Shoes and Heavy Weight

The video above describes pretty common occurrence when squatting heavy weights.  The same applies to dead lifts, power cleans, snatches etc.  Running sneakers simply do not provide a optimal base and can hinder linear progression on the core lifts not to mention alter movement patterns.  This is why you see a lot of people in the gym with minimalist shoes or powerlifters who wear chuck taylors.  You don't need to buy fancy shoes to get a more stable base.  Doing your squats and deadlifts bare foot is an o.k. option to provided you make sure a round plate wont fall and crush your foot.

Sat fat Science

Scholarly Source on sat fat intake vs CVD

"During 5-23 y of follow-up of 347,747 subjects, 11,006 developed CHD or stroke. Intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD."


"Consideration of age, sex, and study quality did not change the results."


"A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat."




Just came across some more research showing that saturated fat is not the enemy.  The nutrition advice given in this country is so backwards.  Saturated fat was never proven to be the causative agent in heart disease or weight gain.  People could do a lot better lowering their risk for heart disease, by eating a diet free of processed foods.  If I had heart disease I would rather enjoy foods like  eggs, cheeses, grass-fed dairy, and the occasional breakfast meat like sausage and bacon then consume processed flour, sugar, and oils in a lot of the "healthier" alternatives marketed today.  

Home Made Sled

Anyone who has been following the trends in the strength and conditioning world understand that weight sleds have become a cornerstone in most athletes training.  No matter what you are training for everyone can get benefits out of a sled.  

A lot of powerlifters have taken notice, because the total amount of weight they could lift was being limited by their work capacity.  By doing G.P.P (General Physical Preparedness) aka sled work powerlifters were able to train different energy systems... although sled drags are not sport specific to powerlifting it indirectly increases work capacity, allowing for increased total weight lifted!

What can the normal athlete take from all this?  By adding a reasonable amount of G.P.P to your weight training sessions you can go a long way towards a stronger, leaner body, with a better ability to recover. The weight sleds they use at strength and conditioning facilities can be expensive thats why I want to link you to this article on how to make a home made weight sled...  Isn't much to look at but these things are torture!

Here is a brief clip from my workout today on a home made weight sled

 

Link Dump

Omega-6 contoversies

Smart training - if it hurts stop doing it

Food reward systems- extinction of cravings

Pitfalls of crunches

Ben Bruno demonstrates pull up iso holds

A relevant question - losing muscle and gaining fat.

Gaining muscle within a primal context

RFESS

The RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) is an exercise I have been using in my training a lot recently.  This exercise is quite challenging and works your whole leg musculature in a unique way, not to mention that after a few sets you can really get a good sweat going.  The primary muscles worked during the RFESS are the quads but it also works the hamstrings and can hit the core quite well.

The RFESS is nice because you can make good strength gains without all the spinal loading of the traditional barbell squat.  In addition it can be loaded several different ways, and the range of motion can be modified to make it easier or harder.  As you can see above I am doing them on a 4 inch box allowing me to get a better range of motion.  Also I loaded it goblet style with a kettle bell because I find I can maintain form easiest with this method.  Holding dumbells at your sides is very popular, as well as using a weighted vest which is probably the best option  but not necessary as long as you are consistent with loading techniques.

While doing the RFESS it is important to keep your chest up and spine in a neutral position, it is common for the upper body to lean forward in the down ward phase of the motion to compensate for flexibility/ strength deficits and this should be avoided.  Lastly the foot that is elevated on the bench is simply their for balance and should not be used to drive back upwards.  When done correctly this may be a good exercise choice for people with anterior pelvic tilt because with a full range of motion the opposing hip flexors will get stretched.

Muscle ups

Today I wanted to show viewers a difficult excercise to perform along with some coaching cues that will allow you to perform the exercise safely.

