A great scene last week occurred when here in NYC, the temperature rose past 70 and it was sunny. Everyone celebrated by finding some excuse to go outside. Even some undergrad classes were held outside on the grass #classic
That also means the inability to hide behind layers and layers of fluffy coats and sweaters. Shorts and tank tops (suns out guns out) reveal to you and the world how well you’ve kept your body in shape. But health and fitness shouldn’t be top of mind just when the weather gets warm, it should be a year round consideration–a life long focus.
I mentioned in a previous post why you might just want to stare at yourself in the mirror for a motivational boost. I also highly recommend doing so naked (or as close to naked as possible). The reason is to become fully aware and accepting of your body, how it is right now. In all it’s beauty and potentially perceived imperfections.
Because whether you like it or not, your body is the physical vessel. It is part of you. And the first step to changing anything is acceptance and understanding of the way it currently is and why. For me, my hot yoga studio back in LA has mirrors everywhere. So imagine 60 minutes twice a week of staring at your body in weird poses either in tight yoga clothes or for men shirtless. You confront the reality of how your body looks, and from there eventual acceptance of the present. But that doesn’t mean you can’t shape it into something better…and in fact, I believe that you never have to “peak” in your physical fitness, each year you can become better and better despite aging.
Join me as I discuss with Dano some of the strategies, tips, tricks, and most important factors of health and fitness in the working world that we have learned and discovered, from Russian kettle bell masters to Silicon Valley hackers to mid-west personal trainers.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor am I prescribing anything, simply sharing my story.
As always, you can watch, read, or deep dive into this week’s Cliff Notes.
OBJ’s Catch
Kettle Bell Swings
Goblin Squats
Dano and I referenced our experiments with polyphasic sleep
1. Those who succeed are statistic anomalies who are predisposed to success so can’t rely on what they did to emulate their success, often they thin or they have a magic pill
2. As muscle improves, necessary support systems must do too, and improved cardio with more muscle, the center of metabolic health is muscular system, not heart and cardiovascular system
3. Steady exercise like running doesn’t affect fast twitch fibers as much meaning can’t empty their glucose resulting in the circulating glucose can’t be stored in muscle, only as fat, and insulin sensitivity has higher risk of coronary disease
4. If too long exercise, glycogen depletes and starts using protein from muscle tissues, then tissue broken into amino acids and then to glucose, wasting muscle tissue
5. One message shoots down one tendon which connects to fibers, slow twitch 100 fibers, fast twitch = up to 10,000 fibers, so want to conserve that energy, hard to get fast to release
6. What matters in the signal is the force the brain perceives it requires, not how fast of how quick the movement is
7. Injuries occur when muscular or mechanical forces exceed their proper force exposure
8. Several studies out there show little to no result in boosting workout from 1 to 2 times per week
9. Core Exercises: leg press, pull down, chest press, seated row, and overhead press
10. Proper hydration: 3 liters a day minimum
11. Muscle stores compete with fat stores for energy, so if person is fat and has more fat tissue it is more likely to win battle if there is restricted calories or for any caloric intake, will even alter behavior to help dominant tissue
*Means if fat crave things that will make you fat
*Means if healthy will help you crave things that help muscle
*Pass down being lean to offspring, also pass down obesity
*Morbidly obese people have all calories geared toward fat because insulin sensitivity is crap and muscles get none of it which is why obese people have atrophied muscle even though overweight because the food never makes it there
12. People judge calories based on weight not caloric intake, so more dense the food the more you eat (pasta vegetable salad experiment)
13. Practice: need to emulate game play as much as possible because body will actually get confused and will be befuddled (stationary passing, Penalty Kicks with no pressure, etc), it needs to be “in-context”
14. Training and coaching should be back engineered from playoffs/start of season so the athletes are fully recovered for the game
15. During season physical conditioning yields no great upside because don’t have time to rest and recover
a. Actually lose muscle during season so key is to workout and build muscle in the off-season (same with chemotherapy)
b. When done during season, leads to injury and sickness because not recovered and overexert
16. Warming up requires contracting muscles to draw blood in and stretching does the opposite
1. 80/20 principle: 2.5% gets you 95% of the way
2. Don’t confuse physical recreation with exercise: precise movements to produce a targeted changed
