Back to the Drawing Board

So it's back to the drawing board time. I just completed a month of competing and other competition like preps for each weekend. When I walk that path I always find personal growth as well as a noticed jump in my technical skill. I really get a chance to hone myself and as a fitness professional I'm able to take those conversations that I'm having with myself as far as mental coaching through tough sets, detailed exercises and rough spots as far as energy is concerned and translate them into common language and reapply them. I get a little bit smarter and a little bit better every time. But towards the end, when I have to shut it down and not train, I find that to be the hardest. I hate having to say "NO!...STOP WORKING OUT!! " I know that you grow when you rest, and I've played around with resting a day or two into a competition or shoot for that matter. It works, but it doesn't get any easier with that knowledge. Those are the times I remember the why. The why do I do it. I've competed twice this summer and this was probably my 7th show. After my 2nd physique show I thought I knew what I was doing and that "I got this" What I got was the same placing as the show before. My great training prep, the support I got going into the show. My awesome tan, the support for my fellow competitors back stage was all throw away because my expectations of the outcome were not met. I went into a little depression until I got the pictures and my eyes didn't lie. Everything was as I imagined, except in my imagination I could control the final outcome and I always finished victorious. The lesson was learned. now instead of worrying about that which I cannot control, I control the factors that are controllable. I keep my personal expectations of what I'm capable of achieving at their highest and that is the height for which I reach. As I place my bar higher I drive myself to out do the older version of myself. Why shouldn't that model be outdated. I'm smarter, I've gained more experience. Why should accept not getting better in some capacity? So now after the dust of the competition has settled it's time to get back to work, although I can hardly call this work. I get to build all the things I had on my wish list as I was putting the finishing touches on the last model. Can't wait for day 1 of the redesign!

How to use the Glycemic Index as a tool to carve away fat

                 Before we get into anything we need to have a basic understanding of what the Glycemic index is. From that knowledge we are granted the power to put it to use for us. The glycemic index (GI) provides a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels rise after eating a particular type of food. The effects that different foods have on blood sugar levels vary considerably. The glycemic index estimates how much each gram of available carbohydrate (total carbohydrate minus fiber) in a food raises a person’s blood glucose level following consumption of the food, relative to consumption of pure glucose. Glucose has a glycemic index of 100.

                 Now some of you might be thinking, what does this mean to me? Ah, a further look at the role insulin plays in the body and you'll see that it's something like a big deal.  Insulin is a hormone that causes most of the body’s cells to take up glucose from the blood (including liver, muscle, and fat tissue cells), storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stops use of fat as an energy source. When insulin is absent (or low), glucose is not taken up by most body cells and the body begins to use fat as an energy source.

                Now the last little tid bit of knowledge to complete the big deal behind low GI foods is that  they are absorbed more slowly, they stay in your digestive tract longer. This is why these foods are sometimes called slow carbs. These foods may help control appetite and delay hunger cues, which can help with weight management. Balanced blood sugar also can help reduce the risk of insulin resistance.

Glycemic Index Food List

LOW GI (< 55)	MEDIUM GI (55-70)	HIGH GI (> 70)
Apple and apple juice Apricot Barley Baked Beans, dried beans, butter beans, chick peas, soy beans, lentils Breakfast cereals (oats, muesli, bran) Whole grain / nutty bread Cherries Custard Fruit Loaf Grapefruit Grapes Milk, Yogurt M&M's Oranges Pasta Peaches Peanuts Pears Peas Pineapple Juice (unsweetened) Plums Corn (still on cob) Salad Vegetables Sweet Potato	Banana Basmati Rice Bread (white and brown) Couscous Ice Cream Orange juice Pineapple, mango, melon Pita bread Pizza Popcorn Potatoes (new) Potato chips Raisins Rye bread Yam	Rice Potatoes Pumpkin Waffles Sports drinks Water melon Crackers and crisp breads Carrots Parsnips Nachos Honey Broad beans Pretzels French Fries

One more piece of useful information is the creative use of hi GI foods. The best time to actually consume those is post workout. This greatly aids in the restoration of Glycogen, or the stored fuel in your muscles. The rise of insulin also post workout also has been shown to aid in protein uptake.

