Anticipate some struggle...

A wise man once said, anything worth having is worth fighting for. Or maybe that was Chuck Norris...

We fight for love, freedom, and independence. The same goes for your independence from your old self. You see we really have to know that if we are going to make a change, that at the end, when the change is complete you will not be the same person you were.

And for some people, that's kind of a scary thought. Changing the way you look, the way you feel, the way your friends see you, the way you look in a bathing suit. Imagine being 15-25 lbs slimmer. You look back at pictures from last summer and wonder who that person is.

Even a positive change can be a bit scary because it's just different. We get comfortable in our skin and we get comfortable with our habits. Remember that a big change can spook our emotional side. And if it is too spooky, that emotional side will stay right where it is. In addition to that, sometimes on our change journey we hit a rough patch that we struggle to get past.

Remember in the last email I said that we need to anticipate some struggle. By knowing when things are going to get tough, we can anticipate and plan appropriately.

So whether it is a new workout, a new dietary habit to begin or perhaps even the awkwardness of being the only one at dinner taking the "healthy" option at a table full of friends, knowing when the rough patch is coming helps us plan accordingly. And if we can plan accordingly, our chances of success climb dramatically!

How can you work to overcome some of these obstacles? Look for the bright spots. Often times with our friends, we like to commiserate about the struggles we have with our workouts, with our eating. We like to complain TOGETHER about how hard it is to eat more vegetables.

But looking at the failures only tells us about what doesn't work. Start looking at success stories - the bright spots - and take what works and apply it to your own situation!

• Struggling to eat fruit or veggies with breakfast? Throw a small handful of raisins into your oatmeal.
• Veggies for lunch? Have some carrots and hummus, or celery and hummus as a side.
• Fruit for a snack? Chop an apple and toss it in with some plain yogurt, a pinch of cinnamon and some Splenda.

So think about where you want to go with your health and fitness. Look at what has typically been a huge obstacle for you. Begin to look for the bright spots and start to identify how YOU can implement bright spot strategies to overcome your struggles.

If you need help that's good! Get the herd working for you. What does that mean? Find out in next week's email!

Will power...is it never ending?

I started reading a book by Chip and Dan Heath (yes, they are brothers) titled "Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard." I'm only half-way through it, but it's been such an interesting book that I wanted to share some of the information from it with you guys. Why?

Because losing weight IS a big change! You got the way you are because of the habits in your life. And changing the way you look will not happen unless you change the way you behave. Understanding how your brain works will only help you understand what your brain is doing in those moments of weakness.

So back to the topic for this email. Will power. What is it? Basically it's an attempt by your logical/rational brain to keep the emotional brain from doing something that it wants to. In the book "Switch" the authors make the analogy of an elephant and the rider. The emotional brain in us is like an elephant. It's big, it's strong, but it can be controlled...to a certain extent. The rider is analogous to the rational logical brain. Basically the rider guides the elephant along a directed path. But here's where things get interesting.

You see the elephant - our emotional brain - can take over in a hurry, especially if the rider - our logical brain - isn't directing it where to go. If we let the elephant just go where it wants, it's going to cause problems. Not just because it's unpredictable, but because it's so stinkin' strong! However, the rider usually doesn't have much of a problem directing the elephant. The elephant will go where the rider takes it as long as the path is clear and the elephant knows what to expect. And this is where we get back to my point about will power. You see, will power comes from our rational brain/the rider.

The rider can only keep the elephant doing something it doesn't want to do for so long. If the rider becomes exhausted, the elephant will run wild. We see this a lot in our culture in that many people are emotional eaters. The rider has lost control and the elephant is running wild.

Bringing this back around to our eating habits and changing our behavior, will power is a limited commodity. It cannot and will not last you for very long. This is why people who struggle with emotional eating, can't say "well I only keep these cookies in my house as a special treat." Because their will power to not eat them will eventually run out, the elephant will run wild and they'll eat the entire box of cookies and then come back to reality in this sugar coated daze. It's the same reason that when your stomach is grumbling and you haven't eaten all day, you'll eat just about anything in sight: the rider is asleep and the elephant is running loose!

