The Health Risks of Chronic Negativity

How many people do you know or that you are surrounded by (at work or home) that are Chronically Negative? I know two people that I encounter every week that I can garauntee that they will make a negative statement or a "rain on my parade" rebuttle when I chat with them. It usually goes something, but not limited to, this: 

John: "Hey man, the Panthers are doing really well this season, huh? That was a great game last week."

Negative Guy: "Well...they really should have lost that game, and they play (?) next week, so we can chalk that up as a loss."

...makes me want to punch him in the face every time. Here is my last example, so that maybe you girls know what I mean. 

John: "Hey I heard that (enter name here) just got a new house and is dating some guy that she met last month."

Negative Girl: "You know that her parents bought the house, and it's in such a crap neighborhood that I wouldn't be caught dead in. This new guy she's seeing is such a dork, that I doubt that they are together next week."

...holy s#$t! And you call this girl one of your best freinds? 

Well it turns out that Karma is getting the best of these Chronically Negative people with doom ahead in their lives, if they continue to think and act this way. 

In recent health news the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), shared its findings about the harmful affects on the brain posed by chronic negativity. Research shows that people having a habitual negative disposition are at a greater risk for suffering from memory and comprehension problems later in life, including a higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease, compared to people with a positive disposition and outlook on life. 

Scientists and doctors examined the brain scans of patients with an admitted history of negativity in their thinking, feeling, and reacting processes, along with examining the brain scans of patients with noted histories of optimism and positive thinking, looking for any differences in the scans between these two groups if there were any. What researchers found was that there were higher instances of physical and physiological functioning differences that could be seen in the brain scans of the chronically negative versus the instances of physical and physiological changes seen in the brain scans of the chronically positive.

It was noted that in the scans of those who habitually engaged in negative thinking, the structure of the brain had actually been changed and that physiological functions had also been altered. Scientists can now conclude that these structural and physiological changes are as of a result of the exposure of the brain to the chemicals that are produced in the body when we think and feel in a negative fashion. Long term exposure to the chemicals produced by negative emotions changes how the brain naturally functions and the structure of the brain is also changed by parts of the brain that become inactive with chronic negativity.

I would like to relate this back to your fitness and health goals. We are already 15% done with 2009 and you have to ask yourself, if you are on track with your goals this year. If you are, Great! But if you are not, do not beat yourself up or stress about it, make up your mind to take each day at a time and turn it around to do what is in your power to make things happen. Most of all, believe that you can achieve what you first set out to do. It's going to be hard, it's going to be frustrating at times, but it will all be worth it at the end. 

good luck

Why you should not be doing crunches (and all your other "core" exercises)

Are you still doing crunches/bicycles/and back extensions for core work? 

In my first post I tried to make it clear that I began this blog because I truly believe in change for progress. Most professionals in any industry are afraid of doing things wrong or afraid to do things differently in the case that people find out they were not doing it right, in the first place. I am forever looking for ways to make myself a better coach/more knowledgeable trainer/more humane person/ and more highly effective business man...and sometimes it turns out that I was doing something that I, maybe, shouldn't have. Change can come in many forms; it can mean that I need to give more nutritional advice to my clients, rearrange some of my 1 on 1 sessions to group, or absolutely stop advocating these crazy crunch and sit up progressions all together because it is causing lower back injuries. In my world, I try to find one or all of those changes every week and when I do, I usually want to puke for not making those changes earlier. I will not apologize for continually striving to do things right, but I will apologize to all of my clients who have done thousands of reps of 101 different types of ab crunches in my sessions throughout the years...especially if you are having lower back pain. Good news, you will never see them again!

As most of you know, the ab work was never a major part of our sessions, unless you begged me and you were too fatigued to work any major muscle groups. I was always a proponent of getting abs through the reduction of body fat and rarely, if ever, did crunches in my own training (because I was more focused on spending time in more functional lifts, like squats).I would, actually, love to hear from any of you who have found that the millions of crunches that you have been doing has given you great abs! I just don't think it happens, which made me wonder.  But it wasn't until I began to delve deep into the modern research of back dysfunction and core musculature that I really began to understand why these exercises can be more dangerous than prosperous in our programs.  

