The link for the video below shows highlights of my instructing fellow “Primal Movers” on the art of natural movement patterns, reverse engineering your drills, all in beautiful, sunny Ventura, CA, this past April, at the inaugural Primalcon, an event organized by Mark Sission from Mark’s Daily Apple. Check out his site for great tips on healthy eating, picking the right supplements and a general sharing of philosophy on being healthy humans 
August 8, 2010
Primalcon Video
July 15, 2010
Run for joy!
Recently, I have had quite a few clients ask me to teach them how to run properly following the Pose Method of Running I learned in London a couple of years ago from Lee Saxby, one of the highest level Pose coaches worldwide.
POSE AND FOOTWEAR
Conversations about Dr Romanov’s Pose Method of Running usually start when people see me wear my Vibram Five-Fingers shoes, which are also RKC “Party” approved for kettlebell training. Comfy, barefoot feeling and their varied colors can go from cool looking to clown looking.
While I have successfully improved my clients’ running styles and form, alleviating knee pain and re-training the body to move in natural ways that carryover to just about everything in real life, I have to admit I haven’t made much time for a nice run in about 6 months! Sad… Keep the following in mind: my wife and I had a 3-month old baby, and before that we were readying ourselves for his arrival. Maintaining my physical condition doesn’t require me running. As a matter of fact, I loathe running for fitness. Don’t run to get fit, run cuz you like it. Run for joy, for the fun of it! Southern California, where I reside has beautiful beaches and nice weather year round, as well as great trails minutes away in any direction.
Back to my running…
INSPIRED BY A BOOK
I mentioned in a recent newsletter (or was it a blog post? I lose track when I lose sleep. Thanks, baby Fletcher!) that I was reading Chris McDougall’s Born To Run. The book not only inspired me to go running again (and make time for it), it also educated me on a few things which I will share over time (you can read the book, just click on the banner, or you can wait for my findings…), such as Iskiate and chia seeds (coincidentally, a good friend of mine introduced me to them almost simultaneously as I was engrossed in the book).
During a marathon of a day that started with my first client at 6:45AM, with 7 clients over 7 1/2 hours, then 105 minutes to squeeze in a meal, workout and shower before tackling on 2 more clients, I missed my family, not seeing them for 12 hours by the time I’d get home. To relieve some of my stress (my workout that day felt more like part of my job duties, though I still enjoyed it), I decided to cool off with a run from the gym, breaking in my latest pair of Vibram Five-Fingers (the awesome grey/black camo ones!)
Man did it feel great! I had completed a long set of 32kg kettelebell snatches, working a revolving minute for 20 minutes, after some body weight circuits that included 300 push-ups, jumping squats and jumping lunges, hip bridges, inverted rows and prone shoulder presses. I was running on fumes and Chia Fresca, yet had enough steam to go “grease the groove” with a Pose run. It probably looked like a cheesy SoCal moment, with a goofy surfer looking guy, blond hair flowing in the wind, with an accoutrement that resembled a homeless runner who’d stepped in a bucket of paint (the shoes), but I felt freedom. Freedom from responsibilities, physical performance goals. I was in the moment.
Mind you, I am not saying I was happy to be away from my family. Logistics prevented a sensible visit home during the day. As I always tell my clients, “when you’re training with me, you’re training with me. If there is something important that needs your attention and you CAN make a difference, go do it. If not, BE here ”
So, I “be” in the running moment, charging up on sun-drenched Vitamin D, balancing out my IGF-1 levels.
If you don’t run outdoors, you’re missing out. Forget the data your treadmill provides you. Who cares how many calories you burned, how far you ran and for how long or what your heart rate was. You don’t need a machine to tell you how you feel.
Just go. Go now!
QUICK RUNNING TIPS
1) Wear as flat a shoe as possible, or with a low heel if you must have cushioning. The high-heeled running shoes promote bad form by forcing a heel strike which you do not feel, but it does jar your knees and hips. I’ve run in my Sanuk sandals, which feel like slippers but offer no support of arch or other pronation/supination fancy stuff. Bare essentials force good form.
