Early to Rise

I'm sitting in a van on the corner of 9th avenue and 31st street. It would make for a good kidnapping scene but I'm here on my own volition. After a few more crew members arrive we will be driven to the set of the ESPN Miller Light commercial we are shooting today. I am playing the lead/hero role. It should be a long but fun day and I look forward to sharing the final product with you.

More importantly is the product that I can share with you now. Read on!

There are many factors that allowed me to book this role. However, the most important one, as well as the one I had the most control over was the physical condition of my body.

I train, move, exercise, and tune my body 3 to 6 days per week. The way I workout and the effects I create are never haphazard or random. I'm not just trying to be fit or simply well, I'm using contemporary as well as ancient methods to keep my body in the best most youthful state possible.

Fact is we are all working longer hours and expected to do more and more. Our time is precious. We literally can not afford to not care for ourselves. And one definitely doesn't have the time to waste at the gym doing inefficient outdated exercise routines.

We can all be heroes in our own way (cheesy I know, but true!). And if you want to get the most out of life you have got to be in the physical shape necessary to handle the demands.

What you havin' for breakfast?

People keep asking me what I eat!  

And to be perfectly honest it's not always that great.  I love ice cream and even the occasional trip to McDonald's.  But! ...and here is the catch, I know what foods do to my body when I eat them.  

For example: Many health professionals, personal trainers & dietitians recommend oatmeal for breakfast.  Ok fine, seems simple enough. Most people then go right out and ruin this advice by buying Quaker Oats single serving apples and cinnamon packets that contain up to 35 grams of sugar!  Not ok!

Oatmeal is recommended because it is warm and easily digestible, yet still has enough fiber and roughage to be absorbed into the body slowly.  To break the fast in the morning we want to warm the engine up slowly.  Whole grains served hot accomplish this nicely.  Don't be fooled into the "whole grain" cereal myth.  Those grains in cereals are processed and you then douse them with cold milk.  A double no-no.  Try steel cut or old fashioned style oats.  They take longer to cook but you can always make a batch up on Sunday and then reheat a serving every morning before work.

• To loose weight you first need to take in less calories than you use. After that it is the quality of the foods and the rate of absorption that affect how your body utilizes the energy.
• No white bread, pasta etc.  This is a highly processed form of carbohydrate meaning it is basically predigested.  When you eat this it presents itself to the body like sugar.  It's absorbed too fast, causes your insulin to spike and is then stored as fat.
• No fruit juice or soda.  It's sugar. See above.
• I have two caffeinated beverages a day.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  When I'm sleeping enough and eating well I find I don't need them.

What I eat could be considered a modified Mediterranean/Atkins style diet. 

FOR ME a perfect day of eating it would look like this:

6:00am bowl of oatmeal with fruit for flavor, NO ADDED SUGAR, large green tea

9:00am egg white vegetable omelet with a little salt and pepper

12:00pm lean turkey meat and cooked green vegetables possibly a baked sweet potato. Take a multi-vitamin

3:00pm strong coffee and peanut butter and jelly on 9 grain bread. Last carbs of the day.  Only meat, vegetables and water until bed.  If you are not working out this eve then a hand full of nuts could replace the PB&J.

6:00pm green vegetable salad or steamed vegetable and baked or broiled fish or chicken.  Make friends with your local chinese restaurant, I'm sure they will make "steamed vegetables with steamed chicken" for you.

9:00pm protein shake or fruit or a scoop of peanut butter OR some other healthy snack before getting 8 hours sleep. Sleep is KEY!

I play by the 80:20 rule meaning that I stick to the above 80% of the time. 

• buy organic when possible
• dairy is NOT great.  Look to reduce to one serving a day
• keep red meat to a minimum (like once a month)
• learn about the benefits of quinoa and kale
• Buy Dr. Atkins' book on the Atkins diet. 
• Buy Bill Philip's book titled Body For Life

Send me any questions you may have!

Workout of the day?

Agh! There are so many options out there... Where do you start?

First of all: WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE GOALS?
I don't mean like "I wanna loose 10 pounds". You have to picture yourself in the future. Can you see yourself fit, exercising, sweating? Are you on a bike, running in the woods or scaling the face of a mountain? Maybe you are skiing, snowboarding or surfing. How about a vacation with your family and being able to keep up with your kids and also feel comfortable taking your shirt off at the beach? Or what about getting back into a sport you played in high school?

