Score More Marshmallows

Most of you have been with the program for almost a year. By now (especially during the holiday season) you are probably battling hard to keep your fitness regimen consistent – whether it’s about showing up, staying on your nutritional plan, or simply trying to maintain your workout intensity – you are constantly tempted to skip classes or ease up on your training routines.

Here are a few tips on how to stack the odds on your side:

1. Friends don’t let friends get lazy. Kudos to Arvind for dragging Joe to the class the other day (considering Joe is a much bigger dude). The battle is won when you get in the car and head to the gym. Once you are here, we can figure out a way to maximize your fitness level without much suffering. Be a true friend: don’t let your classmates fall behind – help get ‘em to the class on time.

2. It’s okay to sandbag your WOD (workout of the day) once in a while. On some days you probably just don’t feel like exercising, but you still make it to class. Let me know when you feel that way; perhaps the baby kept you up until 5 a.m., or maybe you’re still jetlagged from a coast-to-coast flight, or whatever. Once you show up and let me know your circumstances, we can scale the workouts to keep your intensity at a manageable level.

3. Apply S.A.A. – Strategic Allocation of Attention: Instead of getting obsessed with the desire to STOP – the “hot emotion” – practice distracting your mind with different things. Turn your training sessions into something manageable by disassociation. Don’t think about the workout as 10 minutes long. Instead, think of the class as “your play time.” When you struggle to finish an exercise such as jumping lunges, rather than thinking about how much longer before the timer will go off, try to focus on the next 2 jumps. Sal is famous for talking to himself that way. Just get the next 2 jumps, take a quick break, then focus on the next 2 jumps, and continue until the bell rings.

Don’t compare yourself with others: you fight your own battles. Your goal is to achieve your own personal record, NOT theirs. Focus on improving your own game instead of comparing your numbers with others’.

4. Making some noise, talking to yourself, swearing, etc. all have been scientifically proven to help reduce that uncomfortable burning feeling in your lungs [1]. That’s why I keep telling you silly jokes, reciting adolescent phrases, counting the reps, and asking you to translate “where do you come from?” in different languages. It’s all about managing your “hot emotion” – that desire to quit – and delaying it for about 10 minutes, or however long it takes to finish the session.

5. Give yourself a break. Whether you just barely missed your personal record (PR) or had a horrible boxing practice one day, don’t go crazy over it. Save the energy for the next workout. Use the missed opportunity as motivation for your next training session.

Never attempt to lift the weight unless you are 100% sure you can make it. If you’re getting hit by the same punch repeatedly, stop, take a break and think about defending that punch before going back into the ring. Don’t just keep on trying to muscle your way through it. You don’t get paid to train, so there is no point in risking injuries during sparring.

Remember: Durability is more important than ability! You accomplish nothing if you are on the injured reserved or unable-to-perform list.

6. Practice these simple techniques so they become part of your behavior. If you keep up the good behavior long enough, eventually they will become great habits.

Here at EP-fit, our goal is to turn your training into mindless habits. So when you make it, congratulation! You won’t need us anymore. When you graduate from our program, working out will be like brushing your teeth or taking a showers: you just do it; actually, you’d feel weird if you didn’t do it.

How cool is that?!

***************
Now onto something called Delayed Gratification (or Deferred Gratification) [2] Most of the quotes, data and results in this essay are derived from Jonah Lehrer’s article called “Don’t,” published in the New Yorker in 2009. Please keep in mind that I’m not singling anyone out in this blog. I’m just stating what has been proven in cognitive psychology and why we do things a certain way in EP-fit. The New Yorker article is free (see Reference #4), and I highly recommend that you read it (except you Prakash, you can stop reading now, wink).

The Marshmallow Experiment [3][4][5][6]

In 1972, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted a classic experiment. He left a group of 4-year-olds in a room with a bell and a marshmallow. If they rang the bell, he would come back and they could eat the marshmallow. If, however, they didn’t ring the bell and waited for him to come back on his own, they could then have two marshmallows.

Here is a video of the same type of experiment. [5] Watching the kids waiting for the adult to return can be uncomfortable, but at the same time so adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMkn4J_l9uU&feature=player_embedded

In the original experiment, the kids struggle to delay gratification for just a little bit longer –desperately trying to exercise self-control so they can wait and get two marshmallows. Some cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they can’t see the tray. Some lick or smell it but never take a bite. Some sing to it or turn the marshmallow into a toy. Others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal. One child, a boy with neatly parted hair, looks carefully around the room to make sure that nobody can see him. Then he picks up an Oreo, delicately twists it apart, and licks off the white cream filling before returning the cookie to the tray, a satisfied look on his face. Their scores varied widely. Some broke down and rang the bell within 30 seconds. Others lasted almost 15 minutes.

The children who waited longer went on to get higher SAT scores. They got into better colleges and had, on average, better adult outcomes. The children who rang the bell quickest were more likely to become bullies. They received worse teacher and parental evaluations 10 years later and were more likely to have drug problems at age 32.

For decades (even now) scientists and psychologist argued about which variable (nature or nurture) is the most reliable predictor in future success. Mischel argues that high level success is largely based on self-control: even the smartest kids still need to do their homework, or the most gifted basketball player, like Michael Jordan, still needs to practice.