2) Stride length has nothing to do with speed. It’s the cadence, i.e. the tempo at which you pull your feet off the ground. Think cartoon characters, whose legs are a blur when running super fast. A longer stride actually slows you down, forcing you to use your quads to propel yourself forward and again, impact is felt on the knees. Keep your stride the same whether you sprint or jog. Notice I also said PULL your feet off the ground. There is no “push” in running. Let gravity do that for you, like a baby taking his first steps falling forward and using gravity and their forward lean as momentum.
3) Don’t try too hard right away. Better to run in short segments (30-100 meters/yards) and reset than to mindlessly log miles. Running is not as innate as you think and is still a skill you need to (re)learn.
4) Carry water with you, stay hydrated to avoid cramping. Best way to carry your bottle: under your armpit. Promotes a better upright posture as well as less arm flailing. And more comfortable than a carrier belt (hate how it slaps my butt or bounces on the side of my hip).
If you want to improve your form, email me your interest in a workshop and we can all go experience the freedom of running as a group. Connect with some new people, make some like-minded friends and learn something in the process!
July 12, 2010
Time to eat!
Long time readers and clients may already know this, but for those of you who recently joined, I thought this blog entry would be a good, simple reminder that you can still enjoy tasty treats while observing good nutrition. I am encouraging the “tasty” part because too often, people see nutrition as some kid of bland hellhole when in fact, some of the most flavorful meals I’ve had were the healthiest.
IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING
Simply put, eat what you want, and if it happens to be a carbohydrate, consume it around physical activity, i.e. you want a piece of chocolate or a cookie, have it. You deserve a sweet treat once in a while, enjoy it as your reward after a nice, but intense workout, be in weight training, yoga, a martial arts session, a tennis match or some interval running. Any kind of interval workout, which all of the aforementioned types qualify, makes you burn carbohydrates. All other times, you are burning fat. An endurance workout on the treadmill, or a walk will not burn enough calories and elevate the heart rate to levels of intensity that will solicit your body to tap into your carb tank.
Hence the misunderstanding of the “Fat Burning Zone” on a treadmill.
So, you may consume carbs pre- and/or post- training, and stick to protein, natural fat and fiber all other times.
THE MYTH OF THE FAT BURNING ZONE
Dated beliefs and misinterpreted, skewed data will have you believe that there is a Fat Burning Zone, which falls on a lower elevation of the heart rate. On a treadmill for instance, the claim is that you will BURN MORE FAT at low intensity, and that when you run like a mad person at a full 12% incline and 10mph, you’d be burning LESS fat. While that is true, it is not quite how it works, because while the higher intensity of an uphill fast run burns carbs rather than fat, it also burns a heck of a lot more calories than a leisurely walk in the Fat Burning Zone. The FBZ comes from the fact that at rest, we burn fat. As I frequently tell about, overweight people may ask “if I am burning fat while at rest, why am I still fat?” Answer: because you consume too many carbs, which you STORE in your FAT CELLS (picture them as pockets). Thus, our heart rate is lowest at rest, when we burn most fat, and therefore, a lower intensity workout will burn more fat.
The laws of thermodynamics also dictate that thermogenesis occurs by burning more calories than you take in to lose weight. If a pound of fat equals 3500 calories, then a high intensity interval hill run with a heart rate at 85% of your maximum heart rate will get you closer to your weight loss goal than a low intensity walk of the same duration, because the latter will burn way, way less calories.
SO, WHAT CAN I EAT?
Anytime:
- Protein (meat, fish, eggs, protein shakes made with water and low carb/sugar content).
- Fiber (veggies, yet they are considered carbs too, no starch in them).
-Natural fat sources (nuts, olives, cheeses, avocados…)
Some of the time (around workouts or, the night before in preparation of a sustained, high intensity caloric burn like a marathon ):
-Carbohydrates (natural sugar from fruits, starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, dairy -which also contains fat and protein).
There is enough information out there for you to find out on your own what foods fall into what category. Although, I recently interviewed a new weight loss client who told me she ate very well, “a ton of protein every day” and when I asked her to name me the types of protein she ate, she mentioned lots of bread, lots of white rice and lots of bananas… True story. If you don’t see the problem, feel free to email me for a complimentary phone consultation for us to design a nutritional program for you
(Part 1 of this 2 part post can be found here).
