Make the Best of Your Rest Day | Kickboxing in the Twin Cities

Have you ever done a workout harder than a full 6 days at FXB?  Have you truly ever executed as many strength training exercises, like we do on band days, at home, by yourself or at any other gym?  Have you ever given your body the proper amount of stretching before a vigorous workout... Come on... be honest!  Have you faithfully engaged in any other exercise that interchanged your body between intense amounts of both speed and power? Any other workout that worked every area of your body??  We work extremely hard and efficiently at FXB and by Sunday, our bodies really feel it.  It's only natural that by Sunday, our bodies need to rest and replenish.  At FXB, we encourage Sunday to be a day off of exercise.  We encourage you to enjoy a well-deserved and well-planned cheat meal.  But while you are resting and enjoying, just keep in mind a few tips that will keep your rest day from turning into regret and regress day:

Allow yourself to get that full night of quality sleep.  This can mean a lot of different things to different people.  If you have young children, you might need to take turns sleeping in.  This also means being responsible for not staying up too late the night prior.  Our bodies are amazing at healing and growing while sleeping.

The amount of alcohol you take in just prior to sleep will negatively affect the quality of your sleep.  Despite what most people think, even though it might make you feel drowsy at first, alcohol will agitate your body during the night and not allow you to get full restful sleep.

Your cheat meal really should be one meal.  It shouldn't be two or three meals all on one plate or an entire day of cheating or not paying attention.  Not planning out your cheat meal can lead to a lack of attention to what you are putting in your mouth and thus spreads into an entire day.  Then when Monday morning comes, your mind is in a different pattern of thinking and more susceptible to making poor choices.

This is also a day to plan and prepare for the week ahead.  Make sure you have enough water bottles for the week.  Spending some time in the kitchen now will save you so much time and sabotage later on in the week, when schedules get busy.

So in short, train for change, eat for change and rest for change. Your body will thank you for it!

-FXB Andover and New Hope

Andover FXB Location Announces Food Drive

Ahhh... Summer and the livin' is easy, right?  Yes, summer is a fun-filled, carefree time but, for many of our neighbors the summer can be anything but carefree. There are many children in our area who rely on school lunches to get one, or even two of their meals for the day. So, when school is out for the summer, unfortunately, for some, this means less meals.  We typically think of donations in the winter months, but summer is a time when the shelves at our local food donation centers are starting to run low.

What can our FXB gym family do to help those in need?  Knowing that the need is great, we have decided to have a “Clean the Cupboard” event to gather food for the Anoka County Brotherhood Council, (ACBC) food shelf in Coon Rapids. After reading about ACBC food shelf and knowing our FXB Andover family... Several things are clear:

1.     ACBC does amazing things for our community.

2.     Summertime brings a dire need for your donations!

3.     The FXB Andover community is a kind and generous one!

4.     Donating is good for your health!  Studies show "doing good" is beneficial to your overall happiness and health!

ACBC will take all different kinds of canned and boxed foods, personal supplies such as shampoo, deodorant, etc., (this even includes travel size toiletries).  Also, they currently have a desperate need for cat food ( to help our 4-legged friends too). 

So... Beginning today... RIGHT NOW... and running for a week or so we will have donation containers at the Andover FXB location. If you have a donation, drop it off and when the containers are full we will bring them to the ACBC food shelf to help them fulfill their mission of helping those in need!

Usually we post here about giving those bags the right rounds at FXB Andover, but this time let’s right round hunger, and fill some bags for our community!

Thank you!

New Hope Gets First Session Underway!

This past Saturday, owners, Joe and Darcie Hill and Brian and Amy Fritz, opened the new FXB location in New Hope, MN.  With over 70 new members, the first session started with great success.

Take a look at the morning's events captured in photos:

Joe and the very first member to sign up at New Hope!

Joe, Darcie, Amy and Lance Farrell.

"Up, Up, Down, Down..."  The step test!

Don't we all remember this moment... Waiting and wondering, full of excitement, hope and probably a little bit of nerves!

Push-up testing

Sit-up testing

Everyone pile in... Group photo!

What an exciting morning and a great start to the first week at New Hope!

H2O!!!!!

Yes, water, water and more WATER!!!  We hear this all the time, we know we should.. but ARE you drinking enough water and EVERYDAY?

We know the benefits... and there are a PLENITUDE of them.  Water helps all the body organs properly function, it flushes toxins our of the body, increases your metabolism, keeps skin moisturized and taut, helps to keep you feeling full, gives you more energy... the list goes on and on.

