Joining Peapod Fitness

HELLO all new and expectant mothers! Dara Zall Kelly’s fantastic peri-natal training program Peapod Fitness is expanding, and she has brought me on board!

http://www.ppodfitness.com/index.php

I will be at the Brookline location, so if you’re interested in training with me, shoot me an email or call Bodyscapes in Brookline to set up an appointment (617-413-8124).

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Final Cause

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” – Aristotle

“Man consists of two parts:  his mind and his body; only the body has more fun.” – Woody Allen

Trying to come to terms with both of these insights is quite the challenge.  On the one hand, there is more information and opportunity for instruction than ever before: for fitness or any other endeavor.

On the other hand, your body is quite capable of overriding any and all mental commands and warnings: when it wants sleep, you either sleep or slog through your responsibilities. When it wants sugar, you either dive headlong into the nearest pint or you set a new record for rude hand gestures in traffic on the way home from work.

And, if given the choice between a hard workout and, say, a Celtics game,  sushi with your friends,  shopping, your couch… well, we all know what happens  most of the time.

So what do you do? Well first, try to take Aristotle’s advice (how often do you hear that phrase?) and define your plan:

#1 – Notice how Aristotle says  “practical ideal“. If you work 8-10 hours a day or have children to take care of 24/7, then “America’s Next Supermodel” might be a little bit of  a lofty goal.  And honestly, not many of us actually need that kind of body. We’d take it if all it took was the flick of a wand, but for the most part we just want to look good.

So, choose a pants-size that you look good in.  That will be your practical ideal.

#2 – The “necessary means” to achieve your goal.  Hey, that’s why I’m here, to provide some guidance; I hesitate to call my opinions “wisdom”, but knowledge and experience count for something.  And I don’t know many people who don’t have access to a gym of some kind. So you have the “wisdom and methods” (a trainer), and the “materials” (a gym). The last part: “the money” is a catch for some.  Understandably so. What that comes down to is defining exactly how important it is for you to look and feel like you’d like to look and feel. Nobody else can judge that.

#3 – “Adjust your means to that end”. Well, if you’ve hired a trainer, joined a gym and have your pants size number in mind, then the “adjustment” needed is the follow-through. You want this, you’ve spent the money to acquire the wisdom and means; now you have to take hold and ask yourself this: “How much ‘fun’ does my body really need to have?”  Or better yet, “How much fun will it be when my body looks good?”

You can get yourself to the gym. You can apply your nutritional plan even when your trainer is nowhere to be seen.  It’s essentially like building a table by following the directions. There are plans out there.  They work.  You just have to get out the hammer and keep whacking until it’s done.

Get on the clock!

“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Most gym-goers want one or more of these three things: better cardiovascular fitness, less body-fat or more muscle. Hence the dumbbells, treadmills and calorie-restricted diets.  But here’s another element you can add to your repertoire: a stopwatch.

Why? Because our bodies change when our ability to perform improves.  And performance isn’t only about the overall time you put in, or the number of reps, or even the amount of weight you move. It can also be about covering the same distance as last session but in less time,  or doing the same reps and the same weight but with shorter rest periods. About doing sprints, but faster than you’ve ever done… you get the idea.

Think about how performance is measured in professional sporting events: Who gets to the ball the fastest? Who can maintain a high level of skill even when they are exhausted and the team has run out of timeouts? Whose tennis serve has the most velocity? Even in events that stop frequently, time is tied to performance. Those gigantic linemen in football? They can probably push 600-700 pounds 5-10 yards one time without killing themselves.  But how about pushing the other 300-pound lineman that comes at them every 20-25 seconds, over and over? Even in events seemingly aimed at endurance, like marathon running, the goal is to knock off time.

I’ll tell you, a tried-and-true method of muscle building is shorter rest periods between sets.  Leave the two and three minute rests for the power- and Olympic lifters.

Cardiovascular work and fat-loss? Try this for a month: Speed up your sets and rest only long enough to keep from passing out… and then tell me if you see better results!

Now you don’t want mere speed for the sake of speed. The key to avoiding a chaotic workout is to buy a $2 stop-watch at Target. Use it. For muscle-building, start by limiting your breaks between bench presses to 45 seconds. For fat-loss goals, do back-to-back exercises with no rest, then rest just 30 seconds and repeat. It doesn’t need to be complicated!

Now… 3…2…1… GO!

Growing Up (in the gym)

“The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!’” – John F. Kennedy

Cause you’re all growns up!

