Pain + Stress = Weight Gain

Recently I suffered from a fairly serious injury in my pursuit to tryout for American Ninja Warrior.  I know the risks associated with some of these activities, but for me it is worth it.  Even so, I'm pretty bummed out that I have to back off from training for a bit due to the pain I am feeling.

So I figured I would turn my experience into a blog post since most people have suffered from chronic pain at some point in their life.  Whether it be from exercising too much or too hard, or possibly just from sitting at a desk all day, we tend to get pain that sticks around for a while.  But other than the pain we feel and the compensations that may develop, what other concerns are there?

Many of you are probably familiar with or at least heard of the hormone cortisol.  There are ads on with miracle products that can reduce your cortisol levels and burn unwanted belly fat.  Unfortunately these probably won't work.  I've never tried them so I can't say for certain but I would be willing to bet there is little to no effect from taking them.

Just in case you have never heard of cortisol or just aren't sure exactly what it does, here is a quick review.  When we experience stress in our life we will release hormones to react to the stressor placed on our body.   People will react to stress differently so depending on the person and the situation, different hormones will be released from one person to the next.  For example, if a person feels that they are in control of the stressor they may release norepinephrine (our fight hormone.)  If they feel out of control they may release epinephrine (our flight hormone.)  When the stress is prolonged or the individual feels defeated or helpless the end result is an increase in cortisol.

Cortisol has many functions in the body.  It takes protein from the body to be converted into energy during prolonged exercise or low carb diets, it moves fat from one area of the body to another, and it also regulates which type of substrate (fat, carbs, or protein) will be used for energy for the body.  The main reason most people have heard of cortisol is because cortisol can take fat from stores in the body and move it to the abdomen.  This is what you have heard in those commercials.  When cortisol increases there tends to be more fat storage in the stomach.

So where does pain come into all of this?  Well there are many forms of stress on the body.  Exercise is stress.  It can be good or bad stress depending on how it is implemented.  So yes how you exercise may make your stomach bigger.  Pain is another form of stress.  The body doesn't want to experience pain and it is trying to work hard to get rid of it.  When you have chronic pain you are essentially chronically stressed.  This means higher levels of cortisol.  There are numerous studies showing that those that are depress, in chronic neurological, or psychological pain have higher levels of cortisol.  When they receive treatment, they will experience a decrease in cortisol levels.

The bottom line is the body can react perfectly fine to stress but too much can lead to a lot of issues.  If you have chronic pain you really need to do something about it.  Just trying to push through may make it worse.  And you probably are making your fat loss goal harder and harder.  This doesn't mean you have to quit working out, but a solution should be found.  The underlying cause of the pain must be eliminated.

If you need help finding the cause of your pain so you can remove unwanted stress and break through your weight loss plateau please contact us.  We currently have openings on Friday mornings from 8-12pm to meet with one of our physical therapists.

Please call 858-755-5200 to schedule an appointment.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Components Of A Perfect Workout

Ok so there is probably no such thing as a perfect workout, but there are a few components that you should absolutely include in every routine.  When I design an exercise program, I simply follow a template.  The first step is to talk with a client to understand what their goals are and then assess them.  This gives me the necessary information to get started.

So how do you come up with your workout routine?  Do you just do a few random exercises you like at the gym, follow a program you found online or in a magazine, or maybe you don't workout at all.  Use this post to help organize an extremely effective routine.  I will even provide examples so you can start with this and modify as necessary.

Step 1:  Myofascial Release

First if you have stiff muscle tissue you won't be able to move properly.  You workout will be incredibly more effective if you start with a few minutes on a foam roller.  This will depend on where exactly you are tight, but it won't hurt to roll all over.  Here are a few common ones we use.

Calves
IT Band
Lats

Step 2:  Corrective Exercises

Once you worked on improve the quality of your muscle tissue you can start to perform exercises that may improve mobility or enhance your stability.  Again this is very specific to what your personal issues are but here are a few popular ones we use:

T Spine Rotation
Stride Stretch
Deep Squat Patterning

Step 3:  Core Exercises

Now that we improved movement we do our best to lock it in place with a few core stability exercises.  These are essentially exercises that attempt to make you keep a neutral spine while adding resistance or arm/leg movement.  Again here are some of our favorites:

Planks
Pallof Presses
Bird Dogs

Step 4:  Power Exercises

Power exercises are great for stimulating type II muscle fibers, increasing fat loss, and improving sport performance.  Some people feel that they don't knee this type of training, but I promise you everyone can benefit from it:

Stride Jumps
MB Slams-Please start with a nonbouncing ball first.

Step 5:  Resistance Training

Next the meat of the workout will contain the big movements with resistance.  Our two goals here are to improve lean muscle mass to rev up the metabolism and to burn calories.  Big movements are usually the best option here:

KB Goblet Squats
Push Ups
Walking Lunges
Inverted Rows

Step 6:  Energy Systems Development

This is just a fancy way of saying high intensity training to burn a ton of calories in a short time, improve conditioning, and increase metabolism over the next few hours.

Body Weight Complex

Step 7:  Recovery

Then finally you get to stretch and possibly foam roll again in a puddle of your own sweat.  Sounds amazing doesn't it?

Try putting these exercises together for one great workout.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Are You Carb Intolerant?

Carbs, Carbs, Carbs.   They are everywhere.  And if you listen to most people they are the reason you can't lose weight.  I have always been one to defend carbohydrates.  They are an amazing source of energy and provide many nutrients that our body needs.  I don't disagree that most people over-consume them though.  Personally I eat a lot of carbs.  At least 50% of my diet is made up of different types of carbs.  Why can I eat more carbs that you?  Well, there are probably a lot of reasons for this.  I may have more lean body mass and a higher metabolism, I may exercise more frequently and more intensely than you, or maybe I just eat them at a more appropriate time than you do.

