Sweet Potato and Banana Pancakes

Here is a recipe for one of my favorite post long-run foods:

• 2 small or one large sweet potatoes baked (boiled would also work)
• One ripe banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup 2% milk (skim, whole, almond, half and half and water; any of these should work)
• 1/2 cup oat flower (this is what I use, any flower should work as a substitute)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup blueberries (optional)
• Cinnamon (to taste)
• 1 Teaspoon honey

1. Pull the skin off the sweet potato(s)
2. Blend sweet potatoes, banana, eggs, and milk.
3. Stir in oat flower, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon, honey, and blueberries.
4. Pour out the batter.  1/4 cup will make roughly 16 pancakes.
5. Cook on a well greased or no stick pan.  Flip when the edges should be bubbly and slightly brown.  These will take longer than traditional pancakes to cook. 

Nutritional profile for 1/4 cup pancake (estimated):
Kcal:  83
Fat:  3.5g
Carbs: 11g
Protein:  3g

These are also loaded with fiber, a wealth of vitamins, good fats, and protein.  Obviously adding syrup and butter will drive the calories upward, but I find they stand pretty well on their own.

Enjoy!

Come Train With Me

I am now training clients in the Central Vermont area.  Rates are dependent on travel expenses and number/length of sessions purchased.  First workout and evaluation are free!

Phone:  802-279-7025
Email:  Ninjarobics@gmail.com

Lifting Heavy Won't "Bulk" You Up

I hear all the time, particularly from women, that they don't want to lift heavy weights for fear that they will "bulk" up.  "Bulk" is a product of eating, hormonal levels, and rest; not just working out.  As you can see in the above video, Alicia is hardly what I would consider "bulky".

Good Shoes Are Important...

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE GROSS...

Build a Foundation

The internet age is wonderful because it provides us with a wide variety of information at the click of a mouse that in the past would have taken hours or days to research.  The downside to this wealth of information is our brains do not know how to process and filter it.  This is true for medical studies, politics, and even strength and conditioning.  For example, look up your favorite athlete in Google or on YouTube and you can probably find one of their workouts for a given period.  The problem with this is the information is taken out of context.  In order to develop a well-rounded athlete or even just be fit and healthy, the first step should be to develop a base of strength, body awareness, balance, flexibility, mobility, aerobic and anaerobic capacity before lifting heavy weights, sprint training, advanced plyometrics, or any kind of specialized training.

When you see a professional athlete, you are seeing a finished product, not the process that created it.  Often times, these athletes have been working out since they were young developing work capacity.  They also played a variety of different sports until the college level.  For example, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson played basketball, track, and football at his high school.  When you see interviews with athletes about how they conditioned themselves early on, many of them did things like push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, run, and jump rope.

Specialized training has its place and that place is well after a foundation has been laid.  If you try to teach a student algebra or statistics who does not understand multiplication, division, or exponents, you will not get very far.  That student may understand order of operations, but they will not be able to actually apply what they have learned to real life.  The same is true of strength and conditioning.  If I have a trainee who cannot complete 10 good pushups, but I teach them to bench press, will they get better at the bench press?  Sure. But what good does that actually do them?  They have not developed the tendon strength or the surrounding musculature to guard against injuries or even progress past a certain point on the bench press.

Body-weight training is beneficial for several reasons:

1. The majority of body-weight exercises are closed chain meaning the entire body has to be engaged in order to provide stability in the movement.  For example:  In the push up, the triceps, deltoids, and pectorals are the prime movers, but contractions of the lats, trapezius, abdominals, spinae erectors, glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings stabilize to make that movement possible.  This not only helps the trainee get stronger, but also to learn body awareness.
2. Body-weight training relies on moving the body against gravity which is precisely what we do in everyday life and for the most part what is done in sports.  What good is being able to move external weight if you have difficulty moving your body through space effectively?
3. The body is smart.  If you are preforming a push up repeatedly and more muscle is needed in your triceps, your body will build more muscle in the triceps.  On the same note, if you are carrying around unneeded weight, the body will get rid of it to make the pushups easier.
4. This type of training is cheap and can be done anywhere.

Now, do not let the above make you think I am anti-weights.  I am not.  In fact, I am not even entirely against them for some beginners.  For some trainees it can be difficult to activate certain muscles, like using the back muscles during a pull-up.  For these trainees it is fine to use dumbbells, bands, cables, etc. to help activate the muscles (although it is usually not necessary).  I am simply saying that it is better to gain proficiency in movements, develop baseline strength, and create awareness of how the body moves before you add an external load or start isolating muscles.

