Do You Eat Enough Fruits and Vegetables?

As you may already know, I am a strong advocate of consuming enough fruits and vegetables in your diet (especially vegetables). The reasons for this are extensive and include:

• Disease prevention
• Boosting immune function
• Maintaining a healthy bodyweight
• Supporting athletic performance
• High in anti-oxidants
• Much, much more....

But I also recognize that it can be difficult to get the recommended 7 to 10 servings every day, which is why I suggest making Juice Plus+ a regular part of your nutrition plan. In fact, this is the only nutritional supplement I am personally a distributor for at present, and I've been offered to promote any number of supplements!

I really believe it is important to cover the basics first when it comes to nutrition, before investing in other supplements. For example, I would first make sure you are eating the right amounts of whole foods in the correct balance. Then I would incorporate Juice Plus (as a fruit and vegetable concentrate), fish oil, and vitamin D. Only then might I suggest using whey protein, Branched Chain Aminos, or other supplements such as creatine, depending on a client's goals and needs.

It doesn't make sense to take supplements for performance enhancement or fat loss if you aren't already consuming the essential nutrients your body needs to maintain good health!

If you are not currently consuming at least 7 servings of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables every day, do yourself a favor and check out this site for more info:

www.StayFitWithJuicePlus.com

Watch the videos and read the studies... you'll understand how this product is different from your typical multi-vitamins.
  
After you check out the website and the video I'd like to hear your feedback:

• Do you already use Juice Plus? 
• What other supplements have you taken in the past in order to maintain good health?
• Do you believe that you eat enough fruits and vegetables? 
• Do you have any tips or tricks to increase your consumption of these important foods?
• Do you have any related questions?

I look forward to hearing from you!


Stay Fit,


Josh Hewett

Btw, I have the next couple of posts ready for you, which will include an article on Fat Loss Tips from Craig Ballantyne, some info on Overtraining from Mike "The Machine", a quick summary of my trip to the Arnold Fitness Expo in Ohio, and a few important health tips I'm sure you'll appreciate!

Who Is The REAL Hero?

Amazing video! This person is finally getting the recognition they deserve!
(It's well worth the wait if it takes a few seconds to load).

Josh

How To Master The Mother Of All Hormones To Build Muscle And Burn Fat!

Guest Post By The Muscle Nerd, Jeff Anderson

In This Article:

•How you can tap into the ab-shredding workouts that will carve out your body like a "300" movie extra!

•How increasing your growth hormone will help you burn body fat at breakneck speed...for washboard abs that will turn heads at the beach (or at the coliseum)!

•What you can do AFTER your workout that will help you jack up your anabolic juices for a fat melting, muscle building conquest!

****

The epic war movie “300” jacked up the occupancy rates of every gym across the country as all of us guys dreamed of owning a set of washboard abs like the warriors from the film.

Hell, I practically have to snap my fingers in front of my wife’s face to break her out of her trance every time the movie trailer played on our TV! It's hard to compete with ripped and shredded ancient soldiers!

But there’s some sort of irony that this movie about a Spartan king who leads his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army, shows the defenders as being so big and buff.

You see, the Spartans were Greek and the Greeks are credited with the origin of the word “hormone” (from their word “horman”, meaning “to stir up or excite”), the very thing that they worked so hard to master to become such great athletes and warriors.

 
So as my own tribute to this killer movie, this article is dedicated to these formidable warriors who have inspired men everywhere to chisel out a “Spartan-like” physique able to fend off attackers anywhere. (Now leave our wives alone!)

Yes...this article is about naturally mastering your body’s growth hormone (GH) levels for more muscle and more fat burning!

In fact, if your goal is to lose fat and build muscle, it’s absolutely critical to pay close attention to your efforts to maximize your production of this powerful chemical in your body.

Released from your pituitary gland, growth hormone production peaks around puberty, and then slowly fades away as we age and plays a key role in the maintenance of muscle, bone mass and the balance of body fat.

This chemical is so powerful that even WITHOUT following an exercise program and healthy diet, it can build muscle and burn fat!

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that a small group of elderly men (aged between 61 and 81) who were given injected GH treatment showed an increase in both muscle and bone mass...AND reduced body fat at the same time.

Now, injected GH therapy does have its down sides so you can put down the phone...your doctor isn’t going to give you a prescription.

Joint and muscle pain can eventually occur from artificial stimulation and once you stop taking it, most of the benefits go bye-bye.  However, if done correctly, research has shown that naturally stimulating growth hormone can pay off with big dividends in a short period of time.

In fact, one university study from Denmark found that a 9-week program designed to naturally stimulate GH release resulted in strength gains 300% over normal increases!

Adding to that, men following the program increase arm strength by a whopping 37% compared with only 9% by the “control group” who only followed a “non-GH-stimulation” program.

And remember...these GH increases were activated not by injected hormone, but by completely natural means.

Now you can see why my program “Optimum Anabolics” has a primary focus of stimulating natural anabolic hormone output within the body...and why it has proven so effective at building muscle and burning off fat for thousands of men.

Hormone-focused training WORKS!

