Fruit Loops now has Fiber?

Last night I was sitting at home, watching television, minding my own business when a commercial for Fruit Loops came on. It appears Fruit Loops now contains 3 grams of fiber in every serving. Now don't me wrong, fiber is very important in every diet. But I'm reminded of something that was said at the FMS workshop I attended last month. "What you remove is often more important than what you add." If your kid is eating Fruit Loops each morning for breakfast you need to REMOVE the Fruit Loops, not add fiber. It is especially important to teach kids proper eating habits at a young age. Giving your kids Fruit Loops (or any other sugary cereal) is just being lazy. I will always recommend eggs in the morning and you can add some raspberries (a whopping 8 grams of fiber per serving), or any other fruit for a great combination of protein and fats (from the eggs) and carbs, vitamins, and minerals (from the eggs and fruit.)

TRX Training...

Yesterday I spent the day in Winchester, MA at TRX training. The TRX allows for a tremendous workout using only your body weight and gravity. I had heard this was a great training workshop and it far exceeded my expectations. Just learning how to properly and easility set it up and put my feet in it made it worth the investment. I've been using it for about 6 months as a good way to perform rows but now I have a much better grasp of what can be performed using just a couple straps. The instructor made a good point at the start when he said, "the best thing about the TRX is you can do 1,000 things with it and the worst thing about the TRX is you can do 1,000 things with it." The day (9 - 5) was mostly hands on so I don't have tons of notes to share. Plus they wouldn't make a whole lot of sense without experimenting with the TRX first. What has me excited about the possibilities is the are now working with the creators of the Functional Movement Screen to use the TRX for corrective exercise. That was a great "AH HA" moment for me. My deep squat is dreadful. With my feet flat my arm end up parallel to the floor (not good.) However, the instructor completely fixed my deep squat using the TRX. I was able to get into a perfect squat position for the first time in quite a long time. I was sold on the TRX long before that but I never thought of it as a corrective exercise tool. Now I'm completely hooked. My goal is to use it exclusively for the next three weeks so I can really learn how to use it and understand the potential progressions. One of the other great things about the TRX is it's price. The thing only costs $150. Think about all the high priced equipment sitting in your basement that you don't use anymore. I think the TRX is the perfect piece of equipment for in-home training. If you are interested in buying one for your home you can order through this site by clicking on TRX under affiliates to the right. And if you do order through this site I will offer a free session to get you started (depending on your location I guess, the west coast or overseas might be tough, I'll give you an IOU in that case.) This will include how to set it up, how to easily use it, some of the possible progressions, and some corrective exercises. Just shoot me an email at mbelangerjr@gmail.com if you do order through this site.

New Television Commitment...

The following is an actual conversation I just had with a young girl (probably about 20 or so) at my gym:

Me: (after watching her perform tons of crunches and twists on the floor) "How often do you do you do your floor ab routine?"
Girl: "every day"
Me: "You're really going to hurt your back if you keep doing that stuff"
Girl: "I already have a herniated disk"
Me: "You're really exacerbating the problem with those exercises"
Girl: "I like doing them"
Me: "I can show you some better exercises if you have a few minutes"
Girl: "That's ok...Life is short"
Me: "Not that short"

I don't even know what that is supposed to mean. Why do people use the "Life is short" excuse to abuse their body? Isn't it better to be healthy and enjoy life? Instead this girl who already has a herniated disk at 20 years old is going to experience physical pain for her life. It reminds me of a great Einstein quote, "Insanity is best defined as doing the same actions repeatedly and expecting a different outcome."

• Anyway, here is a great post by a local coach. His little story about his fiances doctor refusing to perform a Vitamin D test just shows how far behind the medical field can be. And the video at the end is brilliant.
  
• So I've gone this far in life with only one television commitment. I just never liked the idea of having to be home at a specific day/time to watch a television program (you know, pre DVR.) Then I started watching LOST. I was immediately quite smitten and entered into a 5+ year committed television relationship. Last night I was sitting down to eat dinner and a new show happened to come on the channel I happened to be watching. It's called FlashForward. Only a few minutes into the show and, "Hey, there's Penny!" Then I realized this show is really interesting and potentially bizarre (I like bizarre.) Everyone on the planet simultaneously blacks out for a little over two minutes. But it appears they didn't blackout, they actually all experienced a flash forward, going to April 20, 2010 (or it's Apr 10.) So this all looked very intriguing. Then when the episode was over then ran the scenes for the rest of the season and, "Hey There's Charlie!!!" I think I'm hooked. I feel like a cheater.
  

