In the twelve years I have worked in the fitness industry, I have observed a lack of effectiveness in the techniques used by most athletes to combat chronic pain. Today I am on a mission to set some things straight with regard to what it takes to address pain issues effectively.
Meet Ivan Garcia. The 26-year-old waiter and bouncer aspires to be a police officer, but one thing stands in his way: his weight.
The restaurant where Garcia works is located in Scotts Valley, California, near CrossFit Headquarters. When Garcia’s mother approached CrossFit HQ trainer Jenny Lau about training her son, Lau was ready to help Ivan reclaim his body.
“My shoulder hurt really bad, my knees hurt really bad, my back hurt really bad,” Garcia says. “Yeah, I felt strong, but day to day I was very weak.”
Lau faced challenges of her own.
“He just didn’t seem really into it,” she says. “And I was like, ‘Hey, this is optional. You either want to be here or you don’t want to be here.’”
When Garcia decided gastric-bypass surgery was the solution, Lau questioned him.
“If you’re putting 100 percent good food in your body 100 percent of the time and you’re in here giving me 100 percent effort, why aren’t you losing weight?” she asked.
“I figured I was doing CrossFit so I could keep eating junk food and choose bad habits,” Garcia admits.
Lau enlisted the help of friend and registered dietitian Logan Vanderpool, and the two asked Garcia to reconsider invasive surgery at his young age.
“I decided I wanted to eat clean, I wanted to be a healthier version of myself … . I didn’t want to do (the surgery) anymore,” Garcia says. “I wanted to do it on my own with the help of Jenny.”
At the time this video was filmed, Garcia had lost 102 lb.
Video by Jay Vera and Irvin Anfoso.
9min 59sec
Additional audio: “CrossFit Radio Episode 264” by Justin Judkins, published Feb. 25, 2013.
Interns are not just extra workers who clean the facility and do the things you don’t want to do. One day, they could be your employees. You must create an educational experience they will value and grow from. Remember, this is an opportunity for you to grow as a business owner, trainer, and mentor.
What does your deadlift look like when it gets heavy? More than likely, your hips shoot up, your chest collapses forward, and you lose the maximal force you are trying to apply.
When the hips rise too fast, you lose the opportunity to move big weights. Regardless of your preference on starting hip height, a straight leg reduces the involvement of your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and adductors. The more you are able to use these significant muscle groups, the more chance you have of producing a higher strength output.
Study results suggest guzzling a beer after a workout might actually be more productive than chugging a sugar-laced sports drink.
I just finished Grace, and I’m old, tired, sweaty and thirsty. What should I drink when I separate myself from this sweat angel? The media and academic exercise organizations favor Gatorade or some other sports drink to help people rehydrate and recover after exercise, and we are led to believe a body of sports science says high-fructose-laden drinks with some salt are optimal for those purposes. But are sports drinks really optimal or is the belief based on exceptional marketing?
Well, we know water is best for rehydration—adding carbohydrate and salts can reduce water uptake in the gut—and there is your answer. But is there something that rehydrates as well as water but tastes good and doesn’t contain mainly sugar water and salt?
There might be good news: A new study by David Jiménez-Pavón and company indicates beer can be an effective rehydration fluid. But beer is a mild diuretic and central-nervous-system depressant. It can’t be a recovery drink—or perhaps it’s actually more effective than sports drinks loaded with sugar.
So am I recommending everyone start keeping a six in their gym bag for easy access post-workout? No. But by detailing the superiority of a real but likely untenable alternative, it should be obvious that sports drinks are not the high-tech answer for rehydration and performance.
Welcome to a special monthly edition of our roundup, Five of the Very Best! Today, we're posting up Breaking Muscle's top five articles of the month. These pieces have caught your attention throughout December. So here they are in one place for you to consume, digest, and enjoy.
In this video, Nick Massie of PaleoNick.com takes a brief break from rowing to share his recipe for fajita pie. Unfamiliar with fajita pie? Just think shepherd’s pie with a twist.
