Deadlifting on unstable surfaces for strength? Fail.

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2010/10000/Deadlift_Muscle_Force_and_Activation_Under_Stable.20.aspx

McDonald's Meal resists decomposition for 6 months!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101012/bs_yblog_upshot/mcdonalds-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-for-six-months

Sleeping with Light On Linked to Obesity

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/204236.php

Grains To The Grave

Everyday, we are bombarded by images of grains and grain products all around us. Turn on the television, how many commercials do you see of boxed cereal and beer? How many commercials do you see advertising vegetables and fruits? Go to a supermarket, how many aisles are there of bread, bagels, donuts, muffins, rice crackers, and cereal? Heck, even the government tells us to eat copious amounts of grain products. I’m about to let you in on a little secret … grains are unhealthy.

Homo sapiens have been hunting and foraging food for our survival for 150,000 + years. Their ancestors (Homo Habilus, Homo Erectus, Neanderthal) have been doing the same for over 2 million years. That means for over two million years, we have been eating meats, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, tubers and roots, seasonal fruits and berries. Only about 10,000 years ago with the agricultural revolution, have our diet shifted towards a predominantly grain based diet (wheat, rye, barley, rice).

10,000 years may seem like a long time, however, it is just a drop in the bucket in the evolutionary scale. Our digestive system has not yet evolved to effectively digest grains. Need some proof? Continue reading…

Grains have a very unfavorable inflammatory response to our system. Lectins are specialized proteins found particularly in wheat, legumes, and dairy. Lectins are not easily broken down in the stomach and they are resistant to stomach acids and digestive enzymes. They bind to insulin receptors, attack the stomach lining of insects, and they seemingly cause leptin resistance. Furthermore, they bind to human intestinal lining causing ulcers and holes in the gut lining. This becomes problematic because it leads to the leaky gut syndrome, holes in your gut causes contents of your gut being leaked out into your bloodstream. Think about it, your poop gets leaked out of your gut into your bloodstream. The body sees that as foreign substances in your bloodstream and ignites your immune system into overdrive. This may lead to auto-immune diseases where like diabetes, narcolepsy, psoriasis, Crohn’s Disease and many more.

Gluten, a form of lectin, is even worse. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, and barley. Celiacs are 1% of the population who are completely intolerant to gluten. Any gluten in their diet can be disastrous. But just because you’re not diagnosed with Celiac disease, doesn’t mean that grains won’t have an effect on you. Everyone is in some degree or another, susceptible to gluten side effects. Gluten intake compromises your body’s ability to process calcium and Vitamin D3, leads to hyperparathyroidism and other bone defects. You do not want to be deficient in Vitamin D.

Another unfavorable response of eating grains is the associating insulin spike you get. Grains are chock-full of carbohydrates. When we consume high amounts of carbohydrates, it gets broken down into simple sugars in our blood stream. When our blood sugar levels get too high, our pancreas releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin is the hormone that signals to our cells to start storing this extra sugar in our muscle and liver cells as stored energy. If we do not readily use up the glucose as energy, and our muscle and liver glycogen stores are full, we will store the glucose into our fat cells. Now imagine when you’re eating large amounts of carbs in every meal: pasta, cereal, rice, bread, bagels, dessert, donuts, muffins, your constantly increasing your blood sugar levels and constantly releasing more and more insulin. Too much insulin poses a serious health problem. As you keep releasing insulin, your body’s cells become desensitized to the amount of insulin and will not respond to its signal. Thus, insulin and glucose stay in your blood stream. This insensitivity to insulin leads to hyperinsulinism (Google it and find that it is related to a host of diseases), and type II diabetes.

Still not convinced that grains are bad? Let’s analyze exactly how nutritious grains are. The government, nutritionists, and trainers are constantly telling us how healthy whole grains are. Well, let’s compare whole wheat bread to broccoli and see what we come up with.

As you can see from the data above, I have compared 100 grams of multi-grain/whole-grain bread (two slices) versus 184 grams (1 cup) of chopped, cooked broccoli. The bread contains a whopping 265 calories per 100 grams while broccoli only has 52 calories per 184 grams. If you’re trying to lose weight, think about how much bread you’re eating versus the amount of broccoli or veggies you’re eating. Furthermore, the bread has more than 20 times the amount of sodium and over 4 times the amount of carbohydrates leading to higher insulin release and we’ve already discussed how bad that is. People always defend bread by saying how much fiber bread has but broccoli, spinach, and other veggies have just as much. When we look at the micronutrients of these two foods, you’ll notice that bread is pretty much devoid of any vitamins and minerals whereas broccoli is a good source of Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.