Why do I say this?  Well, once you add an external load the focus becomes on moving the load.  This is fine, but if awareness has not been developed,  the desired effect is less likely to be achieved.  In other words, we lift to get stronger and to develop muscles, but where we get stronger and develop muscles is important.  If you squat with weight on your back, you will find a way to lift the weight.  The issue is entire muscle groups might be "asleep".  Developing form and making sure muscles are firing is the first priority. 

An underused philosophy in strength and conditioning is “do as little as possible to achieve the desired result".  This isn't to say do not have difficult workouts, but if there is ground to be gained without adding an external load, then why add an external load?  Ultimately, gains can only be gained so fast.  Why not have something else to try when what you are doing is no longer working?  Too much, too soon will make it difficult to narrow down what works and what does not.

So where do you start? Jumping rope, skipping, hip thrusts, glute bridges, sit-ups, crunches, planks, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, hop scotch, distance running up to 30 minutes, shorter more intense intervals of running 200-800 meters, running up hills, running up stairs, dodge ball, back extensions, supermans, squat jumps, lunges, split squats, running in sand, high knees, body rows, fartlek runs, pull-ups, squat thrusts, pushups, dips, leg lifts, monkey bars, balance beams, slack ropes, burpees, medicine ball throws, ect.  That is an extensive and incomplete list, but it is a good place to start.  After proficiency is achieved, look to increase difficulty a little bit at a time.  The pace of progress will vary by individual and so may the point at which you decide to add weight or otherwise increase difficulty.  One thing is for sure though, if the trainee cannot do the above things listed (specific injuries notwithstanding), then there is no reason for them to be doing advanced speed training, heavy weight lifting, advanced plyometrics, or Olympic style lifts.

What is proficiency?  Other people might disagree with me, but I would say if you could do the strength movements continuously, with good form, for more than 30 seconds then proficiency has been achieved.  After 60 seconds, the trainee should progress in difficulty, unless some kind of specific training effect is desired.  As a trainee advances, this will not be the criteria used to progress, but again this is a starting point.

Never be afraid to resort back to the basics.  When I am injured or burned out on heavy weights and intense training, I revert to calisthenics, lighter weights, and fundamental things.  Although I may lose some maximum strength, it can be gained back easily and I will feel much better.

Getting better at something is a long process.  Dedicate a little time to the basics now and reap the benefits for years to come.

A Great Sports Nutrition Infographic

A great graphic courtesy of http://greatist.com.  I'm always down for OPG (other people's graphics).

The Trouble with Diet and Exercise Studies

The Trouble with Diet and Exercise Studies
A wiser man than myself once said there are "...lies, damned lies, and statistics.", add broadly interpreted conclusions to that statement and it applies to the world of fitness pretty well.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in the role of both science and statistical analysis in the word of health and fitness; however, conclusions should be arrived at carefully.

So what's my beef with all these studies?  Let me break it down:

Population
 Typically, the survey populations in fitness studies are either high-level athletes or healthy, but completely untrained people.  While both these groups are certainly worth studying, the results you get will lead you to conclusions that may or may not apply to everyone else.  Untrained individuals will likely respond to almost any new stimulus added to a workout program.  Conversely, high level athletes will require more stimulus, are motivated, have a higher pain tolerance, a higher work capacity, and are more likely to be genetically gifted.

For example:  There was a study several months ago  that showed muscle growth in 15 "recreationally active" individuals lifting 30% of their on-rep max.  The problem with this study is twofold:
1.  15 people isn't exactly a massive sample size.
2.  I take "recreationally active" to mean healthy, but untrained which means they could probably look at weights and improve strength and muscle size.

Based on experience and observation I have never seen anyone gain a significant amount of muscle or strength lifting that low a percentage of their max.  To the credit of the researchers, the weights were lifted to failure which with training, would take a long time and just isn't that efficient way of training once you become somewhat conditioned.

Is this study completely without value?  If it's your conclusion that you should be training with 30% of your max then yes.  If your conclusion is that there is more than one way to skin a cat and that higher reps can sometimes be effective then no.  I think there is something to be said for training with higher repetitions, just not that high, for everybody, all the time.

There Are No Bad Exercises, Just Bad Application

Disclaimer:  This post is based off pure anecdotal evidence and observation.

It's not uncommon to see exercises being misused in most gyms.   In fact, at one point or another I have been guilty of using poor exercise selection, less than stellar form, and generally bad judgment when it comes to risk/reward of an exercise.  Fortunately, I have learned (a little) through trial, error, and research, without seriously injuring myself in the process.

