What is Intermittent Fasting?

One of the most difficult things about going on a diet, whether you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle is all the conflicting advice. It is only when the experts seem to have it all figured out when some maverick comes along and challenges the establishment. Perhaps the most repeated diet advice out there is that you have to eat 5-6 smalls meals a day to lose weight. The rationale is that every time you eat a meal it 'revs' up your metabolism, causing you to burn more fat. Also, for many people they find a willpower or psychological advantage to eating small meals, making them feel more full and less likely to binge on garbage foods.

But now you have a new way of eating called Intermittent Fasting (IF) that throws a monkey wrench into everything. What IFers have discovered is that they can create incredibly lean, muscular and healthy bodies by only once or twice a day. Every IF diet is divided into two phases: feeding and fasting. The former is when you eat, the latter when you don't. The difference between each diet is the specific feeding/fasting windows. One of the most popular IF protocols out there is Leangains. The protocol was created by a Swedish trainer named Martin Berkhan. With Leangains your feeding phase is an 8 hour window while your fasting phase is 16 hours.

 A sample schedule from the website:

11:30 am Pre-workout  drink
12:00-1:00 pm Training
1:00 pm Post-workout meal (largest meal of the day)
4:00 pm Second meal
9:00 pm Last meal before the fast.

In addition to the 8/16 feeding/fasting split there are some people who advocate going 24 hours without eating anything once or twice a week. A popular website for this approach is eatstopeat.com. A third and related approach is called the Warrior Diet where you have a few snacks during the day and eat a large meal at night, mimicking a hunter-gatherer who would spend all day on the hunt and then feast at night.

Don't confuse IF with calorie reduction and it isn't 'starving' yourself necessarily either. Instead of spacing out your calories in 5-6 smaller meals, IF advocates you eat those same amount of calories in a smaller time frame and obviously spread out among fewer meals.

But whether something like fasting is good for you in the long term is still up for grabs. As far as a mainstream nutrition strategy there is not as much research out there as there is on other diets, although this will likely change. There are two things to remember about IF and just fasting in general. First, everybody already fasts, it's just the time period from your last meal of one day to the first meal of the next. Secondly, fasting was and is commonly practiced by different religious traditions for thousands of years. Fasting is an integral part of major holidays for Jews, Christians and Muslims (Yom Kippur, Lent and Ramadan respectively). Just because you decide to try and fast over the course of a month or two you probably will not keel over and die on the spot. Check out the websites mentioned above and give it a shot.

 

Kettlebells: Simple and Sinister

 In previous entries  two of the most functional exercises out there: the swing and the Turkish Get Up (TGU) were covered. After using the homemade kettlebell for a few weeks you might find yourself wanting to upgrade to the real deal. While looking into kettlebells training programs you will come across a guy by the name of Pavel Tsatsouline (common spelling). Pavel is a former trainer for Soviet special forces who now trains military and LEOs here in the America. Pavel is credited with popularizing the kettlebell in the West. He also helped create the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC), known as the first kettlebell certification in the USA. (In response to the current crisis in Ukraine, a friend suggested calling them Liberty Bells in protest).

Pavel training the TEK, Hungary's elite counter terrorism unit

 Today, Pavel is the creator of an organization called StrongFirst, a community of kettlebell enthusiasts with a focus on strength development. Pavel's latest book is Kettlebell: Simple and Sinister. The book is a great introduction to KB training. Pavel builds an entire program and swings and TGUs with a brief warm up. Also, instead of buying a whole rack of KBs you really only need to buy two: a 35# and a 50# (Pavel dislikes poundage, preferring kgs or poods, a Russian weight but meh).

Here's a sample of what the program would look like:

Warm up:
Goblet Squats
Bridges
Halos

Main set:
Swings-Shoot for 100 total reps. If you are just starting do 10 sets of 10 reps. As your strength/conditioning improves you can do 5 sets of 20 etc. Perform each rep with as much explosion as possible.

TGU's- 5 reps per side. No more. Perform slowly and deliberately

And......that's it. Pavel says you will be tempted to add more exercises but resist the temptation. If it's too easy then get yourself a bigger KB. Workouts should be done in about 20-30 minutes. Pavel is interested in the minimal effective dose, remember adding more reps is not always better, focus on explosion on the swings and slow/control on the get ups . The book is well written and is an exceptionally easy read, it only takes a day. At only $10 for the Kindle version it is a bargain having one of the world's best giving you pointers.

