body.in.mind

For as long as you respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad – others will exploit your preferences for their own ends. This is not up for dispute. Diet, supplement, and food industry know this and capitalize on that fact to the nth degree.

The solution? Become free of societal controls and rewards.

How? Develop and nurture ability to find rewards (that are under your power) in the events of each moment by finding enjoyment and meaning in the ongoing stream of experience. Only then power returns to you and the burden of social controls falls from your shoulders.

Until then, even if you encounter potentially fulfilling experience, you will fail to notice them because you are caught up in the treadmill of social controls and expectations that keep you reaching for prizes that tend to always dissolve in your hands.

D.S.

Running is easy – right-left-right-left. We’ve been running for about two million years now and we have evolved as runners. It’s part our survival mechanism – if we couldn’t chase down our dinner, or get out of harms way – our ass was grass. Simple reality. Running has also been associated with freedom and vitality, youthfulness, and internal vigor. You’ve got to be crazy not to be doing it right? Not so fast.

In simplest terms running is an advanced form of plyometrics – every stride you take is a hop onto one leg. Every stride requires constant awerness of good running mechanics. And what is good running mechanics? Vern Gambetta describes good running mechanics as follwing:

“It (proper running mechanics) consists of good posture, which is erect carriage of the trunk. Then good arm action. The arm carriage should be low so as not to cause undue fatigue, the shorter the race the greater the amplitude of the arm action. The leg action should be short and controlled. High knee lift and excessively long strides are not rewarded. Efficiency is the end result of good distribution of effort and sound running mechanics.”

From my own observations I can confidently say that 99% of recreational runners do not practice or pay attention to proper running mechanics. Not only that but plyometrics are an advanced form of training that requires solid base strength to handle them – base that very few trainees care to develop. Running one mile can amount to 1300 to 1600 hops. This kind of volume puts tremendous amount of stress on ankle/knee/hip – especially if you’re overweight. If you showed up to a train with me and I told you we’ll be doing 1600 hops today, you would call me all kinds of names.

Here is where most people run into trouble (pun intended) – what do overweight people gravitate towards when they decide to get real about health and fitness? Treadmill. And why do they quit shortly after getting started? Aches and pains. The same applies to trainees with pre-existing conditions. I am baffled when I see people with weak structures or previous untreated injuries running or participating in aerobic classes consisting of 60 minutes of plyometrics. Where is the logic in that? To my mind this isn’t fitness – it’s fitless. 

The take home message here is rather simple -  you need to establish solid foundation of appropriate strength in order to be a good runner. Long gone are days where anyone and everyone could put on a pair of kicks and go for a run. Modern lifestyle has given us weak and unbalanced muscular system and consequently we need to get in shape before we run – instead of running to get in shape. 

Regardless of progress made in scientific research and real world observations suggesting certain practices are not only useless but also counterproductive to goals at hand, some myths just don’t want to go away.

Before I dissect aerobic training myth let’s consider the context. While preparing for endurance events, aerobic training is part of a sound training regiment. However, in terms of training for strength and power, aesthetic improvements, or to improve health, aerobic type of training is not only fruitless, but can be counterproductive.

Let’s go over some definitions before getting to the meat of the matter. Cardiovascular training refers to any exercise in which heart and lungs are involved (jogging, sprinting, lifting weight etc.). If you heart rate and respiratory rate are elevated – you are performing cardiovascular work.
Aerobic training refers to a state in which cardiovascular work is being performed. It is low intensity work that can be sustained almost indefinitely for as long as oxygen is being supplied in adequate amounts.

To sum it up – all aerobic training is cardiovascular training. But not all cardiovascular training is aerobic.

Quick History Lesson

When Jane Fonda popularized aerobic training in 1970′s, everyone was all over it. It was the trend of the time. Around the same time cardio equipment manufacturers were investing significant amounts of money in product development. And to back-up effectiveness and need for their products, large amounts of money were also being invested in research to support cardio equipment. Guess who founded that research? Give yourself pat on the back if you guessed ‘equipment companies’. To this day this is a big venture. You don’t have to look far for prove, just check out latest Bowflex gizmos.

