Combination exercises are the best way to condition your body for fat loss and over all conditioning.  Here is a great example with the sled drag and row.  Greg is back pedaling a few steps, rowing the sled back strengthening upper back muscles and getting anaerobic conditioning as he back pedals and pulls.  Great way to combine both strength and conditioning to enhance the metabolic effect, burn more calories and increase overall work capacity.

Here are two of our 5:45 am people doing a ground based explosive movement for the lower body.  The goal is to get to a deep squat and explode up to the sky as you launch the medicine ball up into the air.  The desired response is to both boost metabolic rate by using the largest most powerful muscles in the body ( glutes, hamstrings, quads ) This muscle recruitment will enhance performance in exercise modalities such as running or lower body lifting exercises.  Recruiting fast twitch muscle fibers will definitely improve performance with both running and squatting or lunging.  The enhanced performance there will lead to greater body composition changes.  If that is the end goal.

It’s been about a week now on the meat and nuts breakfast.  And It feels pretty good.  The best thing is feeling satisfied through the whole morning just about.  No hunger pains or cravings for anything.  Fully satisfied, I have breakfast around 5:15 am and don’t need anything other nutrition until about 10:30am – 11:00am.  This is good!  Usually I am hungry during work hours and it is annoying to know you have to wait an hour or two hours to get through work commitments and get some calories in your body.  Makes for unproductive work hours, not to mention unenjoyable.

Workout performance – This has been good so far.  I feel stronger on my lifts, not sure it is dietary related or the fact that I am doing less cardiovascular training due to an injury.  Or both.  Nonetheless my benc press weight has increased pretty quickly, which could also be due to the protocols I am using.  I’ve been cycling outdoors due to ankle injury keeping me from running or and impact, and the ride I did on Monday felt alot stronger than the previous rides.  I could’ve doubled what I had so much energy and felt so good.

Todays stats:

Mental clarity = 10.

Energy = 10.

Cravings for processed foods = 0.

If I do opt to have something I shouldn’t, I feel more under control.  Meaning I don’t feel I can’t live without the dark chocolate covered almonds, or the one chocolate chip cookie at night.  And the portions are much smaller when I do opt for it, much less ravenous feeling, not endlessly consuming multiple cookies or whatever.

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I came across a meal plan/article on Charles Poliquin’s website simply titled the meat and nuts breakfast.  And it is comprised of just that, meat and nuts.  Today was day one for me.  I am going to try it for one month and track the following markers on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the least amount, 10 being the highest level:

1.  Mental clairty.

2.  Energy.

3.  Cravings for bad foods/satiety.

I will also track body weight, how I perform in my workouts and if I can find someone to do my body composition, body comp as well.  The reasons I am trying this meal plan is to improve body composition, mental clarity and energy.  I currently consume non traditional breakfasts anyway.  I will prepare and consume chicken, quinoa, vegetables, lean meats. cold-water fish, eggs and berries as it is.  Pretty healthy, but there are times I don’t feel I have energy, I can’t focus on things etc.  I will check in on a daily basis, or a least multiple times per week with the aforementioned reports.  Happy meal planning folks.

Here is my report from today so far:

Mental clarity = 10.

Energy = 10.

Satiety = 10

Cravings for sweets, foods I shouldn’t consume = 0.