3. No consistent tracking = no awareness = no behavior change
4. Plateau: eating too late when wake up (within 30 minutes), not enough protein (at least 20 g per meal (2-3 whole eggs), having too much “natural” sugar, too little water, raw agave is like HFCS, hitting gym too much
5. 140-175g protein minim (1.7g per pound lean mass –subtract lean muscle)
6. Big o: use about 2 sheets of paper pressure at 1 o’clock, eat: mango, papaya, cucumber
7. If sleep > 9 hours, wake for 5 minutes after 4.5 hours
8. Pain from tight muscles = because weak: back, quad, and glutes
9. Can lift before a run, but can’t run before lift
10. Swimming: focus not on kicking or arms, but on shoulder and body rolling
Deep Dives
Body by Science
- Those who succeed are statistic anomalies who are predisposed to success so can’t rely on what they did to emulate their success, often they thin or they have a magic pill
- Standard deviation: if have outlier like Barry Bonds, will blow the mean and conclusions
- A “champion’s” program has no relevance to the common person
- Not activity that creates the body, it’s the body that succeeds in the activity
- That’s why successful swimmers look the same
- So best way, find a mate who’s successful swimmer if want to be swimmer
- Anabolic: building up; catabolic: breaking down
- Minimum amount of activity to pass DNA develop as genome’s reaction to activity
- Error to completely follow past ways of life because would damage self for food (genetically should be dead at 47)
- Key is to find right combo without undermining health
- Doctors deal with sick people (left of the standard deviations) so they don’t experience healthy people and have hard time with telling you what to do fitness wise if you are healthy
- Studies: double blind, who funds, don’t just look at conclusion because could be done wrong
- Catabolic state: breaking down is necessary
- Health: physiological state absent of disease or pathology and that maintains balance between catabolic and anabolic states
- Fitness: state of body in which physiological state is capable of handling challenges that exist above a resting threshold of activity
- Exercise: specific activity that stimulates a positive physiological adaptation that serves to enhance health and fitness without undermining either
- Things that damage doesn’t mean exercise: running is not because 60% injured in a year and many long term effects
- There is a minimal at best correlation between exercise and health
- Fitness and health are not extrinsically linked: more fitness does not mean more health which does not mean more longevity
- Improvements in technology has much more dramatic impact on life expectancy than pills, diets, or programs
- MacMaster studies: as little as need 6 minutes a week for working out
- Another study: no additional advantage for working out for hours based on VO2 testing (max aerobic capacity)
- High Intensity Muscular effort
- Kreb cycle burns certain rate because of rate-limiting enzyme
- Glycolytic cycle: although less ATP can churn out higher and higher rates
- Makes pyruvate which is reconverted back to glucose
- Cori Cycle: When pyruvate is more than body can handle, creates lactic build up (lactic acid) which then recycles back to pyruvate once workout is over or stored as glycogen during recovery
- Aerobic system performs at highest when recover from lactic
- As muscle improves, necessary support systems must do too
- Bringing improved cardiac response
- Stair example of 2 units vs 1 unit of strength (need less muscle to do it and therefore less oxygen because strong enough, seems to be like in better shape)
- Opposite is true to (less muscle, harder and weaker body support system is)
- Bohr effect: oxygen in lungs attach to hemoglobin, don’t want to release to tissues causing shortness of breath at higher altitude so body adapts and have less oxygen in lungs to weak hemoglobin’s affinity
- Aerobic = without oxygen
- Lactic acid releases hydrogen ions to change hemoglobin’s shape to have less affinity for oxygen
- Creates 2,3 diphosphoglycerate (which is a long term Bohr effect)
- Burn fat with adrenaline and glucagon stimulated lipase which is released only with high intensity
- Glycogenolysis: breakdown glycogen in skeletal muscle to restore insulin sensitivity on muscle cells
- Glycogen stored in muscles is used on the spot and metabolized for energy In fight or flight responses
- High intensity triggers glycogen mobilization and lipase through amplification cascade (1 trigger 100 or 10,000 other cells)
- Steady exercise like running doesn’t affect fast twitch fibers as much meaning can’t empty their glucose resulting in the circulating glucose can’t be stored in muscle, only as fat, and insulin sensitivity has higher risk of coronary disease
- If too long exercise, glycogen depletes and starts using protein from muscle tissues, then tissue broken into amino acids and then to glucose, wasting muscle tissue
- If insulin rises, lipase won’t be triggered and near impossible to mobilize fat out of adipocytes (which is also a cascade effect)
- Cycles are all interrelated and can’t isolate one cycle
