urban pump

I know, I know, soda is bad for you. We all know that. It's very frustrating because I really like soda. More so than candy, cake, and ice cream (hard to believe on this one). 

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Some types of cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Insulin resistance
• High triglycerides
• Low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol
• Metabolic syndrome
• Sleep apnea

What supplements do you take? 

The Environmental Working Group did a study on sugar content in cereals. What did they find? Two out of every three cereals are made up of at least 26% sugar by weight.

According to Consumer Reports on Health (volume 24, Number 4), more than 1/3 of adults in America sleep deprived. This is not good news. Too little sleep makes it difficult for people to concentrate, remember, drive, work, pursue hobbies and to take care of finances. I must also add that too little sleep makes it more difficult to train hard and recover between workouts. I also notice that my stress level is higher if I do not get enough rest. 

• Set a bedtime and wake-up time. Get your body used to a sleeping regimen. 
• Curb napping. A 30 minute nap before 3 p.m. can refresh you, but any later in the day will impede in your ability to sleep well at night.
• Limit alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Don not drink caffeine 6 hours before bedtime, and avoid alcohol 4 to 6 hours before bed (I would recommend to curtail alcohol to only one or 2 drinks a week. That would be better still).
• Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. 
• Turn off technology. No television in bed!
• Exercise. I find strength training works especially well.
• To this list, I will add practice stress reduction techniques. Practices such as yoga or meditation bodes well for working the stress hormone cortisol (along with strength training) out of your system so you can fully relax...and have a better night's sleep.    

Six months ago I started working with a client who came to see me because she had a herniated disk and she thought I could help. I blogged about her progress a couple of months ago. Today is another update to her progress. 

I taught her how to engage the Transverse Abdominus (the deep abdominal muscle that protects the spine under load), strengthened the obliques and lower back muscles, and applied traction on an every workout basis to relieve pressure on the disks of the lower back. 

How early can children start working out with weights? When I am asked that question, my general recommendation is that kids as young as 8 to 10 years old can start weight training. I would also recommend that the child does light weights and higher repetitions in general, and focus more on mastering form and exercise discipline more so than increasing weights and intensity. Around 13 to 14 years old seems to me a good time for kids to pushing heavier weights.

Human muscle innervation is completed around 6 to 7 years of age. This implies that the brain has formed its neural connections to the muscular system and that optimization of these connections can begin. This makes it possible to perform coordinated activities. By 10 to 12 years of age, reflexive motor patterns are conditioned and relatively permanent (Grasso 2005).

When gymnasts perform, they can do incredible things with strength and flexibility while having a fit, buff body. On the other hand, bodybuilders and athletes with very big muscles look like they do not have much flexibility, that their muscles are "tight" from too much weight training. These observations lead many people to assume that a large amount of flexibility is important for optimum health. 

When it comes to neck pain, there are three general treatments doctors recommend: medication, spinal manipulation, and exercise. Research in the past did not show much difference between the different approaches, but new research is saying otherwise.

We all know omega-3 fatty acids are important for health. They are found primarily found in salt water fish such as salmon and herring. This is sometimes hard to get, for salmon is expensive any more unless you buy farm raised. You can, however, get fresh water fish that is high in omega-3s...trout. 

Dylan and I went to watch the Nuggets Sunday at the local bar and grille. I had a beer and we both shared a side order of french fries. It had bacon, cheddar cheese, and horseradish sauce. Of course it tasted great, but I'll tell you, there certainly were a lot of calories there. I bet I had 350 to 450 calories with just the one beer and half of the side dish. If I had a full meal and 2 beers there, it would easily clock in at 1500 calories for the one meal. 

We prefer to do chest presses on a ball, and have done that for years, but recently both of our balls went flat which forced us to do chest presses on a bench for a while. All across the board we had to drop the weight about 20 to 30% to hit our usual number of reps.

Interesting stats one must keep in mind while imbibing wine:

For years doctors and exercise physiologists would recommend that people with high blood pressure should perform low intensity aerobic exercise and refrain from strength training. The rational was that strength training would put too much strain on the heart and vascular system that could lead to a heart attack. This truism, however, may be false. Researchers from Brazil had a group of men with hypertension stop taking their medications and added a weight lifting program, three times a week for 12 weeks. Remarkably their blood pressure dropped an average of 11.5%.

When my muscles are tight, I use either a foam roller or our "body back buddy" for trigger point work. I get instant relief, but wasn't quite sure how it worked. Now I do. 

Common nutritional wisdom says we should avoid eating fried foods. It has been postulated that fried foods are bad for the heart, but is it? A new study says that may not be true.  

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal in the January 2012 issue, researchers collected data on nearly 41,000 Spanish people, ages 20 to 69, who had no reported history of coronary heart disease. They gathered a detailed account of what each participant ate during a typical week, and how it was prepared. If it was fried, the researcher asked if it was deep fried or panned fried and what type of oil was used. The participants were followed for 12 years.

 

After adjusting for BMI, age and gender, researchers found no correlation between how much fried food was eaten and the risk of coronary heart disease. 

A year ago I added some aerobic training to my exercise program in an effort to get leaner for a photo shoot my wife set up for us. It worked, for I lost a little body fat, but I also lost some muscle and strength (I expected that).   

