Anxiety and Tension Part #1 by Jessie Casteel

Anxiety and Tension blog by Jessie Casteel

Where are my keys? I am late for work, Timmy can't find his homework and I have 5 minutes to drive across town in rush traffic to get him to school. My boss is a jerk and I can't find my keys. Does this sound like a typical morning in your home?

We have more stressors now than ever before and with nearly everyone that surrounds us on a daily basis being stressed out and an anxiety time bomb we pick up on this negative energy and it affects us even when the stress and anxiety isn't directed at us. Why is it that we can't learn to live a more rewarding life of being grateful for our blessings and substitute the negative stress and anxiety for the good stress and anxiety?

What? Good stress and anxiety you say. Allow me to explain further. You remember the times when you and your friends would be out since daybreak playing basketball or kayaking? How about yard work all day. You get home and your "Beat" but it was a good tired. Your exhaustion was a strange kind of sensuous pleasure that seemed to fill the whole body with a sleepy warmth, a sensation of really having lived.

For most of us that good tired feeling has become all too rare an experience. Now when we feel tired its just plain tired, worn out, dragged down and done in. That's mostly because of all the many causes of fatigue, physical exertion is the least common. Exhaustion due to stress and tension caused by mental and emotional pressure is far more common in today’s world than physical fatigue. The good news is that tension fatigue responds very well to one simple antidote: exercise.

Our ancestors long ago began to develop a complex response to impending danger known as the fight or flight (andreneric) response. Noise outside of a cave entrance put the cave dwellers body on instant emergency alert. He was ready to take on whatever was out there or in the case of a larger animal that was too big tuck tail and run. Whatever the case all that built up tension would be completely drained out of his system by the time his actions where completed.

Today the world is a different place and with a shortage of T-Rex's along side the fact that most of us aren't as active as we should be. So today’s working moms and desk jockeys has to make do with a chronically alerted fight or flight response. The physiological solution is exactly what the cave folks did: exercise. The benefit of a short exercise break is probably as much psychological as it is physiological. It can rejuvenate and revitalize by giving you a new perspective on things. Just by breaking up your day it will help you get through the day and offer a much needed good uninterrupted nights sleep.

Part two of this blog will talk about sleep further.

OK Move To The Next Station by Jess Casteel

“Ok, move to the next station” by Jess Casteel

Today was a good day with the exception of into my third set of complexes I had a sudden stop due to my loss of attention causing me to slightly misalign my spine and put a slight enough pull I'm my left lat muscle to cause breathing to feel like a pinched nerve. I returned home from my chiropractor who fixed my spine up to some discomfort in the muscle so I will take tomorrow off since Saturday is lower back and legs.

So as I limped my way back to the facility where I operate from, which in itself has a lot of potential for growth and profit and is a pretty cool place to work. It does have however one quirk which I strongly disagree with and it just so happens that almost daily this "quirk" turns potential members away from signing up. That is beside the point though as I am sitting here next to my power rack which is the only free weight machine in the building other than various dumbbells that rarely get used by anyone other than the clients of the trainers who work here.

Back to the point I was trying to make about the before mentioned "quirk" I was wanting to touch on. One half of the building is one of those cheesy circuits like curves where there is that constant pshhhht ffftttt sound of pneumatic and or hydraulic cylinders that have the strength curve of a balloon and roughly 0% eccentric resistance causing absolutely no strength gain. I personally hate these circuits to no end but the vibe is cool here and I am grateful to have a facility to operate out of a mere 2 blocks from home.

The core of this message is not the ineffective nature of these machines which the other trainer and I are dead set on weeding out and replaced with decent free weight machines and multi stations but what I witnessed while waiting on a client to show up and while gasping for air from my back hindrance. I actually sat and observed a lady use this circuit and I paid close attention to a few things as I do with my clients who come in daily and sling the iron I moved in with me. I watched for loading parameters, intensity, endurance, or mostly the lack thereof and the most telling of all, the client’s attitude towards the workout.Ill describe what I observed further in order starting with loading parameters.

This one got me laughing inside because even though you can pretty much set these machines at 9 and sip margaritas while using them she didn't bother to set any of the resistances before use. It wasn't her fault because I'm sure that annoying voice on the stereo that says "OK please move to the next station" that blares out of the speakers every 30 seconds that most people turn on and don't use was rushing her. It makes sense that if the voice gives you 30 seconds to move then why burn 2 seconds making an exercise you are paying for actually hard enough to get an ounce of soreness?

Next was intensity and I can easily sum the intensity up with one simple example: Go to any funeral and you will see more action by the person in the casket. She literally spent 5 second or more strolling from machine to machine with a bored to death demeanor and near emotionless look on her face. As far as endurance goes, the most endurance involved getting on one of those squeaky ass trampolines that remind me of a few mattresses I have destroyed in my time. This is where I had to giggle because if you watch the people when they get on these and you literally want to shake them and tell them if they aren't going to get on them and actually use them then don't bother. I mean her feet never came off the damn thing and she looked like an epileptic bowling pin.The biggest contributing factor to this session for the lady wasn't the sub optimal machinery or the country love songs she was listening to in an attempt to drown out my boom box pumping some good ol up yours punk rock by the casualties. It was the the attitude of the lady that was causing this session to have absolutely no effect on health, performance, or whatever goal she had set if any at all. It dawns on me as I sit thinking about all the people I see walk through the door day in and day out as well as all the people who fall into a certain mediocrity that seems to follow many people around ready to step out in front of them at any point and block any new experimentation or pioneering spirit to expand on current knowledge or failed technique.

The status quo syndrome has killed the drive and motivation for most people and there are the people who don't care about what exercise they are doing or why they are doing it but those people will come in to a training session day after day and still trust a trainer to guide them and will perform any exercise at any set rep range without question. They typically have family, work or whatever issues but what most fail to do is think about what they are doing regardless of what implement they are using to exercise with is prolonging their lives through exercise. I'm not a fan of certain training methods but anyone who is exercising no matter what they are doing is using exercise to blow off steam and prolong their lives. We all have goals and aspirations sure but we should attack our training with some enthusiasm.

I am not a fan of people getting ripped off by instructors that are only interested in money but as long as the person they are working with is getting some kind of exercise it is going to positively do some good. If you want the most from a program it is true that you need a good trainer to progress you and know what he or she is doing but even with a bad program you should approach each session with a will do attitude. Truth is that exercise will add years to your life and life to your years as long as you approach it with the attitude of your life and the length of it does depend on what you make of your training. All of the aesthetic physique changes are secondary to living a long and healthy life.

Funeral Parlor Gym Time by Jess Casteel

Today is another beautiful day with much needed moisture in the air here on the central coast of California and as I awoke this morning and had my usual meal of fruit, sustainable carbs and a protein shake followed by my vitamins and some coffee I had a feeling that today was going to be lacking energy.Energy not from me but more so from the facility I train my clients from. As I strolled to the gym I felt comfortably at ease with the cold moist air and the smell of freshly wet asphalt. What a day to shove some iron and work with the best clients alive.

As I turn the corner and the parking lot becomes visible I am nearly disgusted at the obvious lack of vehicles. Could everyone have decided to walk or run to workout today?As I walk through the double doors it’s almost like a vacuum that sucks the excitement out of me. I enter the facility to country love songs and absolutely no one catching a session. The steel and iron is dead cold and most of it is lying in the position it was when I left for the weekend. It hits me dead between the eyes that not only does the environment we lift in affect our moods but also the mood of the people that surround us. It always amazes me how the people that don't workout and opt for Krispy Kreme doughnuts and McDonalds Big Macs just don't get it.

The one thing that bothers me the most when in a session with either a client or my own personal training sessions is when people who don't lift or understand gym protocol constantly try to converse with my clients or myself while we are in a session. This not only is nothing short of a distraction but is also very unsafe.Even when the headphones are in and there is a couple hundred pounds on the bar it never seems to be enough of a sign that the person under the bar is busy and needs to concentrate. I was recently performing suicide bar tosses which are basically a ballistic bench press where you literally toss the bar and catch it.

This is a highly dangerous movement requiring extreme concentration and after my set I noticed once again I was being talked to. On this specific occurrence I decided to act as if I didn't hear any of the conversation and closed my eyes while making it very obvious I was listening to my headphones. I happen to find over the last weekend that a few ladies I had the pleasure to talk with used to be members at my facility but couldn't get a good workout in due to the employees following them around from station to station talking and even when headphones where in plain view this seemed to not register.Anyone who spends countless hours in the gym slinging iron or even machine molly's have their own pet peeves that get under their skin in the gym. For some it’s the chatty Kathy to the Gorilla in the corner grunting and clanging the iron. The moral of this blog is as simple as leaving each person to their routine and understand that as easy or hard as the individuals workout may be they still require a degree of concentration and is also just gym etiquette.

Tools to build a perfect program by Jess Casteel

Tools to build a perfect program by Jess Casteel


It seems almost weekly I am swamped with questions regarding program design and the miracle cure for fat and a magical cure for lean body mass. I am a far cry from a guru and I have no such magical wand or a nifty wizard hat or else I would not be spending countless hours on program design for my clients and friends. What I do possess is the ability to absorb information on anything I am interested in and I am not happy until I consider myself good at what I do.

It seems like daily I am telling my clients not to be so hard on themselves yet I have not been able to follow my own advice. I hold myself to a standard of talking the talk and walking the walk though I get quite clumsy and trip over my own feet at times. The studying and researching I conduct daily not only fuels my love for all things fitness but also wrecks my personal life. The first thing I think of when I hear the questions about how to gain more muscle or burn more fat is a question I am fast to reiterate. How long have you been using your current routine? Most people don't get the concept of program progression and that is understandable. I'm not talking about how many sets and reps you do either.

Most people start every session with the same routine and loading parameters every day. You can almost spot the complacency when they get out of their car and stroll into the gym with their heads low and expressionless look on the front part of their heads.Have you started every leg session with squats for a year and yet you still look like you are hitching a ride on a chicken back? Sure you add reps and change foot position but when is the last time you stopped squatting for 4-6 weeks in favor of split squats? How about the tricep rope you spend more time with your hands wrapped around than someone of the opposite sex?Program design and I mean real program design is not established for a set in stone daily grind that is never changing.

You must design a program to evolve towards a set of goals that you have to establish for phases dependant on your main finishing point. If you don't have room for progression then you are doomed to plateau and in most cases give up.When I design a program for either my personal regiment or a client’s routine I consider 3 things first.#1. Long term goals or what they are looking to gain from my services. For example: fat loss, muscle tone and definition, improved athletic performance, health from the inside out, and to look better naked. All of which are the usual answers to those who are serious about hiring a trainer.#2. Specific timeline goals such as weddings, class reunions, or specific competitive challenges. All of which are considered return on investments and can be used as motivational tools by the trainer but also can be a motivation for a trainer to show his work and gain more business and recognition which in this industry is as good as finding a bag of money.