One final note to add, eating too many grains produces an acidifying effect in your body. A net acid producing diet promotes bone de-mineralization leading to osteopenia and osteoporosis. The acid must be buffered by alkaline stores in your body and the largest alkaline store in your body is calcium from your bones. Therefore, calcium is actually stripped from your bones to buffer the high acidic diet you’re eating from dairy, cereal grains, legumes, and meat and excreted in your urine. Eat more fruits and vegetables if you want to preserve your muscle mass and bone mineral density as they have an alkaline effect.

I know most of you cannot cut out all grains from your diet but hopefully this article will shed some light on what happens to you when you eat the stuff you eat and entice you to make a change. I just want you to make an informed choice, not one dictated by governmental agenda and nutritional “experts.” At most, grain products will kill you, at the very least, there are much better options for your health and body composition.

How to get washboard 6 pack abs!

This is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from people: how can I get a six pack? I think everyone would agree that having a chiseled midsection is pretty desirable. Unfortunately, most people are still hung up from the fact that you can lose inches off your weight by doing hundreds of sit-ups. The idea of spot reduction has already been widely accepted as a myth. In reality, there are only two simple things you need to do in order to get a six pack: lose fat and strengthen the abdominal muscles.

See, what most people fail to realize is that we all already have six pack abs. Every one of us has a set of six pack abs just like we all have a brain, eyeballs, and biceps. We are all born with the same number of muscles. So since we all have the same abdominal muscles, where aren’t they visible? If you can’t see the outline of your abs, that means you have a layer of fat on top of your abs. Now the question becomes how do I get rid of the layer of fat so that my abs become visible? Definitely not by doing a hundred sit-ups a day, the answer is by combing a sound diet and exercise program.

1. High-intensity Cardio For Fat Burning

The most efficient way to burn fat is by doing high intensity interval training (HIIT). Studies have shown that doing (HIIT) rather than long duration, moderate intensity results in up to 9 times greater fat loss. Instead of doing your half an hour or 45 minute cardio sessions at one constant pace, try doing high intensity intervals. For example, one interval can be 30 seconds of an all out maximum effort, followed by a 90 second recovery period at a light pace. Do this 8 times and your workout will only take 20 minutes instead of 45 minutes. You’ll achieve greater results in less time, otherwise known as “more bang for your buck.”

2. 80/20 Rule of Compound/Isolation Exercises

One of the biggest pet peeves I have when I’m at the gym is when I see someone who really wants to lose weight but all they do is hop on machine to machine nonchalantly pushing out their reps. Compound exercises are ones that involve more than one joint and recruit more muscle fibers. You will burn more calories because more muscles are being worked. Moreover, by doing compound exercises, you build more muscle mass and muscle tissue is more metabolically active that fat tissue, again helping you burn more calories.

Isolation exercises only work one muscle at a time therefore when we go back to the “more bang for your buck” idea, you’re really not doing all that much. If all you do are hip adduction/abduction, lateral raises, bicep curls, and leg extensions, you will not get you anywhere. As long as 80% of your exercises consist of squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, and pull-downs, you’ll be fine. These exercises make you work harder and elicit a neuro-endocrine (layman’s term: hormonal) response that is conducive to you getting a six pack.

3. Clean Up Your Diet

So now that we have concluded that you have a layer of fat on top of your otherwise would be visible six pack. How did the layer of adipose tissue get there in the first place? If you want to believe governmental propaganda and what your family physician says, then you would think that it’s a high fat diet that made you fat. But alas, as proven time and time again, it’s eating too many carbohydrates that will hide your six pack more than eating too much fat.

