Obviously meat is a good source of protein. Chicken, pork and beef usually contain about 7 grams of protein per ounce. A hamburger contains approximately 28 grams of protein, a steak is about 42 grams, a chicken breast is about 30 grams and a serving of ham has about 19 grams. Another high source of protein is fish. Most fish fillets contain about 22 grams of protein, and canned tuna has about 40 grams.

 If you are looking for alternative sources of protein other than meat, nuts and seeds are a good choice. Two tablespoons of peanut butter contains about 8 grams of protein and a ¼ cup of almonds, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds each have about 8 grams as well.

 Another great source of protein is eggs. One large egg contains about 6 grams of protein. Dairy is also a logical choice, one cup of milk contains up to 8 grams of protein. Yogurt has about 10 grams of protein per cup and hard cheese (like parmesan) has 10 grams per ounce.

 Finally, beans are a healthy way to get your daily protein intake. Most beans have about 10 grams of protein per ½ cup, and soy beans have 14 grams per ½ cup. Tofu contains about 20 grams of protein per ½ cup, so there really are many choices when choosing foods to help increase your daily protein levels.

Kidney back pain has been linked to over consumption of protein.

  Many people in Canada and the US suffer from chronic and undiagnosed back pain, and even more experience sudden flare ups of severe pain that occur seemingly without cause. You may assume that your pain is caused from lifting something that was just too heavy or sitting inappropriately for a long period at a computer, but this may not always be the case.

  In today’s society there is a large focus on losing weight and building muscle. People are resorting to some rather off the wall fad eating plans, and while some can be effective for a short period of time, any kind of diet that limits the body’s nutrition can have sometimes strange and unexpected side effects.

  An example that has been coming up recently is the high protein and low carbohydrate diet. Though we have mentioned the dangers of this diet previously, it is important to understand that the issue isn’t eating too much protein, it is consuming much more protein than carbohydrates. Your body needs carbohydrates in order to break down the proteins you consume, and limiting your carbohydrates when consuming large quantities of protein can seriously harm your kidneys. If you are noticing that your lower back hurts after grabbing an extra protein shake or if you eat a big steak the day before, it could be your kidneys causing the pain.

  If you are concerned about eating too much protein, make sure you are balancing it out. Your body actually requires more carbohydrates than protein, the daily breakdown being like a 1 2 3 rule. You need 1 times the fat, 2 times the protein and 3 times the carbohydrates. So, if you know that you’ve consumed 10 g of protein, your body would require 15 g of carbohydrates and just 5 g of fat. Also, if you are bulking up by eating increased protein, remember that you cannot drink enough water! The key to avoiding protein related lower back pain is hydration and moderation.

Some useful tips to improve your workout performance

Once you’re started a workout program or an exercise routine, one of your main motivations should be to increase performance. For a runner it is important to run farther and faster. Bodybuilders will want to add more weights to increase strength and muscle mass. For a slightly overweight person guess what it important? … many things but you get the point: efficient aerobic exercise, better diet, etc.If a better performance is not one of your main workout goals then you may be focusing too much on results, which are really lacking if your overall performance is lacking. Note this is not a science, but it is my opinion. You can leave comments and let me know what your opinions are!

Breathing

Enhanced exhalation while exercising can increase lung capacity which means your will be able to get more oxygen. With more oxygen in your lungs your heart has to do less work to keep your blood oxygenated. There is also a better muscle efficiency due to greater blood flow. Deep and conscious breaths can significantly help with improving heart and lung efficiency.Keep in mind that conscious deep breathing techniques don’t have to be done during cardio exercise or any other exercise only. It is a good idea do them while you are resting. This is in fact one of my warm up instructions from my trainer about five years ago.

Keep a variable pace during the workout

Having the same pace during the whole workout is not only monotonous, but may not be exactly make a well-balanced workout program. With aerobic exercise for example, metabolic pathways that are responsible for energy generation during anaerobic metabolism are not exercised properly. That doesn’t mean, however, that aerobic exercise is not efficient; aerobic exercise is probably highly valuable part of your program alone. Same thing goes for bodybuilding. Strength training and exercise sets until failure can be helpful.

Don’t ignore cooldown

After a long and intensive aerobic training you definitely want to leave some time for cooling down. It is not a good idea to stop abruptly. You want to have the blood continue to circulate and slow down gradually. This way metabolic waste that is build up during exercise will have time to redistribute properly. So instead of stopping to catch your breath, keep moving for another 10 minutes until you’ve cooled down.

Sleep

Sleep is important for recovery. Sleeping every night around the same time and getting at least seven to eight hours of sleep is an optimum. If you workouts or performance is not doing so well, maybe you’re not getting enough sleep.

Don’t overtrain consistently

If you are continuously doing aerobic exercise and your pulse is higher by 5-10 beats than what it should be then you may be overtraining. This is different from keeping a difference pace during workout. I would say this will not help if you are consistently overtraining. Overtraining can cause fatigue and your workouts are less desirable because they will be hard. Overall, you are not producing better results if you are trying to burn some more energy and get out of the exercise sooner.