Most of the stuff in Men’s Health is junk, but this article cites two extremely reputable people, Dan John and Prof. Stuart McGill. Not surprisingly, one of our staples, the loaded carry is the topic. https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19548559/best-loaded-carries
I do a class on inflammatory foods and inflammation now and then, but this article is one of the best I’ve ever read on inflammation as it relates to diet and exercise.
Before you decided to dive into buckets of sugary junk this Thanksgiving, you might take a look at what was likely on the table at the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving lobster and oysters, anyone?
This study on L-carnitine might show one of the reasons people see so much success on a pure carnivore diet: They are eating a bunch of red meat, and generally going long stretches without eating. Red meat is rich in L-carnitine.
(Think, Vince Gironda steak and eggs diet: Two meals per day, eight hours apart with nothing but steak and eggs in mass quantities.)
Pavel Tstatsouline is quite a character, but his info on stretching and just about anything to do with strength and conditioning is great. Showing off the hairy chest must be a Russian thing.
Here’s an article on gut health and the Auto Immune Protocol, which is a super strict paleo diet. Yes, it works. I’ve heard similar stories from people over the years, even before we had any idea what might be going on ( and we still know very little about the gut biome).
The next lifestyle/nutrition class will be November 4th at 7p.m. I’ll be doing this class and it will focus on preventing holiday weight gain. I’ve done this one in the past and it’s always been one of the most productive ones.
This is an interesting new study that came out about military personnel stationed at different latitudes, their vitamin D levels, and depression. We don’t get enough natural sunlight in Idaho to absorb it naturally. I take 5,000iu all the time, and 10,000iu in the colder months. https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-019-0308-5
I haven’t tried this exact deadlift program. I’ve done similar ones and they’ve worked. It looks to be a very doable program without much that can go wrong as long as you are patient with it and don’t overestimate your starting points. https://www.t-nation.com/training/simple-deadlift-program
Some of you have heard bits and pieces of this story from me over the years. Looks like Robb Wolf posted a good synopsis of the way our food system and nutritional guidelines got so incredibly screwed up.
You hear me discredit “cardio” in the traditional sense a lot. Mostly because what qualifies as such in the general fitness world is not low-level enough to really be good at training an aerobic base, and not truly lung-burning hard enough to benefit the upper end.
What usually qualifies as cardio in mainstream fitness realm is what is known in the sports strength and conditioning world as “the junk zone.” This is what you see in popular chain fitness franchises like F45, Orange Theory, or one of the various cycling classes. This is the zone that the perceived effort is medium-hard, makes you breath pretty hard, and sweat a bunch. This is where the uninformed usually say they’re “getting in a good workout,” but really all they’re accomplishing is burning some sugar, stimulating stress hormone, and training weak movement patterns.
In short, cardio should either be as strong and fast as you can do it for less than a minute, or easy enough you could do it all day if you had to. But, the reality is that it is important, even if you hate it.
Nothing good comes from high blood sugar and poor insulin-sensitivity. This is why literally every piece of nutrition advice I give is designed to enhance insulin-sensitivity. If you are insulin-resistant, every aspect of your performance is compromised.
“Insulin clearance is associated with physical fitness and metabolic health. Aging is associated with reduced metabolic clearance of insulin and hyperinsulinemia, reduced glucose effectiveness, and an increase in metabolic diseases…”
Meat is good for you. Eat it. Many of the studies that have suggested otherwise do not actually stand up to any kind of scrutiny. It has been a mantra for years, but when you really break it down, evidence to support health hazards associated with eating meat is so weak as to not even be taken seriously…and the methods used to gather that evidence are suspect at best.
Strength training improves mood. I’ve found this to be the case even more when it involves movements that use your whole body through a full range-of-motion. One of the guidelines I use when programming at IKSC is that the movements we use for training should use everything from your fingertips to toes, while incorporating the breath and always leading with the eyes. https://www.ergo-log.com/stop-worrying-go-and-start-strength-training.html
This next link has a good section on the new scare about chicken and cancer. Mark makes a good point (one I often make about beef), is that they aren’t factoring in what people are eating with the chicken.
This is one of the reasons it is important to know the mechanisms and the physiology of what’s going on, not just look at stats. Case in point: Ever go to a BBQ restaurant and see an obese and unhealthy person just eating a pound of brisket or smoked turkey? No, it is usually slathered in sugary sauce, and by caloric content, the carb-load side dishes vastly outweigh the meat. https://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-chicken-cause-cancer-should-you-neuter-dog-collagen-and-skipping-dinner/
Video of The Week:
One comment on the video: Note that she makes reference to Mediterranean Diet. The issue I have with that particular popular diet is that it does not limit palette options, and really, turns into the same old “everything in moderation” thing that has been proven over and over to be a failure for a nutritional strategy. What it ends up being is whatever people want it to be.
Also note, that at about 11:50 she makes a note that any variation of the Mediterranean Diet that failed to include red meat DID NOT improve symptoms of depression.
The next nutrition class will be Monday August 5th at 7pm. We will focus on sleep and chronic stressors, and how they impact recovery, performance, and nutrition choices. Hope you can make it.
Video of The Week: Most of you have heard me talk about “metabolic flexibility” and how the goal is not to be “keto” but to be able to switch between burning fat and ketones to glucose at will. Robb Wolf explains this well.
A paleo diet will help you lose excess fat and improve health markers. In order for it to work, you must eat things that align as close as possible with what would have been available in a pre-agricultural society, which means no “paleo” cookies, gluten free treats, nut butters, etc. http://www.ergo-log.com/paleo-diet-perfect-weight-loss-diet.html
Old article, but well worth the read. It pre-dates any kind of popular “diet-culture” interpretation of what a “paleo diet” is, or what has been pretty much bastardized by different cookbooks, etc.
The thing to realize is that the nutrition information presented comes straight from the physical sciences, not from nutritionists that are held to maintain the party lines of what the AHA and ADA claim is healthy.
Video of the week:
Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek are basically the modern leaders in the low-carb diet field, or “keto” as it has become known as. I’ve been reading their work and following them for several years now. Here is a good primer on nutritional ketosis.
Bonus video. Short, and a few years old, but still dead-on. The idea that dietary fat and cholesterol is a problem within itself is a lie:
Photos this week: The people who carved these drawings didn’t eat processed food. They are near a site likely used to harvest wild game by some primitive people, an estimated 5,000-6,000 years ago:
