ultra-FIT MAGAZINE
Fitness Lifestyle for Men + Women
Make weight loss easy Vol.21 No.9 October 2011 £3.99
STRICTLY FITNESS!
Strictly Fitness!
Pulling Power Rope training
Natalie Lowe
VOLUME TWENTY ONE NUMBER NINE
Fast Fitness! 20min is all it takes
Flip It!
10 ways to max your workouts
Pilates for Strength Training
Winter Warmers
www.ultra-FITmagazine.co.uk
Training Gear
www.ultra-FITmagazine.co.uk
Best Exercises You’ve Never Done!
ultra-FIT - your 24/7 personal trainer
FIT KITCHEN
Weight
Loss The Challenge
How to lose weight is the number one reason fitness trainers and athletes choose to make a nutrition appointment with me. They express frustration because they, ‘cannot do something as simple as lose a few pounds’. While few of my clients are obese, their frustrations match those of dieters in the general population.
A
t a conference presented by the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and the Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Centre in July this year researchers addressed some of the issues that contribute to difficulty losing weight. The following highlights will offer insight, if you are among the many fitness trainers/athletes who struggle with shedding unwanted body fat.
Why gaining weight is easy: ✱ To the detriment of our health, we are living in a food carnival. No wonder today’s kids enter adulthood 18kg/20 lbs heavier than in 1960! By the time kids are 4 to 5
22
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
years old, 60% of them have lost the ability to self-regulate food intake ✱ Most people believe that obesity is a matter of will-power, but it’s not that simple. For example, in obese people, the brain’s response to food odours and flavours is often blunted. Compared to lean people, they need more of a food to experience a positive brain response ✱ When stressed, obese people (more so than their lean counterparts) seek high fat foods, chips, ice cream, fries... ✱ Impulsivity, a genetic trait, is a risk factor for obesity. That is obese people (more than their lean counterparts) tend to impulsively eat, let’s say the whole plate of biscuits. Food advertisements are designed to
encourage impulsive consumption ✱ Food advertisers know that marketing ‘works - and kids who watch TV are a prime target. The average child sees an average of 13 food ads a day on TV and most of these foods are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat ✱ Research that looked into the consumption habits of children found that those who watched TV with four food ads ate 45% more crackers (100 calories more) compared to when they watched four ads for games. The kids who liked the taste of the crackers consumed even more calories! ✱ Foods marketed with a character (such as Scooby-Doo) sell better. Fifty-two percent of pre-schoolers said the ‘character-food’ tasted better (as opposed to 38% who said it tasted the same and 10% who said food without the character tasted better) ✱ The standard supermarket diet is rich in sugar, saturated fat and sodium. It causes obesity in rats. That is, rats fed standard rat food maintained a normal weight. But rats fed a standard supermarket diet ended up overweight - until researchers took away that food. The rats then lost weight when they returned to eating rat food. There’s little doubt that fats, sugar and salt stimulate us to eat more than we need! ✱ When the calories are listed near a food, as is happening in many fast food restaurants, some people choose the foods with higher calories, believing it will be better tasting. That response certainly negates the
FIT KITCHEN
intention of the calorie campaign! ✱ People make an average of 200 food choices in a day - all these decisions can deplete our limited mental ‘resources’ that govern self-regulation. That’s one reason why, at the end of a hectic day, you can more easily overeat. You lack the mental resources to say ‘no’ to that tempting dessert or convenience food ✱ The food industry’s bottom line is always profit. When Pepsi started marketing more of its healthy products, sales of the unhealthy products dropped. The stockholders complained - and that puts the food industry in a bind.
Weight loss tactics: So what’s a hungry fitness trainer/athlete to do? Drugs are not the answer. For the past 20 years, no successful weight-loss drugs have been developed and none are in-sight in the near future. Drugs that regulate appetite also impact many other regulatory centres in the brain and create undesired side effects. Hence, we need to learn how to manage the obesity problem at its roots - and that means preventing excessive fat gain in the first place, starting in childhood. Here are a few tips on how to do that: ✱ You can reduce your food consumption by using your imagination. That is, if you imagine eating a food, let’s say ice cream, you can end up eating less of it ✱ Technology offers a glimmer of hope in the battle of the bulge. A free application
for iPhones called ‘Lose It!’ has created a thriving weight loss community, as measured by 7.5 million free app downloads since October 2010. The web version: www.LoseIt.com, is just as popular. LoseIt! members can conveniently and easily track their food and calorie intake ✱ Lose It! includes a social network. Dieters seem to prefer online support from people they do not know, as opposed to involving their family and friends with their dieting progress (or lack there of). LoseIt!’s social groups are created according to goals. Dieters can easily (and anonymously) connect with and get support from others with similar goals. In fact, the best predictor of weight loss success with LoseIt! is having three or more Lose It! friends. ✱ Food advertisements are designed to trigger certain pleasure centers. (For example, McDonald’s is associated with happiness.) We now need to learn how to advertise healthy foods. In the US the baby carrot campaign to ‘Eat ‘em like junk food’ has boosted sales 10% - including a new demand for baby carrots in school vending machines
✱ We can change our brain circuits by substituting food with another stimuli, such as exercise. Exercise does more than burn calories to control weight - exercise changes the reward systems in the brain ✱ Exercise supports self-control. That is, people who exercise have greater control over what they eat. They also have more control over sticking with their exercise programme. Successful exercisers are able to make exercise a habit and not a choice. Having one less decision to make bolsters their mental resources so they can cope better overall.