There are probably many more reasons why some people eat carbs and have no problem maintaining a good weight and others just look at them and blow up.  Could it be a genetic issue?  Obviously genetics will always play an important role when looking at any diet.  The simple truth is that some nutritional plans would great for some and terrible for others.

A few recent studies have linked a gene that may result in a carb intolerance.  They are finding that those that are obese have less of an enzyme in your saliva that starts the digestion and breakdown of starch.  Those that have high amounts of this enzyme or gene that causes this tend to have a lower glycemic index for all carbs, tolerate glucose better, and tend to eat less.  Those that have a higher amount will have more issue with carbs.

If you think that you may be doomed with genes that cause obesity all is not lost though.   First you can see a doctor to find out if this is a problem.  Or you can just follow these simple rules when consuming carbs to be safe:

1. Eat slowly and chew thoroughly
2. Take a daily probiotic
3. Keep eating carbs but stick with fiber rich, nutrient dense ones like beans, legumes, unprocessed whole grains, and lots of fruits and veggies.

The bottom line is most people are looking for something to blame their weight gain or stalled weight loss on.  It is easy to just say that your genetics are screwing you.   There may be some truth to it.  But first look at the type and amount of carbs you eat throughout the day.  If that is not dialed in then it won't really matter what your genetics are.  Just follow the simple rules listed above if you think you may be carb intolerant.

Reference:  http://www.precisionnutrition.com/carbohydrate-tolerance-genes

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Simple Breathing Trick

We rarely think about it and most likely ignore it completely, but breathing is one of the most important parts of our exercise routine.  There are lots of techniques and theories on how to breath properly using your diaphragm and other deep core muscles.  While this is a discussion for another time, I wanted to share a simple trick to help improve your workouts.

How someone breathes tells you a lot about their situation.  Often in sports an athlete will look for his competitor to increase mouth and heavy chest breathing.  This is a sign of fatigue and the perfect time to strike.  Fast heavy breathing increases our sympathetic nervous system response (fight or flight response).  This is how we react to stress in our life, whether it be exercise or stress at work.  While at times it is important to increase this activity, other times we need to rest and recover.  If we are increasing respiration too often it can lead to reduced oxygen delivery, over training and excessive fatigue.

The trick is to control your breathing.  You can do this during your next cardio workout with cadence breathing.  Essentially just develop a rhythm in your breath.  For example, think about the last time you went on a run.  Most likely you can't even remember how you were breathing.  If you do, it was probably very quickly, via mouth breathing.  Next time you go on a run (or any cardio workout) try and time your breathing with your steps.  While everyone's stride is different try something like this.  If it doesn't work perfectly you can change the numbers to fit your style.  Try and take a deep inhale, through your nose only, for 3-4 foot contacts on the ground.  Then exhale through your mouth slowly for another 2-3 foot contacts.  Continue practicing this method.  You will notice you have better energy and more efficient running.   This will help you run further and faster.  All by just controlling your breathing.

It make takes some time to get use to it but be consistent.  I have been currently using this method to get ready for our Spartan run this weekend.  I am not a big fan of running but it is amazing how much easier it is when you have something to think about and distract you.  Give it a try and let me know how it works.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Random Nutrition Tips

I have probably stated this before, but I am pretty much a fitness nerd.  I can't read for pleasure anymore.  If I am going to read or listen to an audio book it has to be health related.  I do find pleasure in learning, but things change so often I need to do my best to stay on top of the latest research so I can provide the best service to my clients.

This week I was reading through the latest edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and came across a few good studies that I thought would be interesting for most people to hear about.  They aren't really related to each other, hence the title of this blog, Random Nutrition Tips.  While I would never put all my stock in just one study, it is worth interpreting the results and experiment on your own.
Here we go:

1.  Looking for a performance edge?

This study found that oral supplementation of Magnesium in elder women improved physical performance.  The main note that should be made here is that magnesium deficiency is associated with poor physical performance.  In this study those that had an intake below the RDA of magnesium, before the supplement, saw the best improvement.  This is probably true with 99% of the supplements out there.  If you are deficient in something you will see an improvement with supplements.  If you are not you probably won't.  So you can take the supplement, but really try and find foods high in the nutrients you are missing.  In this case try incorporating more dark leafy greens like spinach, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, brown rice, and avocados.

2.  Another reason to stop drinking soda.

Hopefully you are not drinking much soda for a variety of reasons.  But for postmenopausal women,

listen up closely.  This study found that for all types of sodas (regular, diet, caffeine free, non cola...) there is a significant increase risk of hip fractures.  There is already evidence that soda has a negative effect on bone health in children.  Looks like it may not be much better for adults either.

3.  Limit process read meat consumption.

There were actually two studies released in this issue on processed vs unprocessed red meat.  The first showed that those who consumed 5 or more servings a week had a 17% high rate of high blood pressure vs. those who consumed 1 or less.  There was no difference in blood pressure with those that consumed 5 or more or 1 or less of unprocessed red meet.

Also, those that consumed high amounts of processed red meet where associated with a shorter life span.  Consumption of non processed red meat was not associated with a shorter life span.

Unfortunately I was only to read the abstracts for these articles and can't be sure what they mean exactly by processed and unprocessed.  I'm assuming they mean organic, GMO, and grass fed beef though.

4.  Why you hit plateaus.

And finally, this last study looked at a possible reason why we hit early weight loss plateaus.  While I think there are a variety of reasons you would hit one, here is a good explanation.  Many people associated a plateau due to a slowed metabolism as a result of calorie reduction.  This can be true and may slow down weight loss for some.  According to this study, they found that a more likely cause is lower dietary adherence.  This just makes sense.  It is easy to stick with a diet when you first start and you usually see good results.  Then you slack and start to cheat, but expect the same results you were seeing before.  It just won't happen.