- VO2 map is just one factor of what’s going on that can be measured, and as a result can be “gamed”
- Practice on the treadmill doesn’t correlate to cycling machine because is not central to cardio improvement
- Treadmill running is not the same as running because missing the “push-off” off from the ground action and so because low-intensity training, when try to run in real life it is really hard
- Center of metabolic health is muscular system, not heart and cardiovascular system
- Bringing improved cardiac response
- Brain recruits muscle fibers but only as much as it perceives
- Two major types of muscle fibers (slow and fast twitch—3 types of fast)
- Endurance of fibers is the biggest factor
- Slow twitch has much more enzymes and blood vessels to deal with
- One message shoots down one tendon which connects to fibers
- 100 fibers for slow twitch
- up to 10,000 for fast twitch
- Body conserves energy so tries not to use fast-twitch because needs one needs so much energy
- What matters in the signal is the force the brain perceives it requires, not how fast of how quick the movement is
- Fast twitch actually twitches slower but also recovers slower too
- When fire muscle all units of energy in muscle fire: so repetitive exercises for slow twitch works because can recover
- But, fast twitch: account for only last 2-20 seconds of contraction because use slow twitch until it is exhausted and then before the slow twitch has a chance to recover, it utilizes the fast twitch ( should done systematically with low risk of injury)
- Injuries occur when muscular or mechanical forces exceed their proper force exposure
- Plyometrics and heavy lifting require all muscles to be used so it fails when fastest twitch muscle gives up not using the remaining 2/3rds to failure and might expose body to too much force
- Which is why advocate 1 set to failure approach
- Cross fit: not done with muscle and joint function alignment and therefore misallocate muscular units
- Cadence is crucial (time under load): 45-90 seconds for a particular set
- Greater the intensity of a workout, longer you need to recover (1x per week)
- 24 hours after workout: lysosomes breakdown and metabolize the damaged tissues
- Macrophages aid in accumulating lysosomes (PGE2: makes the pain feeling in muscles)
- Then starts rebuilding the next 5 days
- Several studies out there show little to no result in boosting workout from 1 to 2 times per week (stick with one time)
- Endurance of fibers is the biggest factor
- Mobility: biological function if can’t move can’t acquire food or run away which means when this happens your body will do anything it can to enlarge this strength reserve: so that’s your goal
- Meaning develop an almost panic when right dose to that make/break moment
- Don’t give up too soon or wiggle and sacrifice form to finalize it
- Once every 7 days, don’t see improvement add more recovery or every 4-12 weeks switch up workout to just 3 ore movements
- 30 secs to 1 minute between exercises
- record keeping: date, time, what exercises, resistance used, seat position and time under load and cadence
- Free weight and machines are equally effective, but since training to failure use machine
- Nautilus is best because it has best offset cam load: concept that muscles at different stages are weaker/stronger
- Cables are bad because heavy start and light finish
- Bad for biceps and pecs, ok for hamstring
- Allows for effective load (if max 35 lbs at a point but can’t get there useless, same if start too light)
- Core Exercises: leg press, pull down, chest press (these core three)
- Other two: seated row and overhead press
- Seated row: don’t tuck or flare elbows, let ride naturally, track in line with hands, wrist, and shoulders
- Chest press: push away and towards middle of body; start at front of arm pit
- Don’t try to drive arms back behind you as far as possible
- Don’t tuck or flare arms
- Keep 45 degree angle, stop short of lockout
- Keep shoulders tucked down, no need to do incline or decline press because already worked the muscles
- Pull down: arms in front of you (not to sides), underhand grip a little narrower than shoulder width
- If hold arm wide on pull-down: mess up shoulder’s rotator cuff
- Old close to you for 3-5 seconds and crunch
- As go back up, imagine pushing hands outward in horizontal plane
- Overhead press: hands in front vs out to the sides of you
- Palms facing each other
- Arms flared pinches rotator cuff
- Avoid arch on lower back by pushing pelvis into belt like moving buttocks off end of seat
- Leg press: any angle will work, but less it is up and down, the easier it is to move the weights
- When fully tucked, things perpendicular to ceiling
- Push point just short of lockout
- Barely “tap” weights when coming back down
- Move in smooth circular motion
- Grip handles with open grip so don’t clench too much
- Cables are bad because heavy start and light finish
- Free weights:
- Bent over row: bend at waist, slight in knees, shoulder width grip, slowly draw up until bar touches abdomen
- Pause briefly while fully contracted and slowly drop
