​Here’s the deal, some are great, some are ok and some are simply just confectionary bars lurking under a healthy guise. Some of these can help you reach your goals and some can set you back more than you may think.

Here’s what to look for:

Protein Content > Overall calories > Carb content/sugars > Fat content > Ingredients
Protein
We’re going to assume you already know the importance of protein in your diet and how it helps you change your body composition once you have everything else dialled in, if not, we have a new post coming in the next couple of days. Simply put as a rough guide we suggest you’ll want to look for a bar that has about 20g+ of protein, anything with 10g is probably going to be on the lower end of the quality scale and best avoided.

Overall calories
This one is goal dependent, but protein bars range anywhere from 100cals to 500cals. To give you some realistic idea what that means in practice is, for a small female dieting to lose some weight that 500cals maybe almost a third of her daily calories in one small bar. On the other hand a small lean guy who struggles to get calories in might easily get away with/or want a quick 500cal hit.

Carbohydrates
If you’re goal is fat loss then the chances are you’ve probably had to reduce your carbohydrate intake to some degree and if we were to give you advice on this we’d try to have you save your daily carbohydrates for vegetables, fruits or at least whole food sources rather than sugar or sugar alcohols. Be wary of this one, especially with the lower protein or higher calorie bars as a lot of these bars actually have the same amount of sugar as regular bars.

Fats
Though some are essential, as with above if you’re goal is trying to save calories, fats are more energy dense than either protein and carbs and rack up the calories a little quicker, so keep an eye out for that. As with carbs, getting your fats from assorted sources is preferable such as oily fish, oils, butter etc.

Check the ingredients
Ideally, and as a general rule you want as few ingredients as possible, and with as little processing as is possible from something with a long enough shelf-life.

We picked up all of the above bars locally here in a health food shop to illustrate some of our points above. Based on all of the above the Quest bars tend to come out on top due to decent levels of protein, low enough calories, carbohydrates and fats. When we compare this with the ‘lean bar’, we find out is has the same amount of calories but only 13g of protein with 16g of sugars.

We still like to look at protein bars (even the good ones) as supplements, meaning they should only be added to a diet if you can’t reach your needs through whole food options.

As usual if anyone has any questions on protein bars just drop us a line, or a post on Facebook.

​Foam rollers offer many of the same benefits as a sports massage without the big price tag.

The foam roller not only stretches muscles and tendons but it also breaks down soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue. By using your own body weight and a cylindrical foam roller you can perform a self-massage or myofascial release, break up trigger points, and soothe tight fascia while increasing blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues.

How it works
The superficial fascia is a soft connective tissue located just below the skin. It wraps and connects the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body. Together, muscle and fascia make up what is called the myofascia system. For various reasons including disuse, not enough stretching, or injuries, the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together. This is called an adhesion and it results in restricted muscle movement. It also causes pain, soreness and reduced movement.

Myofascial release is a body work technique in which a practitioner uses gentle, sustained pressure on the soft tissues while applying traction to the fascia. This technique results in softening and lengthening (release) of the fascia and breaking down scar tissue or adhesions between skin, muscles and bones.

Myofascial release has also been shown to relieve various muscle and joint pains such as IT band syndrome and shin splints as well as improving flexibility and range of motion.

Foam rollers are inexpensive and with a bit of experimentation you can target just about any muscle group. The latest style of foam roller, the Grid foam roller, has a unique design and construction that provides a more targeted trigger point self massage.