Keep Your Food Journal

How important is keeping a food journal. In another new study that came out recently participants who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who didn't. Keeping a food journal is one of the best things you can do to change your body. By making yourself accountable for what you eat it makes losing weight a lot easier. I am always suprised by the resistance and excuses that I get from people who don't want to keep their food journal. The funny thing is that it is usually the people who eat the worst that don't want to keep the journal. If you are trying to get leaner or gain muscle then you should keep a journal not only of everything you eat but also of all your activity, sleep, and stress. You would be amazed how helpful this is when you do it.

Yesterday's Top Performances
Male
Burpee Tareq 44
Row Dale 56
Jumprope Gerard 339
Female
Burpee Emily 41
Row Mary 53
Jumprope Brooke 401

Workout of the Day
5 rep thruster + 5 rep sumo high pull
10 min max rounds
rest 5 min
5 rep R hand db snatch + 5 rep L hand db snatch + 10 pushups
10 min max rounds

Superfoods

The other day we got a flyer in the mail for the "Ten Super Foods For Better Health." and what was number 6, crisp breads. Crisp breads are not a super food they are processed food. The article claims that they are great because they are fat free. When a food is fat free it just simply raises the insulin load of the food. Crisp breads also contain phytic acid which is going to leach to valuable nutrients in your body such as calcium and zinc. There are plenty of other foods that are superfoods that would make my list over crispbreads. Remember you diet should include vegetables, meats, nuts, a little fruit, and a little starch.

Yesterday's Top Performances
Male Weighted pullup Bill 65lbs x 3
Female Weighted Pullup Ashley 10lbs x 2
Male tabata thrusters Bill 47 reps with 30lbs
Female tabata thrusters Ashley 71 reps with 15lbs

Workout of the Day
45 sec on/45 sec off
burpees, farmers walk, rowing machine, slamball, jumprope

Cranking

Yesterday, one of my clients brought me an article that was in the Roanoke Times recently. The article was on a new fitness craze called cranking. Cranking is basically just a spinning class for your upper body. You use one of the physical therapy upper body cycles for the workout. Please do not fall for the hype of this type of workout. Cranking is not going to get anybody into shape. Cranking is an exercise for people in physical therapy who either need to correct shoulder problems or they cannot use their legs to exercise. If we look at cranking from a Crossfit perspective, which means that you should move large loads, long distances, and quickly, then cranking would not even be as effective as cycling and people who read this blog already know what I think about spinning classes. Cranking uses a smaller muscle group which means that you cannot produce the same amount of force that you can with your legs. It has been a trend over the last couple of years to use physical therapy exercises to try and get people into shape. Physical therapy exercises are great for helping with injuries and imbalances in the body but nobody ever got ripped by doing physical therapy exercises. Basically, cranking is someone trying to make money by marketing a physical therapy tool. One cranking machine costs $1700. How could that money be better spent. For $1700 you could buy a power rack with over 300lbs in plates, a set of rings, and some dumbbells. So for $1700 you have the choice to either just crank or you could do squats, deadlifts, lunges, pullups, snatches, cleans, or any other free weight exercise.

Yesterdays Top Performers
Male Rich 11:08
Female Ashley 9:37

Workout of the Day
Weighted pullups 5x3
Weighted pullups 3x6

Health Food Stores

Today many people go to health food stores to buy some or all of their groceries, which is a good thing because health food stores are a great place to find grass fed meats and organic vegetables and fruits. One problem that many people run into when shopping at the health food stores is assuming that everything in the store is healthy. There are many things in the health food stores that are not so healthy for us. For example, there are all kinds of baked goods in most health food stores. Yes, these baked goods are probably a better alternative to commercially produced baked goods but they are still full of sugar(even if it is organic sugar). There are also plenty of other snack foods in the health food stores that are not really that healthy. They are just slightly healthier alternatives to foods that are really bad for us. So next time you go to the health food store don't get lured into the trap of buying processed foods just because they are in the health food store.

Friday's Top Performances
Chris M 238
Joni 238

Workout of the Day
30 steps walking lunge + 50 air squats + 25 good mornings w/45 lbs bar
3 rounds for time

Protein and Energy Bars

Yesterday, I was in Kroger picking up a few things and I ended up in the organic section. In the organic or health food section there was an entire aisle of just protein and energy bars. After a quick count I would estimate that there were almost two hundred different types of bars. These bars are all marketed as health food but they are really just well marketed candy bars. If you look at the ingredient list on all of the bars you will usually find some type of syrup listed as one of the top ingredients. This could be corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, or any number of types of syrup. What is syrup - SUGAR. The other common ingredient that you will find in many of the bars is maltodextrin which does not add to the total sugars on the nutrition label but it is basically just corn sugar. If the bar is truly low carb and does not have any of the syrups or starches then it usually contains dried fruit or artificial sweetener. Dried fruit is just a concentrated form of fructose and if you read the posting earlier in the week you know what excess fructose can do to your body. Artificial sweeteners are chemicals that mess with your hormones and brain chemistry. Now onto the fats in the bars. Most of the fats in the bars come from pro-inflammatory vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, or even worse hydrogenated oils. These oils basically have the opposite effect of the fish oil that we suggest everyone take. These oils will cause inflammation in the body and degrade the health of your cell membranes and receptors. So next time you are thinking about eating one of these bars take a closer look at what you are really eating.

