Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

6,400 calories crazy right?

Before you read this post you must read http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/eat-to-burn-fat-and-calorie-loading-to-torch-body-fat.html article by Cory Gregory.  I found this article very interesting for a couple different reasons.  First off I have hard of calorie splurging before, but this one was different because of the foods Cory listed compared to foods I have seen from other sources.  Usually the high calorie day would consist of whatever you could get your hands on such as, high sugary snacks and "cheat meals".  Ok so heres the difference, in Cory's whopping 6,400 calorie day he was eating only eggs, cashews, beef, and cheese! That is it.  Albeit that comes out to being over 24 whole eggs in one single day!  Now this caught my eye because I have read books talking bout its not so much the calories you eat, but what you eat.  The article goes into talking about hormonal responses from food.  As we all know the more sugar and carbohydrates we eat the more we build up a insulin insensitivity, which can cause a rise in blood glucose levels.
Ok so what the hell am I saying???? Basically I am going to personally give something similar to this high calorie day from clean foods a try.  Clean I mean low sugar and carbohydrates.  I think Cory might be on to something.  He also talks about low-fat days as well, maybe to balance out all the fat from the calorie day?  I am going to post what I ate and how I felt from my personal experience with this later.  Until then folks :)

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

8 Reasons to Sprint to Greater Success

Charles Poliquin 8 reasons why everyone should sprint



Chalres Poliquin's editorial staff highlights 8 reasons why everyone should "sprint".  The article notes that a sprint doesn't have to be moving at your fastest possible speed, but can be a high-intensity training using alternating components of very intense activity with rest periods.  If you only have a half hour or so to workout in the morning before workout using sprints will not only work best for a shorter time period, but will give you just as much if not greater benefits then long periods of lower-intensity exercise, such as jogging.  

Back to the science.  The first reason highlighted in this article is to lose fat.  A group of steady aerobic exercise and a group of 15 sprints for 30 seconds participated in a 1994 study.  The group who did the sprints lost 9 times more body fat!  You didn't read this wrong I said NINE times more body fat!  The article highlights a couple other studies that showed similar results as this one.  

Second reason highlighted was to build muscle.  If you have been reading some of my blogs you should already know the importance of muscle.  Muscle improves your resting metabolic rate, aka your metabolism, and improves insulin sensitivity among other things as well.  Another huge benefit for women is an increase in bone density, which greatly reduces after age 50. 

I am not going to go over the 6 other reasons because frankly the article linked above does an amazing job of doing so already.  I just want to stress the importance of SPRINTING.  Whenever I walk into the gym I see people walking on the treadmill, using the elliptical, doing the bike, jogging, and lifting.  It is only on a rare occasion that I see someone spiriting; in fact I hardly ever see it.  I am not sure why because sprinting not only shows better results, but also is shorter time duration to complete a full workout.  Maybe it is because the general population at the gym isn't educated enough to know the importance of sprinting?  Well then I hope this article will give you that knowledge to start a sprinting program in your gym today.  

Sample sprinting program for beginner
Make sure you warm-up for at least 5 minutes before your workout

Sprint (85%-95% effort) 20-30 yards 15 times rest 45-60 seconds in between 

Advanced sprinting programs (each one is a separate workout)  

Sprint 400 yards x 6 rest 2:00 minutes 

Sprint 200 yards x 12 rest 1:15 seconds 

Sprint 100 yards x  16 rest 45 seconds take a break after 8 for 2 minutes 

Sprint 50 yards x 30 rest 30 seconds take a break after 15 for 2 minutes