The Three Most Important Medicines

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"You know what to do.  It is time to do what you know."  Read more from Martin Rooney's latest post.

The Three Most Important Medicines by Martin Rooney

Your body.  Your training.

Five Self-Made Steps To Improving Your Digestion

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In yesterday's post, Charles Poliquin gave his five tips to help improve your digestion.  While it is a solid list, I have created one of my own that is much more, well, self-made.  Without further ado, here they are:

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1) Sleep

This may seem hypocritical coming from a guy who usually sleeps less than six hours a night, but in fact I am talking about quality, not quantity.  If I don't sleep soundly I am much more apt to alter how I should eat, which in turn throws off my digestion and, subsequently, how the rest of my body functions.  For some tips on improving the quality of your sleep, check out my blog post "Get Your Sleep Right".

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2) Eat according to your metabolic type

In its most basic sense, metabolic typing looks at how you as an individual metabolize the three macronutrients--carbohydrate, protein, and fat.  Then, based on, among other things, a questionnaire in which you describe how you feel after eating certain foods, you are given an ideal macronutrient ratio that you should try to eat every day.  I am a Protein Type, which means I function very well when I eat a lot of fat and protein.  I can handle some carbs, but give me a few slices of pizza and my body is a wreck.  Look for my post next week in which I detail more about taking the metabolic typing quiz, but in the mean time, check out the book The Metabolic Typing Diet if you would like to know the ins and outs of this approach.

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3) Find out what's going on on the inside

Do you have unknown food sensitivities?  Do you have a parasite?  Do you have a fungal infection?  Are your hormones in balance?  All of these are contributing factors to how well you can digest as well as how well you feel and function.  For this, I would look into a practitioner who runs the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition tests.  Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness is my main source for this type of information and is a FDN practitioner himself.  I would contact him for more info regarding FDN as well as where to find a practitioner.

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4) Limit stress and anxiety

Commonly, when people get stressed out about something, their digestive system goes completely whack.  Gas, diarrhea, and nausea are not uncommon side effects of nerves and anxiety over an upcoming event.  You could put cotton mouth in this same category.  Try your best to stay relaxed and calm throughout the process and your digestive track will thank you.

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5) Don't be afraid to poop

Kind of funny, kind of awkward, but it's true!  Poop is meant to be excreted and yet social pressures cause us to hold it all in.  That is ridiculous.  For a great video on pooping, check out Sean Croxton's work:

Your body.  Your training.

Charlie Cates, MATs, CSCS

Self Made_®, Owner and Founder

Charlie Cates is a Muscle Activation Techniques_® specialist and a strength and conditioning specialist.  He is the owner and founder of Self Made_® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL.  He has worked with competitive athletes and everyday people of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s to 85-year-old retirees.  He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

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You Snooze, You Win

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You cannot out-exercise a bad diet, and you cannot out-eat poor sleep.  Sleep trumps all.  Check out this article by Martin Rooney for more.

You Snooze, You Win by Martin Rooney

Get big or die tryin'.

Pre-workout Drinks

Pre-workout drinks: Making lazy kids motivated and disrupting sleep quality and recovery since the airing of those first N.O.-Xplode advertisements.

By: Tony Cates, CPT, PES

We have all heard of them. Those drink powders containing various combinations of amino acids, stimulants, electrolytes, and herbal extracts. They can turn almost anyone who is tired and unmotivated into a raging mule in the weight room. In an aspect of life where a commitment to consistent hard work is the only means for success, they give hope to the overpopulated crowed searching for shortcuts and instant gratification. Though I will agree, imperfect action, or action with the assistance of chemical substances, is generally far better than perfect in-action, the abuse and addictive nature of these glorified energy drinks is something I feel deserves to be addressed.

The primary goal of a pre-workout drink is to give you more strength, power, energy, and endurance during a workout than you would otherwise have. What could be wrong with that? Better workouts lead to improved fitness and faster results, right? Generally, I might agree with this statement, except for the fact that better workouts are only being achieved through artificial means. What most pre-workout drinkers fail to take into consideration is that recovery from workouts is arguably more important than how much work is actually done during the workout. For instance, if I train more in one session than I am able to recover from, I will not be getting the full benefits of my hard work. This is where I find the primary problem with pre-workouts drinks.

Not only do pre-workouts allow users to train beyond their capacity to recover, they further prevent recovery by hindering proper sleep patterns. Caffeine, the primary stimulant in most pre-workout drinks, negatively affects the sleep cycle. The degree to which this is done depends on the time, relative to bedtime, that the caffeine is ingested, as well as the individual’s tolerance to stimulants. Whether you notice it or not, caffeine is likely disrupting your sleep, and with sleep being one of the most critical aspects of recovery, it is hindering not only your ability to recover, but your ability to progress, as well.