Yesterday's Top Performers
Male Front squat Chris M 185
Male 50 rep 8 count bodybuilders Chris M1:48
Female Front Squat Ashley 105
Female 50 rep 8 count bodybuilders Ashley 2:01

Workout of the Day
1 min thrusters, sumo high pull, pullups, pushups, box jumps
transition from one exercise to the next without resting
Perform 4 rounds with 2 min rest between rounds

Bar Gazing

When we do our circuits the intensity is often so high that people tend to try and rest for extended of periods of time when transitioning between exercises. It is very common to see people just staring at the bar in between exercises. In the Crossfit community I have seen this called Bar Gazing. The truth is that in most of these circuits if you just transition from one exercise to the next without resting it will not really be that much harder than if you rested for 30 seconds. You are not going to catch your breath in the 30 seconds of rest that you take so the better choice is to keep pushing and get it over with. Remember, that intensity is where the results are and if you are wasting time staring at the bar then the intensity is not going to be as high. Just think of how much time is wasted in your circuits by Bar Gazing.

Yesterday's Top Performances
Male Farmers walk Bob 95lbs x 100ft, 115lbs hold for 26 seconds
Male 500m row Rich 1:41
Female Farmers walk Theresa 65lbs x 100ft, 75lbs hold for 55 sec
Female 500m row Ashley 1:57

Workout of the Day
Front Squat 7x3

Fructose

Yesterday, I came across a great article about fructose, which is the sugar found in fruit. The article by Cassandra Forsythe talks about how fructose can sidetrack your weightloss goals. As I have talked about before on this blog, fructose is not good for fat loss, but most people today take in more fructose than they think. Fructose can only be used by the liver, and our livers can only hold so much. Everything in excess of the livers capability is stored as body fat. So where are some secret sources of fructose. Many salad dressings, ketchup, and any other products that contain high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is everywhere today. Check your labels before you eat because you may find HFCS in many things that you do not expect. Regular sugar is also a big source of fructose because sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. Fructose can very easily sabotage your fat loss goals so be careful how much of it you consume. Make sure to limit the amount of fruit, especially dried fruit, you eat and watch out for hidden sources of fructose in added sugars and high fructose corn syrup.

Yesterdays Top Performers
Male Bill 10+5+5 rounds with 275lbs deadlift
Female Ashley 6+3 rounds with 155lbs deadlift

Workout of the Day
3x100ft farmers walk
2x max time farmers walk hold
500m row

Cycling Classes

Cycling classes are very popular today. Whenever you go to a commercial gym you see these classes packed full of people. The funny thing is that if you take a picture today and then come back in a year it will be all the same people in the class and they will all look the same or worse. Cycling classes are not the way to get fit or change your body composition. In fact if you are a female who stores her bodyfat in the hips and thighs then cycling class may be the worst thing you can do for your body type. The constant repetitive motion of the cycling is only going to build up the muscles around the hips and thighs causing them to look bigger because the fat will still be there. How many cycling instructors do you know that have big hips and thighs? All of the instructors that I have ever seen store there body fat in this area. This is the sign of an estrogen imbalance and the only way to fix it is by correcting your hormonal balance. If you want to fix an estrogen imbalance, then one of the first things to start with would be lifting heavy weights and not performing endless amounts of cardio.

Yesterdays Top Performers in the Pushpress
Male Bill 205lbs x 2
Female Emily 85lbs x 2

Workout of the Day
5 deadlifts + 5 pullups + 15 pushups
20 min for max rounds

Workout of the Day
Pushpress 5 x 3 + 3 x 6

Omega 3's

I came across an interesting statement the other day in a published study. The statement was that if everyone in the U.S. took 3 grams of omega 3(fish oil) per day then the incidence of heart disease and cancer would be reduced by 50%. This is a pretty bold statement since 50% is such a high number, but this just goes to show how important fish oil can be. Omega 3 oils help to reduce inflammation in the body. Omega 3's also improve the health of our cell membranes which is really important because health starts at the cellular level.

