CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: 3-Month Pose KB Pullover

I realized yesterday that it’s been F.O.R.E.V.E.R since I’ve done one of these.  Bad Tony!

Season 2 of House of Cards wasn’t out yet, the Seahawks hadn’t won the SuperBowl, and  “EggGate” hadn’t happened, which meant Justin Bieber’s general level of douchiness was a smidge lower than it is now.  But just a smidge.  That’s not a lot.

LOL – Bieber burn.

Suffice it to say it’s been a while, and since I’m roughly 48 hours from entering vacation mode – think of it as a grown up case of Senioritis – I figured I’d make this one short and to the point today.

3-Month Pose Kettlebell Pullover

Who Did I Steal It From:  I have no idea.  I know Mike Robertson has discussed this one before, as has some of the peeps over at the Postural Restoration Institute.

Oh, and this is one of Optimus Prime’s favs……;o)

What Does It Do: I know many people reading are wondering what the deal is, so lets address the elephant in the room first.  The exercise is called 3-Month Pose because, and I’m kinda speculating on this front, it represents the stage in human development where an infant will begin to place itself in said position (probably without the dumbbell) before learning to roll over.

While it seems rather goofy looking, this is an exercise that does provide a number of benefits.

1.  This is a fantastic exercise to train core stability – namely anti-extension – as well as simultaneously learn to “own” one’s breath.

2.  It also serves as a great exercise to work on and improve the length of the lats – which tend to get stiff/short in overhead athletes as well as the meathead population.

3.  And, of course, there’s a fair amount of pec recruitment.  Cause, you know, it’s ALL about the pecs!

Key Coaching Cues

I like to tell people to use the floor as feedback and to not allow their lower back to overarch (ie: it should stay flat against the floor the entire time).

Holding a kettlebell (a DB can be used too) straight above the body, inhale through the nose, taking a deep breath into your belly as well as focusing on more of a 360 degree expansion (breath into the floor) of the rib cage.

While the rib cage is going to expand, it’s important to not allow it to flare up/out too much.

From there you will exhale as you lower the KB/DB towards the ground. Keep it controlled – don’t rush!

Once you’re an inch or two from the floor, pause for a 2-3 second count, and remember to not allow your lower back to leave the floor.

Return back to the starting position, inhaling as you do so, and then repeat the process for the allotted repetitions.  I like to perform 2-3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.

And that’s it.  Try it today and let me know what you think.  It’s harder than it looks.

ALSO

As was the case earlier in the week, in anticipation of the release of her new project – Lift Weights Faster – my pal Jen Sinkler released another killer FREE video today which covers bodyweight training. In particular four exercise she feels should be part of every routine.

OMG – what are they?

Click HERE to find out

CategoriesNutrition

Understanding the Importance of Satiety

I guess some people took my comment that I don’t include nearly enough nutrition content on this site to heart.  The “Dynamic Duo” (Chris and Eric Martinez) are back, and with some quality information concerning the topic of satiety.

We’ve all been around someone who’s been “hangry” before.  You know… hungry and angry. And it’s not pleasant. Borderline dangerous if you ask me.

How can we combat this phenomena?  Read on to find out!

“In all pleasure there is satiety.” –George Hakewill

In all honesty how many of you can relate to the above quote?

We sure hope many of you are nodding your heads and saying yes. When you stop and think about it, isn’t life more enjoyable when you feel satiated and not hungry? Who wants to be that guy or gal with their stomach growling like there is a volcano about to erupt? We certainly do not; all you can really do when you hear hunger pangs like that is just look straight forward with your eyes widened like you saw a ghost.

We all should be aware that satiety means to feel satiated (aka feel full).

By accomplishing this feeling, one must actually eat throughout the day!

With how society works now there is quote on quote no time to eat right? We get it, life can be stressful, we are all on the go, we don’t have time to cook, we don’t know what to eat, etc.

These are just excuses at the end of the day. By not eating throughout the day you are just doing your entire body and brain a disservice. So, the question becomes, how long can you stand being hungry before you start eating again? Well, only you can really determine that.

Understanding Hunger and Satiety

Hunger is one of your body’s strongest and most beneficial stimuli, it helps ensure you consume enough calories for your needs. It also works against you when you’re trying to lose weight. You could easily lose weight just by eating less, but the less that you eat or the longer you postpone eating, the hungrier you become, and the longer it takes your hunger to subside once you do begin to eat. (1)

Typically the hungrier you are, the more likely it is that you’ll overeat, consuming extra calories that can quickly inhibit or reverse your weight loss progress.

As we mentioned earlier, the only way to end hunger and feel satiated is to eat. Yes eat, which is one of the most enjoyable things to do in life and pretty important from a human physiological stand point. With that said, our main point here is eat and cure those awful hunger pangs and give your body the nutrients it needs to operate and function properly throughout the day.

Are All Foods High in Satiation Levels?

Some foods are better than others for satisfying your hunger. A baked potato, for example, will most likely “fill you up” much more than a serving of candy that has the same number of calories.

We have often heard people claim that you have to cut potatoes out in order to lose weight. Funny thing is they never have any data or proven references to back up these narrow minded claims.

For example, Chris Voigt, head of Washington State Potato Commission, went on a 60 day potato only diet and lost 21 lbs while improving his blood lipid profile and reducing his fasting glucose levels. Still think you can’t lose weight while eating potatoes? Another study found that potatoes were far more satiating than all 38 common foods tested, including protein dominant foods. (2)

Some foods fill your stomach faster and/or remain in your stomach longer, and therefore do a better job of holding off hunger. For example, Higher GI carbs, which are fast digesting breakdown faster into the blood stream and store faster in your glycogen levels. As opposed to complex carbs that take longer to break down will keep your satiety levels much higher throughout the course of a day along with keeping your blood sugar levels stable.

In another study which was conducted by Suzanna Holt of the University of Sydney, fed human test subjects fixed calorie portions of 38 different foods, and then recorded the subject’s perceived hunger following each feeding.

The results of Holt’s study, like many similar studies, indicate that satiety is most strongly related to the weight of the food consumed. In other words, the foods that weigh the most satisfy our hunger best, regardless of the number of calories they contain.

However, higher amounts of certain nutrients, such as protein and dietary fiber, also appear to improve satiety. (3)

Can Satiety Be Predicted?

Sure it’s that popular hormone we call “Ghrelin” that many of us dislike.

All kidding aside, if there was a way of predicting satiety, we would be able to select foods that satisfied our hunger, but contained fewer calories. These foods would greatly improve our ability to create meals that were effective for weight loss. Some research studies have mentioned to consume foods with low caloric densities (foods that have the lowest total calories per gram). (4)

We feel caloric density alone is not a reliable predictor of satiety, and it overlooks many enjoyable foods that would make awesome additions to your diet. The last thing we would ever suggest is to cut out certain food groups or foods that people enjoy. This is a recipe for disaster, possible binge eating occurrences, eating disorders, and more.

The best way to predict satiety is to have foods that contain large amounts of water, dietary fiber, and are high and rich in protein. Whole foods such as complex carbs, veggies, fruits, quality fat sources, and lean meats do a better job of satisfying your hunger.

Best Food Options to Maximize Satiety Levels are?