“What we’re really measuring with the marshmallows isn’t will power or self-control,” Mischel says. “It’s much more important than that. This task forces kids to find a way to make the situation work for them. They want the second marshmallow, but how can they get it? We can’t control the world, but we can control how we think about it.”

Which bring us to this cliché: how bad do you want it?

Now that is something you hear all the time in the locker room. For the longest time, psychologists assumed that children’s ability to wait depended on how badly they wanted the second marshmallow. But it became clear very quickly that all kids wanted that extra marshmallow. Then what enables one kid to exert more will power than another?

Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, identified that the crucial skill was metacognition, [7] or its childhood version, “strategic allocation of attention.” Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely ignored. “If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,” Mischel says. “The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.”

Metacognition [6] or Strategic Allocation of Attention (SAA) is the thinking that actively controls other thinking; it’s what allows high-level performers to outsmart their shortcomings.

What’s astounding is that top performers as young as 4 years old started to figure out rules of thinking. According to Mischel, “The kids who couldn’t delay would often have the rules backward. They would think that the best way to resist the marshmallow is to stare right at it, to keep a close eye on the goal. But that’s a terrible idea. If you do that, you’re going to ring the bell before I leave the room.”

His conclusion on metacognition or SAA also helps explain why the marshmallow task is such a powerful predictive test. “If you can deal with hot emotions, then you can study for the S.A.T. instead of watching television,” Mischel says. “And you can save more money for retirement. It’s not just about marshmallows.” People who can delay gratification can sit through boring classes to get a degree. They make it to the gym on a regular basis. They can avoid certain temptations. For people without self-control skills, however, turning good behaviors into habits is a series of failed ordeals. No wonder they drop out. Life is a parade of less than ideal decisions: alcohol abuse, gambling, difficulty in maintaining relationships, financial issues, etc.

Here is the good news: deferred-gratification is a skill that can be learned.

When Mischel gave delayed gratification tasks to children from low-income families in the Bronx, he noticed that their ability to delay gratification was below average, at least compared with that of kids in Palo Alto. “When you grow up poor, you might not practice delay as much,” he says. “And if you don’t practice then you’ll never figure out how to distract yourself. You won’t develop the best delay strategies, and those strategies won’t become second nature.” In other words, people learn how to use their mind just as they learn how to use an iphone: through trial and error.

Mischel has found a shortcut. When he and his colleagues taught children a simple set of mental tricks—such as pretending that the candy is only a picture, surrounded by an imaginary frame—he dramatically improved their self-control. The kids who hadn’t been able to wait sixty seconds could now wait fifteen minutes. “All I’ve done is given them some tips from their mental user manual,” Mischel says. “Once you realize that will power is just a matter of learning how to control your attention and thoughts, you can really begin to increase it.”

Here is the caveat: It’s not enough to learn the mental tricks – the real challenge is turning the behavior into a habit – and that requires diligent practice (and awesome instructors).

This is where your environment is so important. We work very hard to create a place that focuses on turning your new found skills into mindless habits. It’s definitely no picnic. According to Mischel, in order for those learned behaviors to be drilled into your head, we (the coaches) need to established rituals that force you to practice the “delay” on a daily basis. Even the most mundane routines —such as warming up before exercising, or not snacking before dinner, or put money into your 401k, or those damn squat stretches — are really exercises in cognitive training: we’re teaching ourselves how to think so that we can outsmart our immediate desires.

Every coach models deferred gratification differently; I like to tell silly jokes or ask you dumb question like “where do you come from?”… Now you know why we do things the way we do.

At the end of the day, you still need to practice what you learn here, and you need to make EP-Fit a high priority in your routine. After all: you are what you practice, right?

See you at the gym =)

Reference

1. Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-swear

2. Deferred Gratification:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_gratification

3. The Marshmallow Experiment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

4. Don’t:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer

5. The video of the Marshmallow Experiment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/marshmallow-test-video-a_n_291086.html

6. Metacognition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition

You Are What You Practice

If you have ever participated in any organized sport or had a coach/trainer/teacher/etc… that has worked with you for any length of time, you’ll inevitably hear something like this:

You Are What You Practice

Here at EP-fit you often hear me harping on putting an effort into your investment. Because consistently making little changes to enhance your life quality is not much different than managing your personal finances. The only difference is that the fitness world is way less volatile than the Wall Street world. And your fitness portfolio is even easier to manage or predict than your investment portfolio.

After you pick a plan that fits your lifestyle goal – what you will get at the end is what you put in every month. So in that sense, there is no real difference between EP-fit and your 401k strategy.

How and what you practice will become you. It’s just like when you’re in college, how you study will usually determine your grades or what you practice in personal finances will be reflected by your credit score.

Powder and I have seen a lot of improvement from you guys recently. Kudos to all of ya!

Most of you have been doing the boxing training since March and despite the progress (opposite of congress) in order for you to make the jump to the next stage – from beginner to intermediate level – you need to consider some private training time to hammer those fundamentals down.

There is no magic to boxing – fundamental boxing is BOXING. Even at the pro level, if you don’t have your fundamentals down, you’re hedging on your natural talents to carry you through a fight. In any sport, most pros max out their fundamentals before ‘customizing’ their techniques to meet the demands.

