Marjo Sinokki, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Turku, Finland says “It is important to promoto well-being at work in every way and pay attention also to team climate.”

Sinokki’s research team collected data on 3,347 Finnish workers, aged 30 to 64 years old.  They asked about team spirit and the quality of communication and also about how they felt about the demands of their jobs.

The participants were asked to rate their workplace according to four phrases:

• “encouraging and supportive of new ideas”
• “prejudiced and conservative”
• “nice and easy”
• “quarrelsome and disagreeing.”

They were also asked about their home and social lives.

The researchers found that of those who thought team spirit was poor, about 60% were more likely to report being depressed and 50% were more likely to take antidepressants than those who rated team spirit as high.

However, Dr. Carole Lieberman, a clinical professor of psychology and stress expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, has some issues with some aspects of the study.

She says, “Although I agree with their conclusion, that poor team climate or office stress is associated with depression, there are problems with this study.  The study does not clarify to what degree office stress causes depression, versus to what degree depression causes office stress.”

Even given the criticism of this study, I would say that there is at least some merit to it.  I have noticed that I am less happy when part of a negative work environment.  I have also noticed that jobs with poor team spirit are more aggravating.  This is something to think about if you are stressed out or depressed about your work.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any solutions, but awareness and a positive attitude couldn’t hurt.

Reference:  MedLine Plus

I have been doing 45 seconds of high intensity followed by 90 seconds of recovery.  I typically do this for about 20 minutes, but I plan to work up to about 30 minutes.  For the higher intensity part, I increase the resistance and also peddle faster.  I downloaded a stopwatch application for my phone (T-Mobiel G1), which has helped keep the timing right.  Unfortunately, the application doesn’t do interval timing automatically, but I just stop, reset, and start at each intensity transition.

This type of cardio session is highly effective for burning calories and revving up the metabolism.  It’s also much more fun than doing slow cardio for over an hour.  I get bored with the long cardio sessions.

I really like TheFitCast and Strength Coach.

The Fitcast has some great hosts (Kevin Larrabee, Jonathan Fass, Tony Gentilcore, and Leigh Peele)  and they frequently have interviews with some very notable people in the fitness industry.  Most, if not all, of the hosts have written articles for T-Nation.  I have listened to interviews from John Berardi, Tom Venuto, Dave Tate, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Alwyn Cosgrove, and many others.  The advice and information is top notch, and I find that it keeps me motivated to train hard and eat well.

The Strength Coach podcast is the official podcast for Mike Boyle and has some great information as well.  Sometimes I find that it’s a little over my head or geared more towards those who train athletes; however, its still motivating and I almost always learn something new from each episode.

Check out these podcasts and hopefully they will be motivating to you as well.  The links are embedded above, but you can also just search by name on iTunes and subscribe there.

The follwing is my latest workout program.  It consists of three separate workouts that I do once each per week – typically Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  This is more of a muscle building program.  Last week was my first time through, and I have been really sore.

Day 1

Week 1:  3 sets of 15
Week 2:  4 sets of 10
Week 3:  3 sets of 12
Week 4:  4 sets of 6-8

A1)  Dumbbell Flat Bench Press
A2)  Cable Rows

B1)  Incline Flies
B2)  Bent-Over Lateral Raise, Thumbs Down

C1)  Dumbbell Curls
C2)  Dumbbell Skull Crushers

D1)  Hammer Curls
D2)  Dumbbell Tricep Kickbacks
D3)  Standing Cable Crunches

Day 2

Week 1:  4 sets of 10
Week 2:  3 sets of 15
Week 3:  4 sets of 6-8
Week 4:  3 sets of 12

A1)  Walking Lunges
A2)  Dumbbell Shoulder Press

B1)  Bulgarian Split Squats
B2)  Arnold Press

C1)  Single-Arm Shrugs
C2)  Wrist Roller
C3)  Hanging Leg Raises

Day 3

Week 1:  3 sets of 15
Week 2:  4 sets of 10
Week 3:  3 sets of 12
Week 4:  4 sets of 6-8

A1)  Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
A2)  Face Pulls

B1)  Flat Flies
B2)  Cable Shrugs

C1)  Dumbbell Preacher Curls
C2)  Cable Tricep Extensions with Straight Bar
C3)  Ab Roller

My current workout program has four separate workouts that I have been doing four days a week.  It is a strength based workout, and I have been enjoying it.