To really change behavior, you have to start small. Big changes will "spook the elephant." At that point, no matter how logical the benefit of the habit is, the person will not engage in changing the behavior. Your goals must appeal to both the logical brain and the emotional brain. This is why in the last blog post I sent you, I suggested you send yourself a postcard from the future. This stimulates the elephant to move. The path is clear: come to the Hi-5 FitCamp and start with a simple habit like eating from smaller plates.

Modifying your metabolism...

Often times I am asked if our exercise programs come with a eating plan to follow. It sounds like a logical question. As much as myself and other health professionals say that nutrition and eating are the biggest components to a fitness program, you'd think we would have a customized nutrition plan ready to go for you.

Unfortunately, even if I did give you a strict nutrition plan to eat 5 times per day, with 140g of protein, 42g of fat and 200g of carbohydrates what are the odds you'd actually follow it? I've written programs like this for myself and my compliance with it is less than 90%.

So wouldn't it be easier to give you a few general goals that give you some freedom to make some decisions so that you aren't eating the same 6 foods over and over? Some people don't mind eating the same foods everyday. I'm one of those people. But others needs a lot of variety. My wife is one of those types of people.

I recently put together a little report on how to modify your metabolism through 5 different means that are pretty quick to implement. In it I discuss the 4 components of your metabolism and which part of your metabolism the 5 strategies effect. This way you can see that by implementing all 5 you are really beginning to change your body to be a fat-burning machine!

Because you guys are on our mailing list I'll give you the quick run-down of th 5 Ways to Kick Start Your Metabolism...Today!

1. Eat protein with breakfast. And not just a single egg (which has only 6g of protein). I'm talking add some PROTEIN! Have a protein shake along side that bowl of oatmeal. Or have a smoothie with some protein tossed in for good mix. Smaller individuals will want aroudn 15-20g of protein in their breakfast while larger individuals will want 25-35g of protein in their breakfast.
2. Exercise at work. By increasing your energy expenditure multiple times over the course of the day, you're constantly giving your metabolism a kick in the pants. So go up and down the stairs twice (act like you forgot something if you need an explanation) or walk quickly out to your car and back in. Just get your heart rate up a couple times during the day for 2-3 minutes. But don't do it so much that you sweat. That might raise a few eyebrows. And careful with the yoga stuff...
3. Use your kids as weights. Play with your kids. Pick them up and down, raise them over your head, swing them around a little (within reason). All of these things will increase the intensity of any motion. And you'll give your kids memories (or nightmares) for a lifetime!
4. Walking Intervals. Some people walk for fitness while others walk to get from place to place. If you're walking for fitness or as transportation, throw some intervals in there. Walk fast until you feel you're breathing hard and your heart rate is higher and then slow down a bit. Alternate these higher and lower walking speeds to give your metabolism a quick shot in the arm.
5. Eat more fat. Research has shown that our bodies will shift our metabolism to use the energy we have the most of. In addition newer research is suggesting we might be able to modify our metabolism to prefer a type of energy on a daily basis! This means that you have the potential to shift your metabolism to use fat on a daily basis. So how can we increase our fat intake? Fish oil supplementation has been shown to have an array of benefits including reduced inflammation, increased fat mobilization, improved cardiovascular function, brain development and immune system function.

Head over to the website www.pairmarotta.com/fitness and enter your email address to get the report emailed to you!

Does your bootcamp do THIS???

Most people never give much thought to the variables in their workouts. After all, there are tons of articles in popular fitness magazines that tell us the best new exercises, but rarely do they divulge from the standard 3 sets of 10 reps. Most people go to the gym, do their upper body workout of triceps extensions, 3 different kinds of biceps curls and maybe some shoulder stuff that the magazines tell them will "tone" their arms.