This list of foods was adapted from Holt et al. (5) The foods are listed from most filling to least filling:

  • Potatoes, boiled
  • Ling Fish
  • Oatmeal/Porridge (<—- Tony’s personal fav!)
  • Oranges
  • Apples
  • Brown Pasta
  • Beef
  • Baked Beans
  • Grapes
  • Whole Wheat Bread
  • Popcorn
  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • White Rice
  • Brown Rice
  • All-Bran

As you can see it is quite the variety and the list still continues, but we feel you get the idea of which foods are more filling than others.

Wrapping This All Up

As we mentioned earlier, isn’t life more enjoyable when you feel satiated and not hungry and deprived of food?

We hope this article cleared up some confusion about satiety and what foods are more satiating than others.

The bottom line here is pretty much trial and error. Experiment with different food sources and see what foods are more filling for you. Of course we are not saying to go out and splurge and try a bunch of chocolate or candy. We are simply saying do this experiment all while hitting your macronutrient ranges and micronutrients and enjoy life. If you are confused about macronutrients, we suggest you read this very informative article on FLEXIBLE DIETING.

Once you really figure out what food sources keep you full throughout the day, it is a thing of beauty because you are not always thinking about when your next meal is, you are less likely to pick at foods which will hinder weight loss progress, and depriving yourself from certain foods you want.

Oh yea, and you won’t be that person everyone can hear your stomach growling.

References:

1.)   Anderson, G.H., and Woodend, D., “Effect of glycemic carbohydrate on short-term satiety and food intake,” Nutr Rev 2003.

2.)   Voight, Chris., “20 potatoes a day,” 1995. http://20potatoesaday.com/

3.)   Holt, SH., Miller, JC., Petocz, P., Farmakalidis, E., “A Satiety index of common foods,” Eur J Clin Nutr 1995.

4.)   Porrini, M., “Effects of physical and chemical characteristics of food on specific and general satiety,” Phys Behav 1995.

5.)   Holt, SH., Miller, JC., Petocz, P., Farmakalidis, E., “A Satiety index of common foods,” Eur J Clin Nutr 1995. 

About the Authors

Chris and Eric Martinez, CISSN, CPT, BA, also known as the “Dynamic Duo” operate a world class personal training and online training business “Dynamic Duo Training,” They’re also fitness and nutrition writers, fitness models, and coaches that love helping people reach their goals. Their philosophy is “No excuses, only solutions.”

Visit them at:

Dynamic Duo Training

Blogsite

Twitter

YouTube Channel  

 

 

CategoriesStrength Training

4 Ways to Make Exercise Harder

For many, the whole point or notion of going to the gym is to see how “hard” they can make it. To test the waters, and to find out just how far they can push their body.

To answer the question: what exactly is my outer limit?

In some ways this mentality – leaving the gym swimming in a pool of your own sweat or coming thiiiiiis close to throwing up a lung – serves as a right of passage to achieve gym-hero status.

While a part of me wants to (and to some degree can) respect this sentimentality, making exercise harder for the sake of making it harder can be analogous to playing tag with a pair of scissors in your hands.

With rare exceptions, it’s generally not a good idea.

This isn’t to say that one shouldn’t strive to push him or herself in the gym by any stretch. On the contrary, it’s just to point out that most people would be better served to focus more on quality of movement over quantity of movement.  And, rarely (if ever) is it in someone’s best interests to implement harder, more advanced techniques and protocols like adding chains or bands or conjugate periodization or Olympic lifting 0r juggling chainsaws without first having mastered the basics.

I know, I know:  doing your push-ups correctly isn’t nearly as fun as slapping on some chains and bench pressing till you can’t feel the left side of your face.

But I don’t want to play Debbie Downer here.  I want people to work hard, and I want people to push themselves.

That said, here are some simple ways to make your exercises a bit more challenging.

1. Uh, Add More Weight

This is my Captain Obvious comment of the day, and seems self-explanatory.  I always chuckle a little bit whenever someone says, “Tony, “X” exercise is too easy.”

Add some weight Sherlock…..;o)

I say this one with a grain of salt, though.

One of my golden rules with my athletes and clients is to never sacrifice form/technique for more weight.

The more advanced or the more time under the barbell someone has the more leeway they get with this rule. But for 90-95% of people, 90-95% of the time, this rule always applies.

Stealing a line from Mike Robertson:  There’s no such thing as perfect technique.

Anyone who says their technique is perfect is an asshole.  Point blank.  I know some really strong dudes (and gals) who have been training themselves (as well as other people) for a very long time who are still constantly tinkering with their technique.

Using myself as an example, I feel my deadlift technique is pretty solid – but I would never say it’s perfect.

As Robertson notes in THIS article, think of technique as something that’s on a spectrum.

<——————————->

How’s that for fancy schmancy graphics!

In the middle is what I like to refer to as “eh.”

In this realm technique isn’t horrible, it doesn’t make me cringe, but it’s certainly not impeccable.

As we move further to the right, the categories range from “acceptable” to “I want to make a baby with you.”

Ie: I don’t really want to make a baby with you. Come on, don’t be so presumptuous. You’re a little high on yourself, huh?

All it means, is that, you know, your form is really, really good.  Like, reaaaaallly good.  

So uh, do you come here often? Whatchu doin?

As we move in the opposite direction, to the left, we see the spectrum shift from “unacceptable” to “please, no, make it stop, my eyes, my eyes!”

In this scenario the athlete or client isn’t lifting with acceptable technique – why?

According to Robertson it boils down to one of three things (or a combination there of):

1.  They can’t get into proper position or posture

2.  The coach doesn’t know good technique him or herself.

3.  The coach isn’t coaching or can’t get their athlete/client to reproduce good technique.

All of the above are valid, almost universal truths – and should be addressed.

However, I also feel that sometimes we try to get too cute and make things more complicated than they have to be.

While I’m all for people making a concerted effort to increase the weight they’re lifting, sometimes, the progression is to DECREASE THE WEIGHT.

This section is a bit of a conundrum, sorry.  In one breath I’m telling people to increase the weight; and a few paragraphs later I’m telling them to take it off.

A bit of “user discretion” is advised here.  Let technique be your litmus test.  By all means, go out of your way to consistently increase the weight on the bar; but not at the expense of routinely allowing technique to break down.

2. Increase ROM

Another “well, duh!” way to make an exercise harder is to increase the range of motion of said exercise. This serves as a nice segue into why I love box squatting for beginners so much.  While it helps to pattern the hip hinge and allows trainees to learn to “use” the hamstrings and glutes more, the biggest advantage in my eyes is that it forces people to be honest with themselves with regards to hitting proper depth.

It’s amazing how many 400+ lb squatters (internet max) are reduced to an uncanny dose of humbleness when forced to actually squat to an appropriate depth.

They soon realize that they can’t squat nearly as much weight, because it’s, well, it’s harder!

Increasing the distance and thus total work being done will have that affect.

Another example would be to take your standard reverse lunge and perform them from a deficit.

3. Use Offset Loading

One of my favorite – and unfortunately lesser utilized – strategies is to implement more offset loading into one’s programming.

This has several advantages:

1.  It highlights and thus forces people address any weaknesses or imbalances that may exist between one side of the body and the other, as well as variances between limbs.

2.  It increases total time under tension.  Performing 8-12 repetitions per limb essentially doubles the amount of time you’re under load.  It sucks!