July 7, 2010
Understand digestion
I am submitting as a blog an article I had sent out a couple of years ago in a newsletter about the digestive system.
It’s a great tool, which a client of mine recently labeled that I use “nutrition as a weapon” in my arsenal of knowledge. Before even me telling you HOW to eat, it is important to understand HOW the digestive system works, because when a client comes to me and asks me for a lazy, easy way out, I explain that I do not call the shots and do not have God-like powers to change the human chemistry and physiology. I can only change your physique by working with how we’re “engineered”, but I cannot change the engineering. You can NEVER cheat your way thin, as some crazy diets may have you believe…
First, a little comparison between meat-eating animals and grass-chewers is necessary before getting down to Humans
CARNIVORE VS HERBIVORE
Carnivore: strong stomach acid, small stomach, short large intestine (colon) and fast transit time (i.e. quick excretion).
Herbivore: salivary carbohydrate enzymes (chewing/ruminating, like cows vs. no chewing like lions), weak stomach acid, large stomach, long large intestine where the food is held and broken down, using bacteria to break down indigestible fiber, slow transit time.
Check out the diffs between meat-eaters and grass chewers
HUMAN SYSTEM
The human system is closer to that of a primate, who have a slightly longer large intestine and shorter small intestine. But both share attributes of both systems:
-Salivary enzymes (to start digesting carbs) herbivore trait.
-Strong stomach acid (to digest meat), carnivore trait.
-Short large intestine carnivore trait.
-Fast transit time carnivore trait.
-Use bacteria to breakdown indigestible fiber in the large intestine (herbivore trait).
In our modern environment, STRESS can affect your digestion in the following ways:
-Reduction of saliva production, thus, less breakdown of carbs in your mouth.
-Reduction of stomach acid production, leading to heartburn/GERD (thus you don’t have too much acid, but rather NOT ENOUGH to break food down).
-Reduction of protective mucus in your small intestine, leading to ulcers.
-Reduction of protective mucus promotes alkaline bowel, leading to an inflamed colon, (irritable bowel syndrome, colitis).
Now you know. Next post: WHAT TO EAT AND WHEN.
Tell your friends to subscribe to the blog or newsletter rather than forwarding the info, please. I have many more goodies I want to pass on to you directly, including special offers periodically.
Want to set up a workshop or seminar at your company? Contact me and we can discuss corporate seminars.
Unsure about how to go about it? Stay tuned to my newsletters and blogs for announcements on workshops hosted by yours truly (that way you are only responsible for YOU!)
June 15, 2010
Missing in Action
Hello, my fellow Actionauts.
I may have been missing at Action (Fitness, the facility) but not so much in action.
Fatherhood has been trying, rewarding and exhausting. I didn’t become apparent until I became a parent (notice the clever choice of words here?) and I had to be clever about NOT putting my foot in my mouth and actually practice what I preach when I used to talk about time management to super-busy clients who would skip their fitness priorities.
So, I am able to squeeze intelligent, total-body training sessions in short amounts of time. I may have lost a few pounds in the process of lack of sleep, but knowing the importance of balancing physical activity, sleep (for hormonal balance), nutrition and environmental factors, I was able to lessen the effects of the demands of parenthood (mostly the sleep deprivation).
In terms of time management, I not only carry a full load of clients, take classes to upgrade my knowledge but also make sure to dedicate a certain amount of time for training. My goals may have been more for maintenance, but also these days, I am learning about modalities to not only pack on mass, shed pounds with less effort and breaking personal records at every workout. The fitness protocols I have learned in Wildfitness and RKC are yielding phenomenal results amongst my clients. Clients move up to a few thousand pounds more per workout effortlessly.
Those looking to shed fat, shed it, looking to pack mass pack it on, those looking to move without pain now move without pain! Simple solutions through smart work requiring dedication!
