The Actionaut

May 9, 2011

Sometimes, people just wanna work out…

Filed under: coaching,exercise.,Fitness,Life Coaching and Skills,plan,Training,training program — Philippe Til @ 2:47 PM

We don’t always know what’s best for everyone.

WHEN IGNORANCE IS BLISS:
A great pitfall for a trainer is to confuse what clients want and what clients need. When you’re just fresh off your cert’, ACE, NASM, ACSM, AFAA or any other nationally recognized brand, and your level of experience is low (in terms of paid client hours worked), it takes little more to a training session than just direct traffic from big body parts to smaller ones, tell folks “do your cardio”, all following a basic bodybuilding routine, whether the clients wants to gain mass, lose fat or “tone up”. I mean really, it’s all a variation of the same song and dance.

If you’re in it for the long haul, you start to become more knowledgeable, curious, educated and will invest a lot of time and money, which you recoup with greater results and client retention. And then, it happens…

WHEN IGNORANCE HURTS:
The aforementioned type of trainer, blissfully following a routine from a fitness mag, certified with just the basics and the knowledge of their own body and Myosplash or CreabombX super supps they ingest, will likely not correct your form, “stack fitness on top of dysfunction” (Gray Cook) and make you feel “hurter”, which in the language of the neophyte means “wow, this really works!”. To me, that one millimeter of imbalance is what makes the tower crumble later down the line. More often than not, I end up being the one to correct some other person’s work. I know tattoo artists don’t finish someone else’s tattoo, but I need to eat and if I can make your life better by moving better, I will.

WHEN KNOWLEDGE HELPS:
The trainer who invests into more education, training, research etc, will shine by comparison. It should be apparent at the first session already, with a good assessment of movement, abilities, form etc, as well as a progress map outlined for the client to follow. That type of trainer will justify your investment in the long haul.

WHEN KNOWLEDGE HINDERS:
Sometimes, trainers who know a lot become almost too rigid in their approach, by going into what Pavel calls “Paralysis by analysis”, wherein too much knowledge stops one from doing work and always be correcting. In other areas, this is a form of perfectionism which also leads to procrastination and lack of progress, like rewriting the first sentence of your Pulitzer prize winning article, thus never completing it.

WHEN TO STOP:
Sometimes, the client just wants to work out. So, sometimes, you let them. Yeah, you make sure there’s nothing wrong in the execution, allow the muscles to feel the pump, let them enjoy their process. You’re still getting them fitter and better, even if it strays from your adamantium-clad program design. The same goes for music. Sometimes, you need to sit down and listen to a piece, dissect it, appreciate its nuances and theme variations. Sometimes, you just need muzac in the background. Doesn’t make you a bad person. Makes you flexible and human.

April 12, 2011

Abandon Desire

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — Philippe Til @ 7:45 AM

I opened up my Oblique Strategy application today, and the randomly assigned strategy was “Abandon Desire”.

I love the sideways thinking this forces into strategizing your goals. Like Christopher Walken’s preferred acting choices, one must almost go 180 degrees from the obvious goal and dig deeper.

What does abandoning desire mean? It means you may have to focus on the needs vs wants, on the necessity versus the vanity. You get the point: make it relevant!

The desire to lose weight may be obscured by vanity instead of health needs. The anxiety of losing weight and getting smaller sometimes detracts one from losing additional weight if one never was thinner. Wanting to write that book may be distracting if one wants to add too many great ideas into it. Designing your new revolutionary widget has to have a purpose to be useful on the market rather than aiming to develop it for profit only (I’m thinking Shake Weight for instance…)

How do you see abandoning desire to move forward?

March 1, 2011

Eat Well. Start Early.

Filed under: Fitness — Philippe Til @ 6:44 PM

In my professional pursuit and research on how to get back to our fitness roots, I have studied many modalities of training, from Wildfitness to RKC or any other form of movement, to travels in various continents including Africa, where some claim we come from originally (I am not a paleontologist, so I will skip verifying the accuracy of my statement. Feel free to correct me in a comment).

