Month: June 2020

5 Summer Workouts You Can Do Outside the Gym

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5 Summer Time Workouts Outside of the Gym


Welcome to the peak of summer! It’s heating up out there but we have some cool ideas for you to find exercise routines to do outside of the gym.

Hiking- This feels like an obvious solution for those of us living in areas well known for hiking. However, you can always take your hiking game to the next level! Next time you go for a hike, pick up the pace so that you can include a cardiovascular component to this popular low impact form of outdoor exercise.


The “Mini Incline” in Castle Rock- Phillip S. Miller Park is home to a miniature version of the popular incline in Manitou Springs (closed for the season). It’s also home to an outdoor gym and recreation center with sports fields athletes can use for soccer, sprints, and footwork drills!

Cycling- We are so blessed in Colorado because we have miles of cycling trails for this popular low impact form of cardio and endurance training. One thing to keep in mind about cycling is that you will still need to compliment it with an “off the bike” resistance training program because the amount of low impact hours on the bike can lower bone density. Resistance training with weights or body weight exercises helps stress your bones to keep them strong unlike the low impact form of exercise that cycling gives you.

Kayaking/Canoeing- This is for our adventure seekers out there and not for the faint of heart! Kayaking or canoeing does so much for us to reconnect to the wilderness, get outside, and find some vitamin D! The sun is one of the only sources of vitamin D outside of supplements and it is crucial to get a good dose of this plentiful micronutrient. Fun fact about vitamin D is that you can never get enough of it from the sun (short of daily sun burns) but you can get too much of it from supplements. We recommend the natural route!

Hit the Dog Park- My sidekick Chloe has been the best motivator to get me out of the house for daily walks. But if you’ve ever wanted to take it up a notch, bring a “Chuck it” with you to get your arm workout and mobility in, or jog with your pup to wear you both out!

For more ideas on in home exercises to compliment your favorite outdoor workouts, check out our trial of the Body Weight Warrior program below!

7 Exercises that Help You Lose Weight Fast

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These 7 exercises will help you reach your goals quickly and safely right in your living room!


Body weight squats are compound movements (multiple joints) and burn more calories than a single joint exercise like a bicep curl or leg extension. They can serve as part of your warm up or included in a full workout right in your own home!

Jump Squats are a compound movement PLUS a power exercise that increases our calorie expenditure above and beyond regular squats.

Side Lunges incorporate lateral movement (frontal plane) and recruit stabilizer muscles as well as primary movers. The more muscles we recruit, the more calories we burn! They can serve as part of your warm up or included in a full workout right in your own home!

Burpees are everyone’s favorite exercise that they love to hate! This full body, power generating movement will challenge your cardiovascular system AND burn more calories in less time. No wonder they are so popular for workout programs at home.

Sprinting may surprise you that it burns more calories than long distance running, especially when you perform it AFTER a body weight or gym workout. The max effort output that sprinting provides causes your central nervous system to adapt quickly and use many other systems that require calories to function. Plus, when you add in sprinting to your routine, your body will continue to burn calories long after your workout is complete. Called EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption 🙂

High Intensity Interval Training requires your body to adapt quickly with the short rest periods that are provided during interval training. Quick adaptation in your body means reaching your goals quicker!

Circuit Training provides the body with a lot of exercises in a short amount of time which creates fast adaptation and fast results. The shorter rest periods and exercises stacked on top of one another provides a huge bang for your buck!

To get your free 7 day trial of the Body Weight Warrior program, check out all the details below!

3 Types of Carbs that Will Help You Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

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Why is it that carbs get a bad reputation in the nutrition world. Today, we are set to answer that question and more about the mystery that is carbohydrates!

I could go on for hours about how carbs play into our lives but for time’s sake, I’ll highlight 3 reasons why carbohydrates are good for you!

What does your day feel like when you are “carb depleted”? Pretty sluggish, right? That’s because we aren’t fueling our body with what it needs to perform at it’s best!

If we look at carbohydrates (and Fats) as if they are fuel for the energy that we NEED to perform our best each day, then we can begin to build a healthy perception of them. Carbohydrates are consumed and converted to energy by the body so that we can work, exercise, move, enjoy our hobbies, as well as fuel our brains! What options do we have to bring healthy carbs into our daily routines? SO MANY!

Let’s break carbs down into three basic groups. Haha, I love nutrition puns.

  1. Complex carbs- veggies and grains make up this category of carbohydrates. This is where we like to focus our consumption of carbs because they last longer as fuel for the body! If your goals are to run a half marathon, you need more complex carbs than a golfer. My favorites include sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, broccoli, spinach, celery, carrots, and so much more.
  2. Simple carbs- these are sugars that break down quickly in the body but if left unused by the muscles or the brain, they just sit and wait to be turned into body weight. Included here are processed sweets (candy), table/cooking sugar (sucrose), fruits (fructose), starches (bread, alcohol, pasta), etc.
  3. Fiber- insoluble or soluble, fiber is necessary for the digestive tract to absorb the complex carbs, healthy fats, and proteins in our nutrition plan. Did you know Americans get about 30% of their daily requirement of fiber per day?! This type of carb can be found in the skin of fruit and veggies or in a simple supplement to get a minimum of 10 grams per day!

