The first step in taking on any new type of diet or nutritional plan, or attempting to lose weight, is absolutely to cleanse/detox.
My personal training and private yoga clients constantly talk to me about their physical goals, usually losing weight being at the top of their list.
My advice is always the same. Start with a cleanse. You need to press the “restart button” before you begin something brand new. Your body, specifically your digestive system, is much like a computer and you’re trying to download a new program. If you haven’t restarted your computer in months, maybe even years, your computer will be running slow and sluggish.
When we regularly ingest processed foods, meat and dairy products, our digestive and lymphatic systems become overloaded, or congested, leaving excess toxins to remain rampant in the blood and in the digestive system where they cause chronic illnesses and diseased colons.
Raw foods help our digestive systems to heal, which allows our lymphatic systems to discharge these congestive toxins. This process can be uncomfortable.
Symptoms of detoxification include a temporary loss of energy, headaches, nausea or diarrhea. Some people will experience childhood illnesses or past experiences. If you experience low energy or bowel irregularities over a long period of time, you may have an overgrowth of yeast, or Candida, in your intestines.
There are many different ways to detox. There’s the lemonade diet. There’s potions and colon cleansers. Laxatives. I personally believe the most gentle and nutritious way to detox is through raw food and juice cleanses. I either provide these cleanses (actually creating and making the cleanse for you) or, if you don’t live in Los Angeles and/or it’s too expensive for you at the moment, I can consult and guide you through your process via email/phone. See the testimonials page if you want to see what other clients have said.
If eating raw foods makes you feel ill or just isn’t right for your body, I can guide and support you through other nutritious cleanse methods, such as body ecology diet, gluten-free, dairy-free, macrobiotic or vegan.
Press Release:
Local University of Florida Graduate, fitness expert and BootCampRx owner Kim T. Nguyen branches out from the Tampa Bay area: Her custom fitness programs are an inspiration.
Recognized for their unconventional and unique fitness programs BootCampRx prepares to take it to a new level.
Tampa Bay, FL, September 29, 2009: in 2008 University of Florida Exercise Physiologist Graduate, Kim T. Nguyen developed a unique fitness concept which coupled high intensity cardio exercises with in depth strength and stability conditioning to give her clients something that no one else had been offering. BootCampRx offers a complete and personalized training program for every one of her clients from a full initial evaluation that tracks every step of progress to a specific custom program that is tailored to fit one’s personal goals, fitness levels and abilities. BootCampRx which originated in Tampa Bay, FL has since expanded into St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and now the Melbourne, FL areas. When Kim was asked what her inspiration was for this concept and how she conceived this incredible idea her response was simple. “When growing up as a young girl my father always kept my siblings and I very active with sports and fundamental exercises. I took my father’s passion for sports and functional exercise and turned it into something of my own in order to give people the most optimal advantage for increasing their health and fitness level.” It is very evident that at BootCampRx they take pride in catering to every client’s specific needs and goals. BootCampRx is now accepting new clients for their mobile training program which comes to you allowing you to exercise in the comfort of your own home with a personalized training aproach. No matter what your background, fitness level, height, weight or goals, BootCampRx has the solution for you to get the results you desire!
For More information on BootCampRx please contact:
Kim T. Nguyen at: kimfitnessrx@gmail.com call 813.368.7154 or visit www.bootcamprx.com.
Rounding out the season by giving away 20 rounds of golf this week sounds like fun to us!Here’s how you can earn multiple entries for your chance to win one or more rounds of golf this week.
Enter to WIN! 1. Register to WIN here! If you have registered in the past, no need to do so again!
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Bonus Entries 3. Post a comment on our Facebook Fan Page to let us know that you would love to WIN!
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Send all emails to Jennifer@OmahaCoupons.com. Be sure to include your name!
Winners will be randomly selected on Sunday night so GO MAKE SOME NOISE and increase YOUR odds of winning one or more FREE rounds of golf!
E eu voltei a malhar. Sim, foi uma decisão difícil e que sim, só aconteceu porque eu cheguei ao extremo do descaso com a minha forma física. Não que eu seja exatamente um cara vaidoso ou daqueles que cultuam o corpo, já que na verdade eu me preocupo com a minha aparência mais ou menos tanto quanto o pessoal da Atlântida se preocupava com vazamentos na caixa d’água, mas chega num ponto em que você precisa decidir se vai ser um cara que consegue apoiar um prato de comida na barriga ou não e eu acabei decidindo pela segunda opção. Mas aí vem um problema clássico da malhação: ir numa academia.
Não vou citar coisas como as dores no corpo, os exercícios que te fazem se sentir um idiota (“isso, agora você levanta essa perna, gira o pescoço, pula de lado e começa a recitar a música tema de Dragon Ball. Como? Não, não, isso não vai melhorar o seu físico, é só pra alegrar meu dia mesmo”) ou mesmo a minha vergonhosa avaliação física (ninguém nunca tinha dito coisas tão ruins sobre mim antes de ao menos uns seis meses de namoro, eu acho), porque acho que esses não são de culpa exclusiva do ambiente (mesmo se eu fizesse como o Rocky e malhasse arrastando alguém numa planície russa eu ainda teria que aguentar o Paulie dizendo que eu estou fora de forma), a questão é que o próprio espaço físico da academia colabora bastante para tornar toda a experiência mais dolorosa e cansativa.
Primeiro por conta das pessoas que freqüentam a academia, um tanto quando diferentes das pessoas com quem eu costumo conviver. Nada contra as mulheres usando roupas coladas (coool) ou as senhoras muito idosas que tem uma carga de supino maior do que a minha, mas admito que é evidentemente complicado pra mim conviver com os caras bombados que me olham como se eu fosse um coelho em um DVD sobre grandes escapadas feito pelo Animal Planet. E isso não apenas pela clara situação de inferioridade física em que me encontro, mas também pelos momentos visualmente desagradáveis que a convivência com certos caras obcecados por musculação pode te proporcionar, como ver um homem beijando o próprio bíceps. Sério, eu já vi isso. E é tão bizarro quanto parece.
Outro problema é a minha natural dificuldade com os aparelhos de musculação, só comparável com aquela que existe entre John Connor e as máquinas em geral: pesos se soltam sozinhos, anilhas me atacam, o Leg-press ganha vida e tenta me derrubar no chão, cabos se soltam e até mesmo a esteirinha de abdominal parece estar possuída por algum ente maligno. É como se diante da minha simples presença todo o espaço físico da academia notasse um elemento estranho e votasse, em unanimidade, pelo meu imediato extermínio, sem direito a ressarcimento do dinheiro da matrícula para a minha família, claro.
E aí vem, é claro, a música. Nada é pior numa academia do que a música. Se você tem azar o seu aparelho fica logo ao lado da sala das aulas de dança e você pode ouvir coisas gloriosas como um calypso, um forró, um zouk (seja um zouk o que for), e se você tem mais azar ainda vai ficar lá no meio da academia, onde toca essa mágica combinação de música dance ruim atual e música dance ruim antiga chamada “música de academia” cuja função parece ser a de te apressar pra terminar sua série logo e se afastar daquele som torturante ou mesmo fazer com que você perca peso porque a gordura vai querer fugir do seu corpo pra nunca mais ter que ouvir Lady Gaga.
Em suma, voltei a malhar e malhar é ruim, cansativo, chato e levemente degradante em vários momentos, mas é uma coisa que eu realmente preciso fazer se não quiser, num futuro próximo, virar um cara com problemas de joelho, de saúde e em quem todas as camisas ficam apertadas. Espero que quando eu escrever um post dizendo que parei de malhar por preguiça vocês joguem isso na minha cara e riam de mim apontando e me chamando de gordinho.
When I got home from a fairly long day at school I was starving, I don’t know why but I was so hungry for some peanut butter. I ate the last bit of peanut butter in the jar. Spreaded it on an organic banana and flat bread.
After my peanut butter snack I did 4 miles on the elliptical, and lifted weights. Today’s workout wasn’t the greatest but I did it. I felt really tired and drained from the school day. Mondays really take it outta me. Tonight i’ll probably hit the sack early “8:30 early..”
Dinner was catfish, organic brown rice, and organic asparagus. I also had 5 sun dried tomatoes “also organic “. Hell, why don’t i just call today organic Monday?
I spend most of my day at work from 8 am to 5 pm and I am sitting on my chair with the exception of the 1 hour break that I even sometimes don’t have time to take…
The lack of movement combined with the way I usually set had a very negative effect on my body…Thats why I decided that I need to do something about it … so I searched the net for exercises that are simple, doable in office and doesn’t take much time …
The Office Workout by Paige Waehner was the answer to my query…
Waehner says ”This workout doesn’t take the place of traditional strength training, but offers you a way to keep your blood moving if you can’t get away from your desk.”
What do you need for this workout? A chair and a water bottle…how convenient =)
Stretches for Your Wrists and Arms
Wrist Stretch: Extend arm in front, palm up and grab the fingers with other hand. Gently pull the fingers towards you to stretch the forearm, holding for 20-30 seconds. Repeat on the other side.
Wrist & Forearm:Press hands together in front of chest, elbows bent and parallel to the floor. Gently bend wrists to the right and left for 10 reps.