Well there are some random tips for you to work on.  Good luck and feel free to comment.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

You Won't Lose Weight Tomorrow

There is a business philosophy that I have read about in the past, and I try and implement as much as possible.  The saying goes, "You get paid for done."  Sounds pretty simple.  You can have the most amazing idea in the world, but as long as it is in your head you will never see any profit from it.  And there is more likely a chance someone else will beat you to it.  You might remember this Go Daddy Commercial:  http://youtu.be/UDfVZgtl2zM

This may seem unrelated to weight loss, but the most common excuse we hear from those that are not successful with a weight loss program is that now is not the best time or that they will get started tomorrow or next week or January.....We hear it over and over.  Whenever a prospective client walks into the studio, sees what we have to offer, and then says, "Let me think about it." we know that 95% of the time we will never see that person again and they probably will not start a fitness program any time soon.

Now someone could come in and say I don't like this style of training, it's not in my budget, or maybe they just don't like me.   IF these are truly the case there is a chance they will find another type of workout that will work better for their needs and that is fine.  But if you need to think about implementing something you just aren't ready to do it and it is not a high enough priority in your mind.

One thing I am positive of is there is never a perfect time for anything.  Most people like to procrastinate and avoid what they aren't looking forward to doing.  I think many understand that losing weight can be a challenge.  If it is hard they might keep pushing it further down the list of things they need to get done.  Enough things will pile up in front of it and you will have forgotten it was even something you were considering.

Do not fall into the trap of tomorrow.  Tomorrow is a new day and it sounds like the best time to start fresh.  But don't give up on right now.  It is easy to think about all the good things you will implement tomorrow, but more than likely you won't get to them.

Here is a personal example.  I have been really struggling to get my daily water requirements in each day.  Things get in the way and I don't remember or try to get it done.  Every day I would tell myself that I will do better tomorrow.  Then the same things would get in the way and nothing would change.  I had the right intention but saw no progress.  I had to keep it fresh in my mind.  So when I woke up this morning I said to Emily I will drink enough water today.  Telling someone will make me more accountable and I started the day with a simple goal that I know I can achieve.  It is 1:30pm as I right this and I have already drank 60oz of water.  Only 30oz more to go.

If you need help ask for it.  But do this to help yourself.  Right down what your fitness or wellness goal is.  Then decide what are you not currently doing that would help get your closer to that goal.  Start TODAY.  Don't wait for tomorrow.  Even if it is a small step, do it now.  You are much  more likely to follow through versus waiting for tomorrow.

So you get paid for done.  Nothing will ever happen unless you make it happen.

Have a great week and weekend.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Should You Throw Away Your Scale?

Recently we did a poll on our Facebook page on how much weight I would gain on a week vacation at an all inclusive resort.  I did this poll for a few reasons.  One of the main ones was to show our clients and subscribers that we are human.  Just because I am a trainer and push my clients to follow a healthy nutrition program, doesn't mean there aren't times that we blow it and eat bad foods and drink alcohol.

I personally hate eating around other trainers who look down on anyone who eats what they consider bad foods like bread or gluten or whatever else they seem to have a problem with.  I just can't live that way.  I follow a nutrition diet of lean proteins, a variety of fruits and veggies, with starchy carbs in moderation.  Most of the time this is what I do.  But 10-20% of the time I will eat whatever I want and not feel bad about it.  This is a lifestyle that works for my and I can live with.

So I decided to eat and drink whatever I wanted for a week and see what kind of effect it would have on my weight.  Well 5 days into the vacation I was up 5lbs.  I figured at this point I would probably gain around 8lbs in the week.  Well then Thursday hit.  I will spare you the details, but I ate or drank something that my digestive tract wanted to get rid of immediately.  I pretty much could not stray too far from a toilet for the last two days of our trip.  Needless to say my weight started to drop back down.  After was all said and done I finished up 2.4lbs.  Most people might look at this and say, "Great! I didn't gain too much weight on my vacation."  And that may be true.  But the scale doesn't tell you everything.

I also measured my body fat % before and after.  Before the trip I was 12.8%.  When I got back I was at 14.8%.  Now there is always room for error with the type of testing I used but let's say these number are pretty accurate.  What this means is that before the trip I had 22.9lbs of fat on me.  After the trip I had 26.9lbs of fat.  So the scale said I gained 2.4lbs but I really gained 4lbs of fat.  The reason the scale didn't go up is most likely because I lost some muscle mass from lack of exercise or more likely water weight due to mi estomago issues.  A 2.4lb gain on the scale may not seem to be that bad, but 4lbs of fat is.  This took me a week to gain and will like take a month to get off.

So the purpose of this post was to remind you that you can use the scale to help guide you along the way, but it should not be your primary indicator of your success.  You weight can go up for a lot of reason other than fat gain and the scale can go down for many reason other than fat loss.  But just remember the goal is fat loss not weight loss.  Weighing in is only part of your assessment.  Make sure you are getting your body fat tested or at least circumference measurements so you know exactly how your body is changing.  If you restrict your calories on a diet you will lose fat, but are you losing muscle, bone, water weight, and organ tissue as well.  The goal of a weight management program is to lose primarily fat mass while maintain or increasing lean body mass.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Is Breakfast The Most Important Meal of The Day?

We have all heard it before.  I have probably said it at some point.  Your mom probably told you when you were a kid.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  We have heard this for years.  There seemed to be tons of reason why you needed to eat a good breakfast to get your day going.  Is this 100% true though?  It may not be as clear as you think.

When it comes to nutrition it seems that we are always changing what we "know."  However, there is so many things to consider it is probably impossible to know the entire truth.  But I have recently come across a few studies that show an interesting perspective, that may question what we thought we knew about eating breakfast.

I'm sure you have heard that you need to eat breakfast in order to lose weight because it will give your metabolism a kick start.  A brand new study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that this really isn't the case.  In this study they measured metabolic rate with and without breakfast.  They found that there was no significant increase in metabolism when breakfast was consumed.  One note we should make is this study was performed on already lean individuals.

