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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Body Image and Goals - Brant
After a long hiatus, I'm going to begin posting here again, yay! I'm going to start with some recycled posts and rants from our fitness facebook group:
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Stream of consciousness/self-centered rant
forthcoming:
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Stream of consciousness/self-centered rant
forthcoming:
Friday, August 17, 2012
Fitness Philosophy - Brant
This post is a quick and dirty breakdown of my philosophy and stance on certain fitness topics. This is not the post that supports or argues my positions, that will come in later, more specific posts. This is merely to inform readers about my current stance on these subjects. My views will probably evolve as I continue to educate myself.
Diet, (somewhat) in order of priority:
1. Eliminate trans. fats (partially hydrogenated whatever-oil )
2. Eliminate grains except for white rice
3. Eliminate seed and veggie oils
4. Minimize your refined sugar intake
5. Increase saturated fat intake, greatly reduce polyunsaturated fat intake (this would incline one to choose pastured eggs, grassfed dairy)
6. Fast Intermittently. This is not hard if you train your body to be able to switch to fat metabolism (ketosis) effectively.
7. Eat foods with live cultures (raw dairy, kombucha tea, etc).
8. Eliminate pasteurized dairy.
Exercise:
1. Safety first! Avoid acute injury by practicing proper form and appropriate amounts of weight/volume with whatever exercise you are performing.
2. Safety second! Avoid chronic injury by proactively working on your alignment and posture issues...'cause you probably have some. Zac and I do.
3. Safety third! Allow your body ample time to heal between workouts. Remember, you can't train if you're hurt!
4. Safety...okay, you get it. This one will help your performance, too: warm up before going hard. My understanding is that you will increase your blood flow, stimulate a better response from your nervous system, and enhance nutrient uptake due to warmer blood temperatures.
5. Stress intense exercise over slow and steady. Lift heavy weights with proper form for fewer reps. Sprint up a hill instead of going for a jog.
6. Stress the big, functional lifts: deadlifts, squats, benchpress, hangcleans, pullups, military press, rows. These have beneficial hormonal effects that other exercises don't, in part because they target huge muscle groups. They also teach your muscles to work in conjunction, as you would use them in sports or real life. An example of a lift I avoid would be the bicep curl, which isolates a muscle that you really never use by itself outside of the gym. Train like a caveman.
7. Incorporate sprints and other explosive athletic movements into your workouts.
8. Don't use machines. They will train you to develop artificial strength that doesn't really convert well to real world strength. When the weight is on a predetermined track, you really aren't forcing your core to engage or supporting muscles to help out. Real life isn't on a track.
Sleep:
1. Get plenty of it, do it when it's dark. Listen to your body's circadian rhythm. Get outside so that your body can get in sync with the sun's cycle.
Sunshine:
1. Get outside and let your body naturally produce vitamin D. Don't get too burnt.
Alignment:
1. Consider a program like Rolfing or the Egoscue Method. It's a slow process, and there's not much research of which I'm aware in this field, but it could potentially prevent chronic and acute injury and improve performance.
2. Start rolling out big muscle groups before a workout with a foam roller or something like this. I use a lacrosse ball for my shoulder blades sometimes. This process is called myofascial release, and it can be very painful at first, but like all this stuff, you can learn to love it.
3. Stretch your hip flexors and psoas muscles. These two groups in particular seem to be chronically tight in the vast majority of clients I had when I trained.
4. Train barefoot or with minimalist "zero-drop" (<< no elevated heel) shoes. Start off slow, and let your body grow accustomed to using neglected lower-leg muscles and utilizing new movements.
Meditation:
1. Simple zazen meditation for 10-15 minutes a day has been something I've enjoyed for the past 6 years. My personal experience has been that a solid meditation practice is utterly transformative. I believe it's helped me regulate emotions and get a handle on my ADD among other things.
As I mentioned before, I fully intend to delve more deeply into ALL of these topics
...and have fun! Life is meant to be enjoyed, that's what this blog is all about. If you want to make a change, but this is just too much for you right now, take it one step at a time! Educate yourself and then do what feels right. This is all a process.
Thanks for reading.
