You Asked, We Answered

Question: Is there a benefit to not eating the skin of fruits and vegetables? I’ve heard it’s healthy to do so normally, but there are certain foods that I enjoy much more when peeled.

Answer: Did a toddler steal your phone to ask this question? Eat the peels!

Moving on from picky eater-shaming, there is, as you mentioned, an incredible health benefit to most fruits and vegetables when it comes to enjoying the skin, or peel, or whatever you must call it. Unpeeled produce contains drastically more vitamins and minerals than peeled produce, and after all, isn’t that why we eat fruits and veggies in the first place?  If you need extra motivation, Healthline has a full rundown on why this is so important.

Blanket statement time - the only time you shouldn’t be eating the peels of your grown produce are when it is obvious (melons, citrus, bananas, etc.) or when heavy pesticides are being used. In this second situation, I’d urge you to look into the sourcing background of what you’re buying (if possible), and always make an effort to clean and wash all of your groceries to help avoid this.

#NutritionTips

Question: Should I learn to incorporate Olympic-style lifting in my workouts if I want to be more athletic and explosive?

Answer: Olympic weightlifting, which competitively includes the snatch and the clean and jerk, and non-competitively can include all of those lifts' training variations, is enjoyed by many as the peak synergy of strength, speed, technique, coordination, and mobility with a barbell. These lifts can also be incredibly challenging to do correctly, especially if you are trying to pick them up after watching a five-minute YouTube video.

Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows and pulls, and most core work are all relatively easy to learn and, when programmed correctly, can take 99% of people 99% of the way towards his or her fitness or strength goal. Learning the Olympic lifts as a beginner can take years before you hit a proficiency with them that allow you to see a return on your investment, and even then, the risk of aches and injuries is ever relevant given the nature of these lifts.

If you’re solely focused on building athleticism and explosiveness, there are a bunch of ways to do that WITHOUT having to touch an Olympic lift. Sprint more, jump higher, do kettlebell swings, cleans, and snatches, and build absolute strength. If you can add 50 pounds to your squat while maintaining the same bodyweight, you had better believe that will have carryover towards athleticism and explosiveness.

#WorkoutIdeas

Question: How can I tell if the fitness-people I follow on Instagram are using steroids or other performance enhancing drugs?

Answer: This is tough. Because for every fitness buff who will come out and admit to drug use, there are ten who will remain silent on the matter, or worse yet, lie and claim a “natural” status. What’s tougher yet is that there are plenty of non-steroid performance enhancers that the average person wouldn’t come close to touching. There’s a lot of grey area here.

It would be dangerous, pessimistic, and wrong to say that you should go into any fitness community expecting that the default setting is steroid-use. Does it happen? Yes. Can it be incredibly misleading when someone builds an Instagram following of 400k on the back of heavy testosterone injections and SARMS? Incredibly so.

There are certain visual signs that can indicate steroid use, and there are a lot of resources out there focused on fitness folk who are confirmed natural. I’d urge you to look for people who focus on education, sharing ideas, and answering questions with his or her platform. Your question is impossible to answer for certain, but these people are typically a good place to start.

#TFSRecommendations

Got 10 Hours? If you do, you could break Daniel Scali’s World Record Plank of 9 hours, 30 minutes, and 1 second

Healthy Cocktails aren’t two words you often hear used together, and let’s face it, an alcoholic drink can never be that great for you, but you can at least focus on low-sugar cocktail recipes.

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