Less Sitting More Moving

Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?

By JAMES VLAHOS

Published: April 14, 2011

DR. LEVINE’S MAGIC UNDERWEAR resembled bicycle shorts, black and skintight, but with sensors mounted on the thighs and wires running to a fanny pack. The look was part Euro tourist, part cyborg. Twice a second, 24 hours a day, the magic underwear’s accelerometers and inclinometers would assess every movement I made, however small, and whether I was lying, walking, standing or sitting.

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Healthful Movement

James Levine, a researcher at theMayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has an intense interest in how much people move — and how much they don’t. He is a leader of an emerging field that some call inactivity studies, which has challenged long-held beliefs about human health and obesity. To help me understand some of the key findings, he suggested that I become a mock research trial participant. First my body fat was measured inside a white, futuristic capsule called a Bod Pod. Next, one of Dr. Levine’s colleagues, Shelly McCrady-Spitzer, placed a hooded mask over my head to measure the content of my exhalations and gauge my body’s calorie-burning rate. After that, I donned the magic underwear, then went down the hall to the laboratory’s research kitchen for a breakfast whose calories were measured precisely.

A weakness of traditional activity and obesity research is that it relies on self-reporting — people’s flawed recollections of how much they ate or exercised. But the participants in a series of studies that Dr. Levine did beginning in 2005 were assessed and wired up the way I was; they consumed all of their food in the lab for two months and were told not to exercise. With nary a snack nor workout left to chance, Dr. Levine was able to plumb the mysteries of a closed metabolic universe in which every calorie, consumed as food or expended for energy, could be accounted for.

His initial question — which he first posed in a 1999 study — was simple: Why do some people who consume the same amount of food as others gain more weight? After assessing how much food each of his subjects needed to maintain their current weight, Dr. Levine then began to ply them with an extra 1,000 calories per day. Sure enough, some of his subjects packed on the pounds, while others gained little to no weight.

“We measured everything, thinking we were going to find some magic metabolic factor that would explain why some people didn’t gain weight,” explains Dr. Michael Jensen, a Mayo Clinic researcher who collaborated with Dr. Levine on the studies. But that wasn’t the case. Then six years later, with the help of the motion-tracking underwear, they discovered the answer. “The people who didn’t gain weight were unconsciously moving around more,” Dr. Jensen says. They hadn’t started exercising more — that was prohibited by the study. Their bodies simply responded naturally by making more little movements than they had before the overfeeding began, like taking the stairs, trotting down the hall to the office water cooler, bustling about with chores at home or simply fidgeting. On average, the subjects who gained weight sat two hours more per day than those who hadn’t.

People don’t need the experts to tell them that sitting around too much could give them a sore back or a spare tire. The conventional wisdom, though, is that if you watch your dietand get aerobic exercise at least a few times a week, you’ll effectively offset your sedentary time. A growing body of inactivity research, however, suggests that this advice makes scarcely more sense than the notion that you could counter a pack-a-day smoking habit by jogging. “Exercise is not a perfect antidote for sitting,” says Marc Hamilton, an inactivity researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

The posture of sitting itself probably isn’t worse than any other type of daytime physical inactivity, like lying on the couch watching “Wheel of Fortune.” But for most of us, when we’re awake and not moving, we’re sitting. This is your body on chairs: Electrical activity in the muscles drops — “the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse,” Hamilton says — leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked. Insulin effectiveness drops within a single day, and the risk of developingType 2 diabetes rises. So does the risk of being obese. The enzymes responsible for breaking down lipids and triglycerides — for “vacuuming up fat out of the bloodstream,” as Hamilton puts it — plunge, which in turn causes the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol to fall.

Hamilton’s most recent work has examined how rapidly inactivity can cause harm. In studies of rats who were forced to be inactive, for example, he discovered that the leg muscles responsible for standing almost immediately lost more than 75 percent of their ability to remove harmful lipo-proteins from the blood. To show that the ill effects of sitting could have a rapid onset in humans too, Hamilton recruited 14 young, fit and thin volunteers and recorded a 40 percent reduction in insulin’s ability to uptake glucose in the subjects — after 24 hours of being sedentary.

Over a lifetime, the unhealthful effects of sitting add up. Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, tracked the health of 123,000 Americans between 1992 and 2006. The men in the study who spent six hours or more per day of their leisure time sitting had an overall death rate that was about 20 percent higher than the men who sat for three hours or less. The death rate for women who sat for more than six hours a day was about 40 percent higher. Patel estimates that on average, people who sit too much shave a few years off of their lives.

Another study, published last year in the journal Circulation, looked at nearly 9,000 Australians and found that for each additional hour of television a person sat and watched per day, the risk of dying rose by 11 percent. The study author David Dunstan wanted to analyze whether the people who sat watching television had other unhealthful habits that caused them to die sooner. But after crunching the numbers, he reported that “age, sex, education, smoking, hypertension, waist circumference, body-mass index, glucose tolerance status and leisure-time exercise did not significantly modify the associations between television viewing and all-cause . . . mortality.”

Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.”

The good news is that inactivity’s peril can be countered. Working late one night at 3 a.m., Dr. Levine coined a name for the concept of reaping major benefits through thousands of minor movements each day: NEAT, which stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. In the world of NEAT, even the littlest stuff matters. McCrady-Spitzer showed me a chart that tracked my calorie-burning rate with zigzagging lines, like those of a seismograph. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to one of the spikes, which indicated that the rate had shot up. “That’s when you bent over to tie your shoes,” she said. “It took your body more energy than just sitting still.”

In a motion-tracking study, Dr. Levine found that obese subjects averaged only 1,500 daily movements and nearly 600 minutes sitting. In my trial with the magic underwear, I came out looking somewhat better — 2,234 individual movements and 367 minutes sitting. But I was still nowhere near the farm workers Dr. Levine has studied in Jamaica, who average 5,000 daily movements and only 300 minutes sitting.

Dr. Levine knows that we can’t all be farmers, so instead he is exploring ways for people to redesign their environments so that they encourage more movement. We visited a chairless first-grade classroom where the students spent part of each day crawling along mats labeled with vocabulary words and jumping between platforms while reciting math problems. We stopped by a human-resources staffing agency where many of the employees worked on the move at treadmill desks — a creation of Dr. Levine’s, later sold by a company called Steelcase.