3.  And most important of all, offset loading really forces people to address core weakness.

Performing a 1-Arm, 1-Legged (Offset) DB Romanian Deadlift is a lot more challenging on balance, body-awareness, and stability than one may think, as you have to pay much more attention to not tipping over.

The same principle can be applied to the upper body as well.  Try this:  perform a 1-arm (offset) dumbbell bench press.  Except here, take note of making sure to keep the contralateral side on the bench.

It’s a lot harder than you think!

4. Raise Center of Mass

This is one that my friend and colleague, Eric Cressey, highlighted in an article he wrote a few years back for T-Nation.

In short:  if you bring a person’s center of mass closer to the ground, it makes the exercise easier.  As Eric points out, “These guys all seek efficiency through stability, but in a resistance-training context where we’re attempting to get bigger and stronger (and improve our balance), we need to seek inefficiency through instability with our exercises by raising the center of gravity when appropriate.”

One of the easiest examples would be to take a standard Dumbbell Reverse Lunge and switch to something like a Barbell Reverse Lunge w/ Front Squat Grip.

By switching the weight from a lower center of mass (with the DBs at the side) to a higher center of mass (with a barbell up across the shoulders) you inherently make the exercise more challenging.

And That’s a Wrap

There are certainly numerous other ways to make exercise more challenging, but these were just a few to help you get started.

As it happens, if you’re looking for more top-notch progressions to make exercise more challenging or fun, in anticipation of the release of her brand new project, Lift Weights Faster, NEXT week, my good friend, Jen Sinkler, released THIS video today highlighting some doozies.

She’s a heckuva lot more good looking than myself, plus the video is FREE (with no obligations), so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You’re welcome….;o)

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Nutrient Timing, Protein Isn’t Hitler, and Fitness Success

“Five more days, babe!”

“Five more days and we’ll be on our way to the airport.”

Those were the words uttered by Lisa no less than 47 seconds ago as I was sitting down to type these words. You can call it what it is:

1.  Me stalling before I get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post.

Or, more to the point….

2.  Just trying to rub it in a little bit that I’ll be going on vacation in a few short days. Sorry.

Needless to say, this week serves as a double-edged sword.  Sure, on one side, dangling like a carrot teasing me, there’s vacation, and its promise of balmy weather, crystal clear water, all-you-can-eat-buffets (first time at an all-inclusive resort), beach, and many, many, many naps.

But before all that happens, it’s a storm of clusterf***edness from now until then trying to sew up all loose ends on programs that need to be written, deadlines for articles that need to be met, and trying to avoid all the articles online about the horrible, terrifying, and sad Malaysian Airlines disaster from this past weekend.

As someone who’s already not a huge fan of flying – I’d rank it below having a bad case of the flu, but a shade above “talking about my feelings” –  these headlines aren’t doing me any favors.

Nonetheless, to start this week off here are some cool articles to check out.

Did I mention I’m going on vacation?*

Is Nutrient Timing Dead? – Brian St. Pierre

I thought this was a knowledge-bomb of an article by Brian. I distinctly remember picking up my copy of the classic text Nutrient Timing by Dr. John Ivy and thinking that it was the gospel.

It was borderline sacrilegious to delay or worse, skimp out on pounding your protein shake immediately after finishing your last set. If you did fall into this camp, you’d lose all your gainz!!!!

Well come to find out, we “may” have overblown the whole post-workout anabolic window teeny tiny bit, and meal frequency may not be as big of a deal as we all have been led to believe.

In the end, it comes down to doing what works best for YOU.  Not what some article tells you to do.

High-Protein Diets Linked to Cancer:  Should We Be Concerned? – Dr. Spencer Nadolsky

Answer: No!!!

I Got 99 Problems: But Getting My S*** Together Ain’t One – Luka Hocevar

I have a lot of respect for Luka.  My man griiiiiiiinds, and works his tail off.  And in the end, he’s been able to achieve a ton of success.

He’s not someone who talks a good game and then fails to walk the walk.  He’s IN IT.

I first met Luka back in 2007 when we first opened up Cressey Performance.  He came across the country to hang out with myself, Eric, and Pete for like a week to do nothing but hang out, pick our brains, train, and see what it took to start a small business from the ground up.

Fast forward to today and he’s arguably one of the most successful fitness entrepreneurs in North America. He’s built a very successful training facility in Seattle.  He’s a coach, an author, a businessman, a traveller.

Recently he was impetus behind one of the most anticipated events the industry has seen in years – the Change the Game event held on Las Vegas.

Nevertheless, I highly suggest checking his stuff out.  It’s heartfelt, it has passion, it doesn’t hold your hand, it’s real.

* = I’m going on vacation.

CategoriesNutrition

Recovering Your Metabolism: Do You Need to Increase Or Decrease Calories (Part II)

We’re going to dive right back into Lucas Serwinki’s article on metabolic damage.  For those who missed Part I you can play catch up HERE.

There was some great discussion and commentary with part one, and I suspect the second half will be no different.

Enjoy!

So, It’s the Carbs, Right?

I’ve actually been asked this exact sentence quite a few times and the answer is….sort of.  Or maybe.  Or it depends.  All terrible answers to someone who wants a yes or a no.

If you have significant weight to lose, as in obese and/or insulin resistant, then carbohydrates are not your friend at the moment.

But is it the chicken or the egg?

Did over-consuming carbohydrates get you to your current state or just over-consuming calories?  Science has actually found that obesity is more the culprit for insulin resistance rather than just carbohydrate consumption.  That means, being overweight can lead to having decreased insulin resistance, not the other way around.  Insulin resistance is ultimately an inflammation issue, and obesity causes LOTS of inflammation the way smoking, low-quality food and inactivity does.

So even if it was simply over eating total calories that got you into this predicament, you are ultimately faced with a decreased ability to tolerate carbohydrates, meaning they will most likely need to be reduced in order to restore metabolic function.

This is where it gets personal.

It is easy to say, “Drop the carbs, put your hands on your head and slowly face me”, when someone is slamming soda, cookies and chips.  In fact, I know someone who has lost nearly 100lbs just from switching from Coke to Diet Coke.  Now that’s a lot of soda and the poison is certainly in the dose.

Intervention

What about the person who just eats one piece of Ezekiel bread at breakfast and a potato at dinner?  Are they going to go ketogenic?  Is that realistic and attainable for 99% of the population? This is where we need to look at someone’s food journal and see the following, as an example

Breakfast:  One slice Ezekiel bread, one whole egg, one egg white

Lunch:  Salad with no dressing, apple, 3oz chicken, black coffee

Snack:  palmful of almonds

Dinner:  3oz ground beef,(85/15) baked potato, green beans, glass of wine.

In individual components, the food choices in this diet are good, but it is often the food combinations, heavier reliance on non-protein foods and low calories that are prevalent in so many of the individuals I see.

Many people still seem to think fruit is the best weight loss food, most likely because it is so light on calories.  There are almost always not enough vegetables and WAY too little protein.

This is a sample meal plan that is nearly identical to some of the diets I see when clients have me review their food journals.  Just for the sake of accuracy and for some visual representation, here is the calorie and macronutrient breakdown of the above foods, as taken from Nutrition Data.com.

