Post-exercise metabolism boosting research is one of the focuses of this week’s call. We’ll also review more SWITCH training tips, renew a protein debate, and talk about transformations, of course.

Glad to be home from Cleveland…except for the people I met, there was nothing redeeming about that trip. Really glad I went home on Saturday night. Nice week in Toronto. Spring is in the air. I fought off the remainder of that cold in Cleveland…it never turned into a full cold.

Congratulations to our 6-Week Transformation Winners
-    Josh
-    Rachel

We’re now coming up on the end of the 12-week contest…next contest starts in May

Click here to listen to the call…

Let’s get started with…

Monday – March 14th

Transformation Tip of the Week
You are responsible for your results. You will accept your results without casting blame and you will learn from your mistakes so as to not make the same mistakes again. And then you will move on. That is how you will live and that is why you will succeed.

Training Tips

SWITCH training tip: Change the “implement” you use. If you are using barbells, switch to a dumbbell version of the exercise (i.e. from barbell bench to dumbbell bench, or squats to split squats). If you are doing dumbbell chest presses, try 1-arm standing cable chest presses. If you use are doing barbell rows, try bodyweight rows. Try a new version for 4 weeks.

SWITCH training tip: Increase the difficulty of single-leg exercises by starting from a “deficit”. That means elevating the stationary working leg…this can be done very well with reverse lunges and bulgarian split squats.

Tuesday
•    Get 30 minutes of fun activity – now grab a Green Tea and do this week’s research review.

This week we’re going to review 2 studies examining post-exercise metabolism boosting calorie burning research.

Reference #1:
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Feb 8. A 45-Minute Vigorous Exercise Bout Increases Metabolic Rate for 14 Hours.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina tested the affects of 45-min of vigorous cycling on 24-h energy expenditure in a metabolic chamber.

Ten male subjects (ages 22 to 33 yrs) completed two separate 24-h chamber visits (one rest and one exercise day) and energy balance was maintained for each visit condition.

Exercise: 45-min of cycling at 72.8 VO2max at 11:00 am. Activities of daily living were tightly controlled to ensure uniformity on both rest and exercise days.

RESULTS:
•    The 45-min exercise bout resulted in a net energy expenditure of 519±60.9 kcal (P<0.001).
•    For 14-h post-exercise, energy expenditure was increased 190±71.4 kcal compared to the rest day (P±0.001).

CONCLUSION:
In young male subjects, vigorous exercise for 45-min resulted in a significant elevation in post-exercise energy expenditure that persisted for 14-h.
The 190 kcals expended post-exercise above resting levels, represented an additional 37% to the net energy expended during the 45-min cycling bout.
The magnitude and duration of increased energy expenditure following a 45-min bout of vigorous exercise may have implications for weight loss and management.

AND

Reference #2:
One-set resistance training elevates energy expenditure for 72 h similar to three sets. Timothy Heden, Curt Lox, Paul Rose, Steven Reid and Erik P. Kirk.  European Journal of Applied Physiology. Volume 111, Number 3, 477-484,

To compare the effects of an acute one versus three-set full body resistance training (RT) bout in eight overweight (mean ± SD, BMI = 25.6 ± 1.5 kg m−2) young (21.0 ± 1.5 years) adults on resting energy expenditure (REE) measured on four consecutive mornings following each protocol.

Participants performed a single one-set or three-set whole body (10 exercises, 10 repetition maximum) RT bout following the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines for RT.

REE and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) by indirect calorimetry were measured at baseline and at 24, 48, and 72 h after the RT bout. Participants performed each protocol in randomized, counterbalanced order separated by 7 days.

Results:
There was no difference between protocols for REE or RER.

However, REE was significantly (p < 0.05) elevated (~5% or ~400 kJ day−1) in both the protocols at 24, 48, and 72 h post RT bout compared with baseline.

A one-set RT bout following the ACSM guidelines for RT and requiring only ~15 min to complete was as effective as a three-set RT bout (~35 min to complete) in elevating REE for up to 72 h post RT in overweight college males, a group at high risk of developing obesity.