                    So the long and short of it is that, sometimes the situation can seem very daunting and sciency, but if you focus on eating foods lower with lower GI and GL (Which is glycemic load, I'll get into at another time) Most of the time and shift to higher GI foods post workout then for the most part your golden. The trick is to find the combination of foods that fall into those categories and fall into the most important category. The foods that you don't mind, and actually enjoy eating ;)

Tailor your life

whenever you have a suit that doesn't fit quite the way you would desire, you have a couple of options. Option A) get rid of the damn thing. The extreme a little bit extreme. Option B) is to never wear it. At least should the occasion arise and you should need to break that sucker out, it won't hold it against you. It doesn't like how you look in it, so I guess you guys are even. There's a moment to be lived, make nice and do your best. The third and in my opinion best option C) to get the suit tailored. Now, you may have guessed the suit is not a suit at all. Well not really. The suit is your life. Now a big part of your life is the vehicle that your concesness travels around in. But to get that to fit you the way you desire your going to need to cut some things and sew a couple of things up. Sometimes a slight adjustment here and there can make a huge change in the efficiency of your daily oppoeration. Now with that added efficiency you can utilize your freed up time to really begin to direct the flow of your life. Now its your responsibility to see where you can gain that efficiency. It might be going to sleep earlier, so you can get up earlier. Could mean cooking all of your meals on the weekend. Maybe studying on you break or listening to books on tape as you drive. The most important thing is to decide how you want your life to look or feel and decide to act with urgency. Waste not a moment longer wearing that out of style suit. Know that for the most part, someone has achieved most lifestyles that many of us desire. It can all be done. Reverse engineer it. If you want to be some visionary, by all means go out there and show em how to do it. Change the world or just change your world. Never settle, always maxout.

Selfish selfie

"A selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. In August 2013, the term selfiealso made its debut in Oxford Dictionaries Online's quarterly update where it is defined as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."^[1] Selfies are often associated with social networking andphoto sharing services such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat where they are commonly posted or sent. They are often casual, are typically taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror, and typically include either only the photographer, or the photographer and as many people as can be in focus. Selfies taken that involve multiple people are known as "group selfies". In August 2013 the Guardianproduced a film series titled Thinkfluencer^[2] exploring selfie exposure in the UK." says wikipedia. For years I talked to clients and colleagues about the awesome test. In my mind I call it the Austin test....Ok sometimes I do it out loud. Anyway, the Austin test is pretty much the eyeball test. I think this is the best form of measurement for most all people. The small category of competitive athletes who are required to make weight requirements are excluded from this, but in certain situations this is also a good thing to factor in to their training and nutrition. 

                            For a little over a year I worked at a weight loss camp. During my time there I got the chance to work with a great deal of dedicated athletes that worked day and night to for the sole purpose of changing the physical quality of their lives. In my opinion through that change they would be able to derive strength and confidence and facilitate change in other areas of their lives as well. On several occasions I had some people who would have tremendous results in performance, they would feel and look great and the scale would only reflect a 2 to three lb loss in a week. A couple times people would have a set back nutrition wise due to the feeling that they were spinning there wheels. 

                             Now wither your in really good shape , really bad shape or in between. The camera pics up everything. Sometimes weight and measurements don't necessarily tell the entire tale. I like to talk to people about developing a mental image of what they aim to realize. Focus on moving towards that image as opposed to chasing a number. There's a couple of cases or two where you can over shoot it. You pass your perfect and land smack dab the nation of in emaciation. Not sexy. Realize this is a personal journey that is special and specific to you. You don't have to share it with anyone. But it definitely is an exercise in honesty and commitment. You have to be honest with yourself about the results and you have to stay committed to the mental picture you set. The last thing is since we're talking about being selfish, I want you to swing for the fences. Redesign yourself as awesome as you can possible imagine and then go out and build it. 

the Full Mount: Dominate your life

The full mount, it's a dominant position. Needless to say that you'd rather be the mounter as opposed to the Mountie. If you happen to be the Mountie there's a pretty good chance you well on your way towards being dominated..... Moving right along, to the current topic of discussion,the weekly evaluation of your life using Brazilian Jujitsu terms. Are you in the full mount, are you in guard. Have you managed to get in half guard. Have you turned the tables and got life's back? For those who don't train, we'll stick with full mount, guard and being mounted. Guard is a push. You can hold ground and defend. Your still on the defensive but the opportunity arises and you can reverse your fortunes. Being mounted sucks. Your really close to getting you skull crushed. When your in the top position in mount your virtually in control, but don't get to reckless you can end up snatching defeat from the jaws of streaking victory. A simple glance at a week in the life of  you will reveal how good a job you've done in your world beating. Now this exercise is between you and your world. If you feel like your world's kinda kicking your ass then adjustments need to be made stat. Now when your in this situation quick action is crucial. What we need to have you do is find a way to better your position from your current position. You may not be able to instantly win the fight from this next step but we need to create a better opportunity. If your in guard or The coveted mount position then the next step is trying to finish this fight, and move on to the next. Preserve the position and conquer the opponent. Simple principles. Assess, adjust and advance. Make it a happen to take the time to really assess your position with and objective eye and respond accordingly.  

