A former client sent me an interesting article about exercise. We have known for a long time now that exercise is the closest thing we have to a fountain of youth.
Exercise improves quality of life in innumerable ways. It improves cognitive function, cardiovascular health, improves blood vessel function, improves mood and decreases risks for a plethora of diseases.
Even knowing all that, we still have never really known why exercise works. What is it that it actually does to drastically improve our health?
This article on boston.com delves into some new research on that very topic. It is just scratching the surface, but already revealing some interesting facts about the benefits of exercise.
These researchers have looked at exercise and found that there are 21 metabolites in the blood stream that respond to exercise. They also found that fit people respond to exercise differently than unfit people.
Of these 21 molecules some of they indicate how carbohydrates, sugar and fat are oxidized as fuel, while others are involved in controlling insulin levels and cellular stress. Clearly this makes tremendous sense, since we know that exercising will improve glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, decrease fasting glucose and insulin and is associated with longer life expectancies.
The scientists took blood from people before and after the 2006 Boston Marathon, as well before, during and after subjects rode exercise bikes or ran on treadmills.
They measured the changes in 200 metabolites, and by finding which ones responded to exercise they pulled back the curtain a little bit on why exercise is so good for us.
They found that fit people and unfit people had different responses. Fit people had levels of glycerol twice as high as unfit people as well as higher levels of niacinamide. Glycerol is the backbone of fatty acids, and is released into the blood stream when these fatty acids are oxidized as fuel. Niacinamide is involved in regulating insulin levels.
There are many more questions to be answered, but “The studies to date are really what we like to think of [as] the first comprehensive chemical snapshot of exercise,’’ said Dr. Robert Gerszten, senior author of the paper and director of clinical and translational research for the MGH Heart Center.
A lot of stuff rattling around the brain lately. Man it feels good to be blogging consistently again (knock on wood!). Now that my wife has started her residency we seem to have finally settled into a bit of a routine, which allows me to blog on a much more consistent basis.
1. Do as I say, not as I do. Right before I left CP I decided to try and trap bar deadlift a new PR of 620, even though only weeks before I had just pulled 615. I chose to pull it on a trap bar with a somewhat lower setting than the one below, just to be more of a man, or something like that. Testing deadlift PR’s within weeks of each other is something that I would probably never let a client do, but me, I’m the expert right? Well, I did complete the pull, but I believe it was the ugliest one in my lifting career and my back has been paying the price ever since. I just tried to pull 315 for speed the other day, about 2 full months since the 620 pull, and my back gave me the finger. Needless to say, don’t be a hero. To quote myself, train smart and hard, not one or the other.
2. I had the distinct displeasure of going to see that new Twilight movie, Eclipse, the other night with my wife. Now I make her watch all kinds of stuff that I love that she isn’t too fond of, so it is a compromise. Having said that, I should get 3 of my films in exchange for that horrible excuse for a movie. The best part was the trailer for the last Harry Potter. Holy shit did that look amazing. I bet Tony will destroy the back of his pants when he sees that for the first time.
3. Speaking of movies I’ve been meaning to discuss this one for a little while, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I watched State of Play the other day and I was impressed. I didn’t have incredibly high expectations for it, though I had heard it was worth watching. I would agree. While it has a few stumbles and mis-steps, when it hits it hits dead center. I would probably give it about an 80, and definitely say it is worth watching.
4. One thing I definitely miss about CP is the gym atmosphere. When I train now it is startling how much different it is when you have to provide all of your own motivation. My new gym is rather sterile and life-less, and has definitely affected my training. Do your best to find a gym that has an environment and atmosphere to help you reach your goals, not one that will actually slow you down.
5. On that same theme when I am at the gym the inner strength coach wants to come out very badly. I see people doing all kinds of stupid shit, but I also see people trying to train properly but maybe are not executing the exercise correctly or just a need a few pointers to clean it up. Thus far I have held my tongue unless I was spotting someone or something, but how do people feel about getting advice at the gym? Should I continue to keep my silence, or do you guys think it would be prudent to help people out from time to time? I would love to hear your feedback.
