Total Motion Therapy

I can't wait for this weekend's seminar on a somewhat newly developed technique by Tom Dalonzo-Baker. He, after years of trial and error, has developed a system of simple exercises to try to help patients recreate their pain, and relieve the pain almost instantly. Sounds kind of like Z-Health, except the premise behind Z health is increased performance through the CNS system, whereas with Total Motion, Tom wants the ADL's to be pain free. Me, I just hope I can use this technique so when a client comes in with a pain, we can relatively ease that pain, so we can get something better out of their workout!

Could be a problem with other PT's who all they want to do is make it so that THEY fix the pain, and the patient is reliant to them...keeps 'em coming back I guess...

TotalMotionRelease.com

wanna stretch? what for??

"Gentle stretching of a muscle that is already sore is perfectly acceptable, is not likely to negatively affect the muscle recovery, and can be used to briefly minimize the soreness. What about post-exercise stretching? It is often claimed that static stretching after a hard workout can reduce muscle soreness. Well, now that we understand the initial cause of muscle damage (micro tears in the fiber after during a workout) you should also be able to appreciate that this claim simply does not make sense. Is static stretching going to somehow magically undo what has already happened anyway? Stretching after a workout where the muscles are warm can indeed, when done on a regular basis, increase muscle extensibility. " Tony Webster, PhD Exercise Physiology.


Mr. Webster states the research on stretching that is still being asked about to this day. We've known this for a long time, but Mr Webster puts it succinctly here. How can stretching undo microtears you have created during your workout? It can't. Now, after a run, bike ride, or less intense workout, where microtearing is minimal, a good easy static stretch will help.

The other thing of note is this, if you BELIEVE it is helping, it probably is. Our mind conrols everything, and science or not, if my client who has no other issues, wants to prop their leg up to 'stretch' their hamstring so they can have a better workout, then so be it.

One question...how did our ancestors stretch? After a big hunt, did they plop down and do the hurdle stretch, the 90/90 stretch, cobra, etc? Just wondering.

5 Fingers

Try 'em on.

friends with who?

"Make friends with pain, and you will never be alone." Once said Ken Chlouber, creator of the Leadville Trail 100.

Seems that exercise and the brain (body and mind) are more closely linked than Westerners havce ever thought, or at least we've forgotten about. Remember the mice in the wheel? When they were MADE to run, their vitals didn't improve, but when they ran because they LIKED it, they were healthier and happier than ever. Go figure...
The above photo is taken from the Cooper Canyons by a fellow that ran the trails with the Tarahumara, and was featured in the book Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall.

Livestrong.

Depression, of which I've spoken of before

Below is an interview of Frank Forencich of Exuberant Animal. The interview was done by Chris at Conditioning Research.

Modern society seems to be sad! I keep hearing of friends or family members who are depressed or suffering anxiety attacks. How much of this stress and dissatisfaction do you think comes from our “modern” lifestyles?

"Depression is epidemic. The World Health Organization forecasts that, by 2020, “depression will be second only to heart disease in terms of disability or disease burden.”

To me, this is even more shocking than our epidemics of heart disease, obesity and diabetes. This is a disease state that’s psychospiritual as well as physical. There are many explanations, but I like the work of Kelly Lambert. She’s a neuroscientist who’s traced reward centers in the brain. She’s discovered a strong association between areas that coordinate movement and those that deliver a sense of satisfaction. I call this “the ancestral reward system.”

We move vigorously in search of a goal, usually food, and then we feel a sense of satisfaction for having done so. In contrast, modern society offers us only abstract striving (with computers) and even many of our rewards are non-physical and intangible. Consequently, we experience a sort of neurological black hole of non-reward. A huge percentage of our circuitry goes unused and dormant. I believe that an enormous amount of depression stems from inactivity. The human body thrives on action."

What can we do about it?

"This puts our physical training in a new light.

As trainers and educators, we are doing a lot more than building muscle, cardio or skill. We’re actually pumping up the reward circuitry in our brains and delivering a sense of satisfaction and resilience.

Movement is thus highly protective against depression. Sooner or later, people are going to figure this out. The way to counter the epidemic of depression is to get people moving again. Any movement is good, but locomotion is probably the best place to begin. Long walks, or running if people can manage it, are ideal.

Mimic the experience of travelling the grassland and you’ll get a good outcome."

Welcome to Exuberant Animal Check out Frank Forencich and his animalistic ways of moving about.

you must not quit

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."

~ Unknown Author

I apologize for the delay in posts. Recently, my wife was diagnosed with Hodkin's Lymphoma. Yes it is treatable, but as one person told me, "no mistake about it, it is cancer."

So over the last few weeks, we've been finding out what it was that was making her feel so crappy and lose weight unwillingly, coming to grips with the diagnosis, and finally how to beat the hell out of it.

One thing's for sure, the next time my client says that an exercise is 'too hard' or 'I don't want to try it' or simply 'I don't want to', they'll get a healthy dose of motivation due to my wife's bout with cancer...she WISHES she had the energy to do a certain lift, or move, or bike ride, etc.

I'm back with a vengeance.

"the arm bone's connected to the ankle bone..."

What?

Kick Your Shoes Off, Free your Feet, tell your nervous system you care

"There's been a LOT of work in the past 4-5 years about new research in foot ware and care. Guess what? feet work. All by themselves.

Guess what else? shoes stop feet from working. That's a pretty global condemnation but it's true: with a handful of exceptions, modern shoes are based on 200 year old technology (the lasts of shoe design), and for the most part are way way way too restrictive to let our feet do their thing.

