Doctor, Doctor, give me the news!

There is a great deal of advice, routines, diet strategies and information regarding the field in which I practice--strength training and fitness--that is just utter garbage!

Often times it’s the doctors who are perpetuating this ignorant misinformation. The medical community is famous for equating exercise with cardiovascular exercise that is measured by the time spent engaging in them.   A degree in medicine lacks teaching of the basic physiology of strength training, exercise prescription, or any training in the field of exercise and nutrition.  Sure, doctors need to understand human physiology and the effects of lifestyle on the pathological processes, to a minimal degree. This is a very important point, which is why I will repeat it: they do understand it, but to a minimal degree. 

Now, I value the knowledge of physicians when it comes to the field of sickness, not wellness.  Doctor's go through intense schooling on disease and illness, and the methods it take to treat them.  However, just as I am not in the business of disease, I am just putting out the misinformation that is out there confusing the public.  The training of doctors, physical therapists and athletic trainers requires no formal education in the use of effective strength training techniques used by serious athletes who rely on superior performance.   The medical field can diagnose your symptoms and prescribe the proper medication to cure you, but are ignorant in the field of wellness.  That is the process of preventing the problems in the first place or guiding you to a more holistic approach through diet and exercise as opposed to medications.  Lack of perspective on this issue is the medical professions’ largest obstacle-- they don’t even know the problem exists!  When seemingly sound advice or information comes from a position of authority, all too often we fail to think for ourselves and blindly follow whatever they tell us.

Physicians are more than willing to prescribe you a pill for fat loss, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, insomnia, and the list goes on and on.  A pill for every ill!  Except for family history and genetics, most of these problems are lifestyle related, and can be improved or cured with diet and exercise.  Doctors give you advice because of the very same reasons anyone gives advice about nutrition or fitness. With a few exceptions, your doctor wants to help you, and will say what he or she truly believes will do so. So does your mom, your neighbor and your personal trainer. That does not mean they know what they are talking about, and YOU are the misinformed one who thinks that’s what they are supposed to know. If you’re not smart enough to know who to listen to, then you’re just as “dumb” as they are.

Strength Training is one of the most important activities, when done correct, that a person can engage in.  All too often I see the elderly man or woman that can barely lift themselves from the seated position or climb a flight of stairs.  I can't imagine the anxiety of living a life of fear never knowing if a false step or uneven ground could cause you to fall and injure yourself.   Benjamin Franklin once said that,  "Some people die at 25, but aren't buried till 75".

Strength Training is nothing new, it's been around for decades.  Jack LaLanne promoted diet and exercise in the early 1950's.  His knowledge and advice was far ahead of its time, with his teaching falling on many deaf ears.  He promoted fruit and vegetable juicing before juicing was mainstream.  LaLanne practiced what he preached and lived into his late 90's, still preaching the value of a healthy lifestyle as the key to a long life.  His advice withstood the test of time unlike many of his peers of that time, like runner Jim Fixx, who wrote The Complete Book of Running in 1977. Fixx promoting running as a form of preventing heart disease.  The book became a New York Times best seller and quickly became the Bible of running.  However, Jim Fixx died on the side of the road where he was running, with the cause of death being heart attack.  He was 52 years old.

There is a lot of misinformation in the media today.  The exercise and nutrition advice available is so overwhelming, it leads to a paralysis of analysis.  In other words, the advice is so contradicting it leads many to hover in a state of limbo, not knowing what direction to go in or what advice to listen to.  In the perfect world, doctors would stop giving advice about areas outside of their expertise (so would the general population). In the meantime, the general masses need to get their facts right about what a physician’s job is and most importantly, what it’s NOT.

Just think for yourself!  Don't let other people do your thinking for you.  Research the information, and use common sense to weed through the BS.  The right amount of diet, cardiovascular exercise and strength training is the key.  Don't follow fads.  Follow what has worked for decades.

The dangers of CrossFit

I know I'm not going to make any new fans with the CrossFit community, but I am really having a hard time understanding this concept.  For those unaware, this is one of the latest fads to emerge in the fitness world, every few years, there is always something “new and improved” to entice the uneducated public and media.  There have been numerous fitness fads through the years.  In the 70's and 80's its was Jazzercise, Jogging, and the ThighMaster, in the 90's it was Super Slow Training and Tae-Bo and, and now it's P90x, the Shake Weight, Vibration Training, and of course, CrossFit.

The Urban Dictionary defines CrossFit, as " A new and expensive way of re-branding boot camp and circuit training, a cult/organization of failed athletes who are coached by trainers that have purchased online certifications claiming to be world class Olympic lifters, facilities offering 'functional' training by incorporating epileptic pull up techniques, high intensity Olympic lifts and other circus acts posing as strength development methodologies, method of training does not make you puke while performing it will make you puke by observing".

Now having said that, that is not to say CrossFit is all bad. Probably the most important part of the CrossFit program is motivation that comes from the teamwork of working in groups. The underlying principle of high-intensity, cross training is also reasonably sound, though hardly new or innovative.

However, there is also a high risk of traumatic injury from many of the exercises, some of which are completely useless. Due to the frequent high intensity of the workouts, there is a potential for chronic fatigue, rhabdomyolysis, shoulder impingements, and neck and low-back problems for people without a good athletic base. And no generic program will ever produce the results of a well-structured training program tailored to the needs and goals of the individual.

CrossFit is ok if endurance training or conditioning is your main goal. My issue is when people say CrossFit it is great for strength and muscle growth . If you are looking for strength and size, you are looking in the wrong place.  CrossFit ignores the basic concepts of strength training, which is periodization and proper muscle recovery.  Using high repetition Olympic lifts are a great way to get injured, possibly sidelined, and can teach bad form and technique.  The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique.  In other words, CrossFit will make you better at doing CrossFit.  Fitness programs need to be geared with the athlete or individual in mind.

Let me explain my major concerns with CrossFit.   CrossFit is highly injury prone, with exercise related injuries seen in the emergency room increasing 65% since CrossFit's inception.  CrossFit focuses on momentum, not strength.  Swinging and Flipping barbells take the focus off the targeted muscle, and holding weights in the lock out position puts incredible stress on the joints.  Lifting weights really fast may provide a sense of accomplishment to many but it's not building muscle.  CrossFit has a growing number of followers, reaching a cult-like status with the mindset of beating your muscles and body into submission.  This is dead wrong!  You should focus on working with your body and not against it.  Exercising to the point of exhaustion, performing extreme movements or even vomiting is not a good exercise program.  Exercise is equivalent to an elevator button.  Once you push the button, you wait, pushing it over and over again is not going to help.  Lastly, my biggest problem with CrossFit, not unlike P90X, is the commercialization of extreme fitness.  We are all looking for the right program that will turn our lumpy weak bodies into Olympic athletes.  However, all these extreme programs have a high failure rate, with the ones that do succeed contributing it to the program rather than superior genetics, age, or diet.

To sum it up, I'm not trying to be the best at exercising.  I, like many people, want to feel good in my skin, be fit, and do what I need to do to live a long and healthy life.  There is no doubt about it, any form of exercise is better than nothing.  And whatever keeps you showing up to workout is better than sitting your butt on the couch.  You just need to be realistic with your goals, and find a training regimen that works with your lifestyle and fitness level.  The body that you beat to hell in your 20's is the same body that's crawling out of bed in your 70's, so take care of it.

Just a little extra effort....

