Essential fatty acids are often known as ‘Omega 3’s’, which refers to the three fatty acids that are essential to health promotion: docosahexaeonic acid (DHA), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and eicosapentaeonic acid (EPA). Essential fatty acids can be found naturally in foods including walnuts, flaxseeds, organic eggs, grass fed chicken, beef and lamb, some fruits and vegetables, and coldwater fish (including tuna, salmon, sardines and anchovies). Since the most complete source of the three essential fatty acids is fish, and since most North Americans do not eat fish everyday, many people choose to supplement their diet with a fish oil supplement that provides Omega 3 fatty acids.

So what is so magical about these fabulous fats? Here are some of the health benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids:

• Omega 3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory affect and when ingested in the correct dose can reduce the body’s inflammatory process associated with many chronic diseases and promote healthy blood flow and circulation.
• Studies have also shown that Omega 3 fatty acids have a positive effect on healthy brain function and cognition and can have a role in supporting normal moods.
• Research suggests that ingesting Omega 3 fatty acids can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. This research also suggests that the anti-inflammatory effect of Omega 3’s can reduce the symptoms of hypertension, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), joint pain and rheumatoid problems (source: WebMD.com).

When it comes to fat loss, essential fatty acids can also play an important role. A study published by the International Journal of Obesity showed the correlation between fish oil and fat loss. The study showed that when a group of people took 1.8 grams of omega 3 fatty acids daily, they burned 25% more fat than the placebo group who did not take any Omega 3. The researchers also studied the subject’s insulin levels during the project and showed that the test subjects taking the Omega 3 had lower insulin levels than the placebo group. High levels of insulin in the body make it difficult for your body to use stored fat for fuel therefore, lowering your insulin levels by taking Omega 3’s will aid in fat metabolism (source: International Journal of Obesity 32, 1105-1112, 20 May 2008).

I recommend enjoying fish at least twice a week and supplementing with a high quality Omega 3 supplement that provides at least 1000mg of Omega 3 fatty acids. And make sure that your Omega 3 supplement contains DHA, EPA and ALA. I also recommend keeping your fish oil in the refrigerator and always use a reputable brand that ensures the product is mercury free.

♥ Gillian

Such a simple question, yet a fairly involved answer. To start I’ll share a little nutrition lingo with you, so at least you’ll sound a little like you know what’s up. 

Difference Between Micronutrients and Macronutrients

Vitamins, minerals and other trace elements are all called micronutrients whereas carbohydrates, fats and proteins are called macronutrients. Micro- means small whereas macro- means big.  Using this terminology, vitamins, minerals and trace elements are considered to be micronutrients because they are needed by the body in small amounts (milligram amounts and sometimes microgram amounts).  One milligram is 1/1000 of a gram and one microgram is 1/1,000,000 of a gram…that’s small.  Similarly, carbohydrates, fats and proteins are needed by the body in gram amounts and for this reason are called macronutrients because they are needed by the body in much bigger amounts.

Energy Producing vs. Non-Energy Producing Nutrients

A common way in which these nutrients are classified is ‘energy-producing’ and ‘non-energy producing’ nutrients.  Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are energy-producing nutrients because their metabolism or breakdown results in energy being produced inside our body cells.  Vitamins, minerals and other trace elements are non-energy producing nutrients because their metabolism does not result in energy production. You have to be careful with how you interpret this last classification because it’s for people to read that and think vitamins and minerals aren’t as important because their breakdown doesn’t result in energy being provided to the cells of the body.  Without energy, how can your body contract its muscle, burn fat, build more glycogen, build more muscle, etc.?  BUT, what if I told you without optimal levels of vitamins and minerals your body could not even complete those reactions that breaks down carbohydrates, fats and proteins, ultimately producing energy?  You would probably think they were important.  Also, many vitamins and minerals are needed for healthy bones, immune (sickness fighting) function and protecting cells from other forms of damage.

