5lbs in 5 days-Wednesday

Wednesday: Day Three

            Day three of this challenge began with a little discouragement.  Upon weighing in I found that my weight had dropped only .7 lbs. from the previous day.  This is setback from the pace of 1lb per day.  I was hoping to 185 lbs. or less instead of sitting at 185.3.  I know, I know, there is no sympathy for me considering I have lost 1.7lbs in two days. Do not pity me, I am not expecting it.  I am just anal when I do these little experiments.  It is the perfectionist side of me.  In spite of that, it was discouraging because this day presented to challenges, one I knew about ahead of time and one that required the assistance of a new friend.

            Everyone trying to eat healthy will inevitably run into the challenge of eating healthy while meeting social obligations.  This was the challenge for me that I knew about heading into Wednesday.  Every Wednesday night, as a part of church, our congregation has a community meal together.  Here is a situation where I never have control of the menu and due to time constraints preparing a healthier option this week was not realistic.  Normally this is not a problem because my wife and I plan our meals for the week considering this to me a cheat meal and avoid dietary setbacks.  On this particular Wednesday night the menu consisted of pork roast, cornbread casserole, green bean casserole, baked potatoes, and cake for dessert.  What would you do in my situation?  I ate pork roast and green bean casserole and skipped everything else.  Diet disaster minimized.  This leads into my second problem that required help from the new friend.

            Adam, meet Metamucil.  Metamucil, meet Adam.  After consulting with some friends who compete in body building contests and are more familiar with these short-term crash diets I made a stop at Walgreens after church; four servings of Metamucil before bed and high hopes for seeing a better number on the scale in the morning.  Apparently, these quick diets with sudden carb restrictions often lead to inadequate fiber intake. If I had known better, I would have met Metamucil on Monday.

Wednesday’s Diet

Wednesday    

Breakfast: Omelet: 4 whole eggs egg whites 2 c spinach 2tbsp flax seed   

Morning Snack: 4oz chicken breast 1 c yellow squash 1 scoop of protein powder  

Lunch: Chicken Breast 2 c broccoli sweet potato      

Afternoon Snack: 1 scoop Protein Powder 28 Almonds   Tuna         

Dinner (At Church): 6oz of pork roast, 2 cups of green bean casserole       

Total Nutrition: 2030 cal, 77g fat, 113g carbs, 201g protein, 26g fiber

Wednesday’s Workout

After Dynamic Warm-Up

·         45 degree back extension: 1 set no weight, 2^nd set hold 25lb plate, 3^rd set hold 35lb plate, 4^th and 5^th sets hold 45lbs plate

·         Barbell Squats: 2 warm up sets of 135lbs and 185lbs for 5 reps.  Then completed 5 Sets of 5 Reps with 225lbs with 60 seconds rest

·         Deadlifts: 2 Warm-Up Sets of 135 lbs. for 5 reps.  Then completed 5 sets of 5 reps with 250lbs.

Ride a bike for 30 minutes after lifting

5lbs in 5 days-Tuesday

Five Pounds in Five Days

Tuesday: Day Two

           

            Beginning of the second day and I am down to 186lbs.  This starts me off on track for 1lb per day which is the pace I need to hit the goal of 5lbs in 5 days.  I have come to two realizations regarding breakfast: 1) Spinach and eggs are incredibly bland; to compensate for this I added some garlic powder and black pepper for seasoning; 2) An entire avocado is hard to eat in one sitting because it is also a little bland.  Some black pepper and a few drops of lime juice fixed this problem.  It is nice to have a wife who makes homemade guacamole.  Dinner presented a major mental obstacle; 16 shrimp and 2 cups of diced yellow squash feel more like an appetizer than a meal.  But I prevailed and stuck with the plan.  Mental discipline 1, waking up to a grumbling stomach at 3am 1.  We will call this match a draw.  In an upwards related note, by avoiding elevators, I again climbed 32 floors today.