- Standing over head press: palms face forward at front of shoulders, keep back straight and pause just shy of full extension
- Dead lift: back straight, sit like in chair, arms perfectly straight throughout, shoulder width, stand up to full vertical, don’t rest but slowly reverse direction keeping back straight and head up
- Bench: use power rack, rise slowly, stop before full extension or lockout
- Squat: get spotter/rack, put weight on trapezius not neck, descend with control and slowly
- Rep speed: slow moving, faster destroys strength gain because momentum not strength contributes to it moving
- Point is not to move weight from point A to B, but breakdown all muscle fibers
- Also reduces injury
- Try as slowly as possible without having to start/stop
- 15 up and 15 secs down
- Later reps might be fast, okay
- Time under load: time you start until time of muscle failure: allows you to see small gradations in strength gain
- Breathing: continuous and natural with open mouth, when feel burning in muscle hyperventilate
- Prevent urge to hold breath and push against lungs
- Pushing against lungs is unnecessarily increase blood pressure, increase pressure in lungs and cheats the muscles to give outside help
- In-roading: weakening the muscles: start with 75-80% max load so that can go and get all parts of muscle until failure
- Focus on breath and not speeding up, might have to slow down
- When can’t move anymore, hold with resistance for 10 seconds
- Aim for failure within 90 seconds of time under load
- Additional muscle tissue possess immense health benefits
- Other organs in body have to improve their capacity to keep up with increased muscle
- Degree of atrophy is based on muscle mass
- Strength in daily activities improves
- Faster gastrointestinal time: lower risk of colon cancer
- Higher RMR: usually decreases 2-5% per decade: muscle uses 35 extra calories per pound to RMR (some say could be as much as 100)—fat is only 2
- Better glucose metabolism: help prevent diabetes
- Insulin sensitivity: if glycogen is not drained and eat a lot of refined carbs, glucose has no where to go so stacks in bloodstream and insulin levels rise and muscle receptors become insensitive to insulin
- Higher amounts of insulin AND glucose go to liver and attach to fatty acids and automatically becomes stored as carbs
- Release body fat stores: increase muscle mass means increase in RMR, muscles burn fat during strength training
- Release of glycogen means need to replenish it and insulin levels drop preventing fat storage
- That’s why obese people who don’t do high impact and restrict their low carbs won’t lose weight because not enough to impact their insulin levels
- Lipase: hormone to release body fat in face of epinephrine and insulin
- With epinephrine released for emergency usage and has cascade effect
- High intensity triggers epinephrine
- Cholesterol levels: insulin creates inflammation in blood vessels which needs to be repaired and cholesterol repairs it
- HDL and LDL refer to density
- Flow rate of blood vessel is faster in middle than on the edges
- LDL stays on outside of vessels stream so when vessels need repair, use LDL
- HDL: if need to bring vessels back to liver for processing because HDL won’t stick to vessel walls
- Used to bring insulin for processing
- HDL to LDL ration is state of inflammation in body
- Restoring insulin sensitivity allows less inflammation in vessels and less need for LDL
- High cholesterol levels are a symptom not a cause
- Fix by diet restricted of carbs (esp. refined carbs) and high intensity exercise
- Blood pressure is reduced
- Bone Mineral Density: more muscles can dissipate impact away from bone, might be that loss of density is genetic and by age so more muscle helps body tolerate the loss; spinal cord without muscle would collapse under weight of a soda
- Symptoms of arthritis: lower back pain (weak muscles)
- Flexibility: not increased flexibility but enhanced flexibility
- Done by more resistance at extremes of muscle movement
- Femurs become bigger with age so naturally less flexible
- Really a loss of functional strength
- Cardiovascular stimulation
- Milk blood back to heart: enhances coronary artery blood flow
- Best form is high intensity and low force
- Force = M x A, lower acceleration means lower force
- 12 minutes, 5 exercises, 1 min between, 90 secs to failure, 1x/week
- With epinephrine released for emergency usage and has cascade effect
- Bent over row: bend at waist, slight in knees, shoulder width grip, slowly draw up until bar touches abdomen
- Hormones that fight cortisol are released at 2-3 pm (why there are siestas) and in the wee hours of the morning
- Get rest of 7-8 hours
- Proper hydration: 3 liters a day minimum
- Optimizes recovery and enhances muscle performance
- Dehydration constricts blood to point where no longer provide tissue with enough oxygen
- Cause them to be acidotic: metabolism almost completely glycolytic
- Creates lactic acid, drop in blood pressure, reduces circulation of repair hormones
- Hydration pushes cell membranes outward exposing more of hormone receptors
- More omega 3 promotes plumper cell membrane further enhancing receptors exposure