Difference Between Water-Soluble and Fat-Soluble Vitamins

Like some amino acids, vitamins are considered to be essential nutrients.  This means that your body can either not produce them at all or it cannot produce them in high enough amounts to meet the needs of the body.  Water-soluble and fat-soluble are the two general classifications of vitamins exist based off of what medium is needed for them to be absorbed into the body.  Water-soluble vitamins dissolve readily in water.  Consider your body is close to 70% water they usually don’t have a problem being dissolved and absorbed.  Because of this they are also excreted daily in our urine.  For this reason, they aren’t stored in our bodies and we need to consume them in our diets on a regular basis.  All of the B vitamins (aka, B-complex), which includes thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, biotin, folic acid and cyanocobalamin (B12) and Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) are water-soluble vitamins.  Below are brief bullet points on each item.  This information can be found in more detail in the following textbooks: 1) Nutritional Supplements in Sports and Exercise (2) by Greenwood, Kalman and Antonio (Humana Press, Totawa, NJ USA) and 2) Essentials of Sports Nutrition and Supplements (1) by Antonio, Kalman, Stout, Greenwood, Willoughby and Haff (Humana Press, Totawa, NJ).  They are an excellent source to have and if you would like to read this type of information are well worth the $50 - $75 to purchase them.

Water-Soluble Vitamins

Thiamin (B1)

• Primary Function: Carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism
• Food Sources: Pork, fortified grains, cereals, legumes

Riboflavin (B2)

• Primary Function: Aerobic metabolism (cardio-type activity or exercise)
• Food Sources: Milk, almonds, eggs, bread, fortified cereals

Niacin (B3)

• Primary Function: Aerobic metabolism (cardio-type activity or exercise)
• Food Sources: Meats, fish, legumes, peanuts, some cereals

Pantothenic Acid

• Primary Function: Metabolism or breakdown of fatty acids, amino acids and carbohydrates
• Food Sources: Egg yolks, mushrooms, peanuts, yogurt, broccoli, sunflower seeds

Vitamin B6

• Primary Function: Glucose (sugar) production inside your body
• Food Sources: Meats, whole-grains, vegetables, nuts

Biotin

• Primary Function: Fats and glucose production; Breakdown of leucine (a key essential amino acid)
• Food Sources: Egg yolk, soybeans, cereals, legumes, nuts

Folate

• Primary Function: Oxygen transport, genetic material production
• Food Sources: Fresh green vegetables, strawberries, liver

Cyanocobalamin (B12)

• Primary Function: Formation of key molecules that transport oxygen to our cells
• Food Sources: Shellfish, dairy products

In addition to the B-vitamins, vitamin C (also called ascorbic acid) is a water-soluble vitamin.  Vitamin C is quite popular for its ability to help prevent illness and its function as an antioxidant. Also, vitamin C assists with collagen (connective tissue) formation and iron absorption.  Short-term decreases of this vitamin do not influence performance, but long-term deficiency negatively impacts performance (REF). Results associated with supplementation to improve performance has been mixed with some studies showing positive effects (REF) and some studies showing no positive effects (REF).

Vitamin C

• Primary Function: Antioxidant (protecting cells) and immune health
• Food Sources: Citrus fruits, green vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, berries, potatoes

Fat-Soluble Vitamins

The other primary class of vitamins is the fat-soluble vitamins, or those that are only soluble in a fatty medium.  For those of you that this sounds gross to, all of the membranes surrounding our 7+ trillion cells are comprised of fat.  These vitamins include vitamins A, D, E and K.  Because of their solubility, fat-soluble vitamins are readily broken down and stored by the body.  Because of this, if they are consumed in excessive amounts on a regular basis, the chance of toxic levels being reached is much greater than with water-soluble vitamins.  All four of them play key roles in our optimal health:

Vitamin A

• Primary Function: Vision, immune function, cell growth and repair
• Food Sources: Broccoli, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, milk, eggs, cantaloupe, pumpkin

Vitamin D

• Primary Function: Bone function and health, optimal absorption of calcium
• Food Sources: Fatty fish, egg yolks, fortified milk and cereals, sunlight

Vitamin E

• Primary Function: Cell function
• Food Sources: Vegetable oils, green leafy vegetables, nuts, cereal grains

Vitamin K

• Primary Function: Blood clotting
• Food Sources: Green leafy vegetables, cereal, organ meats, dairy products, eggs

Summary

In summary, vitamins are critically important for optimal health and that’s the case for everyone.  If you are exercising regularly and stressing your body in this manner (or any manner) it’s a good idea to make sure you are getting enough.  For those of you that are dieting, restricting your calories, trying to make weight, etc. and exercise a good bit, it becomes even more important to get enough vitamins.  I liken optimal vitamin status to the battery in your car.  Everyone is concerned about having enough fuel (carbs, fat, protein, etc.) but when you don’t have enough vitamins or the battery is dead in your car, it’s never a good thing.  Fortunately, several websites, books, etc. exist explaining the function of the vitamins, how much you need, where to get them, etc.  A great website to get some of this information is http://www.nap.edu.