I’ll be posting some testimonials soon of new clients and their rapid progress! If you haven’t gotten on the Philippe Train yet, come aboard! (Another clever pun)
April 18, 2010
Diary of a fit Dad
Or the latest installment in the Fletcher Chronicles
Being a new parent is like the Matrix: you cannot be told, you have to experience it to get it. Just like getting through Hell Week as a Navy SEAL, or the RKC weekend workshop, you can never underestimate how mentally unprepared you may be, even if you are physically conditioned.
Of course, all concepts related to schedule become null and void. Interestingly, some folks perceive my wife and I as big schedulers, but they fail to realize that we are quite accommodating, both working in service oriented industries. Adjusting to a new, not very flexible customer is nothing new.
WORKING IN SHIFTS
Being tired doesn’t quite cover the feeling of what it takes to be feeding, pumping breast milk (so we can take turns feeding him), cleaning him and repeating the process every couple of hours. I have the easy part, because I don’t have life force producing boobies, therefore am not privy to the industrial strength vacuum action happening at the nipple, nor the enjoyment or “machine on human” breast action caused by the pump (or robot porn).
Ever see the Seinfeld episode where Newman says “the mail never stops”? It’s like that.
So, when you say you’re tired but are not a parent, suck it up and shut up, because rest is around the corner. For us, it’s not an option. I’ll take a 12-hour all day powerlifting workshop, though the thrill and satisfaction are a bit different…
So, catnaps, splitting feeding times so one parent can meander through the day only half-dazed is the way to go. My wife usually lets me sleep through the rest of the night so long as I try to do the last feeding or two.
HORMONES
It’s all about hormones, yes, just like training. Stress management, insulin release, HGH. Fletcher had to be bottle fed before he was breast fed because of being born premature. So, to all the La Leche women who live by the breast only and frown at the bottle, it’s not easy to retrain a little kid born with a handicap and no choice. Yes, we’re proponents of the Bradley drug-free baby delivery, want to breast feed because it’s the best, cheapest method available and yes we know it’s optimal for all aspects of the baby’s development. But life has a way of throwing sticks in your spokes. I want my baby fed, I want him growing and resting and I want the same for my wife and I, so sometimes, rather than fight a kid at 2 in the AM who is not getting what he needs from the breast because he is too tired, he gets the bottle with mother’s milk in it. (It’s easier for a baby to drink from the bottle than it is to feed from the breast, in case you didn’t know, and you lose certain benefits. But until I see proof that breast-fed only babies who have grown up are all rocket scientists, super athletes and can fix our health care and are immune to all diseases, I’ll follow the 80%-20% rule of “be good 80% of the time, and the remaining 20%, try to cope so you can go back to doing the best you can”.
If your sleep patterns are off, your stress levels are out of whack. Your fitness suffers, your ability to burn fat is hindered, you produce more cortisol and your mental capacity drops. For a trainer like myself, it’s a hard reality and a tough thing to squeeze in a workout, train clients and teach a very active class at the end of the day (I am wiped out usually when the time comes). Yet somehow, we manage. The rush of endorphins from being a new dad and watching my kid for whom I’d give my life releases the endorphins that make me push through my day. I am an army of one while my wife, the Mothership, the Queen Bee ensures the rascal is alive and provided for with the best food nature produced. And on the occasion we have to compensate with formula, we are not losing sleep over it. As a matter of fact, we gain some as Fletcher tends to sleep longer then. Yes, formula also helps alleviate the hormonal yo-yo that occurs as a result of breast feeding. Small victory for formula, one battle in the breast feeding war, but still one to account.
TRAINING
My workouts are not nearly as long as they used to be. I hardly ever push to failure because it’s pointless and sets me back a day or two. But I train hard, moving high volume and weight without restriction of time other than those imposed upon myself. Usually, that is. Now, the necessity to come home after a shift and help my wife, grocery shop, do laundry, take care of bills or try to run a business with many aspects still in development takes precedence over higher performance. Maintenance and intelligence become the guidelines, biofeedback the protocol by which I decide on any given day what I will do for training. Density is my goal (meaning moving the load in as little time as possible). I’d take the normal RKC snatch test and bump the weight from 24 to 28kg. Or, I’d push for a new Deadlift personal record in under 10 total reps, warm-up included. I’ll swing a 40kg bell 100 times, thus moving 8800lb in 3 minutes or less, doing my heart, my lungs and my muscles a favor. Bottom line: I lost a few pounds, but my body is still chiseled, lean and strong.
