Everybody knows that the first rule of a post-training shake is that it has to be fast. You must drink it as soon as you are done or you won’t get jacked. You must drink the fastest protein on earth with only the fastest carbs, no fiber or fat allowed! This usually entails people drinking whey protein, either in the form of isolates or hydrolysates, because concentrates are just too darn slow. The carbs are usually from maltodextrin or dextrose, and maybe even that fancy new waxy maize starch. Anything with fiber , fat or fructose is terrible and will decrease absorption time. Right? We know all of this because that is what we have always been told. No one denies that this is effective, as it has worked for millions of people, but does effective equal optimal? What are we actually trying to accomplish with this shake?
I want to start this post with a bit of a disclaimer. The health benefits from alcohol consumption are hotly debated, as most of the data comes from epidemiological research and other relationship style studies, not cause-and-effect controlled trials. In addition there is no doubt that binge drinking or excessive consumption can cause massive problems, affecting nearly every organ and system in the body.
However, based on the data that is available, and the fact that historically many cultures have engaged in moderate consumption, I think a reasonable case can be made for the benefit of alcohol.
While wine, red wine in particular, gets most of the hype for the health benefits from alcoholic beverages, beer is no slouch in this department either.
Cressey Performance has recently gotten some love on NESN for the way it trains baseball players of all levels. I personally worked with 4 of the 5 guys interviewed in both of these videos, so it is pretty cool to see.
The first video is a look at Kevin Youkilis’ training at CP, which is pretty sweet.
The second video is a look at CP and the training of some of its minor league players. Makes me miss it a little bit.
Training for power is imperative as we age. In fact it is the first thing we lose as we get older. However there is a bright side. This is a quality that can be retained from proper training, and being to maintain it or at least drastically slow down its loss our quality of life would improve drastically.
(this is a 68 year old CP client whom I had the privilege of training many times)
Lets back up for a second though and actually define power. Power is Force x Velocity.
In terms of exercise the force is your strength, so strength training will most definitely help you to maintain your power output. However people not only lose their strength, or ability to produce force, they lose their ability to produce this force with any type of explosiveness, or velocity.
John Forestell is one of my best friends and is an absolute movie fanatic, even more so than I am. He compiled a list of his Oscar predictions that I thought were rather interesting, so I thought I would share them with you guys. Unfortunately I haven’t seen many of the movies or performances nominated, so it is hard to give an accurate assessment myself.
John is one of three people who’s movie opinions I trust whole-heartedly, along with my cousin Nicholas and Tony Gentilcore, so he does have excellent taste. On to the predictions.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Who the Academy will choose: “The King’s Speech”. The Academy absolutely adores films such as “The King’s Speech”, an endearing British political drama based on the relationship between the stuttering King George VI and his speech therapist, Lionel Lague, who helped the King overcome his public speech impediment.
Who I think deserves to win: While the Academy, for whatever mind boggling reason, decided to leave “Blue Valentine” off it’s nominations list, the only other film that could contest with the “The King’s Speech” this year was “The Social Network.” “The Social Network” was an exceptionally well done film, but, “The King’s Speech” is the Academy’s bread and butter and I don’t believe they will be buttering a different type of loaf this year. With “Blue Valentine” (my favorite film of the year) not being on this list, my oscar goes to: “The King’s Speech.”
I apologize for the minimal content this week, it has just been a mad-house around here. Tons of grad school work all culminating at once since we are coming up on spring break. Plus taxes. Fun stuff.
The good news is that I will have a new article going up on t-nation.com relatively soon (once I finally finish it and send it to them) as well as my first article on wannabebig.com.
I also recently had a few articles go up on getprograde.com that I never even told you guys about! I thought today would be an appropriate time to let you guys know all about them, plus there are a few more in the pipeline that should be going up shortly!
As I am sure most of you have heard, diabetes is rapidly becoming an epidemic not only in the US, but worldwide. Diabetes can affect people of all ages, and it can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, vascular complications and amputations, blindness, immune suppression, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease and more.
In December of 2010 the Environmental Working Group published the first national investigation into our water supply and its contamination with chromium-6 (hexavalent chromium), a potential carcinogen. They looked at the water supply of 35 cities nation-wide, with 31 of them containing chromium-6.
I blogged about this report back in December if you want a quick refresher.
Due to this report, Washington is taking action. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California) introduced Senate Bill 79, which is the Protecting Pregnant Women and Children From Hexavalent Chromium Act of 2011.
I know this is a little late, but a former client sent me this video of the late, great Jack Lalanne from his fitness show back in the 50′s. It just goes to show how the basics have not really changed! Minus the emphasis on the fat free dairy of course. Check it out!
While looking over an online client’s food log recently, I came across a mention of a homemade vegetable dip (he wasn’t a fan of hummus). I asked for the recipe, it was his wife’s by the way, and he was gracious enough to send it to me. I must say, it looks delish!
Another big plus for those of you who may lack serious kitchen skills, it is as simple as it gets. Without further ado, here is the Fage Vegetable Dip.
First, I want to remind everyone that today is the final day of the introductory sale price for Lean Hybrid Muscle Reloaded. I have only done 1 session so far, but it is a killer! I have heard some more really great things about the program from Tony and EC as well, as they are a little farther along in it than I am.
If building a leaner, more functional and athletic physique is your goal, then this would be an absolutely fantastic resource for you. It balances strength, hypertrophy, power and conditioning, and allows you to tweak the parameters to emphasize one of those elements over the others, without neglecting any of them.
Plus, you risk absolutely nothing. If you’re not thrilled, simply return it within 30 days and Mike & Elliott will refund every penny – no questions asked! The sale expires at midnight tonight, so don’t wait!
Secondly, as some of you may know I am a big fan of youbars.com. This is a website where you can design your own protein bars, and the ingredients are real food, not loads of sugar alcohols, maltodextrins or artificial sweeteners. Instead you get things like peanut butter, almond butter, raisins, coconut, cacao, chia, flax, whey protein and so much more.
For those of you who own the Show and Go Nutrition Guidethere is a bar I designed that I put in the Recommended Recipes section. It is awesome. I highly recommend these bars, and now to sweeten the deal even more, if you type in the coupon code “bspbars” you get 10% off!
Pretty sweet huh? Well that’s it for today guys, two cool announcements, so check them both out!
Posted on February 28th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre
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