Monday, November 23, 2009
Precision Nutrition Sale! The best source to Learn about figuring out the best Nutrition and Healthy Eating FOR YOU
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This Wed., Nov 25, Precision Nutrition is having a sale. Mark it down. For folks at b2d who mayn't know, this is an approach to nutrition i recommend to folks who are new to thinking about food and health in a real way, who want to lose weight or gain mass, and are sick of dieting. PN is not a diet; it's a set of habits that by practicing them, you'll get to know what works for you with eating. So yes, i think it's a great way to learn about how a person individually connects with food and what will be successful for them with eating.
I was recently asked why i'm a fan of PN. This is what i said.
In other words, it's not a diet, it's an approach, support, knowledge - wherever you're coming from on your path with eating, PN will get you higher up and further in with excellent reality based support, knowledge, expertise. It's a fabulous resource. Check out the new page: it will show you all the components, including the vegetarian sensitive stuff to boot!
Let me know what you think.
mc
Related Posts
I was recently asked why i'm a fan of PN. This is what i said.
Baseline: Know Thyself I’ve written about this lately. Very few of us have any real baseline understanding of what works for us how in terms of the food we eat. We don’t really know ourselvesSo if this sounds good to you, here's what's on sale:with respect to food. Precision Nutrition is focused around eating habits first rather than calories.
That’s used as a vehicle to get to a place where we can know that first and foremost we’re consistently getting a basic set of required foods into us for a good nutritional balance. From there, we can use that basis as a platform from which to test other things.
Individual Responses to Food: how do you know? One of the big things tested for example is carb tolerance. So rather than saying starchy carbs bad, Berardi’s approach is: hold off starchy carbs to when we know they’re really needed – after workouts.
Do this regularly for a month so we have a clean slate, and then see what happens after that if you have some starchy carbs at other times. It may be that Person A can totally handle them but Person B cannot.
As a science geek, this get to a baseline then based on that knowledge, experiment makes so much sense. It’s a great way to get to know yourself with respect to food. I think we all deserve getting that self-knowledge around our nutrition. Otherwise, we’re simply lead by external proposals: starchy carbs bad; eat once a day, only eat fat from grass fed beef. Well ok, in what universe and for whom do these prescriptions make optimal sense?
So I used to be pretty religious about PN as a practice. Now, as said, it’s a really great way to get some core nutritional understanding about ourselves and to learn how to adjust foods for our goals.
Monitoring Success. So many ways Another part of PN that I like is that it also spends quality time on how to monitor progress for body comp related goals.
This is no small thing. Lots of folks are trapped with just the scale and when we see it stalling or going the wrong way or whatever, we can freak out. Meanwhile there may be tons of good stuff happening: upping lean body mass, better girth measures, besides better health. This program has the best most thoughtful step by step guides for taking and charting those measures [the Results Tracker service makes it easy to chart all these measures too -mc]
And likewise, as I’ve said in reviews, its forum is filled with experts who participate in discussions. I'd pay for PN just to get access to that forum.
I don’t know of a better place to get answers to nutrition queries based on science and experience without being dogmatic. Along with the PN individualization guide, it was the folks on the forum during my initial foray into leanness that helped me work through what felt like stall outs. That was GOLD.
A number of folks I respect there have been exploring intermittent fasting or eating only when hungry, and so on. But they’re all doing it from this fundamental base of knowing themselves around food, and PN has played a role there.
Right now I’m going through my first ever bulking phase. Normally if I saw these numbers going up on the scale I’d panic. But (a) I know how to assess what of that is fat and what’s muscle progrees and (b) I know how to come back from this process. And that’s because of the approaches I’ve learned more at PN than doing various coaching/training certifications. It’s the full meal deal. And I haven’t even started about the expert training advice available there. (If you're interested though, here's a two part, very detailed review of PN)
we're going to offer the Precision Nutrition System, including Gourmet Nutrition V1 and an all-access membership to our private Member Zone, plus a 1-year subscription to our Results Tracker program [usually 59.00 a year], and free shipping to the US and Canada [14USD]. All for $99.00. In other words, for the price of the PN system alone, folks also get a year's worth of results tracking AND and free shipping (US and Canada; we'll also take $10 off all international orders).As said, for me, PN is the best foundational place i've found to learn about food, nutrition, eating. You can get as much into the science of it as you want, or just get help (just! ha!) on how to get lean and healthy, or HUGE like tank.
In other words, it's not a diet, it's an approach, support, knowledge - wherever you're coming from on your path with eating, PN will get you higher up and further in with excellent reality based support, knowledge, expertise. It's a fabulous resource. Check out the new page: it will show you all the components, including the vegetarian sensitive stuff to boot!
Let me know what you think.
mc
Related Posts
- First Review of Precision Nutrition
- Change is Pain - how to work through the pain to success in Diets
- Set point theory is crap
- Fat Metabolism - a bit about how it works
PDF
Friday, November 20, 2009
Z-Health Essentials of Elite Performance Workshops: Hands on Z-Health Including Self-Assessments - way cool
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Some folks have heard awesome things about z-health: it provides techniques to help us move better, move out of pain, move into efficient athletic performance, improve that performance to achieve & surpass goals. Cool. The usual paths to exploring Z-Health have been either via the R, I &/or S DVDs, a z-health trainer (here's a list to find one near you), or doing a Z-Health cert like R-Phase. Now there's one more and it is so way cool: the Essentials of Elite Performance Workshop
This 3day workshop that started (i believe) with Dragon Door acting as host for the past two years, only offered via DD and only once a year, that provided a three day overview of three core parts of Z-Health: R (dvds | review), I (dvds | review) and S (dvds | review), a day on each. Now Z-Health is offering these workshops, lead by founders Eric Cobb and Kathy Mauck, internationally.