Studies are showing that people who eat nuts regularly tend to be leaner than those who do not. This seems to be a bit of a paradox, for nuts are high in fat and calories. Why is this the case? There are a couple of reasons.

My foot wear has been giving me problems lately; actually for a long time now. When I do leg presses and cable press lunges, my big toe gets shoved up into the front of the shoe. It wasn't a problem for a long time, but now my big toe is starting to hurt. I also noticed my toenail getting loose from the condition as well. Working out barefoot is better, but I cannot get enough traction for my cable press lunges. I figured I would try those funky looking shoes that look like your foot. The brand I bought is called Skele-Toes. I have seen these shoes for a while now, but I did not pay much attention to them. They just seemed odd. 

With the popularity of the P90x and Crossfit exercise programs (among others), high intensity exercise routines are becoming more common (a trend I welcome, for the body cannot get very fit without working for any meaningful time above the anaerobic threshold), cases of Rhadbomyolysis are increasing. What is Rhadbomyolysis? 

The above clip is an interview with Walter Bortz, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford. He comes clean about how the health care industry really operates. He says that 95% of the cancer out there is preventable simply by liefstyle choice, and that the health care industry is more about profits than actually healing people (I know, big surprise). 

I have suspected that for some time. The main reason I did was because with all of the knowledge we have today, the best treatment they have for fighting cancer is chemo therapy. In ther words, blasting the body with radiation that kills healthy cells to get the bad cells? Come on. They have to do better than that.

Truth be told, a good diet and moving the body along with decreasing stress is the best way to keep the body healthy. Let's not complicate this. Let's just do it...

Heed this doctor's advice. He knows that of what he speaks.

Damn! I love hamburgers. We make it once a week when we have the kids. We also have meatloaf once a week too. I just learned of a trick the food industry uses to make hamburger go farther. When all the beef is cut away, there is a mixture sinew, ligaments, and fascial tissue with some meat attached. What the food producers do with this is put it in a centrifugal device to seperate the the bits from the meat, then they pour ammonia and water into the meat to clean out the bacteria and pathogens. Finally they grind it up and mix it in with hamburger. It is called "pink slime". By USDA standards, they can mix up to 15% of this stuff to hamburger. It is a filler that adds more bulk to the hamburger. Lovely, isn't it? Below is a youtube clip describing the process.

What can you do? The only thing the guy in the video suggests you can do is have the butcher grind the beef in front of you. It's the only way to be sure. Personally, after seeing the video, it is that important to us. From now on that is what we will do. How about you?

I have a client that was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome before he started working with me. What is restless leg syndrome? WebMd explains:

 Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder of the part of the nervous system that affects the legs and causes an urge to move them. Because it usually interferes with sleep, it also is considered a sleep disorder.

People with restless legs syndrome have uncomfortable sensations in their legs (and sometimes arms or other parts of the body) and an irresistible urge to move their legs to relieve the sensations. The sensations are difficult to describe: they are an uncomfortable, "itchy," "pins and needles," or "creepy crawly" feeling in the legs. The sensations are usually worse at rest, especially when lying or sitting. The sensations can lead to sleep deprivation and stress.

I know what this is like. I do not have restless leg syndrome, but if I go on vacation and/or take a long plane ride and do not move very much, my legs start bothering me this way. They get tight and painful. It's not only me, but Sharon has the same problem too. Stretching helps a little bit, but the only thing that gives us complete relief is intense muscular contractions such as strength training. If we do not have access to a gym, we would do sprints. An hour later we would be fine again.

Anyway, back to my client. Since he started working with me, his restless leg syndrome issues went away too. He also added vitamin D to his diet, for his doctor said it would help his restless leg syndrome along with exercise. In my client's case, both of these remedies worked. He is no longer in pain.   

This has me wondering; could the phenomena of restless leg syndrome have more to do with simply being sedentary? Could it also be that when people exercise, often times they do not put enough intensity into their exercise program to prevent it?

This much I do know...when I do intense training, I feel a deep release in my muscles that I do not get any other way. It may be stress release, it may be a depletion of the glycogen stores. It most likely is both, or a combination of other factors as well. All I know is that my muscles feel better and more relaxed if I train hard than if I don't.

If you have restless leg syndrome and nothing else you have tried brings relief, try a semi-hard leg exercise program. See if it helps.

Good News! You do not have to see a decline in your aerobic capacity as you age. A study published was published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (I do not know the exact article. I got the information from The New York Times). For the study, the researchers recruited 51 competitive runners aged 18 to 77. Each trained regularly and placed very high in his or her age group in a 5 or 10 kilometer road race. The result? The runners 60 and older were just as physiologically economical with their aerobic capacity as the younger runners, even those in their 20s and 30s.

Wow! I like hearing this. Up until now, all the studies showed a decline in oxygen uptake. This study refutes that. It really shows that exercise can stave off aging. This can also be demonstrated by the times set by older runners between 1980 and 2009. The older runners in the latter group saw a big decrease in running times from the earlier older competiters. Among men the drop was more than seven minutes, while for women it was more than 16 minutes. This, in and of itself, is amazing.

