Updates

I added some useful updates to the site today. In the links section, you'll find links to my personal training rates, as well as my contact information. You'll also notice the Amazon book widget. The three titles listed are all books I've read, and highly recommend. The information contained within their pages will open your eyes to some amazing truths about nutrition and exercise physiology. If you only read one, The Zone is where it's at!

The Importance of Posture

Do me a favor. Go stand with your back against the wall. Make sure your heels, butt, shoulders, and head are all touching. Now drop your chin so that your head is level, pull those shoulders back, draw your belly button in, and stand up as tall as you can. I'll bet this feels pretty uncomfortable for you. Well, this is what good posture looks and feels like. It should not really feel like this, but due to years and years of having bad posture, we've effected the natural resting position of our joints and muscles. Continue this, and as you get older you'll develop some nasty postural distortions that cannot be fixed. Ever see and old man or woman who's neck looks like it's coming out of the top of their chest or has a hump on the back of their neck? This is from having a chronic forward head posture.

With proper posture, our bodies are extremely strong. We can load our selves with tremendous weight without injury, and move with the utmost efficiency. Slowly break from this posture, and those loads on your joints grow exponentially, causing pain and injury. If we all had perfect posture, there would be no such thing as bad knees, bad backs, bad shoulders, sore necks, sore feet, etc. These conditions come from a breakdown in your bodies kinetic chain which overloads the muscles and joints. The pain you feel is your bodies way of letting you know something is wrong. Rather than taking a pill and sitting down to rest, which only treat the symptoms, let's work on attacking the problem head on. Always be aware of your posture! Practice standing against that wall as I mentioned above. Always try to stand up straight, pull the shoulders back, and suck in the gut. Think of a soldier saluting a general, and you'll get the idea. It may seem silly and awkward at first, but those feeling will go away with time and practice.

Next Stop: Advanced

Today I finally finished my basic level performance certification at CrossFit H.E.L. Everything on the list is pretty, well, "basic," but it is a necessary stepping stone on the way to the advanced level, which is what I will be working towards over the next 4-6 weeks. Wish me luck! For those of you interested in what the basic and advanced level's work loads are, you can download the .pdf files under the forms and articles section on the right hand side of this blog.

Will the real Mr. Ken please stand up?

VS







Here's a simple trick to help you stay in better shape - stand up! Seriously, it's that simple. Your resting metabolic rate raises considerably when you stand, rather than sit. You could burn an extra 100-200 calories per day if you converted your work station from a sitting unit to a standing one. Stand up while you watch the news, play video games, and read a book, surf the web, talk on the phone, the list goes on and on.

Not only is this better for your waist line, it's also better for your back, joints, and muscles. While you sit, your hip flexors are short and tight, while your glutes are stretched and loose. Your core muscles shut down since the back rest does the supporting for you. Over time, this becomes a chronic condition. Stand back up, and your now week glutes can't compete with your overly tight hip flexors pulling on your pelvis. The pelvis drops forward, increasing the curve of lumbar spine. This over stimulates your low back muscles, leaving them sore and fatigued. This is why over 80% of Americans have bad backs or back pain at some point in their lives. This "anterior pelvic tilt" as it's called, also leaves you with an unsightly protruding abdomen (ie gut). Frequent standing helps keep the glutes and hip flexors in neutral position, making you more balanced, flexible, and have better posture.

And what about those of you who already have this condition, or simply can't accommodate any more standing in your daily lives? A good place to start is by stretching out those overly tight hip flexors. The Sampson stretch is my favorite way to do this. In a lunge position, rest back knee on the floor, with front knee at 90 degree angle, abs in. Gently press forward until you feel a stretch in the front of the leg/hip. Raise hands above head and stretch upwards. After 30 seconds to a minute, switch legs.

The Most Importand Meal Of The Day

Breakfast? Nope. Sorry. Try again. Your post workout meal? Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Why is this meal so important? Wait to long to eat after a workout, or skip that meal entirely, and you wind up negating the positive effects your workout may have had. You'll take longer to recover, plateau faster, and you'll feel like crap the rest of the day. Nobody wants that.