What is Broscience?

Here is a term that has been bandied about on the internet for quite some time. Typically, it's a sarcastic and condescending way of labeling information about health and fitness that is not supported by current scientific research but rather anecdotal experiences.  Here's a couple of definitions I pulled from the trusty urbandictionary.com that illustrate what I am talking about:

Broscience is the predominant brand of reasoning in bodybuilding circles where the anecdotal reports of jacked dudes are considered more credible than scientific research.

Broscience in action:

"Bro, you gotta slam 40-60 grams of waxy maize plus 20 grams of BCAA within 7 seconds of finishing your last set of squat rack curls. Otherwise, you'll go straight catabolic."

by Alan Aragon August 02, 2008

And for a different take:

A sarcastic term implying that the time tested, muscle building wealth of knowledge developed and utilized by successful, experienced bodybuilders is inferior to the continually shifting hypotheses of articulate, textbook-savvy 155lb. chemists with little or no real world first-person experience to substantiate their conclusions. The term "Broscience" is oft repeated on bodybuilding and fitness oriented internet forums in an attempt to demonstrate online dominance as a substitution for success in the arena of actual bodybuilding.

Professor Shnootgarten: What are you drinking there?

Tommy: Just a protein shake with some carbs; I need to get my 350 grams daily.

Professor Shnootgarten: According to the 30 pubmed studies that I’ve downloaded, any amount greater than 22.341 grams of protein post workout is superfluous for greater protein synthesis. Additionally, insulin spiking, if that’s your intended objective, is neither necessary nor helpful toward replenishing glycogen stores unless, of course, your focus is high rep, time under tension endurance tolerance rather than maximal load, low rep hypertrophy stimulation.

Tommy: Dude, over the last 8 years, I’ve gone from a 148 pound weakling to a 220 pound beast doing the same stuff that worked for my dad, and you’re a buck fifteen and have never actually seen the inside of a gym.

Professor Shnootgarten: Well, according to last year’s in-vitro study of skeletal-muscle glycogen phosphorylase done at the University of Stuttgart School of Bio-Organic Chemistry Deluxe...

Tommy: Spare me the science lesson Mr. Wizard; you’ll change your mind next week when new studies reveal the opposite conclusions. You can take your research and your weak pale self, and I’ll take the 500+lb.deadlift that I got with hard work and a little help from broscience.

by musclestudlackinganyirony September 06, 2009  

As you can tell whether broscience is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective. Obviously both examples are hilarious and extreme to prove their points and both have merits. Yes, actual scientific research is important for understanding and improving physical health especially nutrition and exercise but that doesn't mean that we dismiss any practical advice from people who are actually fit and have done these things in their real lives not just in laboratories.

But where I have issue with both science and broscience is when anybody whether they be researchers, marketers or just fit people in general make these hard and fast rules that strike me as unreasonable and honestly almost puritanical.

 "You can't work out 6-7 days a week or you will overtrain"

 "You won't lose fat unless you stay in the 'Fat Burning Zone' on the treadmill"

 "Squatting is bad for your knees"

 "You have to eat 5-6 small meals a day to lose weight"

 "Sugar is toxic and can kill you"

 "You have to consume protein immediately following your workout or you won't get big"

 Now before anyone sets me on fire I'm not saying that any of these are not true or at least partially true but they are not absolutes and when people get in trouble is if they believe their way is the ONLY way when in fact many successful people do the exact opposite. Let's look at the idea that you have to incorporate rest days into your training or you will overtrain. It is one of those widely accepted ideas that working 6-7 days a week is counterproductive but don't tell this to the Bulgarians. They have built a weightlifting dynasty on doing the same 3-4 lifts, 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. Here is an article with more information on the Bulgarian system. Does this mean you should train this way? Probably not, but if the human body can handle that type of workload I don't think you should be worried if you do a 30-45 min workout 7 days a week either.