It's not just four inch heels or wing tips that are the problem: it's also flip flops and horror of horrors those gorgeous high tech trainers with designs to "correct" supination or too much pronation or heel strike or whatever. And just when you realize that that's as bad as putting the foot into a cast, we find that flip flops and Birkenstocks sandles are equally horrific for other reasons: toes have to claw onto the sandle to keep them on. Despite claims that such "foot muscle work" is good for you, it really isn't. The body doesn't keep our feet in flexion (toes curled) with every step we take when we walk barefoot. Why? Our feet are one of the most jointed parts of our body (after the skull and the hands) and yet daily, what do we do? Lace up shoes to restrict those bones from doing what they were designed to do to support us: MOVE.

THere's a fantastic piece in the New York Magazine from earlier this year that describes most of the latest research and why shoes suck. Recommended reading.

Lots of joints in the foot, huh?

One benefit of freeing the feet this article doesn't touch on is the relation of squished feet to the nervous system. We don't talk about the nervous system much, it's just sorta there, right? But here's the thing: the nervous system, as described by Eric Cobb, is hard wired to check only very few things. One of these, demonstrated in the startle reflex, is not fight or flight, but the very binary Threat or No Threat. "We're geared to optimize for survival, not performance," according to Cobb. Most of the nerves in our bodies designed to detect how we're moving in space are at the joints. Guess what happens in terms of that Threat/No Threat thing if our joints are squished and so not sending happy "we're free and moving" signals back to the rest of the system? Is that going to be interpretted as a Threat or a No Threat?

As Cobb demonstrates in his seminars, because we're totally connected systems, optimized for survival, if we get a message somewhere in our body that says there's a signal interruption, other parts of the body respond - and they respond immediately. In one demo, Cobb did a muscle test on a barefooted athlete to check for hamstring (back of the leg) strength. Rock solid. He then simply grabbed the athlete's foot, holding it snugly as in a laced shoe, and did the muscle test again. It was like those leg muscles got unplugged. Why?

This shut down response is part of the signaling process that says if there's something wrong somewhere, we your nervous system, don't want you exerting effort that could put you at further risk. Attend!

So above and beyond all the amazing stories about how shoes are bad for us biomechanically - because they get in the way of our own vastly superior biomechanics - they're also bad for us neurologically. Squished or non-mobile joints tell our body there's a problem. Every step we take with these immobilized joints sends that message "there's a problem; there's a problem: threat threat threat."

As most of us have experienced, if we don't attend to the quiet signals, our body has a way of sending messages out to get attention. And not necessarily at the site of the problem. Restricted feet lead to knee issues, or a hip issue or back issue, or shoulder ache or a jaw pain or maybe a wrist pain, to name a few hot spots."

This post was taken from 'IamgeekFit' blogger. It struck some cords with me as to what I've been trying to tell folks for a while now. Here's another example--for ladies who wear pointy toed, high heels, what is the first thing you do when you take your shoes off? Take a deep breath right? That's because the feet have been CONFINED.

You go geek fit dude...

and we wonder why big pharma is KING!

King of what you may ask? Read this story about how they fabricated a "peer reviewed" journal, just so their research could be seen in a better light...

Merck Makes Phony Peer-Review Journal

It's a safe guess that somewhere at Merck today someone is going through the meeting minutes of the day that the hair-brained scheme for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was launched, and that everyone who was in the room is now going to be fired.

The Scientist has reported that, yes, it's true, Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them. Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome, which neither appears in MEDLINE or has a website, according to The Scientist.

What's wrong with this is so obvious it doesn't have to be argued for. What's sad is that I'm sure many a primary care physician was given literature from Merck that said, "As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications...." Said doctor, or even the average researcher wouldn't know that the journal is bogus. In fact, knowing that the journal is published by Elsevier gives it credibility!

These kinds of endeavors are not possible without help. One of The Scientist's most notable finds is a Australian rheumatologist named Peter Brooks who served on the "honorary advisory board" of this "journal". His take: "I don't think it's fair to say it was totally a marketing journal", apparently on the grounds that it had excerpts from peer-reviewed papers. However, in his entire time on the board he never received a single paper for peer-review, but because he apparently knew the journal did not receive original submissions of research. This didn't seem to bother him one bit. Such "throwaways" of non-peer reviewed publications and semi-marketing materials are commonplace in medicine. But wouldn't that seem odd for an academic journal? Apparently not. Moreover, Peter Brooks had a pretty lax sense of academic ethics any way: he admitted to having his name put on a "advertorial" for pharma within the last ten years, says The Scientist. An "advertorial"? Again, language unfamiliar to us in the academic publishing world, but apparently quite familiar to the pharmaceutical publishing scene.

It is this attitude within companies like Merck and among doctors that allows scandals precisely like this to happen. While the scandals with Merck and Vioxx are particularly egregious, we know they are not isolated incidents. This one is just particularly so. If physicians would not lend their names or pens to these efforts, and publishers would not offer their presses, these publications could not exist. What doctors would have as available data would be peer-reviewed research and what pharmaceutical companies produce from their marketing departments--actual advertisements.

Summer Johnson, PhD

So, who are the drug companies working for? YOUR health, or THEIR wallets? You decide.

Choose your own path

"If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows."


From a wise man, a respected man, a courageous man...Sitting Bull.

Is it necessary to follow one certain training style before another? Is it necessary to follow others' trends and never think for oneself? Is it necessary to go blindly, without hesitation, to follow the quick and easy way?

Find the desires that are in your heart. And apply it in a way that helps people better themselves. Whether it's your career, or hobby.
Choose your path.

Mind-body (are they connected and how?)

Dr. John Sarno.
Ever heard of him? Probably not. The medical community has neglected his work for years. Maybe it's time to look at him and his work, and put it to good use. Much like with food, his research comes from the years before the 50's, when the mind-body connection finally came to its disconnection point of no return...until now. The video is over 25 minutes long, but take a look, it's well worth it.

Video

Watch this interview, and know that "denial of the syndrome is part of the syndrome..."

A little activity goes a long way!

