CategoriesUncategorized

Reality Check

Part of my job as a strength coach and trainer is to save people time. That is, to help people achieve the results they’re looking for in the shortest amount of time possible. Conversely, part of my job as an honorary member of the “Secret Society of Jedi Knights” is to be awesome and make chicks want to hang out with me. Surprisingly, it’s not my fake light saber that drives them crazy, it’s my cloak. You know, cause it makes me look all mysterious. Not to mention it really brings out eyes.

In any case, last weekend at Mike Boyle’s 2nd Annual Strength and Conditioning Winter Seminar I listened to Mike himself talk about his ongoing struggles with training endurance athletes, and I couldn’t agree more with what he had to say. People who like to run either have a genetic predisposition to it, have a type-A personality, or they do it because it allows them to have a competitive outlet into adulthood; or it’s a combination of any of the three.

Unfortunately, as Mike noted, all the traits above are at first positives, but they can rapidly become a negative because what makes you train (you’re good at it, it’s easier, personality, etc) also makes you train hurt. In a nutshell, he went on to say that endurance training probably isn’t good for most people (GASP!). I totally heart Mike Boyle.

Tell me if this looks familiar: The Endurance Cycle (again, from Mike).

Train………………Injury………………..Rehab/Physical Therapy

Train………………Injury………………..Rehab/Physical Therapy

Train………………Injury………………..Rehab/Physical Therapy

I’m willing to bet that many of you reading this who are avid runners can relate to this never ending cycle. I’m also willing to bet that your physical therapist pays off his/her mortgage thanks to you.

So what can “we” as fitness professionals do? Well, as Boyle put it…..”you can’t change their personality but you may be able to change their training.” In other words: what can we do to keep these people “healthy?”

(Warning: this is the part where I start sounding like a broken record.)

1. Intervals: as counterintuitive as it may seem, interval training develops aerobic capacity better than aerobic training. The fastest way to increase VO2 max, the standard measure of aerobic fitness, is through interval training not long duration distances.

Journal of Physiology, “Short term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: Similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance.” Sept 2006, Vol 575 Issue 3.

Study specifics– comparison of 20 minutes of interval training (30 sec sprint/ 4 minute rest) with 90-120 minutes in the “heart rate zone.”

Results– same improvement in oxygen utilization. One hour per week vs. 4.5-6 hours per week.

As I stated above, a large part of my job is to get people the results they’re looking for in the shortest amount of time possible. If someone is looking to improve their aerobic capacity, which do you think I’m going to choose? Not only will interval training get the job done infinitely faster, but I won’t have to deal with all the nagging injuries as well (less ground contacts compared to long distance training).

On an aside, I’ve never really heard anyone say, “you know I really wish I had a physique like a marathoner.” Something to ponder.

2. Resistance Training: As Eric Cressey has noted on several occasions, a University of Alabama meta-analysis of the endurance training **scientific literature revealed that ten weeks of resistance training in trained distance runners improves running economy by 8-10%. For the mathematicians in the crowd, that’s about 20-24 minutes off a four-hour marathon – and likely more if you’re not a well-trained endurance athlete in the first place. Not only will they get stronger and improve force production (improved times), but they’ll also stay a little healthier due to the fact that they’re not on the road or on the treadmill as much.

** Jung AP. The impact of resistance training on distance running performance. Sports Med. 2003;33(7):539-52.

 

A great “real world” example would be my girlfriend; lets call her, um, Kate Beckinsale.

Before we met, she was an avid runner. It took a lot of work, but I eventually convinced her that she didn’t have to be doing all of that endurance work in order to stay “fit.” Instead she started to lift weights more often and performed more interval based work. Fast forward a year. She went for a 3.5 run with one of her friends last week. I think her friend’s name was, let me see here, Jessica Alba. Yeah, that’s it.

“Kate” reported no issues what-so-ever in regards to feeling winded or tired afterwards. Matter of fact, she said she could have easily gone longer. This after having not put on her jogging shoes in over a year.