And that bring us to this…

Powder is offering private training to EP-fitters – 12 sessions for $240, that’s $20 per session!!! Each session will be technique oriented designed to work on your fundamentals. It is NOT a conditioning class. So unless you wanted to burnout after 1-on-1, your strength and conditioning will come from our Monday to Wednesday’s sessions.

If you ever had any kind of private training, e.g. golf, personal training, communication, languages skills, shooting, pickup artistry, better sex, and so on and so forth, you know this rate is a STEAL.

Once you got it (the fundamentals) you will always have it and no one can take it away from you. The growth rate will depend on how much (practice) you put into it.

Straight from Powder’s syllabus:

1. Your fight stance or the proper body alignment.
2. The footwork, such as pivoting on your feet as you throw punches.
3. Breathing technique that will save your life!
4. The importance of relaxing.
5. The Jab and why it’s so valuable.
6. The Straight right.
7. The infamous left hook.
8. The Uppercuts.
9. Defensive techniques and drills (ex: catching, blocking).
10. Weight transfer from lower body (real power) to upper body.
11. Throw tricky combinations.
12. Discover your fighting style.
13. Counter punching.
14. Video feedbacks.

I’m definitely not saying you have to do these private trainings. And I’m DEFINITELY NOT trying to hard sell you Powder’s program. You know me better than that.

I’m a huge fan of specialized 1-on-1 trainings – they played a critical role in my own development. Especially in our society, any edge one can get will help that person to compete or secure the position against clueless Joes.

You will not find too many boxing trainers with Powder’s credential and dedication regardless where you are. From my experience, most of the boxing instructors I have met are MMA guys masked as boxing trainers. There is nothing wrong with MMA. I love MMA. When I used to live in Minnesota, I trained in a MMA gym called “The American Grit Academy”. But to truly understand the “sweet science”, you have to learn it from the specialists. Not from the general practitioners.

So there you have it. What do you want your EP-fit LifeStyle portfolio to look like? Your call =)

Why Fasting

Why I Like Intermittent Fasting:

1. It helps lose weight

2. It helps maintain target weight

3. It’s simple to execute

4. It helps improve performance

5. It helps lower the triacylglycerol concentration in the body

6. It helps shorten recovery time by increasing the natural production of HGH

7. It helps improve memory and fight age-related illness

Caution

8. People with diabetes or any type of abnormal metabolic conditions MUST NOT attempt fasting

9. Fasting should only be applied after you are “dialed-in” with your nutritional plan, sleep pattern, and workout habits. Intermittent Fasting is no match against crappy lifestyle choices.

The Takeaway

The fasting strategy is all-purpose, i.e. for sports performance, weight reduction, and lifestyle. Intermittent Fasting (IF) adds numerous health benefits and does not require a lot of effort. Even those who want to gain weight should experiment with it; just use it a lot less frequently.

The same strategy will apply to all body types and to both genders. As long as you don’t have any metabolic conditions such as diabetes, the fasting strategy I gave you will work the same via the same metabolic mechanism.

Now, for the biochem geeks who want to know in detail how our bodies respond to fasting, here is the long version of the blog (reading time approx. 25 minutes)…

Last week, when I was the ‘human target’ in our sparring session, my weight was around 177 lbs.  As most of you know, I normally walk around at 190+ lbs.  I dropped the weight to help increase my stamina and to be faster, so I can better keep up with Speedy Gonzales (aka Sal!).  The lighter weight did its job on stamina, but didn’t make any difference in running away from you-know-who (Sal).  So I’m going to bring my weight back up again.

How did I drop the weight?

Intermittent Fasting, IF.

The most proven method to lose weight is to restrict calories.  The studies indicate that the benefits of calorie restriction include improved memory ^[1], delayed physiological aging ^[2], and combating age‑related illness ^[3].  And one of the best ways to restrict calories is to use intermittent fasting.

The popular advice ^[4,5] in men’s magazines and numerous diet books is that eating 6 small meals a day is the best way to lose weight. So if it is popular then it must be true, right?

Not so fast.

These are the main arguments for the 6-meals-a-day plan:

1. It boosts resting metabolic rate via the thermic effect of food
2. It increases energy
3. It decreases appetite

While most of us would agree that eating more often decreases appetite, there is hardly anything out there that comes close to the consensus on the claims of improvement in the resting metabolic rate or an increase in energy ^[6].

Exercise is the only consistent way to elevate the resting metabolic rate ^[6,7,8].

Surprised?

Two reasons why I might recommend the 6-meals-a-day approach to a client:

1. If the client is a body builder or wants to gain weight;
2. If the client has bad eating habits. (randomly skipping meals is NOT fasting, by the way)

Here are the disadvantages of the 6-meals-a-day approach:

d1:  It’s hard to follow on so many different levels.
d2:  It lacks strong research data
d3:  See d1

Why I like the Fasting Method…

1. It’s much easier to execute.  It’s ON or OFF.  There is no guesswork.  I don’t have to set my alarm every 2 hours, nor do I have to measure my food every time I eat.  “Eyeballing” your portions is a guaranteed way to over eat. That is human nature.  Athletic training centers or the personal chefs for pro-athletes measure and weigh every raw material that goes into each meal for that very reason: humans are notoriously bad at guesstimating.
2. The benefits of fasting can easily be explained by metabolism.
3. It helps induce natural HGH production in the body, from 1.9µg/L to 11.0 µg/L after 60 hours of fasting ^[10].
4. It helps lower triacylglycerol concentration. High triacylglycerol in the bloodstream is linked to thickening of artery walls and increased risk of heart disease and stroke ^[15].
5. There are many supporting scientific research studies ^{[9,10,11,12,13,15]}.