The one-set RT protocol may provide an attractive alternative to either aerobic exercise or multiple-set RT programs for weight management in young adults, due to the minimal time commitment and the elevation in REE post RT bout.

Wednesday Workout Tip
SWITCH Training Tip of the Day – Double the # of reps you do in 1-arm DB Rows. Decrease the weight by 25%. You should be able to do that with good form. Keep your torso tight to resist rotation. Your obliques will be screaming for the next 2-3 days and eventually your grip will get stronger.

Trainer Thursday
•    Do 30 minutes of fun activity…

Training SWITCH – Use intervals at the start of a fat burning workout. I don’t recommend this be used ALL the time, but you can do this infrequently to switch up the physiological effects of a training program. I prefer strength work done before intervals, but if you use mostly bodyweight exercises – or upper body exercises – then you can do intervals before resistance…and it will feel harder.

Facebook Friday

I’m doing a lot of QnA sessions over on Facebook at www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

Q: In the areas of strength building and fat loss alone we see the benefits in these body weight workouts, shorter duration and not needing to do so much cardio. But when it comes to health benefits and cardiovascular health, fighting prediabetes and diabetes etc.. How does cardio match up and is doing body weight exercises enough to tackle those fighting disease, illness alone?

Answer:
Cardio is fine for general health. However, as with fat loss, diet is the most important aspect of cardiovascular health. You can be a marathon runner but still have heart disease if you eat french fries every day. There are what I call the “4 horsemen of your body’s apocalypse”, and avoiding these are the keys to longevity and health:

1) Obesity
2) Smoking
3) Excessive alcohol
4) Inactivity

That said, the activity does not have to be long, slow cardio. Resistance training and interval training have similar long-term health benefits.

Great question…please ask yours at: www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

Social Support Saturday!
•    30 minutes of fun activity…

“Most people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napolean Hill….so never, ever, EVER give up.

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
•    30 minutes activity and plan, shop, & prepare

Q: How many grams of protein can you digest at one time?

Answer:
Ready for a long-winded scientific answer? Your body will digest and absorb almost all of the protein you eat, no matter how much you eat at once.

The real question people mean to ask, is how much protein can your body use at once. That number is probably quite small – although I don’t know the specifics.

So if someone eats a lot of protein at once, say a large steak or one of those massive protein shakes that contain more than 30g of protein per serving, your body cuts the nitrogen off the amino acid and now has a “carbon skeleton” it can use for energy production.

So back in the day, scientists and nutritionists would use this info to justify their argument that “too much protein” is a waste of money and that it was “wrong” to eat a lot of protein.

BUT…

We now know that protein helps control the appetite…so, its not “wrong”, provided it is done for the right reasons.

Ironically, the people that probably need less protein are guys that want to gain muscle. Another long story.

Anyways, bottom line: Stick to 20-30 grams of protein in each of your mini-meals per day. If you can only get 10g at one meal, don’t stress, that’s fine too. Just look at the big picture and try to match your daily calorie, protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake with your goals, and try to spread things out in as many “mixed” meals as possible.

As a general recommendation to everyone… To make it even simpler, just stick to the whole, natural foods approach and everything will work out. Its often that simple, without worrying about grams of this and grams of that. Its hard to eat too much of anything if you focus on a variety of the right foods.

Next week!
•    Training Tips – What I Learned from John Romaniello in Clash of the Titans 2 & 3
•    Research Review – Technology based fat loss
•    Nutrition – Controversial Nutrition Switches

Hey folk’s, today we’re going to take a look at some research to discover the TRUTH about green tea and belly fat. This study is called the Influence of Short Term Consumption of Caffeine Free Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Supplement on Resting Metabolism and the Thermic Effect of Feeding.

Past research has given hope that green tea can boost metabolism, and carries a compound that’s called Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), a type of catechin that has been associated with boosting the metabolic rate essentially supporting the fat burning hormones.

In this state, the Colorado State University researchers provided green tea supplements or a placebo to 16 subjects, and each subject followed each of the conditions. So, in one condition they had green tea, in another condition they had a placebo.  Of course, going back to the title, we must realize there’s no caffeine in this.

