day 3

1000 swings

1/4 bodyweight kettlebell

this is to be done over the whole day.

I will type up a sample one week menu that I have not yet had time to do.

day 1 of the challenge

DAY 1

Workout AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) 6 min, 10 min break repeat

10 kettle bell high rows (about ¼ bodyweight)

10 1 arm burpees

ea side

15 yd sprint bear crawl back

Today is the beginning of the challenge. 2 “challengers” are going for it but a slew of folks wanted to try it without betting on themselves. So it looks as if we are going to do this without a bet.

So, for everyone out there we are going to challenge you all to try it for the month. 30 days meat, fruit, veggies, whole unprocessed fats! Add solid sleep and smart training and I think we got it. If this does not create change then we need to look at 2 or 3 other things but too long and complicated to get into right now.

Even if you don’t want them posted take pictures, front and side, measurements and weight. Keep a food journal (that way if something is not working correctly in 30 days we can fix it.)

Have fun!

health before fitness

Even in the 1800's Eugene Sandow understood the idea of creating functional useable muscle and flexibility to do what he wanted.

Don’t build strength on top of dysfunction

Build Health before fitness.

These are both things that I have heard from talented PT’s and Fitness experts. What does this mean?

If I have I take an old muscle car that has been sitting in the junkyard and just start putting on things that make the engine faster/stronger then the car will rip itself apart. It will not corner well, it will scream bitch moan complain and go fast in a straight line for awhile. In the end it will fall apart.

On the other end of this analogy is, lighten the load of the vehicle without doing any major engine upgrades and you will get more horsepower per pound. This translates into a faster car. However the same idea applies, make sure you structurally advance the car to handle the speed and agility you are adding to it. If you do not you will destroy the car sooner than need be.

This is the same with the human body.

If you don’t take the time to develop the stability mobility, pelvic floor and trunk control you will damage your body.

I see multiple initiators of this problem.

1. Magazines and the celeb “trainers”
2. People and expectations without research
1. Clients
2. Family members
3. Personal Trainers
1. Yoga
2. Pilates
3. Big box gyms
4. Name brands

i. Bowflex

ii. Nordic track

iii. Nautilus

5. The Biggest Loser
6. Celebrity Fit Club
3. Doctors
4. Nutrition Advice
1. Master Cleanse
2. USDA food pyramid
3. High Carb
4. Vegetarians
5. Atkins

The key too all of this is consistency and patience. It is to see where your dysfunction lies and work on that dysfunction. Find the weak spot and shore it up. Dysfunction of the body boils down to a few things.

1. Emotional/Mental
2. Physical
3. Combo of both

Either way it comes down to figuring out what it is and fixing it. After you understand it then you can develop the body that you want. Unless of course you want a fat, squishy body then it is quite easy,

Ensure your goals are realistic and then get them. Continue to check in to make sure that the goals 6 months ago are what you are trying to pursue and if not and your goals have changed then realize your method has to change. Or realize the methods will change once the dysfunction has been addressed. Before you can even deal with longer term goals the first for every human who wants to get healthier and or more fit, must deal with the dysfunction FIRST!

The order that I believe to be most effective:

1. Nutrition
2. Sleep
3. Pelvic Floor
4. Spine Stability
5. Flexibility
6. Strength
7. Body Composition

Nutrition will help with sleep and they both help with the rest. The spine cannot be stable later under load or movement without first finding the pelvic floor. Strength and flexibility will probably, and good on you for doing it that way, happen at the same time Flexibility without Stability is dangerous and needs to be done under load. In most circumstances loaded flexibility training is overall safer than passive stretching. Body comp can then be manipulated by how you train.

Lastly overall is patience. Realize that sometimes people are seriously metabolically deranged and will take longer to heal than others.

30 day challenge

The 30 day Paleo Challenge

What I would like to do is see 30 days, of solid nutrition from those of you that are not doing it and then begin to enjoy other things and see how they make you feel.

In walks the Paleo Challenge.

30 days $50.00 entry fee and winner gets the pot plus a massage.

The rules:

1. You have to keep a food journal
2. You have to weigh yourself before and after
3. You have to measure yourself, chest, bust (ladies. If you are a guy and have moobs I don’t want to know your bust), waist, hips, neck, upper and lower arm, wrist thighs, claves and ankles, before and after.
4. You have to take a before and after picture without Photoshop and it needs to be done in a swimsuit or the equivalent.

