CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 2/14/14

Happy House of Cards Season Two Release Day on Netflix Valentine’s Day, everybody!

It’s a miracle that I’m even writing right now given there are thirteen brand spankin new episodes sitting in my “watch instantly” queue as type these words.

Can you tell I’m a little excited!?!  But I promised Lisa I wouldn’t touch an episode until we were both home tonight. That’s how we’re going to spend our Valentine’s: Watching House of Cards and eating chicken.

Who says romance is dead?

PS: Dieting sucks.

On that note, I do wish all the lovely couples out there a happy Valentine’s Day.  Eat some steak and carrot cake for me will ya?

Is Your Vitamin D Supplement Helping Or Hurting You? – Bryan Walsh (Precision Nutrition)

Hands down this was the best article I’ve ever read on vitamin D supplementation.  I can’t imagine how much work went into writing this.  Well done!

67 Tips on Happiness, Fulfillment, and Life – Jason Ferruggia

I really liked this list written by Jason and it’s really, really hard to say which handful resonated with me the most.  Honestly, all 67 tips hit home.

It’s a quick read, and I guarantee you’ll be nodding your head in agreement.

High Performance, No BS Correctives – Dan John

Once people see the word “corrective” associated with a strength and conditioning article the eyes start rolling. What now, Tony – an article telling me to perform more knee break ankle mobilizations??

I’d rather watch NASCAR, thank you very much.

Touche.

But this is Dan freakin John we’re talking about here.  You should know better. Read it.

CategoriesUncategorized

Supplement Review: Supplements That Suck, Supplements That Work, and Supplements That Are Underrated Part II

Yesterday in Part One of this series Sol Orwell and the guys over at Examine.com discussed a handful of supplements that they feel are about as useful as a poop flavored lollypop.  Which is to say:  not very useful.

As a strength coach and as someone who’s routinely discussing supplementation with younger athletes and general population clientele, especially to those who feel that they’re the magic bullet they’ll need to take their performance (and physique) to the next level, it was great to see some of the more well recognized ones thrown under the microscope for further inspection.

Besides, as I like to tell the vast majority of people:  if your current nutrition and training routine isn’t eliciting the results you’re after, no supplement is going to become the “x” factor.

More often than not it’s just a matter of making better food choices and actually going to the gym to train rather than wasting time on the internet talking about it.

That said, not all supplements deserve the bad rap.  In today’s post, Sol discusses some of the supplements he feels deserves their reputation, as well as those he feels should steal a bit more of the spotlight.

Enjoy!  And please, share your thoughts below.  Any supplements you feel deserve more recognition? 

Supplements that Deserve their Reputation

Creatine

Creatine is a molecule that seems to have a vitamin-like effect on the body. Relative creatine deficiency (especially common in vegetarians) may result in suboptimal cognition and strength levels. True creatine deficiency (only achievable via genetics) results in mental retardation.

Creatine is most commonly used for the purpose of increasing power output and the rate of building muscle, and it is definitely proven for these roles as it is currently the most well researched ergogenic aid (performance enhancer) in existence.

Creatine works for increasing power output during anaerobic exercise (powerlifting, bodybuilding, sprinting, etc.) and although it may have crossover to endurance based events it doesn’t seem as reliable. It has less evidence for increasing the rate of building muscle but this appears to also be true. Putting muscle cells in an energy surplus state tends to increase the rate of which they grow, and creatine is a very readily available source of energy.

Evidence is being gathered in creatine also have positive effects on cognition.

Beta-alanine (and a note on its “big brother”)

Firstly, beta-alanine needs to have a jab taken at it for two things: potency and instances when it is used.

  • Yes, beta-alanine works; no, it is not magical. It might enhance endurance performance by around 2% or so, nothing astonishing although it can provide a needed benefit
  • Yes, beta-alanine works for endurance; it doesn’t really do anything reliable for strength (it might, some weak evidence for building muscle like creatine) and seems to only reliably increase physical performance for exercise exceeding 60s (and under 240s; these numbers derived from the only meta-analysis on the topic)

However, given those two qualifying statements, beta-alanine does increase performance and secondary to that can increase training adaptations.

Beta-alanine is essentially a lactic acid buffer (hence its lack of efficacy for power output –  lactic acid is not the reason you fail on a 5 rep max test) similar to its lesser known big brother, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Both of these compounds are essentially the same, just reduce the influence of acidity on muscle failure and you can go longer until failure; they aren’t too potent as you cannot disturb pH in the body easily, but they do work.

 

Vitamin D

The increased popularity of vitamin D in the last decade is actually quite remarkable, and its growth in popularity seems to even exceed that of fish oil when the latter first arrived on the scene. In regards to vitamin d, it is definitely beneficial in a few disease states for preventative purposes although it is not the panacea it is sometimes held up to be.