For those who have seen "Last of the Mohicans," you will recognize these pictures right away. Those of you who have not seen it, rent it, and come to Hickory Nut Gorge, Chimney Rock, and the Broad River. A breathtaking site that offers plenty of activity. Hiking, cycling, paddling, rock hopping...a little 'evolutionary' fitness along with a cold beverage at the end of the day does a body good! (No matter how you choose to consume calories...paleo, Mediterranean, North Carolinian...)

Have fun, eat well, and PLAY!

trial and error

I've always told my clients, and those who seek nutritional advice, to try one thing, but try it for more than a couple of months. Our bodies have to adapt to what we put it through. Try eating less calories, but try eating less starches first. If after 8 weeks or so, they don't feel better, maybe this doesn't work for them. Here is why...

"Over the past century, numerous studies have addressed this issue of how much more easily some of us fatten than others. One of the most famous was from Vermont State Prison. Endocrinologist Ethan Sims raised convicts food consumption first to 4000 calories a day. Then as much as 7000 per day, while remaining sedentary. There were "marked differences between individuals in ability to gain weight", he reported. Of his 8 subjects that went 200 days on this regimen, two gained weight easily and six did not. Once convict manged to gain less than ten pounds after 30 weeks of forced gluttony. When the experiment ended, all the subjects "lost weight readily, with the same alacrity," in fact, as that with which obese patients typically RETURN to their usual weight after semi-starvation diets. Sims concluded that we're all endowed with the ability to adopt our metabolism "in response to both over- and undernutrition," but some of us, as with any physiological trait, do it better than others."

In another study...
"One of the most telling observations that emerged from these studies of metabolic rate was how greatly it might differ between individuals of equal weight, or similar it might be between those of vastly different weights. In 1915, Francis Benedict studied basal metabolism translated into the minimal amount of energy expended over the course of a day, measured in 89 men and 68 women. There were huge variations. For men who weighed roughly 175 pounds, the minimal expenditure ranged from 1600 to 2100 calories. Implying that one 175 pound man could eat 500 calories a day more that another 175 pound man, and yet would gain no more weight by doing so, even if physical activity were identical. Heavier women also tended to expend more energy, but variations were striking. One of Benedict's female subjects weight 106 pounds, whereas another weighed 176, and yet both had a basal metabolic rate of 1475 calories."


WOW! Talk about varying body types. So one may ask, "why does one diet work for one person, and not for the another?" Above are your answers.

Trial and error.

book learning does a body good.

"The two most comprehensive attempts to deal with the question of cancer in isolated pops were in The Natural History of Cancer, published in 1908, and The Mortality of Cancer Throughout the World, published in 1915. In Fiji, among 120,000 aboriginals, there were only two recorded deaths from malignant tumors. In Borneo, Dr. Pagel had been in practice for 10 years and never saw a case. In the US, the proportional number of cancer deaths rose dramatically--in NY, from 32 per 1000 deaths in 1864, to 67 in 1900. In Phillie, from 31 in 1861, to 70 in 1904.

The absence of malignant cancer in isolated pops prompted the question about why cancer did develop elsewhere. One early hypothesis was that meat-eating was the problem, and that primitive pops were protected from cancer by eating mostly vegetarian diets. But this failed to explain why malignancies were prevalent among the Hindus in India, to whom the "the fleshpot is an abomination," and rare to absent in the Inuit, Masai, and other carnivorous populations. As Isaac Levin wrote in 1910, "this hypothesis hardly holds good in regard to the American Indians, as they consume a great deal of food rich in nitrogen (meat) frequently to excess.""


So, as early, if not earlier, than the early 1900's, folks were trying to figure out what was causing the increase in the number of cancers relating to food consumption. By the late 1920's, Dr. Hoffman, an American statistician who wrote the above mentioned book The Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World, he among others were already attributing some of this to PROCESSED FOODS...

"Overnutrition in general, in conjunction with modern processed foods...foods demanding refrigeration, artificial preservation and coloring, or processing otherwise to an astonishing degree are to blame. Far reaching changes in bodily functioning and metabolism are introduced which, extending over many years, are the causes or conditions predisposing to the development of malignant new growths, and in part at least explain the observed increase in the cancer death rate of practically all civilized and highly urbanized countries."

What a mouthful. And this was in the 20's???? To this day, the governement, and the powers that be, STILL think that food colorings are SAFE, and processed foods in general are SAFE. Who do they think we are?

These passages are from Gary Taubes' book Good Calories Bad Calories. Check it out.

Take a step back. Learn. Move forward. Repeat.

if you can't guess, kids movement is where it's at!

Dr. Ratey has another piece of the puzzle when it comes to kids' play and lifelong fitness. Kids' fitness is as important to me as anything else, because therein lies our nation's future, and the world's as well. If my generation had PE in schools, and WE are becoming obese at an alarming rate, WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, when these generations grow up without vigorous activity in school? This is the problem as I see it.

Learn more about Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. John Ratey, an expert on brain function and exercise, on his website.

Find out more about his book, "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain", at amazon.com.

EDITED EXCERPT FROM INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOHN RATEY

The first way

The first big way that exercise is very important for (students at City Park Collegiate in Saskatoon) is that it helps address the systems of the brain; the attention system, the impulse control system, the memory and learning system, and the part of the brain that’s involved with learning and memory, the part of the brain that’s what we call the executive functioning area of the brain, or the frontal cortex. Exercise really activates this area of the brain. So what you see, and what you get, are people who are sharper. They’re more attentive, they’re less impulsive, they’re less fidgety. They can sustain their attention longer, and it promotes their ability to sort through information and take it in.

The second way

The second big way that exercise works on the brain is it promotes the internal environment of the brain, of our hundred billion nerve cells that are swimming around in this soup, if you will. Exercise causes a release of all kinds of good things that are known as neurotransmitters, as hormones, as growth factors that actually make our cells more ready to do their job. And our brain cells’ major job, in terms of learning and memory, is to change - adapt we call it. And that means grow. Exercise promotes the best optimal environment for us to do this, to change and grow.