Lower Back Stretch:Sit tall and place the left arm behind lefthip. Gently twist to the left, using the right hand to deepen the stretch, holding for 20-30 seconds. Repeat on the other side.
Lower Body Exercises
Hip Flexion:Sit tall with the abs in and lift the left foot off the floor a few inches, knee bent. Hold for 2 seconds, lower and repeat for 16 reps. Repeat on the other side
Leg Extension:Sit tall with the abs in and extend the left leg until it’s level with hip, squeezing the quadriceps. Hold for 2 seconds, lower and repeat for 16 reps. Repeat on the other side.
Inner Thigh:Place towel, firm water bottle or an empty coffee cup between the knees as you sit up tall with the abs in. Squeeze the bottle or cup, release halfway and squeeze again, completing 16 reps of slow pulses.
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Chair Exercises
Chair Squat:While sitting, lift up until your hips are just hovering over the chair, arms out for balance. Hold for 2-3 seconds, stand all the way up and repeat for 16 reps.
Dips:Make sure chair is stable and place hands next to hips. Move hips in front of chair and bend the elbows, lowering the body until the elbows are at 90 degrees. Push back up and repeat for 16 reps.
One-Leg Squat:Make sure the chair is stable and take one foot slightly in front of the other. Use the hands for leverage as you push up into a one-legged squat, hovering just over the chair and keeping the other leg on the floor for balance. Lower and repeat, only coming a few inches off the chair for 12 reps. Repeat on the other side.
Upper Body Exercises
Front Raise to Triceps Press: Sit tall with the abs in and hold a full water bottle in the left hand. Lift the bottle up to shoulder level, pause, and then continue lifting all the way up over the head.
When the arm is next to the ear, bend the elbow, taking the water bottle behind you and contracting the triceps. Straighten the arm and lower down, repeating for 12 reps on each arm.
Bicep Curl:Hold water bottle in right hand and, with abs in and spine straight, curl bottle towards shoulder for 16 reps. Repeat other side.
Ab Exercises
Side Bends:Hold a water bottle with both hands and stretch it up over the head, arms straight. Gently bend towards the left as far as you can, contracting the abs. Come back to center and repeat to the right. Complete 10 reps (bending to the right and left is one rep).
Ab Twists: Hold the water bottle at chest level and, keeping the knees and hips forward, gently twist to the left as far as you comfortably can, feeling the abs contract. Twist back to center and move to the left for a total of 10 reps. Don’t force it or you may end up with a back injury.
There’s a new toy out that you may not have heard of yet. It’s the Fitbit and it’s revolutionizing fitness beyond belief.
The Fitbit is a 24-hour calorie-monitoring device that you simply slide on to your pants. It has newly-developed technology that allows the device to track every movement you make including general exercise such as jogging. It transfers this movement into data that is converted into calories burned.
What’s also really incredible is the enhanced capabilities the Fitbit has. In addition to the Fitbit tracking your movement throughout your daily activities, it also tracks your sleep patterns.
By determining how you toss and turn, the Fitbit can determine how long it took you to go to sleep and how many times you woke up during your sleep. This type of revolutionary data is incredible and allows the user to determine how to get a better sleep, in addition to determining how well rested you are.
The Fitbit Dashboard is your personal database that allows you to chart and keep track of your progress. In your dashboard, you can input various factors that help personalize your Fitbit such as age, height, weight, and gender.
Fitbit also allows you to import nutritional information they’ve already determined and stored for some of the most popular restaurants and food types.
As fascinated and infatuated with the Fitbit as I am, there is one fatal flaw. It’s the lack of activities provided for monitoring. Fitbit can’t accurately determine calorie burn for weight-lifting or other activities such as cycling, rowing, and any other unconventional exercise.
It seems for now the Fitbit is only adequate for running and walking.
Fitbit has plans for future models to be capable of communicating with other Fitbits to allow the comparison of fitness goals with other Fitbit users as well as an online community of Fitbit users.
I think this is a cool idea, however I really think they should focus on increasing the technology to allow for other activities as opposed to developing it into a social product. Most people have very private exercises, and I really can’t imagine people meeting up to jog together and talk about their “Fitbit fitness goals.”
I’m sorry… I just don’t see it.
A product like Fitbit is for the demographic of people like me who live in urban metropolitan areas. I live in Austin, TX and while there’s a large community of joggers, there’s a ton more cyclists and rowers. I’m sure they’d like a Fitbit too.
Official Fitbit Website: http://www.fitbit.com/
Spread The Word! Link Back To This Page Using The Code Below:
ECGs should be a routine part of every adult’s annual physical exam. ECGs can help identify heart muscle damage, heart enlargement and irregular heart rhythms. A new study published in the August 2009 edition of The European Heart Journal states that ECGs may also be able to help identify people at risk for Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD). The study suggests that increases in the QRS duration (the electrical activity from the ventricles, which are the bottom chambers of the heart) are significant predictors of SCD. The researchers in this study excluded patients with known causes of SCD (i.e.: bundle branch blocks or hypertrophy which is an enlargement of the heart muscle).
This is an interesting initial evaluation that needs to be investigated further but again stresses the importance of routine yearly exams. Men and women with a family history of SCD, stroke and heart disease especially may benefit from this routine screening. We just need to make sure our health care providers are aware of this relatively new predictor of SCD and send people on for further evaluation.
For more heart healthy info please visit www.heart-strong.com
Those desired six-packs. For someone trying to reshape their body or just overall aesthetics, those abdominals have become highly coveted–perhaps even an obsession.
Just take a trip to any gym and you’ll see the abdominal machines and “captain’s chair” occupied 90% of the time. In another corner of the facility you’ll see others doing hundreds of crunches, either on a stability ball, or on the floor. Nine out of ten times, these people still have a big panza (belly).
The answer may be simpler than you think. Not by doing 1000’s of crunches, nor starving yourself–its simple mathematics, some education, and a real desire to want those abdominals bad enough.
I’ll start with the equation. It’s about 65% nutrition–not starving yourself, or going on some restrictive diet–but good solid nutrition. In other words, it requires eating the right types of foods.
The second piece of the equation is fitness (training). That’s about 25% of the equation. And the final piece (10%)–either you’re blessed with it or not. Your DNA (genes). Some people are just naturally gifted with really good genes. Those are the ones that perhaps go to the gym for a week, stop, and still look great. Also the ones we don’t like very much (JK).
So we’ve got 65% nutrition, 25% fitness, and about 10% DNA–mas o menos (more or less). We’ll start with Nutrition since that’s the biggest factor.
Unfortunately, this society has made it easier for us to do less physical work and eat more–especially all those highly processed ready-to-go meals. The statistics validate this. Most major health organizations will agree that about two-thirds of our population is currently overweight or obese. Of the remaining one-third, only about 3% have low enough body fat to produce visible musculature in the abdominals.
Bottom line . . . we need to adjust our eating habits. A balanced, low fat diet is very important, not only for reducing body fat, but also for many health related concerns. The American Heart Association recommends that you reduce your daily fat intake to 30% or less of your total caloric intake. I recommend using fat grams as a marker instead. That is, keeping your fat grams to about 50 per day. Of those fifty, 80-85% of them should be the good fats–see article on fats.
Healthy eating can actually be enjoyable and doesn’t have to feel restrictive. As I alluded earlier, it just takes some educated choices such as choosing the right foods, eating at the right times, and of course eating the right quantities and proportions (moderation). See last week’s article on nutrition.
The second piece of the equation to “melting the butter” (reducing body fat) is training.
Include cardiovascular activity in your fitness regime to further improve your body composition and strengthen your heart muscle. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 20 minutes of cardiovascular activity 3 to 5 times a week. With that 20 minutes, include 5-7 minutes of warm-up before and after the work out. The sky is the limit with cardiovascular activity–just find an activity you really enjoy.
Be sure to include strength training for all the major muscle groups, not just the abdominals. Muscle tissue is very active tissue and burns up to 25% of the body’s total calories. By adding 5 pounds of muscle to your body, you could burn up to 250 extra calories a day! To burn, tone, and strengthen I recommend 3 sets of 12-15 repetitions per major muscle group. The right weight is the one where the last two reps are difficult.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention core training. Most will do cardio and strength but neglect their center of gravity–the core. Twenty-nine muscles, 17 in the hips, 4 in the abdominals and the balance in back and spine support.
By combining healthy nutrition and good training you will see and feel significant results in 6-8 weeks. Check it out. If you reduce your caloric intake by 250 kcals (kilocalorie=1 food calorie, or 1,000 energy calories) per day and add ½ hour of cardio you will have expended 500 kcals a day. Mulitply 500 by 7 (days in the week) and you have 3,500 kcals or 1 pound of fat.
One Friday each month, a local LUCYPRO™ will be in store to inspire your fitness goals, providing free fitness information and teaching free classes.
On FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2ND the LUCYPRO™ is me!
YOU’RE INVITED…
…to a complimentary Circuit Training class with Jennifer Billings from Dolphitness and Chai Merrell from Elite Fitness. We are hosting two 30 minute classes at 12 p.m. & 3 p.m.
We’ll teach circuit training classes with resistance bands & medicine/stability balls. We’ll also raffle off FREE personal training sessions for you and a friend at each class! Don’t miss out!
