1. Chill out! Stress of any kind - emotional, physical, nutritional or mental - results in high stress hormone (cortisol) levels. Cortisol stores fat around your middle, ruining any chances of seeing a toned tummy anytime soon. The remedy: aim to be asleep by 10:30pm, and make sure you get some regular quiet time – yoga and meditation are both great, the herb Rhodiola Rosea can also help
2. Keep exercise regular, short, and hard. Long duration exercise isn’t just ineffective, it also releases more stress hormones into your blood. Keep your workouts short, high intensity, and resistance exercise based
3. To crunch or not to crunch? You’ve probably already got a six pack, it’s just hiding. Pumping 100 sit ups out every day is only going to give you bad posture and back pain later in life, but won’t burn fat around your middle. Leave them out, or see our FREE Sexy Stomach Workout on how to incorporate them properly
4. Great Abs Are Made In The Kitchen: Hidden intolerances and yeast (candida) overgrowth can cause abdominal inflammation and bloating. Following our 21 Day Elimination Diet, killing the sugar and starchy carbs, taking prebiotics, a high strength probiotic, and some kyolic garlic extract, can all work wonders
5.Get our FREE Sexy Stomach Workout now!
Here's to your new, lovely lookin' flat stomach!
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Spartan Workout
Want to test your level of conditioning? I was recently sent this Spartan inspired workout from a fellow trainer that I have slightly modified. Note - not for beginners:
To be completed as quick as possible with an aim to do it under 20 minutes.
To be completed as quick as possible with an aim to do it under 20 minutes.
- 25 Pullups
- 50 Deadlifts (50% bodyweight)
- 50 Pushups
- 50 Box jumps
- 50 Floor swipes
- 50 Cleans (50% bodyweight)
- 25 Overhead Presses (50% bodyweight)
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Look, Feel and Perform Better: The 21 Day Elimination Diet
Christmas has passed - how did you fare? Gained some weight? Feel a bit bloated? Low energy? Then perhaps it is time (after New Years) to have a clean out. Check out our 3D Personal Training article on our solultion to the post Xmas, New Years period. Enjoy!
A time comes in everybody’s life when we feel the need to give our body and mind a proper treat - a break away from the toxic and intolerance triggering foods which line much of our supermarket shelves. A proper treat which gives us a new feeling energy and vitality, a better body, and improved performance.
If you’ve ever promised yourself you’d do the right thing ‘sometime’ in the future, and now is that time, read on…
Why should you be on this diet?
If you want to lose (or gain) weight, change your body shape, feel full of energy and vitality again, or find that you fall ill more often than others, have a specific health complaint or just feel like you’re not firing on all cylinders – this diet is for you.
The 3D Personal Training elimination diet is different to other diets – even other elimination diets you might have seen or tried.
That’s because it’s built on an incredible foundation: over 10 years of nutrition and health research, over 10 years of practical testing on ourselves, and once confirmed as beneficial, with our clients.
During those 10 years we’ve assessed a lot of dietary programmes, ranging from those you see written by ‘experts’ to those featured on tv chat shows, to some less popular regimes that didn’t have the gimmicks needed to make the news.
Yes, we admit we spent far too much time in the health section of our local bookstore on sunny afternoons. We’re also very guilty of spending too much time in public libraries searching for hard to find and out of print textbooks, manuscripts, magazines, newspaper articles and scientific journals.
At home we ignored calls from our friends so that we could study website after website and the latest clinical study data, and we admit we have built our own extensive private library of health, fitness and nutrition books. Whichever way it’s been sliced, diced, cooked or sprouted, we’ve been there.
The literature we read has come from medical doctors, naturopaths, osteopaths, nutritionists, nutritional therapists, endocrinologists, oncologists, herbalists, immunologists, consultant cardiologists, biochemists, gastroenterologists, specialists in Chinese medicine, more than one Nobel Prize winner and some of the finest lifestyle and sports coaches in the world today.
You name it, we’ve read it and tested it.
And boy did we test: high protein-low fat, low protein-high carb, low carb-high fat, high protein-high fat, high carb-high fat, calorie counting, green food only diets, anti-fungal, liquid only, food weighing, food combining, vegetarian, vegan, high fibre, raw food only, macrobiotic, celebrity and pretty much every other variety in between.