Note to Reader: to protect the anonymity of those mentioned above (my girlfriend and her friend she went jogging with), I used the names of celebrities that I would totally make out with. That is of course assuming my real girlfriend was actually into those sort of things, which she isn’t. Sigh

CategoriesUncategorized

Reason I Think Yoga Mostly Sucks: # Infinity

Before I go on, please read the title of this blog post again. I think yoga MOSTLY sucks, it doesn’t completely suck. There’s a big difference. Matter of fact, the only things I would say suck 100% are illegal immigrants who complain when they don’t get free tuition, Keanu Reeves, and the fact that the Quaker Oats Company discontinued Mr. T cereal when I was twelve years old back in the 1980’s.

Lets just say I pity the fool who decided to take one of my favorite cereals off the shelf. Don’t think I forgot Quaker Oats. I’ll never forget!

Needless to say, I’m still dumbfounded when I overhear people claim that stretching their lower back (like some of the poses advocated in yoga) “feels good.” One of the best retorts to this statement comes from strength coach Mike Boyle: “picking a scab feels good too, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.” What happens when you a pick scab? Eventually you’re going to develop scar tissue. The same can be said about the lumbar spine when you consistently take it into positions that it’s not accustomed to or designed to be in.

Despite what many of us in the fitness industry say on the contrary, some people still think that stretching their lower back is good or “healthy.” The fact of the matter is, the lumbar spine has approximately two degrees of rotary movement from L1-L4, and L5-S1 may have up to five degrees of rotary movement. All in all the total Range of Motion (ROM) for rotation of the lumbar spine is roughly 13 degrees. Far less than what the woman above is demonstrating.

Long story short, for those who have a history of low back pain…please stop stretching your back! Learn to stabilize the lumbar spine while promoting mobility in the hips and thoracic spine. Conversely don’t listen to any yoga instructor or physician who state all you need to do is stretch your back. They’re mis-informed and there is absolutely no research to back their claims up. However there is some research demonstrating an inverse relationship between the stupidity of “some” yoga instructors and the likelihood I’ll want to face claw them. True story.

CategoriesUncategorized

JB Makes My Job Easier

When I first started out in this industry, one of the first authors that I gravitated towards was Dr. John Berardi (JB). As a “newbie” in the industry I understood the importance that nutrition played in the overall progress of the people I worked with. In a nutshell, JB’s writing style appealed to me and I found myself adopting many of his thoughts and principles concerning diet and nutrition and applying them towards my own clients. Six years later, I still consider JB the “go to” guy in regards to nutrition; whether you’re an athlete looking to enhance performance, a “weekend warrior” looking to shed those last few pounds of fat, or a stay-at-home mom who just wants to feel better.

JB makes my job easier because I KNOW that he will consistently put out quality material. As such, I have no qualms what-so-ever endorsing his products.

1. Precision Nutrition: is unquestionably the most comprehensive resource I have ever come across that deals with nutrition. More often than not, when someone approaches me with a question concerning their diet, I answer it, and then revert them to this product. Instead of offering quick fixes (like most diet books), Precision Nutrition offers a plethora of tools; various guides (diet plans, cookbooks, etc), the No-Nonsense Nutrition dvd, and an online library/community, just to name a few. All of which help to set people up for long-term success; an important distinction.

2. More recently, JB released the second edition to his popular cookbook “Gourmet Nutrition.” Geared towards the “fit food lover,” Gourmet Nutrition is for those who love to eat great food, but hate that after-dinner guilt. It’s hard enough for people to eat the right foods, let alone know how to cook them. This book is loaded with roughly 100 recipes that not only taste spectacular, but will also make you healthier. Take that Rachael Ray!

Matter of fact when I brought the book home last week, my girlfriend spent close to an hour just looking at the pictures and studying the recipes. That’s saying a lot since she’s what I would call a “cookbook snob.” Which makes me wonder: what other book could I bring home that has tons of pictures and instructions of things we’ve never tried before? Hmmmmmmm……

If you’re reading this babe, I’m just kidding. I would never sink so low as to bring this sort of smut home. Seriously though, where’s the local Borders?

CategoriesUncategorized

Quick Updates

1. I had a new article published on Testosterone Magazine earlier this week. Check it out: The 2008 Alphabet of Manliness.

2. There have been some slight technical difficulties with the site recently. Mainly the fact that people have not been able to leave comments. I “think” the issue has been resolved, so feel free to post away. I’m always interested in what my readers have to say.

3. I’ll update the blog tomorrow, but in the meantime, can someone please explain to me why a movie like “Alvin and the Chipmunks” has made close to $200 million at the box office?

I’m starting to think I should make a movie of my own. I’ll call it “Drop Kicking Paris Hilton In the Face, Repeatedly.” Who wouldn’t pay to see that? I could market it as a romantic-comedy and make millions!

CategoriesUncategorized

Protein!

A client of mine sent me this link to an article describing a study on how protein keeps hunger at bay. In a nutshell, The researchers gave 16 people three different beverages, each with varying levels of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They took blood samples before the first beverage, then every 20 minutes for six hours afterward, measuring ghrelin (a hormone which regulates hunger) levels in each sample.

Results concluded that proteins were the best suppressor of ghrelin and kept subjects more sated. Conversely, carbohydrates initially suppressed ghrelin, but levels rebounded quite quickly and more than doubled not long afterwards. According to the guys with the white coats, carbohydrates eventually made people even hungrier than before they had eaten. Which is exactly why I hate those 100 calorie snack packs I blogged about last week. More often than not, people will end up eating more later on in the day.

Frankly all of this is nothing new. It’s great to see this information finally getting some attention in mainstream media, but it’s information that many fitness professionals, such as myself, have been advocating for years; mainly that people need to learn to stress more protein in their everyday diet.

That’s not to say I’m a huge fan of the Atkins or South Beach Diet (both of which stress protein), but it does go along with what I like to tell my clients when they’re not sure of what they should be eating at “x” time: “when in doubt, eat protein.”

Nonetheless, I’m kinda miffed that my tax dollars are funding these kind of studies. Why don’t these scientist spend more time studying something useful? Like whether or not Kim Kardashian’s derriere actually has it’s own gravitational pull. A gravitational pull of awesomeness!

CategoriesUncategorized

Obsession with “Cardio”

We have one treadmill at Cressey Performance, and admittedly it doesn’t get used that often. I think we bought it more so to appease our girlfriends than anything else. But to be perfectly honest, there is a legit reason why we only have ONE treadmill……we just feel that treadmills hurt people more than they help them.

(My inbox is totally going to hate me today.)

This notion wasn’t more apparent than a few weeks ago when I accompanied my girlfriend to a local commercial gym where we live. One of the disadvantages of working at a place like Cressey Performance is the fact that I don’t see stupid stuff anymore. How can this be a disadvantage? From my perspective, I don’t get nearly as much “ammo” for blog posts or articles as I used to. Back when I worked for larger commercial gyms (one of which rhymes with “Schmallies” ), there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t hear or see something that made me want to bang my head against a wall, and hence write about it.

You can only imagine my elation when I walked into said commercial gym a few weeks back and observed one gentleman running on the treadmill for the entire hour I was there…..with not one, but two knee braces on. I’ve seen diabetic “meth” addicts who looked healthier than this guy. Granted I’m only speculating here, but I’m willing to bet there’s a strong correlation between the treadmill use and the fact that he’s resorted to having to wear two knee braces. I’ve been in the industry long enough where I’d bet money that I’m right.

It just demonstrates my point that the majority of people are obsessed with getting their “cardio” in no matter what. Funny thing is, most have no idea what it means or what it entails.

