Fitness – Team Robertson

Commandments of Fitness

July 8, 2019

For most of us, exercise is an activity that can be used to increase ones fitness, shed some body fat, decrease stress, meet new people or maybe all of the above! Regardless, there are some basic fitness tips that apply to all but a select few and in this blog I discuss the most important ones. Less is more- basically this means just what is says that doing a shorter duration workout goes a lot further than spending a long time exercising. Unless you are training for a particular event that requires hours and hours of exercise, from a ROI standpoint you should be able to accomplish your goals in an exercise session that takes 45 minutes at the most. MOST people will start to...

Minimal Metrics

February 25, 2019

Education, Fitness, Uncategorized, Workouts

One aspect of our ever-changing technology are the metrics we use. Today there are countless gauges to use to determine if your current well-being is suffice. Some of the more popular are (am I missing any?) heart rate, heart rate variability, gps tracking for pace and distance, estimated heart rate zones, estimated vo2, apple watches that tell you when to breath, stand, and move, fitbits that tell you how much sleep you need and the quality of it, body fat scales, and body weight scales. This can be a LONG AND EXHAUSTING list, and in this article I talk about how helpful they (if at all they are helpful), and what you can gain from using them (or not.) Sometimes helpful- Heart rate monitors- Back...

Real World Muscle Gain

March 8, 2018

Education, Fitness, Nutrition

For those that know my fitness journey, I have been doing some form of endurance sports for 20 years now. My first triathlon was in 1998 at age 24, which led to 4 years later competing as an elite racing Ironman and Half-Ironman triathlons until 2007. Prior to age 24, most of my exercise consisted of lifting weights and surfing. Often I would lift weights 6x a week and my weight hovered around 170 lbs (I am 5' 11.) Triathlon competing and training changed my body (and fitness of course!) My racing weight was 155 lbs and my off-season weight was 160 with my body fat ranging from 5-10%. The last several years I have remained very active, but train about 75% less than I...

Triathlon Body Composition

December 11, 2017

Education, Fitness, Nutrition

Several years ago I had a good friend of mine come watch an Ironman triathlon. He was really into general fitness and healthy eating. As athlete's were setting up their morning race routine he commented "why are there so many overweight triathlete's?" I mentioned to him that competing in this long endeavor was not a recipe for being the most lean you can be, as well as being the most healthy. You would think this would not be the case with most competitors training up to 2 hours a day. I will never forget how shocked he was with his observation on the body composition of the masses participating. So it had me thinking why is this so? I remember a quote I read several years...

Periodization

June 28, 2017

Education, Fitness

When it comes to endurance sports you have to take into account each athletes individual needs. I would rank this as the number 1 thing when you are designing a race strategy. Number 2 in this plan is periodization and this article will explain just what that is, as well as how to lay out this concept. Periodization is defined as a systemic plan for an athlete to reach their best performance possible in their biggest event of the year. A long story short it basically means "peaking" at the right time and doing all the necessary things to reach that peak.There are three different cycles in periodization- macro, meso and micro. Macro would be your calendar year, meso would be a certain number of weeks, and micro would be your...

Leadville 100 Run

August 24, 2016

Education, Fitness

This past Saturday, I accompanied my good friend David over the pass from Aspen, Colorado to the town of Leadville for the Leadville 100 trail running race. David did this race 2 years ago, and I was there that year to help crew for him between aid stations. This year my goal was to help pace him the last 24 miles to the finish. In 2013, he finished in 23 hours and he was hoping to beat his time this year. Unfortunately David hurt his knee early on and had to DNF, but this blog will focus on the race itself and how he trains for it. Anyone that runs trail races knows about the Leadville running race. I have participated in numerous endurance events...

Heat vs. Altitude

August 11, 2016

Education, Fitness

There has been much debate through the years whether the heat or the altitude is tougher for training and racing. Obviously there are A LOT of factors that go into this- where you live, background, genetics, sweat rate, body size, terrain, etc. I thought this blog would be fitting considering I will be spending the next 8 weeks living at 9000 feet, and it was just last month I was back in Texas sweating in 100 degree heat and humidity. After having spent many years training in altitude and heat, I thought I would use myself as the guinea pig for this article and try and put together some valuable information for those of you reading this. Keep in mind, my body always races well in...

Pacing a Half Ironman

May 26, 2016

Education, Fitness

For triathletes that have been racing a long time or are new to the sport and are thinking about doing a longer triathlon then the half ironman distance can be the perfect distance! Beginners tend to think all about ironman, but the half ironman can be the perfect solution for those looking to go longer. It can be just long enough where PACING has to be taken into consideration, but not so long like an ironman distance where more can wrong and nutrition has to be as close to perfect as possible. The half ironman distance won't take up as much training time as an ironman, so your significant other will love this distance also! If you have trained properly most also find they are...

Supplements

May 17, 2016

Fitness, Nutrition

The supplement industry is a billion dollar industry with products that can be found almost anywhere food is found these days. Does the average person need to take supplements? If you are in optimal health and eating a diet with plenty of lean meats, fats, fruits, and vegetables then you probably don't need to take any supplements at all. Through the years I have witnessed firsthand many people overloading on a million different vitamins just for it to end up being a total waste of money. What nutrients a person needs is very individual however, and the only real way to know what your missing is by a simple blood panel. With that being said, there are 2 supplements I have found that a large...

Cardio vs. Weight Training

April 18, 2016

Education, Fitness, Uncategorized

For years now, the average person has been trying to figure out which form of exercise is best for my health, cardiovascular training or weight training? Is there even one that is better? Do I do them on the same day? Which helps with weight loss? Do athletes benefit from both? These are a few questions I have heard the last 20 years in the fitness industry. I compiled a list below of who can benefit from which form the most and why. Weight loss- I picked this as number 1 due to the fact that a large majority of the population is overweight. If you are trying to lose weight I recommend about 75% of your overall exercise time is best spent doing cardiovascular exercise.the...