-Brant
Diet, (somewhat) in order of priority:
1. Eliminate trans. fats (partially hydrogenated whatever-oil )
2. Eliminate grains except for white rice
3. Eliminate seed and veggie oils
4. Minimize your refined sugar intake
5. Increase saturated fat intake, greatly reduce polyunsaturated fat intake (this would incline one to choose pastured eggs, grassfed dairy)
6. Fast Intermittently. This is not hard if you train your body to be able to switch to fat metabolism (ketosis) effectively.
7. Eat foods with live cultures (raw dairy, kombucha tea, etc).
8. Eliminate pasteurized dairy.
Exercise:
1. Safety first! Avoid acute injury by practicing proper form and appropriate amounts of weight/volume with whatever exercise you are performing.
2. Safety second! Avoid chronic injury by proactively working on your alignment and posture issues...'cause you probably have some. Zac and I do.
3. Safety third! Allow your body ample time to heal between workouts. Remember, you can't train if you're hurt!
4. Safety...okay, you get it. This one will help your performance, too: warm up before going hard. My understanding is that you will increase your blood flow, stimulate a better response from your nervous system, and enhance nutrient uptake due to warmer blood temperatures.
5. Stress intense exercise over slow and steady. Lift heavy weights with proper form for fewer reps. Sprint up a hill instead of going for a jog.
6. Stress the big, functional lifts: deadlifts, squats, benchpress, hangcleans, pullups, military press, rows. These have beneficial hormonal effects that other exercises don't, in part because they target huge muscle groups. They also teach your muscles to work in conjunction, as you would use them in sports or real life. An example of a lift I avoid would be the bicep curl, which isolates a muscle that you really never use by itself outside of the gym. Train like a caveman.
7. Incorporate sprints and other explosive athletic movements into your workouts.
8. Don't use machines. They will train you to develop artificial strength that doesn't really convert well to real world strength. When the weight is on a predetermined track, you really aren't forcing your core to engage or supporting muscles to help out. Real life isn't on a track.
Sleep:
1. Get plenty of it, do it when it's dark. Listen to your body's circadian rhythm. Get outside so that your body can get in sync with the sun's cycle.
Sunshine:
1. Get outside and let your body naturally produce vitamin D. Don't get too burnt.
Alignment:
1. Consider a program like Rolfing or the Egoscue Method. It's a slow process, and there's not much research of which I'm aware in this field, but it could potentially prevent chronic and acute injury and improve performance.
2. Start rolling out big muscle groups before a workout with a foam roller or something like this. I use a lacrosse ball for my shoulder blades sometimes. This process is called myofascial release, and it can be very painful at first, but like all this stuff, you can learn to love it.
3. Stretch your hip flexors and psoas muscles. These two groups in particular seem to be chronically tight in the vast majority of clients I had when I trained.
4. Train barefoot or with minimalist "zero-drop" (<< no elevated heel) shoes. Start off slow, and let your body grow accustomed to using neglected lower-leg muscles and utilizing new movements.
Meditation:
1. Simple zazen meditation for 10-15 minutes a day has been something I've enjoyed for the past 6 years. My personal experience has been that a solid meditation practice is utterly transformative. I believe it's helped me regulate emotions and get a handle on my ADD among other things.
As I mentioned before, I fully intend to delve more deeply into ALL of these topics
...and have fun! Life is meant to be enjoyed, that's what this blog is all about. If you want to make a change, but this is just too much for you right now, take it one step at a time! Educate yourself and then do what feels right. This is all a process.
Thanks for reading.
-Brant
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Till death do us part, fitness for life
Over the past few years I have been able to experience a big chunk of the fitness industry. I have coached hundreds of clients in wide populations, managed teams of personal trainers and 24/7 gym facilities, and battled with my own pursuit of fitness glory (despite my nasty hip dysfunction).
Through these experiences, I have found that these ideas always shone true: Fitness is a life-long endeavor, it is a bridge between puny you and ultimate you, and it is a marriage and a bond that will bend but never break. Sure there will be fights; a few years ago I hurt my lumbar dead lifting with an overused and not-properly-warmed-up body. My back felt like it had cracked in half as the weight slammed to the floor. (It was a 365lb dead lift, I was on my first date.)