The next study looked that those who were obese and how breakfast consumption helped with weight loss.  They divided individuals up into breakfast eaters and breakfast skippers.  After the duration of the study there was no difference in weight loss between groups.

So that's two studies showing that maybe it isn't so important.  But if we look at the National Weight Control Registry studies we see some interesting numbers.  The NWCR is composed of individuals who have lost on average 66lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years.  So these individuals are having successful weight loss and keeping it off.  Studying this group might give us insight to what works and what doesn't.  Out of this group 78% eat breakfast regularly.  While some do lose weight without eating breakfast they are in the minority here.

And yet a final study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at what if you just change your breakfast behavior.  For this they divided participants into four groups.  One group was those that normally ate breakfast and continued to eat breakfast, the next normally ate breakfast and stopped, the third did not normally eat breakfast and continued to skip it, and finally a group that normally did not eat breakfast and did eat it during the study.  Here they found the two groups that lost the most weight were the ones that changed their behavior.  So the group that usually ate breakfast and stopped lost more weight and the group that didn't normally eat breakfast and started lost more weight.

So I'm sure I completely confused you with these findings.  But the truth is the answer to weight loss probably isn't as simple as just eating breakfast.  This might be one small change that might help some and may not have much of an effect on others.  I personally would recommend eating breakfast, especially if you exercise in the morning, but for some people this will not necessarily mean more weight loss.  The key is though that eating breakfast won't make you gain weight with all else being equal.  So if you feel better when you eat breakfast keep doing it.  If you don't like eating right away and can't seem to eat breakfast, you can still have a successful weight loss program.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

How To Really Make A Lifestyle Change

When most people think of the job of a personal trainer, they usually assume it is someone who will help you learn or show you how to exercise properly and teach you nutritional guidelines to follow.  While those are very true characteristics of a personal trainer, a good one should be doing much more.  I'm sure you have heard of the phrase, "make a lifestyle change for successful weight management."  We hear this all the time but how can it be accomplished?

Our goal as fitness professionals at SDPT is to try and accomplish this.  We don't simply want to write and exercise program and a few nutritional tips.  Our real purpose is to educate you on how you can live the healthiest lifestyle that you see fit.   While everyone is looking for the quick fix, this usually leads to short term and limited results.  When a true plan is developed and maintained we see the best results possible.

Here are some pointers on how to integrate a new habit into your lifestyle.  This ideas are from the book, "The Power of Less."

1. For the next 30 days select one and only one habit that you think would make the biggest impact in your life.  Focus all of your effort on this one habit.  This could be keeping a food log, drinking more water, starting an exercise program, stretching....anything that will impact your life more positively.  Your goal is to only attempt to achieve this one new habit for one month.  When you get too ambitious, things start to fall apart.  We see it all the time.  A client who never has worked out before wants to work with a trainer 3 times a week, take a yoga class, a spin class, start a super restrictive diet plan, and train for a marathon.  Individually these are all great goals but it will be too overwhelming and most likely none of them will be achieved.  
2. Write down your specific goal and your plan of action.  This is where a trainer can be extremely useful helping you design an effective plan that you can simply follow to see results.  But if you can't hire a professional at least do research and come up with a plan that you can put into place.  If things come up you can alter the plan if necessary but stick with it as best as you can.  
3. Post your goal publicly.  Those that try things on there own with no accountability are at a huge risk of failure.  Tell people what you are doing and why you are doing it.  If you don't want everyone to know then don't blast it out on facebook, but make sure a few people know what you are doing and ask for their help.  If they are true friends they will do anything to help you succeed.  If they get in your way, it might be time to spend as little time as possible with those people.  
4. Continually reassess and evaluate your progress.  After a few days look at your progress and see how you are doing.  If you have fallen off track, get right back on.  This is where your support group comes in.  Inform them of your progress and ask them to check on you regularly.  You might even find out that a friend or coworker has a similar goal and starts it with you.  

Once you have successful integrated that new habit you can decide if another habit should be started or you continue to work on the one.  It is amazing how much of a difference one simple change can make in the long term.  

Please feel free to contact us if you need any help with your plan.  

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

Are you working out too much?

Most people assume more is always better with exercise.  But there is a point when you might be working out too much and getting worse results.  The first question you should ask about an exercise program you are currently doing is "Are you getting results still?"  If the answer is no you might think the solution is to workout more.  While for some people this may be the case but not always.  There are two reasons why you should not increase how much you are working out.

The first one is simple.  You might be overtraining.  Overtraining leads to less results and more injuries.  Remember that exercise is stress.  It is a good form of stress on the body but it is still stress nonetheless.  Too much is bad, regardless if it is good or bad stress.  Remember that when you workout you are actually getting weaker.  You are breaking your body down so it will redevelop stronger and able to handle the increase workload.  This is true for cardio or strength training.  Just think if you are strong before you go into a workout or after.  You will definitely be stronger before the workout.

The key is properly recovering after the workout is over.  If you are training as hard as you can every time you exercise you might be overtraining.  Here are some symptoms:

1. Decrease in exercise performance
2. Chronic fatigue
3. Loss of muscle mass
4. Increase number of infections or illness
5. Psychological staleness or loss of motivation
6. Elevated resting heart rate

These are some of the more common signs of overtraining.  If you feel this might be what you are suffering from it is ideal to take a week or so off.  This doesn't mean you can't exercise at all but you just want to back off the intensity and frequency.  Once you feel better you can resume your normal routine.  It is a good idea to plan a lighter week every 6-8 weeks in order to prevent overtraining, especially if you are working out hard.  

On top of overtraining there is another reason you need to watch how much you are working out.  This is critical if you are training to lose weight.  If you workout too hard too after you may actually decrease your activity for the rest of the day.  Studies are showing that when individuals increase the amount they workout, they actually move less for the rest of the day.  So they might burn more calories during a workout, but they burn much less for the rest of the day.  This means you don't burn as much as you think you are and will not see the weight loss that you want.  

