As I have tried to emphasize before, fitness is all encompassing, it must be an ever present part of our lives. If your goal or definition of fitness then is yourself 15lbs lighter and more toned, then you must eat, sleep, and live in a way the progresses you towards that self-made definition.

Eating smarter is step number 1. Sure everyone says, oh but I am eating better and adhering to a more rigorous nutrition schedule but if I asked you to document your every intake, what would be the true story. Weight loss is simply taking in less calories than you expend, and maximizing the quality of those that you decide to ingest. That means low GI foods, with higher ratios of protein and good fats than carbs. Take care of your diet and bust your ass (excuse the vernacular) in the gym, and trust me, you WILL see results. Sure some people have more stubborn fat deposits than others or are prone to retain fat in key areas, but that is something again that can be targeted and eradicated. I just get so fed up with people that complain about not being able to be who they want to be and I know they are the kind of person that barely breaks a sweat or reads a magazine on the treadmill. Put up or shut up.

So to take away from this, remind yourself every day that if you have a weight goal in mind, do not simply rely on your one hour in the gym; accomplish your goal through a combined effort of excellent nutritional techniques, hard work, and a constant reminder that the quality time you put in, will produce results.

It’s what pushing for implosion means: You are who you are, if you want to change, even if only slightly do so by releasing your image of who you are currently and rewrite yourself.

Defy your Limits.

Everyone wants to be the best, be at the pinnacle of whatever sport or activity they may be participating in. We get it in our heads that to beat everyone else, we have to give ourselves a one up and this is where steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) enter into the equation. Sure there are side effects to their use, but they can be mitigated by incredibly careful, doctor assisted monitoring. What I mean is frequent blood work and hormone panels. 98% of PEDS users do not fit into this category of careful use. So why even decide to go that route? You are short changing yourself, determining that you will fail at achieving your goal without even trying.

Some will say, oh but I have peaked after one year of training. To that I say, it has been a damn year you idiot. Even two or three still leaves you in the relative area of newness to training. You might know how to train better but as far as packing mass, you have not been doing it for all that long. If you are 6 foot 200 pounds, you have not peaked. Genetics will limit us to some degree but different training method, can and have been proven to overcome a weak genetic predisposition to being a hard-gainer.

Be brave for once in your life, please. Accomplishing anything is not easy, and getting bigger or changing your body is no small feat. It takes time and dedication, a steadfast mindset. Create who you want to be, do not accept an image. You are who you want to be, and that is the final word on that. A majority of you all out there WILL have to work harder. A lot harder. This challenge is what we call living your life. You see something you want and so you do everything in your power to achieve it; you sweat you bleed, wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning just to get a meal in or to run 3 miles before work because you know you will not have time later.

Do not settle to simply exist, squander the life you have been given. You do not know your limits as we mentioned before… No one does for that matter and with this in mind go out and DO because you can. Because you want to, because somewhere down the line someone said you couldn’t. Make this testimony to yourself now, today, not tomorrow or the day after. This is the trap of simply existing on this Earth. Recognize that now if you are the kind of person who tries to take shortcuts every step of their lives.

There is a distinct reward to accomplishing your goals naturally. You know that every pound, every striation, every line of muscle that clings to your body was created by you and the struggle you have endured. And guess what you have ENDURED and you are that much stronger now. Both mentally and physically. Never think that just because something might be hard that you should take the cheap way out, this attitude will get you nowhere.

You are your own weapon. What will you do with yourself tomorrow?

For all those out there busting ass the natural way
The AITank Crew recognizes you

Dynamic warm ups are not exactly new, but they have yet to go mainstream. What are they? Well its warming up your body by stretching through movement. Examples of this are lunges, side bends, high knees, back pedals, scorpions, side stepping, high knee skipping, Frankenstein walk and MORE! Descriptions will follow.

So what is the deal with old school static stretching. Well get on pubmed @ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ and if you do a little research you will find numerous studies, all new that are all showing the same finding. That is, static stretching before an athletic event notably impairs the capability of our muscles to produce peak force output. It has been studied in specific sports, runners cannot sprint as fast, basketball players can’t jump as high, rugby players can’t push as hard, when they do a static stretching routine before these events.

