7pm rule=BUNK!!!

I've heard it too many times before, and I'm sure I'll hear it again, but this is getting beyond old. On top of that, people are really hurting their bodies and their chances for nutritional success by following this simple age old rule as if it came straight from "the book" itself.

It seems to be that most people are accepting the idea of eating frequently for good health and fat loss, which is great. But, for some reason, this stupid 7pm rule is still sticking around. Some people don't necessarily follow this rule but most people are still not getting food after they eat supper (or w/e you call your evening meal).

We know now that eating every 2-4 hours (and I like every 2-3 hours even better) is the best way to eat for health, fat loss, and for building muscle (funny how those all work together huh?). The theories make good sense, and it has been proven over and over again. (theories would include topics of metabolism, nutrient absorption, insulin sensitivity and other hormone regulations, along with others.)

Okay, so how does that connect with the 7pm rule? Well, lets do it the easy way.
Example: Lets say you eat at 6:30pm, go to bed at 10pm, wake up the next morning at 6pm and get breakfast right away. You are supposed to eat every 2-4 hours, but you have just gone 11 hours without food. In that eleven hours your body's metabolism slowed to a screeching halt, used up all its glycogen stores and then started breaking down your muscle for energy to stay alive. You also just told your body to get ready for the next time you decide to starve and so it responds by turning more of your food into fat to get ready for next time.

All that is just the short term. You also lost some muscle mass, which means your metabolism is lower and you are less able to deal with your normal calorie intake, in turn you eat more calories than you need and guess what, you got skinnier while you also gained fat. Not so cool. (Ever seen an overweight guy with hardly any muscle on his arms? That could be you if you like.)

What's the anwer?
Eat before you go to bed. Yes I know, I said it. Crazy huh? You are right, there is plenty of crazy here. Not saying I'm Galileo or anything close, or that I came up with these theories of eating, but you get what I'm saying. Everyone thought Galileo was crazy too.


What you eat is important. I am not saying eat pasta before bed, or any other form of high glycemic carbohydrate either. You cannot do that, it will be very very bad. You should be eating complete protein and vegetables that is as simple as I can get. Do this within an hour of sleep.


High glycemic carbs good before workouts, but BAD before bed


Complete protein and vegetables great before bed.


In the end all forms of 7pm rule suck. Try eating before bed for a week, I think you will like it, and I know your body will love it.

Till next time.

-Adam Rees

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."

PS. By the way, for those with acid reflux issues, I know people that have had good success with alka seltzer and other forms similar. Good luck.

What are you doin "outside" of training?

So you've got an athlete, he looks great, works hard, has passion, and you're trying your hardest to make sure his training is going as well as it can. You're doing things right. Your implementing myofascial release, dynamic mobility, and muscular activation into the warmups. You're keeping push/pull ratios even, and incorporating unilateral work. Great! You are on the right track, we need more people like you. (Especially coaches. The more I teach and the more new people I meet the more I realize how much misinformation is out there and that is why this blog exists.)

Now, even if you have the best program in the world for this athlete, it wont matter if you are not taking into account what he/she is doing outside of training.

There are 168 hours in the week and maybe 2-4 of those hours are with you. This athlete could be completely sabotaging everything you've been working for and they don't even know it. Sad huh? But it is your responsibility to teach and make sure they DO know.

How are they 'completely sabotaging' their effort you may ask?

Posture is one of the most overlooked aspects that I see. They may move well when someone is watching but what about the rest of the day. How much activity are they getting? How much are they sitting, driving, on a computer? These types of things wreak havoc on an athletes ability to move and improve.

I see improper footwear all the time. I see all kinds of elevated heels, high tops and stiff soled shoes. If you are wearing high tops all the time you are asking for flat feet and knee problems. The ankle joint should be very mobile and if it is restricted (as with high tops, or taped ankles) the body will find another area for the movement to take place. Why do you think basketball players have so many knee problems (high tops reinforced with taped ankles=no good).
Also, elevated heels like shox, most basketball shoes, and dress shoes cause just as many issues. You want your athlete to perform well then get them in some shoes that are actually good for their feet.

