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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Nightly Beer Healthier than Daily Jog


There is something about stating your opinion on Facebook. It’s been really great for content.



Fwd of friends email from a friend who read the article:

Okay, here's what my friend Nicki said back (she and I have been keeping each other accountable in getting more fit) and she also the Beach Body stuff and Shakeology protein shakes etc. She may come off a bit brash (you probably will care less cause you do too). She's also a huge fan of beer and does a lot in the back country, ie. skiing, climbing, biking, snowshoeing, kayaking etc. as well as half marathons and sprint triathlons. She's pretty fit but doesn't eat the best. Anyhow, here's what her initial thoughts were:

I wasn't able to see the pictures and a lot of it came over as gibberish...but my gut reaction is WTF? that doesn't make any sense. I'm curious what he has to say. is he a physical therapist? or a personal trainer (both PT). I ask because a therapist is very much more educated...and people can become trainers pretty quickly without the nutritional education to back it up. I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about...but it's just not logical. a 40 minute cardio workout is WORSE than 110 empty calories? maybe for someone with bad knees...that argument can be made that running specifically isn't good, but I look at running as a type of cardio - you can run, bike, elliptical, Brazilian Butt Lift, Insanity....plenty of options and logically WAY better than a (tasty) cold beverage.

true weight loss rules have been the same since the dawn of time - burn more calories than you bring in. period


She has the last line down perfectly. It’s not ACTUALLY that simple when it comes to FAT loss, but it’ll work for WEIGHT loss.

To be honest, I may have just fallen in love w/ this girl (platonic). This kind of brash honesty is fantastic, and I’m thankful for the challenge. In my opinion challenging this type of thing is of extreme importance.

Education and Title

I'm not a physical therapist, but I have yet to meet one any more educated than I (that's also iowa city so it's limited, but so far I beat the ones I’ve sat in w/, on their own turf....not arrogance, it's preparation, or their lack of it), especially in regards to nutrition of which there isn't in physical therapy school. Med school only has a couple weeks, and even then it's more about depletion of nutrients than actual food. (anything they've learned has been w/ their own efforts)

I'm NOT a "personal trainer" either. Calling me a personal trainer would be worse than calling a massage therapist a masseuse. It's dubious at best. I'm a coach and in the end the letters behind my name have no affect on how I help people (until it’s outside of my scope and then it’s a team effort). Just so happens that I spend a good amount of time w/ my head in a book.

Conventional Cardio

Cardio is so vastly misunderstood that we're crippling kids in college, b/c something has to be taught but we know much of textbooks’ content is false/incomplete. Things are just changing too fast. Authors are already disagreeing w/ their content by the time a book gets to print.

She is right about the bad knees. H/e it goes much further than that. In a mile a human will take around 1,500 strides. That's equivalent to doing 750 hops on your left, and then your right leg. Each time your foot strikes the ground it absorbs 2-6x bodyweight. That's a ton of stress going on. Most coaches will give the easy answer that 20 contacts is a safe number for plyometrics, and we’re doing 750/leg? Magnitude makes a difference and there’s nothing magical about the #20, but 750? Na, not when we're talking 3,4,5 miles/day.

To take an excerpt from the upcoming article:

Conventional, long distance, steady state heart rate, “cardio”
o   It trains your body to rely on energy stores that are bound to deplete well before the end of extremely long distance runs like a marathon (“the wall”)
o   It will leave the body mangled and beaten (literally) with or without close to perfect body maintenance (strength, breathing patterns, posture, mobility, soft tissue quality, etc.).
o   The enormous suppression of the immune system is extremely unhealthy and typically results in getting sick the week or two after a long race or during training.
o   Aside from that, if it were really as simple as walking out your door and jogging down the sidewalk, why would you ever need someone like me? (Anyone that knows me would understand that I could never make it as a cheerleader that keeps people accountable)
o   Most people will end up taking around 1,500 strides running a mile. Each foot strike results in absorbing the force of 2-6x the weight of the body. That’s 750 foots strikes/foot multiplied by 2-6x bodyweight, and that’s only 1mile. And you’re going to run 2-6mi/day??? It’s not a good idea.
o   Further multiple that by 26.2 and that’s a marathon. This is a lot of stress. (this is w/o considering imbalances, asymmetries, weaknesses, bad technique, etc)













Idk who made this but they did a great job.

Glucagon and HGH are of extreme importance to the fat loss, muscle, recovery and performance game.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that puts more fat around the midsection.

Insulin pulls sugar out of the blood to be converted and stored as fat.

Leptin is the appetite hormone.


We could go further w/ the thyroid but I’ll leave that one alone. 


Simply put, we shouldn't be jogging to get into shape. But getting into shape in order to run is a different deal. 


Interval Training (repeat sprints)

We burn more calories in much less time, w/ less stress, promote the shapely figure that most people are going for, keep muscle, promote strength, and have better functioning endocrine systems (as far as fat loss and performance are concerned) by doing short intense bouts of exercise followed by short rest times. 













Really wish I could give the creator of this credit.


We get more in less time w/ less of the negatives. 

As far as performance goes, this keeps us healthy but also makes us more fit to the task.

Fitness=ability to perform a task. 
Being able to run a 4:40 mile means that person is very fit to run a mile.

Health=body functions work well
Being able to run a 4:40 mile isn’t healthy when there’s a tumor inside the body. Extreme example, but low HGH isn’t nor is it rare.

Better health and better fitness simultaneously, in less time. 