The specific timeline goals can also be the long term goal but you want to provide more room after the specific goal to allow for further fitness or once the specific timeline goal is done the trainee may fall into a ok that's done so what now mentality or a well that went well so thanks for the help and ill see ya later type deal which is ok but all that progress you made just packed their gym bag and left to go have a big mac and watch reruns of the biggest loser. Be specific but have further goals to keep them progressing. Have the client give you dates like on October 19th 2009 I want to be at 8% body fat and my deadlift weight to be at a 600lb max.#3. Short term goals that are progressive and ever changing to overlap the specific goals and drive the client straight to the long term goal with room for modification.

The key here is to offer small incremental steps and not big leaps, allow me to elaborate further with a few examples. If a new client drinks 4 sodas a day then give them goals like in 2 weeks drop that intake to 2 a day and 2 bottles of water daily. In 6 weeks drop soda intake to one a week on cheat days. If fast food is an issue tell them to drop the burger fry combo and opt for Subway sandwiches or my personal favorite Jersey Mikes.

Next is the guidelines for eating (not rules) Rules seem to change the tendencies of a new client to lean towards less effort. Explain that when eating out which at this point we will not discourage due to small steps being easily kept and giant leaps being easily disregarded, we will lay guidelines like no fried foods, no breads, and no deserts. I learned that guideline from reading Chris Shugarts articles and it’s worked well for him.Now that goals are established let's start the assessment process to determine where the must fix muscle imbalances are and where the biggest weaknesses are so we can move towards our "trainer goals" which differ slightly from the client goals. Ahhh, Catch 22 just tossed a doughnut into the fat burner and caused a huh? Moment didn't it.

Ok fast forward the boring assessment blah blah blah and get to what the trainer goals most likely look like.Obviously most clients want certain goals but you as a trainer need to be able to spot the goals they need because one of the aspects of being a trainer is the ability to spot and find muscle imbalances. This can be done by good assessment design and just observing the client as you talk with them. When they walked into the gym where they walking pigeon toed, knock kneed, slouched over, shoulders rolled forward or just crooked posture? These are obvious signs of weakness and or severe muscle imbalances but some are harder to detect without the assessment.

Once the imbalances are worked out enough to safely progress to compound lifts or any other training protocol like complexes, circuits or even explosive movements you have to continuously watch for the creation of imbalances and adjust the program accordingly. You will do fine at first setting up some big lifts with some isolations and progress from there. The main focus is noticing when the program starts getting easy for the client and at times the program may not be easy but some exercises may so change the exercise by swapping out grip, stance, or even pick a similar exercise with more fiber recruitment.

Let me explain a little further here once again. If an incline dumbbell press is too simple and you bet it is then perform an incline rotation dumbbell press or if flyes are too easy then perform a dumbbell flye press.From here play with sets and reps for a change instead of the exercise. Admit it we all get wrapped up in 3 sets of 6, 8, and 10 but try to do 1 set of 1 of five different exercises as a circuit with Maximal weight and then rest for 90 seconds and repeat. The key is to change things up and never do any program for more than 6 weeks or your inviting the fat to re accumulate on the now stale client who will soon be hiring a new trainer. Bottom line is this, grab a notepad and get a plan but don't call it concrete and don't try to reinvent the wheel either. Use the tools that have worked since before you got your jollies looking at the models in fitness magazines.

the stain on the underwear of fitness training by Jess Casteel

The stain on the underwear of fitness training
By: Jess Casteel

This article is destined to piss some people off, that being said if you drink from the kool aid that various instructors serve without investigating their credentials first then the old saying “a fool and his or her money is soon separated” may apply to you. Be warned though, this is no beat around the bush article and it is meant to serve on purpose. That purpose is to bring awareness to the general public about certain training programs and protocols as well as the hidden dangers that they may offer.

So as I have just met and signed yet another client who at the ill advised instruction of another "fitness professional" had to endure a highly preventable injury that could have easily turned into a catastrophic event that the main problem the general public seems to have is education in the field of fitness training. This is evident in gyms across the nation. Just drive by any gym and look at all the obiese individuals on the cardio equipment in the windows of any gym like they are put on display to be some sort of magnet to attract more business. Truth is if you take a picture and go to the same gym a year later the same people will be on the same equipment and will be even fatter or at least the same. It is fair to say that the cookie cutter trainers that just throw people on this equipment and walk away usually work part time as waiters because they just don't have what it takes to be a real fitness professional. If these trainers can't get anyone strong and dropping weight they should quit training and take up the window position at the nearest Burger King and stop ripping people off. That being said I know this blog is most likely going to piss some trainers off but that's just the nature of the beast and that anger is a direct reflection of a deeper feeling of knowing I am right. That being said I will dive a little deeper into the programs they teach and why they are ineffective even though they doctor the results of their programs to make them more appealing.I won't specify names but the first and most recent incident had to do with a certain boot camp style program that is in operation in my area. The client came to me and discussed how without an assessment or any other type of evaluation she was directed to basically run. First of all running is fine for heart health but does nothing for strength gains or the correction of muscle imbalances which is one of the biggest reasons for injury and joint problems. Yes you will burn fat but without teaching proper running form and not knowing past health history is it wise to take someone out to the hills and have them run while being yelled at? Second where is the nutrition advice and healthy lifestyle coaching? Now when my client complained of knee pain she was told to "keep pushing it will be alright." That shit isn't professional and that is the bottom line. I personally have talked with one of these trainers who were hired to work for one of these outfits and he took a test online for fifty dollars and had no muscle mechanics education, no biomechanics education, never studied kinesiology and most likely never studied anatomy. He didn't even crack a book to get certified! This is a very common theme with these classes since I have been contacted many times by ex clients who suffered injuries or gained weight during these programs. There is a reason why these programs are fading away fast, they don't work so if you are on one of these ships I would advise jumping off before it sinks.I can hear it now, but Jess what about the amount of fat loss they advertise? Let me say this much about these claims. First show me proof like assessment records, training logs etc... Anyone can take 3 classes of 20 ladies who rarely get any exercise and make them run 4 miles in the hills almost forcefully and they are going to drop weight but without proper nutrition advice and diet planning a lot of the weight will also include the muscle you are breaking down for energy as well as the sudden change from a sedentary lifestyle to an abrupt physically challenging regiment but the results simply won't last and in the case of heightened cortisol production the fat will return faster. Sure some will adapt nicely especially women who are more endurance or slow twitch muscle dominant anyway but the ends don't justify the means in this case.The client who hired me before this most recent case had a trainer at one of the local gyms in my area think because he was dosing anabolic testosterone injections "juice" that she would be able at a young age of 52 to squat with horrible form using a bar loaded with 45lb plates and she blew out her hip. Listen to me, if you are training natural the advice you get from a younger male who is on a different path using different aids will not work for you. Their diet, intensity, and goals differ from those on a natural fitness routine. This pissed me off because now I have to rehab her hip which by the way she gets her bottom end almost to her heels now squatting with me and the pain is almost completely gone but that's a different matter, but I also have to rewire her hard drive to unlearn all the bad habits she has learned in a short amount of time. She had many many imbalances that should have been addressed way before she even put a bar on her shoulders. I have had to take these clients back to basic training principles 101 which slow the process of progression way down wasting time, money, and days off their lives. If you don't know lifting principles then you don't need to be teaching anyone anything. Most of the problems I run across in my meeting with clients or consultations with clients of other training systems are all tied back to the ignorance of the trainers or instructors and it sickens me that these are the same people who give good personal trainers a bad name. We all seem to get lumped together and more times than not it is usually women who get scammed into these situations. I think it’s the mechanic mentality of taking advantage of a woman and that's why these trainers and programs shoot for the female demographic. This is disgusting to no end to say the least so ladies I employ you to educate yourselves and shop around. I have a client male to female ratio of 9:1 meaning 99% of my clientele consist of women and to this day I have yet to have any of my girls get injured and we move some iron buddy. I would be happy to put any of my girls up against any of their strongest in a deadlift or squat competition and watch mine out perform in form, execution, and sheer poundage. Women should be strong and they should damn well get what they pay for.I can give you examples if you would like of some of the work my ladies put in and be assured that some of my gals lift more than some men with better form, range of motion and endurance. One of my girls used to weigh 298lbs at 5 foot 3 inches less than one year ago. She started with me using stability ball and rubber band training and today she stands at 170lbs and can deadlift her body weight raw with no straps and near perfect form. She bench presses 100lbs for sets and squats her body weight with her butt to her heels. This weekend she bought for the first time in her adult life a size 10 pant. Its all her because all I did was educate and teach along with program design and progression. Another lady who hired me a mere 3 weeks ago dead lifted 100lbs after working on form diligently for 2 weeks after never dead lifting before in her life and last session squatted her body weight. She also performed 3 sets of 10 wide grip chins and chest to the bar with little assistance and 3 sets of 10 dips with biceps to forearms with little assistance. Most men can't do 1 set of 5 of either by the way. I have a female client who at the young age of 57 through little to no cardio has lost 20lbs through nutrition and while she has been with me she has gone from doing exercises with an empty bar to compound movements with weight clean for reps. Women have the ability to do any exercise a man can do because they have the same musculoskeletal system men do as far as the movements so why not be strong in said movements? I won't knock anyone for effort but what I do not favor is the mentalities of women don’t know any better. To this I say find a training system that works for you and enjoy it but choose the trainer over the system because his or her advice will make or break more than just your wallet.

Chiropractic and Strength Training go Back to Back by Jessie Casteel C.F.T. and Dr. Steven Tullius D.C.

As a personal trainer and strength coach there is always a new challenge popping its head out of the bushes begging to be tackled and at times it frustrates you to as much as being tied to a chair and being forced to watch reruns of all the Roseanne sitcoms. I have recently been bashing my head against the wall trying to find an issue with one of my clients who for the sake of her using her newly gained strength against me in a flurry of right crosses we will just call her Jen. So the story goes like this; Jen contacted me for help getting her body stripped of fat which seems like the typical reason most women hire me. The problem that reared its ugly head after our second month isn't the fact of muscle imbalances or physical restrictions due to Jen's long limbs. Jen has really nicely developed arms, forearms, upper legs, and calves. The problem is that the body fat accumulation around her midsection is to say the least very stubborn. Jen brings it on every session and almost every day leaves her sessions dripping in sweat, exhausted, and hardly has the energy to drive 20 minutes home without stopping to take a nap. In other words this girl lifts with intensity that most men lack and yet it seems like we can't put a dent in the body fat percentage. This has led me to believe there is a condition within the body causing a chaotic disruption within her system some place.I ruled out hormones with the exception of cortisol due to high stress levels. (3 teenage daughters at home is enough to cause severe stress in anyone.) I don't believe cortisol is the main issue but a contributor and there could be a possible thyroid issue but for now I figured it best to work on issues to help overall health fast while we track the prime factor. After reading many articles and anatomy books to find possible causes to attack I decided to contact my mentor and trusted friend Dr. Steven Tullius D.C. Who is very savvy in total body wellness and health and has a deep love and compassion for people. I know from visiting Dr. T on many many occasions that the CNS or Central Nervous System which controls every aspect of our body functions can at times be hindered by spinal misalignments. Think about a water hose running wide open and if you step on the hose you choke back the efficiency of the hose to deliver water. Same principle but what many people don't understand is that the CNS branches out from the spinal column and nerves run from every vertebra to various areas controlling everything from firing your muscles to sex organs to digestive functions. My thoughts are that Jen may have a serious subluxation around the middle back in the thoracic spine causing problems with digestion and hindering her metabolic drive but I am not the Doc so I will be asking Dr Tullius to give a brief description of his findings to allow others with the same issues and symptoms to hear straight from the professional. I also am aware that Jen's Atlas bone was out of alignment so hopefully Dr. T can touch on those effects as well.