Is your Workout not Working?

Did you know the average health club exerciser quits after just six months for one of the following reasons:

1.Not Enough Time

2.Not Seeing Results

Everybody begins an exercise program with the intention of sticking to it faithfully. However, not seeing the desired results, clashes with work or school schedules, boredom with your workout plan,  or any number of other distractions can quickly make us forget our goal of fitness. What can you do to stay on track?  Sadly, most people become frustrated and quit exercising before they see any real results. But it's not surprising given the common mistakes many people make with their training programs. Are you making these workout mistakes?

Common Reasons Your Workouts Don't Work

•All Quantity, No Quality

Most people in the gym don't plan to fail, they fail to plan!  Take a look around the gym (if you haven't quit going yet) and see how many people are really getting a quality workout. I'm always amazed by how many people are wandering aimlessly, walking leisurely on a treadmill while reading a book, lifting weights so light that not one hair moves out of place, or simply look bored.  A lot of exercisers head to the gym out of habit, and as if on automatic pilot, put in some time and head back to work or home. If you are one of these people, ask yourself, "What do I want to get out of this?" If you want serious results, you need to do serious exercise. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy it and have fun. But it does means you need to focus on what you are doing and increase the quality of every movement. Once you start exercising with a real purpose and pushing both your aerobic capacity and your strength you will find your workouts take half the time and give better results.

•Overestimating Your Exercise

Most exercisers are far too generous with estimates of exercise intensity and time, the amount of weight lifted and the frequency of their workouts. To avoid overestimating it's helpful to keep an exercise log and track these items. Additionally, many people mistakenly believe that if they exercise at a moderate pace for 30 minutes they have burned lots and lots of calories and fat. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. While exercise does burn calories over time and consistent exercise is one of the best ways to lose weight and keep it off, it's hard to lose body fat through exercise alone. Which brings us to the next mistake. . .

•Underestimating Your Eating

Many people are in denial about the foods they eat and especially the quantity consumed. Being overweight is the fine you're going to pay for exceeding the feed limit.  If you really want to lose weight you need to be honest with yourself about what you put into your mouth and how that helps or hinders your weight loss goals. To get real with yourself, write it down. Tracking what you eat in a food diary will help you break the cycle of food denial. (The iPhone and Android based phones have some great free apps like Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal  and online versions like calorieking.com)

•Doing the Wrong Type of Workout

Where did you learn your current exercise routine? Watching others at the gym (who are exercising incorrectly)? From your friends, coworkers, the web, TV, newspaper, the latest research findings, or perhaps your 9th grade gym teacher? What you are doing for exercise directly determines the results you will get. To learn what you should do, there is no better place to start then by writing down your goals and then working with a professional trainer to design the right workout to meet those goals. Haphazard exercise will provide haphazard results.

•Never Changing Your Workout

When you do the same thing day after day, you get very good at it. Even if you're on the right track, you're going to get run over if you just sit there.  In exercise this is called the principle of adaptation. It basically means that we become very efficient by doing the same exercise over and over. This is great for sports performance, but not that great for weight loss, strength increases or physical fitness progression. If you always do the same workout for the same amount of time you will eventually hit a plateau where you fail to see any additional change. One way of overcoming this plateau is to modify your workouts every few weeks or months. You can change the type of exercise you do, the length, the amount of weight lifted or the number or reps. This is why professional athletes change their program during the off-season.

•Using Incorrect Form or Technique

Learning the right way to exercise is essential to getting results. Form does matter, especially when doing any strength training exercise. Incorrect form or technique also sets you up for potential injuries, pain and soreness. To learn proper technique, there is no better place to start than with a personal trainer or coach.

•Setting Unrealistic Goals

So, what are your goals? Are they realistic for you? If your goal is to be the next Lance Armstrong, and you only have 30 minutes a day to train, or wanting to lose 25 pounds in a month, well, how realistic is that? Again, it comes back to being honest with yourself about your abilities, your level of commitment and your lifestyle. We need to set appropriate goals that start from where we are and progress at a reasonable rate or we are sure to get frustrated and quit.  Remember, there is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.

•Measuring the Wrong Results

It has been said that, "If you don't know where you are going, than any road will take you there".  Many people think their workout isn't working because they don't measure the right things. Looking for proof in a scale is often a set-up for disappointment because some new exercisers build muscle and lose fat, but the scale doesn't provide information about body composition. Better ways to measure your fitness progress include tracking your heart rate at a given pace, measuring the distance you can cover in a certain amount of time, tracking the amount of weight you can lift, or even writing down how you feel -- physically -- at the end of each day. Many of the benefits from exercise are subtle and not visible by looking into the mirror, but things such as cholesterol level, blood pressure, and the ease with which you can do daily chores are every bit as motivating -- if you monitor them.

Debunking the Myths!

It's that time again. Time to dispel some of the prevailing fitness and nutrition myths -- oh and believe me, there are many.  Whether it’s coming from the media, athletes, celebrities, or friends, there are countless exercise myths that are widely accepted as fact.

So pull up a chair, put aside your "lose 50 pounds by eating only grapefruit" article and open your mind for just a little while. You may disagree with these facts, but that's what keeps the myths alive.

And, away we go…

MYTH: Women will get big if they weight train.

A woman has approximately one-third the testosterone compared to a man, so putting on a ton of muscle is not going to happen. The women you see in the magazines who look big and manly are on steroids, growth hormones, etc. You may look bulky if you're carrying excessive body fat and building muscle. However, if you're reducing body fat, you'll eventually be able to see those lean, defined muscles.

MYTH:  Low Reps Bulk and High Reps Tone.

Another very common fitness myth is the idea that using high reps with light weights is best for building and toning long lean muscles while using low reps and/or heavy weights builds bulky muscles.

All weight training provides relatively the same stimulus to your body whether you are looking to tone your muscles or build huge bulky muscles.

Whether your muscles become toned or bulky depends primarily on the caloric balance of your diet.

Anyone can use both high reps/low weight, and low reps/heavy weight to accomplish muscle toning or muscle bulking in a training program, diet causes the body to respond to the stimulus accordingly.

I see a lot of people in the gym five to six days a week, and they'd be better off playing ping pong. Consistency and level of effort is the key. I'd rather see someone work out three days per week with enthusiasm and intensity, than five inconsistent days of lackadaisical effort. In fact, for those clients that have trouble with motivation, I recommend only two days of workouts per week, but they must do it every week.

MYTH: Spot reducing is possible.

The human body loses fat over the entire body at various rates of speed. It's impossible to spot reduce. If you're focusing on only losing fat that sits on your hips, it won't work. Generally, the first place you gain fat is the last place you lose it.

MYTH: Stretching prevents injuries.

After analyzing the results of six studies, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could not find any correlation between stretching and injury prevention. According to Dr. Julie Gilchrist, one of the researchers involved with the study, "Stretching increases flexibility, but most injuries occur within the normal range of motion." Dr. Gilchrist goes on to say, Stretching and warming up have just gone together for decades. It's simply what's done, and it hasn't been approached through rigorous science."

Make no mistake: A stretching program is not without benefits. Seven of nine studies suggest that a regular stretching program does help to strengthen muscles. However, it does not appear to actually prevent injuries. Warming up prior to exercise and increasing blood flow to the muscles is actually more conducive to injury prevention. I'm not suggesting that you eliminate stretching. It is valuable and flexibility is certainly important as we age. However, we may be off base assuming it's an injury-prevention technique.