New DVD's, Pregnancy, and Organic Food Labels....

Right now I'm watching "Secrets of the Hip & Knee" by Gray Cook and Brett Jones. These guys are on their own level in terms of finding the source of dysfunctional movement patterns and applying proper and effective corrective exercise. Here are some of my notes thus far:

• "Hips are part of the core." Woohoo! I knew I was doing the right thing training the glutes as core muscles!!
• "Front looks good...backside performs good." I know, it should be "performs well." What they are saying is having a strong muscular looking front for the beach is all well and good but if you want to perform on the field or just be a stronger person in general you need to train the backside.
• "If you are not weight bearing for 8 hours per day your hips are deteriorating" Jeepers!! By weight bearing they simply mean standing.
  
• "Hips are a bad neighbor...low back and knees are victims of poor hip mobility." This is exactly why we look to the joint above and below to find the source of the pain. If your hips aren't mobile your knees and low back must compensate by becoming more mobile than they should be. Knees and low back are built for stability.
• "You cannot isolate the hips back into health." The hips work synergistically (I don't think that's a word but you know what I'm saying...right?) with the entire body.
• "Hip flexors must be strong and loose." Just think about running. Your hip flexors must be strong to bring your femur past parallel and loose to drive your foot during your ground strike.
  
• The core and glutes are synergists and the low back and hip flexors synergists. Your core/glutes should be much stronger than your low back/hip flexors but that is not the case with many people. This will lead to inefficient movement and injuries.

Now I have to watch this again to master the corrective exercises!

• Here's a blog that I read often. She's now pregnant and I'm sure this will be a tremendous resource for anyone who is pregnant or will be pregnant.
• And here's some interesting info about Organic Food labeling. Quick read...check it out.
  

Conditioning Camp

Well, for the first time I'll use this space to market something. I am conducting a 6-week youth strength and conditioning camp at Wayside Racquet & Swim in Marlborough, MA. The camp begins on October 12 and meets three days per week, Mon, Wed, Thurs. Sessions run for 75 minutes beginning at 3:30 pm. This camp will be great for any middle school or high school athlete interested in taking their game to the next level and any non-athlete simply interested in attaining a higher level of overall fitness. It will focus on proper movement skills, speed and agility, and strength and explosive power. If anyone is interested please shoot me an email at mbelangerjr@gmail.com for more info. Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested.

10 Things I Think I Think....

Happy Last Day of Summer!! As of yesterday I am in my second year of perpetual weekend. Last September 19 was my final day working in the corporate world and the past year has been a blur. I've learned probably more than I can remember. And every day has felt like the weekend even though I'm working harder than ever. I guess that's what happens when you love what you do. Anyway, for today I am pulling a Peter King and writing 10 Things I Think I Think. These are the top 10 things I've learned in the past year. So, in no particular order:

1. "The Weakest Link Rules the Chain." I've always been aware of the interconectivity fo the body but not that it is. It amazes me how a left big toe injury can lead to right shoulder pain. As soon as one joint loses mobility or stability all other joints have to compensate all the way up and down the chain. Until the source is corrected your body will not function as efficiently as it should. Put in practical terms, if you have low back pain (like 75% of the population) you should NOT try to strengthen your lower back. Your pain has nothing to do with weakness. It likely has to do with immobile hips and immobile thoracic spine.
2. Unilateral Training can be much more effective than bilateral training. This is especially true if you have low back pain. A single leg squat or rear foot elevated split squat will take the pressure off your low back and allow you to build leg strength, especially quad and glute strength. This is true of deadlifts as well. If you have a history of low back pain you want to avoid bilateral deadlifts but single leg deadlifts are great. And you don't have to bring the weight down to the floor like in the video. Down to the knee and slowly progress to the floor is just as effective.
3. I like saying illiopsoas and thoracolumbar apperneurosis
4. What you remove is often of more importance than what you add. You don't need to add every cool looking new exercise to your program. Just stay with the basics and you'll get great results. And if you are eating grains at every meal you don't need to add some fish oil, you need to eliminate your grains (since grains are poison and all.) And if you smoke cigarettes you are an idiot.
   