Deadlift video study= coaching opportunity

I got the opportunity to coach myself, and pick out weak points of certain moves. The deadlift is my all time favorite exercise, so I felt a certain type of way to note that my form was on the cusp of being garbage. Not hurt your back terrible but far from Austin. Now the lesson learned from this is that it's always a good idea to have some system of form or spot check to give you feed back that the signals that your body is sending you is actually a conformation of correct form and not a false positive. With the heavier loads it's not a safe idea to side mirror check with most exercises. There's a lot of nerves running through your neck and at close to maximal loads everything is firing so it's a good idea to keep all that gawking around at a minimum. In your warm up sets its a good opportunity to reset your form and ramp up from 100% form positive. A common practice for experienced lifters is to warm up with a empty bar on some exercises. Now as far as outside feed back is concerned. Make sure your getting it from someone who actually knows what good form looks like.This is a pretty important element in a potential spotter/ coach for a day. If your coaching yourself post action, be honest with yourself, and make the adjustments in form, focus load or whatever needs to be done the clean up that form and make in immaculate. In my case, I'm back to pulling with straps, and I'm totally cool with that.

The Jab(straight lead)

A couple of notes on the process

Riding the Wave

How life can be like surfing. Bear with me for a minute. I haven't rambled in a while it may take me a while to get to my point. The beach can be a metaphor for life, and the waves can represent it ebbs and flows. Different times in your life you'll struggle against the moment, and the moment will struggle right back at you. This is the time when your paddling out trying to get to your comfort zone, so that you can prepare to take off. The greater the wave you see yourself battling the harder it is to get to that point. If great accomplishments were easy to achieve then how great would they really be. Once your in position your looking at another choice. The moment. You stand at that point in time just once, and it's up to you to decide when it's your wave. Once the decision is made in that moment theirs no turning back you just have to hang on and hope something cool happens...or at least that you come out on the other side. In the moment there are several possibilities that can occur. You may just totally rip it to shreds, it may be a wammy wave that just  fizzles into nothing, and there's always the possibility you might get crushed by it. Then the moment passes. Your on the beach again. You get a moment to reflect on what took place, and decide how you felt about that moment. Did you slay that monster or were you crushed by it? Was it as good as you it was in your head when you imagined it? Now you get to decide what to do with the rest of your time on the beach. Are you happy with the pats on the back or do you want more? Was that moment too big for you and you want less? Did you own that moment and are happy right their on the beach? Only you know the answers to those questions, and the only wrong answer is a lie. Remember, we only have so much time at the beach, if deep down in your soul you wanna go out there and tear sum shit up, then you best ta hop back on your board and paddle on out there again and get yours. If you want to relax and chill out and enjoy the sun while it's shine'n that's cool too. Just do you. 

Joint Venture

Like most things in life, two or more people working towards a goal working together to accomplish one or more goals ends up being much more efficient then one person going at it alone. Cooking thanks giving dinner, pushing a car, picking up a box of spilled paper clips, capturing a flag and Slaying a dragon and or Robeast. Multiple minds, multiplied will, multiple hands and a singular goal. People at every level can benefit from forming workout partnerships. I use the term partnership, because this relationship is based on work. Now you may be really good friends with someone, but that doesn't automatically qualify them as a grade a workout partner. just like any business partnership, if your partner isn't pulling their own weight and adding to the overall success of the project then you may be forced to cut ties and either find a new partner or partners, or go into business on your own. You gotta remember what your trying to accomplish. You if your trying to get something done, then your in the business of working out. If your spending time with a friend ie workout date, then by all means enjoy each others company. There are several types of partnerships. Workout Partner, community, and trainer. I can't go into and discus work partners without giving you a little back ground on me. I'll be quick. I've been lifting weights since 95. I had a couple of really good strength coaches before I went to the University of Arizona on a football scholarship. I was fortunate enough to have two great strength coaches there. I was exposed to alot of different philosophies before I became a trainer as a profession and began formulating my own theories on strength training and body shaping. I'm pretty particular about my workouts. Mainly the pace. I keep a pretty high tempo, and chain exercises together. Not all that much time for chit chat. When I train people, I'm pretty particular about the weights they use as well as the form they keep. I chain exercises together, I may chit chat a little more as far as explaining why I do certain things, where they should feel the contraction, and how well my Steelers doing, and such. I stumbled upon the perfect training partner. He allowed me to lead the workouts, he was able to keep up in most exercises, and in some cases I was forced to raise my level to match the his intensity. We didn't even have to take out or head phones to communicate. Every now and then we'd log out and compare notes, Then we'd log back on an commence wrecking shop. Now in this situation, I was the alpha. The advantage of this is that you get to work on all the things that you wish to address with little to no deviation from the blueprint in your mind. Another advantage is that since you in a leadership position, you psychologically want to lead by example. Form and intensity. Now if you are in the apprentice position, that's not a bad place either. Little to no energy is used in creating a sequence, it can all be diverted to working. There is a third tier in the workout partner scenario. The equal partnership. This is when you and your workout partner are on the same level. If you both beginners there can be some lag time between exercises and sets,do to figuring out whats next up and better ways to do the same thing. Not a problem in most cases because you both probably needed the rest anyway. It's good to have a buddy there when you want to go heavier for the first time. Experienced partnerships also have a little lag time due to arguments about what should happen next. I generally solve this but going exercise for exercises. You, me in other words. Or me then you I should say. Each Situation has its advantages, and it's important to maximize them. Now the community partnership is different. With the workout partner, you have direct accountability. Meaning if you don't show up that is a personal foul on you. Penalty will be thrown in your face from now until forever. Now with the community depending on how entrenched you get in it that level of perceived accountability grows. The more you show up, and become a regular participant the more you will be missed if you are absent. Make no mistake, the show will go on with out you, but they'll let you know that your absence was felt when you return. You'll already know, because the feeling would be mutual. Now community can be a overall gym environment or it can be the 6:30am kick boxing class. ally yourself up with other like minded individuals united by their availability. Let your powers combine and vanquish that early rising monster. The last situation is the trainer. Now this is a probably the truest form of a partnership. Two people are united by the same goal, but their responsibilities are different. The person in the role of the client is responsible for funding the project as well as owning the project. Meaning taking it home and doing the homework. The person in the trainer position is responsible for engineering the success. Manipulating the hour so that energy stays high, the check list gets done. Things get accomplished, and that the seeds are planted so that project continues to flourish. A key phrase or word or encouragement on the way out, or simply leading by example and sharing a little bit of yourself by discussing your free time with them. Now you and your trainer may have know each other for many years and be great friends, but you must remember what your there for. This isn't a workout date. It's a timed paid for session. So you better be there on time, and be ready to work. All of these partnerships have some real strong points, but like most things in this arena, reap what you sow. The energy that you put into each hour at your project is what your going to get out of it, and your project is most important to you, so if you are going to partner up with someone to get your goals accomplished make sure to keep those goals at the forefront an choose the situation that fits you best.