Total Calories: 1177

Total Fat: 40.6 grams

Total Carbohydrates: 105 grams

Total Protein: 73 grams

Taken into context of Person B above (the leaner of the two above):

Basal Metabolic Rate 1561 calories

Daily Energy Expenditure from Exercise:  851 calories

Total Daily Calories Needed to Maintain Weight:  2420 calories

Again, simply crunching numbers, it would make logical sense that this person would be in a deficit of 1243 calories a day if they are exercising; but even a non-exercising individual would still be at 384 calorie a day deficit.

Now, don’t get me wrong, some people WILL lose weight this way and maybe they can ride it out long enough to make some progress, but we are really getting into the bottom end of calorie restriction here and it is not a fun place to be especially if you aren’t planning on doing some bodybuilding or figure competition.

Time and time again, though, this low calorie, low protein and commonly low-fat approach just doesn’t work, at least not for more than a few weeks.

Most of us aren’t super Type-A planners with ultra-adherence to life sweeping changes so I would not make all my recommendations at once.  In order though, I usually just try to get people to increase calories/protein in the following order, to make it mentally manageable and give the body time to adapt.

  1. Increase protein at breakfast
  2. Drink more water daily
  3. Increase protein to near 1g/lb bodyweight (adjust if they are very overweight)
  4. Replace starchy carbohydrates with more greens, cruciferous veggies and/or root veggies
  5. Increase fat as needed…..usually a tablespoon of oil or small palmful of nuts per meal
  6. Add in fish oil, minerals, multivitamin or specialty supplements only as needed, such as sleep aids, adaptogens etc.
  7. Introduce meal timing as needed depending on person.

This sequence isn’t a hard and fast rule, but if you give people about a week to adapt to each change, they end up systematically making all the necessary and  advantageous adaptations in what is a very simple and easy step by step process.

The reason I like increasing protein first only at breakfast is because people almost always instantly feel better (though that is a subjective term) and have better hunger management later in the day.

 

From there, they increase total water consumption, which can also result in a lot more energy and stress tolerance.

Once you are used to eating more protein at breakfast, it becomes a little more manageable to increase total protein because you have already experienced how great you feel on more protein at breakfast and it isn’t as scary to eat more total calories.

At this point, they have increased total daily calories and then we can start reducing them a bit just by switching starchy carbohydrates for cruciferous ones, which maintain fullness but at a lighter calorie load. 

If necessary, fat may, and often does, need to be increased for satiety and energy.  From there we may add in whatever small supplement change is needed to maximize overall health.  Meal timing may be discussed when a person is already relatively lean and following all the components above.

At the end of about a month, Person B may very well end up eating the following daily:

Total Calories: 1700

Total Fat: 92 grams

Total Carbohydrates: 75 grams

Total Protein:  135 grams

This person may even end up eating more than this on a daily basis, but it is a reasonable starting point, is actually way more food and fiber (from veggies) than before, doesn’t go too low with carbohydrates and is almost always more filling.

In fact, most people are surprised how much they are eating when following guidelines like this despite still being in a calorie deficit.  If this was a man, or just a larger person overall, you could easily expect the calories to be in the mid 2000s, which doesn’t feel like dieting at all…….which is the point.

My goal here would be to get someone to eat as many total daily calories possible while still losing or maintaining weight.  So, we may end up increasing someone’s portion sizes even a little more to find that spot where they are just below maintenance.

If we crept this person up to around 2000 calories a day and maintaining weight, then this is almost 900 calories more per day than they were eating before without gaining any bodyfat and having better energy, recovery and wiggle room to adjust diet as needed.

The reasoning for this ideal is that dropping calories too low results in significant decreases in total daily energy expenditure.  There is an adaptation that occurs when calories are dropped too low, too fast and acts as a protective mechanism to keep the body from burning too many total daily calories so as not to cut into necessary bodily functions.

One study in particular had subjects either reduce overall daily calories by

A. 25%,

B. Reduced to just below 1000 calories/day or

C. Reduced calories by only 12.5% but adding in weekly exercise.

With the very low calorie as well as the 25% reduction groups, there was a significant drop in total daily energy expenditure; 6% greater than would be expected even when factoring in fewer calories.  This means that the individual’s metabolisms had adapted to the sudden drop in calories by lowering the average amount of calories burned daily.

However, the group that only reduced calories by 12.5% but added in exercise actually saw a slight increase in total daily energy expenditure over baseline.  So, in addition to reducing calories enough to be burning bodyfat, the subjects still had an increase in total daily calories burned, furthering their fat loss.

In relation to Person B above, if we restored some metabolic function to get them eating 1700 calories a day and then decreased by 12.5% as in the study, and included exercise, they would STILL be eating more than they were at the onset.

Wrap-Up

There is quite a bit of research, number crunching and hypothesis to consider here.  However, studies back up the claims that low calories, low protein and inadequate hydration and nutrients really hinder your progress.  Furthermore, find me a person who wouldn’t want to heal their metabolism and improve their performance and fat loss by eating more and I’ll eat my size 13 shoe.

Getting healthy should always be the first goal.

If you had poor internal shoulder rotation and some impingement, you wouldn’t keep bench pressing to fix your shoulder, even if you wanted a bigger bench.

You’d need to take a step back, improve soft tissue quality, mobility and correct imbalances and then most often, performance improves after correcting these issues even without benching during the healing process.

No matter who you are, if you are at the point where your energy, performance and overall zeal for life has decreased I would encourage you to compare your dietary numbers to the recommendations above.  If you aren’t anywhere close to eating maintenance calories, protein or nutrients and feel and perform below expectations, then the answer may be taking some time away to get your metabolism back on track.

And yes, sometimes eating more is the answer.

Note from TG:  I think Lucas would agree that this is just the tip of the iceberg. For those interested if digging a little deeper into the rabbit hole on metabolic damage, I highly suggest checking out Leigh Peele’s Starve Mode.

References:

Bray, G., Smith, S., et al. Effect of Dietary Protein Content on Weight Gain, Energy Expenditure, and Body Composition During Overeating. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2012. 307(1), 47-60.

Barr, S., Wright, J. Postprandial Energy Expenditure in Whole-Food and Processed-Food Meals: Implications for Daily Energy Expenditure. Food and Nutrition Research. July 2010. 2(54), 144-150.

Astrup, A., Pedersen, S. Is a Protein Calorie Better for Weight Control? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 95, 535-536.

Danforth, Elliot., Horton, Edward S, O’connell, Maureen, Burger, Albert G, Ingbar, Syden H., Braverman, Lewis and  Vagenakis, Apostolo G.  Dietary Induced Alterations in Thyroid Hormone Metabolism during Overnutrition.

American Diabetes Association, New York, 15-17 June 1975 (Diabetes. 24: 406).

http://www.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/894/Why_the_Calorie_Approach_to_Weight_Loss_Doesnt_Wor.aspx

Leanne M. Redman, Leonie K. Heilbronn, Corby K. Martin, Lilian de Jonge, Donald A.    Williamson, James   P. Delany,  Metabolic and Behavioral Compensations in Response to    Caloric Restriction: Implications for the Maintenance of Weight Loss Published: February 09, 2009 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004377

 Author’s Bio

Lucas Serwinski is a Strength and Conditioning coach and nutritional consultant for athletes and weekend warriors alike. Lucas holds a Bachelor’s in Strength and Conditioning from UCONN as well as an Associate’s in Culinary Arts from NECI,and is currently coaching at Bodylogy Fitness Studio, located in Hamden, CT.