The following is an addition by Dr. Steven Tullius D.C.

Jessie hit the nail on the head with this one. We have three components to the nervous system. We have the sensory system which controls pain, pressure, temperature, etc... We all know when those nerves are irritated because we can feel it.

The motor system controls the movement, strength and coordination of muscle firing. We don't always know when these nerves are being affected and can often just put it off on "weak" muscles when in fact the muscle is not getting the proper messages to do the requested movement.

The third and most important component of the nervous system is the autonomic system. The autonomic system consists of the sympathetic system, fight or flight response, and the parasympathetic system, rest and digest response. Jen's sympathetic system was out of control. Her atlas, or first cervical bone, was severely misaligned, placing pressure on the brain stem as it enters the spinal column. Her body literally believed and has been for a very long time that it needed to either fight or run away. The physiological response?

Acceleration of heart and lung action Paling or flushing, or alternating between both Inhibition of stomach and upper-intestinal action (digestion slows down or stops) Secretion of adrenaline from the adrenal glands

It's no wonder she has suffered from insomnia, anxiety, excessive sweating, and trouble losing weight. Unfortunately a subluxation, or spinal misalignment, is the most often overlooked cause of system imbalance and dis-ease in the body yet it is the most common. Keep in mind that chiropractic does not seek to cure any of these problems Jen has been suffering from, it simply restores balance to the nervous system and the body does what it does best: heals and maintains life.

If you or someone you love is not experiencing optimum health and vitality, chiropractic can help.

Yours in Health,

Steve Tullius, DC www.dr-t.net

So If you have ever lifted weights to the point where your eyes have almost popped out of your skull with no results and you have practiced strict discipline with your nutrition as well as hormone balancing and still cant lose weight then maybe the problem holding back that fat loss is as simple as getting the spine tuned up so the nervous systems can function properly and get your body feeling the way it should feel.

So as I and my clients have blasted through thousands of leg elevated weighted crunches over time I look at my midsection and wonder when will I get those deep cuts that we all so deeply admire? There is no other testiment to hard work in the nutrition arena and iron slinging game than a ripped midsection. Not to take anything away from a solid foundation with the legs or a back so wide and thick that walking around town is scary since airplanes are constantly asking for clearance to land on your runway and dare I not mention the mirror muscles that the real hardcore dweebs only focus on just to find a stacked bleach blond at the bar with more plastic and silicone than a playskool toy factory like the arms and chest. The real indication of good nutrition and hard work is the midsection and more specifically the abs and obliques. Why? Its simple and clearly obvious that the midsection especially in women is usually the last place the fat gets burned from. Its just how it is and the reason its harder for women is because along with that chromozone comes the genetic download to store fat here for childbirthing.

That being said let me explain why crunches may be costing you time and frustration in your routine.One of the coaches I study (he is about as elite as elite can get) brought up this point in a recent article which over the past 2 days I have studied and researched and in 2 days I have come to a solid conclusion of duh why didn't I think of that. Here is the skinny, Think about this logicaly and come to your own conclusion. A full situp like the ones our coaches in high school had us do with little or no concern about lumbar spine pressure and of course they had us pulling on our necks putting even more pressure on the smalles part of the spine at the cervicle region. Anyway when coach was standing on our feet and chit chatting with the senior volleyball captain who so conveinently was on the track jogging with the skimpy shorts at the time you where busting your ass doing situps. Ok the form here is horrible for the spine and does little to strengthen the core as a whole but we know that. The key here is the range of motion. You go from flat on your shoulder blades with flexion till your chest is to your knees. Now take the crunch and lift the knees closer to the body and situp. You just cut your range of motion by no less than one third to as much as two thirds. Does that sound like full range of motion and I won't even ask about time under tension. I do set after set after set of leg elevated crunches holding 45lb plates overhead and the only real fiber recruitment I get on ab day is from the recent purchase of an inversion board and the performance of inverted situps.

Ok so why is the crunch old hat? The abs like any other muscle need to be worked from a full stretch to a full contraction in order to gain strength through fiber recruitment. With strength comes definition. How do we do this then? Well reach into your pocket and see if you have roughly 30 dollars and get ready to laugh at the simplicity. Go buy an ab roller wheel. You have seen these before, they have the wheel and a bar with grips that go through the wheel. Be warned though if you have back issues you need to strengthen the stabilizers first so start doing 5 sets of 1 minute planks and side planks first. Then start with rollouts with a stability ball which can be bought with the remainder of your 30 bucks. If you don't have an inversion table then put your toes against a wall and sit on your stability ball and put your hands across your chest and do sit ups stretching the abs as you lay across the ball and try to get your head as close to the ground as possible. Then simply sit up keeping tension on the abs so you won't sit completely straight up. A V-crunch is good since the low back stays flat on the ground and you hold a medicine ball overhead but not touching the floor as you lay flat and the legs stay slightly off the ground too. Then raise the knees and situp all in one motion until you touch the medi ball to your toes then return to the start.

Next let's talk obliques a little since in most cases they are truely the forgotten muscles. The inner obliques fiber direction warrants twisting motion which also are the main muscles that actually pull the tummy in so learn to love Russian Twist with a medicine ball and the Palloff press. Remember the obliques don't just support twisting motion but also resist the motion as well and with the Palloff press you get that eccentric motion that is where we really gain strength anyway is in resisting the eccentric phase. The outer obliques are simple and fairly fast and straight forward. Weighted leans but do one side at a time so the non weighted side fights the eccentric pull as well and keep spine pressure in mind when loading up on weighted leans but go fairly heavy. There is a basic guideline for abs and obliques and I hope it helps you as much as I hope it helps me and my clients.

Bulletproof That Back article by Eric Cressey owner of Cressey Performance Center

Bulletproof That Backby Eric Cressey

Sooner or later, you're going to tweak your back, and there's nothing you'll ever experience, perhaps shy of limb dismemberment, that'll put a stop to your training as cruelly or effectively. Of course, if you've already had some back problems, you know what we're talking about. Either way we recommend you bone up on the back. It's one complex little beastie.
It's time for Round 3 of my Lower Back Savers. If you missed Parts 1 and 2, check them out here and here, respectively.
This time around, we've got fewer bullet points and plenty of videos.
15. Reevaluate Your Use of Unstable Surfaces.
I've spent a good chunk of the last five years studying unstable surface training (UST). In fact, the results of my master's thesis were published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2007, and I've written an entire e-book about the topic.
My main impression that's come about from all this research and experimentation is that UST is like the food guide pyramid of the exercise world. There are certain people in certain scenarios (e.g., ankle sprain rehabilitation, upper extremity proprioception drills) who need to use it, whereas it's remarkably inappropriate for others. Standing on an unstable surface is different than sitting on an unstable surface, which is also different than doing a push-up on an unstable surface.
I could go in a hundred different directions with this, but for the sake of brevity — and to avoid the guaranteed Internet pissing match that would ensue — I'll simply highlight one obvious perspective and back it up with a bit of research. Classic "core" work on unstable surfaces doesn't really carry over to anything.
Stability balls might increase fiber recruitment on these exercises (and double the spine load, according to Dr. McGill, but that's another story). The bigger issue is that the core stability improvements may not carry over to functional tasks.
A 2004 study from Stanton et al. is a great example of the divide between testing proficiency and performance. Researchers found that six weeks of stability ball training improved core stability in young athletes — as it was measured (in a manner consistent with the training itself).(1)
In other words, this is like saying that bench press training will make you better at bench pressing. Well, duh! The more important question, though, is whether or not that bench press performance will carry over to athletic performance.
While their measure of "core stability" improved, it did not effect favorable changes in running economy or running posture, or modify EMG activity of the abdominal or erector spinae muscles. In other words, it didn't carry over.
A comparable result was seen in a 2005 study from Tse et al. After eight weeks of stability ball training in collegiate rowers, while "core stability" (as they tested it) improved, the experimental (core training) group showed no performance improvements over those who did ZERO core training during this time.
And, the researchers tested several measures: "vertical jump, broad jump, shuttle run, 40-m sprint, overhead medicine ball throw, 2,000-m maximal rowing ergometer test."(2)
So, I guess the question is why bother doing this stuff if there really isn't any evidence to suggest that it directly improves performance? I could take the "it may lead to injury" perspective, but I think that the "why waste your time?" mindset is far superior.
Of course, if you're training with unstable surfaces just for comedic value, carry on.
16. Appreciate the Role of the Thoracic Erectors in Protecting the Lumbar Spine.
Take a look at any high-level Olympic lifter or powerlifter, and you'll see some monster thoracic erectors. Why? They subconsciously know to avoid motion in those segments most predisposed to injury, and the extra meat a bit higher up works to buttress the shearing stress that may come from any flexion that might occur higher up on the spine.
Novice lifters, on the other hand, tend to get flexion at those segments — L5-S1, L4-L5, L3-L4, L2-L3 — where you want to avoid flexion at all costs. Show me a lifter with crazy hypertrophy in the lumbar erectors, and I'll show you a guy who probably has a history of back pain. Our body is great at adapting to protect itself — especially as we become better athletes and can impose that much more loading on our bodies.
Here's the issue, though: you've got to take care of your thoracic erectors or else they won't perform up to par. Tissue quality is incredibly important, and since regular massages aren't always feasible, we utilize two "home versions" with our athletes.
First, you've got the more diffuse approach with the foam roller.
Second, you can get more focal with a doubled tennis ball (held together by masking tape) by working with a ball on each side of the thoracic spine.
17. Consider the Different Classes of "Core Training."
There's been a pretty solid back-and-forth jabbing here at TMUSCLE over the past few years about whether or not specific "core" work is overrated. Some say that squats and deadlifts are enough, while others insist that you've got to train the core directly. Who's right? As usual, my answer is "it depends."
Would a powerlifter and other breed of athlete — whether it's hockey, soccer, baseball, football, or whatever — have different demands? Yep!
Now, how about an athlete who played baseball when he was younger and then took up powerlifting after a collegiate baseball career? Wouldn't he have a unique set of a) weaknesses and b) functional demands? Of course!
Next, how about a 38-year-old guy who a) chases his two kids around, b) sits at a desk eight hours a day for work and then in the car for another hour to commute, c) lifts heavy stuff three days a week, d) does interval training twice a week, d) does yard work, and e) plays on a beer-league softball team once a week? Think his core might have different functional demands?
Different people, different needs, limited training time and energy. What do you do?
If you're me, you categorize your core exercises in one of the following four disciplines (although there may be some overlap):
1. Anti-Flexion2. Anti-Extension3. Anti-Rotation
I look at both squats and deadlifts as anti-flexion. Your goal is to maintain your neutral spine in scenarios where the load is positioned in front of your center of gravity. Honestly, if you are regularly doing squats and deadlifts (and their derivatives), I don't think you need to add in extra anti-flexion exercises.
Working with predominantly athletes, though, anti-extension and anti-rotation exercises are of paramount importance. As the majority of athletic lower back injuries involve uncontrolled extension or rotation in either an acute or chronic sense.
With anti-extension exercises, we're generally setting up in a position where gravity makes our job tougher. Examples include regular ol' prone bridge variations (video at right).
These can be progressed to include all sorts of push-up variations and ab wheel/bar rollout masochism (video at right).
Finally, I love to integrate this work with overhead medicine ball throwing variations, where you resist extension each time you go overhead with the ball, whether you're getting ready to throw, or just catching.
Taking this a step further, you can appreciate that overhead pressing can serve as a great anti-extension exercise.
As you can see, several of these exercises also include a rotary stability component (the overlap to which I alluded earlier). However, it's also important to directly train rotary stability, particularly in rotational sport athletes. A basic side bridge is an excellent start for beginners (see photo at right).
These can be progressed into variations with perturbations, or single-leg side bridge variations. See the video on the right for a side bridge wall slide.
Next, you can toss in some Pallof press isometric holds and split-stance cable lifts (videos at right).
And these are all great lead-ins to rotational medicine ball training (video at right).
Taken all together, I hope that this classification scheme makes you appreciate that "core training" isn't just about training abs and obliques. More importantly, it's about training motor control: maximizing hip motion and lumbar stability, and then integrating the two in more complex movement schemes.
And, since very few of the readers out there live and die exclusively by squat, bench, deadlift, it becomes increasingly valuable to dabble in all three realms of my classification scheme each week.
18. Learn to Love Single-Leg Movements.
One other realm of stability I think is important to cover is single-leg stability or, simply stated, how well you stand on one foot. It's crucial to overall health and performance for a number of reasons.
First, we spend a good chunk of our lives standing on one foot. Lunges, split squats, 1-leg RDLs, step-ups, and other single-leg drills are specific to the real world.
Second, and more specific to back pain, in many (but not all) cases of lower back pain, you can use appreciable loading on single-leg exercises because it's much easier to maintain the spine in a neutral position in split-stance than in the position of bilateral hip flexion that occurs with squatting and deadlifting variations.
Additionally, you can generally drop a vertical line down through the center of gravity from the load on single-leg movements (whether they're loaded with dumbbells or a barbell). As a result, there's less shear stress and a reduced likelihood of going into lumbar flexion under load.
Third, using single-leg exercises with correct technique elicits equal contribution of the hip abductors and adductors; the abductors have to "cancel out" the commonly dominant adductors, or else your knee falls in. Seems easy enough. However, there's more.
Imagine how improved abductor function carries over to the standing position, including gait. If a person's hip falls out (adducts) in weight bearing, the photo to the right shows what happens to your spine.
This just goes to show you that the role of the hip abductors (glute medius, if that's your cup of tea) is as much dynamic stabilization in weight-bearing — or resisting hip adduction — as it is pure hip abduction. You can also tell that it has direct implications of increasing the likelihood of anterior and lateral knee pain (more valgus).
And, if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, just recognize that single-leg work is insanely important, whether you're healthy or have back pain. Here are a few articles with some good single-leg flavor:
Five Programming Strategies for Quick ResultsSingle-Leg Supplements
19. Tinker with Your Foot Position on the Bench, or Change the Exercise Altogether.
It may be hard to imagine if you haven't ever had back pain before, but those who have tried to do upper body days with back pain can tell you that setting up on a bench can be a pain in the butt.
A lot of lifters with extension-based back pain will have problems with lying back on a flat bench. These individuals can get some quick symptomatic relief by simply elevating the feet on some 25-pound plates or aerobic steps. This little bit of foot-lift leads to a slight increase in hip flexion, which allows the lumbar spine to flatten out a bit, eliminating some of the extension stress.
Another option for these individuals is to simply switch to incline pressing variations. The angle between the seat and back pad on the bench ensures that same position of hip flexion. Or, they can switch to floor pressing with the knees flexed, which keeps the spine a bit flatter on the ground.
It's also worth mentioning that if you're trying to train upper body while dealing with back pain, it's generally a better bet to opt for barbells as opposed to dumbbells with your pressing exercises. When a lower back is hurting, the last thing you need to be doing is bending over to pick up heavy dumbbells from a low rack and maneuvering around the gym with them.
Conclusion
Next up, in the last installment of this series, I'll bring everything to a close with the introduction of some drills you may not have seen before, plus a few technique cues to optimize lower back health and performance.