Become a barefoot beast in the weight room

So I recently purchased my first pair of....bare..foot..shoes. I guess that's kinda what some people would refer to them as. Functional, minimalist, or five toed shoes I believe could be technical terms for them. Now, I'd like to begin by saying that I was definitely a member of the group that frowned upon the weirdos exercising in the gym with the shoe gloves on. Even though I knew a couple of them. They happened to be friends of mine who were trainers and who were all damned good at there craft. Despite that I still couldn't wrap my head around the idea. I was just too weird for me. Later I ended up training a guy who was an avid runner. He was in preparation for an adventure. He planned to go to Africa and run 37 marathons...... in 37 days....... barefoot. Real talk. At any particular time he could have stopped and I would have been impressed. He could have even switched up the order. I'm going to Africa for 37 days. " Far out!" I'm Running a marathon, x37 or 41, barefoot, consecutively, in Africa. Forgive me, I go on, and on at times...37! Anyway, I began working out barefoot shortly after he went off to etch his name in the guinness book, and I since then the only thing that prevents me from doing so 100% of the time are rules of certain gyms. It' such an enjoyable experience. I was taking a new gym for a spin the other day, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking how much fun it would have been if I didn't have to wear these damned shoes. Now, I'm the type of person that responds well to answers to the whys. Now one of the answers to the whys came to me even before the shoes themselves came to the forefront of fitness. A friend of mine who was a dance instructor told me that she only works out barefoot. "why" I said. Then the beginning of the sale was when she told me " it makes you smarter". Always the skeptic I say " so your saying these things will make me smarter? How?" She goes on to say "shoes dumb your feet down, and with your barefoot your brain is forced to translate thousands if not millions of different motor patterns" Since then I've pondered that statement and I believe it to be correct. Your brain is constantly operating, recording data for analysing and later use. Imagine if you only had the hand of a ninja turtle. Bare with me for a minute. Ok, you got this ninja turtle hand and your typing this blog. One blog of many. Its your job. You get off work and then you take off your turtle typing glove and go on to do things with your normal hand. To spin this back around, even though your doing all or the same exercises and movements you've been doing for years, now your actually feeling the entirety of them minus the sensory dampener known as an athletic sole. Having to make an internal adjustment to minor shifts during squats, dead lifts, overhead presses and even learning how to control your weight distribution during running. Wither your an athlete or a civilian having increased coordination and control is something that we all can benefit from. I haven't even got to the part about the increased strength in your feet. A note about me, I'm about as flat footed as Fred Flinstone...Ok, I don't know if Mr Flinstone was in fact flat footed but for arguments sake let's just go with it. My feet feel awesome. I can now go as heavy on calf raises without being limited by my foot's durability. When I started working out bare foot, people would ask me, " arn't you afraid you'll drop a weight on your foot?" I retort " a shoe isn't gonna help all that much if I drop one of tha weights I lift on it." That's when I'm being a smart ass. But seriously, I'm pretty coordinated, and I normally workout when the room is empty. One of the factors that drove me to purchase the shoes was that I recently began working out at public gyms again, and I'm sure working out bare foot is one of those things that is frowned upon. It also doesn't hurt that these companies are actually hiring designers who want to sell shoes. Now that a couple of companies are making them they know that they can't just throw anything up on the shelves an expect the public to buy into it. Now we as the public can say "Hmmm, naw. That's kinda wack." So in closing, I want to issue a task to you. Go outside and walk up and down your stairs. Now with only a pair of socks or barefoot, perform the same task. Open your mind and pay attention. It you don't have a flight of stairs then perform ten squats with a 2.5 second hold at the bottom, again with a cognitive mind. If you have a flight of stairs in doors, there's no need to go outside. Anyway, I hope this was informative for and or entertaining for you, thank you and congratulations for making it this far. Try out a pair at your local shoe store, I bought one of the pairs I tried, the other one I also tried bare footed....just puttin that out there. I didn't think about it till the tried to sell me some of the five toed socks on the way out. If you got em enjoy and watch out for that dude to your left on the incline with dumbells as big as his torso. Yeah, tha one whose elbows are quivering like the knees of a new born colt. Be mindful of your surroundings.