MYTH: One should lose weight before they begin an exercise program.

There is no physiological reason to lose weight prior to beginning an exercise program. Exercise is the best thing for your health, and there is no time like the present to start. There are too many benefits of exercise to list here, but you're doing every system and cell in your body a world of good by exercising. Any amount -- starting with five minutes a day -- is beneficial.

Fat loss and muscle gain are only two of the many benefits that your body will experience from exercising. Each day will get a little easier as you become more fit. There is no justification for waiting to begin--unless you have orders from your doctor.

Whether you exercise with 20 percent body fat or 30 percent body fat, you'll still be providing your body with the same benefits. When you carry less weight, you can move a little more easily, and it may be less strenuous on your heart. You can be more fit at 30 percent body fat if you are exercising than if you try to achieve 20 percent body fat without exercising.

The goal is to gain or preserve muscle and lose fat -- not just lose weight (which implies both muscle and fat).

MYTH: Eating a lot less or going on a crash diet will get the results you seek.

This was a dietary strategy popularized prior to the 1980s. People would go on crash diets like the grapefruit diet and lose weight -- meaning muscle and fat. They assumed just eating less would take care of everything.

Today, we know total calories are important, but so are the amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats in the diet.

A slight caloric deficit (less than maintenance) must be adhered to, as well as eating small meals and snacks every two to three hours. This helps to control blood sugar; and it is a fact that blood-sugar control will help you to lose fat.

MYTH: Performing countless abdominal crunches thinking it will get rid of the "pooch" area on the lower tummy/abdominal area.

I get a question related to this issue approximately 20 times per week. It is not possible to spot reduce any area of the body. The real solution is to reduce overall body fat through a slight caloric deficit, add resistance exercise (weight training) to stimulate the metabolism, and cardiovascular exercise to burn additional calories. That's the way to fat loss.

Performing crunches will never reduce the abdominal area because it only serves to strengthen muscle, not flatten a specific area. Just as 200 bicep curls will not make the arm smaller, nor will 200 abdominal crunches make the waist smaller. You cannot spot reduce any part of the body. It's just not physiologically possible.

MYTH: Performing a lot of cardio is the best way to lose fat.

Some people go up to 90 minutes or longer on a cardio machine. The problem with this strategy is it's completely ineffective. It's a poor method to lose body fat and a real time waster. You can work out for long sessions with moderate intensity or use shorter sessions with higher intensity (based on your fitness level). You can't do both!

The shorter, more-intense session will burn more overall calories and preserve muscle, which will make you look tight and lean when you get to your scale weight goal. In addition, the shorter, intense sessions will have a more profound effect on the calories you continue to burn 24 hours after completing the session.

Want to lose fat efficiently through cardio? Pick up your pace a bit and try to get a more intense and efficient 30 to 45 minutes. You don't need to be huffing and puffing for dear life, just increase the intensity a bit and keep it sustained at a higher level within your target heart-rate range.

MYTH: Calories are the only thing that counts when trying to lose fat or gain muscle.

Ratios of proteins, carbohydrates and fats are also important. The key to losing fat and gaining muscle is controlling and manipulating insulin levels. In simple terms, when we consume excessive calories or excessive amounts of high glycemic carbohydrates at one meal, the body's blood sugar rises. When this happens, the pancreas secretes insulin to lower blood sugar levels.

One of the many drawbacks of this happening excessively is, along with putting you at risk for diabetes, the body also holds onto stored fat! A balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats works most efficiently in losing fat and gaining muscle.  Don't forget, the ultimate key to a lean and tight body is the combination of proper nutrition, exercise and consistency.  As always, check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.

Alcohol and Exercise

You may have wondered how detrimental your drinking habits really are on your muscle-building progress. Is it really that harmful to go out with the guys or gals and have a few beers after work on a Friday?  If you’re trying to get lean, does this mean you should forgo all alcohol for the next month or two?  Or, if you are really diligent with the rest of your diet, can you indulge on the weekend with a few cold ones?

Many people would rather have a few drinks on the weekend than cheat with food that’s not a part of their diet plan. While some struggle to cut out foods, for others, cutting out drinking is the real challenge.  Not only does long-term alcohol use diminish protein synthesis resulting in a decrease in muscle build-up, but even short-term alcohol use can impede muscle growth.

In order to build bigger and stronger muscles, your body needs sleep to repair itself after workouts.  Because of alcohol’s effect on sleep, however, your body is robbed of a precious chemical called “human growth hormone” or HGH.  HGH is part of the normal muscle-building and repair process and the body’s way of telling itself your muscle needs to get stronger.  Alcohol, however, can decrease the secretion of HGH by as much as 70 percent!  Also, when alcohol is in your body, the production of a substance in your liver is triggered that is directly toxic to testosterone, a hormone essential to the development and recovery of your muscles.

Speeding the recovery of sore muscles and injuries is integral to optimal performance.  Alcohol is a toxin—a toxin that travels through your bloodstream to every organ and tissue in your body, thus slowing your body’s ability to heal itself.  Additionally, once alcohol is absorbed through your stomach and small intestine and finally into your cells, it can disrupt the water balance in muscle cells, thus

altering their ability to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is your muscles’ source of energy.  ATP provides the fuel necessary for your muscles to contract.

So, next time you’re contemplating whether or not you should have that drink, keep these factors in mind.  Definitely, alcohol and muscle building are not a good pair, as stated by all these points, but if you aren't training for any major athletic event or getting ready to step on stage for a bodybuilding competition, chances are that you can afford yourself one or two drinks once in a while without having to worry too much.

Just keep moderation in mind and try your best to consume extra water with the alcohol, eat more vegetables during the rest of the day (to increase nutrient content in your diet while decreasing calories) and allow for a little extra sleep time if you can after you've had a few drinks.

Are you skinny fat?

Whether someone is socially deemed "skinny" or deemed "Fat" is completely relative. You may have an individual who has high expectations of their body type and classifies themselves as fat, while others may not. People may think someone is too skinny, where as that person may indeed fall into the desired weight range for a healthy individual of their height and age. Either way, our views on the matter are sometimes skewed and biased and sometimes our fears of falling into either category are unwarranted...

But the term "Skinny-Fat" is one that is fairly new and has started appearing on health segments on morning TV shows, creeping into diet and nutrition jargon, and even having multiple definitions under urban dictionary. But with any newly coined term comes some confusion with exactly what it means. There are conflicting meanings, depending on whether you are talking to bodybuilders or diet and nutrition experts, so I have pulled together a few of my favorites;

·         Skinny Fat is when someone falls under a healthy weight range, however their body composition is flabby rather than toned
·      Someone who appears thin and has a good BMI, but has a high percentage of body fat
·         When someone looks lean in clothes, but if flabby underneath
·         When a person is thin, but does not eat healthy and eats junk food
·         Someone who is thin, but has localized fatty areas, like a muffin top or love handles (hips) or butt and thighs.

So you can see that it is far from a medically diagnosed term, but you get the drift, and I'm sure after reading some of the definitions above, you may know of someone, maybe even yourself (as you lift your shirt and stare at yourself in the mirror) that falls into this category.