For UK trainers, we are in the process to have the workshop REPS certified. In the US, i believe the process may already be complete of having the workshop listed for CEU's with the various sports certification groups. Will check.
Schedule
The next one, i'm very pleased to say, is happening in London, Feb 5-7, 2010.
The one after that is Boston, March 5-7, 2010. There will be more (see the z-health calendar).
You can register by hitting the highly descriptive banner below, or using this link
What's Covered And Why Attend. This workshop is a fabulous way to check out the Z-Health program beyond the drills on the DVDs, get a hands-on check of your own practice if you've been using the DVDs - or a full, theory-meets-practice overview if you're interested in the performance benefits of the approach either as a coach or an athlete. There's stuff in here, too, that isn't covered in the certs. So this is more and other than a "best of" the Z-Health certs. It is a workshop in its own right, geared to give an athlete/trainer the theorerical and practical foundations for making our practice closer to that Perfect Rep i've spoken of before.
Indeed, at a recent Z-Health certification, we were told that even though we've gone through each of the certifications, attending this Essentials workshop is a Good Idea as there are a range of self-assessments taught that are unique to the workshop. Dang, there's more? There's more. So whether you're a trainer or an athlete there's material here to benefit everyone's practice. You can tell i'm jazzed about this, eh? And because already highly trained Z-Health trainers are encouraged to participate, you'll find yourself likely surrounded by folks who can help you get even more from the weekend experience with expert hands-on assistance.
Curriculum. The following if from the workshop page on the Z-Health site, to give you a sense of the curriculum.
And of course, like all Z-Health's products there's a 100% satisfaction guarentee. But just by way of context? The first time the workshop was offered, over 60 people attended and over 90% signed up on the spot to do ALL the certifications.
Ok, why am i waxing so enthusiatic about this workshop? Yes it's great that it's a sampler of big chunks of the Z-Health program, and the more people doing Z-Health the healthier and happier the planet. Yes it's a great way to get one's personal practice with Z-Health tuned, BUT because of its design, a person really DOES get the tools necessary right off the bat from this course to make huge transformations to their performance, and with the folks they may train. This is a full meal deal, real thing.
Now three days is just not enough to get into the depth of all Z-Health has to offer in any one of these areas. R-Phase for instance is a 6 day certification. But it's designed to provide such a super efficient tool box that a person just can't miss. And as said, the ratio of Z-Health trainers in the room to participants is so good that the quality of the delivery is just amplified.
This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for any trainer looking for excellent Continuing Ed credits. This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for universites to send their elite athletes and ALL their coaches to, to improve their programs immediately. That sounds like a rather bold claim, but especially if you are a trainer or coach, you'll get that after the first hour in the course. Likewise as athletes (and Cobb sees anyone who moves as an athlete), you'll see how the first technique presented will help open up the possibilities for progress.
Ok, the summary then is that the benefits of the course are not things you have to wait to try to see if they'll help. You'll get it immediately. At the speed of the nervous system. And that's cool, eh? Please, by all means, check it out (sign up :) ), and hope to see you in London or Boston in the New Year.
Related Posts
This 3day workshop that started (i believe) with Dragon Door acting as host for the past two years, only offered via DD and only once a year, that provided a three day overview of three core parts of Z-Health: R (dvds | review), I (dvds | review) and S (dvds | review), a day on each. Now Z-Health is offering these workshops, lead by founders Eric Cobb and Kathy Mauck, internationally.
For UK trainers, we are in the process to have the workshop REPS certified. In the US, i believe the process may already be complete of having the workshop listed for CEU's with the various sports certification groups. Will check.
Schedule
The next one, i'm very pleased to say, is happening in London, Feb 5-7, 2010.
The one after that is Boston, March 5-7, 2010. There will be more (see the z-health calendar).
You can register by hitting the highly descriptive banner below, or using this link
What's Covered And Why Attend. This workshop is a fabulous way to check out the Z-Health program beyond the drills on the DVDs, get a hands-on check of your own practice if you've been using the DVDs - or a full, theory-meets-practice overview if you're interested in the performance benefits of the approach either as a coach or an athlete. There's stuff in here, too, that isn't covered in the certs. So this is more and other than a "best of" the Z-Health certs. It is a workshop in its own right, geared to give an athlete/trainer the theorerical and practical foundations for making our practice closer to that Perfect Rep i've spoken of before.
Indeed, at a recent Z-Health certification, we were told that even though we've gone through each of the certifications, attending this Essentials workshop is a Good Idea as there are a range of self-assessments taught that are unique to the workshop. Dang, there's more? There's more. So whether you're a trainer or an athlete there's material here to benefit everyone's practice. You can tell i'm jazzed about this, eh? And because already highly trained Z-Health trainers are encouraged to participate, you'll find yourself likely surrounded by folks who can help you get even more from the weekend experience with expert hands-on assistance.
Curriculum. The following if from the workshop page on the Z-Health site, to give you a sense of the curriculum.