When I start working with new clients, they’re often perplexed why I don’t include more “cardio” in their programming. My retort is: “you’re lifting weights, that’s cardio.” As Alwyn Cosgrove has stated on numerous occasions, cardio refers to any exercise in which the heart and lungs are involved. This could be jogging, sprinting, swimming, and drum roll please….lifting weights. Quite simply- if you’re elevating your heart rate and respiration rate, you are engaging in some form of cardiovascular work. In other words: lifting weights can be an effective modality to improve heart health despite what your doctor tells you. Go perform a superset of heavy partial deadlifts followed by a set of chin-ups and tell me you’re heart rate doesn’t increase.

The point is, many (read: not all) people just need to accept the reality that running on the treadmill (or outside for that matter) is doing more harm than good. Additionally (and more importantly), if we’re going to be technical about it, sex counts as cardio. Yay us!

CategoriesUncategorized

Just Shut Up

A client of mine gave me the coolest t-shirt ever right before Christmas. All it said on the front was: “Shut Up and Squat!” What made this even cooler was the fact that she’s an avid runner training for her second Boston Marathon (and hopefully her last….wink wink, nudge nudge).

Needless to say, I wear the shirt proudly. But it did get me thinking on how most people just need to shut up in general when they’re in the gym training.

I have a rule with clients I train. No talking during a set. My rationale is if they’re able to hold an entire conversation while performing a set, the weight is obviously not challenging enough for them. It never ceases to amaze me when I overhear other trainers discussing last night’s episode of American Idol with their clients in the middle of a set. No wonder they still look the same now as they did two years ago!

Conversely I also have a rule with the younger athletes I train. I don’t want to see them on their cell phones while they’re in the facility. Unless it’s Jessica Biel or the hot cheerleader from the show “Heros” calling them, there’s no excuse for them to be on their phone.

And while I’m at it, the same goes to you ladies who like to have “gossip hour” with your friends while on the treadmill or elliptical machine. Here’s a rule: if you’re able to sing the “Star Bangled Banner” without having to catch your breath, you need to shut up and increase the intensity.

I should try to lobby some politician to make this into a law. Maybe Hillary Clinton can help me out. He’s pretty cool. I can call it the “Just Shut Up” law, and it will have to be posted in the main entrance to every fitness center and gym in the US. I’m totally going to bust out my crayons and Harry Potter stationary. You know, to make it look professional.

CategoriesUncategorized

Thank You Canada

You may be wondering why we should be thanking Canada. Well, I can think of a couple reasons:

1. It’s the birthplace of B-film actress Shannon Tweed- As a young teenager, I’ll never forget my first time watching “Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure” at 2 AM on Cinemax while staying at my grandmother’s house. I really enjoyed the um, cinematography. Yeah, that’s it. The cinematography.

2. Canadian Bacon- Honestly, I can’t eat an omlette without it.

Also known as “back bacon” in the US; what makes this type of bacon a healthier option is the fact that it’s made from the backside of the pig (leaner meat). Most bacon that is produced in the US is made from the pork belly, otherwise known as “streaky bacon.”

Looking at the nutritional facts: Jones Canadian Bacon (made by Jones Dairy Farm)

Serving Size: 3 slices

Servings Per Container: about 3

Calories- 60

Total Fat- 1.5 grams

Sodium- 460 mg

Total Carbohydrate- 1 gram

Protein- 11 grams

Granted it’s a bit high in sodium, but I generally only use ONE slice which drastically reduces the total sodium per serving (which is normally three slices). Not to mention it definitely adds a little “zing” to an otherwise dull omlette. Either way it gets my seal of approval as part of a tasty breakfast.

(Note to self: buy stock in Jones Canadian Bacon ASAP. Also, e-mail mom to apologize for admitting the only reason you stayed over at grandma’s house every weekend when you were younger was to watch Skin-a-Max.)

