General Fitness article by Ben on Friday, July 23, 2010 12:55:49 AM EST
Marlaena and I were in Seattle last weekend for a workshop with Pavel Tsatsouline who is the founder of the RKC (Russian KettleBell Challenge) and the author of a ton of great training books. The workshop was hosted by the Kettlebility Studio and covered three of his body weight books - Super Joints, Bullet Proof Abs and the Naked Warrior.
The morning started off with Super Joints. We spent a few hours going over a ton of different joint mobility exercises, warm-up drills, dynamic and static stretching, contract and relax stretching and various breathing techniques. We spent a lot of time on the hips and were shown various ways to open up and find space in your hip joints so you can get better depth in your squat and deadlift. This part of the workshop was really beneficial for me because I've always had tight hips, tight hamstrings and lower back problems.
After the morning session we took a small break and then moved on to Bullet Proof Abs. This part of the workshop was also huge for me because a lot of time was spent on power breathing and exhalation and building abdominal pressure in your mid-section to make you more stable and stronger in your lifts. This is something that I've always had difficulty with and I was glad to finally learn how to "breath behind the shield!" After the breathing techniques Pavel showed us a variety of horrendous ab and oblique exercises that made me sore for days!
The last part of the workshop focused on the Naked Warrior which covers the one arm push-up and the pistol squat. Pavel believes that these are two of the toughest body weight exercises that you can do and if you can master them both, you are well on your way to being a fitness rock star! I was really looking forward to this portion of the workshop because I have been working on my one arm push-up and my pistol squat for the past few months. I picked up a lot of great tips and was able to do my first pistol squat with my left leg (using a kettlebell as a counter weight) and managed to bust off a few one arm push-ups off the floor using each arm. (Marlaena did pistols on both legs but had to stick to normal push-ups!)
Overall the workshop was a great experience. It was awesome to meet Pavel in person and have the opportunity to listen to him explain and demonstrate so many different exercises and drills. I'm happy that I bought and read all three books before hand too because there was so much information to take in. And I'm really glad that Marlaena took a ton of notes because by the end of the day I had already forgotten everything we had worked on that morning!
I'll be filming some of these stretches and hip mobility drills in the next few weeks and will add them to the site in one of the next updates!
General Fitness article by Ben on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:22:04 PM EST
Here's another Tabata interval that Marlaena and I filmed at the gym last weekend using her new GymBoss Interval Timer. It's a little bit more challenging than the last one I posted and focuses more on your core than your lower body.
The interval consists of hanging knee raises and walk out plank-ups. Start by doing as many hanging knee raises as you can in 20 seconds, take 10 seconds to rest, then do as many walk out plank-ups as you can in 20 seconds. Take another 10 seconds rest and then repeat the cycle 3 more times for a total of 4 minutes. Try to do as many as reps as you can in the first round and then try to match or better those numbers every round after!
General Fitness article by George on Saturday, July 10, 2010 12:34:12 PM EST
Can Eating Nuts Help You Lose Weight?
You probably know that nuts are high in fat. Because they are very energy-dense (containing a large number of calories compared to volume), it is natural to assume that eating nuts will contribute to weight gain. However, a number of recent scientific studies conducted on the effect of nut consumption on body weight provide evidence contrary to this assumption.
An examination of the literature on this topic, conducted by Richard Mattes and colleagues and published in The Journal of Nutrition, actually found that eating nuts is not associated with a higher body weight – in fact, many studies found that people who eat nuts have a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than people who don't eat nuts.
Nuts Found Not To Cause Weight Gain
Several clinical trials have found that nut consumption has a limited impact on body weight. In one trial, healthy adults were provided with an amount of almonds equivalent to 15% of their calculated energy needs each day. It was predicted that this addition of daily calories would result in a weight gain of 6.4 kg, but the actual weight gain was only 0.65 kg for men and 0.14 kg for women – about 10% or less than the expected amount.
Another recent trial, in which healthy but overweight women were instructed to eat a portion of almonds daily for 10 weeks, found no change in weight at the end of the 10 week period, despite a predicted weight gain of 3.4 kg.