But Wait! There's more. Really. So this is cool, right? Learn an awful lot of performance assessing/enhancing tools in 3 days. It does get a wee bit better. If you decide at the course that you want to get into Z-Health and certify, considerable %'s of your workshop fee, up to the complete fee, will get applied to the cert fees. The value of an already super workshop in its own right gets extended to support your education further. That's kinda cool.Day 1 introduces the basic principles of the Z-Health system from our Level 1 Certification R-Phase (Re-education, Restoration, Rehabilitation).
Learn:
1. How Z-Health targets the body's governing system, the nervous system for lightning fast results.
2. Neural training principles that will FINALLY help you sort out fact from fiction in the confusing world of fitness.
3. Dozens of dynamic joint mobility drills that can instantly create dramatic changes in your posture, strength, power, flexibility, and coordination
4. Ways to harness the governing law of human physiology, the SAID principle, to super-charge your training and results.
5. Powerful self-assessments for precise, on-the-spot decision-making to always know if a drill or exercise is the right one for you or your clients. [this is gold. period. it's also the heart of the z-health ethos: assess, test, re-assess. you need to know how to check if what you're doing is making a positive effect or not. With the focus on the nervous system, that response comes back immediately with the tools on how to evaluate that response -mc]
6. The neural principles that govern how your muscles, nerves, and joints MUST interact for truly effective and pain-free movement.
7. The six must-do high-payoff joint mobiity drills for everyone.
Day 2 shows you how to take the building blocks from R-Phase to the next level and beyond by introducing you to the principles of our Level 2 Certification I-Phase (Integration), which focuses on drills to remove the road blocks to your natural athleticism.
Learn:
1. The Z-Health athletic movement template – your guide to athletic movement mastery.
2. Your body's Neural Hierarchy (visual, vestibular, & proprioceptive) and how problems in any of them can put the brakes on your strength and performance.
3. How your visual muscles function reflexively and how to use this information to make immediate gains in your strength, speed, flexibility, and mobility.
4. Visual and vestibular (balance) self assessments that will make your nervous system run like a fine-tuned machine. [this is a great component of the course -mc]
5. The seven essential balance training drills for real-world performance. [this is a great component of the course, and it has NOTHING to do with stability balls or bosus. you will be happily impressed. -mc]
Day 3 builds on the athletic movement foundation you established in I-Phase by focusing on precise sports mechanics essentials taken from our Level 3 Certification, S-Phase (Sports Phase).
Learn:
1. The difference between your eyesight (20/20) and real-world sports vision skills.
2. 10 different sports vision assessments that will show you how to develop the eyes of a pro. [ok, this one is huge both for yourself to self check and for any athletes you may train from the very young to the elite. These simple checks can lead to profound and IMMEDIATE performance differences. no kidding -mc]
3. The Quickness Hierarchy and why there is more to your speed than just raw musculuar horsepower.
4. 6 biomechanical movements that will quickly become the foundation of your newfound sports speed.
5. 5 specific drill sets to help you master the mechanics needed for maximum linear speed and explosiveness.
6. Multiple ways in which you can utilize every drill you've learned to maximize your total body explosive power.
[each of the above speed associated suites is awesome. If you ever thought you were a slow person (me, hands up), these drills/techniques will help change your mind. I keep saying immediate, but really the benefits are that fast: do the drill, you get the blast off. IT's not muscular; it's technique. very cool]
And of course, like all Z-Health's products there's a 100% satisfaction guarentee. But just by way of context? The first time the workshop was offered, over 60 people attended and over 90% signed up on the spot to do ALL the certifications.
Ok, why am i waxing so enthusiatic about this workshop? Yes it's great that it's a sampler of big chunks of the Z-Health program, and the more people doing Z-Health the healthier and happier the planet. Yes it's a great way to get one's personal practice with Z-Health tuned, BUT because of its design, a person really DOES get the tools necessary right off the bat from this course to make huge transformations to their performance, and with the folks they may train. This is a full meal deal, real thing.
Now three days is just not enough to get into the depth of all Z-Health has to offer in any one of these areas. R-Phase for instance is a 6 day certification. But it's designed to provide such a super efficient tool box that a person just can't miss. And as said, the ratio of Z-Health trainers in the room to participants is so good that the quality of the delivery is just amplified.
This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for any trainer looking for excellent Continuing Ed credits. This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for universites to send their elite athletes and ALL their coaches to, to improve their programs immediately. That sounds like a rather bold claim, but especially if you are a trainer or coach, you'll get that after the first hour in the course. Likewise as athletes (and Cobb sees anyone who moves as an athlete), you'll see how the first technique presented will help open up the possibilities for progress.
Ok, the summary then is that the benefits of the course are not things you have to wait to try to see if they'll help. You'll get it immediately. At the speed of the nervous system. And that's cool, eh? Please, by all means, check it out (sign up :) ), and hope to see you in London or Boston in the New Year.
Related Posts
- Overview of Z-Health - what it is and why it's so fast
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Retrun of the Kettlebell update 8 - Apocalypse Now of Medium Day and Rep Quality of Heavy Days
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This Return of the Kettlebell Update reflects on the take aways from the 
last medium and heavy days in particular of the second week of the third long cycle block. I love medium days; i am striving to warm to heavy days, too, and may have found a way with the Perfect Rep once more coming to the rescue.