To solve this problem, just try and pay attention to your energy levels throughout the day when you workout.  If you feel tired and like you can't move, you might be training too much.  An exercise program should give you more energy, not take it away.  You could always track your movement with a pedometer or a fitbit to make sure you keeping up the same activity levels.  

So see if you might be working out too much.  I generally recommend 2-3 days of cardio and 2-3 days of strength training.  You should have 1-2 days of recovery each week though to allow you to keep up the intensity each workout.  

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

The Best Glute Exercise

While at the gym recently I had two guys stop me and ask what I was doing.  The reason was is because I was performing a glute exercise you typically don't see most people doing.  This is a shame for two reasons.  First off, most people have weak glutes which leads to a number of other problems including back and knee pain.  Secondly, this exercise is just about of the best for targeting the glutes.  If you think your backside needs some extra attention try the barbell hip thrust.

To perform this exercise place a padding on a barbell.  You can start from the floor or have your shoulders on the bench as seen above.  Place the barbell on your hips in a comfortable position.  Brace your abdominals so you have no movement in the lumbar spine.  The key to this exercise is to make sure all movement is from the hips.  Bend the hips to reach your butt to the floor.  Contract your glutes as you raise as high as you can so your torso is level with the bench and repeat.  Try perform 3 sets of 12-15 reps.

If this exercise scares you, here is another option that is less intimidating, but still great for activating the glutes:

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

Read This Before You Try Interval Training

If you read my last blog post or have followed our postings in the past, you know how big of a fan we are of high intensity workouts like interval training.  These are the best workouts for fat loss and for performance (usually), so we recommend them often.  But after making my last post which I got a great response from I almost wish I made this post first.

Interval training trumps slower, lower intensity training for fat burning, hands down.  It just isn't close.  I can list tons of research on the topic, which I have done on many blog post already.  I think most people are starting to realize how important an interval workout is for your weight management program.  But is it necessarily right for you?  You can make a ton of money investing in certain stocks.  If you don't know the right things to invest in you can lose everything.  Interval training when you aren't ready or aren't performing it properly can have a similar effect.

First, let's see if you should even be attempting interval training.  One drawback of interval training is it increases the risk of injury and it increases the risk of dropout.  As good as this type of workout is you can get hurt doing it which will most likely cause you to quit, or you will not like it because it is too hard, and quit.  Interval training is hard.  That is why it works so well.  The higher the intensity the higher the fat burning ability of the workout.  Therefore this is not a workout for beginners.  Here is a checklist to run through to see if you are ready for interval training:

1. You have no current injuries.
2. You have been consistently training for 3-6 months.
3. You have no previous medical condition that would be contraindicated for intense exercise.
4. You are properly recovering from workouts and do not constantly feel sore.
5. You have the drive and motivation to push yourself harder than you feel comfortable with.
6. You can perform cardio exercise at an intensity at or above your lactate threshold for around 5-10 minutes.

Most of this points are fairly simple to evaluate.  Just answer with an honest yes or no.  The last point may not make sense to you.  Lactate threshold is a term where lactate is accumulating in the blood.  It means you are at a high intensity and you cannot clear lactate from the blood quick enough.  You really do not need to understand this point to perform interval training but you do need to know how intense this is.  There is a simple test you can perform.  You first need to determine where you threshold is.  To do so pick a form a exercise and start at a slow pace to warm up.  We will use the talk test to determine when you have reach your approximate threshold.  Gradually increase the resistance or speed every 2 minutes.  Each time you increase try recited the alphabet, sing a song you know, or just talk to someone.  Continue to do so until you notice it is uncomfortable to talk and you cannot do so without stopping every few seconds to breath.  When you have reach this uncomfortable level of talking you are at an intensity around your threshold.  See if you can maintain this for around 5 minutes.  If you can you are conditioned enough for intervals and you are prepared to hit the intensity necessary for this type of training.  

This intensity you have found should be remembered.  Mark down what you heart rate was so you know approximately how high you have to get it for interval training.  This level must be reached and exceeded in order to successfully perform high intensity interval training.  You will notice that as you improve you will have to work harder to reach the same heart rate level first when you first started.  This means you will continue to progress and make the exercise more challenge to continue to receive benefit.  

If you ever need help finding your threshold or seeing if you are ready for interval training, just make an appointment with one of our trainers to help you out.  

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

Why Cheetahs Can Eat So Much.

I know this title might seem somewhat off, but a recent trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park further solidified my thoughts on the best way to burn off fat.  While taking the tram ride, I have to say we had one of the best tour guides I have ever had experienced there.  He was remarking on all sorts of random facts on the different animal and plant life at the park.  For example did you know that the Ruppells Vulture is the highest flying bird at 37,000ft and has never been diagnosed with cancer?  Pretty cool.

But I thought even more relevant to readers of this blog is the fact that cheetahs can eat just as much food as lions do.  Even though lions greatly outsize the cheetah, they still eat about the same amount of food per day, yet the cheetah is very lean.  Why is this?  The cheetah has a very fast metabolism.

Now it is important to recognize that a cheetah and human's physiology will be different, but still an interesting point.  The reason the cheetah's metabolism is so high is because they run at such great speeds.  After hearing this I immediately thought of my clients. This is exactly what I try and tell individuals trying to lose weight.  Look for ways to speed up your metabolism, which is most likely slowed due to poor dieting over the years.  Cheetahs run incredibly fast to catch their foods.  This is such a shock to their bodies that the response is increased metabolism to keep up.  We can do that too.

On a side note, when you drop your calories for long periods of time, such as in most diet programs, the metabolism will react by slowing down to attempt to match the calories coming in.  If this is maintained the metabolism will continue to slow.  Then once off the diet and you start eating more again, your metabolism will gradually increase but not at the rate it slowed.  This means that you now start gaining weight faster than you previously had.

