So you strength train 3 or 4 days a week following our periodized program, you do your cardio 2-4 days a week, and even play Ultimate Ball here on Wednesday nights – basically getting in a ton of activity. Your diet is also on point and you follow the Reverse Food Pyramid to “T”…but you’re not getting the results that you want.

It’s at this point when the thoughts of needing to do more cardio or adding a day of strength training usually pop into people’s minds, but in this case more is not necessarily better. Although all of these things are “good for us”, hard training is still a stressor. When we no longer can adapt to those stressors, we cease making progress and can even go backwards. Not good.

By adding more training (without gradually acclimating, adding planned downloads and unloads, and tapering when needed), we are often just making the situation more problematic. The same goes for nutrition. If you’re a 200lb person taking in 2000 calories a day, dropping your calories well below your basil metabolic rate is not going to help you, only slow things down. So what the heck do we do?

Enter N.E.P.A.

N.E.P.A. stands for Non Exercise Physical Activity and can be the key to great long term body composition. Think of how convenient our lives have become (cars, escalators, elevators, etc) and it’s pretty clear that we are getting less NEPA than ever before. Most people literally take as few steps as possible throughout the day – house to car, car to work, work to car, car to house…and not much else.

Some simple steps (no pun intended) to adding in some NEPA to your day would be take the stairs as often as possible, park your car further away when you go to the grocery store, walk your dog more often…just about anything that encourages just a little more activity than you currently getting. On top of that, adding in a daily walk at a very leisurely pace not only burns a few extra hundred calories, but can improve parasympathetic tone (reduce stress levels) and well being.

While 20 minutes here or 45 there may not seem like much, over the course of a month the numbers add up and over the course of a year you’re looking at a boat load of extra activity that you otherwise would not have done. Get to it!

While I did address post workout nutrition in the post “The 411 on Post Workout Nutrition”, one of the areas where people seem to get confused is how to eat around your pre and post workout meals. We now understand from reading the previous posts on The Reverse Food Guide Pyramid that we want to structure our day to become fat burning machines by tapering our carbohydrate intake throughout the day. We know that for the most part, we are active early in the day and much less active in the evening, so we adjust our calorie and carb intake according to this.

However, not every body trains on the same schedule. While some people might be able to train early in the morning, others may not get their session in until after 6 or 7pm. What’s important to remember is that we don’t necessarily change our strategy if you’re either/or. We’re still following the guideline what we want the majority of our carbs to come at times when we’re most active, and less when we’re not.

If you train early in the day, then really all you have to do is adhere to the guidelines set thus far – higher carb intake early in the day, including a PWO shake or meal, and then tapering throughout the day. But if you train later in the afternoon or evening, we need to look at adjusting total caloric (and cho) intake so that we can still maximize fat loss while keeping recovery in check.

The way that we do this is to sandwich your workout with carbs – meaning that if you train at 7pm and you normally have dinner at 5pm, dinner would still consist of a moderate amount of carbohydrates and your post workout meal would also contain carbs. Exactly how many carbohydrates really depends on your current body composition and goals. If you’re 30% body fat and you train at 7pm, then slugging down a shake with 200grams of high GI carbs at 8 or 8:30pm is not going to be ideal. You just need to look at your current situation and adjust according to your needs.

Now, let’s say that you train early in the morning – 6am – and you’re wondering what the hell are you going to eat at 5:30 before you lift? Well, we’re not expecting anybody to wake up at 4 just so they can eat a big breakfast, but it is important to get a little bit of carbohydrate and some protein pre strength training. We already know that cortisol levels are high and glycogen stores are just about empty in the am – two things that are not conducive to a productive strength session – so we need at least a little something before the session. A small meal replacement bar, a ½ cup of oats with a scoop of whey protein, a half of a sandwich on whole wheat bread…you get the picture. Your post workout meal would then become your breakfast and you would go about your day as usual.

Next up – supplementation.

So now that we know that not any one macronutrient will stop your body composition goal dead in its tracks, we need to look at actually structuring our day to make our metabolic engines efficient, fat burning machines. We also have a pretty good idea of how many calories we should be taking in per day, so now we just need to figure out how to distribute those calories and why timing really is everything.

Let’s first start by taking a look at breakfast. We’ve all heard the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and for the most part (we’ll get to this later), it very well is. Common sense tells us that breakfast is so important because it gives us the energy that we need to get our day going. Which is true, but really, breakfast does so much more. For one, when we go to sleep at night and fast for 8 hours or so, our metabolisms slow down (because we’re not doing anything) and our bodies go into a catabolic (muscle wasting) state.