Lucas has interned at Cressey Performance in Hudson, MA, worked on low-carbohydrate research for fat loss and health,and  trained and competed in powerlifting.

He extensively studies the roles of digestion, sleep, nutritional habits and homeopathic medicine to help people of all walks achieve greater health. Lucas has also worked in multiple award-winning restaurants, including Arrow’s which was named 14th best restaurant in the country by Food magazine. Lucas incorporates knowledge and skill from cooking experience into creating a comprehensive plan for those he works with. Lucas has also worked as a social worked for years and takes mental and emotional considerations into each person’s plan and goals for success.  You can visit his blog HERE.

CategoriesNutrition

Recovering Your Metabolism: Do You Need to Increase Or Decrease Your Calories? (Part I)

Today’s guest post comes from personal trainer and strength coach Lucas Serwinski.  Some of you may remember his name from an excellent series of articles he wrote for my site last year titled How Did Your Food Live? Know the Health Behind Your Food Parts One and Two.

He did a bang-up job with that article, and given I don’t discuss nutrition nearly enough on this blog I felt inviting him back would be a welcome change of pace.

Enjoy!

PS:  I also understand that this is a topic that MANY people are passionate about, and to give full disclosure this is NOT an area that I am an expert in.  Ie: I did not write the article.  Someone who has more experience on the topic did.

I understand that by posting it I’m “vouching” for it, but having said that, if it sparks some debate and conversation, fine.

Hopefully we can all get along….;o)

Recently I’ve been considering the path I’ve taken with my eating and how my calories and macronutrients have changed and increased or decreased so many times that it’s mind boggling.

With some influence from Layne Norton and John Berardi (always giving props)I’ve been delving back into the science concerning the adaptations our metabolism makes while increasing or decreasing calories.

Let me tell you right now, I can feel this article giving a Tolstoy novel a run for its money in length, but I think understanding that the relationship between our metabolism and necessary functions of our body are so heavily influenced by our diet is important to know.

Observationally, I’ve noticed ( and other coaches may tell you the same thing), that some diet approaches work best the first time and only the first time.

Some people respond the same to supplements.  They’ll take creatine for the first time, gain 10lbs and get stronger.  However, the next time they add it back into their regimen, nothing happens.  I find this approach work very similarly with low-carbohydrate diets, low calorie diets and the addition of excessive exercise.

Ask yourself what happened the first time you ever dropped your calories very low?  You probably lost a significant amount of weight, albeit some of it was probably water weight and muscle, but I bet some bodyfat came with it.

How about the first time you ever dropped your carbs way down, or went from no exercise to four-days of exercise a week?  These initial changes sometimes produce drastic and impressive results, but the momentum is usually short lived and such extreme waves in calories and exercise duration often produce the most inconsistent results.

Here’s a scenario comparing two women who both need to lose significant bodyfat.

They are both 5’2” but  Person A is 210 lbs and Person B is 180lbs.

Person A – Basal Metabolic Rate 1692calories

Daily Energy Expenditure from Exercise and Activity:  946 calories

Total Daily Calories Needed to maintain Weight:  2623 calories

Person B – Basal Metabolic Rate 1561 calories

Daily Energy Expenditure from Exercise:  851 calories

Total Daily Calories Needed to Maintain Weight:  2420 calories

Consider that Basal Metabolic Rate is just the energy it takes to keep you alive.  Energy expenditure is added on top of that to factor in exercise and daily activity.  These samples are merely hypothetical but are taken from the Harris-Benedict Equation and give you an idea of how two people of the same height, age and sex with different bodyweights “hypothetically” expend different amounts of energy.

Even if both people are overweight, we can assume Person B has less total bodyfat from Person A simply because they are 30 lbs lighter.  I would find it highly unusual, especially for a woman, to have 30 lbs more muscle than someone of similar height.

At 5’2” and 210lbs, Person A may very well be about 45% bodyfat.  Since Person B is significantly lighter but still considered “overweight”, she might be closer to 35% bodyfat.

Person A:  210lbs, 45% bodyfat =  115.5lbs lean body mass

Person B:  180lbs, 35% bodyfat =   117lbs lean body mass

Here’s where the above formula doesn’t really hold up.

Simply weighing more doesn’t mean you are expending more energy than someone who weighs less.

As noted above, person B is lighter but actually has slightly more muscle mass than person A who is heavier.  Consider that fat tissue has barely any mitochondria, unlike muscle cells which use mitochondria to burn nutrients.

So fat tissue is almost entirely inactive from an energy use perspective.

“Well, Luke….wouldn’t someone who weighs more have to exert more energy because they are carrying extra weight around?”. 

This would make sense if you think simply in terms of more weight equating to more energy expended.  However, fat tissue is all about efficiency.  It is highly calorie dense, doesn’t require much energy to stay on the body and even insulates against cold.

People with more bodyfat are simply more efficient with their energy than leaner people.  Muscle tissue is highly active and literally IS your metabolism.

In addition, individuals with significant bodyfat may even find it (and I note this observationally) harder to exert the same level of intensity during exercise, when similar muscle mass is taken into account.  Having a lot of bodyfat and not being well-trained just means its going to be hard to exert your full potential any time you exercise, making your total calorie expenditure, again, less than a leaner person with similar muscle mass.

Back to the Harris-Benedict Equation above.

I’ve seen many times people fitting the height and weight used in the above equation consuming much fewer calories than Person A and not losing weight.  Why?  Remember, there is a baseline number of calories you need daily just to maintain a healthy metabolism.

Add to that the stress of work, kids, commuting and then exercise and you have significant requirements for energy.

Cutting your calories too low doesn’t leave much wiggle room for intense weight training, jogging, gardening, making dinner for the family and anything else you do on a daily basis.

The body’s response is to down-regulate the amount of energy it needs by lowering thyroid (t3).  T3 activates mitochondria in your muscle cells and organs  to burn nutrients.  T4 is the inactive form of thyroid and is the majority of what your thyroid produces.  You rely on liver and kidney enzymes to convert T4 to T3, but if your body is over-stressed from dieting, excess cortisol can suppress thyroid stimulating hormone and decrease thyroid function.

Still following me here?  I didn’t lose you did I?

The two most disruptive changes to thyroid levels are first, reducing calories too low and second, reducing carbohydrates too low. 

A study on hypo and hyper caloric diets with different ratios of macronutrients showed that when calories stayed the same, but carbohydrates were replaced with fat, concentrations of T3 dropped significantly.  So, even if you don’t drop your calories too low, dropping carbohydrates too low can inhibit your metabolic functioning.

You’ll find people who reduce their calories too low are often less energetic, cold and don’t respond to stress very well.

Note from TG:  They’re also 10x more likely to scissor kick you in the face the second you eat a piece of bread in front of them. It’s science.

Maybe they exercise often and keep doing their normal life activities but at the cost of their metabolism.

I’ve seen real people such as Person A above who is exercising often and leading a busy life consuming less than 2000 calories a day. 

Hmmm….shouldn’t they be burning at least 623 calories a day from fat, leading to over one pound of fat lost a week? (3500 calories in a pound of fat).

Quite often, they don’t because their metabolism has adapted to such a low calorie diet that it won’t chance increasing energy expenditure for fear of burning through it’s precious energy stores.

