Better Is Better

Nutrition Contradiction

It's everywhere.  I can't read two sources without reading two different conclusions.  No wonder people are so confused about what to eat and when.  Heck, I'm confused and I try to keep up on the "latest and greatest" in nutrition developments!

Here is a quick example regarding "pre-workout" nutrition:

Source 1

For high-intensity shorter training and racing, it is beneficial to fuel up on simple carbohydrate.

Source 2

Eat a Zone-favorable snack thirty minutes before exercising.
(my note: 7 gr protein, 9 gr carbohydrate, 1.5 gr fat)

Source 3

A solid meal consisting of protein and carbohydrate
set at (0.25g/lb) target bodyweight for each of the
two macronutrients, ingested 60-120 minutes pre-
exercise.

So who's right?  Maybe all of them for different reasons and in different situations?  These three examples come from experts (who shall remain anonymous, although the second one is pretty obvious).  All three of them have my respect.  But who do you listen to?  What advice do you follow?  There are yet others, who I greatly admire, who advocate that there is no need for ANY kind of pre or post-workout nutrition.

In my own nutrition, what I am finding more and more is that there are two important factors to be observed in the process.  The first is to record meticulously what you eat for certain periods of time and measure meticulously the types of results you get.  That is the only way you can find out what YOUR body reacts well to.  There are tons of resources to guide you in this and make sense of what you are seeing.  At the end of this post I'll list a few of my highlights, none of which provided "the answer" that I was looking for, but all of which provided some extra clues and understanding.

My second conclusion regarding nutrition is that it can't be too complicated in the long run. Once you are done with the meticulous record keeping portion of a nutritional plan, it has to be easy.  It is not feasible to think of weighing portions, counting grams and calculating blocks for the rest of my life.  Maybe others can do it, but I can't.  What I find I need are simple rules.  What am I allowed to eat, approximately how much, and when.  If I'm allowed a fist sized portion of whole wheat pasta once a week, well that is what I'm allowed and it is easy to figure out!  If I'm allowed one of block of cheddar to last me two weeks, that too is easy to figure out.  These kinds of things rotate for me, to keep things interesting, but the point I wanted to make is that I try to stick to simple and practical rules nowadays.  I've tried all the counting and weighing, and it just gets too taxing in the long run.

So anyway, here are some of those key resources I mentioned that I am glad to have in my library:

How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy, Paul Chek
The Rosedale Diet, Dr Rosedale
Potatoes Not Prozak, Kathleen DesMaisons
Natrural Hormonal Enhancement, Rob Faigin
Enter The Zone, Dr Barry Sears
Precision Nutrition, Dr John Berardi

I'm starting to think nobody knows precisely what we should be eating and when, but there are lots of very smart people that converge on a few simple rules.

• Eat veggies at every meal.
• Drink enough pure water.
• Get enough protein for your size and activity level.
• Take fish oil (not unanimous but widespread - and convincing enough evidence for me)
• Avoid bad fats - Eat good fats.
• Avoid processed sugars and carbohydrates like the plague.

There are other rules that I like, but that start to stray too far into the polemic zones of the nutrition world...  So I'll leave it at that for now.

Cheers,
Adam

Handstand epiphany

I had a light bulb go off today while practicing handstands.  My best ones are when I "settle into" them, or in other words when I let my shoulders relax a bit and settle into my structure.  It makes perfect sense.  It would be hard to keep your balance if you stood around with all the muscles around your hips in a state of permanent contraction...  All that tension would create a stiff structure rather than the naturally resilient structure represented so well by the tensegrity model.

Training Update

February 18th - High Intensity Day

After warm-up of FlowFit, Intu-Flow and BE-6 (CST for Dumbells)...

The following Metabolic Resistance Circuit:

• Kipping Pull-ups x 20
• Bruiser 2-handed Swipes x 15
• 16" Box Jumps (w/ lockout) x 10
• Threaded Bridge by 5/5

I performed 4 rounds of this circuit with 2 min rest between rounds.  Next cycle will be 5 rounds at 2 min rest, then we start dropping the rest for a few cycles and see what happens.  This baby wasn't much "fun" but was just what the doctor ordered... ;-)

February 19th - No Intensity Day

Extensive Intu-Flow routine

Is It Enough To Be Resolute?

The success rates of resolutions are not promising.  Depending on the source you read, around 50% of resolutions are abandoned within a month.  And by the time 6 months rolls around, over 90% have been forgotten.  So what is the key to achieving your newly determined goals?

Alan Marlatt, director of the University of Washington’s Addictive Behaviors Research Center, indicates the following as behavior common to people who keep their resolutions:
• Have a strong initial commitment to make a change.
• Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up.
• Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do.

This seems almost like plain old common sense doesn’t it?  It certainly rings true for me.   But nonetheless, most people just don’t seem to be able to lock in those new habits tied to their resolutions.

I think that lack of success is tied to a lack of resources.  You need a network or team to help bolster your commitment during the inevitable moments of weakness.  You need coaching to help you come up with the most effective strategies for dealing with the problems you will face.  You need a place and a method for recording the process of achieving your goals and you need your team to work with you in constantly monitoring that process and adjusting your approach.