The third way

The third way that exercise helps with learning and with the brain to grow and to learn better, is it promotes a process which we call neurogenesis, or growing new brain cells. There’s nothing that we know of that does that better than exercise. We do it anyway, and there are drugs and there are ways of increasing it when we stress our brains, by learning or by stressing them in a variety of ways, that promotes the growth of new brain cells. However exercise does this better than anything else that we know of.

Conclusion

So the three ways help the learner learn better. We improve the environment for the cells to grow and change and cement in the information. And we also add more brain cells specifically in the area of the brain that has to do with learning and memory, an area called the hippocampus, which we think of as Grand Central Station for memory. And this is the area that adds cells every day anyway. When we learn, we add more cells, but when we exercise, we add many, many more cells than any other activity that we’re aware of. Exercise is the best stimulus for the brain to be ready to learn and grow. Now the biggest problem with our new world, with the cyberworld, is it allows us to sit. We are a sedentary culture. The top ten reasons why we die are contributed to greatly from our sedentary living. Also, by not moving, by sitting, our brains are not as active, and they start to erode much quicker. Just for instance, if middle-aged people are sedentary, and they begin to exercise three to four times a week, they will stave off cognitive decline later in their life by ten to fifteen years. And some studies suggest that if they do this, they will cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in half, just if they begin to get moving. Now for our kids, it’s even more important that they try to optimize their brains as much as possible, so that they can be much more well adjusted and ready to take on the new information that they are presented.

As you can see, Dr. Ratey, has part of the solution...

national crisis

I like what Dr. Sallis has to say...it is indeed true, indeed a MAJOR problem, and indeed CURABLE!

Physical Inactivity- A Growing Crisis

This is my first blog. What I’ll try to do is share thoughts that might be useful in furthering my goal of getting people more active, thus healthier and happier. I want to start with the big picture as I see it. Most Americans are very inactive, and the rest of the world is trying to catch up with us. Based on accelerometer monitoring in the NHANES study, fewer than 10% of teenagers and 5% of adults meet physical activity guidelines. The real number is probably higher because accelerometers miss some activities, but I’m sure it is closer to the truth than surveys. If 95% of adults smoked, we would consider it a health crisis, but that’s about where we are with physical inactivity. We should consider it a crisis.

The epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults and children are indications that low activity levels, along with disastrous eating habits, are the biggest health challenges of our time. I suggest you check out www.3four50.org. The basic idea is that 3 behaviors—smoking, inactivity, poor diet—are the main causes of four diseases—heart disease, cancers, lung disease, diabetes—that account for 50% of deaths worldwide. Physical inactivity is one of the big three, so we need to be serious about improving the situation.

I want to end on a positive note. With support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as several health organizations, a National Plan for Physical Activity is being developed. Having a plan does not ensure we will be successful, but not having a plan is a good way to guarantee continued failure. There are opportunities to have input into the development of The Plan, and it is essential that every person who believes physical activity is essential for health is directly involved in the implementation of plan. As a first step, visit www.physicalactivityplan.org.

Jim Sallis

www.drjamessallis.sdsu.edu

I hope Dr. Sallis doesn't mind that I link his writings and information here, as I have with others of like-minded opinions on the LACK of physical activity in this country.

Being a trainer, education is part of my resume. Educating someone on how to properly lift an object, throw an object, and push an object, is a passion of mine. To fight off any other future health problems, we must start NOW to help reverse what we've done. We have done a poor job of this, and we must get better, for the future is not all roses...

what is our future with kids' fitness?

Brett Kilka of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, works with kids every day. This is his opinion of our problem in teaching today's youth exercise "skills." We have had to change our approach to training adults, why not kids? If ADULTS don't have the skills to move, how do we expect our kids to learn them? Their parents don't know, there is NO or LIMITED physical education in our schools, so where do we turn? Mr. Kilka, in my opinion, has a piece of the puzzle down:


"Our current curriculum for working with kids is outdated. It is designed and implemented on the assumption that kids are still capable of doing the things that kids did 20 or 30 years ago. When this curriculum is implemented with groups of kids, whether it’s in physical education classes, sports, teams, camps, or even personal training groups, you’ll see that less than 10 percent of the kids can actually accomplish the given tasks. Ninety percent of the group is failing, yet the apathetic instructor moves on. It’s like physical education has become akin to law school. However, instead of getting people out of parking tickets for a living, you have a heart attack at age 25 if you aren’t in the top 10 percent.

To be proactive, we need to start viewing body weight activities with our youth as “skills” instead of “exercises.” In the good old days, kids developed many physical skills on their own through general daily activity. When an instructor would have them do a push-up, the summation of their daily tasks would allow for the strength and stability to do so. Pushing their body weight away from the ground was a demonstration of their coordination and strength. They didn’t really need to practice it much because of their active, adaptive neural systems. In those days, you could just throw “exercises” out at the kids and they could do them pretty well with some basic coaching. It doesn’t work that way anymore.

With the inactivity problem, there is hardly any strength and coordination to “showcase” in an exercise. A push-up has to be a learned skill. It has to be adapted, progressed, and practiced. Even general movement tasks like bear crawls, crab walks, and skips have to be acquired as a skill."

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/too_fat.htm

Well said. Never too early to start...

posture problem?

iposture.com - Posture for Life

This could provide an instant reminder. Of course, along with proper weight training, this could be helpful for those who need it.

probing

In my long lasting quest for nutrition knowledge over the years, it seems that all I can find are contradictory studies. A handful say low carb, high protein, moderate fat. A handful say high carb, low fat, and moderate protein. Needless to say, there are other combinations of macronutrients that are in play as well, but all conflicting what the other has to say. SO, what is one to do, or believe in.