I love hockey. It was my first love as a kid and continues to be my favorite sport as an adult. I played it competitively for 14 years, culminating with a year in juniors. It is a sport I miss terribly.
Looking back on my career I think what helped me be (moderately) successful was the fact that as I got older I had started to weight train and eat better. By my senior year and in juniors I was bigger and stronger than most of my competition. As much as my training helped me, I know how incredibly different my hockey career could have been had I trained then as I train athletes now.
The same thing goes with my nutrition. If I had eaten then as I counsel athletes to eat now, I think my results could have been drastically different. I just didn’t have access to that type of information, and unfortunately, hockey, like most sports, is very far behind the cutting edge of training techniques and methodologies.
Most team sport athletes, if they are even given a training program (we weren’t), are given poorly designed and marginally effective programs. They are also rarely given any nutritional information whatsoever.
Fortunately my good friend Kevin Neeld, also a very accomplished hockey player himself, far beyond me, has made it his mission to fill in that gap and correct a lot of the misinformation out there for proper hockey training and development. He has created an unbelievable Hockey Development Program dedicated to getting good information into the hands of hockey coaches, parents and players to help take their training and their skills to a whole new level.
He has 13 top-notch interviews with experts in the training and nutrition of hockey players, and I am honored to say that I was one of the interviewees. Also included are Eric Cressey, Brijesh Patel, Nick Tuminello and more! Not only that but you have a discounted access to his Off-Ice Performance Training Course (for which I am the model in the exercise demonstrations) as well as pre-made training programs.
There are a lot of options, and tons of good content, so if coach or train hockey players, or are a player looking to take you game to the next level, check out the incredible Hockey Development Program! Hurry because the interviews start playing on June 1st, so you don’t want to miss out.
There has been a lot of debate recently over whether or not people should squat anymore. Mike Boyle in particular is firmly in the camp that you can derive all the benefits of squatting with heavy single-leg work, while I am of the mind that a combination of squatting with heavy single-leg work will give you the best bang for your buck.
The real problem is at most gyms single-leg work consists of 1-leg knee extensions and 1-leg hamstring curls, that is most definitely not the kind of single-leg work we are talking about. We mean doing work where you are not only lifting weight with one leg, but where you are stabilizing with that leg as well. This creates a whole new dynamic, and greatly involves something call the lateral sub-system.
The lateral sub-system is made up of the quadratus lumborum, glute medius, tfl, and the adductor complex. Without going into too much boring detail, this group essentially provides side to side stability and is incredibly important for sporting or athletic activities as we spend the majority of our time on one leg (think walking, running, etc). As great as squats and deadlifts are, they do not train the lateral sub-system as effectively since there is little need for side to side stability in a two-legged stance.
Fortunately this is where proper single-leg training comes in. Unfortunately most people have had little exposure to proper single-leg exercises, execution, and placement within a training program. Luckily enough, Mike Robertson has taken the guess work out with his incredible Single Leg Solution(it’s on sale through this Friday at midnight at an introductory price of just $77!).
In this 60-minute DVD, along with the 96-page manual that accompanies it, Mike explains which exercises work best for certain people/populations, shows how to execute each exercise with flawless technique, explains how to progress each exercise appropriately, and how to place these exercises in your training.
As an example of kick-ass single-leg work, this is a video of yours truly doing a Barbell Reverse Lunge with a front squat grip with 245lbs for 6 reps. I will say that I was short-striding it a little bit, but thankfully I took a look at that video after and was able to correct it on my next set!
The point here is that single-leg training is not for weaklings, and in all actuality you can get very very strong doing single-leg work. If you are someone with creaky knees (like Tony Gentilcore), low-back pain or are just looking for some lower-body variety the Single Leg Solution is the answer you have been looking for.
