Blue Star Fitness Blog

Whether you have kids in school or not, it seems that life begins anew after Labor Day.

The summer’s over. The kids are back in school. Every car is back on the road. And we resolve to form new habits and make them stick - this time. Unfortunately, they often don’t stick and sometime mid-fall we decide that January 1^st is a good time to start anew - again.

In our Fitness Through Empowerment Seminar, we talk about the 3 things you need to have to make a successful life change:

1. Belief that you can make the change
2. The right technology to make the change
3. Follow Through

If you are reading this newsletter, then we know that you believe you can make a change through proper diet and exercise.

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If you’ve been to our Fitness Through Empowerment Seminar then you know that there is a lot of hidden information in the Nutritional Information Label required on food packaging. Many of the most glaring misconceptions involve fat. It is important to understand the rules governing the claims food producers can make and to become a detective to find out exactly what you are putting into your body.

Fat has gotten a bad rap. It is an essential part of our diet. Fat is needed in the body to supply energy. With 9 calories per gram, it is the most energy dense macronutrient. Fat is also needed to promote absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

That said, most Americans eat too much fat with much of this fat being saturated. A diet like this can lead to high cholesterol, heart disease and obesity. However, with a bit of education and a bit of vigilance on your part, you can drastically reduce the amount of fat in your diet.

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Well, we are 33 days into the New Year. How is your Resolution going? If you are like most Americans, your life has taken over and your Resolution is already out the window. Did you know that only about 20% of people who set weight loss as their New Year’s Resolution ever reach their goal? We want you to be part of that 20%. So we wanted to discuss what it takes to fulfill a goal. It takes 3 things to be successful in any pursuit:

• Belief
• The Right Technology
• Follow Through

Belief
You need to believe that whatever change you are going to make is going to work. If you don’t believe it, then it certainly won’t work.

How many attempts have you made at reducing your weight? For years many people attempt to lose weight and just can’t seem to do it or they will have some success and then reach a point where results have seemed to stop. After many attempts and coming up short your belief in ever being fit again is very low. Each time we fail to accomplish a set goal our belief drops more and more with each failed attempt. There is a part of each of us that has a voice that says “I Can” and another voice that not only says “I Can’t” but literally screams “I Can’t” in our heads. It’s so easy for us to listen to the “I Can’t” voice because it is so easy to give in. This year focus on the “I Can”. Tell yourself you believe. Saying it out loud and repeatedly will increase the chances that it will indeed happen.

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We are often asked about supplementation and whether it will improve fat loss. The truth is that if you eat a well-balanced diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables in a rainbow of colors you will get all the nutrients you need. With that in mind, we recommend a daily multivitamin just to be sure. Many studies that tout the benefits of various vitamins and minerals are often using the levels you will find in a good multivitamin. You can find the recommended levels here. (Downloadable PDF from USDA) Be careful, too much of certain vitamins and minerals can be bad for you. And as credible research comes out about changes in vitamin levels, good vitamin manufacturers should adjust their formulations.

Why don’t I just get what I need from pills?

You should strive to get all your nutritional needs through your diet. For example, we know that salmon is very good for you and one of the reasons that salmon is good for you is due to the essential fatty acids that it provides. Someone has taken those fatty acids and put them in a pill. However, there may be new research next year that finds something else in salmon is also required by the body to help reduce cancer, diabetes, etc. If you were eating salmon, instead of taking the pill, you will already be reaping the benefits of everything that salmon has to offer.

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Are you wasting your time lifting weights that don’t challenge your muscles?

This month we are talking about using momentary muscle failure to increase your productivity during exercise. We see lots of people in the gym going through the motions of exercise and if they incorporated the concept of momentary muscle failure when choosing their resistance they would see vast improvements in their results.

Momentary muscle failure is the concept of stimulating the muscle system to the point where the muscles can no longer perform the intended movement. Have you ever lifted something so many times that you could no longer lift it? That is momentary muscle failure – that point at which you just have to stop and take a rest.

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Last newsletter, we presented a simple way to eat right. Now we present the way to exercise properly and most effectively.

Where do I start?

The human body is a very complex machine structured as an intricate lever and pulley system fueled by what we eat. We are designed to move in various ways at various speeds with our brain, muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and bones acting as one unit to produce any movement.