A final thought: Somehow we need to change the perception that eating supermarket foods loaded with sugar, salt and saturated fats gives us satisfaction. A few years ago, we changed the perception that smoking is satisfying. Parents stopped smoking when kids came home and said, ‘Mum, Dad, please don’t smoke’. Today, we need kids to start saying ‘Mum, Dad, please don’t take me to get fast food’. Will that day ever come…? UF
About the author Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels casual and competitive athletes in her practice at Healthworks, the premier fitness centre in Chestnut Hill MA (617-383-6100) USA. Her Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for new runners, marathoners and football players are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com.
OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
23
UNUSUAL EXERCISES
Volume eight
The Best Exercises You’ve never Done! Photography: Simon Howard www.snhfoto.co.uk Model: Tony Agostini
T
his issue we provide you with alternatives to some of the most commonly performed resistance exercises as well as one or two specially designed to address areas of common weakness. One of the best things about having a huge number of exercises in your armoury is that, no matter how busy your gym is or where ever you find yourself training, you will always be able to adapt your training programme so that you can achieve a great workout. No squat rack? No problem - just do Zercher squats. Seated row machine busy? Try super-effective Pendelay rows instead. Just remember, whenever trying any new exercise, regardless of how easy it may appear, be conservative with the weight you use until you are familiar with how to perform the exercise technically correctly.
1
26
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
▼ Zercher Squat
By Patrick Dale
Squats are a tremendously effective lower body exercise. They can be used to develop pure strength, leg hypertrophy (increased size), muscular endurance and even power for sports. Unfortunately, the high bar position used in both back and front squats means that a lot of force is placed on the lower back. For some unfortunate exercisers, this force can be enough to mean that an alternative to regular squats is needed from an injury/strain reducing potential. Squats are generally considered to be a quad dominant exercise, however Zercher squats use a much lower bar position which increases the amount of work done by the hamstrings. ✱ Place a barbell in a squat rack at around waist height ✱ Bend your knees slightly and place the bar in the crooks of your elbows ✱ Lift the bar out of the rack. Keep your arms bent and your hands close to your shoulders so that the barbell is held securely ✱ Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your feet turned slightly outward ✱ Push your hips back, bend your knees and squat down until your thighs are around parallel to the floor. ✱ Do not allow your lower back to become rounded and keep your chest up at all times ✱ Drive down through your heels and push your hips forwards as you stand up ✱ Make this exercise more comfortable by wrapping a towel around the bar or using a Powerbag instead of a barbell
2
UNUSUAL EXERCISES
Pendelay rows, also known as dead-stop rows, are a tremendous total back builder
1
▲ Pendelay Rows
Pendelay rows, also known as dead-stop rows, are a tremendous total back builder. The effectiveness of this exercise lies in the deliberate pause between repetitions. The dead-stop breaks the eccentric/concentric (muscular action) chain and eliminates all momentum meaning your muscles must work harder than normal at the beginning of each and every repetition. Pendelay rows are traditionally performed using a barbell but can also be performed using a single dumbbell and an exercise bench, if you want to support your lower back with your free hand. ✱ Place a loaded barbell on the floor and stand with your toes just underneath it ✱ Bend your knees slightly and then hinge forwards from your hips. Grasp the bar with an overhand shoulder-width grip ✱ Contract your core, inhale, extend your arms and lift your chest. This is your starting position ✱ Keeping your legs and torso still, bend your arms and pull the barbell up and into your abdomen ✱ Extend your arms and lower the barbell back to the floor ✱ Let the weight rest for a second and then repeat ✱ Do not let your lower back become rounded at any point during this exercise as this can result in injury
2
OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
27
MUSCLE BUILDING
Ways To Boost Your Muscle Building Hormones Naturally! 46
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
MUSCLE BUILDING
Recent studies have uncovered more and more ways to boost hormones naturally and unlock hidden muscle building potential. So if you’re one of those looking to increase your muscle mass, try making the following changes in the kitchen and in the gym to get more from your muscle.
