Better Is Better

Fasting For Fat Loss - Part 3 of the Fast-5 interview

This is the last of a three part series covering my interview of Bert Herring, author of the Fast-5 Diet.  The book outlines Bert's particular take on using fasting specifically for fat loss.  But there are other nuggets and insights in our conversation that are extremely interesting.  You can download the complete audio file on the first of this series of Fast-5 interviews with Bert Herring.

Enjoy!

Adam: You touched on hormones here, and that's a good segue into my next question, which is, just because everyone is looking for fat loss, usually you hear about the fat loss benefits or the fat loss aspect to intermittent fasting but, more and more there is a lot of evidence coming out that there are significant health benefits to fasting.

Can you discuss any of those benefits and how we get them from fasting?

Bert: Well, the benefits that are typically described, I think you are referring to the ones that are seen in animal studies. Since the 1930's and 1940's, those animal studies in all levels of animals have indicated longer life span and healthier life span for animals that have a reduced calorie intake.

But, the research gets confusing because if you limit an animal's food supply and then supply it daily or every other day, it tends to eat it all in one sitting. So, you get a combination of both the calorie restriction and a longer fasting period.

It can be very difficult to tease out one from the other in these studies, unless the study has taken that into account and either portions the calories into multiple servings for the animal to avoid a long interval without any food, so a fasting interval. So, the data is strongly for calorie restriction and/or intermittent fasting as the way it is.

Adam: It's hard to differentiate.

Bert: Yeah, the research nowadays is starting to differentiate that, but until recently it would seem that as much as an eight percent decrease in calorie intake could have some longevity benefit, but the scientists, when they observed the animals, would notice that they would eat this portion, the restricted portion, all at once.

So, they also would have that long fasting interval. So, what causes what is still being teased out? But they both seem to have benefits. Some people think you can't get one without the other.

In my experience with the Fast five form, which I'm actually a little bit reluctant to call intermittent fasting, because some people would say that intermittent fasting is a longer interval, but there's no definition for intermittent fasting.

I would also call it a widened interval schedule of eating. That would encompass anything that's longer than our typical three meals a day routine. The benefits in animals are clear, but because humans live so long, there aren't any lifetime studies done on humans. And probably on monkeys.

Adam: What happens in the body to the way we use insulin and lepton when we fast? Is there any effect on insulin resistance or lepton resistance, things like that when we're fasting, or sensitivity?

Bert: The typical response is an increased sensitivity to insulin. This just means there's less of it. There's some implication that insulin is associated with aging, so that's a good thing, the less insulin you have around.

It's not a direct connection to aging, but it seems to be that it heads you in the right direction towards a longer, healthier life. That's a suggestion. I don't want to say that's a hard and fast scientific fact.

Adam: Sure. That's very interesting. You also mentioned...

Bert: If I could go back to that for a second...

Adam: Excuse me?

Bert: There is so much, so much is being studied right now about the hormone relationship with fat that just a few years ago, nobody was even looking at fat as the complex organ that it is. It used to be thought of as a storage silo and nothing more.

And now it has become this very complex organ that, in people who are obese, is by far the largest organ in the body. And so, it turns so large it can become chaotic and sort of get things out of control.

Adam: Yeah. I've even heard people suggesting that it should be labeled as part of the endocrine system.

Bert: Oh, definitely. Yes. It is a major endocrine organ and, I don't know if you happened to see the articles in the paper today about brown fat.

Adam: Yeah, it's all over the place.

Bert: It is and I'm told recently people had generally disregarded even the existence of brown fat in adults. And we're finding out that it's really there and in people that are still active. When I was in medical school, it was just disregarded as gone by the time people were even children, it was only found in infants supposedly.

Adam: Sure.

Bert: So, no, it's still there and it's still active and it probably has a hormonal communication with the brain and white fat and it's all a very, very complex system.

Adam: Right. Yes. Lots to discover there. You talked in the book about ATL, which I had not really run across before, and probably a lot of people haven't heard of. Could you just talk briefly about that?

Bert: Well, it's fat-digesting enzyme that's in the fat cell.

So, digestive fat, it gets activated and my thought, that I was talking about in the book, was that it may take some induction where repeated usage of this enzyme to establish the levels that are needed to produce the amount of ketones and release the fat as fuel as one needs to become comfortable with the longer interval between eating.

That's just one possible explanation of why it takes a few days to get used to a regimen like Fast-5. But whether that's the key, I can't really say, it's just one of the possibilities.

Adam: Right. So, basically, until you can ramp up your ATL, you're not really seeing enough ketones to fuel the system. Is that correct?

Bert: That's my thought, yes.

Adam: OK.

Bert: Most people who start Fast-5 have the first few days go pretty easily and then they get to a bumpy spot on the third or fourth day and then, after that, it's smooth sailing.

So there's something that's changing during that time and, until more research is done, we won't know exactly what it is. But, it could be that ramping up with the enzyme use.

