Recipes from our Christmas Party

We all had a great time celebrating the holidays with you this past Saturday and we hope it was just as fun for you! Thank you to everyone who came out and made it a great day. Many of you asked for the delicious recipes that Coach Nancy made with the help of her Master Chefs, Kim and Doreen. Well, you asked and you shall receive! Below are all the recipes that we enjoyed at the party.

Omelet Muffins Christmas Party Style

20 eggs scrambled
1 pound of browned pork breakfast sausage, drained
Veggies of choice – see the variations we enjoyed below

Grease 10×13 pan with coconut oil. See variations below for veggie choices and directions.

Onion, Pepper, Mushroom Omelet –
Use all frozen veggies and add those to the pan first. Next, add sausage and mix gently, then pour eggs on top and bake about an hour or until set.

Onion, Pepper, and Spinach Omelet –  
Use all frozen veggies and put those in the pan first. Then, add sausage, pour on eggs last and bake an hour or until set.

Onion, Mixed Peppers, Broccoli Omelet –
Love those frozen veggies – put one bag of each in pan, add in sausage and the 20 eggs you have scrambled. Bake for about an hour.

Onion, Mixed Peppers, Asparagus Omelet –
All the frozen veggies go on the bottom of the pan and then the sausage and eggs follow before you bake it for about an hour.

Individual Omelet Muffins

Coconut oil or paper muffin liners
8 eggs
1/8 cup water
1/2 lb chicken or sausage, cooked and cut or crumbled into small pieces
2 cups diced vegetables (1 red bell pepper, 1/4 lb asparagus or broccoli and 1/2 yellow onion recommended, but use whatever is on hand)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8 muffin cups with coconut oil or line with paper baking cups. Fill any remaining muffin cups with 1″ of water so they do not scorch while baking.

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then add meat, vegetables, salt, ground pepper, and any other ingredients you wish to add. Pour mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Chicken Salad with Cucumber and Melon

1 pound cooked chicken, chopped
½ cup diced cantaloupe or honeydew melon
½ cup finely chopped cucumber
½ cup finely chopped tomato
2 tablespoons lime juice
1½ teaspoons orange juice
1 teaspoon light olive oil
1 tablespoon cilantro
Pinch of pepper

Combine lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, cilantro and pepper in a jar and shake to combine. Mix everything else in a large bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss ingredients to coat everything.

Sweet Potato Hash

2 tablespoons bacon fat or coconut oil
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 large onion, diced
1 pound ground breakfast sausage
2 medium apples, peeled and diced

In a large skillet, heat bacon fat or coconut oil. Sauté the sweet potatoes and onion stirring frequently until the potatoes are soft. Add the sausage and continue to stir until the sausage is browned. Add in the apple and cook until soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Christmas Ham

1 cup brown mustard
½ cup homemade mayonnaise
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped fine
1 smoked ham

Preheat oven 300 degrees. Combine all ingredients except ham in a bowl and mix well. Place the ham in a roasting pan and generously put mustard mixture all over the ham. For each pound of ham, bake for 15 minutes.

Get Fit NH Client Appreciation & Christmas Party Signup

We can’t believe it’s already time for Thanksgiving – and do you know what that means?

Christmas is next! We’re hosting a Christmas brunch for you and your family on Saturday, December 12th at 10am. Mark your calendars, you won’t want to miss it! Our awesome coaches will be preparing delicious food for you to enjoy. We are looking forward to spending some quality family time together at our Concord location.

Here are some highlights of the party that you can expect:
•    Delicious food (of course)
•    Get Fit’s twist on the Yankee Swap – if you wish to participate, please bring something
•    Prize Raffle to benefit Operation Hat Trick- Pampered Chef and “31” Gift Items
•    Superlative awards for our students
•    And a jolly good time! 🙂

We look forward to celebrating with you! Can’t wait to see you there!

Get Fit NH “We Love the GFNH Family” Christmas & Holiday Celebration
Date: Saturday December 12, 2015
Time: 10:00am until we kick you out!
Place: Get Fit NH Concord

Breaking Down the FMS – Trunk Stability Push Up

This week we are going to talk about the Trunk Stability Push Up screen in the FMS. Gray Cook states that “the goal is to initiate movement with the upper extremities in a push up pattern without allowing movement in the spine or hips.” The most common issue that we see is that the chest comes off the floor before the hips do. This creates hyper extension in the low back and shows that the core is not effectively stabilizing through the movement.

Why is the Trunk Stability Push Up so important? It looks at how the stability in our core works on a reflexive level. Gray Cook uses the example of when you grab a heavy bag of dog food out of the car, you generally don’t think about engaging your abs. You just rely on them to provide the stability. What if they don’t? You end up “throwing your back out”!