I was out for three weeks, but I came back and learned from my mistakes, and I was better for it. Like all long-term relationship evolution, fitness evolves over time. Our mindset changes as our bodies change. We learn from our mistakes, and in the end, we are more sound psychologically and physically.
I see so many people who want the short term fix, the overnight savior. I tell them this one statement: "The most worthwhile endeavors in life are the one's that take years of blood, sweat and tears to accomplish." Til death do us part, so should our relationship with fitness be. Fitness is forever, and it is the most worthwhile endeavor one can ever undertake.
-Zac
Through these experiences, I have found that these ideas always shone true: Fitness is a life-long endeavor, it is a bridge between puny you and ultimate you, and it is a marriage and a bond that will bend but never break. Sure there will be fights; a few years ago I hurt my lumbar dead lifting with an overused and not-properly-warmed-up body. My back felt like it had cracked in half as the weight slammed to the floor. (It was a 365lb dead lift, I was on my first date.)
I was out for three weeks, but I came back and learned from my mistakes, and I was better for it. Like all long-term relationship evolution, fitness evolves over time. Our mindset changes as our bodies change. We learn from our mistakes, and in the end, we are more sound psychologically and physically.
I see so many people who want the short term fix, the overnight savior. I tell them this one statement: "The most worthwhile endeavors in life are the one's that take years of blood, sweat and tears to accomplish." Til death do us part, so should our relationship with fitness be. Fitness is forever, and it is the most worthwhile endeavor one can ever undertake.
-Zac
Monday, July 30, 2012
Alignment and Tensegrity
Most people who know me probably assume that I consider diet to be
the single most misunderstood and neglected element to health today.
This is not the case. I believe that there is another element, one that
is utterly important to general health and is almost completely absent
from popular sports science.
This element is alignment.
When understanding the importance of correct alignment, it's helpful to think of the body as a structure that has "tensegrity". Tensegrity basically refers to the fact that all the elements of our body are connected and have a very strong effect on each other.
Try this:
A) Make a fist as strong as you can with your hand in front of you in a neutral position. That probably feels pretty solid and strong.
B) Next, bend the back of your hand back towards you. Make a fist as strong as you can. Can you tell the massive difference in grip strength between these two positions?
(Now imagine a situation wherein you placed your hands in this compromised, bent back position and moved your fingers rapidly for a long period of time. That sounds like it would hurt and be unhealthy, doesn't it? Welcome to the computer era...)
The above illustrates the concept of tensegrity as I understand it rather well. When the muscles of the wrist and forearm are stretched already, they have far less contractile power than they do in a neutral position. The position, condition, and nerve memory of the muscles and connective fascia in one part of the body have a large impact on the functionality of other body parts (and the body as a whole)!
Here's another example: If you sit all day at a desk, you're likely to develop chronically tight hip flexors and psoas muscles. These are the muscles on the front of and inside your hip cradle that connect your legs to your torso (an oversimplification). As these muscles learn to stay tight, they pull on our pelvis and cause a forward pelvic tilt. Well, our body knows that we can't walk around tilted ridiculously far forward, so it adjusts. In this case it's likely that the lower back muscles will go into overtime mode to bring our upper body back over our center of gravity. According to one source, half of working (read: 'sitting') Americans experience back pain every year. In the above example, the tight hip flexors and psoas muscles become a catalyst for lower back problems (and probably a myriad of other issues all over the body).
Chronic pain is not natural, even though it might be the norm. Improper alignment will eventually result in health problems and chronic pain. In the meantime, it will rob you of flexibility and optimal performance in a number of areas. Alignment can be improved upon, and we will definitely write about this subject more in the future. It's time to turn the lens of awareness to this aspect of fitness.
-Brant
This element is alignment.
When understanding the importance of correct alignment, it's helpful to think of the body as a structure that has "tensegrity". Tensegrity basically refers to the fact that all the elements of our body are connected and have a very strong effect on each other.
Try this:
A) Make a fist as strong as you can with your hand in front of you in a neutral position. That probably feels pretty solid and strong.
