Chronic Cardio

When I walk around the gym, talking to members and clients about "weight" lose, most of the time people ask if they should "run" more. Simple answer, no.

I'm quite a big fan of trying to keep my body as close to it's original genetic expression. As in the last few thousand years we haven't changed on the genetic level. I very rarely run, unless it's for the bus, and I lift pretty heavy a couple of times a week. This is what I do with my clients too.
There are many forms or training out there that are good for very short term gains. like following a resistance programme for under a month or even running, BUT after 30 days it makes sense to slow it done or your body wont last. Yes certain factors do play a role in you staying injury free, for now. The biggest one is age. the younger we are the more durable we are. For example, you run 5-10 miles every day starting from the age of 20. okay fine. 10 years later you're still doing that, now though you find you have knee problems or are having issues with your feet. Another ten years you could be having surgery to correct those problems. you're now 60 years of age, walking has now become a problem, and you need to use a cane to help you get around, it even hurts every time you stand or sit.

If you are an athlete, and you are paid a lot of money to run about (football, rugby, American football players and so on) you expect to retire in your 30's, you get into these fields knowing what could happen as you age. Just look at players over 30 and see how often most of them get injured.

To have any positive effect on your body, you need to put it under some stress (exercise) but the wrong kind of stress can have a negative effect, such as chronic cardio. When we exercise we deplete glycogen stores from our muscles and liver. Our body will break down excess fat stores and have that converted into glycogen and stored back into our muscles and liver. With cardio, you will replace that fuel with large amounts of carbohydrate foods. Your body will breakdown muscle tissue to keep you moving during endurance runs.
As muscle tissue is used up, the negative impact of this is, lack of muscle size and strength, speed and power. Think of it this way, when a body builder wants to lean up what does he do more of? Cardio.

As a species w have been moving about under our own power for over 2 million years. Hunting and gathering for survival. one thing we did most, was stalk our prey. No running after it, if we did we surly would have been killed by it. We stalked our prey as most of the things we hunted were quadrupeds (four legs) and could clearly out run us.

Bone fractures, shin splints, tendonitis, bursitis, muscle cramps, ligament injuries, plantar fasciitis, cardiac arrhythmias, atherosclerosis and oxidative stress and over training, and many other joint and feet problems that can come with chronic cardio. Yes you can be injured from weight training too, if done incorrectly, and trust me I see a lot of this in the gym.

One thing you might want to compare are sprinters and endurance runners and see the difference in their physicality.
Cardio is just an abbreviation of cardiovascular, which in it's simple term just means heart and lungs. There are other ways to work those.

I'm not trying to get to deep on this, just wanted to throw up (as simply as possible) my thoughts on this subject and maybe just have that grey matter expand a little.
If you run for fun, cool, just don't rely on it to much as a way to stay/become healthier, there are safer ways.

Eat smart, Train hard  

Fat isn't fattening

When most people think of fat they tend to mostly think of the stuff that increases their waistline/dress size. That is just one part of fat. There is a lot of heavy science behind fat, but I just want to talk as simply as possible so you stay awake while reading this.

First things first, certain fats are actually good for you and help you lose weight. I say that again. Fat can help you lose weight. Fat is the prefered energy source of the body, it keeps us full and energised through out the day. Per gram of fat there is 9kcal. Some of you looking at that will be thinking about avoiding it, but don't. Eating good fats will actually mean you eat less but get all the nutrients/calories your body needs.
Trans fats and sugar are the main villains behind you getting wider. Looking at sugar it's self it doesn't make you fat but it does play a massive role in it. Consuming large amounts of sugar will increase insulin release in your blood, it's your body's way of trying to lower blood sugar. Insulin works by storing glucose from the blood as glycogen in the muscles, which will be used as energy later. When no more can be stored in the muscles it goes to the liver and will be used as an energy after the muscles have used their lot.
Like all things, you push it to hard or to the edge something will have to give. So when the liver is full to the brim of glycogen it then gets into fat cells and used as energy reserve. As the muscles and liver are constantly full, it's still being pumped into fat cells and when the cell is full it will then split to form another fat cell to hold more glycogen and so on and so, as that goes up so does your waist line.
Having to much insulin in your body does a number of bad things. One thing is diabetes, but that's another matter. The other thing it does is blocks fat cells from releasing the energy inside so it's able to use it. The higher amounts of insulin in the blood will mean the more over ingorged fat cells you have. High Gi foods which are very high sugar foods such as bread, grains and other starchy foods will all spike your blood sugar and incense the amount of insulin which is pumped around your body.

By lowering your blood sugar by keeping it as level as possible will result in less insulin in the blood and you guessed it less fat cells. Insulin will always be released in the body as it has to happen to help control blood sugar but it doesn't mean it has to be turned on 24/7.

So what I'm getting at really is cut back the sugary foods (common sense) and eat better quality fatty foods.

Weight

When many people think of weight, they tend to see it from the point of wanting to lose or gain it. Say you're cooking or baking. You go to measure out the ingredients you want. You put them on the scale and you realise you have to much, so you take some out, not wanting it to effect the out come of what you are making.
What I'm trying to get at is you're not looking at it as being something fat or over weight.

When you step on the scales, all they are doing is showing you what effect gravity has on your mass. Yes you can effect how much mass you are carrying around, but more mass does not equals a load of body fat. You can take two people of the same age, height and weight. Essentially they have the same BMI. Now even though everything is the same one will have a much higher body fat % than the other, and this is what will determine how healthy they are. Not BMI and not their weight.

The scales, like many other types of measurements and calculations are a good reference point to use in your health and fitness goals.
It's not worth the aggravation of worrying about being a few pounds heavier than you was the week before. If you follow a work out programme, where you are working intensely enough you will be adding strong lean muscle. This will make the muscles much denser and in turn makes you heavier, but you will be lean because of it.

9 September pics

It has been awhile since my last post. Got hit with a major ear infection, which lasted three weeks, then life kinda got in the way as well as a holiday. So as you can see from the pics that I do have a tan.

All pictures were taken on September 9th 2012

Over the last two weeks I've been inspired by the athletes who trained and competed for Reeboks CrossFit games 2012. This has made me want to push myself even harder with my training, also how I view my results have also changed.

I've started doing Metcon training. the name that they give it is "Cindy". As many rounds of Press ups (10), Pull ups (5) and Body Squats (15) in 20 minutes, it's tough going.

I will try for a photo up date in 2 weeks time, if any thing of value pops up in between I'll post it for you guys to check out.