Most posts are about sets, reps, distance and calories, protein and fats.  I would like to step away from all the numbers and the science of exercise and nutrition and discuss a very big component of a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t get discussed as much.  Will.  Determination.  Passion.  Human inspiration.  If you do not posses or are unable to understand what these words mean achieving any goal, fitness or otherwise, will be impossible.  This brings me to a guy named Dick Hoyt.  If you live in Massachusetts then there is a good chance you know who he is.  He is a father of a handicapped child who has never been able to, and never will be able to walk or play or do anything that we all take for granted.  He is an adult now and has been pushed, carried and swam with by his father Dick for 30 years now.  Through races, triathlons, marathons and an iron-man.  Dick Hoyt was a self proclaimed ‘ porker ‘ who led a very sedentary lifestyle until his son asked one day said ” I want to run a road race.”  So, being the loving, caring, passionate determined father Dick was he started to run with his son Rick in a chair in front of him.  It was difficult for him to start I’m sure, and there must have been many an obstacle in their way over the last 30 years.  But they overcame them to achieve the goals they set out to.  Dick Hoyt isn’t driven by the dream of looking good in a swimsuit some day, or to lose a few pounds.  He is driven by passion, determination, love and the willingness to try and give his son anything and everything he asks for.  I’ve personally never met the man before in my life, but would love the opportunity to just tell him how much I admire him.  In many ways Dick has resurrected his son Rick’s life, and in so many other ways Rick has changed his father’s life.  Good luck on Monday guys.  And best wishes for many more marathon Mondays to come.

1.  If body transformation is a goal, then nutrition has to be number one on this list.

A.  Drink half your body weight in oz of water.

B.  Starchy carbs ONLY after workouts.

C.  Protein and vegetables at each meal/snack.

2.  Foam roll – Keep muscle tissue as soft and supple as possible to avoid muscle aches that can lead to overuse injury.  This can be done the day before, the day of and the day after.  Take 3-5 minutes per day to make sure this is happening.  Don’t have time?  Roll whatever body parts you use that day to save time.

3.  Sleeping – making sure you have ample sleep.  Muscle growth and the training effect happen at night when we are sleeping.  Yes the process starts during the day, 3,4,5 hours or so after but the majority occurs when we are unconscious lying horizontal.  On the flip side, a tired un-rested body will not perform to it’s maximum capacity during a workout, get to bed early the night before; there are other nights you can stay up late to watch The Bachelor or Bachelorette.

4.  Recovery aerobics – Our program trains the fast twitch muscle fibers and anaerobic energy systems.  The phosphagen system = short bursts of intense exercise that last 1-10 seconds and the anaerobic glycolysis system = bouts of exercise that last 30 seconds – 2 minutes.  Aerobic exercise can be very effective at flushing out metabolic bi-products as a result from performing this type of exercise, reducing muscle soreness and keeping muscles limber for the next workout.

5.  Relaxing -  make sure you take time to do things you enjoy.  Enjoying a massage or spa day with friends,  playing tennis, racquetball or any other recreational activity.

Here are some pictures of a guy in the fitness boot camp program.  He started to feel some discomfort in his shoulder not too long ago. I asked to have him come by early and assess the situation, so I took some pictures of his posture before we did any exercises and here are two of them below:

Here is an aterior view before exercises.

Here is a posterior view before exercises.

If you look at the picture where he is facing us, he is tilted to the side (right) with his left foot turned out and his weight shifted to the right. Look at the back picture and you see the unevenness of the shoulders. Again, he was having some shoulder pain so all of the deviations are important to note.  One shoulder is higher than the other as well.  We did three different exercises for the pelvis area of his body; approximately 10 minutes or less and here is how he stood after.

Here is the posterior view after the exercises.

Here is the anterior view after the exercises.

A pretty big difference. Look at his feet how they are almost perfectly straight ahead, the shoulders in both pictures are almost perfectly balanced. And the exercises we did were for his pelvis, not his shoulder. The center of gravity is where the deviations originate, throwing off everything above and below it. His shoulder pain has reduced significantly, we are still staying away from things that might cause a problem to the shoulder, but we have it under control now.  If this hadn’t come to light he would’ve kept going and maybe even hurt the shoulder to a greater degree where he needed physical therapy.  Which all they would’ve done was treat the symptoms by working the shoulder area, and not the cause which was the deviated pelvis.  So, now he doesn’t need therapy at all as long as he listens to me and his shoulder area.  A misaligned center of gravity will put additional, undue stress on other parts of the body causing pain and if untreated, injury.