Adam: OK. That's really interesting. Just, I forgot to ask this earlier, you suggest a five o'clock PM until 10 PM eating window. Is that just solely based on convenience that's what seems to have worked best for people as far as social eating and things like that? Or is there another significance to that?

Bert: Well, when I started out to doing Fast-5, when I was doing sort of accidentally, that's the schedule that I wound up with.

But, also, when I was writing the book, the book is for - it's intention - it's intended to make it the most accessible form of intermittent fasting that I can manage to offer somebody to make it as easy to pick up as possible.

For just the ordinary person, not necessarily a fitness-oriented person, but just somebody who's trying to change their life and get rid of fat. And so, I wanted it to be as compatible with an everyday, ordinary, typical Western world kind of lifestyle as I could.

And so, much of our eating is social. I wanted to allow for that in that most of that social eating is in the evening and I know a lot of people like to eat or snack when they're watching TV. And so, I didn't want to say that this was just, you know, you can only eat for one hour and that would make it more difficult, more socially problematic to manage.

And so, since the 19 hours seem to be enough, I didn't have any reason to make it any more austere than that because that's good enough. And that's what I wanted to put out there for people to try.

Adam: Good. And so, if people's schedules worked better with four until nine or three until eight or whatever, that's fine, that's a personal choice?

Bert: Right.

Adam: OK.

Bert: I pointed out in the book somewhere, I believe, that it's the 19 hours that matter. It needs to be about that long. For some people, a little less is OK; for some people a little more is what it takes.

Adam: OK.

Bert: And then, so once people get into it, I encourage them not to go by what's in the book, but go by what works for them. And that's something I call the study of one and everybody should do a study of themselves and see how to best integrate such a plan.

Because, what matters isn't what's in the science books or the journals or what the studies say, it's what works for a given individual.

Adam: Sure.

Bert: And if eating pancakes at noon works for somebody, I'm not going to argue with that, it works for them. And in our life and culture, just staying on a normal, a perfect weight for height it's the challenge.

And so, I don't make rules about what particular people do. I encourage them to experiment and try to fit this into their lives in some way that just works for them.

Adam: Great. OK. Have there been any significant breakthroughs in what we know about fasting since the book came out? Since Fast-5 came out?

Bert: I wouldn't say there have been any breakthroughs, there certainly has been a whole lot more interest and I think that's good.

As you probably know, that things keep seeming to change for several weeks and probably months after this kind of a diet change, and so I would like to see studies done that look at the changes over those several months. But so far, the longest studies have been six to eight weeks.

Adam: OK.

Bert: And I don't think that's quite long enough for all the changes to settle down.

Adam: OK. Yeah, that would be interesting to see. Now where can people go, I'm going to put a link on my blog to find Fast-5, but is there anywhere people can go other than that to find you and your book and get more information about Fast-5?

Bert: Well, it's on the website. There's a free, downloadable version on the website and they can get it from Amazon.

Adam: OK So, it's - what's your website?

Bert: It's Fast5.com, FAST, hyphen, numeral 5, and then .com.

Adam: OK, great.

Bert: And the book has been translated by volunteers into French and Thai.

Adam: Oh, OK. Great. That's good to know as well.

Well, thank you so much, Bert, for taking the time to talk to me and to people that read my blog. I wish you the best of success in spreading your message. I think it's a positive one and I hope people enjoyed listening to you talk about this. Thank you very much, Bert.

Bert: Well, I appreciate your interest. Thank you.

Adam: Alright, thank you.
***

Here are some more Intermittent Fasting links that may interest you.

• Brad Pilon Intermittent Fasting Audio Report
• Brad Pilon Fasting Interview (video) Part 1
• Leangains Intermittent Fasting for fat loss

Fast-5 Fat Loss - Part 2 Of The Bert Herring Interview

I’ve been posting interviews lately from various Intermittent Fasting authorities.  There’s the Brad Pilon series (Parts 2 & 3).  Then the Martin Berkhan Leangains interview.  And here you’ll find the second part of the series of posts dedicated to my discussions with Bert Herring about Intermittent Fasting for fat loss and his Fast-5 diet.

But I also wanted to throw in a link that deals more with the day-to-day side of fasting.  Richard Nikoley, of Free The Animal, posted a comment to this Intermittent Fasting post recently, and as a result I was treated to a little tour of his blog.  I thought you would find this link to his blog interesting.  This guy is writing about being in the trenches and doing the business of fasting.  It’s a fun read, take a look.

And without further ado, please enjoy the continuing conversation with Bert Herring, author of Fast-5.  You can download the full audio file from the first post of the Fast-5 interview.

***
Adam: Having the eating window completely open and free to eat according to your hunger, do you find most people will come to some kind of balance eventually? Because I would imagine when you start out you end up overeating in the window. Would that be safe to say?

Bert: Some people do and some people don't. One of the reasons that the daily schedule works well for people is that there is a lot of social eating, particularly during the evening. The window allows for that on a relatively routine basis.