The food journal means meals and snacks to include beverages and desserts by day.

I will post everything on the blog (unless the photos are nude then I will keep them in a private collection) and everyone will look, read and vote. The votes should be anonymous and sent to me via email then I will put in my vote and winner gets the whole shebang-a-bang. Now everything will be taken into consideration, they body comp change, the measurements, weight and the food journal.

Proper nutrition quickly.

In short it boils down to Meat (dense form of protein) Fruits and Veggies and preferably low glycemic (not a lot of sugar) and nuts and seeds. You can do dairy if you want, but realize it is a heavy growth promoter.

1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

50 -100 grams of carbohydrate (fruit or vegetable)

As much good fat as you like (olive, canola oil, avocado, coconut milk and oil.)

Best results would be to have the above however, if you need more carbs do so but realize that protein releases more chemicals that send the body the signal of being “full” than the other macronutrients. (Protein, fat and carb)

Carbs actually set up the body to ask for more food.

Start date

I would like to start June 21^st to July 21^st, this way we get a holiday in the middle.

I will post 3 workouts a week for those that are not working with me personally but want to work out. Also ensure that you are walking for about 2 miles a day.

Also, you have to put into the pot before you start. Challenge entry deadline is 18 June.

Lastly, remember that losing weight is not the goal. The goal is for us to get healthier/more fit and better body composition. So. those that are to skinny put on some weight and those that are to heavy lose some weight.

Okay have fun

Footwear

My grammer and punctuation are off but here it is...

Footwear

Shoes, boots high heels and bullshit.

The foot is extremely well designed for walking, running, jumping and doing all this on different types of terrain. On the other hand shoes are well designed to hold a door open. Shoes are good for a few things:

1. Aesthetics, they look good in a suit or when a woman wants to look grrrrr.
2. Protecting our feet from urban hazards, glass, needles, waste, and overall grossness
3. Protecting our bodies from the elements meaning too hot or to cold and big prickly things.

That’s it. They restrict our efficiency in everyday life and actually teach our bodies to behave differently than they would normally. Shoes actually shut down feet receptors, keeping some of our leg and pelvic floor muscles from firing. This is not good for our overall health.

Shoes continue to get more sophisticated but the rate of injuries has not changed. Why, because they don’t work.

With all of that said I am going to show you some shoe companies that I think are wonderful because they are minimalistic and I will show you my least favorite with an explanation of why.

Great shoes

1. Inov-8 http://www.inov-8.com
2. Vivo barefoot http://www.terraplana.com
3. Russell moccasin Thula Thula and the Russell tracker http://russellmoccasin.com/boots_safari/thula_thula.html
4. Mizuno wave universe http://www.mizunousa.com/equipment.nsf/1/10run1-track/410375?opendocument&div=running&cat=10run1-track
5. Steger Mukluks http://www.mukluks.com/

Good Shoes

1. Earth
2. Newton
3. Nike Free
4. La Sportiva Skyline
5. Vibram five fingers

Horrible shoes

1. MBT
2. The Toning shoe craze
3. Anything with a heel
4. Nike Shox

Inov8 makes an AWESOME fitness shoe. They do a really good job at making the shoe move like your foot would move. The shoe is there to protect your foot from being damaged, not change the way it moves. Most shoes do both protect it and stop it from moving naturally. Inov8 is by far my favorite shoe on the planet.

Vivo barefoot/Terraplana does a good job in making a minimalist shoe that you can wear out in town. The men’s line is a good kind of funky and interesting that can be worn with a bunch of different looks. It also allows for good foot movement without much restriction.

Russell Moccasin makes a great boot for difficult places. Hunting way in the middle of nowhere kind of stuff. However I only like their thula thula and stalking boots.

Mizuno Wave Universe is like the Inov8 but not quite as wonderful.

Steger Mukluks are for really cold weather and snow. They are super comfy and last FOREVER. Ok not forever but you will spend $200 and use them for 10 years, easily. Except the moccasins they are crap

Good Shoes

These are shoes that I won’t complain about but would never recommend anyone to buy or use unless they find them really cheap. I don’t like them because they are either the same price as the Great shoes and don’t perform as well or they are uglier.