In the previous studies and in the landmark study that showed you burn 80 extra calories per day if you take high amounts of EGCG and a high amount of caffeine. In the “supplement world” when it’s refers to green tea and burning calories this is what everything is based on. Unlike that 80-calorie study, where there is no caffeine in the supplement here.

So what researchers found in this study was that EGCG on its own did not boost metabolic rate.  And my bottom line is that I’m unconvinced that drinking green tea or taking supplements, even with the caffeine, is actually going to boost your metabolism considerably. When I say considerably I mean enough to actually burn belly fat.

However, of course, green tea is very healthy, and I recommend it in place of soda, juice, and even coffee. Now, if you replace calories, like in a soda or a juice, with a green tea, or even you replace a coffee with lots of sugar and cream with a green tea with nothing in it then you’ve cut back on your calories, and you can lose belly fat.

However, just drinking green tea on its own, I don’t think there’s any chance that you’re going to burn belly fat at all. Now, if you take high amounts of EGCG and high amounts of caffeine, which is tough to know if because the supplement makers don’t really list how much is in each of their supplements. Therefore, it becomes very difficult to believe that taking a commercial supplement is going to allow you to lose fat.

I don’t believe in green tea as a fat loss supplement until I see some really strong research that says otherwise. I hope you understand that’s really my full dissertation on green tea right there. There’s not too much else to add.

Yesterday, the fitness and nutrition expert shared with us a few things about post-workout nutrition and supplements. So, if your exercising for fat loss you should always make healthy food choices by eating a healthy whole food meal. Remember eat whole food, mostly plants, not too much.

We have covered a lot of information on fitness and nutrition over the past few days with Dr. John Berardi.  As we end this expert interview series on Precision Nutrition, we look at some advice that has been very effective in his coaching programs.

*****************
Craig:  Looking ahead, what do you see in 2011 as being some of the nutrition trends, good, bad, and ugly? What do you see in terms of research coming out?

John: Well, generally when it comes to sort of future prediction stuff I’m not very good, because I just look at some of the current research that’s coming out, and then I look at what we’re doing at Precision Nutrition, that keeps me busy enough. The one thing I’ve become less interested in is the idea of the perfect program. I have become more interested in helping people come up with the best plan that they can follow, which is a much more psychological thing.

That’s why I spent a lot of time today talking about change. I’ve been reading a ton of “change literature” that’s out there. This is usually a branch of psychology, but we’re starting to see it crop up in weight loss and physiology studies as well.  Researchers that traditionally have done studies on exercise science are starting to look at “CHANGE RESEARCH” and applying it to fitness, fat loss, nutrition, and exercise.

Craig, I’ve realized this and you probably have to, because you’ve been in the industry helping coach people on changing their bodies for just as long as I have. We see about 10 to 20 percent of the clients who are interested in body transformations, and they actually change their lives in the way that most personal trainers and nutrition coaches ask them to change.

The advice often sounds like this, “So, you want to lose fat? Okay, great. I can help you with that. I want you to drop all your bad habits today. I want you to adopt these 15 good ones right now because I say so. So, If you can’t do all of that you’re lazy and unmotivated, and I’m going to fire you as a client.”

That’s usually how the personal training mindset is, obviously it’s a bit of a generalization but that’s kind of how it is. It’s no wonder that the other 80 to 90 percent of the people out there are labeled as lazy and unmotivated. You’re asking them to change too much too fast based on some authoritarian command. Very few people ever respond to that.

So, in addition to being a physiology expert, I’ve actually set out to become a coaching expert and a change expert. That’s why I think our coaching programs, in particular, are so effective, because we try to use the right physiology by using the right change approach. To me that’s really the future of this industry, blending physiology with psychology.

Have you read the book Switch by Chip and Dan Heath?

Craig: No, I haven’t gotten around to read that one yet.

John: It’s one of the best books, I think anyone in our field can read, especially if you are involved in coaching. If you are a fitness pros, a personal trainers or strength coaches, I highly recommend it! They checked out our certification program where we teach these strategies in depth in a way that applies directly to the fitness industry to help clients get better results. Our cert’ is actually broken down into two pieces. The first half is all the physiology, and the second half is the coaching approach. I think this is where this industry is actually going and where a lot of the research is going. It’s definitely where we’re going if no one else is.