Hope to see you on Friday, October 2nd Manhattan Village Mall
For additional information go to: http://www.lucy.com/Store%20Locator/STORE_LOCATOR,default,pg.html#CA
go to Manhattan Beach and click on store events
or send me an e-mail at jenniferb@dolphitness.com
Congratulations to my friend Karen Driver who competed in the European Masters Swimming Championships in Cadiz last week.
She got 4th in the 800 metre freestyle (only missing out on the bronze by 0.6 sec! ), and knocking 3 seconds off her personal best!
She got 3rd in the 400 metre freestyle (yay!!! )
And she got 13th in the open water freestyle, knocking a fantastic 3 minutes off her personal best!
We have trained together a lot here in the gym, and we worked hard to make the time as productive as possible. She spends hours every day in the pool, so the last thing she needs is “work for works sake” in the gym. We scaled back on exercises that were not helping her with swimming and fine tuned others to make them as specific as possible to her events.
The only reason we were in the gym was to improve her swimming time. So there was no thought of showing off, posing in the mirror, or doing the things the bodybuilding boys were doing.
“If it did not directly help with improving her swim time, we didn’t bother with it.”
I loved every minute of training with her, because we got loads of strange looks from all the bodybuilding boys confused as to what we were doing. I even got told i was training “wrong” because i wasn’t “isolating the muscles”! The human body does not work in isolation. It is 1 incredibly complex unit that needs to work in a coordinated fashion. So that’s how it should be trained.
The most important moves we were doing were big, compound exercises (full depth heavy squats, pullups etc), explosive plyometrics for the legs (to help improve her turns) and very swimming specific moves on the cable machine (so we were “swimming” on dry land!).
Barbell Squat
Vertical jump
It highlighted a big difference between people in the gym. Some come in and do things because it looks good/sexy/cool (and they read it in a magazine that sell a lot of “supplements”), and we come in and do things because they WORK!
note from Dr. N -This week’s blog is a little long; however, it’s an important topic, I was inspired by a recent conversation and I’m making up for last week (my brother was in town)… I hope you enjoy. “Let’s start the show…”
Probiotics are health promoting bacteria (normal flora) that are supposed to line the walls of our digestive tract. There are 100 trillion of these cells in your guts, that’s 10x more cells than in the rest of your entire body.
Ok, got it healthy bacteria, why’s that important? Cut to the chase Bub, what’s in it for me? Why should I spend my hard earned dollars on these little so-called “friendly” bugs?
Great question, here’s why this is sooooooo important:
PROBIOTICS have many functions & are ESSENTIAL for YOU to be HEALTHY. Sadly AMERICANS ARE DANGEROUSLY DEFICIENT in these essential organisms!
The TOP 3 FUNCTIONS OF PROBIOTCIS:
1. Probiotics help normalize (which will mean improve to pretty much all Americans) the function of your immune system, which should be high on your list of bodily functions to keep in prime working order coming into the flu season. Improving your immune system should not just be a goal for the cold & flu season, but all seasons considering we’re entering the cancer decade and the diabetes century, and that’s because all lifestyle diseases are directly related to your immune system.
a. Probiotics are able to improve your immune system by out-competing bad (pathogenic – disease causing) bacteria, yeast, fungus & other harmful microorganisms for space on the wall of your digestive tract. 80% of your immune system is in your digestive tract because it is the largest area of our body that is exposed to the outside world (largest area for bad stuff to get into us).
b. Let me give you an analogy that should fit right in here in New England. Let’s say the Sox were playing the Yankee’s here at Fenway. There are a limited number of seats for a game like that, right? Well, if we were able to fill Fenway completely with Sox fans, there would be no room for those yucky (pathogenic) Yankee’s fans, and the Sox fans would be able to really help the Sox play their best & win the game, right?!. It’s the same thing with your digestive tract; it is supposed to be filled with healthy bacteria that work together with you to help you run as efficiently as possible. When we don’t have enough probiotics, for reasons discussed later, there is room for bad bacteria (Yankee’s fans) to take root and start producing toxins (foul language, negative energy), which can disrupt not only or immunity, but cause lots of symptoms, poor digestion, irritable bowel, head aches…etc (errors & lost games).
2. Probiotics improve (normalize) our digestion by helping to breaking down certain foods and nutrients that we can’t without them.
3. Probiotics make certain vitamins that we don’t typically get enough of. These include many of the B vitamins, which have to do with energy production, as well as vitamin K, which is important in clotting/coagulation in wound repair.
So, if we have so many of these things in our guts, why should I take any more?
Well, there have been massive amounts of research done on this topic, and as always it boils down to this: we aren’t living a life that anyway remotely resembles our hunter gatherer ancestors, which wrecks havoc on everything, including our friendly bacteria.
Here’s the 5 reasons Why:
1. We aren’t eating dirty foods covered in healthy bacteria; we now wash our foods and spray them with terribly toxic things. This translates into you getting roughly 1,000,000 times less of these probiotics into your GI tract. ( keep in mind, you want to be like a healthy lake or pond, i.e. good inflow and outflow, outflow only &/or stagnation equals death).
2. Many of the things we do eat here in America (processed foods, unhealthy meats, dairy, & grains) are as terrible for our little helpers as they are for us. Toxic foods produce acidic environments that kill off our healthy bacteria and promote the environment where yeasts and fungi thrive.
3. We consume antibiotics by the truckload, I know that roughly 20 million prescriptions are written incorrectly each year, not to mention all of the antibacterial soaps and other ridiculous products that straight up target and destroy our bacterial buddies.
4. We rarely play in the dirt! We now play computers, Nintendo, or in swabbed gyms. This would be absolutely absurd to a hunter gatherer; it was the only thing they could play in. This not only ensured enough of the good bacteria, but it also ensured that his or her immune system was challenged in the right time and way to guarantee an extremely powerful immune system.
5. Chronic Stress – wreaks havoc on us and our synergistic bugs, they don’t even have a chance.
I know what you’re thinking:
What can I do? I can’t take it anymore, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. I’ll save you little buddies, just hold on!
Now that you know the WHY, you are ready for the How…
couldn’t figure out how to get rid of this 1 and 2???
very irritating
ACTION STEPS:
1. Buy some Probiotics, but not just any probiotics.
a. They should come refrigerated or out of the freezer (because they are alive they need to be cold to keep them alive long enough to ingest them). Also, there are certain strains (types) of healthy bacteria that have been shown to be more beneficial than others.
2. Take the probiotics!! This is something you take daily for life, to address a deficiency.
a. I take the brand Innate Choice Probiotic Sufficiency (retail about $35 for a months supply) because I feel that it is the healthiest most congruent brand out there. There are some decent brands I have found @ Whole Foods, just make sure it is cold and contains some if not all of the above strains of bacteria.
b. Note — DURING THE FIRST WEEK OR TWO OF STARTING PROBIOTICS THERE MAY BE SIDE EFFECTS, SUCH AS HEAD OR BODY ACHES, GAS, BLOATING &/OR DIARRHEA … This is ok, this is normal. This happens because the harmful microorganisms are fighters, & as they get pushed out and/or killed by the good bacteria, they often produce more toxins as they die, but stick to it because you are worth it!! (isn’t it interesting how differently wellness doctors handle side effect verses the pharmaceutical industry? hmmmm who’s hiding what and why? I’ll tell you right now, I’m not trying to sneak nothing by nobody!)
***If you experience any of the above side effects, start slowly by taking one capsule every other day for the first week, then one/day for another week or two, then up to the full 2 capsules per day recommendations. I like to take mine morning and night, because I like to spread out my wellness.
Children should take ½ of a capsule/day per 40lbs of body weight (of the innate choice’s brand). You can pull the capsule apart and put it in a smoothie, water or on food. It’s flavorless.
3. Lastly, enjoy knowing that you are one sufficiency closer to living a wellness lifestyle (kind of gives you that warm and tingly feeling all over doesn’t it ;-p) and that you just increased the quality and the quantity of your (and your family’s) life.
If you want more information and science check out www.innatechoice.com.
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Hello and welcome to my weblog, Experiments in Manliness.
This weblog tries to answer the question, “What does it mean to a be healthy man in today’s world?” As well as offer you a fine collection of tips, tricks, experiments, and fresh perspectives on health, fitness, relationships, and all things manly.
I invite you to read, comment, try out experiments, and make suggestions for new ones. This blog is for everyone and feedback may be rewarded with an assortment of baked goods and a lifetime of boundless appreciation.
According to my favorite bathroom read, Men’s Health Magazine, health and quite often happiness comes from obtaining tight abs, big arms, slimmer waists, and a longer, stronger Johnson. While I don’t deny wanting to have any of those things, out of it’s 10 million starry-eyed readers, how many of us look anything like the cover guy: chiseled, lean, and meticulously well-groomed? In fact, as the fashion, beauty, and health industries experience a surge in profits all over the world, especially here in Canada and the US, men are looking more and more the opposite of healthy: un-chiseled, McLean, and plagued by higher rates cardiovascular diseases than ever before.
Experiments in Manliness is about exposing the assumptions, beliefs, statements made about what it means to be a man in today’s world and putting them up of the scrutiny of our failing health, lack lustre relationships, and the degradation of our environment. The Experiment involves taking the best of what magazines like Men’s Health has to offer in Fitness, Health, and Relationships, filtering out the sh*t, and piecing together an approach to the masculine that celebrates diversity in the male experience; one that recognizes that men want healthy, satisfying, and fulfilling relationships with ourselves, our brothers from another mother, partners, spouses, mothers, fathers, children, and the world around us.
