Tuesday 13 March 2012

Personal Trainer - Training Advice

I contacted a trainer that I used to work with in Florida, Jason Anthony from Zen Fitness. I told him about my plan to play Ten Rounds in One Day and asked for his advice on how I should be preparing. True to his form, he provided me with the following information...

"Jamie,

First, you should be in top physical condition at all times, not just when an event is coming up. In order for the body to be healthy, have the capacity to adapt, rebuild and regenerate, there is a pecking order for what your body needs. This order is as follows:

Water

You need to be consuming no less than ½ your bodyweight in ounces/day. So if you weigh 200lbs, you need 100 ounces/day minimum.

This would equate to 12.5 glasses each day. So divide your weight in half start there. If activity is involved and you are sweating a lot, this number goes up. Your urine should always be clear. Not yellow or even tinted. Quality of water is just as important.  The water you drink should be filtered via Reverse Osmosis or a Two-Stage Carbon Filter. To increase absorption you can add a pinch of quality sea salt (Celtic Sea Salt is a great choice).

Here is a link which has good info on the need for filtered water and the different types of filters. If you scroll down towards the bottom you will see the countertop filters. Easy to install, inexpensive and important for our health: http://waterfilters.mercola.com/drinking-water-filter.aspx For about 145 dollars (U.S.), you will have filtered water for a year.

Also, don’t drink out of plastic, use glass. The chemicals in plastic seep into the water when digested cause all sorts of potential problems long term.

Sleep

We all need good quality sleep to function at a high level. No matter the fitness goal, adequate amounts of sound sleep are necessary for the body to repair and regenerate.

In today’s modern world, many of us are sleep deprived. Our lives revolve around productivity,  information and money. Our brains and bodies are tired and worn out. What we need is good quality sleep, but instead we drink lots of coffee, energy drinks and continue the crazy cycle of GO, GO, GO. While training hard, sleep is even more important. The body just cannot recover, rebuild or progress without adequate rest. The body adapts to the stress of exercise during rest and without it, the body struggles to keep up.

Wanting to lose weight? The fat regulating Growth Hormone gets released during sleep so if you aren’t getting much of it, weight loss is also hard to accomplish. Sleep is also when your brain recharges. During deep REM sleep, information gets sorted out, memorized and organized. Without enough of this quality sleep, the brain cannot function at a high level. How much do you need? 7-8 hours of quality sleep. No alcohol or sugar before bed as this will affect sleep quality and lead to fat storage.

Food

(some of this I got from Chris White over at Go Primal. I took a course last year which he helped put together/teach and nutrition was part of it)



Avoid Processed Foods Processed foods can easily be identified using the following rules: 

Don’t eat it if you can’t pronounce a word on the food label
If it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago, avoid it.
Stay away from any foods that are fortified or enriched. This is un-natural.
If it can stay “fresh in a box” or bag, avoid it. This means it has preservatives in it which are toxic to your body.
Stay away from high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, food colorings, preservatives, and artificial flavors.
Avoid Genetically Modified Foods (GMO)
Avoid irradiated foods      

Avoid the following 4 things as much as possible

White Sugar
White Flour
White Table Salt (a.k.a. Sodium Chloride) – We do need salt in our diet however, but not refined salt. Celtic Sea salt is a great option as it has over 80 trace minerals per grain and helps to regulate fluid levels in your body.
Pasteurized, Homogenized Dairy Products – see below for dairy guidelines     

Choose Organic Produce As Much As Possible

Vegetables provide many important phytonutrients, however the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that are sprayed on them are a major concern. Eat lots of vegetables (avoid the starchy ones while losing weight, i.e. potatoes) which haven’t been sprayed or genetically engineered.

If you must buy commercially grown produce consider lower pesticide products:
Lowest Pesticide – asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, kiwi, onion and pineapple.
Highest Pesticide – apple, bell pepper, celery, cherries, potatoes, spinach and strawberries.   

Meat   

Meat provides us with many benefits but you need to be careful about the quality of meat you consume. Commercial farms give Growth Hormone to animals to make them bigger and these hormones remain in the meat and then we consume it. Cancer/disease risk is a major concern here.



Try to eat 100% pasture-raised animals who have not been given antibiotics or hormones. Beef should be grass-fed, organic, no antibiotics or hormones added. Chicken should be free range, vegetarian fed chickens, no hormones or antibiotics. Eggs should come from the same type of chickens. Same holds true for other animals. Fish should be wild caught, etc.

*If you do consume meat raised commercially, make sure you cut off all the fat. Toxins are stored in fat stores and these animals are TOXIC.    

Dairy 

If you are going to consume dairy, your best option is local, 100% pasture-raised, raw dairy. This means DO NOT consume pasteurized or homogenized dairy. The pasteurization process kills all the good enzymes and bacteria which our bodies benefit from.



You also want to avoid any dairy which comes from cows who have been given bovine growth hormone or antibiotics for obvious reasons. So go green and go organic.

*side note – you do not NEED dairy to be healthy, so if you don’t want to consume raw dairy, don’t. Just stay away from the commercial stuff.    

Grain    

If you are an O-Blood Type, avoid grains. O-types have a slower metabolic rate and need to stay away from higher glycemic foods. IF you are going to eat grain, follow these guidelines:



Eat organic, stone-ground IF you are going to eat grain & stay away from white flour, bleached, enriched or fortified

The majority of Caucasians are allergic to gluten, a protein found in all grain EXCEPT buckwheat, millet and rice. You can check yourself for this allergy simply by avoiding grains for 2-3 weeks. If you notice an improvement in how you feel, your body composition, energy etc, you are probably allergic.     

Fats

You need fats in your diet. There is a common myth that we should avoid fats.



Fats actually play many important roles in the body and you should consume the highest quality fats available to you. Good examples are nuts, avocados, cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil, etc. 

Alcohol



Avoid!! 

Exercise

Yes, exercise is number 4 on the list. Believe it or not, the body cannot change/adapt much without the top three things being in compliance. I would prefer to do a complete movement/mobility/fitness evaluation before programming out 3 months for you.



Obviously, I cannot do that from here. Basically, we would program by focusing on which biomotor abilities are in need of improvement. You will need good/balanced muscular endurance in all the muscles that surround your spine and that stabilize your hip complex.

You will also need good endurance/stamina because of the duration of this event. The stronger your legs and ability to translate that power generated to the upper body, the farther your drives. Flexibility is huge in golf so that needs to be adequate, etc… I will think more about exercise prescription for you. A little hard to do from afar, not exactly the right way to do it. 

I hope some of this helps you get started right. I would focus on leaning up as much as possible. We should all be lean and you will be carrying less weight around on this journey with less bodyfat. Feed and hydrate your body well always and the sky is the limit."

Once again, a big thanks to Jason and the all the folks at Zen for their support. If you are in Florida or specifically Gainesville, there is no better place to train and get in shape. Great fun, great modern training in a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. Cheers guys!

1 comment:

  1. Interesting article and really helpful. When we are talking about food ,Then food hygienic must concern which really important for human health.
    Food hygiene course

    ReplyDelete