30 day challenges: a discussion on the Pros/cons.

Recently I was invited through Facebook to join in some friends on a ‘fun’ challenge to spend 30 days working on my abdominals. Granted I am not one to back down from a challenge lightly so I said ok and started on June 1st and just finished the challenge yesterday.

The challenges I find out are more than just abdominals though. They have any and every type of challenge that you can imagine. So I will be spending the next few months going through a few of them and discussing the pros/cons of each challenge as well as my thoughts on how this might benefit some and hinder others.

30 Day Abdominal Challenge

Pros of the challenge

This was well-thought out in some ways. 3 days and then break, 3 days and then break. I thought that the individual who came up with this challenge was considerate of the fact that you need to rest your muscles, even your abs.

The choice of the exercises was interesting as well. I would have liked something to target the oblique as well, but one could always do a sit-up with a twist if they so desired. I know that I changed up the leg raises to add a hip lift at the end making it target my lower abdominals in a different way. Planks was a nice way to end each day since it was an isometric exercise after the muscles were fatigued.

Cons of the challenge

I thought that towards the end of the challenge that I hoped that no one who was just getting into exercise was attempting to do this non-stop. 125 sit-ups followed by 200 crunches is incredibly difficult and even I took the challenge and broke it into 50 rep sections with a small rest period in between.

I also thought about fatigue being an issue here. Pushing the muscles that much could weaken the abdominal wall creating risk of hernias, etc.

Conclusion

Bottom line is that none of these ‘challenges’ should be taken as a substitution for actual exercise. When you are considering whether or not you want to take on one of these challenges, just make sure that you are aware of the limitations of them. They are akin to you betting yourself and your friends to see if you have the will power. But they can also introduce someone who might be off the exercise wagon back into the idea of pursuing health. It might just give a person that motivation to make the change permanent.

Happy Fathers Day – Dedicated to the man that has shaped my life, my dad.

This isn’t the original version but Rod Stewarts version of Cat Steven’s famous song “Father and Son”.

I think that with this coming Father’s day, this song just takes on a special meaning. As a new father, I think this song captivates exactly how I feel about what I want to tell my son as he gets older.

To my own father, I cannot express my gratitude at your choices in our lives. We didn’t grow up rich, we didn’t grow up with a lot of material things, but we were loved and cherished and that was worth more than any amount of money. I am the man that I am because you are the man that I want to be.

I hope to be that same father to my son.

Success consist…

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

It’s been almost 2 years since I last wrote in this blog. Life took an unexpected turn when my wife and I found out we were having a child. Needless to say the first year has been awesome and nuts at the same time. I have so much more to write, but this quote is a poignant reminder that success is not in our achievements but in our continued persistence in moving forward, not stopping for life’s distractions.

Maybe you are at a plateau. Maybe you have fallen off and don’t know how to get back to where you once were. Maybe you look at yourself and think “How did I get here?”

I challenge you to instead of thinking of the past, look forward. Set a new goal. Focus on the present and the future. Learn from your past, learn from those mistakes, and get up one more time. You won’t regret it.

Declaration of Independence

On today, I feel that we all should spend a second re-reading what has given us the freedom to exercise as we choose. I don’t remember reading this until college, but I hope that each of you reading this blog would spend 5 min, recognizing how vital this document is to what we experience today.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

6 steps to change – Know where you are at.

Someone once said to a friend of mine, “You can’t expect everyone to be at the same place. We’re all at different points in life.” And this has helped me immensely to realize that while I can expect rational behavior, I cannot push people to be at the point that I am at in life. Instead I have to learn to be patient while people go through the experiences that I have been through to make the changes in their life to become healthier.

Something that has helped me to understand where people are at in their change is the concept of the “Transtheoretical Model of Change.” If you haven’t heard of it, perhaps this might be the post that helps you to learn to be more patient with everyone around you as well as yourself.

The Transtheoretical Model is as follows:

1. Precontemplation
2. Contemplation
3. Preparation
4. Action
5. Maintenance
6. Termination(Adoption)

Let me expound on this.

Precontemplation

Precontemplation is the stage of change in which a person has no idea of his/her need to change, nor do they have a desire. They are happy as they are and are not considering fixing the particular problem they might have. For example a person might be overweight and happy, even though they’d like to quit smoking. The fact that they are overweight and not concerned or thinking about losing weight would be why they would be in this stage.

Contemplation

Contemplation is when a person starts to think that they are having a problem and that they might need to do something about it. The person above might notice that they are not fitting into their pants anymore and now they need to get new clothes. Perhaps they are finally thinking about that diet.