Do you know what it means to be skinny fat? Just because you are not obviously visually overweight, that does not mean that you are healthy by any means. There are many people that appear to be thin and healthy, but the truth is, unless they are eating a healthy diet and regularly exercising, there is nothing healthy about them. Some people have faster metabolisms and can eat fast food and processed junk without seeing it appear on their thighs or midsection, but does this mean they are in good shape or healthy? The truth is, you can be "skinny fat", which means that despite appearing to be healthy and in shape, you are actually in poor health and not in shape at all.

Products and advertisements that promise a loss of weight without exercise or dieting are really only telling you part of the story. Those diet pills and chemical products that do work, though most do not, really only eat away the fat without making you healthy or really doing anything natural at all. There is a big difference between fitness and weight that most people do not comprehend. To the people who design these advertisements, losing the weight is all that matters, no matter how you reach that ideal weight. The truth is, fitness and health are what really matter, and if you are not trying to obtain fitness and health, then you are doing something wrong. The truth is this: Weight does not equal fitness.

Losing weight without obtaining health and fitness is not doing it right. Just because you are thin, that simply does not mean that you are fit. The world is full of people who are "skinny fat". What really matters when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight is being fit, in shape, and taking good care of your body in the process. It is actually entirely possible for a thin person to have a high percentage of body fat, higher in some cases than people who are visually overweight.

Simply losing weight does not mean you have a healthy heart. Getting fit and eating healthfully on the other hand can guarantee an improvement in heart health. Losing weight alone does not lower your cholesterol, but regular exercise and healthy eating will. Simply losing weight is not going to lower your risk of contracting certain types of cancers, but regularly exercising and eating healthfully certainly can. Losing weight cannot prevent osteoporosis, boost your immune system, lead to healthier pregnancies and childbirth, help you keep your weight off for life, improve your physical performance or prevent the loss of muscle, but by exercising regularly and eating healthfully, you absolutely can.

So what does this mean? Losing weight is not the important part of getting healthy - The important things to consider are eating healthfully, exercising regularly and taking care of your health. Skinny Fat or Fat-Fat your number one goal should be to get fit!

Too much of a good thing

Everybody has heard it at some time or another “You’re over training! That’s why you’re not making serious gains.” So we hear it. But do we understand what it means? I mean really what it means? Once you do and once you can make the distinction between an over trained body and one that remains fresh, - believe me – you’ll make very serious changes.

In its most basic sense, over training means the body is being put under greater stress than it can handle. It’s that simple. Any additional stress, above and beyond what your own body can handle will result in a failure to recover and grow. So you could be fairly dedicated, training with a routine you believe to be a well thought out approach– yet fail to move ahead and change your body.

One of the myths that perpetuates over training is the silly idea “There’s no such thing as over training, just under eating.” The idea is so far off the mark and ill advised, I don’t even want to spend much time with it. The fact is, nutrition can only support the body so far. When exercise stress exceeds your body’s own tolerance for recovery, you go backwards. You don’t change. Even if you are eating a well.

Building muscle relies on the poundage's you use also known as the weight. Pretty simple, if you can perform a set of barbell curls with 60 pounds, you’ll stimulate far more growth than using only 30 pounds. No matter how you cut it, the weight you use is immensely important in stimulating the muscles to grow. After the weight comes volume or the total number of sets you perform. Volume influences muscle growth. If you do not perform enough sets, you’ll fail to trigger growth. If you get carried away and do too many, you’ll over train and also fail to grow, so you have to find a balance, a happy medium. Where’s the happy medium? It depends, but here are some guidelines.

1) The More Sets You Perform, the Better

Just as the greater the weight you handle, the better in terms of muscle recruitment, the more sets you do, the greater you’ll work a muscle. The thing you really have to distinguish is where to stop. To illustrate the point, just ask yourself is three sets of bicep curls better than one? Of course, the answer is yes. Is five better than three. Most likely. Is 7 better than five? The point where you have to stop or the point where more sets are no longer helping is typically where you lose the ‘feel” or ‘pump’ in the muscle or where your poundage's start to drop. It’s important to listen to your body and move on when you need to. If you lose a pump, move on. When your poundage's drop – you can’t handle the same heavy weight for each continuous set, move on!

2) Speed Of Reps Count

The speed or perceived speed at which you move a weight influences how many sets you can do. Outside of the weight and total number of sets you perform, the speed at which you drive a weight has an influence on growth and can determine your own personal threshold for over training within each training session. Moving a weight fast, with speed and aggression, is far better for growth than moving a weight with a slow and even speed. That’s because in trying to ‘drive a weight’ with the intensity of a bullet coming out of a gun – causes a far greater number of muscle fibers to come into play than simply moving the weight with a slow cadence. Slow training, in my opinion, is a gimmick and has no real place in mass building plans. If you want to grow, you should pick a heavy weight and drive the weight while maintaining good form. Of course when you drive a weight, there's not going to be a lot of momentum created because when you overload the muscle with a heavy weight, the poundage radically cuts down on the creation of momentum. In overloading a muscle with a heavy weight and driving the weight by pushing it fast rather than super slow, you physiologically create the greatest amount of stress on the muscle as possible. One way to discover whether you are about to do too much is by getting in touch with your ability to drive a weight. If you go into the gym and there’s no oomph to the muscle – you can’t explode and drive the first few sets of an exercise (after warming up of course) you are already over trained. Get out of the gym! On the other hand, if there is a lot of snap in the muscle – you can drive those heavy weights and you feel powerful, for sure you are not over training and should proceed with the workout.

3) Frequency Counts

Another factor influences recovery is training frequency. For the most part, I believe you have to train a muscle once every 3 to 7 days. In general, if you train a body part more frequently – say training chest every fourth day, you won't grow due to over training. On the other hand, if you wait more than 8 days, you’ll also fail to grow. In this case not by over training but by failing to train frequently enough. You see, the muscles grow by stimulating them, then resting. If you rest too long – waiting too many days before hitting the same muscle group for another workout, the stress on the body appears to be too great which overwhelms the recovery process leading to a lack of growth. Let’s put it this way, imagine training legs on Monday and then again on Wednesday. The time in between is too short, so you over train. Now tray training them for a second time 10 –12 days after the first workout. What happens? The time between training is so long your legs become immensely sore the second time you train which can also trigger over training. You need balance, not too often and not too infrequent. To avoid over training, you’ll need a training strategy that allows you to hit each body part once every 5 to 8 days.

4) Too Many Days In a Row

If mass is the goal, you have to rest. Many bodybuilders won't be able to train more than two consecutive days – or at least should not train for more than two consecutive days in a row – because training for more than two days usually causes hormonal changes that lead to over training. Typically, in an over training state, testosterone levels start to drop a little. In addition, you’ll experience a small surge in cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone released from the adrenal cortex that sits just atop the kidneys and it increases in secretion is response to stress. In small amounts it actually contributes to anabolism – the building up in muscle tissue. However, when released in larger amounts, especially when testosterone levels drop even mildly, it tends to tear muscle down creating a catabolic scenario. 

Buyer Beware!

Today, I am seeing the personal training industry heading downhill.  Just like on the west coast many waiters are out of work actors, the same can be said for personal trainers, and I hate being associated with that.  I am a highly qualified and certified personal trainer with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and a passion for what I do and I currently work as a personal trainer. Personal Training is a wonderful and rewarding profession and one that I think has potential to do a lot of good in helping people reach their fitness goals. I've met some great and talented personal trainers but with as many great trainers that I have worked with there are twice as many trainers who are the exact opposite, and it's too bad that many of those trainers are giving the industry a bad name. But what is even more concerning are the trainers that are putting people in harm, and risking their client's health and safety by performing unsafe or unwarranted exercises and giving them dangerous advice.  Today's trainers remind me of George Orwell's 1984, where one of the slogans of the book is "Ignorance is Strength."  Not only are some of today's trainers uneducated and inexperienced, they seem to have no desire to take the time to become a talented trainer.