However, all is not roses. Another study showed vulnerabilities of the older runners. They were much more prone to injuries with Achilles tendons, hamstrings, and calf muscles. Other shortcomings were noticed with weaker upper body strength and loss of flexibility in the lower extremeties.

This does not surprise me. The assumption by the researchers about the increase in injuries is that the older runners need more time to repair than younger runners, and that they don't take the time to do it. I think it is a little more than that. Runners tend to overtrain for a long time. When you are younger you can do that and not feel the damage, but the damage happens none the less. It is chronic wear and tear that adds up. The body starts breaking down when the runners are older.

As a trainer who deeply understands the consequences of overtraining, here is what I would recommend: Cut back training volume by 25%. Train harder when you do. Add a strength training program for the whole body to work the fast twitch fibers. These muscle fibers improve support for the joints and connective tissues so necessary for injury protection. Runners in particular need a flexibility program for the lower extremity. The study also showed excess tightness there.

These recommendations are not only for the older runners. I would encourage younger runners to follow this advice as well. It would set a better foundation for a long, healthy career. It is my belief that by following this advice, the new generation of runners would break the running times of the older runners now when they get older...and be more injury free.

Here are some stats I recerived from a friend of mine:

Where do you typically go for physical exercise?

• Gym/ Fitness center                             15%
• Outdoor activities                                13%
• Work out of my home                          28%
• Work out at another persons home       0%
• Work out at work                                 3%
• Other                                                 5%
• Don't exercise regularly                        35%

Now my stats:

When I first started training 20 years ago:

• People in the U.S. over weight?                  40%
• People in the U.S. obese?                          15%

And Now?

• Overweight                                              60% 
• Obese                                                     30%

Something to think about.      

Replacing a hip means that your quality of life will be permantly altered. Even though you would be able to walk and do light exercise, you will not be able to do many activities that you once could do. With that in mind, it makes much more sense to take steps to prevent the need for hip replacement than to have to deal with it at some later point in time. What are the main causes?

• Osteoarthritis. This is age and "wear and tear" related. In other words, if you abused your hip joints from too much exercise, the wrong type of stretching, a lot of contact sports, or just plain neglect, you will have hip problems when you get older.
• Rheumatiod arthritis. This is an autoimmune disease. The synovial membrame becomes inflammed and thicken.
• Post traumatic arthritis. This happens from an acute injury to the hip. It can also fall under the category of osteoarthritis.
• Avascular necrosis. An injury to the hip that limits the blood flow to the femoral head.
• Childhood hip disease. Some infants are born with hip problems.

From my experience as a trainer, there are two main sources that I personally witnessed. One, ironically, was from yoga. I trained two young yoga instructors that complained of hip pain (one in her 20's and the other in her 30's). At the time I had a conversation with a physical therapist that delt specifically with overstretched ligaments, and she said the number one cause of this type of injury that she saw was from yoga. Needless to say she was not too big a fan of yoga. The other source I was familiar with was a type of acute injury, usually football or some kind of contact sport related incident.   

Today a doctor/client of ours and I got into the discussion about this very topic. He shared yet another eye opening perspective. He said the number one cause was avascular necrosis. Lack of blood flow to the femoral head, leading to hip degeneration. He said this of the people needing hip replacement: if most people would lose weight and stop smoking, it would eliminate half of the hip replacement surgeries happening today.

My advice? Exercise (preferably a good strength taining program), maintain a healthy body weight, stop smoking, and don't overwork your joints (this does not mean low intensity exercise. It means proper exercise with plenty of rest and recovery between exercise bouts). Following this advice will go a long way to a high quality of life when you are older. 

Here is the source about the main causes of hip pain. OrthoInfo. 

One of our clients showed us a diet given to her from a trainer of in her past. She had success when she stuck to it, and wondered if there was anything special about the diet that made fat loss easier. Below is an example from one day.

Breakfast:

• 2 egg whites and one whole egg microwaved.
• 4 oz Chicken or 2 slices Turkey Bacon.
• One glass of juice.
• Coffee, black.
• 1 piece of whole wheat toast.

Snack:

• One peach or
• Protein bar or
• One can water packed tuna or
• Protein shake or
• 10 12 almonds.

Lunch:

• 1 can of tuna in water.
• Salad with balsamic vinegar (nothing else!).
• One western fruit

Snack:

• Same as above.

Dinner:

• 5 oz. chicken.
• One western fruit.
• Salad with vinegar only.

Close examination of the diet shows that it is mainly a low calorie, high nutrient diet. In other words, you do not see any items that are calorie dense, and if you do, the diet limits how much you have. For example, the almonds are calorie dense, but this diet allows only 10 to 12. You do not see any alcohol, pastries, deserts, dressings, or heavy sauces in the diet.

Does this diet have "fat burning" properties? No. It is simply a diet that makes one take in less calories than he or she is burning off on a daily basis. That is what makes it fat burning.

The diet is basically sound, for you can stick to it and maintain good health. The problem arises when one wants to eat other items. This diet can get boring after a while. What do you do then? Most people simply go off the diet and return to their old habits. It is too strict. I would rather see our clients use portion size control and learn to eat foods they enjoy but limit those food choices so that they can make the diet more sustainable. For example, I think one or two drinks a week is fine. You can maintain a lean body and enjoy your drinks. If, on the other hand you have one or two drinks a day, you would not. Same with sweets or any other calorie dense, good tasting foods. A little every now and then is fine. A little every day is not. 