How Does Fasting Work In Weight Reduction?

After we finish a meal, glucose and amino acids are absorbed by the small intestine into the blood, triggering the secretion of insulin.  This high insulin level soon after a meal promotes the uptake of amino acids by the muscles and stimulates protein synthesis, but it also promotes fatty acids production in adipose tissue (body fat).

Several hours after the meal, the blood glucose level starts to drop, resulting in decreased secretion of insulin.  When the fasting is prolonged to the point that our body’s carbohydrate reserves are exhausted, the metabolic process changes, shifting from glucose as the primary fuel to fatty acids – via gluconeogenesis by the liver.

During fasting, our body gets energy by oxidizing fatty acids released from adipose tissue.  Muscle shifts almost entirely from glucose to fatty acids for fuel.

Doesn’t Fasting Trigger Starvation AND Slow Down Metabolism?

Technically, yes but the number is negligible. After fasting for 60 hours, our resting metabolism rate slows down by 28 calories per day (that’s roughly equal to 3 mentos per day, a really tiny drop) ^[10].

But the return is tremendous. During fasting, our fat metabolism increases by a factor of 2.5, jumping from 46 cal/hr to 115 cal/hr ^[10].

Therefore at the normal fat burn rate of 46 cal/hr, it would take approximately 3 days to get rid of 1 lb (3500 cal) of body fat.  But in the fasting state, where the fat burn rate is 115 cal/hr, it’ll only take 1 day and 6 hrs to metabolize the same amount of fat.

Wanna lean out?  Go Fast!

Will Fasting Trigger Muscle Loss?

Yes, you’ll lose some muscle, but only a little, because our bodies want to preserve muscle.  Muscle loss is probably the worst nightmare for body builders and that’s why they prefer the 6-meals-method. Knowing how sensitive body builders are about their lean body mass, mentioning any muscle losses – regardless of whether it is real or imaginary – will trigger some kind of anxiety attack with those boyz.

In the wild, animals depend on being able to move rapidly to enhance their survival chances. This requires a large muscle mass, so muscle loss must be minimized.  Our metabolism is designed to meet that requirement.

Here is how:

After most of your glucose is used up and the glycogen in the liver is depleted, the liver forms large amounts of acetoacetate and d-3-hydroxybutyrate (ketone bodies) from acetyl CoA, because the Krebs cycle is unable to process all the acetyl units produced by oxidizing of fatty acids. So acetyl CoA is blocked from entering the Krebs Cycle by reducing oxaloacetate (the key compound for acetyl CoA to enter into the Krebs cycle). This forces the brain (and heart) to start using ketone bodies (generated from the triglycerides pathway) as fuel instead of glucose.  Once the brain is accustomed to using ketone bodies as the major energy source instead of glucose, the metabolism will switch to the triglycerides pathway, using fat as the main source of fuel.

Acetoactate is activated by converting succinyl CoA to acetoacetyl CoA.  The enzyme thiolase then converts acetoacetyl CoA back to acetyl CoA, which enter the Krebs cycle as fuel ^[13].

The effective conversion of fatty acids into ketone bodies and their use by the brain (and heart) markedly protect the muscle from proteolysis (protein breakdown).

Do Not Skip Meals Randomly!

The break down of 20 g/day of muscle during fasting compared with 75 g/day when you just skip meals is one of the main differences between fasting and starving yourself when you feel like it (aka the bulimic diet).  When you skip a meal while your body is still in glycolysis mode, your body will go after any glucose in your body.  The result of depletion of the liver’s glycogen means the activation of gluconeogenesis, but at this stage, this process merely replaces glucose that has already been converted into lactate and alanine by the peripheral tissues. Moreover, the brain oxidizes glucose completely to CO₂ and H₂O. Thus, for the net synthesis of glucose to occur, another source of carbon is required. Glycerol released from adipose tissue on lipolysis provides some of the carbons, with the remaining carbons coming from the hydrolysis of muscle proteins ^[13].

Off On A Tangent:

What happens when your body fat deposits are completely gone, when fasting has gone too long, and the only source of fuel that remains is proteins? This will force the metabolic process to accelerate the protein break down, starting with the internal organs’ muscle, and death inevitably results from a loss of heart, liver, or kidney function.

A typical well-nourished 154 lb American has fuel reserves totaling about 161,000 calories.  The energy needed for a 24-hour period ranges from about 1600 cal to 6000 cal, depending on the extent of activity. Thus, stored fuels suffice to meet caloric needs in starvation for 1 to 3 months.

Does Fasting Elevate Cortisol Levels?

Yes, but again not very much.  Fasting 12 to 60 hours raises the cortisol level (“the stress hormone”) from 339 nmol/L to 412 nmol/L ^[10]. In comparison, lack of sleep will put you in the 636 nmol/L level or higher Range ^[14].

Key Point

Here is the optimum order of implementation:  (1) establish good eating habits, (2) develop a solid sleep pattern, plus (3) EP-fit, then (4) play with IF.  Intermittent Fasting is no match against a crappy lifestyle, according to Robb Wolf, the Crossfit nutrition guru.