Medium Day Swet. It's getting colder outside and darker so much sooner. The heat needs to be thrown up for a bit an night to warm us up. Sometimes that exrta heat when doing the Long Cylce gets to feeling like a bit of a bikram studio - can't ask everyone else to freeze for my workoust - but the other night huffing and puffing into the zen of the swing and the dip and the open hand push press, towards the fourth ladder, i felt like i was seeing scenes from Apocalypse Now, with the Doors screaming and fire and sweat and the president of from the West Wing surfacing like a crocodile from the swamps to go after Marlon Brando. Surreal.
Take aways from this session: i like medium days. They are my "just right" days. I get full 5*5 ladders in, feel taxed and like i'm practicing what i'm learning. They are less psychologically demanding than heavy days, and the main event takes somewhat less time, giving me extra cycles at the end to do some abs work.
Adding in Abs. Ab specific work may seem rather anathema to the hardstyle community but i've been talking with some power lifters and oly lifters about their programs and they find the extra core strength (yes i said core) let's them pull better. This may be so, so i'm giving it a go.
I do not have a pavelizer so i take one of mike mahler's fabulous tips to tip two kb's over on their sides and jam my feed against the kb's - 16's hit at just the right spot for me behind me ankles - and i janda from there with the breathing pattern of Bullet Proof Abs. Add in some more Bullet Proof abs, like russian twists with the kb and who knows? that might be getting somewhere.
Arms Emphasis. I'll share something else i've been trying after light and medium days with my arms quest, baesd on colleague and expert trainer Roland Fisher's suggestion to complement RTK: drop sets of biceps curls with overspeed eccentrics. These are relatively new, so too early to tell if they're haveing an hypertrophy effect but they are having a strength effect: i can do more sets before having to drop the load. If the speed drops, drop load. Using this metric, volume is going up.
Size? Likewise on the superficial girth measurement issue - 3 months into RTK more or less, it seems the size of my arms has evened out. There was about a quarter inch difference before between the left and right; now, they measure up pretty much even. That's kinda cool. Does anyone else think their non-dominant arm actually looks stronger or more defined than their stronger arm?
I think my left arm is also catching up with my right arm in strength from sticking with the stronger arm in all this doubles work. Both sides get the same amount of work now. Anytime i press the 20 on the right, i'm push pressing it on the left, and repping partials with the left. It's going to get there with the 20 too, just like last year getting the 16 on the left as well. Now that would be something to RTK long cycle with 20's. Hmmm.
Time and Breathing: ssshhhh on the hissss. Other places where i'm noticing improvements: speed to get through medium day ladders is going up. Time is going down - a bit. In particular i'm not huffing and puffing as loudly.
I've been trying to be more aware of my breathing volume - both kinds. Trying to get quieter and more efficient. I've been wondering if i haven't actually been wasting energy in overdoing my pressurizing breathing, and have been fascinated with what's happening when i try ONLY to quieten it down, not change anything else. That's the only deliberate adjustment i've considered and it does seem to be connecting with better movement efficiency - or it feels that way.
Hands Open. Continuing the hand position experiment, i gave the open/knife hand of Vasily Ginko pointed to by RKC TL Randy Hauer a go. Very nice. With the horns of the bells resting more firmly on the outside heel of the palm, there is a different muscle triggering happening as Pavel outlines in ETK. I can do the knife hand open for the 12's. With the 16's (heavy days) i'm more comfortable with the index finger looping lightly over the horn.
Heavy Day Clarity. And speaking of heavy day. Where i'm noticing improvement there: staying more solid in the clean. The bells feel like they are more under control coming into the rack. I'm not doing any more reps per 5 ladders yet, but the quality of the reps seems to be going up. And you know what? i'm ok with that? i'm ok with getting really good reps on heavy day and keeping fresh and getting faster before adding in more rungs.
Psychologically, setting myself the number of rungs i'm going to do at the start, and sticking with that, has meant the difference between a certain dread associated with heavy day (oh no, not the fourth rung), and a feeling of focused energy. And why not? I'm not really doing this to beat myself up, but to build myself up. Maybe that means i'm a bit of a psychological wimp. I think i can live with that right now, if that's the case. I *liked* the feeling this week of meeting my goals and just focusing on technique with a heavy bell and avoiding crappy reps, rather than feeling bad cuz i didn't grind out more than the last week's heavy day. Same number, better speed, shorter recoery, better reps. I have all the time in the world to get better at this - and add more rungs.
Less Chalk. One more way i've seen a kind of progress is that i seem to be going for the chalk bag less on even heavy days in the long cycle. Initially my hands were sweating so much the bells seemed constantly to be ready to fly from my fingers. And heh, going for the chalk bag is a few seconds more recovery between rungs. I still use chalk, especially on heavy days, but it just doesn't seem to be as much. Is that a sign of better fitness with these moves? Better conditioning?
Back in Action. Also in the news: my spine seems to be getting used to this double kettlebell work too. Before my back off week a few weeks ago, i felt i was aware of my lower thoracics in particular all the time (all the time between workouts) - in a way i hadn't ever been before. It wasn't pain i hasten to add, but it was definitely and unfamiliar sensation. Checking in with Zacharaih Salazar the the t-phase z-health cert, he assured me that this was part of the process and showed me some cool moves to open that up a bit. What i found is that just giving my back that week's break was fabulous. Sensation be gone.