I’ve also investigated the way our ancestors ate, including but not restricted to the TNT diet, the Warrior Diet as well as the Paleo Diet.

Why did it take for me to have a child and a dedicated wife to point out another obvious factor? Topic: how we train to eat! Our “civilized” modern society and the baby food corporations have conditioned us to believe that children need to eat food in stages (one ingredient mush stage 1, two ingredient slightly lumpier stage 2 etc…) and even pushed the age of trying “solids” (really, purées) to as low as 4 months, which contains its own set of developmental health hazards.

TIMELINE
Not until the turn on the 19th Century did we start to amass data on how babies ate. Everything till then had been passed on from mother to daughter, with intuitive and instinctive approaches to feeding babies. At that time, we also introduced mushed up foods. How did people do it before? Simple: babies ate what we ate. In the same form we eat currently. No purées, no semi-solids. Real food. Real solid food.

BENEFITS
Having the baby eat solid foods instead of the jarred food, or processed (even if by you in a food processor) helps in the development of the following:
- Hand eye coordination.
- Eating to satiety (studies show that babies who feed themselves rather than being spoon fed exercise better portion control as adults).
- Social skills (eating with the parents rather than separately).
- Greater satisfaction and reward, as the child is rewarded with interesting tastes, textures as the food is passed from hand to mouth.
- Promotion of feelings of independence. Think of the meaning of the expression “to be spoon fed”, which essentially deprives the person from exercising their decision making process.
- Faster speech development, since gumming or chewing through food exercises various muscles in the mouth, jaw, tongue etc.
That’s just a few. Essential, though, wouldn’t you think?

IS IT SAFE?
Concerned parents, worry not. Your precious bundle will often spit the food out, either by triggering a gag reflex or simply because he/she just needed to experience the taste and texture, not necessarily because hunger was the motivator. My 11-month old son decided to reject baby jarred food, home made or store bought, for the last couple of days. Coincidentally, my wife had learned of the Baby Led Weaning method through a friend in her ‘baby group” and we decided to give the little guy a shot at it today. Results: great success! Fletcher chewed his way through a few raw apple spears (while trying to emulate what I was doing by showing him how it’s done), then he devoured a sweet potato (baked and also cut into spears). He loved it, was really happy and ate a good amount, about the same amount he would have eaten if puréed. As a matter of fact, I gave him the choice of jarred food, and he rejected it for the 3rd day in a row. I even let him use his spoon if he wanted to, but it’s more fun to make a mess with your fingers.

MORAL OF THE STORY
Our bodies know. They always do. From birth. The movement stages of development are not taught. They are figured out. We don’t teach babies to push-up, crawl, pull themselves to a stand. How often do you crawl?
Way, way back when, there were no Gerber jars or food processors. Babies learned to develop their maxillary muscles on their own and that process, just like any others in the evolution of our bodies through our lifespan, sparks developmental milestones which carry over through life.
If you are interested in learning more, even if you do not have a child but are keen on being a well-rounded individual, click on the link below and read up about the book, or better yet, buy it!

January 24, 2011

Apples and Oranges

Filed under: Fitness,Health,Nutrition — Tags: , — Philippe Til @ 2:54 PM

The great Jack Lalanne died yesterday, Sunday January 23, 2011 at the ripe age of 96. I say ripe, yet he was a lot more youthful than some people half his age. He accomplished feats of strength such as 1033 push-ups in 23 minutes, swam shackled from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf, all of which when he was on the wrong side of 40.

He made a resolution at 15 to no longer eat junk food after attending a lecture from nutritionist Paul Bragg. He went on to inspire millions of American households to become healthy. He invented cable pulley systems and other fitness devices, never ate any refined sugars and kept going till pneumonia got the best of him. He was quoted saying “I can’t afford to die. It’d wreck my image”. Jack, you lived and you lived several lifetimes. I can only hope to ever inspire 1% of the people you inspired! You were a great man!

