Will you get better results if you workout in the morning or the afternoon?  Some say exercising in the morning forces your body to utilize fat as the energy source, so it’s the best time to workout if you want optimum fat loss.  Others say your lean muscle building and fat loss hormones peak in the afternoon, so if you want a better body you’d better workout later in the day.  So which is it, AM or PM? 

Before we start talking times, let’s quickly go over how your biological clock works.  Circadian rhythm is your internal clock.  It follows a natural cycle and greatly influences how you feel, how you sleep, what you crave and how much energy you have.  Your natural cycle controls your body’s physiological functions by dictating the timing, quantity, and quality of hormones and neurotransmitters it produces.  In a nutshell, your circadian rhythm helps create balance in your body for optimum functioning.  When things are balanced and working properly, you’ll sleep well and wake up when it’s light and fall asleep when it’s dark.  As your body wakes up, it starts to produce the necessary hormones such as cortisol and serotonin to get your blood pressure up, raise your core body temperature, and get you mentally alert and physically ready to start the day.  As the evening approaches and the sun sets, your body naturally starts to wind down and produces hormones such as melatonin and other neurotransmitters that allow your body to slow down, decrease blood pressure, and lower your core body temperature so you can eventually fall asleep.  Sounds like a dream right?  When was the last time your day went like that?

The problem is that many of us are not in sync with our natural circadian rhythm and this causes our internal functions to be completely discombobulated.  This can cause many health problems like depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, PMS, insomnia and…yep, you guessed it—even weight gain.

What causes you to be out of sync with your own internal clock? 

In order for you to best understand circadian rhythm and it’s effect on your body, it’s important to take a closer look into what makes your internal clock tick.

The study of circadian rhythm, also know as chronobiology, has been around since the 19th century.  But it wasn’t until Dr. Franz Halberg (a scientist from the University of Minnesota) discovered that blood count varied according to a strict rhythm throughout the day, that the study of circadian rhythm started to garner attention from the scientific and medical community.  Many studies have been done since then to learn more about the effects it has on our body, including several key studies done in the 1980’s.  These studies placed people in isolated environments without any outside influences or cues, such as daylight and time.  The studies revealed that human internal clock is actually longer than twenty four hours. 

But if our internal clock is longer than 24 hours and our day is only 24 hours long—isn’t it just a matter of time before we’re all out of sync with our natural cycle? 

No one really knows why our internal clock (without any external cues) is longer than twenty four hours…at least not yet.  But fortunately, nature has natural “time markers” that keep our internal clocks in tune with the length of the day.  In the field of chronobiology, these markers have been given the term zeitgebers, which is a German word that means “time givers”.  The most natural zeitgeber, of course, is the sun—but modern lifestyle has diminished it’s importance and has instead shifted our reliance on other artificial cues such as your alarm clock, morning rituals, daily activities like meal times, working hours, and evening cues like going out and watching TV.  All loosely regimented types of activities that have become habitual in nature.

But this is where many of us get into trouble…our modern life doesn’t always allow for “regular” schedules.  In fact, more and more we work longer hours, travel more, sleep less, eat at odd hours or even skip meals all together and…working out?  Who has time for that?!    (*wink*)

We are creatures of habit for a reason.  Your body has it’s own internal cycle and since that cycle is responsible for secreting hormones and neurotransmitters, you can imagine the havoc it creates on your body when your cycle gets out of whack.  Your body loses it’s bearings and doesn’t know when to produce the right hormones or how much to produce.  It’s kind of like a sailboat being lost at sea—you’re aimlessly floating whichever way the wind takes you… 

But not all is lost.

Even though many of our hormones exhibit circadian effects, there’s strong evidence that some can be produced and enhanced independent of time.  Lucky for us the two most important hormones - testosterone and GH - that affect your body in terms of getting lean, tight and fit, are such hormones. 

Let’s take a look at these two hormones:

Testosterone is a male sex hormone, and hence is much more prevalent in men.  But it is vital to building lean muscle for both men and women.  Although testosterone has some circadian effects - some state that it’s levels peak between 5:00-9:00 AM, while others state that it peaks between 3 and 11 hours after awakening.  Testosterone can also be enhanced through high intensity training.  No matter the time, high intensity exercises will always produce an influx of testosterone, allowing you to build more lean muscle - and that means more fat-burning too.

