Your July 4th Cheat Sheet

July 4th (Independence Day here in the U.S.) marks the halfway point of the year which means the entire first half of 2009 has already passed and there are now only six months to 2010.

How are your New Year’s Resolutions looking now?

Are you on track with your New Years Resolutions? Are you on track with your health and fitness goals?

It’s amazing how time passes so quickly.

If you’re just a little behind — adjust your plan – make up for it! Make a half New Years Resolution!
50% of this year is gone forever. Will you make changes TODAY or will another 25% pass, then another 50% — and before you know it — it’s 2010…..

To help you get back on track before 2010 I’ve listed below the ten habits cheat sheet formula taken right out of Dr. John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?Clk=3101097.

I am a big fan of Dr. Berardi’s system becasue it’s simple. No counting or measuring macronutrients etc.. Just eat a healthy protein source with a fruit or vegetable and follow the ten habits formula 90% of the time using the other 10% as cheat eats.. This means if you have 5 meals a day 7 days a week and you want to change your body for the long term you could have 3 cheat feedings per week. There is really no difference between 90% compliance and 100% compliance.

So you mine as well use the 10% and have some fun like I do.

10 Habits Cheat Sheet

1. When did you last eat? If it’s been longer than 2-3 hours, feed immediately.

2. Where is the complete protein? Are you about to eat at least 1 serving of complete protein? If not fond some protein. (One serving is 20-30g for women and 40-60g for men).

3. Where are the veggies? Are you about to eat at least 1-2 servings of veggies? Prepare them anyway you like, but eat them with every feeding opportunity. (one serving is about 1/2 cup of veggies).

4. Where are the carbs? If you haven’t just worked out, put down the pasta, bread, rice, and other starchy carbs in favor of a double serving of fruits and veggies – yep even at restaurants. If you have just worked out, a mix of carb sources is fine.

5. Where are your fats coming from? Today you need some fat from animal foods, from olive oil, from raw nuts, and from flaxseeds/flaxseed oil. Spread them throughout the day.

6. Did you take your fish oil yet? Make sure you don’t miss taking a capsule or two with each feeding opportunity.

7. Are you drinking water or green tea? Avoid calorie-containing drinks send back the soda, fruit juice, and anything else with more than 0 calories.

8. Are you breaking the 10% rule? Are you breaking any of the rules above? If so, count this feeding opportunity as part of your 10% and get back on track with your very next feeding.

Don’t forget to start taking action today. If needed? put this sheet in a place where it will remind you everyday, carry it around with you and take action on it instead of making up excuses. Find a way to get it done even if it’s not optimal.

Either way time is going to pass along, you mine as well make the best use of it and get started today.

Stay Focused,

Happy 4th!

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Providence 3 Day Perform Better Summit Notes

Last weekend was the annual 3 day perform better summit in Providence, RI.  I have been going to this great event since the start back in 2005? In my opinion it’s the best educational event in the industry. You will never see so many top names in the industry at one event. People like Dr. Stuart McGill (the worlds top authority on lower back pain), Michael Boyle, Alywn Cosgrove, Todd Wright, Gray Cook, Chuck Wolf, Fraser Quelch (inventor of the TRX suspension system  http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4917_A_rnd_E_15), Mark Verstegen (owner of athletes performance), Eric Cressey and so many more.

I had a great time. For me it’s like a kid being in a candy store. My personal favorite presentation was Todd Wright and Logan Swartz’s lecture and demonstration on Vertical Core Training. This presentation alone changed my thought process on some of our exercise progressions and helped improve our overall training system.

Todd and Logan are two of the best strength coaches in the country who happen to coach the university of Texas mens basketball team. In my opinion, I think it is absolutely crucial to train the core in a standing position since most functional activities take place standing in the presence of gravity. Training the core in standing allows for full integration of the foot/ankle, hips, and thoracic spine. If those particular segments are not cleared or moving right there is a good chance your core ain’t right.

Here is a list of my top take home points from the weekend in no particular order:

1. I really enjoy learning and trying to improve our program to be able to continue to help more people like you in the most efficient, safest, best way possible.

2. Providence is a fun city with great food ( Check out local 121 and Bacaror)

3.  It’s a lot of fun being around like minded people that have a passion for helping others.

4. Movement should be unconscious. 

5. Why do a lot of people stop moving when they exercise? They spend all day sitting and then go sit on a bike or exercise machine?

6. All of the body is connected and works as 1 integrated coordinated unit – The foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connects to the shin bone, the shin bone connects to the knee bone, the knee bone connects to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connects to the hip bone, the hip bone connects to the back bone and on and on and on…

7. When the foot hits the ground everything changes? Everything may look great on a table, but what happens to your body when the foot hits the ground?

8. Stretch the fascial connections of the body vs individual muscle groups(opposite hip and lat, opposite hip and shoulder, lateral line, front line and back line). For a great resource buy and read Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers.

9. Most traditional treatment modalities work in the short term because they implement rest for the tissues.

10. Most traditional treatment modalities don’t work in the long term because they don’t uncover underlying inefficiencies/casues. The site of the pain is rarely the source of the problem. 

10. If you correct the inefficiencies or casues you’ll also correct the pathology.

11. 30 years ago we had to learn 1 new skill per year, now it’s 1 new skill per day, tomorrow it may be 1 new skill per hour.

12. 94% of executives have less energy at home than they have at work.

13. work + rest = success.

14. In training, too much time is spent on training to increase muscle mass (which slows motion/movement) rather than training effective mass.

15. Some exercise have become universal but not becasue they are great exercises (bench press)

16. The scapula is a mini core to the humerus.

17. Posture effects movement, movement effects posture.

18. Inefficient posture can result in inefficient movement, which produces an energy leak.

19. Our hands and feet give our brains/bodies the most feedback.

20. If the foot was not important it would just be 1 big as_  bone.

21. The pecs have a huge fascial connection with the abdominals.

22.  A lot of food companies are like cigarette companies, they sell you stuff that is not good for you.

23. You can do anything you want to if you learn the right strategies and take action on those strategies.

24. If your serious about your health get and read the book Ultra Prevention http://www.amazon.com/Ultraprevention-6-Week-Plan-That-Healthy/dp/0743227115. It’s a book written by two doctors at canyon ranch talking about the failings of our traditional medical system. 

25. The only thing that’s worse than not going to a seminar in the last 6 months is thinking that (that) doesn’t matter.

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Boston Learn By Doing One Day Perform Better Seminar Notes

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the annual Boston Perform Better Seminar. I usually go every year as I think perform better does an excellent job of providing some of the best education for fitness professionals, strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists and anyone else who is interested in helping people look, move, feel and perform better.

This years event featured four great speakers Todd Durkin, Coach Michael Boyle, Alwyn Cosgrove and Gray Cook. These are all guy’s I have a lot of respect for and have learned a lot from over the years. I really enjoyed hearing them speak and as usual took away some important points.

Here are my take home notes from the seminar:

1. Negativity is every where, so make sure you surround yourself with positivity. This means be careful what you listen to (the news and economy), what you watch, what you believe, who you surround yourself with, and what you say to yourself and others. If you don’t have something positive to say don’t say anything.

2. People who run the biggest loser are losers. Having overweight people (no pun intended) run sprints around a track is criminal assault on the body with a dead brain. Consider the fact that running is a very advanced plyometric activity with 2-5 times of body weight stress going through the joints  (not very smart in my mind and a horrible message sent out live on national TV). For a 150lb person this would mean 1 leg must withstand 300-750lbs per step! 

3. Most diet books are pretty much the same thing packaged differently.  Keep it simple, eat fruits, vegetables, protein, and take fish oil. Stay away from corn, dairy, wheat, sugar, and saturated fat.

4. Cereal marketers are some of the best marketers in the world because they are good at selling S_ _ _! Most cereals could be part of a good breakfast if you ate something healthy with your cereal.

5. When you try to pursue mobility with no respect for where mobility comes from you are barking up the wrong tree and likely on your way to injury.

6. The 180 degree principle says that if you go to a most health clubs or commercial gyms write down everything that everybody is doing and make sure you do the opposite, you’ll not only feel better, you’ll get much better results.

7. Tightness is a word for an inappropriate muscle contraction. A muscle is tight because your using it that way.

8. Never work on stability without proper mobility first.

9. Always take away the negative before adding a positive. For example if you smoke and drink and have flax seeds in your smoothie every morning for breakfast. Stop the smoking and drinking first, the add the flax seeds (positive).

10. Movement is organic, we all need it, if not your muscle skeletal system will break down.

11. Dig deep and try to find out the root cause (s) of problems vs. just treating symptoms. The cause often times can usually be found 1 or 2 joints above or below the problem.

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