Yoga Pure stock a large range of yoga mats and yoga equipment suitable for everyone from beginners to professional yoga teachers. Their range includes yoga mats, yoga mat bags and relaxation aids. Yoga Pure are also UK stockists of the Manduka mats which are regarded by many as being the finest yoga mats in the world. This range includes the eKO mat which is an environmentally friendly option. The full range of equipment can be browsed on the Yoga Pure website at www.yogapure.co.uk.
Undefeated in his decorated career as a professional fighter, compiling a record of 22-0 in kickboxing and 17-0 during Sanshou competition, Cung Le took the world of mixed martial arts by storm following his debut in early 2006, winning all six of his bouts fought under the Strikeforce banner by knockout, and capturing the promotion’s middleweight championship in the process. Cung’s own description of his fighting career sums it up perfectly, “I’ve been successful in everything I’ve done.”
This is why there were more than a few experts and fans alike that had very good reason to believe that the sky was the limit for the freshly crowned, and seemingly unstoppable 185 pound title holder. There was a certain energy surrounding Cung following his arm shattering beatdown of MMA legend Frank Shamrock to claim the Strikeforce crown. An energy that dwindled and lost steam in the mixed martial arts community as the championship sat undefended for months and months to come.
All the while, Le has been busier than ever before in his career spent punching and kicking grown men about the skull and torso. Busy stringing together an impressive resume in Hollywood, recently appearing in Fighting alongside Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard prior to this week’s September 25 release of Pandorum, with Tekken slated to come out later this year.
This is where the second side to the story comes in. As Cung recently revealed in an exclusive interview conducted with FiveOuncesOfPain.com in the days following his resignation as the Strikeforce middleweight champion, a plaguing elbow injury suffered prior to the title fight with Shamrock required a tremendous amount of rehabilitation following the bout. A rehabilitation process the injured elbow is still undergoing to this day.
Le stepping down as the Srikeforce middleweight champion just made sense for all involved due to the current situation. Cung put it best when he said, “It was the honorable thing to do”.
Do you feel like your career in mixed martial arts can be given a fair amount of credit for your fast rise in the movie industry?
Cung Le: I definitely credit MMA, and the popularity of MMA, for the opportunities I’ve had to just walk into these big studios and meet these movie executives because half of them were fans of the sport. They wanted to meet with me because of my past in the sport, and then of course they want to know if I can act. A lot of people don’t realize that when you’re a fighter, you’re going to have a lot of fans, from the top executives from Warner Bros., Universal, and other major companies in Hollywood. If you go in there, they’re going to be a fan, but if they know that you can deliver, and that you can act, a lot of big and wonderful things can happen for you in your career in the entertainment business.
Do you also feel, on the other side of that coin, do you feel like you’re giving back to the sport to some degree by all the press the sport is getting through you being in movies?
Cung Le: I believe that I have given back to the sport because this is going be a bigger market. A lot of people follow MMA, but then there’s a whole lot of other people that don’t follow MMA at all, but everyone goes and watches movies. I think that after people see me in movies, they may end up doing a little bit of research and they’ll be like, “Wow! He fights MMA”.
Can you talk to me about some of the reasons behind your motivation to step down as the Strikeforce middleweight champion?
Cung Le: You know, from my heart, I feel like the opportunity that I have received from MMA and being able to work on films has prevented me from defending my title. I’ve been off doing other things for seventeen months now, and I feel like it doesn’t serve the top middleweight contenders in Strikeforce justice when I’m out doing something else that isn’t their opportunity. I understand that this is my opportunity. I think that for me to take a step back was the honorable thing to do. I wanted to give those guys a chance to fight for the title. Not everyone gets the kind of opportunities that I get, so I have to not be selfish, and take a step back, and do the right thing, which is to vacate the title.
So with you stepping away from your championship belt, are you also stepping away from the sport as a competitor?
Cung Le: Just because I vacate the title does not mean that I’m retiring. I still love the sport, and I plan on getting back in thee and maybe doing a superfight here and there. If everything’s firing on all cylinders maybe I’ll take another run at the title again, but right now I think this is the best, and the most honorable thing to do.
Now I heard that before you fought Frank Shamrock for the title that you had an injury that you needed surgery on following the fight. What can you tell me about that injury and the rehabilitation process that has followed it?
Cung Le: Well I had elbow surgery before. It ended up taking me like six weeks of rehab before I could get back in there and train. I though that it was just a bone spur that may have been pinching the nerve or something. When I came out from being under during the surgery I was like, ‘Wow!’, you know, I felt weird because I had been under before and I was just so out of it. My surgeon told me that it went from a minor surgery to a major surgery because my bone spurt was sticking into a major nerve. So he had to move the nerve out of the way, shave the bone down, and just kind of push the nerve back into the pocket. I remember he told me that I was going to have to rehab it for at least three months, and I was like, ‘Wow!’, you know. Then two weeks later Frank Shamrock wanted to offer me the fight, and my trainer was telling me that I might not get this opportunity again. So I’m working around my injury preparing for the fight, and I got in there and I pulled it off. Right now I’m healing up. I’m at least at 85% right now. I try to keep myself in the best shape I can in case something comes up, then I won’t be that far off from getting back in shape.
I think there are a lot of people that may not realize that outside of the opportunities that came your way in film, you physically couldn’t fight after the Shamrock bout for a large chunk of time.
Cung Le: I physically couldn’t fight in the beginning. A lot of people don’t realize, they think that Strikeforce has been around for so long that they forget that Strikeforce put on their first show of this year in April, Frank Shamrock vs. Nick Diaz, and all of a sudden right after that they were expecting a title fight to come up right away. I thought it was kind of stupid.
In the back of your mind, you have to sit back and wonder how you would do against some of the top guys in the division like Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt, or even Jake Shields. Is that hunger still there in your stomach? Do you get that burn when you’re watching fights where you just want to get back in there?
Cung Le: You know, maybe I’m different than some of the other fighters, but that burn that I have in my stomach is just to challenge myself. it doesn’t matter who I go in there against. I’ve been competing for a long time. Since 1994 as an amateur, and I turned pro in 98. I fought professionally in Sanshou and Kickboxing until 2005 before I turned to MMA in 2006. I’ve had a long career, where I’ve represented the United States in the World Championships, and I was the only American to bring home three different medals from three different world championships, along with winning other titles in Sanshou and kickboxing, and now in MMA, I’ve been successful in everything I’ve done. It’s just that a lot of people don’t realize that I’ve been a competitor my entire life, so that fire is always there for me. At the same time, I know that sometimes you just have to take a step back, and let yourself recover, and just kind of re-energize for when you take that next step, and get ready to walk back inside of the cage or ring again. I’ve been doing this for a very long time.
I can totally understand that, but you see the same question come up with a guy like Fedor for example. Is it a situation where you’ve just been dominant for so long at what you’ve been doing that you don’t really feel like you’re being challenged anymore?
Cung Le: No, I challenge myself. I’ve always been a competitor, I’ve always loved the martial arts, and I always try to represent myself well. I know that people have high expectations of me, but they’re not the ones doing it. They’re not the ones putting in the time. They’re not the ones that are going through the hardships, the ups and downs, so they really don’t understand. They just have a tunnel vision thought process about certain things. They call it the way they think it should be, but they don’t really understand. I’m not done yet. I’ll be back. I’m just doing the best that I can do to make the right decisions. I’m not in it for the short haul, I’m in it for the long haul. I have to do the right thing, not only for the fans and the promotion, but I have to do the right thing for myself, and my family too.
Fair enough. I can respect that. I have to ask you, is Anthony Johnson going to be the guy to beat Georges St. Pierre?
Cung Le: The only fear I have with Anthony Johnson is him being able to make 170 pounds. Every time he comes back for the next fight he’s bigger and just putting on more muscle. He’s really putting his time in right now, trying different things, and I really feel like the sky is the limit for Anthony Johnson. I think he’s just really big for the weight, and I know it’s a very hard cut for him. He has all the talent, and everything it takes to beat anyone, but when you have to make that drastic of a cut in weight leading into a fight, you’re not even the same person. I think he could be competitive at 185, but he likes to fight at 170 because he’s bigger than most of those guys, so that’s why he does it. I think that he has all of the potential in the world to do whatever it takes.
Of course, a question a lot of fans want to know; Is there any chance we’re gonna see Cung Le fight in the UFC before it’s all said and done?
Cung Le: I have a lot of respect for Dana White and the UFC. I have to give Dana and the UFC all the credit for getting MMA in the mainstream, but right now I have a contract with Strikeforce, and I’m doing the best I can as a martial artist and an MMA champion… former champion…. you know, I could not say right now. I’m not that young anymore [laughs], so we’ll see
Thanks so much for taking this time with me Cung. Is there anyone you would like to thank?
Cung Le: Definitely, I’d like to thank Zebra Mats, Throwdown, ADX, KNOXX Gear and BR Flooring. I also want to thank all of the fans, the Vietnamese community, and to everyone in MMA that supports all of us as fighters and athletes, thank you very much.
Alright Cung, thanks a lot….