I won’t actually post any links to these because I don’t think they are worth their money. I will do a little talk about why I don’t recommend them.

Earth Shoes because they are ugly.

Newtons are too expensive and still have too much cushioning.

Nike Free are too unstable and get stuff stuck in their sole.

La Sportiva skyline are fine but they have the same price point as inov-8 and I feel inov-8 is a better shoe.

Vibram five fingers is a great concept. I will probably get myself a pair. I actually bought a pair to check out. My problems were:

• What happens if I break a toe in the middle of wherever I am? They were difficult enough to get on with normal toes but broken would SUCK! I also have really good toe dexterity so people with barney rubble feet will have a problem.
• In some places you will need socks and socks have to be toed socks,http://www.injinji.com/ injini makes good socks for them.
• The pair I had ripped in one of the seams within 2 hours of wearing them.
• Lastly they look really goofy.

Horrible, Nasty, Disgusting, Damaging, shoes that suck!

MBT

MBT is a shoe that has a curved sole. The movement moves the hips in a more natural way, which is great except the fact that as soon as take them off your body has been trained to move really inappropriately. This sets up the need to wear them all the time. The body will only move naturally…ish while wearing them. This will set up horrible movement patterns when you don’t wear them. Also, they do not get the foot on the ground so you can use it when you decide to do any training. They are expensive, they are ugly and they facilitate detraining of the body and will cause an injury later!

Toning Shoes

A slew of shoe companies are beginning to put small instability pads on the sole of the shoe that force the body to readjust constantly. The concept is interesting. They have proven that the calf, hamstring and the glute max actually recruit more muscle tissue while wearing them. Sounds good. The problem is that they don’t teach the body how to move under everyday usage. Inov8 for example requires the body to move the same whether you are barefoot, or in shoes, whether you are running, lifting, walking, standing etc. The toning shoes do not train the body how to move. The next problem I have is that the cushioning shuts done major receptors in the foot. This shut down actually keeps some of them small stabilizers from working/firing. This in turn makes major muscles try to compensate. When a big muscle gets stronger and small muscles get weaker injuries are inevitable. Having small stabilizers strong and big weak is safer than then inverse. The only place these could possibly have is 20 minutes of rehab after a surgery and then it would be stupid because you can buy an instability disc or airex pad for cheaper than this shoe and everyone could use it. Plus the pad/disc could be done barefoot creating a better platform for recovery.

The heel

Heels are sexy. Rules to wearing heels:

1. Can you run in them and look graceful
2. Can you straighten your legs

If the answer to either one of those is no then you should not wear them, or the heel is too high.

Now, that said the heel is horrible.

1. They squish the metatarsals together causing damage to the fat pads, nerves and tendons of the foot
2. They shorten the Achilles tendon and cause some Achilles swelling
3. They change the angle of the pelvis and neck and how they work in the system
4. They cause low back damage.

BE SELECTIVE while wearing heels and ensure they fit if you are going to wear them! None of that foot seeping out of the side stuff or the lets squish the toes together so they look thinner.

Nike Shox

The problem with these are the fact they have a

1. High heel
2. They are not stable, I have seen so many people damage themselves wearing them
3. They shut of the stabilizer receptors.

This is really any current running shoe but in my experience I have seen more injuries with clients wearing these than anything else.

Shoes are really here to keep us from hurting ourselves. The image that goes along with shoes is secondary. Luckily now there are companies that are trying to blend beauty and function. Support those companies and your body will move better and last longer.

4 Paleo

4 basic reasons that paleo works better for athletes (everyone)

This is a very condensed and hopeful simple version of some stuff I recently read by Loren Cordain and “Paleo for Athletes.”

Grains Versus Protein

When I am talking about protein I am talking about lean meat and my preference is red meat.

Lean meat has a Branch Chain Amino Acid, BCAA. The BCAA is the key to repairing tissue and building muscle. 1000 calories from lean muscle (red meat, fish etc.) has 34ish grams of BCAA where the same size serving of whole grains contains 6 grams of BCAA’s.

So, More Branch Chain Amino Acids = faster repair and faster muscle building. More good protein = faster repair after a workout.

Next, Acid versus Alkaline

Food broken down hits the kidneys as either acid or alkaline. Americans are more acidic because of grains, cheese and salts.