Well, I heard years ago that one shouldn't eat the same way all the time. Just as there are certain times when when activity is higher, one should eat accordingly. More 'energy' is needed, so fuel your body as such. MOST of us use carbos efficiently for energy, therefore eat more carbs. HOWEVER, this is not the case for those who are metabolically sensitive to carbos (have a problem with insulin resistance). OR this is not the case for those who utilize FAT more efficiently for energy. So, confused again?

Yes, this is the case. There are no one size fits all 'diet' plans. Repeat, THERE ARE NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL DIET PLANS. Everything is trial and error. You have to figure it out, make some notes, and know how your body reacts. Try a zone approach (moderate protein, moderate carbos, moderate fat) for a few weeks, and see how you feel. Chances are, if you feel more energetic, crash less than before, and are seeing better performance in the gym or playing field, you might be on the right track.


Comparing the Diets: Part 1 | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald
Take it from Lyle McDonald: Here is his chart for what to use when.

Finally, the Chart You’ve Been Waiting For

Ok, now you’ve hopefully got a better idea of which diet approach may be the most ideal for you. To make it a little more clear, I’m going to try to summarize all of the above information into a chart so you can see how the different variables interact.

Diet	Activity Level	Insulin Sensitivity	Carb Choices	Carb Addict	Stubborn Fat
High-carb/low-fat	High	High	Low GI	No	NO
Mod carb/mod-fat	Medium	Low-moderate	Medium GI	Maybe	Yes/Maybe
Standard Keto	Low	Low	N/A	Yes	Yes
Targeted Keto	High	Low	N/A	Yes	Yes
Cyclical Keto	High	Low	N/A	Yes	Yes

"the canons don't thunder there's nothing to plunder..."

The Coach - Dan John - Lifiting and Throwing
"The body is one piece."

It amazes me that some exercise physiologists STILL are thinking inside the "can" (that's what I call the world of academia.) I recently had an argument with a young graduate of an ex phys school who still did not want to believe that an overhead squat, or a Olympic deadlift could help create greater gains in strength for cyclists. In his words, "I don't think that these lifts translate well to riding a bike."

Ok, why not? This is my question. If a cyclist has to have "core" strength from which to pedal, why not utilize a lift that not only works on the "core," but solid leg strength as well? One can do a sit up, a plank, a crunch, a twisty thingy with your legs in the air...but I say, how do THESE translate well to the bike?

So, where do you get the power from which to push, or pull? If the body is one piece, utilize it as such in your training, and there's nothing better than an O-lift or two to cement your "core" training.

I read an incredible analogy from Rannoch Donald that goes like this:
"the idea of firing a cannon from a canoe on water or from a solid base. In the canoe there is no foundation, no base. ...no power. With a firm foundation there is something to react against, to push from. It is basic mechanics."

Starting young!

Yep, move as nature intended. It's been a great experience watching my 8 month old son learn how to move. From crawling to clapping to pulling himself up, to eventually walking/running and of course, hiking into nature. We had fun on his first hike this past weekend.

If you want to teach kids to enjoy nature, and to be outside IN nature, start 'em young.

happy st patrick's day!!

As today is supposed to be a day for relaxing, and taking a break from the stress of life, here is an excerpt from lifepotlight.com. How does stress affect you? Well, YOU determine that.

The stress response—the body’s hormonal reaction to danger, uncertainty or change—evolved to help us survive, and if we learn how to keep it from overrunning our lives, it still can. In the short term, it can energize us, “revving up our systems to handle what we have to handle,” says Judith Orloff, a psychiatrist at UCLA. In the long term, stress can motivate us to do better at jobs we care about. A little of it can prepare us for a lot later on, making us more resilient.

Herein lies a problem. A lot of us tend to flip the stress-hormone switch to “on” and leave it there. At some point, the neurons get tired of being primed, and positive effects become negative ones. The result is the same decline in health that Selye’s rats suffered. Neurons shrivel and stop communicating with each other, and brain tissue shrinks in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, which play roles in learning, memory and rational thought. “Acutely, stress helps us remember some things better,” says neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University. “Chronically, it makes us worse at remembering other things, and it impairs our mental flexibility.”

So there you have it, we thrive on short bits of stress. We work our best when under a little pressure. We are healthier when we stress our body into adapting and making it more resistant for the future. It’s our lack of control of the stress over ourselves (mostly mentally) that can cause the big danger in our lives. Times are tough, nothing is easy…but it shouldn’t have to be. Most of us are not going to move to a monastery on a mountain-top to meditate full time, so we better learn how to deal with what we have going on. You don’t have to run away from things, just learn how to handle and control it. Keep your head, realize you have full control to take action in life and then just take it one moment/action at a time. Learn to use the stressors to make you stronger, and you may just live longer because of it (while others who are not able to control them, take themselves into a negative downward spiral).

So,
go have a Guinness or two , and let today be the day that you find a way to handle your stress! One can't get rid of stress, but you can learn how to handle it BETTER!

This is my wife, overlooking the highest seaside cliffs in Europe, Slieve League, near Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland.

just show up...

"Try making a commitment to getting into the meditation posture at least once a day. You don't have to sit for any particular length of time, just get on the cushion. A lot of times, the hardest part is getting there. Once you're sitting down, you think, 'I might as well sit for a few minutes,' and more often than not, you're getting full sessions in." –Insight Meditation Society co-founder Joseph Goldstein

You could apply this to anything you know you should be doing but are struggling with...

"Try making a commitment to pick up your kettlebell at least once a day. You don't have to swing it for a particular length of time, just pick it up. Alot of times, the hardest part is getting there. Once you've picked it up, you might think, "I might as well swing for a few minutes" and more often than not, you're getting full sessions in" - Simple Strength

Back to basics once more. Turn up. That is all that is required. The rest takes care of itself.


