Why You Still Need Cardio Even If You’re Very Active

By Dave Ruel

One question that may come up as you plan your fitness routine along with the right muscle building foods is if you should be doing cardio if you have a very active job. This is often the case for those people who spend all day on their feet running around such as construction workers, farmers, electricians, and otherwise. They think that since they’re up and active so much, why do they need to burn off any more calories?

Aren’t they getting enough activity as it is?

While it’s easy to fall into this trap, there are some important points that you must remember about why cardio is still vital to include for these people.

Let’s have a look at what you need to know.

Cardio Training Versus ‘Being Active’

The very first important thing that you need to remember is the difference between performing cardio training and just being generally very active.

While staying moving throughout the day is great for your total daily calorie burn, it’s not going to give you quite the same cardiovascular benefits as a good cardio session would.

When doing cardio training you’re going to elevate your heart rate and keep it there for an extended period of time, which is something that many of these people with active lifestyles just won’t do.

Therefore, while they may not need cardio to burn calories, they still need it for health promotion purposes.

In addition to that, when it comes to getting off stubborn body fat, in some cases higher intensity exercise is simply needed and your active lifestyle or even the healthiest muscle building foods just won’t provide this to the degree you want.

Fitting Cardio Training In Effectively

So now that you can see why you should be doing cardio, it’s time to look at how you should be fitting it in.

Ideally you want to do cardio before you head off to work in the morning. If you leave it until afterwards, there’s a higher chance that fatigue will have set in and you just won’t have it in you to give a good effort.

When that occurs, you definitely will not see the benefits that you could be and it may just do more harm than good.

If it’s absolutely not possible to get in the cardio before you go off to work, then consider taking a short nap after work before getting it done. Many people undervalue the benefits of a quick powernap and this is one time in the day when it really can help improve your results.

Take a 20-30 minute powernap and then proceed to get the cardio in.

Looking After Recovery

Finally, the last thing that you need to keep in mind is that you should always aim to separate your cardio training from your weight lifting days or if you must do them together, put it after the lifting is completed.

Again, this helps to reduce the build-up of fatigue in the most energy intensive exercise – weight lifting.

Proper performance here needs to always be prioritized so doing your cardio on an alternate day or after weight lifting is finished will help you accomplish that.

So there you have the key information to keep in mind if you have an active lifestyle. While being active is excellent for weight control, it’s not your free pass to get out of cardio completely. You still should keep some cardio in your program for absolute best results.

Question?- How much cardio do you do while trying to build lean mass and eating clean muscle building foods? How much would you like to be able to do (less or more)?

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Pain Relief – Are You On The Right Track?

Training, Uncategorized

The Real ‘Mechanisms’ That Create Short-Term and Long-Lasting Pain Relief

Dr. Kareem

If we make things really simple, here’s how it works:

Pain medication blocks the nerve signal that is letting you know something is wrong.
Pain relief comes from fixing whatever is wrong, but oftentimes this is difficult to do when you’re in so much pain and can hardly get anything accomplished.

Pain medication is great if you simply cannot function without it, or you just underwent something traumatic like surgery and there’s no physiological reason to be in pain outside of this direct trauma and now you’re sore. In other words, the pain is not protecting you in any way, because you know to be careful in this area, and it’s only temporary.

Pain medication works through various mechanisms such as hormonal and neurotransmitter releases, or even as extreme as triggering the opiod mechanism in our bodies, which is 1000x more powerful than morphine. In all cases, there is an increase use of our livers to filter this toxin from our bodies, and our bodies are smart enough to stop producing pain relief on their own, after awhile, when they know it’s being supplemented.

The biggest trouble with pain medications over time is that our bodies will adapt, and our pain tolerances will become lower. It’s really important to understand that if you choose to use pain medication for anything outside of really acute pain, do so with caution. It’s best to “use” pain medication, in the sense that you’re using it to buy you a window to exercise and fix the problem.

Once you begin to observe this philosophy for pain relief, you’re planning to actually heal. Now, it’s time to start figuring out the root cause of your pain, and how you’re going to plan to eliminate it…

Identify The Root Cause Of Your Pain:

This is most difficult if you’ve had a ton of issues over the years, and you’re not even sure when your body started to fall apart, but I want you to think through this, anyway, and get as close as you can. Your body began a process of self-deterioration as a result of a disease process, or an internal conflict that put your body into a process of self-destruction.

This is hard to wrap your head around, I know, but think about this from a logical perspective. If there wasn’t one major trauma to your body that totally changed the game and your body has never been the same since, or there’s no insidious process taking place that’s slowly eating away at your organs, then why are you in so much pain?

Your body is trying to tell you something. It’s explaining to you that something is wrong, and it’s asking for your attention. Wait long enough, and it will demand your attention. That’s what I’m here for… to teach you how to communicate back and ask the right questions, while you listen for answers.