Day 1

A) Squats:
Weeks 1 and 2:  5 sets of 4
Week 3:  6 sets of 4
Weeks 4 and 5:  7 sets of 3

Superset with rest
B1) Overhead Squat:  3 sets of 12
B2) Dynamic Push-Ups:  3 sets of 12

C) Side Bridges:  3 sets of 30 to 60 seconds each side

Day 2

Superset with rest
A1) Barbell Bench Press
A2) Cable Rows
Weeks 1 and 2:  5 sets of 4
Week 3:  6 sets of 4
Weeks 4 and 5:  7 sets of 3

Superset with rest
B1) Close-Grip Lat Pulldown:  3 sets of 8
B2) Barbell Shoulder Press:  3 sets of 8

C) Lower-Body Russian Twist:  3 sets of 12

Day 3

A) Speed Deadlifts
Weeks 1 and 2:  5 sets of 4
Week 3:  6 sets of 4
Weeks 4 and 5:  7 sets of 3

Superset with rest
B1) Romanian Deadlifts:  3 sets of 8
B2) Static Lunges:  3 sets of 8

C) Bridges:  3 sets of 30 to 60 seconds

Day 4

Superset with rest
A1) Chin-Ups
A2) One-Arm Dumbbell Push Press
Weeks 1 and 2:  5 sets of 4
Week 3:  6 sets of 4
Weeks 4 and 5:  7 sets of 3

Superset with rest
B1) Neutral-Grip Incline Dummbbell Bench Press:  3 sets of 8
B2) Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldowns:  3 sets of 8

C) Reverse Woodchop:  3 sets of 12

I am still working out, but unfortunately my diet has been suffering.  Things are starting to stabilize a little, so I should be able to cook meals and post more often.  I am also hoping to record and post some videos of myself weight lifting in the next couple of months.

Thank you to those that are still checking this site.

Mike

BMI is the ratio of height to weight, and it is often used to determine whether or not someone is overweight.  Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic recently reported that people with normal BMIs that still have excess body fat were more likely to have high cholesterol and extra body fat, which are both characteristics of metabolic syndrome.

Lopez-Jimenez calls the condition “normal-weight obesity”, and it was found in 61% of a sample of 2,127 men and women with normal BMIs.  Francisco says that “it normally comes down to exercise.”  He recommends that people should perform both strength training and aerobic workouts.

I recently posted about the growing levels of obesity in the US.  However, it seems like being normal weight may not be enough.  However, I have never put much stock in the BMI.  It does not account for muscle mass, which weighs more than body fat.  Therefore, muscular people may have high BMIs, while people with “normal-weight obesity” will have acceptable BMIs.

Reference:  MedLine Plus

Trans fats are formed by processing vegetable oils to increase their shelf-life, and are found in several snacks, baked goods, and other packaged foods.  It has been shown previously that consuming trans fats increases levels of LDL-cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol), which has been linked with increased heart disease.  Most health authorities recommend that people avoid eating then completely.

To investigate the effects of trans fats on colon cancer, the researchers looked at 622 people who had colonoscopies at University of North Carolina Hospitals in 2001 and 2002.  The participants were interviewed about their diet, exercise, and other health issues within 12 weeks of having the screening test.

People who consumed higher amounts of trans fats (typically 2.54 grams daily), were 86% more likely to have colon polyps than those who consumed much lower amounts of trans fats (3.63 grams daily).

Among the 38.5% of study participants found to have colon polyps, average trans fatty acid intake was 4.97 grams.  The average intake for those who did not have colon growths was 4.42 grams.

Dr. Lisa C Vinikoor of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill states, “these results provide further support for recommendations to limit consumption of trans-fatty acids.”

I have read several nutritional experts recommend eating foods in their most natural state, and this study provides further proof that processed foods are very detrimental to health.  One common piece of advice is if you cannot imagine your food as something that grows in the earth or gets its food from something that grows in the earth, then you probably should not eat it.  For example, I’ve never heard of a Twinkie tree.

Reference:  MedLine Plus

The lizards perform push-ups, head bobs, and extensions of a colorful neck flap, or dewlap, to defend their territory.  “Anoles are highly visual species, so in that sense it is not surprising that they would use visual displays to mark territory,” said Terry J. Ord, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis and at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Ord studied four species of Jamaican forest lizard.  They found that females establish territories allowing access to food and other resources, while males stake out larger territories permitting access to females.  The males spend most of the day on tree trunks displaying head motions, push-ups, and dewlap extensions to warn other males to stay away from their territory.

This is not exactly a health article; however, I thought it was interesting and it relates to strength.

Reference:  University of California Davis

To lose fat, sometimes you have to eat fat. Monounsaturated fats and certain polyunsaturates actually speed up the metabolic rate. The best of the fat burning bunch are the highly unsaturated omega 3s called EPA and DHA. These omega 3 fatty acids can potentially help burn blubber through a variety of different mechanisms. A diet supplemented with omega 3-rich fish oil promotes losses of body fat with simultaneous gains in lean mass. That’s right, more muscle and less fat, baby!

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