The Fitness Burden

In this episode, we interview one of our athletes, Ben Good. He came to us with questions about programming and diet, and we thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to try and reach others who might have similar questions. We talk about many different things, but the main areas of focus are:

• How to pair a weight-training program with CrossFit
• Carb Cycling & low carb dieting
• Quality fat consumption
• Ketosis
• And, why CrossFit works

Enjoy!

This audio is taken from a lecture given by

T.J. WILLIAMS, DC, PHD

He discusses gut health, dairy, and the impact nutrition has on performance.

Dr. Williams earned his PhD from the University of Arkansas and his Doctor of Chiropractic from Logan College of Chiropractic. The dual doctoral degrees provide him the unique insight of knowing the natural treatments to achieve wellness, and understanding the importance of having scientific research to back up his recommendations and suggestions. Dr. TJ is also a nationally known lecturer on topics such as Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field therapy and natural treatments for cardiovascular disease.

The audio quality is poor, but Dr TJ has a lot of interesting information to share.

• Topic #1 Even the best of programs that are not followed, will not work.
• There are personal trainers, fitness experts, and strength coaches who have made entire careers, lucrative careers designing workout programs. If you don’t believe us, just google the “300 Workout” or do a search for Tom Hardy’s workout to get in shape for his role as Bane is the most recent Batman movie. Hollywood actors and fitness enthusiasts will pay a pretty penny for the “perfect” workout regimen.
• But programs only work if they are followed.
• Placebo affect. It doesn’t matter so much what the program is, so long as you follow the program.
• Topic #2 But, I thought you said CrossFit was supposed to be “Constantly Varied”
• Yes, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a plan of attack. Benjamin Franklin, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
• Rest & Recovery
• Double-dipping on movements and body parts. (CrossFitters love to do more than necessary) “Well Rich Froning trains 6 times a day.”
• Topic #3 What does our cycling look like?
• Importance of accommodating multiple session / week athletes.
• 5, 4, 3 Rule - Why something similar is essential to every workout program
• 8 week cycles - conjugate max approach
• Topic #4 Auxiliary Work: What is the goal or objective?
• Weaknesses not strengths
• Supplementary & complimentary movements: i.e. a push and a pull.
• Sleep, eat, train in that order. (Prioritize: getting 1 extra workout will not balance out your lack of mobility, poor sleep, and crappy eating habits.
• Topic #5 Explanation of a program
• Ask your coaches and trainers about the programming. Find out what you can be doing as an athlete to improve.
• It is all relative. Driving 80mph is a zig-zag line is far more dangerous and ends up taking just as long or longer than driving 60mph and going in a straight line.

“When your diet isn’t cutting it - literally.” (Part 2)

If you listened to part 1 of this podcast, you learned that carb cycling can be a nutritional option for someone who isn’t getting the physical results they want. However, individuals are different. As mentioned before, adrenal function, hormone production, sleep, stress, and hydration are just a few of the factors that can drastically affect the nutritional needs of an athlete, and if someone is not keeping those variables constant, it becomes very difficult to determine exactly how or what to tweak. Assuming that you have normal adrenal and thyroid function (which is only accurately determined with detailed blood-panels), and that your sleep and fitness are at a optimal levels, a 3 day carb cycle that rotates between 100, 75, and 50% of your average daily carbohydrate consumption may not be adequate. There are several additional options. You could consider trying a 3 day carb cycle that never gets above 75% of your average daily carb consumption by rotating between 75, 50, and 25% of that average. Some individuals just look, feel, and perform better when consuming more fat and fewer carbs. However, if after 2, 3, or even 4 months of accurate and deliberate macronutrient tracking you still aren’t noticing the results or changes you want, you could consider intermittent fasting. In summary, intermittent fasting is a scheduled fast at specific intervals throughout the week, usually performed first thing in the morning. An example fasting schedule would sound like something like this: on Monday morning consume a fat, protein, and carbohydrate for breakfast. On Tuesday morning eat a fat and protein, and on Wednesday morning, skip your morning meal but drink a hot coffee, tea, or other beverage of choice with 1 tbsp of grassfed Kerrygold butter or 1 tbsp of coconut oil blended in. By giving your body a healthy dose of fat first thing in the morning, you are encouraging your body to use fat for fuel. The first several times you fast, go at least 2 hours without eating anything else. After several successful attempts, you can stretch that time to 3 hours. Additionally, on fasting days, your first whole-food meal should be completely void of starchy carbohydrates. Eggs, meats, and green veggies are all great options. The human body is incredibly smart, and it will always burn carbohydrates for fuel first, if they are present (i.e. if you want your body to use fat for fuel you should not eat a bunch of carbohydrates with your fats.) To some, this information may sound similar to a ketogenic diet, which is simply a diet that focuses primarily on healthy fats for fuel as opposed to carbohydrates. However, simply eating more fat and fewer carbs does not mean you are ketonic. To properly determine if you are in a state of consistent ketosis, you would need to have regular blood work done or use keto-sticks that can be purchased at your local drug store. These sticks measure the level of ketones present in the urine. Depending on how you feel, intermittent fasting can be performed multiple times per week, and it too can be tweaked. For example, I routinely fast in the morning, but I add a collagen protein powder to my coffee in addition to the grassfed butter. Since I regularly exercise multiple times per day, I want to be sure that my body has the sustenance it needs to properly recover and repair the muscle tissue that I break down. This collagen protein is void of all additives, chemicals, carbs, and sugars, and the only thing it contains is collagen.