- Training releases cortisol which needs to be dealt with with non-inflammatory hormones
- Cortisol is produced in mid-layer of adrenal gland and released if dehydrated
- Supplements aren’t adequate because isolating a vitamin might do more harm in the metabolism than good
- Create as low stress environment as possible
- Working out makes you weaker (drops physiology below baseline) until you recover
- Tweaking is necessary because:
- Machines weight is not enough
- 7 days isn’t enough recovery time
- people think plateau and so should ramp up more intense training which is a fallacy, it is because not enough recovery
- Ways to tweak
- Partner helps get over hump (1 or 2 times)
- Partial reps: side closer to full contraction can handle heavier load or focus on just weak side to get stronger (gain as much strength from partial motion as full)
- Timed static hold: at point of contraction failure (10 secs max hold till failure)
- Rest pause: if under 75 seconds rest longer (15-20 secs) if 90-120 secs rest shorter (5 secs)—done b/c need to give fast or slow twitch recovery
- Max 3 reps with this
- Negative only: lowering only: drop in 4 secs
- Need more recovery days should drop big 5 to big 3 in 2 separate workouts
- Pull down, chest press, leg press AND seated row, overhead press, and standing calf raise
- Chest press, lateral raise and triceps pull-down
- Split routine: isolation exercises if still plateauing
- Leg press, standing calf raise, abs machine
- Pull-down, seated row, shrug or lower back machine, and bicep curl
- Standing calf: straight back, straight legs locked, pause at top not at bottom
- Free-weights: one hand with weight, work other foot 1 at time on block
- Lateral raise: elbows back slightly behind body, lift arms up slight above 90 degrees, pause at top, lower slowly, no pause at bottom
- Free weights: dead lift or bent over row
- Curl: elbow joint aligned with center of the cam
- Free weights: palms face forward, stand up so knuckles hit things, elbows tucked no pause anywhere
- Triceps press down: elbows pinned
- Free weights: do bench or overhead press covers it
- Abs machine: don’t push with shoulders, small range of motion, don’t let weights touch back down
- Free weights: crunch: heels in knees spread: don’t relax tension
- Use Split as soon as see down progression in time under load
- 3 way split for 2 cycles, then 2 way split for 1 cycle, then resume
- Max contraction: weight fully contracted until can’t be held anymore: isolation exercises
- Don’t lockout
- Find position where feel strongest and hold there
- 2/3rds up on leg press, half way on chest press
- maintenance of weights is regression
- At certain weight iso movements yield to cheating because mere leverage issues (like lifting up in seats)
- Genetic factor: extreme muscle is genetically rare because it is not ideal in wilderness because it burns too many calories
- Body types have genetic limitations:
- Endomorph: round torso, thick neck, short fat legs and arms
- Mesomorph: square and thick shoulders
- Ectomorph: tall and skinny
- Limitations:
- Muscle length will never be wider (thicker) than it is long
- Skeletal formation limitations
- Fat distribution: people inherit a certain number of fat cells
- Which is why some very hard to keep off fat permanently
- Neuromuscular efficiency: ability to contract a certain percent of muscle fibers (typically 30% 40-50% would be awesome)
- Muscle shape:
- Fusiform—like a football great ability to boost muscle volume (like bicep)
- Pennate: fronds of a feather, angles allow for great force but few fibers and so won’t grow big (muscles in hand)
- Myostatin: prevents muscles from getting too big (why females won’t get big muscles)
- GDF-8 protein stops muscles from growing
- Bulls with 30% more muscle don’t have this because of selective breeding
- Difficult to prove in humans because then proves genes are reason not work ethic/their unique programs
- CNTF: leads to survival of motor units
- Interleukin 15: response to muscle size due to resistance: AA, CA, CC order from greatest to least in terms of size, opposite is true for strength gain
- Alpha actinin 3: all sprinters have it part of fast twitch muscle
- Myosin Light Chain Kinase: more of this more can cross bridge fibers and more strength develop but means greater inroad exertion and recovery time so workout less frequently
- Angiotensin converting enzyme: ii = slow twitch and endurance, dd – fast twitch and strength
- Ii = higher reps but blunts response to weight training
- Don’t need to do a test of self but create notes and test different workouts to see which is more effective
- Epigenetics: environmental factors play a role that can be passed down for 2-4 generations (obesity and health)
- Shown with mice given toxins (polyphenols) vs methyl (weight loss)
- Research shows peer group is crucial
- Fat is main reason we are alive, current leanness in vogue is detrimental
- Ob gene produces leptin which limits amount of body fat on can have
- Opposite of GDF-8
- Is a food suppressor
- Problem isn’t exercise it is food abundance (exercise only does so much and burns very few calories)