Now two weeks back into it, just having finished up this long cycle block, i'm not getting that sensation/muscle awareness anymore. There's but a wee ghost of it. Neuro-muscular adaptation complete for this phase? Perhaps. It will be interesting to see how the pressing block goes, but still that's progress.
So this past long cycle suite has seen the first RTK block where i feel like i'm actually practicing the long cycle, at least a bit more, rather than learning the how to of the long cycle, RTK style. This sense doesn't mean there isn't room for tons of technique refinement and that the RKC II cert won't totally rip apart my form and rebuild it. But i guess the biggest plus is the sense a wee bit more of rhythm on each of the days: rhythm with the VPP, definitely with my middle days, and even with the heavy days.
ETK and RTK
When i write these posts i keep thinking about all the amazing things i'm finding in RTK and when i reflect(ed origitinally) on my experience with ETK (enter the kettlebell) i'm thinking "i wasn't having all these insights as i worked through ETK" - Maybe if you've just started with KB's and are doing ETK or have just done ETK you haven't either.
This lack of powerful insight is likely nothing to do with single vs double kb work per se (ie single kb just doesn't have as much to teach), but that, speaking for myself, i was just beginning to get to know KB's when i did ETK. I had neither the vocabulary nor the experience to consider these refinements. Last year's perfect rep quest series, working through a variant of Kenneth Jay's Beast pressing protocol was a beginning at exploring the single kb press work in the towards the perfect rep quest series.
This is a long way of saying that i'm seeing a return to ETK on the horizon - way down the horizon relative to where i'd like to get with RTK right now, but i'm curious to see if it will yield up some new insights coming at it this much further into KB practice. I'm particularly intrigued to be able to give Adam T. Glasses Press the Next KB size in a Month protocol a go. Maybe that one first, as the 24 still eludes me.
Related Posts
last medium and heavy days in particular of the second week of the third long cycle block. I love medium days; i am striving to warm to heavy days, too, and may have found a way with the Perfect Rep once more coming to the rescue.Medium Day Swet. It's getting colder outside and darker so much sooner. The heat needs to be thrown up for a bit an night to warm us up. Sometimes that exrta heat when doing the Long Cylce gets to feeling like a bit of a bikram studio - can't ask everyone else to freeze for my workoust - but the other night huffing and puffing into the zen of the swing and the dip and the open hand push press, towards the fourth ladder, i felt like i was seeing scenes from Apocalypse Now, with the Doors screaming and fire and sweat and the president of from the West Wing surfacing like a crocodile from the swamps to go after Marlon Brando. Surreal.
(cut to the middle of the above clip for the music to come on in)
Take aways from this session: i like medium days. They are my "just right" days. I get full 5*5 ladders in, feel taxed and like i'm practicing what i'm learning. They are less psychologically demanding than heavy days, and the main event takes somewhat less time, giving me extra cycles at the end to do some abs work.
Adding in Abs. Ab specific work may seem rather anathema to the hardstyle community but i've been talking with some power lifters and oly lifters about their programs and they find the extra core strength (yes i said core) let's them pull better. This may be so, so i'm giving it a go.
I do not have a pavelizer so i take one of mike mahler's fabulous tips to tip two kb's over on their sides and jam my feed against the kb's - 16's hit at just the right spot for me behind me ankles - and i janda from there with the breathing pattern of Bullet Proof Abs. Add in some more Bullet Proof abs, like russian twists with the kb and who knows? that might be getting somewhere.
Arms Emphasis. I'll share something else i've been trying after light and medium days with my arms quest, baesd on colleague and expert trainer Roland Fisher's suggestion to complement RTK: drop sets of biceps curls with overspeed eccentrics. These are relatively new, so too early to tell if they're haveing an hypertrophy effect but they are having a strength effect: i can do more sets before having to drop the load. If the speed drops, drop load. Using this metric, volume is going up.
Size? Likewise on the superficial girth measurement issue - 3 months into RTK more or less, it seems the size of my arms has evened out. There was about a quarter inch difference before between the left and right; now, they measure up pretty much even. That's kinda cool. Does anyone else think their non-dominant arm actually looks stronger or more defined than their stronger arm?
I think my left arm is also catching up with my right arm in strength from sticking with the stronger arm in all this doubles work. Both sides get the same amount of work now. Anytime i press the 20 on the right, i'm push pressing it on the left, and repping partials with the left. It's going to get there with the 20 too, just like last year getting the 16 on the left as well. Now that would be something to RTK long cycle with 20's. Hmmm.
Time and Breathing: ssshhhh on the hissss. Other places where i'm noticing improvements: speed to get through medium day ladders is going up. Time is going down - a bit. In particular i'm not huffing and puffing as loudly.
I've been trying to be more aware of my breathing volume - both kinds. Trying to get quieter and more efficient. I've been wondering if i haven't actually been wasting energy in overdoing my pressurizing breathing, and have been fascinated with what's happening when i try ONLY to quieten it down, not change anything else. That's the only deliberate adjustment i've considered and it does seem to be connecting with better movement efficiency - or it feels that way.
Hands Open. Continuing the hand position experiment, i gave the open/knife hand of Vasily Ginko pointed to by RKC TL Randy Hauer a go. Very nice. With the horns of the bells resting more firmly on the outside heel of the palm, there is a different muscle triggering happening as Pavel outlines in ETK. I can do the knife hand open for the 12's. With the 16's (heavy days) i'm more comfortable with the index finger looping lightly over the horn.