The industry has absolutely no regulation and I can tell you from experience that many trainers working both independently and in gyms have no certification or credentials that qualify them to train others. A regulatory body for personal trainers does not exist. There are countless different personal training certifications or certificates available. Not all are created equal.  It's up to the client to check a trainer's background and qualifications.  Unlike many other professions, such as dietitian, and even massage therapist, personal training requires no state license or major requirements.  By law, for example, a person must meet certain requirements to call himself or herself a dietitian or nutritionist. In contrast, there is no law that stipulates what is required for someone to attach the status "personal trainer" to his or her name, so be wary.  An experienced professional with a bachelor's degree in exercise physiology is probably more qualified than many personal trainers whose only experience comes from their weekend certification course, but unless you know everything about that person's education, background and experience, a well recognized and respected certification is still a good thing to look for.

Look for a personal trainer with a well respected certification or degree.  Many personal trainers get their certifications in a weekend course or even more shocking, are not certified at all.  A reputable certification will require that the person be CPR-certified, take an exam that contains both written and practical application questions, detail the required score the person must achieve to earn certification status, and require continuing education credits to remain certified by that organization.  Well respected certifications include CSCS, ACSM, NSCA, ISSA, and NASM.  In general, the more difficult the exam is known to be, the more in-depth your trainer's knowledge will be.

Every trainer started off as an experienced personal trainer, however the best ones took their time to study their profession.  True personal trainers have a passion for what they do.  They are in the business to help change people's lifestyles, not just collect a paycheck.  Simply being certified—even from one of the best organizations—does not mean that your trainer will be a good one. Personal training requires a person to take a great deal of knowledge and apply it to a wide variety of individualized cases, which is no small feat. This doesn't even get into the other issues like personality fit, motivational style, how well the trainer designs workout plans to your individual needs, or how well the trainer cues you and pays attention to proper form during each exercise.  

All too often, new or inexperienced personal trainers put their clients at extreme risk.  Because of their lack of knowledge, they tend to mimic experienced trainers or surf the web to come up with a exercise routine.  Their workouts have no rhyme or reason, and they end up hopping from machine to machine with no plan of action.  A well designed program does not mean making your clients pass out or throw up.  This is not a well designed program, it put clients is harm's way and can lead to more problems.  Many personal trainers become trainers simply because they like working out, or a friend or gym member told them they should be trainers.  There are tons or diets and fitness programs one could follow to get in shape.  However, one must pick the right routine for them that is safe while also being effective.  Some programs are effective and some are extremely risky.  Just because a trainer is in good shape does not mean that they have the skills to be a trainer.

Certifications do exist for a reason—both to protect the fitness consumer and the trainer. Certifications are based on medically accepted science, safe protocols, good judgment and sound research, among countless other safety measures. While a non-professional may have a good deal of knowledge about exercise, proper training in anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, exercise assessments and prescriptions and other areas covered by a good certification is essential. What your friend with a six pack read in a magazine may not be accurate, safe or effective for you, even if she feels qualified and experienced to train you. Without having read a personal training manual, studied the material and passed a test, she doesn't know what she might not know.

For the personal training industry, it is "buyer beware".  It is up to the client to weed out the unqualified personal trainers to find one that is well experience with a well respected certification or degree.  Look for the trainers that know the "trade", not the "tricks of the trade".

The Calorie IN vs. Calorie OUT Theory

For years health professionals have developed weight management programs that included the necessary components for successful weight management-behavior change, nutrition education, and exercise prescription-yet the overweight/obesity trend continues to rise. Why haven’t these popular weight management programs worked? The reason is because they are missing one key component-a person’s individual metabolism. The foundation of any successful weight management program must be centered on a person’s individual metabolic rate and the energy balance equation for long-term success. The energy balance equation may be a new term for you but you certainly know the concept--calories in versus calories out.

More specifically, if you want to lose weight, you must be in negative energy balance (calories in < calories out). If you want to gain weight, you must be in positive energy balance (calories in > calories out). And if you want to maintain your weight, you must be in stable energy balance (calories in = calories out). A lot of nutritionists still stick exclusively with calories as the one and only factor that determines a person's ability to gain fat or lose fat. They water-down the fat burning process to a simple math equation.  In other words, while mathematics are clear and concise measuring tools, when it comes to fat loss, they don't always work.

The concept is so simple to understand but it is so hard to do because we don’t understand all of the pieces of the equation and don’t know how to put them together to change our weight. Until now! Let’s take an in-depth look at this concept in order to understand how to better use it.

I'll get right to the point. Years ago, when I was studying exercise and nutrition in college, all the teachers used the energy balance theory in explaining how the body adds or drops body fat. The energy balance equation holds that getting lean is nothing more than a math equation. There are "calories in" from the food we eat on one side of the equation and "calories out" (burned up) on the other side of the equation; sort of like a scale in perfect balance. The overwhelming belief then is that a person only has to create a calorie imbalance by eating fewer calories and the result will be non-stop fat loss. See the math?  "If you eat 2000 calories but your body burns 2700 calories, then you'll lose body fat." But, is this really how it works? Sometimes; but there's more to it.

 In addition to calories, hormones play a monumental role in regulating fat loss. There are fat-storing hormones and fat-burning hormones. In general, when you eat fewer calories than the body burns, the body will release a greater amount of fat-burning hormones. And, if you eat more calories than the body burns, the body will release more fat-storing hormones. However, with prolonged or extreme dieting, the body sometimes changes its mind and actually stops releasing fat burning hormones even when calories remain low (a defense mechanism to starvation). At that point, the math no longer works.

Additionally, there are many other factors that determine whether you'll produce fat-storing or fat-burning hormones. The types of calories you eat-carbs, protein, or fat-- affects fat-storing and fat-burning hormones, as well. In general, carbs tend to release fat-storing hormones while protein tends to release fat-burning hormones. Dietary fat can do both depending on what sources you consume. It can increase fat-storing hormones or increase fat-burning ones.

Meal frequency (how many times a day you eat), protein intake in relation to carbohydrates, the time of day you exercise, the type of meal you eat before and after exercise, and supplements all influence whether you will release fat-storing or fat-burning hormones. All these factors tend to make the calorie balance theory somewhat obsolete. At the very least, you cannot expect to follow the calorie balance theory exclusively and burn away as much fat as you want. You have to gain control of your hormones.

I'll outline how the above factors play a role in skewing the calorie balance theory.

(1) Carbohydrates

Carbs release insulin, which is a potent fat storing hormone. Insulin drives carbohydrates (glucose) into fat cells causing the body to accumulate body fat. Hormonally, carbs are a fat-storing food.

(2) Protein

Protein increases thermogenesis, or heat production(calorie burning). In short, when you eat protein, the body experiences a mild increase in body temperature. As body temperature rises even slightly, calorie burning rises. The result is that when you eat protein, your metabolism actually increases. Protein also influences thyroid levels so it can definitely be considered a "fat-burning" food.