Also if you are one of those people who eschews lower body work because you don’t want to squat or deadlift, this would be perfect for you. It will provide you with easy-to-execute, knee-friendly and powerfully effective lower-body training.
Act soon, at midnight on Friday the price goes up $20, so don’t miss out on a nice discount on an awesome product.
The past few weeks I have had to train a few times at a commercial gym since I am at CP only a few days per week. That shit is depressing. I look around and feel like everything that high level strength coaches like Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, etc espouse just does not reach the masses.
I look around the gym and guys are still just training like meat-heads. I know that was crude, but it is also unfortunately true. Guys bench pressing for what seems like hours, with horrendous form. People using machine after machine. Using Smith machines and the leg press if legs are being done at all. It really frustrates and saddens me.
If all of that wasn’t bad enough, I watched several of the personal trainers take their clients through a session, and it was an embarassment to the profession. Clients doing squats on a Bosu ball, machine circuits, sit-ups, the atrocities were endless. You are not making your clients better!
do yourself a favor and pick up a foam roller, it will save you a lot of pain
Weight Train (35 minutes)
A1. Goblet Squats 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
A2. Stability Ball Rollouts 3 sets of 8-12 reps
B1. Pushups 3 sets of 8 reps
B2. Standing 1-Arm Cable Rows 3 sets of 10 reps/side
Conditioning (15 minutes)
Bike Intervals:
4 minute warm up
8 intervals – 15 seconds hard, 45 seconds easy
3 minute cool down
Or Just 15 minutes of steady state cardio
This is obviously a very simple program and just one day, but it would be an excellent starting point for the vast majority of trainees. If your personal trainer has you doing ridiculous circus tricks, you are only wasting your money.
Weighing the Evidence on Exercise was a story recently published in the NY Times (a big thanks to Lou for sending it to me). The article looks at the interesting fact that exercise alone does not cause much weight loss. It delves into the reasons behind why this is, why men and women react differently to exercise, why lean people and overweight people react differently, and everything in between. It is a good read and definitely worth checking out.
For those of you who seem to train their asses off and never quite seem to reach your goals, this article can shed some light on some physiology as to why, as well as some good information to help you get around that. Plus cleaning up your diet along with a good training program is the real trick of the trade, as the two work synergistically to melt the weight off.
Below is a part of the article that I found most interesting:
Scientists are “not really sure yet” just how and why exercise is so important in maintaining weight loss in people, Braun says. But in animal experiments, exercise seems to remodel the metabolic pathways that determine how the body stores and utilizes food. For a study published last summer, scientists at the University of Colorado at Denver fattened a group of male rats. The animals already had an inbred propensity to gain weight and, thanks to a high-fat diet laid out for them, they fulfilled that genetic destiny. After 16 weeks of eating as much as they wanted and lolling around in their cages, all were rotund. The scientists then switched them to a calorie-controlled, low-fat diet. The animals shed weight, dropping an average of about 14 percent of their corpulence.
Afterward the animals were put on a weight-maintenance diet. At the same time, half of them were required to run on a treadmill for about 30 minutes most days. The other half remained sedentary. For eight weeks, the rats were kept at their lower weights in order to establish a new base-line weight.
Then the fun began. For the final eight weeks of the experiment, the rats were allowed to relapse, to eat as much food as they wanted. The rats that had not been running on the treadmill fell upon the food eagerly. Most regained the weight they lost and then some.
But the exercising rats metabolized calories differently. They tended to burn fat immediately after their meals, while the sedentary rats’ bodies preferentially burnedcarbohydrates and sent the fat off to be stored in fat cells. The running rats’ bodies, meanwhile, also produced signals suggesting that they were satiated and didn’t need more kibble. Although the treadmill exercisers regained some weight, their relapses were not as extreme. Exercise “re-established the homeostatic steady state between intake and expenditure to defend a lower body weight,” the study authors concluded. Running had remade the rats’ bodies so that they ate less.