How a bodybuilder should eat by Dr. Clay Hyght. (Not just for bodybuilders)

How Bodybuilders Should Eat
by Dr. Clay Hyght
While conventional diets may be fine for the average person, they definitely don't work for bodybuilders. It takes an extraordinary nutrition plan to build an extraordinary physique.
After lots of reading, research, and speculation (followed by more screwing up than you'd want to know about) I was finally able to derive a way of eating that not only works for bodybuilders, but works GREAT!
Although I initially set out to find a diet that would maximize fat loss while preserving lean muscle tissue, I soon found that it works equally well to build muscle while minimizing fat gain.
Let me reiterate that what I'm going to share with you is NOT just theoretical. It's well proven, even at the highest levels of bodybuilding — the IFBB Professional stage.
Although you don't have to be a pro bodybuilder to reap the benefits, you will have to have some discipline and consistency. If you're the kind of person that likes to "wing it" when it comes to your diet, then the method I'll describe isn't for you.
Regardless, anyone can benefit from the information I'm going to give you... if you actually apply it.
To begin, let's look at the pros and cons of the traditional methods of dieting, because, once you clearly understand the flaws of other diets, you'll be able to better understand and implement a better alternative.
Low-Carb Pros and Cons
You don't have to be a nutrition guru to know that low-carb diets are extremely effective at burning body fat. As much as mainstream doctors and dietitians hate to let the 80s go, research has proven over and over again that low-carb diets burn fat more quickly than other types of diets.
They work by decreasing blood glucose, insulin, and glycogen stores. This, in turn, promotes the mobilization and utilization of fatty acids for fuel, especially once ketosis has set in. Luckily for us, many (even most) of these fatty acids come from nasty ol' body fat.
But, just when you thought you were ready to get married to a low-carb diet, you realize that she IS actually jealous of your female friends, hates to cook, and lied about how she likes wearing a skirt with no panties.
Chronically consuming a low-carb diet depletes muscle glycogen stores. Although this is good for fat burning, it's not good for your performance in the weight room. Can you say "pumpless and puny?"
Muscle glycogen (stored carbs) serves as the primary fuel source during weight training. But without its preferred fuel source available, working muscles are forced to try to get the energy they need from fatty acids. Unfortunately, this happens a bit more slowly than we'd prefer, leaving you dragging like a bag of wet hammers.
Likewise, low-carb diets tend to leave the user with muscles that are "flat" as we like to say in competitive bodybuilding circles. On the other hand, when your muscle glycogen stores are topped off your muscles have a round, full look to them.
Low-carb diets also have one more (arguably) major drawback: when consumed for long periods of time, they tend to decrease T-3 levels. If you'll recall, T-3 is the active thyroid hormone that is largely responsible for controlling your metabolism. Do I need to point out that you do NOT want your T-3 levels to take a dip? I didn't think so.
Low-Fat / High-Carb Pros and Cons
Although we don't need to revisit the 80s when neon shoelaces, mullets, and low-fat diets were all the rage, we should take a moment to review the pros and cons of a low-fat diet.
Low-fat diets are great in that they are an easy way to control energy intake. After all, if you don't eat any fat it's hard to consume too many energy-containing calories. This is especially the case if those carbs are from natural, unprocessed sources.
Low-fat diets also tend to decrease lipogenesis — the formation of new fat. Although carbs can DEFINITELY be converted to body fat, it's not the most efficient process. That's why studies have shown that high carb/low-fat diets, even when carbs are consumed in excess, do not result in the formation of as much body fat as would mathematically make sense.
Consuming a high carb, low-fat diet is also a good no-brainer way to keep muscle glycogen stores topped off. This makes for good workouts and good pumps. And you gotta admit, even if it doesn't mean anything at all, having a skin stretching pump feels pretty damn good!
But here's the real benefit to consuming ample carbs: muscle growth.
Along with its more androgenic counterpart, testosterone, insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones in the body. And no matter how you slice it, to get insulin to be secreted and work its anabolic magic, you have to consume carbs.
But, don't think for a second that you want to spend the rest of your life with a low-fat diet, either. That hussy will leave you broke, depressed, and undersexed, yet convince your friends and family that it's your fault.
The higher amount of insulin that comes with eating more carbs is great for those looking to pack on some muscle. However, trying to get leaner with high insulin levels is like driving with the emergency brake on. You can do it, but it isn't the most efficient way to get across town.
High-carb diets also tend to cause more dramatic fluctuations in blood glucose levels which leads to an ongoing cycle of feeling great, feeling tired and hungry, feeling great, feeling tired and hungry, and so on.
Likewise, low-fat diets tend to cause deficiencies in essential fatty acids. You know that EFAs are important for a plethora of things, including cardiovascular health, central nervous system function, insulin sensitivity, and cell membrane integrity, just to mention a few.
To say that you need to consume ample amounts of essential fatty acids is an understatement. But it's not just the EFAs that have benefits.
Other types of fat like monounsaturated and even (gasp!) saturated fat have numerous, sometimes surprising benefits. For example, cholesterol is used as a building block for every male's favorite hormone, Testosterone. Still want to throw out those egg yolks?
Now let's discuss the most popular method of dieting around — lowering calories.
Low-Calorie Pros and Cons
Even the average American knows that to lose fat you have to consume fewer energy-providing calories (carbs and/or fat). But if you've dieted for any length of time, especially for a long time, you're already aware that the effectiveness of a low-calorie diet tends to wane pretty rapidly.
The human body is amazingly adaptive, yet seems to have a lazy, even argumentative nature. Instead of simply burning fat from adipose tissue to meet the energy deficit when you lower your calories, your body tends to respond by slowing the rate at which it burns calories.
It's as if your body says, "This idiot is trying to starve us to death! Screw that! If he's only going to feed me 900 calories, then I'm only going to burn 900 calories. I'll show him who's the boss around here!"
When you are dieting, keep in mind that your body will try to match its energy output (metabolism) to the energy you put in. That's why low calorie diets equal a slow metabolism. Can you say PLATEAU?
You can't make your body burn fat; you essentially have to trick it into burning fat.
Mixed Diet Pros and Cons
It's obvious that an optimal diet should contain ample, but not excessive, amounts of both carbs and fat. We have, in part, Barry Sears to thank for helping point this out to the masses. He encouraged us to eat moderate (but arguably too specific) amounts of carbs and fat in the same meal.
Even though Dr. Sears and his idea are brilliant, the Zone diet leaves a bit to be desired for us physique athletes. Those of us lookin' to get big and ripped will need to fine tune things a bit to get more of certain macronutrients when we need them, and less of them when we don't.
Bodybuilders should not be locked into consuming the same percentage of macronutrients with each and every meal.
Now let's move away from diets that you shouldn't be doing anyway, and start talking about what kind of diet you should be following.
The Perfect Diet for Bodybuilders
Wouldn't it be cool if we could create the perfect diet? It would prevent plateaus by keeping your metabolism high. It would feed your body the macronutrients it needs, precisely when it needs them.
The perfect diet would allow you to get the rapid fat-loss benefits of a low-carb diet, but without the reduction in performance and metabolism. It would support muscle growth and performance like a high-carb diet, but without the energy fluctuations and lack of fat loss they're known for.
The ideal diet would also work with your body's physiology, as opposed to working against it.
Enter macronutrient cycling.
Success Leaves Clues
After many years of learning from the best (i.e. Atkins, Berardi, Duchaine, Lowery, Schwarzbein, Sears, and many more), I've finally figured out the common links among diets that work.
I simultaneously studied top bodybuilding coaches like Justin Harris, Chad Nichols, Hany Rambod, and Milos Sarcev to see what commonalities existed among their methods.
As Tony Robbins says, success leaves clues. That's why I studied the methods of every successful bodybuilder, dieter, and coach I could.
After much, much trial and error on myself and others, I finally figured out that the best, most successful diet was a combination of about 20 different dietary strategies, including Massive Eating, Temporal Nutrition, the Zone, the Anabolic Diet, and many more.
I call my hybrid approach Macro Cycling — as in cycling your macronutrient intake.
It involves not only alternating or cycling carbs, but also protein and fat. Additionally, it's not just about cycling your macronutrient intake from day to day, but also within a day.
Now, let me show you how to build your own Macro Cycle Diet.
Building the Ultimate Physique Enhancement Diet
I want to arm you with the know-how to construct your own meal plan — teach you to fish, in other words. But don't worry; I'll also give you a great starting point in case you're the kind of guy who just wants the dame fish!
Protein: A Bodybuilder's Best Friend
When building a meal plan, it makes sense to start with the most critical, yet physique-friendly macronutrient.
Although we're talking about advanced bodybuilding nutrition plans, things don't need to be overly complicated. In fact, I like to keep things really simple. That's why I summarize the intricate biochemistry of protein this way:
Your body uses protein to build stuff.
Anyone who knows what a dumbbell is knows that protein helps build muscle. But we tend to forget that protein helps build many other things like bones, hair, skin, nails, tendons, and ligaments, along with more obscure things like blood plasma, visceral (organ) tissue, and almost 2,000 enzymes.
