February 21, 2010 in WOD by MLC

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Workout of the Day
On the minute:

Perform 3 Power Cleans and 9 Ball Slams on the minute for 10 minutes.

*Complete Power Cleans at 65% of 1 RM *Ball Slam use 20/14 lbs

*Emphasize power in the slam – not concerned about squat depth here…

*For every rep not completed perform 1 handstand push up or dive-bomber push-up (according to your current abilities) after the workout.

Source: CrossFit Football

Rest day today for sectionals Athletes.
Two sessions tomorrow (rest as needed between sessions).
Single on Wednesday.
Rest on Thursday.

February 21, 2010 in WOD by MLC

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Workout of the Day
Females
For time;
10 HSPU, 3 L Pull Up, 9 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 8 HSPU, 5 L Pull Up, 7 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 6 HSPU, 7 L Pull Up, 5 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 4 HSPU, 9 L Pull Up, 3 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up

Males – BWT below 150#
For time;
15 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 13 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 11 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 9 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 7 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 5 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 3 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up, 1 HSPU, 10 L Pull Up

Males – BWT 150-175#
For time;
15 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 13 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 11 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 9 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 7 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 5 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 3 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up, 1 HSPU, 8 L Pull Up

Males – BWT 175-200#
For time;
15 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 13 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 11 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 9 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 7 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 5 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 3 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up, 1 HSPU, 6 L Pull Up

Males – BWT 200+#
For time;
15 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 13 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 11 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 9 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 7 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 5 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 3 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up, 1 HSPU, 4 L Pull Up

Rest day for sectionals athletes tomorrow.
Source: OPT

December 30, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Adrian jumps

I don’t buy into the New Years Resolution’s which overwhelm our society this time of year; I believe that if you want to change your life, change it. Why wait until a New Year?

Here is a recent post from Scott Kustes, author of the Fitness Spotlight detailing his lessons learnt from his 30 years of life. Use it to reflect on your own life and post to comments what you have learnt throughout your 20, 30, 40, 50 or even 60 years of life.

– Coach MLC

Holiday Hours and other Events:

Thursday, December 31st: Morning only, 6am to 10am

Friday, January 1st: Team workout and potluck, 1pm

Saturday, January 2nd: Back to normal hours, with the addition of a free beginner workout for newbies at 11:30

Sunday, January 3rd: Regular hours, meeting for athletes interested in competing in the 2010 CrossFit Games at 11:00am.

Monday, January 4th: Regular hours, but classes on the hour every hour.  Last class is at 6pm.

December 17, 2009 in Training by MLC

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Training is no guarantee of health
by Mark Sisson

Which one would you rather look like?

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Endurance training is antithetical to anti-aging. So it amazes me when guys in their 40s and 50s who are training for a marathon or Ironman suggest that doing so will keep them young. It won’t. You may feel like a stud now with your shaved legs and your magic marker biceps tattoos, but endurance training speeds up the aging process almost as fast as watching TV, drinking sodas and eating potato chips. Actually, in some cases, it speeds it up even faster.

I know, I know, you’ve been told that exercise is the great panacea — the fountain of youth — and that the more you do, the greater the benefits will accrue. Well, science has started to prove that concept wrong, and I suspect the evidence in support of my thesis will accumulate exponentially now that the first generation of Frank Shorter “psychophants” has started dropping. There is a middle ground where there’s a perfect balance of diet and exercise that will lead to the longest, most productive and “youthful” existence possible. But it certainly isn’t found in endurance training. That said, I do think there are ways (some legal, some not) to mitigate the damage and extract the healthiest life possible if you do choose to train long and hard.

First, if I may, a little history lesson:

Humans were just not designed to work for extended periods of time at 80-90% VO2max. Our evolutionary blueprint, the last draft of which was completed well over 10,000 years ago, set us up as great slow-movers and occasional fast sprinters. Our two primary energy systems are: (1) fat-based, which allows for long slow steady walking across the Savannah (or the Queen K after dark); and (2) ATP-based, which gave our ancestors 20 seconds of balls-out sprint speed to escape the charging saber tooth tiger (or let grandma lift the ’67 Ford truck off gramps when the jack failed). We just weren’t designed to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Doesn’t mean we can’t, we can, but it’s at an appreciable cost that I will explain shortly. It just means we weren’t evolved to. Even our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably relied more on superior tracking skills and walking than they did running for hours or days after their prey. In fact, the energy costs of doing the latter were so high as to almost guarantee extinction. (Imagine your predicament when you run after an antelope for four hours and he gets away. Now you not only don’t have any food, you’ve used up all your glycogen and, oops, there’s that frikkin’ saber-tooth again, licking his chops.)

But our bodies are among the best in Nature at adapting to hostile environments and self-destructive lifestyles. It’s that capacity to adapt that allowed our ancestors to pass along their DNA blueprints to us, but it’s also what allows us to today to weigh 500 pounds when we overeat a little, or allows addicts to thrive on a 60 Vicodin a day, when the rest of us would die taking 10. During the Irish potato famine, many went from living on nothing but 14 pounds of potatoes per person per day to living on nothing but seaweed and shoe leather for months. Now that’s what I call adaptation. But, I digress.