As you can see above the Muscle Up is essentially a normal pull up with an explosive element incorporated in order to bring your body above the bar.  Muscle ups are a multi-joint movement that primarily work the muscles of your back, core, and to some extent chest and triceps (over the bar phase). They are great because the concentric (upwards) phase of the exercise teaches you how to coordinate an explosive effort and the eccentric (lowering) phase works your lats, core, and forearms much like a pull up.

When doing a muscle up form is key.  This move can be abrasive to your joints if you do not do a few important things.  First off your initial grip on the bar is very important : Grip the bar with palms facing outwards from you.  Unlike a normal pull up you must grip the bar with your palms parallel with the ground as opposed to the wall.  Your grip needs to roll over the bar so your wrists are bent over the bar.  Initially this will seem awkward but it is crucial the second phase of the exercise or you wont be able to push yourself above the bar.

Beginning at the bottom of a pull up position forcefully pull upwards behind the bar.  This is different than a pull up because in a normal pull up you would pull under the bar.  As you pull your head and upper torso behind the bar.  On your ascent pull forcefully towards the bar and lean into the bar.  This will bring you into the bottom of a dip above the bar.  Dip just as you would on a dip bar to finish the movement.

This move varies in difficulty.  While progressing you can use a kick to generate momentum and make the movement easier.  People skilled in muscle ups will be able to perform them very slowly and under control.  A muscle up can take a long time to learn depending on your starting strength.  For beginners I would advise you to check out a resource like beast skills to learn more.

Training ADD

Training A.D.D is a popular term used by personal trainers.  This refers to a trainee that will never stick to a set diet or exercise regimen for more then a couple weeks.  People with training ADD often spin their wheels endlessly because regardless of how hard they work out, or how smart they are in exercise theory, they NEVER make any measurable progress.

People with training ADD typically understand what goal they have in mind initially but for what ever reason become unhappy with their situation and decide to change midway through.  Since making changes in body composition and performance are relatively slow processes people with Training ADD never reach the level they set out for.

A common example of this is a trainee who decides they want to gain muscle.  After researching the best program and diet to gain weight they set out on an effort to become huge.  They realize  after two months of bulking up that they are starting to lose definition in their abs.  Regardless of the fact that the rest of their body is growing well and their strength is through the roof they panic and decide that they need to cut back, and make a 180 degree shift dropping calories and focusing more on cardio.  After a few weeks of this they are back to square one because they didn't put on any appreciable muscle mass, and the muscle they did put on was lost in their reactive effort to cut back down in a short time.  And this leaves the trainee exactly at square one.

Training A.D.D. does not just have to be applied to body composition changes but we can also see this in performance measurements when a person tries to train for to many different things at once.  They want to be good at long distance running, and powerlifting, all while being fast.  Their training tries to resemble this by switching between mutually exclusive goals all at once.  And in the end they get no where because they don't pick with one goal and focus on it!

People with great physiques or great speed or great power all or all of the above have gotten that way over a long period of time.  Whatever their goal was they stuck with tried and true methods and were CONSISTENT! This does not mean consistency for a month or two.  Consistency means dedicating yourself to a diet and fitness regimen for years.  

So far all those with training ADD set a goal and stick with it for at least three months before re evaluating.  

400 lbs squat at 175 body weight

Scary strong!

Oxysterols and Milk

Does anyone else remember that dairy movement that wanted americans drinking three cups of milk a day?  I do...and although I don't believe milk is inherently bad I think some of us need to reconsider the way we get our milk.

Lets face it, from the way people used to drink it, milk has come a long way.  I know that some of you are thinking that this is a good thing.  After all without advancements in modern food science we wouldn't have microbial free (pasteurized) homogenized, and fat free milks.

Although at first these innovations to milk appear to be beneficial are they all that great?  I along with many other nutritionist and researchers think that these scientific advancements have simply taken a perfect health promoting food and degraded it in order to make a cheap buck.  Lets take a look at some of the problems modern dairy faces and why these "advancements" could mean bad news for your health.