Tuesday Diet:

Breakfast: Omelet: 6 egg whites, 1 avocado, 2 tbsp. flax seed, 2 tbsp. salsa, 1c milk, 4 pieces turkey bacon

Morning Snack: 2 Baked Pork Chops, 2 c Green Beans

Lunch: 4oz Chicken Breast, 2 c broccoli, sweet potato

Post Workout Snack: 1 scoop Protein Powder, 28 Almonds, 6 oz. Tuna in water

Dinner: 16 medium-sized Shrimp sautéed in 1 tbsp. olive oil, 2 cups yellow squash

Total Nutrition for the day: 2061 call, 88g fat, 127g carbs, 205 g protein, 25g fiber

Tuesday’s Workout

            If you are anything like me you find sitting on a bike or using a treadmill to be an incredibly boring and unappealing way to exercise.  So today’s workout is a challenging mix of cardio based upon a boxing workout. Perform the dynamic warm up before doing this and finish with 5-10 minutes of stretching afterwards. The Boxing part is done wearing a pair of boxing gloves and hitting a heavy bag or one of those ‘evil-looking’ rubber humanoid stands.  Alternate between throwing the outlined punch combinations and jumping rope; the timing of this is 45 seconds of punching combos, 15 sacs rest, 45 seconds of jump rope, 15 seconds rest.  Repeat this until you have completed every punching combination.  Do not sit idle during the 15 seconds of rest.  This is really only enough time to take the gloves on and off.  Keep moving.  After completing the boxing workout ride a bike for 30 minutes.

Boxing Cardio Workout

1.      Left Jab, Right Cross

2.      Jump Rope

3.      Left Jab, Right Cross, Left Hook

4.      Jump Rope

5.      Left Jab, Right Cross, Left Hook, Right Uppercut

6.      Jump Rope

7.      Left Jab, Right Cross, Left Hook, Right Uppercut, Left Body

8.      Jump Rope

9.      Left Jab, Left Jab, Right Cross

10.  Jump Rope

11.  Right Cross, Left Jab, Right Cross

12.  Jump Rope

13.  Left Body, Right Body, Left Uppercut

14.  Jump Rope

15.  Right Uppercut, Right Cross, Left Hook

16.  Jump Rope

17.  Right Cross, Left Hook, Right Hook

18.  Jump Rope

5lbs in 5 days-Monday

Monday: Day one

            Following my typical day; the alarm went off at 5:30am.  I after saluting the porcelain throne I weighed in at 187lbs.  Starting weight established and ready to rock.  I made a snap decision upon arriving at work and it is probably something I should do anyway.  The fitness center I work is located on the 8^th floor of the building; no elevators for the next five days.  As a result and in addition to my normal exercise routine I climbed 32 floors today.  My thought is that I am glad I had an upper body workout planned for today.  Leg training on Wednesday is now a little worrisome.

Here is how Monday’s meal plan went:

Breakfast:  Omelet: 4 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, 2 c fresh spinach, 2 tbsp. flax seed, 2 tbsp. of salsa

Morning Snack: ½ Avocado, 4oz Chicken Breast

Lunch: 4 oz. Chicken Breast, 2 c Broccoli, 1 Medium-sized baked sweet potato

Post-workout snack: 1 scoop of protein powder, 1 granny smith apple, 4 oz. Chobani Greek Yogurt Vanilla Chocolate Chunk, 6oz can of tuna in water

Dinner: 2- 4oz Pork Chops, 2 c Green Beans

Total Nutrition for the day: 2076 Calories, 76g fat, 142g carbs, 201g protein, 28g fiber

Monday’s Workout Program

            I begin every workout with a dynamic warm-up that takes 5-10 minutes to prepare my body for the exercise.  For an example of this view my earlier blog post entitled “Warm Up to a Proper Warm Up.”  This was followed by the lifting workout outline below.  After completing the lifting portion of the workout I rode the bike for 20 minutes.

Monday’s Lifting Routine

·         Bench Press Superset with Pull Ups wearing a 20lb weighted vest

o   5 sets for 5 reps on the Bench Press

o   5 sets for 8 reps on the Pull Ups

o   Go Immediately from BP to Pull-ups resting only long enough to put on the weighted vest.  Rest 90 seconds after completing the Pull Ups before beginning the next set of BP