Vitamin d is stored in the body and when it is needed it is converted into a bioactive hormone known as 1,25-dihydroxycalciferol. Negative things are associated with a state that attempts to produce the hormone but has insufficient vitamin d to do so, and supplementing vitamin d alleviates this possible negative.

Thus, Vitamin d is critical for people in a deficient state. The combination of our indoor lives coupled with pollution means that most people outside of the tropics tend to be in a deficient state. Supplementing with 2000 UI while you get your vitamin d levels tested is a smart way to go.

So although the outcome is still beneficial, vitamin d supplementation is more about alleviating negatives rather than inducing positives.

Supplements that Deserve More Recognition

Sodium Bicarbonate

Referred to earlier as beta-alanine’s bigger brother, sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) actually has a fair bit of evidence for performance enhancement. It shares a lot of similarities with beta-alanine, being an acidity buffer and improving performance that is hindered by lactic acid.

Recently, it has been shown to provide benefit to hypertrophy exercise in resistance trained males at the dose of 300mg/kg bodyweight.

The pros of sodium bicarbonate include its very good cost-efficacy in regards to the financial price (you can buy baking soda at a grocery store) and pretty good performance enhancement.

The main downside is too much taken at once will cause a snowstorm coming from your butt; the sodium bicarbonate doesn’t even change color when it does this, actually being quite hilarious the first time it occurs (to somebody else).

Note from TG:  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha.

Due to this, sodium bicarbonate is taken in multiple doses throughout the day and with soluble fiber containing meals to try and minimize this side-effect which appears to be related merely to taking too much at once.

Beetroot

Beetroot is merely a vessel for the molecule known as inorganic nitrate. Nitrate is absorbed in the intestines and regurgitated (surprisingly a good term) into saliva where it is converted to nitrite. When swallowed the saliva nitrite can be converted into nitric oxide and sustain physical performance.

Beetroot is most commonly used for nitrate due to it being in the class of vegetables that are the richest source of nitrate (alongside spinach, rocket, celery, and swiss chard). It’s cheap to purchase in bulk quantities and the tastiest to blend and consume before exercise.

It does not appear to be effective for acute power output improvement, but similar to beta-alanine it can enhance physical endurance exercise and more prolonged endurance exercise.

Similar to other nitric oxide related supplements, it is also ‘healthy’ from a cardiovascular health perspective and also may confer other benefits related to nitric oxide (namely reductions in blood pressure and increased frequency of erections).

In regards to the connection between nitrates and cancer (nitrate, used as food preservative, is thought to be a factor in the connection between pink meats and processed meats with cancer) the cancer link is dependent on production of nitrosamines from nitrate. This production seems to occur at a greatly reduced rate in the presence of any antioxidant, with vitamin c being used most frequently in research. Due to antioxidants present in beetroot, nitrosamine production is not a concern.

This is also a reason why, if using supplemental nitrate, a coingested antioxidant would be a good idea (or just to take the supplement with some fruit).

Citrulline

Citrulline is essentially a more effective form of arginine (which tends to be pretty popular).

L-Citrulline is an amino acid that, following absorption, is sent to the kidneys and simply converted to l-arginine. It is superior to l-arginine itself because of its superior absorption rate; l-arginine is poorly absorbed, and malabsorbed l-arginine proceeds to the colon to then induce diarrhea.

Citrulline carries all the same benefits of l-arginine except at a lower dose due to enhanced absorption (5-8g commonly being used). It usually comes as citrulline malate, which gives it a slight sour/tangy taste.

Author’s Bio

Kurtis Frank and Sol Orwell are cofounders of Examine.com, where they spend their time making sense of scientific studies on supplements and nutrition. They also have a Beginners Guide to Supplements, which you should really, really check out (subtle hint).

 

 

CategoriesMiscellaneous Miscellany Uncategorized

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: The Day After Hurricane Sandy Edition

WHEW – well, that wasn’t fun. Hurricane Sandy hit with a vengeance yesterday and hammered the east coast.  From what I can tell, we didn’t get it too bad here in Boston (I had to dodge a lot of fallen trees on my way home last night, and understandably there were areas that had blackouts), but we survived relatively unscathed.

Sure it was an inconvenience, but I’m simultaneously grateful that that was all we here in Beantown had to deal with.

Unfortunately, I know that’s NOT the case further south towards the Cape and especially down in the New Jersey/CT/NYC area.

I’ve been glued to the news this morning and have seen all the reports of massive flooding, fires, and blackouts, so my thoughts and prayers goes out to all of those who are most affected.

1. Coincidentally enough we hosted out very first annual Cressey Performance Fall Seminar this past Sunday, and while some attendees from the NYC and Connecticut area had to (understandably) jet out early due to the pre-hurricane festivities, it was a massive success!

I first want to thank EVERYONE who attended and made it such an awesome event to begin with.  The feedback we’ve been receiving has been nothing short of “the best thing since sliced bread” (only a slight exaggeration), and we’re really looking forward to making next year’s addition even better!