- Satisfied vs full is only a 1,000 calorie difference
- Full vs stuffed is a 2-3,000 calorie difference
- Calories burned: need to compare to basal metabolic rate and it’s net of this so need to subtract that out to calculate additional amount of calories burned on one of those machines
- Low intensity + calorie restriction: lose fat and everything else
- Like a corporation down sizing, will do equal of everything
- High intensity + calorie restriction: can’t reduce muscle or supporting areas because that is shining department, means have to use more fat
- Extra pound of muscle burns 50-100 calories so running that decreases muscle mass (up to 5 pounds a year) will reduce basal rate 250-500 calories
- More do low intensity: more efficient body is at doing it, not that body is stronger
- Aging (sarcopenia) body loses muscle, and if eat like normally did when younger creates up to 250 calorie surplus which means gain 1 pound of fat every 2 weeks
- Key is to gain muscle mass to burn calories
- Brains never developed negative feedback loop to stop from eating calories
- Morbidly obese stay hungry because body wants to maintain high insulin levels and since already glucose maxed out it automatically converts to fat
- Thermic effect: eating unprocessed foods takes a while to break down to energy (20 reactions) means burning calories at each process and so insulin rises and falls with body naturally
- Processed food is more readily available to convert and so doesn’t cost as much to make into glucose and so makes faster and body doesn’t need it all that fast so becomes glycogen, no more glucose can be moved in so becomes fat through NADH
- Omega 3: effect on hormone sensitivity
- Saturated carbon: 3 Cs, 2 Hs
- Unsaturated: 2 Cs, 1 H
- Omega 3 is a double bond 3 carbons back from end and is long and flexible
- Omega 6, 9 and polyunsaturated are tightly coiled and elongated because further back in chain
- Need a 1 to 1 ration of omega 3 to 6 otherwise impacts hormonal regulation because receptors in cells are short and brittle and can’t receive hormones if dominantly omega 6
- Omega 3 from leafs and animals fed leaves (anti-inflammatory)
- Omega 6 from seeds and animals fed seeds (corn)—(inflammatory)
- Hydration: essential because expands blood circulating volume for hormone distribution
- Ice water needs to be heated in body (uses calories)
- Unburdens liver so can process the fat storage release, otherwise has to process metabolites that kidney typically filters out
- Biological reassurance: drought precedes famine and so if dehydrated body goes to lock-down for ensuing food shortage
- High intensity: adrenaline: epinephrine cleaves 10,000 glucose cells off glycogen, insulin receptors become more sensitive, more muscle means more space for glucose (why men lose more weight than women)
- Body adapts to everything you do so if stressing it and has increased cortisol levels, even with exercise with shut down (study with 2 exercises yielded 2x better increase in strength and muscle gain than 3 exercises)
- Muscle stores compete with fat stores for energy, so if person is fat and has more fat tissue it is more likely to win battle if there is restricted calories or for any caloric intake, will even alter behavior to help dominant tissue
- Means if fat crave things that will make you fat
- Means if healthy will help you crave things that help muscle
- Pass down being lean to offspring, also pass down obesity
- Morbidly obese people have all calories geared toward fat because insulin sensitivity is crap and muscles get none of it which is why obese people have atrophied muscle even though overweight because the food never makes it there
- People judge calories based on weight not caloric intake, so more dense the food the more you eat (pasta vegetable salad experiment)
- Keys to burning fat
- Eat natural unprocessed foods
- Stay cool to prevent body from heating up
- Sleep well and cool: staying up late signals can’t find any food
- Before midnight if sleeping is release of HGH and testosterone to repair the body
- Avoid stress: body needs to sense all is well to give up fat stores
- Do high intensity work outs
- Muscle for athletes is key because it is a major shock absorber for impact
- Deliberate practice: perfect practice makes perfect
- Hitting a bucket of balls isn’t practice, hitting balls 300 yards with 8 iron to get within 10 feet of hole with adjustments is
- Need to emulate game play as much as possible because body will actually get confused and will be befuddled (stationary passing, pks with no pressure, etc), it needs to be “in-context”
- Don’t combo skills with aerobic conditioning in one practice
- High intensity strength is key because no stress on joints and time efficient and works
- Training and coaching should be back engineered from playoffs/start of season so the athletes are fully recovered for the game
- Athletes are anxious if they don’t do anything leading up to game, but key is to rest
- During season physical conditioning yields no great upside because don’t have time to rest and recover
- Actually lose muscle during season so key is to workout and build muscle in the off-season (same with chemotherapy)