The fact that the body (especially the body of a hard-training individual) has so many critical uses for protein, is the primary reason why using calories to indicate how much energy the human body will be able to derive from food doesn't make sense.
Virtually all of the protein you eat will be used as building blocks for something else. Very, very little will be available to produce our body's energy currency, glucose. Even less would be available to create fat, largely due to the inefficiency of this process.
When you consider that protein is very unlikely to cause fat gain along with the fact that protein consumption boosts metabolic rate by about 25%, you can see why it's a bodybuilder's best friend.
Protein Rx
A good rule of thumb for physique athletes is to consume about ..1.5 grams.. of protein per pound of body weight, per day. This is enough to put most everyone in a positive nitrogen balance, even if training volume and intensity are high.
However, at times it may be advantageous to consume a bit more protein as "insurance" against muscle loss. One of these times would be on a low-carb day, when your intake of protein-sparring carbs is low, especially if you end up weight training that day.
If you weigh about ..200 pounds.. and are consuming the bodybuilding norm of six meals per day, then you should typically consume about ..50 grams.. of protein within each meal.
However, as mentioned above, you should bump this up a bit on low-carb days.
Likewise, on a high-carb day you could certainly get away with less protein. The protein-sparring effect of carbs will ensure that practically every speck of protein is used to build stuff, with none being needed for energy.
Now that we've got your protein/amino acid building blocks taken care of, let's address the energy-providing macronutrients — carbs and fat.
Carb Are Fuel!
Although naturally occurring carb sources do contain lots of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other nutrients, the function of carbohydrates themselves is simple: they provide energy. Not only do they provide energy, but they are the body's preferred fuel source, especially for high-intensity activities like weight training.
Just like the amount of gas you put in your car depends on how big the tank is and how much driving you've just done or are planning to do, the same type of planning should go into your carb consumption.
Whether you like it or not, the carbs you eat either have to be used for energy or stored.
To improve your physique (i.e. not gain fat) you want every gram of carbohydrate that goes into your mouth to be burned for energy or stored as glycogen. You don't want those carbs to end up in the other place your body uses for storage: your fat cells.
Avoiding having carbs be stored as fat is as easy as not overfilling your vehicle's gas tank — just don't put in more than you need!
Although fine for protein, your carb intake should NOT be spread evenly throughout the day. Remember, carbs are fuel! At different times of the day you need more or less fuel, depending upon what you've done or are about to do.
That's why I don't have "per day" carb intake guidelines. I opt instead for more specific "per meal" guidelines, with ..50 grams.. of carbs being a fairly typical serving size that can be adjusted up or down depending upon a number of factors.
Some of those factors or variables include weight, insulin sensitivity/resistance, resting metabolic rate, training volume, cardio volume, activities of daily living, occupation, dieting history, lovemaking duration/frequency, and so on.
High (Carb) Times
As LL (not "Cool J" - Dr Lonnie Lowery) has done a great job of schooling us on, insulin sensitivity is higher in the first part of the day as opposed to later in the day. For this reason, you can maximize muscle glycogen storage and minimize fat storage by slanting your carb intake toward the first part of the day, as opposed to the latter. In other words, you're having carbs for breakfast.
You're probably already well aware of the fact that you should consume ample carbs post-workout to maximize recovery from that workout. It only makes sense to fill the tank up after you just emptied it, right?
Another meal that warrants higher carb intake is your pre-workout meal. Remember, carbs are training fuel. You need more fuel when you have just trained and when you're about to train. So adjust your carb intake accordingly.
Consume More Carbs...
• Upon awakening• Pre-workout• Post-workout• First half of the day in general
Of course I'll discuss carb consumption and how you should cycle it, but let's first discuss the final energy-providing macronutrient: fat.
Fat Has a Split Personality
As we've seen, protein and carbs are actually rather simple creatures. The former is used to build stuff while the latter provides fuel. Dietary fat, on the other hand, is not quite so simple. Just like your psycho ex, fat has a bit of a split personality.
You're probably well aware of the fact that dietary fat provides energy. It's a very concentrated, slow-burning energy source. But it also provides a plethora of substrates that the body needs in order to function optimally.
For example, some fatty acids are incorporated into the cell membranes that surround each and every cell. Fats that are incorporated in this manner won't be available for your body to utilize for energy.
It's not just "healthy fats" that are beneficial. As I mentioned earlier, even cholesterol, the redheaded stepchild of fat, is used to make Testosterone.
Although consuming the right types of dietary fat is of utmost importance for optimal health and performance, fat can also be an evil bitch.
Above and beyond the amount of fat needed for these structural and chemical processes, the rest is simply a source of fuel, like carbs.
Recall that carbohydrates are the body's preferred fuel source. Although this varies slightly depending on the nature of your activity, your body will typically burn carbohydrates for energy prior to resorting to burning fat for energy. This is essentially the case because carbs produce energy more quickly than does fat.
Fat has another drawback as well. It can be converted into body fat far more efficiently than carbohydrates. For these reasons it's of utmost importance to be really precise with your fat intake.
You definitely need to consume enough fat every day so that your body has what it needs for hormone production, cell membranes, nerve insulation, and so on. However, you want to make sure that above and beyond that, any fat that you consume is burned for energy, as opposed to being stored around your midsection.
In summary, dietary fat has to be used to build stuff, used for energy, or stored. I'll show you how to avoid the latter.
Manage Energy Intake
It takes me about ..30 gallons.. of gas to drive to ....Las Vegas...., yet my tank holds less than half that. Therefore it wouldn't make any damn sense for me to pump ..30 gallons.. of gas into my tank before heading out. More than half of it would go straight to the ground.
Likewise, you should provide your body with the energy that it needs and can use at that particular time, but no more. As you do with your vehicle, fuel your body based on what you are about to do or what you've just done.
Because carbs and fat both provide energy, it's important to manage the amounts of each that you consume.
For example, your first meal, along with your pre- and post-workout meals, should have more carbs. Your fat intake should be low in these meals to avoid providing your body with too much available energy at one time, which would cause some energy to be stored as body fat.
At first glance, it may seem that I advocate separating carbs and fat a la John Berardi's recommendation in his classic article Massive Eating. While this is for the most part true, I recommend it more as a way to manage energy intake.
The consumption of carbohydrates and fat should be inversely proportional simply because they both provide energy. In case you were absent that day in school, that means that as carb intake goes up, fat intake should come down, and vice versa.
Low Day 101
On days that you don't train with weights, you obviously don't need as many calories, especially from carbs. Let's call these "low days," since they're lower in carbs and calories.
For the off-season bodybuilder, or anyone looking to gain muscle, low days are great in that they minimize or eliminate the accumulation of body fat. No longer do you need to pack on excess body fat just to gain some muscle.
If you're looking to get leaner, low days are your new best friend. By significantly lowering carbs and calories on certain days, you'll maximize fat burning without compromising recuperation.
Because your carb intake is going to be lower on these days, your fat intake will therefore be higher. You want to use fat to replace some, but not all, of the missing calories from carbs.
It's also a good idea to increase protein intake on low-carb days, especially if your carbs and calories are getting really low. This will help protect any of your hard-earned muscle tissue from being burned to meet energy requirements.
Let's look at some sample numbers.
On low days, increase your normal protein intake by 10% to 15%. So if your standard protein intake is ..50 grams.. per meal, shoot for 55 to ..60 grams.. per meal, or about 330 to ..350 grams.. per day.
As always, your carb intake is going to depend upon your current physique goals. You could say that, all things being equal, carb intake and fat loss are inversely proportional. If you want to lose more fat, eat fewer carbs.
Although it may very well be warranted for a pre-contest bodybuilder to consume no carbs on a low day, this is generally unnecessary. Instead, opt for about ..70 grams.. of starchy carbs on your low day. Recall Lowery's Temporal Nutrition, and let's put ..35 grams.. of starchy carbs in meals one and two, when your body can use them best.
The rest of your daily carb intake would come from vegetables — "free foods," as I like to call them. To keep things simple, I don't count the carbs in fibrous vegetables. If you subtract the fiber in broccoli, for example, you're left with all of ..5 grams.. of carbs per serving. That's 20 calories, which isn't going to make or break your diet.
The last macro we need to put in your low day is fat. Again, the proper amount would be highly individualized. But a good starting point would be to consume ..15 grams.. of added fat in low-carb meals three, four, and five, and about half that in meal six.
It may seem that 52 or so grams of fat is pretty low for a daily total, especially when carbs are low. However, in keeping with the "elegantly simple" theme, I don't count trivial amounts of fat, like the fat found in lean meats like chicken, or in starches like oats. That's why I used the term "added fat."
Likewise, I tend not to count supplemental fats like Flameout or fish oil capsules, assuming the intake of them is reasonable, as it should be. Therefore, the actual amount of fat consumed is quite a big higher.