The most recent article in the New York Times discuss eggs regaining their healthy reputation that was tarnished by another article not so long ago;  comparing the health risk off egg consumption to that of smoking cigarettes.  The average person not having as much knowledge about nutrition should be very confused at this point.  How many times have we seen an article coming out villifying something in the health and fitness world, only to have another article completely contradict it’s claims?  It happens all too often.  Here are things to consider with this particular case and others moving forward.

1.  Neither of these studies or articles mention how the eggs were prepared?  Fried?  Scarmbled with cheese or sour cream?  Poached with hollaindaise sauce?  Are we to assume they were just hard boiled eggs being consumed?  And what accompanied the eggs?  Toast with butter?  Bacon?  Are we to assume nothing else in the meal with eggs, or no other meal consumed by subjects that day had any effect on their risk for heart disease?

2.  How active are the subjects?  Are they very active?  Moderately active?  Sedentary?  Wouldn’t this have a big impact on what they consume and how it is metabolized and how much of it is stored?  How much gets plastered on the inside of arterial walls?  If the subject is active then these calories or being mobilized more freely and used as an energy source.

The list goes on, the point here is to stop and read the whole article or study and keep exterior factors that aren’t mentioned in mind.  Eggs are a great source of protein, and if they are enriched with omega 3′s then they are a great source of those as well.

In conclusion ask yourself just one more question;  how can something with so many good nutritional properties be compared to the risk of smoking cigarettes?

Which can of tuna has the most omega 3′s?  Are they all the same?  You may be surprised to hear that white tuna packed in water has the highest omega 3 content by far over tuna packed in olive oil.  This is important for many reasons.  If you are under the impression the tuna in oil has a higher healthy fat count due to it being packed in oil this appears to be incorrect.  Unless of course, you are not draining the tuna packed in olive oil.  This makes a big difference.  Little things can make a big difference in exercise, in nutrition in everything really.  Wild Planet seems to have a very good system and quality tuna product.  Be proactive when it comes to researching products you and your family are consuming.  Form your own opinions on what is important to you.

For good health and weight loss.  Some foods appear to be healthy, and to a certain extent they probably are, but usually there is a healthier option available.  For example:  a turkey wrap with lettuce, tomatoe, dressing or condiment of some sort, avocado vs a grilled chicken salad with avocado, olive oil, walnuts and multiple green leafy vegetables.  The salad is the way to go for sure.  Deli turkey is a modified food, so is the wrap and condiment that might come on it.  Asking for no condiments is a step in the right direction, but ultimately to make the very best chocie for your health the salad is the better option.

Let’s compare two very popularly acclaimed health foods on the market, olive oil and canola oil.  Both claim to be heart healthy and contain healthy omega 3 fatty acids.  But, canola oil comes from a plant called rape seed.  Canola oil is a marketing name derived from Canadian oil.  It comes from the rapeseed plant whose other famous plant family members are broccoli and turnips.  To our current day knowledge canola oil is a result of the hybridization and genetic modification of the rapeseed plant to breed out it’s undesirable taste and hazards to health.  Oil from the rapeseed plant has been used for thousands of years in China and India and is known as the poor man’s cooking oil.  The oil contained long chain fatty acids (which are to be avoided) called erucic acid which was irritating to mucous membranes.  Consumption of the original rapeseed oil was associated with fibrotic heart lesions, known as Keshan’s Disease, as well disorders of the central nervous system, lung and prostate cancer, anemia and constipation.  It is said during the oil engineering process that both hexane (gasoline constituent) and heat are used to get rape seed plants to what is known as canola oil.  Hexane in the past has been linked to causing adverse health effects.

Olive oil is pressed from, olives.  They first are squeezed into a paste where the droplets of oil will be collected and bottled for distribution.  Extra virgin olive oil follows this path of production.  Olive oil is pressed at low temperatures and they do go through multiple pressing phases.  The oils that go through the first pressing phase are considered to be the most nutrient dense.

At the end of the day, consuming foods in their most natural forms that contain the health components that these oils have is the best route to take.  It is up to us as consumers to make the best decision with the information we have at hand.  Conflicting reports will be found on this topic, do research and see where the information is coming from before you decide.  Happy eating folks.