Strength Training Reduces All- Cause Mortality!

 

A large study looking at data for 80,306 adults aged 30 or higher showed that participation in any strength-promoting exercise was associated with a 23% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 31% reduction in cancer mortality. There was also a slight dose-dependent effect with more strength-promoting exercise associated with a lower all-cause mortality.

The study showed that bodyweight exercises yielded comparable results to equipment-based activities.

So the take home message is simple – get your strength training in at least 2 times per week every week – consistency is way more important than which type of strength training you do and it all works including:

Selectorized machines with weight stacks

Free weight exercises using dumbbells and barbells

Kettlebells

Bands

Bodyweight

Intermittent Fasting for Health and Fat Loss!

 

Done properly fasting can be very beneficial for improving health and accelerating fat loss.   There are many different types of fasts, but the most popular and practical is called intermittent fasting.  

The most popular way to do intermittent fasting is also known as time-restricted eating where you restrict your daily food intake to a specific window of time - typically six to eight-hours per day.

For example, if you skip breakfast and make lunch the first meal of your day, you might restrict your food intake to the hours of Noon and 8:00 p.m. If you are a breakfast lover, your window could be between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.    It is also important to eat the last meal at least three hours before bedtime because the body's circadian rhythm are negatively impacted by eating near bedtime which negatively impacts sleep and help.

By fasting about 14 to 16 hours a day, you give your body enough time to drain your glycogen stores (storage form of blood sugar) and shift into fat-burning mode. This pushes your body to use fat as a fuel.  Because fat is a slow-burning fuel, you will not only have a more balanced energy supply, but you will also avoid the typical sugar "highs" and "lows" that come with typical diets.

While you will undoubtedly feel hungry on occasion, that is perfectly normal. Once your body adjusts, you may be surprised to discover how much less food you will consume to feel completely satisfied. In many cases your food cravings literally disappear once you have regained your ability to burn fat for fuel.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting provides a number of health benefits including:

• Forcing the body to become efficient at burning fat as the primary fuel which can eliminate sugar cravings
• Increased growth hormone which helps with fat-burning and maintenance and growth of lean tissue like muscle and organs!
• Enhances brain health and helps prevent neurological disorders like Alzheimer's
• Reduces oxidative stress and fights aging and diseases like cancer
• Lowers triglycerides and reduces inflammation
• Dramatically boosts brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons.
• Dramatically increases the process of Autophagy

Benefits of Autophagy

Autophagy means “self-eating” and refers to processes that your body uses to clean out various debris and detoxify while also recycling damaged cell components.   It is quite literally like your body’s recycling program.   It improves metabolic efficiency, gets rid of faulty cellular parts, and retards development of cancer in early stages.   It also helps to dramatically decrease inflammation throughout the body.

During the bio-energetic challenge of exercising or fasting, autophagy is increased.   This stimulates stem-cells including muscle stem cells which can help prevent sarcopenia (muscle loss with aging).     So, intermittent fasting can help maintain the regenerative capacity of muscle stem cells.

There are three ways to boost autophagy:   exercise, fasting, and nutritional ketosis.  

Who Can Benefit from Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting can benefit just about everyone, but athletes may benefit even more. A 2016 study that tracked the effects of intermittent fasting on 34 resistance-trained men found that restricting their eating to an eight-hour window positively affected several health-related biomarkers, while decreasing fat mass and maintaining muscle mass.

For eight weeks, the participants divided their daily calorie intake across three meals eaten at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. They fasted the remaining 16 hours of the day, and completed three weekly sessions of resistance training on non-consecutive days. Among the biomarkers noted, there was a significant decrease in blood sugar for the intermittent fasting group as compared to the normal diet group.

While additional studies need to be completed to further investigate the effects of intermittent fasting on athletes, it seems that intermittent fasting could be used during maintenance phases of training when the goal is to maintain muscle mass while reducing fat mass.

The Importance of Proper Food Choices during Intermittent Fasting

During intermittent fasting and reduced food intake, your food choices are very important. Since you'll be eating less, it's vitally important that you get proper nutrition from your food. Healthy fats are essential because intermittent fasting pushes your body to switch over to fat-burning. Particularly if you begin to feel tired and sluggish, it may be a sign that you need to increase the amount of healthy fat in your diet.

Cutting net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) is equally important. Focus on:

• High quality fat intake in the form of avocados, coconut oil, organic grass-fed butter, organic egg yolks and nuts.
• High-quality protein from from organically raised, grass-fed or pastured animals, eggs, chicken and fish.
• High amounts of fresh, low-net-carb vegetables, ideally organic

Contraindications for Fasting

Although most people can safely benefit from intermittent fasting, it's important to take caution if you have certain health challenges. Do NOT use fasting unless approved by your physician if any of the following are true:

• You are underweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 or less
• You are malnourished
• Children should NOT fast! They need nutrients for continued growth; if your child is obese, consider cutting him or her back on refined grains and sugar to promote weight loss
• Pregnant and breastfeeding women should NOT fast because a consistent flow of nutrients must be shared with the baby to ensure its well-being
• If you take medications that should be taken with food you will need to be very cautious about fasting and consult with your physician first.   This is especially true for diabetics and those with gout.

