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Why You Need to Warm Up Properly & How to Do So

Coach, Keith Scott

If you are not doing a good, quality warm up before your training session you are missing a HUGE and extremely important component of training.

By “missing” this, your performance will suffer and you will get injured at some point. I don’t care how young you are, how “tough” you think you are, or how much smarter you think you are, you will suffer in both areas.

That’s just the way it is…  Over the years I have found that there are a few different kinds of people when it comes to warming up.

There is the guy who doesn’t warm up at all. Nothing, Nada…Comes in off of the street and just starts training. It might sound absurd but there are more guys doing this then you think.

This is the way I went at in when I was in high school…young and dumb. When you are that age, you don’t feel shit happening to you and your performance is usually going to improve no matter what you do mainly because you are a beginner and the only direction you can go is up.

The next guy is the guy who does a few moves for 2 minutes (i.e. arm swings, some static stretching) and then starts training. This is probably the most popular way for guys to warm up. They think by doing some stretching they are good. No dynamic stuff, no mobilization, no sweat produced.

The problem with this is simple…its NOT warming up at all. I think our high school coaches are responsible for this kind of thinking. Take 5-10 min and static stretch and we are good to go.

When I worked in the high school, the football coach gave me the team for warm ups before practices. He nearly shit himself after the first practice because we spent 30 min doing the warm up, mobility and stretch. But after a few weeks, he came around and we were healthier than most other teams. The extra time is always worth it.

The next guy is the guy who jumps on the bike, or whatever and does about 5 min of cardio until he is sweating and considers himself to be warmed up. Although this will get your body temp up and maybe, technically you are “warm,” this isn’t the kind of warm up that we preach and not the kind that you should be focusing on each training session.

The last guy is the guy that I hope all of you are…the guy who takes 15-30 min and really warms up.

The warm up is part of your training routine, not just some annoyance that you feel you have to do. The warm up sets the tone for what you need to do that day.

The warm up is necessary for health and success. The warm up gets your mind “right” as well. Unfortunately, I would bet that this is the smallest population out there.

My hope is that the guys reading this understand the importance of a good warm up for not only performance but for short and long term physical health.

What a Proper Warm up Consists Of

I am not going to get into specifics of what to do here (I will save that for another post) rather I want to outline what a warm up really is and what it needs to have in place. Part of the problem is that the term warm up lacks the real “meat” of what a warm up is all about.

A good warm up should have dynamic movements. Dynamic stretching, dynamic movement, mobility drills, etc… I personally like to combine static stretching and dynamic stretching…especially in the winter months or when I have to do an early workout.

For example, I might start with a static hold/stretch of my hip flexor and then morph that into a more dynamic leg swing, where I am still hitting the hip flexor, but also getting other muscles involved. Dynamic movements of your hips, ankles, shoulders, wrists, etc…

A proper warm up needs to involve the entire kinetic chain. What I mean by this is that regardless of what you are training on a particular day, your warm up needs to attack the whole body. Of course you can spend more time on certain areas depending on what you are training, but at the same time, you should get the entire body going.

Remember the big picture…you always need to be working on mobility, activation, etc… and the best way to accomplish this is to take time to target it all whenever you can. Besides that, whether you realize it or not, you are always using your core, your legs, your shoulder complex, etc… no matter what you are training….even if you don’t feel it.

A good warm up needs to involve activation of muscle groups. Some areas that should always be activated are the upper back (scap area), glutes (all), core, and adductors. This is always going to depend on what work you need.

There is a reason why I make my guys do face pulls before they bench, and even between sets of benching. You have to activate muscle groups to keep other areas safe. Besides, it helps with strength as well and you will get better results.   A proper warm up needs to be personal to your needs. Everyone is different and everyone has different issues. If you have shoulder problems, you need to spend a little more time on that area.

If you have low back issues, you need to spend more time on your hips, glutes and core. This is one area where your warm up should be different than anyone else’s.