Growth Hormone (GH) is one of the most important hormones when it comes to your body transformation.  It enhances protein synthesis which builds muscle and lipolysis which burns fat and it also helps inhibit glucose uptake which is a major contributor for gaining belly fat.  Studies show that GH does not have strong circadian effects, but it does depend on getting enough sleep—in fact your GH is most effective during sleep!  Depriving yourself of enough sleep is not only effecting your level of energy and general mental alertness the next day, it’s also keeping you fat.  Other than sleep, the most potent GH enhancer is exercise.  And as with testosterone, the most effective type is short, high intensity exercise.  Again, irrespective of time, if you’re working out with high intensity, you’re producing increased amounts of GH, enabling you to effectively burn fat MUCH faster than you can with isolated exercises or steady-state cardio.

In the end, the best solution to a healthy, lean, and fit body, is to come up with a regular schedule and stick to it.  Keeping a regular schedule is far more important than being concerned with whether you workout in the morning or afternoon.  Remember, your natural cycle is governed by a combination of circadian rhythm and habitual external cues (ie. zeitgebers) that form your daily life, so try your absolute best to:

• Eat at at regular times and keep your junk food (ie. refined sugar and other empty calories) intake to a minimum.  Keep your diet healthy, well balanced, and consistent.
• Wake up and go to bed at consistent times and get enough sleep so you can maximize your body’s fat burning hormones, amongst other important hormones and neurotransmitters to ensure optimum health. 
• Workout regularly and at consistent times and include high intensity training into your fitness regimen.  If you aren’t familiar with high intensity workouts, check out my MAX Workouts program.  The workouts are short, intense, and optimized to help your body elicit as much favorable fat burning and lean muscle building hormones as possible.

Do you have a consistent schedule?  Have you found that sticking to a regular schedule has had a positive effect on your physical and mental well-being?  I’d love to hear from you, so please post your comments below.

Death by running?  Talk about an oxymoron.  The once savior to all heart disease is now a possible culprit?  Say it ain’t so!  Well, just this past week there were three deaths in the Detroit Marathon.  The incidents all happened within 16 minutes of one another—most likely all from cardiac arrest.  But don’t worry, as suggested by the CNN article titled, “Despite 3 deaths in Detroit race, runner fatalities are rare”, these incidents are not common.  Whew!  A sigh of relief if you love running and participate in long distance events like the marathon, right?  Not so fast.  What I’m about to tell you may have you thinking otherwise…

Let me preface this article by stating that I’m a fan of running.  I think it’s one of the most effective forms of cardio (when done in the proper format, more on that in a minute).  Running is functional and it’s the most natural form of exercise that we can do.  But as the old saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good”, and marathon running falls into this category.  Now, if you’re a diehard runner, more than likely you’re well aware that with running long distances, injury is just part of the game. 

Here are just a few of the common injuries brought about by long distance running:

• stress fractures
• lower-back pain
• blood in the urine
• repetitive-stress injuries
• increased risk for eating disorders

But now you may need to add increased risk of cardiac arrest to this already long list of physical ailments. 

Dr. Arthur Siegel, the director of internal medicine at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University has authored more than two dozen studies on runners of the Boston Marathon.  A former marathoner himself, he and his colleagues studied a group of healthy middle-aged runners who participated in the Boston Marathons between 1996 and 2001.  These are the findings, published in the Oct 17th issue of the American Journal of Cardiology:

The researchers measured levels of several proteins associated with inflammation and blood clotting in 55 finishers in the 1996 and 1997 races. Within 4 hours after the race, in comparison to before the race, levels of two of these proteins had more than doubled, Siegel’s team reports in the October 17th issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The proteins were C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation in blood vessels that may be associated with increased heart disease risk, and von Willebrand factor, a protein released after heart attack that has been linked to increased clotting activity and higher death risk.

Furthermore, data based on 13 finishers of the 1997 marathon show that von Willebrand factor remained elevated the morning after the race ended.

In a second study of 82 runners in the 1997 to 2001 Boston marathons, Siegel and his colleagues noted increases in various markers used to diagnose both early and late-stage injury to the heart. In fact, in two runners, elevated levels of cardiac troponin I—a protein released when heart tissue is damaged—persisted for up to 72 hours after the race ended.

The report also indicates that test results from 51 runners in 1998 to 2000 revealed that within 4 hours after the race, all of the runners again exhibited significant increases in the various markers measured as well as a 6.5-fold increase in their levels of cardiac troponin I within 4 and 24 hours after the race.

Although no one in the studies suffered cardiac arrest, the evidences provided is quite significant.  But there are many that see this study as just that - a study that doesn’t have much correlation to the general public that participate in long distance running.

Charles Schulman, a cardiologist and assistant clinical professor at Harvard and the president of the American Running Association, while those enzymes may be elevated, that doesn’t mean the runners will necessarily suffer heart attacks. “These are not specific tests for heart damage,” Schulman says.