Calories in and calories out work to a point, especially with a healthy metabolism.  However, with some metabolic issues, consuming more of the right calories might be the first step to losing weight.  If you’re already at rock-bottom with your calorie consumption and exercising often, you have only one caloric place to go:

Up.

What the First Step?

Here’s where things get personal.  That is, they need to be personally adapted per person, as just prescribing all encompassing recommendations rarely work for most people.

Even though calories count in total weight loss or gain equations, actually counting them is an exercise in futility. Furthermore, simple fixes need to be applied to most diets before getting obsessed with the details.  These usually are eating more protein, hydrating properly and getting enough vitamins and minerals.

Thermic Effect of Food

First off, each of the three macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates and fat require a certain percentage of their inherent calories to just be metabolized.  What’s the percent?

-Protein 20%

-Carbohydrates 5%

-Fat 5%

Right off the bat, consuming greater percentage of certain macronutrients directly affects how many calories are burned for digestion.

In one study, participants consumed either 5, 15 or 25% of their calories from protein, with each group consuming almost 1,000 calories a day OVER maintenance.

Each group gained  about 3.5 kg of fat over the course of the study,  but the high protein group actually gained 3.5 kg of muscle while the low protein group lost a kg of muscle.

In addition, the high protein group saw an 11% increase in their metabolic rate.  Researchers concluded while over eating, the low protein group turned about 90% of their excess calories to fat while the high protein group only turned about 50% of calories into fat.  Pretty cool.

Thermic Effect of Whole vs Processed Foods

Studies have shown that while consuming equal calories and macronutrients, whole food has a 50% greater thermic effect than processed foods.  The whole food groups in such studies had an increase in their metabolic rate hours after eating while the processed food group actually had a decrease in metabolic rate.

Hydration

I’ve noted in past articles that a 2% decrease in bodyweight from water loss can have a 22% decrease in aerobic performance and 10% decrease in anaerobic performance.

Remember that your aerobic metabolism runs primarily on fat for fuel.  Inhibiting general aerobic performance by being dehydrated actually makes burning fat for fuel harder!  Dividing your bodyweight in half and consuming that many ounces a day in water is a good jumping off point.  Even more feedback-based is checking urine color.  Anything the color of hay/straw is good.  If your urine is dark, you are already dehydrated.

Vitamins and Minerals

This is certainly a tough one to tackle because to check if you are deficient in any vitamins, minerals or micronutrients you’d have to get a blood test.

You can do a dietary recall and plug it into an online database but that may not be as accurate.  Even for those of us who consume lots of greens and veggies, we most likely consume the same ones week in and week out, out of habit.

As a whole, many Americans are deficient is some of the most important nutrients.  86% of us are not meeting the RDA for Vitamin E, 68% for magnesium and 73% for calcium, just to name a few.  The RDA is quite conservative as well, so not even meeting their standards is pretty lame.

Vitamin E is the body’s most powerful antioxidant, more than C.  Magnesium is involved in hundreds of metabolic reactions and calcium is necessary for bone growth, blood clotting and nerve function (depolarization, anyone?).

Taking a chance on being deficient in just a few areas can lead to trouble, so a low-level multivitamin and mineral is probably a good idea.

Note from TG: And that’s it for part one.  In part two Lucas covers intervention strategies and numerous measures one can follow to help “recover” their metabolism.

And just to throw it out there, for those interested in reading more into the topic – it’s a doozy and something that affects more people than you think – I’d HIGHLY suggest checking out Leigh Peele’s excellent manual Starve Mode.

Author’s Bio

Lucas Serwinski is a Strength and Conditioning coach and nutritional consultant for athletes and weekend warriors alike. Lucas holds a Bachelor’s in Strength and Conditioning from UCONN as well as an Associate’s in Culinary Arts from NECI,and is currently coaching at Bodylogy Fitness Studio, located in Hamden, CT.

Lucas has interned at Cressey Performance in Hudson, MA, worked on low-carbohydrate research for fat loss and health,and  trained and competed in powerlifting.

He extensively studies the roles of digestion, sleep, nutritional habits and homeopathic medicine to help people of all walks achieve greater health. Lucas has also worked in multiple award-winning restaurants, including Arrow’s which was named 14th best restaurant in the country by Food magazine. Lucas incorporates knowledge and skill from cooking experience into creating a comprehensive plan for those he works with. Lucas has also worked as a social worked for years and takes mental and emotional considerations into each person’s plan and goals for success.  You can visit his blog HERE.

CategoriesMotivational

My Five Most Influential Books (

Today’s post really has nothing to do with fitness – at least not directly anyways. Call me crazy, but I don’t feel I need to be some fitness RoboCop* where all I do is write about strength curve continuums, muscular imbalances, protein to carb ratios, and/or deadlifts.

I do have a life outside of the gym. But dammit, I do love me some deadlifts!

For those who need their daily “fix” or crumb of insightful fitness knowledge, however: go lift something heavy today; eat more kale; drink more water; perform some hip mobility drills to unglue those hips; do some hill sprints.  And, for the love of god, stop “squatting” your kettlebell swings.

There you go.  You’re welcome.

* =  I’m referring the the 1987, Peter Weller version here.  Not the POS version that just came out a few weeks ago.  

It’s been stated that, on average, you’re the aggregate “sum” of the 4-5 people that you hang out with or spend the most time with the most.

As a kid growing up in middle-of-nowhere-central-New York my “posse” was my bike, a baseball, any baseball field, Luke Skywalker, my best (human) friend, Joe, and my best (overall) friend, my dog, Daisy.

Some would look at that list and say that I lived a lonely childhood.  I guess in some ways I did. My hometown was (and is) small.  To this day it still doesn’t have one traffic light, and the closest fast-food chain is about ten miles away. I lived out in the “country,” several miles outside the main village – which might as well have been an entire continent as a kid – so I didn’t have easy “access” to friends or playmates.

I spent a lot of time alone.

I spent a lot of time in my bedroom playing with my GI Joe and He-Man action figures, playing Nintendo here and there, as well as organizing my baseball card albums.

Then again, the internet didn’t exist then, and I was perfectly content going for a long bike ride, shooting some hoops, “playing army,” exploring with my dog, or hitting a baseball back and forth in the side yard.

You could literally see patches in the yard where I wore down all the grass, and if the sun beat down juuuuuuust right, an endless trek of footprints reminiscent of Bilbo Baggins.

Once I hit college, and was lucky enough to call myself a student-athlete, the people I hung out with the most were my baseball teammates.  I loved those guys.

Even then I was still sort of a loner and rather than play beer pong and head out to the dance clubs, I’d opt to spend my Friday nights at home doing endless crunches and sit-ups while watching Beverly Hills 90210 and Party of Five re-runs.

You can only imagine how much of a hit I was with the ladies back in the day!

And now, as an adult, while I’m truly lucky to have a supporting network of friends, family, and Lisa that I hold dear, in addition to the luxury of having people like Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Bret Contreras, Ben Bruno, Joe Dowdell, Nia Shanks, Jen Sinkler, and many, many other exceptional fitness professionals on speed dial, the people, or better yet, the things that I feel “mold” or define me the best are……

……Books

My friend and colleague, Mark Fisher of Mark Fisher Fitness, stated recently that “Since the summer of 2010, I’ve tried to read at least two books a week. Many weeks I’ve managed three, and of course some weeks I’ve barely been able to read. But I do keep at it. I genuinely believe consistent ongoing education is the common denominator of high achievers.” 