Take time to figure out what you need, what your routine needs to have to keep you healthy and perform at the highest level. For me, personally, I always spend more time on my shoulder areas, because that is where I have the most issues.   You should be sweating pretty good during and after your warm up. If you are not, you are not doing enough.

Don’t use sweat as the only marker, but it is a good way to know if you are doing enough. I keep my gym cold when I train. I wear enough sweats so my joints stay warm, but I also get to the point where you would think I just finished my training but I am only at the end of my warm up.   You should feel GREAT and ready to go after your warm up. If not, you need to do a little more, or a little better.

A good warm up should not tire you out, rather it will get your body prepared and you will feel much more confident going into your training routine. I think this is a very important aspect. Mentally, I am so fired up after a good warm up because I know my body is ready and I have zero mental blocks and zero confidence issues.

A good warm up makes you better. Plain and simple. You will be healthier, have a better training session, make better gains, feel awesome in your daily life. There are no negatives.

Putting it all Together

Now this might sound like a lot and you might be thinking that you barely have time to train much less spend another 20-30 min doing a warm up. I get that. I am busy as hell and there are times when I shorten or even skip most of my warm up routine. When I do, I ALWAYS pay for it and it always comes back to bite me in the ass.

My advice to you is to either make the time, or get creative. Maybe you live 5 min from your gym. Start your warm up at home. While it’s not ideal, its better than not doing it at all.

The other day I had to train immediately after I got done training a group of athletes. I managed to do part of my warm up during their training session and finished when they left. Whatever you need to do, figure out a system that works for you and do it. Don’t skip it, and don’t think of it as an annoyance. Make it part of your program.

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51 Ways to Build Muscle, Gain Strength & Be F*ckin Awesome

Nutrition, Training

by Jason Ferruggia

1. Have a clearly defined goal.
You can’t put 50 pounds on your squat, lose 50 pounds of fat and gain 50 pounds of muscle at the same time, while simultaneously training for a bodybuilding contest and a world record in the hammer throw.

2. Train for performance, first and foremost.
It’s very hard to see size gains or even fat loss gains from day to day but you can see performance improvements on a regular basis, if you train properly.

3. Set at least one new PR per month.
It could be on a big lift, a gymnastics hold or how many double unders you can do with the jump rope. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect to see any significant changes. Setting PR’s (personal records) ensures results and fun.

4. But know when to back off.
There will be workouts when you can’t improve on anything. That’s perfectly normal. Don’t freak out about it. Deload weeks should also be taken after 3-12 weeks of intense training.

5. Don’t be a program hopper.
ADD is a very bad thing. These days it’s why most people fail. Pick the most productive exercises and methods and get good at them. It’s the best way to make long term progress. You can’t change things randomly every week and expect to get anywhere.

6. Foam roll before training.
Hit the hams, IT bands, glutes, inner thighs, calves, and back. Even better than the foam roller is the Rumble Roller.

7. Static stretch first.
If you are going to static stretch because you need to in order to get into certain positions, the best time to do it is after you foam roll and before you start your dynamic warm up.

8. Use a lacrosse ball on your piriformis, pecs and upper back.
You’ll hate me at the time but will thank me later.

9. Do some type of dynamic warm up for 5-10 minutes before you start lifting heavy.
This should include low intensity hopping drills, leg swings, isometric bridging exercises, activation drills, etc.

10. Do hurdle mobility drills.
Hip mobility is very important and goes quickly as you age. If you have good hip mobility your likelihood of having lower back problems will be reduced.

11. Jump or throw something after your warm up and before you start your main lift.
It fires up your CNS and better prepares you to move some heavy shit. Explosiveness is another quality that disappears with age. Don’t lose it.

12. Be explosive on every rep.
Even your warm ups (to a point, you don’t have to explode the empty bar so excessively that you dislocate your shoulder). This fires up your CNS and fast twitch fibers.

13. Don’t cause excessive fatigue on your warm up sets.
But don’t rush them or neglect them either. Keep the reps low to moderate and find the balance.