I would often bring a bottle of whole milk into class if I had missed breakfast.  I would find many of my fellow nutrition majors scowling at me, "You drink whole milk!!!!?????" As if they simply could not fathom that a person who had taken all the coursework they had could consciously drink the fat laden stuff.  I would often reply that before whole milk was "whole milk," it was just called milk and people were fine.

I tend to piggyback off the  philosophy that eating foods in their least processed form is the ideal way to optimize health and performance.  When it comes to milk this philosophy holds true.  Many people are wary and believe that the saturated fat and cholesterol in milk will lead to heart disease.  I invite those people to read Stephen Guyenet blog post on why saturated fat does not cause a rise in blood cholesterol here.  

Secondly I would like to point out that the pasteurization process of milk not only denatures and changes the protein composition in milk, but instigates a rise in harmful substances within the milk called oxysterols

Oxysterols are oxidized forms of cholesterol.  In dairy pasteurization (heat exposure) cholesterol oxidation products (COPS) can be formed which indeed have many negative effects on health.  Among these detrimental health affects COPS have shown to have cytotoxic, inflammatory, effects and have been linked with chronic diseases including artherosclerosis and neurogenerative diseases.

COPS are thought to be potentially involved in the initiation and progression of artherosclerosis, neurogenerative procecesses, diabetes, kidney failure, 

COPS compared to unoxidized cholesterol (like the cholesterol found in raw milk) have demonstrated stronger pathological and toxic effects by at least one or two orders of magnitude ([Poli et al., 2009] and [Van-Reyk et al., 2006]). 

One of the primary COPs in milk is called 7-keto cholesterol which is linked to cancer and heart disease. The amount of 7-keto cholesterol formed is directly related to the temperature of pasteurization.  This means that if you are going to by store bought milk it may be a wise choice to by milk that is only lightly pasteurized.  Ultra-pasteurized milk or the "UHT" you often see on milk labels can contain higher levels as well as milk put in the microwave.  So if you eat something like oatmeal and microwave it make sure to put the milk in afterwards or use a milk alternative like almond milk.

These Oxysterols as well as other issues like antibiotic and hormone use, as well as poor animal treatment are a couple of reasons why processed dairy is becoming less and less of a healthy choice.  I am fortunate enough to live in a family that gets raw milk, but if that is a little to extreme for you I would suggest buying a lightly pasteurized organic milk.

Training, and random thoughts.

Readers recently school work and rugby have consumed my life and my blog has taken a back seat.  In an effort to get some content up I wanted to post some random tidbits.

Recently my weight lifting has taken a back seat to rugby.  Most athletes have to deal with this, it is very hard to set PR's during a season.  Athletes should use an appropriate training template for in season.  This will depend on your specific recovery abilities - volume should be cut accordingly.  Currently my split looks like this.

Monday: upper power
Barbell row 5*5
Shoulder press 3*5
Bench Press 3*5

Tuesday: Lower Power
Squat 3*5
Deadlift 1*5


Thursday: Chest Tricep
Dumbell Incline Press 3*8
Close grip Bench 3*8
Dumbell flat 2*8
Some direct arm work

Friday back shoulder hypertrophy
3 sets of pull ups
Dumbell shoulder Press
Lateral raise
Dumbell shrugs
parralel rows
Kroc rows

The above stuff is done off "feel" when you have been training for a while you can tell what you can get away with.  I keep workouts short and intense, and aim to improve week to week.  If recovery is an issue I will take as much time as I need, this is a dumb-downed version of layne nortons power hypertrophy split, I will transition to the full split after rugby is over and reccomend it for people with experience in the compound lifts...Linked here

Some advice I have found useful in my experience as follows:


"Once you have accepted that changes to your body composition is a slow process driven largely by caloric intake. You essentially free yourself from the constraints that hold you back.
The more rules you have in your diet the better chance you have of breaking one, the better chance you fail/ binge/ get off track. 