Six Reasons why Aerobic work is counterproductive by PICP Trainer

Six reasons why aerobic work is counterproductive

Getting Maximum Results

As a Strength Coach and a Personal Trainer for 15 years, I’ve had a chance to see many fitness enthusiasts workout at many gyms in my local area and throughout the country. At any given gym or fitness center, the one thing that I notice is how you see the same people doing the same workouts month after month, year after year. The amazing thing is that these people continue to look the same or they are actually looking worse aesthetically. This is especially true with the constant performance of continuous aerobic work.
What’s sad about this is that they feel like they are doing everything necessary to get the result they are looking for. They are resigned to the fact that this is how it’s going to be and there isn’t anything that can be done to correct their deficiencies. If you were to ask them what results they would like to get out of their workout, the number 1 answer is “losing weight or getting thinner.”
When I am asked what it takes to look “fitter,” the first question I ask is: “How long have you been doing your current training program?”
The usual answer I receive is “somewhere between 6 and 12 months.” The typical program they follow is “30 – 60 minutes of continuous aerobic work 3 to 5 times per week.”
Our training tells us that this is not a good approach to take for the client seeking improving results over time. World renowned strength guru Charles Poliquin has identified 6 reasons why aerobic training is counterproductive to fat loss:

Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training so anything more is counterproductive.This is quite an “eye opener” for most people who immediately recognize that they may have been wasting their time for such an extended period. To quote Charles, “using this principle in preparation for the 92 Olympics, the Canadian Alpine Ski team actually surpassed the Cross-country team on aerobic scores as measured by third party University labs.” Who wouldn’t want to perform as well as the Canadian Alpine ski team?
Aerobic training worsens power locally and systemically – in other words, it can make you slower.If you are an athlete or a “weekend warrior” who likes to participate in athletic events or team sports that require speed and jumping ability, this is the last thing you want from a cardiovascular training program. Coach Poliquin adds that “the more lower body aerobic work you do, the more your vertical jump worsens. The more upper body aerobic work you do, the more your medicine ball throws worsen.”
Aerobic training increases oxidative stress which can accelerate aging.According to Endocrinologist Dr. Diana Schwarzbein (author of The Schwarzbein Principle II ,) “oxidation” is a process that forms free radicals in the body. Normally the body can neutralize free radicals with substances known as antioxidants. It is only when there is an excessive build-up of free radicals that the body cannot neutralize all of the free radicals. This leads to changes to your metabolism which can accelerate aging.

Aerobic training increases adrenal stress which can make you fatter and produce other undesirable health consequencesAccording to Dr. James Wilson (author of Adrenal Fatigue – The 21st. Century Stress Syndrome,) “normally functioning adrenal glands secrete minute, yet precise and balanced, amounts of steroid hormones”. When one does too much continuous aerobic exercise, the adrenal glands are stressed in a way that can upset this delicate balance which could lead to adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue is associated with such symptoms as: tiredness, fearfulness, allergies, frequent influenza, arthritis, anxiety, depression, reduced memory, and difficulties in concentrating, insomnia, feeling worn-out, and most importantly- with respect to this article - the inability to lose weight after extensive efforts.”
Aerobic training increases body fat in stressed individuals by contributing additional stress.If you are already going through a lot of stress in your life then adding more “stress” by doing too much continuous aerobic work will actually add more body fat thus making it hard to reach a weight-loss/body fat goal.
Aerobic training worsens testosterone/cortisol ratio which impedes your ability to add fat burning lean muscle.When the testosterone/cortisol ratio is lowered your ability to add lean muscle tissue, which helps to increase caloric expenditure, is again hampered making weight loss much more difficult. Coach Poliquin notes that “continuous aerobic work is basically exercise induced castration!”
Keith Alpert is a brilliant strength coach from the Boston area, who has a very strong record in the professional basketball area. Welcome to the site, Keith!
Coming up in “Part 2” of this article: we’ll examine alternative exercise strategies which can help you break through a plateau as well as being healthier for you.

Getting Maximum Results, Part II - Alternatives to aerobics
Six reasons why aerobic work is counterproductive
By Keith Alpert, Level 4 PICP coach.

In part I, I provided six reasons why continuous aerobic work is counterproductive to your training. My purpose was to enlighten a population that has been led to believe that there is only one way to train the cardiovascular system.
In this second part, I will provide trainees with an alternative strategy for training the cardiovascular system that is more effective and takes less time to complete.
The Question of Body FatI often ask my clients, "who has less body fat, a Sprinter or a Marathoner?" The answer I receive is almost always "a Marathoner."
The correct answer, however, is a sprinter! (In 15 years of training, only two people have answered this question correctly!). You can understand why, since the general public has been told over and over again that in order to burn fat you have to do continuous aerobic work. Sprinters do almost ZERO continuous aerobic work, yet they have less body-fat. How is this possible?

The reason is rooted in the intense nature of their training. The higher the intensity (i.e. "Intensity" is the percentage of the Maximum Heart Rate, not the intensity of effort) the more calories per minute burned during the workout. In addition (and more important,) caloric expenditure is increased for 24-48 hours post workout.
The Power of Interval TrainingThe way for individuals to raise the intensity of their training is to do "Interval Training." Interval Training alternates bouts of high-intensity exercise with that of low to moderate-intensity exercise. Recent studies have shown that Interval Training is more effective for fat loss while improving both Aerobic and Anaerobic fitness.
Tabata et al. (1) compared a 70% of VO2 max moderate intensity group (MIG) vs. a high intensity interval group (HIIT). The MIG group did increase their VO2 max by about 10% without a concurrent improvement in anaerobic capacity. The HIIT group improved their VO2 max by 14% and their anaerobic capacity by 28%. The HIIT group actually improved both anaerobic and aerobic capacity at the same time!
Tremblay et al. (2) compared a sprint ergometer group versus an aerobic group. Despite burning 50% less calories, the sprint group lost three times more fat than the aerobic group.
A sample Interval Protocol for Fat LossAs always, please check with your physician before embarking on any intense exercise program.
Table 1:
Workout(s)
Sets
High Intensity
Low Intensity
1 & 2
6
40 Sec.
2:00
3 & 4
7
40 Sec.
2:00
5 & 6
8
40 Sec.
2:00
7 & 8
9
40 Sec.
2:00
9 & 10
10
40 Sec.
2:00
11 & 12
11
40 Sec.
2:00
13 & 14
12
40 Sec.
2:00
15 & 16
12
45 Sec.
1:45
17 & 18
12
45 Sec.
1:30
Perform 2-3 sessions/week on non-consecutive days
Before embarking on Workout 1, take a practice workout or two to establish the fastest possible speed for the "High Intensity" sets. This is very important to elicit the proper hormonal response.
If a preparatory phase is needed before embarking on the above Interval program in table 1, follow the workouts in table 2:
Table 2:
Workout(s)
Sets
High Intensity
Low Intensity
1
4
40 Sec.
4:00
2
4
40 Sec.
3:45
3
4
40 Sec.
3:30
4
5
40 Sec.
3:15
5
5
40 Sec.
3:00
6
5
40 Sec.
2:45
7
6
40 Sec.
2:30
8
6
40 Sec.
2:15
* Perform 2-3 sessions/week on non-consecutive days
For those of you who are in the general public and have not exercised in years do the following protocol:
Table 3:
Phase
Time
Heart Rate
Weeks
1
Work up to 45 minutes
60 % of THR*
1 - 3
2
20 minutes
80 % of THR
4 - 6
Perform 3-4 sessions/week
THR = Target Heart Zone
Do not do more than six weeks of Table 3 workouts. I repeat - do not do more than six weeks of Table 3!
After completing the 2 phases in table 3, move on to table 2 interval workouts to prepare for the interval workouts in table 1.
After completing the 18 workouts in table 1, a new cycle can be started at higher initial speed during the "High Intensity" sets.

Is diet soda bad for you? by Dr.Jonny Bowden

Ask Dr. Jonny: Can diet soda make me fat?

Q. Can diet soda make me fat?

by Dr. Jonny Bowden

We already know about the link between soda drinking and obesity. But diet soda? Yup. Two years ago, a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that there was a 41% increase in the risk for being overweight for every single can of diet soda a person consumed daily.
And brand new research published July 31 in the medical journal Circulation shows that people who drink more than one soda a day- whether it's regular or diet- have an almost 50% increased risk for metabolic syndrome, which doubles their risk for heart disease and diabetes.
But how can something with no calories increase the risk for obesity and heart disease?
There are several possible ways.

First the obesity connection. My own theory is that the sweet taste works in the brain to create a conditioned response, and the body responds as it usually does to normal sugar- with insulin, the fat storing hormone. Those circuits in the brain are pretty primitive and ancient, and they can't immediately distinguish chemical fakery- as far as your brain is concerned, sweet means sugar. It's entirely possible that physiologically, you would respond to aspartame in the same way as you would to table sugar. It's only a theory, but it makes sense.

Second, sugar creates it's own cravings. Just as a taste of rum creates an unstoppable craving in an alcoholic, it's entirely possible that the taste of sweet- even if it's fake- creates the same cascade of cravings in a carb addict that regular sugar does, leading to overeating and binging and all the rest of the reasons people put on weight.

Third, many people think that by drinking diet beverages they're "saving" calories and they subconsciously allow themselves to eat more, figuring it's not doing as much harm because overall their meal has less calories since they're drinking a diet drink. The diet drink gives them subconscious "permission" to eat more. This isn't conscious, but it's totally real.

Then there's the heart disease connection. Aspartame is primarily made from three ingredients- aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Methanol- an alcohol- breaks down in the body to formaldehyde, a poison if there ever was one. Apologists for aspartame say that it doesn't create enough formaldehyde in the body to make a difference or cause any damage, but I'm not so sure. Exposing children to formaldehyde levels as low as .75 mg daily for several months has been shown to cause gradual toxicity. Plus, diet soda is frequently stored in hot warehouses, causing breakdown that went undetected in the original safety studies that looked at "ideal" conditions.
The bottom line: Soda is bad news, whether regular or diet. Period

Chiropractic article by Charles Poliquin

Chiropractic

What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on improving the negative effects of musculoskeletal and nervous system disorders. Chiropractic care is most often used to treat complaints of back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Other symptoms may also be improved -- just ask.

Doctors of Chiropractic practice a drug-free, hands-on approach to health care that includes patient examination, diagnosis and treatment. Chiropractors have broad diagnostic skills and are also trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, as well as provide nutritional and lifestyle counseling. The most common therapeutic procedure performed by doctors of chiropractic is known as "spinal manipulative therapy". Spinal manipulation helps to:
restore normal joint movement• decrease pain• reduce muscle tension
increase mobility and flexibility increase vitality

What does an adjustment feel like?
You may feel light pressure on your spinal joints and/or hear a popping sound resulting from quickly moving joints. Chiropractic adjustments rarely cause discomfort and some patients may experience mild soreness or aching following treatment (similar to some exercise soreness) which usually resolves within 12 to 48 hours.