(3) Ratio of Carbs to Protein

If fat-burning is your goal, then no meal should contain radically more carbs then protein. Why? The carbs override the fat burning and thermogenic boost associated with protein. So, if you eat 3 cups of rice and a small chicken breast yielding 600 calories or 2 cups of rice and 2 chicken breasts also yielding 600 calories, you can expect greater fat storing effects when the meal is higher in carbs then closer to a 50-50 balance of carbs to protein.

(4) Meal Frequency

This one is huge. If you want to lose body fat, eat 6 times a day. First, every time you eat, you experience a small increase in metabolic rate just by virtue of a greater thermogenic effect. Second, smaller meals suppress the release of cortisol, a hormone that decreases testosterone levels. Maintaining a higher testosterone level helps support fat-burning hormones. Finally, multiple meals keeps blood sugar - the amount of digested carbohydrates floating around in the blood - stable. Stable sugar levels, in turn, tend to keep fat-storing insulin in a neutral state.

(5) Pre-Training Food

If you're going to hit the weights, stick with low glycemic carbs-- oatmeal, cream of rye cereal, and sweet potatoes- in the meal prior to training. These carbs digest slower which keeps insulin levels lower. Lower insulin levels before training allow the body to tap fatty acids from body fat as a back-up fuel source to muscle glycogen.

(6) Post-Training Food

Here's where you need to eat. You should eat a higher protein and carb intake (from mostly high glycemic carbs) post-workout because it speeds growth and recovery. After training, you want insulin levels to rise (not explode!) because it's at this point that the body enters a serious rebuilding mode. Insulin under normal circumstances can store body fat; however, post-workout it kick-starts the rebuilding process, exclusively. That means no fat storage. You see, insulin is both a fat-storing hormone and muscle-potentiating hormone. Here's the catch; higher insulin levels after training is desirable. It causes muscle growth without stimulating fat storage. There's a happy medium here. You need the insulin to kick start recovery but "shoot for the clouds not the moon".

(7) Night-time Eating

When you sleep the body releases growth hormone, which not only helps rebuild muscle but also increases fat burning. However, when you eat a lot of carbs just prior to bed, the body's natural GH release tends to get suppressed. Stick with protein-- chicken, turkey, lean beef, egg whites, cottage cheese and fish-- at night and add some low calorie vegetables to them. That will keep your carb intake under control allowing for maximal GH release to occur.

(8) Pre-cardio

Cardio burns fat by dragging fatty acids out of fat cells and burning them within the muscles in small areas called the mitochondria. Cardio also causes changes in the body that favor fat burning; greater total calorie expenditure and an increase in fat-burning hormones. Eating before cardio can put a damper on that hormonal shift. In other words, when you eat before cardio-- especially carbs-you'll experience a smaller increase in fat burning hormones which translates into less fat loss. That's why you should do cardio on an empty stomach. Or, at the very least, don't eat any carbs. You can probably get away with a small protein snack since that won't alter the beneficial hormonal change brought on by cardio exercise.

10 Ways to Improve your Nutrition

Over 60% of Americans are overweight, and at least 25% of those are obese. Overweight or not, we all fight a nutritional battle every time we enter a grocery store or a fast food restaurant. Low-fat or low-carb? South Beach Diet, Adkins Diet, or the Zone? At some point, all of us have taken advice from a new fad or diet and tried it with little or no success. As a nation, we’re still fatter and plagued by more disease than ever. And soon enough, the cost of medical care will skyrocket even higher than it is now. Outside of the diet spectrum, here are 10 tried and true basic methods toward a sound nutritional plan that many fitness experts agree on:

1. Keep a food diary. Most people underestimate their caloric intake, until they start writing it down.   Although people may find it tedious to write down every consumed morsel, it can be the most effective way to point out what you are actually eating so you can get on a healthy eating plan.  Behavior modification is one of the most successful methods for long-term weight management. And who wants to regain weight after working so hard to lose it? Keeping a food diary can also help you determine unhealthy eating patterns. Do you raid your co-worker’s candy jar every time you walk past it? Do you eat more when you’re sad or angry? Do you wait until you’re famished to eat, and then consume food like a vulture? Keeping an accurate food log (listing food and portion sizes, time of day, hunger level, mood, etc.) will help you determine your nutritional weaknesses so you can eliminate the elements that lead to excess weight.

2. Drink more water. Everyone knows the 8, 8-ounce glasses of water a day rule. The National Academy of Sports Medicine says, on average, people should drink closer to 96-ounces of water.  Most people are more dehydrated than they realize. The human body is made of 60% water; if you are dehydrated, your body will not be able to perform at an optimum level.  Research shows decreased blood pressure and increased heart rate as effects of dehydration, which has a negative impact on your performance in everyday life activities. Caffeine, although proven to enhance performance to some degree, should be consumed in limited amounts to also avoid dehydration.

3. Eliminate the foods that tempt you. Out of sight—out of mind. If you love Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream and can’t control the urge to eat the whole carton, don’t buy it! That doesn’t mean you can’t have it as an occasional treat. Once a month, drive to your local ice cream store and buy a single scoop of ice cream in a cup. This way, you aren’t tempted to eat 12-servings in one sitting, and it is a treat that you look forward to versus a nightly calorie buster. 

4. Don’t “diet.” Call it a “healthy eating plan,” or something along those lines. Just don’t call it a diet. The word ‘diet’ for most people signifies a short-term solution to a weight problem. Your goal should be healthy eating for life, which helps you get down to and maintain a reasonable weight and fight diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart-related illnesses. Choose healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, legumes, and lean meats most of the time. And live a little—enjoy those “not so healthy” foods on occasion.  

5. Have one “no holds barred” meal per week. Eat whatever you like one meal a week—no matter if it’s off the charts unhealthy.  Preventing yourself from eating your favorite foods is a sure way to lead to binge-eating, if you love pizza, chocolate, or deep-fried enchiladas, enjoy it, but only once a week.  This way, you don’t feel deprived and have less chances of overeating. You may even find your cravings for the so-called “bad” foods actually diminish over time. 

6. Eat until you’re satisfied not stuffed. We’ve all done it. We order an appetizer, salad, main meal, and dessert and wonder why we’re hoping our waiter can help roll us out the door. Think of fueling up your car. You wouldn’t put gas in a full tank! It’s the same with your body. If you add food to an already full stomach, you wind up with excess calories and excess weight. Consider the following options: 1. craving dessert?  Order a salad and split the dessert with a friend. 2. Request a lunch-sized portion; most restaurants will do this if you ask. 3. Ask your waiter to wrap up half of your entrée before he even brings it out to you. This way, you aren’t tempted to overeat, and the bonus is an enjoyable lunch the next day.

7. Check your labels. Many fat-free and reduced-fat foods have added calories. Food manufacturers take away the fat, but add sugar and other ingredients to add flavor. This increases the food’s caloric value. Many of these same manufacturers have followed suit with the low-carb craze. Some items may have fewer calories, but they have more saturated fat and trans-fatty acids which has been shown to contribute to heart disease. Trans-fatty acids raise the LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels and this can cause a build up of fatty plaque in the arteries.  Try to avoid overly-processed foods like fast food, doughnuts, cookies, and potato chips. Base your diet around whole, naturally nutritious foods with minimal processing like oatmeal, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

8. Try to eat smaller, more frequent meals.  Some people say, “You are what you eat.”  I say, “You eat what you are.”  Most people truly believe that making healthy food choices revolves around will power.  They feel that if you discipline yourself to say no to certain foods, you will magically kick your cravings to the curb.  In reality, cravings for sweets, chips, chocolate, or other over-processed foods are the result of inadequate food intake and low blood sugar.  In most cases, waiting longer than three hours without eating leads to a drop in your blood sugar and increased cravings. Minimize this by eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day. The key is to keep your meals “Snack-size,” vs. “Biggie-size.”  Depending on your caloric needs, this averages to around 200-400 calories per meal. Keeping this key in mind while eating smaller, more frequent meals, helps you decrease your overall caloric intake and increase your energy levels throughout the day. 