But the truth is that you can do the same workout for months on end and still get no where because the body adapts to the stress you put on it. You have to change something. And most people think it must be the exercises. When they aren't seeing change, they swear that they just aren't doing the right exercises. Or that there is some new fancy trick exercise that they haven't tried yet.

However, you can use the same exercises and just change some of the other variables and get mind boggling changes in strength, flexibility. So that is what we've done with this round of the Hi-5 FitCamp. Usually we stay somewhat based in 3-4 sets of 5-12 repetitions, with each set having the same number of repetitions. However, this time around we are doing a bit more density training, trying to add more volume of exercise within each set.

For this round of the Hi-5 FitCamp we are doing a form of cluster sets. A cluster set is basically a longer repetition set (14 reps in this case) broken into smaller sets within the set. Cluster sets have been shown to be more effective in highly trained individuals and just as effective as traditional training formats in untrained people. This makes it a great system to use for our current crop of Hi-5 FitCamp members as many of them have been regular attendees for between 1-4 years, while others are brand new or have only been here for a month or two.

MMMM...Deadlifts!

Cluster sets have been shown to increase strength in both experienced and novice weight lifters. However, cluster sets have been shown to be more effective than traditional training when performing power exercises such as medicine ball throws, squat jumps, medicine ball chest passes and split jumps. Why? Well with the rest afforded between smaller sets, the person is able to give more effort in subsequent reps. Here's an example.

Lets compare a traditional set of 12 squat jumps to a cluster set of 12 in which the set is broken into 4 clusters of 3 with :30 rest between sets. The person doing the traditional set will decrease power output with each subsequent jump because each jump uses available energy and there is no time for recovery. However, the cluster set person is able to recover a little bit after every 3rd jump. So if person A has his percentage of effort decrease by 10% every 3 jumps, then at his final jump he'll only be jumping at 66% of his max effort. But if person B decreased 10% every 3 jumps, but was able to recover 5% after each rest interval, his 12th jump would be at 82% of max effort. Basically he would be declining only 5% with each subsequent cluster set. See the difference a litte rest makes?

In summary, the benefit of doing cluster sets is increased time under tension (which results in more muscle gain) as well as increased strength. These are two of the major components to fat-loss! So why wouldn't we do this? Plus, it's a nice little change up for everybody!

Most overused term in fitness

 There are trends and there are those invaluable concepts that make our world a better place to live. More friends, more useful, more productive and a lot safer.

In physical therapy there are always new techniques, strategies and pieces of equipment coming out. Some of them are just fads. But some things are revolutionary and utterly change the way of thinking throughout the profession.

Core training is one of these concepts. For the longest time doctors would say that a persons back hurts because their abs are weak. So people started doing situps. But that just seemed to make things worse.

Then we started doing crunches on the stability ball thinking that it would engage more muscle and put less stress on the lower back. It helped a little bit but not too much. Then new research started to emerge that changed the way of thinking. This new way of thinking took a step back and stopped looking at training just a single abdominal muscle. But instead looked at exactly what else was around that joint and how they were used to keep the spine stable.

At that point we began to realize that core training was really about keeping the spine in a safe position while simultaneously being able to move our arms and legs. We began to incorporate exercises like Bird-dog, plank, dead-bug, and lock-out. No we have fully progressed to training the core in the same way we are supposed to use it on a daily basis: to maintain posture from a seated or standing position.

Now most of our higher level core training at P&M is done in the standing position. We train the core muscles to keep the spine in a neutral position while pushing, pulling, chopping and lifting. If we look at how the spine is stabilized, it is easily seen that a lot of different muscles must be used to A) keep the spine in a neutral alignment, and B) to keep the pelvis in a slight anterior tilt all while moving. This takes a lot of coordination and muscular endurance. As a result, can take a while to developed properly!

Although core training has become a very popular phrase these days - almost being overused - we still have so much to learn about how to train the core to not only rehabilitate spinal injuries, but also to improve fitness and athletic performance.

If you're interested in learning more about how to strengthen your core or to get a free a core evaluation with our Post-Therapy Fitness team, email aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991.

How to draw attention to yourself at work...