When you are unable to complete the Trunk Stability Push Up without compensation, we limit certain exercises during training. It is not because we want to hold you back. It is just the opposite. We want you to get better and screen out of the red band. Certain exercises such as Mountain Climbers with your feet in the TRX straps should not be done if you have a red wrist band. That exercise is extremely demanding on the core because your feet are suspended in the air and if you don’t have proper core stabilization then you risk injury. Regular Mountain Climbers can be challenging as well (I have never heard any one complain they are too easy!) so work on those until you are able to complete the Trunk Stability Push Up and progress to other exercises.

How do you screen out of your red band? I thought you would never ask! You do your personalized exercises at home! If you really want to get out of that red band then you have to put the time in outside of the gym to getting better. We are here to help you every step of the way!

Getting Better Together!

Breaking Down the FMS – Shoulder Mobility (SM)

This week we are going to discuss Shoulder Mobility in the Functional Movement Screen(FMS).  The Shoulder Mobility screen can reveal limitations in the shoulder, scapula, thoracic spine and lumbopelvic (low back and hip) area.

Limited Shoulder Mobility can be caused by a number of factors.  The most common is poor posture.  Many of us sit hunched over at a desk with our shoulders rolled forward and our head reaching out.  This improper alignment causes a decrease in thoracic mobility and muscular imbalances.

When there is a lack of Shoulder Mobility on the FMS we limit overhead pressing during training (as in – we don’t do any -ed.).  This is important because if you don’t have the shoulder mobility to properly reach your arms overhead then you are going to achieve the movement through mobility in the low back.  The low back is not where you want to be getting the movement from – ouch!

Besides the FMS shoulder mobility screen, another way to see if you have the proper shoulder mobility to be pressing overhead is to see how your low back responds to overhead extension. Start by standing up against a wall.  Your feet can be about a foot away from the wall but your back has to be flat up against the wall.  Lift your arms up straight, palms facing each other and try to touch the wall with your thumbs.  Your low back should not come off the wall.  If it does then this shows that in order to lift your arms overhead you are relying on mobility from your low back.  Over time this can lead to low back injuries, and adding injury to injury is not good!

So how do you increase Shoulder Mobility?  Great question!  You work on your personalized exercises on a regular basis.  You can’t just rely on doing them in training.  You must commit to doing them on your own as well.  Set aside 5-10 minutes a day at least five days a week to do these exercises. Our starting point for increasing shoulder mobility is to work on thoracic (upper back) mobility, as this is often a cause of the restrictions mentioned previously. This is so important that we often build the following two movements into our warmups for all our students.

SGT Guys – Open Book

SGT Guys – Quadraped Reachback

Do 5 reps on both sides of each exercise – every day would be ideal, but any is better than none!

Dedicated to getting better together,

Coach Erin

Breaking Down the FMS – ASLR

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the purpose of the Functional Movement Screen and why we screen you first before we train you. Over the next several weeks, I want to go a little deeper into each one of the seven movements and share:

1. The purpose of each screen and what we are looking for.
2. How it relates to your daily life and your training goals (get stronger, lose weight, feel better, etc.)
3. What we do when the screen reveals a movement pattern that we want to address.

This week we are going to talk about the Active Straight Leg Raise (ASLR). While we are going to figure out really quickly if you have tight hamstrings using this screen, that is just one thing we are looking for. This simple assessment actually tells us quite a few things.

For instance, while we are assessing the mobility of the leg being lifted, we are also watching the bottom leg. We are looking to see if you have the ability to move one leg while keeping the other one still. The ASLR can also reveal issues with core stability.

Limited mobility or stability with the Active Straight Leg Raise can be caused by many factors. It may be because you sit at a desk all day which causes muscular imbalances. Genetics, age and sex can be factors. Unbalanced or inappropriate training over the long term can also contribute.

So what can we do about it? I am glad you asked!

As with all movement patterns we have three choices:

1. We can train it, which in this gym is not an option.
2. We can avoid it, which is appropriate at times.
3. We can work on improving it, which is almost always appropriate. The exception is when there is pain, in which case we are going to refer you out to be evaluated by a qualified practitioner.

That’s why your personalized exercises are so important. We want you to be able to train at the highest level possible, but even more than that, we want you to remain injury free. You can’t train as hard or at all if you are injured, and if you aren’t training you, won’t reach your goals. Injury prevention first!

For instance, we know if we let you do Kettlebell Swings with a yellow band you are actually going to get worse, not better, so we do something else while we work on clearing the ASLR screen. It just makes sense!

Click these links for an example of one of the personalized exercises we would give some of our students to help improve the ASLR.

Bent Knee Leg Lowering (.pdf)

Bent Knee Leg Lowering (video)

We want you to improve as quickly as possible, so if you currently have a yellow band, practicing these is a great idea. As always, if you have any questions or need a coach to help you with this movement pattern, please let one of the coaching team know

Make it happen,

Coach Erin