Realize this: there is nothing special about any one diet over another. All of them simply work on a calorie reduction basis (whether they outright claim it or not). Keep in mind that to lose body fat, you must take in less than you burn. Set a diet plan that you can stick to utilizing that insight, and do it.

CrossFit is the latest rage in fitness. Before that was the p90x program, and before that we had the Pilattes craze. Trends do come and go, but in most of these programs there are kernels of exercise truth that if applied over a long time can have beneficial results. Crossfit is no different. It has some good...and some bad ideas. I will examine the basic premise of CrossFit here and compare it with the HYSTRENGTH(sm) training I devised over the last 20 years. Here are the basic componenets of CrossFit:

• Short and intense workouts. You work hard and you are done in 15 to 25 minutes.
• Whole body training. No split routines.
• The workout includes Olympic style lifting, powerlifting, calisthenics, gymnastics, sprints, plyometrics and other such exercises.
• The routine changes daily.
• You train 3 days a week.

You are taught the lifts in the first one or 2 wourkouts and then you are put into a class. You compete with yourself and others in the group. The exercises are performed in a sequence over and over for 15 minutes, and you try to complete as many as you can. They have a "workout of the day", which includes a set of 3 to 4 exercises with a set amount of weight and reps to be attained on every cycle. Here is an example: 12 deep push ups, followed by 9 deadlifts with 225 pounds, and 15 jumps onto a 24 inch box. That's it. The trainees are supposed to do that as many times as they can for 15 minutes.   

Now here are the basic components of the HYSTRENGTH(sm) training program.

• Short and intense workouts. No longer than 30 minutes.
• Whole body training. No split routines.
• The HYSTRENGTH(sm) training program uses basic lifts such as leg presses, squats, dumbbell presses (on a ball), chins, pulldowns, etc. combined with functional exercises such as cable press lunge, cable squat rows, squat overhead presses, etc.; along with core exercises.
• New routines every workout.
• Training is done 3 days a week.

We start our clients with loads of about 50% of what I call the "working weight", meaning the amount of weight that challenges the body to change. Over time we increase the load to the point where they will struggle to finish 8 to 10 reps. We also pace the client more slowly at first to acclimate his/her body and mind to the workloads. If the client is preparing for sport, we add plyometric and agility training to the program, otherwise we keep it as described above.     

Here is my assessment of CrossFit. I like to intensity and short duration of the program. It fits in with what I know about how the body reponds on a hormonal level (testerosterone is running full steam for about 40 to 50 minutes of intense exercise, then cortisol kicks in after that). I also like that they combine lifts with more functional exercises, and I like that they train the whole body. Training 3 days a week is good too. It takes time after a hard workout for the body to fully recover. One other aspect that I like is that they change the program every time. This keeps the mind fresh. On those points, CrossFit is similar to the HYSTRENGTH(sm) training program. Now here is where we part in ideology:

• I still prefer to focus more in overall strength. The stronger one gets, the more tone, definition, shape, and stability one gets.
• The Olympic lifts take a lot of mastery and skill to perform. I would not have a new client do those lifts to the degree that CrossFit has their new clients do. Running through a series of exercises over and over again leads to fatigue and a breakdown of form. This can (and has) lead to injury *.       
• The HYSTRENGTH(sm) training program has more focus on the core. I have to give kudos to Pilattes for stressing the importance of that (atlhough I learned about core training from Paul Chek, who I think has done a wonderful job of bringing core training to the forefront of personal training).

Overall, I like CrossFit. I think it is a good program to do if you are in shape. I would not recommend it until you master the basic lifts (such as squats and deadlifts). However, I feel that the HYSTRENGTH(sm) training program is more complete due the core and functional exercises it utilizes, and is less prone to injury.   

* For example, Rhambdomyolysis is associated with CrossFit. Rhambdomyolysis occurs when muscle are worked so hard that the fibers break down, releasing protein myoglobin into the bloodstream (a catabolic state...we want an anabolic state from exercise). We also were told from a client of ours who had 3 out of 5 of her friends injured doing CrossFit. Our 2 clients that knew them did not. These were serious injuries: a rotator cuff tear and a badly sprained lower back.    

I do not use weight lifting belts when I do squats. I even have 2 degenerative disks in my lower back. I also do not have my clients use weight lifting belts. Why? My theory is that when you use a belt, the prime movers (quads, glutes, hamstrings) will get stronger and the stabilizer muscles (lower back and core) will not. This leads to muscle imbalances and potential injury. A study from Germany confirms it. Powerlifters who wear weight lifting belts had higher injury rates than those that did not. The researcher's conclusion? "Weightlifting belts can hide core weakness and provide a false sense of security if you feel pain". In other words, the lifters felt more secure and trained through bad pain more so with belts than without. I think it is even more than that. The imbalance created between the prime movers and stabilizers will manifest in daily living. If you have to shovel a side walk or lift heavy boxes, for example, you can get injured because the back and core muscles are not in step wiith the legs.    