So, blending the two, physiology and the change approach is what I’m pretty passionate about.  I was a little disappointed in my PhD work, and all the physiology stuff. So, when I got out, I started looking at ways to help people.  It’s a tough thing for people to learn when they get into this field, but once they actually learn to master this those clients who they thought were lazy and unmotivated start to realize the unlimited potential and start perfecting the client.  So, that’s what I’m pretty excited about.

Craig: I imagine you have an incredible support group for your PN clients with your forum that is open and available to everyone. Right?

John: Yes,  We’ve over 70,000 members of our online community, which is the forum area. We’ve got a bunch of individuals that are part of our PN team who are basically paid to answer questions on the forum and offer that type of support.

Going back to the sort of change idea, that’s actually one element integral to this whole change process. Again, people who pick up Switch can check it out and in it, they call the concept “rally the herd.” The idea is that without the appropriate support achieving really lofty goals and making changes in your life is very difficult.

There’s actually a research group that has looked at this, and they came out with some pretty jarring headlines about two years ago that obesity was contagious. The idea is that your social circle determines basically what your norms will be.  They found those not only were people who hung out together more likely to gain body fat if the majority of their group was gaining body fat, even family and friends who lived across the country or in a different country where three times more likely to become obese if their social network is also becoming obese.

Now, I’ve always been, I don’t know if it’s lucky, or if I just tried to seek this out on my own, but I’ve always been surrounded by positive social support examples. I also have come to learn that not everyone has that, so that was part of the mission of what we were trying to do by opening our community, also by offering the type of coaching that we’re offering.

It’s putting people together so that instead of obesity becoming contagious fitness and leanness becomes contagious in the same way. That’s the good news about this research, just because bad things are contagious that doesn’t mean that it’s a doomsday prophecy coming, good things are equally contagious. I love that idea.

Craig: That’s great stuff. I really appreciate all the information that you gave us. We really went down a different track, and I’m kind of glad that we did with the support and psychology and stuff like that.  What do you say to having another interview sometime soon in the next couple months where we go over some more of the physiology we didn’t cover?

We want to cover that carb cycling question, but then it also gives me some time to get into some of the change and motivation and support research and I’ll come back at you with some questions on that.

John: That would be awesome. I’d be really grateful to do that.

Craig: Awesome. I really appreciate that. I guess the first step for people to get more involved with Precision Nutrition is simply go to PrecisionNutrition.com. s there anything you want to direct them to there?

John: No, I mean they can sort of choose their own adventure when they get there. Actually, on the home page there’s a bunch of free courses. There’s a FREE COURSE for men, there’s one for women, there’s one for athletes and there’s one for fitness professionals. I guess for people who are new to what we do they can learn what we’re up to and for those who aren’t new to dig in a little deeper.

Craig: And that will also get the professionals the information they need on the certification program?

John: Absolutely, yes.

Craig: Okay. Thank you, John, so much. It’s been a wonderful interview series.

John: Thanks, Craig

Craig: All right. Thanks everyone. This is Craig Ballantyne from TurbulenceTraining.com with John Berardi from PrecisionNutrition.com, with part one of our interview, we’ll be back sometime soon with part two. Bye, everyone.

Hey Folks, over the next few days TACFIT Designer and Founder, Scott Sonnon shares with us his story as he traveled to Europe to seek out ancient martial wisdom backed by Soviet sport science to bring this rare combination together designing the first Tactical-Specific Conditioning System (TACFIT); used by secret service, counter-terrorism units, fire brigades and military academies.

Scott’s journey didn’t start out so trouble free. Having connective tissue disorder at such a young age he shares with us the difficulties he faced having to overcame theese physical challenges at a young age. So lets begin as we learn why joint mobility training is so important.

*******************

Craig Ballantyne: Hello everyone, this is Craig Ballantyne, and I’m here with TACFIT Trainer Scott Sonnon.