Preparation

Preparation is when a person has decided to change a behavior and works towards getting ready to change. They might research out gyms, or maybe medical doctors for a medical issue. They will talk to friends and family who have succeeded in changing and discuss how they were effective. They are getting ready to make the change.

Action

Action is when the person actually changes. This would be the time that the person above would go to the gym, would lose weight, or would go on a diet. This is the first stage of actual change. Before the person was all working in theoretical changing, and mentally preparation but now they are actually doing something.

Maintenance

At this stage the person is continuing to work through their change. They have started to see effects and are continuing to progress through to try to achieve their goals.

Termination (Adoption)

After maintaining for enough time, the process becomes a habit. The reason I call it “Termination(Adoption)” instead of the clinical “Termination” is because in a lot of cases it is not just about a diet or something negative. Sometimes the changes are positive and in that case this stage is about making the change permanent.

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Conclusion

These 6 stages and knowledge of them helps us to recognize where we are in a behavior. It also helps us to focus on others needs to change too. Perhaps some other people might not be in the same spot that we are and therefore they might not be as willing to change with us. The fact of knowing this might help us to be more patient with people who are not as supportive of our changing or people who are annoyingly persistent in our needing to change with them. Recognizing that we are all at different points in life and in change makes for a much less stressful life.

Carbohydrates – Our bodies energy spark.

Lately instead of fats being the evil part of our diets, the craze has been to demonize carbohydrates. What the common person doesn’t understand is that carbohydrates are the main source of energy for our daily life. Cutting out carbohydrates severely hinders our ability to lead an active healthy life. Let’s get scientific for a second.

In every action that we take, whether it is picking up the remote control or sitting down to dinner we contract muscle tissue. Even standing in place requires effort and static tension in muscles! Well behind each of those contractions is a chemical in our body called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short. It is this ATP that is so important and what creates the energy for the action in our bodies. This is where the importance of carbohydrates enters into our body.

When we talk about fat consumption the important thing to think about is long-term energy. Fat has more energy potential long-term, when we think carbohydrates we think instant energy. As we initially work out, in the first minute or so it is all ATP stores in our body. This ATP depletion combined with increase in lactic acid is what we know as fatigue. Carbohydrates are important in recovering from this muscle fatigue.

Interestingly enough, the majority of people already understand this concept, just explained a different way. When you’re tired what do people tell you to do? Eat a Snickers? Get a soda? Have an orange? All of these are examples of ‘quick energy’ boosts or carbs! Snickers and soda are full of sucrose or sugar and an orange is full of fructose or fruit sugar. We all are aware of the energy boost that carbohydrates provide.

The other aspect of carbohydrates is the fact that carbs are important for initializing the consumption of fat. There is a rather cumbersome chemical reaction called a “Krebs cycle” where glucose is required to initialize the start of this cycle. Well, notice the suffix? Yep, it’s a sugar, or in other words, carbohydrates!

This is why when the Atkins diet first came out, I laughed at the public’s feverish belief in the latest ‘diet’ craze. The initial weight loss due to water loss and muscle tissue was not effective long-term and even Atkins had to change their promotion of the diet as it was causing a lot of issues with fatigue and muscle loss. Now Atkins has a new diet that includes ‘good’ carbohydrates and states that some carbs are ‘bad’ carbohydrates. In this way they are correct in that some carbohydrates are more effective than others, but the demonizing of carbs as a whole is ridiculous.

So next time you see a diet that is void of carbohydrates, recognize that it is void of any energy and while you will initially be able to keep up with your daily activities, you will become more and more tired as you continue that diet. It’s just better to have a balance of carbs, fats and proteins.

Conclusion

The ONLY diet that will truly work on everyone is a diet that is well-balanced and full of all three macronutrients. Eliminating one of the major three components as a whole is not only wrong but it is highly irresponsible. If you are someone who believes that you should avoid fat or avoid carbohydrates and tries to limit yourself to eating 2 of the 3 macronutrients, I would strongly encourage you to reconsider. Your body is not designed to live like that. Even if you are diabetic or have other medical issues, it is even more important that you are aware of what you are putting into your mouth and how each of the three macronutrients interacts with you.

Injuries. How to deal with setbacks

Hi everyone!

Like I said when I started this blog, my goal is to provide wellness information 2-3 times a week. However sometimes life gets in the way. Unfortunately a couple of situations put me in a bind financially and at the same time my laptop with all my articles on it happened to break down. It’s been a couple of months of recovery and break from writing. I thought that I might discuss injuries since it happens to coincide with the fact of my computer having a serious setback.