People tend to overeat at first, but then they begin to trust their bodies and find that their appetite drops. After either a few days or a week or two of what I call compensatory overeating, that passes and they eat according to appetite and get into a curve where it's comfortable, predictable and very sustainable.

Adam: That makes sense. I wanted to ask you about hunger. I think any one that's tried fasting, will probably be a little bit more familiar with the different types of hunger that exist. You tend to experiment with it a little bit when you're fasting. You discussed certain categories in your book; can you just talk about that a little bit?

Bert: Yes, I refer to two types. One that's called somatic hunger. "Somatic" just means "of the body". The other is limbic hunger. Limbic hunger refers to the limbic system of the brain which is where your instinctive behaviors are.

The reason I make that separation is that there's hunger behavior when a person is driven to eat despite whatever they might feel in the rest of the body. The somatic hunger refers to the sensation of discomfort in the belly.

One of the things I became aware of, that's why I did my study on this, is that many people go through the behavior of eating and are driven to eat, and I had seen myself doing this, even if they had a conscious recognition that they were not particularly hungry.

And certainly a conscious recognition that the fat storage was certainly ample on fuel. So they knew they didn't need the food, they weren't necessarily feeling hunger in their belly, but it was still a compulsion to eat. So that's what I call limbic hunger. The somatic hunger is the crampy, uncomfortable feeling in the belly.

Adam: Interesting. It's driven a lot I would imagine by emotions, boredom and social aspects play a big role in driving those hungers. I liked in the book how you said that just shutting it off completely, just throwing the switch, helps you overcome that urge to eat.

Instead of saying, "Well I can just have a little bit of this and a little bit of that", which turns into a lot of something you didn't mean to eat in the first place.

Bert: That's one of the keys of any fasting regimen success, I believe. It's a lot easier to just not eat than to eat a little bit, because of the instinctive response that we have apparently acquired. When our bodies realize that food is available, it is a drive to eat more than what we need of it, so that we have some stored for later.

Adam: Which was probably very useful a couple of hundred thousand years ago.

Bert: Absolutely, because all we had for a refrigerator was what we could store in our bodies.

Adam: Exactly. Another thing you talk about in the book which has become a bit of a buzzword lately in a lot of circles, is ketones. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about ketones, what they are, what ketosis is. Address some of the people that say ketosis can be dangerous and things like that.

Bert: I think that the people who say that ketosis can be dangerous are confusing it with ketoacidosis which is a condition associated with diabetes which really is dangerous, where the pH of the blood is altered from [garbled]... It a dangerous state, but it doesn't have anything to do with ketosis which is the state of having a normal level of ketones in the blood.

Somebody who eats frequently may have no ketones in the blood, but as soon as fat starts to become the source of fuel then ketones can be found in the blood and they are what the body uses as fuel when it is drawing on fat for that fuel supply. So it is an alternative to glucose that the body can use as fuel. It is the currency of energy.

Adam: That is great. People need to hear that, because there is just a lot of confusion surrounding it. All it is is just an alternate fuel source.

Bert: Correct.

Adam: Great. Would you give us an idea...? Do you use Fast-5 for yourself regularly?

Bert: Yes.

Adam: Do you have any recommendations during those five hours? If you want to be optimal, what kind of things do you recommend eating?

Bert: Well... The same kind of things that someone's mother or grandmother would tell them to eat, lots of fruits and vegetables. The more we can get away from processed food, I think the better off we are.

An approach that avoids contaminants and pollutants would be best, but, in our typical society's way of eating, it is hard to get away from everything. So, I don't approach anything religiously or with absolute rules but the more fresh vegetables, the more fresh fruits, we can have I think the better off we are, with a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

I don't see any reason to establish very rigid lines with that, because people are different with different preferences. To have any kind of successful eating plan means to have one you can stick with and that means having some stuff in it that you just enjoy, even if it is only once in a while.

I think that is a lot easier to adopt than something that has hard and fixed rules about this and that.

Adam: Sure, that makes sense. My friend Brad talks about obsessive-compulsive eating which is what I think you are alluding to when you have such strict rules that you cannot enjoy something with friends or enjoy a little treat from time to time. That makes a lot of sense.

Bert: I think that just the fact that something is forbidden in some diets may make it somehow more attractive. So, if nothing is forbidden, you have it when you want it and you do not have it other times. It does not have any special lure or attraction about it.

Adam: Sure, it just becomes more reasonable. OK. Good. One thing I wanted to talk about. Some people will report feeling listless or dizzy or fuzzy often during their fast. Often this is more when they first start trying fasting as well.

It seems pretty unlikely that it would be low blood sugar. Most people say, oh, I have got hypoglycemia, or something like that, but if you measure blood sugar, it does not seem to be varying that much. Do you have any theories about what that could be from?

Bert: Well, I think it is a process of adaptation to the alternate fuel supply of ketones, but what exactly people are feeling, I don't know. It may be fluctuating hormone levels, but what you said about the hypoglycemia is absolutely correct.