Jack never stopped his pursuit of fitness. I believe, like many good coaches do (and should) that we never stop learning. Constant reevaluation of your knowledge and skills, questioning, discarding, adapting and researching are notions I factor in to training my clients, as should people seeking a trainer. When cost becomes the only factor to find a personal trainer, you are shortchanging yourself on the most important investment in your life!

You don’t have to start eating healthy at 15. But if you’re not currently doing so, start now! You may even live past 96, and we’re talking a good 96! You will need more than an apple a day! As for oranges, ever wonder why getting a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice seems so darn expensive at a fancy brunch or at a farmers’ market? I always kinda, sorta got it, and shame on me for taking so long since I preach a similar gospel to prospective clients, but today, when I decided to squeeze some fresh, seasonal, delicious blood oranges, I went through half a bag for a couple of glasses for me and my wife!

It takes a lot of oranges to make a glass of juice, a glass filled with fresh, unadulterated vitamins and other nutrients that will keep your immune system strong and your muscles more efficient at repairing themselves. A trainer owes it to his clients to always deliver the best, most up to date findings and research on effective training, even if it means going back to something basic and time tested. Just like an orange vs a space age glass of Tang!

January 8, 2011

Top 3 Mistakes You Must Avoid!

Filed under: Fitness,Health,Life Coaching and Skills,Training — Philippe Til @ 12:11 AM

Happy New Year, fellow Actionauts!

Even though I’ve posted a blog since 2011 started, this one’s really important for you to know (not that the other one isn’t, but when one has to prioritize, I’m STRONGLY suggesting this makes the top of your must-reads!)

So, to the point, I have promised you the TOP 3 mistakes people make and why they ultimately do not achieve their goals and here they are:

REASON #1
NEED vs WISH: IT’S NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO YOU!
You wish to lose stubborn belly fat, you wish to get bigger, you wish to ________________ (insert wish here). That’s hardly a goal, the stakes associated with it are low. You NEED to make it a super high priority goal, something that will cost you greatly if you don’t achieve it. A morbidly obese diabetic will die if they don’t start eating properly and exercising. A student won’t get into Law School without the LSAT. You won’t get a loan without good credit. You won’t achieve your fitness goal, whatever it is, if you don’t do what it takes consistently. When dealt a death sentence, ill people try anything, any treatment available, even some they would frown upon when healthy. Some atheists even found religion. I’m harsh to make a point! If it’s not a “must do”, your compliance will be 0%, and so will be your success rate.

REASON #2
HOBBY vs HARD WORK: DON’T CONFUSE TRAINING WITH RECREATION
Playing baseball, golf, doing yoga sure can be fun and is great for you: enjoy the sun, the outdoors, move better, feel better. But you can’t measure it. There is no direct cause-effect, meaning if you do A, it needs to lead to B. Doing yoga will not make you lose weight, no bull! It’s the change of lifestyle and desire to be healthier which, associated with the mindset and a likely improved eating lifestyle reducing excess which will lead to weight loss.
You need a PLAN, a proven path to success. Resistance training can and has been measure. Do A and it will lead to B 100% of the time (unless you get hurt, fall of the wagon etc…)

REASON #3
MINIMUM NECESSARY vs OVERTRAINING
There is a difference between “you should at least do X” and “you only need to do X”. Sometimes, to achieve a goal, you only need to do this much work, and give yourself this much time to recover, and do it this many times. Other times, people think that if they do MORE of X, they’ll achieve their goals faster. Truth is, doing MORE exercise can lead to overtraining, failure (muscular and mental) and what you should be doing is the minimum necessary to yield results, and use the spare time to correct or ensure other variables in your program are observed. Translation: knowing that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet, training more will not lead to a better body; instead pay closer attention to your nutritional intake, your rest periods (in-session and in-between sessions) and make sure the program matches your goals (don’t train like a marathoner if you want to build mass, don’t train like a fighter if you don’t fight).