Cung Le: And thank you for the interview. I think I shed a bit of light, more than any other interview for you, so hopefully your interview with me stands out more than the other ones.
in the hodge podge of things I ramble about, sometimes I neglect to mention my workouts. I write them in my journal here but simply forget to type them here.
here is an update.
I actually got complimented on my arms yesterday. Yep. Complimented.
I did 175 lbs. on the trap bar (which is almost like you are picking up 2 suit cases, one on each side)….picked it up once……yeah me!
I am weighing 121-124ish. I honestly have very little that I can wear anymore of mine. If not for my MIL & her yard sale-ing I dare guess I’d look like a drowned rat in my ‘too big for me now’ clothes. (not complaining, mind you…..it’s better on THIS side of the clothes issues)
I got up this morning & looked at my reflection in the mirror & FINALLY the scared areas of my lower belly are starting to go down. I felt/worried that this ‘big’ area of my body wouldn’t go down because of my prior surgeries, etc….but it seems that area too, is FINALLY starting to go down.
I’ve had several people seek my advice on working out. ME. I’m still in shock. I feel like I’m still the same girl that I once thought of as overweight, but looking in mirrors & being told by others has been reminders that this fitness thing is actually working for me.
I have gone from counting my macros everyday, I more or less just go with ‘eye balling’ what I’m eating because I seem to have gotten into the routine & mostly eat the same things……it’s just easier for me this way.
To lose weight you need to burn more calories then you take in. Sound pretty simple…doesn’t?
If you’re exercising and being active and still not losing weight, look at your portion. Just because you only eat a couple times a day, doesn’t mean you are dieting correctly.
One of the biggest mistakes you are making is eating too much at one time. Your body will only process so many calories at on time and than store the rest…usually as fat! If you’re eating more then 240-300 calories per meal chances are you will be storing body fat.
Do yousekf a favor and don’t let your exercise efforts go to waste. Try eating 4-6 meals a day, consuming about 200-350 calories per meal.
Try this secret weight loss tactic and see if you don’t start losing some body fat?
I asked one of my best friends from high school to give me his thoughts on my CrossFit post and he was nice enough to oblige with an extremely poignant and thoughtful email. He is a Captain in the United States Army and is also a CrossFit certified trainer (read: he’s in ridiculous shape). He has gone through their training and is as knowledgeable about their beliefs and systems as anyone you’ll meet. We agreed on some parts, disagreed on others but I thought it would be interesting to post his thoughts in its entirety since he’s got some great insight.
I have also responded with my final thoughts at the end.
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Dave –
OK, a consolidation of thoughts on CrossFit. I’m trying to be as objective as possible, as you would probably consider me drunk with the kool-aid. Frankly, after doing CF for two years and attending a certification, I admit, I am addicted. Here’s why:
CrossFit’s foundation is actually not the same as P90X, or at least not how you explained. I don’t do P90X and I don’t know much about it, so I can only speak to how you explained its foundations. CF’s foundations are constantly varied/functional movement/high intensity. Constantly varied has a little more depth than muscle confusion. While the exercises are constantly different (muscle confusion?), constantly varied means that it can be a P90X or Filthy Fifty style workout one day, a 5K run the next, or a max deadlift workout the next. Filthy Fifty workouts are called METCON workouts in the CF community, or metabolic conditioning workouts. If someone is doing METCON workouts everyday, they aren’t doing CF.
For example, I did the following workouts over the past three days:
For time:
50 pullups
500m row
21 thrusters, 95 lbs.
750m row
21 thrusters, 95 lbs
500m row
50 pullups
***
Front squat, max weight
3 reps x 5 sets
***
For time:
21 reps 225 lbs deadlift
21 reps handstand pushups
15 reps 225 lbs deadlift
15 reps handstand pushups
9 reps 225 lbs deadlift
9 reps handstand pushups
***
I don’t see many P90Xers knocking out 225 lb deadlifts for time, but I could be wrong. I won’t concentrate on that, though, because I can’t knock something I haven’t given a solid shot at.
Therefore, I disagree with your PROs and CONs. First, CF is not structured to be “good” for anything. The goal of CF is very clear: specificity is the enemy – CF calls it General Physical Preparedness, or GPP. It will not make you a great triathlete, a great bodybuilder, a great olympic lifter, or an expert in anything. It will, however, make you damn good at almost anything life can throw at you – if you take it seriously. Second, CF makes it very clear that the foundation of everything is nutrition, and strongly advocates the “Zone” or “Paleo” diet. I would disagree that its going to do shit for you in terms of weight loss or health unless you are building on a strong foundation of nutrition, which I believe is the biggest problem with the average American looking to get fit. CFers are a little bit crazy because they have integrated CF into many aspects of their life, especially nutrition. You mentioned gymnastics, so this is where CFers believe gymnastics (movement of bodyweight) works into the scheme. The progression looks likes this: Nutrition – Metabolic Conditioning – Gymnastics – Weight Lifting – Sports.
What’s different about CF is that unlike other programs, is that it very clearly defines a word that we throw out there quite a bit: fitness. The definition of fitness they use is:
- Endurance
- Stamina
- Strength
- Flexibility
- Power
- Speed
- Coordination
- Agility
- Balance
- Accuracy
This definition is their point of departure to which the workouts are tailored. What CF claims is that their program is a constantly evolving system that is based on pure results. The results they are looking for are listed above, in the definition of fitness. Top athletes, such as MMA fighters, olympic skiers, olympic lifters, pro football players, use CF when they are not attempting to achieve specificity in their sport. So I disagree that it is not good for team sports, especially with the development of CF Football, which makes a conscious decision to add more weightlifting to achieve some specificity in power/strength areas, but still keeps everything fairly constantly varied because a lot of different things can happen on a football field. I’m not sure what’s going on with baseball players not needing overhead lifts, but I don’t think its necessary to debate that point too much. After reading about what throwing a baseball for your whole life does to your shoulder, I would say it’s more about baseball screwing up your shoulders than the lifts. But I digress.
You are right about CF not being for everyone, though. It is not for people that like their comfort zone or exercises they are good at, it’s not for people who want to “practice” at exercising, as many of the moves take practice, and on average, it’s just plain harder than anything I’ve ever done in any sport, the military, or a workout program. Let’s face it, most Americans aren’t willing to put the hard work in that’s necessary to be fit – and if they were, they wouldn’t need CF, just getting their fat asses into a gym for a couple minutes a week and having a disciplined diet would do the trick. CF forms this little cult of people that are willing to leave everything out on the gym floor, everyday.
You are also totally right about the camaraderie and competition aspects of the program. For those and the other above mentioned reasons, I integrated many of the CF workouts into the physical training I do with my Soldiers. It makes exercising a sport, which is great for former athletes like us that miss that stuff.
A final point about cost. I don’t go to CF gym, and CF is an open-source workout program. There simply isn’t a more generous program like it out there. Greg Glassman came to Fort Hood last month and donated $30,000 of equipment to the post for CF gyms. When I move, I will join a CF gym. Simply put, some CF exercises are difficult enough that someone watching your form and getting you better everyday is beneficial enough for me to pay the higher fees. Also, my Globo Gym, Gold’s Gym, doesn’t have all the stuff I want – Rowing machines, ropes, bumper plates, etc. I know a CF affiliate will have it.
There aren’t P90X gyms popping up all over the country, but there are hundreds of CF affiliates that are making quite a bit of headway. We can debate that Glassman didn’t “invent” exercises, but he did come up with something worthy of a solid try for anyone who is looking for GPP. Sure, he’s making money, but most good ideas do. I recommend to anyone that really wants to try CF needs to give it two solid months, then compare it to their current program for “fitness,” if their current program even defines fitness – which most don’t. Most people just dabble in and out of CF, and then find a reason it doesn’t fit them. My Soldiers have a love/hate relationship with CF. They hate how hard it is, but love the results.
I think we basically agree, its not for a client if their goal to rapidly put on size and strength. But is that fitness? I personally have found a ton of success in CF. It makes me better at everything else I do at life, especially as a member of the military. I swung a golf club for the first time in five years and found that the core strength and accuracy CF built was crucial in helping me hold my own against guys that play all the time. It makes me a better wakeboarder, skiier, shooter, and flag football player. Most of the special operations community in the military has found the same thing.
Be careful perscribing a CF to a newbie, especially people who thing they are pretty “fit.” It can be such a shock to their system when they realize that they are not as “fit” as they think they are, and rhabdomyolysis is a possibility. But like I said, its not for everyone…
I hope this helps in your quest to educate. Just trying to give a perspective from a CFer that I hope has a balanced look at what CF is and what CF isn’t. Feel free to run my email by another CF certified trainer see what they say.
–
Here are my reactions to his extremely well argued email.
1) “Therefore, I disagree with your PROs and CONs. First, CF is not structured to be “good” for anything. The goal of CF is very clear: specificity is the enemy”
DT: True, however specificity is EXACTLY what some people are looking for. While I agree their programming is excellent in that it promotes being well-rounded, the reality is that some people are not looking for that. Some people say, “I want a bigger chest and bigger arms”, “I want to bench 300 lbs”, “I want to improve my 60 yard dash time”. I think you and I agree that those folks are missing the boat on overall fitness, but that is for the individual to decide. For those goals, you need an extremely specific plan which CrossFit cannot provide.