14. Make smaller jumps en route to your top end set.
When working up to a heavy triple, double or single it’s best to use smaller jumps and take about 8-12 sets to get to your max. You will find that your top end sets feel lighter when you do this versus if you just jumped right into them after only a few warm up sets.

15. Squat.
It’s an essential human movement pattern. Do it with a bar in front or back, goblet style, with kettlebells, or with weight overhead. Just do it. That’s all that matters.

16. Always squeeze the bar as hard as you can.
Trying to crush it, on every lift you do. This will ensure tightness.

17. Squeeze your glutes tightly and brace your abs on every standing exercise.
This will help protect your spine and elicit more full body tension. Tension equals strength.

18. Always maintain optimal posture throughout your sets.
Never let your shoulders slouch forward or your lower back round out.

19. Do more moving and supporting on your hands.
Practice handstands against the wall, do Power Wheel hand walks, lateral hand walks, alligator pushups, partner assisted wheel barrow walks, etc. This is great for building up strength and stability in the shoulders.

20. Use thick handles or Fat Gripz as often as possible.
This will strengthen the hands/grip and build up bigger forearms. It also alleviates elbow and shoulder stress.

21. An awesome workout template goes like this:
Some type of jump or throw for power development, big barbell lift for maximal strength development, bodyweight exercises for assistance work, strongman finisher. Try it.

22. Don’t train to failure.
This fries your CNS, increases the likelihood of injury and makes it harder to recover from one workout tot he next.

23. Incorporate more static gymnastic holds.
Front levers, back levers, handstands, planche work and l-sits are all essentials in Renegade programs. They build insane levels of strength and athleticism that can’t be duplicated with other methods.

24. Don’t use less than 60% of your max on any exercise (unless you’re training for speed).
The resistance won’t be enough to stimulate any size or strength gains and will serve very little purpose. (There are some exceptions but this is a pretty good rule to follow)

25. Jump rope.
Doing so will improve your foot speed and conditioning.

26. Do more exercises standing than sitting or lying down.
You sit or lie down to relax; not to train.

27. Pick heavy shit up off the ground.
This is a basic fundamental law of being strong.

28. Carry heavy shit.
Exercises like farmers walks simultaneously strengthen the traps, lower back, grip, hips, knees and ankles. They’re tough to beat.

29. Press, support or carry heavy shit overhead more often.
The more overhead work you do the more you will bulletproof your shoulders against injury. Most people do too much horizontal pressing and not even vertical.

30. Do more pushups.
Though often overlooked, pushups are still one of the greatest exercises in the world and always will be. If you are beyond the beginner level figure out creative ways to load them (weight vests, plates on back, chains, bands) or make them harder (steep incline, 1 arm, modified planche, divebomber, on rings, etc.).

For God’s sake, people, stay in shape!”
– Louie Simmons

31. Decrease your rest periods.
Heed Louie’s words. One of the ways to do so is cut your rest periods.

32. Do something active at least 5 days per week.
Three or four 45 minute heavy lifting sessions will get you strong, but you won’t necessarily be well conditioned or healthy. You want to have all three covered. The body is meant to move everyday. It’s how we evolved. If you only strength train three days you should definitely be out doing something active another two or three days.

33. Take one day completely off.
The body needs a break once in a while.

34. Don’t train for more than an hour.
Your testosterone levels will drop and cortisol levels will start climbing.

35. Run, jump, climb and crawl.
It’s what your body was designed to do. Simply lifting weights is not enough. You have to MOVE!

36. Minimize loaded spinal flexion.
Your spine will thank you later. That’s not to say you can’t do some. But if you’re injury prone I’d heed the overwhelming body of evidence telling us that this can be dangerous.

37. Listen to your body.
When you have nagging pains it’s almost always better to train around them than through them. Trust me.

38. Take a week off when your body needs it.
For most people a deload week is actually better than a week off. But if you’re over 35-40 you will probably benefit more from a complete week off every 12-16 weeks.