I find that if you concentrate as much about consistency in certain things rather than the type of food you eat you will get the most profound results. 1. A controlled caloric surplus or deficit. 2. A substantial amount of protein in your diet (gram per lbs?) 3. Lifting Heavy weights on a well though out program three-four times a week.

By focusing on less you get more. Accept that you that changes to your body composition are going to take a long time. This elimantes the stress of dieting and you can go about every day effortlessly acheiving your goals.

Lastly try and find your Connections between eating and your emotions. Do you eat when your bored? etc... Deciphering this is your key to self control

Keep it fun, and challenge yourself in the weight room. Be consistent with your diet, and realize that although your body composition doesn't change day by day, your mind can! Your body composition is 1/16th of the great person you are, Dieting is a time for reinvention and self reflection, go out and try something new that you enjoy and hold your head up high because you are drifiting towards a happier healthier you everyday."

Another reason to eat vegetables!

Research shows that vegetables give your skin a healthy glow. read here

Born to Run?

Here is an interesting Ted talk that may change the way you think about running. here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUvB41zD1w&feature=player_embedded

Pure Maple Syrup

Researchers discovered 34 new beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup, and confirmed that 20 compounds discovered last year in preliminary research play a key role in human health.  check it out

The point of this blog post is not to promote maple syrup which in the end of the day is still just sugar.  It is to point out that real food, simply can not be beat by man made substitutes or as the article best describes it- Nature is the best chemist.  Real food seems to have great nutrient interactions that give them unique health benefits, processed food not so much.

Look at some of these studies!

Long distance runners

Powerlifting results

For anyone interested in Power lifting check out my good friends write up on his most recent competition as follows.  Congratulations to Tom who came in first in his weight class 198 even though he was severely under the max weight.  Freak Strength, readers no matter what your goals we can learn from power lifters because they know how to lift heavy weights and know how to do it safely!  Furthermore they don't compare themselves with anyone else.  They know their limits and seek to push past them on a day to day basis.

380 lbs squat


305 lbs bench


460 lbs deadlift
Broke a record for my federation



All in all it was a fun contest, I did not cut weight and still won for my age and weight. I got some great experience, and met some cool people. Power Lifting is an individual thing, while I do compete with other individuals my goals are improvement contest to contest. The last contest I did in November I totaled 1050 in the 165 lb class, the time before that in September 1000 in the 165 lb class. The next
potential contest for me is in May, and I can guarantee if I compete there will be another jump in my
total!

Lipid Madness- sorting through the terminology a basic guide to fat

Some advice I always hear thrown around is, "Fat is not the enemy, when dieting you should eat "good" fats and avoid the "bad" ones.

This advice like others is overly simplified and although its intentions are good it does not always paint the right picture about how you should be eating.  Let me follow this up by saying that no food is inherently good or bad...meaning within the context of a sensible diet whilst reaching set macronutrient goals you can any food without adverse outcomes on fat loss and health.  For example the nefarious trans fat can be enjoyed in moderation with no affect on health, and the exalted Omega-3 fats can be detrimental if you have to much.  For this reason I would like to provide some basic information about different kinds of dietary fat you hear about and follow that up with my thoughts on dietary fat and weight loss/ health.  

First things first, all fats are composed of fatty acids.  The properties of fats are dependent upon the specific fatty acids that  constitute it.  Fatty acids are chains of carbon, and hydrogen atoms with a carboxylic acid group at one end and a triacylglycerol molecule  at the other.

Without getting to technical learning the basic chemistry can be helpful to understand some of the common fatty acids.  A saturated fat is named this way because every carbon on the fatty acid is bound with a hydrogen atom...thus the molecule is fully saturated.  In other fatty acids the carbon atoms may have a double bonds between themselves (creating a degree of unsaturation)  aka monounsaturated fatty acids.  If the fatty acids contain two or more double bonds between carbons they are referred to as polyunsaturated fatty acids.  Unsaturated fatty acids with a trans isomer are commonly called trans fat and have received a lot of bad press.