Heavy Day Clarity. And speaking of heavy day. Where i'm noticing improvement there: staying more solid in the clean. The bells feel like they are more under control coming into the rack. I'm not doing any more reps per 5 ladders yet, but the quality of the reps seems to be going up. And you know what? i'm ok with that? i'm ok with getting really good reps on heavy day and keeping fresh and getting faster before adding in more rungs.
Psychologically, setting myself the number of rungs i'm going to do at the start, and sticking with that, has meant the difference between a certain dread associated with heavy day (oh no, not the fourth rung), and a feeling of focused energy. And why not? I'm not really doing this to beat myself up, but to build myself up. Maybe that means i'm a bit of a psychological wimp. I think i can live with that right now, if that's the case. I *liked* the feeling this week of meeting my goals and just focusing on technique with a heavy bell and avoiding crappy reps, rather than feeling bad cuz i didn't grind out more than the last week's heavy day. Same number, better speed, shorter recoery, better reps. I have all the time in the world to get better at this - and add more rungs.
Less Chalk. One more way i've seen a kind of progress is that i seem to be going for the chalk bag less on even heavy days in the long cycle. Initially my hands were sweating so much the bells seemed constantly to be ready to fly from my fingers. And heh, going for the chalk bag is a few seconds more recovery between rungs. I still use chalk, especially on heavy days, but it just doesn't seem to be as much. Is that a sign of better fitness with these moves? Better conditioning?
Back in Action. Also in the news: my spine seems to be getting used to this double kettlebell work too. Before my back off week a few weeks ago, i felt i was aware of my lower thoracics in particular all the time (all the time between workouts) - in a way i hadn't ever been before. It wasn't pain i hasten to add, but it was definitely and unfamiliar sensation. Checking in with Zacharaih Salazar the the t-phase z-health cert, he assured me that this was part of the process and showed me some cool moves to open that up a bit. What i found is that just giving my back that week's break was fabulous. Sensation be gone.
Now two weeks back into it, just having finished up this long cycle block, i'm not getting that sensation/muscle awareness anymore. There's but a wee ghost of it. Neuro-muscular adaptation complete for this phase? Perhaps. It will be interesting to see how the pressing block goes, but still that's progress.
So this past long cycle suite has seen the first RTK block where i feel like i'm actually practicing the long cycle, at least a bit more, rather than learning the how to of the long cycle, RTK style. This sense doesn't mean there isn't room for tons of technique refinement and that the RKC II cert won't totally rip apart my form and rebuild it. But i guess the biggest plus is the sense a wee bit more of rhythm on each of the days: rhythm with the VPP, definitely with my middle days, and even with the heavy days.
ETK and RTK
When i write these posts i keep thinking about all the amazing things i'm finding in RTK and when i reflect(ed origitinally) on my experience with ETK (enter the kettlebell) i'm thinking "i wasn't having all these insights as i worked through ETK" - Maybe if you've just started with KB's and are doing ETK or have just done ETK you haven't either.
This lack of powerful insight is likely nothing to do with single vs double kb work per se (ie single kb just doesn't have as much to teach), but that, speaking for myself, i was just beginning to get to know KB's when i did ETK. I had neither the vocabulary nor the experience to consider these refinements. Last year's perfect rep quest series, working through a variant of Kenneth Jay's Beast pressing protocol was a beginning at exploring the single kb press work in the towards the perfect rep quest series.
This is a long way of saying that i'm seeing a return to ETK on the horizon - way down the horizon relative to where i'd like to get with RTK right now, but i'm curious to see if it will yield up some new insights coming at it this much further into KB practice. I'm particularly intrigued to be able to give Adam T. Glasses Press the Next KB size in a Month protocol a go. Maybe that one first, as the 24 still eludes me.
Related Posts
- All the previous RTK updates, and even more kettlbell articles at the b2d kb article index
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Raw and The Cooked of Enzyme Supplementation
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Where's the beef on enzyme supplementation? Our 
pancrease creates gagillions of digestive enzymes; our guts are full of happy bacteria by the gigaorificzillions. So why do we need to add the expense of additional stuff? I admit i have a hard time with the push for enzyme supplementation. But what's the science?
Maybe maybe maybe in the case of a specific inflammation or digestion issue there may be grounds for proteolytic enzyme supplementation. But as a general rule? Likewise the argument that we need such supplementation because we eat cooked food and that destroys food enzymes making it difficult to get nutrients from the food? Surely there's good science to show the opposite is true?
So in such a state of quandry, who'm i gonna call? Why, RD and PhD candidate Georgie Fear of askgeorgie.com. We looked at some common claims around enzymes, and Georgie put together the following points.
Thank you Georgie!
By all means, please visit Georgie's site - often.
She has a new cookbook i'll be reviewing soon, and as a preview: if you want to eat well but don't feel like a suave chef in the kitchen, but you have a knife and a nuker - check out the cook book called Dig In. Served with smarts and love. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
pancrease creates gagillions of digestive enzymes; our guts are full of happy bacteria by the gigaorificzillions. So why do we need to add the expense of additional stuff? I admit i have a hard time with the push for enzyme supplementation. But what's the science?Maybe maybe maybe in the case of a specific inflammation or digestion issue there may be grounds for proteolytic enzyme supplementation. But as a general rule? Likewise the argument that we need such supplementation because we eat cooked food and that destroys food enzymes making it difficult to get nutrients from the food? Surely there's good science to show the opposite is true?