Resist the temptation

re·sist·ance   [ri-zis-tuhns]
noun
1.
the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding.
2.
the opposition offered by one thing, force, etc., to another.

Resistance. My method of choice when training. It along with a proper nutrition program are directly responsible for building and toning muscle. Fact: From age 30 to age 70 we can lose more than 25% of the type 2 muscle fibers in our bodies (type 2 fibers are our strength fibers). Resistance exercise can actually slow down and in some cases even reverse the aging process by building muscle mass and strength. Not a bad deal. Resistance exercise can raise metabolic rate by increasing the bodies post exercise oxygen consumption. A note on EPOC written by someone not named Austin, but none the less he feels you should know

"EPOC and Weight Management
Because the body continues to expend energy after exercise, EPOC plays a supplemental role to an exercise program in weight management. Currently, researchers are interested in the effect different forms of exercise have on EPOC.
The evidence suggests that a high-intensity, intermittent-type of training (interval training) has a more pronounced effect on EPOC (Haltom et al. 1999). Also, it appears that resistance training produces greater EPOC responses than aerobic exercise (Burleson et al. 1998). The research suggests that high-intensity resistance exercise disturbs the body’s homeostasis to a greater degree than aerobic exercise. The result is a larger energy requirement after exercise to restore the body’s systems to normal (Burleson et al. 1998), and thus an explanation for the higher EPOC. The underlying mechanisms that cause the higher EPOC observed in resistance exercise include elevated blood lactate, and an increase in circulating catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) and anabolic hormones.
Inspecting the data from several investigations, it appears that EPOC accounts for postexercise expenditure of 51 (Haltom et al. 1999) to 127 (Burleson et al. 1998) kilocalories. Since a pound of fat is equal to 3,500 kilocalories, the effect of EPOC on weight control must be regarded in terms of a cumulative effect over time."

And we're back, hope I didn't lose anyone there when the guest speaker came on. What they were saying is that it cost calories to do work. Simple as that. Also the more muscle your carrying the more it cost to fuel in work. Thus the more muscle you can cultivate the higher your metabolism is going to have to be.

I can literally go on and on about the benefits of resistance training. I can get in to all of the various different types of that mode of training. How with your own body weight and proper techneque you can literally work your entire physique. And how with a isometric or static contraction, you can strengthen and tone your upper, lower body and core. Or how with a simple dumbbell you can either stack on slabs of rock hard muscle or shape and hone finely tuned edges to each and every muscle.

But what really drew me to resistance is the fight. The struggle against the weight, the world, yourself. It's the release. I started off long ago wanting to change something, so I felt the best way to to that was to work at it. And I did work. And it felt good. To have a picture in my mind of an outcome and with my own two hands forge it. By pushing obstacles out of my way and pulling my dreams closer as if my life depended on it. Please forgive me for going off on another tangent again. But seriously there is a release that can be found in resistance, and as strange as this sounds but that guy over there bangin his head to the Game's new CD is practicing his version of Yoga.

In the end you may try resistance training and it might be the polar opposite of your yoga, but I want to caution you to resist the temptation to swear off weights totally. Don't be that guy or that gal, that burns up all of your fat burning potential by burning up all or our fat burning potential doing cardio all day long thinking that all your burning up is fat. You get all that? Very good. Until next time, be good.

