valshealthblog.com

Health and Fitness Dogma

Hi,

I had an interesting encounter the other day.  And it is all about dogma and intolerance. 

I will show you how that relates to today’s world of health and fitness.

I was walking to my car after making a purchase at a store.  I got in the car and realized I had forgotten something. 

Before I had a chance to get out some middle aged guy walked over and told me he was a composer.  A Christian composer.  And he kept going on and on and I said I wasn’t interested.

He said that he thought I was a person that was interested in God’s way.  I said I wasn’t (more on why I said this later).

Then he said – as I was walking away – that I should be in an electic chair. 

I almost burst out laughing, but I just kept on walking.

First of all let me just say that I never like being accosted and approached by strangers for a sales pitch.  And almost 100% of the time I will disagree with them (not interested in God’s way).

As I was walking away I also thought about how Christian his attitude was. 

So what does this have to do with health and fitness?

First let’s define dogma.  Many definitions have to do with religion and morality. 

But, it is also defined as something held as an established opinion.  This opinion does not have to be true.   

It is actually only a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds.  (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

To sum it up dogma is an opinion without adequate grounds. 

So what does this have to do with your health and fitness?

Look everyone is not an expert.  Maybe you are not one either – at least in the health and fitness world. 

So you have to do some research about what works and doesn’t work.  Obviously you can’t try every single method of living a fit and healthy life that is on the market. 

So how do you search?  How do you decide what to try and what not to try?

Do you listen to the one with the loudest dogma? 

You can find them everywhere.  They are the ones that have no or very little scientific training.  They are the ones that say that only their method works and no one elses. 

You will find no proof, no evidence that their program works.  But, you will find loud shouts telling you how good their program is. 

You might even see and hear lots of testimonials.   While testimonials are nice, they are not science, nor are they much better than the placebo effect. 

So what can you do to avoid the dogma and get to the results that you want from your health and fitness program?

Well, you do have to read a bit and do some online research.  There are some good people out their with good programs that will help you. 

There is good information out there.  But, you won’t find the flashy graphics, cartoons and yelling about their products. 

This blog is one of those.  I don’t even have a product available yet (in the works).   But, I will promise to keep providing you with scientific information that you can use in your quest for your health and fitness programs.   

I also plan on becoming more active on the social networks with this blog and my other one at http://www.femfigueres.com

While I do have opinions about what works best I certainly I hope to never be so dogmatic that I wish the electric chair for those that disagree:-).

Mike Val

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Hi,

Just want to wish everyone reading this blog a fantastic holiday season.

Also wanted to thank you for being a reader and for leaving your comments. 

The experience is very gratifying and humbling.

Again, thank you.

Mike Val

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Imaginary Diet

Hi,

Imagine eating your favorite food.  Really imagine it.

Imagine how it smells, how it looks.

Imagine how it tastes, how it feels on your tongue.

Imagine the pleasure you are getting from imagining all of this.

Now, what if I told you that doing this will help you really lose weight?

You might think I am a little crazy.  Well, you might be right about that part. 

But, what I said is true.

ABC News showed a report about imagining eating and the effects it had on real weight loss.

They used M&M’s in the study.  The subjects imagined eating M&M’s.  they imagined the first one in as much detail as possible.  Then they repeated the process another 29 times. 

Another group didn’t do any imagining.

The study then put a bowl of M&M’s on the table and measured how many each group ate.

They originally thought that the imagining group would eat a lot more of the M&M’s.  But, the opposite happened. 

The imagining group ate about 1/2 of the amount the non-imagining group did.

Turns out that all this imagining stimulated the release of dopamine in the brain.  In this case dopamine satiated the hunger receptors and therefore the appetitie.

So the imagining group actually felt full and therefore only ate 1/2 of what the non imagining group did.

Talk about the power of imagination. 

So how can you use this – especially with all the holiday meals coming up.

Do you have to imagine 30 times. or is 1 or 2 times enough.  Unfortunately, there were no details on this.  But, I will try to find out more and post it at a later time. 

For now at least try to imagine eating your favorite food for a few minutes before you eat, or drink.  (Maybe it also works with drinking – either alcohol or soda.)

Try it and see if the imaginary diet will work for you.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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The Martial Arts Yell and Fitness

Hi,

So what does the martial arts yell have to do with fitness?

As it turns out, quite a bit.

If you have any martial arts experience you will know I am talking about the kiai (Japanese) or kihap (Korean). 

This yell is different from an ordinary yell.  A regular yell just comes from the voice and the chest. 

A martial arts yell comes from your center point.  This is in your abdominal area. 

If comes from a forceful explosion of air from your abdomen. 

Now some of you might be thinking that air goes in your lungs and your lungs are in your chest.  That is true.