If people check their blood sugar, it would be very unusual for someone to actually have low blood sugar at that time, but it seems like half the world says that they have hypoglycemia so they can't do it.

It's a very common myth, but a very entrenched one. And, it's one that people frequently refer to when they consider fasting and say; 'Oh, I can't do that.' In fact, if they check their blood sugar periodically, they'll find that it's not a problem.

***
Stay tuned for part 3...

Tacfit Metabolic Conditioning Teaser Video

I've posted before about the Metabolic Conditioning approach to exercise, and especially our unique program in the Circular Strength Training system called Tacfit.  As discussed in previous posts, the genius inherent to Tacfit is in bringing increasing Sophistication to exercise selection.  So we are not just doing more and gaining more capacity, we are also learning to move in more sophisticated patterns.

We are not just chasing more quantity, we are simultaneously augmenting quality of movement.

However, I've had several people tell me that the explanation sounds nice, but they'd like to see what exactly the program is all about.  Well, we just released a teaser of the program and I thought you might be interested in taking a gander.  It's hard to encapsulate the depth of the program in 136 seconds, but this clip gives you a good idea of what some of the exercises look like, what tools are used, and how some of the various levels of exercise sophistication might look .

Hope you enjoyed the teaser.  If you've used Tacfit personally, let us know in the comments what you think of it.  I've had the priviledge of participating in on-site Tacfit classes a few times with Coach Sonnon, the originator of the program, while in Bellingham.  I can tell you that they are a thing of beauty.  I love to hate Tacfit!

If you would like to read more about Tacfit, visit this link.

The Expert Talks Intermittent Fasting - Weight Loss, Health & Lifestyle

It’s always fun to hang out with “cool geeky guys.”  My friend Brad Pilon is just such a guy.  He can spin the science to the point of making me dizzy.  But at the same time he’s just a regular guy who’s cool to hang out with.  And that’s just what I was doing a couple weeks ago, when we decided to pull out the camera.  If you missed it, here you can check out the first part of our Intermittent Fasting conversation.

In this, the last part of the chat, Brad and I talked about:

• Fasting and the acceptance from your entourage
• Hunger, hormones and what you eat BEFORE you fast
• Bonus: Our mysterious ladies make a reappearance
• Fasting and human evolution vs the Science
• Cultural examples of fasting throughout history
• The organic hoodwink

I hope you enjoy the wrap-up to our conversation.  Intermittent Fasting can play a substantial role in your overall nutritional strategy.  There are many posts about fasting here at Better’s Better.  But if you want to really understand exactly what happens to you when you fast, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Eat Stop Eat.  I bought it and thoroughly enjoyed it months before I even contemplated fasting in my own dietary strategy.

Brad recommends flexible 24 hour fasts combined with resistance exercise.  I’ve also interviewed authors who promote an “eating window” approach to fasting which is done everyday (or almost).

• Leangains
• Fast-5 Fat Loss Diet

If you have your own Intermittent Fasting experiences that you’d like to share, please tell us about it in the comments.  It’s always helpful to have the support of others who are experimenting with this effective, but sometimes challenging, nutritional approach.

Intermittent Fasting - Fast-5 Fat Loss

Better's Better regulars will know that I have a keen interest in Intermittent Fasting.  Generally, I follow the principles outlined in Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat.  But lately I've been seeking out other perspectives on fasting, for my own information and experimentation, but also to share my discoveries with you.

For example, I recently interviewed Martin Berkhan of Leangains.  And now, I have the pleasure to introduce you to Bert Herring of the Fast-5 Diet.  Like Leangains, Fast-5 is what I call an "eating window" approach to fasting.  I'll be posting the text version of the interview with Bert in 3 parts in order to make each piece a bit more digestible.  But you can download the audio file in its entirety at the bottom of this post.  Enjoy!

Fast-5 Fat Loss - Part 1

 

Adam: Welcome, everybody. We're here with Bert Herring, the author of Fast-5, a book about the principles of intermittent fasting. I think what I'll do is, I'm going to turn this right over to Bert. Bert, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Bert Herring: My background consists of a variety of medical education and medical experience. The interest in intermittent fasting started while I was working at National Institutes of Health.

After trying several different ways to avoid getting hungry during the day, I realized that if I just didn't eat breakfast or lunch I was less bothered by hunger interrupting my day. That served me well for my productivity and attention. I realized that at the same time I was losing weight that I had wanted to lose.

But that was just a quirk of mine at the time; I didn't have the realization at the time that it could work for other folks as well. But when I started looking into it a few years ago, it became clear that it was just a predictable function of it.

Adam: So you stumbled upon the practice of it by mistake and then looked into the science, the theories of it afterwards? Is that correct?

Bert: That's correct. There have been lots of people who have chosen to eat only one meal a day for one reason or another or they have a certain window. You probably have heard of models' diets or models' recommendations that they only eat after six PM. So there are lots of variations on a theme.