And this is exactly what you will get with the Resolution program.  This is not a quick-fix weight loss program.  This is a full 90 day plan designed to help you make a permanent U-turn in our health and fitness.  Over the course of the program you will make the body transformation you have been dreaming about, but you will also learn how and why the program works and how it relates to the rest of your life.  You can read what one of my current Resolution clients thinks about it in this thread.

Here are a few of the benefits you can expect from Resolution:

• Up to 20 pounds fat loss.
• Increased muscle mass.
• Vastly improved energy.
• Greater functional strength
• Improved sport performance.
• Improved performance in daily tasks.
• Reduced risk of injury.
• Better overall health and pain free movement.

And here are a few of the ways in which Resolution achieves those results:

• Maximize your progress through personalized coaching.
• Use of the most efficient and effective system for developing unparalleled health, fitness and performance results: Circular Strength Training.
• The support you need to succeed through a private forum and regular conferencing with your training group and your Coach.
• Easy to follow online explanations and video clips of all your exercises.
• The answers you need when you need them through rapid email contact with your Coach.
• A program tailored to your needs.  Designed to accelerate your progress.
• Increased likelihood of success due to accountability to your group and your Coach.
• Peace of mind in making your nutritional choices thanks to clear and easy to follow nutritional coaching guidelines.
• New muscle and decreased fat through cutting edge methods.  It is conceivable to expect 20 lbs of fat loss over the 90 day period.

This is a turn-key program.  Everything will be laid out for you.  All you need to do is put in the work.  And I’ll be honest with you, there is work and discomfort involved.  You will learn to push yourself physically.  You will learn to break old nutritional habits and replace them with better practices.  And you will learn what it takes to maintain the balanced physical health and well-being that you expect for the rest of your life.

If you would like to know more about the Resolution program, contact me at adamsteer@cstcoach.com or visit this link to my website.

Handstand Breakthrough

A couple weeks ago I achieved a bit of a breakthrough with the handstands.  All of a sudden they just seemed easier and more stable.  They haven't progressed again since, and are still an on-again / off-again kind of thing, but there was definitely a plateau that was busted.

I mentioned this phenomenon to one of the team members of my Resolution online coaching group recently.   Just before you make a big breakthrough, you often go through a "long" (according to your perspective) period of feeling stuck.  I find this is often a natural result of the last time you broke through a plateau.  You feel so great when you bust through a sticking point that your paradigm shifts completely.  The problem I have seen again and again is that the paradigm shifts further than it should, like the swinging of a pendulum, and you end up over-estimating your current state.  This leads to frustration because you think that you have lost ground, when really you are just consolidating the gains that you made in your last breakthrough in preparation for the next one.  The advice I gave to my client is to keep an eye on the long term progress.  Keep a log and look back periodically at where you started.  Keep pictures and use measuring stick movements to assess the improvements you make over time.  Ride the waves of positive and negative attitude in stride, and in the end each time you look back at your ride you will be amazed at the progress.

-----------------
Training is still back on track.  Today was a Moderate Intensity strength based day in my 4x7 cycle.  Although it was a bit tough (fighting off a bit of a cold and lots of physical work lately), I can definitely feel progress, especially in the Tuck Planche.  At the end of the session I also started doing Coach Sonnon's Clubbell Spiral Flow (an integrative "core" session from one of his SSCC Webisodes).

Strength session included: Tuck Planche on rings, Elbow Lever, One-arm elbow lever (fraction of a second...), HSPUs, Handstand Practice, 15 lb Clubbell Flag Presses, Clubbell Spiral Flow x 1, Corrective exercise for upper back architecture (3 x 10 sec)

Tomorrow is High Intensity Metabolic Resistance Circuit day.  But I think I am going to switch it up a bit from what I did last time.

Voila

Intermittent Fasting Update

Since the last time I posted on my experiences with IF, I have had a couple of fasts.  In fact I am in the middle of one right now.  To be honest, I have had a bit more trouble with the most recent ones.  Part of it stems, I think, from being extremely busy and active over the past couple weeks.  Consequently, I "built up" quite a hunger and ended up having trouble controlling my appetite as I broke my fast. 

I also found myself "loosening" my compliance with my rules outside of the fasts during my super-busy period.  I think this is the key for me.  Fasting works as long as I "stick to my rules" outside of fasting.  If not, the fasting just serves to send me on a bit of a roller coaster ride.  I would imagine that what I was doing was overfeeding while breaking my fast and causing an insulin rush which sets off the roller coaster.  Even "good" foods will set off the insulin reaction if you eat too much...  It's all about that internal hormonal/chemical environment.

So, back to it.  The trick is to plan ahead I think.  Tomorrow morning I break my fast with a "breakfast salad."  (basically a garden salad with a 3-4 soft-boiled eggs on top - very yummy)

Cheers,
Adam

Back to "normal"

After a couple weeks of feverish activity, things have started getting back to "normal" and I feel like I have time to get back to some of the extra things I would like to be doing. (like posting about my training ;-) ...)  I I realize that I just don't have the time to relate everything here in detail, so I'll keep my paper log going and post about the generalities and highlights here as they unfold.