B) Next, bend the back of your hand back towards you. Make a fist as strong as you can. Can you tell the massive difference in grip strength between these two positions?
(Now imagine a situation wherein you placed your hands in this compromised, bent back position and moved your fingers rapidly for a long period of time. That sounds like it would hurt and be unhealthy, doesn't it? Welcome to the computer era...)
The above illustrates the concept of tensegrity as I understand it rather well. When the muscles of the wrist and forearm are stretched already, they have far less contractile power than they do in a neutral position. The position, condition, and nerve memory of the muscles and connective fascia in one part of the body have a large impact on the functionality of other body parts (and the body as a whole)!
Here's another example: If you sit all day at a desk, you're likely to develop chronically tight hip flexors and psoas muscles. These are the muscles on the front of and inside your hip cradle that connect your legs to your torso (an oversimplification). As these muscles learn to stay tight, they pull on our pelvis and cause a forward pelvic tilt. Well, our body knows that we can't walk around tilted ridiculously far forward, so it adjusts. In this case it's likely that the lower back muscles will go into overtime mode to bring our upper body back over our center of gravity. According to one source, half of working (read: 'sitting') Americans experience back pain every year. In the above example, the tight hip flexors and psoas muscles become a catalyst for lower back problems (and probably a myriad of other issues all over the body).
Chronic pain is not natural, even though it might be the norm. Improper alignment will eventually result in health problems and chronic pain. In the meantime, it will rob you of flexibility and optimal performance in a number of areas. Alignment can be improved upon, and we will definitely write about this subject more in the future. It's time to turn the lens of awareness to this aspect of fitness.
-Brant
Why My Workouts Look Different
Before I get too far into posting on this new blog, I want to explain that my workouts are unconventional largely because of my job. I work 8 days in the woods, then I have 6 days off. I've tried a variety of different 'solutions' to keeping up a consistent workout schedule, including gym rings tied to trees, one arm pushup + pistol squat circuits, uphill trail sprints, frog hop and pushup sets...I'll probably write more about the above strategies in the future.
Currently I'm trying to just do one light one-arm pushup/pullup/hill sprint workout during my workweek. It's largely a recovery time for me. During my 6 day offshift, I push myself with an unsustainable 4 full body workouts (Tuesday PM when I get out of the woods, Thursday, Saturday, and Monday) with hill sprints during most recovery days. I'm not as worried about overtraining since my work week consists of only stretching, active recovery and possibly one light workout.
Anyways, here's my workout log for 7/30/2012. :
-Hangcleans 3x5 incl. warmup
-Benchpress 5x5
-Deadlifts 3x4 (wanted 5 reps, but my grip failed)
-Box Squats 5x5
-'Gorilla' pullups 5x3-4
-Military Barbell Press 5x5
-Battle Ropes 30 sec x 6 (30 sec rest between sets, various techniques)
followed by a smoothie:
-6 raw pastured eggs
-2 bananas
-1.5 or so cups of half & half
-one scoop of supergreen powder
-Brant
Currently I'm trying to just do one light one-arm pushup/pullup/hill sprint workout during my workweek. It's largely a recovery time for me. During my 6 day offshift, I push myself with an unsustainable 4 full body workouts (Tuesday PM when I get out of the woods, Thursday, Saturday, and Monday) with hill sprints during most recovery days. I'm not as worried about overtraining since my work week consists of only stretching, active recovery and possibly one light workout.
Anyways, here's my workout log for 7/30/2012. :
-Hangcleans 3x5 incl. warmup
-Benchpress 5x5
-Deadlifts 3x4 (wanted 5 reps, but my grip failed)
-Box Squats 5x5
-'Gorilla' pullups 5x3-4
-Military Barbell Press 5x5
-Battle Ropes 30 sec x 6 (30 sec rest between sets, various techniques)
followed by a smoothie:
-6 raw pastured eggs
-2 bananas
-1.5 or so cups of half & half
-one scoop of supergreen powder
-Brant
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Ahhhhh, Sundays, make time for yourself!
I love working out on Sundays, mainly due to the fact that my workload is limited and I can fully concentrate on myself. I don't mean to sound self centered here, but everyone needs self improvement time in order to continue to help others. A usual weekday for me is about 5-6 hours of personal training and 5-6 hours of managing my various businesses. If I want to continue to help my clients progress, I need to be full of natural energy.