My advice is this: Start with light weights, develop good form, do not use belts, increase weights gradually, and never do one rep max lifts (you do not need them). 

Our new clients always have high enthusiasm. They want to start training hard and do more exercise than they really need. They also want to cut their calories way back to see instant fat loss. I always have to temper their enthusiasm with practical, long term goals. Now there is a study that confirms what I say, mainly that if you cut calories too much, you cannot gain strength and reshape your body as effectively. The study was from Norway. Here is the gist of what it said:

It compared 2 groups of lifters-one that cut their calories enough to lose 2 pounds a week, and the other enough to lose 1 pound a week. The result was that the group that cut calories back a little bit did take longer (3 weeks) to lose 9 pounds, but they gained 2 pounds of muscle where the group that cut a lot of calories did not gain any muscle. The recommendation was to cut calories by no more than 500 a day.

I absolutely agree! This is prudent advice. Over the long run, gaining muscle is more important than short term fat loss. With more muscle, you increase your basal metabolic rate. This factor alone will help you maintain lower body fat levels for life. Besides, cutting calories that severely is hard to stick to over the long haul as well. You will fall off the wagon. I guarantee that!         

The medical community has for some time now been claiming that high cholesterol is a precursor to heart disease. The drug companies have created statins to reduce cholesterol as a prevention, but is it true? What does choleterol do anyway? Plenty, as I found out from a lecture by Bonnie Davis, D.C. Some of cholesterol's functions are:

• As a building block for hormones
• Is the most common molecule in the brain
• An integral component of all cell membranes
• It is necessary for most of the body's functions

As a matter of fact, with people that take statins, there is a 50% increase in sexual disfunction in men, and decrased cognitive function for both men and women. On top of all of this, a close examination of the studies show no improvement in heart disease prevention. Truth is, for all the United States spend on medicine and disease prevention, we fare no better than many other countries that spend far less. Why is that? Studies are done through big drug companies and they influence government policies.  

The longer I have been the fitness business, the more I find out about true health and fitness as compared to what doctors and writers say is health fitness. This is an example. View all recommendations with sceptiscm. Seek alternative therapies before you decide what you need to do.    

Kat is now married. She did the "bridal Package" to get in shape for the wedding. We just got the professional photos from her. She looks amazing! 

Check her out here. Scroll down to case study 5. Her back looks awesome! A very nice hour glass figure.

The biggest drug free bodybuilders weighed at best 190 pounds around 10% body fat and arms just under 17 inches. Most guys were smaller.

This is consistent with what I found. I train hard. Very hard. I have been doing it for 20 years. My weight at my peak is around 182 pounds, about 10% body fat (any lower and I lose some strength), with 16 1/4 inch arms. I look good, but not body builder good. Same with my consistent clients. In all my years, I only trained one really big, strong guy. He weighed over 200 pounds when I started working with him. Under my program, he got bigger and stronger faster than most guys can. He had good, physical talent...a lot of fast twitch fibers. This is rarer than you would think.

The take home message? Do the best you can with what you got. Odds are you will not get a big physique, but you will get much stronger with a more aesthetically pleasing look. That I guarantee you!

I have been working with a client for about 2 months now who is in her 60's. She has never done a consistent strength training program until now (plenty of yoga and aerobics). She just did over 200 pounds on the leg press (she never imagined that she would be doing that!), but most importantly, she has lost a dress size. She is shocked! She hasn't been able to lose weight in years. Now she is. She also said she has better endurance and her daily tasks are much easier...and she did this without changing her diet. This means it was all due to the exercise program. To her, I say, keep going!. You are doing very well! When all is said and done, she will be doing a leg press with at least 360 pounds...maybe more! 

I just statred working with a client with Fibromyalgia. That is a condition whereby the person has chronic pain throughout the body. Very sensitive to touch. We started with very light weights. I did not want the symptoms to flare up. She responded positively. I slowly added more weight and increased overall intensity for a month now. I asked her the last workout how her Fibromyalgia is feeling. She says she hardly notices it at all. I beleive that in 2 to 3 months, it will be completely gone. Why? Because the symptoms sound like a form of chronic tension in the muscles. It is usually from chronic stress of some type (worry, relationship issues, etc.) that adds up. After a period of time, the muscles just start to hurt because they don't relax. Most people think that strength training (because of the stress placed on muscles) will aggravate the problem. Not so. I noticed over the years with my own training program that intense muscular contractions actually release tension in the muscles. I don't know why, I just know it happens. I also think it works better than massage. It is working with my client now. Soon she will be pain free. Good going...

I started with a new client 2 months ago. She looked me up because she had a herniated disk and went through physical therapy for a year. She still had chronic pain when she came to see me. After a month, her lower back felt much better. She was able to stand for long periods of time witout it tightening up (couldn't do that before), and when her back acted up, she was able to get it better much faster than before. Now she hardly notices it at all! She is surprised with how quickly she was pain free.

This, I must admit, is what is very rewarding to me! 

I have a client who I have been working with once a week for over 12 years. She originally came to me by a recommendation by her physical therapist for her herniated disk. Over time we did a good job of eliminating her back pain and increasing her mobilty. Her quality of life improved considerably. We just found out another benefit. Improvement of bone mass in her spine. She just had her physical recently. They did a bone density test and found a 3% increase in her spine! This is the second client at Urban Pump that has shown an improvement in bone density. It certainly seems to be that strength training does help.

Once again, strength training is proving to be the fountain of youth.

Doctors have known for some time that as a man ages, he produces less testosterone. It is about 1% a year from age 30 on. The usual recommendation? Hormone replacement therapy. It seems to me an easy way out. Besides, it comes with it's own host of problems, mainly increased cancer risk. My recommendation? Strength training. It works wonders. My energy levels are quite high, and I am very strong. At 48, I have the strength of a 20 year old. Hormone replacement cannot do this. Strength training can.

Here is an article about the subject in The Daily Mail.

As can be expected, the main recommendation is hormone therapy. I say do strength training. I believe it to be the true fountain of youth. 

It seems like rich men always have attractive women, even if they are fat or out of shape. Apparently, it is true. A study actually correlates how much more a man has to earn for every 10% weight gain above a healthy BMI he needs to earn to attract the same kind of mate: a 2% increase in salary. Here is the example:

So a six-foot man weighing 180 pounds (12st 12lbs) and earning $100,000 would need to get a $2,000 pay rise if he put on 20 pounds, unless he wanted to date less attractive women, reported the New York Post.

The study found it worked for women, but instead of increases in salary, her level of education worked to offset weight gain for attractiveness.  

So where does it leave us? If you want an attractive mate, either workout and be buff, or work on improving your income or education...or both.

Here is the study.  

   Alpha males (or females for that matter) usually rise to the top in our society. They do that because of their aggressive and ambitious personality. They simply have to be on top. With it comes fame, wealth, sex partners, and power. Seductive trappings indeed. But what about health? Research on this subject has been written about in the Wall Street Journal. They found that being on top takes it's toll. Fighting off other contenders and continually pushing puts the Alpha male under a lot of chronic stress. This produces cortisol, the hormone that weakens the immune system and raises blood pressure among other negative things.  

   The Beta, on the other hand, still work hard and accomplish many things, but they are not obsessed with always being on top. They focus a bit more on relationships and can generally let things go easier. Needless to say, they produce less cortisol as well. With this comes better overall health.  

  So, which one will it be? Alpha or Beta? As for me, I am clearly a Beta. I am not afraid to face challenges and I train very hard (almost Alpha hard). I also have no problem with working hard, but I do not care if I am sitting at the top of the heap. I also don't care if I make tons of money. I can let those things go. To me, getting the stress out of my body and being centered is very important for overall health and happiness.

    Which is it? Alpha or Beta?       

Once again, I revisit the question of how many sets you need for optimal growth. This time it is response to an article from Men's Health magazine. It is from the July/August 2011 issue. Here is the paragraph in full:

Straight from our told you so file: Scientists in Japan found that men built more muscle from doing 3 sets of dumbbell curls than by doing just one set. What makes this study unique? Twice a week, the lifters did a 3 set routine with one arm and a 1 set routine with the other. So genetic diiferences among lifters weren't a factor. Here's how much those 2 extra sets helped.

Muscle gain:    1 set    8% gain.                3 sets 13% gain.

Strength gain:   ''        20%                       ''         32% gain.

My comments: This study shows a noticeable difference between the two protocols. The author of the magazine also assumes that more is better from his experience. I like the fact that the study used the different arms on the same person. That is a good way to take out the genetic component. Now here is where I have concerns.

1) How much load was used? The author did not say. For example, if the trainee did 30 pounds with the one set protocol and 30 pounds for the 3 set protocol, it is obvious that the 3 set routine gives more overload. What if the study had the person do 1 set with 37.5 pounds and the 3 set protocol with 30 pounds? Would the results be the same? Different? If so, how?

2) How close to failure did the trainee take the sets? The study does not say. If all the sets were done with loads that were somewhat easy by the end of the sets, there is no real challenge for the fast twith fibers (the ones that get strong from strength training).

3) Duration. Was it six weeks? 3 months? 6 months? 

Just these 3 points make the study, in my opinion, incomplete. I would like to see a study similarily done that adjusts the load. I believe that one set at 37.5 pounds taken to failure would be just as effective as 3 sets of 30 pounds done to failure. What matters most is intensity, whether it is done with one set or 3 sets doesn't matter. What matters is training hard. Until these variables are accounted for demonstrating a clear superiority of three sets as compared to one (in peer reviewed and repeated studies), than I believe from my experience that one set can be just as effective as 3 sets.        

As all of my clients know, I always say that fat gain and loss is due more to the calorie in/calorie out equation than anything else. Many people maintain that a high carbohydrate diet leads to obesity because of the insulin response which promotes fat storage in spite of whether or not one exercises (or how many calories are consumed). This never made sense. The way I see it, if you eat 3000 calories a day and you burn 2000 calories a day, you are going to gain fat...even if it is all protein! If you eat 2500 calories a day and burn 3000 calories a day, you will lose fat...even if it is a high carbohydrate diet. Just seems like common sense.

Well I came across an article that shows ongoing research says the same thing. The research actually shows that the insulin response has the opposite effect than originally thought (it actually increases fat metabolism).

The conclusion: people are just eating more total calories now than in the past, and exercising less. There is one caveat: the author aknowledges that for some reason, in obese people a low carbohydrate diet does help at first, but as the individual gets leaner the macronutrient content does not matter as much (it still has to be done with less calories coming in than going out). He says further research needs to be done (I agree).

Clarence Bass and Dr. Ellington Darden both have been consistent with their message over the last 20 to 30 years that a high carbohydrate/high fiber diet works well for fat loss and muscle building. On a personal note, I have noticed that I do better with more carbs and a little less protein because I need the fuel from carbs for hard workouts.

The main point is that you should not focus on carbs as your method for fat los: you should focus on calories in vs calories out over the long haul.

Here is the article. It is written by Stephan Guyenet. He studies the neurobiology of fat regulation. Pretty heady stuff, but also very useful.      

I wrote another article. This one discusses how many sets you really need for strength gains. I examine the science and physiology behind the body's response to strength training. By doing so, one can make a clearer decision on exercise volume.

Here is the article.

Read and feel free to comment.

As of August 2nd, I have gotten much leaner. My abs clearly show, even my lower abs. Sharon and I have been on the road a lot (riding a motorcycle) and that actually burned more calories. Still been doing the peak 8 program twice a week, and keeping my calories down. I did eat more when we were out on the bike, but I got back on the program as soon as I got home. I still have a soda on occasion, just not as often.

What is intertesting is that I have not lost any strength, nor do I feel overtrained. My muscles still look full too. I seem to be right on track. I still have body fat on my lower back that I would like to see gone by the time of the shoot, and I think I can get there.

I will take photos the day before the shoot to show eveybody my progress.

Stay tuned.

Coming back to strength training from a layoff is a challenging prospect. Often times you can be over enthusiastic and train too hard, or dread the workout so much you are afraid to even start. I remember years ago when I went on vacation for a week and came back. I was way over the top. I trained just as hard as when I left. I got 3/4 of the way through the workout and threw up...ooops!

Here is what I learned over the years.  

You do lose a little strength and muscle from time off (it takes about one week to notice that), but not much. The big difference is your body's tolerence to the workout. The lactic acid buffer/anerobic system is out of tune, and you will feel nauseated more easily. In other words, what I call "the conditioning effect" of intense workouts will have diminished. You need to break yourself back in.

This is what I do for myself and my clients:

1st workout: Use about 70% of your normal weights and do between 8 to 12 reps. Make sure you don't go anywhere near failure.

2nd workout: Increase the load to about 85% of your normal weights and go deeper into fatigue, but not full bore.

3rd workout: Use your normal weight loads and train as hard as you feel you can without feeling nauseaus.

4th workout: Go 100%

I did that with Tim after his layoff and it has been a smooth transistion back into his workouts...no loss of strength and his muscles are looking full again.

When you take time off, enjoy it and have a prudent plan to get back into your workouts. This is a good strategy to stick to your exercise program for life.    

I have just updated four of my case studies. My son, Dylan, Tim, Susan, and Kat. My son gained a lot of muscle but maintained the same level of body fat. He is now one of the strongest players on his football team. We will change his diet the next go around. Tim gained abnout 9 pounds of muscle from when we first started working together. Great progress! Susan has lost fat, about 8 pounds. She is showing that you can lose fat and reshape your body even after menopause. Kat stayed about the same. We did some tweaking to her program to get her back on track.

You can see all the case studies here.

We all want to be lean and fit. That also means body fat levels of around 8 to 10% for men, and 17 to 20% for women. I wil tell you, even when you dedicate your life to health and fitness as I have, it is still difficult to always stay lean. My latest example: I am now around 11 to 12% body fat. My clothes are fitting tighter around the waist, and I have no sign of a six pack. How did this happen? Over the last 4 months, I simply have not paid attention to my portion sizes. I consumed more soda than usual...and more recently, I went on vacation with family, and I ate well. A bit too well. My muscles do not show much definition either. My wife scheduled a photo shoot for us in late August as well!

What to do? here is my plan:

I want to be leaner this time than the last 2 times I sat for the shoot. I had full muscles then, but I want more cuts to my muscles and a trimmer waist this time. I am going to do something I haven't done in years...I will add some cardio to my program. I am going to do the peak 8 program by Dr. Mercola twice a week, along with my normanl three times a week workouts. I will also cut my portion sizes 10% across the board, and cut out my soda along with less overall alcohol consumption. Because I am adding some cardio along with cutting back calories, I fully expext my strength to be 10 to 15% less than usual. I may even be slightly overtrained by the time of the shoot.

I want to do this because I want a different look to my body. I want to see what it looks like leaner, and most likely with less muscle. Stay tuned. I will put up the photos when we get them.

People that have been following my blog know that I believe that the best thing for maintaining a youthful body is strength training. I also understand the limititations of exercise and nutrition as well. The human body still ages, and eventually dies. Scientists have been working on the "fountain of youth" for as long as anyone can remember, and it seems that they are close to making big strides in life extension. Research is finding that the mechanism of telomere shortening is the main reason for ageing. If they can reverse that natural process, the theory goes, they can extend life as we know it. Preliminary research seems to be proving this hypothesis right.

Here is a snippet about the research from an article written for The daily Reckoning. It is a financial web site I read from time to time. For these guys, this research has investment implications in the future. For me, it is interesting to see where science is going:

An aging world population has fueled interest in regenerative remedies that may stem declining organ function and maintain fitness. Unanswered is whether elimination of intrinsic instigators driving age-associated degeneration can reverse, as opposed to simply arrest, various afflictions of the aged.

To find out if these dramatic effects are reversible, Dr. Ronald DePinho's team engineered mice with the telomerase inactivated in such a way that it could be turned back on by feeding them the chemical 4- OHT. The researchers allowed the mice to grow to old age without the enzyme, and then reactivated it for a month.

Nature News reports the following: "What really caught us by surprise was the dramatic reversal of the effects we saw in these animals," says DePinho. He describes the outcome as "a near 'Ponce de Leon' effect" - a reference to the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who went in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth. Shriveled testes grew back to normal and the animals regained their fertility. Other organs, such as the spleen, liver and intestines, recuperated from their degenerated state.

The one-month pulse of telomerase also reversed effects of ageing in the brain. Mice with restored telomerase activity had noticeably larger brains than animals still lacking the enzyme, and neural progenitor cells, which produce new neurons and supporting brain cells, started working again.

"It gives us a sense that there's a point of return for age-associated disorders," says DePinho. "Drugs that ramp up telomerase activity are worth pursuing as a potential treatment for rare disorders characterized by premature ageing," he says, "and perhaps even for more common age-related conditions."

    Time will tell if telomerase lenghtening will lead to life extension capabilities. There were so many other remedies brought forth so far that did not pan out... but who knows? Sooner or later they will get it. This might be the one.

Here is the link to the whole article. Read it and feel free to respond. 

I just published part 2 of core training.

Here is the link to the article. Enjoy. 

Many of my clients ask me if he/she should cut out carbs to lose weight. They read that carbs make you fat, and that protein does not. They also hear that carbs turn into sugar. The message my clients get from many outside sources is that you need to have more of your calories from certain foods, and less from others...mainly carbs. A good friend just gave me a recent article about this very topic.

According to this article, certain foods do make a difference in fat loss. I do not have enough space to give all the details of this report, but I will give you an overview and my opinion about it. The full article is in The Denver Post, Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 issue.

Here are the points:

• It is not just a matter of calories in, calories out that adds to fat gain.
• Some foods clearly cause more calorie gain than other foods due to their chemical makeup.
• By picking the wrong combinations and portions of foods, along with making unhealthy lifestyle choices leads to gradual fat gains over time.

Here are some of their conclusions:

• Over 20 years, every order of french fries added 3.35 pounds of fat.
• Every order of boiled, baked, or mashed potato added a little more than a half pound of fat. 
• And without question, soda, sweets, and alcohol gained fat as well.

The message that the article wanted to make was that even "good" carbs gain fat, probably because they stimulate the insulin response which leads to fat storage. I have read the article 3 times now to decipher what it says to be able to comment on it. Every time I do, I find more flaws with the whole argument. First of all, the article states that it is still a calorie issue first and foremost. It also lumps in portion sizes, and other lifestyle habits such as exercise, sleep, and stress levels. Here is that exact quote: The data collected over 20 years from more than 120,000 U.S. men and women found sharp differences in how foods and drinks-as well as exercise, sleep patterns, and other lifestyle factors-affect whether people gradually get fatter (italics are mine). Later on in the article it also says portion sizes play an important role as well.

Personally, I think this study is inconclusive. It has too many uncontrolled variables to isolate whether calories from certain foods have more of an impact than calories from other foods for fat gain. There is no question that if you eat mostly simple carbs (soda, candy, fruit, etc...) without complex carbs, protein and fat, you will tend to eat more overall calories because you don't get all the nutrition the body needs, therefore it will keep craving more foods, but to say that eating potatoes with your meal will make you fat? That is a big leap.

Let's make this simple. The definition of a calories is:  A unit of energy equal to the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/calorie. In other words, calories equal energy. If you have 5 pounds of fat you want to lose, that equals to 17,500 (5 pounds times 3500 calories-which equal 1 pound of fat) calories of energy you need to burn off. And guess what? It does not matter if it was from protein, carbs, or fat...it is still 17,500 units of energy that you need to burn off. In other words, it means a commitment to an exercise and nutrition program that increases daily calorie expenditure and lowers calorie intake consistently over a reasonable period of time. Folks, it is the only sane way.  

I want to emphasize that to be healthy, lean, and fit for life you have to make a sustainable exercise and eating program. If you focus on the little things (just cutting carbs, for instance and nothing else), you will not be successful. Here are my recommendations:

• Eat whole foods, cook at home, and combine a protein and carb every meal.
• Eat smaller protions.
• Shoot for 1500 to 1700 calories day for women, 1800 to 2200 calories a day for men. 
• Do a focused strength training program 2 or 3 days a week.
• Go for leisurely walks often.
• Do aerobic exercise for pleasure, not because you have to. If you don't want to do it, don't.
• Be consistent. Give it time. Your body will change, and you will be healthy.

Most importantly, you can maintain this for life.

be strong..be healthy..be hot!