This was a recent post from R. Donald. Seems that showing up is a key to lifelong fitness and health...imagine that. Another way to look at it is that when you don't feel like moving or exercising, do it anyway. Just go a little lighter than normal. The trick is, to keep your habit one must continue to DO the habit. You can live to fight another day, another day where intervals or metabolic conditioning is on the menu, or striving for a personal best time for a certain lift, or bike ride for distance, etc.

Just show up.

Where do YOU want to live?

"In a pioneering study by Dr Gordon Orians, a zoologist at the University of Washington, the ‘ideal’ habitat of modern day humans was diagnosed. If given a free choice, people preferred to live in a home that was perched on top of a prominence, placed close to a lake, ocean, or other body of water, and surrounded by a parklike terrain. The trees they most want to see from their homes have spreading crowns, with numerous branches projecting from the trunk close to and horizontal with the ground, and furnished profusely with small or finely divided leaves. It so happens that this archetype fits a tropical savanna of the kind prevailing in Africa where humanity evolved for several millions of years. Primitive people living there are thought to have been most secure in open terrain, where the wide vista allowed them to search for food while watching for enemies.

Is this a coincidence, this similarity between the ancient home of human beings and their modern day preference? Animals of all kinds possess an inborn habitat selection on which their survival depends. It would seem strange if humans were an exception, or if humans brief existence in agricultural and urban surroundings had erased the propensity of our genes. Consider a New York multimillionaire who, provided by wealth with a free choice of habitation, selects a penthouse overlooking Central Park, in sight of the lake if possible, and rims the terrace with potted shrubs. Is the habitat we choose written in our genes?"

So, I ask you, where do you want to live? When finished answering that question, now ask yourself with this kind of DNA link to early man, do we still not believe that we are supposed to MOVE? Do we still not believe that we are becoming LAZIER each year? Do we still not believe that our DNA tells us that if we don't move that we will continue to become an unhealthy, faltering society?

I'll live here...

Interviewing Rannoch Donald

These are excerpts from an interview done with Rannoch Donald, a Scotsman who delves into the realms of mobility, kettlebells, getting older, and getting on with it!

The kettlebell world seems to have developed some differences that are almost “sectarian” in their intensity with each side presenting their approach as the “one true way”. You seem to have risen above this: you are one of the top rated RKCs but have also become certified by the IKFF in a slightly different style of kettlebell lifting. Why?
The schism that you talk about however is the domain of keyboard ninjas and Internet warriors. The forums are awash with people who's opinions are tougher than their training . This type of brinkmanship is endemic in the Martial arts, fuelled by people who spend too much time thinking rather than doing. The Kettlebell is a ball of iron with a handle on it! We aren't going to see any mind blowing innovations for that piece of equipment. So people argue about what you should do with it. You have to ask what is it about an individual's agenda that can only be promoted by criticizing others? "My Guru can beat up your Guru!" I don't think there are any credible coaches, teachers or trainers out there who resort to this. People can be drawn together through mutual respect or collective contempt. I'll roll with anyone who offers an empty hand, an open mind and a smile on their face.


I think there has been a lot of Internet “hype” about kettlebells over the last 10 years or so but the big benefit has been that this has refocused people on simple functional movements and intense routines. Do you think the “tool” – the lump of metal with a handle - can ever distract people from these essentials?
There is a huge amount of "smoke and mirrors" about training in general. The constant need to turn every aspect of activity into a science or a certification can suck the joy out of, what for most people should be, straight forward endeavour. The practice I promote is one of longevity, functionality and resilience. If your interest is always based on "more" then you will ultimately see diminishing returns. If your progress is based on "better" - improving movement, becoming resilient - then you have the prospect of a lifetime practice.


You ensure that mobility has a high profile in the conditioning classes that you teach. When did you start to realise the importance of joint mobility and how do you integrate it into your daily life and training?
At Kettlebells Scotland we call it Mandatory Mobility. It is non-negotiable. Every workshop begins with a mobility practice that anyone can do. Once I integrated mobility into my practice I noticed big changes in posture, movement, balance, speed, strength, outlook. The incredible pay off from mobility work should not be under played. Without mobility you become a slave to your body's compensations. Mobility is freedom of movement. I'd go as far as to say Mobility is freedom. We've somehow come to accept - in the West at least - that age means decrepitude. Without mobility there is no strength, no power, no health. You stop being the hunter and you become the prey.


This is Mt. Errigal, in Ireland, not far from where my in laws live. Once a year, my mum and da-in law, climb to the top of this mountain. My wife and I get a call from their mobile phone every time..."guess where we are?"

THIS is mobility as we age. (Not to mention that I can't even get a cell phone signal up in the Appalachains sometimes, and in the rural Northwestern coast of Ireland, they are calling from the top of a mount--go figure.)

Now, get on with it!!!

fitness = health, they are just measured differently

I ran across Dr. Rocannon MacGregor recently and what he has to invoke is that of, in layman's terms, who says you are wrong, or that you are right? Both interesting questions, especially when applied to exercise and fitness.

"Often times as a person begins or continues to evolve, heal, reveal, discover, discard, and generally live their lives better they find that people who are close to them come up with major negative judgments about what they are doing, or what they are not doing, or where they are going, or where they are not going.....etc. The primary challenge here is to realize that what is frequently at play here is a problem of context.

In other words it is frequently an example of an inappropriate context being applied to a situation, behavior or action. Often our friends, family--even facets of ourselves, are looking at the growth, discovery, evolution, transformation, healing, and adventuring from an inappropriate context. Seen in one context you may be considered very brave, bold, daring, and even heroic. In another context you may viewed as confused, wild, crazy, weird, hypnotized, lost, or sinful.