2) “I think we basically agree, its not for a client if their goal to rapidly put on size and strength. But is that fitness?”
DT: Yes, I think that is definitely fitness. There are people whose jobs demand peak strength such as construction workers, barbacks, movers, laborers, etc. This is my main problem with CrossFit, the mentality it instills in its followers is that their view is superior, when in real life there are a LOT of people who need something as straight forward as increased strength to perform better at work.
3) “I personally have found a ton of success in CF. It makes me better at everything else I do at life, especially as a member of the military. I swung a golf club for the first time in five years and found that the core strength and accuracy CF built was crucial in helping me hold my own against guys that play all the time. It makes me a better wakeboarder, skiier, shooter, and flag football player.”
DT: We completely agree on the fact that it is outstanding for people who just want to live a better, healthier and more energetic life. I still maintain that athletes need power-based, sport-specific movements. CrossFit will make you more athletic but won’t necessarily help you push a lineman back 5 yards.
4) “A final point about cost. I don’t go to CF gym, and CF is an open-source workout program. There simply isn’t a more generous program like it out there. Greg Glassman came to Fort Hood last month and donated $30,000 of equipment to the post for CF gyms.”
DT: Great insight.
5) “I would disagree that its going to do shit for you in terms of weight loss or health unless you are building on a strong foundation of nutrition, which I believe is the biggest problem with the average American looking to get fit.”
DT: Fair enough and I like your argument on proper nutrition. However, in order for something to even pretend to help you lose weight, it has to get your body to a thermogenic state where it is using fat as a fuel source. The science is there, CrossFit gets your heart to that rate, so yes, it will promote fat loss. Wait, I just made the argument for my friend…you tricked me!
6) “I recommend to anyone that really wants to try CF needs to give it two solid months, then compare it to their current program for “fitness,” if their current program even defines fitness – which most don’t”.
DT: Completely agree. Great point.
7) “I integrated many of the CF workouts into the physical training I do with my Soldiers”.
DT: Just wanted to point out the fact that he capitalized ‘Soldiers’. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but I absolutely noticed it and loved it. Men and women like my friend deserve our utmost respect, and the fact that my friend learned CrossFit so he could better prepare his men and women for war speaks volume about a) quality of the program and b) quality of the individual. That’s all.
–
The final takeaway for CrossFit still stands on this site: IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR OUT OF YOUR GOAL. I completely agree with my friend, CrossFit kicks serious ass for the vast majority of people looking to get in top shape – we are really just debating the finer details of the program. You have all of the information you need between my and my friends’ post, so at the very least give it a shot and see if it fits you.
went for the gym route run today, and then did yoga x. forgot how awesome yoga is…i miss bikram yoga though. thinking about switching up the p90x calendar since tomorrow is legs+back and i dont want to do legs. im not sure if working my legs will make them slimmer or bulkier since i really want to slim them so im not exactly sure what to do. but i want to do yoga x more frequently than on the calendar and maybe switch it with x stretch at times too to mix it up. hmm
According to multiple authorities on Fitness, excercise helps strengthen bones because it forces them to bear weight, which is why high-impact exercise prompts better than average gains in bone density. Experts have found that walking just 30 minutes per day, 3-days per week is enough to moderately increase overall bone density, not to mention the general health benefits.
Luckily, I had the opportunity to go to the doctor this week. There is nothing like a waiting room, filling out general paperwork that makes a Facebook quiz feel like working with Play-Doh, and kicking it old school in the exam room for an hour and a half to pass time on a Monday afternoon. I did not really mind the wait. After I finished my book, I took a power nap—these early mornings at Extreme Boot Camp wear me out.
And it gave me time to mull over something the nurse said to me after she took my blood pressure (120/70) and heart-rate:
“Is your pulse always that low?”
Terrified, I looked up at the monitor: 48.
I racked my brain for seventh grade science class with Ms. Ellis, who I am sure covered normal heart-rates along with teaching us to make crystals, dissecting frogs, and showing us The Miracle of Life. Unfortunately, nothing regarding what a good heart rate was came to mind except the most basic of notions.
“Isn’t it supposed to beat once per second?” I asked. Now, I’m not a math whiz, but I did notice that 48 is conspicuously lower than 60, and that number seemed darn low.
“Typically. Do you do a lot of cardio?” she asked.
“Well, I was at Extreme Boot Camp this morning. And I run.”
“Bingo! You have a runner’s heart.” She shuffled some papers around and then took my weight.
A runner’s heart. Who knew that even existed? I feel a little bit like a superhero.
Apparently, engaging in aerobic activity lowers your resting heart rate. What does this mean? In layman’s terms, it means that your heart is thumping more effectively to push blood around. So you have a larger heart capacity.
I take this news to mean my heart is capable of more both literally and figuratively. I have always wondered at my ease with which I care for people I have just met, my willingness to go the extra mile to be helpful, and why when I love I feel like it takes over the entirety of my body, as if each piece of me were wrapped up in the emotion. And I guess it is because my heart is ready for it. My heart wants it.
Of course, I told Ken about my superhero heart when I came home. He looked at me and said, “I knew that.”
“How?” I asked.
“When I have my head on your chest, I can tell your heartbeat is slower.”
Weird. And to think I’m always worried that it’s flapping around like a butterfly trying to dry off her wings when he is around.
*
For more really good scientific information on a runner’s resting heart rate, click here.
And if you want to read my newest StudentStuff post, click here and read this teaser…
Imagine you are at Student Health for a sprained ankle, and amidst filling out paperwork and being tested for mono (why is it impossible to go to the health center without being tested for that?), you are asked to remove your cardigan and let a black cuff be fastened to your upper arm with Velcro. A tight squeeze and slow release of pressure later, a machine spits a number out in your general direction. A nurse nods, maybe mumbles “Mmm-hmm,” and you are passed on to the doctor. What just happened? What do those spit out numbers mean?
A stroll down the aisle housing the vitamins in the supermarket or drugstore reveals a cornucopia of choices. There are stores dedicated solely to selling vitamins and nutritional supplements. Based on the number of my patients who ask me questions about nutritional supplements, it has become quite clear to me that more and more people need an intelligent, informative and practical guide to nutritional supplements. They need a way to decipher the A-Z of nutritional supplements to determine which ones they really need to take…and which are the cleverly hyped fakes. That is why I recommend “The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” by Lyle MacWilliams. This popular guide provides unbiased evaluations of over 1500 nutritional supplements in the United States and Canada as reviewed by a team of physicians.
In 2002, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association published a report acknowledging “most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone.” Their recommendation was “it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements.” Since publication of the report, physicians have regularly discussed and encouraged patients to start including a nutritional supplement into their daily routine. As a result of this breakthrough study, the nutritional supplement world has literally exploded.
Fact: Dietary supplements are NOT subject to the same stringent regulations as pharmaceutical products by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). What this means is the manufacturer take full responsibility of ensuring the safety of their dietary and nutritional supplements. This also means manufacturers are free to put whatever efficacy labels they want on their products…even if the products do not do exactly what they claim, or worse, are not safe.
In “The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements,” you will learn the scientific fact behind nutritional supplements, not the fiction. Instead of the marketing hype and scare tactics health manufacturers use to sway you into buying their products, this guide takes you through the scientific facts behind nutritional supplements. Each nutritional supplement is evaluated through 18 critical Health Support Criteria steps.
“The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” is based on scientific literature and results of clinical studies as examined carefully by physicians and medical professionals. The author, Lyle MacWilliams, is an educator and former biochemist with over 10 years experience in the field of nutritional supplements. His research focused on the effects of exercise, diet and Vitamin E supplementation on cardiac health. In 1999, he published the first edition of “The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements.” Now in the fourth edition, this guide is available in a smaller sized edition with over 300 color pictures for the conscious health shopper.
For an easy to read, scientific guide, I recommend “The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements.” Find out more about nutritionalguide.It is the perfect companion guide to smart consumers who want to know the science behind their nutritional supplements. When you want to know the truth behind what you are putting into your bodies, this book gives you the no-nonsense facts.
Are you bored of your workout? Have you hit a plateau and are stuck with your workout? Dede Barbanti of Boogie Box Fitness is having their annual House Party this Sunday, September 20th from 2-5 at Mission Viejo Dance Academy.
$20 per adult gets a BBX Basics Workshop worth $39 AND a Boogie Box Class with the BBX creator, Dede Barbanti worth $15…a $34 SAVINGS… a great way to give Boogie Box a try!
This house party is going to be a mini-expo – so come out and support your local businesses.
The Master of Ceremonies will be Debbie Lewandowski of Elevated Pulse Productions!
I just heard an advertisement on an internet talk radio show for a business franchise opportunity to sell dark chocolate that helps people lose weight.
Apart from Advertising Standards Authority issues regarding the weight-loss claim, and potential regulatory concerns over health & safety, is it really an attractive proposition to sell chocolate laxatives in order to make a living?
Ever puzzled over putting a comma before or after ‘too’, ‘however’? Ever asked yourself if some verbs are transitive or not? Adverbs. Prepositions. Conjugation. No idea of what I am talking about? You were lost and now you just don’t care about earthy matters? Here is a good chance to pamper your brain again. Click on the pic to get some digestable Quick and Dirty Tips.
or visit The Chicago Manual of Style
May I remind you of something?
