The Truth About Exercise

I happened upon this great documentary from BBC about exercise myths. Set aside an hour to watch the video I really think you should see it.

Pike Push-up – Suspension Trainer

MUSCLES USED

• Shoulders
• Triceps
• Chest
• Abs

START POSITION

• Start by placing your feet in a suspension trainer (TRX or Jungle Gym XT)
• Get into a push-up position
• Pike up by lifting your butt up in the air
• Keep arms and legs straight

MOVEMENT

• Bend your elbows to lower your head toward the ground, stopping just before it touches the ground
• Press back up

GENERAL POINTERS

• Put as much weight onto the hands as possible without toppling over
• Keep abs engaged to maintain pike position
• Don’t let your elbows move outward, keep them in an imaginary plane glued to your sides
• Keep shoulder angle as open as possible, think pressing overhead, but upside down

 

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Prep Time: 15 Min
Cook Time: 4 Hrs
Ready In: 4 Hrs 15 Min
Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans low sodium tomato soup
• 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 1 pinch ground allspice
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place turkey in the skillet, and cook until evenly brown; drain.
2. Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray, and mix in turkey, tomato soup, kidney beans, black beans and onion. Season with chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt.
3. Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 228
Total Fat: 8g
Cholesterol: 42mg
Sodium: 343mg
Total Carbs: 24g
Dietary Fiber: 8g
Protein: 18g

Weekly Whiteboard – 01.28.13

3 Rounds for total reps of:

60sec – Handstand push-ups (or pike push-ups)

30sec – Rest

60sec – Reverse lunge – Rt leg (slider)

30sec – Rest

60sec – Pull-ups

30sec – Rest

60sec – Reverse lunge – Lt leg (slider)

30sec – Rest

Post total reps to comments.

Core Press – Band/Cable

 

MUSCLES USED

• Core

START POSITION

• Set band/cable at chest height
• Grab the handle with both hands, hold it in front of your chest, and brace your abs.
• With a hand-over-hand grip, grab the handle
• Stand with your side facing the anchor or weight stack, step away so the band/cable is taut, and spread your feet beyond shoulder width, knees slightly bent.

MOVEMENT

• Slowly press your arms in front of you until they’re straight
• Hold without letting your body rotate, and bring them back to your chest
• Do prescribed number of reps, then turn around and work your other side

GENERAL POINTERS

• Do not allow your body to rotate
• Squeeze your abs
• Keep chest up
• Keep shoulders back
• Move arms at a steady pace

The Fats of Life

You take the good, you take the bad,  you take them both and there you have The Fats of Life, the Fats of Life…

Ok, that was bad… Really bad I know! So, let’s move on…

Six dietary fatty acids:

Trans (avoid at all costs)

• margarine, snack chips, imitation cheese, and other processed foods.

Saturated (limit intake)

• animal fat: milk, meat, eggs, butter, and cheese; lard (pork fat), tallow (beef and lamb fat)
• Tropical oils: coconut and palm oil

Monounsaturated

• belly fat burner, fat high in calories, so be careful
• olive oil

Polyunsaturated

Omega 3

• lowers bad cholesterol & the risk of heart attacks to name a few)
  
• fish oils

Omega 6

• vegetable oils (soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn, cottenseed, peanut, Canola)

• needs to be balanced with omega 3 (3:1), excessive amounts of linoleic acid can contribute to inflammation and result in heart disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis and depression)

Omega 9

• oils, avocados
• can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke

Foods rich in EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids):

• Salmon, herring, trout, mackerel, tuna (albacore), halibut, scallops, & shrimp.
• Almonds, walnuts, cashews, hemp, pumpkin seeds, & flax seeds.
• Olive oil.
• Kale, collard greens, winter squash, & cloves.