Communicate With Your Body & Learn What’s Holding You Back:

Communication with your body is through a very simple experimentation process, provided that you’re already seeking proper medical care. If you were to come into my office and get an evaluation, I’d ask you specific questions as they relate to your injury. Here’s a list of some of those questions:

Why are you here right now? What’s causing you discomfort of some kind?
How long has this been going on?
How intense is it?
On a scale of 0 to 10, where:
0 = no pain whatsoever
10 = worst pain imaginableHow intense is your pain right now?
How would you describer your pain, if you had to select from one or more of the following words:

Sharp, shooting Deep

Sharp, but stays in one place Numb

Dull and achy Electrical/Shooting

Superficial (close to skin) Throbbing or Pulsating

Cold Hot
What increases your pain/symptom?
What decreases your pain/symptom? In other words, what makes it feel better?
Have you had any medical exams performed, such as a doctor’s visit, X-Ray, MRI, etc.?
Do you have any allergies that might affect your treatment? Or any other special considerations?

Once you begin to gather this data, you can start to find the best path to pain relief, and reverse engineer the process to get ultimate reli

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My Favorite Excuses

Training, Weekly Motivation

–I don’t squat because they’re bad for the knees.

–You’re not supposed to squat below parallel.

– I don’t need to do legs because I run and go on the stairclimber.

–I’m just getting back into it. (For two years?!)

–Today is my light day. (What about all the other days?)

–I don’t care about getting strong; I just want to be big.

–I don’t care about getting big; I just want to be strong.

–I don’t want to get too big. (As if that was possible)

–I didn’t eat enough today.

–I ate too much.

–My diet has sucked lately.

–I drank too much last night.

–I haven’t had enough water today.

–I didn’t get to have coffee before my workout.

–I don’t want to get calluses.

–I don’t want to get injured.

–I don’t have time to eat that much. (Yes you do)

–I can’t eat that much. (Yes you can)

–I don’t want to get fat.

–I have crappy genetics. (Join the club)

–I just injured my_____ last week.

–I can’t squat because I have bad knees.

–I can’t squat or dead lift because I have a bad back.

–I lifted a lot more than that last time. (What could have happened, I wonder?)

– I just want to get cut.

–I don’t like working that hard. (Then take up sewing)

–I can’t get motivated.

–I’m just not into it anymore.

– Heavy lifting is dangerous.

–He didn’t touch the bar, that was all me. (Ok)

– There’s no need to lift all that heavy weight.

–You can get great results with light weights and slow tempos. (It shows)

–If I took steroids I would look like that too. (No you wouldn’t)

–If I took steroids I would be that strong too. (Ditto)

–I feel weak today.

–I feel sick today.

–I’m tired today.

–I feel like crap today.

–I didn’t get enough sleep last night. (Join the club)

–I’m too stressed out.

–I’m too busy.

–I’m too old.

–I’m depressed.

–I have too much work to do.

–I’ll train later.

–I’ll train tomorrow.

–I don’t have time.

–I can’t. (I know)

What’s your excuse? I know that I have been guilty of a few of these over the years and have always regretted it.

There is no tomorrow. The time is now. Take charge and don’t look back.

No excuses.

Jason Ferruggia

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Can Caffeine Help You Burn Fat?

Nutrition, Training

By Kevin DiDonato MS, CSCS, CES

“Caffeine is most powerful when consumed in an anhydrous state (capsule/tablet, powder ) as compared to coffee.”

I am starting with this quote because it of utmost importance. Caffeine can improve performance, increase cognitive function, and increase fatty acid oxidation in the body. In fact, caffeine can also increase metabolism and fatty acid oxidation in obese, lean and older adult subjects.

Why is this important? Caffeine has gotten a bad reputation for a long time!

Caffeine comes in two forms: one is anhydrous form, and the other is from coffee beans or tea leaves. The latter we are most familiar with.

So most caffeine we think of is full of water. Anhydrous caffeine is not. With 0.5 percent or less, this type of caffeine is found as a bitter, white powder. This powder form of caffeine is appealing to many different manufacturers, which use it in their products. Many supplement and soft drink companies use this type of caffeine in their products to increase the caffeine content. You can find this type of caffeine in soda and many energy drinks on the market today.

The process of extracting caffeine from coffee beans is done in two different ways: soaking them in hot water or subjecting them to carbon dioxide. Soaking is the preferred choice, because it is less expensive!

You can also get caffeine by drinking coffee and tea but it is not as effective at increasing performance and weight loss as anhydrous caffeine is.

How does it help in weight loss? Let me explain.

Caffeine has direct influence on the central nervous system, or the system which controls our fight or flight response. This system increases the productions of epinephrine, which stimulates the process of lipolysis. This happens when it binds to receptor cells called β-andregenic cells.

Caffeine can also help increase energy expenditure, therefore burning fat and carbohydrates. In fact, here is the research to prove it!

Research by Bracco et al shows just how effective ingesting caffeine is for weight loss. Their research shows a dramatic response in both lean individuals, and obese individuals. They showed by ingesting caffeine, there was a prolonged thermogeneic response during the night. They showed caffeine ingestion resulted in more oxidized fatty acids and carbohydrates. They concluded there was a significant increase in lipid oxidation, as much as 29% in lean subjects and 10% in obese subjects. This might have been due to the release of epinephrine, resulting in increased fat oxidation. There’s more!