I’ll be handicapping the entire day later this week and offering up some highlights/knowledge bombs that were offered by all the presenters (myself, Eric Cressey, Brian St. Pierre, Nate Tiplady, Eric Schoenberg, Greg Robins, and Chris Howard), so stay tuned for that.

All I’ll divulge now – as it relates to MY presentation – is:

1.  About fifteen minutes before I was scheduled to speak, Michelle, our office manager, walked up to me and handed me this note:

For those who can’t read the print, it says:

Those are the worst pants I have ever seen.

How’s that for a vote of confidence??? Hahahahahaha.

2.  As part of my introduction I was thanking everyone for coming and for taking a day out of their busy schedules to come to the seminar.  I think my exact words were, “I know many of you could be working, spending time with family, or sitting at home watching football today – by the way, the Pats won!”

Then all I hear is a massive “nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.”

Like an a-hole I spoiled the game for those who were recording it on DVR and waiting to watch it when they got home.

Fail.

In my defense (sorta), the Pats won 45-7, so it’s not like it was a close game.  But still, I felt a bit sheepish about it and definitely made a mental note to myself to try not to spoil results of games in the future.

Next thing you know I’ll just tell people who haven’t seen The Sixth Sense yet that Bruce Willis is dead the entire time!

3. Brian St. Pierre and I were catching up over the weekend and we both got on the topic of vitamin D.  I’ve long been an advocate of vitamin D supplementation and feel  it’s one of those things that people should look into just for the health benefits alone.  Well that, and because most people are woefully deficient.

Anyways, we were discussing dosages and what’s an acceptable range for most people (of course, there are many factors that come into play here: overall exposure to sunlight, light skinned people need less than darker skinned people, for example), and I had mentioned that because I rarely ever get exposure to sunlight and that I’m whiter than a Coldplay concert, I usually take around 5,000 I.Us per day, which is definitely not out of the ordinary or “aggressive” by any means.

We had a lengthy discussion, but the take home message from Brian was, “you should at least get your levels checked so that you KNOW where you’re at, because if you’re too high, you could be doing more harm than good.”

As it happens, he just sent me this message yesterday via email:

Here is an interesting study that just got published a few days ago – http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047458

They looked at mortality statistics and people’s vitamin D levels.  They determined the best levels were 20-40ng/mL, with 30-40ng/mL showing the best numbers.  5,000IU per day will take you FAR beyond those numbers.

Overall adverse events (overall mortality, some cancers, CVD, and fractures and falls) have been noted when levels get into the 40’s and higher.  Specifically there was a study in Denmark where when people’s levels were 56ng/mL or higher they had a 42% increased risk of dying than people with a level of just 20ng/mL – http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/early/2012/05/09/jc.2012-1176.abstract.

Just some food for thought.

It’s not to say that people shouldn’t supplement with vitamin D, and that in certain circumstances people shouldn’t have higher levels as directed by their doc (which happens), but in general I think many take a good thing too far.

4. For those interested, I recently wrote a little sumthin sumthin on kettlebell training over at TribeSports.com.

I like kettlebells.  It think they’re a valuable “tool in the toolbox.” But what puts a bad taste in my mouth is when people who are passionate about what they like – whether it’s powerlifting, yoga, TRX, and yes, kettlebells – feel that their way is the ONLY way.

In this article appropriately titled Tony Gentilcore on Kettlebells, I shed some light on what I feel are the best uses and applications for most trainees, and I even provide a video of a staff in-service I filmed a few months ago breaking down the KB swing and get-up.

5.  Speaking of staff in-services:  we “host” a weekly in-service for our staff and interns where we cover a bevy of topics ranging from upper and lower body assessment, program design, anatomy, or anything you can think of.

While myself, Chris and Greg like to think we’re the bees knees when it comes to presenting to the staff, the highlight, of course, is whenever it’s Eric’s turn and he goes all Jedi on us and blows our minds.

He recently filmed an in-service on movement training that, while it sounds about as exciting as watching NASCAR – was really informative.

And that’s just ONE example. He’s also filmed in-services on breathing patterns, shoulder anatomy, and how to deal with sports hernias, just to name a few.

And they’re ALL available to you – along with other content from Mike Robertson, Tyler English, and Dave Schmitz – by joining the Elite Training Mentorship, which is a monthly membership site geared towards personal trainers and coaches who are seeking to take their knowledge base to the next level.

I’ve noted this service in the past, but thought I’d mention it again now because after listening to Eric speak the other day it reminded me just how valuable this resource is and how it will make anyone who invests in themselves exponentially better and separate themselves from the masses.

6. I normally don’t go out of my way to post shirtless pictures of myself, but I recanted on this one for a few reasons:

  • I didn’t take this picture myself.
  • I’m not standing in front of a bathroom mirror.
  • It’s Halloween, and like most bald dudes this year, going as Bane is way more badass than Mr. Clean or Captain Jean-Luc Picard.