·         Dips in weighted vest Superset with Barbell Curls

o   4 sets for 8 reps of dips

o   4 sets for 10 reps of Barbell Curls

o   Follow same rest procedure as above

·         Overhead Barbell Press Superset with Smith Bar Rows

o   3 sets for 10 reps of overhead press

o   4 sets of Smith Bar Rows

5lbs in 5 days Intro

Five Pounds in Five Days

            As a personal trainer, I am always interested in trying new things and seeing what works.  Before the start of a recent vacation, nine days to be exact; my wife proposed dieting as preemptive strike against the weight gain she thought inevitable while taking a trip to visit my parents.  Five pounds in nine days, which for her is doable.  My wife can be an incredibly determined and disciplined person.  That got me thinking, and since I agreed to join her in the effort for moral support, I wonder if I can do five pounds in five days: no thermogenic fat burning supplements, no shedding water weight; no sitting in saunas or those reflective, space-suit -looking ‘sweat’ suits.  Challenge accepted. 

I train like an athlete, not a body builder so I have little experience with these crazy crash diets.  I prefer to take a slower approach which leads to permanent changes.  Another reason that I have never tried this before is that eating nothing but chicken and broccoli for several days is incredibly unappealing.  To avoid this I added a few flavor varieties into the mix with the knowledge that this may impede the overall goal.  But since I am not competing in a contest that was not that much of a concern.  I am more concerned with the process than hitting an exact number but something has to be there as a target for the sake of evaluation.

            Our flight left on the Tuesday after the week of the experiment.  Starting on Monday, a week before the flight, the project began.  The most difficult part, like any weight reduction program, is to get the diet right.  Exercise is easy.   My wife and I already a clean diet so cleaning it up even further meant losing some of the variety in our normal meal planning.

Before going into the specifics of each day let me give an outline of how my typical day runs:

·         5:30am-Wake Up, Relieve myself, Weigh-in

·         6:00am-Finish Breakfast, wake up son feed him breakfast

·         6:30-7:00am Leave to train first client of the day

·         7:00am-9:00 Train independent clients before heading to work

·         9:00-5:00pm work, train other clients, teach group exercise classes, work on operational responsibilities, write in the free moments

·         Morning Snack between 10-10:30am

·         Lunch 1:00-1:30

·         Workout 2-3:00pm

·         Afternoon snack after workout

·         5:30pm arrive home

·         6:00pm Dinner

·         6-8:00 Family Time, put son to sleep

·         9:30pm Go to sleep

            If you are going to attempt this or any other weight loss program, weigh yourself in the morning, before breakfast, and after performing the morning ritual.  This is the emptiest your body will get and, thus, the most accurate time to weigh. 

Every morning with breakfast, the following vitamins and supplements were taken:

·         1- Generic Kroger brand men’s health formula multivitamin

·         1-Spring Valley Chewable Vitamin C 500mg

·         2-Spring Valley Fish Oil 100mg/300mg Omega-3 capsules

In addition to these supplements, in the evenings, before bed I had one more of the vitamin C and two of the fish oil capsules.  The only other supplement used was Dymatize Nutrition’s Elite Gourmet Whey & Casein Blend protein powder. 

            Another important factor to consider with the nutritional side is that absolutely no salt was added to any of the food consumed.  The sodium in salt helps the body retain water.  Salt in all of it forms was eliminated from the meal plan.  In fact the saltiest tasting thing that I ate was the two tablespoons of salsa used to season the omelet every morning.  If you want to see big changes on the scale in a short time avoid anything with salt. The lack of salt can lead to excessive water loss and result in dehydration.  To avoid this, I drank a gallon of water per day.

The Sugar Addiction

The Sugar Addiction

            Halloween was just a couple of days ago; it is that candy industry’s golden boy of holidays.  More candy is purchased and consumed in October than the rest of the year combined.  While I see nothing wrong with an occasional sugar fix there is a real danger that is being acknowledged; sugar addiction.  It may seem silly to suggest but there is a growing body of research showing that sugar addiction is real.  It may be part of the reason that health in this country is in an out of control downward spiral.