But the breathing muscle (diphragm)  is in between your chest and your abdomen and it goes up and down. 

As you inhale, your diaphragm is drawn down into your abdomen and pushes the abdomen out.  This is the natural way of breathing.  You can watch any baby breathe and see that it is their abdomen that expands and contracts.

As adults, we get out of this natural way and start breathing through the chest.

This is probably because a big chest is so worshipped in Western culture. 

As you exhale the abdomen is contracted and forces the diaphragm up into the chest area.  This forces the air out of the lungs and is your exhalation.

A martial arts yell starts from down deep in your abdomen and the abdomen is forcibly contracted.  This is done as you yell and helps create a force of breathing.

The actual yell was not designed to startle or scare someone.  Now it could do that, but that is a secondary benefit.

The main purpose of the yell is to help focus your whole essence and force into that action that you are doing with the yell.

If you are punching the yell come at the exact same time as contact as made with the target.

This helps focus your power at that one point in time.  If is a very powerful force.

You can tap into this power at the gym or where ever you exercise.  Now, you don’t have to actually yell, but you can have a more powerful breathe. 

All you have to do is do what the martial artist is doing without the yell. 

Focus on your breath while you are exercising.

This is one thing that has been neglected in Western culture.  Hardly any emphasis is put on breathing properly while exercising.

You can tap into this extra power by learning how to inhale, hold, exhale and hold. 

Start doing this sequence for just a couple of seconds for each point.  As you get better, add more time.

For example, inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds and hold for 4 seconds. 

Put this timing in with your particular exercise and you will also add time under tension to your muscles which is a very important concept if you are trying to get stronger. 

You can do this with your warmups to get used to it.

Sometimes you will want to exhale as forcibly and quickly as possible.  Do this on the concentric or positive part of the exercise. 

So your breathing might be, inhale 4 seconds, hold, 4 seconds, exhale 1 second, hold 4 seconds.

As you get use to doing this you will find you will become stronger and feel more powerful and focused. 

This type of breathing will also affect you whole body, not just your pulmonary and cardio-vascular systems.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Mike Val 

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Hi,

Are your shoulders stiff?  How about your neck?

If you spend a lot of time sitting you will most likely encounter a stiff neck and shoulders.

That is because the longer you sit, the more you tend to lean just a little bit forward.

You do this at the computer, while driving, while eating, while reading and while watching TV. 

As you can see those hours add up day after day after day.

This will cause a muscle imbalance and eventually cause you to have tight shoulders and neck muscles.  The only natural position for you then becomes a slight lean forward. 

If you exercise like most people (this is true especially for men) you will only compound the program.

That is because most people tend to do a lot more exercises for the chest and shoulders than for the back. 

Bench presses and forward raises with dumbbells are the two prime culprits here.

Very seldom do you see someone working the rear deltoids. 

Very seldom do you see someone pulling the shoulder blades together as the initial movement on their back exercises.

The good news is this condition can be corrected fairly easily.  It will take some time because remember you have been sitting this way for a long time.

Anyhow, the exercise is called stick ups.  This is because you are raising your hands over your head as if someone tells you to stick ‘em up. 

Only you will do this against a wall. 

Now there is a popular exercise program out there that does show this exercise.  But, they do it all wrong.  And they give no details on how to do it properly. 

So here is how you do it.  (And yes, I will have a video of this in the very near future.)

Stand with your back facing a wall with a ceiling high enough to raise your arms all the way up.

Your feet should be about 6 inches from the wall and your butt, shoulders and head should be touching the wall.

Raise your arms and hands over your head as in the “stick ‘em up” position.  Now try to touch your wrists and elbows to the wall and slide them down. 

Slide your elbows down until they touch (or almost touch) your sides.

The goal is to keep your butt, head, shoulders, elbows and wrists touching the wall throughout the exercise. 

If you are anything like me, you will have trouble doing this.  But, the goal is to keep practicing until your shoulder mobility increases. 

This will have a profound effect on your posture also.  

I am sure you have noticed people that walk and sit ram rod straight.  There are so few people that do this that they stand out. 

Notice that their shoulders are always back.  This is what you are striving for.

As your mobility improves you will notice that your shoulder and neck pain will start to lesson and gradually disappear. 

Remember this will take some time to get back to a normal range of motion,  maybe even a year or more.  But, the improvements will start almost immediately.

So, if your shoulders are stiff, start doing this exercise now.  Do it for a few minutes every day. 

And even if your shoulders aren’t stiff, you can still do these exercises to prevent them becoming stiff.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

Let’s look at an apple.  An apple is a nutrionists best friend.  It has a great reputation.

Remember the motto, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”?

There is a lot of truth to that. 