Usually, if you look back on your life, you can see patterns of development in almost every category of day-to-day activity. Most of the time, you can see a clear path of maturation. For instance, you may still like the same music you did when you were in college, but over the years you may have stopped cutting your hair like the band, stopped wearing band t-shirts every day, stopped following the guitarists’ lives, stopped rushing out to buy the new album the very day it is released, stopped going to as many shows… you get the idea.

Some of these changes are intentional, others not. For most of us, having a crazy hair-do and wearing a band’s t-shirt became inappropriate for our lives, specifically our careers and social gatherings. In the beginning this was intentional: it was a realization that a change had to be made. After a while though, you got used to it, and you are no longer even tempted to dye your hair purple.

Other changes may have come unintentionally: following the personal lives of the band members, or rushing out day-of for tickets or a new album lost it’s place in your life. You didn’t decide to stop caring that much about the band; your life just filled up with other things that made the band a little less important to you. You might still eventually get the album, but hearing it next month is just as good as hearing it right now.

What does any of this have to do with fitness or exercise? Well, just like in every other part of life, there is a certain level of “growing up” to be done when you decide to get your body into shape.

• The moment you realize that you can’t get away with eating whatever you want any more, or the moment that a doctor tells you that your physical exam scores aren’t very good, is similar to the realization that in order to get a good job, the crazy hair and piercings need to go.

• When you get your first real job, there is a shocking transition: you no longer have the freedom to just do what you want: there is a boss and a schedule and specific demands – and you may be uncomfortable with it, and sometimes dread it, and be tempted to quit. When you join a gym or a training program, the same thing happens: you get a clear picture of what your body cannot do. The exercises are difficult. You’ll get sore. The immediate effort doesn’t seem to be producing equivalent results.

• But after the initial shock has worn off, after you’ve gotten used to the system and gotten a look at your first paycheck, somehow you don’t miss the crazy outfits as much. Maybe you can afford a new computer now, or you can finally fix up your car. In the gym, you start to get the rhythm of the exercises: they are still challenging, but they don’t hurt the same way anymore; and for the first time, someone says to you, “Hey, did you lose weight?”

So the intentional change: choosing to join a gym or begin a training program, lead to a change that was gradual and wasn’t dependent on a single moment of decision: your body changed enough for someone else to notice and comment. You decided every day not to quit. And for that, you received your first paycheck.

• As time goes by, you really don’t miss going to a show every weekend. Listening to the album in your car on the way home from work is pleasant enough. Besides, you’re going hiking with your significant other and some friends. When it comes to exercise, you don’t miss eating an extra roll or two at dinner. Giving 3 hours of your week to exercise really is quite nice: you can let your mind stray from work, and you no longer feel wiped out from it;  instead, it’s often invigorating. That hike with your friends is something you can actually handle now: you won’t be the party pooper who always suggests seeing  a movie instead.

• Eventually, you’ve established a lifestyle that requires dedication to your work: you actually go for a promotion and a raise: how else will you pay for the extra car, the vacation overseas and a fantastic birthday present for your significant other? The idea of leaving work early on Friday to get to a show is absurd: you’d rather go to Europe. Likewise with working out: if you find yourself somehow kept away from the gym for a week, you start to feel fidgety and down; in fact, on particularly rough weeks, you go to the gym more often to feel better!

• At some point, you may have children who require guidance. You strive to teach them the value of getting a degree and a good-paying job. They will resist, but you’ve seen the benefits and wish only to share it with them. You can even point out an old friend who dropped out of college, never went in for a full-time job, and is now living, alone, in a small apartment. He never goes anywhere because he can’t afford it. And when you are fit and healthy, your overweight friends may occasionally ask for advice, or give you dozens of reasons why they don’t have the time to get fit. You can tell them about your improved blood tests, your higher energy levels, the disappearance of joint pains. Some may listen. But others will continue to refuse, and will continue to get warnings – more dire as you get older – from doctors; they will continue to bow out of physical activities; they will continue to feel rundown. But you made the sacrifices early on; you realized later that they were hardly even real sacrifices compared to the benefits you gained. You matured and they did not.

Cirque du BOSU, pt. I

I’m proud to say that nobody who has trained with me has found themselves standing atop a BOSU, with weights, without weights and certainly not squatting.

I’ve always looked at the BOSU with suspicion. The rounded top never made sense to me (for leg exercises like squats and lunges), because it gives the user too many opportunities to apply force to their ankles, knees and hips while the ankle is turned in awkward positions.

I think that there is an interesting misunderstanding about this type of exercise: beating yourself up in an awkward position doesn’t always lend to improvement in the normal position.