Two of the major researchers that head up the anti-crunch bandwagon is the world famous physical therapist Shirly Sahrmann and spinal expert Dr. Stuart Mcgill. Their research in core training and back pain has been instrumental in the world of movement and performance training for the past decade.  They explain it like this: for years and years we have only assumed that the primary function of the rectus abdominus/external obliques/and other ab musculature was to flex the spine like you do in a sit up/crunch/or any other exercise that rounds your lower back. They were basing this assumption on cadaver studies and had never really known (until modern technology allowed) what the primary function was, for these muscles, in a live movement of a human. 

In the past several years, Dr. Mcgill and Sahrmann's studies have found that these muscles have, in actuality, a more critical function. Their main job is to stabilize the spine and to keep our torso upright in movement and exercise. In fact, Mcgill states in his testing that "repeat bouts of spinal flexion causes severe damage to vertebral disks." In a world where the majority of you are sitting at your computers and slumping your shoulders forward right now, why should we reinforce that in our fitness programs. Sit up in your chairs and keep your spine erect! We need to strengthen the core muscles so that we stay upright and straight in our spines to avoid excess loads in our lumbar areas. How do we do this? 

We now know that we don't do it by flexing in a crunch, but what is the most effective way to strengthen our core? We have to get away from strength and focus on stabilization. That means that we have to work exercises that keep our spine straight while our appendages move through normal ranges of motion. This is a very difficult skill and can only be effectively achieved by effectively strengthening the stabilized posture. We have to take posture seriously in our major exercises (squat/bench/pullups), work towards strength symmetry (front/back/side to side), and add in core stability exercises such as: Planks, Side Planks, Physio Ball Rollouts, and the Physio Ball Pikes. 

...just wait till I tell you that running is bad for you and fats are good. 

10 Reasons Why Heavy Weights Don't Bulk Up Females

10 Reasons Why Heavy Weights Don't Bulk Up Females

I would prefer not to start out by posting this as my first informational piece, but I felt that I had to grab your attention right off the bat so that you will see the that the information is pertinent. This title is the #1 phrase that I hear from 100% of the women that I see as new clients or that want to talk to me at the bar*, because they heard I am a trainer. It comes up every time I hand my clients a weight that they have never lifted before or when they feel the belt a bit tighter or the shirt a bit more snug after a binge of eating like crap all week long and denying it. 

*On a side note...I rarely enjoy talking about work at a bar! So if you do see me out (ha!) and we start a conversation, please do not strike up the chatter with "so how do I get rid of this (as she grabs her triceps or her waist)? It will always be the same answer, put down the chicken wing and blue cheese and do some relevant exercise!"

I recently read an article with this title on a website that has some great information and experts on health and fitness. This one particularly caught my eye and was written by a well known strength coach in a division 1 college. I am going to list his 10 reasons below, then agree and disagree with some of them: 

1) Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men....you really can't argue with that and is why I can lift heavy weights and gain lean muscle mass, but you women can lift heavy weights and just get strong. In fact, the best way to lose weight is to gain lean muscle mass that keeps your metabolism high and burns fat while you are not in the gym. REMEMBER: Strong does not equal this - ...that is called 4 hours a day in a gym, 500 dollars a month in supplements and steroids, and never touching a carb in her life.

2) The perception that women will bulk up in a strength training program comes from the "chemically" altered women on the front of bodybuilding magazines...He is right about this one, as well. See above statement. 

3) Toning is what happens when muscle is developed through training...I like this reason, and this is an aspect that rarely people are able to grasp. Toning is an objective characteristic to 98% of women, but has a true scientific definition in health and fitness. Tone = the state of tension or responsiveness of the organs or tissues of the body (referring to muscle).  This word means something different to every woman out there and it is a very important description to me and how I will treat your program. It tells me where your priority of fat loss is on your body, where I want to focus your lean muscle gain, where (most of the time) you will lose fat LAST, and how you will judge your success in the program. 

4) Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work...I would like to be a little bit more specific and say that there is an optimal volume of work for the building of muscle size. Why is it that you work heavy weights in 3-6 reps and lower weights in 15-20 reps? Because study's show that the lower reps (volume) with higher loads (lbs) is effective at strength gains, and the highest volume (15-20 reps) with lower loads is effective for muscle endurance. Between those said volumes (8-12 reps) is the rep range that will effectively produce muscle hypertrophy or size, or more specifically it is the rep range that puts your muscles under stress for the amount of time that will make muscles larger. My female clients stay in one of the first two volumes, the low rep range is not enough time to elicit muscle build and the highest rep range is too much time under stress to build muscle...But no matter what the range you are working, make sure that you are using a weight that causes absolute fatigue in that range. There is nothing more frustrating when someone is lifting a weight for 6 reps that they could do for 20. That gets us nowhere! 