- When done during season, leads to injury and sickness because not recovered and overexert
- Competition is training and needs to be factored into your workout
- Have cardio/training mimic the intensity of game: if racing 45 seconds don’t do 20 second Tabatha’s do 40 seconds
- Exercise with starts, stops, and pivots to build explosion
- 60% of injuries occur during practice
- you need to warm up not stretch
- Problems of stretching
- Stretching doesn’t improve flexibility it weakens muscle
- More likely to cause injury because muscle can’t perform as well
- Studies show when stretch before lift, actually lift less because weakens it
- Warming up requires contracting muscles to draw blood in and stretching des the opposite
- Cross training to develop “similar” skills does nothing to improve the primary skill
- Don’t see a violinist practice typing to get better
- Younger athletes: can do training but risk of over-training
- They typically develop aerobic conditioning fast and don’t need extra development
- Injuries come when don’t have enough rest
- Don’t have the prime hormones ready for max muscle development but will still respond to lifting
- All about moderation and tempering parents expectations
- Football workout: 2 different ones, once per week
- Neck (front, back), Neck (left, right), leg press, pull down, chest press
- Calf raise, dead-lifts, overhead press, wrist curl, reverse wrist curl
- Neck first so focus on it because serious injuries
- When doing back of neck arch back to get full range of motion
- Wrist curls: forearms rest on thighs, lean forward so elbow joint angle less than 90 degrees, use a wide grip
- Hockey: hip and back machine: push both legs down, raise one up max while flexing the other, go down, switch legs, both up
- Also workouts for golf and baseball
- When do lifting, two days later it is ok to do skills training
- older people need to get rid of notion they are different because of age, only thing is they had more time for muscles to atrophy and dig more of a metabolic hole
- Need to take precautions to prevent injury but same 5-exercise routine (or 3 if too much) max with 7-14 days rest
- Myriad of improvements when doing high intensity but all based as result of more muscle
- When lose muscle, lose ability to regulate heat because muscle provides heat
- If don’t have enough muscles can’t provide the heat to regulate body
- Why hypothermia is so deadly
- As do weight training medicine for heart and blood pressure will have to be adjusted because body will be able to better regulate self and medicine would push it over the top
- Allows seniors to regain mobility and independence: allows them to get out of wheel chairs
- Strength training can reverse genetic profiles: 2007 study comparing young to old, old did 6 month high intensity workout and they had a profile more similar to younger group
Four Hour Body
*Fat loss: drink caffeine and cranberry juice together, eat more omega fatty acids, limited protein and lemon juice
*Muscle gain: ginger and sauerkraut
*80/20 principle: 2.5% gets you 95% of the way
*Working out gives Richard Branson additional 4 hours of productivity a day
*Minimum effective dose: find minimum for max gain and that’s it
*such as 15 minutes in sun for melanin response
*80 seconds of lifting
*Gain: 30 minutes of working out 2x per week
*use heat and hormones
*60% diet, 10% drugs, 30% exercise
*30 minutes of stair master: only 56 calories burnt
*Don’t confuse physical recreation with exercise
*Exercise is MED (Minimum effective dose) of precise movements to produce a targeted changed
*Planned ups and downs in eating are normal
*Even if genetically predisposed, don’t use this as an excuse for being out of shape
*Only make goals you can measure, avoid terms like I want to be healthy, fit, etc. they are useless; how do you know when you’ve achieved it
*It’s not what you eat that matters, but what makes it to your bloodstream
*responses to carbs, protein, and fat are all different in the body
*Harajuku moment: epiphany to start a change
*No consistent tracking = no awareness = no behavior change
*so use data, oversimplifying is good, and calorie counting is BS
*No body fat measurement system is accurate, but use same measuring style for consistency as you go through the program
*Dexa scan gives crystal clear image of muscle imbalance and body fat
*To summarize last 100 years of behavioral psychology: logic fails
*Steps to changes: make it conscious, a game, competitive, small and temporary
*photograph everything you eat before you do with a smartphone
*take picture of you and post the worst looking one
*stickiness of 5 sessions: daily goals and public accountability
*act of measuring is more important than what you measure, 5x = worked on measuring
*fear of loss is greater than joy of gaining
*groups are good because social comparison theory: some do worse, somebetter; embrace peer pressure
*make it small and temporary: 5 minutes of activity instead of 1 hour
*make bet and track results publicly; ignore almost everyone; focused on method not mechanism; baby steps (like 1 sentence per day)
Slow carb diet:
*avoid white carbs (including brown rice)