So in such a state of quandry, who'm i gonna call? Why, RD and PhD candidate Georgie Fear of askgeorgie.com. We looked at some common claims around enzymes, and Georgie put together the following points.
1. The common division [often seen on the web] of enzymes into "digestive", "food", and "metabolic" enzymes is arbitrary. Many of them do the same things. Proteolytic enzymes from papaya, for example (which you'd call a "food" enzyme), function in the same manner as proteolytic enzymes pepsin produced in the stomach. They all cleave peptide bonds. Similarly, collagenases (completely unrelated to digestion) are present in joints and other sites throughout the body. They also cleave peptide bonds to remodel cartilage and connective tissue, etc. So classify enzymes based on the source if you like, but it is only a simplification. This has no utility in actual science however, where enzymes are commonly classified by chemical process (example) or mechanism.
2. Claims that Cooked foods containing NO enzymes is a similar oversimplification, not that it matters, as I'll point out in #3. Cooking is a spectrum of exposure to various degrees of heat for various lengths of time. Enzymes vary in their heat stability, resistance to denaturation by acid, etc. To do RNA replication in the lab we use a polymerase from organisms that thrive near thermal vents (T. aquaticus), precisely because it won't be denatured even after many many cycles of heating and cooling. I'm not going to bother looking up individual food enzymes and their denaturation points, but suffice to say a blanched vegetable (cooked for 1 min) is different than one broiled for an hour. I'm sure different foods, cooked for different amounts of time and different temperatures, would contain varying amounts of enzyme activity.
(Why can't you use canned pineapple to make jello? Because it has natural protease activity. Hmm, survived the canning process didnt it?)
But I'm going to get to why it doesn't matter.
3. Why doesn't it matter that cooking supposedly decreases enzymes in food? Because you don't need any enzymes from food. It wouldn't matter if you intentionally destroyed every enzyme from every morsel you ate. Your body is wonderfully designed to efficiently digest and assimilate any and all digestibles you give it with its own enzymes. There are a multitude of enzymes used in the gut, starting with ptyalin right in your saliva which starts working as soon as you bite. The stomach provides acid and more enzymes (which are activated by the acid environment.) Upon proceeding to the small intestine, bicarbonate ions neutralize the stomach acid and activate yet another set of enzymes supplied by the pancreas, which function best at the higher pH. Further enzymes are produced by the small intestine itself. You have quite an array, you dont need any enzymes from your meals.
4. Food enzymes may not have any in vivo activity. Take papain from papaya for example, which some people think will help them digest protein. Optimal ph for papain activity is 6.0-7.0. Neutral. Not what you'd find in the stomach. Your own protein digestion is optimized work in that acid environment, and then continue at ph8.0 in the small intestine. I don't know if most plant enzymes will still be active after getting dumped in to the acid environment of the human stomach, but I'd guess that most would be denatured by the acid.
5 So-called Enzyme Limitation: in a proponent's paraphrase of Edward Howell's Enzyme Nutrition:We have a limited enzyme potential. In other words, we do not manufacture an unlimited supply of enzymes. The more our body is required to make food enzymes, the less it makes metabolic enzymes.Well that would likely fall under the "Completely wrong" category.
You also will not run out of heartbeats and die early if you exercise. This is based on the fact that enzymes are not themselves changed in their reactions, but can catalyze millions of reactions. Second, enzyme synthesis, activation, and kinetic activity are regulated. Enzyme production can be increased or decreased at the synthesis step. Many enzymes are also synthesized as zymogens, which need cleavage before becoming active. This also is a step for up- or down- regulation. Natural inhibitors or activators can further fine tune activity, you make both. Natural inhibitors keep enzymes from running rampant in the body, and coactivators/coenzymes also help keep enzymatic activity in check.
(Scroll to The Catalytic Activities on Enzymes are Regulated)
As for the second sentence, that's what polite company might call "complete garbage." Read about gene expression here for example
6. Supposed Enzyme Inhibitors action of raw seeds, etc
Another claim from Enzyme Nutrition proponents: "Raw grains, nuts, seeds, and beans contain enzyme-inhibitors. If they are germinated or properly soaked, the enzyme-inhibitors are neutralized."
Again, alas, wrong based on what we know in the science. Sprouting grains does cause dramatic changes in enzyme concentration and inhibitor activity, (in my experiments I carefully sprouted peas to isolate glucosidase, which is many times higher than before sprouting them). However, most enzyme inhibitors are not neutralized or destroyed by soaking. This is the reason why some foods are not safe to eat without full cooking (yes, boiling. Until cooked.) Soybeans for example contain many protease inhibitors, which will not be altered by a soak. Many other legumes and beans also shouldn't be eaten raw, because the enzyme inhibitors will make digestion difficult.
Granted, consuming raw beans would make for digestive trouble, but not all enzyme inhibition is bad. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (which are isolated from white kidney beans) are helpful to slow down carbohydrate digestion, which assists diabetics in managing blood glucose. Many protease inhibitors have medicinal uses for disease states.
Here's a well-cited article published in 2007 on deriving medicinal protease inhibitors from plants (note the author -mc).