Bibliography

1. Antonio J, Kalman D, Stout J, Greenwood M, Willoughby D, and Haff G, eds. Essentials of sports nutrition and supplements. 2008, Humana Press: New York, NY.
2. Greenwood M, Kalman D, and Antonio J, eds. Nutritional supplements in sports and exercise. 2008, Humana Press: Totawa, NJ USA.

In this study, fifteen young (21 ± years), healthy (body mass index = 24.1 ± 0.8 kg/m2) men performed four sets of unilateral leg extension at different exercise loads and/or volumes of exercise. Three separate lifting conditions were presented. All groups first had their baseline maximal strength levels determined and then one group performed as many repetitions as they could with 90% of their maximal weight. The next group performed as many repetitions as they could with 30% of their maximal weight and the third and final group completed the same amount of work (amount of weight used x repetitions completed) as the first group, but only with 30% of their maximal weight.

To their credit, this research group completed a very technical array of research measures to determine the extent to which each exercise group stimulated increases in muscle protein synthesis or hypertrophy. What do you think happened? I know almost every one is conditioned to think “go heavy or go home”, but the group which completed the maximal number of repetitions with only 30% of their maximal weight showed the greatest benefit. As I said before, the researchers measured several different markers of muscle hypertrophy and surprisingly a number of them showed as good or greater responses than when those individuals completed repetitions to muscular failure and used 90% of their maximal strength. So it’s not like they got lucky or something and only found one marker to support this conclusion. How does one go about making sense of this? I know researchers out there and many coaches and athletes who simply will refuse to believe these findings. I mean years of slinging steel around or coaching athletes or training individual’s counts for something doesn’t it?

To make sense of this data, an important perspective needs to be developed when fully trying to understand this article. First off which the authors pointed out nicely is that their study is only in response to one exercise bout of each condition. The real test would be for someone to complete this type of research over the course of several months of training in this manner and measuring changes in strength and body composition to see which groups respond the most favorably. While these results do suggest favorable results after one session of training, things can change over the course of several weeks and daily disturbances in the person’s training program, nutritional habits, etc. can wreak havoc on these adaptations so a full blown study in this fashion would be helpful. Also, this study isn’t really saying that high intensity exercise doesn’t work. Many of the markers this research group used to measure muscle hypertrophy were increased several orders of magnitude as well when training to failure with 90% of their maximum. The increases just weren’t to the same extent when people trained to muscular failure with only 30% of their maximum.

Lastly, another key thing to remember as well is that the study’s outcome doesn’t tell us anything about strength changes, as the single bout of exercise didn’t allow for such as assessment. As many studies have shown us, there is a definite firm relationship between size (or hypertrophy) and strength (Fry 2004). To this end, most studies and review papers nicely illustrate the need to lift higher intensities to maximally recruit all muscle fibers and the higher the weight used, the greater recruitment of muscle fibers that occurs (Henneman 1957).

In this respect, what a study like this tells us is the importance of training to failure. As I mentioned before, it’s not so much about seeing the differences in intensities used and stopping there. Both groups trained to muscular failure and when you only use 30% of your maximum vs. 90%, what types of things are going to be different? For starters, the number of repetitions you can complete will be drastically different and this is exactly what was shown. When training to failure with 90% an average of 5 repetitions were completed while an average of 24 repetitions were completed with 30%. Similarly, the time spent lifting (called ‘time under tension’) was also quite different between groups as the 90% to failure group was under tension for an average of 16.3 seconds while the 30% to failure group was under tension for an average of 43.3 seconds, almost three times greater. These greater numbers of completed repetitions and time under tension also result in the 30% to failure producing 30% more work during the exercise bout when compared to the other two groups (Burd, West et al. 2010).