Dr. Levine was in a philosophical mood as we left the temp agency. For all of the hard science against sitting, he admits that his campaign against what he calls “the chair-based lifestyle” is not limited to simply a quest for better physical health. His is a war against inertia itself, which he believes sickens more than just our body. “Go into cubeland in a tightly controlled corporate environment and you immediately sense that there is amalaise about being tied behind a computer screen seated all day,” he said. “The soul of the nation is sapped, and now it’s time for the soul of the nation to rise.”

James Vlahos (jamesvlahos@gmail.com) writes often for Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Editor: Ilena Silverman (i.silverman-MagGroup@nytimes.com).

 A version of this article appeared in print on April 17, 2011, on page MM39 of the Sunday Magazine.

Stop Now!!!

Many of you have heard me say over the years that sugar is a class one narcotic.  Well I can’t actually find proof of that, but I heard my friends next door neighbor, who is a doctor, say those words.  He went on to say that when they test rats for cancer, they give one rat sugar and medicine and the other rat no sugar and medicine, and the rat with no sugar lives, and the rat that eats the sugar dies.  Either way, I realized pretty quickly that I needed to fix my bad sugar habit.  (If I would have only listened to my dad 20 years ago…).  Below is an article I recieved in my email from Jason Ferruggia, world renowned strength coach, and although it doesn’t say exactly what I mentioned above, its pretty darn close.  Take a look at what he has to say about sugar, and then decide what habits you need to change.  Enjoy!

My first hand experiences, coupled with all the reading and research I’ve done on sugar the last couple of years has me really down on it’s consumption by anyone at any time. I honestly believe that it’s not really fit for human consumption.  That is, of course, if optimal health and maximal performance are something that interests you. It’s been said that one teaspoon of sugar lowers your immune system response for four hours. Hell, just about anything physical ailment you can think of is made worse by sugar. Do you have any of the following? •    A cold •    Joint pain •    Adrenal fatigue •    ADD, •    Cancer •    Kidney or liver problems •    Osteoporosis •    Chronic fatigue •    Fungus or parasites (as over 90% of all people do) Sugar will only increase your suffering and make it harder to get better, no matter what it is you are dealing with. Literally every single organ in the body is negatively affected by sugar. Like just about every other manmade food, sugar is unhealthy. Now, I know some people think sugar is natural, but it isn’t. Four hundred years ago sugar wasn’t even available. There was no such thing. We ate nothing but wholesome, nutritious foods that came from the earth naturally. The only food that came close was real, raw honey (which looks nothing like the stuff you get in most grocery stores). One hundred years ago, the average person used to eat four pounds of sugar per year. Today, the average person consumes over 150 pounds of sugar per year, on average, with some people going as high as 295 pounds per year! No wonder people are fat and sick. For all of these reasons and countless others, I can no longer, in good conscience, recommend the consumption of sugar anymore. It’s too dangerous and causes far too many health problems. That means no more pre, during or post workout shakes containing any sort of sugar like dextrose, waxy maize, maltodextrin, etc. People may think and even argue that these aren’t the same as table sugar. But once they get inside the body the adverse health reactions they cause will be the same. You could still have a high quality, organic protein shake from grass fed whey or brown rice. But skip the sugar. If a guy looking to gain weight needs to add carbs to a protein shake throw a mashed sweet potato or some oats in there. About a year ago I took the majority of my coaching clients off sugar. I also recommend that most members of theRenegade Inner Circle do the same. What we have been doing is what everyone from Arthur Saxon to Vince Gironda to Arnold did post workout; simply eating some carbs like rice or potatoes. That’s a far healthier and better option than slugging a big glass of man made sugar. You could go with something like sushi or some chicken and a sweet potato. Sure, the white rice in the sushi is technically a “faster” carb but I don’t think it will really make any difference in the end. As long as you refill your glycogen stores between the end of your last workout and the start of your next one you’ll be fine. All the crazy hype about the fastest acting carbs and all that is wildly exaggerated. Truth be told, from what we have learned about the body, pre workout carbs really won’t hit the blood stream for a few hours anyway, so that whole practice is counterproductive and useless. It’s all just marketing hype to sell workout drinks. I actually have all my coaching clients go into a workout on little to no carbs and then consume the majority of their carbs later in the day after training. There’s literally zero difference in performance. The added benefit is increased GH secretion and improved fat loss over the course of time. The one situation where I still recommend a simple sugar is in the rare case of the painfully skinny ripped guy who just needs more easily consumed calories. For a few months, just to get the first 15-20 pounds on him, I’d let him do a post workout shake with some Swedish oat starch, then eat a meal with rice or potatoes an hour later. The skinny fat guy (aka a TRUE hardgainer) doesn’t get the same treatment simply because sugar will only make him fatter. Yes, even if it is post workout. Sugar is sugar. How to Satisfy a Sweet Tooth I love me some sweets. I can’t lie. So of course I need to find some way to get my fix. That’s why my favorite carbs are organic Garnett yams. When picking them make sure you get the reddest ones you can find. The redder the better. If they’re too yellow they will taste like carrots. Wrap them tightly in tinfoil and bake in the oven on 450 for 90-120 minutes. When they’re done they should be like baby food and taste like sweet potato pie. I just scoop them out and mash them up with cinnamon. It’s like a dessert. If you really wanted to get crazy you could mash them up and put them in a bowl in the freezer for a while. Then whip up some raw cream and top them with that for even more of a dessert. Organic, raw honey is really the only healthy sugar alternative. It has prebiotic, immune and health supporting qualities to it. It can’t be cooked with since it’s unstable in heat. But you can make some delicious raw desserts with it. Something simple like mixing raw honey, raw cream and cocoa powder makes an incredible chocolate mousse. Organic maple syrup is okay for occasional use in a dessert (like some of the delicious ones we have in the Renegade Recipe Guide) or on pancakes. Agave is not. The Reality Listen, I know that not everyone reading this is going to banish sugar from their diets instantly and never touch it again. We’re all going to slip up once in a while at a holiday gathering or a party. Knowing that, I think it’s doubly important to eliminate the regular consumption of workout drinks and other forms of fake sugar. Save it for the special occasions when you want to have a slice of organic pumpkin pie or chocolate cake. That makes a lot more sense. Ideally you’d never even want to do that but that’s probably asking a bit too much. I know I won’t be able to never have another slice of pie from now ‘til eternity. Just remember, that it’s not remotely healthy and some forward thinking doctors have even classified sugar as a poison. Let that sink in for a minute and go dump out your bottle of dextrose in the meantime.