The 6 Rules of Injury:

1. STOP!!!

Don’t try to ‘be a man’ and push through it. This is not a place for you to be a martyr. When you are truly injured then you risk injuring more than just the initial muscle or ligament. Pride is not a good enough reason to potentially ruin your entire life. I like to think of Bo Jackson who was known for not wearing leg pads. His insistence on continuing to play without wearing protection is a very good argument for his hip being injured which ended his football career. So don’t let your pride push you to do something stupid.

 2. Follow the R.I.C.E method. Rest your body!

 R.I.C.E is a great way to help decrease the time your body needs to recover. It stands for “Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation”. Rest is the biggest issue that people have. Especially if it is a leg muscle or if your job or lifestyle requires you to continually use the injured muscle. But the more you can allow the body time to recover on its own the more likely you are to recover at a quicker pace.

3. Follow the R.I.C.E method. Ice your injuries!

After rest, ice is something that can help you to recover quicker too. When the muscles are injured or if you have lifted too much and are trying to recover, the body is attempting to restore itself as quick as possible and it is sending a lot of signals, hormones, etc that cause the area around the injury to inflame. Ice helps to lower the amount of inflammation. It also helps lower the amount of pain the area experiences.

4. Follow the R.I.C.E method. Compress the area.

Compression is another way to help decrease the amount of inflammation. Too much inflammation will cause you to lose some ability to function in that area as the range of motion will be lowered.

5. Follow the R.I.C.E method. Elevate the area

This could be one of the hardest parts of the R.I.C.E. method depending on the particular area in question. If you have a shoulder injury it is not as easy to lie down and elevate it. The idea behind elevation is to lower the amount of blood to the area again lowering the amount of inflammation that is occurring. If you have an ankle sprain, a lot of the pain that you experience is due to the pressure of the sprain from excess fluid in the area. Elevating the injury causes you to keep the pressure lowered. This will reduce pain and help speed recovery.

6. Go see a specialist!

If the pain is continuous or if you are seeing a serious limitation in your activity, don’t wait. Go see a doctor. Pain is a good thing as it tells us that something is wrong rather than allowing us to continue to hurt ourself unaware, but long-term pain is not healthy for us. If a muscle or area is hurting for more than 48 hours or if you are limited on your movement of the area, it is probably time to see someone for actual diagnosis.

Conclusion:

Injuries are not an end to anything. Look at an injury as a challenge to our goals. A setback. The response we have is what makes us successful or failures. Do we step back, take a look at our overall methods, readjust and continue? Or do we ignore the pain, and try to ‘man up’, and find ourselves with a potentially greater injury? When my laptop with all my articles went on the fritz it took a couple of months to recover all that I had done, but it was worth it. As well, the biggest thing it taught me was to back up my articles. Look at injuries the same way. As a chance to re-evaluate your methods.

Reversibility – The laws of thermodynamics apply to your body too.

Our bodies are a commodity. I always think of the board game of “LIFE” and how you each roll the dice and get random occurrences throughout playing. Interestingly, real life is almost the same thing. There is a lot of things that happen to shape who we are as people, what we know, how we act and interact, etc. Now how does that apply to the idea of exercise and fitness?

Each of us is given a certain body with certain proclivities. Some of us are capable of running at high speeds. Others are capable of lifting large weights. Some of us are gifted mentally. But all of us start off with a particular potential. And most of us will hit our peaks between the ages of 25 to 30. 25 is when the brain is fully developed according to several different studies, and your muscles start to gain aging affects around 30. This is why the reversibility principle is so key! We’re not in our teens anymore and can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. We don’t stay up till 3am and get up at 6am and still have energy to make it through the day. Frankly, I don’t know why I did that when I was a kid.

This is why you see the high school quarterback in your 15 year reunion and he looks like he gained 200 pounds. This is why the guys that were ripped like Arnold now have muscles that look saggy and sad. But it doesn’t have to be. Just because you have a lot of muscle or because you run fast, doesn’t mean you have to lose all of that shape! Instead following the other four principles as you work out, helps to keep reversibility from happening. New studies are coming out, including this review, http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/age.html that talks about the effects of aging.

Bottom line is this. You don’t use it, you’re going to lose it.

Conclusion

Many things get in our way of our goals. Life gets busy and we change our priorities, and this a major reason why we lose our ability to achieve success in fitness. We assume that we are in ‘decent’ shape but we don’t see the internal changes happening in our bodies. The only way to ensure success is to continue to work on our goals. If we ignore our goals, or put them on the back-burner, our bodies do not wait for us to pick back up where we were at, they will suffer from regression. So even if you aren’t moving towards your goals, make sure you are maintaining the progress you currently have achieved!

Specificity – You get what you train for!