Even Dr. Seigel who conducted the study clarifies that these studies were done on older individuals, whose average age was 47 and it doesn’t necessary reflect younger healthy athletes. 

I think it’s quite interesting to note that long distance running such as marathons and even longer 100 mile races have gotten more and more popular and it’s not necessarily because of fitness.  In fact as stated earlier, longer repetitive exercises don’t do much for your fitness level at all.  I know many start off participating in running to get in back in shape and that’s great!  But as you progress, naturally you want to challenge yourself and slowly but surely, the distance you run gets longer and longer.  Unfortunately, going for longer distances may be physically and mentally challenging, but it doesn’t reflect fitness and health.  Yes, I know… I’ll probably get many people that disagree with this statement, but it’s true.  Being able to perform super feats of endurance does not make you a fit person.  It makes you a person that can run long distances without stopping.  It doesn’t make you run faster,  doesn’t make you stronger, doesn’t give you more energy, doesn’t give you more power, doesn’t make you look better, doesn’t make you healthier. 

Since when did we define fitness as someone that’s able to last the longest?  Media does a great job of influencing us, leading us to believe that the fittest people are endurance people.  For instance, Outside Magazine votes on their annual fittest athletes and the list is always the who’s who of distance runners and other endurance athletes.  But if you asked them to perform other tasks that involved strength, agility, quickness and power, I bet they wouldn’t do so well.  Shouldn’t these criteria be part of fitness as well?  Not just endurance? 

Unless you’re a professional endurance athlete, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration when training such as the daily activities outside of your fitness regimen.  Working out longer cuts into your time with your family and friends, and since longer workouts deplete your energy levels, you won’t have as much energy to participate or enjoy in other activities.  Remember the longer you train the longer you need to recover!  And of course, your incidence of having repetitive injuries are much higher, which would also hinder you from performing your normal daily activities.

You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again: fitness is not time dependent, it’s intensity dependent.  Quality over quantity.  You can achieve your maximum fitness potential and get a leaner, healthier body by working out with intense effort utilizing the right exercises rather than doing just MORE of one thing.  I’m not telling you to stop running…in fact doing long distance running is great for active recovery once in a while.  But if you’re a runner by nature, change up your routine by including some interval training, speed work, and better yet, some strength training.  That’s why my download-able MAX Workouts program has a constant variety of workouts that include strength training, circuit training, and interval cardio training to keep your body challenged.  This way you’re sure to keep your body and fitness progressing without hitting a plateau or running into any possible physical ailments associated with doing long repetitive training.

What’s been your experience with running longer distances?  Have you suffered injury?  What happened to your energy levels?  As far as weight loss, did you find you could lose weight at first, but over time you stopped losing?

The fitness community has always been obsessed about muscle and how it makes us lean, fit, and strong, but there’s a group of researchers that argue that our focus has been on the wrong part of the anatomy, especially when it comes to maximizing your fitness potential while staying injury free.

The most recent issue of Men’s Health had a very interesting article by Christopher McDougall titled,  “Everything You Know About Muscle Is Wrong” (note: this article is equally beneficial to both men and women).  The article briefly looks into the world of fascial research.  Fascia is a fibrous connective tissue that surrounds and encases your muscles, and intricately intertwines and criss crosses through out your body creating sling like structures that pull on tendons and ligaments which are connected to your muscles and attached to your bones - which allows initiation of movements as well as influencing your body posture.

Dr. Schleip from the Fascial Research Project in Germany, states that fascia is the structure that we should be concentrating on, not muscle: 

“Fascia isn’t just taking orders, it’s also issuing them. It reacts to your environment and ultimately creates what Schleip calls “structural compensation.” The mechanism works like this: Every move you make is a physical experiment. If the experiment works—say, you swish a jumper while cocking your head to the side—it becomes a habit. All those little habits become locked in as posture. Over time, posture becomes structure: The man who accidentally nailed a three while his ear was itchy now feels comfortable only when his head is slightly off kilter.”


“Connective tissue is the Saint Bernard dog of the body—it’s slow and loyal,” Schleip says. “Once it’s formed into position, it’ll stick there.”  You can contort all you want in search of that mythical ideal alignment, but the odds are against you. The pull of your fascia is so ingrained in your movements, your friends can recognize you instantly at a distance before they even see your face.”

Basically, any bad habits, postures, and movements that you may have developed are all ingrained into your fascial system.  So your fascia may be more to blame for injuries, as well as stagnating you from reaching your maximum athletic and fitness potential.

