Strong or Skinny?

Taz made an appearance on sports show Hyundai Code last week. She was asked by resident joker Matua Parkinson how strong she was, because, as he said "you don't look very chunky....."

Taz replied very nicely that she could manage 30 odd pullups without too much trouble, and that being strong does not need to mean being 'chunky'.

For too long women have avoided lifting weights - either because weights was just what the men did, or because of a fear of growing to resemble those men......

There are so many other benefits to weight training besides growing bigger muscles. But to address that concern first - muscle weighs more than fat. We just finished up a six week challenge at CrossFit New Zealand and many of our women (and men) have not budged the weight scales a bit in either direction, however they have lost kilos of fat and gained kilos of muscle. The results of this is a smaller clothing size as muscle takes up less ROOM than fat.

And it gets better - that extra muscle now burns more fat for energy every single day, both during exercise and even at rest.

Extra muscle means you are stronger - better able to deal with the rigours of everyday life, and better performance in your sport.

Extra muscle makes you look leaner, firmer and healthier.


Tennis star Daniela Hantuchova - formerly the 'Slovakian Skeleton', has improved her sports performance, her body and most importantly her health through weight training and good nutrition.

Skinny is not attractive!!

Attack of the FrankenFoods

Flicking through a cooking magazine my flatmate subscribes to, I came across a full page advert for healthy sugar.

I read with amazement the claims by Aussie company CSR that their new low GI sugar was better for you. Here's an article going into it further.

GI if you are not familiar with it means glycemic index and it’s basically the extent to which blood sugar levels are raised after eating that particular food. Less than 55 is considered to be a food that releases energy slowly while something in the 90’s releases energy very quickly

But just because a food is low GI, doesn't mean it is good for you. A chocolate bar is less than 50, but so is a bunch of grapes. Does that make them equally healthy? Of course not.

This crap was created in a lab with $5.4 million of government funding and is being marketed as “the sweetener for the health conscious”.

Those claims go nicely with margarine's claim to fix cholesterol and marshmallows 'fat free' boast. The creation of these Frankenfoods do nothing to increase our health, but they do increase the $$$ in food companies pockets.

To make matters worse we have nutritionists saying that this sort of thing is a good idea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, broccoli doesn't have a healthy food claim written all over it because it doesn't need one - we KNOW it's good for us.

Be suspicious of any 'food' that sounds too good to be true.

Well farmed meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds will always be the key to a healthy life.

There are no shortcuts.

Focus Part II

Just to stir the pot a little bit, going to strike off on the opposite tack to the last post. Hey I can contradict myself if I want - it's my blog! It's up to you to decide when I'm right and when I'm wrong.

Trained both Saturday and Sunday this week. Not enough sleep this week, too much work, diet was not 100% dialled in. But I still trained and gave it my all.

The sessions were long, heavy and hard - how did I get through them? Loud music.

Hang on minute, didn't I just tell you in the last post to get the damn ipod out of your ears?

Yeah I did, but it was intended to just make you think about your reliance on it and whether you can still have a good training session without music.

I know some people that will actually blame a poor workout on a lack of music or the fact that the music playing was not to their choice.

You should be able to switch on no matter the situation. If you like loud music then use it by all means, but if it becomes a crutch then practice training without it occasionally, especially if you're a competitive athlete. There aint no music on the sports field; unless you're a rhythmic gymnast..........

Focus

Driving to Victoria Park this morning to train our outdoor CrossFit NZ crew, I nearly side swiped a cyclist. It wasn't my fault, he had a pair of iPod headphones jammed in his ears and he was swerving sporadically all over the road without a care in the world.

Now besides the fact that this practice is downright dangerous, he is also in danger of a lack of progress in his fitness.

Why? No focus.

Although not competitive, back in the day I at least used to do a bit more cycling than I do now, so believe me, I know how boring it can be racking up the miles on the bike sometimes.

But with music blaring into your ears (don't deny it - it has to blare because of wind noise...), how can you focus on your workout, let alone avoid being killed my a speeding Auckland driver?

Headphones are even more common in gyms. It's crazy - the gym has its own soundsystem, and everyone else has their own music (again, blaring to overpower the outside noise) and is lost in their own worlds. I understand that some people argue that music HELPS with focus, but I also know many people who simply CAN'T workout without the help of music, and in my mind that creates a potential weakness.

This may sound a little neanderthal, but why not listen to the clank of the weight you are lifting over your head? The hiss of your breath, and even your final rep grunts. Listen to that 'music' for a while and then you might become more aware of the smell of the chalk and sweat, you will perhaps catch the eye of another person working as hard as you, and share a nod and mutual understanding of what it is to test your limits. Hey, feel free to share a look with yourself in the mirror if you need to - just don't hold the gaze for too long ya poser.....

Australasia Crossfit Regionals

Well the pain of the CrossFit Regional Games has faded enough that I can look back upon them with a smile. About 100 athletes from Australasia battling it out for qualification to the World Games in California.

I always knew Taz was going to get one of the spots, however much she might have covered her ears when I tried talking to her about it. But knowing the depth of the men's field, all I hoped for myself was that I wouldn't get my ass kicked too badly. So obviously, to get 4th made my year.

I had a slow start to the weekend; paced myself too much on the 1st workout and didn't find any rhythm. It was good enough for 11th though, which I think also helped me relax a bit. As long as I wasn't last!! (not that there's anything wrong with that.....) I also felt a little overawed by the audience. I'm certainly not one for crowds, and it took a while to forget about all the eyes on you and tune out the noise. By the last workout though, I was feeding on the crowds energy - they were awesome.

Met a Kiwi living on the Sunshine Coast, Rachel, a physio who worked wonders with both Taz and I - sorting out tight backs, shoulders, calves and forearms.

The 2nd WOD was a little more my scene, however I was almost undone before it started. During warmup and explanation of the exercise standards, I suddenly discovered that my injured shoulder was not 99% healed, but more like 90%, and the incredibly strict burpee standards were almost out of my range of motion. After what seemed like 50 reps of practice I started producing reps that the judges were happy with. Only had 1 rep disallowed during the workout.

Went out hard from the start and jumped on the rower in about 4th place. The 15 rep set slowed a few people down, and all the butterfly kip/chest to bar practice got me even with Steve (overall winner), but it's next to impossible to wear a big man down on the rower and I finished up 18 seconds behind him. Watching him having to be carried away from the rower though, was a lesson to me in how to work harder than you think is possible. He can go to a dark place can Commando Steve; Taz commented how blank his face was in comparison to my zombie grimaces...... :)

A 2nd place finish for that heat and 4th for the workout put me in 7th overall going into the final day, which was announced as a 1200m sand dune run. At first I wasn't happy that we had to change locations, but tried to think of it as a chance to see more of Aussie, and it turned out to be a beautiful spot; just not so great for running on....

It was a cool cloudy day.....for all but Taz and my heats! The sun broke through just before Taz started and the remaining 32 competitors groaned audibly. But once the races started the heat was forgotten with the need to concentrate on dragging one foot out of the sand and planting it in front of you, repeat ad nauseum.

Hit the steepest section holding the middle of the pack. Took the advice of heats already gone, to go to all fours for this and pulled myself up the hill into 2nd place. Guys that's why we do bear crawls at CFNZ so much see? Had an epic battle with Doug A from CF Brisbane, with him passing me on every downhill and me clawing it back on the uphills. Steve held the lead the whole way, and by the time I thought about the possiblity of a chase, there wasn't much race left and I had to concentrate on keeping ahead of Doug on the last hill. Used up everything in the tank on the last stretch - felt pretty happy with my effort.

Next year we will have to take a decent team from CFNZ, an amazing opportunity to mix with like minded people. We are already planning friendly battles with CrossFit Auckland and will be trying to mix it up more regularly with Australian affiliates too.

On a diet? Don't eat food, just drink water......

Winners of the Anorexia Promotion Award 2009 are Whole Water.

Why would anyone think that 'quarter the calories of a banana' is good marketing?

Another priceless quote is 'three times the protein of a banana'. If you're wondering how much that is, it's three times bugger all....... you don't eat a banana for protein, you eat it for complex carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Hopefully most people realise that drinking real, unflavoured water is still the best option.........and just eat the damn banana, you'll be a lot better off.

CrossFit vs. Body For Life

The first Body for Life Challenge was held in 1996, and shook up the health and fitness world with its grand prize of 1 million dollars for the person who could make the greatest physical transformation in 12 weeks.

Since then, according to their own publicity 2 million people have transformed their bodies using the BFL and EAS supplements. I myself read the book and watched the movie and was genuinely impressed with the progress that some of these people had made.

Chances are you have tried the challenge yourself, or know someone who has. What were the results? In my experience, everyone I've talked to that has done the challenge tell me that it works really well.........yet they all gained most if not all of their weight back afterwards!!

If a type of exercise or a diet plan is not sustainable long term, then you can't call it successful!
I thought I'd do a little informal comparison between BFL and CFNZ (CrossFit NZ) to see how they stack up.

• Body for Lifers exercise 6 times per week, alternating upper body weight training, lower body and aerobic exercise over and over.
• CrossFitters train up to 6 times a week, varying their routines constantly to keep motivation, intensity and more importantly progress at high levels.

• BFL encourages 6 meals per day, 3 of which are powdered meal replacement shakes.
• CrossFit sticks to real food - meat and veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, little starch and no sugar. The occasional supplement for convenience but no reliance on them.

• BFL meals are made up of a portion of protein, a portion of starchy carbs and a portion of veggies.
• At CrossFit we make sure you eat your fat! Healthy fat is what humans evolved to utilise for energy, it's the starchy carbs you should be cutting down on. Eat eggs, salmon, avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil, minimise your intake of grains and cereals, bump up the veggie intake even more and you'll feel great.
  

• BFL is a 12 week program.
• CrossFit is for life. The sooner people understand that fitness is not a quick fix, the better. If you can only stick with a good eating and exercise plan for 12 weeks, then you'll never get the body and health that you want. Blindly following a meal plan does not let you understand why you should be eating certain foods and thus enable you to continue eating well afterwards.

It is worth noting that I think the general idea of the 12 week challenge is sound. There are people who completed the BFL and maintained their results. Muscle gain and fat loss is hard! So a short, period of concentrated effort can be a little easier to get your head around in the beginning. But just be sure you put a plan in place for week 13; don't let it all fall to pieces after such a big effort. Educate yourself on how to maintain and even exceed the progress you've already made.

Sticking to your diet and exercise program

Well say goodbye to January - that's approx 1/12 of the year gone already. How have your resolutions to finally get in shape this year been going? Resolve starting to fail you? Is your diet getting too restrictive and your new gym program too boring?

Well it appears you're not alone. By the end of this week hundreds of thousands of broken souls around the world will be back on their processed carbohydrate diets, and never darken the door of their gym again - many of them locked into long term payment contracts. Why is it that so many people know how good healthy eating and activity is for them, and are even prepared to pay some globo-gym a hundred bucks a month and only get a 'free' t-shirt to remind them of their failure?

The answer, I think, is because they hate it.

They hate making tuna salad every day to take to work in a tupperware container for everyone to say 'Ooh are you on a diet', and 'WHAT are you EATING?!'
They hate being in a gym where everyone seems to know what that machine with the cables and metal arm thingy seems to do except you. And between the meatheads dropping weights, the plastic surgery addicted cardio bunnies and the personal trainer who wont help you unless you sign up for 10 paid sessions, you don't really feel comfortable here, especially when you've just busted your ass at work for 10 hours.

As I said before, everyone knows diet and exercise is good for you. So how does the person in the above example get around these issues?

They need to find a way to enjoy it.

Okay that's not very revolutionary is it? Sorry, what did you expect? Because if you want to be fit, lean and healthy there is still no magic pill on the market that will take the place of eating right and exercising - Big Pharma is trying to find it though, believe me.

So until then, the only way to continue with your New Years resolutions all the way till next January, and beyond is to find a way to enjoy yourself.

• If you hate the gym join a bootcamp or group fitness class.

• If you have trouble sticking to a diet, do some research and find out how to compromise your tastes with a nutrition plan that meets your goals.

• Take up a new sport, find a workout buddy to keep you company and motivate you. Learn a language, or listen to an audiobook on your ipod while you are jogging.

• Buy a dog and walk it. (I better not see it at the SPCA in a year though!)

• Learn a new recipe or try a new healthy food every week - invite friends to participate in a healthy pot luck once or twice a week and share nutrition tips you've learned.

There's no way around the fact that you need to move more and eat better. But if you are hating the process, you're doomed to failure.

Find a way to enjoy it.

Kickstart 2009

So we're almost three weeks into 2009 - but are your exercise and dietary habits still on holiday? If you drank a little too much and ate a few too many Christmas chocolates over the holidays, you may be finding it hard to rediscover your discipline - I know I am. That's why I've kicked off the year with a detox.

Now before you think I've gone all Oprah on you, I'm not recommending the type of detoxes pushed by most of the so called diet gurus out there. I'm simply suggesting going cold turkey on all the junk in your diet. I'm spending 2 weeks eating only protein shakes containing lean protein, healthy fats and a ton of fibre. After exercise I'll have a solid meal of lean protein and lots of veggies.

Why not try something similar? You don't have to do what I'm doing. How about you cut out all processed carbohydrate, sugar, alcohol and fast food for two weeks? Come on it's not that tough to do just 14 days is it? Trust me you'll feel great at the end, you'll eliminate the hold that the Xmas Crap Food has fastened on you, and maybe you'll continue for a little longer into the new year once you feel the benefits.

Train like Lance Armstrong

Endurance athletes don't need to lift weights right? It'll make them all muscle bound, heavy and slow wont it?

Guess someone forgot to tell one of the greatest endurance athletes ever........

This picture of Lance was published in the New York Daily recently.

It highlights perfectly a few principles I push regarding fitness training.

Get out of the gym
Lance trains in his garage at home. This way he has no excuse for not being able to get to the gym. It's right there morning or night. Even if you only have a few minutes, you can put them to good use. Avoid the crowds, the boofheads and the queue for equipment. Or why not get along to a nearby park for a workout. The change of scenery and fresh air will do you the world of good.
Hey, I OWN a gym, and I still think it's good advice. We always get our big roller door up for a bit of 'outdoor flow'.

Forget about machines
Lance is swinging a kettlebell in this pic (a favourite tool in our Crossfit NZ workouts), and in the back ground is a squat rack and a glute ham bench. NO MACHINES in sight!! Many cyclists are convinced they need leg extensions and leg presses to build strength specific to their sport; but functional exercises such as squats and deadlifts have much more carryover to sport even they don't resemble the sport at all.

Lift heavy
Sure you're an endurance athlete, but that doesn't mean you need to do hundreds of reps in the gym. Take care of that side of things on your bike, and when you're lifting, lift heavy to build the strength and power that will carry you up hills and over the finish line in front of a bunch sprint.

Workouts that include more time in the anaerobic energy systems will also allow you to cut down on junk miles while still improving your aerobic capacity.

And if those aren't enough reasons for you to lift free weights.......take another look at the six pack you'll get........

Keeping fit during an economic downturn

With the local and global economy being somewhat depressed many well meaning authors are urging people who are feeling the pinch to, among other money saving ideas, quit their gym memberships. The alternative according to these money experts is to go for a walk instead. Well you and I both know how ineffective walking is for keeping fit and healthy. And unfortunately, you know that I think a gym membership isn't that great either - seeing as most people don't even use theirs, or waste their time with ineffective training programs.

I say do the opposite. If you are under a lot of stress you can either let yourself get out of shape, which will magnify the effect that stress has upon you, and let your now failing health become another problem to deal with, or you can meet the financial crisis head on and make sure that you are fit and strong enough to perform well at your job and maximise your earning power.

Personally I think that everyone has a responsibility to their families to be as healthy and fit as possible - anything less is unfair to your children, spouse or parents. Why should they have to see you die early from factors that are completely preventable?

Sure hiring a trainer for 3-4 sessions a week could cost a packet over time. If I was training you one-on-one you would have handed over about $1500 before the month was out. You’d be in bloody good shape mind you……….but as this post is about money – why not hire a personal trainer to just write you a good program and progression plan each month and meet up with them each month to have someone to answer to, get a review of your progress and a new plan. Now it’s looking more like $150 a month, and you should still get some decent results.

Or why not find a gym that offers semi-private (one instructor to 2, 3 or 4 clients) or group sessions? If it’s well run, you will find you get just as much attention from the coach and the extra people around will make you lift your game a notch. People tell me they’re not competitive, but once they’re side by side with someone else, they end up working harder than ever before.

The best news of all – small group fitness is more affordable than private training. So you get a more effective workout, a social interaction (which let’s face it, we all need if under a bit of pressure at work), for a bargain price. What are you waiting for?