That was just my particular approach that I'd stumbled on and that's what's worked for me.

Adam: A lot of people listening to this will probably be familiar with the idea of the 24 hour fast once or twice a week, because I've interviewed Brad Pilon before. Can you just outline a little bit what your approach is?

Bert: My approach is a daily schedule of at least 19 hours of fasting which allows for a five hour window during which one eats according to appetite. For some people that means eating one large meal, for some people it means eating a meal and then grazing their way through the window, and some people have chosen to make two meals within the five hour window.

People have had different [inaudible 03:05] has been successful. The reason that I have supported this approach is that it's in the general public's eye a more approachable, a less intimidating stretch of food. Because the 19 hours include sleeping, and most people can see it as a reasonable goal to just delay rather than going the full day without eating.

Adam: Is there any significance to the 19 hours mark? Is there anything biologically, physiologically important to that hour, or did you just through experimentation find that that's the best approach for you and your clients?

Bert: That's just what works for the bulk of the people who have tried it. [inaudible 04:04] and I don't know what the difference is. Sometimes it's been somebody who's on a medicine and it may have to do with that, it's not clear. I have just gone with the approach of what I see working for most people who try it. And the most accessible.

Download The Fast-5 Interview MP3

Stay tuned to the blog for Part 2 of this interview in the coming days.  You can also visit the Fast-5 website for more information.

Do you fast?  If so, is it for health or body composition?  And what do you like about it, hate about it, find difficult, etc?  If you haven't tried it, what would make you give it a go?

Bodyweight Challenge Workout

I turned 38 today.  Egad, that sounds really old.  So anyway, I had in my mind to do some sort of Challenge Workout, but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted it to be.  Then this morning I got an email from a buddy of mine in Thailand, and he mentioned that he’s been working with Forward Pressure.  I’ve also been using  FP extensively with a semi-private group of girls that I’m coaching.  So it dawned on me that this would be the perfect bodyweight exercise Challenge Workout!

Since it’s my 38th Birthday, I decided on 38 rounds using the second level of the flow (you can see the flow at the link above if you aren’t familiar with it).  This took me somewhere around 45 minutes.  As usual, I forgot to set a timer…  When I was done, I decided this would be the inaugural event.  So next year it'll be 39 rounds, and so on!  By the time I’m 75 years old, I should have some pretty serious pressing strength-endurance!

The Power Of A Challenge Workout

The occasional Challenge Workout is a powerful tool.  Not only does it give you a physical kick in the rear, it can be an excellent tool for exploring the mental side of performance.  I’ve experienced this many times doing Clubbell® challenges like the Trial-by-Fire.  A faint voice of dissonance always accompanies you through the first part of the session, telling you that you can give up any time.  Sometime before you get halfway, that voice grows very loud.  "Your sunk costs aren’t so heavy that you can’t walk away," the voice says.

Then you hit the halfway point, or just beyond, and you realize, for the first time, that you are going to make it.  You’re tired and hurting, but no more that you were at a quarter of the way through.  You’ve hit that steady zone that will carry you through.  And that realization gives you a boost - almost euphoric.

Then, close to the end, you just start to feel relieved that you’re going to make it.  You grit your teeth and try to push through with as much class as you can muster.  And when you’re done, you look back and think, “what was all the fuss about.”

I may not be able to turn back the clock.  But I can make sure that I keep moving, keep pushing myself, and hold the aging process at bay through natural exercise methods that develop flow and grace as much as strength and endurance.

Here Is Your Mission...

So here is your Workout Challenge.  How old are you?  Can you do that many rounds of Forward Pressure?  You’ll never know until you try.  And if you can’t YET, just start working up to it incrementally.  Take a look at the video in this post about Forward Pressure to learn the flow.  If you want more instruction, you can find Coach Sonnon’s detailed teaching here.  He also offers an easier and a more advanced version of what you’ll see in the linked post and video clip.

Don’t wait for your birthday.  Try it today!  The ultimate bodyweight Challenge Workout - your age in rounds of Forward Pressure.  Tell us in the comments how you did.

Cheers,
Adam

The Steve Jobs Workout - Bodyweight Exercises For the Virtual Nomad

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The pace and rhythm of our lives are changing.  And the transformation is only accelerating.  I read today how Steve Jobs is now working from home.  This speaks volumes about the future of lifestyle design.

My colleague Ryan Murdock has been intrigued by the Virtual Nomad concept for some time now.  Probably because he is one himself.  More and more, people are abandoning the daily grind.  In its place a lifestyle of flexibility and creativity is coming of age.  And the metamorphosis is reaching into every tentacle of this new lifestyle, including the way people are getting and staying fit.

Ryan gave a good example of this new approach to fitness in his article about bodyweight training for business travelers.  It no longer flies to tell people they need to fight their way to a crowded gym and waste their time standing in line for marginally effective weight and cardio machines.