For instance,  if you sit at work with a rounded back and slouched shoulders your fascia learns to hold that position by elongating certain areas and shortening other areas, kind of like molding a shell around your muscle so that you can efficiently keep the “bad” posture.  This will obviously affect your body when you stand erect and perform other activities that require your fascia to be shorter in areas that are supposed to longer and longer in areas that need to be shorter.  This can lead to injuries and inefficient movement patterns, and for athletes it may be the difference between throwing a 100 mph fast ball vs. a 90 mph fast ball.  Point is, no matter how much you train, until you reprogram your fascia, you’ll never rid yourself of existing injuries or achieve your full athletic/fitness potential.

“...the fascia actually recoils, allowing you to use far more of the force you generate than would be otherwise possible.” That’s why when you rifle a fastball, the size of your muscles is rarely the most important factor.

What does this mean in terms of your fitness?

“For many people, fitness is still all about lifting weights to build bulk,” Myers says. “But what does that make you fit for? I’d argue that this . . .”—he taps a key on his laptop and brings up a slide—“is a much more physically fit human than a bodybuilder is.” On the screen is a photo of a baby boy rolling on his back, blissfully drinking a bottle that he holds with his feet. Cute, sure; but more important, the little nipper is limber, balanced, and able to match impulse with action. “You are fit if you can adapt to the demands of your environment with ease and imagination,” Myers says.

And that to me has always been the bottom line…survival of the fittest.  That’s how we evolved in the first place, so why shouldn’t that be our guide to defining how fit we are?  Optimizing your fascial health as well as your muscle potential in a well balanced, coordinated, and functional manner so you can best adapt to any changes in the environment will allow you to achieve full fitness potential.     

So now that you know injuries and fitness potential is dependent as much (or perhaps even more) on your fascial health as your muscles, what can you do about it?  How do you train to build a lean and fit body while maximizing your fascial system so you can get the most out of your fitness and prevent injuries at the same time?

Functional training.

Functional training involves using exercises that allow your entire body to move in ways that improve your daily activity. 

Here are some examples of functional exercises:

• Squat Press Ups
• Overhead Squats
• Deadlift High Pulls

Since functional training involves using your entire body in ways that make you more “functional” you’re essentially programming your fascia to be more functional.  By having a healthy functional fascial system you’re essentially helping your body maximize fitness and athletic potential - you’re enabling the muscles to work at their full potential, as well as allowing your fascia to take advantage of it’s “recoil” potential. 

So, if you’ve been frustrated by your lack of fitness improvement, or perhaps you’ve been suffering from chronic injuries that don’t seem to go away, it’s time to look beyond training just your muscles and start reprogramming your fascia by incorporating functional training into your fitness regimen. 

If you’re not certain of what constitutes functional training you can follow the MAX Workouts program, which is based on over 40 different functional exercises programmed into workouts that have been planned out and scheduled to help optimize your fascial and muscular potential so you can achieve any fitness goals whether it’s to improve your athletic performance, lose weight and get lean, or enhance your general fitness level.

Are suprised to learn about the “fascia” and it’s role in your fitness?  Have you been incorporating functional exercises into to your fitness regimen?  I’d love to hear your comments, so please post them below…

*All quotes are from Christopher McDougall’s article titled,  “Everything You Know About Muscle Is Wrong” (Men’s Heath, October 2009 issue)

If you’ve been watching or reading the news, you can’t get away from today’s hottest topic - U.S. Healthcare Reform.  It’s a heated debate and both sides are pulling out all the stops. Everything from busing people into various communities to rally for their cause, to President Obama speaking at town hall meetings, to advertising and tweeting messages on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace—taking full advantage of all social networking avenues.  All in the hopes to reach as many people as possible with their message.  But what is their message?

The problem is the issues and solutions have become so convoluted and complicated that even the law makers themselves are confused.  There’s so much tainted and slanted information that it’s hard to figure out what’s true and what’s not. 

Private Interest Groups vs. YOUR Health

One thing is certain, there’s no denying the U.S. healthcare system is in need of an entire overhaul.  The U.S. has the most advanced medical technology in the world (although some would argue that this is true only for certain diseases), yet we’re ranked 37th in the world for healthcare.  When you’re denied cancer treatment because you had acne as a pre-existing condition, you know something is seriously wrong.  And no matter which side you’re on, there’s no arguing that the system has become too much about satisfying the small group of people that represent certain private interest groups rather than giving care to the people that need it. 