Massie’s fajita pie—made up of a special blend of meat and spices and a layer of caramelized sweet-potato mash—brings together the simplicity of Midwestern comfort food and the vibrant flavors of the Southwest. Seasonings, three different types of peppers and fresh garlic really “bring it to life,” he says.
Start by preheating the oven and getting the water ready to boil the potatoes. Once you’ve sautéed the spices, peppers and garlic and browned the ground turkey, you’ll be ready to drain and mash the sweets. Then it’s time to assemble the casserole.
Spread the turkey in the bottom of a casserole pan, smooth the mash over the top, bake or freeze and voilà—a delicious meal in the Zone!
To download the recipe for fajita pie, click here.
Video by Nick Massie.
6min 39sec
Additional reading: “Zone Meal Plans” by Greg Glassman, published June 23, 2015.
The 2015 Working Wounded Games were held Nov. 7-8 at CrossFit Lorton in Lorton, Virginia. An annual fitness competition, the event brings together wounded veterans, permanently injured people and adaptive athletes. This year, 63 competitors from the U.S., Canada, Chile and Brazil came to CrossFit Lorton to test their mettle.
Amanda Kloo, an athlete from CrossFit 77, has cerebral palsy and competed for the first time this year.
“I started all this because I wanted to learn to walk barefoot in the sand for my kids,” she says. “This is miles beyond that.”
When asked if facing new challenges in the competition is sometimes discouraging, Kloo displays the attitude that characterizes athletes who refuse to accept limitations.
“It is—but it’s also super motivating.”
“We all come from the same place,” says David “Chef” Wallach, founder of CrossFit Rubicon and creator of the Working Wounded Games. “Our configuration, how we were born, if we were injured—they affect who we become, but they don’t predetermine success or failure.”
Video by Mike Koslap.
5min 54sec
Additional reading: “Warriors on the Waves” by Andréa Maria Cecil, Dave Re and Naveen Hattis, published April 19, 2014.
T.J. Murphy explains how he ditched his traditional running diet, lost weight, didn’t bonk and felt better.
On Aug. 9 The New York Times published “Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away from Bad Diets.” The report focused on Coca-Cola’s financial support of a group of scientists pledging to fight the obesity crisis by calling for more exercise rather than intake of fewer calories.
The article created a backlash that set Coca-Cola in full retreat, and chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that stated the company would be more transparent about its funding of research. Kent’s piece created an additional wave of criticism.
Dr. Tim Noakes, best known in some circles for his research on hydration, is one of those who has in recent years publicly reversed his position and openly attacked soft-drink companies for their support of high-carbohydrate diets. In a January 2015 Primal Blueprint podcast, Noakes blamed high-carb diets for race fields crowded with “fat runners.”
“We have a half-marathon in Cape Town, and we did a study on the field. We found that 30 percent of the runners in the field were insulin resistant and obese,” Noakes said.
In a November 2014 Australian Broadcast Corporation interview, Noakes talked about his role in the overconsumption of sugar.
“I spent 33 years of my life telling athletes that they must carbohydrate load ... . And I was the first in the world to produce these GUs that people lived their races on. ... I apologize because that was completely wrong,” he said.
“GUs” are small packages of semi-solid energy paste, some with caffeine, that an endurance athlete can consume for an approximately 100-calorie infusion of carbohydrate. Noakes was referring specifically to Leppin FRN Squeezies, which he helped develop in the early 1980s. “FRN” was an initialism representing the inventors: F for Bruce Fordyce and R for Bernard Rose.
The N stood for Noakes.
Personal trainers are encouraged to define and take ownership of their profession.
In the fitness industry, scopes of practice appear to overlap and create identity crises. How does a personal trainer’s practice differ from that of a fitness trainer, an exercise instructor or any other practitioner in the realm of exercise and fitness? Does each of group of practitioners have an associated scope of practice describing the duties and limits of the work associated with that group?
The term “scope of practice” describes the procedures, actions and processes that a worker within a particular occupation is normally permitted to undertake. It is also a legal term that largely refers to occupations that require government-issued licenses in order to work within the field; for example, a physician’s scope of practice allows prescription of drugs but a nurse’s scope of practice does not.