December 14, 2010

Spartan Race & Warrior Diet

Filed under: Environment,Fitness,Health,powerlifting,RKC,strength,training program,Vibram Five Fingers — Tags: , , , , , , — Philippe Til @ 12:11 PM

On Sunday, December 12, 2010, I participated, along with 3 other tough guys, in an event called the Spartan Race.
Rather than do the thing on my own, I thought it’d be more fun to have a team (besides saving a few beer bucks on the registration fee and building team spirit).

I like to work towards a goal, and the mere training goals of strength building or hypertrophy didn’t tickle my adrenal glands enough to generate any kind of training fire inside me. While my personal routine didn’t change in preparation of the event, I wanted to prove that I can be ready any time, any day, and that the conditioning I put myself through would be enough. So, the only variable I changed in my training was my diet, which was great because I embarked on a journey I’ve been hearing about and wanted to experience myself after rave reviews. I’m talking about Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet. My personal results have been fantastic and I am glad to endorse it!

Why The Warrior Diet: Switch on Your Biological Powerhouse For High Energy, Explosive Strength, and a Leaner, Harder Body?
Well, for starters, if my own coaches and RKC comrades have been raving about it, it was endorsement enough for me to give it a shot. Designed for efficiency and maximal energy, it seemed like a no-brainer since my journey as a new father has been tough on the eating and sleeping schedule, 2 vital components of any successful fitness program. I directly asked Pavel Tsatsouline, who’s been on it for years I believe, his take on it. While it wouldn’t necessarily pack mass on me, it would give me plenty of energy and time to both work and take care of the baby when my wife needed time for herself and her work, in between my own clients.
Since any balanced diet revolves around insulin management, I was skeptical because all I was ever taught was to eat frequent meals during the day, which prevents overeating and “survival” metabolic slow-down. See, the Warrior Diet has you go through periods of controlled under-eating during the day alternating with over-eating at night.

I can almost see your furrowed brow on one side, raised brow on the other side. Some of your “hmm…” can be heard through the web too!

WHAT’S THE DEAL?
Hofmekler has you eat only live and raw foods during the day. Coffee or tea is allowed. Drink as much water as you want of course. Squeeze some fresh veggies and fruits and guzzle it down, chew on some raw almonds, cashews or pistachios. Hunger is a sign of vitality. Of course, don’t mistake that for an anorexic program! You eat enough to sustain and actually stimulate insulin release and get you going, burning fat and preserving muscle. You can even ingest a protein shake. But don’t stuff yourself like the domestic nomadic Zoo animal our society turned us into. Think predator, hungry, strong and driven to survive and thrive! When a big cat like a lion or a tiger feasts, they eat till satisfied, unsure of when their next meal comes. That’s you at dinner time. Eat till you’re more thirsty than hungry. Follow the VERY HEALTHY order of salad first, then your veggies, then your protein and if you have room, your carbs. Mix and match textures, colors, tastes (crunchy, soft, sweet, sour, savory, green, red, cold, hot…) and eat away. Then, rest up and sleep. While asleep (night time, circadian rhythm), you only use enough calories to rebuild your muscles from your hunt (I mean, training), while stocking up energy for the day ahead.

Think warrior, Roman soldier: when do you have time during battle to take a break and eat. Your adrenaline’s pumping, you’re hungry for life, food but need to stay razor sharp. How do you think you’d do if you felt like after Thanksgiving dinner while trying to slash away at your enemies? Lethargic is my guess. Save that for sleep!

Hofmekler goes into better detail in his book, and I urge you to give it a shot. I wouldn’t if I didn’t try it myself.