Scott Sonnon: Thank you, Craig. I really appreciate it.

Craig Ballantyne: Hey, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself, because I know who you are and a lot of trainers and some advanced fitness folks might know who you are, but you might be a new to a lot of others, especially to my readers. Then we’ll get into how to make the program work with everyone.

Scott Sonnon: Sure. Thanks, Craig. Basically, I was born with a congenital joint disorder, which made contemporary fitness approaches like power lifting and ultra distance endurance activities impossible, it would shred my connective tissue.

So, much of my youth was spent in agony, because I wasn’t going to let that kick me down but every time that I attempted some type of sport or athletic approach it would just shred my connective tissue.

So, my parents basically tried to support me by finding alternative movement methods and alternative therapies. I’m 40-years-old, so that was 30 or 35 years ago and the approaches weren’t as cutting edge as they are now.  We’re talking like the “Dewey Decimal era”, not quite the “Google era.” We had to hunt our way through a lot of information spending our time trying to find what to do and that led us to martial art’s training.

Martial Arts training had a lot of baggage that you had to sift through; a lot of tradition that were just garbage that had been passed along from one generation to the next.

Over time I stumbled upon the Russian approach, which is basically very much along American lines of trying to be as pragmatic as possible. Take what works and discard the rest. It’s a long story how it happened, but I ended up stumbling into a form of martial arts called Sambo from an American, who was a bronze medalist in the world.

It instantly resonated with me because I could see that he was small and wiry, I’m talking like this guy was a not of muscle. However, he could  hunk guys who were three and four times his size across the mat, you could tell that he as in great shape from how he looked, and he was so much superior to the guys who were large and puffy who couldn’t to perform as explosively or as long as he.

His training methods were unique even though he had only a portion of the Russian approach at the time.  After spending a few years with as a U.S. Team member and competing around the world in Sambo, I petitioned to be the first American to go over to Russia, as an intern. They finally chose me to go over there. I was a world class athlete at the time and there were 16 and 17 year olds outperforming me.

They would send out their seventh string because we were pitiful compared to them. They had such enormous connective tissue strength or joint strength that they would continually outperform us even though we were training hours and hours and hours a day so much longer than they were. I would say we trained even much harder than they were, yet they were still able to outperform us and looked better than we did.

When we came back to the United States, I did my best to try and back all the research stuff that I had discovered. After spending six years it was  a little weird to think of their Special Forces trainers, their Olympic and national coaches, even members of their cosmonaut program.

So, there is a joke that goes something like this. America spent a million dollars developing a pen that writes in zero gravity and the Russians took a pencil. They were low-tech on everything and they had the science to back it up. So, we just didn’t have the science on low-tech information we had all of our science based upon pharmaceutical solutions to things.

So, only in the past 20 years the Soviet Union imploded and all their research basically disappeared. We came back and now not only have we caught up with them, but we’ve actually surpassed where they were because we’re able to apply it on a consistent basis and we have the calories to support it. We have the drive to support it and that’s what happened with our organization.

I selected a group of professionals from different areas to help me support the information that I had discovered in Russia and actually systematize it brought us to the current moment with RMAX International of a group of professionals who are trying to develop a new approach based upon an old understanding.

Craig Ballantyne: How old were you when you first started when you stumbled upon the Sambo?

Scott Sonnon: Let’s see it was 1990. I had been kickboxing at the time and when you wear a size eight hat you basically a walking bull’s eye. I definitely joined the wrong sport.

However, when I was down in Millersville University that’s when I first an athlete by the name Andy Bachman, who was from Caracas, Venezuela. The disparity between Sambo and other styles of a martial art was huge for me. There was a complete absence of tradition and of high focus on science.  

Craig Ballantyne: Very interesting.

As we continue on with part 2 of our interview excerpt with Scott Sonnon, we find out what Ops units are training with these methods right now.

So apparently, a “New Eco Atkins Diet” appears to work for vegetarian weight loss programs.

The high protein vegetarian diet helped improve bad cholesterol while folks lost weight, but other researchers suggest that counting calories remains the key to weight loss, since both vegetarian diet groups in the study lost weight.