Good
Vs.
Atrocious

Diet is obvious but its necessary to cover, and absolutely pivotal for the athlete's health, recovery and performance during training and competition. Michael Phelps is a very famous athlete with incredible coaches. Even they were not aware of the diet plan he was using (at least I hope they weren't otherwise he needs a new nutritionist.)

Sorry Phelps, those trans fats and the poor nutrient timing are gonna catch up with you sometime.

Are those love handles I see above Phelps non existant posterior chain? (aka, he has much room for improvement.)

These are only three, there are tons to look into. Now, I really don't think that you need to go probing into your athlete's lives too much, but the athletes need to be beat over the head with information (not literally). Teach good posture and let them know the benefits. Same with footwear and diet. If you don't know, refer out, find some good resources.

Go here. John Berardi is the best nutrition guy I know of.
http://precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?pageid=778229

This is a starter course that most anyone can learn from. (Especially those of you out there that are reading this and think you already know everything, someone is always going to know more, put the ego aside for two seconds and realize it only makes you an intolerable @$$ that wont be able to learn or teach anything well.)
http://precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?pageid=778229&u=c

Okay, That is all for today.

"The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can't are both right."

Videos: one wicked, one hilarious, and one awesome

Today is my off day from training. Sounds like a vacation right, well actually all I do is study and work anyway. For some reason I'm feeling pretty blog happy. New ah-ha! moment is probably helping with that as I found out I can embed vide0s from pretty much anywhere into this blog. So I figured I'd give you One wicked, one hilarious, and one awesome video that I can't wait for. 

First off. Wicked. Not like any high school athlete or coach should be implementing this or anything, but it's a pretty cool trick.

2) I think I've seen it about fifty times now, and I am still LMAO. No need to explain just watch the video. 

3) And lastly, it's and understatement to say I'm excited for this movie. Can't wait. 

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

Yeah, I want to be Wolverine. It would be nice to have that kind of recovery time. 

Sup? Supplements: Vitamins

Today I was asked a few times about supplements, and as I am now realizing how foolish I've been for not devoting some time to articles on the subject I do believe its time to start going over some of them with all of you. 

First thing, supplements are not all harmful, some are actually very beneficial, though which ones you take and and how are huge players in that game. With that said not all supplements are right for you eitehr. The trick is to get ahold of someone who has already done the leg work for you (in this case yours truly), ask questions (sound familiar?) and go from there. 

Second, supplements are not all steroids, they are not performance enhancement drugs, and they are by no means cheating (unless they are banned by your sport of course). Most supplements are made to improve health, making your body operate more efficiently therefore making you able to perform better in your sport and daily life. They are made to improve upon (or 'supplement') your diet. This may seem like a pretty ridiculous statement but you would not believe the number of clueless people I hear talking about this stuff, of which many are very highly educated, some even doctors and physicians. Yeah, completely ridiculous isn't it? 

Another thing I run into alot is quote "Oh, I'm getting all my supplements at my local coop." As if the "all healthy coop" is the overseer of all that is good for you. I also hear Walgreens, Walmart, grocery stores and even gas stations. When was the last time gas stations had healthy stuff!?!? And yes, it is all I can take to not just about go bizerk (unsure of spelling) and start ripping heads off, but I try to remind myself that its okay they just don't know. 

Just to let everyone know I have broken down countless vitamins and mineral supplements and explored too many proteins, PWO's (pre+post workout drinks), amino acids, and fish oils to remember. In my findings there were very few supplements worth ingesting.

I have a gauntlet of tests that supplements have to go through before entering High Impact Training's line. One of the vitamin and mineral tests is putting the vitamin in a solution of water and vinegar, and another one is baking the vitamin in the oven. I found that out of all the different vitamins not one tablet was even close to being worth ingesting. Even top brands like Metagenics (a vitamin you can only get from physicians). Actually OneADay and Centrum were a couple of the worst. Crazy huh? Especially since these have been by far the highest selling vitamins in america for the last few years.