Why is Chiropractic used?
As a result of injury, overuse or even postural imbalances, muscles and joints become tight and restricted. In order to restore normal joint movement and function, spinal manipulative therapy may be needed.

Insulin and Cortisol, a basic understanding by Jessie Casteel

Well it seems as though no matter how many questions I get on any given day there is always one that always seems to find it's way into conversations and if you are into fitness it is easy to understand why. If not it will be quite clear after this segment. I understand that most trainers like to speak over their clients head when they explain things to make the appearance that they know what they are talking about but that's not me. I am gonna keep this simple and as short as possible. This segment will be based on a presentation I plan to give soon and once those details are worked out I will post to let you know. The topic is Cortisol and Insulin and I will explain how both are necessary and if managed properly can break you through any training plateau you may be encountering due to mismanagement of these critical hormones so enjoy.

First to fully understand cortisol you must understand what cortisol's purpose is in the body. Cortisol has gotten a bad reputation due to the fact it is a stress hormone and even worse it is a catabolic hormone. AHHH yeah I can hear the gears turning and you are looking at the screen thinking "but Jess, I thought you said Cortisol was necessary." Yes it is or it wouldn't be produced by the body. Ok I will not get all religious on you but lets face it, our bodies where created by a grand designer that is unparalleled and what is in or bodies is there for a reason so lets look at what purpose this hormone has. First Cortisol is a stress hormone as I mentioned before but the reason for that is when the body comes under a stress load the body produces Cortisol which is shuttled to the "storage cells" (liver, kidneys, muscles, etc...) which trigger a reaction causing the said storage cells to open releasing BCAA or Branched Chain Amino Acids, Fats, Carbohydrates and other nutrients into the blood stream to be used as a sudden burst of energy. Kinda like an adrenaline rush to supply power or speed in a stressful action. Now when you are stressed from work or even fast foods puts the body under stress just because it is so processed. anyway I wont go off on fast food since every time I do I have to go all U.F.C. on a Clown in yellow with red hair, A little talking Chihuahua, and a freaky looking King that likes to wake people up with an air horn but the fact is this food is barely food at all and is nothing more than Spackle for the colon walls. When is Cortisol useful? HA now you are getting somewhere and I have the road map. When we workout especially if you are working out right with near maximal weight or at minimum 70% of your one rep max which is the optimal fat burning rate, you will produce cortisol as a burst of energy but that's good since you need these nutrients at this time. The good news though is since you are working with set and rep ranges you can control the amount of Cortisol by taking brief rest periods between sets. I'm not talking about taking 20 minutes to talk to the hottie on the exercise bike. you hit the gym to train not flirt so get to work. Now here is where Cortisol gets people, If outside stress gets to you then you are producing Cortisol and not using it. So what happens to the cortisol at this point? That's right, you store it as fat and guess where it stores. Yup, right again my friend. Right around the belly button. Take for instance, Say a lion is chasing you and you need to leave in a hurry. Boom! you have cortisol to give you a boost to get out of dodge. Now when you are stressed from work and all you do is flip channels while sitting on the couch you don't burn the cortisol so it is stored in the umbilical area. Does that make sense? I hope so.

How do we control Cortisol and when do we need to focus on control? That is the question and here is the answer. There are mainly 2 times we should focus on first and foremost. Breakfast, and post workout. when we sleep we go into a fast so before bed have a slow digesting protein like casein from cottage cheese or as I take it in powder casein form via protein shake. now this should take care of roughly 6 of the 8 hours you better be getting for sleep and don't lie because all i need to do is a skin fold test on your inner calve to see how well your sleep patterns are. Upon waking you want to take in simple sugars fast to spike Insulin to blunt Cortisol and once I explain Insulin you will know why. next you need to take your whey protein and supplements and then take sustainable quality carbs like oats or wheat serial. Post workout is the same except for your selection of simple sugars should consist of a banana for the rich source of nutrients and or an orange for the vitamin C to fight free radicals produced while working out.
As far as stress control you can take Siberian Ginseng, Yin tonics if you can muscle them down, Holy Basil, Forskolin, Etc.... What I cant give all my tricks away. Go find a good chiropractor as well. Alignment of the spine will free up the Central Nervous System to work properly and this will help with the ability to deal with stress. Start a fitness routine which will help you produce serotonin, And go treat yourself to a massage or relax on the beach or something soothing to your soul at least once a week.

Now how does Insulin work? Insulin is the exact opposite of Cortisol and that is why they blunt each other in the body. Insulin is a highly anabolic hormone and from the research I have studied is only in the shadow of one other hormone. Yep you guessed it, Testosterone. This explains why synthetic Testosterone is so popular in the bodybuilding world but this isn't a steroid article. Now for those who don't know what anabolic and catabolic means let me explain: anabolic means in a muscle building state and catabolic means a muscle breakdown state. Catabolism is bad and you can think of cannibalism internally. think about it, the more muscle we have the more calories we burn so if we are catabolic we get fatter and a slew of bad things happen. This is why protein is crucial. so anyway Insulin's role is to shuttle the nutrients from food to the "storage cells" to resupply them for the next time they are needed. the proper nutrients and nutrition with an Insulin spike can refill said "storage cells" but you have to pay attention to what your taking in because if you take in a high fat meal you will basically be refilling the "storage cells" with fat. Also if your receptors are more sensitive to fat you will store fat easier so eat lean with high protein at this point. Say you have a high sugar meal, now you want to blunt Insulin to keep from storing the sugar as fat so here is a tip. Take no less than 3 grams of fish oil and this will keep insulin from spiking because believe me you don't want all that sugar stored because you don't want the extra work in the gym. Remember the golden window of weight training is the one hour post exercise when we need to pay very very close attention to what we ingest. I hope this clears the topic up some because I have to be honest, I'm kinda tired of typing all this out. God bless and go lift weights.

What your doctor doesnt know about weightlifting article by Nikhil Rao

What Your Doc Doesn't Know About Weightliftingby Nikhil Rao

Nikhil Rao, by his own description, is "strong for an Indian (dot not feather). In other words, not very. Some day he hopes to be a mediocre powerlifter/strongman."
We support Nik's quest, but in the meantime he'll be doing his medical residency in psychiatry and ultimately plans to research how exercise and nutrition affect mental health.
As a member of the medical profession and an avid weight trainer, Nik is forced to deal with the "idiocy and ignorance of medical professionals" at a variety of levels when it comes to weight training and muscular individuals. He explains it this way:
"While most of your readers understand how little doctors know, there are a lot of things that their doctors tell them that are simply wrong. These could even be detrimental to our health in some ways."
This is his first article for TMUSCLE.

Sir William Osler, the founder of modern medicine, once remarked that "The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."It's kinda ironic, then, that the field of medicine is so ignorant—and so dogmatic—when it comes to exercise and nutrition. It's not hard to see where it comes from. Pride. Hubris even.Medicine is one of the most demanding fields in the world. After 8 years of college and medical school, I'll be taking my Hippocratic oath in a couple of weeks. And then I still have 6 years of residency training ahead of me. Some of my classmates have even more. That's a lot of time, a lot of studying, and a lot of effort. And the responsibility? Every day we make life or death decisions. Every time we examine a patient we have a chance to pick up—or miss—a sign or symptom of a disease that could take our patient's life or cause irreparable damage to their health. We are among the best and brightest, the most highly educated, and most influential people in the world. Hard not to let that go to your head.Medicine is ultimately about authority and knowledge. We know more about the human body in health and disease, and hold more responsibility for it, than anyone else. Contrast this with science, which is ultimately about ignorance. Science moves forward when we look to what we don't know, and try to figure it out. Needless to say, finding ignorance is one of the most important lessons a scientist can learn. In fact, one could say that is the sole duty of a scientist. Doctors learn a lot about what science has revealed about the human body. But they aren't trained to be scientists, or to think like them. A doctor knows what he or she knows, and that's the end of it.Doctors have a lot of opinions on diet and exercise. Weight training isn't healthy. Weight training hurts your heart. You'll destroy your joints. Squats are bad for the knees. Deadlifting is bad for the back. You should only do light weight and high reps. You're too heavy and will die of heart disease and diabetes unless you lose some weight. You're destroying your kidneys with all that protein. Creatine is bad for you. The only exercise you need is cardio. I could go on for days. Most of us have heard it. A lot of us don't pay too much attention. Some of us do, and change the way we work out. And almost all of us wonder just how true these things are, if we really are destroying our bodies in the quest for strength and physical perfection. The real question is, how much attention should we pay to these experts?Like I said, medical education is extremely intense, and extremely broad. It has to be. That said, there is a lot it doesn't cover. We learn the atomic structure of every amino acid (most of us promptly forget all of this after the biochemistry final). We learn the equations for cardiovascular physiology. We learn the branches of every nerve, the origin and attachment for every muscle in the human body. But we don't learn the basics of healthy nutrition. We don't learn about cardiovascular and musculoskeletal adaptations and responses to exercise. We don't learn about how insulin facilitates the utilization of protein and creatine. We don't even learn what all of those muscles in the body actually do. We don't learn about the difference between myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Or the training effect of high versus low reps. Heck, most doctors aren't even aware of the concept of High Intensity Interval Training, let alone how much more effective it is than steady-state cardio.And yet doctors think that their opinions on eating right and exercising actually matter. I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry about it. All of those years of school, and everything I know about exercise and nutrition I had to teach myself. A lot of it coming from right here at TMUSCLE. And most of my colleagues don't see why I make such a big deal about it. There's nothing else to call it but pathetic.What I'm hoping to do in this article, and possibly future ones, is deal with some of these issues where doctors have it all wrong; sometimes because of the field's ignorance about exercise physiology and nutrition, and sometimes because they don't understand the limits of their own knowledge.The following are just a few examples of things they've got wrong.
Body CompositionMost of the guys on this website are 'overweight' or even 'obese' according to the BMI. There are a lot of dramatic studies out there about the health risks of being too heavy, from heart disease to stroke to cancer to dementia. I don't think that's a point of much contention. Being fat is bad for you. The real question is whether or not the BMI is a decent tool for assessing how fat you are. It seems like every other time I go to the doctor's office he (or his nurse) brings up my BMI of 29 and suggests I lose weight. Now, in the interest of full-disclosure, it's been a while since I saw the bottom two cans in my six-pack, and my love handles actually have names, but if it weren't for my gluteal muscles these 32" pants would fall right off. I'm pretty sure my 'borderline obesity' has more to do with the fact that I can barely stuff myself into a size 48-suit coat than it does a dangerous level of body fat.When a well-muscled individual brings up this point, doctors often reply that "Okay, yeah, it doesn't work for people with a lot of muscle, but it works just fine for the general population."Does it? Does it really??? I have my doubts. After all, the BMI consists of ONLY your height and your weight, and pretty much ignores everything else, like bones and lean body mass, which can be highly variable even within the so-called 'normal' population. Some researchers at the Mayo Clinic had doubts of their own, with good reason as it turns out.(1) When they assessed the diagnostic performance of BMI using the World Health Organization reference standard 25% (body fat) for men and 35% for women, they found that only 36% percent of obese men actually had a BMI of over 30. The majority of people carrying around unhealthy amounts of fat actually had 'normal' or 'overweight' BMIs. If that wasn't bad enough, it turns out that in people with a BMI of less than 30, it actually correlates better to lean body mass than it does body fat percentage. A study by a different group in Canada found similar results.(2)So using the BMI doesn't work so well for the 'normal' population either. As if failing to identify two thirds of the people that need to lose weight weren't bad enough, this also means that literally decades of population studies on the health risks of obesity are also largely invalid. Most people with a BMI over 30 are indeed 'obese'. But almost half of the population with a BMI less than 30 is also 'obese'. Which means most of these studies are drastically underestimating the health risks of obesity. This isn't so much of a concern for those of us in MMA, lighter weight classes, or mostly in it for physique. But for the powerlifters and strongmen out there who do carry around their fair share of adipose tissue, it means that those extra pounds are MORE dangerous than you or your doctor realize.Lastly I want to touch on lean body mass. A lot of studies have found what many doctors think of as a 'paradoxical' effect in which people in the 'overweight' BMI range (25-29.9) actually tend to live longer, have less heart disease, be more likely to survive cancer, and have less disability. Studies that have compared BMI to body fat and lean body mass have found that people in the 'overweight' range weren't necessarily any fatter than people in the so-called 'normal' range; rather, their extra mass came from lean tissue. So contrary to what your doctor says about all that extra muscle you're carrying around, your weight training is probably doing more for you than all that running is doing for a marathoner.But that doesn't mean higher lean body mass doesn't have its downsides. Injuries come with the territory when you push yourself in the gym. That excess mass and the heavy weights do put more strain on your joints, although this is counterbalanced by the fact that your muscles bear more of the load and your connective tissue less. The more weight you carry around, the harder your heart has to work. More muscle means a faster metabolism, and thus less chance of dementia, diabetes, and heart disease. But it also means more free radicals and potentially more inflammation, which means more stress on your endocrine system, cardiovascular system and brain, and possibly higher rates of cancer. So is there a point of diminishing returns? Is there a point where you have 'too much' muscle? Probably. But because long-term population research has only used the BMI, we have no idea what point that is. The BMI has outlived its usefulness. Not only in well-muscled individuals, but in everyone. You wouldn't let someone do stiff-legged deadlifts with locked knees and a round back, and you shouldn't let people judge their own health status and weight-loss goals based on BMI either. Tell them to try a Tanita monitor, skinfold testing, or DEXA instead. Something this entrenched and this insidious needs to be attacked at every level by every person in the know. Spread the word.