Could Viagra be Effective for Alzheimer's Disease?

 

Believe it or not recent research has shown that the little blue pill (traditionally used for erectile dysfunction) may have another big benefit!   

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic used gene mapping to identify commonly prescribed drugs that might be effective for treating Alzheimer’s Disease.   Out of all the drugs identified Sildenafil (Viagra) came out on top!

This was not entirely surprising since Viagra has already been identified as a potential dementia treatment by other groups.   It has been shown to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models.

The researchers also found that Viagra can be effective early in the disease process:     “Notably, we found that sildenafil (Viagra) use reduced the likelihood of Alzheimer’s in individuals with coronary artery disease, hypertension, and type-2 diabetes – all of which are comorbidities significantly associated with the disease.”

The researchers looked at medical records from insurance records for over 7 Millions Americans to see if there was a relationship between sildenafil (Viagra) and Alzheimer’s disease outcomes.     The results were impressive with Viagra users 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease than non-users after six years of follow-up.

Researchers emphasized that more study is need to prove the causal relationship through clinical trials with large numbers of people.

Secrets to Effective Glute Training

 

The “Glutes” are important for function and aesthetics, yet there are a lot of misconceptions about how to best target, shape, and strengthen these muscles.

The Glutes consist of three different muscles:

1.    Gluteus Maximus (the largest of the glute muscles and most powerful)

2.    Gluteus Medius (which is higher up on the side of the hip)

3.    Gluteus Minimus (which is located below and underneath Gluteus Medius)

Any good glute conditioning program will target all these muscles.    Different exercises will produce different levels of glute activation at different places in the range of motion emphasizing different parts of the glutes.

For example:

In squats and lunges peak glute activation happens in the bottom of the movement when the glutes are in their maximally extended/stretched position!   Therefore, the bottom of the glute is the focus during these movements.

The greatest peak glute activity in a deadlift occurs in the mid-range position so emphasizes the middle of the glute.   

The greatest peak glute activity in the hip thrust occurs at the end of movement in the fully contracted position so emphasizes the top of the glute!

Balanced Glute Workout to Optimize Glute Development

By putting together exercises that emphasis the stretched, middle, and fully contracted positions along with loading through all planes of motion we can optimize glute shape and function.     This includes hip abduction exercises along with hip external rotation exercises to hit the glutes from all angles.

Importance of Hip Flexor Stretching During Warm-up

Work on Hip Flexor lengthening to maximize glute activation.   The hip flexors are the antagonistic muscle to the glutes which means that if they are tight you literally cannot get maximum glute activation!    In addition, since we spend too much time sitting they are chronically shortened in most of us.   So stretch them often and particularly BEFORE your glute workouts to allow for optimum glute activation.

Great Glute Routine

Warm-up with bodyweight lunges, side lunges, hip hinges, etc followed by stretching the hip flexors.

Do Hip Thrusts - 3 sets of 10 with a five second hold at the top of the movement focusing on squeezing the glutes maximally at the top!  Hip thrusts can be done on the ground or by placing your shoulders along a bench and feet on the floor.    

Progressions:

Add load by holding a dumbbell or barbell across the hips.  If you are lucky your gym will have a Matrix Glute Trainer which allows for weight and/or band resistance in a very comfortable position:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE1pCWzzsyY 

You can also do single leg hip thrusts to create more challenge.

The key is keeping your back neutral and focusing your head down.   To learn optimal form watch this fantastic video from Brett Contreras (aka the Glute Guy!):   https://youtu.be/qE1pCWzzsyY  He shows you exactly how to do this at about 5:00 minutes into this great glute exercise video.

Goblet Squats – 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions done properly – use the link above to see the keys to getting the most from this amazing type of squat at 9:10 into the video.

Deadlifts or Romanian Deadlifts – 3 sets of 6 – 8 reps – see tutorial at 15:00 in the video above.

45 Degree Hyperextension – 3 sets of 10 – to get the most from this exercise it is important to learn how to optimize glute vs hamstring targeting which the video above will show you at 17:45.

Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets of 10 – the king of exercises for the fully stretched position and emphasizing the bottom of the glutes – watch the video above at 21:23 to learn exactly how to do this highly effective glute exercise!

Hip Abduction – 3 sets of 10 - it is important to target the glute medius using either the hip abduction machine or by doing seated band hip abduction.  To learn how to set-up and use a hip abduction machine click here:  https://youtu.be/vYJlsVzaH-w

For seated band hip abduction sit on a bench with knees and hips at 90 degree angle with thick elastic band around the top of the shins. Lift feet slightly off floor and pull knees out to the side against the band pausing in the fully contracted position for 5 seconds.  Do NOT arch the back and keep the navel drawn in to stabilize the core and keep all the work on the glute medius.  This can be done with one or two bands as per here:   https://youtu.be/7cGgI5hXTUU