9. Exercise regularly. There is something about exercise that encourages a healthy lifestyle. As you exercise, your brain releases specific hormones that not only help you feel good, but also help you relieve stress. Stress is a leading cause for poor food choices in the first place. And with all of the new-found energy from exercising, eating healthier becomes less of a chore and more of a routine part of your life.

10. Create a support team. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to eat healthy when those around you eat like they are carb-loading for the Boston Marathon.  It helps to have a spouse or friend that understands your situation and will not throw roadblocks in your way to trip you up. Two heads are better than one, so try to recruit someone who will “carry the torch” with you on your journey to better health. And if all else fails, hire a personal coach or nutritionist to help you reach your goals.  If you can afford the cost of paying someone to assist you with your nutrition, it will go a long way.  A paid consultant is highly motivated in helping you achieve your goals at all costs.

Remember, you want a healthy nutritional plan that you can maintain for life. Making too drastic changes with your nutrition will only create short-term successes. Take your time and resist the temptation to be lured into following the latest fad diet. Gauge your progress by analyzing how you look and feel, and make modifications when needed. Get regular checkups from your physician and always inform your doctor of any lifestyle changes (including dietary changes) you are pursuing. 

Is stress keeping you fat?

Do you feel sore, tired, irritable or weak? Have you noticed that your gains have plateaued? These could be signs that your cortisol levels are out of whack. Learning to control this muscle-eroding hormone will increase your muscle mass

Cortisol is a stress hormone that's truly the antithesis of testosterone: whereas testosterone supports muscle building, excess cortisol kills it. Besides tearing down muscle tissue and preventing the body from storing carbs as muscle glycogen, cortisol actually lowers testosterone. It also interferes with testosterone's ability to bind to its receptors within muscle cells and induce an anabolic effect. When testosterone levels drop, not only does it become harder to build muscle and recover, but estrogen tends to have a stronger effect in the body. Estrogen is correlated with water retention, and it also makes shedding body fat a lot more difficult.

Cortisol levels can be elevated for a variety of reasons; hardcore training itself can induce this rise. It's important that bodybuilders learn how to control their cortisol levels to keep making the best gains. If you suffer from the symptoms mentioned earlier, institute the following suggestions to help get your cortisol levels under control.

1. Stay on top of your workout nutrition As mentioned, cortisol rises when you train, it's a natural reaction. One of the best ways to avoid excessively elevated cortisol levels is to be disciplined with your post workout nutrition. By supplying your body with exactly what it needs as soon as the work-out is done, you'll jump-start your recovery and help blunt cortisol spikes.

After your workout, take in 30-50 grams (g) of whey protein with 60 to 100 g of carbs. Maltodextrin is easy, but you can take in other fast-digesting carbs such as rice cakes, white bread or cold cereal. You can also add 5 g of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) to the mix, or take them before you work out. BCAAs before exercise help maintain testosterone levels and can be used to fuel muscles. Leucine, one of the BCAAs, also spikes insulin levels through a different mechanism than carbs, and insulin helps in the suppression of cortisol. Whey provides building blocks that help prevent catabolism  muscle breakdown and preventing catabolism is directly related to lower cortisol levels. Finally, the carbs in this combo spike insulin to further offset protein breakdown.

2. Control your workouts Training volume can have a direct impact on cortisol levels. If you're over training  you're taking your body past the point where you can make the best gains. Follow these rules to make the most of your muscle-building regime.

Limit weight training to four sessions per week. Training more frequently prevents the body from attaining a full recovery.

Keep sessions to no more than an hour. When you perform too many sets and exercises in a given session, you can break down your muscle tissue too much. Limiting the length of your training sessions helps avoid this.

Emphasize multijoint movements. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses are the most effective at stimulating muscle growth while helping to limit total training volume. They also best stimulate growth hormone (GH) and testosterone, which can help blunt cortisol.

Avoid excessive pumping and finishing movements. When you perform numerous sets and reps of these types of exercises, you can raise your cortisol levels too high without stimulating as much muscle growth. Try to keep pumping and finishing movements to no more than three sets per body part at the end of the workout.

3. Be careful with your cardio If cardio exercise burned only body fat, then you could hop on a bike and cycle your way into the record books as the most ripped human ever. The problem is, though, that prolonged and excessive cardio causes an increase in cortisol, and this situation can begin to prioritize muscle tissue as an energy source, tearing it down instead of helping to build it.

How much is too much cardio? I'd say anything more than five sessions a week  and try to keep it to no more than four times per week when you're not being strict with your diet. Thirty minutes per session is also enough, except when you're trying to get really ripped.

4. Eat six meals a day The benefits of eating multiple meals per day are numerous. Besides allowing you to stay lean, a diet strategy of smaller and more frequent meals has been shown to keep cortisol levels lower than less-frequent feedings. Multiple meals at any calorie level will result in greater cortisol control than less-frequent meals, and we know keeping cortisol in check yields less fat, more muscle, better recovery and more energy. Strive to take in six meals per day throughout all phases of your training program.

5. Take vitamin C This water-soluble vitamin cushions the negative effects of free radicals, compounds that are released with hardcore training. Free radicals target tissues such as muscles, weakening them and increasing inflammation and breakdown. When this happens, cortisol levels spike. By providing your body with antioxidants, such as vitamin C, you can help control cortisol. One study showed that a daily dose of 1,000 milligrams (mg) helped weightlifters keep cortisol under control. A good bet is to take 1,000 mg with your post-training meal, when free radicals are most likely to be present. Don't go to the extreme and take a mega dose, though, because new research shows that excessive vitamin C could actually be detrimental.

6. Supplement with vitamin E This fat-soluble vitamin offers many versatile benefits. Primarily, vitamin E helps combat the oxi-dative stress of training and dieting. Like vitamin C, vitamin E is also helpful at combating free radicals. Large amounts of vitamin E have been shown to decrease creatine kinase activity, a marker for muscle-fiber injury. That's what happens when you train. It's the irony of trying to get big: you tear down your muscles to rebuild them and make them grow bigger. Taking 800 international units of vitamin E daily may help to prevent severe breakdown, which, in theory, should allow you to recover more quickly from your training.

7. Try phosphatidylserine Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid, a quasi fat that is derived from soy beans. PS has been shown to help control cortisol levels. When you take 800 mg immediately after training, it saves muscles by blunting the total amount of cortisol released by your body. In theory, you can train like a madman and rapidly recover if you follow up the hard training with this anticortisol supplement. Another benefit is that when you keep cortisol levels under control, it's easier for your muscles to carb up. With escalating cortisol levels, muscles experience a downgrade in their ability to take up carbs and deposit them as stored muscle glycogen.