Eating breakfast literally breaks the fast and stops catabolism dead in its tracks. Not only that, but by fueling our brain and muscles with low GI carbohydrates, complete protein sources, and essential fatty acids, we are stoking the fire sort of speak and setting our metabolisms in high gear. Also, eating a big breakfast suppresses your appetite and allows you to taper your caloric and carbohydrate intake throughout the day – allowing the perfect set up for fat loss and body re-composition.

In most cases, breakfast will be anywhere from 400-1000 calories (depending on the size and goals of the individual) and it should be the largest meal of the day. If you’re currently not a breakfast person, then you simply just need to begin eating SOMETHING and not necessarily worry about getting a big meal. We’re trying to establish habits and we’re more likely to do that if we make small gradual changes.

Breakfast, by the way, doesn’t need to consist of the usual cereal, toast, eggs, etc (although fine choices if you get the right kinds). For some reason people get caught up in breakfast nostalgia, and forget that you can eat anything you want as long as it contains low GI carbohydrates, complete protein sources, and essential fatty acids. Be creative, but do whatever you have to do to get that meal in.

From this point on, we want to basically get something in every 2-3 hours or so. In doing so, we are improving digestion, the absorption rate of nutrients, getting a constant flow of amino acids, and taking advantage of the thermal effect of food (TEF).

So this means that after breakfast you will want to get in a snack of 50-500 calories, once again depending on that status of your current dietary habits, size, and body composition goals. Since this is still fairly early in the day, this meal can more carbohydrate based with a little bit of protein and/or fat (a piece of string cheese and an apple is a good example). Again, we just want to keep that metabolism running on high gear while maintaining blood sugar levels so we can stay focused and productive throughout the morning or early afternoon.

Next up is lunch and this is where we can begin to slowly taper down those carbohydrates throughout the rest of the day. While breakfast is the time where we want to get the majority of our carbohydrate in take, lunch is where we will want to start shifting the macronutrient ratios a little. Yes, we still want to get in carbohydrates at this time, but perhaps just a little bit less than breakfast. However, this all depends on your activity level that you have planned for the rest of the day

We are not following a low carb diet here, and never intend for our clients to, but since lunch is typically the time of day when people start to wind down a little this is a good time to adjust carb intake to fit your energy needs. Less energy needed = less carbs needed.

2 or 3 hours after lunch, it’s snack time again. Once again 50-500 calories, but this time we want that meal consisting of mostly protein and fat. A handful of almonds, a piece of cheese, a protein shake with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter – something along those lines. Let’s just keep that metabolism roaring and let this snack hold us until we get home from work. While we used to eat a huge lunch and then bonk around 2 or 3 pm, a little protein and fat will provide the necessary amino acids and fuel that our brains and bodies need to finish the day.

Finally, we get home from work and its time for dinner. While we used to load up on pasta, bread, and other carby comfort foods, we are now shifting to more of a protein and fat based meal. This is not to say that you can’t have ANY carbs at this time – a small sweet potato or a high fiber whole wheat bun with your hamburger isn’t going to kill you – but since we don’t need that glycogen to fuel our muscles (since we’re not really doing much of anything), carbohydrates are not really necessary. Some fish or chicken and a salad is pretty good here. Once again we want this meal to be around 300-1000 calories, once again depending on who you are and what your goals are.

While dinner can be your last meal of the day, most people are accustomed to snacking at night and usually get hungry around 8 or 9 pm. We know that binging on ice cream or polishing off a bag of chips is not going to help us, but we also know that we’re hungry and who can sleep when they’re hungry? Often times we snack at night out of boredom not out of necessity, so it’s best to have some kind of damage control on this. One simple formula that we use for figuring out just how many calories we should take in for this final snack is to take the number of hours that you plan on staying awake and multiplying that number by 60. For example, its 8pm and I know that I plan on going to bed around 11pm – that’s 3 hours. 3 x 60 = 180. Just remember to keep this meal predominantly protein and fat – a tablespoon of all natural peanut butter or a piece of cheese can do the trick.

By now its time for bed and because you have been tapering your carbohydrate intake, you have slowly been emptying your glycogen stores which allows fat burning hormones to turn on and go to work as you sleep. Yes, lose fat while you sleep – a miracle! But think about it – your entire day has been set up so that you’re basically running on octane all day. There is no one magic formula, just a consistent effort in following sound nutritional habits. Next up in the series – pre and post workout nutrition and how to tailor your meals around your workout.

Ok, so we know that we are genetically pre disposed to storing fat, and the SAD isn’t exactly conducive to attaining optimal body composition. We know that the way our current diets are set up send our blood sugar levels on a roller coaster ride that never seems to stop, which long term leads to things like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. But the good news is that you can not only prevent these things from happening, but you can attain optimal health, performance, and body composition through making lifestyle dietary changes and making your habits ones that will help you succeed for the long term.

So how exactly does this whole Reverse Food Guide Pyramid thing work? Well, before we can go any further we need to first throw the baby out of the bath water concerning some of the dogma going around in the fitness industry.

No one single macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, or fat) is bad for you. Carbs aren’t the devil and fat is not the enemy. Oh, and every body needs more protein. Calories in versus calories out does matter, but not at the expense of food quality and proper timing. And nothing will work if you aren’t consistent and decide to make lifestyle changes.

The Reverse Food Guide Pyramid is doing nothing more than basing carbohydrate and caloric intake around your activity levels throughout the day. By doing so, we can turn on your metabolic engine, maximize fat burning, and build muscle – not a bad trade off.

When looking at the typical SAD, we see that we tend to eat very little when we’re most active, and a lot when we’re not active at all. Most people are active between the hours of 7am and 5pm, but yet consume the majority of their carbohydrates and calories in the evening. This cycle keeps us storing body fat and causes our energy levels to drop during the day, leaving us tired and unproductive. I don’t know about you, but exercise is the last thing on people’s minds when they’re feeling tired and unproductive. Are we starting to get the picture here?

Really the first thing that we need to understand is that all carbohydrates are not created equal. High glycemic carbs get broken down into the blood stream much faster and therefore cause blood sugar levels (and energy levels) to rise and then fall very quickly. Low glycemic carbs on the other hand, allow a steady release of blood sugar for more sustainable energy levels. While there is a very specific time and place for high glycemic carbohydrates (which we discuss later), we’re going to be eating the low GI variety most of the time.

Next, we need to determine a round about number of how many calories we need to be taking in every day. A simple way of finding this number out is to take your current body weight and multiply that number by 8, 10, or 12. 8 being for older individuals, 10 for the most of us, and 12 for people who are naturally lean or who have a very high level of activity. So if I weigh 200lb and multiply that number by 12 we get 2400 calories. This is roughly the amount of calories that I burn per day without doing anything, also defined as my basil metabolic rate (BMR).

Again, this is just a simple round about way to getting an estimate on how many calories I need to be taking in, and it doesn’t necessarily account for my activity levels. However, for most of our clients, this ball park figure will help us get going in the right direction. If a client’s goal is weight loss, then we will take that number and subtract 250-1000kcal per day, depending on how many pounds they want to lose per week. For some people, just simply factoring in exercise into their BMR number will suffice, but others may need to make the necessary adjustments.

Part 3 coming tomorrow.

With the Performance Enhancement Drugs (PED) era having come and gone athletes will look for the next big thing. Athletes constantly want to enhance their performance and be at the top of their game on all levels. Most athletes have two things in common; one is trying to be the best player that he or she can be and two is preventing injuries. Some athletes take the initiative to work hard to increase performance and durability. For others, they take the path of increasing performance illegally. As technology keeps improving coaches find ways to maximize performance.
Here at Integrated Athletic Performance (IAP), we use the dartfish technology to analyze an athlete’s movement mechanics. We digitally break down the mechanics of acceleration, maximum velocity, multi directional and transitional movements. Recording the motions and breaking it down will make our athletes faster, stronger and very effective at their respective sport(s). As performance specialist we look to continue to build up on our coaching arsenal.
As technology continues to grow, professional sport organizations are looking at 3D imaging to increase performance and prevent injuries. Recently an article in the New York Times “From the ‘Avatar’ Playbook, Pro Teams Adopt 3-D Imaging” written by James Glanz and Alan Schawarz. Analyzing an athlete’s movement in 3D to maximize strength and prevent injuries allows athletes of all ages to train safely, perform well, and recover and prevent injuries. To understand the full detail of this brand new technology here is the link to the full article.

Your body is a fat storing machine.

 Yup, I said it. And not just “yours, but all of ours.  But it’s not necessarily your fault (I said necessarily not “entirely”…keep reading). You see, our hunter gatherer ancestors from about 10 million years ago – give or take a few million – lived very harsh, brutish lives. Food was scarce, and frankly, we really didn’t know when our next meal was coming. Take into account that our brains and bodies are hard wired for survival, and we adapted by becoming fat storing machines. The more body fat that you had, the more likely you were going to live and survive famine and long, dreadfully cold winters.

 Fast forward 10 million years, and our metabolisms really have not evolved all that much. Our bodies still want to store as much fat as possible. Combine that with an abundance of processed foods and sedentary lifestyles and now human beings are the fattest they have ever been.

 One of the ways that we over ride this genetic code is through use of something called the Reverse Food Guide Pyramid.

 When looking at the Standard American Diet (SAD), most people’s days tend to look like a pyramid. They have little or nothing for breakfast, fast for 5-6 hours, have a huge lunch – usually something fast, cheap and convenient – another 5-6 hour fast, and then finally a large dinner for the grand finale, which often includes deserts and alcohol (because who doesn’t like to wind down after a long day?).

 So let’s break this down a little.

After eating a huge dinner, you go to sleep for 8 hours or whatever and then wake up usually still full. Most people either skip breakfast or have something light (i.e. not enough), so by the lunch comes around they are ravenous and after not eating for ~12-16 hours feel entitled to eat whatever they want (“I deserve this!”).

 After eating a huge meal, most likely consisting of high glycemic carbohydrates, your blood sugar spikes very high and then subsequently drops really low – leaving you tired and groggy around 2 or 3 pm. Your focus went from completing tasks at work, to finding a place to lie down.

 By the time dinner hits, it’s been another 5 or 6 hours without any fuel and your brain is going “I’m friggin’ starving, just get me anything!” – and that’s exactly what most people do. After a long, stressful day, nothing is more relaxing than enjoying your favorite comfort foods followed by desert and few glasses of booze (“but red wine is great for your heart!” – yeah, a glass…not the bottle). After slipping into a diabetic coma post dinner, the process is repeated all over again. Starting to sound a little familiar?

 So while our genetics have us inclined to storing body fat, our lifestyles aren’t exactly much help. But through making small, gradual changes we eventually want to flip the pyramid. Hence, Reverse Food Guide Pyramid.

 With the RFGP, the goal is to start the day with our largest meal, have frequent feedings, eat according to our activity level and needs, and taper our carbohydrate intake throughout the day. If you figure that you exercise an hour a day, this leaves us with 23 hours left where we can become as efficient as possible at burning fat and building lean mass.

So now that we know why prehab exercises are so important, let’s get into solving some of our issues. Many people suffer from a variety of aches and pains, and while most just chalk it up to old age or a sports related injury, you don’t need to be living the rest of your life in pain! Being just a little proactive can go a long way, and by educating yourself on what’s causing the pain in the first place, you can prevent a lot of your own suffering.

When selecting your prehab exercises, you need to only pick a few each training day and use these either as a filler in between sets of main lifts, as part of a warm up, or as a cool down. Either option will work, it’s just important that you get the stuff in. Most of the time, we prefer to do prehab in between sets of main lifts as it reduces lag time and keeps our clients and athletes moving. Not only that, but may times the prehab exercise being used activates certain stabilizers so that the firing patterns in the main lift are improved – allowing for more efficient technique.

As far as which exercises to use (there are hundreds), you want to choose the one’s that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck and the ones that are most helpful for your needs. A simple way to do this is to take a look at common weaknesses and imbalances and pick one or two appropriate exercises.

But prehab exercises are just a one part of the process and getting rid of pain and correcting muscular imbalances is a completely integrated (here we go again) approach. You also need smart exercise selection, periodized training, myofascial release, stretching, joint mobility work, a nutrition plan that is conducive to reducing inflammation, and proper supplementation. If one piece of the puzzle is missing then you are doing yourself a disservice. They key to proper implementation is to have a well thought out plan and to manage your time wisely.

Aside from our big main lifts like single leg Bulgarians, RDL’s, Rows, and Dumbbell Benching, one of the key components of our training program is the use of prehab exercises to prevent muscular imbalances and injuries and to activate dormant muscles. We use these exercises often times between sets of our main lifts as “fillers” – essentially killing two birds with one stone. Rather than having people sit around for 2 or 3 minutes in between sets, we’ll often superset main lifts with a corresponding prehab movement – which keeps our clients moving and also gives them a dose of injury prevention.

The reason why we put such a large emphasis on prehab exercises is because adults and athletes alike both display a number of kinetic chain imbalances. These imbalances occur from either overuse (how many hours of the day are you hunched over a desk?) or neuromuscular inefficiency (firing patters are FUBAR). This is where we begin to see some common problems such as lower cross syndrome, upper cross syndrome, pronation distortion syndrome, etc.

Remember, we want our muscles to have optimal length-tension relationships…if one muscle is too short (tight), then we know that its antagonist is too long (weak). A quick example would be a common case of upper cross syndrome…tight chest, tight trap 2, tight lats = weak rhomboids, weak trap 3,4, and weak external rotators – causing rounded elevated traps, rounded shoulders and a forward head posture. Long term this can not only cause a decreased performance, but pain and discomfort… or worse, an acute injury.