39. Reps get you swole ONLY IF…
You’re not a beginner anymore and have built up a good foundation of strength. If you’re relying on pump work as someone who is tiny and weak you will probably remain that way. Get strong first then hit the rep work.

40. Play.
We forget to do this as we get older.

41. Get at least 20 minutes of sunlight per day.
Vitamin D is critically important to your health and performance and natural sunlight is the best source. During the winter you need to supplement with it.

42. Do hill sprints.
They shred bodyfat, crank up your conditioning and toughen you up. Plus Walter Payton did them which makes them awesome.

43. Go to bed by 10:30 every night. Eleven at the latest.
That means turn the TV and computer off and do your body some good.

44. Get 8-9 hours of sleep.
It’s very difficult to get bigger, faster, stronger or leaner on minimal amounts of sleep.

45. Get up at the same time every day.
This will help ensure optimal/consistent hormonal balance and performance levels.

46. Take naps.
It’s an awesome way to boost recovery and get a little surge of growth hormone.

47. Get Active Release done.
This will make a world of difference in your recovery.

48. Take contrast baths or showers after training.
Hot as you can handle for 1-3 minutes. Cold as you can handle for 30-60 seconds. Repeat for 10 minutes.

49. Get massages.
Being dedicated to this on a regular basis over the last few years has made a tremendous difference in how I feel. The key is to find a really good masseuse who really knows what’s up.

50. Train outside from time to time.
Bring a bunch of stuff outside and get after it. Or just go to the park and do a bunch of bodyweight stuff on the monkey bars alternated with some kettlebell swings. But do something.

51. Meditate.
It’s a great stress reducer. Excess stress makes us fatter. Then it kills us. I use and highly recommend Holosync.

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Top 11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition

Nutrition

by Kris Gunnars

There is a lot of misinformation circling around in mainstream nutrition.

I have listed the worst examples in this article, but unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here are the top 11 biggest lies, myths and misconceptions of mainstream nutrition.

1. Eggs Are Unhealthy

There’s one thing that nutrition professionals have had remarkable success with… and that is demonizing incredibly healthy foods.

The worst example of that is eggs, which happen to contain a large amount of cholesterol and were therefore considered to increase the risk of heart disease.

But recently it has been proven that the cholesterol in the diet doesn’t really raise the cholesterol in blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise the “good” cholesterol and are NOT associated with increased risk of heart disease (1, 2).

What we’re left with is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. They’re high in all sorts of nutrients along with unique antioxidants that protect our eyes (3).

To top it all of, despite being a “high fat” food, eating eggs for breakfast is proven to cause significant weight loss compared to bagels for breakfast (4, 5).

Bottom Line: Eggs do not cause heart disease and are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. Eggs for breakfast can help you lose weight.

2. Saturated Fat is Bad For You

A few decades ago it was decided that the epidemic of heart disease was caused by eating too much fat, in particular saturated fat.

This was based on highly flawed studies and political decisions that have now been proven to be completely wrong.

A massive review article published in 2010 looked at 21 prospective epidemiological studies with a total of 347.747 subjects. Their results: absolutely no association between saturated fat and heart disease (6).

The idea that saturated fat raised the risk of heart disease was an unproven theory that somehow became conventional wisdom (7).

Eating saturated fat raises the amount of HDL (the “good”) cholesterol in the blood and changes the LDL from small, dense LDL (very bad) to Large LDL, which is benign (8, 9).

Meat, coconut oil, cheese, butter… there is absolutely no reason to fear these foods.

Bottom Line: Newer studies have proven that saturated fat does not cause heart disease. Natural foods that are high in saturated fat are good for you.

3. Everybody Should be Eating Grains

The idea that humans should be basing their diets on grains has never made sense to me.

The agricultural revolution happened fairly recently in human evolutionary history and our genes haven’t changed that much.

Grains are fairly low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. They are also rich in a substance called phytic acid which binds essential minerals in the intestine and prevents them from being absorbed (10).