            So, not sure if sugar addiction is real?  Let’s take a look at two studies that are showing that it is in fact very real.  The first study was a combined effort in 2010 by the Oregon Research Institute and the University of Texas.  Twenty-six overweight young women underwent brain MRIs while drinking a milkshake.  Six months later the scans were repeated, again with the women drinking milkshakes during the scan.  The first notable thing is that the women who gained weight during the six month period showed a decrease in the activity of the striatum region of the brain.  The striatum is responsible for recognizing and acknowledging rewards or positive stimulations.  The same response is seen in the brains of chronic substance abuse such as alcohol or illicit drugs. What this means is that a weight gain decreases sensitivity to sugar and the brain requires more sugar: greater stimulation or a stronger ‘fix’ in order to initiate a response.  The women in this study whom did not gain weight did not show this decreased sensitivity.  Researchers specifically compared the effects to be similar to what chronic cocaine use does to the brain.

            Also, in 2010 a study was conducted at Princeton University using rats.  In this study rats were gradually given increasing amounts of sugar water instead of regular water.  As the amounts of sugar water increased the rats consumption of its normal food decreased.  When the sugar water was taken away and the rats were forced to quit ‘cold turkey’ they exhibited withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, shakes, and tremors just like drug addicts.  It is interesting to note from this experiment that the rats were given two different forms of sugar water: one containing fructose, the naturally occurring sugar in fruit; and high fructose corn syrup, a processed, artificial sugar.  While both types of sugar increased sugar cravings and withdrawal symptoms only the High Fructose Corn Syrup made the rats obese.  No significant weight gain was observed with the rats during the natural sugar consumption.  Similar to this study, a 2007 study done in France found that rats preferred sugar over cocaine when tested to determine which was more addictive.

            So what should a person do if they think they may have a problem with sugar addiction?  First of all understand that not all food craving are bad.  If the body is severely deprived of something that it truly needs than the brain will start desiring it.  Before giving into a food craving, especially a sugar –craving know that processed sugars are the most common craving that the body has, and are the unhealthiest.  The less processed sugar that you consume the fewer cravings will occur.  It is a cycle; consume less, less cravings, consume more, more cravings.  Processed sugars more than any natural occurring food increase serotonin levels; the feel-good hormone; but, they increases are short-lived and the crash leaves a person feeling worse off than before.  Cravings can sometimes be caused by neurochemical or hormonal imbalances.  If a particular unhealthy craving occurs daily or, more than once a day, it may be worth discussing with a doctor.  Here are some simple things that can be done to help control those cravings:

1.    Drink a glass of water and wait fifteen minutes.  Many times people confuse thirst with hunger.  Dehydration can spark a craving.

2.    If still craving have fruit instead of processed sugar this will satisfy the sweet craving without the junk that will harm your health.

3.    Get up and go for a walk.  Just 10 minutes of exercise can kill the craving and burn a few excess calories instead of consuming them.

4.    Brush the teeth and gargle with mouthwash, nothing tastes good immediately after that

5.    Drink at least 64 ounces of water per day

In case you may have low serotonin levels causing the cravings try the following suggestions to naturally increase serotonin levels and discuss it with your doctor:

• ·         Avoid any known food allergins, especially if you have a food allergy to gluten or dairy products
• ·         Avoid alcohol, it lowerd serotonin levels
• ·         Don’t smoke
• ·         Increase sunlight expose by spending 1-2 hours a day outside
• ·         Get 60 minutes of moderate exercise
• ·         Get eight hours of sleep per night

Rest is a Weapon

I borrowed a line from the book The Bourne Identity for the title of this post; Rest is a weapon.  Getting enough rest is probably the biggest mistake that people make with a fitness program. Mistakes happen both during the exercise and with not getting enough rest outside of the gym.  Rest during a workout is determined by the overall objective of the program while rest outside of the gym is determined by the amount of recovery required between workouts.  To start we will address the aspect of rest during a workout. 

How to rest during a workout is determined by the goal.  If the goal is to lose weight you want to rest as little as possible or not rest if you are fit enough.   If you are going rest do so at a 2:1 work to rest ratio.  As an example, you will want to perform a weight-training exercise or cardio for two minutes at a high intensity.  During the two minutes complete many reps as possible or perform cardio sprints.  After the two minutes are up rest for exactly one minute and then repeat alternating two minutes of work with one minute of rest.   This pattern can be used to work one minute and rest 30 seconds or four minutes of work with two minutes of rest.  Vary the lengths of the time to condition the different energy systems but keep the same 2:1 work to rest ratio.  Altering a high intensity with brief rest periods will burn more calories during exercise and lead to greater fat loss.