COMPARE TO OTHER DIETS
I have always been a fan of the TNT diet, which taught me that we only burn carbs at high physical intensity training (weights, sprints, martial arts, surfing, tennis…) and burn fat when our heart rate is slow/resting (blogging, sleeping, surfing your desk, watching TV…). The Paleo diet adheres to the same principle, though I am no fan of eating liver, kidneys or any other filtration organs and I do mind eating the better cuts of meat. I am picky, I won’t eat certain parts, like the heart or the brain. Sorry, Paleo dieters, you’re better people than I am, and I see no real reason to do this, other than maybe to generate less waste from the animal that “donated” its life.
The Zone diet doesn’t work, because not everyone’s needs are the same. Athletes vs couch potatoes, pregnant vs non-pregnant women, marathon runners vs shot putters. You can’t say we all need 30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carbs. And ultimately, the body reach homeostasis, so why not try something new, that makes sense and is on par with your goals? It even works if you’re not a lifter, and just want a new program. Read it, read Ori’s points and analysis.

WHAT IT DID FOR ME
I started 10 days before my 5K obstacle course in the Malibu mountains, the infamous Spartan Race. By body fat percentage was at 12.5% on a Saturday. On Tuesday, I had dropped 3% body fat at my annual physical exam. My lifts, my energy and my mood have been better. On the day of the race, after completing uphill runs, scaling steep 10′ walls, mud crawls, cold water swim, cargo nets and gladiators with big foam sticks at the finish line, I felt exhilarated, elated and I never got sore nor did I feel more fatigued than after a “medium” intensity workout!

To me, that was validation enough in my eating with the Warrior Diet, as well as my training with kettlebells, powerlifts and natural movement patterns, staples of my (and your) physical fitness development!
(I did run wearing my Vibram Five-Fingers and was glad I did. The grip and agility it gave me, especially after crawling through wet, muddy areas, was a nice welcome compared to wearing soggy sneakers!)

November 18, 2010

Annual quotes of wisdom

Filed under: Fitness — Philippe Til @ 7:56 PM

I always enjoy good catchphrases, words to live by, new perspectives on just about anything relating to everything and nothing in particular. It’s fun and it can open your mind or someone else’s to a palette of opportunities one may have normally overlooked.

So, here are some for you to ponder.

“Repetition is a form of change.” (Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies)
“You can only wing it if you have the skills to fly.” (Anthony De Longis)
“You can eat any mushroom once.” (Pavel Tsatsouline‘s father)
“We are born perfect, then we screw it up.” (Me)
“It never ceases to amaze me how small five pound chrome dumbbells are used by personal trainers on individuals that actually carry suitcases that weigh thirty-five and forty-five pounds.” (Gray Cook, Balance Body Series)

Just these few should be able to jiggle your grey matter or give you something to talk about over the various holiday parties you will be enjoying over the next 6 weeks. Beats talking about Jim in accounting, the non-working Xerox machine, the taste of the coffee in the break room. If the boss is drunk though, then that’s a better topic!

Have a great Thanksgiving, y’all!

November 15, 2010

F.A.S.T. Pillar #4: Tone

Filed under: Environment,exercise.,Fat Burning Zone,Fitness,Flexibility,Health,strength,Stretching — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 12:14 PM

This is by far the most common desire and goal for anyone who exercises for the purpose of health.
While there is a vanity factor we should all acknowledge within ourselves (it’s natural, it’s actually not vain but driven by our species’ need to thrive, survive and reproduce), not exercising 3 times a week is actually bad for you (something I see plastered on the walls of Gold’s Gym Venice, based on some scientific study which I don’t recall the exact source…).

Why yes, it is bad for you if you don’t exercise, because of one word: entropy!

ENTROPY
Not doing squat (I am not referring to the exercise) is bad because as we age, we lose about a pound of muscle every couple of years past 30. If a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day (at rest) and you lose 5lb of muscle in your 30′s, when you reach 40, you can gain up to 90lb! How does that work? If you’re not burning 50 calories a day for a year, that’s 50×365=18250 calories the pound of muscle made you not burn. A pound of fat is 3600 calories, so that’s roughly 5lb between the ages of 30 and 32. Compound that over a decade, you get pretty close to 90lb, EVEN IF YOU ARE EATING THE SAME HEALTHY FOODS YOU’VE BEEN EATING THE WHOLE TIME!!!