Perfect the Rep

One of the things that I see repeatedly in the room is people lifting weights. This is a regular occurrence. It's a problem. Not in itself, but when lifting a weight from point A to B be becomes the main focus of the activity. Hey, I'm all for people doing tedious activities to pass the time. Some call them hobbies. Now if you main focus is to exercise and build, shape and or strengthen muscle, then that's when lifting weights becomes a problem. The weight is just a means to focus a muscular contraction. The weight is simply a tool that when used properly can stress the muscle in a manner that the forces it shorten and lengthen, and depending on the goal of each particular set, and the skill of the practitioner can cause the muscle to grow, to contour and to strengthen. I think back to my early years of training until now, and I realise that alot of time and effort were used in learning the proper way to attack a set. I say used but I could easily swap that word out for wasted. Because the I was just lifting weights from point A to point B instead of focusing on mastering the rep. But I did use the word use because its my belief that you learn something from every experience, every time you enter the room is no different. But when you actually put your mental power towards getting better at something with each repetition you'd be surprised how much progress you can make and how quickly it can happen. It's ridiculously simple how easy it is to get on the path to perfecting the rep. Step one learn the movement. Learn how the pros teach it, and what your supposed to feel. Look it up on line or have someone teach you or whatever. Next you find a weight that you can successfully complete the movement for at least fifth teen reps, the rep number may vary from time to time. This is the important part, you open up your mind, and then you attempt the rep. That sensation your supposed to feel, attempt to find that body feel each and every time. Try and strike that same point with your contraction. You do this enough, you will manage to teach yourself to target complete muscle contractions. The thing is, you do this every single time you work out, you actually learn to workout better, and your time spent in the weight room will definitely me maximized.

I eat....well

How we do'n good people. Long time glad to be here. Recently some of my clients have been struggling with diet issues. We've moved from average to good, or below average to average or above. Now the next logical step in my mind is moving up to the elite territory, or the east side. Now, its really not rocket science. The formula is rather simple, the execution of it is where the rubber really meets the road, and the going gets tough.
The formula, is this....eat more protein than carbs......That's pretty much it. I'm sure you want an explanation, because I would. My theory behind that is based my theory on fuel and material. Any and everything you consume is either going to be categorized as either fuel or material. This is the basis for my formula. Now there are a couple of variables. Those variables are your metabolic rate, some of us are gifted with an extremely high metabolism, it can be a pain when trying to gain weight, but keeping it off is as simple as existing. The other factor is level of activity. This is the important on. Also the one which is easier for us to effect. Before I get to far off of the topic, like I tend to do, I'll bring in back, the reason we want more material in on the construction ground is because we always want a steady supply of raw material to conduct our repairs, and out renovations, and if we should run low on fuel, in a pinch we can break up some of the lumber and burn toss it in the furnace get the turbines going and power this machine another way. Hope that didn't leave too many people scratching their heads. Fuel on the other hand, is either burned or it's tucked away and stored. Unless you plan on getting lost on a deserted island or planning on a long rough winter, most of us may feel that that's not an attractive option. That's pretty much all I have to say on that subject, so I'll leave you with this piece of advice, be creative with your plan, so that every time you eat you don't feel like your making this great sacrifice, and put in a little more work in the room, and you'll have a little bit more breathing room at the table. Literally and figuratively.

P.S that's what I ate tonight, and it was Austin...Sorry awesome, I enter change those words from time to time.

Attention to detail

greetings good people...and the rest of you who showed up. Today I just wanted to say a couple of things about reps. I had an epiphany the other day. Its pretty simple when you break it down. You skeleton is encased within your muscles. Muscle contractions cause your skeletal system to move. If you want to cause a change or an effect in a certain area, figure out how the arrange your body in a manner that the muscles in that area contract. Repeat that process repeatedly and you'll get to be more efficient in that movement. You'll became more efficient in the movement because it will me easier for you. Why? Because you've programmed the muscles to recognize the movement, also because the muscles that have been repeatedly performing the movement have gotten stronger. If those muscles have gotten stronger then, a number of thing may have occurred. A the muscle group has gotten bigger, B the muscles are more dense, more muscle tissue packed in, or C they have gotten leaner, so they're operating more efficiently without the excess fat that they've been carrying around, or D a little of all three. This mainly depends on your diet and the resistance your applying.
It all really boils down to the reps though. The little brush strokes that make a master piece special. A workout is just a series of sets and reps rearranged to achieve an effect on the body. These little soldiers are all very important, to the greater cause. You aim should be to try and completely contract the muscle, be efficient at firing as many of the muscle fibers as possible, and making them work through the negative portion of the rep. To a certain degree. Based on the different loads, the negative maybe a slightly slower decent then if you would just drop it. If your conscious of it, and you start to get to know your body when you lift, you'll recognize the difference. You never know which rep is going to be the growth rep. You probably never knew such a thing existed...but it does, so now keep your eye out for it, an now I can't predict where it resides either, I know it lives between 10 and 40 and it feels like a little explosion went off..actually like a bang snap, and you instantly know you'll be better because of it. It starts with attention to detail from the first rep to the last though. I have a couple of videos on my face book page, check them out, might give you a little more insight in to where I'm coming from. Thanks for your time, an give it a try one day... and close your eyes. Feel whats going on.

