our clients will tell you it’s one of the most fun ways for your kids to get healthy and improve their fitness.
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Ninja Warrior gyms help kids want to exercise because obstacle-based fitness isn’t a chore, it’s playing. Read further to learn the benefits of joining our Lancaster County Ninja Warrior gym.

When it comes to weight loss, you must think beyond fat loss if you want to achieve sustained results and better health. It’s why Lancaster County’s emPower team of professional fitness coaches focus on “fitness beyond fat loss.”

While your initial goal may be to lose fat, and that is important for improved health, your main goal should be on achieving a healthy life, both physically and emotionally.

Personal training and group fitness at emPower Training Systems can help you achieve fitness beyond fat loss.  Read on to learn why there’s a big difference between weight loss and fat loss.

I had heard bone broth was full of great benefits, but always shrugged it off as something I would never “be in to.” After discussing my recent hip surgery and mobility issue with client Bill Page, I got my hands on bone broth and discovered how powerful it can be as he starting bringing me weekly deliveries…. LUCKY ME!!  If you’ve yet to do any research on the topic – here’s a tid bit of information to get you started! Bone broth is widely regarded as healing food. It's known to treat the skin, gut, GI tract, aid in digestion or help you beat the cold/flu you've been suffering from. Even better, it's known to support healthy joints, bones, lungs, muscle, blood and many other medicinal benefits. We're told to eat chicken soup when we're sick, but the secret behind that soothing and healing meal is the liquid broth. It's full of vitamins, minerals, protein, amino acids, collagen and glycine- which are the building blocks that our body uses to heal and repair itself.

Bone broth should be made with a combination of pasture raised, free-range chicken and turkey bones, and grass-fed organic beef bones. Prioritize the quality above everything else because what goes into the animal’s body goes into your body when you consume the broth. Use bones from USDA organic animals that have not been exposed to heavy metals and have also been humanely raised on open pastures with clean NON-GMO diets free of antibiotics, hormones and grains.Use organic vegetables and herbs and water that is clean & filtered, ensuring the final bone broth is as pure and flavorful as it is packed full of vitamins, minerals and gelatin.

ENJOY!
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Click HERE for more information.

1. Drink a glass of water with every meal and snack.
Depending on your age and gender, your body is made up of somewhere between 55-65% water. If that’s the case (and, I just told you that it is) it confuses me as to why people think it’s okay to ignore hydration. And no, alcohol doesn’t count. And neither does fruit juice (because, let’s face it, that stuff is just less-fizzy soda pop).  You know what does count? Water. Drink it.

 2. Eat more.
Our bodies were designed to receive fuel and run efficiently. Know what happens when we’re forced to run on minimal amounts of food for long periods of time? Your metabolism slows down in order to conserve energy and fat storage is switched ON. Know what mechanism is a big freaking deal when it comes to fat loss? Your metabolism. So, yeah, you need to eat adequately (and nutritiously). start by adding a cup or two of vegetables at every meal if you want to be a lean, mean, fat burning machine.

 3. Make it a priority to get 7-8 hours of sleep.
When sleep is shortchanged, your hormones get all out-of-whack. Cortisol and stress hormone levels are elevated and can lead to cravings for comfort foods. Grehlin (the hunger hormone) is increased and leptin (the satiety hormone) is decreased. All that to say, you on little sleep, turn into one cranky little comfort-food seeking monster, who, if left unchecked could turn into a chubbie little comfort-food seeking monster. Prioritize your sleep and you positively change your progress.

 4. Lift weights. Lift heavy weights.
Imagine this: if you added a little over 3 pounds of lean muscle to your frame, you would have the potential to burn an additional 1,050 calories a week, workouts unaccounted for. That’s crazy! And no, just because you have muscle doesn’t mean you need to get “big”. Replace body fat with lean muscle tissue by eating right and lifting smart and you’ve basically just turned yourself into an incinerator. Burning calories like it’s your job.
** Likely side effect to lifting weights: you’ll get stronger. Be warned.

 5. Get cho’ fiber.
Studies show that increasing fiber consumption can encourage fat burning by as much as 30%. Yowza. And all from eating more veggies and flaxseed! Shoot for about 25 grams of fiber per day. Keep things running smoothly, in more ways than one (yep. I just went there).

 6. Develop a liking for green tea.
Green tea is the most natural fat-burner available. Toss in a little lemon and you’ve just blunted your bodies insulin response – meaning your body is less likely to store food as fat. BAM! Can your cup of coffee do that for you?

 7. Stress less.
But seriously. Remember that hormone cortisol we were talking about? Well when you have high amounts of stress, you have high amounts of cortisol. And when you have cortisol in large amounts, you can pretty much bet that you’ll have belly fat in large amounts too. Do yourself a favor and de-stress. Take a long walk or a soothing bath. Delegate a task and learn how to say “no”. Don’t try taking on the world, let’s face it – you don’t have time for that anyway.

 8. Do what your momma told you, and eat your veggies.
We’re always looking for the “magic pill”, the “quick fix” that will make us all lean and beautiful. Well folks, the secret is staring you in the face every time you walk through the produce isle. Vegetables: loaded with antioxidants, filled with fiber (see point #5), and chock full of healthy good-for-you vitamins: potassium, folic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C…you get the idea. There’s absolutely no reason for you not to eat them. They can be made a million different ways, you have a million different options to choose from and they give you the biggest BANG for your calorie BUCK.
3 red peppers = 100 calories.
the consequence: 300% of your vitamin C intake, great source of vitamin B6 and magnesium, support night vision, help to prevent certain types of cancer (e.g. prostate and lung).
8 peanut M&Ms = 100 calories
the consequence: sweet tooth satisfaction and an increased risk for diabetes, obesity and cavities.

 9. Stop pointing your finger at stupid stuff.
“Eggs are bad for cholesterol”, “milk makes you gain weight”, “fruit makes you fat”. No sweethearts, those things have been around forever. Stop blaming the old stuff and start looking at the new stuff. We didn’t have an obesity epidemic before things like McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, Lays, Coca Cola and Entenmanns came along. So maybe those extra pounds we’re holding onto as a nation aren’t from starting our day with healthy fats and protein, but rather, from finishing our days on the couch with our greasy fingers in a bag of {insert snack of choice here}.

 10. Be consistent.
There are a million ways to get from point A to point B. No one RIGHT way to lose weight, no one RIGHT way to lower your body fat percentage. If you want to lift weights, lift weights. If you want to keep taking zumba classes, take zumba classes. Don’t try something only to bail a week later. Don’t change your life so radically that it never becomes a true habit. Just find something that makes your life better and do it. Then, keep doing it.


Do these 10 things and you’ll have a lower body fat percentage. you’ll also probably be the healthiest, happiest version of you you’ve ever been. if it doesn’t work, well, it’ll work. #promise.


Eat well. Live well. Be well. 

Author: Coach Nicole Cascio

Many of us are familiar with the concept of goal setting. But how often do we actually do it? 

And how often do we actually REACH those goals even when we have them? I would suggest not often enough! If we were all crushing our goals, we would be a lot happier, a lot healthier, and probably a lot richer! 

So what holds us back? Is it a lack of desire? I don't think so... A lack of talent? Possibly, but I doubt it. We can make up for a lack of talent in most areas. 


So what then? From what I have seen, most failures stem from the fact that people don't have CLEAR, WRITTEN GOALS. First, let's start with looking at what goal setting is. According to mindtools.com:

1. Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life.

Are you asking yourself "how the hell is thinking going to help me lose weight?!" Hang in there. I will explain how there is more than a "jiggle it to lose it" concept at work here.

Without a goal, you have no direction. You don't even know what you are working towards. You might say, "yes I do! I am here to lose weight". Sorry, but that's not a goal! That is a poor attempt at justifying why you are sweating your ass off in the summer heat at the gym. To be a true goal it must be SMART. 

Specific
Measurable
Attainable 
Realistic
Time Based

The "I am here to lose weight" statement is none of these. You might say this is a measurable goal, but the truth is we fluctuate several pounds a day in water. So what if you lost two pounds when you got on the scale today? Measurable success right? No. That may be water. You may gain it back tomorrow. Or worse, what if you lost muscle? Would you be happy with that? After all, your goal was to lose "weight" and you did. I highly doubt you would be satisfied with that. 

Chances are you are realizing that "losing weight" just isn't specific enough. You might be back-pedaling saying, "Well what I meant was...I want to lose fat." This is a good first step. But let's look at the SMART way to write this goal. Maybe something like this, "I want to lose 5 lbs of body fat by September 30th." How much more motivating is that? Now you can see a clear finish line. You know exactly what the goal is and how long you have to get there. Think about it like a project from your boss. If he said, "I want you to write me a paper, " where and when would you begin? You have all the time in the world. Now imagine if he told you to write a paper on your ideas of how the company can save $10,000 this year, due by September 1st and no more than two pages long. I don't know about you, but I would be on that right away! I have a deadline. The same thing applies to your fitness goals.

We all need goals...even your trainers. And one of the best ways to reach them is to share them with others for accountability. Therefore, we are going to hang a dry erase board in emPower with the personal goals of each of your trainers! Your job is to hold us accountable to them! Some may change monthly, some may take a year or more to accomplish. There are no rules other than meeting the SMART criteria. I highly suggest you develop your own and share them with your trainer, your friends, your family, and your coworkers. The more people you have checking in on you, the more likely you are to succeed! (And the more likely all those people are to understand why you are doing the things you do!)

For me, I have a very specific goal for the next year: to become the first American Ninja Warrior. No American has ever completed the finals course. This is my goal. I had this goal in mind years ago when I started mud runs/adventure races. After participating over the past few years, qualifying for world championships and taking home age group awards, I believe this year is the year. Sure, I applied last year (check out the shameless plug here: https://youtu.be/ySXQ-mY979A) and never got the call. So it is a big step to my goal. But I truly believe it fits the SMART principles...and yes, I do think it is possible! When you commit your training, your lifestyle, and your mind to your goals, anything is possible. Just because I haven't been given the chance doesn't mean I can't do it! 

One of my favorite quotes (and I know many of you have heard me say it before) is "plan your work and work your plan." This is how you reach your goals.

-Author Coach Josh March