Even though intermittent fasting can be another tool in your arsenal, macronutrient timing in general is incredibly important. One of the most common mistakes people make comes in the evening. Most people in America work a 9 to 5 job for a living or more accurately, a 8 to 6 job, and because of their work and workout schedule their biggest meal of the day is often consumed at dinner. Even though healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are all essential in their relative capacities to your overall health and performance, starchy carbohydrates should be avoided before bed. Obviously, every rule has its exceptions, and depending on your goals these rules can vary drastically, but generally speaking, people who are trying to lose weight, trim, tone, and firm up areas of their body should avoid consuming carbohydrates in the evening. If you follow this simple guideline, much fewer of the carbs you eat will convert into glucose, a simple sugar the body either uses for fuel or conserves for later use, and be stored as fat. In most cases, a dinner comprised of healthy fat, green vegetables, and quality proteins should be more than enough to satiate even the most aggressive food cravings.

“When your diet isn’t cutting it - literally.”

Even though we don’t like to use the word diet, many people frequently ask questions regarding their food consumption when they plateau or reach a point of stagnation along their weightloss journey. A paleo-esque diet that focuses on healthy fats, quality proteins, and low-glycemic - gluten free carbohydrates is often the best route for anyone trying to look, feel, or perform better; however, it definitely does not mean that a one-size-fits-all approach will work for everyone. For some, specific macro and micro nutrients must be tracked and tallied on a daily basis to elicit a desired effect with body composition. The S.A.D (Standard American Diet) approach to weight and body fat loss would preach that fewer calories eaten and more calories burned equates to weight loss, but this is not always the case. In fact, the human body can respond adversely to a calorically restricted diet by conserving the very thing most people want to get rid of, fat. Carb cycling, intermittent fasting, and cold therapy are other options to consider, but realistically, the easiest way to determine your next step should be to keep a food journal. This journal should include, sleep, hydration, macronutrient consumption and timing (i.e. the protein, carbs, and fat you eat), along with physical and mental performance throughout the day. Without having baseline data, tweaking macro and micronutrient numbers is like trying to shoot a moving target with a gun while blindfolded. Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories argues that trying to burn more calories than what we consume is a rudimentary measuring stick for creating a change in body composition. With a Ph.D in thermodynamics, he concludes that even the best calorie counters can’t determine the exact calories consumed or burned, and if someone is off by even 100 calories a day, that person could add or lose 2 pounds of fat a year or twenty pounds of fat in 10 years. Before anyone makes a calculated change to an athlete’s diet, they must first gather baseline data of an athlete’s consumption, and then make tweaks to the diet to draw out a specific reaction. Adrenal function, hormone production, sleep, stress, and hydration are just a few of the factors that can drastically affect the nutritional needs of an athlete. Not everyone can wear size 10 shoes or drive a car with the same seat adjustment, and the same applies to nutrition. The most comforting piece of advice that can be offered to someone who seemingly has little to no control over the way they look, feel, or perform, is that this is a science. Your body composition issues can be resolved, but we need to know what to change before we starting making changes. Start by tracking each of the 3 main macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) for at least a week. Do not, under any circumstance change your normal eating patterns to look good on paper. Record in ounces, the non-caffienated fluid you drink, and also make note of your mental and physical performance both in the morning and at night. For starters, look for patterns in the numbers, big highs or deep lows, and start drawing connections between the amount of food you consume and your mental and physical performance. If you notice that your macronutrient consumption is fairly level throughout the week, then you could consider carbohydrate cycling. The main premise behind carb cycling is to slowly ween your body off its dependancy on sugar for fuel. You might be surprised by the number of carbs you eat in a day. The easiest form of carb cycling is to simply tally your daily carbohydrate consumption for 1 week, add all 7 days together, then divide that number by 7. On Monday, allow yourself to eat that number of carbohydrates, but on Tuesday eat roughly 75% of that average, and on Wednesday eat 50% of that original number. On Thursday bump that number back up to the original 100% average. While doing this you should replace your missing carbohydrates with healthy fats (grassfed butter, coconut oil, avocados, and grassfed meats.) Test this for a period of 1 month, reassess your body composition, and then tweak your consumption again if necessary, usually favoring an increase in fat and decrease in carbohydrates.

• Topic #1: Why do some women who do CrossFit look muscular and feminine while others end up looking muscular and masculine?
• Topic #2: What should I eat to ensure my body looks the way I want it to?
• Should I eat protein bars and drink protein shakes?
• How much protein should I eat in a day?
• Topic #3: What is my body type, and what role do genetics play?
• How much say do I really have in the way my body looks?
• Ectomorph, Endomorph, Mesomorph
• Hormones: estrogen vs. testosterone
• Topic #4: Should I spend more time lifting or doing cardio?
• What are the pro’s and con’s of each?
• What is the ideal number of reps and sets to achieve optimal results?
• “The best program you don’t follow is a bad program.”
• Topic #5: What happens if I notice my body heading down a path that I don’t like?
• What is more difficult, losing weight or adding muscle?
• Topic #6: Are there any negative side effects for women will ultra low body fat?
• Are there any trade-offs to having really low body fat? What about for guys?

Topic #1: Have a Realistically, Clear VisionWhere do you want to go, backwards plan from there.Realistic time frame relative to your past and presentTopic #2: Establish and Maintain Constant VariablesIt is hard to tell what works and when it works will ever-changing variables.Topic #3: MedicationBlood pressure, thyroid, and diabetes prevent weight loss. Catch 22Topic #4: Mobility, recovery, injury preventionIt is much more difficult to exercise with nagging injuries.

In this episode we address the concept of training like a sponsored athlete. Many people think it would be awesome to get paid to workout, or at the very least, get free apparel, supplements, and gear. Frank discusses his aspirations to live like a professional athlete for 4 months, and see if he likes it.

How to get that muscle!

Why proper scaling is essential to the longevity of CrossFit and CrossFit athletes.