When you exercise, your body's primary source of energy is sugar stored in the muscles. This stored sugar is called glycogen. When you've finished working out and your glycogen is nearly depleted, the body's primary task is replenishing your glycogen stores. This will prepare you for your next activity. From an evolutionary standpoint, after you've worn yourself out running away from whatever it was that was trying to eat you, you need to replenish your energy stores as quickly as possible just in case it comes back.

Glycogen is the storage form of glucose, which is the simplest form of sugar. Your post workout meal should include a good balance of some fast acting simple sugars, and some more complex carbohydrates (ie starches). That way you'll have a steady stream of energy entering your blood stream for the next 30-60 minutes. These carbohydrates should be accompanied by protein somewhere between a 2:1 - 4:1 ratio. To put that in prospective, if you consume 40 grams of carbs after your workout, you should be taking in somewhere between 10-20 grams of protein, as well. The amino acids in the protein will go to start rebuilding the damage you've done to your muscles, although the majority of rebuilding and growth will be done while you sleep. Too much protein at this point will be wasted since replenishing, not rebuilding is the primary objective (read that sentance again muscle heads). Don't forget the fat! Just a dab is fine. This will go to hormone production and celular function, making you feel better.

If you've got loads of cash or are lactose intolerant, there are various recovery suppliments our there specifically engineered for this sort of thing. If you're on a budget and not big on suppliments like me, the best choice is chocolate milk. Really? Really. It's got a 3:1 carb:protein ratio, just the right amount of fat, and it's less than 50 cents a serving if you shop around or buy in bulk. Oh yeah, and it tastes awesome! Drink it the instant your finish your workout, then eat a normal balanced meal with 30-60 minutes after that.

Virtuosity

What do you think of when you hear the word "virtuosity?" Do you think of a master gymnast, or a concert pianist? A great artist, or a star athlete? Virtuosity is very elusive, but attainable by all. It is defined as "doing the common uncommonly well." With enough practice and hard work, anyone can achieve a level of virtuosity in at least one aspect of their daily life. I'm not only trying to achieve this uncanny level of performance in my workouts and my music (I play and teach guitar - didn't you know?), but in my CrossFit coaching, as well. I struggle to deliver a coaching experience that unparalleled by my peers because I'm capable of doing it, and my clients deserve it. If I'm capable of 100%, but settle on only giving you 70%, then what the heck are you paying me for, right? So what am I doing to reach this rare pinnacle of performance? Here are the top three things:

For starters, brutal honesty. What we want to hear, and what we need to hear are rarely the same when we are struggling through something. The reason I'm there is to make you better, and lying to you by telling you you're doing a great job when I'm actually a little embarrassed for you isn't going to get you where you want to be. A false sense of confidence can also be dangerous. If you think you're an ace and I don't tell you any different, you could end up loading yourself with too much, too fast and injuring yourself. Nobody wants that, and that leads me to my next point...

Progressing and regressing appropriately. What does that mean? It means that there are a lot of really cool exercises and moves out there, and a lot of really big numbers being put up by your peers, but until you've mastered the basics, that stuff is off limits. If your squat is 90% there, you've still got work to do until you are ready for the next level in the squat progression. The same goes for regressing. As much as we all hate to take a step backwards, if your form starts to suffer, it's time to take it down a notch. This is just as hard for me to dish out as it is for you to take, so please, no dirty looks!

Lastly, I'm trying to achieve complete transparency in my spoken directions. Whenever I give an explanation of an exercise or a verbal cue for a client to change their posture, I want that language to be so crystal clear that they respond immediately and get it the first time. If I'm repeating myself or rephrasing, I haven't quite got it yet. I'm constantly listening, watching, reading, and learning new ways to explain things and fix problems so that everyone under my tutelage gets the most out of their time with me. This makes me a better teacher, and you get more bang for your hard earned buck.

Muscle-Up

I'm not normally one to gloat, but I'm super stoked about this....I finally got the muscle-up! Ive been trying for a few months now, and it never really clicked until yesterday. My friend and fellow trainer Tommy Rudge helped tweek my form until I got it. Thank you Tommy!

The Warrior Within

I've recently been made aware of a new (well, new to me) dietary strategy penned by Ori Hofmekler of Jerusalem. It is called the Warrior Diet, and is based on what appears to be sound dietary science and theory. I've provided a link to the website if you'd like to read more about it, but if you'd rather have me summarize the key ideas for you here, just read the next few paragraphs and decide for yourself whether or not it's for you.