The most common grain in the western diet, by far, is wheat… and wheat can cause a host of health problems, both minor and serious.

Modern wheat contains a large amount of a protein called gluten, but there is evidence that a significant portion of the population may be sensitive to it (11, 12, 13).

Eating gluten can damage the intestinal lining, cause pain, bloating, stool inconsistency and tiredness (14, 15). Gluten consumption has also been associated with schizophrenia and cerebellar ataxia, both serious disorders of the brain (16, 17).

Bottom Line: Grains are relatively low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. The gluten grains in particular may lead to a variety of health problems.

4. Eating a Lot of Protein is Bad For Your Bones and Kidneys

A high protein diet has been claimed to cause both osteoporosis and kidney disease.

It is true that eating protein increases calcium excretion from the bones in the short term, but the long term studies actually show the opposite effect.

In the long term, protein has a strong association with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture (18, 19).

Additionally, studies don’t show any association of high protein with kidney disease in otherwise healthy people (20, 21).

In fact, two of the main risk factors for kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure. Eating a high protein diet improves both (22, 23).

If anything, a high protein diet should be protective against osteoporosis and kidney failure!

Bottom Line: Eating a high protein diet is associated with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture. High protein also lowers blood pressure and improves diabetes symptoms, which should lower the risk of kidney failure.

5. Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You

Do you know what regular food tastes like when all the fat has been taken out of it?

Well, it tastes like cardboard. No one would want to eat it.

The food manufacturers know this and therefore they add other things to compensate for the lack of fat.

Usually these are sweeteners… sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

We’ll get to the sugar in a moment, but I’d like to point out that even though artificial sweeteners don’t have calories, the evidence does NOT suggest that they are better for you than sugar.

In fact, many observational studies show a consistent, highly significant association with various diseases like obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, premature delivery and depression (24, 25, 26).

In these low-fat products, healthy natural fats are being replaced with substances that are extremely harmful.

Bottom Line: Low-fat foods are usually highly processed products loaded with sugar, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. They are extremely unhealthy.

6. You Should Eat Many Small Meals Throughout The Day

The idea that you should eat many small meals throughout the day in order to “keep metabolism high” is a persistent myth that doesn’t make any sense.

It is true that eating raises your metabolism slightly while you’re digesting the meal, but it’s the total amount of food that determines the energy used, NOT the number of meals.

This has actually been put to the test and refuted multiple times. Controlled studies where one group eats many small meals and the other the same amount of food in fewer meals show that there is literally no difference between the two (27, 28).

In fact, one study in obese men revealed that eating 6 meals per day led to less feelings of fullness compared to 3 meals (29).

Not only is eating so often practically useless for most of the people out there, it may even be harmful.

It is not natural for the human body to be constantly in the fed state. In nature, we used to fast from time to time and we didn’t eat nearly as often as we do today.

When we don’t eat for a while, a cellular process called autophagy cleans waste products out of our cells (30). Fasting or not eating from time to time is good for you.

Several observational studies show a drastically increased risk of colon cancer (4th most common cause of cancer death), numbers going as high as a 90% increase for those who eat 4 meals per day compared to 2 (31, 32, 33).

Bottom Line: There is no evidence that eating many small meals throughout the day is better than fewer, bigger meals. Not eating from time to time is good for you. Increased meal frequency is associated with colon cancer.

7. Carbs Should Be Your Biggest Source of Calories

The mainstream view is that everyone should eat a low-fat diet, with carbs being around 50-60% of total calories.

This sort of diet contains a lot of grains and sugars, with very small amounts of fatty foods like meat and eggs.

This type of diet may work well for some people, especially those who are naturally lean.

But for those who are obese, have the metabolic syndrome or diabetes, this amount of carbohydrates is downright dangerous.

This has actually been studied extensively. A low-fat, high-carb diet has been compared to a low-carb, high-fat diet in multiple randomized controlled trials.

The results are consistently in favor of low-carb, high-fat diets (34, 35, 36).