Traps

You need to stay on an eating schedule as close to the plan as possible.  Our metabolism is highly adaptable, but we need to train it so it will do what we want it to do. Do not skip meals randomly and think that is fasting – it is NOT, and you’ll suffer for no reason.

Do not over-stuff yourself at the first meal immediately after each fasting period.  Some over-eating is expected, but if you eat near double the calories prescribed, you’ll just hurt later.  It’s better to keep your calorie count as consistent as possible for all your meals (and this will make your next intermittent fasting period easier).

The first couple of times you fast, it’s quite possible that it may cause you some difficulty sleeping. But don’t give up.  Have a couple glasses of warm water to ease the discomfort, relax, and go back to sleep.

The hunger feeling is very manageable, because true starvation will require you to fast for weeks.  In 24 hours, our metabolism is still in a “fed” state. To completely alter our metabolic pathway to using triglycerides usually requires at least 60 hours of fasting. We just use the multiple intermittent fasts to trick our metabolism into thinking we have fasted for more than 60 hours.  The headaches, tummy aches, and other ‘hunger’ cues comes from the body having been conditioned to eat every few hours. These hunger cues are just learned behavior, and one can unlearn it.  After a few fasting intervals, the hunger cues will go away naturally on their own ^[16].

Caution

People with diabetes MUST NOT attempt fasting. A diabetic’s metabolism is different and requires a different strategy for weight management.

The Takeaway

Want to lean out?  Let intermittent fasting become part of your lifestyle.  The benefits are many, and it doesn’t take much to get used to it.  Many weekend warriors, boxers, wrestlers, dancers, and metros have mastered this simple art of caloric restriction.  Give it a try; the results may surprise you.

References

1. Caloric restriction improves memory in elderly humans

Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, 48129 Münster, Germany (received for review September 4, 2008)

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/4/1255.full

2. Caloric Restriction and Delayed Biological Aging in Humans

School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, Scotland, UK from American Society for Nutrition J. Nutr. 137:1078-1086, April 2007

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/4/1078

3.  Reduced diet thwarts aging, disease in monkeys

Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

http://www.news.wisc.edu/16889

4. Eat 6 Meals a Day for Maximum Weight Loss

Kim Roach is the Fitness Reporter at HealthyEveryDay.com, where you will find healthy diet recipes, fitness articles, and information

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/eat-6-meals-daymaximum-weight-loss.html

5. Healthy Dieting: Eat 5 Meals a Day and Lose Weight!

By sacha tarkovsky

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/healthy-dieting-eat-meals-lose-weight.html

6. 3-Hour Diet or 3 Meals a Day?

By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, LD WebMD Weight Loss Clinic – Feature

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56254

7. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

8. Attenuation of age-related changes in mouse neuromuscular synapses by caloric restriction and exercise

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA

February 20, 2010, http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/07/26/1002220107.abstract

9. Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury from calorie intake

Laboratory of Neurosciences, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD

http://www.pnas.org/content/100/10/6216.full

10.  Fuel and energy metabolism in fasting humans

Am J Clin Nutr 1994;60:29-36. © 1994 American Society for Clinical Nutrition

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/60/1/29.pdf

11. Fasting, lipid metabolism, and triiodothyronine in rat gastrocnemius muscle: interrelated roles of uncoupling protein 3, mitochondrial thioesterase, and coenzyme

Journal Online by The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/02-0839fjev1

12.  Plasma Acetone Metabolism in the Fasting Human

The American Society for Clinical Investigation, Inc. 0021-9738/79/04/0619/08 Volume 63 April 1979 619-626

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC371996/pdf/jcinvest00676-0075.pdf

13. Food Intake and Starvation Induce Metabolic Changes

The National Center for Biotechnology Information, NCBI, The Integration of Metabolism

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=stryer&part=A4355

14.  Cortisol in Blood

WebMD Author: Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS; Specialist Medical Reviewer Alan C. Dalkin, MD – Endocrinology

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/cortisol-14668?page=2

15. Alternate-day fasting and chronic disease prevention: a review of human and animal trials

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 1, 7-13, July 2007

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/86/1/7

16.  Fasting for Weight Loss, Increased Human Growth Hormone, Immunity, and Longevity. The Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle

Chris LeCron, Associated Content, November 01, 2009

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2345910/fasting_for_weight_loss_increased_human.html?singlepage=true&cat=51

Muscles – Some Is Good, More Is Better, Biggest Is Just Right

Hey Jason, I wanna gain a bunch of muscles so I can bench press you. Oh, and explain to me how our bodies produce muscles.  Thanks.

- P. Diddy Gandhi

Ha! I’m just messing with ya Prakash.  But you do ask a very good question that occupies the minds of most gym nuts.

How do we gain more muscle?

Two words:  Protein Synthesis.

Protein Synthesis involves 3 major stages ^[1]:

1.  Amino Acid Synthesis – Amino acids come from metabolic pathways as the building material for the protein synthesis.  10 of the 20 amino acids the body can manufacture by itself, but the other 10 amino acids we must obtain from food sources.

2.  Transcription – Transcription happens in the cell nucleus (where the genetic information is stored) when cells want to make more proteins.  In transcription, cells create the blueprints for the type of protein they want to synthesize. Then they send the design documents outside of the nucleus via FedEx to the manufacturing sites that make proteins.