This article makes about as good of a case for exercise and its importance in weight regulation (not to mention numerous other health factors, it truly is our Fountain of Youth) as I have seen. Enjoy!
As many or all of you know I work at Cressey Performance, with hundreds of baseball players, healthy and unhealthy. Eric Cressey is a genius when it comes to the shoulder, and I have seen first hand how effective his methods are for getting guys with injured shoulders back on the field, or keeping them from ever coming off it. Working with Eric day in and day out truly gives you an appreciation for his dedication to his clients and their health.
Eric recently teamed up with the brilliant Mike Reinold for a seminar on Optimal Shoulder Performance. Mike is currently the Head Athletic Trainer of the Boston Red Sox. He had previously spent the last 4 years as the Rehabilitation Coordinator and Assistant Athletic Trainer. He is also the Coordinator of Rehabilitation Research and Education of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Sports Medicine Division, of Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Sports Center in Boston, MA. Needless to say, this combination of minds knows a thing or two about shoulder health and performance.
Eric and Mike held an incredible seminar at Cressey Performance a few months ago that I had the pleasure of not only being at, but being in. Yes, yours truly was the model for many of the exercise demonstrations at the seminar. It was an incredible learning experience for all. Fortunately for those of you not in attendance, Eric and Mike recorded the entire event, and are selling the DVD set of Optimal Shoulder Performance at initial low offer of only $97! It will soon go up to its normal price of $127, so act fast. Plus as an added bonus, my beautiful mug graces the cover!
If you train athletes or work with people who have shoulder problems, this is far and away the best information in one place to maximize your ability to help you clients, and keep them healthy.
A few weeks ago Mike Boyle posted a blog and sent out an email about a question he had received regarding summer strength and conditioning for 9 year olds. I liked his response so much that I asked, and he has graciously granted me, permission to repost it below. Mike is one of my favorite people, and one of the brightest minds, in the strength and conditioning world. He is a voice of reason when so many people who work with kids are in it for the money. Please take a moment and check it out.
Q- I need to put together a summer plan for my 9 yr old hockey team.
Obviously I don’t want to look like a crazy person, but it would be
something that I think could be good for my own kids as well. Is it
too young?
My first reaction was to say “are you crazy”? Instead, slightly
tongue-in-cheek I developed the plan below.
Step 1- play another sport. Lacrosse is highly recommended as it
has similar skills to hockey although baseball is fine. This does
not mean another sport in addition to hockey. Summer is the off season.
Step 2- Cancel all hockey camp registrations except 1 week. Pick your
favorite that has the largest number of your friends attending and go
to that one. Ideally look for a camp that only has you on the ice once
a day. No need to get blisters. You won’t get better in a week anyway.
Step 3- Cancel any summer hockey leagues you are scheduled for. The best
players in the world never play summer hockey and, they never have.
The only conceivable exception would be a weekly skill session lasting
one hour. Another exception would be “play”. If ice is available and
the kids can play, let them. Please remember play means NO COACHES
or COACHING.
Step 4- Reread steps 1-3. Acknowledge that the key problem in youth
sports is applying adult values to children’s activities.
Step 5- Go to the nearest bike shop. Get nice bikes for everyone in
the family
Step 6- Ride the bikes, not in a race. For fun. Maybe put a few
hockey cards in the spokes to make noise.
Step 7- Head to Walmart and buy fishing rods.
Step 8- Take the fishing rods to the nearest lake and fish.
Now That is an off-season plan for any nine year old.
Step 9- repeat steps 5-8 while continually rereading steps 1-3
1. A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain. I have usually held the view that HFCS and table sugar are pretty much the same thing. Even though one is man-made and one is nature-made, chemically speaking the are almost identical and research has shown that they are metabolized pretty much identically. Lately though, I have been coming around on this one, because there is increasing research, like in the article above that shows abnormal weight gain, visceral fat, and triglyceride problems with HFCS compared to sugar, even in calorically equal situations. Definitely interesting.