Interval Training

By now, you guys know I’m a big fan of interval training and you should know why.  But just in case you have forgotten…

Here’s a great article I recieved from IDEA Fit.  Enjoy!

Interval Training Advantages

by Jason Karp, PhD

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One of the main reasons for all of the attention being given to interval training in the fitness industry is that it can improve fitness quickly, which is great news for busy people who don’t want to spend 2 hours in the gym.

Designing Interval Workouts

Interval training manipulates four variables: time (or distance), intensity, time of each recovery period and number of repetitions. With so many possible combinations of these four elements, the potential for variety is nearly unlimited. Possibly the greatest use of interval training lies in its ability to target individual energy systems and physiological variables, improving specific aspects of clients’ fitness levels.

Aerobic (Cardiovascular) Intervals
One of the best methods for improving the heart’s ability to pump blood and oxygen to the active muscles is interval training using work periods lasting 3–5 minutes and recovery periods equal to or slightly shorter than the work periods (see the sidebar “Sample Interval Workouts”). The cardiovascular adaptations associated with interval training increase clients’ VO₂max, raising their aerobic ceiling. Since VO₂max is achieved when maximum stroke volume and heart rate are reached, each work period should be performed at an intensity that elicits maximum heart rate.

Anaerobic Capacity Intervals
Anaerobic capacity refers to the ability to regenerate energy (ATP) through glycolysis. Work periods lasting 30 seconds to 2 minutes target improvements in anaerobic capacity by using anaerobic glycolysis as the predominant energy system. These short, intense work periods with recovery intervals two to four times as long as the work periods increase muscle glycolytic enzyme activity. As a result, glycolysis can regenerate ATP more quickly for muscle contraction and can improve the ability to buffer the muscle acidosis that occurs when there is a large dependence on oxygen-independent (anaerobic) metabolism.

Anaerobic Power Intervals
Anaerobic power refers to the ability to regenerate ATP through the phosphagen system. Work periods lasting 5–15 seconds target improvements in anaerobic power by using the phosphagen system as the predominant energy system. These very short, fast sprints with 3- to 5-minute recovery intervals that allow for complete replenishment of CP in the muscles increase fast-twitch motor unit activation and the activity of creatine kinase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down creatine phosphate.

Sample Interval Workouts

Incorporating interval training into your clients’ programs will dramatically improve their fitness. Ensure that clients warm up before each workout and cool down afterward.

Aerobic (Cardiovascular) Intervals

• 5 x 3 minutes @ VO₂max intensity (95%–100% HRmax) with 2½–3 minutes of active recovery
• 3 x 4 minutes @ VO₂max intensity (95%–100% HRmax) with 3½–4 minutes of active recovery
• 3, 4, 5, 4, 3 minutes @ VO₂max intensity (95%–100% HRmax) with 2½–3 minutes of active recovery

 

Anaerobic Capacity (Glycolytic) Intervals

• 4–8 x 30 seconds at 95% all-out with 2 minutes of active recovery
• 4–8 x 60 seconds at 90% all-out with 3 minutes of active recovery
• 2–3 sets of 30, 60, 90 seconds at 90%–95% all-out with 2–3 minutes of active recovery, 5 minutes of recovery between sets

Anaerobic Power (Phosphagen System) Intervals

• 2 sets of 8 x 5 seconds all-out with 3 minutes of passive rest, 5 minutes of rest between sets
• 5 x 10 seconds all-out with 3–4 minutes of passive rest
• 2–3 sets of 15, 10, 5 seconds all-out with 3 minutes of passive rest, 10 minutes of rest between sets

Bunch of Softies… The Fall of TESTOSTERONE

This goes out to all you guys who spend more time shaving your bodies and doing curls than you do training your legs by doing deadlifts and squats.  Let’s go.  Read this article by Martin Rooney I found at T-Nation.com and MAN UP!!

Train Like a Man!

by Martin Rooney – 3/24/2011

The Fall of T

America is becoming the poster-child for low testosterone levels. Men today are becoming increasingly more feminine, fussing about their eyebrows, spray tanning, and booking mani-pedis.

There are many potential explanations for the drop in testosterone and subsequent increase in American Idol voters. Skeptics will argue that it’s simply our aging population that’s to blame for our country’s collective low T. Yet that fails to explain the feminine leanings of the younger guys. I believe their shockingly low T scores are due in large part to poor lifestyle choices.

Obesity, stress, prescription meds, staying up late, and poor food choices all affect T to varying degrees, but in a weird way, a low T lifestyle is almost glorified.

The 25 year-old guy with the muffin-top waistline due to the stressful job that keeps him up late is essentially what college prepares most “successful” people for. Follow that lifestyle too long and voila– self-induced castration, a gut you can’t seem to lose, and an iPod chocked full of Kenny G.

But here’s the kicker: castration has infiltrated and infected the one spot you might think immune to low T levels – the gym.

Castration in the Gym?

What do squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses, and dips have in common? Answer: They’re all compound exercises that can be loaded to produce extreme amounts of testosterone-building tension.

Sadly, a lot of people answer: “They’re all dangerous exercises that yogagirl127 posted on Facebook can hurt you and should be outlawed!”

Dangerous? To whom exactly? And what isn’t “dangerous?”

Look, I’m not only a trainer, I’m also a physical therapist, and I respect the importance of proper biomechanics and injury prevention, but those basic exercises are not inherently dangerous.

Everything you do in the gym has some potential for injury, as do most things in life. Reading is bad for the eyes, door handles are caked with germs, and pesticides are sprayed on virtually every stitch of produce at the grocery store.