Luckily, I’ve had the fortune of living in four different countries: Japan, United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.  Outside of the U.S., all the other countries have some type of universal healthcare system.  Although universal healthcare has it’s pros and cons, one thing is for sure, I was never denied care.  The term “pre-existing condition” is used solely for medical history purposes.  And, yes, for certain procedures or surgeries you may have to wait longer than you would in the U.S., but you’ll always get the necessary procedure done.  You’ll never experience getting a phone call from the hospital two days before the surgery with a notice of cancellation because the insurance company denied to cover the procedure. 

The REAL Cost of Healthcare

If you’re part of the U.S. healthcare system, you know that the premium you pay each month to the insurance companies goes up every year without question, but what gets covered seems to proportionately decline.  Somehow the math doesn’t add up.  What are we really paying for?  And if you’ve seen the the explanation of benefits or the actual bills… you know that unless you have PhD in Insurance Deciphering, there is no way that you would understand what’s covered and what’s not covered and why?  When your premium increase is 3 times of that of the annual inflation rate, you know something has to be done.  The healthcare system needs fixin’ in a big way.  And I haven’t even touched on the subject of the 47 millions folks who are uninsured either because they can’t afford it or have been denied. Whatever you’re views are on this healthcare reform, I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all agree that at least some change is necessary.  And that, in part, involves you.

What Can Bring About Real Change?

The other night I was watching Larry King where a panel of 5 medical experts were voicing their views and opinions about the healthcare reform issue.  Each one made their own points, but there was one in particular that really struck a cord with me.  It was Dr. Andrew Weil.  You may know him from the Oprah show.  He’s a renowned wellness doctor, author, and an all round super knowledgeable guy.  His point was simple and direct.  Whether the healthcare reform goes through or not, until the entire healthcare paradigm changes, nothing is really going to change.  He stated that there needs to be a cheaper and more efficient solution to cutting down on our out of control healthcare spending, through affordable natural remedies, dietary solutions, and lifestyle changes rather than being overly dependent on prescription drugs and other expensive medical procedures. 

Of course, there are diseases and conditions that can only be treated through drugs and other costly, necessary medical procedures, BUT many can be easily prevented through simple dietary and lifestyle changes.  Rather than just concentrating on treating and fixing the sick, more emphasis should be put on to the prevention of disease.  Giving people the right tools and information so that they’re equipped to keep themselves healthy is key in promoting and implementing prevention, not to mention, drastically cutting healthcare costs.

Eating for Prevention & My Problem with the FDA’s Food Pyramid

Take a look at Dr. Weil’s food pyramid for example.  The pyramid heavily emphasizes the consumption of fruits and vegetables.  Much more so than the standard food pyramid provided by the FDA, where grains, breads and other simple carbs are emphasized.  This simple information alone may make the difference between struggling to keep your weight off and being unhappy, to being happy and healthy with your ideal bodyweight.

Dr. Weil’s Pyramid (Dr. Weil’s Food Pyramid)

• A minimum 4 - 5 servings of vegetables (both raw and cooked) a day
• 3 - 4 servings of fruits (both fresh in season and frozen) a day
• 3 - 5 servings of cracked and whole grains a day
• 2 - 3 servings a week of pasta (al dente)
• 1 - 2 servings of legumes and beans a day
• 5 - 7 servings of healthy fats (olive oil, grapeseed oil, nuts)
• 2 - 6 servings of fish and seafood a week
• 1 - 2 servings of whole soys a day (tofu, tempeh, edamame)
• Unlimited quantities of cooked Japanese mushrooms
• 1 - 2 servings of other proteins sources (eggs, chicken, grass fed meat)
• Unlimited quantities of herbs and spices
• 2 - 4 cups of tea a day (green, oloong, white)
• Daily supplements
• At most 1 - 2 servings of red wine a day (Only if you drink)
• Sparing amount of natural sweets (dark chocolate)

Fruits and vegetables have the highest quantity of nutrients and fiber,  as well as anti-oxidant qualities, so it makes sense that these food groups should be the most consumed on a daily basis.  It seems like a no-brainer, but most people consume way too many simple carbs such as bread, rice, and pasta - partly because it’s easy, cheap and readily available for consumptions—think Easy Mac and Cheese.  But it’s also partly because it’s become the norm and the FDA has promoted it as the basis of our diet for a long time.  Now don’t get me wrong, the standard food pyramid does promote ample consumption of fruits and vegetables, but having grains, bread, rice, and pasta on the bottom of the food pyramid? It still ends up promoting a highly starched based diet.   

