Top Recovery Foods

After any intense workout it's really important that you give your body the nutrients and fuel it needs to properly recover. If you don't your performance will suffer during your next workout and your body won't be able to effectively repair and build lean muscle. This is key, as the more lean muscle you have the higher your metabolic rate and the more fat you'll be able to release.

Experts say that the best combo for maximizing muscle repair and boosting your metabolic rate is eating 2 to 1 carbs to protein with very little fat (up to possibly a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein) as quickly as possible after your workout.

Here are three options to consider...

1) Chocolate Milk - This is a fave for many athletes. An eight-ounce glass of low fat chocolate milk provides 32 grams of carbs and 11 grams of protein, an ideal carb to protein ratio.

2) Low Fat Granola Cereal - GOLEAN by Kashi is a good choice: A 1-cup serving has 140 calories, 30 grams of carbs, 13 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fat.

3) Fruit Smoothie - frozen banana, berries, whey protein powder and some water, aiming for at least a 2:1 carbs to protein ratio.

Tabata Training - The Ultimate in Fat Burning!

The popularity of Tabata training is on the rise and for good reason. Tabata Training was developed by Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. It's a high intensity form of interval training that is extremely efficient and effective for weight loss. With traditional aerobic exercise programs you burn calories while you workout but there is very little after burn. With a very short tabata workout, studies show your body will continue to burn calories for up to 2 days later. You got it, you're burning that stubborn fat long after you complete your workout.

A typical tabata exercise lasts for 4 minutes. First pick an exercise that uses your entire body or at least some of your major muscle groups. Good examples are burpees, jump squats, sprints or even push-ups. You complete 8 sets of the same exercise. With each set you go for 20 seconds as hard as you can and then recover for 10 seconds.

I must warn you this type of workout is intense, so depending on where you're at it's something you may need to build up to. Perhaps try only 6 sets to start adding in one or two tabatas into your regular workout routine.

Give it a try and remember to let me know what you think!