These people are choosing better options at work.  They need better options in the rest of their lives too.  As you probably know, one of my favorites is bodyweight exercise.  It's a time-tested and NATURAL way to build muscle and burn fat anytime and anywhere.  Deep rooted physical cultures have been using nothing but bodyweight to build natural vitality, beautiful physiques and outstanding performance for centuries.  But enough with the sales pitch...

What could Steve Jobs, and all his fellow Virtual Nomads, being doing to stay fit, healthy and vital?  The answers to that question are endless, but here are a few suggestions.

1. Compensate for your over-specializations

First off, many Virtual Nomads will be spending significant time slouched in front of laptops, iPhones or other tools of their trade.  This causes certain over-specializations.  The body adapts to take on the "shape" that you spend most of your time in.  If you spend all your time in the "slouched desk jockey pose," that is the shape your body will want to take on.  You need to specifically counteract that.  Try these mobility exercises for the desk jockey as a start. 

And then there is Prasara Yoga exercise to specifically target the desk jockey slump.  You must strengthen the "functional opposite" to whatever over-specializations you may be developing.  In the case of the Virtual Nomad, this probably means some form of back bending.  Here is Coach Scott Sonnon doing an advanced back bending exercise.  But you can start with something simple like a Cobra or Upward Facing Dog pose.

2. Build or Maintain Muscle Mass

As we age, we inevitably lose muscle if we do nothing to prevent it.  Many Virtual Nomads are still young.  Start preventing now!  But increasingly older Nomads like Jobs are coming onto the scene.  For them, it is crucial to encourage lean mass.  Muscle, and by extension strength, are a vital factor in keeping us young.  It helps you burn energy and reduce fat.  And when developed in a balanced way will reduce the chances of injury.

You don't need fancy equipment to build muscle.  There are plenty of bodyweight exercises for strength and hypertrophy.  The result you get from exercise has more to do with the way you put things together and the protocols that you use than with the tool.

One of the easiest rules of thumb to target muscle building is the Time Under Tension (TUT) principle.  Essentially this uses the time you perform the exercise to target different goals.  If you are looking to grow muscle, generally it is recommended to stay "under tension" for between 30 and 75 seconds (depending on the source).  I like to work with 45 seconds.  By the end of those 45 seconds, you should be starting to run out of juice, but still have two or three repetitions in reserve.  Do that for 3 sets and you're good to go.

When first getting started, you can pick a few simple exercises that hit most of the body.  Push-ups, One-legged squats and Planks are enough to get you going.  Then, when you start to crave variety, you can browse through these unique bodyweight exercises for some ideas...

3. Burn Fat

Again, although Virtual Nomads are generally on the go more than their cubicle bound counterparts, they are still more sedentary than our evolutionary ancestors.  So we're going to have to spend some time burning off any excess fat.

The most bang for your buck comes from short and sweet metabolic conditioning workouts.  One of my favorites is the Tabata protocol.  It's super easy to understand and to implement, and it delivers awesome results.  Just choose two to four bodyweight exercises that get the heart pumping.  Starting with the first exercise, perform 20 seconds of maximum intensity work and then rest for 10 seconds, then start all over again for a total of 8 rounds through that same exercise.  Then move on to the next exercise and do the same thing.

A couple good candidates for this approach are the Mountain Climber and the Prisoner Jump Squat.  You can take a look at them in the clips below:

So you see, it takes little space and no equipment to get an effective and complete workout.  The Virtual Nomad has no excuse to not stay healthy and fit as they ply their craft from exotic locations around the world – or from their local Starbucks as the case may be.

Top 5 Mobility Exercises For Desk Jockeys

I start every training session with an Intu-Flow joint mobility warm-up session.  And without fail, no matter how long the client has been with me, they always comment on the wonders of systematically moving the body through 6 Degrees of Freedom.  They recount how they religiously perform certain movements throughout the day, and how much better it makes them feel.  And almost universally, I hear the story of how “viral” the movements are, as coworkers join the party and reap the benefits.

Everything you do repeatedly in life causes your body to adapt in order to make that task more repeatable.  An athlete training for an event adapts to better perform in that event.  But a desk jockey’s body adapts over time to being bent over a keyboard all day.

Most often, the desk jockey’s head will come forward and down.  The upper back rounds out.  The hip flexors shorten and place strain on the low back.  And the wrists develop overuse injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.  But a few minutes a day of focused joint mobility can go a long way to preventing pain and limitations.  It's interesting to note that the movements my clients like the most - the ones that feel great - are the ones that target the specific over-compensations of the office worker.

So, here are the top 5 mobility exercises for any of you desk jockeys out there, as picked by my regular clients.

1. Neck Yaw (rotation)

2. Neck Surge (front to back)

3. Wrist Pitch & Yaw (up/down & side/side)

4. Thoracic Surge (front to back)

5. Pelvic Pitch (tilts front to back)

Your best bet is to regularly perform a full course of Intu-Flow from top to bottom and from the centre out.  The reasons for this are thoroughly explained by Coach Scott Sonnon in the Intu-Flow DVD set.  And all the exercises are also taught in detail.  But these 5 movements can greatly contribute to your well being throughout the day.  So learn them and, above all, share them.