Cut Your Calorie Intake 20-40% Without Even Noticing

Let’s take a look at what it may mean to follow a diet based on Dr. Weil’s food pyramid compared to the standard FDA food pyramid.  By simply switching simple carbs to complex carbs, you can conservatively cut down 20 - 40% of your total daily calories.  Simply because vegetables don’t have nearly as many calories as rice, bread or pasta and veggies have a much high fiber content so you get fuller faster—not to mention,  keeping you regular.  For example, if your daily total calorie intake is 2,200 calories,and you cut it down by 20% by simply swapping starches for veggies, you’ll bring your total daily calories down to 1,760.  That’s a reduction of 440 calories a day or 3,080 calories in a week.  Not only are you eating foods higher in nutritional content, but your also taking in less calories!

Burn An Extra 1,050 Calories A Week By Taking a Break

Now, let’s say you add another simple change into your daily routine…. like taking a brisk walk everyday.  A brisk walk is something anyone can do and it can be done pretty much anywhere.  Even if you’re stuck in a cubicle 8 hours a day, you can go for a short brisk walk during lunch.  Make sure that the walk is performed at a brisk pace around 3 miles an hour and lasts for at least 30 minutes.  You may think it’s just a walk, but check this out: If you weigh 175 lbs and you walk at a pace of 3 miles per hour, you’ll burn about 5 calories per minute.  So, 30 minutes adds up to 150 calories a day and in 7 days that’s 1,050 calories! 

You Just Chopped 4,130 Calories In a Mere WEEK!

Let’s take a look at what this entails.  An accumulation of the 150 daily calories burned from the 30 minute brisk walk combined with a reduction of 440 daily calories from replacing bread, pasta, and rice with veggies and fruits, means a total of 590 calories a day and a whopping 4,130 calories per week.  These small changes add up fast and go a looooong way in keeping you healthy.  You know the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”.  It isn’t far from the truth.  Leading a healthy, happy life doesn’t have to be Rocket Science.  Implement these small changes here and there and I guarantee it’ll add up to much bigger changes in your health.  A small step towards prevention can have a big impact on your health as well as the health of a nation.

I have 2 important questions for you today:

1. In your opinion, have you been living a preventative lifestyle?  In what ways?  Where could you improve?
2. If knowledge and prevention are key to a successful healthcare system, how do you propose bringing about this change in the American people’s thinking (i.e. “sick” care vs. preventative care)?

Please post your comments below…

As it turned out, the cross country course wasn’t nearly as bad as they said it was going to be, and as for Dead Man’s Hill… well it wasn’t easy, but it definitely was doable.  It was all hype.  And I have to admit, I was young, gullible and I got taken like every other “minor-niner” freshman.

Freshman or not… it’s the lack of correct information and hyped up misinformation that causes a lot of confusion.  The deadlift is similar in the sense that it’s gotten a bad rep—partly because of the name and partly due to the movement.  Don’t let the name intimidate you and don’t listen to others that haven’t tried it.  And definitely don’t listen to the people that have tried it and hurt themselves because they didn’t do it properly.  The deadlift is like any other exercise where, if you do it wrong, you can injure yourself.  The problem is, similar improper movements have gotten people in trouble with their low backs.  But, if done correctly, not only is it safe, it’s actually very beneficial in strengthening your low back.  Your low back is part of group of muscles known as the hip extensors, a group of muscles that allow hip extension.  It’s composed of your glutes, hamstrings, and your lower back muscles.  All three muscles must act in unison to allow your hips to extend properly.  However, as easy as the movement is, it’s almost always done wrong.  The main reasons being muscular imbalance, weakness, and poor technique.  You are more likely to perform back extension rather than hip extension.  The movements seem similar, but there is a big difference.  Back extension uses your low back muscles as your primary extensors rather than your glutes and hamstrings.  This is a recipe for a low back injury.  When you perform hip extension properly, you should be recruiting your glutes first (as your primary muscle), then your hamstrings, and then your low back muscles.  Your glutes and hamstrings are significantly stronger than your lower back and should be able to bear much more weight and pressure, thereby protecting your low back.

Another important aspect of strengthening your hip extensors is improving your ability to run, jump, and even skate.  Any activities that involve those movements will benefit greatly from doing the deadlift as part of your strength training routine.  This is why almost all strength training programs for athletes will include the deadlift.  But it’s not just for athletes, it’s great for everyone.  Just like the squats, the deadlift should be included into everyones strength training and fitness program as a functional exercise that will help you get stronger, keep you injury free, and get you running faster, jumping further, skating better and of course, improve your overall general fitness level.

Here’s how to perform the deadlift with proper form:

Have you been avoiding the deadlift?  Why or why not?  Post your comment below…

It may be hard to believe, but your hips can affect all your lower extremities, including all of the joints that make up your legs.  Your hips control how you walk, run, step up, and step down.  It all starts from your hips!  So it’s no wonder that dysfunctional hips can be caused by a weakness in the muscles that support and stabilize them.  The muscles in question here are your glutes.  Yes, that’s right your “derriere” not only makes your pants look good, but it also functions to keep your hips working optimally.  Weak glute muscles can alter your gait pattern and cause a dysfunction in your hips which causes a chain reaction down your legs, putting undue stress on your knees and ankles. 

This is why it’s important to keep your glutes strong.  Your glutes are made of three muscles each with specific actions and functions, but they all support each other.  The glute maximus is the largest and strongest muscle out of all them, but it’s functions can’t be maximized without the assistance from the other two - glute medius and glute minimus.  It’s really a team effort.  If you want your glutes to optimally function you need all three to be working in unison.  And this means not neglecting to train and strengthen the gluteus medius and minimus.  Even though they are smaller supporting muscles and only play a minor role in the aesthetics of your backside, they play a key role in stabilizing your hips. 

The one exercise that effectively strengthens the glute medius / minimus is the one legged squat.  You don’t need any weights, just your own body weight and you can do it anywhere.  Check out the video and see how to do the exercise properly and how you can progress into performing a full one legged squat (aka. the pistol squat). 

How low can you go?  Post your comments below.

You can easily incorporated this exercise into any of your workouts.  Try doing 10-12 reps per leg for 2-3 sets and repeat 3 times a week.  It’s simple (I didn’t say “easy”), effective, and will strengthen and stabilize your hips so you can run, workout, and perform all other activities free of those yellow and white pills.

Did you learn any new exercises in this video? As always, I love to hear from you so please post your comments!

Here’s recap of the workout:

• 15 Swings
• 20 Yard Run
• 15 Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls
• 20 Yard Run
• 20 Overhead Lunges
• 15 Squat ‘n Catch
• 20 Yard Run
• 5 Throws (Forward OR Backward)

Repeat the entire set 3-5 rounds

P.S. There are a ton of great workouts in my Killer Kettlebells eBook (the one that comes free with the MAX Workouts deluxe or premium package). All the workouts in that book only call for ONE kettlebell, so it’s super easy and convenient to do these total body sculpting routines practically anywhere. If you have this eBook already, you can always swap out a workout here and there if you’re currently on the MAX Workouts 90 day program. And if you don’t already have this book, you can still get it free with the MAX Workouts deluxe or premium packages.

In today’s video (below), I’ll demonstrate 6 exercises you can easily incorporate into your warm-up routine to help mobilize your shoulder joints before you start your next workout. These dynamic moves will help you increase your range of motion (flexibility) so you can perform exercises better, avoid muscular imbalance, and ultimately help you get more out of your workouts so you can stay fit and lose those unwanted pounds.

Not sure if you have shoulder instability? Watch the video and take note of the flexibility in my shoulders—especially when I demonstrate the exercises from the side. You’ll see how far back my arms go behind my head. If you’re not able to get your arms behind your head a decent amount, you’ve got room for improvement.

(Written exercise descriptions are posted below)

(Did this video tutorial help you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please post your comments below.)

Just a quick note before you perform these exercises with a stick:  If you have rounded shoulders from either poor posture or muscular imbalance, you’ll likely have a lack of shoulder motion.  So when you do this the first time make sure to take a very wide grip on the stick and keep your elbows locked out.  As you start performing these exercises, your range of motion on your shoulders should slowly start to increase.  As your shoulder motion increases, you should be able to gradually shorten the grip you take on the stick.

1. Pull Throughs - Start in a standing position holding a light stick by your waist.  You can use a broom stick, without the broom head or any stick around 4 - 6 ft long.  Hold the stick wide and slowly pull the stick up towards your chest. Keep the stick as close to your body as possible and when you reach a point that you can’t pull it up any higher, externally rotate your shoulders and push the stick overhead until your arms are full extended.  Make sure to bring the stick slightly behind your head. Bring the stick down to your waist and repeat 6-8 reps.

2.  Shoulder Retraction to Press Ups - Keep a wide grip on the stick and start with the stick behind your upper back and bring the stick down your back as low as possible by retracting your shoulder blades.  Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull them down as far as possible.  Then slowly push the stick up overhead until your arms are fully extended.  Make sure you keep the bar slightly behind your head upon extension.  Slowly bring the stick back down and repeat 6-8 reps.