Why? Well static stretching does not raise your core temperature at all, so your body is not becoming any more ready to go into full drive. You are stretching your muscles past their normal flexibility and this decreases the force capability of the contraction thereafter. In some cases, hyper extension injuries were shown to be occur more frequently when an athlete followed a static stretching regimen prior to an event. Now hear me out, I am not saying static stretching is bad! It just should not be done prior to a performance but rather after as a part of a cool down.

Dynamic warm ups get our bodies ready to do what we need them to. They increase our range of motion dramatically, warm up our bodies significantly, stretch all core muscles including the legs, trunk and upper body and can be made to be sport specific.

Another benefit is a dynamic flexibility regimen can be done significantly faster than a traditional 10-15 minute static stretching routine. This is how

Pick 6-8 of any of the following exercises:

• lunge
• side bend
• frankenstein walk
• high knees
• jumping jacks
• back pedaling
• scorpion
• high knee skipping
• side lunges

Then find yourself 15-20 yards of space. One way do one of the previous exercises and on the way back jog, then repeat with the next exercise until you have done all the ones you chose for your routine. Do this three times and that is your warm up. Simple huh? Yeah I thought so to. Take a short 30 second rest between each set of 6-8 exercises. But other than that it is pretty straightforward. Now for a description of the above mentioned exercises.

Lunge - Step forward with one leg keeping your upper body straight and diving your knee into the ground. There should be about 2 and a half feet between your feet and you should feel the burn in your hamstrings and quads.

Side Bend – Bend at the waist from one side to the other keeping your torso straight and using only your obliques to pull you up. Best when done with an exercise ball for added mobility.

Frankenstein Walk - Just as they sound, put your arms straight out and kick your toes up to your hands as far as you can trying not to bend at the knee. This gets your hip more flexible and works your legs at the same time.

High Knees – While trying to run kick your heels up to your butt or around your waistline if you can while pumping the opposite arm. Great mobility enhancer for all the joints in your lower body. These are not about distance so do not try and cover the 15-20 yards quickly.

Jumping Jacks – Ah how we all love this arcane exercise. Try some variation to keep things new by having your arms in front of you instead of above or crossing your legs instead of just spreading them. Anything you can think of.

Back Pedaling – Run backwards making sure you are not dragging your heels or toes on the ground. Great for your calves and the muscle that wraps in front of your shins.

Scorpion – Lie face down on the ground with arms extended to your sides, palms facing down, so your body forms a mock T shape. Keeping this facedown position and keeping your shoulders flat on the ground, bring your left heel and swing it back towards your right hand. Repeat for the other leg.

High Knee Skipping – Just as we did when we were little go and skip! Only difference is with each skip try and bring your knee up as high as you can exploding of your toes with each skip.

Side Lunges - Get in a low athletic position, like a wide squat almost. Step to the side with one leg maintaining the same athletic position and not getting any taller. Much like I envision a ninja looks like. Yes you are the NINJA! Now step together with the other leg. Switch sides and repeat for the distance. These mega burn the glute and quads!

And there you have it, a dynamic flexibility warm up to get you ready for anything you might need to do. Want a sport specific routine? Drop a line in the comments.

Time stops, its a surreal moment actually, and you are given a choice. I mean this very literally — your body actually asks your mind if it wants it to go further even though it may hurt, even though our bodies think we are spent and have nothing left to give. Those of us with the courage to take the harder path will say no, I want you to keep on going; whatever happens after that, I will deal with when the dust has settled.

I mean it is true isn’t it? Stop when your body says to and you will go home a little sore  with the sweat on your brow dried, and with a little rest you will be fine. You are no warrior because you can lay claim to conquering no great feat. When I say great feat I mean personal accomplishment, you only did what you knew you could. You did not try to push yourself past what you believe are your limits. But you say, who wants to go home beat and dead. This is who.

Be your own warrior. When your body is asking you to go home, take the reigns and fight back. This is where the pain begins. The burn becomes intense and you can actually feel the fibers in your muscles twitching from the continued stress but they are now slaves to your mind. This ship is not going to stop until you tell it to. It really is an amazing state of being. Our bodies begin producing endorphin in higher quantities, a substance similar to opiates to quell the pain to some degree because it now recognizes that you are not going to let it stop and so it must adapt.