Super Stack

Recently in an article posted on Muscular Development online magazine, there was a discussion on the fat reduction benefits of caffeine. They also mentioned the best ways to maximize the benefits, and listed green tea as one of the best stacks for it's use in fat loss. Now to me this was not breaking news material. It was a friendly reminder though, because although I probably worked out at least eight times last week, and rode at the very least 80 miles last week, I've probably only taken my caffeine green tea supplement about four times. Yes the supplement I have is called caffeine plus. The plus is the green tea extract. So reading the article just made put that habit in the post workout whey protein shake category, meaning the religious category. It's like putting on my gloves and wrist wraps before I train. Meaning if I got um, there as integral to the process as working out. I like to start the day with the caffeine plus, we'll call it. Sometimes I have two separate products. Nothing fancy either. One day my wrestling coach had a long morning before practice, and I asked him if he wanted some caffeine. He asked me what kind meaning in what. I responded just caffeine as I grinned and pulled out a bottle with big bold letters that said caffeine on the side. Besides the lipolysis benefits, which means utilizing fat for energy, it also grants you instant focus in most all situations you can feel the benefits moments after consumption. I work nights as well so I gave the disclaimer, most cases. There were a few instances went I was training for a fight, that after three training sessions and an hour into a four hour shift, a little caffeine goes a little way. So anyway, that what I have to say about Caffeine plus and to hear what the experts have to say copy this link and check it out. Remember its the little details that make a lasting piece of fine art.

http://www.musculardevelopment.com/content/view/1860/51/

the Over training Trap

Hey people, how we doing today? Excellent, I'm sure. Today I'm going to talk to you about over training. I used to call it the myth of over training, but as you all know, most myths are a bastardised version of someones truth. Like the werewolf, and aliens, and Excalibur, oh, don't get me started on Excalibur, I could be at it all day. The truth is most people would have no idea how to even begin to over train. They barely know how to train, train! The people who might wander into the neighbor hood of over training, are the true workout enthusiast. The ones who truly love the feeling of hard work. Its easy for them to fall in to the trap of over training. Its because it seems like play to them. In reality its more like under resting then it is over training. It sounds alot like the same thing but its as much psychological as it is phsiological. Your nervous system needs to calm down from firing full blast everyday, and your body needs enough time to move a little bit further in the repairs that never seem to be complete.

Now I'm quite certain I've been in this neighborhood before. I recognise some of the landmarks, and the ugly architecture. I figure out I was in over trainingville when I got sick on Saturday. All week, I've been feeling run down, and my joints have been crying bloody murder. Now, to let you know how I got here, I train hard everyday, over the years my body has adapted to the punishment I put it through. If I were actually trying to grow bigger, it would be impossible based on the amount or lack of rest I give my body.fortunate for me, I'm only concerned with growing better, as opposed to bigger. The factor that changed was my cardio. I'm currently preparing to fight in late November December, so I'm doing more cardio, throw in a night job. Oh and my main form of transportation is a road bike...with pedals. Next thing you know your check engine light is on, the alignment on your robot is drifting to the left.

So there in lies the problem, the solution, I'm going to asses the things, I can alter, Boxing, no, jui jitsu, no, weights, maybe. Lets examine the maybe. I lift pretty heavy for a rep count of over ten for most sets. Slash the weight, slow down the reps go for form, and not to failure. Perhaps, just use resistance bands and body weight for a week. Instead of 40 mins to an hour, 25 mins light cardio and full stretch. Take a forced day off. Maybe go for a ride, zero resistance training. That's what my over training recovery week is gonna look like apparently, thanks for taking the time for helping me out with that. Oh, feel free to use it yourself when ever you feel that your check engine like might be about to come on, should be enough to keep you sane, and get your robot back in alignment at the same time.

If you have any topics that you want me to form an opinion on or if your interested in individual or group training please contact me on Facebook, or email at auku51@gmail.com. Right now I'm working as the strength an conditioning coordinator for the Brazilian Top Team, at Bodies in Motion is West LA, also I train privately at Soneca Martial Arts located in Brentwood.

http://www.sonecamartialarts.com/
http://www.bodiesinmotion.com/ClubTemplate.aspx?map=2&LocId=58

Thanks for your time, here's a cool article about protein intake. I skimmed over it and it seemed pretty solid. Until we meet again work hard and be easy.