Brant talked about commitment in his last post, and to continue to adhere to your commitments, you need to make time for yourself. I'm pretty sure Brant would touch on meditation right here, but whatever it is for you, take a few hours out of your Sunday and have YOU time: re energize, re invigorate your mind and spirit, get ready and relaxed for the week ahead, and most of all, think of ways to make this week better than the last, then make plans to make these advancements become a reality.
Here is my Sunday workout, "me time" to the fullest:
-Fully Fasted at 1 pm, (recorded bass all morning, up at 9am)
-25 minutes of PVC pipe and lacrosse ball rolling, 5 mins of dynamic movement.
-Chin Ups with a 75 lb db in between my thighs, knees bent, legs parallel to ground (Mr. Litwack pull ups, a.k.a gorilla pull ups) 5x5
-Single Arm Assisted Neutral Grip pull ups 5x5 (40 lbs of assistance)
-Incline Bench Press 225lbs 5x5
-Sumo deadlift 320lbs 5x5 (Grip began to wear)
- Clean and Jerk plus Lunge (from top of jerk, lunge down) 5x2 50% of clean and jerk max, 145 lbs (my first time doing this, I think the Olympics have inspired me, doing a lot of more Olympic lifts these past two weeks)
-Zac a.k.a Gorilla
Brant talked about commitment in his last post, and to continue to adhere to your commitments, you need to make time for yourself. I'm pretty sure Brant would touch on meditation right here, but whatever it is for you, take a few hours out of your Sunday and have YOU time: re energize, re invigorate your mind and spirit, get ready and relaxed for the week ahead, and most of all, think of ways to make this week better than the last, then make plans to make these advancements become a reality.
Here is my Sunday workout, "me time" to the fullest:
-Fully Fasted at 1 pm, (recorded bass all morning, up at 9am)
-25 minutes of PVC pipe and lacrosse ball rolling, 5 mins of dynamic movement.
-Chin Ups with a 75 lb db in between my thighs, knees bent, legs parallel to ground (Mr. Litwack pull ups, a.k.a gorilla pull ups) 5x5
-Single Arm Assisted Neutral Grip pull ups 5x5 (40 lbs of assistance)
-Incline Bench Press 225lbs 5x5
-Sumo deadlift 320lbs 5x5 (Grip began to wear)
- Clean and Jerk plus Lunge (from top of jerk, lunge down) 5x2 50% of clean and jerk max, 145 lbs (my first time doing this, I think the Olympics have inspired me, doing a lot of more Olympic lifts these past two weeks)
-Zac a.k.a Gorilla
Saturday, July 28, 2012
"Commitment"
I'll start with my workout log for today, 7/28/12:
2 cups iced coffee with half & half pre-workout, then
*Thrusters 5x5 (this is a front squat with an overhead press at the top)
*One arm chinups 4x3 assisted
*Bench 4x3 with warmup and cooldown on the ends
*Deadlifts 2x5 with warmup
*Box squats 5x5
*Bent over rows 3x5
*Hourglasses 5x5 (sitting overhead press with hands together and elbows wide, mainly targeting triceps)
*Mr. Litwack pullups 4x4 (dead hang pullup with knees held at 90 degrees out from body and weight held between knees)
*Lateral raise 1x5
At the end of the above, I was considering punching out a quick Fran (google "crossfit fran" if you are unfamiliar), but yielded due to the idea that more workload would probably hinder my strength and power progress rather than help it. Overtraining is real.
I followed the workout with a smoothie consisting of
*6 raw pastured eggs
*1 banana
*About 1-1.5 cups of half & half
*A scoop of supergreens powder from Whole Foods
and a 6oz. block of raw gruyere cheese with a Larabar and bottle of kombucha.