Fitness also creates acidosis because of “exhaust fumes” of the bodies fuel system and how it drives itself while under load. (training hard)

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables = alkaline. More fruits and vegetables = more alkaline which means less muscle breakdown.

So, since those of us that work out properly are already adding an acid load to the body, by eating breads, grains, pastas, rice, sugar, starch, dairy and salts we add to the load. This throws off our acid alkaline levels. Counter the fitness load with none of the crappy food and more fruits and veggies.

3^rd Grains aren’t carbs fruits and veggies are carbs/ fortified foods don’t really help.

Grains, rice, etc. act as a sugar. They turn into a sugar really quickly and in some cases actually have a faster “blood sugar” response than sugar.

Grains and beans lack the nutrients to actually make something. They need to “borrow” nutrients from elsewhere. You can’t continue to borrow from someone to pay someone else. You move into a nutrient deficit.

Grains and processed foods also fail to provide micronutrients in the same volume as fruits and veggies.

If a processed food is actually fortified it still doesn’t work as well in the body than something that already has it in it. Think about having a BMW and deciding to get an aftermarket stereo. It wouldn’t look right nor would it work the same. Whole foods come with all the stuff they need to be used by the body. (Don’t think whole food and whole grain are the same. A grain is not what I am talking about.) Fortified stuff does not.

The natural food also has the stuff that supports the chemical our body is using. The whole food brings an entire support team to help the body deliver and process the nutrients we are trying to use. Where fortified stuff just gives you the nutrient.

If you wanted to make a new squat rack and I just gave you welding rods it would help a lot. If instead I showed up with a welder, rods, metal a diagram and then welded the rack for you, life would be easier. That is what a whole food does for you.

Last is the Curve Ball, Glycogen Stores.

Glycogen is replenished by carbohydrate. However, most glycogen synthesis happens after a workout. The problem with most nutritional advice is that we overdo our carbohydrate and we do it with crappy types of carbs. Think if once our gas tank was full the car had an overflow mechanism that stored excess fuel around everything. Once our gas tank was empty it would in a very slow choppy way try and bring all that stored fuel back into the tank. It would be inefficient it would cause so much extra work on all the other parts that were now surrounded by extra fuel and all the head room and leg room would be compromised. Fuel efficiency would suffer because of the excess weight. All this would lead to an uncomfortable, stressful and inefficient ride for everyone. This is what we do when we carb overload.

The body replenishes carbs best right after we workout, just like filling up the gas tank when it is not full.

In conclusion, eat mostly meat fruits and vegetables and you will work much better and you will lean out. Within in 30 minutes of working out get a real meal into your body, meat fruits and vegetables, to replenish glycogen and the protein will help rebuild damaged tissue. For carbs post workout, I like sweet potatoes or squash right after a workout because of the speed with which it refills glycogen stores.

Have fun

retuning to training and paleo + dairy

I just spent 2 months in the south. Part of that was just living and doing work there and the last part of that was in a survival mode. Where I ate what I found in the woods. There is a survival concept to eat whatever you find.

The interesting thing about my trip was allowing myself to eat for survival not eating for thriving. The results were cool. However the most interesting thing for me was the return to eating strict paleo with some dairy.

Two weeks before I left for the bayou I began eating gluten again, after not having eaten gluten for a year-ish. The reason being, when you haven’t eaten processed sugars and gluten you will get sick and I didn’t need to get sick in the bayou! Imagine getting some red pepper in your nose. You will have a funky mucus response. That is the same thing that your gut does when you eat gluten.

With that said, before leaving (after starting gluten) I got sick. My body began to handle the gluten but ALL of my performance markers went down. I also put on bodyfat but not weight which means I loss lean muscle mass.

Two major things happened on my return to paleo + dairy eating. First, I was super grumpy. I was an asshole and did not want to talk or hang out with anyone. This asshole grumpiness lasted for about 3 days. Then, almost without even trying, I leaned out within 1 week. I did not put on the same strength but that is because I have not been training. However, I did try parkour with the PK Cali guys and did really well. I was a couple of steps slow compared to 2 months ago and I had a slight hip flexor swelling but I was much better off than I would have thought.

The grumpy asshole stuff is because of the body repair/detoxing the toxin load.

In summary, the gluten and the sugar compromised my emotions, body fat, lean muscle mass, problem solving skills, and at the end I performed better and happier one week after returning to PALEO.