When deciding on an exercise, the first things you should think about are:  "Will this help me reach my goals?" and "Is there a safer alternative?"

I'm not going to lecture anyone on safety.  There are few exercises and even fewer things in life that won't put you at risk of some kind of injury.  However, risk/reward should always be a consideration when planning your workouts.

Let me provide some common examples of poor exercise application:

Olympic-style lifts (Clean and jerk, snatch, hang clean, etc.)

The good: Olympic-style lifts allow you to develop an incredible amount of power do to their explosive nature.  This is why you will see track and field athletes, mixed martial artists, and American football players preforming this style of lifting.
The bad:  These lifts are very technical and potentially dangerous.  Olympic weight lifters spend years learning form, developing flexibility, and train in gyms properly equipped (bumper plates, platforms, etc.) for this style of lifting, and yet still run a high risk of injury.
The ugly:  There is a school of thought by some (cough Crossfit), that has clients preforming these lifts for high repetitions or while fatigued.  This is dangerous and stupid.  It is dangerous because when fatigued it is very difficult to perform these lifts with proper form.  It's stupid because the whole idea of these lifts is to maximize power and while the conditioning effect is great, there are plenty of equally effective alternatives.
If you are going to preform Olympic lifts, spend a little time with a coach and please don't do sets of 15.
The alternative:  If you're trying to develop power, try generally increasing your strength, throwing a medicine ball as hard as you can, and performing basic plyometrics (technique is important here too and there is a risk of injury, but at least you won't break your spine).  If you're trying to increase conditioning better options would include: Sprinting, calisthenics circuits, low impact plyometrics like box jumps for reps, and any number of other exercises that fatigues you quickly without having you perform a technically difficult exercise.
A notable exception:  I believe the dumbbell or kettlebell alternatives to these lifts to be much safer, as the overall load is lessened and it is much easier to maintain good form and balance.

Importance of Exercise

In the above video, Dr. Mike Evans talks about the benefit of exercise as medicine.  I don't deny the value of modern medicine, but there is no substitute for positive lifestyle changes.

An Incomplete List of Strength Training Rules

• Warm-up.  A good guideline is to do about 5-10 minutes of aerobic exercise and then a short calisthenic circuit (push-ups, body squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, ect.).  The more reps in a set the shorter the warm-up needs to be, the heavier and more intense the set, the longer the warm-up.
• Work the entire body.  I often see women doing endless crunches, and men doing nothing but bench press and curls.  If this is done for an extended period of time it may be worse than doing nothing.  Not working other muscle groups is not only ineffective, but will ultimately lead to injury.
• Your workout should focus on major compound exercises (exercises that use multiple muscle groups). Big muscles and big movements first.
• The five best exercise for strength development:  Variations of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, and dead-lifts.
• There are no bad exercises, just bad application.
• Over time vary reps, weight, sets, exercises, and the order of exercises.
• If you can lift a weight for more than a minute straight you are not using enough weight.
• Push yourself.  You can't spell workout without work.  For the first six months of training you should be adding weight and/or reps almost every workout.
• Rest is an important part of working out.  Muscles repair themselves and grow at rest, not while you're working out.  Listen to your body and take time to rest your stressed muscles.
• Every exercise should have a purpose.
• Ladies:  Don't worry about bulking up into the incredible hulk.  Gaining muscle mass is influenced by several factors other than lifting, among them:  testosterone and diet.  Any given man will have at least 10 times the testosterone of any given woman.  Female body builders train a lot, diet specifically to gain mass, cut down to little body fat, and take as many, if not more steroids then the men.  Also, it takes time to gain significant muscle mass.  Logic states that if you thought you were gaining too much mass, all you would have to do is stop and so would the gains to mass.  Finally, muscle burns fat and chances are, if you weren't gaining muscle, you'd be gaining fat instead.
• Keep a log of exercises sets, weight, reps, how you're feeling, etc.
• Train your weaknesses.
• Don't over-complicate working out.  Just remember to work opposing muscle groups.
• Something is always better than nothing.
• Learn the exercises, check and re-check form, make sure you can feel the targeted muscle working.

Good luck and keep training.

Recovery

One of the most important but underrated aspects of physical fitness is recovery.  Recovery is when the physical adaptation to exercise and the neural "reprogramming" occur.  For the purposes of this post, I'm talking about recovering after a competitive event, peaking after a training cycle, or an exceptionally difficult workout. Before I get started, remember, the better condition you’re in, the shorter your recovery will be.

So you've completed your training-cycle/event/workout what’s next?