Are you going to stop reading, opening doors, and eating vegetables? Before we outlaw the overhead press, let’s crack down on texting-while-driving and we’ll really start making the world a safer place.

Safety in my training is paramount, but so is common sense – which isn’t always common in the fitness industry. Over the last 20 years, I’ve watched bizarre trends in fitness information dictate the actual training that occurs inside the gym.

After the rise of the internet, articles written by any “expert” that could type had you in a full sweat-suit to stay warm during your dynamic warm-up and pre-habbed on the foam roller before you rehabbed with your corrective exercises.

In short, as information became more plentiful, more had to be written about the minutia. Once the minutia was deeply covered, the only thing left was to write about what everyone was doing wrong and the risks involved with just about every exercise.

Fact is, most stuff I see talked about today is about what we supposedly can’t or shouldn’t do. My goal is to remind us all that life is often better when you take the “t” off your can’t.

This information overload leads us first on a quest for something safer, then moves us to something either more time consuming or boring, then moves us to skipping that new thing all together due to a lack of time or interest. Ultimately, we’re unable to go back to the old exercise that worked and kept us stimulated because we’re now convinced that it’s bad for us!

Knowledge is power? No, knowledge is only power when we put action behind it. Today, I believe knowledge is often paralyzing.

Here are a few examples of “castrating” training trends and exercises.

Kettlebells vs. Dumbbells

Kettlebells are a great tool, but since the explosion of the kettlebell cults, dumbbells have taken a backseat in training. Funny, but no one ever takes a picture with a dumbbell, yet I see more shots every day of people carrying a kettlebell like it was his or her first-born.

I have nothing against kettlebells and use them in my training. I just wonder if the KB explosion would’ve ever happened without the internet? Kettlebell shirts, kettlebell necklaces…

Poor dumbbells, I’ll miss them.

Bands vs. Chin-ups

Chin-ups are one of the all-time great upper-body exercises (and I include the abdominal area in that too). But they’re difficult to perform, which turns people off.

So some genius discovered that a band originally designed for stretching also works great to make chin-ups easier by removing all the testosterone-producing tension. Now you have rooms full of guys doing sissy chin-ups thinking they’re Olympic gymnasts.

Dump the bands. Do your chin-ups. And hurry up, because even though they haven’t been outlawed yet, I’m sure someone is already working on an article called “Why Chin-Ups Are Bad For You.”

Glute-Ham Raise vs. 45-Degree Back Extension

Back extensions are a great exercise, especially when you hold as many plates as you can across your chest.

Too bad some “efficiency expert” discovered that by just having a glute-ham raise bench you didn’t need a back extension or a lying leg curl machine because the GHR effectively trains both knee flexion and hip extension. So now, both the back extension and leg curl are falling into exercise obscurity.

Turns out the joke is on them. Glute-ham raises are difficult and about as comfortable as a muay thai kick to the quads, so no one does them. So now, no one does anything, except of course occasionally working the triceps while wiping the dust off the GHR.

Prowler Pushes vs. Suicides

I love the Prowler, but this idea that you need a special piece of equipment for conditioning is bunk.

Unfortunately, we’ve learned to value exercises either by their novelty or their ability to produce soreness or fatigue. I’m not sure there are many sports or activities that you need to prepare for by either passing out or puking in training, but hey, while we’re lowering our testosterone levels, might as well find a way to crush our nervous and immune systems, too.

Want a really new exercise that no one is doing? It’s called sprinting.

The biomechanics of sprinting is essential to our basic mobility, but it’s also very much a “use it or lose it” skill. If you’re 27 and haven’t sprinted since high school, you need to get out to the field and start doing it. It’s slowly leaving you, every day – and that means you’re only racing faster toward the big dirt nap. (Maybe they should call being fat and sedentary a “suicide” instead?)

Notice I said “sprinting” not treadmill running, elliptical training, or texting your friend while you ride the recumbent bike. Each one of those pieces has castrated the thing we all need to make progress:impact. Oddly, biomechanists spend a whole lot of time trying to remove impact from our lives.

Lateral Raises vs. Shoulder Pressing

What’s more functional than pushing something heavy overhead? I’m all for the YMCA dance and whatever else we do with ten-pound dumbbells to activate our lower trap, but there’s nothing scary about a proper overhead press. It’s a fantastic way to challenge significant musculature and load the spine.

Yeah, these can bother you if you have poor mobility, strength, or movement issues, but what wouldn’t bother you in that case?

Pushdowns vs. Dips

Dips ruin the shoulders, right? That’s why I see countless athletes in my facility with fantastic physiques complaining about shoulder problems from performing dips up to one hundred times per week.

Oh wait, that’s right… I don’t. And by the way, some of these athletes are girls I call “gymnasties” that often out-chin and out-dip the guys.

Pushdowns are great, but strap a 100-pound dumbbell around your waist and see if you can replicate the tension at the cable station.

Planks vs. Spinal Flexion

In the last few years, bending forward at the waist has been under siege. The firefight is all over the internet, and although I’ve adopted many anti-rotation, anti-flexion, and anti-everything else exercises to stimulate the core, I admit I still throw in some spinal flexion. Somehow I’ve still produced pretty solid results.

I will agree that a poorly performed sit-up isn’t great for your back or neck, but you know what the absolute worst thing is for your back and neck? Sitting slumped over your desk surfing the internet for the latest plank variation.

Sit-ups aren’t the biggest problem – it’s sit-ting. Let’s figure out how to stop people from doing that before we figure out any more things we shouldn’t do.

Step-ups and Split Squats vs. Squats and Deadlifts

Step-ups and split squats are great exercises, but for building muscle they aren’t in the same league as squats and deadlifts. Tension wise, they don’t even come close. But because they’re less “scary” than the big lifts, they’re making a single-legged run at it.

Here’s the irony: because they’re unilateral, they also take twice as long to do, so people find them boring. So after a few weeks, nobody does anything. And then they sit in their chair and tell you to watch your back if you dare to deadlift?

Active Warm-Up vs. Static Stretching

Static stretching has been beaten down so hard it’s barely breathing. Dynamic flexibility during an active warm-up is a wonderful thing and something I personally use daily, but static stretching definitely has its place in training.