Workout of the Day
Weighted pullups 7 x 3
Tabata thrusters

How active are you

According to Dr John Berardi the people that are happiest with their bodies exercise a minimum of 5 hours per week. This can be in the form of weight lifting, running, circuits, or whatever. The common theme that he has found is that the people who are exercise 5 or more hours per week have better body composition. Why is this the case? Exercise improves the balance of hormones in your body and when the hormones are balanced the foods that we eat are better utilized. There is a concept called nutrient partitioning in which the calories we eat can either be partitioned to our fat cells or to our muscle. When we exercise consistently we become more insulin sensitive which will help to partition more of the calories into the muscles and away from the fat stores. Try a little experiment this week by increasing your activity level to the 5 hours a week and see what happens. You may like the results.

Workout of the Day
20 steps walking lunge
5 1 arm shoulder presses
5 pullups
20 min max rounds

Calories

Yes, it is true that if you are trying to lose weight you need to be in a caloric deficit and if you are trying to gain weight then you need to be in a caloric surplus, but there is more to the story than just the quantity of calories that you consume. Yesterday, I was eating with a friend of mine and he was shocked when I wouldn't eat a certain food. My friends justification was that the food only had 60 calories so what was the big deal. I then proceeded to look at the ingredient list on the box. One of the first ingredients listed on the box was maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is basically corn sugar and it is something that I would put into the post workout shake of an extremely lean individual who is trying to gain weight. Some of the other ingredients on the box were high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil. Both of these ingredients are deadly substances. High fructose corn syrup is probably one of the biggest reasons why the western world is obese. High fructose corn syrup is a horrible combination of sugars that not only cause obesity but also accelerates aging, it should really be made illegal. Hydrogenated oils are oils that have been altered to prolong the shelf life of a product. These oils actually change the structure of our cell membranes which lowers our insulin sensitivity. Low insulin sensitivity leads to weight gain, trouble gaining muscle, diabetes, heart disease, poor cholesterol, high triglycerides, vision problems, nerve problems, accelerated aging, and many other problems in the body. It is very frustrating that we still live in a world that is so fixated on just calories. There is more to the story than just the calories. The calories do matter but the quality of those calories is probably even more important.

Workout of the Day
Row 250 meters and then perform 4 rounds of 7 med ball cleans and 15 burpees

Potein

I came across something that world renown strength coach Charles Poliquin said the other day, that fits in with yesterday's entry about the GI tract supporting our immune system. Coach Poliquin stated that the first 30 grams of protein you eat in a day all go to supporting your immune system. This is why it is so important to eat protein in the morning to get your immune system running well. Protein is an essential part of our diet and in my experience every woman I have every trained eats a diet that is too low in protein. Usually when you add more protein into their diets they get leaner.

Workout of the Day
Deadlift 7 x 3

We Have Moved

We have now moved to 446 Peppers Ferry Rd in Christiansburg in the Village Square. Thanks to everyone who helped with the move. I couldn't have done it without you.

I was reading on Dr. Mercola's site the other day and came across something interesting. For those of you who are not familiar Dr. Mercola, he runs what is probably the worlds largest natural health website. According to his site about 80% of our immune system is in our GI tract. This means that what we eat and how we absorb it for the most part determines how well our immune system functions. What are the foods that Dr. Mercola recommends eliminating in order to improve both your GI tract and your immune system, sugars and grains. For those of you who have followed this blog this is nothing new to you. Excess carbs wreak havoc on our GI tracts as well as our endocrine systems which cause our immune systems to function at a lower capacity.

Workout of the Day
DB complex
6 sets of 6 with 1 min rest

You can't outrun your diet

There are many people that have the misconception that they can eat poorly as long as they work out hard. This is not the case. If you are trying to get leaner your diet will determine about 90% of your progress. There are many people that ask why they are not losing weight and my first response is always to ask them about their diet. Another trap that many people fall into is regaining all of their weight on the weekends. These people eat great all week and then reward themselves with too much food on the weekend. It is not uncommon for someone to gain as much as 5 -7lbs over a bad weekend of eating. If you lose 2lbs from Monday - Friday and then gain 2lbs on Sat and Sun then you will never lose any weight over then long term. Remember that losing weight is about consistency. If you consistently do things the right way you will lose weight but if you consistently cheat them you will have trouble.

Workout of the Day
5 rep thruster
5 rep sumo high pull
10 min max rounds
rest 5 min
5 db snatch R hand
5 db snatch L hand
10 pushups
10 min max rounds

Keep a Food Journal

The other day I came across a study that showed that people who record their food lose twice as much weight as people who do not record their food. It is very easy to lose track of how much you have eaten and keeping a food journal is a great way to keep you on track. In our classes we now require that people keep a food journal but it is amazing how many people still try to find a reason to not keep a journal. The funny thing is that the people who complain about keeping a food journal are always the ones who are struggling with their weight the most. How much trouble is it to keep a journal. You write in it a couple of times a day and try to always keep it close by. Once you get in the habit it is easy.