Bottom Line: The low-fat, high-carb diet is a miserable failure and has been proven repeatedly to be vastly inferior to lower-carb, higher-fat diets.

8. High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils Are Good For You

Polyunsaturated fats are considered healthy because some studies show that they lower your risk of heart disease.

But there are many types of polyunsaturated fats and they are not all the same.

Most importantly, we have both Omega-3 fatty acids and Omega-6 fatty acids.

Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and lower your risk of many diseases related to inflammation (37). Humans actually need to get Omega-6s and Omega-3s in a certain ratio. If the ratio is too high in favor of Omega-6, it can cause problems (38).

By far the biggest sources of Omega-6 in the modern diet are processed seed and vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower oils.

Throughout evolution, humans never had access to such an abundance of Omega-6 fats. It is unnatural for the human body.

Research that specifically looks at Omega-6 fatty acids instead of polyunsaturated fats in general shows that they actually increase the risk of heart disease (39, 40).

Eat your Omega-3s and consider supplementing with cod fish liver oil, but avoid the industrial seed and vegetable oils.

Bottom Line: Humans need to get Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in a certain ratio. Eating excess Omega-6 from seed oils raises your risk of disease.

9. Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous

I personally believe low-carb diets to be a potential cure for many of the most common health problems in western nations.

The low-fat diet peddled all around the world is fairly useless against many of these diseases. It simply does not work.

However, low-carb diets (demonized by nutritionists and the media) have repeatedly been shown to lead to much better outcomes.

Every randomized controlled trial on low-carb diets shows that they:

Reduce body fat more than calorie-restricted low-fat diets, even though the low-carb dieters are allowed to eat as much as they want (41, 42).
Lower blood pressure significantly (43, 44).
Lower blood sugar and improve symptoms of diabetes much more than low-fat diets (45, 46, 47, 48).
Increase HDL (the good) cholesterol much more (49, 50).
Lower triglycerides much more than low-fat diets (51, 52, 53).
Change the pattern of LDL (bad) cholesterol from small, dense (very bad) to Large LDL, which is benign (54, 55).
Low carb diets are also easier to stick to, probably because they don’t require you to restrict calories and be hungry all the time. More people in the low-carb groups make it to the end of the studies (56, 57).

Many of the health professionals that are supposed to have our best interest in mind have the audacity to claim that these diets are dangerous, then continue to peddle their failed low-fat dogma that is hurting more people than it helps.

Bottom Line: Low-carb diets are the healthiest, easiest and most effective way to lose weight and reverse metabolic disease. It is a scientific fact.

10. Sugar is Unhealthy Because it Contains “Empty” Calories

It is commonly believed that sugar is bad for you because it contains empty calories.

It’s true, sugar has a lot of calories with no essential nutrients. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sugar, primarily because of its high fructose content, affects metabolism in a way that sets us up for rapid fat gain and metabolic disease.

Fructose gets metabolized by the liver and turned into fat which is secreted into the blood as VLDL particles. This leads to elevated triglycerides and cholesterol (58, 59).

It also causes resistance to the hormones insulin and leptin, which is a stepping stone towards obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes (60, 61).

This is just to name a few. Sugar causes a relentless biochemical drive for humans to eat more and get fat. It is probably the single worst ingredient in the standard western diet.

Bottom Line: The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. Sugar wreaks havoc on our metabolism and sets us up for weight gain and many serious diseases.

11. High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat

It seems kind of intuitive that eating fat would make you get fat.

The stuff that is gathering under our skin and making us look soft and puffy is fat. So… eating fat should give our bodies even more of it.

But it isn’t that simple. Despite fat having more calories per gram than carbohydrate or protein, high-fat diets do not make people fat.

As with anything, this depends on the context. A diet that is high in fat AND high in carbs will make you fat, but it’s NOT because of the fat.

In fact, diets that are high in fat (and low in carbs) cause much greater fat loss than diets that are low in fat (62, 63, 64).