When all is said and done you will likely be in pain but who told you pain does not go away. It is a temporary thing, but what you accomplished is forever. Nothing can take away what you did and you can revel in the fact that you did something that you might have thought was impossible and this is the greater point here.  Do not hold yourself to any set limitation, if you have the will power you can overcome just about anything.

So next time you are running, biking, repping weight, swimming laps or whatever, and your body asks you which road you are going to take, do not even hesitate and forge the unpaved path. Trust me, it will not kill you but it WILL show you who YOU really are.

Be strong, everyday.
Be your own warrior.

As Lance Armstrong said, Live Strong.

An amazing example of someone taking complete command of their body.

Before we get into the details let me say a few words. Drinking in this article will be defined as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Thus, we are not promoting in any way heavy drinking. Further, if you do not already drink do not start drinking because of this article. Most of the research in this area is new, and though it comes from prestigious institutions it is still not fully understood.

A Spanish study of over 40, 000 people and lasted 10 years was conducted to determine the effects that alcohol consumption patterns have on heart health. As we discussed in a previous post on cholesterol, LDL can have detrimental effects on one’s coronary health by promoting the developments of atheromas. Well, the study concluded that the consumption of alcohol does seem to offer very concrete protection against coronary heart disease.

The reason for this protection is that alcohol seems to raise HDL levels, lower blood pressure, and helps prevent arterial damage caused by high levels of LDL. More significantly but not mentioned in the above linked article, wine is said to have a more compound effect because of its high polyphenol content. Polyphenols are potent antioxidants and as we discussed previously, this class of substances in our bodies helps to prevent premature cell oxidation which is enhanved by LDL. Wine will be covered in a later post.

Alcohol in general though lowers the size of LDL particles in general though and this is how it helps prevent coronary heart disease. Think of it this way. Our arteries are small tubes, and LDL particles being the largest cholesterol particles of the four we discussed previously, can clog these small tubes easily. The larger the particle size the easier the clogging happens. This clogging can lead to stroke, heart attack, infarction etc. So, if we reduce the size of the particles then there is a smaller chance that they will be given the opportunity to clog our arteries, oxidize, and form legions.

So, the next time you are at dinner or at home pouring a glass of wine, don’t feel as guilty. You may actually be doing your body a service by fighting LDL and lowering your blood pressure. Again, don’t go binge or heavy drinking, this will eventually destroy your liver. A glass or two is what we are after.

Be sure and check out the two links two the studies referenced in this post. They are both linked above.

Till next time, live well, be fit.

For our purposes, fitness is the epitome of health. Now this might seem bizarre or incorrect, but a properly executed fitness regimen will provide excellent health benefits. Merely exercising and dieting by no means produce fitness though. For example, someone who runs everyday but is on a high carbohydrate, low fat and medium protein intake  diet is at risk of developing atherosclerotic disease, among a slew of other things. Fitness then is a compound measurement of many key areas.

Being fit should be understood as a function of the following:

• triglyceride levels
• body fat
• muscle mass
• flexibility, blood pressure
• cholesterol levels
• lung capacity
• bone density
• mental health

Thus, one’s fitness level is a combined measurement that represents total body health, not merely an expression of athletic ability. Physical competence incorporates other skills and areas which may associate more closely with most people’s general understanding of  what fitness is but physical competence does not correlate with being in an overall state of physical fitness.

Closing this out, it is key to realize that if one strives for and achieves increasingly healthy and fit levels of all of the previously mentioned 8 areas of fitness, then one’s body chemistry will indeed change. This change precipitates a healthier, less disease prone life. It is for this reason that we strive to achieve high levels of fitness.

Future posts will focus specifically on each of these 8 areas and how to approach each in a total fitness regimen.

So what exactly do we do at a gym? Well, we either push something, which would be weights, pull something, or breathe hard which would be cardio. Now, unless you live in a box, I think it is impossible for anyone to say that they cannot do those three things in and around their house or place of work.