• ASAP: If you feel like you may have injured yourself or there is a spot that typically bothers you (example: Bum knee or chronic tendonitis), get ice on it.
• ASAP: Hydrate, especially if you are in warm conditions or completed a long endurance activity.
• <1 hour: Eat something to help replenish glycogen stores and prevent muscle catabolism.  Preferably something with carbs and complete (animal) proteins.  I've heard the magic ratio is 4:1 carbs to proteins.  Chocolate milk fits those criteria well, so do some sports drinks like Accelerade that mix sugars and protein.  Most importantly, just eat.  Eating anything is still better than nothing.
• 0-24 hours:  Stretch and massage.  This is dependent on personal preference, but I find doing light stretching and self massage with a foam roller to be useful.
• That day:  Sleep.
• In the days after: Active recovery and cross-training.  This can be as simple a walk and stretching.  The purpose is to get blood flowing to your muscles and connective tissue.

There are some more things to consider when it comes to injury.  First off, I'm not going to prescribe anything for a specific injury, leave that to a professional.  I will suggest some common ways to combat injuries.  It goes without saying if you think you're seriously injured, see a doctor.

The Really Long-Run Continued...

So, a while back I wrote about my experimentation with a long runs of 25 and 30 miles as opposed to the recommended long runs of most plans maxing out at 20 miles.  I promised to report results so here they are:  This year I ran the marathon in 3:58:59 unofficially (officially, they fucked up my time).  That is an improvement of four minutes and 29 seconds from last year.  Now on the surface this improvement is probably less than can be expected normally running your second marathon, however there were a number of other factors at play:

• The race was wet and windy this year.
• The race was bigger and I started further back contributing to a slower start.
• The base of running mileage was much less this year.  During the first week of April in 2010, I was able to run a 12-mile long run and about 22 miles for the week.  This year, I was only able to run about five miles at a time and a total of around 15 for the week.
• I wasn't any better running this race tactically than last year.  Last year, I picked up the pace in the middle of the race, this year I did the exact same thing.
• Because of injury and missed weeks of training, I aimed to run only slightly faster than last year.  If you don't intend on running significantly faster in a marathon it won't happen.

The Little Things

As much as I think everyone should exercise for hours on end everyday that's really not practical for many of us.  Additionally, there really isn't any reason why most sane people should do that much exercise.  There are however, little things that go a long way in maintaining health and fitness in normal people.

Let’s talk about the difference between health and fitness.  "Health" implies your bodies systems functioning normally, while "fitness" implies the ability to perform certain tasks.  You can be "healthy" in general while not being "fit" for a given task and visa versa.  A professional boxer is certainly fit, but there is nothing healthy about getting hit in the head for a living. 

Fitness is more specific and dependent on activity.  The fitness needs of a 25 year old NFL linebacker are different from that of a 50 year old marathon runner, a 35 year old playing pick up basketball, a 27 year old mother of a new born, or a 70 year old who just wants to bring groceries up their stairs.

What We Eat

Thank you Visual Economics for the great graphic (click here for the full size version).

Simple Nutrition and Exercise

This post will be how about how to guide your eating habits as simply as possible.  You can bet there will be more detailed posts that thoroughly examine the science behind it, but right now I'm going to keep it simple.

Here are some good guidelines regardless of your goal:

• Eat as few processed foods as possible.  The world is polluted enough, try not to unnecessarily pollute your body with chemicals you can't pronounce.
• You need all the basic macro-nutrients (i.e. fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), so eat all of them. The key is quality and quantity.  Well, in theory you don't need carbs, but we're talking reality, not theory so eat them.
• Avoid added sugars.  Note, I said added sugars, not sugars in fruits.  Also note, I said fruits, not fruit juice.  Fruit juice is at best, equivalent to soda with vitamins in it.
• You don't need supplements, but sometimes they can help.
• Eat breakfast.  Try to get something with a good mix of protein and fat.  An egg sandwich (preferably not between syrup injected breads and sausage in the middle) or trail mix are some good quick examples.
• Chew your food.
• Eat as many different colors as you can.  This is a good guideline to get essential nutrients.
• If you're going to eat junk, it's best to eat it right after you work out.  After you workout, muscles are primed to absorb nutrients. So that Big Mac will hopefully be partially absorbed by your muscles and not your gut.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat your fiber.  It's important to shit normally.
• Eat foods you like.  If your diet calls for eating a bunch of shit you don't like, you won't stick to it very long.  If you can't stick to it, then it's not a good diet.
• There are no foods you should never eat, just foods you shouldn't eat a lot.
• Most people lack ideal amounts of zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids.  These supplements and maybe glucosomine (if you have joint trouble) are worth considering (talk to your doctor first).
• For three days to a week, record what you eat and drink in detail.  Also record what kind of activity you do.  This can give you a decent idea of what your body needs.  You can calculate your calorie requirements here or at Bodybuilding.com .  Both of these calculators have their weaknesses, but if you use the advanced versions you can get a decent idea of what you need.