By Ross Edgley Myprotein.com Sports Scientist
T
o gain muscle you need to overload your muscles via an appropriate weight training programme and increase overall (healthy) calorie consumption so as to avoid a pure fat gain without muscle. But whilst a good weight training routine and a sound nutrition plan will form the foundations for increasing muscle size and improving athletic performance, experts believe naturally boosting your hormones could hold the key to truly breaking training through plateaus and accelerating muscle gain. Hormones are chemical messengers and are responsible for cellular reactions – they are released by cells and glands. Hormone cells are usually a special cell type and are found in endocrine glands, such as the thyroid, ovaries and testes. As will be indicated below testosterone and oestrogen – the male and female sex hormones – play a key role in terms of muscle building as does growth hormone – these are all collectively known as ‘androgens’. It should be noted that all physical activity results in hormone release – sometimes, as this will be indicated and dependent on the type of
exercise (and other related factors), this can be either positive or negative.
Testosterone Perhaps the most known of all the androgen hormones is testosterone. Produced in the male testes and female ovaries (and a small amount in the adrenal gland) it’s the principle male sex hormone and is responsible for the development of male sexual characters like physical strength, muscle mass, body shape, body hair, deep voice and sexual function. Women as indicated do produce testosterone and surveys with athletes have indicated that it’s release can be even greater than males in response to relevant workouts. However resting concentrations in women (i.e. non exercise induced) are lower than in men.
Growth Hormone Growth Hormone – like testosterone – is crucial for muscle building - it’s secreted by a tiny grape sized organ called the anterior pituitary gland. Growth hormone can be synthesised or even more scarily taken from dead bodies to produce an illegal ergogenic aid and has therefore been a relatively common ‘cheat’ on the part of athletes from various sports. However, as we shall see
following the 8 points below can give you a natural, honest boost. GH regulates metabolism and helps recovery from workouts and injury. Perhaps surprisingly research indicates that its release is greater in females. Its release declines with age.
Insulin Another hormone with equally impressive muscle building properties as testosterone is insulin – it’s a peptide hormone (made from amino acids) that promotes, protein synthesis and regulates sugar metabolism (it removes excess glucose from the blood). Needed to transport amino acids and glucose to the muscles after a workout, insulin essentially super-saturates cells with nutrients so your muscles can repair and grow bigger following a heavy gym session.
Cortisol Cortisol is released through the adrenl gland and its levels are elevated by exercise. In large quantities cortisol’s effects on muscle building are negative as unlike the previously mentioned hormones it has a catabolic effect it breaks down muscle tissue. This works against muscle building as protein (amino acids) is used for energy production rather than muscle building.
OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
47
SPORTS CONDITIONING
Dynamic Flexibility for Martial Arts By John Tran and John Hardy www.fasterpt.com www.facebook.com/fasterfunction
Martial arts require dynamic and reactive movements, such as the kick and punch We have therefore provided stretching techniques that are dynamic, whole body and involve different planes of motion. 10 reps of each of would make for an excellent addition to your current workouts.
68
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
beyond its safe range. The idea of the passive stretch is to turn the stretch reflex off or at least dull its response, so that a muscle can be stretched into an increased range of movement position. However, when training for sport it’s widely believed that the closer you train to the sport in terms of movements and speeds of movements the better you will
become at it and the more performance gains you will get. Movements in martial arts are dynamic and whole body in order to generate power for striking, kicking, blocking or avoiding being struck. The movements will also vary considerably in regard to the opponent’s distance away from the fighter, their movement and fighting style.
The Exercises 1. Lunge Twist and Kick This exercise uses a counter movement to extend then flex the right hip. In the process of performing it the standing leg is also strengthened as it acts as a stabiliser for the kick.
start
travel to
finish 2. Side Lunge with Reach and Push This exercise is a great movement to ‘drive’ the spine into the kind of shape required to avoid a blow. You get low and into a range that could also be beneficial for punching and is a movement that could be followed by a kick.
start
finish
This exercise is a great movement to ‘drive’ the spine into the kind of shape required to avoid a blow. 3. Flex to Extend Lunge This exercise encourages the body to transition from a flexed to extended position – movements that are required for example, when moving from a duck or dive into a strike or kick. A kick or punch could also be added as a progression.
start
finish OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
69
SPORTS CONDITIONING
F
lexibility for martial arts is traditionally based on static (held) stretching. Static stretching – which requires holding the end point of the stretch for a period of time – is designed to push past the ‘stretch/reflex’ mechanism of muscles. The stretch/reflex is there to protect our muscles and joints and prevent a muscle being stretched/moved
FLIP IT!
! t i lF ip 76
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
to Turn your Fitness Upside Down! By Patrick Dale
‘I
f you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you always got’. Despite bordering on being a tonguetwister, this truism explains why many exercisers fail to make satisfactory fitness training progress. As you progress your training your body becomes a ‘master adapter’ and the workout that once left you sore and tired is now, as far as your body is concerned, no longer a trigger for fitness or strength gains. Whilst there is no disputing that our bodies are truly amazing, they can also be just plain lazy! To get fitter, stronger, leaner or faster, you need to continually push your body to higher levels of intensity. Any new training programme will illicit an increase in fitness – for between four to six weeks. However, once your body has laid down new capillaries to deliver more blood to your muscles or increased the size and number of energy producing mitochondria cells in response to CV training or made your muscle fibres bigger and stronger in response to weight training, it will quite happily just maintain your current levels of fitness until you increase the demands of your workout again. Progression is the key to continually improving fitness and strength. So with this in mind, follow these 10 suggestions for flipping your current workouts on their head to promote a new surge in fitness development. Apply a few to your current workouts and then next month apply a few more. Continually altering the elements of your workouts is one of many ways to ensure your fitness stays out of a rut and is always climbing to new heights.
1
Perform Single Limb Exercises
With the exception of a few lunges, you probably don’t spend much time performing single limb exercises and yet ironically, almost all of our daily activities and sports are performed on one leg. With the exception of rowing, weight lifting and diving, the majority of sports involve single leg ground contact and yet very few people perform single limb exercises. Try performing more single leg squats, single arm dumbbell presses, one-arm kettlebell swings and other single limb exercises. They will enhance balance, address any left to right muscle imbalances you might have and also challenge your core muscles.
2
Increase your Speed
Most regular runners and cyclists have a ‘training pace’ that feels comfortable. Whenever they head out to train, they fall into this pace and seldom vary from it. Chances are this is their ‘Long Slow Distance’ pace, LSD for short and equates to around 60 to 70 percent of their maximum heart rate. The response you experience from exercise is specific to the type of training you do – this is one of the undeniable laws of exercise prescription. This means that LSD training teaches you to run a long way, slowly! If you want to train your body to run, row or cycle faster you need to increase your speed. Break the habit of
Break the habit of exercising at your ‘training pace’ and purposely work at a faster speed than is comfortable OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
77
FLIP IT!
10 Ways
FIT 4 SPORT 92
ultra-FIT OCTOBER 2011
FIT 4 SPORT
e l y t s Free
g n i k a y a K pion m a h C ld r o W y talks to r d n a S e n li o r Ca bington b e B s e m a J r ake Freestyle Kay
Games this year Teva Mountain e th at be orts to gh any outdoor sp was lucky enou -sent event for en av he e a , om do es in Vail Colora g mixture of aw s a mind-blowin top athletes enthusiast. It wa led sports, with el fu lin na re u come ad y, er music to help yo mountain scen rld plus art and wo e th . nd w) ou ll revie from all ar l 21:7 for my fu e action (see vo down from all th k king ‘Steep Cree w the breath-ta sa st and es fa m n, fu ga s e th wa e trial which The first day of tim k ya ka ll hi blog: – a down Championship’ tion on my video t some of the ac y?feature dr ou an ck es he (c in ol us furio / user/car om .c be tu at I met Brit th ou .y re http://www and it was he k) yy R ability Q w nI 8/IkO by his style and =mhee#p/u/ gle’). Impressed to his rin ‘P ng ka alo (a nt on we gt a fellow Brit - I James Bebbin ng wi llo What fo g. lly patriotica style Kayakin and of course witnessed Free e ing tim rg st su fir l e rfu th for with powe next event and ter I paddlers wrestle La e . ts Th ! en cle em ta ov ec m ost balletic an amazing sp alm , ul ef and t ac or gr sp g g rformin this excitin rapids whilst pe m to fill us in on hi d ke as d an spoke to James fit…. how he stays so ? been around tyle kayaking es regular fre th s wi t ha ou ars. It started CS: How long ye 17 d t ou ab r ound fo in the waves an JB: It’s been ar n playing around ga be le op pe en kayaking, and th ats shorter. making the bo the sport? ing you get into saw people do CS: How did I was 12, but I ce sin fun! g e kin or ya m t ka lo a en e be JB: I have t that looked lik ves and though tricks on the wa
I
.eu gle - Riverzoo n ri /P a ty a K s: Photo
OCTOBER 2011 ultra-FIT
93