Doing repeat sprints teaches our body which fuel to burn much better than long distance cardio. It seem counter intuitive, but in 10yrs no one will be doing long steady state cardio for distance events just like no one is using it now for sprinting events (everyone thought Charlie Francis was crazy when he said that in the early 80’s. Steroids or not there’s plenty of guys on the gas that can’t touch what Ben Johnson did, and Charlie Francis gave more to sprinting than anyone in history). 

The guys/girls breaking Olympic records aren't running these ridiculously high volumes they are focusing on speed. Not the other way around (how else could that guy run a 3:43 mile). Sprinters and endurance athletes are staying well below their race distance for speed training, and for conditioning.


Their heels aren't even touching the ground. It's a sprint. 

I encourage an experiment:

Time a mile this week, weigh in, write both down, don’t change anything nutrition and see the differences w/ the retest after four weeks.

Do this for a month and retime at the end. 

Week 1,2,3,4: 
M: lift 
T: 100yd repeats at 90% of full speed x8 w/ 60s rest
W: lift
R: 400yd repeats as fast as possible x4 w/ 90s rest
F: lift
Saturday: Tempo run 40yard repeats x8 at 70% full speed w/ 45s rest
Sunday: Eat w/e you want, literally.

Don’t jog at all. If you have to, go on a walk.


What about beer?

Almost forgot to mention the value of the beer.


Most of us can attest to the relaxing qualities of sitting down w/ a good beer at the end of the day, and in my opinion this relaxation/clearing the mind time is extremely undervalued. Some beer is actually alkaline, and has other potential health benefits (until it's over consumed), I'd hardly call it an "empty calorie". 

Not my opinion:
Conventional cardio is extremely inferior to intervals like repeat sprints. There is no argument. 

Back to my opinion:
The one good thing I can see out of conventional cardio (even for endurance training) is that people are getting "some" type of activity (even if it's borderline unhealthy in multiple ways), helping them RELAX, clear their head and have some piece of mind. 

So I encourage finding something other than a daily 'jog' to clear the mind and relax (obviously that does NOT include over consumption of alcohol). 


1 Beer, NOT 6

This is unnecessary 


In Conclusion

The simple truth is that running long distances has little affect on fat loss (after initial phase if just getting into the game), especially long term, and has huge detrimental affects on the body’s joints and chemical functions. This is the same for an Olympian as it is a couch potato.

Where as interval training such as shown above has overwhelming positive affects on aesthetics, function and in much less time. It’s really a no brainer. It’s just much more painful while doing it. You need a masochistic side.

Maybe a beer can wash that masochism down after a tough bout w/ a hill, but alcohol is NOT meant to be abused. Drinking to drink is for losers that aren’t comfortable/confident/secure enough to be themselves. You are better than this.





As a finishing short side note:

In NO way is Insanity, P90x, the Brazilian Butt Lift, or any of that other stuff “good”. If anything, all of those show the durability of the human body, people's ability to be naive, and their capacity to live w/ pain of which I do NOT understand.

This is the most sacred thing on earth.
You get one body take care of it.




Monday, May 21, 2012

Lessons In Movement....from a 1, 4 and 6yr old

Movement is interesting. It seems that at some point along the line most of us don't continue to improve at movement. When we were born the first thing we did was breathe….with our diaphragm….through our nose. Babies don’t breathe through their mouth, it’s learned.


  1.       Then we learned to roll over 
  2.       Then we learned to crawl
  3.       Then we stood up…..and fell back down repeatedly
  4.       Then we Walked - Ran - Jumped
·           In that order


Meet my niece and two nephews: Kate, Jacob, and Noah. 
You don't really realize that the gym is just an adult playground until kids show you. 

One compensation leads to another, breathing could've been the first but it really doesn't matter. Finding the problem is for the assessment and picking up the pieces is the program.

Going back to these patterns of how we originally learned to move is extremely useful.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Value of an In/significant Date in Time

Just like anyone else I have things that I value. 
  • Health
  • Strength
  • My morning eggs and a cop of St. Louis Blues (coffee)
  • A good bowel movement
  • Will (my green light is strong)
  • Family and true friends

But I also have a tendency to value "Things" even if I try not to. In my opinion things are NOT important. They are just things, not like people, relationships or experiences that are irreplaceable.

You know how accountants probably sit around and look at calculator magazines? Well gym owners look at equipment catalogs (especially when it's an aspiration), and athlete's look at shoes. 

  • For  some reason I still value shoes. It's extremely dumb but for me they represent a journey. 
    • Come into my gym looking for a job w/ beat up sneakers or some kind of retro looking things and you'll be gone. Those have a time and a place and neither are for the gym. Casual shoes are for casual wear and beat up zapatos are for your backyard. 
  • Clothes because they remind me of my past. 
    • Yeah, I'm that guy that takes ridiculous care of his clothes, so they never wear out. Even right now am wearing a shirt that says 2003. 
So what's my point other than physical things are of lesser importance than the pieces of your life that really mean something? 


There's one thing I've always valued and been unwilling to take for granted. It's TIME. 

It's a little (lot) creepy that a 6yr old gets the idea that life is short but I did. Don't ask me why, I don't want to explain it. 

Time is something you'll never get back. You will never see the morning of May 16, 2012 ever again, and if you slept through it, you wasted it.  

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time, has not discovered the value of life." -Charles Darwin


Don't waste my Time. 

In my opinion Quality always beats Quantity. And people seem to rarely regret what they DID do verses what they DidN'T do.