Never ever hesitate to report any bugs you encounter on my blog. I switch between 4 languages on a daily basis. There are days where 2 more languages are active in my brain. That sounds very smart. Unfortunately, I cannot put myself in this chic category. Not yet. But don’t lose hope. I keep an eye on the finish line. Someday. Somehow. It’ll be my time to be in style. Maybe…
Today my legs are just starting to feel normal again . Saturdays race was a blast, I recommend it to anyone looking to do a half marathon. “thank for the nice comments J.R, u made my day!”
When I got home from school I chowed down a larabar and read the back of the package. It read, (Humm Food) Real food that creates an unmistakable feeling of health and well-being often accompanied by inexplicable and irresistible urge to, well, hum. So today’s posts going to focus on food that makes you feel great! I’m also sharing 2 yummy foods I ate today, that well, made me Hum .
My post workout shake was delicious. We ran out of peanut butter, so I used almonds instead. 1 scoop whey protein, 1/2 cup oats, 8fl oz skim milk, 12 almonds. The almonds made the shake taste like a vanilla milk shake with some almond butter.
Later that night I had some chicken, green beans, and whole wheat tabbouleh couscous. Very tasty and healthy. Tabbouleh couscous is like rice but smaller, its an Arabic dish.
Those meals were today’s “Humm” foods. Other foods that make me feel well being are.
Whole Wheat Pasta
Greek Yogurt
Organic Peanut Butter
Tuna
Salmon
Organic Whole Wheat Rice
Blueberries
Raspberries
Lean Chicken
Whole Wheat Toast
Tofu
We recently completed a get-healthy initiative at my work that encouraged employees to exercise by walking. My truly lame team finished way down in the final standings but, in a larger sense, we were all winners because we had spent eight weeks striding vigorously toward fitness. Not really. I probably weigh more now than when I started, and I know for a fact that I smell worse.
When the winning teams were announced, it was noted that as a company we had walked over 7 million miles during the previous two months. That’s equivalent to 280 circumnavigations of the globe. It’s as if we had walked to the moon and back 14 times. It’s like walking from New York to Los Angeles, turning left and heading to Peru, then boring into the Earth’s mantle and going halfway to the core, and then re-emerging to hike halfway to Venus. Any way you put it, it doesn’t make any sense.
As a runner for the last 30-some years, I’ve never had a lot of respect for walking. I guess I viewed it as the exercise of the weak and infirm, a great way to get to the men’s room perhaps but hardly a challenging physical regimen. Any sport that could be done by the elderly ladies around the retirement complex near my house was not for me.
Though I did spend numerous coffee breaks in recent weeks pacing up and down the road in front of my office like an expectant father, the only deliveries I saw were tractor-trailers backing up to the warehouse (less messy than the typical Caesarean but still smelling of diesel). I won’t say that I’ve gained a new appreciation for walking as exercise; I will admit, however, that my aging knees had better realize pretty soon that there’s a reason you don’t see many 220-pound sixty-year-olds sprinting down the street. We’re either dead or have adopted another workout habit.
Part of my problem with public walking is that, as a method of transportation and an exercise, it’s subject to misinterpretation by onlookers. Friends who drive past you in their cars will stop and ask if you need a ride. Other motorists look at you as a mobile information source, as if you’re circling the neighborhood in case they need directions, can’t find their lost cat or need an explanation of the local zoning codes.
Trying to make it look more like an exercise and less like a leisurely stroll does deter some of this. I’ve learned, for example, that moving your arms in a particular fashion will keep questioners at bay. If you adopt the motion of the race-walker, elbows bent and forearms punching the oncoming air, many observers will realize that you’re disturbed, and therefore best left undisturbed. If this doesn’t work, I try the stiff-armed march of the North Korean infantryman, lifting my rigid limbs high above my head as if about to cross the demilitarized zone. The next subdivision down from me remains on high alert.
Another deterrent to interruption is the iPod. Crank up your Who playlist to maximum volume and you won’t be able to hear the questions and taunts that are otherwise sent in your direction. Of course, you can’t hear oncoming vehicles either, but that’s their problem, not yours. If you get caught up in the song and start singing along — “Love! Reign o’er me!” — chances are good they’ll notice you one way or the other.
My wife used to belong to a martial arts group that occasionally practiced tai-chi in a public park. Most of the time, they remained under a sheltered picnic area but if the weather was nice, they’d sometimes break out this so-called “meditation walk,” where they’d pike around the lake at a slow, measured pace that was half-walking, half-Step-Forward-to-Repulse-Monkey. The kids playing basketball on a nearby court would tease them mercilessly while they practiced their forms in a fixed location, but as soon as the martial artists started marching methodically in a single file toward them, the fast breaks got really fast and tended to head in the direction of the park exit.
I’d be more than a little embarrassed to try this strategy (in fact, I’m generally humiliated to be seen in public at all). One of the biggest concerns with walking is what to do when you’ve reached the halfway point. Unless you’ve plotted out a circular route for yourself, there comes a time when you have to reverse your course. I’m always afraid someone is going to see me doing this.
There’s something inherently unnatural about suddenly turning on your heels and heading off into the opposite direction. It might be fine for exercise purposes, but it exhibits a certain indecisiveness in the real world, causing witnesses to wonder what you forgot. I try to get it over as quickly as possible, or otherwise make the most of it. I once took a stroll with two other family members and we agreed all turn at once, on cue, just as a school bus was passing. The sheer precision of the move left those kids dumbfounded.
I think, though, I’m going to continue walking as a physical activity. With fall right around the corner, it should be quite pleasant. It does clear your head and give you time to think. If I keep it up into the winter months, I’m going to have to consider some alternate venues. Some people from our office had taken to hiking around a nearby grocery store when the heat or rain got too bad during the summer, and that might be fun. Again, it seems like there might be concerns among store employees about what the hell you’re doing. I think if I circle the outer edge, cutting through the produce department and alternately picking up and putting back various melons and cabbages each time I pass, it might not look too weird.
King George V playing field in Farnborough is a great place to take kids. It has by far the best playground I have seen, and more importantly – Alex loves it.
It has some weird things to play on – spring mounted surf board, trampoline holes, multiple slides, odd rails with fixed skateboard things on… loads of stuff… and a massive tyre swing…. MASSIVE.
It was a bit tricky pushing, ducking, darting and filming – and I was pretty knackered from getting the hefty thing up to speed… but I managed to grab some film of Alex being a racing driver (his words).
The tune is a sample mix overlay I put together again… sorry!
The race is over – done and dusted. I have put away my running gear for next year.
I never achieved my target of 35 minutes or less – I managed in about 36:24, so I was pretty disappointed. Considering that at the start of the race I had to walk for about 5 minutes or so I guess it’s not too bad. People who were walking the race were meant to be walking on the sides, but they weren’t – so oh well! Also I had to keep weaving in and out throughout the race.
I don’t know what the heck happened last night, but it was like having a newborn all over again! At one point baby was getting up every 25 minutes. And twice she was up for 30 minutes or more. I actually found myself down in the kitchen at 3am snacking on cereal (just like when baby was just a few weeks old) because I had been up for so long.
Growth spurt? Teething? Too cold? Too hot? I have no idea. But I need to fix this!
Anway…this is going to be a short one since I’m so exhausted. It’s only 7 and I’m about ready to pass out.
Hubby got up at 6:45 with baby and allowed me to get an “extra” (I use that term VERY loosely) hour of sleep. I finally emerged from the bedroon just before 8, eyes barely open, and stumbled into the kitchen to fix breakfast – Banana Bread Oat Bran and scrambled egg/egg whites.
Clearly I was still half asleep when I took this horrendous, blurry photo.
My 1/2 cup of egg whites/1 egg combo was extra yolk-y this morning because my little egg (which was from the chickens at my dad's house) had twin yolks!
I spent the morning guzzling French vanilla decaf coffee, pretending it was regular and wishing it would do something to perk me up. I felt like a zombie.
I had a hair appointment scheduled for 11:30 and the salon is a half hour away (as most everything around here is), so I got myself ready so I could leave at 10:45. I whipped up a protein shake for the road.
1 cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1 scoop of vanilla brown rice protein powder, splash of vanilla, a dash (or 5!) of cinnamon, and ice
By the time I got home from my haircut it was 1 and I was STARVING. I threw together a quick lunch – low-sodium deli turkey, mustard, lettuce and pickles on a whole wheat sandwich thin along with 2 dates stuffed with almond butter for a sweet finish.
Later in the afternoon, I snacked on some more cantaloupe.
Dinner tonight really hit the spot. I had bought a package of rainbow peppers, so I decided to make fajitas. Well, the hubby had fajitas; I had a fajita salad. I threw some chicken strips, red pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper, and onion into a skillet and seasoned it all with a mixture of chili powder, cumin, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I topped my salad with some salsa for the finishing touch.
Baby was in bed pretty early – 6:15 – since she didn’t sleep much last night. Once I got her settled in her crib, I grabbed an apple. I’m still hungry too…
I’m making today my off day from exercise. I usually have 1 per week, though it’s never planned in advance. I take the week as it comes and take my off day when I need it most. I’m way too tired to ride my Spinning bike this evening.
Gotta run. Baby is crying already… I think I’m in for another long one.