Just about everybody has dropped static stretching in favor of dynamic movement, but here’s the thing: dynamic flexibility during a warm-up is time consuming and sometimes complex, so many trainees simply skip it.

Now people are doing no flexibility training at all, and the result is they no longer have the mobility to squat or deadlift properly. So instead of performing some simple static stretches before performing the dynamic movements, we have immobile guys confined to doing planks on an Airex pad in the squat rack.

Stretch out, then warm-up, and then pick up something heavy!

80/20. Not 20/80.

Getting tension back into your workouts doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself or get injured. It means scaling things back so that most of the time you spend in the gym is doing stuff that’s actually productive.

The 80-20 rule never fails. If 80% of your time is spent straining under good old-fashioned barbells and dumbbells, with 20% spent doing pre-hab, rehab, and “potentiation work” then you’ll probably look more fit and have a handful of calluses.

If that split is more like 20-80, then you likely have a problem that includes veggie hotdogs, waxing, and a dream to someday fit into those damn skinny jeans.

 

PUBLISHED Today 07:53

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To Gluten or Not to Gluten

Hey everyone, this is an email that I received from Kelly Bruneman on the new fad, Gluten, what it is, and if its for everybody.  I had a friend on Sunday say “if its good for diabetics, then its good for everyone,” which I feel is a common theme in a lot of areas in our lives.  I have a hard time believing a statement like that, simply because I’ve said similar things and have found them not to be true.  In the article below, Kelly does an incredible job teaching everyone what gluten is, and how to make decisions regarding gluten based on your lifestyle.  As we speak, Kelly has just introduced her “14 Meals Per Week” business.  She makes the meals, she boxes the meals, and she delivers them to your house!  Everything is organic and delicious and easy!   If any of you ever have any questions about nutrition, or want healthy food delivered to your house, Kelly’s email is kelly0412@hotmail.com .