If you’ve tried Intu-Flow, what are your favorites?

Fasting Fact & Fiction - Brad Pilon Talks About Obsessive Compulsive Eating & Intermittent Fasting

Few people can do damage to a Starbucks Espresso Brownie the way my friend Brad Pilon can!  That’s why I love hanging around with the guy.  He maintains an incredible physique and optimal health while still enjoying the finer things in life through moderation.  As many of you will know, one of the backbones of Brad’s approach is Intermittent Fasting.  In fact, Brad is one of the foremost authorities in the world on fasting and has authored a book on the subject called Eat Stop Eat. A while back, I did an audio interview with brad about Eat Stop Eat that provided lots of great insight and tips for intermittent fasting.

I got to spend a couple days in Toronto this week with Brad and a few other friends and colleagues, exchanging notes about health, fitness and the industry in general.  At the end of our meetings, Brad and I stuck around for coffee and casual conversation.  I knew he had a Flip cam with him, so I suggested we find a quiet spot to continue our chat on video.

The result is this little series of clips in which you can sit in on an informal discussion about fasting, eating, and all the emotional and psychological issues surrounding food in our society.  We had no idea what we were going to say.  So sit back and enjoy this candid conversation about...

• Societal and individual preconceptions about food
• Obsessive compulsive eating
• Fasting for fat loss or health

If you can't view the clip here, you can see it directly on YouTube at:
Brad Pilon Intermittent Fasting Video Interview

Stay tuned for parts two and three.  Post any questions you have for Brad in the comments and I’ll do my best to make sure I get answers for you.  And as always, feel free to share your own experiences with or reflections on intermittent fasting.

You may also be interested in this interview with intermittent fasting expert Martin Berkhan, author of Leangains.

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Pressing Strength - Build Your Forward Pressure

For those clicking through from the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution e-blast, I messed up the link.  You can go here to read about the bodyweight "Challenge Workout."

I recently introduced a small group of students to the Forward Pressure program.  I think they found it to be a humbling experience.  We'll be using the program as the cornerstone of a six week training phase designed to build strength in the "surging" or sagittal plane.

In honor of the occasion, I decided to pull out this old article I penned about my own initial experience with Forward Pressure.  To this day it stands out as one of the "go-to" routines in my training toolbox.  Enjoy!  And let me know in the comments what experiences you may have had with this flagship Prasara flow.

For many weeks I had been gazing at the beautiful cover of Forward Pressure, reading the description and anxiously awaiting the release. When it came out I ordered it and duly received it, but I was in the middle of a THP cycle and had to sit drooling for a few more weeks before putting it to use.

I positioned Forward Pressure as the cornerstone of my handstand oriented Training Hierarchy Period program. As the GPP component, I wanted to use it to develop more than ample pressing strength and all-around burliness of the shoulders, triceps and lats. Having never used the course, and not having as clear a path to follow as is given in FlowFit, this allowed me to experiment a little with my own approach to progression. I let Forward Pressure and my intuition guide me on what became a very interesting exploration.

Going into my first Forward Pressure session I didn't know quite what to expect. So, basing myself on the FlowFit protocol, I set my watch timer for 14:30 minutes and off I went. Local muscular fatigue slowed me down a bit. I had to stop between reps a few times to shake out. The pump was tremendous. I ended up doing 9 reps in 15 minutes. My flow was not great, but I knew that it would come. All-in-all I was very happy with my first attempt! The question was how to proceed?

For my second session I decided to set my watch again, this time for 15:30 minutes, and to see how many reps I could do. Despite lingering DOMS from my previous session my performance was quite similar and I ended up doing 10 reps in 16 minutes, with shake outs and pauses between reps as necessary. Already the transition between movements was improving, and I felt that I had at least a modicum of flow.

However, it was on my third session that I really seemed to make a significant move towards greater flow. I needed less of a pause between reps, and the transitions became even smoother. This session brought me to 11 reps in 16 minutes. The following Monday I again moved up one full rep in the same duration, 16 minutes, for a total of 12 reps. I was ecstatic, but at the same time I realized that this kind of progress could not continue. I had to think about how to proceed from there. It was then that I stumbled on the idea of experimenting with the manipulation of either volume or duration exclusively in each session -- meaning that I would either set myself a target of total reps regardless of time, or of total time for maximum reps. For the remaining sessions of that week I chose an increase of two reps per session, so one session of 14 reps and another of 16.

I timed my volume oriented sessions, but I consciously decided to take my time and focus on going deeply into the movements, stopping to shake out whenever needed. I ended up finishing my 14 reps in 22:30 minutes, which was a bit of a disappointment. It seemed to me that I had taken a lot more time for two extra reps. However, I reminded myself that the volume was the important consideration for that and the following session.