The fourth principle of exercise/fitness is the principle of specificity. The concept behind this principle is the idea that you cannot achieve success in whatever you do without specifically targeting the area or ability that you are wanting to change. This is the reason why that form is so important. Without proper form you do not move the muscles through the proper range of motion. Ever see someone at the gym who does half-reps with a really heavy weight? Sometimes he or she is doing this specifically but otherwise they are cheating themselves out of progression.

For you runners out there, imagine if you decided to run for 20 secs and then walk 5 minutes and then run 20 secs again. After a while do you think your body would get used to the idea of 20 second runs? You get what you train for. Simple as that. Regardless of your training regimen, our bodies get used to what we toss at it. Or we break. There is no magic ability to increase our legs by training our arms.

This is also why it is important when we do exercises that we don’t add in extra help. If a person is doing a bicep curl, and you see him suddenly change their rotation accessing other muscles, yes they got the rep in, but did they really do extra work on the bicep? In reality they risk injuring themselves. I cannot imagine a situation in which adding extra muscles would benefit the progression of the target muscles.

Machines vs. Free Weights

I think this would be a good place to add the controversy of machines vs. free weights. Lots of people will say a lot of different things about both products, and both have good and bad qualities. I personally use both, and use them for very specific reasons. I will go into a much greater inspection of this debate on a later article, but the important thing to note is that when discussing the specificity principle, machines will allow a person just starting at the gym to make sure that they are doing exercises through the proper range of motion, and be able to work on control and power.  Free weights allow a person to access the stabilizing muscles, and allows a person to do multiple exercises quicker  with the same weights. So when considering the specificity principle, determine your level of comfort with weights before you jump to one, or scoff at people doing weights/machines.

Speed of movement

The principle of specificity does not just apply to the range of motion either. It also has to do with the speed in which we move through our exercises. A runner does not become proficient at running 5 min miles by practicing at 10 min miles. You become what you train for. If you want to be able to run at 5 min miles, then you have to start at the speed you can run distance at, and progress to the 5 min mark. Yes there are limitations, but for the most part, it is a question of time not a question of ability. You put your mind to it, and it can be accomplished, and it is a question of how long will it take you to achieve your goal.

Same for those doing weights. Consider a football player. Strength(ability to lift weight) is important, but power(speed of lifting a weight) is as important if not more due to the ability to produce great force quickly. If a lineman is capable of lifting weight quicker than his opponent, on average the lineman will be able to push the opponent backwards. Of course there are other parts to consider when they meet, but if this is the only determining factor, then the outcome is pretty obvious.

Conclusion

We’ve learned about progression and overload, but this principle of specificity is what completes the other two principles. When trying to become better at our craft, we must overload the specific muscles in order to progress. You cannot train for arms if you want to build your legs. You will not see a great increase in biceps by working your shoulders. When choosing a workout, make sure that you are picking exercises that are specific to the muscles or to the ability that you want to achieve success.

Individuality – You mean not everyone starts with the same weight?

So we talked a little about the ‘Individuality principle’ earlier but let’s just think about this for a second. Where in your life can you remember everyone being treated exactly the same? Does an 8 year old and a 30 year old both follow the same rules? How about an 18-year-old trying to get into a 21+ bar? Sounds silly right?

But this is what happens with most people when they first start working out at a gym. People usually start working out with a partner or a trainer and have no idea at what weight they should be at to begin. So they see their friend or someone about their same build and they grab the weights that they are doing. WRONG.

Never. Ever. EVER.

Starting off at a weight you cannot do is setting yourself up for failure. So is giving a client a weight that they cannot do a huge mistake. First off, if the weight is too much, you or your client will be starting off failing before you ever get a chance to succeed. Secondly, if the weight is only slightly too much, form is sacrificed for function and the risk of injury is increased. This is why it is always smart to start slow and work your way up to the proper weight.

A better idea is to start off at a weight that is around 50% of what you think you can lift. If you can do this for the number of repetitions that you are attempting, then increase the weight. For example if you think you can lift 100 pounds for the exercise and you’re working on hypertrophy, you would start off doing 50 pounds and try to lift it 10 times. If you can do it 10 times, and you are not at muscle failure or close to failure after 10 repetitions, then it’s ok to increase the weight. Try adding 5-10 pounds if it is really easy, or 10-20 pounds if you really felt foolish. By the time you get to around 70-80% of your assumed weight, it should start becoming clear where you need to work at.

Conclusion

This principle is really simple but you would be shocked how many people do not understand it or just don’t want to admit that they are weaker. Exercise and fitness are not competition for the average individual. Instead consider exercise and fitness like the game of golf. You are against yourself. It’s a challenge on you to beat your best score, to beat your most weight, to run your farthest. Whether or not you start out at what you think you should is not important. Instead strive to continually do better than you did the day before.