Hope this cleared up the questions many busy adults have around why they should be getting anywhere between 25-55% of their nutrition from carbohydrates! If you have questions you’d like answered, click here now to grab our free Meal Prep guide discover more healthy ways you can save time, money, and include carbs in your diet!

3 Simple and Easy Ways to Cut Calories

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3 Ways to Cut Calories without counting or weighing your portions!


I wanted to share with you the top three ways I manage my calories each week without breaking out the scale and weighing my food!

These are really simple ways you can implement today to reach your goals quickly!


1. Mindful eating- mindful eating can be added into every recipe you enjoy to cook each week! It begins with eating slowly and enjoying about 15 chews per bite of food. It takes about 20 minutes for your nerves in your stomach to recognize that it is full and signal your brain to stop eating! We always coach our PrepWars clients to eat to 80% full which means recognizing you have been satiated BEFORE you normally notice it!

2. Smaller portions- taking smaller serving sizes is a step in the right direction! American plates are larger than they ever have been in history and naturally, we tend to fill our plates full to the edges. Protein portions will be about the size of your palm. Carbohydrates will equal one cupped handful on your plate. And fats, yes they are necessary too, will be about 1-2 thumbs in size so about 5-8 nuts.

Spinach salads are ideal for meal prep to fuel your body and help your routine reach your goals.

3. Find more fiber- fibrous foods make us feel fuller faster and longer than simple sugars or protein. Fiber is classified in two ways: soluble and insoluble. Meaning absorbable or not. Fiber is also considered a carbohydrate so if you are choosing insoluble fiber, those carbs will not get absorbed! An example is celery. Celery has both soluble and insoluble fiber. Have you juiced celery? The insoluble fiber is what is left behind in the juicer.

Meal Prep is easier when you have a plan! Check it out at learntomealprep.com


These little know facts are why calories get such a bad reputation… Americans just don’t know the difference between simple and complex carbs or even why they are so important!

The next time you’re fixing up your plate for dinner, be mindful of your portion sizes and choose more fibrous foods to eat fewer calories without counting them down to the gram!

5 Facts About Fitness You Probably Didn’t Know

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Do you want to learn 5 fun facts about working out you probably didn’t know?!

  1. Helps recovery- when you exercise regularly, your follow up workouts aid in recovery by flushing out lactic acid (bicarbonate) which is a waste product in the body from your last workout! Feeling sore? Workout again within 48 hours to aid the recovery!
  2. Decreases stress- regular exercise helps to lower cortisol levels in the body which is one of the most natural ways to lower stress! Feeling anxious? Take a walk or do a HIIT workout!
  3. Improves circulation- as your muscles contract, they push blood back to the heart! Have you ever seen a cyclist’s calf muscles? They are huge! For one, they are always cranking on the pedals to climb hills but they also grow so that they can pump the blood back to the heart more efficiently. Otherwise know as venous return;) Want to get your heart rate up with additional benefits? Go for a bike ride to improve your circulation!
  4. Improved circulation equals improved body functions holistically- the circulatory system does many things for us. It regulates body temperature, which is why you sweat when you workout, to cool yourself down naturally. But when our circulatory system works better, so does our lymphatic system (our waste system which flushes bicarbonate), our digestive system works better to absorb nutrients and prevent lifestyle disease (like diverticulitis), and our nervous system works better too! Feeling foggy in your brain from staring at a computer screen? Go for a jog to “clear your head”!
  5. Most importantly, completing a workout improves self-confidence- accomplishing a goal we set for ourselves makes us feel strong and empowered! Self-efficacy is a little known benefit of working out that basically means “I am pleased with myself for accomplishing a goal”. Over time, as our confidence grows in our ability to complete a goal, it provides a positive feedback loop to our brain that says, “I can” more often than it says, “I can’t”!

There you have it! Five little known facts about fitness that you can use the next time you want to workout but you’re too sore, too busy, too sluggish, to tired, or don’t believe you can squeeze another thing into your day!

Dave Glaser has been a strength coach in Denver, CO and online for nine years. He has worked with athletes of all levels privately, in small groups or teams, and online through safe, convenient, and effective workouts designed to help you reach your goals quickly and safely.

I sincerely hope you are staying safe and healthy during these uncertain times across the world.  For me personally, I have been doing a lot of work from home, reading, enjoying netflix, and creating new online programs for our clients.  One program that I am excited about is our Body Weight Warrior program that launched June 1!

It includes four workouts per week, nutrition tips and recipes, and what I enjoy most about creating these workouts for you is that they can go anywhere and you can do them anytime you want!  Most of them are less than 30 minutes so you can get it done and get on with your day!

Give it a try for free today!  Just click here for your first workout delivered straight to your email inbox now!