Gravity is Your Friend

Simple training is often the best training and there is little simpler then running up a hill or a set of steps.  This kind of "upward"  training can build stamina, strength, improve running form, increase leg-drive, coordination, promote fat loss, and increase mental conditioning.  Running up hills or stairs also reduces impact and will increase lower body strength without having to load your back with heavy weight.

Hills and steps are similar but each method has it's own set of distinct benefits:

Hills:

• Allow for maximum effort.  You don't have to worry about tripping and knocking your teeth out on a step.
• Usually allow for  easier access to a variety of lengths and inclines.
• You can run up backwards to emphasize your quads and improve backwards running ability for sports.

Steps:

• Forces coordination to hit each step.
• Forces quick feet and knees up style running.
• Allows for plyometric (jumping) exercises and emphasizing the eccentric (negative) muscle contraction.

Now I'm going to outline some methods of training for specific goals.  Don't get caught up too much in the details.  The reality is that regardless of your goal, running hills or steps with a hard effort will increase stamina, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, strength, power, and coordination.

The Physiological Effects of Caffeine

The Physiological Effects of Caffeine

Introduction: 

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive compound in the world. It is present in many foods, beverages, medicines and supplements. Caffeine containing foods and beverages have been consumed for a perhaps as long as 700,000 years (Snyder 20). Caffeine is a highly effective stimulant that has been shown to enhance mood, cognitive capability, alertness, and enhance athletic performance. When ingested, caffeine produces a number of effects on the central nervous, muscular, digestive, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems of the body.

Metabolism of caffeine: 

Caffeine is a water soluble compound and therefore spreads through the body rapidly to anywhere there is water. Additionally, caffeine easily passes through cell membranes. These properties allow caffeine to rapidly enter the blood stream where it is then cycled through the liver (60 Snyder). In the liver the P45 enzyme system produces a number of metabolites (Ruxton 16). This process happens over and over until all the caffeine has been metabolized (60 Snyder). Less than six percent of caffeine is expelled in urine and most of the drug is removed from the body in about 12 hours following consumption (Ruxton, 15). The rate caffeine metabolism can be altered by a number of other factors including liver disease or use of other drugs (Snyder 61).

The Really Long Run

Marathon training programs typically rely on several things: A lot of miles, long runs, threshold runs, and a small amount of speed work. The accumulation of miles is designed to develop the aerobic energy system and among other things, get you used to running. The long run is typically what most programs are built around. They are designed to force your body to adapt to long distance efforts, further develop the aerobic energy system, force the body to use more body fat rather than glycogen for energy, and prepare your body to go 26.2 miles. Threshold runs are run at a "comfortably hard" pace and are designed to raise your lactate threshold so you can hold speed for longer durations. Finally, speed work is designed to increase efficiency in movement, enhance lactic acid buffering, and improve "fast twitch" muscle fibers.

Normally, the most important workout is the long run because it most closely simulates the marathon. The least important for most people (except the most experienced runners), is speed work because there is both an increased risk of injury and the conditioning element is of minimal utility for most marathoners. Ideally, you have all of these elements in your training plan. Unfortunately, life is seldom ideal.

Welcome to Ninja-Robics

Welcome to Ninja-Robics your source for physical training advice and discussion from an extraoridnarily physically average human.  Posts will be coming soon and maybe a little research, some pictures, a video or two, and a whole lot of ranting.

A little about me before we get started.  I'm 27 about 5'7 and weighing in at around 160lbs soaking wet.  I'm not a particularly gifted athlete.  I'm relatively average and flawed in many ways.  Exercising is what I love to do and over a period of about eight years I have managed some modest numbers in the weight room.  A dead lift of 445lbs and a bench press of about 275.  I've ran a number of road races including a full marathon and I'm always looking to improve.

More importantly I've done some research, taken some classes in exercise, nutrition, and physiology, and I'm continuously looking to learn more and try more.

I'm not a doctor or certified anything, so my advice on training or nutrition shouldn't be taken as the word of god just what has worked for me and what I have seen work for others.  If you have any health concerns talk to a doctor or a physical therapist or someone other than me.

So, I'm really tired of talking about me. Posts will be coming.