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_nutrition/six_things_you_need_to_know_about_protein?utm_source=weekly_dose&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tmuscle

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt

Cleansing: Fact or fiction part I

I'd like to apologise for the false advertisement. There's not going to be any myth busting here. I'm just going to give you my opinion on something that until this morning I knew very little about, and now I know a little bit more. Cleansing. We've all heard about it, know someone who's gone through the process, someone who loves it. Someone who hates it. Heard about someone who lost forty two pounds on lemonade and Ms. Butter worth alone. was proposed a question by one of my clients. Kiea come up to me and says "your next blog should blog about cleansing". And I think to my self, "that's an awesome idea" then I think,"perhaps I should form an opinion about cleansing first". So that brings us here. A good friend of mine is a trainer, and before she starts training a new client, she requires the to do a cleanse. I think she's a great trainer, so I figured it would have some merit, but I feel the need to gather information for myself before I can confidently pass it off to others with the stamp of confidence that is my opinion. Now before I go any further, I plan to try a supplemental cleanse myself next month. That's going to be part two of this topic. But the research that I gathered, pretty much stated that virtually anyone can stand to benefit from a cleanse. It you smoke, want to loose weight, have a skin condition,bad breath, add, history of cancer. It pretty much covered the whole gambit of issues why anyone would want to make a healthy change in there life.
Another thing is, when you think of cleanses, the first thing that comes to mind is the master cleanse, or the lemon cleanse. Now I also know someone who made it about four days on that cleanse, and talking to her, it pretty much sucked. To me it didn't make sense. Then again in my lifestyle, the fact the I feel the need to lift weights everyday, it's just logical to have a ready supply of protein to build and repair. It explained that the lemon juice provides the vitamins while the maple syrup provides the energy. I can see how someone can loose weight off of that, and I may attempt it my self just to see if it's an option should I have to burn muscle. I generally don't recommend burning muscle, but being a competitive athlete, and one who carries very little body fat, sometimes, in situations that require weight restrictions you have to take extreme measures. The body remembers the form where it was currently at its equilibrium, so it's not hard to gain it back once you establish a base line. Which is another reason why I believe that this particular cleanse as a weight loss strategy is faulty. What do you really think is going to happen after you get off of a lemonade diet for a week and a half....Exactly. Your going to go food zombie. What do zombies think about? Brains. What will you think about? Food...Only food. Until your are completely and totally satisfied. Who knows when that'll happen.

Now that was just my thoughts on the master cleanse, but I haven't written off cleanses as a whole. I think that a couple times a year cleansing is definitely a great idea, it is said to cleanse your mind and your body of toxins. Based on the results I get from my trial, it may be something I incorporate from here on out. If you wanted to read up on cleanse, I got the information from http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_cleansing
I normally use more than one source, but I felt that the article was informative and thourough. If your interested, check it out, read it thouroughly, and read the correspondence, it's important to hear what other people just like you think about the subject, not just the author. Alright, that's pretty much it. Be good, and make the right choices.

Knowledge is Power

Welcome back people. Yesterday when I was writing my blog about fat burning supplements, I came across some interesting information about carnitine which I shared with you. I also stumbled across some interesting facts about fish oil. Everyone knows it contains essential omega-3 fatty acids which have a lot of benefits. EHA and DHA are also found there and aid in burning body fat.The omega-3s work by transforming to prostaglandins when they enter your body, which is a hormon like substance which causes thermogenesis, which is heat production by the body as a means utalize fat for energy. So that and the carnitine information, I found extremely useful. I've probably read that information about ten times, that's probably the main reason I began using those supplements in the first place, but rereading those is going to be the reason that I take them off of the shelf and renew my diligence regarding my usage of them. So the bottom line is, whenever you hear something is the bomb, and it's the next big trend in health and fitness, do a little research, and you might agree. It'll tell you how and when to properly utilize the supplements, but also it will give you an insight as to what's going on in there when you take the red pill, so you won't be so surprised like Neo. Bad form Morpheus, bad form. Arm yourself with some form of knowledge each day and by the end of the month, you'll be more informed then most trainers that just got into the game. You could buy a fitness magazine, and read one article a day until the next issue comes out. Try it, and let me know what you think. Until then, be easy.

Feel the Burn

Hey everybody, I hope all is well in your world, or on the verge of getting there. Today I'm going to say a few things about Fat loss agents. First off, I'd like to say that fat burners to work. You should consult your phacision before trying them like any other suppliment. But, when I just have to get totally lacerated, I accept no substitute. Although, when I do have to have a substitute, or want to use something in conjunction with a fat burner, I will take a serving of caffeine. It gives your metabolism a kick start and I recently found out that it binds to fat cells and help to prevent it from being stored. Green Tea extract is another friend of mine that gets to ride shotgun, on the road to Cuttstown U.S.A. The extract works by inhibiting the enzyme responsible for breaking down norepinephrine, which is the neurotransmitter that plays a pivotal role in regulating the metabolic rate. Lastly, Carnitine. Now where I'm pretty huge on the first two, carnitine, is a close third. I might have to try it separately to try and better gauge the effectiveness of it.The science behind it states, that it aids in fat burning by transporting fat into mitochondria of cells where it is burned for fuel.It is also said to enhance testosterone's anabolic potential, turning on the muscle building machines. Now that I said all that, I may have to put carnitine a notch higher. That's pretty much it. Remember that there is no supplement for hard work, so get in the room, move the weight. Then move your body around at an elevated pace for no less then twenty minutes. Do that three to four times a week, and the results are sure to please. Alright people, lets be better.