HOW DO I GET TONED?
Well, that’s the culmination of all things wellness related: nutrition, training, sleep patterns and hormonal balance and environmental factors (work, home, stress…). I emphasized exercise for health in the first sentence. Performance based exercise is geared at a specific goal, such as an athlete trying to lift a certain weight, run a certain distance, fight X amount of rounds… The result leads to improved muscle tone and a greater functionality in the muscles anyway, without being the main goal. Consequently, let me ask you this: why not pick a performance-driven goal so you can both look good and do stuff? You don’t have to be an athlete to train like one. Besides, training like an athlete puts you in a better frame of mind for EVERYTHING else in your life. That competitive edge, the desire to push and better yourself is something society is lacking. We make excuses, look for shortcuts and fail.

So, go ahead and DO it. Don’t try, that’s just a promise to fail!

Become Flexible, so you can have more mobility, less aches and pains and greater ability in your daily activities.
Develop your Agility and hand-eye coordination, so you’ll never be off guard, always ready and better prepared with sharper reflexes.
Lift to get Strong, because no one needs to be weak. Lift that baby while you’re carrying groceries, move that couch, push the stranger’s dead car off the main road, rescue the damsel from the fire.
More muscle, more speed, more movement leads to more Tone anyway.

Congratulations, you are now FAST!

To read pillars 1 through 3, click on the links below:
Pillar 1: Flexibility
Pillar 2: Agility
Pillar 3: Strength

October 30, 2010

F.A.S.T. Pillar #3: Strength

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , , , — Philippe Til @ 9:58 AM

Is there anyone out there whose goal is to get weaker?

I didn’t think so. Although fear, misinformation and the perpetration of it ends up contributing to people training too hard or not hard enough, resulting in weakness through either process.

I don’t want to nag yet again about the notion that building strength doesn’t automatically result in “getting big”, which many ladies are afraid of. I’m not going to tell you that it takes a lot of volume, rest, caloric intake and proper planning to just get big by lifting heavy. Wait, I just did. OK, you got me. But if you want to truly read about that, check this blog out by Master RKC Geoff Neupert. That’s just one of many, many experts out there who like me, understands that building muscle and lifting heavy contribute greatly to increased fat loss and elevation of resting metabolic rate. Not only that, but lifting heavy forces you to use better form and you end up moving better. You will even save time at the gym with shorter workouts, or less frequent workouts by lifting heavier!

One of my coaches, Pavel Tsatsouline, founder of the RKC movement, is one of the strongest people I know, but doesn’t necessarily look the part. His father, in his 70′s, recently also entered a Powerlifting competition where he pulled a 380lb dealift, weighing himself 181lb, with no straps or belt! That’s amazing on so many levels because it shows you that proper technique is engrained in muscle memory (like the proverbial bicycle riding skill) and strength training contributes to longevity and better health as we age, and you can still humble younger folk who do not have the patience to practice their lifts and end up plateauing too soon.

I am not asking you to become a powerlifter. I want to show you that you are better off developing strength as a goal to your training, by promoting better movement patterns, increasing flexibility and enjoying your life by exercising safety all at once. Rarely do people get hurt in training. It usually happens by being unfocused performing any mundane activity. By injury-proofing your workouts through safety, good form and heavy lifting, you’ll never throw your back out by picking up a pen from the floor :)

To read Pillars 1 & 2, click on the links below:
Pillar 1: Flexibility
Pillar 2: Agility

October 21, 2010

Break it down!

Filed under: Fitness — Philippe Til @ 7:53 AM

Everyone wants to be F.A.S.T. (Flexible Agile Strong Toned).

How do you get there? 5 steps.
Here’s your countdown to your ultimate fitness:
5- Five essential drills, five universal moves is all you need to master.
4-Four elements: exercise, nutrition, environment and hormones. These four need to be in sync for lasting results.
3-Three-prong approach: skill development (to train neurological pathways), hand-eye coordination and practical application.
2-Two modalities: explosive and slow, ballistic and grind, absolute strength and sustained strength (those are different wording of the same concepts).
1- One body: YOURS!

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