I couldn’t agree more.

Recently I received an email asking me what FIVE books have most influenced me throughout my life?  Like, whoa!  Talk about a daunting, mindf*** of a question!

And not just training books or books related to my field, either, of which are many….

Science and Practice of Strength Training, Facts and Fallacies of Fitness (Mel Siff), Athletic Body in Balance, Functional Training for Sport, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, to name a few.

Note: For those interested, you can go HERE to see an extensive list of some of my favorite and most influential “fitness” reads.

But rather, which books helped shape my life or altered my way of thinking in some fashion?

I can’t say that what follows is a deep or insightful Deepak Chopra’esq commentary on why I choose these books. All I can offer is that I just like them, and they struck a chord with me for whatever reason.

Catcher in the Rye

I know, I know – this choice comes across as very cliche and borderline bourgeoisie. I might as well be rolling down my car window and asking for some Grey Poupon as I type this.

I didn’t choose this book because I somehow “connected” with JD Salinger’s protagonist hero Holden Caulfield.

Speaking candidly, the reason why I choose to read this book in the first place was because 1) I wanted to feel grown up and read something other than Sports Illustrated for a change and 2) it was skinny and didn’t look intimidating.

In other words: I knew I wanted to jump into reading some literature, but I also took one look at War and Peace and said “fuck that! I’m touching that with a ten foot pole.”

Funnily enough – well, at the time it wasn’t funny – what attracted me to this book in the first place was a break-up.  My girlfriend at the time (circa 2002) broke up with me, and in between days of  work (which was at a gym), going to the gym (to workout), and watching countless episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (hey, don’t judge!  It was a dark time.) I came across the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels.

I decided that summer I was going to make better use of my time and put a dent in that list.  I started with Catcher in the Rye and before I knew it, I had read like 10-15 novels off that list in less than a year.

I read in my house (when it was cold); I read outside my house, on the front steps (when it was warm); I read at the bookstore (my home away from home); and I even read on park benches.

And so, in my mid-20s (better late than never!), I became an avid reader.  It’s a trend that I still carry with me in my, ahem, late 30s.

I don’t read as much literature now as I did back then, but I do still enjoy reading fiction, and am usually juggling between that, a non-fiction book, as well as something related to my field simultaneously.  It’s not uncommon for me to be reading 2-4 books at once.

But this book is where it started.

Starting Strength

I can’t include a list of “books I love” without referencing at least one in my chosen field – strength and conditioning.

This book, written by strength coach Mark Rippetoe, is universally recognized as one of the seminal books within the fitness community.  No other book is able to equally satiate the fitness nerds out there who want to get into the nitty-gritty details of exercise physiology and read big, smart-looking words, while concurrently be “accessible” to the general public than this one.

I remember when I read the first edition it blew my mind.  What makes it so great is its simplicity.  Not so much in the topics covered – the squat, bench press, deadlift, and clean – but the fact that that’s ALL it covered.

There were no smoke-n-mirrors involved.  No bullshit.

You want to get stronger and look like a brick-shit-house (or coach people who want to get stronger and look like brick-shit-houses), you need to get really good at the squat, bench press, deadlift, and clean.

[I believe in future editions, the Military Press was added].

Simply put, what makes this book legendary is that it forces people to understand, respect! the notion that the “big rocks” matter.

Get rid of the fluff.

Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Moreover, and to follow suit with what strength coach Jim Wendler had to say on the matter, think of how long people have been writing about lifting weights.  Hint:  it’ been a long time.  It wasn’t until Starting Strength was released – back in 2005 – where people started to “get it.”

That’s saying a lot about a book.

The Kid Who Only Hit Homers

As I noted earlier, I wasn’t an avid reader until my mid-20s. But that’s not to say I didn’t immerse myself into a handful books in my younger years.  I think I read every Choose Your Own Adventure book there was.  And Encyclopedia Brown was a personal idol of mine. Too, there was one another author  – a local author!  Central New York in the house! – who’s books were a personal favorite:  Matt Christopher.

And it should come as no surprise, given I was kid obsessed with baseball, that my favorite Matt Christopher story was The Kid Who Only Hit Homers.

Outside of finding my step-dads stash of nudie mags (sorry Mom), as a twelve year old, if there was ever going to be a book who’s title would give me an instant boner, it was this one.

I mean, come on!  A book who’s sole premise was a kid who hit nothing but home runs!?!?  The only thing cooler would be a book based around a kid finding out his long-lost uncle was Han Solo.

Nevertheless, no one book stands out in my memory as something I cherished more than this one.  And that’s why it makes the list.

The Tipping Point

Anyone who’s familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s writing knows it’s infectious.  I liken it to taking crack.

Full Disclosure:  I’ve never taken crack.

While Gladwell does have his fair share of detractors, it’s hard to dismiss the notion he’s a wonderful and talented storyteller.

I picked up The Tipping Point by chance when I was living in Connecticut back in 2006.  I was in the local Borders – yes, that Borders. The one that no longer exists – hanging out in the cafe when I started paging through this book.

I started reading, and before I knew it I was on page 50.  I ended up buying the book on the spot and immediately drove home and read more.  It didn’t take me long to finish it, and by then I knew I was hooked on the topic of Behavioral Economics.

This book in particular is about why certain ideas flourish (Pet Rock anyone???), and why others fizzle.

Behavioral economics in general, though, is about people and why they do the things they do (as well as why the choose not to do certain things).

As a personal trainer and strength coach I find this sort of thing fascinating.  People know better than to go home at night and crush a bag of Doritos.  They know that that’s not healthy or going to help them lose a few inches off their waistline.

But they do it anyways.  Why?

It has nothing to do with knowledge.  Like I said, most things as it pertains to fitness isn’t rocket science and people generally know better.

In actuality, it has everything to do with behavior.

Half of my job is trying to convince, educate, and/or “trick” people into doing what I feel will get them to where they want to be.

Arming myself with a little ammunition on the psychology behind people’s actions and why they choose to do certain things is only going to help me better do my job.

Other authors which fall into this genre would be Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational), Chip and Dan Heath (Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive), and  Dr. Robert Cialdini (Yes!)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Those familiar with author Dave Eggers are very familiar with his memoir which helped make him a household name.

I can’t say with certainly why I love this book so much, why I consider it a game-changer, or why I feel it’s helped mold who I am.

I didn’t suddenly lose my parents in a car accident only to be left to put my own life on hold in order to raise my younger brother.

That’s more of less what the memoir is about.

I guess it just comes down to the writing.  It’s beautiful. And equal parts real, frustrated, humorous, engaging, angry, and entertaining.

I don’t know:  as a writer myself I’m often drawn to stupid things like how certain words are used, how sentences are structured (how the fuck did they pull that off!?!?!), and just the general cadence of good prose. It’s awesome.  And dare I say, sexy!

I find reading other’s words helps me, in some form or another, become a better writer.  And, too, there’s always a pinch of jealousy in the mix.  But I think every writer can commiserate with that.

I read certain books (like this one), or articles, or blogs, and often think to myself………man, I suck donkey balls.  I’ll never be that good.

But if I’m honest with myself, I know deep down that that feeling is normal. I think.  The more books I read on the topic of writing – Dani Shapiro’s Still Writing is a current favorite of mine – the more I accept that it’s okay to feel jealous, and that other writers feel the the exact same way. I think.