Martial artists may practice slamming their fists into cement blocks, leading to adaptations in their bones and muscles. Then when they hit an opponent’s face (less hard than a cement block) they cause major damage.

But these martial artists wouldn’t practice slamming a limp hand into a cement block. Doing so would not improve their punch against an opponent; rather, it would cause damage that would set them back.

The key is to learn proper form (a punch or a squat, for instance) and then to progress while maintaining this proper form. In martial arts, they learn how to punch into the air; then perhaps they move to a punching bag, then a thin piece of wood… on and on until finally they smash cement blocks.

On a squat, you learn proper form maybe by sitting back onto a bench with no weight. Eventually you go a little deeper, then you lose the bench, then you add a bar or dumbbells… on and on until – if you are a competitive power-lifter – you find yourself with 800-900 pounds on your back. At no point would any of these people, beginner or power-lifter, ever squat with their feet in any position but flat. No turning ankles.

So what happens if you do squats – say on a BOSU – which would require that at least one ankle was turned inwards? You would be doing these things:

• Stretching the ligaments of the ankle. These ligaments are supposed to help guard your ankle from turning (i.e. spraining); when you  sprain your ankle, you can stretch these ligaments into a place where they no longer help your body respond to a twist- this is why it is so common to re-sprain an ankle.  If you were to repeatedly put stress on an ankle in that position (bodyweight squats on a BOSU with ankles turned in) you would perpetuate the stretched-ligaments situation, leaving you more susceptible to ankle sprains. [Imagine the damage you can cause if you also added weights!]

• You would also be training the rest of your joints in an inappropriate manner. If your ankle is turned in, then subsequently your knees, hips and back end up adapting – but adapting to a position that you would not be in while you squat on the flat floor, or while you stand waiting for coffee, or while walking up the stairs… You body learns patterns, and your muscles and joints adjust: why would you teach it the wrong pattern?

• The big muscles that you are attempting to train  in a squat (legs, butt, etc.) will not get the same workout because you cannot use the same amount of weight as if you trained on the flat ground. Your muscles change when given an overload – but the load will be less if you are forced to stand on a rounded, unstable BOSU.  In other words, you will be greatly dimishing the value of doing squats at all.

Now there are certainly other tools for training on unstable surfaces:  Airex pads, stability balls, various air-filled discs; and they are safer than the BOSU (and certainly serve a great purpose for rehab of the ankles).  I’ll talk about those next time.

Quickie #1

After my post about doctors and their lack of exercise knowledge, I decided to take a quick glance around the net and see if they (doctors) are doing anything to remedy the state of things. Were there any doctors speaking out? Are there courses for doctors on exercise?

I discovered a Continuing Education course through Harvard Medical School called “Prescribing Exercise”.  I signed up and finished the online “course” in 90 minutes… obviously not a very detailed education.

What I found was that doctors are being told to

• Talk about exercise at every patient meeting.

• Search for contraindications for exercise.

• If there are no contraindications, they should recommend light or moderate intensity exercise, based on a patient’s likes/dislikes, the number of health risks (heart conditions, family history, etc.) and a realistic progression of frequency and duration.

• Follow up with emails, postcards or phone calls to see how the exercise is coming along.

• Recommend heart-rate based exercise. Everything from gardening to swimming was mentioned… though weight-lifting was not. (Any of you who train with me know that your heart-rate can get plenty high and for an extended period of time during weight-lifting!)

• Focus on the physical and psychological benefits that come with regular exercise.

• Try to get healthy patients up to a minimum of 2.5 hours of low-to-moderate intensity exercise each week.

I didn’t find anything that jumped out as contradictory to what I know. It was based around safety first, with no mention whatsoever of movement patterns, periodization or “phases”, strength development, proper exercise form or corrective exercise.

Now I realize that this was just a simple CE course… but it was developed by a Harvard professor for Harvard Med students. So I’ll stick with my statements earlier that it seems that beyond the very basics of “exercise more, but don’t do anything that will hurt you,” doctors still have a long way to go.

The coolest part about it is that now, whenever I decide to quit training, go to Harvard Medical school, and graduate… I’ll already have one whole credit towards my Continuing Ed program! You can basically start calling me “Doc” right now!

Not all that glitters

“Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light.”

"This is no ordinary apple. It's a magic wishing apple. Now, make a wish, and take a bite!"

2 Corinthians 11:14

Leigh Peele  (author of the Fat-loss Troubleshoot) is not only an expert in fat-loss, but also a very funny, candid blogger.  If something stinks, she’ll sink her teeth into it and shake it around until the BS is exposed.