Back when the concept of extended games playing was invented — long before Dan Empfield was even born — it was a natural alpha male thing to want to test the endurance of one guy against another. And because the first real endurance games probably only happened after the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, you could say that it was largely because of access to these new-fangled high-carbohydrate grains that we could first fully explore our adaptive endurance mechanisms. You could even argue that grains and sugars fueled the endurance fire as our early frat-boy ancestors attempted to one-up each other every generation until today, where we have type-As doing triple-ultra Ironman and Marathon de Sables back-to-back. Sure, they burn a little fat here and there, but most of it is based on a maladaptive second-rate carbohydrate energy system that was never contemplated in the original design prototype! OK, enough endurance history. What does this have to do with aging?

Turns out that carbohydrate metabolism is an inefficient and costly way to locomote, especially if you intend to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Your muscles and liver can only hold 500-600 grams of precious glycogen (stored glucose) at any one time. Even for a well-trained runner, that’s only about two hours worth of fuel when you’re cranking sub-sixes. So it behooves an endurance athlete to consume lots of carbs — the simpler the better — and to accelerate the burning of fatty acids if s/he chooses to continue training and racing. And that’s where the philosophies of endurance training and anti-aging agree to disagree.

The requisite high intake of carbohydrates to provide fuel requires that an enormous amount of insulin be produced and circulated to help store it. Chronic high blood insulin levels promote inflammation. Anti-aging scientists will tell you that insulin is one of the best markers of longevity in all animals… that the less you produce (type 1 diabetics notwithstanding) the longer you live.

Chronic high-level training naturally depletes glycogen, which causes the body to release the adrenal hormone cortisol to cannibalize muscle tissue in order to help make new glucose (gluconeogenesis). Besides tearing down valuable muscle, chronic cortisol release carries with it a litany of negative effects. It suppresses immune function, which opens the door not only for short term upper respiratory infections, but may leave the door open for longer term, more serious issues (asthma, cancer, heart disease [which we know has a strong inflammatory component]). Chronic cortisol release also reduces calcium uptake by bones, and it’s not surprising that so many runner/triathletes — especially women — have low bone density. Anti-aging experts will tell you that among elderly, low bone density is a pretty accurate predictor of mortality. Break a hip bone when you’re older and your chances of dying skyrocket.

Speaking of cortisol, not only does training and racing tend to produce it, but even the training meals can produce it. A meal high in sugar and other simple carbohydrates can cause a dramatic rise in cortisol (as part of an insulin-adrenaline cascade). That’s one reason why sugar is known as a powerful immune suppressor.

The beta-oxidation of fats during heavy training generates oxidative fallout (also known as “free radical damage”) at a rate that is often 20 times what you generate at rest. Oxidative damage of cellular constituents such as DNA, proteins and lipids can result in progressive destruction of cells and tissues. This oxidative damage is believed to be a contributing factor to many diseases including cancer, heart disease and aging in general. Your body has natural antioxidant systems designed to keep pace with your normal low-level fat-burning systems (walking and at rest) and even your occasional ATP-based “life or death sprint” systems, but it really wasn’t designed to compensate for hours of high-level aerobic performance. Oxidative damage to cellular DNA is usually cleaned up by the immune system, which destroys damaged cells, but if your immune system is compromised, it may set the stage for major problems later on. The cumulative effects of oxidative damage are visible on the faces of many long-time mileage junkies, but it’s the damage underneath that most aggressively counters any anti-aging efforts.

Lean mass in general is one major defining predictor of longevity. The concept of dying of “natural causes” is, in reality, better described as “dying from organ failure due to loss of organ reserve and lean tissue.” Organ reserve (the functional capacity of any or all organs necessary to support life) and skeletal muscle mass tend to increase or decrease together depending on the stimulus or lack of it. So, as a rule of thumb, anything you do to build muscle generally tends also to build or improve other tissue, including vital organs (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, etc). Similarly, anything you do to diminish muscle tends likewise to have a negative effect on organ reserve. We call it “atrophy.” Of course, the old adage “use it or lose it” has significance here, since it is presumed that by moving about, by doing work and generally being “vital” you give your body a reason to “adapt” to the work. Furthermore, because your muscles are generally fed either directly or indirectly by those organs, they are also called upon to adapt and stay vital. Stay in bed for a few weeks and you’ll lose both muscle mass and organ reserve. If you are young, you can build both back with diet and minimal exercise. If you are old, it’s often the beginning of the end.