5) Heavy weights will promote strength, not size...if used properly, see above statement 

6) "Bulking Up" is not an overnight process...I love when women will be with me for a week and come in one day and say "John, I am getting bulky!" Yeah? Well, let me know what you are doing, because if you can "bulk up" that fast, then I need to bottle, sell it to all the guys in Charlotte and become rich. The truth is that the only people that gain a large amount of lean mass in a short amount of time are the ones on steroids and the ones that have been training for years, quit, and then just start back. It takes quite a long time to get that muscle hypertrophy, if you have never had it (and I would not train you that way). See #4. 

7) What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working...I think that I would like to rephrase this to what you have been doing up to now, is not working. This may not be due solely to the strength program, but your cardio, and even more important your nutrition! Point being, if you are not fatigued muscularly or cardiovascularly at the end of the set/session, then you are not likely going to see the intended results. If you are with me and you you do not feel the above, then you are either injured/new and working on corrective exercises/or you are not doing what I ask. 

8) "Bulking Up" is Calorie dependent...Great statement. I will give you the example of me on this one. I am in the opposite of the normal woman's fitness goals, in that, I work my butt off to gain weight. Sounds great, right? Wrong! I work harder than most people that I know to keep weight on or gain weight, than they do at losing weight. One of the biggest things that I have to force myself to do when trying to gain weight is to eat around 1000-1500 more calories per day. That is an increase from 2000-2500 per day, depending on the week. I am eating all the time, and that is the only way that you bulk. If you are "bulking up" then look at your calorie amount and more importantly, what type of calories you are eating and you will have your answer for weight gain. 

9) The "freshman 15" is not caused by strength training...Author is a strength coach at a college, so I will not comment on this one. You and I both know why girls are getting 15 extra pounds when they leave home and are on their own. 

10) Most of the so-called experts are only experts at sounding like they know what they are talking about...This is true, if you are taking advice from women's health or your personal trainer at the local Y. The truth is that you cannot really get effective advice on how to get to your goals until they know you and your body/lifestyle/and goals. There is not cookie cutter program, so do not think that you can go by what worked for your friend in wherever, that lost 20 pounds, because the truth is that she was either working her butt off like she never has before or starving herself and being miserable. 

The take home point of this post is that you have to have knowledge or have someone that has the knowledge to write a proper program for you and your goals. Every woman's idea of BULKING is different from my own, and the only way to have your trainer change your program because of your results (ie: thighs/arms are getting too big) is to express what you want, where you want it. If you don't, I am going to train you how I want to see you...and you may not want that! 

It's Time to Change

Welcome all, 

If you are reading this blog, chances are that you are current client/a past client/or a friend that may be interested in getting to your health goals. This officially the first blog in my career and the short lived existence of Performance Unlimited, and might I say "I can't believe that I am doing this!"

Well, the biggest buzz word or phrase in health and fitness these days (not a coincidence that it is the beginning of the year) is CHANGE, and I believe that I am not different than anyone else. You have probably heard the cliche saying that, "in order to change your life (health), you cannot continue to do the same things that got you here." I am a big believer in that statement and I truly think that it goes for every aspect in our lives. I have health and fitness goals, I have personal goals, and I have business goals. In order for me to achieve those goals, I cannot sit here and continue to do the things that I did yesterday, or last year...I have to progress, work to make changes, create different habits...all for a different, and hopefully positive, outcome. Which brings me to this blog. 

I am going to keep up with this blog for you, me, and the business. I got some great feedback and excitement about the essay I wrote a few weeks back on "Successful clients" and I would like to continue to share these thoughts with you, so that you may get something from it...but, honestly, I get a lot out of it, as well. The majority of my posts will be about Health and Fitness, but not restricted to. If I see an inspirational story or funny video, I may add it in. Some of the posts planned for the next couple of weeks will include "Why Women Will not Bulk", "Risks of Chronic Negativity", "Why You Should not Run Long Distances", and "Fats are Good"...

So please check regularly, and pass it on to anyone that may be of interest. Please send feedback, because that will determine what the topics may be or whether this is the best way to get the information out to you. 

Thanks again for allowing me to do what I love to do

John Lytton

Performance Unlimited