Recently, she tore into Jillian Michaels’ book: “Master Your Metabolism”.

Here is a quote:

“Most of the book, and really I do mean that, is filled with wrong information on studies, how things work, and personal stories that have no relevance to science in anyway,  shape, or form.”

Read the rest here.

Now you might be thinking, “If she is so wrong, how do all of those people lose so much weight?”

Well, I’ll tell you something that is screamingly obvious, but is oh so important: the contestants on that show have accountability like you wouldn’t believe.

Now tell me: if you were asked to do something, something you strongly disliked, and at the end of the week all you had to do was look in the mirror and say, “You did it!” or “I failed!”… would you accomplish the unpleasant task? Perhaps, if it was absolutely necessary, or if you were having a good week, right? But what if it was something that could slide another week? Do you think it might find it’s way into your “I’ll do it later” pile? You bet it might.

Now what if, for some strange reason, this unpleasant task had to be done by the end of the week, or else you’d have to look into a TV camera in front of millions of people and say “I failed!” Do you think you might be more compliant? Think you might be scared stiff into doing it? Me too.

So what is my point? It’s this: “eat less, exercise more” works. How you do it is up to you. If you do it is also up to you. That’s why Weight Watchers clubs work better than buying a book and trying to lose weight on your own: the members weigh-in together. It’s why working out with a friend or a trainer brings better results: there’s someone to push you.

It’s why The Biggest Loser contestants lose weight and you often feel like you can’t.

So try a little experiment: #1: Choose a fat-loss plan. #2:  Choose 5 people you trust to report your weekly progress to. Choose people who care about you, not a workmate who might just tease you or forget to check in with you.

Make it really simple. Once a week, in person, on the phone or email, have them ask you these questions:

1. How did you do this week? And you respond with a “5″ (I did great!) or maybe a “3″ (I did ok) or you may have to say “1″ (I screwed up).

2. What made this week a “5″? or a “2″? And you tell them what made the week a “5″ (I worked out all 5 times and I stuck to the meal plan throughout!) or perhaps a “4″ (I worked out 4 times, but I was exhausted on Thursday so I skipped that day, and my eating that night wasn’t good either) or a “2″ (I worked out on Monday and Tuesday, but then couldn’t get back in all week. Breakfast was good most days, but I usually lost track of my food after lunch…)

3. What can you do to improve on a “2″? or What things will you repeat to make this next week a success? And you explain your plan to change the factors that screwed you up… or what you intend to repeat this next week to keep up a successful run.

It won’t match the ungodly stress of being on national TV, but then, you likely don’t have 100+ pounds to lose either.

There are many plans that work (and there aren’t any “secrets” or “magic pills”), but only one way to make them work for you:  compliance. Find a way to make it happen!

An apple a day…

"If it works, we're right. If he dies, it was something else."

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

~Thomas Edison

Until that time when the doctors of Edison’s future exist, you’ll have to deal with the likes of me for your “care of the human frame” and your “diet”.

Hey now, stop screaming in horror!

All kidding aside, I’d take my workout routines over 99% of the doctors out there any day.  In fact, the next time you’re at your family doctor’s office, ask the doctor what is going on inside your hip. Point to a spot right below your hip crest, near your butt.  Tell him it’s been hurting since you played tennis a couple days ago.

Chances are, your doctor will

1. Refer you to another doctor.

2. Suggest that it’s a “muscle strain”, and that you should “stop activity” for a while.

3. Doubtfully mention something about the iliac crest (part of the hip bone).

Now, before I go further, I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I dislike doctors, or that I distrust them.  Not at all. When I had a sinus infection this past winter, I went straight to my doc and got a prescription. Last year, when my asthma unaccountably got worse… I called my doctor.

And I highly recommend that if you have anything similar to those type of internal maladies… book an appointment with your doctor.

All that said, when it comes to muscles, exercise and nutrition, the doctor is very likely not your best option.

The thing is, medical students just aren’t asked to know that stuff. At least nothing further than the generic basics.

Take a look at the “Biggest Loser” show.  The obese contestants are being trained by personal trainers. They are also monitored by medical professionals. Notice how they are not being trained to lose weight by the medical professionals. The doctors are there to make sure that their blood pressure doesn’t move into a dangerous realm, that their blood tests don’t indicate any vast deficiencies… in other words, because they are so large, the quick changes brought on by the trainers are being watched by the doctors.

It’s a great duo.