So back to boosting your metabolism.  Even though cheetahs and humans are different they both can have a similar result to moving fast.  When humans exercise at high intensities, over time it will increase your metabolism.  This can be done with cardio training, resistance training, or some combination of each.  This is the program that we try to reinforce at SDPT.  Burn significant calories during the workout and increase metabolism to fight the effects of a decrease in daily calories.  Without doing this you will lose weight initially but find it harder to lose weight down the road.

Now that you hopefully see the importance of higher intensity exercise let's put it into practice.  So what is high intensity training mean?  If we are looking at cardio training the goal is to reach 85% of your max heart rate.  You can use a heart rate monitor for this or you can estimate.  If you scale your intensity based a 1-10 you would want to be around an 8.  This is much harder than most people want to workout.  By hitting these intensities you will significantly burn more calories and boost your metabolism.

I recently came across a study on resistance training and metabolism.  Researchers compared traditional weight training vs. high intensity weight training.  Traditional training is perform an exercise, resting, and repeating.  High intensity training referred to performing a heavy lift for 6 reps, resting 20 seconds, repeat as many reps as possible, rest 20 seconds, repeat as many reps as possible.  This was performed with fewer exercises and fewer reps than the traditional training group.  They found that the high intensity group increase their post workout metabolism by 22.6% which was 4 times as much as the traditional group.  This equalled an extra 432 calories burned the following 22 hours after the workout.  Not bad!

When you are putting together your workout program try high intensities when appropriate.  You should not be a beginner attempting this however.  Work on general conditioning and endurance first and then try high intensities.  To change it up this week try one H.I.I.T cardio workout and one strength training workout.  For your cardio warm up for 5-10 minutes with your favorite type of cardio.  Then perform 10 sixty second bursts with 2-3 minutes of light recovery.  For your strength training try performing a circuit of 6-10 exercises using weights that you can only perform 6-8 reps of.  I promise you will notice a huge difference if you have not been working out this way.

You Stay Healthy San Diego!

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

6 Tips For Blasting Belly Fat

While everyone has their own unique problem areas when it comes to excess fat storage on the body, most people are always concerned with how to drop extra weight around the midsection.  And for good reason too.  While most people just don't like how it looks, there is an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and early mortality with an increase in waist size due to extra fat stored in the midsection.

What can be done about this common problem?  While I wish I could give you 1 simple solution, it just is not that easy.  There most likely is not just one reason this is occurring.  But there are a few different tricks you can use to help fight this problem.  And I can assure you, none of the tricks involves abdominal exercise.  While there is nothing wrong with doing abdominal exercises they just are not very effective for burning fat in your stomach.  They do increase strength and endurance, so I still recommend you perform these types of exercises, but do not rely on them to give you a six pack alone.  In fact, did you know it would take over 15,000 sit ups to burn one pound of fat.  Good luck with that if you want to try it.

Instead try following these 6 Tricks to fight off belly fat:

1.  Exercise.

I know it might sound too simple, but it is true.  both cardio training and resistance training have been shown to decrease the size of abdominal fat cells.  Diet alone has not been shown to do this.  If there is one type of exercise you enjoy more you should focus more on that type of training, but make sure you include both.  Cardio training help burn stomach fat during the workout, while resistance training build lean muscle mass which burns stomach fat more throughout the day after your workout.  The combination is the best way to go.  Try to perform activities that involve bigger more total body movements, opposed to single muscle type exercises.

2.  Perform High Intensity exercise.

When compared to low intensity exercise, high intensity exercise burns significantly more abdominal fat.  If you are a beginner to exercise, than you will want to hold off on this.  If you have been training for a while try increasing your intensity with resistance training or H.I.I.T.  For resistance training try performing lower rep higher weight workouts.  I know this might sound backwards to what you have heard before but it is true.  This type of high intensity workout is great for burning fat.  Especially if you do not normally do this.  If you want to increase your cardio intensity, try intervals.  You will perform harder work for shorter time (1-3 minutes) and then slow down for a few minutes to recover, and repeat.  Just make sure you are getting to high enough intensities.  If I was standing next to you during your workout, you should not be able to talk to me very easily.

3.  Find Ways To Manage Stress.

Stress is inevitable.  At some point in your day you will have to deal with certain stressors.  How you handle this can influence your belly fat.  Cortisol, one of our stress hormones, is released in response to stress.  While we need this hormone for normal function, if we are under heavy stress for long periods of time this can lead to the storage of fat in the stomach.  To prevent this find ways to cope with stress when it comes your way.  We will never be able to limit it, but managing it will go a long way.  Use exercise as a stress release, or yoga, or meditation.  There are a number of ways you can deal with stress.  Realize when you are under stress and find ways to manage it.

4.  Increase Your Fiber.

There are a few dietary changes you can make to help reduce abdominal fat and there are many heath benefits from eating enough fiber.  Not only will these foods tend to be more filling and usually make you eat less throughout the day, diets high in fiber might help reduce belly fat.  One study showed that a diet of 10g of fiber a day, with no other dietary changes lead to less development of stomach fat.  Most likely you would want to get more than 10g but this is a good start.

5.  Drink Green Tea Everyday.

I have written post in the past about the health benefits of green tea.  If you are a heavy coffee drinker you might want to think about switching for a number of reasons.  But in this case those that drink green tea regularly, with catechins (antioxidants found in green tea), tend to lose more belly fat than those who do not.

6.  Watch Fat Intake But Don't Avoid It.

Fat has been getting a bad rap for years.  When you go down the health food aisle at the grocery store you will see low fat items everywhere.  Are these really healthy though?  While overconsumption of fats, especially saturated fats can lead to problems, we still need to consume fat in our diets.  Research is finding that overconsumption of saturated fats can lead to excess belly fat, while the right amount of unsaturated fats can help prevent it.  Try adding avocado, sunflower oil, and pine nuts to your weekly grocery list.