Healthy Living With Kelly  It seems everywhere we turn there is a new health buzz or claim. In the last 3 years it seems that gluten is new buzz word hitting the health food industry. It’s blamed for a host of ailments: headaches, digestive distress, weight gain, poor immune function, hormonal disruption, and even behavioral problems in children. But does gluten, the natural-occurring protein found in wheat, barley, rye and some oats, really the cause of all these health evils? Many health-conscious consumers believe so. Grocery shoppers are seeing more food packages plastered with “gluten-free” logos on their faces, too. And specialty stores like Whole Foods offer gluten-free shopping lists and place little flags next to the gluten-free products on their shelves. As it turns out, gluten-free is a booming business. We’re all getting the message that gluten must be bad for us. Gluten-free foods are all the rage these days, but is gluten-free (or wheat-free, for that matter) the way to be or is it just another food trend? Here are the real facts about gluten-free diets and gluten sensitivities, starting with the basics.     What is Gluten? Put simply, wheat (all types, including durum, einkorn, faro, kamut, semolina and spelt), barley, rye and certain processed oats all contain a protein called gluten, and all foods made from these grains (most flours, cereals, breads, pastas, crackers and cookies) contain gluten, too. Not all grains contain gluten, however: Amaranth, arrowroot, buckwheat, corn, flax, indian rice grass (montina), millet, finger millet (ragi), potatoes, quinoa, rice, sago, sorghum, soy, tapioca, tef (teff), wild rice and yucca are naturally gluten-free. Oats are gluten-free, but the processing of oats usually contaminates them with other gluten-containing foods, so only oats that are specially labeled as gluten-free are safe for people with sensitivities. What makes foods that contain gluten so desirable (besides the nutritional benefits of protein) is its texture. What makes bread so elastic and chewy? Gluten. What gives bread structure so it can rise before it is baked? Gluten again. This protein also helps bread retain its shape and acts as a binder, thickener, and stabilizer—not only in bread, but also in many processed foods, including ice cream, ketchup and salad dressing, and other products like toothpaste and medicines. (Unfortunately, for people with gluten sensitivities, you won’t always find the word “gluten” on an ingredients label.) Because of all of these properties, gluten can often be found in meat analogs (vegetarian meat substitutes like seitan, veggie burgers and other faux meats) and specialty diet foods that are designed to be higher in protein. Because gluten is cheap, rich in protein and has so many great properties, it’s found in a plethora of processed, fast food and restaurant foods—you know, the kind of foods we probably shouldn’t be eating a lot of anyway. That doesn’t mean that gluten itself is bad for you (it occurs naturally in many health-promoting whole grains, but it does mean that it’s hard to avoid if you really need to. It impossible to know whether giving up gluten (or wheat) itself may have improved one’s health or if those improvements resulted from a combination of factors. For example, a person who adopts a gluten-free diet will suddenly avoid most (if not all) processed foods, fast foods and restaurant foods. These foods are also notoriously high in fat, sodium and calories and low in nutrients anyway. A gluten-free diet also involves cooking more meals at home and eating more unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables. Certainly, these healthful dietary practices would result in many positive health outcomes. But can you attribute the health, weight, or mental improvements directly to gluten itself? Can you blame the gluten in your Big Mac for the health problems you’ve faced in the past (rather than the Big Mac itself)? No. Gluten-free diet or not, we could all benefit from eating more fresh, unprocessed foods, cooking more at home, and dining out less often. A multitude of factors are at play here. In the article “Putting the Healthy into Gluten-Free,” published in the trade magazine Today’s Dietitian, Registered Dietitian Earline Griffith commented, “I am seeing people who don’t need to be on a gluten-free diet choosing gluten-free products because they think [they’re] healthier. It’s kind of comical, as it is healthier to eat conventional 100% whole grain products rather than [ones that are] processed.” So why avoid gluten if you don’t need to? Or more importantly, what’s the big deal if you want to eat a gluten-free diet anyway? Downsides and Challenges of a Gluten-Free Diet Giving up gluten is not easy to do. It involves a complete overhaul of one’s diet, cooking techniques, kitchen set up (crumbs inside a toaster could contaminate your gluten-free bread, for example) and eating habits. And it’s not without its downsides. People who need to avoid gluten due to celiac disease and people who are simply avoid because they think it’s unhealthful can run into a variety of problems. Misdiagnosis and self-diagnosis. Reading about the symptoms of celiac disease online and then deciding your have it is not the same as medical diagnosis from your doctor. Many people assume they have gluten intolerance when the symptoms they experience could actually be caused by other serious conditions that giving up gluten will not solve. Only a doctor can test for and rule out other conditions. If you think you have a sensitivity to gluten, see your doctor first. By avoiding gluten before you’ve actually been tested for celiac disease, you could mask the markers of the disease. Like an allergy test that exposes you to an allergen to see if your body develops a reaction, you have to have eaten gluten for these markers to show up when you are tested. People who may have celiac disease but start a gluten-free diet before diagnosis or testing may receive a false negative on their test results. Nutritional deficiencies. People who follow gluten-free diets, especially without instruction or supervision from a registered dietitian or doctor, may develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Because so many healthful and nutritious foods contain gluten, it can be difficult to get those same nutrients when eliminating these foods from your diet. You may also fall short of meeting your body’s needs for carbohydrates, the preferred fuel source for exercise, brain activity and so much more. Cost. An increasing selection and variety of specialty products make it easier to enjoy your favorite foods and still eat gluten-free. But it is going to cost you more than standard products, especially if you’re buying processed foods that are gluten-free. You may expect to pay two to three times as much for gluten-free breads or crackers, for example. Gluten-free doesn’t mean healthy. Gluten-free foods are not always nutritious. Just because a cookie or bagel is gluten-free does not mean it’s healthful, low in calories or nutritious. Many gluten-free packaged foods are highly processed and are best avoided. You can’t trust every label. As mentioned above, the word “gluten” will rarely appear on a food package or nutrition label. Some foods can legally be labeled as gluten-free but still contain gluten. In addition, food manufacturers can change their products at anytime without warning. The wheat-free pretzels that were on your safe list may suddenly change, and unless you’re reading labels every time you shop, foods that were once gluten-free might suddenly contain gluten. This doesn’t even get into the list of other products and medications that contain gluten. These are just a few of the reasons why you should not self-diagnose or avoid gluten unless necessary. So who does need to avoid gluten? Only people with diagnosed gluten sensitivities. Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease Gluten sensitivity is an umbrella term for a collection of medical conditions in which a person experiences adverse reactions to eating gluten. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, fewer than 1 out of 133 people (less than 1%) in the United States haveceliac disease a condition in which the body cannot handle gluten. This condition is even less common worldwide (1 out of 266). Unlike allergies, which can develop over time, celiac disease is a genetically determined condition, the cause of which is still unknown. When a person with celiac disease consumes gluten, an autoimmune reaction occurs in the small intestine, resulting in damage to the surface of the small intestine and painful stomach bloating, cramps, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. Fatigue, weight loss, and malnutrition are common symptoms, too. Celiac disease may also present itself in less obvious ways, including irritability or depression, stomach upset, joint pain, muscle cramps, headaches and migraines, anemia, skin rash, mouth sores, dental and bone disorders and tingling in the legs and feet. However, because these symptoms are common to many other conditions and can range in severity, celiac disease is often overlooked or misdiagnosed, as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. If you exhibit any of these symptoms, talk with your doctor to discuss them and get tested. Screening for celiac disease involves a simple blood test that your doctor can perform. The gold standard of celiac disease diagnosis is an intestinal biopsy. Because of a known genetic component, it is recommended that family members of a diagnosed celiac be tested, even if asymptomatic; people with other autoimmune diseases are at a 25% increased risk of having celiac disease, says the Celiac Disease Foundation. Individuals whose test results do not exhibit the markers of celiac disease, but still experience similar symptoms when eating gluten, may have gluten intolerance. Intolerance to gluten may develop or worsen over time, but there is no research to show that individuals with gluten intolerance will develop celiac disease. It should be noted that gluten intolerance has not been well researched, but it is generally accepted that gluten sensitivities do exist in varying degrees for some people. While people with celiac disease need to avoid gluten to prevent unwanted symptoms and additional damage to the intestines, some people with gluten sensitivities may tolerate varying amounts of gluten without negative effects. It is recommended (and beneficial) that people with gluten intolerance and celiac disease both work closely with their health care providers to manage their symptoms and prevent complications. Going Gluten-Free Just 1/8 teaspoon of wheat flour can prevent healing and exacerbate symptoms, according to some studies. So people with celiac disease need to avoid gluten permanently. Within days or weeks of abstaining from gluten, inflammation in the small intestine will begin to subside. There is no cure for celiac disease, but you can effectively manage it through strict dietary changes and the adherence to a gluten-free diet. Source: Sparkpeople

What a Testimony

Here is what we as personal trainers truly love hearing.  This testimony is from one of Ashley’s clients.  His name is Brian.  Read his story and send back some congratulations to Brian for his hard work, discipline and success.  Way to go Brian!!

Ashley,

Throughout most of my adult life, I watched my physique change from the body of a lean young adult to an increasingly overweight middle-aged man. This change wasn’t sudden or surprising; but very gradual as the amount of physical activity decreased while my diet largely remained the same. Although I spent a few years working to increase my physical activity by jogging I wasn’t seeing any noticeable changes with my weight. I joined the gym a year ago, worked hard and felt good, but still didn’t lose any appreciable weight. I began to think that I would remain at that weight and physical condition for the rest of my life and then slowly burned out from my exercise routine.

You’ll remember that I received a physical in October 2010 and the results were alarming compared to the previous year: my weight, cholesterol and blood pressure all increased and I slipped into unhealthy ranges in each area. It was time to either make a lifestyle adjustment or face a lifetime of deteriorating health. Two days later, I sat down with you to explore my options to lose a considerable amount of weight and body fat. At 200 pounds and 26% body fat, we set a goal to drop 20 pounds and 6% body fat in 10 weeks. We would meet twice a week and I would exercise twice a week on my own. In addition, you coached me on how to improve my diet without making any significant sacrifices.

I must confess that while I was excited to set the goal and have this mission to undertake, I was a little skeptical that my body and mind would be able to make it happen. The work was hard, but you made it fun and engaging. I was regularly challenged to push myself beyond my own barriers, giving me that renewed sense of achievement and self-confidence. My body quickly adapted to this new lifestyle that required no monumental changes to my diet. Most of all, I began to feel empowered over my natural diet and exercise habits. Now, I was in control.