          
Rest is different when strength training to improve muscle mass and power.  This gives muscles more time to recover in between sets to allow complete recovery of the energy systems.  This complete recovery of the muscles will allow for greater muscle fiber recruitment and use during subsequent sets.  When most people think of exercising they are more familiar with this style of resting.  Pay attention here this is optimal muscular gain and harmful to body fat loss; too much rest and not enough movement.  When performing sets for muscular endurance, typically between 12-20 reps with light weight, around 40-50% of 1 rep max (RM), rest should be capped at 45 seconds.  If you are performing sets for muscular hypertrophy (growth) with medium weight of 60-70% of 1RM for reps of 8-12 reps, rest should be 90 seconds-2 minutes.  Muscular strength is trained at 70-80% of 1 RM for 4-8 reps, resting 3-4 minutes.  Power is trained and 75-85% of 1 RM for 1-4 reps, resting 3-4 minutes.

Training	Weight Range	Rep Range	Rest Period
Muscular Endurance	40-50% of 1RM	12-20	45 seconds or less
Muscular Hypertrophy	60-70% of 1 RM	8-12	90 seconds to 2 minutes
Muscular Strength	70-80% of 1 RM	4-8	2-3 minutes
Muscular Power	75-85% of 1 RM	1-4 reps	3-4 Minutes

Resting outside of the gym is often overlooked or done improperly.  A muscle group must receive a minimum of 48 hours of rest between workouts for full recovery.  This also applies to a total body workout.  If you train total body the entire body must rest for at least 48 hours before training again.

Another common way to rest is the concept of deloading. Deloading is done in one of two ways. The first option is to perform the foundational exercises of the program but with lighter weights, typically around 50% of a maximal effort. The second method of deloading involves taking a defined period of time as a complete break from exercise. Save this second method for when you are sick or going on vacation. The more challenging a program is, the more frequently a period of deloading is necessary. My program is bases around performing four exercises in the muscular strength and power repetition ranges: Hang Cleans, Front Squats, Overhead Press, and Deadlifts. Each training session involves one or more of these exercises accompanied by other exercises that will directly translate into improvements with the primary exercise. These primary exercises incorporate a lot of muscle into complex movement patterns with heavy weights. The result is a lot of minor wear and tear, not just on my muscles, but on the ligaments and bones as well. Typically, I perform three hard weeks of training followed by a fourth week of deloading with lighter weights. This is necessary to allow full recovery because of the intensity of the training. A person training primarily in the Muscular Hypertrophy Range should take a deload week about every eight to ten weeks. Training primarily in the muscular endurance range requires deloading about every twelve to fourteen weeks. Deloading has four primary benefits for the body:

1. Enhances recovery during a plateau
2. Reduces symptoms of physical stress
3. Allows minor muscle strains time to properly recover
4. Improve the quality of Sleep. Prolonged periods of intense physical stress from exercise can sometimes decrease the quality of sleep.

The final aspect of rest outside of the gym is quality sleep. Sleep deprivation will destroy any solid fitness and nutrition program.  The eyes may close and the brain may partially shut down during sleep but the body is still hard at work recovering from the challenges of the day.  During sleep the bodies repair muscle tissue and regulate hormones and chemicals the regulate energy and appetite.  A bad night’s sleep does more than make you groggy the next day; it slows metabolism and increases appetite, a dangerous combination that leads to easier fat gain.  Want proof?  A study conducted this year  at the Mayo Clinic Minnesota found that people who only slept six hours and forty minutes versus the recommended eight hours ate, on average, 549 more calories per day than the people who got the full eight hours.  According to the CDC people who sleep six hours or less every night are 50% more likely to be obese than those who get eight hours.  Also, averaging less than 7.5 hours of sleep per night can make a person 4.4 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.  Finally, try not to sleep more than nine hours per night.  A study done at the University of Washington Sleep Center found that more than nine hours of sleep leads to obesity, diabetes, headaches, and heart disease.  Go see a doctor if you habitually sleep more than nine hours per night.  Rest the right way to improve your health.  Rest is a weapon against poor health so prioritize doing it the right way.