I don’t spend time worrying about my reps, the weight I push or how I compare to another. I still have all the skills I had before I was a dad, maybe even added a few more, and I still deliver amazing results to my clients (I just helped someone lose close to 5lb of fat and gain almost 20lb of muscle in 33 days. Wanna know how? TRAIN WITH ME!!). Maybe because I’ve removed the worries, I’ve removed the stress from my performance and how I measure up and therefore make up for the negative effects of the lack of sleep. Any setbacks can be regained and if you’re not strong in times of hardship, your strength is only a weakness.
It does take a village, and Noëlle and I are very grateful for the help we received from friends who brought us meals the past 2 weeks since we took Fletcher home. He is now 3 weeks old and all 3 of us managed to still be alive
Funny thing happened with food, by the way: I’ve indulged in foods that normally only grace the shelves or pantry inside my head and haven’t paid the price for it. I don’t intend to find out how far I can push my luck, so rest assured my hearty steak tartare, raw broccoli and almonds are back on my plate! And did you know that Guinness is a great product to help produce more breast milk?
April 5, 2010
Baby training is indeed spot on!
If I’ve put you through the series of moves babies perform when they start to grow, you’ll be happy to know it ain’t a lie!
Everything I ever teach and put people through comes with a stamp of approval and first-hand experience. Like a true ninja, I take what’s best and most effective and tailor it to fitness. The series of moves I learned from Matt Walker, a coach for Wildfitness, then later on expanded to suit a more personalized style, is being proven to me by my week-old son Fletcher. A preemie he is, but that just means he’s in a rush to go places (like home after a week for Easter).
I tried some kangaroo care with him yesterday (skin on skin bonding and hormonal development benefits), not thinking he might be hungry an hour after his previous feeding. The kid was so hungry he was going to crawl and claw his way to some food (almost my own nipple. That would have been funny, though).
On a slightly more serious note, his strength amazed me. He moved his neck and chest up from me, pushed so hard with his arms I felt his sharp little nails dig into me. He even pushed himself almost away from me with his curled up little legs, till he spread out in Spiderman fashion and looked around.
It’s true that we don’t know how strong we can be, and we tend to inhibit that strength over time.
In a few months, around or before Summer, I’ll be setting up a workshop with another gentleman who is truly in touch with his body and knows how to use biofeedback to accomplish virtually limitless feats of strength, constantly breaking personal records. His name is Adam Glass. Check out his blog HERE and see for yourself how you can regain your full strength potential, no matter your goal or present ability.
And next time someone calls you a baby, it means you’re strong, pure, flexible and a tad uncoordinated. Like being called a dog, it’s not bad (loyal, friendly, loving and protecting), though I suspect no one will ever call you a baby after Adam Glass’ workshop!
March 28, 2010
Welcome to the world!
So, my wife Noëlle and I have been blessed by bragging about the easiest pregnancy. No morning sickness, kid right on track, smooth sailing. We even joked about it Friday night, March 26, at 34 1/2 weeks, before going to bed, with Noëlle’s mother Phyllis and sister Melissa in town for her baby shower (which was Saturday, March 27). I was a small kid, born a little early, so not too big and easy to shoot out. Noëlle was a 9lb cannonball. We even just had the crib, the car seat and some other basics that arrived. Therefore everything we needed for the baby.
Saturday March 27, 5:30AM, Noëlle is having contractions. We were thinking Braxton-Hicks, practice contractions and baby massage. Stuff we covered in our birthing class that she couldn’t attend today because of her baby shower today. I thought it might be the real deal, since this was off-color considering the rest of the pregnancy.