The results have been astounding not only to me and my family, but recognized by friends and co-workers. I still find it hard to believe that I met the goal one week early! But, I haven’t given up the chase. You and I set the next goal to reach – the big difference this time around is that I have 100% confidence that we will make it.

I owe a debt of gratitude to you. Ashley, you are not only a fantastic trainer, but have proven to be a true coach, cheerleader and counselor to me during this adventure. Yes, I did reach my goal, but more importantly I have been set on a course for a lifetime of healthy and happier living.

Brian Haulotte

Fit For Life!

P.S. – It’s been two and a half months since I reached my initial goal. My progress continues as I’ve lost another 10 pounds and 2% body fat. But, most of all, I had blood work done and my bad cholesterol dropped an amazing 100 points after working with you for the first four months! Thank you again, Ashley!!

The Truth about Milk

This is a copy of an email sent to me on February 22, 2010 from Coach Sonnon of Tacfit Commando.  Great coach, great mind… someone who is way ahead of the game when it comes to training and nutrition. READ THE WHOLE THING!!!

Hey Zach,

Milk, it does the body good. Right?

My Mom sure thinks so. She drinks the stuff all day long. And every
time she comes to visit, I give her my spiel about why she should
whoa down. She listens, she seems to understand. Sometimes I even
think she might agree. Then she just keeps on sippin’.

Her conditioning is just too strong. She’s been told too many times
that she needs the milk for her bones. Her mind has an indelible
“health food” label tattooed across every milk carton she sees.

That’s what all those bazillions of dollars spent on milk ads are
for. And technically, they may be right. Real milk, the stuff that
comes out of a pastured cow eating organic grasses, is probably
pretty darn good for you.

But the stuff you’re getting off the shelf in your grocery store?
Not so much… For one thing, you can hardly call it milk anymore for
all the processing it’s undergone. And for another, you don’t even
want to KNOW what else you’re drinking in that glass of white stuff.

Here are a few of the nasty surprises awaiting you in your milk
according to renowned health and fitness author Mike Geary:

• -White (pus) cells
• -Bovine growth hormone
• -Antibiotics

Mike explains the details in his book —> 50% discount on Fat Burning Kitchen

Whether you’re trying to lose fat, gain muscle, skyrocket your
performance or simply live a life of energy and vitality, your
daily glass of milk may be sabotaging your efforts!

In fact, your body probably won’t even recognize your store bought
milk as a usable food! Did you know pasteurization kills most of
the enzymes in your milk and renders it practically indigestible?

Do you know what happens when you leave unpasteurized milk out on
the counter for a couple days? It turns into tasty sour cream! Have
you ever left conventionally produced milk on the counter for a
couple days? It just turns into a putrid mess because it’s missing
its enzymes.

That also means all the hoopla about milk being a great source of
calcium is over-exaggerated at best. Without the enzymes, the body
can’t break down and use the calcium in the milk.

I’ve got to tell you, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to debunking the popular myths surrounding food and health.
It would take us hundreds of emails to even put a dent in the
popular perceptions.

But Mike Geary, who we heard from earlier in this message, does an
amazing job of myth busting in his Fat Burning Kitchen. When we
were discussing how best to spread the word about healthy eating,
Mike’s work came up time and again. So we contacted him and asked
him to give you a deal…

For the next three days, until Thursday night, Mike is going to
give you 50% off his Fat Burning Kitchen book. It wasn’t hard to
convince him. Today is also his birthday, so he was very amenable
to the idea of celebrating by offering you a discount!

50% off Fat Burning Kitchen <— Click to grab your copy at half off

When you click through to Mike’s site, you’ll see how complete the
book is. Milk is just one of the many topics he covers. And we’ve
only skimmed the surface in our discussion about milk. (pun
intended)

We haven’t even talked about how commercial milk plays havoc with
your insulin levels (and can make you fatter). And the whole topic
of homogenization is another shocker! Mike explains those things
and more in his book. AND he tells why organic milk from pastured
cows is GREAT. There’s nothing wrong with real milk…

But I’ll let Mike tell you the rest. Once you read his book, you’ll
never look at your local neighborhood grocery store in the same way!

Here’s the link to grab Mike’s book at 50% off —> Fat Burning Kitchen Half Off Sale

And for those of you who bought the TACFIT Commando Deluxe edition,
FBK is a great complement to Coach Sonnon’s Tactical Readiness Diet
Plan and his Warrior Recipes eBook. It’ll shed a lot of light on
the reasoning behind the principles of the diet and the recipes.

I hope you enjoy Fat Burning Kitchen as much as we do. I devoured
it in one sitting when I first bought it. I’m sure you’ll do the
same!

Cheers,
Adam

On behalf of the entire TACFIT Commando team

Do You Really Want Six Pack Abs?

Here is a topic, that we have revisited several times on this blog.  And again, it won’t be the answer you want to hear.  Without further ado, here as an AWESOME article written by Mike Boyle, one of the best strength and conditioning coaches of our time and author and creator of many dvd’s and websites and aspiring strength and conditioning coaches around the world…

I can’t even tell you how often I hear someone at the end of
the workout say something like “I need to do more abs, I
want to get a six-pack.”

The truth is that passing on a six-pack is a better way to
get a six-pack than six hundred sit-ups. The key to abdominal
definition is the visibility of the abdominal musculature, not the
strength of the muscles.

You can do one million sit-ups, crunches or whatever
exercise you want and it will have no effect on abdominal
definition.

When people ask me the best exercise for abs I tell them
table push-aways.

It usually takes a few minutes for them to get it. It’s not a
joke, it’s the truth. If you want better abs, eat less and train
more but, don’t just train your abs.

The idea of working abs to get abs is one of the oldest
misconceptions in training. This goes back to the old idea
of spot reduction. Spot reduction has never and will never
work. The research has been done over and over and the
answer is always the same.

You can’t decrease the fat layer on a particular area by
working that area. That means that the guys doing sit-ups to
lose abdominal fat and the lady sitting on the adductor
(inner thigh) machine are both wasting their time.

Good total body work is, was, and always will be the key to
fat loss.