People are eating too much. If you just cut the portion of your meals, you will consume fewer calories and ultimately lose weight. However, the problem is that people who eat too many carbs get addicted to carbs and it is much easier to eat carbs than it is to eat fat and protein. 1 slice of bread equals 6 cups of broccoli in grams of carbohydrates. What’s easier to eat, one slice of bread or six cups of broccoli? Eating fat and protein will make you fuller longer by affecting those hormones that control satiety in your brain. Eating high glycemic carbs will make you hungry again fast. Follow these simple guidelines if you want to start losing fat (courtesy of www.robbwolf.com.)

• eat 4-8 oz of lean protein at every meal
• eat 3-4 meals per day
• limit fruit to 1 serving or less per meal
• limit nuts to 1-2 oz or less per meal
• only drink non-caloric beverages like coffee, tea, mineral water

4. Build Your Abdominal Muscles

After getting rid of your fat, you could probably see an outline of your abs. However, if you want your abs to show up in more detail, you need to build them. Your “six pack” muscles are just like any other muscle in your body. They respond to hypertrophy like any other muscle. The best way to train for hypertrophy is a rep range between 6-12 reps per set. 100-200 sit-ups per day is great for muscular endurance but after a point, they are not the best for building your six pack. Instead, do weighted decline sit-ups, hanging knees to elbows, and weighted side bends to fully bring out the abs.

In conclusion, if you really want to get washboard abs, just follow these four simple principles for a couple months and thank me.

A Calorie Is Not a Calorie!

My sister is always reading the caloric information on the side of boxes. I always knew that it was more important to eat clean, healthy, natural foods than to concern yourself with how many calories you’re eating. If you’re eating tons of veggies, fruits, organic meat, nuts, and fish, you do not have to worry about your weight. Eating this way will keep your full and your appetite in control. Having said all that, people still are concerned about “calories” so I will talk about it. Mostly because nutritionists and dietitians use it as a unit of measurement to help people lose weight.

Calorie counting is not as simple as it sounds. The law of thermodynamics state that as long as your calories in = calories out, you will stay the same weight. If your caloric intake is greater than your caloric expenditure, you will gain weight and vice versa. Advocates of the low fat diet use this law to explain their reasoning. A gram of fat contains 9 calories, carbohydrates and protein, on the other hand, contain 4 calories per gram. Therefore, eating less fat means fewer calories, which means you’ll lose weight, right? Wrong. Low fat often means high carb, and ever since the government instituted the Canada Food Guide some 30 years ago, we have only seen obesity, diabetes, and osteoporosis rates rise exponentially. It’s not as simple as it sounds. Here’s why.

1. Thermic Effect of Food

People treat calories in and calories out as independent factors but they are not. They are actually dependent factors as they affect one another. The energy cost to metabolize protein, fat, and carbohydrates is different. It takes more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbohydrates and fat. For example, a 2000 calorie diet containing say 30% protein will make you expend more energy than a 2000 calorie diet containing 20% protein. Remember the energy balance teeter totter above? Eating different foods (left side) will affect the calories out (right side). People often only think the right side as exercise and daily lifestyle activities. Now you know that different foods will affect your total caloric metabolism at the end of the day.

2. Caloric restriction slows down metabolism

If you decide to cut calories in order to lose weight, you will probably start seeing an immediate weight loss in the beginning. However, the rate of your weight loss will slow down in subsequent weeks. That’s because as you start restricting your calories, your body runs cooler to conserve the reduced calories you’re taking in.

3. Different foods have different effects on your appetite

This has everything to do with hormones. When you eat a high carbohydrate meal, it breaks down into sugar in your blood. This causes a spike in insulin to communicate with the cells in your body to store the sugar. The spike in insulin is followed by a sharp fall in blood sugar which will then make you feel hungry again. Eating fat and protein affects satiety hormones like PPY and leptin, making you feel fuller longer.

4. Timing of meals affect calorie processing

Food calories are more likely to be stored as fat if not used immediately for energy. When liver and muscle glycogen stores are full, carbohydrates get converted and stored in the fat cells. On the contrary, food calories are more likely to be used for energy, stored as glycogen, and protein synthesis at times of an energy deficit such as first thing in the morning and right after exercise. That’s why pre and post workout nutrition is extra important. The best time to consume high glycemic carbohydrates is after your workout when the insulin spike is crucial for replenishing glycogen stores.

In conclusion, counting calories has some value but should be used with a grain of salt. As cited in the reasons above, there is a lot more to gain from eating good quality foods than there is from counting calories.