By taking a pre-workout product, people not only have a greater ability and desire to train beyond their capacity to recover, they actually reduce their ability to recover at the same time. This in turn leads to increasing numbers of people over-training and suffering injuries related to over-training and over use.

Perhaps it is time to re-think what actually makes sense when it comes to pre-workout fuel.

Tony Cates is a business management major at Edgewood College in Madison, WI. He is a certified personal trainer, performance enhancement specialist, and the S&C Coach for Edgewood College Men’s Basketball. He can be reached at catestony@gmail.com or (608) 852-7433.

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Get Your Sleep Right

Alright, let me start this post off by saying that there will be very little objective data included in this post, and what is included I probably won't have references for. That being said, I have noticed a significant difference in how I've been feeling since I moved out of my old apartment on July first, and I contribute that all to sleep.

Since I've moved, I haven't been groggy at all during the days, I am actually waking up refreshed at 4:00 AM, and my training sessions and lifts in particular have been SO much more intense and productive. Why? My nutrition has been exactly the same, but I've been doing a few things differently regarding my sleep. First, I've been leaving my cell phone in another room on silent. I used to sleep with it on my night stand; then I moved it to my dresser; now it's in a completely different room. If you aren't able to prioritize your sleep ahead of one of your friends drunk-dialing you in the middle of the night you have problems. Straight up, flat out, you're screwed up. I rarely call people out for their lifestyle choices, but this is going to change. You need to re-asses your entire life and figure out what is actually important to you. If chronic fatigue and illness, excess weight, and being overstressed are what you want out of life, then please, keep doing what you are doing. But if you actually want to live life, not just be alive and be a slave to Starbucks, then put your stupid cell phone in a different room when you sleep.

Secondly, I've moved my computer from out of my room to in my dining room. This happened more because of lack of space for my desk in my room, but nonetheless, the same theory applies here as with the cell phone.

Third, I got room-darkening shades. My other apartment was right downtown by the John Hancock. I had these HUGE windows in my room that provided a great view during the day, but at night all of light from other buildings would shine in, especially during the weekends. This made it very difficult to get high-quality sleep because my room was always illuminated. If you don't want to pay for the shades, put up an old quilt over your windows. Either way, try to ensure that your room is as close to pitch-black as you can make it when you try to sleep.

Fourth, I started wearing a cPRIME bracelet to bed. I'm not selling these, but if you want to know more about them, Google them and check it out. They help to block the radiation shot off by cell phones, TV's, computers, microwaves, etc. and allow your body to work as if the radiation wasn't there. I'm probably over-simplifying this description, but check them out for yourself.

Finally, I changed my schedule at work so I am now done for the night at 7:00 PM. I did this so I could get home, showered, and in bed by 8:00 PM, leaving me the opportunity for 8 hours of sleep every night. I feel best when I get 9 hours, which I normally do on weekends, but I feel really good when I get 8 during the week. Before, I would work until 8:00 PM and then not be in bed until 9:00 or 9:30. I came to the conclusion that this was bogus, that if I couldn't even give myself the opportunity to get the amount of sleep I need each night it didn't make sense for me to be doing what I do. How could preach to my clients one thing and then act out another? It wasn't sitting well with me, and I was feeling like crap because I wasn't sleeping well. So I said screw it, I'm altering my schedule and if those above me have a problem with it then I will no longer work for them. I cannot try to help other become healthy if I am not working in an environment that will allow me to be healthy, and I'm standing by that.

I know not everybody can choose when they work, but sitting back and accepting your current fate is not the way to go. I talk to my clients all the time about creating a culture of greatness around them. They always whine, "But I have to drink! It's part of my job!" or, "I'm out four nights a week with potential clients; how am I supposed to lose weight while eating that food?" You create a culture of greatness around you; that's how. You let everybody know that this is what you stand for, and you do not waiver from those values. If making a change in your life is important enough to you, you will be able to hold strong. It doesn't mean it will be easy, especially at first, but the longer the precedence is in place that this is how you do things, the easier it will become.

If your exercise and nutrition are on point but you still aren't getting the results you want, sleep is a good place to start looking. You can't out-exercise a bad diet, and you can't out-eat poor sleep. Make a commitment to yourself to sleep with the sun, and feel how amazing real health and living can be.

Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP's. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

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The Overlooked Essentials for Your Ulitmate Adaptation

If you are trying to get bigger or stronger, you have to evaluate every aspect of your lifestyle. Check out this article by Kyle Newell for more info.

The Overlooked Essentials for Your Ultimate Adaptation by Kyle Newell

Get big or die tryin'.

Having Trouble Sleeping? Check Your Diet...

Here is an interesting blog article posted on Zen to Fitness.com. In it you will find some foods that you normally think of as sleep disrupters and a few that may have never crossed your mind. If you are having trouble sleeping, one or more of these foods may be to blame.

Foods to Avoid for a Good Night's Sleep as posted on Zen to Fitness.

Get big or die tryin'.