So to help you get started at mastering your own growth hormone factory, here are some of the key elements you need to apply to your workouts:

Natural Growth Hormone And YOUR Training Program

Exercise intensity is key when it comes to activating a GH response in your body. You want your workouts to be rather fast and furious, keeping total workout time no greater than 60 minutes. After that, you start to see a rapid decline in hormone response in the body.

You have a lot of work to do in just 60 minutes so in order to maximize your time in the gym, stick to “supersets” for your exercises and keep your rest periods to a minimum (about 60-90 seconds between sets).

A superset involves going straight from exercise 1 to exercise 2 without resting or with minimal rest in between. Once you’ve completed both exercises, you will take a short break (remember...”short” means just 60-90 seconds!) and go back to exercise 1 again to hit the next superset.

Keep your repetition count high (around 8-12 repetitions per set). This will help activate a lactic acid response in your muscles and lactic acid in turn activates the release of growth hormone. You’re going for the “burn” in this program!

Be sure to pause and squeeze your targeted muscle at the peak contraction point (for bicep curls as an example, this would be in the “up” position).

This will really activate the lactic acid response as well as make sure you’re hitting deep into your muscle fibers.

Once you’re done with your workout, save about 5 minutes at the end for “sprint training”...

Researchers from Loughborough University have shown that a group of athletes who conducted a short series of 30-second sprints reached growth hormone levels 25 TIMES their resting levels approximately 30 minutes after training.

You’re not going to want to miss out on THOSE kinds of results!

So at the end of your workout, do three to six 30-second sprints on your gym’s track or on the road to finish off the day and set yourself up for peak GH output.

Follow this program and YOU will soon be shopping shirtless for a shield and armor at the local blacksmith! (And stay away from my wife!)

Jeff Anderson (The Muscle Nerd)

Check Out Jeff's Optimum Anabolics program HERE!

Course I Attended on Periodization For Sports

Today I just wanted to write a short review / summary of a course I attended last weekend called "Sports Specific Training and Periodization Training for Sports". I know, it's a mouthful. Periodization is the manipulation of training techniques over yearly plans. To some of you this content may seem a little dry, but I thought it was worth posting because you may find some of the information useful or interesting.

Overall I was pleased with the course, although there were areas that could have been improved with the presentation (ie- audio/visual).

Much of the information presented was simply review for me, which was encouraging to receive confirmation of some of my training philosophies. I did learn a couple of new things as well, and I may adjust my long term training schedules based on ideas presented. However, I didn't necessarily agree with everything that was being taught. I won't get into the details of how we looked at periodizing a training program over a yearly plan, but I'd like to summarize some of the key points that stood out for me:

• The text for this course was Periodization Training for Sports by Tudor Bompa and Mike Carrera. Bompa endorses a linear model of periodization which has become popular with Western athletes and coaches, whereas for my own needs and the goals of most of my clients I have found a conjugated (or "concurrent") model of periodization more effective in the long term... especially when there are several competitions during the year, or a trainee wishes to maintain optimal strength and power all year round. Although there was alot of great ideas discussed regarding microcycles and macrocycles, I would still choose to apply these to conjugated periodization.

• One great point that was brought up was that when training to increase power for sports, one should not simply try to mimic the sport activity in training.  For example, training for power using weighted implements (such as baseball bats, tennis rackets, or golf clubs that are heavier than normal) will actually make the athlete SLOWER rather than more explosive! In part this is because it teaches the athlete to focus on decelerating the heavy implement to control it at the end range rather than moving it faster.  It may also disturb the normal movement pattern that is developed.  The main goal in training for power is to increase the ability to contract muscles faster, not to simply mimic the sport movements.
  
  
• We got into Energy System Training as well, which I enjoyed.  The use of ATP during Alactic, Lactic, and Aerobic energy system training.  The focus was on training for power rather than endurance or hypertrophy in this course.  We looked at how to incorporate Max Effort training (heavy load, low reps, more rest) to recruit more fast twitch muscle fibers and maximize force generation, then how to use Dynamic Effort training (lighter loads, faster reps) to active additional fibers and increase the rate at which muscle fibers were "discharged" (ie- recruit more fast twitch fibers and fire them off faster). 
  
  
• 20 minutes of light cardio post workout can help to flush out lactic acid build-up and speed up recovery.
  
  
• Central Nervous System (CNS) Training: CNS training is the synchronization of movements through repetitive training / learning of those movements.  The purpose of CNS training is to reduce the inhibition on muscle contraction (reduce the influence of the Golgi Tendon Apparatus) so that greater force can be generated.  Long term training results in a more efficient CNS with less GTO inhibition and more powerful contractions.  However, fatigue should be avoided in training for this goal.  For example, training for max strength involves fewer reps and more rest between sets, as opposed to training for hypertrophy (growth) which requires a fatigued state to be reached using more reps and less rest.
  
  
• Training Economy: Stick with compound, multi-joint exercises targeting majority of muscles involved in the sport to make most efficient use of time.  Small isolation exercises and accessory movements should only be considered if time allows.
  