By using prehab exercises to get some of these weaker muscles firing and doing their job, we can improve neuromuscular efficiency and get our kinetic chain back in alignment. In English, by doing a few sets of prehab exercises each training day you can stay healthy and injury free so that you can perform at a high level for a long(er) period of time.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

So maybe you’ve been training for a while and maybe you’re starting to run into a few hurdles. The gains aren’t coming like you feel they should and maybe you feel like you’re spinning your wheels. If that’s the case, then here’s a quick wake up call.

 1. All of your behaviors are not aligned with your goals.

 You say you want to lose body fat, yet you absolutely can’t give up triple mocha frappachinos or whatever from Starbucks. If you set a goal, and you’re serious about achieving that goal, then each and everyone of your behaviors (habits) needs to be in line with that goal. Get with the program and start actually committing.

 2. You’re majoring in the minors.

 You want the latest supplement or fad diet, yet you’re not consistently strength training 3 or 4 times a week, along with doing some kind of cardio 3 or 4 times a week, and following a sound nutrition plan of getting in plenty of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates.  Yup, it’s that simple, but there’s nothing sexy about the basics.

 3. You want it all yesterday.

  It takes TIME for adaptations from training to realize and it takes time to make drastic changes in body composition – don’t expect miracles over night and don’t get hung up if you don’t make progress as fast as you’d like. Set realistic expectations and start by implementing small changes a little at a time.

 4. You have too many conflicting goals.

 You want to lose body fat, gain muscle, increase your bench press 50lb, your vertical jump by 6” and run the Boston Marathon all in 3 months. Yeah, good luck. When setting goals, focus on ONE aspect of training at a time while maintaining everything else. This is where periodization comes into play and why it’s important to plan your training. Destroy one goal, then move on to the next. Rinse and repeat.

 5. At some point you just have to get after it.

 We talk a lot about regeneration and recovery around here and that you have to be smart about your training, but let’s not forget that we are in fact TRAINING. You need to learn how to push your boundaries a little every now and then and use your training as an outlet. Most people are sucking it up big time at the gym and wonder why their perfect diet and supplement plan have yet to yield any results. Here’s a hint: you need to work harder and stop looking for the easy answer.

With the Middlebury 5k road race just 2 months away, Andrew, our resident “distance runner with big arms”, offers these 3 tips to stay healthy and run strong despite putting in a lot of volume on the road.

1. Bulgarian Split Squats

Ah yes, the single leg exercise that we all love to hate. Nothing like supporting a loaded barbell on your on one leg while breathing like a chain smoking emphysema patient as you sink every rep well below parallel.  While they sound awful (and they are), Bulgarian split squats are a critical component of any well rounded strength program. Distance runners are especially prone to many muscular imbalances and the Single Leg Bulgarian is the answer to many of those problems. In order to be a strong distance runner, you need a powerful set of glutes and hamstrings along with single leg stability and strength. By strengthening these muscles, you can improve your firing patterns – allowing you to run faster and more efficiently.

2. Cable VMO Extensions

In addition to meat and potato exercises like Single Leg Bulgarians, a heavy dose of the right kinds of prehab is absolutely necessary if you want to run injury free. The VMO, or the vastus medialis oblique is the “tear drop muscle” and is a stabilizer of the knee joint. How many of you distance runners suffer from runners knee aka patellofemoral pain syndrome? Activating and strengthening the VMO is just one part of keeping your knees healthy and not a simple cure-all…but it is important and vmo extensions can be an  easy filler exercise between sets of main lifts – so just do them.

3. Ankle Dorsiflexion

Last in the trifecta is ankle dorsiflexion which is used to not only improve strength and proprioception of the ankle complex, but also the tibialis anterior (the muscles of the front part of the shin). In my blog post, “Structural Balance For Adults”, I talked a little about length-tension relationships and this is instance, many runners have super tight calves – which means a weakened tibialis anterior…shin splits anyone? Just about anyone who has ever delved into the world of distance running has run into a stint of shin splints, which usually brings your hopes of 5k greatness to a screeching halt. By doing a few sets of ankle dorsiflexion, using bands or hooking your feet to a dumbbell or powerblock, you can prevent this nagging little injury from ever becoming an issue.

So there you have it – 3 simple tips that you can start incorporating into your training today. For our clients getting ready to run the 5k in December, feel free to throw the cable vmo’s and dorsiflexion in at the end of your training sessions two or three times a week (I won’t mention the Bulgarians…I know we already do enough of those!).