Nuts Can Aid Weight Loss
A number of clinical studies have found that the addition of nuts to a diet meant for weight loss not only doesn't reduce the effectiveness of the diet, but can actually improve both quality of diet and amount of weight loss. A comparison of almonds and complex carbohydrates found that people consuming almonds lost more weight and saw a greater reduction in BMI, waist circumference, and fat mass.
A second study found that a diet containing moderate amounts of fat from nuts – defined as 35% of energy from fat – resulted in greater weight loss than a diet low in fat, where 20% of energy came from fat. Study participants who were on the moderate-fat diet were also more likely to stick with the diet than those on the low-fat diet.
Why Might Nuts Help You Lose Weight?
Nuts help you feel less hungry. Questionnaires have found that the consumption of nuts results in a significant reduction in levels of hunger reported by respondents, although the reason for this is unknown.
You eat fewer calories at other times. For an unknown reason, it appears eating nuts results in a lower calorie consumption at later meals. The majority of calories obtained by eating nuts – an estimated 65-75% – are offset by this reduced intake of other foods.
Energy from whole nuts is not readily absorbed by your body. Studies have consistently found that a large amount of fat from nuts passes through the digestive tract without being absorbed. An estimated 10-20% of a nut's calories are thought to be lost due to this limited efficiency of energy absorption. The cell walls of nuts are resistant to gastrointestinal enzymes, meaning that any cells not broken by chewing may not release the fat that they store.
Nuts may help you burn more calories. Eating nuts has been found to increase the amount of energy you expend while resting. One trial found that consuming peanuts increased resting energy expenditure (REE) by 11%. What exactly does this mean? As an example, the REE of a woman who is 30 years old, 5 feet and 4 inches tall, and 160 pounds is 1511 calories per day. Replacing some of her diet with nuts could help her burn 11% more calories while at rest, or an extra 166 calories per day. This translates to 17lb of weight loss in a year!
Even though nuts are high in fat, scientific studies are showing that a diet containing nuts can be helpful in losing weight and in maintaining a healthy body weight. Not only do nuts make you feel fuller and want to eat less, the fat they contain is not readily absorbed by your body and they may even help you burn more calories while at rest. These advantages suggest that adding a moderate amount of nuts to your diet is a healthy move.
About the Author Matthew Contantine is a biologist and postdoctoral fellow at Washington University School of Medicine. He has a variety of research interests and reviews popular meal replacement diets on his weight loss blog.
General Fitness article by Ben on Thursday, July 01, 2010 1:16:20 PM EST
We went to a BBQ last weekend down at CrossFit Vancouver. It was the first annual "Nutt's Cup" in memory of Andrew Nuttall, a former member of CrossFit and the Canadian military who died while serving his country in Afghanistan. It was an awesome day and a fantastic turnout. The day started with the Nutter Team Workout of the Day which consisted of a 550 M run, 50 wall balls with a 20 lb. med ball, 3 rounds of 30 pull-ups and 30 burpees and finishing with another 550 M run while holding 45 lb. weight plate. Let me tell you.. it was pretty tough!
I was partnered up with a really nice guy named Emerson who had never been to CrossFit before but was in pretty decent shape. We hammered our way through the workout and managed to get it finished in just under 20 minutes which put us 9th out of 48 teams. Marlaena and her partner Duke hustled through their workout and finished a very respectable 5th overall!
After the team competition, they held the 1st annual Nutts Hero Workout of the Day with the prize being the illustrious Nutt's Cup! It was a brutal workout and I was blown away by the athleticism and competitiveness of some the participants. The workout consisted of 10 handstand push-ups, 15 deadlifts (250/150 lbs.), 25 box jumps (30 inch box), 50 pull-ups, 100 wall balls, 200 double unders, 400 M run with 45 lb. weight plate. The winner finished in just over 15 minutes and the top female, Emily Beers from CrossFit Vancouver, finished in just over 20.
I was very impressed and will hopefully be able to get in the thick of things and compete for the cup next year! I'm not sure what the workout will consist of but I will definitely be working on my double unders, handstand push-ups, wall balls, box jumps and well everything else too!
And to all my fellow Canadians out there.. Happy Canada Day!!!
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