But if your blood pressure is high, your cholesterol is high, or you are overweight… what does your family doctor tell you to do? “You need to exercise more.” Does he/she give you an exercise routine? No. But will they tell you to “do more cardio, like jogging”, and “not eat too much protein”?* Unfortunately, too often they will.

So what’s my point? Be careful what you believe when your doctor speaks. Doctors are just people too, and sometimes – many times – they will give rotten advice rather than admit that they don’t know something. Or, perhaps even worse, they will give advice on something they don’t know about, all the while believing that they do know about it.

Here is a very cool little article by a recent med-school grad. He is a weight-lifting fan, and he talks about the contrast of what he knows about exercise and nutrition and what they learned (or didn’t learn) in med school.

What Your Doc Doesn’t Know About Weightlifting

I particularly like the sections on BMI and Kidney Function (in relation to protein intake).

Anyhow, have a great Patriot’s Day weekend, and I promise not to prescribe you pushups for your Spring allergies!

[* I want to clarify this: Long, slow jogging in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's just usually not the optimal use of exercise time for most people, and for some, it can be detrimental to joint health. And the idea of "too much" protein is a funny one. Of course "too much" of anything is a bad thing. "Too much oxygen" will kill you too. The definition of "too much" is "so much more than is necessary that it will cause some kind of harm". The real question is a matter of "How much do you need?"]

Power Butter

“Here I come to save the daaay!
That means that Mighty Mouse is on his way.
Yes sir, when there is a wrong to right
Mighty Mouse will join the fight.
On the sea or on the land,
He gets the situation well in hand.”

While Power Butter cannot fly, it is still an interesting product.

Convenience, convenience, convenience. That’s what most eating habits come down to. What’s in front of me? How fast can I get it? Do I have to cook it?

Well, Power Butter presents a potential short-cut in the daily challenge of getting protein, fiber and healthy fats. First of all, you don’t have to cook it, it’s portable, and it tastes good. Second of all, it doesn’t have any objectionable ingredients like hydrogenated oils or high-fructose corn syrup.

So what is it?

It’s essentially a jar of peanut butter, with extra protein (from egg whites) healthy fats and fiber (from flax) and honey, salt and wheat germ for flavor.

It advertizes a serving size as 4 tablespoons – compare that to regular peanut butter, which lists a serving as 2 tablespoons. So if we cut the serving size in half, Power Butter comes out looking like this:

• Basically the same amount of calories, fat, fiber and sugar as regular peanut butter.
• A small amount of omega-3’s, which regular peanut butter doesn’t have.
• Twice as much protein as regular peanut butter.

Most people think it tastes better than regular peanut butter – because of the honey and flax flavor – but that’s a matter of personal preference.

The only problem I have with Power Butter is the unground flax seeds. Flax seeds are really only beneficial when ground. Otherwise, they tend to just pass right on through the body; it doesn’t do you any harm – it just doesn’t do you any good either. You still get some benefit from the flax oil included, but the seeds are not as valuable here.

So can you make your own? The ingredients are simple enough – but I’ve tried it myself, and I’ll say this:

• I don’t like the idea of using raw egg whites, and I don’t know how to cook them in properly.
• You can get more benefit from grinding the flax seeds, so that’s a plus.
• Making it come out right isn’t so easy… the texture can be hard to deal with.
• It’s pretty messy to make.

Overall, I think it’s a pretty good product (though it could be better), and it does make things a bit simpler. It’s also not very expensive.

If you do decide to try some, you can put “IanKayTraining” in the coupon code box and get 5% off.

Green Tea

No,  it won’t help you look great in your bathing suit.

There, I said it.

There are many promising studies on the benefits of green tea, but very few indicate that it will help you lose fat.

That said,  there seems to be very good reason to drink a couple cups each day. First of all, unlike coffee, there haven’t been any big studies that have concluded that green tea has any adverse effects if consumed regularly.

Second, quite a few studies have indicated that consistent green tea consumption helps dilate blood vessels, which means improved heart health.

Third, there have been many studies showing decreased rates of various cancers in green tea drinkers.

Unfortunately, there have also been many studies showing no benefit regarding cancer, and some that give disappointing reviews on heart health. The FDA refuses to declare green tea as a significant aid to either of these ailments.

So what’s the final word on green tea?

The way I see it, there are dozens of studies that say that green tea helps fight cancer, heart disease… right on down to smaller ailments like sleep apnea and arthritis. There are other studies that show no benefit. There seem to be none that say it causes any harm. Plus, the stuff isn’t very expensive.

Odds are, it’s worth it!