Throughout the day we lift and move objects, we sit, stand and walk up stairs sometimes carrying heavy items all requiring us to use multiple muscles in order to stabilize force, reduce force and produce force.

Whether you are training for a specific sport or just trying to get into shape you should always train for movement and function and not merely for strength and power. The use of machines often seen in fitness centers and gyms is not a recommended method of training simply because of 2 major factors.

1. Machines often place our bodies in positions that will do major damage to the connective tissue and joints over time.
2. Machines have no way to mimic real life movements. Meaning if you have to pick up your child or a bag of groceries you must first perform a squat then in order to lift weight you have to contract your core muscles and perform a curl to row movement and finally after all of that you have to do a leg press while maintaining proper spinal stability in order not to fall over. (Have you seen a machine that can do all of that?) The next time you have to pick something off the ground try paying attention to the muscles that you use to get the job done.

Because of the way we are structured we have the ability to move in many directions and at varying speeds. We should train using the basic patterns that we use everyday in our normal lives. Not only is it a fantastic way to boost any current exercise routine but will also improve function for your everyday living. We focus on the seven primary movement patterns below.

7 Primary Movement Patterns

Spinal Flexion

Spinal Extension

Spinal Rotation

Squat

Push

Pull

Lunge

What about aerobic exercise?

If your goal is to lose fat, then aerobic exercise should follow the muscle building section of your program unless it is a day in which you are only doing aerobic exercise. When the body is in an anaerobic state (meaning the body is working with very little supply of oxygen) it uses glycogen in the muscles as its source of energy. When the body is in an aerobic state (meaning working with a good supply of oxygen) the body can use fat or glycogen as its energy source. To ensure that you burn fat during your aerobic exercise, we deplete the muscles of glycogen by completing muscle building (anaerobic state) first.

It does not have to be an overwhelming all consuming effort when doing aerobic exercise. Many people think they have to spend several hours a day performing cardio exercise. The truth is that in 12-20 minutes you can receive greater benefits than from an hour or more of the same exercise.

In short, muscle building should be done using real world movements at various speeds and in different planes of motion. Aerobic exercise should be done following muscle building. Perform 12-20 minutes to produce a positive physical change.

©May 2006 Blue Star Fitness

How often have you heard the phrase “you have to eat right and exercise”? Most, if not all, medical professionals recommend this for just about every medical condition seen in their practices. If you have diabetes, the prescription is to limit sugar intake and eat right and exercise. If you are overweight or in shape, you always have to eat right and exercise. But what does that mean — eat right and exercise?

We have all heard it and some of us may have even had those words spoken to us. The thing is no one has ever shown or told us how to eat right and exercise. Many in the medical field do not know themselves how to do the very thing they are recommending.

Going into a bookstore to find help can be a very daunting adventure mainly due to the literally thousands of choices to make. Some of these books are very useful and contain the actual keys that will help you make the correct choices in your struggle to look good and feel good while others will lead you down a path doomed for failure.

The first part of the formula – eating right – is simple, but it’s not always easy. It has become virtually impossible in today’s world if we listen to marketers, advertisers, interest groups and even some fitness trainers. Misinformation has plagued the public for decades. Companies have been selling products and programs that not only do not work but in the end make you fatter then when you started. How often have you or someone you know tried the latest fad diet and ended up 20 pounds heavier at the end of the program? This is all too common in the world of eating right and exercising.

So what is eating right?
Calories, Carbs, Starches, Low-Fat, Low Protein, Sugar, Splenda, Saturated Fat, what do all of these words mean and how do they impact weight loss? All of these words and countless more have confused us so much that we have become a society that is overweight and facing an epidemic in many weight-related diseases.

Eating right means eating in a manner that boosts your metabolism and supports daily caloric output. Staying away from hydrogenated fats and limiting sugar intake are the main keys to allow your body to literally burn fat anytime day or night.

In order to do this first we must stabilize blood sugar by eating in a manner which supports our body’s ability to produce Glucagon. Glucagon is a hormone produced by the pancreas in direct relation to the production of insulin. Glucagon allows us to release fat. Fat must be released by the body before it can be burned. When we eat a diet high in sugar, we produce more insulin and less glucagon. The goal is to stabilize blood sugar by eating a supportive meal every 3 hours thereby balancing the production of insulin and glucagon maximizing the body’s ability to release fat.