3.  Translation – The manufacturing sites where proteins are generated are located in the cell cytoplasm (inside the cell membrane but outside of the nucleus).  When the design documents arrive, the manufacturing site uses the blueprints to make proteins using amino acids as the building material.  Once the final product is made, it is shipped to the proper location to perform its duty.  For the purposes of our discussion, the proteins are shipped to the muscle cells to make muscles bigger and stronger.

There are many stimuli for cells to signal protein synthesis: injuries, infection, cancer, etc.  But for the purpose of muscle-building, we’ll only need to focus on 2 ways:

Eating ^[2][3][4][5] and Exercising ^[6][7][9].

Duh, that’s common sense! Don’t need a biology degree to know that! (You said)

That’s right.  From various experimental studies, we have found that food induces the insulin production that promotes protein synthesis, and fasting reduces it.

And what about exercise? Exercise makes insulin more efficient at stimulating protein synthesis. Exercise also increases the rate at which cells signal for more protein.

But before you throw egg whites and protein shakes at yours truly, consider this…

Every year millions of “research” dollars get thrown into advertising telling you that there are new and improved ways to get bulging biceps, a chiseled chest, and rock-hard abs.  How often do you get tempted?

Remember the electro-stimulation machines used in physical therapy that promised the effect of 250 push-ups in 5 minutes without breaking a sweat?  How about supplements such as nitric oxide or L-arginine that dilate your blood vessels to create that pumped muscle look for hours at a time?  Or some Acai extract that will help you lose 2 dress sizes in 5 days without lifting a finger.

Yeah, I thought so.

Just open a body building magazine and you’ll read more advertisements disguised as ‘cutting edge’ research articles telling you the latest and the greatest gadgets and supplements that will ‘fry’ your tri’s and gain 20 lbs of pure muscles in 10 days.  Before you know it, you are standing in the nearest GNC store waiting to get your hands on the latest amino acids, King Kong extract… or suffer the humiliation of not looking like the next Arnie.

It’s easy to get distracted by the noise, isn’t it?  That’s okay, we all have been there (myself included; shameful, I know).

The point is… all you need is to focus on the fundamentals. Boringly consistent is far more effective then quick, exotic gimmicks.

Here at EP-Fit, the game plan is simple:

1.  Focus on the quality of food

2.  Eats lots of meats and vegetables

3.  Workout regularly (and frequently with weights)

4.  Drink milk to gain weight (if you’re not lactose intolerant or allergic to it)

5.  Take fish oil and multi-vitamins (without iron) daily.

So to build muscle we need to consume more protein, but what kind?

Animal proteins are better than vegetable protein, in general.  Animal proteins contain all the essential amino acids, but vegetable versions usually lack one or more essential amino acids.  For athletes, casein and whey are the proteins of champions.  For long-term use, casein is the best for promoting protein synthesis.  And for the short term, whey provides the best initial benefit ^[8].

And where can you find abundant amounts of casein and whey?

MILK.

A quart of 2% milk will cost much less than a designer protein drink endorsed by Mr. Wielder.  And they both do the same thing – induce hyperinsulinemia – a fancy way to say it gets a lot of insulin in your bloodstream.

As for the meals, unless you’re an elite athlete, it’s better to get proteins from solid food than from meal replacement liquids.

What about the timing of drinking milk?

The best time to consume milk is within 60 minutes after training ^[9].

Interestingly, if you want to take pre-workout supplements, amino acids + sucrose (table sugar), should be taken immediately before the workout to maximize effectiveness.  The amino acids and sugar combo helps, but don’t expect your muscles to pop out of your skin any time soon.  The results stated in Rasmussen’s study was deemed over-reaching 3 years later by Ratamess and colleagues in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research ^[9].

The Take Home Message:

Just have a glass of milk within an hour after your weight training (and try NOT to over-train).

One Cautionary Note:

The low-carb diet that helped so many people and promoted the lean muscular physique is no magic bullet.  In August 2009, a team of Harvard medical researchers did an experiment that fed mice the low-carb diet for 12 weeks and the results showed that the mice that were fed the low-carb diet had the least weight gain – almost 30% less – as expected.  However, they also found:

…a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues deprived of blood flow, as might occur during a heart attack ^[10].

And the study discovered that… all the mice’ standard cardiovascular risk indicators, such as cholesterol, showed normal or slightly favored the low-carb diet group, despite the obvious evidence of vascular damage ^[10].

So the key here is that a low-carb diet is effective, but don’t overuse it.  According to the EP-Fit game plan, rule #2 is to eat lots of meats and vegetables. Vary the percentage of protein regularly to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis.

Do you need to be on the low-carb diet to have a muscular and lean physique?  Of course not; our own boxing trainer, “Powder,” consumes only about 20% protein.  Compare that to my protein consumption, which wavers between 30% to 80%. And we all know who is beefier and leaner (hint:  it’s not me).

Hope this helps, and next time I see you, Prakash, I have a new movement to show you – Muscle UP!

