Basic Workout

Most people we meet are looking for a very basic workout for those with a limited amount of time. The workout below is designed to workout the entire body and focuses on some of the most important exercises. Before we get into the individual exercises lets provide some bullet points on how this routine should be executed:

Aerobics

Begin with at least 20 minutes of any form of aerobics. This will burn calories and warm your body.

Stretching

Stretch at any time between doing the weight exercises. Be careful not to allow your heart rate to decline significantly. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 1 minute.

Sets

Perform roughly 14 to 20 sets per workout

Weight and Reps

The weight should be heavy enough so that completing 6 repetitions is challenging. Many people are under the impression that they should be doing more repetitions in order to increase endurance and create muscle tone. Weights are not the best method for building endurance. Weights are best used for building strength and increasing muscle mass. Everyone, not just athletes need both of these things. Research demonstrates that most the muscle fibers drop out of the exercise after around 11 seconds, and further repetitions are not conducive for building strength.

Cadence

See the post on this blog on negative training for details on this

http://healthimprove.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/do-not-focus-on-max-lifts/

Generally, the upstroke should take roughly one second, while the downstroke should take roughly 3 seconds.

Individual Exercises

Day 1: Shoulders and Chest

1. Bench Press
2. Downward Cable Flys
3. External Cable Rotation Bottom to Top (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, using a handle attatchment and with the cable controller at the ground level, begin with holding  the cable handle down and your holding arm across your body, raise handle at an angle in line with the cable)
4. External Cable Rotation Top to Bottom (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, using a handle attatchment and with the cable controller at the highest level, begin with holding  the cable handle upward and your holding arm across your body, lower handle at an angle in line with the cable)
5. Cable Lateral Pull Down (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, with the cable controller at the highest level, holding both handles high, pull both handles down until your hands touch your hips.)

Day 2: Legs

1. Deadlift
2. Squat (start off with low weight and focus very heavily on your form. Squatting can take months to perform properly)
3. Lunge (as many as you can complete, either side, front, back or plie lunge)

Day 3: Back

1. Pull Up (either with bodyweight, or with  the help of a machine)
2. Close Grip Pull Up (either with bodyweight, or with  the help of a machine)
3. Diagonal Pull Down (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, with the cable controller at the highest level, holding both handles high, and while on your knees, pull both handles in, but pulling your elbows into your sides.)
4. Seated Cable Row

Day 4: Midsection

1. Hanging Leg Lifts
2. Cable Wood Chop Down (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, with the cable controller at the highest level, using a rope extension and holding with both hands, pull the cable across you body, focusing on powering the exercise with your midsection)
3. Cable Wood Chop Down (standing in the middle of a cable crossover machine and facing the mirror, with the cable controller at the lowest level, using a rope extension and holding with both hands, pull the cable across you body, focusing on powering the exercise with your midsection)
4. Swiss Ball Curl (Laying back on a Swiss Ball and positioning a dumbbell on your chest, crunch upwards, then release, allowing your head and shoulders to drop back and allowing your back to take the shape of the ball.)

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Keep The Sugar to a Minimum

Simple Sugar Sources There are four very significant categories of sources of simple sugars in the US diet:

1. Soft drinks, mixed drinks, iced tea and smoothies
2. Fruit drinks
3. White bread, potatoes and rice
4. Ice cream, cake, pastries

It is as surprise to many that white bread and rice fall into the simple sugar category. They certainly don’t look like sugar or taste sweet, however, their lack of fiber means that they are metabolized by the body as simple sugars. Smoothies are another food that catches people off guard. Yes, they often contain nutrient rich fruits, but stripped of their fiber (many smoothies are supplemented with fruit juices) they contain large amounts of simple sugars. Problems with Simple Sugars These sugars are a problem because simple sugars have the following traits:

1. They are calorically “dense”
2. They convert to fat very quickly
3. They do not satisfy hunger long term
4. They cause your pancreas to excrete insulin (which is hard on the body and hard on the pancreas and can lead to insulin resistance)
5. They are poor for creating and maintaining energy, and a diet with a moderate to high amount of sugar will result in low energy levels as the body spends its time regulating sugar levels. Its important to realize that humans did not evolve with access to such high concentrations of sugar and the body is basically not designed to deal with it.

The Understanding of Simple Sugars There is a large discussion and understanding that its goods to stay away from fats (which is only partially true as it ignores the quality of fats) however, much more poorly understood is the effects of sugars on weight and health. For instance, sugars can cause people to gain fat as easily as those following a high fat diet. Simple sugars are similar to fat in that they are both calorically dense. Simple sugar is converted to fact very quickly in the body.
Substitutes
Plain Sugar

We have had a lot of success replacing white sugar with Splenda (while only a few years in the marketplace, the underlying chemical of Splenda – Sucralose was invented in 1971) Read more about Sucralose at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda.

It is one of the few sugar substitutes that tastes like real sugar, this is very much unlike the taste of Nutrasweet or the abysmal Saccharine. However, the problem is that Splenda is most likely a cancer causing chemical which is completely hazardous to the environment. It contains free chlorine, which is a main component of chlorine gas, and is a known carcinogenic. Much better is Stevia, which is an all natural sugar substitute.

Drinks
The amount of soda Americans drinks has increased radically in the past several decades. As people move to adulthood, they often move to diet drinks. However, diet drinks have a large amount of phosphoric acid (this is what gives the drinks their “tangy” bite). The problem with phosphoric acid is that it is such a strong acid it cause the body to look for a base in order to neutralize it. The body is particular about keep a certain blood PH as it both is optimal for cell activity and is important for neurotransmitter function. The largest available store of a base is in the bones, therefore, the body will leach calcium from the bones in order to bring the blood PH back into balance. For this reason alone, diet drinks should be avoided. However plain water becomes tiresome to drink.

Electronic Exercise Helpers

Exercise can be greatly enhanced with feedback. Two tools we have found very helpful include heart rate monitors and stopwatches.

Heart Rate Monitor

We have used Polar heart rate monitors for over 9 years and find them very necessary for understanding the right intensity for training. We prefer models that can both count the heart rate and calculate the number of calories burned. (Polar is a good brand, but be careful as we have found them fragile) There are very much more sophisticated models that tan estimate fitness level and provide computer output that can be very important for competitive athletes, however for normal people, just the heart rate and calories burned is fine. This is important for weight management as you can set the amount of exercise to match your weight loss goals. For instance we try to burn at least 900 calories per day. If we only get into 500 calories in one session, we know we have to come back for a second session to burn the next 400. Furthermore, if we have one hour to work out, but have only burned 300 calories, we know we need to pick up the pace.

Timer / Stopwatch

The second very useful electronic helper we have used is a timer or stopwatch. This is for stretching. Most people do not hold their stretches for adequate amounts of time. Its been shown that it takes around a minute for muscles and fascia to fully stretch. Without a timer of some type the inclination is to focus on the time mentally and this reduces how much you can get into the stretch. With a timer you can set it and forget about time until the stretch is complete.

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Do Not Focus on Max Lifts

How strong are you? How much do you bench press? How much can you squat?

These are the typical questions faced by people who exercise with weights. However this can lead to a significant misunderstanding regarding what are beneficial goals. For laypeople weight training falls into two classifications:

1. Lifting heavy weight low reps which results in bulk and strength
2. Lifting lighter reps more reps and attaining tone

Both of these extremes are actually quite misleading. For instance, building bulk does not necessarily build all that much strength. Secondly, the term “tone” is undefined. To most people it means a smaller more defined muscle. However, people can have small untoned muscles while large bodybuilders can have large muscles that are quite tone. Also, this subject of tone is often exclusive of the discussion of bodyfat. Those with high body fat can be very powerful but will not show tone, while those with a low bodyfat may have low muscle mass but may be quite tone. Some people even think you can make a “longer leaner muscle” and may be surprised to learn that no matter what you do, you muscles will stay the same length. They have to as they connect to the joints. A lengthened muscle would end up with a longer person, which outside of some medieval torture racks has never happened.

Form and Speed

Something very much ignored when attempting to lift a lot of weight is the form and the speed. For instance, by using poor form and by radically accelerating the weight, a person can maximize the weight they can lift. Not coincidentally, this is the way many people (particularly those who really want to get stronger) work out. In fact, without controlling for the form and the speed as well as the depth of the excersise (i.e. how far they complete the repetition) its very difficult to say anything about a person’s strength level. Furthermore, strength in the gym does not translate directly to strength in the real world, although there are a number of things a person can do to make their gym workout translate much better than most.

Importance of Negatives

Rather that focusing on lifting the maximum weights on the upstroke, scientific studies indicated that the majority of benefit of weights comes on the down stroke, or the “negative.” Furthermore, the down stroke needs to be performed very slowly, and should take close to 3 seconds in fact. Weights that can be moved this slowly on  the down stroke are much lower than those that can be performed when the down stoke is performed swiftly. Most people exercise focusing on the positive or the upstroke. With negative training, we can get multiple benefits:

1. Better control over weight which translates better to real world strength
2. Protecting joints and connective tissues
3. Better muscular stimulation

The one downside, particularly for those with their ego strongly tied to their training is that the weight used must be decreased.

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Legs

Legs are on typically the last body part that people learn now to train, and most people never learn to train them correctly. There are at least a few reason for this:

Why Legs May Be Under-emphasized in Many Training Routines

• Legs are less of a focus than the upper body from the perspective of what society focuses on, this is particularly true for men
• Leg training requires more intensity than most non-athletes can muster. Leg training pulls into effect a higher percentage of the body’s overall muscle mass, meaning that there is a larger load put in the bodies lungs and midsection making leg training strenuous
• Many people are convinced by misinformation that leg weight training causes or will exacerbate their knee or back weaknesses. (On the contrary, the health of both the knee and back almost requires resistance training, although very heavy leg training can certainly lead to injury)
• Most people, even those that regularly lift weights never learn the correct form to do free weights for legs properly
• There is a myth that legs can be adequately trained by running, walking or other non-resistance methods

Tips for Good Leg Training

• Learn how to position your body to train your legs to build real power. This will translate into aesthetics as well
• Do not use machines for legs. Machines are bad enough for the upper body, but even worse for training the lower body. Even more than the upper body, the lower body must learn how to handle weights in a 3 dimensional world which includes balance and stabilization
• Train legs with intensity. Training legs give you a good opportunity to use the whole body in many exercises and is critical for teaching the body how to work together as a functional unit
• Do not focus on the calf muscle in the gym. Calves are difficult to train with weights and respond better to running on inclines
• Train slowly. Slow movements are particularly important not putting undue pressure on joints (except for the clean). The distances moved when training the lower body are much larger than those from training the upper body so its important to control the weight to be kind to your joints
• Give your legs time off to heal just as you would other body parts. You may only need to train with weights for your legs once per week. If you are doing a more involved routine, you may want to do them twice a week, but focusing on different muscles. For instance, one routine that has worked for us has been the following:

Leg Routine

Monday

1. Squat
2. Plie Lunge (where the leg crosses the other in a sideways motion)
3. Side Lunge
4. Back Lunge

Thursday

1. Deadlift
2. Clean
3. Cable Adduction (using a strap for your ankle connected to a cable machine and sanding with your side facing the machine, bring your leg up and outward)
4. Front Lunge

Leg Exercises

Below is a listing of many good leg exercises

Deadlift

Deadlift Begin

Deadlift is very important for training the back of the legs, the core, and is one of the very best exercises to strengthen the bottom

Dead lift End

Squat

Squat Begin

Squatting is very important for building knee strength. Like with the deadlift care must be made to make sure you bottom is “stuck out” and your back is not hyper-extended. The squat is a challenging exercise to learn and most laypeople require instruction from a trainer to learn it properly. A pad can help the bar feel much better on the upper back. Furthermore, it takes time build supportive muscles in the midsection and legs in order to perform this motion.

Squat End

Lunge

Front Lunge Begin
There are at least for lunges which one can perform (side, plie, front, back) and all are good for strengthening the legs and core in different planes of motion. The barbell lunge is shown here, but the dumbell lunge, where they are held at the side) is better for side or plie lunges.

Front Lunge End

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Nutrient Robbing Pharmaceuticals

From LE Magazine March 2006

Preventing Pharmaceutical-Induced Nutritional Deficiencies

By Frederic Vagnini, MD, and Barry Fox, PhD

While pharmaceuticals have lifesaving benefits, many of these medications can have serious side effects, ranging from cardiac arrest to suicide.

Millions of Americans suffer from an almost completely ignored epidemic of drug-induced nutrient depletion that can cause grave health problems. Perhaps 30% of pharmaceutical side effects are the direct result of these drug-induced nutrient deficiencies. In other words, a drug “robs” you of one or more nutrients or other helpful substances, and this lack of nutrients causes additional side effects. In a sense, the drug acts as an “anti-vitamin pill,” taking away the substances you need for good health. Thus, nutrient depletion caused by the drugs—rather than the drugs themselves—is often directly responsible for many of the side effects associated with pharmaceuticals.

Among the most common drugs linked to nutrient depletion are oral contraceptives, cholesterol-lowering statins, and antibiotics. These and many other over-the-counter and prescription medications can interfere with your body’s ability to digest, absorb, synthesize, or make use of certain nutrients, leading to nutrient deficiency-related “side effects.”

The only solution to averting drug-induced nutritional deficiencies is to replace the depleted nutrients through nutritional supplements, dietary sources, or both. In this article, we examine some commonly prescribed drugs and the vitamins, minerals, and other substances they are most likely to deplete.

ALUMINUM ANTACIDS (Gaviscon®, Maalox®, Mylanta®)

Popular over-the-counter remedies for heartburn, aluminum antacids are weak bases designed to neutralize excess stomach acid and keep it from burning the esophagus.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking aluminum antacids may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

vitamin A
folic acid
vitamin D
calcium
chromium
iron
magnesium
phosphorus
zinc.
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 5000 IU of vitamin A, 800 mcg of folic acid, 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D, 1200 mg of calcium, 700 mcg of chromium, 1500 mg of magnesium, and 50-100 mg of zinc. Ask your physician to consider the potential effects of iron and phosphorus depletion. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

ATENOLOL (Rhoxal-atenolol®, Tenolin®, Tenormin®)

Atenolol is a beta-blocker used to treat angina and elevated blood pressure, prevent migraines, and reduce the odds of further complications in those who have had a heart attack.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

coenzyme Q10
melatonin.
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
To compensate for the nutrient loss caused by this drug, speak to your physician about taking 100-300 mg of coenzyme Q10 and 1-3 mg of melatonin. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

CIPROFLOXACIN (Cipro®, Ciloxan®)

Ciprofloxacin is an antibacterial agent used to treat infections of the urinary tract, lower respiratory tract, sinuses, and other parts of the body.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

biotin
inositol
thiamin
riboflavin
niacin
vitamin B6
vitamin B12
vitamin K
zinc
Bifidobacteria bifidum
Lactobacillus acidophilus.
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 500-1000 mcg of biotin, 250-1000 mg of inositol, 25-200 mg of thiamin, 25-100 mg of riboflavin, 50-100 mg of niacin, 100 mg of vitamin B6, 500-1000 mcg of vitamin B12, 1-10 mg of vitamin K, 50-100 mg of zinc, 15 billion live Bifidobacteria bifidum organisms, and 15 billion live Lactobacillus acidophilus organisms. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

COLESEVELAM (WelChol®)

Colesevelam is used to treat elevated cholesterol, either by itself or in conjunction with a statin drug.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

beta-carotene
folic acid
vitamin A
vitamin B12
vitamin D
vitamin E
vitamin K
iron
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 25,000 IU of beta-carotene, 800 mcg of folic acid, 5000 IU of vitamin A, 500-1000 mcg of vitamin B12, 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D, 400 IU of vitamin E, and 1-10 mg of vitamin K. Ask your physician to consider the potential effects of iron depletion. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

ETHINYL ESTRADIOL plus NORGESTREL (Ovral®, Lo/Ovral®, Low-Ogestrel®)

Commonly known as the birth control pill, this combination of synthetic estrogen and progestin is used to prevent ovulation and thus prevent pregnancy.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

folic acid
magnesium
tyrosine
riboflavin
niacin
vitamin B6
vitamin B12
vitamin C
zinc
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 800 mcg of folic acid, 1500 mg of magnesium, 250-500 mg of tyrosine, 25-100 mg of riboflavin, 50-100 mg of niacin, 100 mg of vitamin B6, 500-1000 mcg of vitamin B12, 250-1500 mg of vitamin C, and 50-100 mg of zinc. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

FAMOTIDINE (Pepcid®, Pepcid® AC)

Famotidine is used to treat certain types of gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), heartburn, and related conditions by reducing the amount of acid produced by the stomach lining.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

folic acid
thiamin
vitamin B12
vitamin D
calcium
iron
zinc

Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 800 mcg of folic acid, 25-200 mg of thiamin, 500-1000 mcg of vitamin B12, 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D, 1200 mg of calcium, and 50-100 mg of zinc. Ask your physician to consider the potential effects of iron depletion. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

FLUOXETINE (Prozac®)

Prozac®, the first in the family of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), works by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and bulimia nervosa.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

melatonin
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
To compensate for the nutrient loss caused by this drug, speak to your physician about taking 1-3 mg of melatonin each night.

GLYBURIDE plus METFORMIN (Glucovance®)

A combination drug used to treat diabetes, glyburide stimulates the pancreas to produce larger amounts of insulin, while metformin helps remove excess glucose from the blood while slowing the release of additional glucose.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

folic acid
vitamin B12
sodium
coenzyme Q10
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
To compensate for the nutrient loss caused by this drug, speak to your physician about taking 800 mcg of folic acid, 500-1000 mcg of vitamin B12, and 100-300 mg of coenzyme Q10. Ask your physician to consider the potential effects of sodium depletion. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

HYDROCODONE plus ACETAMINOPHEN (Hydrogesic®, Lortab®, Vicodin®)

Hydrocodone is an opioid painkiller that, like morphine, works by imitating the body’s own endorphins. Acetaminophen slows the production of the prostaglandins that “encourage” pain.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

glutathione
selenium
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
To compensate for the nutrient loss caused by this drug, speak to your physician about taking 600-1200 mg of N-acetylcysteine, a precursor to glutathione, along with 200 mcg of selenium.

MAGNESIUM HYDROXIDE (Phillips® Milk of Magnesia)

Magnesium hydroxide is an osmotic laxative that encourages the movement of fluid into the colon, which helps to soften the stool and stimulate the action of the bowels.

Which Nutrients Are Robbed
Taking this medicine may deplete your supply of, increase your need for, or interfere with the activity of:

folic acid
vitamin D
calcium
iron
phosphorus
zinc
Restoring the Nutrient Balance
Speak to your physician about taking 800 mcg of folic acid, 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D, 1200 mg of calcium, 700 mg of phosphorus, and 50-100 mg of zinc. Ask your physician to consider the potential effects of iron depletion. You can also eat foods that contain the depleted nutrients.

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Stress and Stress Reaction

Question

I have an interesting health story for you.

I had a very laid back week, I was well rested for it and well fed and took my vitamins. I had no stressful event. However, yesterday I began feeling very tired and the day before my siatic came back and I got a cold sore. The only stress I was subjected to is people around me at work have been coughing. Is it possible that a cold virus kicked off an immune response that made my two stress (diseases? I don’t know what to call them). What do you think (as a medical professional of course)

Answer

As you know, we can boost our immune system to fight back with:  sleep, vitamins, fluids, REST, and good food — and that is what you have done.  You also know that the immune system fights more effectively while the body sleeps and also while at higher temperatures (which is why we get fevers when we have infections).  The white blood cells (monocytes, leukocytes, neutrophils, etc) function more precisely with higher body temperatures and can therefore fight and defend from invaders more aggresively whether it’s bacteria or viruses.  

Humans can arm themselves as much as possible, but stress can be anything which the body is exposed to and is not always something that we ourselves consider “stress” (ie, weather changes, temperatures, being indoors with other sick people, going to the gym, or emotional duress & worries). Sciatica and cold sores are stress induced.  Even armed with all we have, we still cannot always fend off viruses — or ways in which our bodies respond.  It may be that you are harboring something inside that is causing you stress, concern, or worry, but it’s not something you acknowledge or recognize at a conscious level.  Whatever it is that is causing your sciatica & cold sores to arise is likely something at a subconscious level.    Mental health is just as essential to physical health when it comes to an optimal immune system.  

To answer your question:  Yes.  It’s also very likely that a viral invader such as a cold attacked more than your cells and stimulated an immune response and may have also caused your sciatica & cold sores to start again.  – Barbara Thorne RN

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Great Article on the Declining Nutrition of Produce

“It’s becoming inreasingly clear that even if you eat right — choosing fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store — you won’t be getting adequate supplies of organic vitamins and minerals. (“Organic” means vitamins in their natural form rather than synthetic.) A report published by the UK-based Consumer’s Association found that vitamin C levels in common grocery produce are a fraction of their textbook values. In other words: the food isn’t as nutritious as it should be. Similar losses in other organic vitamins are also likely.

Grocery stores, it seems, put far more emphasis on visual appearance than nutritional value. This isn’t surprising, since consumers typically select produce based almost entirely on appearance. Oranges from Florida, for example, are frequently dipped in a red dye that gives them a deeper, more saturated orange color preferred by consumers. The only problem is that this orange dye has been banned by the FDA for use in foods due to its proven cancer-causing ability. But the Florida orange industry gets away with using the dye by claiming it’s only used outside the orange, not inside. With that strange caveat, the FDA allows its use.

The dramatic decline in measurable levels of organic vitamins in grocery produce (the UK study mentioned above is just one of dozens of such studies) blows away the old medical myth that, “You can get all the nutrition you need from three square meals a day…” or, “Nobody needs vitamin supplements to be healthy.” A critical review of the available food supply reveals that relying on it for adequate nutrition is a life threatening mistake that inevitably leads to chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. The foods simply don’t have the nutrition they used to, and grocery store produce is a poor source of organic vitamins.

One solution, of course, is to purchase and consume organic produce. Repeated tests have shown organic produce to be far more nutritious in terms of its levels of vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, organic produce is more expensive and visually less appealing than traditionally-raised produce, so most consumers avoid it.

A better solution, and the one I strongly recommend and follow on a daily basis, is to stop thinking of the national food supply as a source of nutrition and start supplementing your diet with superfoods and organic vitamin supplements (whole food supplements). This is the only way you’ll get adequate nutrition. Here are the best superfoods for this purpose: barley grass, chlorella, spirulina, sea vegetables, wheat grass, “greens” powders, quinoa, flax oil, extra virgin coconut oil, soy milk and tofu, green tea, amazon herbs, and various whole food vitamin supplements. This is where a healthy person gets their nutrition these days. Avoid all isolated vitamins like bottles of vitamin C tablets because, after all, most of those vitamins are synthetically produced. Instead, get all your organic vitamins and minerals from whole food supplements and superfoods. Interestingly, the best sources for organic vitamins are whole food supplements that won’t even list their vitamin and mineral content. Instead, they just list the superfood ingredients like wheat grass, chlorella, and so on. You have to know enough about nutrition to figure out that these supplements are naturally very high in organic vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and health-enhancing phytochemicals.

###

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He’s also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, ‘Email Marketing Director,’ currently runs the NewsTarget email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.”

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He’s also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, ‘Email Marketing Director,’ currently runs the NewsTarget email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.

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Is Your Workout Wasting Your Time?

These are excerpts from the excellent article on health called Is Your Workout Wasting Your Time and published here:

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100184336&GT1=10710

Synopsis

The article points out that many of the machines that are supposed to improve strength do not do so in more than a rather narrow range of motion. This is long supported by Michael Colgan, that while machines are technically safer to use they build a more injury prone body.

“f you are a bodybuilder — that is, if you have strength trained for years and dieted so rigorously that your body-fat percentage is in the single digits — then it potentially makes sense to train individual muscles in isolation. The other case in which machine-based training makes sense is in rehab, when the body has become so disabled that it must be rebuilt brick by brick. But most of us are neither crippled or on the verge of entering the Mr. Olympia competition, so why do we train as if either is the case? The answer is a combination of the gyms’ desire to maximize profits, and our own desire to find workouts that don’t involve work.”

This is a very important observation as gyms are in the business of selling memberships first and providing health second. Furthermore, there is the bias of gym goer who also wants relatively easy workouts that feel as if their are difficult. This demonstrates the overemphasis on appearance that is the primary motivator for individuals as demonstrated by this quote

Gym Goer Bias

Michael Rogers, a professor of human performance at Wichita State University who has studied functional training in older adults,concurs: “Many young men strength train purely for appearance,” he says, “while older men are looking for exercises that will improve function in their daily lives, whether it’s a golfer strengthening his swing with a resistance band or a triathlete training his core on a stability ball. They realize it’s more meaningful to work out to enhance an aspect of your life.

Gym Owner Bias

“The club owners bought into what the equipment industry told us,” says Michael Scott Scudder, a former club owner and a leading consultant to the industry since 1991. And what the equipment makers ultimately told the gym owners was that if you stocked enough machines, you could do without as much one-on-one attention from trainers. “I don’t think fitness happens best in isolation,” says Steve Maryland, manager of Maryland Sports Training and a former strength coach for the University of Wisconsin and the San Jose Sharks. Various studies back this up,showing that people who exercise in groups maintain greater motivation to train than those who work out alone. “This is hard stuff, and it’s a lot easier to share hard stuff than do it yourself. At the clubs, you are going to be turned loose on the machines, and a machine is like an isolation booth.”

Main Principle of Training

“Sitting is an unnatural body position for strenuous work. Once you sit, you lose your body’s natural anchor: the muscles of the back, butt, abdominal core, and legs. Ground-based training immediately puts an end to a host of outdated stationary-machine and free-weight lifts, including the bench press, military press, incline press, and chest press, and leg extensions, leg presses, leg curls, preacher curls, and so on. You’ll find that staying on your feet keeps your heart rate up, requires you to think creatively, and keeps your workout moving along efficiently. You’re either exercising or walking it off. That keeps your awareness up and boredom down.”

Training Tips (Especially for legs)

“The five basic movements to develop in any exercise session are limited to different forms of stepping, pushing, pulling, squatting, and rotating. There’s no need to do one exercise for your biceps, another for your shoulders, and another for your chest. Two good pushing drills take care of them all. Instead of targeting the upper back and then the lower back, simply pull (in the form of pull-ups or incline pull-ups) and bridge (holding your torso stiff to build strength in your back). For the lower body, lunge, step-down, and squat drills are all it takes, and body weight alone is usually more than enough load.”

“Train for the four elements: stopping, slowing, descending/ascending, and catching – Many gyms don’t value the reduction of force — the catching of a ball,landing from a step-down, or changing direction — because there’s no easy way to measure it. Yet stopping, descending, and absorbing momentum are far more valuable for joint safety than any isolated strength-building exercise. This means not only throwing a medicine ball but also catching each return throw or rebound. It means stepping downward on one leg, running downhill, developing footwork agility, and squatting or lunging with control.”

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