And that’s cool, because in the end it’s about finding inspiration in any way you can.

Right?

I’d love to see everyone else chime in below.  What are some books that have influenced you?

CategoriesMiscellaneous Miscellany

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: Oscars!, Deadlifts, and Myths of Stretching

1.  Raise your hand if you stayed up last night to watch the entire broadcast of the Oscars.

*Sheepishly raises hand*

Yes, I stayed up till just past midnight to see 12 Years a Slave win Best Picture and to watch director Steve McQueen and company be handed the statue by Will Smith.

I know it’s borderline silly to spend 4-5 hours of my night watching a bunch of attractive, rich people who make their living pretending to be action heros, real-life heros, icons, and pirates celebrate other attractive, rich people and hand one another a golden statue.  Especially when there are so many other pressing issues going on around us.

Even so, I’m a firm believer that movies and film offer all of us a sense of release and escape. Whether it’s calling a “time-out” from worrying about a mid-life crisis or a recent break-up, or even if it’s just two hours inside, away from this insane Polar Vortex, movies give us everything from joy and happiness to awe and inspiration.  Not to mention there are a select few that do a bang-up job at scaring the bejesus out of us and making us destroy the back of our pants.

What’s more, as someone who loves (LOVES film), I can appreciate the hard work and talent it takes to do what those people do.  Whether it’s sitting there and reveling in the cinematography of Gravity, the costume/set design of The Great Gatsby, the unabashed “holy-shit-I’m-really-uncomfortable-watching-this-but-this-is-what-happened-so-suck-it-up-Tony” realism of 12 Years a Slave,  the side boob and overall “cleavaginess” of American Hustle, or the breakneck speed and cadence of Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks’ last scene in that movie is one of the best acted scenes I have ever watched), I’m always appreciative and thankful for the movies.

So what can I say:  the Oscars are my SuperBowl – albeit without the large pizza and pretzels on the side.

Lisa and I sat down at 7PM to watch the pre-show festivities, although to be honest I’m not really as much of a fan watching and listening to the fashion mumbo-jumbo. It’s all Elvish to me.  I was actually sitting on the couch reading during that portion of the telecast, but I was listening to Lisa’s commentary which was hilarious.

In fact, I was thiiiiiiiiis close to starting a #shitlisasayswhilewatchingtheoscars on Twitter, but I elected not to

All in all I was very pleased with the show.  Ellen was Ellen, and there were a handful of times Lisa and I broke out and laughed our butts off.  How bout those pizzas!

I fully expect that random pizza-delivery guy to have an agent by now, and to have his own reality show greenlit by summer.

I can’t say I was surprised by any of the winners.  I was secretly hoping that DiCaprio would somehow snake out a win for Best Actor for his role in Wolf of Wall Street, but I knew that either McConaughey or Chiwetel Ejiofor (you know, the guy who’s name no one can pronounce) were the favorites.

Spoiler Alert: McConaughey won.

I was happy to see Jared Leto win, and was really happy to see Alfonso Cuaron win for Best Director (Gravity).

And, OMG, can you freakin believe Helium won for Best Live Action Short??????  (<— Yes, that’s sarcasm).

All in all, as always, I loved every second and can’t wait till next year.

2.  This is really out of character for me, and I know this is going to raise a few eyebrows, but I watched a Tracy Anderson DVD over the weekend wrote an article on deadlifting for Men’s Health last week.

You can check it out HERE.

3.  And since we’re on the topic of “stuff I’ve written,” I also contributed to a piece last week on Stack.com titled 13 Fitness Challenges That Will Destroy You.

They won’t literally destroy you – that’s a bit much – but it stands to reason they’ll offer a change of pace to your routine if you’re looking to add a little variety.  Check them out!

4.  I received a question recently that I felt would be better served answering here since I’m able to reach more people on this blog and I’m sure many reading have toyed with the same topic.

Q: Tony, where would static stretching fit into a week of working out? Do you recommend it on recovery days, or a specialized flexibility training day? Post-workout? Before bed?

A: As with anything: it depends. Not a sexy answer, but it’s the truth.

Stretching for the sake of stretching isn’t necessarily a good thing. While their intentions are in the right place, I see many people flopping on the stretch mat at local commercial gyms doing what they deem as “stretching,” but all I really see is a complete waste of time.

Stretching IS important – as a society it’s crystal clear that we sit a lot, and as such things tend to get adaptively short or stiff.  This is something that definitely needs to be addressed, because if it isn’t one runs the risk of developing muscular imbalances that not affects posture but can lead to pain or injury down the road.

The thing is:  the vast majority of people tend to stretch what they’re good at or what feels good.  What’s more, people tend to get into positions thinking they’re stretching one muscle, when in fact they’re not even close. Does this one ring a bell?

Many would recognize this as a hamstring stretch.  Wanna know what I see?  A lower back stretch.

Moreover, you could argue whether or not traditional stretching actually does anything?  Doing a few 30-second stretches here and there won’t really mount to much.  If a tissue is truly short it has lost sarcomeres  In order to really make a difference, you need to increase the series of sarcomeres and that takes A LOT more than a few 30-second stretches.

In fact if you asked Bill Hartman how much stretching it actually takes to make a difference, he’d say you need to cumulatively hold a stretch anywhere from 20-60 minutes!

Of course, that’s not practical for most people.

This isn’t to say that some stretching isn’t better than no stretching……but rather just to give some people a semblance of expectation management.

And then there are other factors to consider.  Someone who scores high on the Beighton Laxity Test certainly doesn’t need to go out of his or her way to perform a lot of static stretching.

Another thing to consider is HOW people stretch.

One key factor that many people tend to conveniently gloss over is alignment.  Stretching the hip flexors is an often targeted area for most people, and rightfully so.  Because we tend to sit in flexion all day, it stands to reason many people need a crowbar to “un-glue” their hips.  To counteract this many will opt to stretch, like this:

Notice the massive extension pattern and anterior pelvic tilt she’s in?  This isn’t really accomplishing anything other than to run the risk of developing femoral anterior glide syndrome (where the femoral head is literally jammed forward.)

Unless this person cleans up he starting position – brace the anterior core, squeeze the glute of the trailing leg, getting, encouraging more posterior pelvic tilt and getting out of extension – she can do this stretch for hours on end and really not accomplish anything.

Now all of this isn’t say that I’m poo-pooing on stretch altogether.  It DOES have its place, and it DOES serve a purpose.  But I just feel more people need to be cognizant of what they’re stretching and more importantly, HOW they’re stretching.

I feel stretching before a training session is best.   What good is it to stretch before bed when you’re just going to lie down anyways?

I’d rather see people address tissue quality, mobilize, stretch, and then “cement” that new length with appropriate strength training.

Again, the idea is to encourage more “neutral,” get into more optimal alignment, and then train.

The order I prefer is this:

Foam Roll—Dynamic Warm-Up—Dedicated Static Stretching—Lift Heavy Shit

After rolling out, you’d hit up your standard dynamic warm-up (THIS or THIS may help), perform some static stretching to help lengthen the tissue (for most people hitting up areas like the glutes, hip flexors, lats, and pecs would be ideal), and then go…..you’re a free bird.  Fly fly away.

Go lift something heavy.