For those in the bodybuilding world, the results of this study may not be surprising, as many bodybuilders have been training this way for quite some time. In the end, embracing these results and using them as an alternative way of training may be an awesome thing. Practically, keeping this study in mind for a traveling businessperson who either may not have the time or the hotel gym doesn’t have heavy enough weights. Also, this could potentially be a great way for women and older adults to train as it allows you to use less weight, but still see the desired changes. The key aspect of this study, however, is reaching true muscular failure and the evidence of a relationship, which may exist between using lower intensities to allow for completion of an increased number of repetitions, and spending much more time under tension. For sure, this type of training won’t be for the faint of heart and training this way using large muscle group, multi-joint movements like the bench press, shoulder press, leg press, squat, etc. will maximally stimulate muscle which in the end could result in greater improvements in muscle hypertrophy.

Bibliography

1. ACSM (2009). “American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults.” Med Sci Sports Exerc 41(3): 687-708.
2. Burd, N. A., D. W. West, et al. (2010). “Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men.” PLoS One 5(8).
3. Fry, A. C. (2004). “The role of resistance exercise intensity on muscle fibre adaptations.” Sports Med 34(10): 663-679.
4. Henneman, E. (1957). “Relation between size of neurons and their susceptibility to discharge.” Science 126(3287): 1345-1347.

For a lot of people it can be very tough to transition into eating clean. The fact is many (most) people now a days are raised and bred on, for lack of a better term, shitty food. Along with a busy lifestyle, fast food and the constant eating out at restaurants, cleaning up your diet may seem like a daunting task. However with just a little planning it can be accomplished very easily and after 5-6 weeks of eating clean it will become more of a lifestyle than a conscious effort…it becomes automatic. Here are a few tips to help you transition into eating clean.

• Plan to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day.
• Shop in the perimeter of the grocery store (all you need will be found on the perimeter of the grocery store … stay out of the middle … that’s where all the junk food lurks).
• Cook all you food for the week on Sundays or another day of the week that is convenient to your schedule.
• Get some vented storage containers to store your meals in.
• Get a soft pack cooler to carry your food with you to work.
• When eating out, make healthy choices (this can be challenging at first, but like everything else, it will eventually become a habit).
• Drink at least a gallon of water each day.
• Give yourself one day a week to “cheat” and eat whatever you want.

Getting to peak performance or looking and feeling your best absolutely requires “eating clean”. You certainly will not get there without it. Although this may have seemed like an overly simple question, if you don’t know, you need to ask. One of the major differences between people who succeed and people who fail is their willingness to ask questions!

In the simplest of terms, developing some form of physical attribute involves consistency and a little bit of specifics. The specificity principle of exercise training again takes center stage because when you’ve been slinging steel around in the gym for multiple repetitions and then resting for one to three minutes, this doesn’t challenge your heart and lungs in the same manner as consistent jogging, cycling or swimming (1). The easiest approach is to just get out there and start doing it. If you’re going to jog outside, then jog for a little bit and then rest for a minute or two. You can’t expect yourself to just lace up some shoes for the first time in (maybe never) and go out there and jog for 30 minutes.

Wait a minute, before we get too far ahead of ourselves. If you are over 40 years old and haven’t been to a doctor since high school sports physicals, you may want to give your physician a visit and make sure that all is well with your heart, lungs, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. All of these things will improve immensely as a result of this type of exercise, but you shouldn’t take any chances. This becomes especially important if you have immediate family members (parents, siblings, grandparents) that have had any form of serious health complications. For example, my father had a stroke at 48 years of age, his father died of a heart attack and his mother died of a disorder associated with her lifelong high blood pressure. Not exactly a clean bill of health for me when it comes to family history.

Assuming the doc says you’re good to go, start easy. If you are starting at ground zero, I would suggest jogging for five minutes and walking for two minutes and repeating several more times until you’ve jogged for a total of 25 minutes. Continue with this until you can jog for a total of 45 minutes (while still resting two minutes after every five minute jog). Once you achieve this, you’ve built a pretty good base of fitness and you can start decreasing the time you rest. For example, for your next workout jog for five minutes and only rest for one minute. Continue this until you get built up to 45 minutes. Keep reducing the rest time (45 s, 30s, 15s, etc.) until you are running continuously and again get yourself built up to 45 minutes. If you can only go for 15 minutes without needing to stop then only rest for a minute or so and go again. Eventually, you’ll get to solid 45 minutes. Don’t worry about the time, your pace, how far, just keep track of how long you run and how long you rest. After 45 continuous minutes are achievable, then you can start trying to run faster and farther.