7. Raw food isn't more easily absorbed or digested than cooked. In contrast, cooking makes many nutrients far more bioavailable. Carotenes and lycopene for example. If there is any item which we aren't capable of digesting, it's cellulose, since humans lack the enzyme to cleave beta linkages. Thus, carbohydrates with these linkages go undigested and we call it fiber.
My last point is that enzymes may be helpful for people with certain medical conditions, but none of these are "food enzymes". T Primarily - lactose intolerance (which occurs when your body doesn't make enough lactose) can be treated by taking exogenous lactase. People with cystic fibrosis or pancreatic diseases often benefit from taking supplemental digestive enzymes, but these also are not found in plants. Human (or bioidentical) enzymes do the job best. That's why we take extra human enzymes when disease restricts the production of our own. Its not a matter of eating more raw plants.
Evolution has created the human body with a well-organized and efficient set of enzymes to digest food as well as control myriad other processes.
It's important to consider the source of information proponents are quoting to back up their assertions about enzymes. Belief in the need to take in exogenous enzymes from food is evidence of someone who seems to be not best aware of recent biology. For reference, the popular reference that many proponents cite for backup, Enzyme Nutrition, was written by a person born in 1898 and published in the 1980s. A lot of research has happened since then in understanding food and enzymes.
Georgie Fear RD
www.askGeorgie.com
Thank you Georgie!
By all means, please visit Georgie's site - often.
She has a new cookbook i'll be reviewing soon, and as a preview: if you want to eat well but don't feel like a suave chef in the kitchen, but you have a knife and a nuker - check out the cook book called Dig In. Served with smarts and love. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Food Inc.: the unbearable lightness of the food industry
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Don't care if anyone ever says again there's no 
difference between organic and not; free range or not. I get that much of what gets labelled as free range is specious in the UK for instance, but we all really do need a cold reality check about food production in the West.
Food Inc delivers that view without taking us right to the sharp end of the air gun as did Fast Food Nation. With some basic knowledge about the production of animals, the way the FDA and USDA has been allowed to go toothless, the fact that at least in Europe GMO crops are actually labelled as such becomes something to hang onto and hold dear. The EU may have value after all.
If you haven't seen Food Inc., it's on DVD; now's the time. It's interesting without being bombastic. If you like Michael Pollen of the Omnivore's Dilema you get a lot of him, too. And again, with just basic info that's pretty compelling. Walmart though in the film turns out not to be the big(gest) villain. Nope, it's the laws of states that prohibit anyone publishing a photo of a food production lot at a plant where animals are kept. It's the change of seed practices in the states so that the One Big Seed Company with its GMO corn ensures that farmers can't harvest their own seeds for regrowing. That's patent infringement.
You think you're not eating GMO products? Think again: Arnie vetoed a bill that had been passed in the Cal. Legislature to have GMO/cloned products labelled as such. All the corn based products like Coke, chips, most stuff with soy product or corn bi-products is GMO corn.
13 companies pack 90% of all the meat in america. I could just go on and on.
Ok one more thing: the special relationship meat packing houses have with law enforcement about shipping in illegals to work in the plants and then busting the immigrants, not the companies, when there's a hint of a Union about to emerge. What synergies.
But the most powerful take away is that consumers do affect the system: the meat industry changed because of fast food. Fast food wouldn't have that power if people didn't buy it. Walmart has had to get rid of growth hormoned milk because of consumer demand. Amazing.
So let's ask our stores about the provenance of our food and opt out of the crap. Food Inc gives some pretty compelling rationales of why that's not just Right it's critical. Monocultures eventually crash and take a lot down with them. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
difference between organic and not; free range or not. I get that much of what gets labelled as free range is specious in the UK for instance, but we all really do need a cold reality check about food production in the West.Food Inc delivers that view without taking us right to the sharp end of the air gun as did Fast Food Nation. With some basic knowledge about the production of animals, the way the FDA and USDA has been allowed to go toothless, the fact that at least in Europe GMO crops are actually labelled as such becomes something to hang onto and hold dear. The EU may have value after all.
If you haven't seen Food Inc., it's on DVD; now's the time. It's interesting without being bombastic. If you like Michael Pollen of the Omnivore's Dilema you get a lot of him, too. And again, with just basic info that's pretty compelling. Walmart though in the film turns out not to be the big(gest) villain. Nope, it's the laws of states that prohibit anyone publishing a photo of a food production lot at a plant where animals are kept. It's the change of seed practices in the states so that the One Big Seed Company with its GMO corn ensures that farmers can't harvest their own seeds for regrowing. That's patent infringement.
You think you're not eating GMO products? Think again: Arnie vetoed a bill that had been passed in the Cal. Legislature to have GMO/cloned products labelled as such. All the corn based products like Coke, chips, most stuff with soy product or corn bi-products is GMO corn.
13 companies pack 90% of all the meat in america. I could just go on and on.
Ok one more thing: the special relationship meat packing houses have with law enforcement about shipping in illegals to work in the plants and then busting the immigrants, not the companies, when there's a hint of a Union about to emerge. What synergies.
But the most powerful take away is that consumers do affect the system: the meat industry changed because of fast food. Fast food wouldn't have that power if people didn't buy it. Walmart has had to get rid of growth hormoned milk because of consumer demand. Amazing.
So let's ask our stores about the provenance of our food and opt out of the crap. Food Inc gives some pretty compelling rationales of why that's not just Right it's critical. Monocultures eventually crash and take a lot down with them. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
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