You've probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and should be your biggest meal. Lunch and dinner follow suit and grow progressively smaller, with a solid 3-4 hour block of fasting time before you retire for the evening. "Wrong!" shouts Ori. He recommends the opposite: a feather weight breakfast, followed by tiny snacks every few hours. The stars of this diet plan are at the end of the day in the form of large evening meals closer to bed time. He divides the day up into a 20 hour undereating phase (from the time you fall asleep until you get home from work the next day), and a 4 hour overeating phase (from the time you get home from work until you go to bed). All of this craziness is based on the roles of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and Parasympathetic Nervous System's (PNS) in the body. The SNS keeps our fight or flight responses honed and raises our overal alertness and energy levels. When we eat bigger meals, our PNS system kicks in, putting us in recuperation mode. This slows us down, telling our bodies to rest and relax so it can focus on digestion and growth. His key analogy relates back to paleolithic man and his daily schedule. Our ancestors would rise in the morning and set out in search of food. While hunting and gathering all day, they wouldn't have much in the way or food. Upon returning home with the catch of the day, however, they would be presented with a large meal to nurish themelves while resting in preparation for the next day. Makes sense on the surface, but does it work?

Well, lucky for Ori there are a lot of "it depends on..." phrases built into his plan. It depends on your bodies chemistry and genes that determine your ability to utilize fats and carbs for energy. It depends on your age. It depends on what you do before and after you eat. It depends on the macronutrient balance of your meals. It depends on the intensity of your daily activites/workouts. Etc. Don't misread me here - I'm not bashing his plan. I personally like a lot of the ideas he puts forward. I agree that eating right before bed is great, and that your post workout meal is the most important meal of the day. What I don't like is that he reduces structured, planned diet plan with a lot of trial and error guesswork. "Find out what works for you!" Isn't that what we've been trying to do all along? Look, there are no garantees in the diet world. We are all diferent, and what works for some may not work for others. Ori is right there. I think the best strategy is to learn as much as you can, and decide for yourfelf.

Are you fit?

Well, are you? A better question to ask might be "what is fitness?" This very question was posed by CrossFit back in October off 2002 in an article aptly titled "What is Fitness?" It is available for download for free on the CrossFit main site featured in the links section of this page. I highly recommend everyone go and download it immediately. It will change the way you look at training! For those of you who think you're pretty much up to snuff on all things fitness, or maybe you're just intimidated by the articles 11 pages, I will do a brief summary for you here. Let's get to it!

So, what is fitness? Most people think of endurance athletes like Lance Armstrong or ultra marathon runners when they think of people who exemplify ultimate fitness, but I like to think of it as general physical preparedness. That means no matter what physical task arises, whether it be running 13 miles, deadlifting 300 lbs, climbing a mountain, or just keeping up with your kids all day, we look at how well you perform these tasks. Most elites are great at one thing, usually strength or endurance, but truly fit individuals must be good at all things. All things includes 10 general fitness skills encompassing all the major physical systems and movements of the human body. These skills are: cardiovascular endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, power, balance, coordination, accuracy, and agility. To train all of these skills, your training program must be constantly varied. Every workout uses different functional movements, in different orders, and utilizes different energy systems. In order to test your fitness level under this definition, we would gather a group of individuals, and draw random physical tasks out of a bin. Your performance of these tasks compared to the other individuals reflects your overall fitness level. On a scale of 1-10, if you scored 5's across all 10 general fitness skills, your score (50) would be higher than a marathon runner that got 10's in cardiovascular endurance and stamina, but 2's in everything else (score of 36).

Obviously there is more to it than that. Nutrition, knowledge of movements, technique, and much, much more determine how much you'll get out of any training regimen. I will be addressing these other topics, and expanding on today's as time goes on. Check back frequently to see what is new, and in the mean time, check out that article!

Get ready...

Welcome to Mr. Ken's Fitness! This will be a place where you can come to learn about health and fitness, the people I train and how to get involved. I'll be working to build more and more information and cool features into the site as the months go by. If you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see, please don't hesitate to send them my way. I'll try to update the blog every 2-3 days, so check back often and see what's new. See you again real soon!