*eat same meals over and over
*egg whites, eggs, chicken breast, grass fed beef
*lentils, black beans, and pinto beans
*vegetables: spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, sauerkraut and kimchee, asparagus, green beans
*Don’t drink calories: although 2 glasses of red wine okay
*Don’t eat fruit except tomatoes and avocado
*Cheat 1x per week
*Myth that eating healthy is expensive
*No dairy
*get rid of juice in beans to reduce farting
*keep notepad and list out through week what going to overeat
*supplements: potassium, magnesium, and calcium (spinach has all 3)
*Great to have 1-2 tbsps almond butter before bed
*if in airport and traveling, buy almonds and have no starch
*Breakfast: eggs, spinach, and lentils
*Government caused just as easily to buy sugar as higher protein
*Number of mitochondria in muscle determines rate of sustained fat loss
*Plateau: eating too late when wake up (within 30 minutes), not enough protein (at least 20 g per meal (2-3 whole eggs), having too much “natural” sugar, too little water, raw agave is like HFCS, hitting gym too much
PAGG structure
*Tip is to take 3 tbsp of almond butter and celery
*Goal is to have as much “stuff” go into muscle or unabsorbed
*Steps:
- first meal high in protein and fiber + grapefruit juice, coffee, AGG + PAGG, citric juices like lime/lemon
- Caffeine
- 60-90 secs exercise before and after eat (air squat/wall presses)
*Cissus Quadrangularis (CO): 7.2 g/day for growth cycles, “off” days and joint sprain
*Obese people have more of 1 bacteria Firmicutes and less Bacteroidetes
*as lose weight, ratio shifts
*Get off splenda, go fermented like Kimchi and Sauerkraut, plain unsweetened yogurt, garlic/leeks/chicory
*4 horsemand: policosanol (plan extract), alpha lipoic acid (regenerate vitamin A and E and store carbs in muscle or liver instead of in fat, green tea (flavonols, decaffeinated), garlic extract (aged garlic), make sure adequate B vitamins during this
ICE PACKS
*BAT—brown alipos tissue: fat-burning fat, turns fat and glucose into heat
*human body is an open thermodynamic system and that’s needed to be accounted for which is why lose so much during swimming
*Way in which you consume caffeine affects its absorption time (gum-15 minutes, pill 60-90)
*Ice pack on back of neck or lower trapezius for 20-30 minutes (evening when insulin sensitivity is low
*drink 500 mL ice water when wake up; 5-10 min cold shower (1-2 really cold)
*Cold water: treats depression, improves immunity 1-2 minutes warmer or exercise before
Glycemic index
*Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load: higher the value, more blood sugar jumps and fatter you get; blood sugar is a personal thing
*It is not when you put food in mouth, it’s when it gets to your cells (1.5-2 hrs after), so eat early
*increasing fat in beginning of meal (like a fatty appetizer) blunts the jump in glucose better than lean protein (so have almond butter first thing in morning)
*Fat loss plateaus with fructose, so even though it levels insulin out, it isn’t good
*Vinegar: nothing but fresh lemon juice *3 tbsps)
*Cinnamon has powerful effect (Saigon or Cassia is best—1.5 tsps)
*grind freshly because it loses polyphenols
*Cassia: rolled up from both sides like scroll, Caylon 1 side
*Decrease spikes in insulin by slowing down eating (30 mins or more)
*divide in thirds and wait 5 mins in between each third)
*drink more water, smaller portions, and chew more
*Minimize blood sugar bumps above 110 no more than 2x per day
*No corn, beans, tomatoes, or carrots permitted
Building perfect posterior
*posterior chain: all muscles from base of skull to Achilles
*KB swings 2x/wk for 15-20 minutes (75 swings Mon/Fri)
*Feet at 10/11 and ½ and keep shoulders pulled back and down
*back swing is “sit in chair” motion not a squat
*don’t let shoulders in front of knees
*squeeze butt
*Start at A then B lift and drop, then C is in air and swinging
*this fixed Kyphosis (rounded back)
*MED: 2x/wk à 20 2-legged glute raises, 15 flying dogs each side, 50 KB swings (heavy),
*Kiwi workout: glute raises 2-3 sets, 10 reps DB press/squat, 1 arm 1 leg DB row, lunge and sprinter knee, pushups, 2 arm KB’s x20; one leg Romanian DL, chin-up, 1-leg hamstring curl on swiss ball, plank (30-90 secs a side & regular), reverse hyper
*Cheap KB: piping and a clamp
*Men attractiveness .8-.9 Waist to hip ration and .6 waist to shoulder ratio
*Women .7 WHR
6 Min abs
*low bodyfat wasn’t enough for 6-pack, need 2x/week exercise to separate abs
*Myotatic Crunch: fully stretched positioning
*Bosu or swiss ball: arms over-stretched fully as possible, hands in diver position, keep stretching back
*lower 4 secs to fingers touch ground (keep hands behind ears)
*pause 2 secs at bottom elongating as much as possible
*rise and pause when hand perpendicular for 2 secs
*10x add weight like a book there
*Cat-cow (no arching back)
*exhale forcefully and suck stomach in, hold breath 8-12 secs, inhale 8-12 secs, rest one cycle of breaths, 10x
*transverse abdominal, that which hurts when laughing a lot
*women: planks (sides too) + hip flexor stretch (1 knee floor other foot standing, arms up and twisting)