Bulgarian lifter Ivan Stoitsov
Go ahead, tell him he works out too much

The fitness/nutrition/supplement world is a big money industry. We are of course an obese nation that is constantly searching for the magical exercise, diet or pill that will solve the problem. Smart marketers know this and attempt to pass off their advertisements as undisputed scientific facts. Remember that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is and always follow the money. Of course just because someone charges for something doesn't mean it's bunk but try to evaluate advice on it's merits not just the sales pitch.

 Finally, remember that millions of people build world class physiques without reading the latest studies, books, diet plans or take the latest chemical compound invented by a university. Always look at any claim with a discriminating eye and take everything with a grain of salt.    

Are you making S.M.A.R.T. goals?

Now that we are into February this is about the time that a lot of new year's resolutions are starting to fail. Maybe you are not seeing the progress you'd like or maybe that 6am spinning or boot camp class is not as easy to attend as you thought. Perhaps you are eating clean and exercising when you should but you are not 'losing weight' like you hope. But maybe you aren't doing as bad as you think. Maybe your goal is so bad you are set up to fail. That's why you should make your goals SMART; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  So here is the standard new year's resolution: "I'm going to lose weight this year". Admirable but not very smart so let's see if we can make it a little better. We will go through each of the elements of a SMART goal and then apply them to this most popular pursuit.

Specific
When it comes to setting and eventually achieving goals the more specific the better. Sure it's great to have the overarching purpose or vision to 'lose weight', 'be healthier', 'get stronger', or 'build muscle' but if that's as far as actual goal setting those statements are horrendous. So you increased your deadlift by 5 pounds this year, so you accomplished your goal of getting stronger right? But I don't think this is what you had in mind when you wanted to get stronger. Another good example is the weight loss goal.

Now there are people who really do want to lose weight as in actual poundage they weigh. They don't care if it's water weight, muscle or fat. An example of this could be a boxer or wrestler trying to lose weight so they can compete in their chosen weight class. For most of us however when we say we want to lose weight we really mean fat. So say what you mean. Saying "I want to lose body fat" is a lot more specific then simply weight loss. If anything specificity is the most important principle in setting good goals.

Measurable
Now that you have a more specific goal in mind its important that it is measurable as in how do you know that you have achieved said goal? If I say I want to be 'leaner' what does that mean? How do you measure 'leanness'? Do you have a device in your bathroom that you step on and it says 'lean' or 'not lean'. Instead pick bodyfat percentage, weight in pounds, even your BMI as ways to measure progress. Another good example is having a pair of pant or dress size that you want to fit into. You either can or can't. Adding this into our goal statement  it would read: "I want my bodyfat percentage to be below 15%".

Attainable and Realistic
I put these together because they are so similar. The best way I can describe the difference between these two is when you ask if something is attainable what you are really asking is "Is this even possible?" Let's say my goal is 'I want to have my name on the next ballot for President of the United States in 2016'. Is it specific? yes and is it measurable? yes my name either is or is not on the ballot. But it's not attainable as I'm not old enough (35) to be president in 2016 by law  so my goal is really not attainable. However if I change my goal to be 'president of the He-Man Woman Haters club' where no such rule applies then yes technically it is attainable.

Whether a goal is realistic or not is a slightly different matter. If my goal is to lose 30 pounds in a month then yes my goal is attainable but it might not be realistic. Having a realistic goal is huge without you are destined for failure. This is a good time to bring up the idea of 'chunking' your goals into tiny bites of realistic achievement. Instead of losing 40 lbs in a year try dividing that number into 10lbs every three months and in a year's time you will have reached your goal. Although it's the same end result the 10lbs every three months appears more realistic and your are more likely to accomplish this. So is decreasing my bodyfat percentage to below 15%? Yes it is. Is it realistic? depends on your starting point and timeframe but yes should be realistic.

Timely
This is an easy concept but often overlooked. Your goals need to have an expiration date. This will do two things. One, having a deadline will give you the needed stress to push yourself and not procrastinate. Again if I give myself a whole year to lose 40 lbs I can tell myself that I will 'make up' for lost time/efforts later in the year but if I have 10lbs to lose every three months I don't have that luxury. Also, I think humans just naturally succeed more with deadlines. Second, if you have an end date it gives you the opportunity to evaluate and measure how well you did and maybe change your strategy. This is how to avoid those 'roll over' goals from the past. After you reached your deadline you can evaluate if you actually achieved your goal. If you did then great you can focus on something else for set period of time if not then look at what worked and didn't work and set a new goal with renewed vigor. So my final goal could be something like this: "I want my bodyfat percentage to be under 15% by July 31, 2014.  