I hope this helps you battle the bulge.  Feel free to comment below with questions or other tips for our readers.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

Cardio Or Strength Training For Weight Loss

I know I have written about this topic in the past, but it is something that continues to come up with clients.  Everyone is looking for the best and fastest way to drop fat.  Here are a few of my insights into the topic.

First off you can lose weight with either.  Many people have tried it and seen some success with one or the other.  Make sure you realize if you are just losing weight or if you are really losing fat.  That is our main concern.  The scale only tells you part of the story.  If you weight stays the same or goes up, but you can fit into skinny jeans again, then who cares what the scale says?

With our training programs at San Diego Premier Training we always strive to include both strength training and cardio training in any weight loss program.  This just seems to be the best method.  One may be better than the other but really they both offer benefits that the other may not do as well.

Cardio training will burn fat, build endurance, increase your energy throughout the day, and it is incredibly easy to implement.  Strength training has the benefit of preserving or possibly building lean muscle mass which will increase metabolism to help burn even more calories throughout the day.

When designing an exercise program I want to look at what activities will preserve lean muscle tissue if someone is reducing calories, what activities burn calories during the workout, and what activities burn calories after the workout is completed.  Depending on how you perform each, both strength and cardio training can accomplish this.

The real answer is neither is necessarily better.  They are both just necessary for the most successful program.  I like this analogy to explain it.  If you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you need bread, PB, and Jelly.  If you only have PB and bread you can still make a sandwich but it is not a PB and J.  It will still satisfy your hunger levels, but it wasn't exactly what you wanted.

So if you are looking for an exercise program that burns fat but leaves muscle so you get a more toned physique, you have to perform both.  Now there are two things to consider here.  First off, you can exercise too much.  There are studies that show that women who worked about more days per week actually had less weight loss results.  I know that may not sound true, but it is.  Some people workout so much they do not give themselves a chance to recover properly which can hinder results.  Also they may be too tired the rest of the day to move as much as they normally would.  Depending on the type of exercise you need to be careful of this.  If you like to exercise at higher intensities you should workout less days per week.  If you workout at lower intensities, than you can workout more.  It is usually best for some type of combo.  I usually recommend 5 days a week of exercise that includes both strength and cardio.  Now our second thing to consider is should you do more strength, more cardio, or an equal amount.  Again this will depend on you.  Honestly I would spend more time performing an exercise that you enjoy doing.  You will be more likely to stick with it.  If you like cardio, do it more often but do not neglect your strength training.  And visa versa.

That really is the secret formula.  Find the right combination of strength and cardio that fits your likes.  A good program should include metabolically stimulating strength training, high intensity cardio training, low intensity cardio training, and a solid diet plan.  It sounds pretty simple but until you implement it you won't see the results you are looking for.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
Carlsbad Personal Training

What Is A Healthy Meal?

I know the title of this post sounds silly.  We all know what healthy is right?  When you see a meal you will just know if it is healthy or not.  Ok you might not know every ingredient or how it was prepared, but you would think we could look at a meal and say this is healthy or this is not healthy.

The problem is depending on who you talk to, there are inconsistencies with what "healthy" is.  Let's look at my breakfast this morning.  I had 6 whole eggs, kale, mushrooms, tomatoes, cooked as a scramble with coconut oil.  I also had two pieces of whole wheat toast with a little butter and jelly.  This is actually what I ate.  Well, Davis had some too, but I ate most of it.  So is this a healthy meal?  Well if you talk to a vegan, then no this is not healthy.  If you talk to someone who is anti-gluten then again I'm eating an unhealthy meal.  How about the 6 whole eggs?  Many will say this is unhealthy too.  And butter?  What was I thinking?

So how do we tell if a meal is healthy?  This is harder than it sounds.  This is why nutrition is such a complex topic.  There are so many unknowns (even though most are convinced they know everything) so it is hard to make a healthy decision.  I have always been a middle of the road fitness coach.  Maybe I'm more boring, but until I'm definitely proven wrong I will be stubborn here.  You will love this next point.  There really are no bad or unhealthy foods.  The problem arises when we consume too much of certain foods.

I sent an article out in our newsletter a few weeks ago on detoxes and cleanses.  One point was made that if you consume enough bok choy it can be toxic.  Does that mean bok choy is unhealthy?  Of course not.  But if that was all you ate all day, then yes you will have problems.  Instead of thinking of good vs. bad or healthy vs unhealthy, think if you have meet your limit for certain foods.

Start with your macronutrients.  These are your fats, carbs, and proteins.  You may have to play around with this some depending on what your fitness goal is, but you should have an idea of what much of each you should be consuming.  For example, if you are trying to lose weight you may want to try eating 40% of your diet from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fat.  Once you have gotten your macronutrient ratios correct, then you can look at micronutrients.  These are things like vitamins and minerals.  If you are following certain diets you may be deficient in certain micronutrients, and over consuming others.  Then you will want to focus on foods higher in the micronutrients you are missing.

And finally we want to see how you are feeling after consumption of certain foods.  If you ate the same breakfast I had this morning and felt great, then this may be a good breakfast choice for you.  If you felt terrible, then maybe there is something you should be avoiding like gluten or eggs.  But you can't say something is definitely healthy or unhealthy just by looking at the meal and nothing else.

Hopefully this changed your perspective a bit on how you eat.  Here is a "healthy" recipe that Emily and I came across.  See if it fits your healthy nutritional habits.

Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Goat Cheese Quesadilla:

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 cup onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup salsa, your choice of heat
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (19 ounce) can black beans, undrained
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas

Directions:
1
Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic, and saute for 3 minutes.
2
Stir in 1/2 cup salsa, cumin, and beans, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes or until thick.
3
Mash the bean mixture slightly with a potato masher.
4
Remove from heat; stir in the cilantro and goat cheese.
5
Spread the bean mixture evenly over 4 tortillas; top each with 1 tortilla, pressing gently.
6
Heat 1/4 teaspoon olive oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 quesadilla, and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Repeat the procedure with the remaining olive oil and quesadillas.
7
Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges. Serve with fat-free sour cream and 1/2 cup salsa.