             

Warm Up to a Proper Warmup

Warm Up to a Proper Warm Up

Every day I sit in my office overlooking the gym floor and I the vast majority of people make a mistake the moment they walk through the doors: they do not warm up.  Maybe people do not feel like they need a proper warm up or do not have time.  Both excuses are dead wrong.  A proper warm up is essential for training the body to its optimal level.  When a person has been inactive all day the muscles become stiff from a lack of movement.   Sitting idle does one other thing that is counterproductive to exercise; it reduces blood flow to the muscles.  Muscles that are not working do not need as much blood as those that are active.  As result, with the body having a limited supply of blood, priority is given over to other parts of the body, when it is sitting around doing nothing.  To take physically inactive muscle from doing nothing into a maximal lift or an intense run is an excellent way to ruin a good fitness program.  Inactive muscles are considered to be “cold.”  Cold muscles, at their worst are going become injured during an intense exercise session, or at best, will minimize the effectiveness of the workout.

Traditionally, the people that do consistently employ a warm up perform it two different ways; 1) hop on a piece of cardio for 5-10 minutes at an easy pace or 2) stretch.  Performing a few minutes of light cardio before going for a hard run or bike ride is beneficial.  But how does that help if the plan is to perform a lifting session for the chest and back?  The muscles of the legs do not perform a bench press or pull ups. .  From a practical standpoint, a cardio warm up before a lifting session is almost meaningless.  It is better than no warm up but not by much.  As for stretching, the movement of the body happens as a result of the appropriate muscles shortening in length as they contract.  The purpose of stretching is to lengthen the muscles to relieve tension created by the forceful contractions of movement.  The effectiveness of a weight training session depends upon the ability of the muscle to generate force through contraction.  Lengthening the muscle prior to deliberating shortening it drastically reduces the ability of the muscle to perform. 

A study published in the September 2012 edition of the NSCA’s Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research examined the effects of stretching during a warm up upon training volume and training repetitions.  This study used static stretching; holding a stretch for 20-60 seconds, ballistic stretching; bouncing the muscle in a stretched position, and PNF stretching; lengthening the muscle in a stretch and tensing and relaxing the stretched muscled with isometric contractions.  The results of this study found that all forms of stretching before lifting reduced both the training volume (total number of sets) and repetitions per set that could be completed when compared to a workout performed without any stretching during the warm up.  Reductions in repetitions from static stretching averaged 20.8%, ballistic stretching, 17.8%, and PNF stretching 22.7% while the total training volumes were reduced by 20.4%, 17.9%, and 22.4%, respectively.  The bottom line: lengthening a muscle before training by shortening will reduced the effectiveness of the training by about 20%.

So what then is the proper way to warm up?  It is termed a Dynamic Warm Up.  A dynamic warm up typically consists of a series of body weight exercise intended to increase blood flow to every muscle of the body while at the same time increasing joint mobility that may be temporarily reduced due to extended periods of physical inactivity.  Here is a sample of a dynamic warm up.

This warm-up should take about 10 minutes to complete and create a light sweat.  Warm muscles will perform better and have a more effective lifting session.  This will also reduce the possibility of injury.  Perform the following before every lifting session to enjoy a more effective workout and faster results.  All of the exercises are performed without any weights.  This can be performed before a cardio or lifting session.

This warm up is good for a cardio session or lifting session for the lower body.

·         5 head circles to the right

·         5 head circles to the left

·         10 forward arm circles

·         10  backward arm circles

·         20

·         20squats

·         10 side lunges each leg

·         10 side-to-side leg swings each leg

·         10 front-to-back leg swings each leg

·         20 yard skip x 2

·         20 yard butt kickers x 2

·         20 yard high knees x 2

If you will be doing an upper body lifting session add the following to the warm up using an elastic or rubber exercise band.  These exercises are vital to preparing the rotator cuff muscles for lifting and preventing injury:

·         External Shoulder Rotation 2 sets of 10 reps

·         Front raises 2 sets of 10 reps

·         Shoulder Rows 2 sets of 10 reps

The final part of any solid warm up begins with 1-3 sets of the first exercise at 50% of the weight that will be lifted for the training.  Perform the same number of repetitions as the working sets.  For example, if the plan is to perform 4 sets of bench press at 150lbs for 10 reps per set than complete 1-3 warm up sets with 75lbs for 10 reps.  This process prepares the nervous system to effectively control and coordinate the actions of the muscles during the heavier lifts.