High Blood PressureHypertension is among the most common chronic diseases out there. And even though there aren't any symptoms, it can have devastating effects on your kidneys, your brain, and your heart.(3) Which is why it's called the 'silent killer'. And is one of the reasons your doctor almost always checks your blood pressure, regardless of the reason for your visit. The medical profession is absolutely justified in the time, resources, and intensity with which we attack hypertension. But, like the BMI (although orders of magnitude better), our method of measuring blood pressure is less than perfect.If you really do have high blood pressure, it's vital that you get it treated. But what if you don't? Whether it's the inconvenience, the cost, or the side effects, no one wants to take pills if they don't have to. A more pragmatic concern has to do with health insurance. In this era of medical underwriting and denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, the last thing you want is for the label of 'hypertension' to follow you around in your medical charts for the rest of your life.Back to blood pressure measurement. The only accurate way to measure blood pressure is to take a catheter with a pressure transducer on the tip and thread it up through an artery into your aorta. Not terribly convenient. Or fun. Which is why we use the blood pressure cuff. In really sick patients, though, we often do monitor the blood pressure directly through a catheter. In my limited experience, novice physician that I am, most of the time the arm cuff agrees with the intra-arterial blood pressure measurement. But that isn't always the case.Error can come from the cuff itself. Too small a cuff will give too high a reading. A standard cuff tops out at around 14-15" of arm circumference, conservatively. But most of the people we use the larger cuffs on are rather gifted in adiposity. It often doesn't occur to health professionals that a lean arm can simply be too big for the cuff. Even when I tell them ahead of time that the regular cuff is too small, they'll often insist on trying it first. Now in me, the regular cuff either completely fails to get a reading, or reads such an absurd pressure that they give up and get the large cuff. But in many, with a cuff slightly too small, it'll just give the kind of reading you'd expect in someone with hypertension. It's still a false positive. So if I were you, I'd ask for them to take a reading with the larger cuff if the regular cuff gives a high value.The second problem comes from the fact that you've got muscle and fat surrounding that artery, so the reading on the cuff is actually a result of how the pressure gets transmitted from the artery through the fat and muscle. Fat, being very compressible, can act like a sponge or a shock absorber, leading to falsely low measurements. In fact, I once had a patient that was so morbidly obese, no one in the office was able to get a blood pressure reading from the upper arm. We had to use the forearm. Muscle, on the other hand, is very firm, and can actually lead to higher than expected readings.This is known as 'spurious systolic hypertension' (SSH).(4) In most people with high blood pressure, both the high (systolic) and low (diastolic) number are elevated (systolic >140 and diastolic >90). Some people present with what's called 'isolated systolic hypertension' (ISH). In this condition, only the high number is elevated. Most commonly we see this in older people, and we think it's because their arteries aren't as elastic as they are in younger people, due to breakdown of the connective tissue calcium deposits in the walls of the arteries. People with SSH tend to be young and have no major health risk factors (obesity, smoking, high cholesterol etc). In other words, nothing like the people we normally see ISH in. They tend to be different from normotensive people of the same age only in that they have a higher BMI and are more likely to engage in athletics.(5) SSH most likely has nothing to do with blood pressure and everything to do with the anatomy of a muscular individual's arm.So if you're getting a high blood pressure reading, first check the cuff size, and then look at your diastolic number. If it's lower than 90, chances are you have SSH and don't need either the label of hypertension or a medication.

Kidney FunctionIt's common dogma among physicians that high protein diets are bad for your kidneys. Dr. Lowery here at TMUSCLE has beaten that idea pretty much to death recently.(6) So I won't get in to too much detail here on that. But the bottom line is that high protein intake may be harmful to your kidneys, and it may not be. We have literally no evidence to go on one way or the other. So your doctor pretty much doesn't have a leg to stand on when he tells you that you're killing your kidneys.The notion that protein is harmful comes from studies of people with damaged kidneys—people with either chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) or chronic renal failure (CRF). In these people there's no doubt about it. The higher your protein intake, the faster your kidney disease is going to worsen. It makes sense when you think about it. These are people whose kidneys can't even keep up with the basic demands their bodies place on them. Increasing the demand on the kidneys above that basal state can't possibly be good. But can we extend that principle to people with normal and healthy kidneys? There's no reason to think we can, and a lot of reasons to think we can't. The kidneys are remarkably robust organs with a lot of excess capacity. In fact, you have to lose about 75% of the functioning units (nephrons) in your kidneys before we even see changes in your kidney function tests. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the kidney can dramatically increase its filtration rate from the resting state in a healthy adult.An analogous situation occurs with the heart. In a healthy adult, HIIT, or any kind of cardio for that matter, is good for your heart. But take someone with heart failure, or severe coronary artery disease. It's probably not a good idea for them to start running stair laps. Heck, that's why all the ED drugs have disclaimers to ask your doctor if it's safe for you to have sex. If you take an already weakened heart and stress it, bad things can happen. But you don't see doctors recommending healthy people avoid exercise, do you?Our next concern regarding kidneys is the blood tests doctors use to determine how well they're functioning. There are two numbers in particular we're interested in: Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) and blood creatinine (Cr). BUN is a waste product of protein metabolism. Creatinine is a breakdown product from the creatine phosphate found in your muscles, heart and brain. Doctors normally check these values with a simple blood test, which tells them the concentration of each. Here's where things get tricky—and where doctors can make wrong assumptions. The concentration of these substances in your blood is affected by multiple factors, only one of which is kidney function. BUN concentration changes with your hydration status (low when you're well-hydrated, high when your dehydrated). It also changes in response to how much protein you're digesting and turning over. The more protein you take in, the higher your BUN is going to be.Creatinine on the other hand is a lot more stable. It's produced at a relatively constant rate; higher or lower depending on how much muscle you have, due to the constant process of muscle breakdown and rebuilding. As such, the concentration in your blood has a lot to do with how much lean body mass you have. That said, there are certain things that can make your creatinine spike. Severe infections or other stressors increase muscle breakdown as a consequence of the cortisol and inflammatory hormones coursing through your body. For the same reason, a particularly intense workout or competition can do the same thing.There is a 'normal range' for each of these things. And people with blood levels of BUN and Cr that are outside of this range often do have kidney problems. On the other hand, there are a heck of a lot of weight trainers that end up seeing abnormal values in their bloodwork, which can set them and their doctors to freaking out. But these 'normal' ranges are based on the assumption that you're 'normal' when it comes to all of those other factors I just discussed. Higher protein intake means a higher BUN. Higher lean body mass means a higher blood Cr. Greater physical stressors (and consequent increase in creatine turnover) means a higher Cr. Do you think any of these factors apply to T-Men? Darn right they do.So your blood test comes back and your renal function tests indicate a possible problem. The doctor calls you in a panic, telling you that you've murdered your kidneys with all that protein and creatine and you need to stop them now. What do you do? Well, your doctor's just overextended himself. He actually has no clue how your kidneys are doing and neither do you. But it's okay, because we do have the tools to directly calculate how well your kidneys are working, we just don't use them very often. But it's going to need a piss test. One heck of a piss test. Twenty-four hours' worth of pee in an opaque jug to be exact. You see, the only way to figure out if your kidneys are filtering waste products well enough is to see how much they're excreting. Seems like common sense, doesn't it?What I would do is ask to do a direct creatinine clearance measurement. You're going to want to hold off on working out for a couple days—which will drop your creatine down to the basal level from simple muscle turnover—but I wouldn't stop taking protein and creatine. After you've given your system time to clear out any possible stress-related increase in creatinine production, come back in for another blood test and to grab the jug. The lab will compare your blood concentration of Cr to the amount in your urine. This will tell us exactly how well the kidney is disposing of waste, and allow us to control for all those ways in which you're 'abnormal'.Like I said, it could turn out that your kidneys really are in rough shape. But more than likely it's just the fact that you get more protein and have more muscle than most.
Conclusion:Einstein once remarked, "It is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analyzing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken."You wouldn't be here if you didn't take your health seriously. That, and your love of iron, makes you abnormal. Which means sometimes you won't fit the model other people use to judge you, whether it's figuring you for a mindless meathead or determining the state of your health. It's important to understand the assumptions on which doctors base their thinking. Sometimes the assumptions make no sense at all (as with BMI) and at other times, you're just different enough from a 'normal' person that 'normal' methods just won't apply.