Apples have a lot of nutrients, anti-oxidants and fiber. If you eat an apple every day for a snack it will do wonders for your health.  This is assuming you don’t counter it with 3 bags of potato chips:-)

Now you might think that applesauce would be just as good as apples.  Not so.

The processing of the apple into applesauce takes out most of the nutrients and fiber in the apple. 

And worse, it is not as filling. So your body wants to eat more of it to make up for not getting as many nutrients. 

Even worse than that is the fact that not only is the applesauce robbed of its nutrients, but sugar and other sweeteners are added.  This increases the number of calories, yet gives no added benefit from a nutrional point of view. 

Take this a step further and make apple juice.  Now there are basically no nutrients, no anti-oxidants and no fiber.  But, there are a lot more sugars and sweeteners and a ton more calories. 

You can even go further and make apple flavored fruit beverages.  These are basically sugar flavored drinks. 
Some of these beverages are called sports drinks and vitamin waters.  This sounds much better to the public and makes a ton of money. 

Who ever thought of the idea that a simple apple – and you can substitute almost any fruit or vegetable – that is so healthy for you could be turned into a flavored sugar water that costs almost nothing to make and has almost zero nutritional value.

This is really a genius idea from the point of view of making money.

It is a really evil idea from the point of view of improving your health.   

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

This week and going into next I will be posting about junk food.  today’s post will specifically be about junk food advertising.

The overall goal is to show you how pervasive the junk food industry is and how it affects your whole life.

Each post will be shorter than my usual posts – hope you don’t maind that part:-)

Anyhow, here goes with the first one.

We all eat a little bit of junk food.  Heck, I have been known to have a pizza and beer a few times a year.

I really like salsa and chips also.  Throw in some ice cream – especially in the summer time and I am a happy camper. 

Yet, here I am telling everyone to eat healthier. 

Well, I also eat pretty healthy 90-95% of the time.  I eat lots of fruit and vegetables, both raw and cooked. 

I drink very little of the sugar drinks and eat very little of any kind of desserts. 

I get plenty of protein from meats, diary products and protein powders. 

But, this is a decision I have made as to what is best for me. 

You get to make the same decision. 

There is a problem though.  I do a lot of research on diets, nutrition, health and fitness. 

A lot of people don’t.  So they are left to information they see or hear about. 

Most of this information is really advertising. 

It is estimated that over $10 billion a year is spent on advertising junk food. 

1986 statistics showed that McDonald’s by itself spent $592 million. 

Now as much as McDonald’s might try and say that they have nutritious meals and drinks, they don’t. 

The same can be said for just about any food you can find outside of the grocery store.  And, for that matter, even most food in the grocery store. 

At least in the grocery store you can find some good foods. 
Look, it is hard to eat healthy.  You have to make the effort. 

If you do make the effort, you will find you feel better, you will have more energy, you will be more alert and you might just see some of your muscles as the fat drops off. 

If you have children, it is even harder to make the effort. Most of that $10 billion a year spent on junk food advertising is spent on kids. 

Start the kids out early on a junk food diet and they will never know how good they might feel with real food. 

I’ll have a few more posts on the junk food industry and things they don’t want you to know in the next few posts. 

So stay tuned and you might just become so disgusted that you will make that effort to start eating healthier and feeling better. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

So just how often should your exercise?

There have been many exercise gurus that say you should exercise every day for over an hour a day. 

That is way too much for the average person and it is not necessary to build and maintain your fitness levels.

On the other hand, how long can you go without having to exercise?

Should you do something every day or every other day?  Can you skip a week or even a month?

Turns out this wasn’t really studied too much.  That is until some researchers got together and decided to figure this out.

If someone is on bed rest, how long would it take for the muscles to start losing size and strength? 

These researchers put 8 men on complete bed rest and put one leg in suspended traction. 

Every one of them had a significant amount of muscle loss and strength in just 3 days. 

Just one holiday weekend without any activity and now you have to work twice as hard just to get back to where you were. 

This signicant loss of size and strength did not all of a sudden happen on the third day.  There was a small but measurable loss happening almost from the beginning of the bed rest. 

Of course absolute bed rest is something you probably don’t do and any activity is better than nothing.

Based on these finding though you might want to consider doing some exercise at least every other day. 

It doesn’t have to be the 60-90 minute exercise sessions that are so popular. 

In fact just a few seconds several times a day will help you more than those long unproductive sessions. 

We’ll get more into this in later posts.  Stay tuned.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

Dieting is simply too hard, says a survey titled, “Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America” (2008).

They came to this conclusion based upon the fact that more and more people are giving up on dieting. 

And you know what, they are right.

Dieting is too hard. 

It is hard not only from a physical aspect, but also from your mental and spiritual aspects also. 