References

1. Protein Biosynthesis Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_biosynthesis

2. Effect of Physiologic Hyperinsulinemia on Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis and Breakdown in Man

Robert A. Gelfand and Eugene J. Barrett

Department of Internal Medicine and the General Clinical Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

J. Clin. Invest.© The American Society for Clinical Investigation, Inc. 0021-9738/87/07/0001/06, Volume 80, July 1987, 1-6

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3298320

3.  Feeding activates protein synthesis in mouse pancreas at the translational level without increase in mRNA

Maria Dolors Sans,¹ Sae-Hong Lee,¹ Louis G. D’Alecy,¹ and John A. Williams^1,2

Departments of ¹Molecular and Integrative Physiology and ²Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 287: G667-G675, 2004.

http://ajpgi.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/287/3/G667

4.  Regulation of protein synthesis by insulin

C.G. Proud

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z3, Received 14 September 2005

Biochemical Society Transactions (2006) Volume 34, part 2 @ 2006 Biochemical Society

http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/bst/034/0213/0340213.pdf

5.  AMP-Activated Protein Kinase, AMPK

Michael W. King, Ph.D, Molecular and Developmental Biology

Studies of Gene Function in Regeneration, Early Development and Cancer

http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/ampk.html

6.  Exercise Stimulates the Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Pathway in Human Skeletal Muscle

Doron Aronson,* Mariona A. Violan,‡ Scott D. Dufresne,* David Zangen,* Roger A. Fielding,‡ and Laurie J. Goodyear*

Research Division, Joslin Diabetes Center, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School; and

The Department of Health Sciences, Sargent College of Allied Health Professions, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

J. Clin. Invest.© The American Society for Clinical Investigation, Inc. 0021-9738/97/03/1251/07, Volume 99, Number 6, March 1997, 1251–1257

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC507939/

7.  Mixed muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise in humans

S. M. Phillips, K. D. Tipton, A. Aarsland, S. E. Wolf and R. R. Wolfe

AJP – Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 273, Issue 1 E99-107, Copyright © 1997 by American Physiological Society

http://0-ajpendo.physiology.org.library.pcc.edu/cgi/content/abstract/273/1/E99

8.  PROTEIN – WHICH IS BEST?

Jay R. Hoffman and Michael J. Falvo

The Department of Health and Exercise Science, College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, USA ©Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2004) 3, 118-130

http://www.jssm.org/vol3/n3/2/v3n3-2pdf.pdf

9.  Protein Intake: Effect of Timing

Jay R. Hoffman,PhD, FACSM,FNSCA

College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, December 2007 • Strength and Conditioning Journal © National Strength and Conditioning Association Volume 29, Number 6, pages 26–34

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Abstract/2007/12000/Protein_Intake__Effect_of_Timing.5.aspx

10. Low-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis and impaired blood vessel growth

Bonnie Prescott

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, August 24, 2009

http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/low-carb-diets-linked-atherosclerosis-and-impaired-blood-vessel-growth

Does milk really… “DO A BODY GOOD”?

Why is it that every time milk is mentioned in a discussion on nutrition, someone is going to have a cow!?

When we talk about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and dairy… dairy has one unique property that deserves a special category.

It has a low glycemic index value but induces high insulin responses.

Contrary to the glycemic index rule that most of carbohydrates, proteins and fats follow pretty closely, low glycemic index = low insulin response, milk does the exact opposite.

So what does it means? Why do we care about insulin?

Insulin is the master hormone that regulates our metabolism, when insulin goes wild, it can lead to the following:

1. Weight gain

2. Wild energy swings

3. Higher difficulty in managing stress hormones

4. Cognitive impairment (thanks to those crazy stress hormones)

5. Pre-Diabetic condition

Still need more reasons why we want to control our insulin responses? Just google pre-diabetic condition and you’ll get the gist.

Case closed right?

Now that we have established that milk is all bad, all the time, do we still need to revisit the original question…

While cow milk is definitely good for the cows, can it be good for humans?

The short answer is yes.

Here is where your humble servant will, deviate from the norm and, tell you that in the following 2 cases milk can have tremendous benefits.

Because of its insulin spike property, milk is extremely useful for those who are looking to gain weight (i.e. body builders, football players, anorexic meterosexuals, etc…)

If you’re at your ideal weight and need faster recovery after HIT (High Intensity Training), there is no better pound-for-pound recovery drink than 2% chocolate milk.

Soy and almond milks can work as milk substitutes but if you’re looking for the edge in post-workout recovery – chocolate milk and some sweet potato, immediately after each workout (within 20 minutes), will replenish glycogen in your liver and reduce muscle damage faster than most of the fancy sports drinks in GNC.

So What Is the Take Home Message…

If you want to lose weight – drop dairy.

If you want to stay alert – drop dairy.

If you want to reduce episodes of insulin gone wild – Drop You-Know-What.

However…

If you want to gain weight – add dairy.

If you are seeking help in post workout recovery – go to the dark side – add 2% chocolate milk.

There you have it. Is milk good for YOU? You decide =)

References

1. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 5, 1246-1253, November 2004

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/5/1246

2. The Endocrine Society Journals, doi:10.1210/en.2004-0607, Vol. 146, No. 3 1382-1390

http://endo.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/146/3/1382#SEC3

3. Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 10, 3247-3254

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/10/3247

4. Washington Post 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601348.html

5. Los Angeles Times 2006

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/13/health/he-choco13

6. The Scientific American 2008

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-soy-milk-healthier

The F Oil

F stands for Fish.