The goal remains the same, the planche.  Although it seems insufferably far away at the moment, the same was true of doing the Trial-by-Fire with the 25s at one point in my progression...  Through those crazy couple of weeks it was pretty much "hold on for the ride," so my training consisted of a few mini-sessions just to keep my fingers in it and lots of Intu-Flow to keep things lubed up.

Now that I am back to more serious training, I have also decided to shift things around a bit.  I hate trying to "get back into" training.  So I prefer to start a fresh cycle when things get disturbed.  My current cycle is pretty much GPP 2.  Same goals, different protocols.  I've switched back to a 4x7 approach this time as opposed to the days of the week set-up I was using.  The only challenge posed by this can be some of the classes that I give.  I generally don't have to expend that much intensity on them, but for instance yesterday was a No Intensity day (basically Intu-Flow) but I had to give a Prasara Yoga class with lots of demos.  Not a huge deal, but needs to be factored in.

My Moderate Intensity days in this cycle will be devoted to more "strength" oriented sessions.  I'm using "Tuck Planche," Elbow Lever, HSPU (at wall), Handstand practice and Clubbell Flag Press as the base exercises.  I'll try to post something later about the "why" of the exercise selection.

My High Intensity day is all about MetCon.  The exercise selection looks to address some of the specialization of the strength work: kipping pull-ups, Bruiser 2-handed Swipe, Box Jump (16") with lockout combined with 25 lb Clubbell Leverage Press.  I'll be adding something else in there but still easing back into things...  This past session I used Tabata, but not sure if I will keep with that or switch to another protocol.

Well, all for now.  More about this, and the compensatory Low Intensity day, later.

Cheers,
Adam

Question about Eat-Stop-Eat

I recently had the following question posed to me about the Eat-Stop-Eat ebook by Brad Pilon.  I thought the answer might be useful for other readers.

Q.  Coach, regarding your blog comments about the EAT, STOP, EAT book - I wanted to ask you a question. How much practical info is contained in the book? It seems like it amounts to a program where one incorporates short fasts into his life. besides the rationale behind this practice, is there any other reason to buy the book? I appreciate your help as i'm saving up for Clubbells and every $ counts right now!

A.  I like to know why I am doing what I am doing, so for me the book was worth every penny.  The practical advice is extremely simple though. The value in the book is in the way that the scientific evidence is assmebled and presented in a very thorough and understandable way.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Adam

Overall Volume

Everything we throw at our bodies accumulates and counts towards our overall volume of "stress" placed on us.  Our formal training is only one of those elements.  But you also have to factor in work, family, social activities, nutrition, sleep (or lack thereof) and all other things we traditionally think of as "stress" (financial worries, relationship friction, deadlines, etc).  Much of this stuff we have little control over.  We need to be able to modulate the rest depending on our overall volume of stress.

I am currently in the middle of what is undoubtedly the craziest week of my year.  It is the week of the Canadian Ski Instructor's Alliance Level 4 course.  Working on this course is physically demanding, but more importantly it is mentally and emotionally demanding.  The people taking this course are looking to attain the highest level of certification in the land, and there is a lot of ego, anxiety, excitement and expectation in the air.  So you need to make sure you are on top of your game.  It is also a 6 day course with a full day of Course Conductor training before it starts.  The days are on snow are full and the evenings are taken up with indoor theory work.  But on top of all that I am giving group fitness training sessions in the evening and have an hour commute to the ski hill every day.

So obviously my overall volume of stressors is much higher than usual!  But what about my training plan?  With all the progress I've made lately towards my new goal.  It has been tempting to want to stick to the program during this more intense week.  But in the end I came to my senses and realized that it would be folly to try to add my regular training schedule on top of what I am already doing.  So I cut way back.  I have done one mini-session between two classes on Monday evening.  I plan another mini-session this evening.  Then I'll probably do another mini-session on Friday evening and then two days of complete R&R over the weekend.  The mini-sessions last less than 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down.  And they incorporate the "money" movements from my regular training plan, minus any of the more "leg" driven movements, as my legs are getting significantly taxed during my days on-snow.

So I just wanted to drop that quick post to remind you to keep an eye on your overall volume of stress in your life and make sure you adapt your training to match it.  You need to have a plan and a goal.  That is the only way to get where you are going.  But the plan is a guide and you need to navigate around whatever challenges you have along the way.

OK.  Back to work... ;-)

The Elasticity of Time

I have a fried who has a favorite saying.  It goes something like "time is not elastic."

However, when he says that, I often think to myself that it is about the most elastic of all the dimensions, at least from the perspective of the human brain.  It seems that when you don't have much on your plate, time stretches out and you have the impression that you can fit limitless projects into your life.  But as soon as things start to heat up, time shrinks down into a compressed little ball, has you running from one thing to the next and leaves you wondering "what was I thinking."

Well, at the moment, my perception of time is in the compressed mode.  Life is good but time is short.  However, I have a couple of things I would like to blog about that I'll try to get to over the next days (including a bit of info about my training).

Cheers