Most people don't like drawing attention to themselves at work. There is just something about the majority of eyes in a room being drawn to you for doing something awkward, according to them. Most people don't like drawing attention to themselves at work. There is just something about the majority of eyes in a room being drawn to you for doing something awkward, according to them.

But stretching may just well be worth the awkward glances. Stretching helps in so many ways that foregoing stretching simply because others might think its weird is flat out foolishness!

Stretching increases blood flow to our muscles, awakens our nervous system, helps decrease stress, and helps improve circulation which can improve alertness and mental acuity. Maintaining quality range of motion in joints and elasticity in muscles helps to prevent overuse injuries as well!

And if you've been coming to the Hi-5 FitCamp for any period of time, then stretching will also help alleviate the soreness you've acquired.

So here are 3 MUST DO stretches you can do while sitting in your office chair.

1. Seated Hamstring/Calf stretch: Sitting on the front half of your chair with your feet flat on the ground. Extend one foot out in front so the knee is almost straight. Keeping your back flat, reach out to that toe with the opposite hand until a moderate stretch is felt in the hamstring. Keep the toe pulled back to feel the stretch in your calves. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat 3 times on each side.
2. Seated Glute/IT Band stretch: Sitting on the front half of your chair, place your right ankle up on your left knee. Place your left hand on your right ankle and your right hand on your right knee. With a flat back, begin to lean forward at the hips. You should feel this stretch in your right hip. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat 3 times on each side.
3. Upper Back/Levator Scapulae stretch: Sitting upright, bring your right hand up over your head and place it in the middle of your upper back. Keep looking straight forward with your chin pulled in. Tip your head away from the elbow that is up (tip to the left). You should feel a stretch in your upper back. Then while tipping your head to the left, turn your head to the left so your chin is near your left shoulder. You should feel this stretch in your neck. Both are areas that are chronically tight on people. Do this for 5 seconds in each position, 3 times on each side as often as you'd like.

Its pretty simple. 4 minutes of stretching that can have some of the most profound effects on your physical health!!

By the way, if you like this post, click the Facebook link at the top and become a fan of the Hi-5 FitCamp!!

I was WRONG!

Hey guys, 

 

This summer has been super busy and it got me thinking about how busy you guys must get. I realize time is at a premium for most of us. If we spend an average of 9 hours a day working, 1 hour a day commuting, 2 hours a day eating, 7 hours a day sleeping that leaves us...5 hours to do our own thing. This doesn't include the morning ritual of waking up and getting ready for work. That could be another hour!

 

I've spent blog upon blog telling people how important it is to record what they eat. The main idea behind this was for you to see how many calories you're eating. As well as But often this would become overwhelming. In the past our nutrition evaluations would have a printout with what percentage of your meal should be carbohydrates, protein and fat.

 

But we don't eat protein, carbohydrates and fat. We eat food. So I thought the evaluation needed to be redesigned. 

 

So here I am saying I was wrong. When I designed our nutrition evaluation, I placed too much emphasis on calories, macronutrient distribution and activity level. 

 

In reality, nobody needs a program that is exact. Why? Because nobody would follow it. If an eating plan is too strict, most people will be too busy for it.

 

So what should you look for instead? Look for guidelines. But here's the kicker.

 

If you're given rules to follow instead of a strict diet and meal plan, then you need to follow the rules!

 

And there are some pretty simple rules:

1. Eat 4-5 meals per day
2. Eat fruits and vegetables with every meal.
3. Eat a lean protein with every meal
4. Don't drink your calories.
5. Only eat grains (bread, pasta, oats, pancakes) during your first meal

And in reality, you don't even have to start all of those habits at once. Pick one that you can succeed with and then do it. When that becomes a habit, simply choose another habit and add to it.

But whatever you do, do something. Exercise is great for increasing strength, improving cardiovascular fitness, increasing flexibility and other performance measures. But it's not all it's cracked up to be when it comes to fat loss. If you want to lose fat. You MUST follow the 5 rules above.