For those of you that are disappointed in the simplicity of what I’ve suggested, I’m sorry, but it works. Again, it takes more of a mental effort than anything else. The same can be said if it’s wintertime or you don’t want to run outside (or maybe because it’s 95+ degrees by noon right now). Or for many people if you are a little embarrassed with how tired you get and want to work out alone. If this is the case then get on a treadmill. Again, from a safety perspective, if you’ve never been on a treadmill before or haven’t been on one in a while take your time walking at different speeds and jogging before jumping right into a workout. Many people will also jump off the side of the belt to briefly rest. This works great, but take extra caution to make sure both feet get all the way to the outside of the belt because you’ll be on your behind before you even know what happened and to make matters worse when your body comes to a rest, some part of your body is likely going to be against the treadmill belt grinding away at your skin making you a bloody abraded mess. Be careful!

To start, set the treadmill to 1% incline to more closely mimic running outside and do the same exact thing I mentioned before. This interval type workout can (and should) be applied by almost everyone. Studies have shown excellent fitness benefits using young people, old people and even people with heart problems when they train with intervals or short periods of ‘work’ followed up with short periods of ‘rest’ (2).

One of my favorite workouts to get some cardio is to change the speed a pre-determined amount (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 mph or even more!) every minute for five consecutive minutes before returning to your initial speed. For example, a beginner may start at 5.5 mph for one minute, then increase to 5.7 mph for the next minute, then 5.9 mph for the next minute, 6.1 mph and then 6.3 mph. After the fifth interval, go back to your starting point (5.5 mph) and repeat. Of course if you are more fit and want to start at a higher speed, feel free. Also, you can increase the interval amount to 0.5 mph (or any amount you wish) so this workout would then consist of the following speeds (5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and 7.5 mph, respectively). Literally hundreds of examples can be developed and all of them will work just fine.

When I was first starting out, my calves and other muscles between my knee and my ankle would get really tight making it nearly impossible to run after a period of time. OR what if you’ve gained a little more weight than you realize and running/jogging makes your knees, hips, etc. hurt too much to enjoy it? OR your fitness is poor and jogging is too strenuous? In this instance get on the treadmill and walk, but you must aggressively change the incline. Most fitness treadmills will incline up to around 12 – 15% and I’d be willing to bet >80% of you don’t realize how high that is. Well it’s substantial. In fact, you can burn roughly the same amount of calories walking at around 3.3 mph and 11 – 12% incline as jogging at around 6 mph and 0% incline (3). In this instance, start slowly and build up. You may need to start at 3 mph with the incline at 4-5%, but you can do one of two things: 1) increase the speed (like running) and keep the incline the same or 2) keep the speed the same but increase and decrease the incline. Yes, you can change the incline on the treadmill while running too, but if you can hammer away on a treadmill and aggressively change the incline this article isn’t intended for you. ☺ Eventually you’ll get to a point where you can walk at a pretty good clip with an incline and you can then transition into slow jogging and walking or what we discussed at the beginning of the article.

Finally, a half marathon. I’ve run two and once you can get up to around 45 minutes, it’s just a matter of plotting out your workouts to progressively increase the distance of your runs. Once you can complete a 10 or 11 mile run, you can knock out the entire 13.1 mile distance. As I said earlier, this part is as much a mental struggle as physical. It’s time consuming, monotonous and during the summer times you have to run early because it’s so hot. But it’s a pretty cool feeling to finish and also to know you lugged around 50 lbs (or more) more than some of the skinny folks you’ll see out running all the time. This last point transitions me nicely into the next topic that must be addressed and that is what are the nutrition concerns as I’m training for a half-marathon or endurance type activity. Stay tuned for that article for sure! In summary, it’s small baby steps of mental and physical power. While you may indeed ‘suck’ at running, don’t give up on yourself, stay focused and keep putting one foot in front of the other. You may not be fast, but remember the hare didn’t beat the tortoise…

References

1. Baechle TR and Earle RW. Essentials of strength training and conditioning. 2000, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
2. Laursen PB and Jenkins DG. The scientific basis for high-intensity interval training: Optimising training programmes and maximising performance in highly trained endurance athletes. Sports Med 32: 53-73, 2002.
3. Thompson WR, Gordon NF, and Pescatello LS. Acsm’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. 2010, Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

When I am trying to reach a particular fitness goal, I will take a few minutes for myself in the evening and plan my workout and meals for the next day. I find this helps me to stay focused when I get really busy and by having a plan, I don’t have to put much thought into what I am supposed to eat at a particular time. I simply refer to my food log and follow the plan. Have you ever noticed when you are busy how easy it is to skip a meal and find yourself ravenously hungry hours later, only to blow your diet by indulging something that is not a part of your diet plan? This is where making a plan for your meals prior to starting your day can be very helpful. By making a decision about what you will eat the day before, there will be no question about what you are to eat, helping you to reach your goals. How can you possibly expect to get rock hard abs or a tight booty if you aren’t following a plan? !