Banana Protein Smoothie

Ingredients
1 serving of vanilla Vega sport performance protein or whey protein
1 medium to large banana
8 oz. almond or coconut milk
1 cup kale
3 to 4 ice cubes

Weekly Whiteboard – 01.21.13

AFAP:

100 Muscle Snatches – KB (men: 24/women: 12kg)

Power of the Coconut

In the last few years coconut oil has risen from the ashes to the appreciation it truly deserves. There are many reasons to start adding coconut to your diet. Here’s quite a few…

For much of the last few decades, coconut oil got a bad rap in mainstream media. Critics said it was high in cholesterol and fat, and so many people did not include in in their daily diets. But island populations around the world have celebrated the coconut for centuries for its health benefits, using the meat juice, milk and oil the fruit provides in everything from cooking to disease prevention. Modern medicine is now jumping on the bandwagon and releasing its own findings on the health benefits of coconut.

Coconut oil is an exceptional healing agent as well, with loads of useful health applications.

It’s a fat-burning! Ironic, isn’t it? A saturated fat which can accelerate the loss of midsection fat (the most dangerous kind). Well, there are now two solid, human studies showing just two tablespoons a day (30 ml), in both men and women, is capable of reducing belly fat within 1-3 months.

A now famous study, published in 2006 in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, showed that the administration of medium chain triglycerides (most plentifully found in coconut oil) in 20 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment, resulted in significant increases in ketone bodies (within only 90 minutes after treatment) associated with measurable cognitive improvement in those with less severe cognitive dysfunction.

This is one fat that diabetics can eat without fear. Not only does it not contribute to diabetes, but it helps regulate blood sugar, thus lessening the effects of the disease. Island people have consumed large amounts of coconut oil for many generations without ever encountering diabetes, but when they abandoned it for other foods and oils, the results were disastrous.

Coconut has been used for wound healing since time immemorial. Three of the identified mechanisms behind these healing effects are its ability to accelerate re-epithelialisation, improve antioxidant enzyme activity, and stimulate higher collagen cross-linking within the tissue being repaired. Coconut oil has even been shown to work synergistically with traditional treatments, such as silver sulphadizine, to speed burn wound recovery.

Coconut oil has been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and fever-reducing properties.

Interestingly, coconut milk (which includes coconut oil components), has been shown to be as effective as the conventional drug sucralfate as an NSAID-associated anti-ulcer agent.

In 2004, 52 isolates of candida species were exposed to coconut oil. The most notorious form, candida albicans, was found to have the highest susceptibility. Researchers remarked: “Coconut oil should be used in the treatment of fungal infections in view of emerging drug-resistant candida species.

Research has shown consistent improvements in LDL:HDL ratio in the blood of those who consume it. Given this effect, coconut oil can no longer be dismissed for being ‘that saturated fat which clogs the arteries.’

It has been found to reduce oxidative stress within the bone, which may prevent structural damage in osteoporotic bone. Reduction of oxidative stress also helps with testosterone levels, in the testes of rats, resulting in significantly higher levels of testosterone.

Of course, when speaking about coconut oil, we are only looking at one part of the amazing coconut palm. Each component, including coconut hull fibre, coconut protein and coconut water has experimentally confirmed therapeutic applications.

Coconut oil may help prevent tooth decay. A new study conducted at the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland recently discovered that coconut oil treated with enzymes similar to those used in digestion may stop the growth of Streptococcus mutans, the bacteria that cause cavities.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS INCLUDE:

• Healthy growth of hair and added shine
• Relief for a dry scalp
• Effective moisturizer on all types of skin
• Delays wrinkles and skin sagging
• Helps prevent high cholesterol and high blood pressure
• Increases body metabolism
• Strengthens the immune system
• Repairs damaged tissues, speeding up the healing process
• Prevents liver, kidney, and gall bladder diseases
• Controls blood sugar
• Improves the body’s ability to absorb minerals
• Relieves stress
• Coconut oil has also been known to help whiten teeth and maintain the health of the gums.

Reverse Lunge (Slider)

MUSCLES USED

• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Glutes

START POSITION

• Stand with one foot on the ground and the other on a slide.
• Brace core

MOVEMENT

• Bend your knees and slide the foot backward
• Stop when your back knee is just above the ground
• Reverse the movement to complete one rep
• Complete all your reps before switching legs

GENERAL POINTERS

• Keep your weight on the foot on the ground.
• Do not pull yourself back to standing by using the leg on the slide
• Keep core activated