CategoriesUncategorized

100 Calorie Snack Packs vs. Me

We’ve all seen the commercials and we’ve all read the magazine ads:

“Sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, creamy- what kind of snack are you craving? 100 calorie snack packs come in all your favorites from Oreo to Wheat Thins. Now you can indulge and still know that you’re making a smart choice.”

Hey Jabba the Hut! You’re better off eating the socks that have been in my gym bag for the past month than you are in “indulging” in those 100 calorie snack packs.

Lets take a closer look at one of these so-called smart choices: Oreo Thin Crisps

Nutrition Facts:

Serving Size- 23 grams (1 bag)

Servings Per Container- 6

Calories- 100

Total Fat- 2 grams

Total Carbohydrate: 19 grams

Dietary Fiber- 1 gram

Sugars- 8 grams

Protein- 1 gram

Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN, {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), ARTIFICIAL COLOR, SALT, POWDERED SUGAR, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Wow, that sounds scrumptious. Call me crazy, but I prefer to eat real food.

I can understand the rationale on why people would think this would be a healthy option. I mean what’s 100 calories in the grand scheme of things, right? Well here are my issues with these snack packs.

#1. When we’re discussing burning off body fat, there are essentially three steps to do so: mobilization, transport, and oxidation. I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but lets just stick to the mobilization aspect. In order to burn body fat, you must first mobilize it (ie: bodyfat doesn’t just melt away on its own). Bodyfat is essentially stored triglyceride. Mobilizing bodyfat requires that we first break down the triglyceride into free fatty acids. The limiting step in this process is an enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase (HSL).

There are a number of hormones that effect HSL, but one of the major ones that effect HSL activity is……insulin. In a nutshell, insulin is the main inactivator of HSL. If you’re eating carbohydrates all day, you spike insulin levels to a greater degree, which in turn, inactivates HSL from releasing stored body fat to be burned off as free fatty acids.

I know it’s a bit “sciency,” but the main point to take home here is that insulin ALWAYS wins the battle over fat cell metabolism. If you’re eating carbohydrates all day (in the form of those 100 calorie snack packs), you’re really limiting yourself in the fat loss department.

(For more information on the topic and in case you’re a science geek, check out Alwyn Cosgrove’s Manual or Lyle McDonald’s manual).

#2. Who are we kidding? I don’t know many people who can limit themselves to just one bag per day. That’s like asking Britney Spears to only drink two cans of crazy per day. Not gonna happen. Besides 100 calories is not a lot of volume of food. More often than not, said person will probably be even hungrier later on in the day and OVER-eat once he or she gets home.

Do yourself a favor and stop eating for convenience. No matter how you put it, eating cookies is not a healthy choice and won’t help you get leaner.

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should be Doing (Suitcase Deadlift)

I feel that everyone (read: this includes you) needs to learn how to deadlift. Thing is, many trainees are just not ready (lack proper flexibility and/or mobility) or just aren’t strong enough yet to perform a traditional barbell deadlift from the floor; otherwise known as a conventional deadlift. I’m often dumbfounded when I hear other trainers tell me that they don’t teach their clients to deadlift because it’s too dangerous. Lets be clear, getting in a car with Britney Spears is dangerous. Teaching someone a movement pattern that’s a part of everyday life is not.

As I have stated in past writings, the deadlift is a great exercise because it’s one of the rare movements that can be conformed to the lifter and not vice versa. Whether I’m working with a high school athlete or a 40 year old “soccer mom” you can bet that I’m going to teach them both how to deadlift; I just may take a different approach to both.

One movement that I like to use for “newbies” is the Suitcase Deadlift:

1. Grab a dumbbell and hold on one side of the body.

2. Chest high, neutral spine, elbows locked.

3. Breaking first with the hips (not the knees), continue pushing your butt back while maintaining your arch.

4. Stop at mid-shin level and return to the starting position.

5. You should end the movement by squeezing your glutes (hip extension).

Not only is this a great way to introduce the deadlift to beginners, but it also serves as a superb way to train anti-rotation because you have to brace the opposite side of the body so as not to tip over.