5. Everyone should buy a juicer. I bought one about 2 months ago and have used it 1 - 2 times every single day since. It's the best thing I could have done for my diet. I now get an easy 10 - 12 servings of fruits and veggies each day. I look leaner (despite gaining weight), feel more energized, and just plain feel healthier.
6. Metabolic Resistance Training is far more effective for weight loss than long slow cardio. Metabolic Resistance Training not only allows you to maintain an elevated metabolism for up to 48 hours after your workout (due to EPOC), there are now studies suggesting you actually burn more calories during your workout as well. Then take into account sparing your joints from not running on a treadmill and there is really no reason to keep using long slow cardio strategy for weight loss.
7. Modern sneakers are a terrible invention. All this extra padding and sole support does nothing exept turn off muscles in the foot that are supposed to be working. As a result something needs to overcompensate and this is often the achilles tendon and calf. Injuries to the achilles, ankle, and knee have increased dramatically since the invention of the modern sneaker in the 1970s. So go barefoot. At least for your warmup. Go slow as to not make the same mistake I did. Your whole body will thank you.
8. A foam roller is your best friend. I continue on my quest to put a foam roller in every living room. Improving tissue quality should be top priority when you begin to train for anything and should absolutely not be skipped. It only takes a few minutes and difference you will feel will likely be immediate.
   
9. Do something! I have my strong preferences but every fitness program can be of value if it gets people active. You can do weight training, pilates, yoga, spin, zumba (not even sure what this is but but I've heard of it), P90X (though not recommended), etc. Just don't do Crossfit. That's a great way to get injured. Or anything they do on The Biggest Loser. That's bad too.
10. The people in this industry are awesome! This has been the most unexpected and pleasant surprise. Everyone I have spoken with or met have been extremely generous with their time and in sharing their knowledge and experiences. Many of these people had no idea who I was upon our first meeting. Their only concern is to give their best advice to help every single person who asks to the best of their ability. If I can apply that one principle to my career I think I'll be doing pretty well.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. And I'm looking forward to learning just as much during my second year as I did during my first year.

The Biggest Loser?

So I was clicking through the channels the other night and came across The Biggest Loser. I believe it was the season premier. I watched for a couple minutes. I've seen a couple minutes a few other times in previous seasons but just could not watch any further. I was just too disgusted (and insulted as a trainer) to see such horrible training practices and nutrition sold to the masses in a popular television program. So I figured I'd write about it, but was beaten to the punch. Here is a great post about the irresponsible entertainment that is being passed off as proper training for the overweight and obese portion of the population. I think he articulates the problems with this show much better than I could. One thing I would add though is how easy it can be for someone who is completely dedicated to lose a tremendous amount of weight and dramatically improve their body composition and overall well being in a safe and, just as importantly, sustainable manner. That is the goal. To lose weight safely and in a manner that promotes life long lifestyle changes. What disgusted me most when I saw this show previously was the weigh in at the end of the show. People would weigh in at 10+ pounds lighter than they did the previous week! That is much too much weight to lose in one week unless you weight 1,000 pounds. It is simply not sustainable to lose more than 1 - 2% of your body weight in the span of one week. Here's the thing, this person was berated for having such a horrible result! Are your kidding me?!?!

Anyway, this got me thinking of the power of the long term goal. If weight loss is your goal just think about where you want to be in one year. Even if you are obese and need to lose 50+ pounds you can achieve this over the course of one year. And it will be safe and you'll be able to sustain it for the rest of your life. All it takes is hard work and a complete commitment to achieving your goals (and a good trainer...um, like ME.) This can apply to any training goal including weight loss, improve strength, power, speed, endurance, mobility, etc.

My sis wrote a great post a while back about making a list of your goals. I would add to the list reasons why you want to achieve your goals. I think this serves as a tremendous motivator. Do you want to lose weight so you can play soccer or baseball with your child? Or do you have weight related health problems? Or do you want to start next season for your high school football team? This certainly is not limited to fitness. Do you want a better, more fulfilling job? Or a nicer house to raise your family? Or get better grades in school? For instance, last September 19 I was a financial analyst and Hated my job. Today I am a personal trainer/strength & conditioning coach working with athletes and the general population. I also operate a small side personal training business. The goals I wrote down last September have evolved as I learn more...but the general goal of a more fulfilling career has remained the same. As I re-read my list from last September today I think I did a pretty solid job. Now it's time to write a new list with new goals!

Everyone have a tremendous weekend!!

Mike

PS...I think writing a coherent blog post will be somewhere near the top of my new list.