So, now to help you REMEMBER to keep drinking enough:

Probably the biggest tip to staying ahead of the water game is to have water at your bedside table first thing when you wake up.  Drink a good portion before you even get out of bed and definitely before you eat breakfast.  If you are a coffee drinker in the morning, tell yourself that you must first drink a glass of water before you allow yourself that coffee.  Same goes with lunch, dinner and in-between snacks.

Have the tools handy, to help you WANT to drink the water.  Sometimes, simply always having a pack of water bottles on hand helps people grabbing water one by one and keeping that momentum going.  Some might have a favorite water bottle that they prefer to always fill up.  Having a refillable filtered water pitcher is a great idea for keeping at your desk during the day.

Make deals with yourself.  If you reach your hydration goal for the evening, then you can feel confident with that last snack of the night you consume.

There are even apps for keeping track of how much water you are drinking!!

Whatever your trick is... stay focused!  The list of benefits is too long to not take this challenge!

Sale on Your Favorite Protein Bars!

I don't know about you, but we here at Andover and New Hope Farrell's FXB are busy. Between work, family, working out and having some fun, we don't exactly have a lot of spare time. We all know how hard we work in the gym, and busy we are in our daily lives, but we do not want to undo all of this work because we forget to pack a lunch, or have to travel for work or shuttle the kids around. Quest bars are a great time-saving solution for our busy lives. Quest bars are like nothing else available. They are not loaded with sugar or chemicals, and they taste great. 

We will be offering our buy 5 get 1 free promotion again tomorrow July 12th in Andover.  So, whether you are a new 10-weeker or a FXB FIT member these bars can be a part of the healthy lifestyle we strive for at FXB. 

That Dreaded "Plateau," or Stall, Needing a Re-Start?

Ugh, the dreaded plateau!

We’ve all been there.  Whether we’re trying to lose weight or add muscle, it is inevitable, that we will  hit that point in our progress where everything seems to stall.

Do any of these sound familiar?

“I’ve been losing weight for months, and yet I’ve been stuck the past two weeks despite doing all of the same stuff, what gives!?”

“I’ve been adding a medicine ball to my squats and sit-ups , but this week I feel like I could do less than before!

“I’ve been kicking harder and pushing myself harder than ever before, but I do not seem to be making any changes!”

So... these dreaded plateaus...  Are they real?  What happens when you get stuck on one?  How can you break through?

Plateaus: it’s game over for you, we are going to kick it up to Level 10!

OK FXB’ers, what is a plateau? A plateau occurs when you stall out on progress despite continuing to do “all of the right things,”  including eating right, exercising properly, getting adequate rest, etc.

Our bodies go from losing weight consistently to getting stuck at a certain number (so frustrating!), or we go from building muscle and getting stronger, to having a week or two where we can’t seem to band up.

We call this point in our FXB journey “The Plateau,” and we don’t like being stuck on them.

We humans (especially FXB members) are happier when we make progress.  When we work hard for something and don’t see progress, we get unhappy.

When you feel you've plateaued, you really have to ask yourself:

“Have you REALLLLLLLLY plateaued?  REALLY?”

In a strong majority of the cases, plateaus are really just issues with concentration in disguise.  Before you think you’re stuck, or in a plateau, consider the following:

1) Track your meals for the next few days.  Oftentimes we think we are being meticulous, until we realize that after a few weeks of eating great we’ve started slacking. For women, a big issue is not eating ENOUGH calories! Rededicate yourself for two weeks, track your meals, and see if progress picks back up!

2) How are your workouts…REALLY?   If you are weeks or months into a workout plan, I bet the initial luster of “NEW! PROGRESS! WINNING!” has worn off.  Have you been skipping that last rep, or not pushing yourself at Level 10? I know when I hit a plateau at the gym, it’s generally because I haven’t been pushing myself as hard as I had been previously.  Make notes about your workouts diligently for two weeks and see if these changes kick you back on track.

3) Are you getting enough sleep?…REALLY?  This is one that most people skip out on.  They are exercising, eating right, but for whatever reason they’ve been slacking on their sleep.  We all know sleep is important; lack of sleep leads to increased levels of stress, less time for our bodies to rebuild muscle, to recover from strenuous activity, and more.  I know that if I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, then my performance in the gym the next day will suffer.

Track yourself for two weeks then ask yourself if you are really getting quality sleep, nutrition, and exercise?  In many cases we think we’re stuck, but with a little focus we can break the plateau and continue on the path to a healthier lifestyle!

I hope this helps!

-Amy