What Should I eat?
Much like an automobile we need to constantly put fuel into our engines in order to keep going. By consuming a meal every 3 hours we are fueling our body’s fat burning ability. Eat meals consisting of visually equal portions of a lean protein, a starchy carbohydrate and a fibrous carbohydrate is the key to boost metabolism and reduce your waistline.

This formula works for every person regardless of your current health and fitness level. It is not important to worry about how many calories you consume because your body will tell you how much is enough. It is very likely that you are not eating enough. Listen and feel for the little signs that your body gives off when there is a loss of calories and or nutrients. Things such as headaches, shaking, lack of mental focus all are subtle signs that may be your body’s way of asking for what it needs in order to survive.

Lean Protein Examples
Egg Whites
Turkey Breast Meat
Chicken Breast Meat
Tuna
Soy
Fat-Free Dairy Products
Fish Filets

Starchy Carb Examples
Potato
Sweet Potato
Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Tomato
Peas
Corn

Fibrous Carb Examples
Carrots
Peppers
Spinach
Onions
Mushrooms
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cauliflower

In short, eating a meal that is loaded with a lean protein, a starchy carbohydrate and a fibrous carbohydrate every 3 hours will boost your metabolism and create a balance between insulin and glucagon production. This will keep blood sugar levels even and promote fat burning.

©April 2006 Blue Star Fitness

We are often asked what is the best exercise for this body part. As our clients and Fitness Through Empowerment Seminar participants know, you can not spot reduce. Unfortunately, your body chooses to put fat wherever it wants. The only thing you can control is the amount of fat you have through diet and exercise. This myth that you can reduce a specific area by adding an exercise for that body part to your routine has given rise to many popular machines at the gym that you should not use. These include the weighted seated crunch machine and the hip abductor and adductor machines.

Seated Crunch Machine
The weighted seated crunch machine should not be used, especially by women who want to trim their waistline. First let’s look at the functionality of the rectus abdominus muscle or the “six pack”. The function of this muscle is to bring your body from spinal extension back to spinal neutral. If we use a baseball pitcher as an example, the rectus abdominus helps to bring the torso from the wind up through the pitch. The seated crunch machine takes you from spinal neutral to spinal flexion. This is not a movement you need to strengthen. Secondly, when you place a muscle under tension with weight you increase the size of that muscle – think of a bicep curl. This means that the seated crunch machine builds the rectus abdominus muscle OUT making you look less trim.

What’s the solution? Train the underlying transverse abdominus muscle which serves as a natural girdle and supports the spine. Train this muscle using functional movements – anything that mimics a natural body movement. We like to use the plank to train this muscle isometrically to improve posture and stability. To add work for this muscle in any of your other exercises, add an element of instability by standing on one leg or using a stability ball.

Hip Abductor and Adductor Machines
These two machines are very popular with most women we see at local gyms because they want thinner thighs. However, please keep in mind that you can not spot reduce. Let’s look at the functionality of these machines. Based on our societal norms and lifestyle, most Americans have tight adductor or inner thigh muscles. When you strengthen a muscle, you also tighten it which is not what these adductor muscles need. They need to be stretched. Moving to the abductor machine, please note that there is no abductor muscle. There are muscles that help to abduct the hip, but there is no specific abductor muscle and this is not the primary function of the muscles involved. Add to this fact that most of these machines are in a seated position and you have a completely nonfunctional movement. Does the human body ever demand that you press your knees out in a seated position? If you have any knee injuries, pain or have had knee or hip surgery, you should absolutely avoid both of these machines.

Other Machines
Blue Star Fitness believes in training the body functionally using the 7 primary movement patterns. We avoid the use of most machines in general unless in a post-rehabilitation situation. As a general rule, weight machines isolate muscles which is not the way our body works. Our body is integrated. All movements involve many muscles, tendons and ligaments so training a muscle independently is not training the way the body works. This isolation puts undue stress on the connective tissue associated with the muscle so many lifters will begin to have associated joint pain.

Before using machines again, please use this information to evaluate the machines in question based on your goals and the functionality of the muscle you are training.

Blue Star Fitness can help you develop an appropriate workout or adjust your current workout. We work with many clients on an as-needed basis, only meeting with them to update and change their workout. This works especially well for clients who are motivated and already work out on a regular basis on their own or at a local gym.

©March 2006 Blue Star Fitness