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4 Healthy Habits for Healthy Families

Nutrition

Sandi Forsythe

What example are we, as moms setting for our household?

Whether you’re a stay at home mom or a working women often us mom’s set the habits of the household. We tend to be the master planners of all events; a walking social calendar. So what habits are we establishing, what habits do we want to instill in our children, and what habits have we fallen victim to.

No question, habits are hard to break but once a new healthy habit has been set, it’s usually smooth sailing. One way to break an old, unhealthy habit is to replace it with a new healthy one. For instance, if your weekly habit is to stop by Starbucks and grab a donut and sugary drink to start your day; change it up, and opt for a protein shake (I love MHP’s Banana Protein) and sugar-free coffee. Sure, the first week it may be hard, but as time passes you will establish a new healthier habit.

Another habit busy mom’s often fall victim to is the dinnertime dilemma. Many moms opt to run through a fast food joint instead of preparing healthy meals for the family. Many moms ask me, “Don’t you ever run through and pick up fast food for your kids?” The simple answer is yes, but not every night, or even every week. I believe in moderation. Of course my kids have had a Happy Meal, but it’s a treat… it’s not an everyday occurrence. My kids understand this concept, and because they are use to eating healthy and making healthy choices when we are out, they often opt for healthier choices without my direction. I will not always be with my kids to watch their choices, however, if I instill the healthy habits now my hope is they will continue them when they are older. To turn the drive through dilemma around, prepare family meals for the week ahead of time so that all you have to do is pop it in the oven when you have time.

How can we make our households healthier places?

Because we as moms most often do the shopping, we instill our eating habits on our children. Do we purchase sugary cereals, processed snacks, and cookies or do we stick to healthier options such as whole grain cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts? Again this is an area where it may be hard at first to break the unhealthy habits, but after time it will become easier. I must be clear here though, it’s not that I never buy a treat for myself or for my kids, but it’s just that—a treat. Moderation is the key here; when junk food is in the house it gets eaten, when it’s not there it won’t tempt you.

A rule I like to follow is this: One treat a week. What does this look like for my family? We eat clean throughout the week, purchasing healthy options at the store, and planning meals ahead as to avoid the drive through dilemma; then on the weekend we get to have a treat. I like to do our “treat meal” at a restaurant. Why? First, when you go to a restaurant you get a little break from cooking—always a nice break. Second, you can order the treat you have been craving all week. Let’s say, for instance, you have been craving a brownie Sunday, so you make a pan of brownies and buy a tub of ice cream. Now, are you really going to toss the left over ice cream and brownies away? I think not! More than likely you will snack on them until they are gone, sabotaging your health habits. When you order a treat out you are limited to one treat, and then it’s back to clean eating until the next treat!

Another unhealthy habit most families fall victim to is too much TV time. All too often families spend hours in front of the TV. Yes, my kids watch TV but it’s limited, and they enjoy other activities over TV time. After dinner in the summer we always take a walk to the park or jump on our bikes for a nighttime ride. Try to replace some of the families TV time with time spent being active.

If you stop to think about all the habits you form and how many of them are being picked up by your children, it’s amazing to see that your actions—unhealthy or healthy—are often the actions your entire family is following. Set some new healthy habits for yourself and I’m sure you will see that your family follows! Start simple by following these few habit-changing tips: 1) change the daily routine to substitute unhealthy habits for healthy ones; 2) prepare meals ahead to avoid the drive through dilemma; 3) clean eating throughout the week, with one weekend treat; and 4) trade out TV time for a family activity.

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Meal Frequency: Finding The Body Composition Sweet Spot

Uncategorized

Feel like you eat all the time but are never satisfied? Take a hard look at your meal planning and caloric distribution.

by Mike Roussell, Ph.D.

“Eat 4-6 meals per day to rev your metabolism and burn more calories.”

How many times have you heard that? Plenty, I imagine. In bodybuilding circles, this often gets expanded to 6-8 meals. I even saw a Mr. Olympia diet article where the reigning champ was eating 10 meals per day.