Want better abdominal definition?

Finish every workout with some hard interval training
instead of extra sit-ups or crunches. Interval training or
what is currently called High Intensity Interval Training
(abbreviated HIIT) is the real key to fat loss and the resulting
definition.

Interval training burns more calories than steady state aerobic
training and because it is s sprint program you get a sprinters
body.

Abdominal training may potentially reduce the diameter of
the waistline but, will very little to reduce bodyfat.

The truth is there are lots of good reasons to do abdominal
work or core training as we now like to call it. A strong core
(strong abs) is one of the keys in the prevention of  back pain.
A strong core will help you look better and improve performance
in a host of sports but, sit-ups or any other abdominal exercise
will not reduce bodyfat.  The fact of the matter is that crunches
will lead to back pain long before they lead to visual abs.

Another good tip.

Don’t do crunches. A good abdominal or core program is
a lot more than crunches. Most of your core work should be
isometric exercises like front planks and side planks or carries
like Suitcase carries.

One of the major functions of the core musculature is the
prevention of motion.

What does that mean? It means that the abdominals are
great stabilizers. Work on the stability function, not on
flexion and extension.

Regards,

Mike Boyle

P.S. - If you want to discover how to gain instant access
to my gym, Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning (rated
America’s Top Gym), also see what my trainers are doing,
and have access to my workouts, then click here now –

http://www.OnlineBodyByBoyle.com

Thank You!

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Ashley and I were driving down Lamar the other day, just hangin’ like monkeys together, and we saw this sign at the “BS Saloon,” the Barton Springs Saloon.  The bar name itself is pretty funny and clever, but we thought the sign was just as funny.  Although there might be a smidgen of truth to that sign, that’s not what we think of when we think teamwork.

When I saw that sign, I immediately pulled a U-ie to get the pic, which then started a great conversation between the “two monkeys” about how awesome our clients are and how blessed we are to have been as succesful as we have been with each of you over the last few years.  We have developed a great team together.   We’ve laughed and cried and been pissed off, but the end result is a whole bunch of fun and success.  We’ve got pictures of our success on the walls of  Wild Basin, Golds Gym, Fitness 19 and Cap Metro… private and public testimonies that could literally make you cry!  For all of you that have been on this journey with us since 2005… what a ride it has been!  ONE HELL OF A RIDE! 

And it just keeps getting better and better and better!  As successful as each and everyone of us has been over the years, I can’t imagine what is going to come in the next five years!  Way to go team!  You guys rock!

Ashley and I just wanted to take time out today and thank each and every one of you for giving us a chance.  Allowing us to instill our fitness beliefs into your lifestyle.  Thank you for your hard work and comitment.  Without your intensity and discipline we would not have endless amounts of success stories to share with each other and our friends. 

Being fit is not easy.  Being the best is not easy.  Let’s knock over ever obstacle that gets in our way from here on out.  And if you need help pushing that boulder out of the way… that’s why you have a team!!! 

Let’s use each other!  Lets be the best!

Thank you guys so much.  Wooohooo!

Zach and Ashley: www.teamworkheadquarters.com

The Most Important Decision of the Day, EVERY day

Hey everyone, I think you’ve heard me say many times “if you don’t eat breakfast every day, then I won’t talk nutrition with you,” right?  Well here’s why. 

This is a guest article from a good friend of ours, Kelly Bruneman.  Kelly is a licensed nutrition manager and personal trainer.  If you would like to get a hold of Kelly for any questions about nutrition or for the DELICIOUS meals she will prepare and deliver to your house, you can contact her at kelly0412@hotmail.com.   Enjoy the read…

 The number one reason I hear for people skipping breakfast is because they want to lose weight. They think that by shaving those extra calories from their diets it will help them lose weight faster. I am here to tell you that is incorrect. I also will tell you why breakfast does a lot more for our bodies and minds than you might initially think!
 
1.Overnight, which is essentially a fast, our body uses up its glycogen stores (i.e. its carbohydrate stores) found in muscles and the liver. “Breaking the fast” ensures that our bodies replenish glycogen stores and the added fuel acts to jump-start the body’s metabolism. In fact, any time we fast our body goes into starvation mode-the body’s defense mechanism by which it decreases the amount of fuel it burns in order to conserve energy. This inherent reaction leaves the body tired and less able to perform. On the flip side, eating something within 2 hours of waking jump-starts our metabolism, and eating frequently throughout the day provides our bodies with the fuel they need to burn energy efficiently.
 
2. Eating breakfast in the morning also helps prevent another problem, obesity. This may sound strange since it seems like if you eat more you’ll gain more weight. This isn’t a matter of eating more. It is a matter of eating regularly. By skipping breakfast, you’re subjecting yourself to increased risk of eating binges. Eventually you will get so hungry from not eating that either you won’t make it to lunch and start hitting the vending machines at work, or you’ll eat more at lunch than you would normally eat. By eating more at one meal you are forcing your body to work harder to digest your food.
 
3. By recharging your brain and your body, you’ll be more efficient in just about everything you do. Time invested in breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by bypassing the morning meal.
 
4. According to WebMD, while adults need to eat breakfast each day to perform their best, kids need it even more. Their growing bodies and developing brains rely heavily on the regular intake of food. When kids skip breakfast, they can end up going for as long as eighteen hours without food, and this period of semi-starvation can create a lot of physical, intellectual, and behavioral problems for them.

 
Breakfast doesn’t have to be complicated! Here are FIVE easy, fast and healthy breakfast ideas:
 
1. Oatmeal: add in some fresh fruit, nuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon and you will be good to go!
 
2. Cereal and milk: look for a whole grain cereal and one with less than 4 grams of sugar per serving.
 
3. Fruit and nut butter: if your appetite is weak in the morning than just reach for a piece of fruit but pair it with a nut butter for staying power.
 
4. Banana cut up in yogurt. How much easier could it get?
 
5. Make a smoothie. Fresh fruit, yogurt or protein powder, coconut or nut butter. Blend and enjoy. These possibilities and creations here are endless.

Thanks Kelly! (kellyo412@hotmail.com)

Zach and Ashley Williams: www.teamorkheadquarters.com