As years passed by, researchers began to question effectiveness of this type of training in athletic realms. It didn’t take long for coaches to realize that the more aerobic training the athlete did, the more power and strength they lost. As popular saying goes – aerobic training made joggers out of jumpers. So athletic community turned to evidence based, sport related training instead. And health and fitness industry held onto the hype and continues to prescribe aerobic training for all the wrong reasons to people who need it the least.

Fat-burning Zone

This concept suggests your body burns greater amount of fat while exercising at lower intensities – this is a misrepresentation.

While it is true your body burns greater percentages of fat at lower intensities than it does at higher intensities, high intensity training burns way more total calories and more fat calories overall.

At lower intensities your body may burn 50% of the calories from fat, while at high intensities it may burn 35% of calories from fat. Taking this to its logical conclusion – your body will burn greater amount of fat as percentage lying on the couch and thinking about getting lean than doing anything else right? And we all know how well lying on the couch works for fat loss…

It’s the as percentage part that has been misrepresented and misunderstood.

Aerobic Training and Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID) Principle

Common believe is that added “cardio” makes your body more efficient fat burning machine and raises metabolism. Former is very true (don’t get excited yet), latter is far from it.

As your body adapts to aerobic training it becomes more efficient and better at using fat as fuel source, meaning it burns less of it! Just like fuel-efficient car uses less fuel to travel longer distances. When selecting a vehicle that gets more gas mileage, you select a car with a small engine that burns less fuel and gets more miles to the gallon, right? But when it comes to fat burning you want to be gas-guzzling machine. You want to be the Corvette, not the Prius.

Here is the thing about metabolism…aerobic training demands very little work from muscles so it doesn’t really require muscle tissue to stick around. And muscle is the only tissue that burns fat in the body. So how is that metabolism-enhancing? It simply isn’t. Since aerobics does nothing to even maintain muscle, never mind build muscle, it will do nothing to raise your metabolism at rest. Over time you are making your fat burning engine smaller and smaller. Not only that, but now to burn more fuel – fat, just like the car, your only choice within aerobic options is to just go longer and longer, which only enhances the effect of burning less and less fat. Is there much joy in running 40 mins to burn the calories you once burned in 20 mins?

This is the exact opposite of why you began doing aerobic training to begin with!

Let’s use chickens and ducks as example. If we consider how each one of them moves, we can see how they program their bodies to respond in a specific way to the nature of the activity they perform. Chickens move with short bursts of high intensity ‘sprints’, if you ever tried catching your own chicken you know exactly what I am talking about. It is no coincident their meat is very lean. However, ducks are migratory, and travel long distances during winter months. Consequently, they have a high-capacity to store fat. If you ever had duck meat you know what I mean. This is adaptation!

But there is more to it…

The way body adapts to stimuli is counterintuitive to our thinking. Don’t drink any water? Your body will retain water. Does resistance training build muscle and strength? No it doesn’t. Resistance training tears muscle down. Your body responds and adopts to resistance training by getting bigger or stronger. So in aerobic training, does your body become more efficient at it, and adapts by sending transcription message to use fuel (fat) more efficiently and hold onto it every chance it gets…yes it does! And that’s just not effective.

But there is even more to it…

Research suggests high volume of aerobic training converts fast-twitch muscle fibers to slow-twitch (making joggers out of jumpers), and decreases production of endogenous testosterone and human growth hormone which can negatively affect aging processes and zap strength. Cumulative effects of junk volume aerobic training include: loss of lean muscles mass (as mentioned above), overuse injuries (repetitive movement in single plane, limited range of motion), muscle imbalances, and decreased neuromuscular coordination which can result in faulty patterns of muscle recruitment (non-functional muscles).

Hardly the reasons why people begin to exercise on the first place!

These are long-term, cumulative elements of adaptation very few trainees and trainers ever consider. Instead, they overemphasize the immediate response from one single workout. That is little short-sided to me.