No matter what it is, it's of paramount importance that you can see yourself in the future. This will guide your direction in training. Like my martial arts teacher always said, "what you practice you become".

Remember, When you visualize what you want you become more confident and can see the steps you need to take to get there.

Skeletal Muscles

You have more than 430 skeletal muscles.  In the most basic sense, muscles are made up of interconnected layers of fibers and chemicals stimulated and manipulated by electric current.  The controller of the on/off switch is you. Your thoughts and intention cause the muscles to respond.  Muscles are covered with epimysium or fascia and this is the coating you see over the actual muscle tissue. It is smooth and gives the muscles their shape and separation.  The epimysium is continuous with tendons and protects the muscles from frition with other muscles and bones.  Under the epimysium the muscle fibers are grouped in bundles of up to 150 fibers called fasciculi.  Perimysium covers these bundles, endomysium covers the fibers themselves.

So, there are 3 levels or layers of connective tissue within the muscle.  This tissue connects all layers of the inside and outside of the muscle with the tendon.  This means even smallest effort or contraction delivers force to the tendon and causes the resultant movement of the skeleton. The 3 levels or layers are listed again for ease and convenience below:

Epimysium, the fascia that covers the muscles, separates them and makes them smooth and low friction.

Below that, smaller bundles but similar concept we have,

Perimysium, the covering of bundles of muscle fibers (fasciculi)

And beneath that,

Endomysium covering the fibers themselves.

Down the Rabbit Hole of Fitness

The National Strength and Conditioning Association’s book Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning starts its first chapter by expounding upon Muscle Physiology.  I’m not one to argue with the editors so I’ll assume that this is the first and most fundamental thing one should concern one’s self with as a trainer.  Actually it’s a bit humorous because many trainers I see out there get by on only the most rudimentary understanding of how the body functions.   I’ll admit at one time I was one of those trainers.  The key thing to note if you are new to the field, is that what you may lack in knowledge and experience you can always make up for in enthusiasm, professionalism and a willingness to learn.  At this point I'm interested in taking my education and knowledge to the pinnacle of understanding.  Only then will I be able to communicate what is needed and filter out the ocean of false or incomplete information.  To be a source of accurate information regarding health and longevity is my goal.

I believe this fills a need as ultimately the vast majority of people are not interested in body building in the traditional sense of big bulky muscles.  What people are concerned with is repairing injuries and building the body to be as lean and as strong as possible.  Deep down we know the body only lasts but so long.  My philosophy is to enjoy as many good years as possible. You were endowed with a certain shape and structure at birth and your body continues to grow until about age 25.  After that it comes down to genetics and more importantly what you do to improve and maintain what you have.  The elements of diet, exercise, education and travel synergize to create a life lived fully.

Proprioceptors

Proprioceptors are specialized sensory receptors that provide the central nervous system with information needed to maintain muscle tone and perform complex coordinated movement.  The ability to know where your body is in space is a function your proprioceptors.  These microscopic sensors allow you to know where your body is located in relation to your environment.

For example, if you are not aware of your body at this moment, the mere mention of the concept of body perception may create a change in your perception of your body (this is potentially a good thing).

Now, become aware of your left foot.  Can you feel it there, in your shoe, touching the ground?  Good!  Now become aware of your low back.  Are you sitting up strait or slouching?  You probably just straightened up, didn't you?  Ok, here is where it gets interesting.  We all have our "comfort zone" with regard to our posture and daily movement patterns: we sleep in our bed, commute to work either by walking, public transportation or car.  Once there we probably sit at a desk, computer or conference table for most of the day.  These are the positions that your body assumes day in and day out.

What then happens is that this becomes your norm or comfort zone - being shaped like you are sitting and typing on a computer becomes your new normal position - forget about standing up straight.  Standing up straight with good posture for someone who spends most of their waking life desk bound is now an extreme position. Good posture can not be perceived as it is far out of your comfort zone.  Without strengthening, conditioning and posture work your body will actually fight to put you back in the chair position rather than assume erect upright posture.  You need help.

Testing

First week of every month I will be conducting testing sessions to establish and strengthen program objectives.  By testing the athletes we can then set realistic goals as well as evaluate the results of the previous month's training.  Pretesting has always been the policy of evaluating the new client and to establish the direction of our programs. In addition we will now continually measure 1RM bench press, 1RM back squat and the 1.5 mile run.  Other tests will be used based on the individual client's needs and abilities.  This is an abbreviated   post as there is much more that needs to go into our testing protocols.