After the shower, the nurse’s line at Kaiser suggested we go get her checked out, to reassure her. Well, things took an unexpected turn…
3cm dilated. No water breakage, but labor. Yikes. That qualifies as a preemie. We wanted natural childbirth, but the doctor suggested we take a drug called tributylene (sp?) to stop the labor for hopefully 2 weeks and brings us to 36-37 weeks. At 34 1/2, they don’t stop labor, but it allows for the baby to not have a bunch of IV’s and tubes stuck in him by coming early. 2 shots of the drug later, the kid wants nothing to do with it and he’s coming out.
So, we went from wanting to keep him in longer to wanting him out quicker! Might as well, right?
I’ll spare you the actual labor details, but will share a couple: the doctor had to break the bag of waters, which splashed so strongly it knocked the mid-wife backwards! But before that, as I was coaching Noëlle through her contractions and she was doing pretty good, the pain became very strong to the point of wanting drugs.
We were offered two choices: epidural or some IV name I forgot. One takes the edge off, is an IV but can leave the kid a bit comatose. I wasn’t gonna have any of that. The epidural, well, she was way fidgety for it. But, the doc checked her dilation before deciding. She was at 5cm when the stronger contraction started, went from 4cm to 5cm in an hour. Then she went from 5cm to 9cm in 30 minutes, right as they were deciding which drug to take (I wanted the one with the least risks for the kid, but was going to respect my wife’s pain and decision, while reminding her of the long term).
Needless to say, at 9cm, the kid is almost out. So, about 15-20 minutes later (felt pretty short), our baby came out. We didn’t get a chance to do the one-hour skin-on-skin contact, as every minute counts for a preemie, so I cut the cord right away too. But at least she did it drug-free!
Our son is in the NICU right now, doing OK considering. He needs some help to breathe, grunting a little bit, and will be connected to a tube that allows him to breathe room air (no respirator), until they need to discharge him. He’s a fighter. He was fighting to get out, feeling whatever was causing the womb to not be safe anymore was not a good place to hang anymore. He’s been kicking throughout the pregnancy too
Everything was going well, but that means nothing. You can’t expect the perfect plan. Never happens in my life, that’s for sure! But seeing the little guy squirm made me feel better, even if he’s a little early. 18.5 inches (47cm), 5.08lb, (2.5kg).
Please join us in welcoming Fletcher Marek Til (Marek after my Dad).
March 17, 2010
Not another diet book
This is not another diet book. It’s more of a lifestyle presentation, through a colorful every day joe, Ken Korg and his alter ego, the primal hunter gatherer Grok.
Mark Sisson breaks down myths and easily presents how our bodies function and how we should eat, what some things that are perceived good for you aren’t etc. Pretty close to my philosophy. The best part of the book, he presents the plan through a very relatable story in one chapter that I am sure will hit very close to home to some of you.
He also summarizes every chapter with a “Cliff’s notes” version at the end for those of you who want the nitty gritty.
Mark is also 56 years old and has a body that most 25 year-olds would envy.
Get the book today on Amazon by clicking the banner below.
March 16, 2010
Program your success like a computer
The brain is the largest organ for perception, and the main one because it also contains the subconscious and the conscious. Change your perception, you can change the way you value something, for instance how you view your fitness progress or how you value investing in a training program with, say ME
Neurolinguistic programming patterns are nothing new. Advertisers, teachers, hypnotists, motivational speakers, sales people us some form of it to help you perceive value in a product you want, but may object to get out of fear (am I going to get my money’s worth?)
The concept of psycho-cybernetics is clearly illustrated in the video below. Watch it and map out your success. Don’t watch it and you’re faced with the poor choice to stay in the hole and not crawl out, or you can decide to spend 10 minutes of your time for something worthy, rather than a Facebook update, or chain spam email. I’ve even filtered the most important part for you, as this is a 4-part series, which you can choose to watch at your leisure later. This one has got what you need, as do I!
Invest in yourself, your health.
I’m even going to offer you something I’ve never offered before: a MONEY BACK guarantee.
Seriously, folks you have nothing to lose. If you follow my program, you will get results and your investment is backed by a guarantee even the Federal Government cannot offer!
If you landed on this post because of my email newsletter, you understand already quite well what’s at stake.
I hope to hear from you sooner than later!