I get the logic. More is better. Keep fueling the metabolic furnace. But do we? When a dietary system like this places such strict demands on our lifestyles, we need to re-examine our habits and the science that drives them.

I found that fitness and bodybuilding people could benefit from eating less often, and people just starting out on their weight-loss or bodybuilding journey benefit from eating more often. But no matter which camp you’re in, I recommend building an eating plan based around your caloric needs, rather than arbitrarily using a number you hear mentioned by someone else.

How should you begin to do that? Let’s break it down.

Why Six Times Per Day?

I’ll be blunt: There’s not really any good data supporting hyper-metabolic effects of multiple meals.

One study published in International Journal of Obesity found that consistently eating more frequently—six times per day, to be specific—led to a greater “thermic effect” from food than eating sporadically. The thermic effect of food is basically the amount of energy it takes for your body to break down, digest, and process, the energy (food) you ingest.

In this study, frequent meals were linked to a statistically significant increase in the thermic effect of food, e.g. calorie-burning, but it wasn’t enough to draw significant conclusions in the realms of physique or body composition. Additionally, there wasn’t anything in the study to indicate that eating three, four, or five meals were worse than six—only that it was better than “sporadic” eating.

That is pretty much all the data you’ll find on meal frequency and boosting metabolism. For this reason, I make meal frequency recommendations for my clients based on two major factors: protein synthesis and satiety.

Meals Gained ≠ Muscle Gains

OK, so the science isn’t there, but everyone else seems like they’re doing it, so it can’t cause any harm, right? If your goal is maximum protein synthesis, I think there is a definite downside to eating often.

The first problem I see people run into when they eat frequently is that their blood amino acid levels are constantly elevated. In order to optimize protein synthesis you need to give your body a solid serving of protein which boosts protein synthesis and subsequently causes your blood amino acid (specifically leucine) levels to drop. To maximize synthesis, you should then hit your body with more protein while the levels are lower.

If you eat non-stop—every hour or two—then you aren’t going to experience the fluctuation in blood amino acid levels you need to optimize muscle growth. You need to space your meals out sufficiently in order to get the maximum amount of protein synthesis out of the food you eat.

Another issue that you run into is meal size. On one hand, it’s true that protein content plays a big role in satiety. Protein’s presence in the digestive track triggers the release of the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), which signals to your brain that you’ve eaten and should be satisfied. However, meal size has been shown to be more important than protein content when it comes to satiety. If you eat too often, your meals will be so small that despite being protein-rich, they won’t satisfy you.

So you’re hungry—so what? Seriously, that is no way to live! If you’re going to go to all the trouble to eat all those meals, you should at least feel full. If you don’t, well, good luck sticking with your plan through the endless hours of prep and planning.

How Frequent Is Frequent Enough?

Some simple math can help us here. When looking to optimize anabolism and satiety, the number meals you eat throughout the day should be a divisor of the total amount of calories you eat.

If you eat 3,000 calories per day, then breaking that into five 600 calorie meals would probably give you sufficient food to feel satisfied, while not demanding so much that you need to turn to lower quality foods in order to hit your per-meal calorie targets. On the other hand, if you eat only 2,000 calories per day, eating five 400-calories meals is not a satiating option, but eating four 500-calorie meals would be more filling.

Each of these meals should contain a minimum of 30 grams of protein (the amount which research has shown is necessary to maximally stimulate protein synthesis). This pulse of protein can also be effectively spaced out and repeated throughout the day for the biggest increases in protein synthesis. If your calories are so low that you can’t get 30 grams of protein at each meal, sprinkle on a little leucine or have a BCAA drink with your meal to cover your bases in the protein synthesis department.

Remember when planning these meals that size is directly connected to satiety, so don’t make them too small to be filling. Not a big-time planner? You can still do this. Just eat a solid, protein-rich meal every 3-4 hours, and you’ll be more or less on track.

Meal Frequency: Finding The Body Composition Sweet Spot Read More »