Creating 'Tactical Fitness'

I had this article from policeone.com forwarded to me by a cop and it's a great read. Basically it highlights what some forward thinking agencies in Wisconsin have done (it was written in 2011) to update their approach to physical fitness. In the end they teamed up with Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and some local fitness centers to create fitness plans that addressed in the line of duty situations.  After reading through the article it got me thinking "What are the areas of physical fitness that I actually use on the job?" This list is not exhaustive by any means but this is what crossed my mind. If you can think of anything add it to the list.

Sprinting: Whether it's running for cover or chasing down suspects there are times in police work when you gotta get there fast. So it's surprising how few cops are doing wind sprints. Sprinting is not only a matter of survival but it's overall effect on your cardiovascular health is impressive.  Furthermore, doing these types of high intensity, short interval sprints can have a dramatic effect on your weight loss too.

Grip Strength: So you have chased your boy down and seeing your superior athletic ability he stops. What do you do next? Grab him and ground him. This is where having a strong grip comes into play. If your grip is weak, you are weak. Because your grip is the link between your strength and your opponent. Quite literally where we reach out and 'touch' somebody.  On a related note grip strength is big when it comes to firearms as well. Having a good grip allows you to have a consistent and smooth trigger pull when you are fatigued.

Static holds: This one is similar to grip strength. Again think real world stuff here. You might be too tough to admit it but it can be taxing on your shoulders to hold your handgun in the 'punch out' position for any extended period of time. Sure if you are on some kind of barricaded suspect or stand off you would ideally find something to rest on but that is not always the case. It's even worse if you get stuck with the shield too.

Flexibility/Injury prevention: I put these two together because they go hand in hand. Wearing a bulletproof vest and a weighted belt around your waist are unique challenges.  In addition unlike the athlete who gets to warm up before his event we have to respond at a moment's notice, often times sitting in a police car.  We won't get the chance to stretch before we act so we have to be proactive and preventative by stretching throughout the day so we can stay limber/flexible.

Core Strength: Your core is not just your abs and having six pack abs says nothing about your core strength, only your bodyfat percentage. Remember the core is your abs, lower back and hips. Having these muscles strong and balanced will help your body maintain a natural and strong position.  Lower back injuries are almost a disease for police.

Aerobic exercise: Remember that aerobic basically means 'with air'. That is exercise you can maintain over a relatively longer period. Think your traditional endurance exercises like running, biking and swimming. This is the point where most cops say "When am I ever going to chase somebody for a mile and a half?" Well never, but that is a way to train your body to be able outlast the bad guy. Yes most fights are over in a matter of seconds but others can drag on.

Fitness Fair 2014

LPD's Wellness committee is happy to announce we will be having our 2nd rendition of the fitness fair. The most common new year's resolution is to lose weight or get back in shape. Use this opportunity as a chance to  find a new gym or learn more about your health. We have a variety of fitness related businesses in attendance. In addition to boatloads of free pamphlets and papers we will have hearing assessments, skin exams, eye/hand coordination speed checks, EKGs, rapid
cholesterol and blood pressure checks, healthy food samples and more!!!

DATE:                  Tue, January 14th
TIME:                   10:00 am to 2:00 pm
LOCATION:         Lincoln Police Dept. 575 S.10
                              Classrooms A, B, C

Some of our vendors:
Kosama
It Works
Coddington Dental
Aspen Athletic Clubs
Anytime Fitness
Basler Dermatology
Excel Chiropractic & Wellness
Eyecare Specialties
Complete Hearing Solutions
Body Overhall
NE Heart Institute
YMCA (downtown)
Jenny Craig
Practice of Chiropractic, Clinical Nutrition, and Functional Diagnostic
Medicine
Cycle Works
Madonna Proactive
Wildtree
Lincoln Running Co
Footloose and Fancy
Lincoln Racquet Club
Physician Weight Loss
Bryan Health Sleep and Heart
Health Department
Hy-Vee
Lincoln Yoga Center
WellnessOne
Prairie Life Fitness
Max Muscle
Whole Foods
Good Life Fitness