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.
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
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.
