"For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals ... On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months."
Greetings! A lot has happened over the past two months. I moved on from my position at Ramstein, I visited home to Oregon for some excellent R&R (hiking, camping, farmers markets, beaches, parks, workouts at CrossFit Excellence, and lots of time with the family), I moved on and began my new job/assignment in the hospital at Eglin Air Force Base and have also begun studying for a C.S.C.S, working on a ton of household projects getting settled in, and am attempting to learn to garden. Feel free to donate to my compost pile ...
I haven't written or read as much as I usually like to; however, I have a piece in the works discussing the various metabolic fuel systems, how they work during what types of exercise and why that matters. Keep an eye out for that in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, the articles below made it through my filter as being particularly interesting/useful and I'd like to pass them on to you. Enjoy!
"There should be no fear of bulking up when fat-burning is being maximized."
The Big Sleep -- Stephan Guyenet, Whole Health Source
"Lack of sleep appears to predispose to obesity and diabetes, and probably sets us up for the Big Sleep down the line."
"Keep your room as dark as possible during sleep. It also helps to avoid bright light, particularly in the blue spectrum, before bed (4). "Soft white" bulbs are preferable to full spectrum in the evening. If you need to use your computer, dim the monitor and adjust it to favor warm over cool colors. For people who sleep poorly due to anxiety, meditation before bed can be highly effective."
*Also see Stephan's clarification of the data from the study, here
On a similar thread, my sister and I experimented with some de-stressing techniques while I was visiting home to Oregon last month. Here is what we came up with:
"Today I just wanted to share some of the things this 36yr old has personally learned about all things health and fitness….in no certain order…
There is no such thing as spot reduction…but there is a great business in selling that concept (Ab-reclining chair anyone?)
It’s a lot easier to stay fit and strong….once you get there
If I had to pick one sport for a child to start with it would be gymnastics, the strength/speed/balance/body control they will learn can be applied to any sport down the road."
I saw this excellent blog post by Martin Berkhan over at Lean Gains and my thought-track went on a tangent which led me to writing this post. I've been meaning to write a series of posts on our fuel systems and our carbohydrate needs for various activity levels and goals for quite some time. Unfortunately, a perfectionist mindset held me back from tackling such a large [and somewhat ambiguous] beast. It has to start somewhere ...
"When exercising at higher intensities than 65% VO2Max, fat oxidation is progressively reduced and becomes almost non-existent at 82-87% VO2Max.
C [fed/carbohydrate group] saw a greater increase in VO2Max ... C improved VO2Max more as they could train harder due to providing the proper substrates for fueling the activity. On the other hand, F [fasted training group] became progressively more efficient at oxidizing fat at higher levels of intensity as evidenced by the increase in FATmax. This is, in turn, could be explained by the substantial increase in the fat burning enzymes FAT/CD36 and CPT1.
The fasted training group saw significant improvements in all parameters relevant to improving body composition and health [glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, GLUT4/AMPK increased, markers for fat metabolism, body composition], where as the fed training group saw comparatively lackluster results here."
My notes: There is a lot of neat stuff in that post and in the study's linked. Read between the lines: fasted training appears to improve markers related to insulin sensitivity, health, and body composition. However, the fed athletes appeared to be capable of a higher work output (while they also gained a little wieght).
Should I eat those potatoes?
I'd like to point a few things out:
At rest or low intensities, we can use fat as our primary energy source.
Ketogenic diets and physical performance recounts a few examples of groups and individuals who survived for a year or more on a diet mostly or entirely devoid of carbohydrates--as well as presenting a study where cyclists improved their performance after adapting to a strict protein and fat only diet.
On the other hand, fat is metabolized to ATP slower relative to carbohydrate and cannot be burned anaerobically. At high intensities, we are using primarily carbohydrate for fuel. Period.
With clever diet modifications and time to adapt, our body can begin to burn greater amounts of fat at various exercise intensities (which spares glycogen), however, we will still be burning some glycogen/glucose.