As personal training is not a government-regulated occupation, it is up to its certifying organizations, not legislative bodies, to establish and adopt scope-of-practice statements for their credentialed members. If an organization is truly the authority and represents the occupational rank and file, it will have a well-considered, applicable and accessible scope-of-practice statement. Failure to have such a statement invites confusion and lack of occupational identity, and it increases the risk of legal exposure to members, who have no guidelines on the limits of their occupational activities.
Eggs are one of the healthiest proteins on the planet. They are easy to make and super portable when cooked. If you are an athlete following a paleo lifestyle, eggs are probably a huge part of your diet. It’s not uncommon for paleo athletes to average three dozen eggs per week per household of two adults.
The first CrossFit Level 1 seminars in China took place in June 2014 in Shanghai. Since then, CrossFit has exploded in the country, with the most recent seminars held in the capital city of Beijing. Watch as Seminar Staff members Stacey Harris, Leah Polaski and Kevin Lim teach CrossFit in a nation with about 50 affiliates.
Polaski says she does a lot of seminars outside the United States, so she’s prepared to skirt the language barrier by foregoing the verbal cues most trainers commonly use.
“We revert a lot to visual (cues) … and showing the difference between what they are doing and what I would like to see,” Polaski says.
Working with a translator, the staff delivers successful seminars and furthers the reach of CrossFit in China, a country with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants.
“To be at the forefront of CrossFit in a new country … , it means a lot to me to be a part of that process,” Harris says.
Lim echoes Harris’ sentiment.
“This is a dream job,” he says. “To be able to impact lives weekend after weekend at this level, where we share our passion, no filter, uncovered, unedited … that’s how we dominate the world, baby.”
Video by Michael Dalton.
4min 51sec
Additional reading: “CrossFit Trainer Education and Certification: New Programs and a New Structure” by Nicole Carroll, published July 7, 2014.
Today I’ll share two of my favorite ways to deck out your home for a more mobile lifestyle, without having to toss the couch. In the fitness industry we talk a lot about the big sexy movements, the best fat-burners, warrior-this, alpha-that. But we pay so little attention to micro-movements, those little snacks of movement spread throughout the day.
Welcome to our brand new weekend roundup, Three of the Best! Every Sunday, we'll post up Breaking Muscle's top three articles of the week. These pieces have caught your attention throughout the last seven days. So here they are in one place for you to consume, digest, and enjoy.
Nick Massie of PaleoNick.com brings us a traditional holiday classic with a twist. Turducken is delicious and a great centerpiece for your holiday table, and if you add bacon and butternut squash—well, jackpot.
Step 1: Prepare the “stuffing.” Massie’s stuffing is mostly bacon and butternut squash, but he notes you can use your favorite stuffing recipe instead. When it’s time to prepare the meat, Massie shares an easy way to remember which comes first: the chicken or the duck?
“If you need to know the order, just think tur-duck-en,” he says. “Turkey’s first, duck is second and chicken is last.”
After building layers of bird and stuffing, wrap it up, skewer it, tie it and bake it. In just about four hours you’ll have a holiday dish that will please the eyes and the palate.
To download the recipe for bacon butternut squash turducken, click here.
Video by Nick Massie.
3min 57sec
Additional reading: “Seasons in the Abyss” by Emily Beers, published Dec. 14, 2014.
As yogis, we cross-train to improve our yoga practice. When you incorporate farmer’s carries into your training, you’ll find inversions and overall body strength increase. Poses like crow and balancing in general will become more effortless.
We also train to create ease in our everyday life movements. A farmer’s carry is like carrying bags of groceries out to the car. The concept is exactly the same. Your new strength will make these tasks much easier.
Regulation of nutrition practitioners is intended to protect the public, but critics suggest it reduces the innovative thought needed to fight obesity.
Amanda Petroccione thought she wanted to be a registered dietitian (RD), but Petroccione was disheartened when her studies highlighted flaws in a program designed to produce nutrition experts who lead the industry. During her time at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam, she had the opportunity to work with an RD in a hospital and was surprised by blanket prescriptions and food she said she thought was inadequate.
RDs are regulated by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND). Petroccione said she suspects one of the reasons the AND promotes what she considers ineffective nutrition guidelines is to protect the companies who fund it. Over the years, the AND’s sponsors have included companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Hershey’s.
While the AND denies sponsorship influences its position on health and nutrition, a July 2013 International Business Times article by Christopher Zara argued that “anyone with a digestive system” has the right to be suspicious.
“The nation’s nutrition industry has been hijacked by the very companies whose products most contribute to our obesity and health problems,” Zara wrote.
Petroccione said the fact that Coca-Cola funds the AND made her wary of some of the concepts she was learning, such as the total-diet approach in which all foods can be good foods with moderation.
“That tells the public it’s OK to drink Coke,” she said.
The last few weeks of 2015 are upon us. Now is the time I try to be especially conscious of what I’m eating and creating in the kitchen. It’s easy to let it go at this time of year. One holiday party after another, a few missed workouts, an extra martini, and bam – you’ve put on several pounds and lost some fitness along the way.
“[A]n online, three-event competition consisting of different weight classes allowing athletes to compare their lifts with those of similar size around the world.”
The 2015 Senior World Weightlifting Championships are now history. A record 584 lifters from at least 75 countries traveled to Houston in late November. In addition to the usual world bragging rights, athletes were also fighting to maximize their nation’s team size for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Herbs have fantastic therapeutic benefits that support the athlete in all of us. Today, we’ll discuss how common herbs can help your workouts and your everyday health.
Take a look at the athletic benefits of these common herbs:
Trainers are in the business of creating fitness. They apply exercises to their clients in order to induce adaptations in structure and function that lead to improved fitness. In order to do this effectively, reliably and safely, working trainers must understand the structures they are stressing with exercise to produce the functional change that is fitness. This is the primary reason we learn anatomy and physiology. We need to understand the materials we work with in our occupation in order to accomplish the job we are expected to deliver.
Secondarily, there are communication reasons for learning structures and functions. Anatomy and physiology form a common language that connects the trainer, the therapist, the clinician and the client. We must learn our profession inside out to earn the respect and recognition due an expert.
Understanding how something is built will help you understand how it works. The biological and engineering adage “form equals function” is quite important in exercise and fitness. When we want to get better at an exercise we need to understand how the structure of the body contributes to its performance.
The best place to start in the study of what makes a human move is learning the bones and muscles that actually allow movement—in that order. The bones form a moveable scaffolding that allows the muscles attached to it to create gross (large scale) and fine (small scale) movement. Everything we do in the gym, at work, at play and in daily life is dependent on the ability of the muscles to move two or more bones through their ranges of motion.
SF State groups beat back pouring-rights contract worth millions.
On Nov. 19, a group of about 20 college students in San Francisco, California, managed to do what countless community leaders and health advocates have failed to do: beat Big Soda.
After a five-month campaign protesting San Francisco State University’s pursuit of a 10-year pouring-rights contract with The Coca-Cola Co. or PepsiCo Inc., the student-run SF State chapter of Real Food Challenge (RFC) convinced SF State President Leslie Wong to stop the contract process. Sixteen other student organizations, two grassroots community-health collaborations, several SF State faculty members, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and more than 10 percent of the student body assisted the RFC.
Commonplace since the 1990s, pouring-rights contracts grant corporations exclusive sales and marketing opportunities on school campuses in exchange for funds, the use of which is often restricted to purposes designed to funnel money back to the provider. The SF State deal was poised to bring in a one-time minimum contribution of US$2 million and annual contributions of at least $125,000, according to a May SF State request for proposals obtained by the CrossFit Journal.
Though Big Soda dollars promise relief in the face of budget deficits and a lack of government funding for higher education, critics argue that ubiquitous on-campus marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages does more harm than good. Added sugar has been shown to increase risk for diabetes, tooth decay, obesity and a host of other health problems.
“The most questionable aspect of these contracts is that they link returns to the companies and to the schools to amounts that students drink,” Marion Nestle wrote in “Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.”