8. Eat (or supplement with) garlic This bulbous flavorful herb common to Asian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking has a long-deserved reputation as a health food. Recent research has shown that garlic along with a high-casein diet altered the body's hormonal status, yielding lower levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. Other studies have shown that garlic may help increase testosterone levels. In general, the higher your testosterone levels, the lower your cortisol levels. So supplement with garlic powder  450 mg twice daily with meals or with a garlic supplement that provides about 4 mg of allicin with casein protein shakes. This may help keep cortisol to a minimum.

9. Get your glutamine You knew it had to show up here, right? Recent studies have pooh-poohed glutamine's beneficial effects on cortisol levels, but I disagree. There are many other studies that take a pro-glutamine view in muscle building. Glutamine works to spare BCAAs, and keeping BCAAs high helps keep cortisol levels from rising. In addition, glutamine pushes water into muscles, and hydrated muscles remain anabolic. Several studies show that supplemental glutamine can help keep cortisol levels in check.

Glutamine can help suppress the amount of cortisol circulating in blood. Glutamine also increases GH levels, combating cortisols catabolic effects. For a beneficial effect on cortisol levels, athletes may need a lot more glutamine than amounts that are often suggested. I recommend taking 5 to 10 g before and another 5 to 10 g after training to help reduce cortisol levels.

10. Add arginine to your supplement regime Arginine is now touted as a nitric oxide inducer; yet, it remains an effective GH releaser. Arginine may also have effects on cortisol levels. When GH levels rise, which naturally occurs with sleep, cortisol levels fall. As you get older, the sleep-induced GH boost just isn't what it used to be, which allows cortisol levels to rise. Rising cortisol makes it harder for your body to grow, to hold mass and to get lean. Take 9 to 12 g of arginine before bed without carbs to increase GH levels and to blunt cortisol. 

The Importance of Supplementation

Vitamin and mineral supplementation continues to be a contentious issue among health professionals. The common catch phrase of the medical community is that vitamins and minerals are adequately available from our food. It’s hard to appreciate the credibility of this advice, when it is delivered from a profession that receives negligible nutrition training. In Australia, this claim contrasts in stark hypocrisy against laws prescribing the mandatory fortification of bread with thiamine and salt with iodine. In addition, folic acid supplementation in pregnant women is a recommended requirement to protect an unborn child from developing spina bifida. But we’re meant to be getting that from our foods, right?

The inconvenient reality is that food isn't what it used to be. The marvel of modern agriculture has robbed our soils of essential minerals and consequently, our plants are deficient in these nutrients also. Plants need over fifty vitamins and minerals, yet our abused and overused soils only typically receive phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. If our plants are vitamin and mineral deficient and our bodies cannot manufacture these essential compounds, where else are we supposed to obtain them from?

While sustainable agricultural practices such as bio-dynamic farming aim to restore our soils to health, we have considerable work to do before this option is universally adopted and available to everyone. In the interim, most of us are opting to eat as best we can however the majority of people fail to eat even the bare minimum required fruit and vegetable servings. This is a tad worrying when you consider that even those who do are probably also missing key nutrients. Importantly, supplementation is not a substitute for a healthy diet. But until we can replenish our soils and eat produce freshly picked in season, supplementation can be a tool to atone for the shameful lack in our foods.

Thanks to our current insidious exposure to environmental pollutants, we may also require higher doses of nutrients than any of our predecessors. It is well established in the medical literature that smokers require higher levels of vitamin C than non-smokers. Many cities around the globe already exceed the air pollution limits established by the World Health Organization. Simple logic follows that in a depressingly polluted world, our bodies need all the ammunition that is possible to stay healthy.

Whole Food vs. Synthetic Supplements

Ideally, we as humans should be consuming our vitamins and minerals through foods in their whole, natural and organic form with all the essential co-factors and enzymes essential for delivering the nutrients directly to our cells. We have however established that due to the state of our soils and planet, food is unlikely to always provide the essential vitamins and minerals required for optimal health. A reasonable option is therefore to supplement (in conjunction with a healthy diet). However, when confronted with the barrage of supplements available on the market, it is difficult to discern whether natural or synthetic supplements are appropriate for your individual needs.

Supplements may be natural food derivatives or laboratory manufactured. The majority of vitamins that are sold in pharmacies, grocery stores, and vitamin shops are synthetic vitamins, which are only isolated portions of the vitamins that occur naturally in food. Vitamins and minerals in nature do not exist as single components that act on their own, they are made up of several different components – enzymes, co-enzymes, and co-factors– that must work together to produce their intended effects. In this context natural supplements are far superior to their synthetic counterparts however this is not the end of the story.

In considering synthetic or natural supplements you must look into why you are supplementing in the first place. If you are looking to take therapeutic doses for a particular illness then it may be necessary to take synthetic supplements to achieve high enough doses for the program to have effect. There is much published work supporting this approach and in this context synthetic supplements play their part. If you are generally healthy and are looking to supplement your diet on a day to day basis then natural supplements are your best option.

Designing a Supplement Program

There are countless studies showing that by simply increasing your vitamin and mineral intake you can promote mental clarity, weight loss, boost your immunity, reduce stress, prevent cancer and other diseases, combat depression, lower blood pressure, reduce cravings, increase energy levels, improve sleep, and regulate digestion. Given this information is it little wonder that many experts now advise that an all-round supplementation program, in conjunction with a healthy diet, is a savvy health choice. The following supplement recommendations will cover the basic building blocks of a robust supplement program:

• A high potency Multi-Vitamin & Multi-Mineral
• Vitamin C
• Essential Fats
• Probiotics
• Multi-Vitamin / Multi-Mineral

Supplementing a healthy diet can improve the body's ability to detoxify and lose weight. There are many different combinations to promote certain functions of the body however it is good to consider a high quality, high dose multivitamin as a solid foundation to begin with. We are lucky there are many multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplements available to us today from your local health food store or pharmacy. These have great results but we recommend where possible to chose raw, whole food nutritional supplements as our bodies are designed to recognize nutrients best when they come from food. Look for these in specialized health food stores.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of the most important antioxidants. It is important to know that Vitamin C is not produced by the body. The therapeutic properties of Vitamin C are plenty. They include very high anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties, aiding in the prevention of cataracts and helping to lower cholesterol. Vitamin C is a great antidote for neutralizing free radicals that will cause premature aging. Vitamin C works wonders at the onset of a cold or flu when taken to bowel tolerance. High doses of Vitamin C is effective as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of cancer. Vitamin C is worth taking separately because the amount you need does not fit in a multi-vitamin. This can be taken in a powdered form or pill form. Look for Vitamin C as Ascorbic Acid.

Essential Fats

Essential fatty acids or EFA’s cannot be made by the body and we therefore need to get them from the food we eat. These oils are great to maintain healthy hair and skin, elevate moods, nourish your brain, assist in a healthy pregnancy, increase energy, and regulate blood sugar. There are two ways of meeting your essential fat requirements: one is from the diet, either by eating a heaped tablespoon of ground seeds every day, having a tablespoon of special cold-pressed seed oils and/or eating fish three times a week; the other is to supplement concentrated oils. For omega 3 this means either flax seed oil capsules or the more concentrated fish or krill oil capsules providing EPA and DHA.

Probiotics

Probiotics help to boost our immune system by assisting the body to absorb nutrients. 80% of our immune system is located in the digestive system. When good bacteria get destroyed by stress, poor diet and antibiotics, probiotics help the digestive system by balancing out the good and bad bacteria. They are necessary to keep your army of good bacteria alive to continue to keep the bad bacteria in check.