                                                  Above are a few examples of fatty acids

Fats are an important part of our nutrition.  Among other things dietary fat provides energy, is needed to regulate the fat soluble vitamins, provide essential fatty acids, and is important to maintain a good hormonal environment.  The general nutrition world usually refers to polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats as the "good" fats because of their ability to regulate cholesterol levels and because the polyunsaturates in our diet are essential.  Saturated and trans fat are referred to as the "bad" fats.  Each fat has unique affects after digestion but the terms good and bad are limited.

Essential fatty acids are fatty acids that the body cannot synthesize.  They are required for good health and must be obtained through our diet.  The two essential fatty acids are alpha-linolenic (an omega-3 fatty acid,  and Linoleic acid (an omega 6 fatty acid) and besides from being necessary to control inflammation must be gotten dietarily or we could not survive.  Just getting these Essential fatty acids is not enough for optimal health, these EFA's consumed in the appropriate proportion (supposedly 4:1 or less omega-6 or omega-3) purportedly will have a positive impact on numerous health events like heart disease, cancer, depression and other mood disorders.  A typical American diet is full of omega 6 fatty acids and because these fatty acids compete with each other omega 3 absorption is compromised.  The American diet may provide a ratio of 10:1 or more and this is not favorable.  This is mostly because Americans eat so much processed food.  

Saturated fat a "bad" fat has been villainized by the scientific community as an artherogenic agent (causes heart disease).  Researchers believed that consumption of saturated fat elevated cholesterol levels which promoted cardiovascular disease.  This research was horribly limited and we can fairly confidently say that for most people their is limited association between saturated fat and heart disease.  Some studies have even shown saturated fat to have a protective effect on coronary artery disease [1].  This goes against what many have had ingrained in their mind, but I suspect within the next couple of years their will be major breakthroughs in cholesterol and saturated fat research alleviating this fat of its "bad" moniker.

Of the most clear cut fats that can be delegated "bad" is transfat.  Trans fatty acids are formed during partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils.  "In the past decade new metabolic studies have provided unequivocal evidence that partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils creates fatty acids that adversely affect plasma lipid concentrations  relative to natural oils."[2]  So basically trans fats are unnatural and detrimental to health.  It is important to note that a natural occurring trans fatty acid (vaccenic acid) may actually be health promoting.  If you are interested further in the subject I recommend you visit Alan Aragon's website and subscribe to his research review he provides a unbiased look at trans fat and its health affects.

Now that some of the common terminology has been sorted out I want to discuss dietary fats role in dieting and health.  Some researchers have come to believe that our ancestral diet consisted of more fat then we once thought.  It is very reasonable to believe that increasing the percentage of fat in your diet could be a good thing as far as health and weight loss go: assuming the increase in fat does not accompany an increase in calories.  Fat has nine calories a gram as opposed to protein and carbohydrate which have four cals/g respectively and for that reason it is still important to maintain a sensible caloric intake.  Further more fat as a macronutrient tends to be much more satiating the carbohydrate...that is a nice fatty meal will fill you up longer than a carbohydrate meal.  For this reason dieters should not be afraid to include high fat foods such as full fat dairy, eggs, fish, and nuts etc.  into their diet.  Some people fear that the dietary cholesterol that can be associated with fatty foods is dangerous, yet their is another weak correlation here.  Dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol are weakly associated... some people even believe that cholesterol levels and heart disease are poorly associated...I have even seen some studies that show high cholesterol foods such as eggs improving the heart health of people.[3] 

As a closing statement I would like to say that fats are not simply good or bad.  Within the context of different diets they can have very different effects.  It is important for dieters and health enthusiasts to remember that the fat you eat does not make you fat.  Furthermore within a sensible caloric intake dietary fat excluding trans fat should not have a negligible impact on your health.  As a dieter it is important to remember that taste is importance for adherence, and adherence is important for results.  Do not shy away from natural foods, and in order to better your omega 6:3 ratio eat processed food in moderation.  Some fat sources I love to eat are eggs, guacamole, red meat, fish, seafood, all nuts, and many more. Don't be afraid to reintroduce some of these natural fatty foods back into your diet today and pass on all that processed junk!