You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

Fix Knee Pain For Running, Probiotics, & Diet Deficiencies.

Sorry for the long title to this blog post.  Unfortunately I was very creative today while writing this.  But I did have a few random things I wanted to post for our readers.  I wasn't sure each one would be enough for a post of its own, but hopefully you can get some good information from these topics.

Quick Fix For Runners With Knee Pain:



First up is a simple fix for those who experience knee pain while running.  If you are a serious runner or recreational runner, there is a good chance that you have had knee problems at some point. You may even be still dealing with this problem.  Now this pain may be coming from a number of different issues from your sneakers, muscle imbalances, improper gait pattern, orthopedic issues, and many other possible causes.  If this pain has been chronic, I always recommend getting it checked out.  A medical professional will be much better at diagnosing your problem than a blog post can.

That being said it won't hurt to try this one simple thing.  Try increasing your step rate or step frequency.  A study from Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, showed that when step rate is increased in will decrease the forces placed on the knee.  There was also less forces placed on the muscles as well, which may reduce risk of injury to the muscles involved in running like the hamstrings, quads, and calves.  So if you are trying to run faster take shorter, quicker steps instead of longer ones.

Probiotics To Treat Fatty Liver Disease:

I'm sure you have heard at least a minimal amount of probiotics.  Probiotics are microorganisms that help improve the health of their host.  We essentially have good and bad bacteria in our digestive tract.  Probiotics help improve the balance of our intestinal micro flora. There are many potential benefits of taking probiotics including better weight management, improve immune function, relieving constipation, improving digestion, increasing nutrient absorption, and now helping with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  I wrote a blog post in the past about this condition that increases your risk of obesity and type II diabetes.  You can read more about it here:  http://premiertraining.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-your-liver-making-you-fat.html.  To sum it up, our liver helps metabolize carbs, fats, and proteins.  When it gets overworked it will get backed up and develop fat deposits.  This will result in slowing down metabolism and reducing insulin sensitivity.

By increasing your probiotic consumption you may be able to help improve this.  There is promising evidence showing that taking probiotics through foods or supplements help with fatty liver disease, reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome, and increases insulin sensitivity.

You can get probiotics in fermented foods with live active cultures like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kefir.  If you don't like those types of foods you can also take a probiotic supplement.  Here is one that we recommend and take ourselves.

Is Your Diet Deficient?:

Often when we are trying to lose weight we get caught up in calories and nothing else seems to matter.  We may pay attention to macronutrients (fats, carbs, proteins), but is that enough?  We often forget about micronutrients and how they help our body function better.  Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals that we must have in order to live, workout, or do anything to our full potential.  When you are deficient in certain vitamins it will lead to a long list of health issues.

If you are currently on a diet or have dieted in the past, there is a pretty good chance that you are deficient somewhere.  Here are four popular diets and how they are deficient (courtesy of aarr):

1. The Mediterranean-type diet is 55% sufficient providing 100% of the recommended levels of 15 our of 27 essential micronutrients.
2. Low fat diets (DASH) was 51% sufficient providing 100% of the recommended levels of 14 out of the 27 essential micronutrients.
3. Low carb (Atkins) was 44% sufficient providing 100% of the recommended levels of 12 out of the 27 essential micronutrients.
4. Low carb (The South Beach Diet) was 22% sufficient providing 100% of the recommended levels of 6 our of the 27 essential micronutrients. 

So the best option was still barely half way to completely sufficient.  So using whole foods sources all four diet programs failed to get all proper levels of essential micronutrients.  Six micronutrients were consistently low or nonexistent in all four diets.  These included biotin, vitamin D, vitamin E, chromium, iodine, and molybdenum.  While you may lose weight on these popular diets, you might be damaging your health in the process.  

No diet will be able to hit 100% of all essential micronutrients without consuming a very high calorie number so vitamin and mineral supplementation may be a good option.  If you do not want to a multi-vitamin, then it is at least a good idea to take these six previously mentioned micronutrients that are lacking in most weight loss diets.  Or you can examine your current diet and find out where you are deficient.  This will take some time and effort though.  Here is a multivitamin that we current recommend and take ourselves.

Our Spartan Run

You may have heard of the obstacle course races out there that are becoming so popular.  I'm not much of a runner and really never plan on being one, but I don't mind doing the occasionally 5K/10K.  I have done a few obstacle courses in the past, but not since the birth of the Spartan Run, Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash, and other crazy races.

The opportunity came up to give the Spartan Run a try, so Emily and I decided to give it a shot.  I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this at all.  Partially due to that fact that I ran only 1 day to train for this race.  But also, I was not looking forward to getting dirty and muddy.  I guess I am just a pretty boy and don't want to get my hands dirty.

I have to admit though it was pretty fun.  I don't enjoy just running, but it was fun to break it up with a few obstacles.  The challenges were hard but not unbearable.  There were only two obstacles that I failed to complete and one that Emily and I decided to skip since the wait was so long for it.  So as penalty we had to perform 80 burpees.  I really don't mind burpees but 80 is pretty much ridiculous.

The race included obstacles like running through muddy water, jumping over/under walls, flipping tires, carrying sand bags up hills, rock climbing-like walls, crawling through mud under barbed wire, rope pulls, rope climbs, spear throws, and probably a few more that I can't remember.  Oh and of course climbing over mud hills and sliding into pools of freezing cold, muddy water.  At the end of the hills you then have to completely submerge under a wall, just to make sure you got muddy from head-to-toe.

It sounds as crazy as it was, but we would both most likely do it again.  It definitely beats the average 5K run.  Below are some pics of us going through a few of the obstacles.

If you ever want to try one out let us know.  I'm sure we can be easily convinced.  

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training