3.  Sots Press - Start with the stick behind your neck.  Keep a wide grip on the stick and push the stick overhead as you squat down into a full squat.  Pretend that you’re using the stick to push your body down into a full squat.  Make sure to keep the bar slightly behind your head during this entire movement.  Slowly come up from the squat and lower the stick behind your neck at the same time.  Once you reach the starting position, repeat for 6-8 reps.

4.  Backward Lunges with a Twist - Start by carrying the stick overhead with your arms fully extended.  Keep a wide grip and lunge backwards.  In the lunge position, twist your upper body and bring one end of the stick towards the heel of your lunging leg.  If you do this properly, you will feel a good stretch on your hip flexors as well as you upper back and torso.  Come up from the lunge position and untwist at same time.  Repeat with the opposite leg and twist and reach down to the opposite side.  Repeat the move 3-4 reps on each leg.

6.  Side Lunges with Press Ups - Start with the stick behind your neck.  Keep a wide grip on the stick and lunge to the side.  In the lunge position, press the stick overhead into full arm extension. Make sure you keep the stick slightly behind your head as you’re pressing the stick up.  Come up from the lunge as you bring the stick down behind your neck. Repeat going the opposite side.  Repeat this move 3-4 times on each leg.

6.  Arm Swings

Variation 1 - This is a complicated move, so I’ll do the best that I can to describe the moves.  You don’t need a stock for this move.  Start with your arms out to the side.  Swing your arms along the front of your body and as your elbows cross paths, keep your elbows together and bend them as much as possible allowing your forearms to criss-cross in front of your chest.  This motion flexes your elbows and externally rotates your shoulders at the same time.  Following this motion, bring your elbows apart and raise them up and out as far as possible and bring your hands behind your head.  Then extend your elbows and straighten your arms out at about a 120 degrees from your sides.  Bring your arms around and repeat.  Try to do this in smooth continual motion and repeat for 6-8 reps.

Variation 2 - Once you’ve done the arm swings variation #1, it’s time to reverse the motion.  Start with your arms up and out at about 120 degrees from your sides.  Bring your elbows into your body while bending them at the same time.  Try to bring your elbows as close together as possible in front of your body.  At this time your elbows should be fully bent.  Keeping your elbows together, swing the forearms around such that they criss-cross in front of you and then straighten them out as you bring the arms out again away from your body into the starting position.  Try to do this in smooth continual motion and repeat for 6-8 reps.

Your shoulders are your most important upper body joints.  Keeping them strong and flexible is vital to your fitness goals.  Remember, the best way to get lean and fit is by doing full-body exercises and that means using your shoulders to push, press, and pull challenging weights to maximize intensity so you can boost your strength and increase your metabolism for permanent weight loss.

(Did this video tutorial help you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please post your comments below.)

Going through a full range of motion activates more muscle fibers—making them stronger and burning more calories.  Don’t make the mistake of increasing the weights before your muscles have fully reached their potential.  If you’re stacking on the weights, but aren’t going down low enough, you’re making a false sense of progress.  You may think that your are progressing, but in truth you’re just cheating yourself out of getting better results. 

Here are 2 examples:

1. Squats
Are you squatting down deep enough so that your thighs are parallel to the floor (or lower if possible)?  If you’re not, then you aren’t getting the most out of your squats.  Assuming that you’re completely healthy with no knee, hip, or low back injuries, you should be squatting as low as possible.  You may not have the flexibility at first, but don’t let that stop you from practicing it.  The idea is to go as low as you can while keeping good form.  When squatting, you should always keep your low back straight.  Even if you have to bring your chest forward to achieve the desired depth of squat, you need to keep your low back straight to avoid straining or injuring it.  The other point you should keep in mind is to stick your butt back as you’re squatting.  This will help you go down lower while minimizing any strain on your knees. 

2. Lunges
Lunges are a fantastic exercises for strenghtening and sculpting your legs.  What’s more, they’re functional, helping you with activities such as running, hiking, and all kinds of sports.  In order to get the most out of this power move, make sure you’re lunging all the way down.  That means, the thigh of your leading leg should come parallel to the floor, but make sure that your knee doesn’t travel beyond your toes (this will minimize strain on your knees).  The knee of your trailing leg should come close or even touch the floor.  Once again, keep your back straight and your chest up. 

Remember, a greater range of motion means that your muscle fibers have to lengthen further and consequently contract more as well.  This requires more neural recruitment and more muscle fibers to be stimulated, enabling your muscle to reach full potential.  This process also greatly increases the energy expenditure, which means more calories burned— so you can get stronger and leaner more effectively.

Bottom line is this—perform each exercise with full range of motion to maximize it’s benefits, so you can accelerate your results.