  
• Multi-lateral training for youth: Studies have shown that youth who engaged in specialized training for sport early on played best at 15 years old, but those who focused on building their foundation early on (ie: multi-lateral development including physical activities for fun, bodyweight exercises, etc) became better athletes later on.  This should encourage parents and coaches not to push their children into high-performance training too early in life.  Let them develop their athletic foundation first, then consider specialization training for 15 to 18 year olds.
  
  
• Super-Compensation: I learned something new on this topic. As most athletes and trainers should know, it is favorable to aim for a training program to "peak" just before a competition, so that the athlete has reached a state of fatigue (close to over-training). Then they can rest and recuperate for several days before the event, allowing their body to "super-compensate", causing an increase in performance.  What was new to me was that they suggested still including some form of light training right up to a couple of days before competition to prevent "involution" (basically "decompensation").  This can simply be light aerobic activity or technical training (ie: movement rehearsal) with very light loads.  According to the resources presented, active recovery was superior to complete rest in most cases, even pre-competition.
  
  
• Stability Training: I was pleased to hear that the current research out there also indicates that training on BOSU balls, stability boards, stability balls, and those little "whoopie cushion" things will reduce athletic performance, increase risk of injury, and decrease the amount of force and power you can develop in training.  Thank you! I've been arguing this point with trainers for too long.  These stability training implements certainly have a place in the rehab setting, but they've become a fitness industry fad and are being used WAY out of context!
  
  
• Flexibility Training: I was also encouraged by the fact that this course explained how static stretching before and during training can reduce performance and increase risk of injury.  I have been saying this for years.  Again, another point of contention for many trainers, who still insist on stretching their clients out before a workout, despite the current research.  Active stretches such as a dynamic warmup should be performed pre-workout, then passive / static stretches can be performed after IF NEEDED.
  
  
• Yoga is not a complete workout, and may even hurt you!  Yep... that's what I've been tryin' to tell people, but I feel like one man against a Yogic Cult.
  
  
• Core Training: after the initial adaptation stage of training, minimal isolation work is needed for core strength, as long as you are doing big, compound exercises that involve core.
  
  
• Deep Squats: OK, I do not agree with the the argument they presented on this topic.  The instructor explained why they believed that one should not squat below 90 degrees of knee flexion.  I disagree, and I can present resources to support the fact that deep back squats performed with good technique are healthy for your knees and provide favorable training results.  Provided a safe progression is used over time, and the trainee has no knee or lower back injuries, deep squats are a terrific exercise!  To be fair, the instructor did acknowledge that he does use deep squats for some athletes, depending on sport requirements. 
  
  
• Overspeed Training: we looked at how overspeed training and resisted speed training differ, and how some studies show that this type of training (using straps, bands, parachutes, or sleds) may interfere with an athletes contact time with the ground and negatively affect their running technique.  Sled dragging still has great applications in training, however.

Well, those are some of the topics that I found interesting in this course.  As I mentioned, most of the information presented was not new to me, but it's also important to review as well as to learn something new.  Overall, I would consider pursuing further education on the subject of periodization and training for sport.


I hope you found something of interest in this post.  If you have any questions or comments, please post them below... I always like to hear from my readers!


I have an interesting article on growth hormones to post next time... watch for that one!


Until then, Stay Fit!


Josh

Motivation Vs. Discipline

My man, Elliot Hulse!

Want Fast Results Right NOW? Time to Get Real and Face These Facts!

I want to talk about five basic facts you need to accept in order to get the fitness and performance results you're after.

This past weekend I had a chance to watch the beginning of the Olympics and was very impressed with the athletic performance I witnessed!  It really makes you appreciate the years of sacrifice and dedicated training that goes into developing an athlete of Olympic caliber.


It got me thinking about how any worthwhile goal in life really does require a significant level of committment and effort.  For some this is difficult to accept because in many ways we live in a culture that expects "instant gratification".

As a trainer it's my responsibility to get real with my clients to help set realistic goals and to understand the committment they need to make.

1. It's going to involve hard work! To get long term results you will have to get outside your comfort zone, both physically and mentally. You will have to sweat, push through muscular fatigue, experience muscle soreness, and work really hard! Accept it... it's a fact.
   
2. You will need to make some changes in how you eat. Just because you are now training doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want. To get the best results you will need to clean up your diet.
   
   
3. Exercise and healthy eating are a lifestyle. This is not a quick fix for a short term goal... this needs to be a lifestyle change. Forget the "diet" mentality and adopt this as a new way of living. Otherwise that fat you lost will come back faster than it came off!
   
   
4. Results take time. Don't look for short-cuts. Consider how long it takes to get out of shape... be patient and set realistic goals for achieving results and you will be successful. A well designed program and expert coaching will certainly help you get there faster, but you still need to be patient, persistent, and consistent.
   
   
5. Exercise must be a priority. The main reason most people don't exercise is because they don't have time. However, no one has time unless they make it. This needs to be high on your priority list for you to be successful in reaching your goals. It's important... give yourself the time you deserve to get in shape.

I hope this gives you something to consider as you work towards your own fitness and performance goals. If you understand these facts you are well on your way to success!

Stay Fit,

Josh