_________
So far this week, I got out of the woods and back to Asheville at like 10:30pm on Tuesday and hit a hard workout with my visiting cousin similar to the one posted above, though shorter. The next day (Wednesday) we did 5 hill sprints as a recovery/HGH boosting workout. Thursday we hit it again hard...I couldn't do military by the end of the workout as planned because my right pec was so tired I didn't trust it to stabilize. Yesterday I ran 4 hill sprints, the goal again being maintaining functional athletic power, fat burn, physique and HGH levels. Today I did the above workout. Tomorrow will either be hill sprints or ultimate frisbee. Monday will hopefully be another beastly workout.
It occurs to me that commitment doesn't mean sacrificing. Commitment means that you truly want to walk the path to your goals more than you want to do anything else. You are in love with the path, not the idea of the finish line. There is no loss, no regret of what you might be missing.
When I am in the gym working out, that is IT and I'm not 'missing out' on anything else. Today 'commitment' looked like me and maybe 4 other people going into anytime fitness to push ourselves while the rest of the city enjoyed the free music festival (Bele Chere) in the closed streets of downtown Asheville. There is no conflict for me. I legitimately have looked at the options and decided that I truly love working out and will get more fulfillment and enjoyment from hitting a hard workout than I would from drinking and watching local bands play with the crowds.
This does not mean that the people who went are bad or lazy. Commitment is a personal journey and it is only those that lack true commitment that feel a need to judge others who choose a different path. Commitment is simply a matter of weighing the options, deciding what one's priorities are, and making the mature decision with a perspective on long term goals. Commitment happens right now or it doesn't happen at all, because tomorrow never comes.
Welcome to the Wellness Well.
-Brant
2 cups iced coffee with half & half pre-workout, then
*Thrusters 5x5 (this is a front squat with an overhead press at the top)
*One arm chinups 4x3 assisted
*Bench 4x3 with warmup and cooldown on the ends
*Deadlifts 2x5 with warmup
*Box squats 5x5
*Bent over rows 3x5
*Hourglasses 5x5 (sitting overhead press with hands together and elbows wide, mainly targeting triceps)
*Mr. Litwack pullups 4x4 (dead hang pullup with knees held at 90 degrees out from body and weight held between knees)
*Lateral raise 1x5
At the end of the above, I was considering punching out a quick Fran (google "crossfit fran" if you are unfamiliar), but yielded due to the idea that more workload would probably hinder my strength and power progress rather than help it. Overtraining is real.
I followed the workout with a smoothie consisting of
*6 raw pastured eggs
*1 banana
*About 1-1.5 cups of half & half
*A scoop of supergreens powder from Whole Foods
and a 6oz. block of raw gruyere cheese with a Larabar and bottle of kombucha.
_________
So far this week, I got out of the woods and back to Asheville at like 10:30pm on Tuesday and hit a hard workout with my visiting cousin similar to the one posted above, though shorter. The next day (Wednesday) we did 5 hill sprints as a recovery/HGH boosting workout. Thursday we hit it again hard...I couldn't do military by the end of the workout as planned because my right pec was so tired I didn't trust it to stabilize. Yesterday I ran 4 hill sprints, the goal again being maintaining functional athletic power, fat burn, physique and HGH levels. Today I did the above workout. Tomorrow will either be hill sprints or ultimate frisbee. Monday will hopefully be another beastly workout.
It occurs to me that commitment doesn't mean sacrificing. Commitment means that you truly want to walk the path to your goals more than you want to do anything else. You are in love with the path, not the idea of the finish line. There is no loss, no regret of what you might be missing.
When I am in the gym working out, that is IT and I'm not 'missing out' on anything else. Today 'commitment' looked like me and maybe 4 other people going into anytime fitness to push ourselves while the rest of the city enjoyed the free music festival (Bele Chere) in the closed streets of downtown Asheville. There is no conflict for me. I legitimately have looked at the options and decided that I truly love working out and will get more fulfillment and enjoyment from hitting a hard workout than I would from drinking and watching local bands play with the crowds.
This does not mean that the people who went are bad or lazy. Commitment is a personal journey and it is only those that lack true commitment that feel a need to judge others who choose a different path. Commitment is simply a matter of weighing the options, deciding what one's priorities are, and making the mature decision with a perspective on long term goals. Commitment happens right now or it doesn't happen at all, because tomorrow never comes.
Welcome to the Wellness Well.
-Brant
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