3. Why I Am Not A Vegetarian: The China Study – by Jonny Bowden. This wonderful blog post piggy-backs some of my recent discussion about The China Study, and why T. Colin Campbell just takes it too far. Dr. Bowden covers his opinion in great detail, and really gives a touching read on why he does eat animals.
Before we get started today I have a few announcements.
Eric Cressey is having a phenomenal sale for the next week. From today through midnight on Thursday, February 25, you can get 30% off on The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training, and The Art of the Deload by entering the coupon code FEB2010 at checkout from his Products Page.
This is actually the first time that The Truth About Unstable Surface Training has ever gone on sale since its release, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to pick up some first-of-its-kind research and the practical applications associated with it. Check it out HERE.
I also want to mention that I added a whole bunch of new and exciting stuff to my Resources page, and it is about time! I get asked by clients all the time what chia seeds I get, or what cacao nibs or protein powder I like, as well home gym equipment and books, it is all there, so check it out HERE.
If liked by you guys, I would like to make You Asked, I Answered a weekly post. I get a lot of questions, comments on new posts, and comments on old posts. This gives me a great outlet to answer these questions and comments, and actually gets the answers seen by the most amount of people, which I think is vitally important as it allows for even more discussion. I won’t include names of the people asking the questions, so just let me know what you think.
Q. Brian,
For those not taking in any casein from any source, would combining something like Whey Cool with either a fiber supplement from DFH (or other brand) or fibrous vegetables along with some quality fat essentially make up for choosing straight whey over a whey/casein blend?
Obviously casein gets touted before bedtime and you have noted that a whey/casein blend PW is likely superior to either one as a standalone, but would the above options also potentially provide a happy medium in those contexts?
A. Casein does get touted as a pre-bed protein source, which I think is kind of ridiculous, but it certainly is not going to hurt. Whether it is actually any more effective is certainly up for debate. It might be, but it might also be a little obsessive-compulsive. Just eat.
As for post-training, a whey/casein blend has been shown to be superior to either one alone. Now there still is not an answer as to whether a whey/casein shake is actually any more beneficial than solid food, especially if proper pre-training nutrition needs are met. The data on it is just lacking. Having said that, if you choose not to have any source of casein, then I think a blend of whey with some fiber and healthy fat (like my smoothie recipes) is not a bad idea, but I still might add a slower digesting protein to the mix if you are really concerned about it.
Personally I usually just recommend a whey-based smoothie before training and some real food post, as that seems to work best for most of my clients schedules. I really think in the long run the difference between a shake, a whole-food meal, or even a whey/casein shake in the context of a solid overall diet is minimal to negligible. It might make a difference, it really might, but it might not. If every little pound counts for you, then by all means do what you have to do, but if you train to be healthy and fit and are not worried about getting as absolutely massive as possible, then a whey/casein shake immediately post-training is not completely necessary.
Q. Brian do you find the hemp seed butter tasty or just “passable” but willingly included given its stellar nutrient profile?
On the topic of borage oil, I have read that this tends to be quickly converted to nervonic acid (which is supposedly good for myelin production), but that evening primrose oil, while a less concentrated source of GLA than borage oil, is potentially a better source. As far as you know, is there any truth to this?
A. I personally find the hemp seed butter to be “passable” by itself, but when put on a warm Ezekiel English muffin with a dollop of some organic fruit spread on top, then I think it is actually quite delicious. It does have an absolutely stellar nutritional profile and that certainly does not hurt. (I wrote more about the awesomeness of hemp, HERE)
I have read quite a bit about borage and evening primrose oil. The research I have seem has shown minimal side effects with either one, and they both have some research showing their benefits for decreasing blood pressure, atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and more. As far as I know they are both fine options, the choice is simply up to you.
Posted on August 2nd, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
1 Comment »