Workout of the Day
15 air squat
15 pushups
15 db swings
15 pullups
5 rounds for time

Kids and Choleterol

In the newspaper the other day there was an article about giving 8 year old kids cholesterol medicine. Western medicine is getting out of control. We are prescribing way too many drugs that throw off the bodies delicate balance. Cholesterol medicines are not good for us. When we take cholesterol medicine(statins) we are not allowing our bodies to regulate cholesterol on its own. Once you lose this ability it is very hard to get it back. So for kids who begin taking statins at the age of 8 they are going to be stuck on them for the rest of their lives. There is a much easier answer to this whole problem. Get Your Kids to Eat Better and Be Active. Remember that we get an entirely new bloodstream every three months. So rather than forcing a child to take cholesterol medicine for the rest of their lives doctors should be telling kids to make some lifestyle changes that will get them healthier. The trouble is that most of the physicians in this country don't understand what those lifestyle changes are and what really causes cholesterol problems(high blood sugars). This situation is very easily treated with the proper diet and exercise but most people would rather just take a pill.

Workout of the Day
30 sec work/ 1 min rest
mountain climbers
box jumps
rowing machine
waiters walk
jump rope
4 rounds

Workout of the Day
5 min set lunges, power clean, pushpress, pullups
3 min between exercises

Max Effort

The workout today will still be in the old location.

In our workouts we are going to start to utilize many more max effort days. These are days when the sole focus is on lifting heavy weights. When you lift heavy weights you will tap into the high threshold motor units. By teaching your body how to tap into these units you will become stronger. We have several motor units in our body that can be used to contract muscles. The body will use the minimum number of motor units necessary to move a weight. Therefore the the more resistance you can use the greater number of motor units utilized. High threshold motor units are only used to generate large amounts of force because they use up a lot of energy. So one benefit for those looking to get leaner is that these high threshold motor units consume more energy to produce force. Another benefit of this for people who are trying to get leaner is that you will teach your body to retain muscle as you are losing fat. This is very important because the amount of muscle that you have is one of the biggest factors in your metabolism.

Workout of the Day
7 x 3 Backsquat

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July!

Workout of the Day
5 db swings
10 pushups
15 squats
20 min max rounds

Trans Fat

I came across an interesting fact yesterday. It turns out that the consumption of trans fat increases your risk of diabetes. We have talked about what trans fat, which is found in many processed foods, does to your cells. Trans fats are fats that have been altered to prolong the shelf life of a food. It has been said that fats have no effect on blood sugars, insulin, and diabetes but trans fat is different. Trans fat degrades the health of our cell membranes and these membranes hold the receptors for insulin. When the health of the cell membrane is compromised it reduces the effectiveness of the the insulin receptors. This is turn leads to a body that does not respond well to insulin ( insulin resistance). Insulin resistance leads to diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, cholesterol problems, vision problems, nerve damage, acne, and accelerated aging. Insulin is said to be the aging hormone so one sure fire way to age yourself is by eating a diet of processed foods that contain a combination of sugars and trans fats. The sugars will elevate your insulin levels and the trans fats will cause your body to respond very poorly to insulin. This is a sure path towards insulin resistance and health problems.

Workout of the Day
10 db front squats
5 db pushpress
5 pullups
20 min max rounds

Cholesterol and Sugar

I often times talk about the affects of sugar on the body. Sugar does many things that cause disease processes and age us. One affect that sugar has that people don't realize is elevating your LDL cholesterol. The conventional knowledge and our doctors tell us that if we want to lower our cholesterol then we need to cut the fat and cholesterol out of our diet. This however is not the right approach when trying to correct your cholesterol. Sugar and high insulin levels are actually the main cause of cholesterol problems. Today's society is too quick to give pills when there is a problem. The problem with cholesterol medicines is that once you take them for a while you are stuck on them for the rest of your life because you shut down your bodies natural ability to make cholesterol on its own. Cholesterol is necessary for life and it is a shame that our society is so misinformed about how to bring cholesterol levels back in line when it is so simple to do through diet.

Workout of the Day
45 sec work/ 45 sec rest 4 rounds
burpee
farmers walk
rowing machine
slamball
ring row

Unilateral Training

Unilateral training is training only one side of the body at a time. An example of a unilateral exercise would be a lunge. Unilateral exercises do not allow you to use as much weight as bilateral exercises but they do serve a purpose. Unilateral exercises such as lunges and one arm shoulder presses are great for developing a balanced body. Many people come to our facility with imbalances such as one leg or arm that is stronger than the other. If only bilateral exercises are used then these imbalances can often be made worse. By utilizing exercises such as lunges we are able to create legs that are balanced and a balanced body is pain free.

Workout of the Day
10 step walking lunge + 5 pushpress
10 min max rounds
Rest 5 min
5 deadlifts + 5 pullups
10 min max rounds