Here's another interesting angle to consider. Often times you will be criticized because what you are doing is successful, not because it is a failure. I frequently find that people don't mind much what I do just so long as I don't get too far beyond their level. If I live as meek, mild and lost that’s okay. If I try a new diet or a way of working out or a relationship experiment everyone is okay so long as it either doesn't work or I don't sustain my gains. But if I do take a real evolutionary step....look out! Lots of people upset themselves. So many people are deathly afraid of winning and living the good life. They have severe Upper Limits about what is acceptable for them to have or be.

In other words what is appropriate to a "shrink" is going to be different from what is appropriate to an "expander." The purpose of their work is opposite. The type of people they work with is different. If I behave as a "shrink" then I do my clients, students and myself a disservice. If I hold myself to the standards of a "shrink" I betray what I have learned that actually works in favor of that which does not work. It would be foolish and inappropriate for me to do so. And yet in the eyes of some people I will always be "wrong" because I don't do what I do within the guidelines they think appropriate.

So we come back yet again to what to do. Wake up. Live with awareness. Drop the past. Leave others to their otherness. Don't try to teach pigs to sing. Do what is right for you. Live your own life in your own way. Recognize that midget mentalities will always reject new ideas, fresh adventures, and evolution. Trust in yourself and trust in life. Stay on the side of living life totally. Always strive for human excellence. Realize that you will make mistakes now and then whether you remain in the box or live on the razor's edge of life. The question is really what is important to you..."

So which diet plan is the best? Which exercise modality should you use, depending on your goal? The one that works best FOR YOU!
You tell 'em Highlander.

It's about progress, not perfection

I recently read an article by Margaret Moore who founded the Coaching Psychology Institute. "What it Takes to Change" is yet another way of helping your clients if they get stuck. Imagine the influence you will have once you implement part of, if not all of, this approach as well as Motivational Interviewing. When coaching, remember not all people respond to the same stimulus. It's up to you to figure it out...that's why they pay you the big bucks!!

What it takes to change--have your clients think about these:
1. What's working NOW for my health and well being?
Meaning: Try not to be negative all the time. There has got to be some good happening as well.

2. What's my vision for change?
Meaning: Establish what and WHO they want to be when healthy. Remind them to RECALL that vision when they are tempted, when moments of decision will decide their fate.

3. Why does the change matter to me?
Meaning: Find the DEEPEST motivation they have for achieving their goal...why?

4. What strengths can I bring to the change process?
Meaning: What talent can they bring from another facet of life to help with THIS goal of health?

5. What are my greatest challenges, and how can I overcome them?
Meaning: Pick out not only the challenges, but go ahead NOW and discover ways to combat those, and beat those. What resources and people can they draws upon to help them overcome?

6. What are my first priorities for change and improvement?
Meaning: Make the list...what to do to reach their goal. What are they willing to work with for the next 2-3 months? )I once had a client say "I don't cook, clean, or leave work during the day--now make me healthier...")

7. How ready, confident, and committed am I to take the first steps?
Meaning: If they are confident they can reach their goal, it's time to move forward. If not, scaling back their goal is probably a good idea.

8. What will I do next week?
Meaning: Changes that last make baby steps...always have SMART goals in mind.

Below is a video I made to introduce UNC Cycling to the upcoming season of training 2 years ago.

Worlds colliding

In one room I hear my 7 month old son coughing in his sleep. I know he is alright for now, but I hope he'll be okay forever.

In the other room is Sarah McLachlan singing on UNC-TV. Many years ago, I'd hear her sing, and wonder if I'd ever have the passion for anything, like the passion I'd hear in her voice. The answer is loud and clear.

I have passion for my wife, my son, my family, and my friends. Exercise Science is in the mix there as well. I'd love to have to find a new profession, because everyone around me lived up to their fitness potential.

Until that happens, I'll continue to learn...to learn how to persuade others to find meaning in movement.

"and it's a long way down
it's a long way down
it's a long way
down to the place where we started from..."
SM.

Want to see passion? For me, this is passion...

shuttle this...

Excerpt from a UC Berkeley study back in 2006...

If you "feel the burn," you need to bulk up your mitochondria

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 19 April 2006

BERKELEY – In the lore of marathoners and extreme athletes, lactic acid is poison, a waste product that builds up in the muscles and leads to muscle fatigue, reduced performance and pain.

Some 30 years of research at the University of California, Berkeley, however, tells a different story: Lactic acid can be your friend.

Coaches and athletes don't realize it, says exercise physiologist George Brooks, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, but endurance training teaches the body to efficiently use lactic acid as a source of fuel on par with the carbohydrates stored in muscle tissue and the sugar in blood. Efficient use of lactic acid, or lactate, not only prevents lactate build-up, but ekes out more energy from the body's fuel.

In a paper in press for the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism, published online in January, Brooks and colleagues Takeshi Hashimoto and Rajaa Hussien in UC Berkeley's Exercise Physiology Laboratory add one of the last puzzle pieces to the lactate story and also link for the first time two metabolic cycles - oxygen-based aerobic metabolism and oxygen-free anaerobic metabolism - previously thought distinct.

"This is a fundamental change in how people think about metabolism," Brooks said. "This shows us how lactate is the link between oxidative and glycolytic, or anaerobic, metabolism."

He and his UC Berkeley colleagues found that muscle cells use carbohydrates anaerobically for energy, producing lactate as a byproduct, but then burn the lactate with oxygen to create far more energy. The first process, called the glycolytic pathway, dominates during normal exertion, and the lactate seeps out of the muscle cells into the blood to be used elsewhere. During intense exercise, however, the second ramps up to oxidatively remove the rapidly accumulating lactate and create more energy.

Training helps people get rid of the lactic acid before it can build to the point where it causes muscle fatigue, and at the cellular level, Brooks said, training means growing the mitochondria in muscle cells. The mitochondria - often called the powerhouse of the cell - is where lactate is burned for energy.