Food journaling can also be very helpful if you find that you are not making any progress towards your particular goal. By referring to your food log, you can identify any areas that you can improve such as late night snacking, skipping meals or having snacks in the early part of the day.

I have included the exact food log I use as I think it may be a handy little tool for those of you interested in starting a food journal. This food log has two columns and to use it, simply print it out, write down your planned meals for the next day, and write down what you actually eat that day. There is even a section to help you track your water consumption, and we know how important that is for fitness! I have a spreadsheet similar to this that I make copies of and keep in a three ring binder. I told you I was organized!

Good luck in achieving all your fitness goals and dreams! I love getting your feedback and questions! You can get in touch with me at: Gillian.Risebury@1stphormcom!

♥ Gillian

Click Here to Download Gillian’s Food Journal Log (PDF)

The Recommended Daily Allowances or RDA were developed to provide a dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the requirements for 98% of the healthy individuals. So the shortest answer to the question lies with the RDAs. Make sure your daily diet is providing 100% of posted RDAs and within a 98% chance you are going to be OK. What if no RDA has been or can be established? Well this is where the others come into play. Estimated Average Requirement or EAR has been established to satisfy the needs of 50% of individuals within a particular group (could be pregnant women, ethnic group, aging, children, etc.). Adequate Intake or AI is used when no RDA has been determined. Upper Tolerable Limit or UL is the known maximum recommended intake that individuals could consume without the risk of adverse effects. So there you have it. How you decide to use them is up to you. Personally I would go with the RDAs. If you are an exercising individual that lives a fairly busy life and you may not exactly eat a great diet day in and day out, I would find a multi-vitamin you like and take it every day with food. The downside of not having enough is much worse that having too much. Overall the DRIs vary among gender, age, etc. and represent what is needed for normal individuals. As physical activity or health status change, so do your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals.

This is why we sweat. The sweat evaporates on our skin creating a cooling mechanism for our body. Sweat contains water and important electrolytes (sodium, calcium, magnesium) that our body needs for our cells to function properly. You would be amazed at how quickly someone can sweat, but commonly documented sweat rates hover around 1.5 liters every hour, with the highest reported amount to be 3.5 liters per hour. On average, spend two hours outside and you’ve filled up a three liter bottle (or more); a body weight loss of four pounds. When we lose all this water and electrolytes, our blood gets thicker (blood is +90% water) and as a result our heart rate goes up. This compounds the cycle because more work is required of the body and as a result more heat is produced.

The more fluid you lose from sweat, the harder it is for your body to regulate its temperature and this is when trouble can begin. Unfortunately, no easy strategy exists for someone to be able to quickly determine how much fluid they have lost and as a result determine how at risk you may be for dehydration and various forms of heat injury.

So nothing can be done? No, not exactly and a few measures do exist that are worth mentioning to increase awareness and hopefully prevent problems from occurring. First, losing just one percent of your body weight from sweat will alter your perception and performance and the more you lose the more your performance will be decreased. A two to three percent loss of your body mass as water will significant reduce performance and put you at significant risk for dehydration. You can lose this amount of weight in as little as one hour depending on how much you sweat. You can determine a rough estimate of your sweat rate by measuring your naked body weight before and after the exercise bout (or how long you spent working in the yard for that matter). For every pound of body weight lost you should plan on drinking an additional two cups of fluid to replace the lost fluid. Thus if you lose two pounds after an hour of exercise, you should drink four cups of fluid to replace what was lost. Secondly, it’s important to understand that using how thirsty you are as the determining factor when you need to drink is not a good practice.