If you've been following the fitness industry the last few years, you are probably aware of a growing body of evidence suggesting that static stretching before workouts does not prevent injuries and may actually hurt physical performance (see Phys Ed: Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries for a decent review). However, it's reasonable to propose that if you are fighting against your own muscles to get in proper positions, you are wasting valuable energy. The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine (USACHPPM --go military acronyms!) Physical Training Injury Prevention Toolbox also reviewed much of the (lack of) current research on stretching muscles before or after exercise and summarized:
"Studies to date have not specifically targeted individuals with limited flexibility. Studies show that stretching can increase flexibility, although these suggest that the most efficient timing of stretching may be when muscles are warm (possibly after exercise). Additionally, epidemiological data indicate that both extremes of flexibility (too much or too little) are associated with increased injury rates."
Conversely, performing a dynamic warmup and gradually increasing heart rate, body temperature, and mobility through actual movement before a workout can be very useful to prepare for certain ranges of motion.
Athletes commonly compensate for tight shoulder musculature by hyper-extending the lumbar -- not under Mads' watch.
"The best science suggests that an ideal preworkout routine “consists of a very easy warm-up, followed by a gradual increase in intensity and then dynamic stretching,” he said. Dynamic stretching, or exercises that increase your joints’ range of motion via constant movement, does not seem to invoke the inhibitory reflex of static stretching"
Additionally, mobility can be an all day endeavor -- work on it day and night, not just before or after your workout. The below resources are full of excellent articles and videos explaining concepts of anatomy, stretching, mobility, stability, and more. Spend some time and explore your mobility.
Thames CrossFit Mobility -- Great articles and videos on mobility, stretching, nutrition and more from London-based Jami Tikkanen.
"We all know to take our hips back as we descend to a squat or a deadlift but the problems arise when we run out of space at the hips. This is the point where most of us start to push our knees forward or lose our lumbar curve (but then again, we didn’t like our knees and intervertebral discs anyway, did we?)."
Mobility Wod -- San Fransisco-based Kelly Starrett puts out a daily video demonstrating high quality mobility movements and bonus entertainment.
"Movement restrictions happen within the context of the entire kinetic chain. In an overhead squat for example, tight hips will challenge even the best shoulder positioning. Or conversely, restricted shoulders will force greater movement demands on the hips. The solution?
I like Tequila. Always have. Maybe that's because I don't tend to go overboard and never had a bad Tequila night in college like some of my friends. It also has a distinct flavor, is gluten-free, and goes well with citrus and/or club soda ala Robb Wolfs NorCal Margarita. I always knew to avoid the cheep stuff (which often winds up to be cheep vodka flavored like Tequila); however, I rarely got much more exotic than Jose or Patron.
Last week I was on leave and visiting home in wonderful Portland, Oregon. One of my sisters invited me to a Tequila tasting at Trebol--a very cool tequila bar that boasts organic mexican food and an assortment of Luche Libre masks. That's right, there are people out there who sip and taste Tequila and don't just chase it down with salt and lime or take it off the body of an inebriated coed. When you get into it, many of the finer Tequila's have a rich assortment of flavors on par with a very fine Scotch.
Why re-create the wheel? My mission is to provide the best information to you and there are a lot of great writers and thinkers out there who have already put together excellent stuff. In addition to original pieces, I'll do my best to sort gold from B.S. and will post links in this manner as I come across unique pieces worth sharing.
"This biggest mistake people make nowadays is doing too much. More is not going to be better, especially if you are doing it with too much intensity and too often. Your body just doesn’t work that way and your hormones won’t respond optimally."
"This video describes the rationale and philosophy behind eating as our ancestors did and provides me and hopefully you with a way to tell others why it makes sense."
Portlanders, don’t miss my free nutrition clinic from 9am-12pm this Saturday (11 Sep 2010) at CrossFit Excellence (333 2nd Street Lake Oswego OR 97034). We will follow it up with an optional, little bodyweight workout at Noon!
The first half will discuss health implications of the SAD (Standard American Diet) and how to overcome them.
Participants will come away with simple guidelines and strategies for achieving optimal bodyweight, lowering heart disease risk, improving blood sugar control, sharper focus, and moving towards outstanding general health and wellbeing.
The second segment will discuss how to move beyond wellness and into the realm of superior fitness and performance.
Participants will gain a general understanding of the role nutrition plays in each of the metabolic/energy pathways and how tailor their eating strategies based on their training volume, intensity, and specific goals.