Return Home

Today is my first day back at classes after my return from jamaica.  It was a wonderful experience and although I got a poor view of their culture as a whole staying on a resort.  I wanted to share with my readers a few interesting things I noticed about Jamaicans pertaining to their eating and fitness habits.

1.  Among the islanders it was very rare to see an obese person.  Although the island has been americanized there is still an abundance of traditional foods.  I enjoyed a bunch of traditional foods like root vegetable soups, jerk chicken and pork, curried goat, spicy sea foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, and beef patties.  

2.  Jamaican Foods make up for lack of fat with spices.  All the traditional foods I ate were cooked with spices.  Our culture often tries to make food tastier by adding fat, we should follow after other cultures and use spices to flavor our foods.  They taste great and add big time flavor without the calories.

3.   There was fresh fruit growing everywhere.  After tipping a resort worker he showed me how to pick fresh mangos, plantains, and cut open a coconut to have some fresh coconut water.  

4.  There is a lot of seafood in their diet.  Most American diets are dreadfully deficient in Omega 3 fatty acids and should take after jamaicans eating more seafood.

5.  Portion sizes were reasonable and I noticed that even the fried food in Jamaica was a lot less salty.  

These were just a few things I noticed in my limited stay.  I enjoyed traditional Jamaican cuisine and wanted to remind everyone to eat more real food!   Stay tuned for an article on omega 3 and omega 6 ratio.

Spring Break

For anyone that is a regular reader I am sorry for the lack of content this week.  It was midterm week here at Ithaca and my blog was my last priority.  Im sitting here at my campus lounge waiting for my meal to digest so I can hit the gym.

I wanted to leave you with some nuggets of wisdom and some reading material because I am heading to jamaica for spring break and may not have a chance to post before then.

Wisdom you probably didn't want to hear


1.  Completely reverse your approach to training.  Instead of lifting upper body most, start training your lower body more frequently.  Instead of doing so much bench press, start doing more rows and chins/pull ups.  If you have been doing high reps for a while do lower reps

2.  Progressive overload-  If you are not adding weight or reps to the bar week to week you are not doing it right.

3.  If you split your body parts up and you are not an advanced bodybuilder you are doing it wrong! A novice does not need their own delt and calves day.

4.  Traditional jogging on the treadmill does not need to be a part of your workout unless you enjoy it.  Conditioning can be accomplished in shorter periods of time through other methods.  If you do it for fat loss take the extra time you spend on the treadmill cooking healthy meals and you could expect to see a 100% increase in results.

5.  Just because you did cardio doesn't mean you can have that extra bite.

6.  Losing fat is 75% diet

7.  Most novices would do best lifting 2-4 days a week.

8.  You can't out train a bad diet

9.  barbell squats and dead lifts have always been popular for a reason.

10.  Crunches are a joke of an excercise.  Tony gentilcores critique on crunches


Thats it for now for some good reading material while i'm gone scroll down to the blogs I reccomend at the bottom of my page.

Saturated fat and cholesterol

Check out Stephan Guyenets article on saturated fat and cholesterol.  Stop fearing fat look at Stephans conclusion below.


"Overall, the literature does not offer much support for the idea that long term saturated fat intake has a significant effect on the concentration of blood cholesterol. If it's a factor at all, it must be rather weak, which is consistent with what has been observed in multiple non-human species (13). I think it's likely that the diet-heart hypothesis rests in part on an over-interpretation of short-term controlled feeding studies."


This article reminds me of an interesting phenomena in human reasoning.  People are scared to death to eat eggs because of the fat and cholesterol yet at the same time will go out and eat processed crap and drink lots of booze.  Bottom line stick to whole foods with minimal processing and you won't regret it.