So what was so bad about them? Well, the majority of them didn't break down enough in the water solution which shows that they wouldn't even get a chance to be digested, and on top of that I don't remember having one that got close to passing the Oven test. Try it out, put one of your vitamins in the oven and turn it up to 400 and come back in about 15-25 minutes. You'll be able to see all the gunk come out of it that is holding it together. Know what that is? It's a bunch of glue and tar. MMMM, Right?

There are tons of different vitamins and minerals but your are quite literally flushing your money down the toilet when your taking most vitamins. There were bunches of vitamins that went through High Impact's process and there were only two that really stood out. I have no problem suggesting that everyone get on our Vital Core supplement. This is one that everyone can and should be taking. 

Expect some more information on supplements in the future. Vital core is not the only staple supplement that everyone should be taking, so you can bet I'll have a follow up here pretty soon. Until next time. 

Go hard or go home! 

Back Pain

Around the holidays my brother Joe returned home from Montana. I hadn't seen him in a few months and it was nice to catch up, at the same time its kind of like he was never gone. I actually got him to workout with some kettlebells for the first time.

From left to right: Julia, Maggie, Joe, and Mom. Yep my mother is not only rough enough to have kids like us, but also throws around some pretty respectable weights as well. 

It was good but what concerned me was that he had back pain that I did not know about. At some point out in Montana he'd developed some problems with his back, which many of you out there can empathize with. I'm his brother and doing what I do I should be able to help him out but I had no idea. So now this blog is kind of devoted to him. 

Now Joe's problem is multifaceted, like most back pain really is and it is fairly rare to see this but Joe actually has posterior pelvic tilt. And yes I did say pelvic which would mean that I'm saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with his back muscles or spine. It is all due to his hip alignment. The pelvis should be sitting level instead it is being pulled downward on the posterior (or back side) by some ridiculously tight hamstrings, which is misaligning the natural curve of the lumbar spine making it too flat and causing some big problems. 

Joe is also out in Montana where everyone seems to wear cowboy boots all day. Now I'm with him, if I were out there I'd probably wear cowboy boots too but in this case Joe's GastroSoleus region (or the large muscles that make up your calves) is also really really tight, and this is causing problems up the chain as well. Take this even further, he has some pretty tight hip flexors as well. Sorry Joe your getting it from every angle.

So big problems because Joe's hamstrings, calves, and hip flexors are so tight that even if he wanted to he couldn't get close to getting into a good squat position without some major compensations. On top of that he cannot recruit his glutes to do any work for him because they are being inhibited by the tightness. That means every time he sits in or gets up from a chair, ties his shows, takes out the trash he's creating new poor movement patterns. Okay check that he is in Montana, so every time he rides a horse, puts on his cowboy boots, and brands a calf. 

What does Joe need to do? I wish I had some good pictures for you, I will work on that in the future. 

First, Joe needs to get some soft tissue with a foam roller or tennis ball work in on his calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, and quads, but it would be beneficial to work on the upper back, lats, and chest also. 

Second, Do some glute activation stuff, or even just some simple hip mobility drills. shoulder bridge would be great, but a few lunges every morning would work wonders as well. 

Third, Stretch. Lengthen out those muscles, especially if each of these are done consecutively. When stretching the hamstrings keep the back as straight as possible. I like to use a belt and lay on the floor pulling my toes back towards my face with my leg straight doing one leg at a time and then go out to the left and the right hold each position for about 30-60 seconds. In my humble opinion this is the best hamstring and hip stretch for this type of scenario as it works on dorsiflexion and the hamstrings and calves are in a relaxed position while the spine remains neutral (see perfect). 

Now I dont know how much Joe works out in Lewistown, Montana, but even if not he could really help himself with about 10 minutes of this a day. Actually most people could get about the same. Now most people don't need to and many should not stretch out their hamstrings constantly, most of the time back pain is a matter of tight hip flexors and weak glutes. So I'd work on that first.  

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."