When I train myself as well as my clients I am always trying to find ways to get through plateaus. No matter what kind of training you do you will eventually hit a plateau. This is where the body has fully adapted to what you are currently doing and grinds to a halt when it comes to improving or changing. One of the training principles I use every few months to really "hammer" the muscles is German Volume Training (GVT). It is also called "ten sets method" but the GVT name became common due to the fact that this style of training had roots in Germany. This type of training is not for the faint of heart and you better have a puke bucket handy. GVT training takes your intensity to another level. For this reason you cannot stay on a program like this for too long as it will burn you out and cause over-training. Click the link to go to a website that has some excellent information on GVT training and how to build a proper program based on the principles. This program works. Give it a try and feel free to let me know how it worked for you.
Cheers,
bounce life
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Antioxidants Hype or Truth
Good day,
Today I want to talk about a key buzzword in the health and fitness industry, "ANTIOXIDANTS". You can now buy a product in almost every food category at your local super market that claims to have antioxidants in them. Great, so what does this mean for you, the average consumer? How do antioxidants affect your health? Where do they come from? Are they real and do they work? These are some of the questions that I will answer in today's post. So, lets start with the question, are they real and do they work? The answer is YES they are real and YES they work!
Here is a brief description of how they work and affect your health. Antioxidants are natural compounds that help protect the body from free radical damage. OK, now you are asking what the heck is a "Free Radical". Well, a free radical is an atom or group of atoms that cause damage to cells. So, Antioxidants = GOOD and Free radicals = BAD. Simple enough so far right? Some of the damage that free radicals do include, impairing the immune system, heart disease, cancer and possibly the aging process itself! Free radicals are formed by exposure to the sun, toxic chemicals such as those found in cigarette smoke, polluted air and household chemicals; and various metabolic processes, such as the breaking down of fat into an energy source.
Now, lets talk about where antioxidants come from.There are number of phytochemicals (found in plants) and nutrients that act as antioxidants including Vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, flavanoids and the mineral Selenium. Certain herbs have antioxidant properties as well.
Although many antioxidants can be obtained from food such as sprouted grains, fresh fruit and vegetables it can be difficult to get enough from our foods because our polluted environments are constantly generating free radicals. We can use supplements to bridge the gap but need to be careful not to focus on one type of antioxidant as they work synergistically together. It is better to take smaller doses of several different antioxidants.
Here is a list of common Antioxidants:
bounce life
Today I want to talk about a key buzzword in the health and fitness industry, "ANTIOXIDANTS". You can now buy a product in almost every food category at your local super market that claims to have antioxidants in them. Great, so what does this mean for you, the average consumer? How do antioxidants affect your health? Where do they come from? Are they real and do they work? These are some of the questions that I will answer in today's post. So, lets start with the question, are they real and do they work? The answer is YES they are real and YES they work!
Here is a brief description of how they work and affect your health. Antioxidants are natural compounds that help protect the body from free radical damage. OK, now you are asking what the heck is a "Free Radical". Well, a free radical is an atom or group of atoms that cause damage to cells. So, Antioxidants = GOOD and Free radicals = BAD. Simple enough so far right? Some of the damage that free radicals do include, impairing the immune system, heart disease, cancer and possibly the aging process itself! Free radicals are formed by exposure to the sun, toxic chemicals such as those found in cigarette smoke, polluted air and household chemicals; and various metabolic processes, such as the breaking down of fat into an energy source.
Now, lets talk about where antioxidants come from.There are number of phytochemicals (found in plants) and nutrients that act as antioxidants including Vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, flavanoids and the mineral Selenium. Certain herbs have antioxidant properties as well.
Although many antioxidants can be obtained from food such as sprouted grains, fresh fruit and vegetables it can be difficult to get enough from our foods because our polluted environments are constantly generating free radicals. We can use supplements to bridge the gap but need to be careful not to focus on one type of antioxidant as they work synergistically together. It is better to take smaller doses of several different antioxidants.
Here is a list of common Antioxidants:
- Alpha-Lipoic Acid
- Bilberry
- Burdock
- Coenzyme Q10
- Turmeric
- Flavanoids
- Garlic
- Ginko Biloba
- Glutathione
- Grape Seed Extract
- Green Tea
- Melatonin
- Methionine
- N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)
- Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NADH)
- Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPC's)
- Selenium
- Silymarin
- Superoxide Dismutase
- Vitamin A and the Carotenoids
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Zinc
bounce life
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Child Obesity
Today I want to talk a bit about "Child Obesity". We just recently returned from a cruise to the Caribbean and my wife and I could not believe how many overweight children there were on the ship. When watching these families almost every single one of these overweight children had one or both parents that were overweight. If I were to do the BMI calculations on these children and their parents the outcome would surely be that they would actually fall into the "obese" (> 30 BMI) category according to their BMI results. These children when put in this position are extremely hard pressed to come out later in life at a healthy body weight. In fact, they usually tend to trend towards even greater weight gain and have a higher propensity for diabetes and other diseases. Part of the challenge is that our children adopt our eating habits early in life and if we are not eating healthy and living a balanced lifestyle it is likely that our children are following suit. With obesity and diabetes on the rise around the world we really need to focus on our children to ensure that they adopt good habits and get a fair chance to lead a healthy, balanced life early on.
Here is an interesting article that outlines what we are discussing here: http://www.peoples-health.com/childhood_obesity_facts.htm
Cheers,
bounce life
Here is an interesting article that outlines what we are discussing here: http://www.peoples-health.com/childhood_obesity_facts.htm
Cheers,
bounce life
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