Food Allergies

Vicky doing box jumps

The foods that we develop allergies to are the ones that we do not chew well. For example, some of the most common food allergies are eggs, peanuts(peanut butter), milk, protein powders, and beef(ground beef). These are all foods that people tend to swallow without letting the digestive process start in the mouth. This leads me to the quote "you should drink your food and eat your water." World renown fitness expert Paul Chek likes to use this quote. This quote means that you should chew your food so well that it is liquefied and you should swirl your water around in your mouth before swallowing. By doing these things you will allow the enzymes in the mouth to begin to break down the food, so that it can be absorbed. What good are all of these nutrients that we eat if we are not absorbing them. Of the the common trends I find with people who need to lose weight is that they all eat quickly. The trend that I find with people who are naturally lean is that they eat really slowly. So the take home message today is to eat slowly and chew your food well.

Workout of the Day

Body Composition Routine

7 min 5 two handed db snatch + 10 burpees

Fruit

Chris and Rich getting up onto the 20 in boxes

Many people talk about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, but often times there is no distinction made between fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are not the same thing. We are not made to consume large quantities of fructose and therefore it is important not to have too much fruit. Fructose is digested in liver and the liver can only hold so much. Any excess fructose will be converted to triglycerides(fat). This is one reason why high fructose corn syrup is so dangerous. Vegetables on the other hand are fine in large quantities. The one thing that I have found is that when you tell people to eat fruit and vegetables they often times eat way more fruit than vegetables and it should be the opposite. Aim to get a minimum of six servings of vegetables per day and one or two pieces of fruit. Ideally you would consume 4 servings of vegetables for every serving of fruit. When choosing your fruit you first choice should be berries.

Workout of the Day

30 reps of clean and jerk for time

Carbs

Donna doing pushups on her toes with great form

What determines how many carbs you can eat. There are two factors 1) how lean are you 2) how active are you. The leaner you are the more carbs you can eat. Leaner people are better able to utilize carbs because they are more insulin sensitive. When you are more insulin sensitive it means that more of the carbs go to muscle instead of fat. How lean do you need to be to begin to add more carbs back into your diet. According to Charles Poliquin men should be 10% bodyfat or under and women should be 14% -12% bodyfat. The other factor that determines how many carbs you can eat is your activity levels. When you are active you deplete your glycogen stores and can afford to eat more carbs. Just be careful not to over consume carbs if you are active because many people overestimate how many they really need.

Workout of the Day

Slam Ball

Sprint

Waiters walk

Burpee

Jump rope

45 seconds of work/45 seconds of rest

4 rounds

Soda

Stay away from soda(even diet soda). One of the biggest reasons that we have so much osteoporosis today is because of soda. The phosphorous in the soda steals calcium from the bones in order to keep the body in balance. In our society today we are actually seeing a lot of kids with brittle bones. The biggest reason for this is the amount of soda that kids consume. Soda is also extremely acidic. Acidic foods set the stage for a number of disease processes such as cancer to start. When our body is too acidic it provides a perfect environment for many diseases. In order to keep your body from being acidic you need to eat your vegetables. Vegetables are the most alkaline foods and they will help to neutralize your body.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine
DB complexes

Make meal prep easy

Bill working on L sits

People are always complaining that they are too busy to cook or that they don't cook. I have not had very much success getting people to lose weight who do not prepare their own food. It is very important that you prepare your own food so that you know exactly what goes into it. One way to make meal prep easy is to keep frozen vegetables in your freezer all the time. Frozen vegetables are a great way to put together quick dinners. Often times I will throw a bag of frozen vegetables into skillet with a little olive oil and some precooked meat. In ten minutes dinner is ready. All you have to do is stir. So for those of you who don't know how to cook it doesn't get much easier than this.

Workout of the Day

21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3

Double under + db swing + pushups

What is for Breakfast

Theresa working on her L-sits

Since I don't recommend eating cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, or any other traditional breakfast foods people want to know what to eat for breakfast. Eggs and fruit or vegetables are a great choice. Eggs can be prepared a number of different ways to keep them from being boring. Consider making a vegetable omelet. The other thing that I often eat for breakfast is left over meat and celery sticks. This makes for a real quick breakfast that does not require any preparation. Breakfast is really not as hard as most people think, you just have to break free of the mentality that you must eat cereal for breakfast. It all comes down to habits.

Workout of the Day

Body composition routine

Bottom to bottom tabata squats

Procrastination

Chris M doing handstands

Yesterday I talked about the importance of putting action to your ideas. I really do feel that this is one of the biggest keys to transforming your body. Procrastination is an evil thing. If you need help with procrastination there is a book that may help. The book is the The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. The book contains ten scrolls that are to be read for 30 days each. One of these scrolls is a great chapter on procrastination and how to avoid it. If you read the scroll for 30 days it will help you to take action towards your body transformation goals. All of the best fitness and nutrition information in the world will not help if you do not have the mindset to put the information to use.

Workout of the Day

5 rep thruster + 5 rep sumo high pull

Max rounds in 10 min

Rest 5 min

5 rep R hand db snatch

5 rep L hand db snatch

10 pushups

10 min max rounds

Take Action

Julie doing farmers walks

I was reading another trainers blog the other day and I found something interesting. He said something that I really believe, and it was that the people who are the most successful all have one thing in common. THEY TAKE ACTION. If you want to change your body then get started today do not wait for tomorrow. Too many people talk about starting to work out or eat right but then they never get around to it. Start making changes today. Get yourself in the habit of working out and eating right and it will happen. Change always starts in your mind but if you never put any action to your ideas you will never accomplish anything. This little trick can change any aspect of your life whether it is fitness, relationships, finances, or whatever.

Workout of the Day

30 seconds of work/1 min rest

wallball

rowing machine

farmers walk

jump squats

ring rows

4 rounds

Health and Fitness

Bill and Ashley working on there dips

I often see the words health and fitness written in the names of many gyms. In my opinion the two words should not be separate. Health and fitness should go hand and hand. As you become fitter you should become healthier. Many of the routines and forms of exercise and nutrition that are promoted these days are going to improve your fitness at the cost of your health and this is why these two words have become separated. If your current fitness program is causing your health to get worse or to get sick frequently then you owe it to yourself to change your program. A proper nutrition and fitness program should promote an optimal state of wellness in the body.

Workout of the Day

Body Composition program x 12 reps

7 min db swing

Temptations

Emily and Lani showing off their handstands

In today's society we are constantly surrounded by foods that are horrible for us. Many of these foods are loaded with sugars, trans fats, and empty calories. I really do not feel that we are programmed to be able to resist these foods. It is very hard to have sweets in front of you and not want to try them. We are programmed to seek out foods that are calorically dense so that in times of famine we have enough calories to survive. The problem today is that there is never a shortage of calories. So how are we supposed to reach our health and body composition goals with all of these tempting foods around? The simple answer is do not buy them. If you prepare the majority of the food you eat yourself and keep the junk out of your house it makes your nutrition a lot easier. I have found that if I have junk food in the house I am going to eat it, so I just don't buy it any more. The first step in making your nutrition a whole lot easier is to go through your kitchen and throw out the junk. Get rid of it because if you keep it around you are going to eat it.

Workout of the Day

3 db snatch/turkish get up each side

6 pullups

9 db swing

20 min for max rounds

What is the best workout

Kim doing burpees

It has often been said that the best workout routine is the one that you are not doing. When we design our workout programs we try to use a lot of variety. This helps to keep the workouts from being monotonous, and it constantly forces the body to adapt to a new stimulus. The other benefit of using a lot of variety is that it keeps the body away from repetitive motion injuries. One of the most common complaints that I hear out of people when they first come to me is that they are bored with their workouts because they have been doing the same thing over and over. There are several methods that we use to vary the stress put on the body. Some of the factors that we manipulate are number of reps, rest periods, number of sets, weight lifted, tempo of the lift, hand or foot position in the exercises, and the actual exercises themselves.

Workout of the Day

Run 400m + 15 OHS + 15 good mornings

20 min max rounds

The First Step

Chris overhead pressing

Often times the hardest part of an exercise program is just getting started. The first step is often the hardest. I often say that my hardest job is getting people in the door the first time. There are countless numbers of people that intend to start exercising but they say they will start next week or next month, and then never get around to starting. The best thing I could tell you if you are thinking about starting to exercise and eat right is that you need to start today. You don't have to go crazy and overwork yourself or completely overhaul your diet, you just need to do something, anything in order to get started. I once read somewhere that change is the thing that humans fear the most, because change brings uncertainty. People are scared of what change might bring even if it is for the better. We are all creatures of habit and the habit of eating poorly and being sedentary is a hard one to break because it becomes a vicious cycle. The more out of shape you get the harder exercise becomes which makes getting started even harder. Like I said the best thing you can do is get started today and change your habits before it gets too late.

Workout of the Day

1 min lunge, deadlift, pushpress, pullups

rest 1 min

repeat for 4 rounds

Are you prepared

Amy doing overhead squats

One of the biggest keys to being successful with you nutrition is being prepared. These days everyone is so busy, and we all need little things we can do to make quality nutrition easier. When you are in a hurry getting your protein can be hard because protein often times takes the longest to prepare. One of the tricks that I use is to cook my meat in bulk. On Sunday I will usually cook a bunch of different kinds of meat and then keep them in the fridge. Then during the week I have protein sources ready and I can throw some on a salad or in a stir fry. This little trick can save you an enormous amount of prep time during the week.

Workout of the Day

2 x 400m sprint

4 x dumbbell complex

Squat Depth

My cousin showing her perfect squat technique

Squatting is a natural movement. As you can see in the picture above she is squatting to rock bottom(hamstrings touching calves). The other thing to look at is her posture and alignment. Her back is perfectly straight, heels are down, and her head is perfectly aligned with her spine. This is the position that babies play in. For some reason as people get older they often times lose their ability to get into this perfect squat. If you want to keep your back and knees pain free, then squatting with this form is one of the best things that you can do.

Workout of the Day

4 sets of 3 min db burpee squat clean thruster

Rest 2 min between sets

Supplements

Emily doing some rowing

Every once in a while I like to go into the supplement stores and look around to see what is new. I do this so that I can try to stay current with the products that are on the market. Are there some supplements that work. Yes, but the vast majority of people are trying to supplement a poor diet. The first step everyone needs to make is to clean up their diet. If your diet sucks then all of the supplements in the world aren't going to help. Every time I go into a supplement store I always see the same thing. There is almost always an overweight person in the store asking the person behind the counter which supplement will help them burn fat. This time to the store was no different. There was an overweight man trying to ask the overweight employee which supplement was best for him to take as a post workout meal after his walk. Yes, you read that right a post workout supplement for his incredibly taxing walk. This poor man has been incredibly misinformed and the woman working in the store did not know any better as she continued to try and sell him a bunch of products that he did not need. The truth is that if there was a supplement in that store that worked miracles then everyone would already know about it. There is one thing that does work and that is hard work and proper diet. If you are doing a proper exercise program and eating well 90% of the time then there may be some supplements that can help but until you reach that level of eating there is no point in messing around with most of the supplements, other than fish oil.

Workout of the Day

Work up to a 1 rep max on

Back Squat

Deadlift

Shoulder Press

Progression

Theresa the deadlifting machine

One of the most common complaints that I hear about exercise is that it gets boring. If your exercise gets boring then you are not doing it properly. A proper exercise program should have a built in progression scheme. There are several ways to make changes in your workout routine that can trigger further progress. In our facility we will manipulate the number of repetitions, the tempo of the repetitions, rest periods, the amount of weight lifted, and the actual exercises on a constant basis. As you get in better and better shape it means that you adapt to workouts much faster and that is why it is important to constantly vary what you are doing. I run into many people that get into a routine and perform the same exact workout over and over and then wonder why they are not getting results. The simple answer is that your body has already adapted to the workout and it will not stimulate further change. It has often been said that the best workout routine is the one that you are not doing and that is because it is different. So if you want to make continued progress you need to make sure that you have a lot of variety in your workouts.

Workout of the Day

10 sets of 30 sec jumprope

1 min between sets

Gatorade

Chris deadlifting

It is amazing to see how many people drink gatorade, powerade, or some other sports drink. Most people do not really understand what these drinks are. They are basically just sugar. These drinks are made for high level athletes to replenish glycogen stores that have been completely depleted. If you are not a high level athlete then you probably have no business drinking gatorade and if you are trying to get leaner then you definitely should not be drinking gatorade. I see so many kids that drink gatorade as their main drink instead of water. If you go to high schools and middle schools you will see kids having gatorade with lunch. I really feel that these drinks are a big cause of the obesity problem that we see with kids. The other issue that I have with these drinks is that they contain high fructose corn syrup which is probably one of the most dangerous ingredients in all of our food supply. It is just as bad if not worse than trans fat in my opinion. High fructose corn syrup is a deadly combination of sugars that accelerate the aging process and cause metabolic derangements. So what should you be drinking? Water, and I I mean plain water not all of these flavored things that you see today. If somebody tells me that they can't drink regular water because they don't like the taste then I know that they are addicted to processed foods.

Workout of the Day

1 min wallball, db swing, squat jumps, deadlift, pullups

Move from one exercise to the next without resting

Perform 3 rounds with 1 min between rounds

Train Your Weakness

Lani doing some rowing

We all have weaknesses when it comes to the gym and it is human nature to try and avoid those weaknesses. When most people go to the gym they spend their time doing the exercises that are their strengths because they are good at these exercises. Nobody likes to do the things that they are not good at. If you can find your weak link and improve that weakness you will probably get more benefit from that then you ever would from training something you are already good at. So figure out what your weaknesses are and make them into your strengths.

Workout of the Day

5 reps thruster

5 reps sumo high pull

10 min as many rounds as possible

5 rep db snatch R hand

5 rep db snatch L hand

10 pushups

10 min as many rounds as possible

Women and Weight Lifting

Ashley doing push presses

Yesterday I talked about the importance of men using a full range of motion even if it means that they lower the amount of weight. Women tend to have the opposite problem. They tend to have great range of motion but underestimate the amount of weight that they can lift. The majority of the women that I have trained are very timid with the weights when they first start. There is a shift that must occur in their mentality towards the weights if they want to get great results. The other half of yesterday's quote from Alwyn Cosgrove is "if all women used 10% more weight they would get better results." I have definitely found this to be true. Most women that you will see in a commercial gym will be using the 3-5 lbs dumbbells, while most of the women in our facility will be using 20-30 lbs dumbbells.

Workout of the Day

15 sec mountain climber

15 sec rest

15 sec mt climber + 15 sec burpee

15 sec rest

15 sec mt climber + 15 sec burpee + 15 sec squat jumps

rest for 1 min

repeat for 30sec, 45sec, 1 min

Range of Motion

Bob doing some pressing

In the Crossfit method there is a big emphasis placed on getting a good time. Many times people will try to get a good time at the expense of cutting their range of motion on an exercise. Full range of motion is essential in every exercise. By using a full range of motion you will actually improve your flexibility and the health of your joints. If you only use partial ranges of motion during your workouts then you are putting yourself at a much higher chance of injury. Using a shortened range of motion is going to tighten your muscles up and cause imbalances in your body. These imbalance are what lead to things like hip, back, knee, and shoulder pain. The reason that people tend to shorten their range of motion is because it is obviously much easier. The goal of these workout is to change you body, and full range of motion movements are going to change your body faster because they provide a greater intensity. One of the things that always makes me laugh when I go into commercial gyms is guys who load up the bar with a tremendous amount of weight and then do a 1/4 squat. They obviously have more weight on the bar than they can handle in order to look macho. The thing that they don't realize is that they would get much better results if they simply backed off the weight and did the exercise properly. Alwyn Cosgrove who I will be spending a week with in August has said that "if all men would lower their weights by 10% and focus on better form that they would get better results."

Workout of the Day

30 reps of clean and jerk

Eating Out

Walker(a.k.a The Puff) after some heavy squats and deadlifts

In the years I have been training people I have never come across a person who eats out a lot and is successful with changing their body composition. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. When you eat out there are too many tempting choices. It takes a lot of will power to stick with your salad or meat and vegetables. Another factor is that the portion sizes at most restaurants are way too big. People that are having trouble losing weight often times eat portions that are more than they need and eating at restaurants all the time is not helping you achieve your goals any faster. The final reason that I feel that restaurants are not great for helping you lose body fat is that you never know if they add extra ingredients into your food. Often times extra oils and sugars are added into many dishes at restaurants without you knowing. So the take home message for today is PREPARE YOUR OWN FOOD because you can control your choices, the portion sizes, and the ingredients. I am not saying that you should never eat at restaurants, but I am saying that you should prepare the majority of your meals.

Workout of the Day

3 x 5 shoulder press

3 x 5 pullups

3 x 10 pullover

Warming Up vs Stretching

David doing some box jumps

I am always amazed at the number of people that still stretch before they workout. I think that youth league and high school sports teams are some of the worst culprits when it comes to poor warm up routines. There is a difference between warming up and stretching. Before you perform activity you need to warm up. The goal of a warm up should be to elevate your core temperature and activate your nervous system. This is not accomplished through traditional stretching. At Foley Performance, we use what is called a dynamic warm up. The goal of the dynamic warm up is to actively move the body through complete ranges of motion. When you finish your warm up you should be sweating or close to it. Traditional stretching programs when done as a warm up do not provide this benefit and they have actually been shown to increase your chances of pulling a muscle. Traditional stretching programs done as a warm up have also been shown to reduce your power output. For these reasons I am always amazed when I go watch a high school sporting event and they are static stretching before the game. If you want to stretch do it after your workout.

Workout of the Day

100 burpees for time