The next day I was rewarded with some DOMS in my lats. In and of itself this may not be a good thing. However, to me it was an indication that I had indeed succeeded in going deeper into the movements, thus recruiting more musculature. At the outset of the cycle I had been relying too much on triceps strength. Happy with my progress, I moved into my third and final session of the week. I fully expected to add another few minutes to the total duration in order to achieve my 16 reps. During the session I felt that I was moving at about the same pace as in the previous session, and in general I felt a tad fatigued by the total volume of the week. Much to my surprise I ended up doing all 16 reps in virtually the same time as the 14 rep session (22:45 min)!! I was pleased and excited for Monday to roll around so that I could move to the next stage of my experiment, which was to compress the duration back down to 16 minutes to see how many total reps I could perform in that time.

When Monday arrived I felt strong. I was sure that I could squeeze out one more rep in 16 minutes. However, I was blown away when I ended up finishing almost 2.5 more reps in my 16 minutes! I finished 14 reps in 15:30 and 15 reps in 16:45. Not only did I squeeze in more reps but my movements felt more powerful and deeper. I was onto something. So, onward and forward, my next sessions would be comprised of a volume based approach at 17 reps on Wednesday and 19 reps on Friday, regardless of duration. But could I keep this kind of progress up?

I got off to a good start on that following Wednesday, doing my requisite 17 reps in 23:30 minutes, then 19 reps in 25:00 on Friday. That meant I was even a little bit ahead of the pace of my previous Friday session. I took a brief pause between almost every rep for a quick "shakeout." At the end of these sessions my triceps were still a bit engorged, but the pump effect was definitely growing less pronounced. I also suffered very little DOMS anywhere in the period following these sessions. I did my Friday session late in the evening, so I felt "heavy" and a bit tired. I was pretty sure I was going slowly, so I buckled down and told myself that I would finish no mater how long it took. Turns out I was pretty much on pace with my Wednesday session. Who "woulda thunk" it? One thing I was pleased about, even though I felt tired my movements still seemed very full and deep. I really felt that my technique was growing strong.

At this point I had also come to recognize a fringe benefit to Forward Pressure. I had been watching the Hardwork DVD quite a bit, and during one of my sessions the idea of "not being there" came back to me. As the effort became intense I caught myself grimacing several times, and this afforded me the opportunity to work on not letting the effort or pain show on my face. By keeping my face neutral it seemed like the effort became less arduous. However, I had to consciously school myself to keep it up, and found that I sometimes went back to grimacing from time to time during intense moments.

Excited by my progress and by all my discoveries, I felt very motivated when Monday rolled around again to put up the numbers. My goal was 15 reps in 16 minutes and I did it in 15:30! That was one minute and 45 seconds better than the previous Monday! This left me thinking that it was definitely feasible for me to pull off the 16 reps in 16 minutes feat. I set out to complete my week using the same volume based approach as in previous weeks, achieving 18 reps in 25:00 minutes and 20 reps in 27:00 minutes. Although I felt that muscular fatigue set in early during both of these sessions and that I was going slowly, I still ended up improving my pace over the previous week! I was realizing ever increasing Forward Pressure!

I had experienced such steady and exciting progress that I awaited my final Monday session, and the final session of this cycle, with a hint of trepidation. Although CST isn't about the numbers, that kind of benchmark still provides a powerful catalyst for personal motivation and drive. An oft stated tenet of CST is of course competition, the offshoot of the Latin con and petire, to seek together. In this case, the approach I took to Forward Pressure afforded me the opportunity to compete with myself. My physical, mental and emotional comfort zones provided me with ample opportunity to test my mettle and to grow in my physical practice.

My fears were unfounded. I blew my goal out of the water, finishing 16 reps in 15:30 minutes. After the weekend's rest I felt incredibly strong and solid for the first few reps. Then, as muscular fatigue began to set in, I really had to explore the concept of selective tension in order to keep up the pace. I took any opportunity in the flow to release tension from the fatigued areas. I also had to dig down deep and face my "Inner Pansy."

I had immeasurable fun with this cycle and with the Forward Pressure course. I looked forward to every step along the way and I reveled in every small success. To put it into perspective, I went from doing 10 reps in 16 minutes (96 sec per rep) to doing 16 reps in 15:30 minutes (58 sec per rep) on my last day over the course of a four week cycle. I feel that the mix of volume oriented sessions versus the duration oriented sessions were the magic ingredient in this rapid progress. I should note that I decided to use the Beginner level flow throughout this cycle. This allowed me to develop a solid strength and skill foundation with the Forward Pressure flow. When I come back to Forward Pressure I will start working with the Intermediate flow. I wonder where it will lead me?

It's hard to believe a few years has passed already since I then.  Forward Pressure, and components of the flow, have continued to figure prominently in my training and the programs I craft for my students.  What have you done with Forward Pressure?  Better yet, what could you do with it?

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