All you have to do is find 30 to 45 minutes in your day to get a good workout in. First and foremost you want to make sure that the time you do devote to exercising is quality time and so you want to try and keep your heart rate up and beating the entire workout. Ideally you want your heart rate to be  75-85 percent of its max to maximize cardiovascular and fat burning benefits. To find out how to calculate your heart rate go here.

So if you are doing multiple sets of something, instead of waiting in between sets do some jump rope, or sprint up and down your drive way. Anything to keep your heart rate up. Use youtube to find various plyometric workouts that involve nothing but your body so no other equipment is needed. I have provided a good playlist of various plyometric workouts below. Pick a couple to try and string them together, add some cardio and you will never complain about not having a gym again.

For others that just want to do cardio, you do not need a treadmill! Get outside and if you want to run, then run! Can we all just agree that gyms are not necessary they just add to a workout by providing equipment. People are innovative though, you can find alternatives to just about everything that a gym provides. Also, finding new ways to workout so that you do not get bored keeps you interested and more willing to workout, so search around! There are thousands of workouts that you can do all without weights.

Let’s first preface this discussion with some basic math stuffs. Your body is like a battery, excuse the sorry analogy. To do work it must intake a sufficient level of calories to convert into usable energy, which in our bodies is ATP or adenosine triphosphate. At the end of the day, excess levels of ATP are stored as either fat glycogen or other sugar substrates… or excreted. This is a gross simplification but it is sufficient for our purposes.

So let’s say you intake 4,000 calories over the course of the day but only do enough activity to burn 3,000. Well, chances are a portion of that unused energy is going to be stored as excess weight. How your body deals with this excess is specific to you, but in general, the above rule holds true. So you might ask next if there is a baseline as to how much you should consume per day. Well there is and it is called your basal metabolic rate. It is the measure of how many calories your body requires to be able to support its basic functions were you to be asleep all day. Figuring out your BMR requires rather strict testing conditions and calorimetric analysis of your breathing. For our purposes we will use a resting metabolic rate prediction or RMR. RMR is a rough estimate while BMR is precisely the number of calories your body requires while at rest.

The primary reason that most people cannot maintain a certain weight, or achieve a particular weight related goal, is because they are consuming more calories than they are using in a given day. Other factors do contribute, but this is the primary reason. The following resource provides an excellent calculator that will estimate your RMR. Use this as a baseline number of how many calories you should be consuming per day. Also, pay attention to the various levels of activity and how they require more or less calories. For example, a strenuous level of activity requires more calories per day than a sedentary level of activity. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

Once there, click on “BMR & RMR Calculator“, populate the blank fields and see what it reports. If it tells you that your RMR for a light level of activity is 2,500 calories, and you are consuming 3,500, then you can assume that it is likely that if you want to drop some weight then you should lessen your caloric intake.  It is a give and take model, you want to provide as many calories as you are going to use and if you consume excess calories, expect weight gain.

For a lengthier discussion on BMR/RMR, the following is a excellent, concise read.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

If you google secrets of fat loss, http://topsecretfatlosssecret.com/ is the first link that comes up. First let me say that anyone or anything that makes you buy knowledge relating to health and fitness is nonsense. This does not include trainers, dietitians, nutritionists or doctors as they are charging you more for a one on one assessment of your needs. Back to, “Dr Suzanne Gudakunst”. She is making the claim that all people who are overweight are overweight because their intestines plaque buildup that is preventing the digestion of food, but to remedy this you need to buy her secret.

First of all, if you believe that you are overweight because of something other than your lifestyle i.e genetic predisposition, hormone imbalance, or other health disorder, consult a physician. You cannot make such an assumption though without first invoking a rigorous overhaul of your diet practices and incorporating a fitness routine into your daily lifestyle. This self proclaimed doctor is not known to either the American Medical Association or any state licensing board of practicing medicine. Thus she is more like a witch doctor, than anything else. When deciding on who to take advice from, at the most basic level, take the time to do research on who exactly the person that is giving you the advice is.  And again I will repeat this, NEVER purchase “secret information” from anyone or anything. Later posts will discuss good resources for finding legitimate health information.