Generally, exercise is a great way to increase muscle mass and, hence, organ reserve. We were, after all, designed to move. The difference is that our DNA blueprints were fine-tuned to have us operating optimally when we walk long distances, sprint like hell periodically, move occasional heavy loads, climb trees and generally tap into our fat-based energy system and our ATP-based energy systems. The benefits of true low level activity are many: We develop an extensive capillary network to bring fatty-acid fuel to each and every muscle cell, we up-regulate the production of fat-mobilizing and fat-burning enzymes which take fat out of storage and present it to the mitochondria for combustion, we improve cardiac muscle efficiency and cardiac capacity and we increase natural internal antioxidant levels. As for the ATP-based system, intermittent heavy loads do increase muscle mass very effectively, also stimulating growth hormone release, as well as improving insulin sensitivity and promoting bone density. The net effect of surviving that run in with a saber tooth tiger was that you got stronger and better adapted to do it again next time.

The problem with many, if not most, age group endurance athletes is that the low-level training gets out of hand. They overtrain in their exuberance to excel at racing, and they over consume carbohydrates in an effort to stay fueled. The result is that over the years, their muscle mass, immune function, and testosterone decrease, while their cortisol, insulin and oxidative output increase (unless you work so hard that you actually exhaust the adrenals, introducing an even more disconcerting scenario). Any anti-aging doc will tell you that if you do this long enough, you will hasten, rather than retard, the aging process. Studies have shown an increase in mortality when weekly caloric expenditure exceeds 4,000.

That’s why I stopped racing and training ten years ago and why I prefer hiking, sprinting and weight-training today. But what’s a competitive type-A to do if s/he wants to kick age-group butt in Kona and NOT fade away prematurely?

Given carte blanche to take advantage of all that medicine has to offer, I would aggressively consume antioxidants during my training (10-20,000 ORAC units per day), I would increase the amount of healthy fats (omega 3-rich) in my diet to 50% of total calories and I would only consume quality complex carbohydrates during my training. In fact, I would calculate my carbohydrate requirements on a daily basis and not exceed them. I would use simple sugars (e.g., gels) during long rides and races only to the extent they are necessary. That means I would do most of my training without them, saving them for races. I would work closely with a trained anti-aging doctor to monitor my fasting glucose, fasting insulin, free and bound testosterone, liver enzymes, cortisol, DHEA, hematocrit, ferritin and other parameters.

I would incorporate therapeutic amounts of testosterone (yes, I know it’s illegal, but I’m giving you the best-case scenario), to balance out high levels of cortisol when I have gone to the well too much. (On a side note, I find it doubly ironic that Floyd Landis was allowed to take thyroid hormone because of his exhausted thyroid and cortisone because of his necrotic hip, but was not allowed to take testosterone during training. If he had been allowed the testosterone, it’s quite likely he would not have required the other two meds! And I believe he did not take testosterone).

I would take at least 6 months away from training each year and focus on building lean mass and recovering from the prior season. Under those conditions, I am fairly certain that I could mitigate most of the damage done by any unnatural endurance endeavor I elected to do — such as IM and marathons — despite the known consequences.

Now, what does all this mean for the generation of us who bought into Ken Cooper’s “more aerobics is better” philosophy? Is it too late to get on the anti-aging train? Hey, we’re still probably a lot better off than our college classmates who gained 60 pounds and can’t walk up a flight of stairs. Sure, we may look a little older and move a little slower than we’d like, but there’s still time to readjust the training to fit our DNA blueprint. Maybe just move a little slower, lift some weights, do some yoga and eat right and there’s a good chance you’ll maximize the quality of your remaining years… and look good doing whatever you do.

December 13, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Sunday December 13th, 2009

Team CFW strategic planning for 2009 games

2010 Crossfit Games

The dates and locations have been announced for the 2010 Crossfit Games Sectionals and Regionals.

Sectionals:
Central Canada Sectional: March 27-28
Bldg 185 Corner of Mons Ave and Range Road. 244 Lancaster Park AB, A2HO (Edmonton)
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba
Regional Seeds: 15 men, 15 women

Regionals:
Canadian Regionals: May 29-30
Calgary, Alberta
All Provinces
CrossFit Games Seeds: 6 men, 6 women

Crossfit HQ will launch a special Registration Website with detailed information on each event, hopefully on Monday, December 21st. Athlete and spectator registration for the Sectionals will open at launch. Crossfit HQ will do their best to allow everyone in who wants to compete, but at some point they may have to cut it off. Spectator attendance at most Sectionals will be limited, so you’ll want to act quickly.

Similarly, affiliate teams will have to qualify to compete in the Games this year. The Regional events will also serve as the team qualifiers for this year’s Affiliate Cup. There will be no team workouts at the Sectionals. The Regionals are not until May, so you have time to prepare. More information about the Affiliate Cup competition coming soon.

New addition:
Also, there will be a limited Master’s competition (50+) for both men and women. Like the Affiliate Cup qualifiers, the Master’s qualifiers will also take place at the Regionals in May. There will be no separate Master’s workouts at the Sectionals. More information about the Master’s competition coming soon.

December 12, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

How Do You Repair Your Immune System After A Lifetime (Or Just A Few Months) of Damage?

by Scott Kustes

I have a friend that from all appearances should be healthy. She is thin and active. Yet she is constantly sick. A cold. The flu. Strep throat. Just goes to show that being hot and sexy doesn’t necessarily make one healthy.

Then I got to thinking about how this isn’t all that abnormal. So many people accept illness as a regular part of being alive. But is it really? Is illness the normal human life, an inevitable part of drawing breath? I don’t think it is. And I say that as someone that’s rarely ever sick. Of course, when you’re surrounded by sick people, you’re eventually going to get ahold of something, but with a strong immune system, what puts others down for days, you’ll deal with in hours.

So how I would advise someone to repair their immune system after a lifetime of destroying it? What can one do over the course of, say, 3 months to turn around (or at least start to turn around) the damage of years and years of poor diet, poor habits, and poor health?

First, Do No Harm

The very first thing that has to be done is to stop damaging your immune system! There are three dietary elements that are prevalent in most people’s diets that do a good bit of damage to the immune system. So if you’re one of those people that catches every single bug that rolls through the neighborhood, your first order of business is to deal with these trouble spots.

Sweet Temptations

Yeah, I’m going after your sweets first and foremost. Candy bars, cakes, cookies, pie, ice cream…there’s no place for these things when you’re trying to repair your immune system. Why? The sugar and processed grains cause a sharp rise in insulin levels, which suppresses growth hormones, which suppresses the immune system. If you’re constantly beating your immune system down with sugar and processed grains, you have no hope of repairing yourself. How bad is it?

These studies show that in adults, cell mediated immunity is significantly depressed after sugar ingestion (75 grams). A 100g portion of sugar can significantly reduce the capacity of white blood cells to engulf bacteria. Maximum immune suppression occurs one to two hours after ingestion and remains suppressed for up to five hours after feeding.

Replace your high-carb foods of processed grains and sugars with more vegetables and fruits. Your waist-line will thank you, as well.

Skip The Sauce

I’m not talking about the Hollandaise sauce. I’m talking about the beer, wine, vodka, gin, rum, or bourbon that we all love so much. Every time you sit down and have three or more drinks, you’re suppressing your immune system:

One drink (the equivalent of 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 ounces of hard liquor) does not appear to bother the immune system, but three or more drinks do. Damage to the immune system increases in proportion to the quantity of alcohol consumed. Amounts of alcohol that are enough to cause intoxication are also enough to suppress immunity.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have a drink. It means you don’t want to get tanked.

Avoid New Fats

Once upon a time, mankind ate three kinds of fat, in naturally-occurring proportions: mostly monounsaturated, a good bit of saturated fat, and little in the way of polyunsaturated fats. But then some well-meaning, but misguided scientists decided that saturated animal fats were a bad idea and told us to eat more of those polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

Unfortunately, polyunsaturated fats are highly immunosuppressive, and as Ray Peat has pointed out, are used for their ability to suppress the immune system in organ transplant patients.

Immunosuppression was observed in patients who were being “nourished” by intravenous emulsions of “essential fatty acids,” and as a result coconut oil is used as the basis for intravenous fat feeding, except in organ-transplant patients. For those patients, emulsions of unsaturated oils are used specifically for their immunosuppressive effects.

So go back to the past…swap out your corn, peanut, canola, and other new oils for butter, lard, and coconut oil. And definitely avoid trans fats, the absolute worst thing you can put in your body.

Now, Start Repairing

So basically, the above three guidelines push you towards a diet of real foods. But for the average person, that’s not going to be enough to get back to health in any reasonable amount of time. You need to call in some reinforcements to help your body make use of all the good fuel you’re giving it.

Bacteria Are Your Friends

Pop-quiz…what is the most abundant thing in your body? It’s not cells. Your body has about 10 trillion cells. And your intestines have about 10 times that many bacteria in them, helping you digest food and serving as a first-line of defense against pathogens coming in orally. So what happens when you take antibiotics, which you probably turn to at the first sign of a sore throat? Antibiotics are like shooting a fly with a bazooka. They kill off everything, including those beneficial bacteria in your guts. Any wonder your digestion sucks?

So find a good probiotic supplement and start getting your intestines back in shape. These bacteria will serve as your friends, fighting off invaders, as long as you keep them happy with plenty of nutrient-dense foods. And that sugar I told you to stop eating? It helps the bad bacteria flourish and overwhelm your good bacteria.

Fermented foods like kefir, kombucha, and sauerkraut are great food sources of probiotics.

Turn Off Conan And Go To Bed

When you’re asleep, your body is repairing. While you’re trying to get healthy, you need to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night and preferably more. Since you probably have daily obligations, that means you need to go to bed earlier or grab some naps. If you can’t get more sleep, everything else becomes even more important. “The Late Late Show” really isn’t worth your health, so you better come up with another excuse for why you can’t go to bed earlier.

Soak Up Some Vitamin D

It’s a beautiful thing that vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins there is and that it’s free! Get outside and get some sun. Some sun without sunblock! Food sources of vitamin D can’t even come close to the amount of vitamin D your skin produces. And since we’re told to avoid the sun because it’s going to kill us, most of us are vitamin D deficient.

Eat Nutrient-Dense Foods

Meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, tubers, squashes, fruit, and healthy oils like butter, lard, olive oil and coconut oil. That’s really all there is to it. These foods are full of vitamins and minerals that will support your health instead of destroying it.

Add A Few Important Vitamins

I’m not a big fan of individual vitamin supplementation. Most people are focusing on taking a ton of vitamin C or extra this or that. But the body is far more complex than just adding some vitamin C, a bit of vitamin E, a dollop of B-complex and stirring. However, there are a few that most of us are getting far too little of.

As I mentioned above, vitamin D is very important and few of us get enough. I’ve heard recommendations to take 1000IU per 25lbs of bodyweight. You can get your vitamin D checked as part of the D-action study. I bet yours is low…mine was and I very rarely get sick, so don’t assume your vitamin D levels are good.

Magnesium and zinc are two important minerals that most people don’t get much of. And exercise only increases the need for these two minerals. I take a cheap zinc-magnesium supplement (ZMA) from NOW Foods most days of the week to make sure my zinc and magnesium levels stay at optimal levels where they can help with testosterone production.

And Finally, Try To Relax

Constant stress is an immune system killer. With our daily hustle and bustle, most of us are like racecars in the red. Eventually that engine is going to blow. We keep our cortisol levels sky-high with work stress, family stress, the stress of the commute, hurried lunches, and late nights.

So turn off the news, which tends to do nothing more than stress people out, and take up a hobby. And being outside in a natural setting, perhaps hiking or just hanging out at the park allows you to relax AND get some sun.

Why Is This So Important?

Boy, that sure sounds like a lot of work. Dropping sugar? Keeping more fresh food around the house? Supplements and sleep? Why not just take advantage of modern medicine and its ability to keep us well?

One simple reason: modern medicine does not keep you well. It typically does no more than mask the symptoms of the damage you are doing to yourself.

Do you want a prime example of how futile modern medicine is against illness? Study: Drug not working against flu:

With Tamiflu no longer effective against this particular flu strain, known as H1N1, physicians are turning to zanamivir, which has problems of its own. The drug, which is inhaled, is not recommended for some of the very populations that would need it most – very young children and people with respiratory problems

Drug-resistant flu, Methicillin-resistant Staph (MRSA), antibiotic-resistant bacteria…everytime we dose the population with drugs indiscriminately, we’re sowing the seeds of our own illness by creating these strains of bacteria and viruses that can resist our drugs.

You’re Your Only Hope

In the end, you can rely on modern medicine, which is very good at treating things like broken bones but not so good at keeping people healthy, to kill off every little bug. Or you can recognize that illness isn’t normal and there’s no reason that you should be laid up multiple times per year with a cold or the flu or strep throat.

You can recognize that there are people that stay healthy for years on end because they treat their bodies right. They eat right, they exercise, they sleep, and they avoid toxic environments. There’s no reason you can’t do the same.

That doesn’t mean you’ll never get sick. A couple weeks ago, I took my first sick day since sometime around 4th grade. Seriously. It’s been that long since I’ve felt bad enough to have to stay home from work or school. Okay, I might’ve missed a few college classes due to feeling bad, but that wasn’t driven by illness. Hah!

But remember that it takes time. You didn’t get 50 pounds overweight overnight, so you wouldn’t expect to lose 50 pounds overnight. You didn’t get to where you are in 3 months. This is just a set of things you can do to start feeling better. But it’s a journey you have to continue. And believe me that all the cookies in the world aren’t worth the feeling of vomiting your guts out.

Take charge of your health…live well, be well.

Any other advice on repairing the damage most people are doing to their bodies?

December 9, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Thursday December 10th, 2009

How Long Does It Take To See Improvement When Eating Real Foods?

By Scott Kustes

I don’t think anyone really argues that consuming a diet comprised of real foods leads to exquisite health. Sure, we may dicker a bit about what’s real food and what’s not, but by and large, 90% of the recommendations are for unprocessed foods. So let’s take a look at a recent study showing the effects of short-term Paleo-style eating:

Conclusions:Even short-term consumption of a paleolithic type diet improves BP [blood pressure] and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans.

Now, this was a small study, only 9 individuals, all non-obese, sedentary, and healthy. But nonetheless all markers of health are showing statistically significant movement in the right direction.

Improving Health…

So what mechanisms are at work here? It’s pretty easy to see why glucose tolerance, insulin secretion, and insulin sensitivity are all improving. While I can’t find a breakdown of the macronutrients in the subjects’ diets, I’m going to assume that a move from a standard diet to a Paleo-style diet resulted in a) a lower carb intake and b) a higher quality carb intake. The carbohydrates in a Paleolithic diet are unprocessed and bring along a load of vitamins and minerals that processed grains cannot match. As Stephan at Whole Health Source has pointed out before, it’s not necessarily high carbs that promotes ill health, but the type of carbs, specifically wheat.

And lipid profiles, i.e., cholesterol? Well, those of us that don’t believe the Cholesterol Hypothesis understand that cholesterol is typically the body’s response to inflammation. If a diet or lifestyle change results in less inflammation, cholesterol should go down as there is less need for repair. And high circulating insulin and sugar are a perfect recipe for causing arterial inflammation and damage.

…In How Many Days?!?

Note that all of these improvements are already occurring only ten days after moving from the normal diet to the Paleo-style diet. That proves to me that amazing ability of the body to begin healing once it’s given the right building blocks. I’d love to see longer trials to look at long-term effects. But until then, this does add to the growing evidence that ditching the grains (or at least the improperly prepared ones) and the pasteurized/homogenized dairy in favor of meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts improves health.

December 9, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

I know there’s a bunch of you sitting at work right now with nothing to read because we haven’t been posting workouts every day.  Naked windmills can only take you so far…  Our apologies for not providing entertainment for your coffee break, however, Coach Melisa dug up this article on sleep and weight management for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy…

Can more sleep really help us control our weight?
Three top experts explore the possibilities.
By Colette Bouchez

Lose weight while you sleep. It sounds like something you’d hear on a late night infomercial — just around the time you are reaching for that bag of cookies because, well, you can’t sleep.
But as wild as the idea sounds, substantial medical evidence suggests some fascinating links between sleep and weight. Researchers say that how much you sleep and quite possibility the quality of your sleep may silently orchestrate a symphony of hormonal activity tied to your appetite.
“One of the more interesting ideas that has been smoldering and is now gaining momentum is the appreciation of the fact that sleep and sleep disruption do remarkable things to the body — including possibly influencing our weight,” says David Rapoport, MD, associate professor and director of the Sleep Medicine Program at the New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
While doctors have long known that many hormones are affected by sleep, Rapoport says it wasn’t until recently that appetite entered the picture. What brought it into focus, he says, was research on the hormones leptin and ghrelin. First, doctors say that both can influence our appetite. And studies show that production of both may be influenced by how much or how little we sleep.
In fact, have you ever experienced a sleepless night followed by a day when no matter what you ate you never felt full or satisfied? If so, then you have experienced the workings of leptin and ghrelin.

Foods That Help or Harm Your Sleep and How Hormones Affect Your Sleep

Leptin and ghrelin work in a kind of “checks and balances” system to control feelings of hunger and fullness, explains Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta. Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite, while leptin, produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you are full.
So what’s the connection to sleep? “When you don’t get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don’t feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food,” Breus tells WebMD.
The two combined, he says, can set the stage for overeating, which in turn may lead to weight gain.

How the hormones leptin and ghrelin set the stage for overeating was recently explored in two studies conducted at the University of Chicago in Illinois and at Stanford University in California.
In the Chicago study, doctors measured levels of leptin and ghrelin in 12 healthy men. They also noted their hunger and appetite levels. Soon after, the men were subjected to two days of sleep deprivation followed by two days of extended sleep. During this time doctors continued to monitor hormone levels, appetite, and activity.
The end result: When sleep was restricted, leptin levels went down and ghrelin levels went up. Not surprisingly, the men’s appetite also increased proportionally. Their desire for high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods increased by a whopping 45%.

It was in the Stanford study, however, that the more provocative meaning of the leptin-ghrelin effect came to light. In this research — a joint project between Stanford and the University of Wisconsin — about 1,000 volunteers reported the number of hours they slept each night. Doctors then measured their levels of ghrelin and leptin, as well as charted their weight.

The result: Those who slept less than eight hours a night not only had lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin, but they also had a higher level of body fat. What’s more, that level of body fat seemed to correlate with their sleep patterns. Specifically, those who slept the fewest hours per night weighed the most.

One theory also says that it may not be the level of this hormone that matters so much as a person’s individual response to it. In much the same way that obese people can become resistant to insulin, some folks may be resistant to the fullness signal that leptin sends to the brain.

“It’s like the body is trying to tell them to stop eating, but their brain just isn’t getting the message,” says Breus.

Another theory: The overall response to leptin may be more individual than we think. Experts say our environment, dietary habits, exercise patterns, personal stress levels, and particularly our genetics may all influence the production of leptin and ghrelin, as well as our response to them.

The fact that we don’t know all the factors causes at least some experts to view all the research on sleep and weight with a cautious or skeptical eye.

“There is a serious challenge to the closing of the loop. That isn’t to say that what we know about leptin and ghrelin is not important, or that when we finally do understand it that it won’t be crystal clear — but right now it just isn’t,” Rapoport tells WebMD.
Breus agrees: “I think we are likely to find that bad sleep matters but that it’s likely to be bad sleep plus some other problems. I don’t think we know what they are yet.”

Sleep: You Can’t Lose

Until doctors do know more, most experts agree that if you are exercising and following a sound nutrition plan, logging in a few extra hours of sleep a week is not a bad idea, particularly if you get six hours of sleep or less a night. You may just discover that you aren’t as hungry, or that you have lessened your craving for sugary, calorie-dense foods.

“One thing I have seen is that once a person is not as tired, they don’t need to rely on sweet foods and high carbohydrate snacks to keep them awake — and that automatically translates into eating fewer calories,” says Breus.

Says Roca: “As research continues, more and more data comes to the forefront to suggest that you simply can’t cut back on sleep without paying some price.”

December 3, 2009 in WOD by MLC

Thursday, December 3rd 2009

For your reading pleasure, compliments of The Fitness Spotlight

Get Healthy Now: Eight Ways To Look Better, Feel Better, And Have Fun

It’s nearly Jan 1st, time for the dreaded “New Year’s Resolution” (a topic for another day). That means lots of people you know, and possibly you yourself, are going to be making a commitment to making positive health changes. So today is going to be one of those high-level posts that brings together lots of disparate pieces of information to build a complete view of what we really propose around here.

Why It Matters
But first, let’s take a look at why it even matters.
By 2034, nearly twice as many Americans will have diabetes and spending on the disease will triple, further straining the U.S. health system and testing the viability of Medicare and other government health insurance programs, U.S. researchers said on Friday. …. will rise from approximately 24 million people to 44 million people by the year 2034 …. “We anticipate that the cost of taking care of those people — and these are direct medical costs — will triple over the same period of time, going from $113 billion today to $336 billion (per year),” Huang said in a telephone interview.

Ouch! Today about 11% of Americans are diabetic, about 95% of those being Type II diabetic, the kind that comes from your lifestyle. That means it’s preventable. And even if you aren’t full-blown diabetic, there are plenty of other issues that come from an unhealthy lifestyle. You could say that this is my proposal to fix the healthcare system by keeping you from needing it.

So here are eight tips that will accomplish two goals for you: they’ll make you healthier. You’ll be sick less often. You’ll feel better. And more importantly, what we all really care about, you’ll look better. Your bulges will bulge less. Your clothes will fit better and you’ll need less of them to look great. Your confidence will go up. You’ll have fun in the process instead of trudging through more flavorless “healthy” meals and another boring workout.

1. Eat Real Food 90% Of The Time
To beat a dead horse once again, the cornerstone of your health is what you eat (and what you don’t eat). Most of your results come from what you eat. So start with just eating real food. What is real food? As I discussed before, food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly. Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either). Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements. Food doesn’t make health claims.

You might be thinking that eliminates a lot of foods, but really all it eliminates are food imposters, things designed to look, taste, and smell like food, but that destroy your body. Here’s a not-so-brief list of the foods you’re left with:

beef, chicken, turkey, pork, salmon, shrimp, crab, lobster, eggs, cheese. Spinach, kale, cucumbers, carrots, turnips, squash (spaghetti, butternut, and acorn to name a few), sweet potatoes, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, onions, radishes, bok choi, olives, cabbage. (Deep breath.) Apples, bananas, cherries, melons, berries (straw, black, rasp, and blue), pears. Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts. Coconut oil, palm oil, butter, olive oil. And let’s not forget herbs and spices like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (thank you Simon and Garfunkel), garam masala, curry powder, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and nutmeg.

Inevitably, there are a few gray areas like packaged bulk products, such as nuts and olives. I think you can probably figure these out on your own. If it is a natural product, something that doesn’t come from a laboratory, it’s fair game. Olives are fruits and nuts are…well, nuts. Don’t over-think things. You know what foods will make you healthier and what won’t.

If you need some help figuring out how to cook all of these new foods that have probably never been in your kitchen before, check out Nikki Young’s Paleo Cookbooks or Antonio Valladares’ Healthy Urban Kitchen.

2. Eat What You Want 10% Of The Time
I touched on how I handle treat meals a few weeks ago. Basically, I don’t schedule them, but just allow them to happen, knowing that the way I live the rest of the time pretty much keeps them from being any big deal.

But pick vices that you really enjoy. If chocolate cake isn’t your thing, don’t eat it. Wait for the pumpkin pie or whatever really tickles your fancy. Don’t eat junk just because it’s there. On that note, pick smart vices, like good dark chocolate or high-quality ice cream. Limit caffeine and alcohol, but you don’t have to completely eliminate them.

3. Train Hard, But Short
Next up, be active. Make movement a normal part of your lifestyle. You don’t have to train like you’re in the Olympics to be healthy and active. However, I do recommend some level of short-duration, high-intensity training.

4. Have An Active Lifestyle
The 45 minutes every day or two that you spend intensely training doesn’t mean you should sit around the rest of the time. Take a walk, go for a hike, ride a bike, throw a Frisbee or football, ski or snowboard…the possibilities are endless. Just turn off the TV and get outside for some fresh air and sunshine (see #6).

I think this is a key difference between people that struggle to make their life health-oriented and those that don’t. If you enjoy getting outside, enjoy walking around in nature, enjoy a bike ride (whether a leisurely ride or tearing it up on some trails), you won’t need to worry too much about whether you’re active enough. You’ll find reasons to get up and move just because it feels good.

5. Compete
I bet there are a lot of people that are going to disagree with me outright on this one. Competing often takes on a negative connotation and some seem to think we should avoid it for the most part. There’s no reason that it needs to be a negative. Competition can be quite the motivator and increase your enjoyment as long as it doesn’t become an obsession or keep you from enjoying what you’re doing.

Recreational sports leagues are great for getting a bit of competition, but keeping it fun. In the past 6 months, I’ve been in a co-ed softball league, a kickball league (yes, kickball!), and a flag football league. It’s not “exercise”…it’s being active without feeling like you’re “working out”. It’s competing, but it’s just for fun. There’s nothing on the line. I had a blast playing in all three of these leagues, though I think we only won 4 softball games, 3 or 4 kickball games, and 2 football games, which just shows that you don’t have to be great and win to have a great time.

Along with rec league sports, you can join any number of Master’s sports, from Track and Field to swimming, from Olympic weightlifting to powerlifting. I can vouch for Master’s Track and Field…it’s fun and there’s a competitive, but supportive, spirit of people with similar interests and camaraderie.

6. Embrace The Great Outdoors
I’m not talking about the John Candy movie. Anyone that’s been around here for more than a month has already been beat over the head with this information a few times. For the newcomers, here’s a tip: you need sunlight to be healthy. That’s not sunlight while slathered in chemicals to “protect your skin,” but sunlight on exposed skin.

Your body needs sunlight to make vitamin D. It drives your immune system. It staves off dementia. It helps your body fight off cancer. It looks like it might even improve muscle power.

That doesn’t mean to go sit in the sun for 8 hours with no clothes on. Just get some sun on exposed skin.

7. Sleep More
In today’s hard-charging, get-ahead, “success-oriented” society, sleep is one of the first things to go. It’s funny that sleeping less is viewed as a hallmark of success. Nutrition may be #1, but sleep is a close second place when it comes to how healthy you are.

How much should you sleep? 7.5 to 9 hours per night. Unfortunately, most of us have to get up early to get to work. That means you need to go to bed earlier. In the winter especially, when the sun is down early, you should be going to bed earlier. Rise and fall with the sun…okay, maybe not at 6pm, but try to be in bed by 10:30.

8. Relax
My final tip is to find simple ways to relax. We spend most of our time very wound up and stressed. Jobs, commutes, crazy bosses and coworkers, running to and from soccer and cheerleading practice…the list goes on. Add in a recession, possible money issues, “flu pandemics”, and the nightly news full of worldwide stressors and it’s no wonder we’re always so tense. With all that we have going on, few of us actually take the time to just chill out.

In the past couple years, I’ve come up with several things that help me to relax and unwind.

Playing Drums – I’ve talked before about the importance of having a hobby. Find a hobby that is both challenging and stress-relieving.
Reading Fiction – As much as I love reading and researching nutrition, fitness, and health, a good novel really helps me fall asleep. I’m currently about 1/3 of the way through The Count Of Monte Cristo. It’s always great to find a good page-turner.
Crossword Puzzles – It’s a challenge, it works my mind, and it’s fun.
Your relaxation may be different, but I think it’s key to come up with something that works for you. It might be yoga or cooking or knitting sweaters for your dogs. Stamp collecting, wood working, building marble rollercoasters (I had this when I was young and it was uber-cool!)…the possibilities are limited only by what you find fun.

I’ll tell you something else that I’ve done in the past few years…simplifying my life. I got rid of the superfluous items and kept only what I need and use. I don’t own a TV (which thoroughly confused the guy that showed up at my door to try to upsell me cable to go with my net connection) because I don’t watch it and don’t see a need to pay for cable TV that I don’t use. I don’t necessarily advise that for you, but it works for me. My residence is very uncluttered…enough furniture, a drum set, a few pictures that I really like, a well-stocked kitchen, and plenty of open space. It’s not all feng shui or anything, but it’s simple, yet sufficient.

Keeping “The Stool” Upright
I came up with an analogy awhile back that, while not perfect, works to illustrate how the various puzzle pieces fit together. I like to view health as standing on a stool and sickness as falling off the stool. The four legs are the major categories of Nutrition, Lifestyle (sleep, sunlight exposure), Environment (toxin exposure), and Activity (training and general active lifestyle).

If you think about the stool, it’s obviously easy to stay on top of it if all four areas are in place. If three areas are solid, you can probably stay upright most of the time. For instance, maybe you are a firefighter or doctor or EMT that works a non-traditional schedule. Your sleep is probably disrupted, so focusing on the other elements is even more important. You might get sick now and again, but for the most part, you’ll be healthy. Neglect two areas and that stool is very wobbly. Neglect three or more and you can forget about it.

Like I said, it’s not a perfect analogy. For one, I think the Nutrition “leg” is the most important one. Second, I find the various categories to be interdependent. The better I eat, the better I sleep. The more I sleep, the easier I find it to eat well. The better I eat and sleep, the better I recover from exercise. Regardless, it’s illustrative enough to work for me. Thoughts?

Let’s round out a full ten tips. I gave 8. If a friend asked you for ten tips to help them look and feel better, what would you add to this list? What would you drop?