This interesting new research study was published today – coincidentally from a group of Toronto researchers – about vegetarian diets for weight loss.  It was a small study, and of course more research is needed, but it suggested you could use high-protein vegetarian foods to achieve the same results as you could with meat-eating Atkins diet success.

The folks in this study lost an average of 8.8 pounds in only 4 weeks – impressive stuff (and also supports our philosophy here at Turbulence Training that “Diet is more important than exercise”.

Interesting…and yes, we could debate whether the soy protein foods are healthy, but what I want to concentrate on is the fact that vegetarian diets are good for weight loss.That should be obvious, but some folks get it wrong by eating too many processed carbohydrates and not enough “real vegetarian foods”.

As you might know, last week I promised the world I was going to reconstruct my diet and go vegetarian for the month of June. I’m almost vegan except for the eggs I eat. Everything else is plant based food.

So how’s it going?

Great. Very interesting, and a big time learning experience. I even have a shocking protein revelation to share with you thanks to my former professor, Dr. Stuart Phillips from McMaster University.

Bodybuilders are going to FREAK OUT when I tell them this…more on that in a second…

But first, let’s review some of my adventures in vegetarian eating.

When I tell my friends about my plan, they always recoil in shock and horror…”aren’t you going to miss your chocolate milk?”, they ask.

And the truth is, I do, a little. But everyday I miss it less and less, mostly because I’ve been experimenting with other foods and finding things to replace it. The great thing about Turbulence Training is that we are “diet-flexible”, and frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what type of diet you use.

You want to eat meat? That’s fine.

Wanna be a full-blown, hard-core raw vegan dieter? Go for it.

Feel like eating cardboard and tree bark? Okay, you’re an adult, that’s your decision.

But back to my experiments…here’s what I’ve tried in the last week and how things have turned out.

1) I tried some gluten free tortillas using Gluten Free Ivory Teff & Millet Flour. Not so good. Even Bally wouldn’t eat them!

2) I’ve tried some spelt flour products, including bread, linguine, and even a “vege patty”. Not bad.

3) Lots of Amy’s Organic Chili, but then realized it was high in sodium. Okay for my diet, but watch it if you are on a low-sodium diet.

4) Multi-grain rice bread…probably won’t be buying it again

5) Hemp Bliss beverage (unsweetened) – this is not so good either…I’m going back to Almond Milk.

So those are just some of the things we are trying…and I really appreciate all the feedback folks are giving.

As you can bet, I’m eating a lot of grains, nuts, and nut butters (cashew butter makes amazing sandwich spread) to keep my calories up, and I wondered if I was getting enough protein. I was having “protein guilt” as Brad Pilon calls it.

So I asked an expert…after all, this protein question is on everyone’s minds…”how do you get enough protein on a vegetarian diet, especially if you want to gain muscle?”

Well, this is going to shock you.

I wrote to my friend Dr. Phillips who is an expert in protein metabolism. He’s completed several studies on protein requirements and exercise, and had a very interesting answer to my question. Here’s what I asked…

Q: Hey, not sure if you know but I’m experimenting with a near-vegan diet for a month…only eating eggs, no dairy. I think I’m lucky to get 100 grams of protein in a day. Do you think that eating a surplus of calories and only 100 grams of protein while lifting can still allow me to gain muscle? That’s only about 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram bodyweight. Thanks!

Dr. Phillips’ Answer:
No problem gaining at all… More than enough protein!!

The rate at which we ‘grow’/hypertrophy muscle is way too slow to need that much protein.

Our real protein needs during muscle building are 0.8 grams per kilogram bodyweight per day or perhaps even a little lower…

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Bet you didn’t expect that answer.

And yes, that is not a typo…he’s talking about grams per kilogram, not per pound. So divide that by 2.2 and you get a whopping 0.36 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day needed to build muscle.

That’s a long, long, looooooooooong way from the 1 gram per pound commonly recommended in the bodybuilding community.

And I can feel their hate building already.

So now I open it up to comments.

What do you think?

Have all the vegetables gone to my head?

Still building while on my “eco” diet,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS