Part 3: The Vital Importance of Water

Like me, you're probably wondering what has happened to our summer weather. Unlike the picture on the left, it hasn't exactly felt hot enough to be yearning for a bottle of water to quench a needed thirst. What you should be aware of is that you should never allow your body to ever reach that state in the first place. Allow me to explain.

For starters, our body is compromised of about 75% water (relative articles will give differentiating numbers). That is still an astronomical amount when you think about the complex machine that is our body with all of its systems working together to help us function. That being said, water is a vital element in functioning such as regulating digestion, transportation of nutrients, elimination of waste products, circulation of blood, lubrication of joints and internal organs as well as regulating body temperature to name a few. It should come as no surprise then that research has shown that the average body needs half its body weight in ounces of pure water daily as a minimum to maintain adequate hydration.

Dr. Batmanghelidj reports in his study "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" that "this amount may shock some of you [and] it's not difficult to comprehend how at least half of the American population has been estimated to operate in a chronically dehydrated state for the majority of their lives."

To further put things into perspective, refer to this list of symptoms of dehydration which have a high rate of success by simply drinking more water:

• Hypertension/High blood pressure
• Heart burn/Indigestion
• Peptic ulcers
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Type II Diabetes
• Fatigue
• Loss of Mental Clarity and Focus
• Inability to Perform

These symptoms are simply the various signs of the body's water rationing system during periods of dehydration and thus have often been mistaken for disease! Rather than providing the body with water, medical practitioners have resorted to treating these easily reversible symptoms with drugs rather than simply instructing their patients to hydrate and re-hydrate appropriately to avoid dehydration!

If you've ever felt "dry mouth", not only are you needing some water immediately but it is a sign that your body has gone well beyond moderate dehydration and is actually is a very serious dehydrated state! Remember that pure water is the key (not coffee, juice, soda, tea, milk etc.) The other liquids mentioned actually need much more water than they actually contain to pass them out of the system, acting actually as agents of dehydration (your mind has been programmed to process the opposite...time to reprogram!)

How to avoid this: Invest in a solid aluminum water bottle, one that can keep your water cold and one that serves as a visual reminder that you need to keep replenishing yourself, even when you are not thirsty. Drinking half your body weight in ounces each day can steadily improve your well-being...and you do not have to pay a visit to the doctor! Did I mention that it will keep you feeling full and thus, lead to weight loss??

The bottom line is, water is free and accessible to everyone. Take advantage of this beneficial opportunity!

Part 2: Zzzzzzz......

If you take anything out of these blogs, remember this: it is what you do outside of the gym that will ultimately benefit you the greatest inside the gym. Three of the most overlooked and ironically most important aspects of optimal health, vitality and disease prevention are sleep, water and food. While I have previously talked about food in my Metabolic Typing article, the focus of this article will be on sleep.

For starters, lets remember that any gains (or losses) that we see as a result of doing cardio and working with weights happens when we are at rest, and not when we are actually partaking in the activity. Essentially, we are breaking our bodies down during exercise and it is during our period of rest that our bodies are recuperating. The paramount importance of nutrition has already been mentioned in a previous article, so we turn our attention to sleep.

As reported by Dr. T.S. Wiley and Dr. Bent Formby, believe it or not, we are often sick, diabetic and suffering from heart disease and cancer due to a lack of sleep. "Mammals are hard wired to store fat, become insulin resistant and get high cholesterol during the long days of summer and then to sleep (hibernate) or at least starve for a while, become insulin sensitive again and drop cholesterol levels when the days are shorter (winter)...Electricity and the light bulb brought endless light, which the body interprets as endless summer. Now, we don't sleep (hibernate) and we don't starve (for carbohydrates). We are fat and getting fatter."

Literally, the later we stay up at night, the more our brains force us to seek energy for storage by eating sugar (carbohydrates). In addition, Wiley and Formby report that this leads to "light toxicity" which is a direct cause of excessive paranoid, aggressive, hysterical and urgent behaviour also known as stress (anyone see Al Pacino in "Insomnia"?) In this state, blood sugar is elevated, taxing the insulin response, increasing cortisol levels in your blood stream which has powerful blood sugar mobilizing effects. In other words, stressing yourself out too much, whether it be work, personal life or a lack of sleep will actually lead to exercise making you fatter and keeping you fat!

In order to combat this stress, you need to take advantage of your rest time. I've had many clients who have not been able to maximize their own sleep time, but with the help of these few tips, many of them have now reduced their total body fat, dropped weight and are on their way to happy and healthy lives. Try these tips:

• Your sleeping environment has a great impact on your ability to fall asleep and to stay asleep. It's not easy for many people to fall asleep because we are surrounded by more lights and more noise than in times past. While it is almost impossible to fall asleep in a perfectly quiet and perfectly dark environment, it is important to try to achieve as close to this ideal situation as possible.
• Sound - noise - also affects your ability to fall and stay asleep, because even though you may fall asleep, your brain can still process sound while you are sleeping, possibly waking you up in the middle of the night in your deepest and most anabolic sleep stage. Therefore, do your best to eliminate light and noise from your immediate sleep environment. Doing so will help you fall asleep faster, and stay asleep until morning.
• Establish a regular sleeping pattern by going to bed at the same time.
• Reduce your physical activity two hours prior to sleeping.
• Avoid alcohol and/or coffee for several hours before going to bed.
• Skip large meals before bed.

Try this for a week. Stay zealous about it. See how you feel.

Check back in a few days where I will complete this three part series by focusing on the importance of water.

The View from Atop Your Plateau

One of the most common things I hear as a personal trainer from people around the gym is that their workouts seemed to have stalled or "plateaued", specifically when speaking about cardiovascular training. The problem is simply that the bodies of those who have plateaued have become accustomed to the same workout routine that they have been participating in for weeks, months...sometimes even years! What these people need to understand is not only do they need to change what they do for their cardiovascular workouts, but also how they do it.

World renowned strength and conditioning coach Charles Poliquin has uncovered six major reasons why aerobic (depending on air, or, steady state cardio training) is counterproductive in the gym. Written by Keith Alpert, a respected strength coach from the Boston area, they are:

• Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training so anything more is counterproductive. From strength coach Michael Boyle: "A 2006 study from McMaster University in Canada illustrated this beyond a shadow of a doubt. The study compared 20 minutes of interval training (30 sec sprint/4 min rest) with 90 to 120 minutes in the “target heart rate zone.” The results showed the same improvement in oxygen utilization. If you could get the same benefit from one hour a week, why run four and a half to six hours a week?"


• Aerobic training worsens power locally and systemically - in other words, it can make you slower. If you are an athlete or a "weekend warrior" who likes to participate in athletic events or team sports that require speed and jumping ability, this is the last thing you want from a cardiovascular training program. Poliquin: "The more lower body aerobic work you do, the more your vertical jump worsens. The more upper body aerobic work you do, the more your medicine ball throws worsen."


• Aerobic training increases oxidative stress which can accelerate aging. Oxidation is a process that forms free radicals in the body. Normally, free radicals can be neutralized by antioxidants, but when there is an excessive build-up of free radicals, then the body cannot neutralize them. This leads to changes in your metabolism which can speed up aging.


• Aerobic training increases adrenal stress which can make you fatter and produce other undesirable health consequences. Too much adrenal stress leads to adrenal fatigue. Symptoms include: tiredness, fearfulness, allergies, frequent influenza, arthritis, anxiety, depression, reduced memory, and difficulties in concentrating, insomnia, feeling worn out and most importantly - with respect to this article - the inability to lose weight after extensive effort.


• Aerobic training increases body fat in stressed individuals by contributing additional stress. If you are already stressed out in your life, this is just like adding to the pile, which will add more body fat, making it harder for you to reach your weight loss or body fat goal.


• Aerobic training worsens testosterone/cortisol ratio, which impedes your ability to add fat burning lean muscle. This in turn hampers weight loss due to the inability to produce lean muscle in the name of increasing calorie expenditure.
  

Alpert asks you to figure out who has more body fat: a sprinter, or a marathoner? Most times than not, the answer is a marathoner (when in actuality the answer is a sprinter!) How is this possible, if sprinters do almost no aerobic work??

Alpert mentions that the reason is rooted in the intense nature of their training. "The higher the intensity (percentage of maximum heart rate), the more calories per minute burned during the workout. In addition (and more important), caloric expenditure is increased for 24-48 hours post workout."

So where to go from here? The answer lies in the benefits of interval training. This type of training alternates between bouts of high intensity exercise (ie. run, sprint, increase in speed or resistance on machines) with low to moderate intensity exercises (ie. walk, speed walk, decrease speed or resistance). The best part is, this should only take you about 20-30 minutes total, and you only have to do it 2 or 3 times a week.

So for those of you who hate coming in on cardio days, engage yourself in some interval training. You'll not only save time, but you'll really feel the burn and reap the benefits it has to offer.

Part 1: Discovering Your Proper Fuel Source

No doubt you have encountered numerous magazines, books and television advertisements about what foods to eat to lose weight, what foods to eat to build muscle, and the like. With this information overload (especially on the internet), it is not a great surprise that many of you are still far from reaching your personal fitness goals. Even though lifting weights to promote muscle growth and working on your cardiovascular health are both important aspects in leading a healthier lifestyle, nutrition is a topic that is often read up on but misunderstood. Not to say that this particular suggestion is the answer, but it is definitely one to consider.

Metabolic typing is a system that identifies an individual's genetically-based nutrition and diet requirements. There is no "one diet" that is right for everyone. How does a magazine know what you need as an individual? It doesn't. Therefore, to achieve optimal health, you must determine what is right for YOU.

The concept was first introduced in the 1960's by a dentist, Dr. William Donald Kelly, but since has been developed further by the likes of William Wolcott and strongly advocated by holistic health practitioner Paul Chek. It suggests that foods that are beneficial for one group of people, may actually be detrimental to others. Therefore, by answering a series of questions, you may be able to direct yourself to a diet plan suitable for your body's functional needs.

Questionnaires found online or in a variety of typing books are available and designed to help you determine the optimal macronutrient (protein, fats, carbohydrates) ratio to begin fine tuning your body's feedback mechanisms. To put it simply, Paul Chek explains, "If the food comes from something that has a set of eyes, it is going to be higher in fats and proteins; fats and proteins most often come together in nature. For example, cows, sheep, birds and all fish have eyes and all provide higher protein/fat foods. Foods like vegetables, fruits and cereals do not come from a source that had a set of eyes and are generally much higher in carbohydrates and lower in fat and protein. There are a few exceptions to this rule such as nuts, seeds and avocados, which have no eyes, yet are high fat foods."

There are a number of factors that influence your optimal macronutrient ratio at any given time. The best part of these questionnaires is that you can answer freely without judgement. By that I mean, you should answer the questions by what best describes the way you feel, not the way you think you should eat!

For further reading on these factors, you may want to refer to Wolcott's book, The Metabolic Typing Diet. For a more in depth look at metabolic typing, feel free to approach or email me to learn more about this subject. You may also choose to click here for a free online questionnaire to help you identify your type.

You wouldn't put diesel fuel in your car if it didn't call for it. Why would you do the same to the most complex piece of machinery you own: your body?

Exercise of the Week: Single-Leg Straight Leg Deadlift

As mentioned in the previous post on Suspension Training, life does not happen sitting down. To build on that, life also rarely happens on two feet all the time. Take walking for example. One foot is planted, while the other is in motion. When utilizing double leg exercises in the gym, we are most definitely working on our primary muscles such as our quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings. However, stabilizing muscles rarely get involved. When shifting to a single leg exercise, these stabilizing muscles are forced to come into play.

If you are tired of the leg curl machine, or possibly feel like your deadlift needs a challenge, try the single-leg straight leg (also called Romanian) deadlift. This variation of the traditional exercise helps develop the entire posterior chain (namely, your glutes and hamstrings) while also incorporating a balance challenge. Best of all, it is entirely safe for a beginner to try and extremely beneficial for strength training.

If you have weak hamstrings (or glutes for that matter) and have never attempted a single leg exercise, perhaps the first thing to realize is that technique is everything. That being said, you can perform the single leg deadlift without weight in order to ensure your technique is perfect.

PREPARATION: Begin by having both feet together (slightly narrower than shoulder width apart), chest up with your back slightly arched. Place one foot slightly in front of the other, as if you have taken a half-step. The woman is the first image is using a medicine ball as resistance in the ready position.


ACTION: Engage your core by contracting your abs, and proceed to lower your weight (or hand for beginners) by pushing your glutes back and hinging at the hip forward. Make sure to have a slight bend in your planted leg. Remember to keep your arms straight. If using a single weighted apparatus, aim for just in front of the foot. If using dumbbells, lower one to either side of your foot. While the emphasis is on the hamstring of your planted leg, your other leg should hinge backwards for balance, resulting in a position such as this:

Once you've reached a position near mid-to-low shin level, proceed to flex your front hamstring and push your hips forward, bringing your body back to the same starting position. Remember to always keep a bend in your knee of the planted leg and to keep your back flat throughout.

The beautiful thing about the single leg Romanian deadlift is that it does not require heavy loads to be beneficial. Unlike other double leg deadlift exercises, this means that the possibility for back injury is almost non-existent. During the exercise, besides the great amount of work being done on your lower extremities, realize that your spinal erectors, lower trapezius and rhomboid muscles are also working to stabilize the spine and shoulder girdle. Even though your hamstrings and glutes get the majority of the attention in this exercise, you will also work on ankle stabilization. Factor in that you are now using more muscles for an exercise, and realize that you are burning more calories, thereby helping shed fat from your body.

I would encourage you to begin with no weight, until your brain and muscles connect to understand the movement, and proceed to slowly implement the use of weight. Once you have mastered this exercise with dumbbells, challenge yourself by doing the same exercise with a weighted barbell, and watch how the balance challenge increases.

Hang on for a second! Let's talk Suspension Training

How's your workout going lately? Bored with the weights? Need to change it up a little? Need to challenge yourself in a new way?

There's a good chance that you have seen a few people working out with a contraption that looks to be two handles attached by an elevated bar. This piece of machinery, known as the TRX© (Total Resistance eXercise), is a 2 lb. piece of equipment in which you have the option to push your limits using your own body weight as resistance. Developed by Fitness Anywhere, it is a type of training intended to promote strength, balance, stability and athleticism. Think this is just a new fad? Think again.

Suspension training has been around for over 150 years, says Fraser Quelch, Director of Programming and Education at Fitness Anywhere. "Generations of acrobats and gymnasts have used their own body weight and gravity as resistance - suspended by rings, ropes, and trapeze bars - to generate tremendous strength and the astonishing physiques that are a hallmark of these athletes." However, during the 60's and 70's when training shifted its focus to the more traditional bodybuilding approach, suspension training became a rare sight in the workout community. People were no longer so much concerned with how they moved and felt, as opposed to how they looked from an aesthetic viewpoint.

The truth is: life doesn't happen sitting down. We as humans move sideways, forward, backward and diagonally. How would the use of linear machines help us improve our way of life? While they may strengthen certain aspects of our muscles and help our them grow from a purely aesthetic standpoint, these machines simply do not mimic everyday movements. How is an ab curl going to strengthen your entire core? It won't (and many people who do use it, don't do it properly).

Lets take a moment and define what the "core" really is. The "core" is essentially your abdominal muscles as well as your back muscles working in unison to stabilize your spine in everyday movements. Having a strong core is the only way to ensure the prevention of injuries, improve one's posture and promote overall strength. How suspension training works is that it creates an element of instability that calls on these muscles to provide balance and coordination. With the variety of exercises the TRX allows you to perform, you'll have the ability to bring a total muscular balance to your body, increasing performance and reducing injuries.

This past Tuesday, a friend and I headed over to Central Park on a gorgeous day to go through our workout. Aside from having the ability to go through a total body strength workout in less than 45 minutes (and still getting a good sweat on), training outdoors proved to be a wonderful change from the sometimes over-populated gym (you've been around at 5 pm on a Monday...you know what I'm talking about). Our workout consisted of single leg lunges, single leg squats, hamstring curls and glute raises, suspended chest press and elevated rows, a shoulder circuit, an arm circuit and a massive ab circuit that had us begging for air. To see our workout in it's entirety, click here.

Now I know that this may seem like something intended for elite athletes, but the truth of the matter is, the TRX can be adjusted to suit your level of fitness. Wherever you are at this point in your training, the incorporation of suspension training with your routine will absolutely increase your strength, balance and most importantly, improve total core strength. I repeat this again: this will prevent injuries, improve your posture and build up a massive foundation of strength. In other words, it will make every day life easier.

I've already implemented the use of suspension training in some of my clients workout regimens.

E. strengthens her back and arms via suspended row.


T. works on his hamstrings with an elevated hamstring curl.

The bottom line is, suspension training is a highly effective functional workout, which will strengthen you from head to toe, right through your entire core. For more information, click here to read an article by Fraser Quelch on the effectiveness of the TRX on strength, balance, stability and athleticism.

Interested in trying out the TRX? Email me at adam.kania@goodlifemakesiteasy.com, leave your information at the desk, or come up and ask me for an absolutely free trial workout. You (and your body) won't regret it.

In the meantime, consider the way you've been approaching training prior to reading this article. Is it helping you prepare for the rigors of everyday life, or are we just concerned with the way we look? If looks is all you're going for, all the power to you. As long as you are happy, confident and working to improve yourself everyday, that is what's most important. The old saying goes "To each their own." My preference to train myself and my clients in a functional manner is simply to help promote overall improvement in everyday life. The results speak for themselves.

As for suspension training, I think this new "fad" will be hanging around for quite some time.

Working on my back and core with an elevated row against a soccer goal post.

This is the time. This is the place. You are the person.

I've never done this before. Blogging, that is. Well, maybe once when I was with the Tiger-Cats during training camp back in 2007. I had just gotten drafted and thought that it might be a good idea to chronicle what it was like for someone in my position to go through the daily routine of a CFL football player in camp. But that was then and this is now, and my how things have changed.

For one, I no longer play competitive football. The ten years of experience I have had was interesting to say the least and clad with high's and low's. I'm all about the experience. That's one thing you'll learn about me. Secondly, I did something I've wanted to do for quite some time: become a personal trainer.

My motivation as a personal trainer comes from people who share the same passion as I do for personal fitness. I initially took on the position of personal trainer having only the knowledge from football training programs. Since then, my knowledge base has grown far beyond what I once had. Through speaking with various other trainers in my gym and getting a sense of their philosophies of training, as well as enrolling myself in online and in-class courses, my clients now enjoy great success in losing weight, gaining muscle and strength, improving nutritional habits and gaining a new perspective on life. They have done this through proper programming structure, habit implementation and monitoring of progress. I am a strong believer that training is not about where you are now, but having the ability to realize your true potential in the person you can become.

Through proper training, you can literally change your entire life physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. This means moving easier in every day life and having the ability to lift and pull objects without a hassle. It means bending over and walking properly without strain. This means having proper posture so that when you get older, you do not look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame (unless you want to...?) This means improving your self-esteem and self-image of yourself which in turn boosts your confidence. A boost in confidence can mean meeting someone new, or touching base with someone from the past. It can also mean a promotion, or an increase in pay due to a peak attitude. It will lead to less stress, and above all more happiness.

Does this sound like something you may be interested in?

My name is Adam and I am but one member of Burlington GoodLife's excellent training team. I believe very strongly in obtaining a commitment and dedication to constant overall improvement of the total self, which is something I strive to ingrain in my clients each and every workout.

Over the next few days, weeks, months (and years?), this blog will be constantly updated with everything from the exercise of the week to nutritional tips, pictures and videos of new types of exercises and answers to any questions you may have for me. Feel free to email me at adam.kania@goodlifemakesiteasy.com with any question or comment, or just come up and say hi. Remember: this blog is for you, to help you improve your life in whatever way it can. Visit as many times as you wish and pass it along to friends who may be interested in some of the topics I touch on.

Let's take a moment and truly be honest with ourselves. Ask yourself: Am I really happy the way I am? If you are, then that's awesome! I commend you for doing something to bring you to this point in your life. But if not, then ask yourself: What am I waiting for? At the end of the day, you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and have a clear conscience that you did something to improve the person staring back at you. Play every day. Be active every day. Get better every day, and do not wait.

I'll leave you with this quote, which is the inspiration for the name of this site, as well as the drive that I possess to fuel my fire each and every day. It is by Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World:

"I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words becomes as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words, I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person."

Now...what are YOU waiting for?