You have heard of the body, mind and spirit, right?  Well, if you can get all three of these aligned to accomplish something, you will be able to accomplish it much easier. 

If, one aspect is not in alignment, then your task becomes much more difficult, if not impossible.

Think of trying to push a wheelbarrow when the wheel is not attached and you will get an idea of what it is like trying to accomplish a goal when you are not aligned. 

So why is dieting such a problem?

First, you body is not designed to diet.  Your body is a series of checks and balances that help you function at the optimal levels. 

When you are hungry a hormone called ghrelin signals you to eat.  When you are full another hormone called leptin tells you to stop eating.

Every system in your body has these checks and balances.  As long as that system is maintained then you will never need to diet. 

So, if the system gets whacked out of balance then the body doesn’t really understand how to get back in balance, so it resists.

Let me explain.  If you overeat a little bit everyday (finish all the food on your plate), the leptin learns not to react as quickly.  This process is a desensitization of leptin. 

So it takes more and more leptin to tell you when you are full.  This is a gradual process and eventually it doesn’t work well at all. 

It was found that obese people actually have very high levels of leptin, but it doesn’t work anymore. 

Now there is nothing to tell you when you are full.  Ghrelin has no counter force. 

So you keep eating and eating and eating.   Why doesn’t ghrelin slow down or stop working also?

No one knows for sure, but I am guessing it has to do with what you eat.

Your body needs nutrients to function properly.  If it is not getting these nutrients, that doesn’t mean it stops wanting them.

What it means is it keeps signaling your body to keep eating until it gets the nutrients.

Try this.  Eat a well balanced meal of proteins, fats and carbs.  Something like wild salmon with vegetables and a sweet potato.  That will give your body all the nutrients it needs and the body will be satisfied.

If you eat a meal of a double bacon burger with fries and a soda, your body will not be getting hardly any nutrients.   And you will be signaled that your body still needs the nutrient.  Go eat some more says your body. 

This becomes a vicious cycle.  And even though continual eating of bad food is not good for you, it doesn’t matter to your body.  It will keep signaling you to eat more until it gets the nutrients it needs.

As you can see your body doesn’t want to go on a diet.  It doesn’t know how to act on a diet and it will rebel every step of the way.

That is one of the reasons that dieting is simply too hard.  Stay tuned for the mental and spiritual sides of the equation tomorrow. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

I saw a headline in Health World a while back that caught my eye.  It said you could double the calories you burn when you exercise. 

As with most claims in the exercise and fitness worlds it doesn’t give you the whole truth. 

The article went on to mention that it was possible to double the amount of calories you burn when you exercise by adding aerobic exercise to your routine. 

It claimed that regular aerobic exercise will burn calories after you stop exercising by up to 8 hours afterwards. 

Somehow they interpreted that “fact” to mean that if you do aerobic exercise and burn 100 calories you will then burn an additional 100 calories after you stop doing the exercise. 

Unfortunately, they gave no proof of this.  Nor did they cite any research proving this. 

And there is a reason for this.  It just isn’t true. 

Pretty much the research shows that regular aerobic exercise does burn calories while you are doing it. 

And you will actually get into a fat burning stage after approximately 20 minutes. 

But, as soon as you stop the aerobic exercise that is pretty much it.  You get no or very little EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.   And certainly not 8 hours worth. 

You might have heard it called oxygen debt.   This is the debt that has to be repaid after intense exercise.  Note the term intense. 

That is the key.  Most people do not do intense aerobics. 

Go to any gym in the country and watch the people doing aerobics on all the different kinds of aerobic machines.  Watch people walking or jogging along the street.

That is what aerobics are for most.  A slow to medium paced workout. 

Very seldom to you see anyone doing sprints or running as hard as they can up 10 flights of stairs. 

I see people looking at me when I am on an exercise bike.  I pedal like a madman for 20, 30, 45 or even up to 75 seconds.  Then I relax and pedal slowly for 10 to 20 seconds. 

I keep doing that for 7 to 20 minutes depending on whether I have done a weight training workout prior to the “aerobics”.

But, you should see the looks I get.  It is almost funny.  I can just see their minds going, what in the hell is that guy doing. 

Well, I am burning fat. 

So in this case  adding high intensity exercise does indeed increase the after burn effect for up to 48 hours afterwards. 

Why is this?  Because low intensity to medium intensity exercise influences your hormones to burn sugars. 

High intensity exercise – even if you burn much less calories during the exercise time – influences your hormones to burn body fat. 

Big, big difference in your appearance.

So yes you can actually more than double the calories you burn over the long term.  But, you won’t be able to do it with low to moderate intensity aerobics.

We’ll talk more about hormones and how they influence your physique in coming posts.  Stay tuned. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

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