Better Approach is Smart Approach

If you’re going to show up at the gym, I suggest you invest your time instead of spending it. Do work that matters. Real training is smart training. It is programmed for you, and with you in mind. To read more about smart training check out Notes on Training Towards Goal Achievement article.

I will discuss other, more appropriate alternatives to aerobic training in following articles.

Summary

Aerobic training has been grossly over-rated in terms of improving health, performance enhancement, and definitely over-rated for fat loss. Quite frankly I believe overemphasizing aerobic training robs you, the trainee, off of many benefits you hope for when beginning to exercise. I also think this is part of the reason why some many trainees give up on their endeavour and quit exercising. They are often led down the path of misinformation.

Here is the thing. What you just read is not only my opinion and definitely is not “this-just-in, groundbreaking news.” People who I consider experts in my field have been screaming very same message for years now with tons of research to back them up. But very few choose to listen. Instead, majority of trainees and so-called “industry experts” with group-thinking mentality choose to be traditionalists rather than rationalists. And, to me, this is really disconcerting. Consumer beware.

If you believe this article will benefit others, please share it with them.

As always, thanks for reading.

Darius

The need for continued reinforcement of topic at hand is saddening and troublesome at the same time. And the topic is natural food and what passes as “natural” in diet, food, and supplement industry.

Before we get started you should know many points I make in this text come from various writings of Scott Abel and John Berardi’s book The Essentials of Sports and Exercise Nutrition. Even when not quoting them directly, I will be paraphrasing their words throughout this blog often. While this article suppose to be about natural and not so natural foods, I will often go off topic if relevant point comes across my mind.

Let’s go over few quick and hard facts:

1. Natural food has no ingredient lists, and even when it does, it’s about as long as your first and last name.

2. Natural food has no outrages health claims on its packaging, and hardly ever comes in a package.

3. Natural food is alive and eventually rots.

4. Natural food is more them sum of its parts.

5. Natural food is a product of labour, grown and cooked by humans.

Let’s revisit point four before we move on. The fact vitamins and minerals are essential to our health and wellbeing is indisputable. However, some research has shown that when vitamins and minerals are isolated from whole foods something goes wrong. They simply don’t provide same benefits to your body as they would when derived from whole food sources. Why? There are many other molecules and non- vitamin/mineral chemicals found in food that contribute to, and alter, absorption of vitamins and minerals.

In fact, few large-scale trials, such as studies of vitamin E, were even halted when researches found that supplements had the opposite effect then observed with food sources – when consumed in isolation, the supplements appeared to increase, rather then decrease disease risk.

In case you’re a visual learner, natural food looks something like this:

Now, because of vogue food movements and billions of dollars being spent on murketing of “natural junk food” our idea of what is natural in actuality has been distorted. Listen, if something is made in a plant by people wearing surgical caps and then sits on shelves for months, it is FAR FROM NATURAL (this includes mass produced meats). And if bacteria won’t even touch it, why would you? Because it’s labelled as healthy? Let’s take a look at what passes for “healthy” now days.

Below you will find sales pitch for a low carb chocolate bar. And if you have any knowledge of nutrition, ‘low carb’ and ‘chocolate’ in one sentence should raise a caution flag on the spot.

…the sales pitch is flat out genius, all marketing ingredients are there.

Our breakthrough…100% Natural! ‘name removed!’

…Hey our bar is actually healthy for you, is naturally flavored and you can give ‘name removed’ bars to your whole family while you are losing fat and building lean muscle.

Creamy peanut butter and brown rice crisps smothered in our guilt-free milk chocolate. Our gourmet taste is so good you’ll think you’re cheating –but ‘name removed’ is the only High Protein, Low Sugar, Low Carb protein bar with no transfattyacids of any kind, no fractionated oils, no hydrogenated oils.

• 100 % ALL NATURAL, Nothing Artificial!

• No Preservatives, Trans Fats or Hydrogenated Oils

• Finest, Bio-Available Whey, Soy & Milk Proteins

• 2 Delicious Flavors – Tastes like Candy Bars!

• The Perfect Meal Replacement or Snack

• 23 Grams of Protein and ONLY 2g of Net Carbs, less than 1g of Sugar and 190 Calories

A little of topic but of high importance – claims made in these few short paragraphs are not only fraudulent but contradicting. In marketing this is called “wish bias” and suspension of disbelief. The former means making the product appeal not to reality, but to your wish bias. Those hucksters will promise the exact results you, the consumer, wish for – even when results promised are unattainable by purchasing the product. The suspension of disbelief is best illustrated with wrestling fans – while they know the outcomes of matches are predetermined and show is an act (fake), they watch it over and over again and cheer for their favorite wrestlers.

So you buy the product because it promises exactly what you wish for, and while you know the promise is fake, you refuse to believe that.

Let’s take a closer look at this 100% all natural wonder food that is good for your whole family.

Healthy for whole family? Give your family a favor and make sure this chemical patty lands nowhere near them.

Second example came from Weighty Matters blog and is one of my favorites. The product is Boost, source of complete nutrition…righttttt.

Murketing pitch:

And reality:

No further explanation needed here….

The reality is that if these “natural” supplements, state or the art diets, and whatnots were wonder foods conducive to improved health and wellbeing – we would all be in good health. But we aren’t.

And if by now you feel like I offended your 100% all natural protein powder, good, it isn’t food nor it’s natural. What you purchased is dead dust that’s claiming to be something that it isn’t.

As always, thank you for reading.

Darius

The idea behind proper form and technique is rather simple:

tighter form = greater eustress = greater metabolic/structural adaptation

When practicing excellent form you prevent energy leaks by not allowing the movement to flow along the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is the path that requires minimum amount of effort; this can observed at the end of a challenging set.

When close attention is paid to kinesthetic awareness and quality of movement, the trainee can experience the greatest physiological adaptation they could possibly want. Also, staying true to excellent form and technique will soon reduce any discomforts and corresponding inefficiencies in the movement. This kind of quality of movement is achieved with mindfulness and focus during every inch of every repetition.

Hm, I wonder where my other leg went...

To see this kind of quality and concentration in real world just take a look at ballet dancers or gymnasts. Quality of movement in these two sports will determine whether an athlete walks off the stage or gets carried away; whether they get applauds or boos, whether their feet land on the beam or they land on…you get the idea. These guys expand great amount of mental energy during their performance and training, and so should you!

Thanks for reading.

Darius

Training program, its design, implementations, and proper long-term progression seem to be nonexistent among today’s gym goers. This is unfortunate considering the fact goal achievement and training adaptations are both long-term phenomena. Below you will find some of my notes and thoughts on long term physical development. Hopefully these will get you thinking about your approach to training. Let’s get to it.

Training program is a succession of linked individual workouts in pursuit of specific objective. Program structure is the strategy. Its interaction of training stimuli will allow for adaptive response for an individual in pursuit of a specific goal. Tactics are secondary to strategy – whether you use dumbbells, TRX, ropes etc. – those are tactical aspects of program design and implementation and can be varied when need be.

Strategy will be client-centered and based on client’s needs. Depending on client’s background and goals, the needs state will reveal itself to the coach. This means programs will deliver what client needs and what client wants. Not to say the client will dictate his or her own programs, nope. But needs and wants need to intersect to assure client’s compliance and proper implementation. For example, often times female clients who are after “toned” look will think hours of “cardio” will get them there. In reality this is fruitless, but to assure their compliance some “cardio” work will be attached to the programming. Meanwhile, bulk of the protocol will emphasize work that actually matters and will yield desired outcomes. Sometimes what client thinks they need is far from reality.

For most trainees goal achievement will come from escalation of properly designed training programs. This progression needs to be earned via mastery of the protocol, meaning the client needs to learn, work, and finally master the program before moving onto the next one. The length of this three-step process will depend on the client and there are no shortcuts to that. Training will need to be consistent; adaptation will occur at different rates for different people; in certain situations clients might have to digress. All of these factors, and many others, deserve coach’s attention and will affect length and application of the program. Ultimately, how much time is spent on one program will be based on client’s feedback and how they experience the program. And to make time your friend, let your body’s wisdom take effect. You can’t force adaptation.

Learning the program – this phase can take as long as 3-5 weeks. Trainee will familiarize himself/herself with the sequence of workouts and exercises. He/she will learn how much time is needed for each session, how to best set up stations, and what they can expect from each session. This is when trainee will learn any exercises they aren’t fimiliar with.
Trainee must be aware of the fact that while strategy will not change for remainder of the program, the way they experience the program most certainly will.

Working the program – trainee is now fimiliar with the program (don’t confuse “fimiliar” with “comfortable”). They know all of the exercises and what variations work best for them, meaning which variation allows them to achieve optimal overload, and not which is the easiest. This way the trainee is working to his or her strengths while managing weaknesses. They are in-tune with the program. Trainee is no longer learning the program. They now experience the program in a way the program was meant to be experienced.

Program mastery – ragardless of the goal or specific program design, there should always be room for variability. During this phase encourage trainees to explore the program and to apply principle of variation. But this variation should not be random and variables being manipulated must stay within the context of overall program. To a point the trainee is in the driver seat and makes the program even more individualized; the trainee can express him/her self by putting their individual “spin” on the program. By now he/she will be 8+ weeks into the program and monotony and stagnation may be settling in. Therefore allowing the trainee to keep things alive will not only be motivating, but will also insure continued adaptation.

Each program and workout session is essentially a step up the ladder of development. Each workout fits in with yesterday’s and tomorrow’s workout. Each program is based on your previous one and prepares you for the next one. There is no shortcuts to this process.

Few points that might be hard for you to swallow…

Not one program alone will lead to goal attainment. Sometimes getting leaner, for example, may take place over several programs and not just one. This fact is lost in today’s training folklore. Trainees are led to believe they can get lean, gain muscle, and win Golden Globe Award by following Madonna’s training regiment or by buying newest and best(est) Bowflex gizmo. Bullcrap. This is flat out fraudulent. It amazes me how many people will buy into the hype and happily hand over their hard earned money to industry hucksters.

Programs pulled from magazines or websites are usually written for pro, sometimes “enhanced” athletes. While those programs might benefit genetically-elite crowd, they will more then likely handicap less genetically gifted.
Pinballing between tactics – today is kettle-bells, tomorrow is TRX, the day after is zumba – has no context or strategy, it’s just a “random content”. And while showing up and doing something displays effort, it’s a misapplied effort.

To sum it up…

The fact is anyone can train hard, but not everyone trains with purpose. Being exhausted, feeling the burn, or throwing up at the end of the sessions is not a measure of good training. Hard work brings success only to a point and mostly to those who are genetically gifted – those are the individuals who will progress by doing anything.

For masses, folks like you and I, smart work will bring a long lasting and meaningful success. And this is why quality coaching is so important – ongoing guidance and oversight goes a long way.

Supplementing to boost your immune system is another one of the industry myths that just doesn’t want to go away. Let’s go over the facts here, shall we?

Enhanced immune system is a result of adaptation to properly designed and progressed training protocols paired with good nutrition and adequate rest (aka healthy lifestyle). As you progress demands of training over time, your immune system adapts accordingly. This has nothing to do with supplementation of any kind (biology over chemistry).

The thing is, trainees with ill designed training programs, poor eating habits, and who are just not mindful of their lifestyle, cannot experience the same adaptation so they look for quick fix in the supplement store! (wish bias). There is nothing healthy about this ‘chemistry over biology’ approach. You can throw research supporting immune system boosting supplements in my face all day long, but the research in support of these “wonder pills” doesn’t add up with what I see in everyday life. Most of this research is taken out of context and presents faulty science at best.
Trainees who don’t overtrain, eat healthy diets, and pay mindful attention to their lifestyle rarely get ill. But trainees who overtrain (junk volume training crowd) and chronic dieters get sick (or injured) more often; and dumping vitamins/antioxidants into your body will not fix that. Overstimulating your immune system with excessive vitaminzation can cause illnesses, disrupt functioning of the immune system, and disrupt adaptive process to training and other stressors.

Let’s take a look at a Joint Position Statement on Nutrition and Athletic Performance published by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Dietetic Association, and Dietitians of Canada in 2000: “…although there is some evidence that acute exercise may increase levels of lipid-peroxide byproduct, habitual exercise has been shown to result in an augmented antioxidant system and a reduction of lipid peroxidation. Thus, well trained athletes may have a more developed endogenous antioxidant system then sedentary person. This is why individuals adhering to healthy lifestyle don’t get ill as often as sedentary person.”

Victor Herbert, MD, in a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1997; 65:1, 901 June.
Portion of a commentary entitled “Destroying Immune Homeostasis in Normal Adults with Antioxidant Supplements.”
“An immune system that is in balance or homeostatic equilibrium (not overstimulated, my emphasis), is synonymous with good health. Too much or too little stimulation of the immune system, such as with supplemental vitamin E, can have a significant harmful immunopotentiation effect (an unnecessary or excessive immune stimulating effect)….”

I don’t expect you to flush your supplements down the toilet (pun intended) but I do hope you start asking question.

Thanks for reading!

"Pursuing excellence may require tremendous effort and focus as well as other resources. But, unlike perfectionism, it does not demand a sacrifice of self-esteem as it tends to focus on the process of achievement rather than the outcome." - Unknown

The idea is to always be prepared and have healthy food available when need for it arises. But life happens, dates, road trips, wine tastings etc. I know, it can be tough.

The good news is that you don’t have to be perfect to be excellent. In fact, striving for perfection will only induce feelings of failure, guilt, shame, and frustration when you need to make a deviation from being “perfect diet follower”. And often times such deviations are used as justifications for late night trip through the land of gluttony.

People who succeed in their fitness endeavours are the ones who achieve balance between what they need to do and what they realistically can do – because life happens and there is no way around it. And the ones who are in the best shape figured out how to deal with it.

So yes, you can ask her/him out on a date and hope the answer is YES…there are plenty health conscious restaurants. Mc D’s isn’t one of them and I doubt it will score you date # 2.

And yes, you can go on a road trip and not pack weeks worth of food…because doesn’t matter where you are you can always find a salad bar, or fruit orchard on the side of a road.

And yes, gruelling afternoons out in the wine-country can be overwhelming in many ways, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid them. Moderation is the name of the game.

And finally, YES, you deserve to enjoy life, be healthy, and reach your goals. But at the end of the day you need to stay true to yourself and accept consequences to your actions.

I recently came across an interesting article: The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died. How Similar Is Big Food? written by Kelly Brownell and Kenneth Warner from Yale University and University of Michigan. You can search the article if you want to read full text but here is the gist of it.

“The tobacco industry had a playbook, a script, that emphasized personal responsibility, paying scientists who delivered research that instilled doubt, criticizing the “junk” science that found harms associated with smoking, making self-regulatory pledges, lobbying with massive resources to stifle government action, introducing “safer” products, and simultaneously manipulating and denying both the addictive nature of their products and their marketing to children. The script of the food industry is both similar to and different from the tobacco industry script.”

The conclusion…

“Food is obviously different from tobacco, and the food industry differs from tobacco companies in important ways, but there also are significant similarities in the actions that these industries have taken in response to concern that their products cause harm. Because obesity is now a major global problem, the world cannot afford a repeat of the tobacco history, in which industry talks about the moral high ground but does not occupy it.”

Message to consumer – BE VERY LEERY OF WHAT YOU READ, HEAR, OR SEE IN TERMS OF RESEARCH AND ADVICE. CHOOSE YOUR SOURCES OF INFORMATION WISELY.