My studio, Great Shape/YMCA has just begun a special deal so that students can take advantage of the great teachers we have. Studying can be tiring and make your body feel stiff and sore from sitting at lectures and computers for long stretches. All the students who come to us feel they have more energy to do their work well.
Tell all the students that you know and who live in Jerusalem or area that for only 195 NIS per month for the year they can take unlimited classes and at a variety of hours. Check out the yoga, Pilates, step, aerobic dance, Bollywood, hip hop, body conditioning and so much more.
I did my first Salsa Aerobics class today and OMG it was absolutely brilliant! The description said it combined low impact aerobics with latin music and salsa moves and that you needed no dance experience – that was all I needed to know!! It was a brand spanking new class too, so nobody had done it before which made me feel a whole heap better about the fact I can’t dance for shit!
The instructor was great – it started off quite “aerobic-y” as she took us through the basic steps, then once we’d got the hang of those, she made it more “danc-y” until we were doing full on mamba, cha cha cha, samba, merengue and cuban dance steps choreographed into this great workout routine! I went wrong a lot, but so did everyone else … I’ve already re-booked for next week. Loved it!!
Over the past year we have heard a lot about the increased risk for heart disease and diabetes with belly fat. But now we may also have to start measuring our thighs??
A recent study published on the British Medical Journal website (September 2009) states that adults with a thigh circumference less than 60 cm are at a higher risk for heart disease and premature death. This is the first study I came across reporting health problems related to thigh girth. This study followed 1463 men and 1380 women from Denmark for 10 years. The researchers found that adults with smaller thigh size were more likely to experience an early death and heart disease, even after taking body fat and other high risk factors (such as smoking and high cholesterol) into account. The authors suggest that the increased risk in men and women with narrow thighs may be related to too little muscle mass in this region which could contribute to problems with insulin sensitivity and lead to the development of diabetes and heart disease. The increased risk was observed in both adults with and without belly fat.
We will have to await future studies to see if these results are validated in other groups. For more heart healthy info visit www.heart-strong.com
I don’t think any of you know that I studied Shotokan Karate and eventually received my black belt. Before I studied karate I studied Taoist Tai Chi. Because I studied Tai Chi for 7 years, learning Karate came very naturally to me.
What I liked most about the martial arts is that it felt like a combination of exercise and confidence building and spiritual practice. Whether I did Tai Chi or Karate I benefited the same.
I definitely noticed an improvement in my confidence after doing karate for a while. On another note, my physical strength, flexibility and timing improved ten-fold from practicing karate.
Much like some of my bodyweight training I am doing, karate exercises the whole body, but also the mind and spirit.
Bruce Lee is a perfect example of how someone took martial arts and fitness and spiritual beliefs and put them all together. He really experimented and examined how the human body responds to all forms of exercise. Eventually a book was published about Bruce Lee’s workouts, compiled by John Little called The Art Of Expressing The Human Body.
Bruce achieved strength and speed through daily training and experimenting with exercise and diet…here is a short clip on his physical capabilities…
And here is some insight into Bruce Lee’s talent and thinking…
Exercise: bike 30 minutes, turbulance training, ankle stretches (it never ends)
Menu: Protein and veggies
Here is an old pic of me in my karate stance….
Until next time…
Think, Believe, Act, Adjust, Never Give up
Dakota
Today’s Mantra: To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities. ~Bruce Lee
Sie gehen joggen oder ins Fitness- Studio. Sie fahren Ski und spielen Tennis. Sie erfreuen sich an Ihrer sportlichen Betätigung. Es ist Ihnen wichtig, sich zu bewegen und aktiv zu sein.
Nun, wenn nicht immer wieder Schmerzen kämen. Mal das Knie, mal die Schulter. Der Rücken zwackt auch zwischendurch. Manches Mal läßt es sich durch die einseitige Belastung, beispielsweise stundenlanges Autofahren in den Urlaub erklären. Ja, und als das Gerät für den Butterfly den Ehrgeiz herausgefordert hat und das Gewicht gesteigert wurde. Da macht sich der alte Bandscheibenvorfall in der Halswirbelsäule bemerkbar. Aber wieso meldet sich jetzt der Ellbogen, wenn Sie doch schon seit Jahren regelmäßig Tennis spielen?
Mit ausgesuchten Feldenkrais- Übungen werde ich komplexe Bewegungen aus Ihrem sportlichen Alltag aufgreifen. Durch die ruhige und schonende Heransgehensweise können Sie an der Bewegungsausführung feilen und ausprobieren, wie Ihre eigene optimale Version des Aufschlages aussehen kann.
Ziel ist, die eigenen Schwachstellen näher kennen zu lernen und diese gleichzeitig zu entlasten, indem mehr Körperteile, Gelenke und Muskeln sich an der Bewegung beteiligen.
Und so nebenbei: Slow-Motion-Fitness ist der neueste Begriff für effektives Training in Zeitlupentempo. Dabei machen wir solches Training dauernd! Hier eine kleine Beschreibung –> im Trainerinnen.net. Zudem bin ich froh, dass die Feldenkrais-Übungen nicht so langweilig sind und jedes Mal Überraschungen und neue Bewegungen dabei sind!
For some reason a large majority of the fitness gurus today preach the benefits of workouts with machines, weights and other equipment. Most are involved in selling the machines, weights and other equipment or they want you to start paying them monthly to come to their establishment. Do you really need all of this to get and stay fit?
Believe it or not, you can achieve a high level of fitness without any equipment using a small amount of space in your house, apartment, room that you rent or some space outside at a local park or playground. Having an exercise mat is nice, but not mission critical. This is the beauty of body weight exercises. You can truly do them just about anywhere, and you can do them anytime to suit your schedule. They are great for people on the go.
What are body weight exercises? They are motions and positions that use your own body weight against gravity, a very powerful force. They are as simple as push-ups and pull-ups. They also include squats and lunges. The possibilities are almost endless since there can be many variations of a basic exercise. Push-ups include military style push-ups and Hindu push-ups. Both of these exercises can be varied with different arm and leg positions. The speed of the exercise can also make a huge difference as well. Try doing 10, or as many as you can do, traditional military style push-ups very slowly and see how different that feels from doing 10 or so very quickly?
One of the major drawbacks to exercising with weights is that muscles tend to get isolated. Weight and machine exercises for biceps or triceps and other muscles tend to concentrate and focus on one or a couple of muscles. A lot of the smaller support muscles and the joints around them get ignored and underdeveloped. Injuries like muscle pulls and strained and torn ligaments and tendons can result.
Bodyweight exercises workout the entire muscle group. The groups also get worked out at different and varying angles hence more overall strengthening of all muscles in a group, not just the big show ones. Joints and connective tissue are much stronger and less injury prone.
Find the time and stay fit. 15 to 30 minutes a day can work wonders if done consistently. Google body weight exercises and see what you find. There are a lot of great programs and books available and a lot of great free resources as well. Check out power yoga as well. Some of those workouts and exercises are very powerful.
Everyone knows the keys to losing weight, Eat less and exercise more. Sounds simple enough, but in the context of real life and its demands, it can be anything but simple. You may think just losing weight would be satisfying. Of course it would be nice to fit into smaller clothes and be able to run without getting out of breath. What we eat has a profound effect on our mind as well as the body. It is not only important as to what we eat but it is equally important as to how we eat. I would like to share few tips on diet which we normally neglect which I came across while surfing the net
Fresh ginger with a small amount of salt should be taken 10 to 20 minutes before food. If possible
1. The diet, properly chew especially hard substances
2. Possibly intake of curd or buttermilk should follow food.
3. The food should be tasty, fresh and good in appearance.
4. It should neither be very hot nor absolutely cold.
5. Avoid Drinking Water at least 15 minutes before food. The quantity of water after food should be small. Let it be drunk often.
6. Heavy food should be taken in a limited quantity.
7. Heavy food should not be taken at night. The proper time of night meal is two to three hours before going to bed. After night meal, it is better to go for a short walk, of say hundred steps.
8. Heavy work or exercise should be avoided after food.
9. After meals, heavy mental or physical work should be avoided. Some rest is advisable for proper digestion of food.
Do follow this in your routine life , will help in getting the best out of what we eat.
Saturday September 5th 15 Days until The Great North Run
Total Raised: £85 www.anthonynolanevents.org.uk/charleshogge
Distance run today: 0km. I was supposed to be playing tennis this morning, but Mark (who to be fair to him was only ever 50% sure he was going to be able to make it) had to pull out because he was out with Pearl. It seemed reasonable, as they were going their separate ways in the evening. Mark was joining the convoy heading up to Towcester, one of a group of us invited to our friends Sam and Libby’s wedding.
The Boys at the Wedding
I won’t go into huge amounts of detail, because this is a blog about fitness and the lack of it – suffice to say it was a brilliant evening, filled with lots of alcohol, dancing and general good cheer. Just what everyone needed I think, and after an evening like that I don’t doubt that the Langridges will spend a long and happy life together (cos obviously that’s all it takes…).
The Girls at the Wedding
Oh, and we all ate quite a lot of cheese. I love cheese. There’s nothing better than cheese before, during and after alcohol, and when you don’t allow yourself to eat it very often, it’s all the better. I mean, there was even a house made out of cheese. I’m not sure whether it had any significance, but I hope it did.