"The world's best athletes stay competitive by interval training," Brooks said, referring to repeated short, but intense, bouts of exercise. "The intense exercise generates big lactate loads, and the body adapts by building up mitochondria to clear lactic acid quickly. If you use it up, it doesn't accumulate."

To move, muscles need energy in the form of ATP, adenosine triphosphate. Most people think glucose, a sugar, supplies this energy, but during intense exercise, it's too little and too slow as an energy source, forcing muscles to rely on glycogen, a carbohydrate stored inside muscle cells. For both fuels, the basic chemical reactions producing ATP and generating lactate comprise the glycolytic pathway, often called anaerobic metabolism because no oxygen is needed. This pathway was thought to be separate from the oxygen-based oxidative pathway, sometimes called aerobic metabolism, used to burn lactate and other fuels in the body's tissues.

Experiments with dead frogs in the 1920s seemed to show that lactate build-up eventually causes muscles to stop working. But Brooks in the 1980s and '90s showed that in living, breathing animals, the lactate moves out of muscle cells into the blood and travels to various organs, including the liver, where it is burned with oxygen to make ATP. The heart even prefers lactate as a fuel, Brooks found.

Brooks always suspected, however, that the muscle cell itself could reuse lactate, and in experiments over the past 10 years he found evidence that lactate is burned inside the mitochondria, an interconnected network of tubes, like a plumbing system, that reaches throughout the cell cytoplasm.

In 1999, for example, he showed that endurance training reduces blood levels of lactate, even while cells continue to produce the same amount of lactate. This implied that, somehow, cells adapt during training to put out less waste product. He postulated an "intracellular lactate shuttle" that transports lactate from the cytoplasm, where lactate is produced, through the mitochondrial membrane into the interior of the mitochondria, where lactate is burned. In 2000, he showed that endurance training increased the number of lactate transporter molecules in mitochondria, evidently to speed uptake of lactate from the cytoplasm into the mitochondria for burning.

The new paper and a second paper to appear soon finally provide direct evidence for the hypothesized connection between the transporter molecules - the lactate shuttle - and the enzymes that burn lactate. In fact, the cellular mitochondrial network, or reticulum, has a complex of proteins that allow the uptake and oxidation, or burning, of lactic acid.

"This experiment is the clincher, proving that lactate is the link between glycolytic metabolism, which breaks down carbohydrates, and oxidative metabolism, which uses oxygen to break down various fuels," Brooks said.

Post-doctoral researcher Takeshi Hashimoto and staff research associate Rajaa Hussien established this by labeling and showing colocalization of three critical pieces of the lactate pathway: the lactate transporter protein; the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase, which catalyzes the first step in the conversion of lactate into energy; and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase, the protein complex where oxygen is used. Peering at skeletal muscle cells through a confocal microscope, the two scientists saw these proteins sitting together inside the mitochondria, attached to the mitochondrial membrane, proving that the "intracellular lactate shuttle" is directly connected to the enzymes in the mitochondria that burn lactate with oxygen.

"Our findings can help athletes and trainers design training regimens and also avoid overtraining, which can kill muscle cells," Brooks said.

Dr Len Kravitz from New Mexico State was talking about this 'shuttle' back in '03 and was ENTHUSIASTICALLY talking about the upcoming research about it. Boy was he right!!

Engage and attack...

What language are you speaking?

So you want to get through to your clients. You want to tell them, "hey, either work hard, watch what you eat, or don't succeed...in other words, fail."

But you can't. If you did, you would alienate some of them, intimidate others, make others cry, and some will outright quit. So what do you do, coach?

Do you know your client? If you don't by now, it may be too late. IF they are not fully invested in their health, you are probably doing all YOU can do. They at some point have to take over. You can periodize anything, you can crosstrain all day, you can set up whatever program you want, but if the client is not doing their 'homework' you may be wasting your time.

Enter "Motivational Interviewing." An art it becomes--in your initial consultation with the perspective client--to be able to ask leading questions to get them to talk about themselves. In turn, letting you know how to better motivate them, to help them achieve their goals, and better improve their health. You gotta speak their language. Become one with many tongues.

There is too much info to go over in one blog post. But I have learned from some of the best in the field, when it comes to therapy and psychology. If you'd like, contact me and I can send you along the outline of my seminar on this art that is being used more and more to help those with addictions.

Is weight gain not part of addiction to unhealthy habits? Whether it's drugs, or food, or lack of exercise...it's all detrimental, right?!?!?!? We can help through proper interviewing skills.

OR sometimes...motivation is easy...kill or be killed.

Oh what a tangled web...

"Think of your body as a PC. The moment you wake up, it starts launching applications, etc. As long as you're tapping away and clicking the mouse, it keeps buzzing. If it sits idle, what happens? The screen darkens and the machine lowers its activity into power save mode...right? Your body is the same!! Inactivity research--a new body of science exploring our sedentary lives--shows that when you sit for a few hours, your body starts to shut down at the metabolic level! Fat burning enzymes, such as LPL, which are responsible for breaking down triglycerides in your bloodstream, simply start switching off. Sit for a full day, and LPL activity plummets by 50%.

As your body falls deeper into energy conservation mode, your circulation slows, your digestion becomes sluggish, and your calorie burning metabolism dims to a flicker! That's why it is hard to lose weight or maintain it, no matter how much you ride.

All that sitting is making us fat, unhealthy, achy, and sad. Researchers say that diabetes, depression, cancer, alzheimer's, and heart disease chances are boosted incredibly by sitting all day!

'The human body has evolved over years to stand and walk and live on the move...when you sit all day, you are doing something completely opposite of what you are designed to do. That's like hammering nails with a cellphone, failure is inevitable.'"

The above excerpt was taken from the latest edition of Bicyling Magazine...and this doesn't even take into account the problems inactivity places on the body's ability to move! Throw that into the mix, and no wonder there are so many problems in today's society!!!!!

Get mad at this problem, and show your clients how to fix it.