Our thirst mechanism is delayed and research has shown that by the time you feel thirsty you have already lost enough fluid to decrease your performance. Lastly, when you sweat you need to replace the lost fluid, electrolytes and replace the carbohydrate your muscles have burned for fuel. Sports drinks are formulated in optimal amounts to replace these things. While drinking water is good, it only replaces fluid and for those exercising or working in the heat for much longer than 45 minutes, you will also need to replace lost electrolytes and carbohydrates, so drinking only water would be better than nothing, but not as good as sports drink. Finally, use some common sense. If you start to feel disoriented, nauseated, fatigued, sick, etc. these are signs the heat may be getting to you. Stop what you are doing, get in the shade and a cold beverage (be sure and get it in you and not on you) and rest. The summer is a great time to get outside and enjoy the sun, but too much sun and not the right precautions can result in devastating consequences.

To answer your question, I didn’t actually make the final decision to compete at the NPC Missouri State until about 2 weeks from the show. Since I was adhering to such a strict diet and I was getting into shape fairly quickly, I wanted to use this show as a warm up to work on stage presence. As some of you may know, I am not the most comfortable bodybuilder on stage. There is always a gamble when you compete 6 weeks out from your target show. My trainer and I didn’t want to do anything to disrupt the prep for the North Americans, my target show on September 1st. The only changes we did make to the protocol was increasing the water intake to 2.5 gallons from Monday to Thursday during the week of the show. Cardio stayed the same, 30 minutes after training with the last weight workout being the Wednesday before the show. Diet stayed the same as previously blogged. I weighed in at 219 pounds at weigh in the Friday night before the show. We had cut the water to ½ gallon by Friday evening with all water cut at 8:00pm. In the morning, I joined my trainer for a top-secret carb loading breakfast and then it was 2 thick coats of stage tan and off to pre-judging. I felt I looked better at prejudging after the night show but I guess it was good enough to hold on for the win. After the show, I spent some much needed time with Gillian, and my son Brady and came off my diet until Tuesday morning, eating everything in site. I got my weight back up to 230 pounds and geared up for round two.

The real reason for competing at the NPC Missouri State was that I envisioned my son Brady up on stage with me sharing the overall award. He is my pride and joy and that is exactly how it unfolded. Totally priceless!

I got some feedback from a judge after the show who told me that although the overall was unanimous, it was still close. I did feel that the light heavy weight looked good and gave me some competition in the overall. However, after reviewing the pics, I do believe I was the best bodybuilder on that stage that night. There is no doubt if I bring that same package to the North Americans, I will get eaten alive. Between now and then I will absolutely make some positive refinements in my physique. As I write this blog, I have 5 weeks in which to do so. I have always believed that you can’t grow in a dieted state but my calories remain at 4800/day, thus, I am working on continuing to improve the following areas: mid-back thickness and lower lat thickness (lots of deadlifts); hamstrings (lots of straight legged deadlifts incorporated into my twice weekly hamstring training); and deeper quad separation.

To answer the latter part of your question, yes, I am nationally qualified from my win at the NPC Muscle Mayhem in 2009. This qualification saw me through all of the remaining months of last year up until May 2011. Depending on how the North Americans go, I may decide not to compete next year. If I want to come back and compete in 2012, I will now hold eligibility up until July 2012 and I will qualify for Jr. Nationals that year. I know that’s a lot of planning ahead but you never know what the future holds—especially in this sport!

On a side note, I want to give a big thank you to photographer Jason Caine who took the awesome pictures at the show that you see above. Jason, you have mad skill in what you do! You can make a piece of dog shit look good!

Until next time, be consistent and stay balanced!

Brett

I guess you could call this Q/A a lecture titled “Muscle Physiology and Strength Research 101”. I must warn you that you are flirting with dangerous territory asking a muscle geek to talk about muscle. I could go on and on and will seemingly get more excited the longer we talk about it. If my sister was here right now she’d either be leaving the room or mumbling under her breath, “Oh God, not again…” while she looked for a way or reason to escape.

First, let’s start with just the general anatomy of the body. All of our bodily tissues (think heart, lungs, muscle, bone, etc.) when added together are called systems; the muscular system, skeletal muscle, respiratory system, etc. The human muscular system is comprised of three types of muscle: cardiac, smooth and skeletal muscle. These three types of muscle can be further characterized as well, but cardiac muscle refers to our heart muscle and is only found in one place. Smooth muscle is located throughout many of our blood vessels and organs while skeletal muscle is that muscle tissue which is connected to bones (our skeletal system, hence skeletal muscle). A unique difference between cardiac and smooth muscle from skeletal muscle is that skeletal muscle is under our voluntary control. This means that a system of communication goes from our eyes (or other primary senses) to our brain and to our skeletal muscles which results in these muscles contracting. Our heart and organs are under involuntary control meaning they function (contract) automatically. Shoot, you think resistance training or running is hard work, imagine having to tell your heart to contract more or less…even less people would exercise!