Research done by Koot et al, demonstrated similar finding as Bracco. They did note one difference: metabolic rate increased almost immediately following consumption of caffeine. They determined metabolic rate stayed elevated for 3 hours after ingestion, therefore increasing metabolic rates by 7%. This means more calories burned, and more fat liberated and burned off!

Now let’s take a look at a study over a 12 hour period!

Researchers Dulloo et al, subjected individuals to 2 hour caffeine ingestion for 12 hours! Their results will astound you! Immediate caffeine ingestion resulted in an increase of metabolic rate by 3-4% over the course of 3 hours. Over the course of 12 hours, they noticed increase energy expenditure of 8-11% in both groups. So what does it mean? Lean subjects burned 150 more calories, while obese subjects increase energy expenditure by 79 calories. Just by adding caffeine to the mix!

Great! Most of these studies focused on lean and obese subjects, but I also mentioned older adults. Arciero et al showed caffeine increased energy expenditure in older adults. Not as significantly as the younger population, but it did increase. They showed a 15.4% increase in energy expenditure in young adults, compared to 7.8% increase in older subjects. In a following study older adults and younger adults have a similar thermogenic response to caffeine ingestion. The only difference: smaller increase in fatty acids availability after consuming caffeine in older adults.

So what about increasing performance? I am glad you asked!

Every athlete struggles to find the competitive edge. Athletes today are stronger, faster and more efficient! Caffeine can be the edge athletes are looking for.

Paluska et al, proved caffeine provides an ergogenic effect on performance. They showed caffeine improves performance and endurance during prolonged exhaustive exercise events. They also showed caffeine has some benefits on short-term, high-intensity exercise. A review paper by Graham, he concurred the statements. He showed caffeine, in moderate amounts acts an ergogenic aid in activities lasting more than 1 minute. He also mentioned caffeine can increase speed and endurance.

Can Caffeine Help You Burn Fat? Read More »

How Much Protein Do You REALLY Need?

Nutrition

By Dave Ruel

Protein Label Misconceptions

The very first thing that you need to get straight regarding your protein conception is the fact that labels can be highly misleading. Many people will pick up a food product and look at the nutritional stats.

They see that the food fills up 20% of their daily protein requirement and think it’s going to really help them meet their needs.

Only what they fail to realize is that the 20% listed on the package label is based on those who are not participating in physical activity and don’t have a very lean physique in mind.

These labels are based upon the average individual simply looking to sustain health. For most of you reading this, you want more.

Protein Based On Activity

So how much protein do you need? As someone who’s actively taking part in both strength training and cardiovascular exercise, your protein needs are going to go up. You’ll be breaking down lean muscle mass each day you enter the gym and unless you’re feeding your body the amino acids to repair this tissue, progress will not be seen.

A good guideline to use for how much protein you need is one gram per pound for those who are participating in weight lifting exercise. If you have added cardio activity to that or you’re using a lower calorie diet to help burn off some body fat, you may want to increase this up to 1.0-1.5 grams per pound to be safe. There is a higher chance that your body could start burning up protein for fuel in either of these cases, so you must make sure you have enough.

Those who are not participating in any sort of structured workout program typically only need 0.6-0.8 grams of protein per pound, so you can easily see the difference exercise makes.

Protein Intake Based On Body Type

Another factor to consider in the protein requirement equation is what type of body you have. Those who are mesomorphs and store body fat easier may want to increase their protein intake slightly higher and reduce their carbohydrate and fat consumption as this can help keep them leaner.

They should use closer to the 1.5 grams per pound range as stated above.

Ectomorphs, on the other hand, who naturally have speedy metabolisms and burn off energy very quickly will want to focus more of their diet on the two energy providing macronutrients, carbs, and fats, so the lower range for protein of one gram per pound should be sufficient.

Mesomorphs who build muscle quite easily will do well simply following the outlines stated above.

Questioning Your Protein Source

Finally, the last thing to note is where you’re getting your protein from. In an ideal world, you would want to get a mix of protein from foods as well as powders as each has their benefits.

Protein powder is digested rapidly and perfect for after a workout, and in addition to this it’s a very high quality source of protein.

Protein from whole foods such as chicken, beef, eggs, and fish are going to supply you with a wealth of additional nutrients, so this can really come in helpful when promoting optimal health.

Other sources that are personal favorites of mine are elk, bison and duck. By getting a good variety, you’ll get the benefits of both worlds.

Aim for about 70-80% of your protein intake to come from whole food and the remaining 20-30% to come from protein powders.

How Much Protein Do You REALLY Need? Read More »

Sharp, shooting	Deep
Sharp, but stays in one place	Numb
Dull and achy	Electrical/Shooting
Superficial (close to skin)	Throbbing or Pulsating
Cold	Hot

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