Why fish oil? It’s one of the most common questions I get from people. Not a big fan of supplements? I don’t blame you. Yours truly, for many years, have experimented with a lot of fancy supplements that flood GNC and other health stores to try to find that secret cocktail that will make athletes stronger, faster, and recover in no time.

But at the end – it still comes down to basic nutrition – more precisely it’s the quality of food you put into your body that will help you the most.

So what’s so special about the fishes?

It’s the Omega-3 fatty acids.

There are 3 major omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) that are relevant to us nutritionally:

C18, alpha-Linolenic acid (ALA)
C20, Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
C22, Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids that we need and can only be obtained from certain foods.

Benefits

Research indicates that n-3 FA can:

1. Reduce body fat
2. Reduce VLDL (bad cholesterol) and Triglycerides
3. Reduce inflammation
4. Lower blood pressure
5. Lower risk of cardiovascular disease
6. Improves cognitive and behavioral functions

I’m going to discard alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) commonly found in Flaxseed oil from this blog. ALA comes in the form of C18, or 18 carbon chain, instead of EPA (C20, 20 carbon chain) or DHA (C22, 22 carbon chain). Although, flaxseed oil has been shown to reduce triglycerides and VLDL cholesterol, it has NOT been shown to have the same benefits as its longer carbon chain cousins, EPA or DHA. ALA also needs to be converted to EPA or DHA to be more effective. For diabetics and schizophrenics that lack the ability to convert ALA to EPA and DHA, excessive ALA may lead to some forms of cancer but more studies in this area are required.

DHA is the most ideal form of n-3 FA that we want.

(So next time when you hear some genius tell you that flaxseed oil is the same as fish oil grab the bottle from them and whack them on the head with it and yell… IT’S NOT THE SAME!!! Is it the same if I smack you 18 times instead of 22 times !!!)

It’s also important to balance the ratio between omega-6 & omega-3 fatty acids. Aim for a ratio of 3:1 (ideally 1:1 is what you want but realistically 3:1 will hit the 85% mark).

The western diet typically put us in the ratio of 20:1.

Omega-6 fatty acids (n-6) is also an essential nutrient to us, but they are so much more volatile and inflammatory that you need to balance them out. Omega-3 FA (which helps to reduce inflammation) is a must to ensure metabolic functions stay in the optimal state.

CONS

Of course there are cons, what do you expect? Notice the amounts I gave you is well under the overused guideline. Over 3 grams/day is normally considered overused which can cause:

a. Increased bleeding. Fish oil should be used cautiously by people who bruise easily, have a bleeding disorder, or take blood-thinning medications including warfarin (Coumadin) or clopidogrel (Plavix). High doses of omega-3 fatty acids may increase the risk of bleeding.

b. Hemorrhagic stroke (only in the case of very large doses). Again due to its blood thinning effects, at very large doses, it can cause some serious damage.

c. Reduced glycemic control among diabetics. People with type 2 diabetes may have slight increases in blood sugar levels after 8 hours of fasting when taking fish oil, so take fish oil under medical supervision.

d. Fish oil can cause gas (rarely), bloating, belching, and diarrhea. If you experience such side-effects, taking it in time-release capsule form will help.

So why take fish oil?

To paraphrase my old Cal Poly alumni Weird Al – Just take It.

References

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 5, 1267-1274, May 2007

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/85/5/1267

University of Maryland Medical Center Medical Reference Complementary Medicine

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm

U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10889793?dopt=Abstract

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid

Free Your Mind

Free Your Mind – there is no spoon =)

Next week will be our last week of the EP-fit program. After 3 weeks, you should probably start to notice some subtle (or not so subtle) changes in your body – hopefully for the better.

What I will use to gauge your progress (without sending you to your doctors to get the expensive blood work and body scan) is by asking you the following 3 questions:

1) Are you feeling better?

2) Are you looking better in your bathing suit? And

3) Are you performing better?

I don’t know the answer for the first 2 questions but the last one is definitely a yes and our next week’s result will prove it. (So far all the numbers indicate that we should have a breakout day soon).

One of the main purposes of our 10 minute workload is to maximize your metabolic conditioning (the energy transfer pathways for any activity) and VO2 Max uptake (aerobic endurance). An easy way to estimate how effective our 10 minute workout is by measuring your heart rate immediately after the finish, and see how fast you recover after 5 or 10 minutes.

What I have seen so far, with the exception of couple people, your heart rate is a little low. We are aiming at 80% -> 90% of your maximum heart rate.

Here is the easiest way to estimate your max HR:

217 – Your age = MHR and then

80% of your MHR = your training heart rate.

I know by now you are probably all sick and tired of me yelling “FREE YOUR MIND” to UNLOCK the mental-block.

But there is another trick you can use to get to your training heart rate up – THINK FAST!!!

UBER FAST as in The Fast and the Furious. Think FAST will help push your nervous system to get close to the 90% activation level – and that’s the level where we want to train at. (100% activation is only achievable thru electro-shock but hey I can arrange that if you like, I’m here to serve).

So that’s it. Easy! The workout is only ten minutes long. It used to take that long just to reboot my laptop. All you have to think about in those 10 minutes is FREE-YOUR-MIND and think FAST.

Piece of Cake… right?

Hope these training tips help. See you at the play ground tomorrow. Can’t Wait!

J