An extremely unique thing about our muscle tissue is that it is extremely adaptable. The terms scientists use for this is plasticity, but adaptable will work. A close inspection of our muscle reveals three predominant fiber types. Each fiber type possesses a somewhat distinct and unique set of characteristics. This fact, however, is extremely important as these attributes should dictate to some extent how you train, especially if you have specific attributes you would like to develop such as endurance, strength, etc. The three fiber types are characterized in many ways and I’m going to outline and explain the most popular. The three fiber types are commonly called type I, type IIa and type IIx. NOTE: you may seem some people refer to the type IIx fiber as a type IIb fiber, but this a dated designation that is present in rodent (rat, mouse) species, but are not found in humans. Type I fibers have a greater blood flow, more energy producing parts of the cells, more oxygen-carrying proteins, and have great endurance but have a low ability to generate force (strength) and produce force rapidly (also known as power) and possess a low tendency to grow or hypertrophy. The type IIx fibers are on the other end of this spectrum and as a result are much more likely to experience hypertrophy (growth) and are able to produce high amounts of force and power. On the down side, these fibers do not have very good endurance, fatigue easily, have a low blood supply and don’t contain as many muscle components which relate to energy production and oxygen carrying.

So if your head is spinning an easy way to remember is that type I fibers are often considered to be ‘endurance’ fibers while type II fibers are ‘strength/power’ fibers. Why? Well type I fibers have a much greater capacity to produce energy inside them and are much better suited to transport the extremely high amounts of oxygen needed to complete prolonged bouts of exercise like running a 10K or biking for several miles. These fibers are found in higher amounts in athletes who complete a substantial amount of endurance or cardio type of training. If you are a resistance training athlete, you don’t want to train in a manner that will provide a stimulus to your body to convert more of your power and strength-producing fibers (type IIa and IIx) into type I fibers as that would be counterproductive. This is one key reason why resistance training to failure or near failure is so critically important. This level of training is difficult and requires the muscle to produce higher amounts of force say as opposed to completing one or two sets of high (>20) repetitions. As a result of training at near-failure levels, the muscles sense the need to keep the bigger, force-producing fibers around. That’s a good thing!

It works the other way as well. Heavy resistance training to failure requires much greater amounts of force and power to be produced and the type IIa and IIx fibers are much better suited to meet these demands. If you find yourself, however, needing more endurance then performing cardio type exercise will be needed. This concept introduces two key training principles: the specificity and overload principles. Unfortunately, both topics are so critical to effective exercise training that they deserve their own discussion (look for these articles on future Q/A’s). What happens, however, if you want a good mixture of both attributes? For example, what if you enjoy going for a short jog or bike ride or enjoy playing a game of pick-up basketball or football, but you still want to maintain or build your strength and muscle mass. This is ultimately where the type IIa fiber comes in. It’s often considered the hybrid fiber. While the other fibers are somewhat polar opposites, the type IIa fiber bridges the gap between them. Thus and as you might expect, type IIa fibers are able to produce more force than a type I fiber, but not as much as a type IIx fiber. In the same respect, type IIa fibers have a greater resistance to fatigue than type IIx fibers, but don’t have as much endurance as a type I fiber. How should you train to build these fibers? Good question. Interestingly, the more metabolically challenging your resistance training is the more type IIa fibers are present and this is a great thing because they are good at so many things. How do you make your workouts more metabolically challenging? Several ways, but again a full discussion will follow in subsequent Q/As. To start, perform exercises that use the most muscle and rest as little as you can.

In conclusion, having a general understanding of your fiber types and muscle physiology is a key factor when choosing your own workouts and especially if you operate as a trainer for someone else. Entire books and studies have been written on these topics, especially as they relate to specificity of training and so forth. Remember your muscles are capable of making very specific adaptations to the physical and metabolic challenges you place upon them. Make sure you are training how you want to end up and not just because your boyfriend trains that way, the ripped girl or huge dude at the gym does or it was the featured workout in the latest Muscle & Fitness. Until next time…