Every one of them made AMAZING! claims, backed up by fantastic testimonials and some extremely plausible scientific rationale.
But how effective were they? Many of them got short term results, some didn’t do your long term health any favours, and most resulted in a weight gain rebound shortly after finishing.
It’s easy to see that if you went on a ‘raw fresh green pea’ diet and ate nothing but raw fresh green peas for 3 weeks, it’d have some effect, weight loss for one! If you were counting calories peas would be right near the top of your list! I’d also be putting fewer toxins into my body and that would probably feel good too.
But a few weeks would be about it. Then, no matter how determined I was to shed that extra pound or two, my body would start losing the plot. And that’s just dangerous as well as ineffective long term.
Of course, I’d drop weight like you’ve never seen before, but the rebound would be horrible. And several of your internal organs would be pretty unhappy with you too.
Some people take the needle-in-a-haystack approach, trying every diet going in the hope that they’ll find one that really works. But again, this hit and miss approach rarely yields long term results, and can lead to years of frustration and yo-yo dieting.
All this dieting will probably leave you with a firm belief that the problem ultimately lies somewhere within you – lack of willpower, bad genes – you know how it works.
Most diets out there are clearly designed as quick fix band aids to what are often long term health or weight issues with underlying causes. They’re not designed to provide a response to these issues, but will give you very short term results followed by an inevitable rebound. So why do them?
The next time you’re looking for a dietary program, you should try one that really does work, not just for weight loss or muscle gain, but for energy, vitality, and general outstanding health across the board. And you stand a good chance of saying goodbye to a lot of long standing or chronic health issues too.
In short, this is a diet we designed for real humans with goals and problems that need a real response.
So what is an elimination diet?
Right about now you’re probably thinking that a diet that delivers so many real results must be ridiculously complicated.
But sometimes the best things in life are just so simple.
An elimination diet isn’t complicated, in fact the reason they’ve remained relatively undiscovered is because they lack marketable ‘gadgets’ or newsworthy controversy, or a new flashy ‘concept’.
Sadly, you’d think that results alone would make front page news, but since there’s no money to be made out of something so simple, nobody seems very much interested. Plain old boring results just don’t seem to sell magazines, newspapers, books or dvd’s these days.
There’s really not that much for people to make a big fuss over. This diet just works quietly, simply, and delivers unbelievable results by sticking to just two really simple rules:
1. We eliminate everything we’ve found your body doesn’t recognise as food – substances that are toxic, irritating, or steal your energy and vitality. These are highlighted in red throughout the plan
2. We ensure that only whole, nutrient rich, unprocessed and unrefined foods that work with your body by supporting it on every level, are eaten
That’s it! No silly calorie counting, weighing, or any of the other ridiculous things those other diets ask you to do.
It’s not rocket science but it’s so far removed from most people’s daily dietary intake that the results of following such a simple set of principles can be incredible.
Why the 3D Personal Training 21 Day Elimination Diet is so good
There are elimination diets and elimination diets.
If you take a moment or two to look at some other, very popular elimination diets out there you’ll see a lot of things on their list that we, and some of the leading authorities on nutrition, don’t count as food; for instance regular soy (tofu, beancurd).
You see, we’ve really done our homework. We’ve been busy searching and researching to find the latest and most up to date results, as well as looking at the common allergies and intolerances we see when testing our own clients.
Not only that, we made it easy for you to use, too.
And while we’re giving it away FREE, we wouldn’t want you thinking we gave our elimination diet any less then 100%. We’re just not the type of people to do anything half-heartedly.
This is how it works:
For the first 14 days (phase I) you eat what’s on the list – this eliminates everything most people’s bodies will have a problem with, and you might be shocked at what made our list – for instance we decided to dump lots of toxins and heavy metals in our rivers and seas and so many types of fish, which are notorious for accumulating them, are out.
Plenty of other things are in though – and most of what we include can be found in your average store or supermarket.
During the final 7 days (phase 2) you re-introduce certain types of food to gauge whether your body says yes or no to that food – basically whether it’s food to your body or not. If not, well you know what to do.
Simple, isn’t it?
Tough love…
Another thing that high profile diets seem to love telling us is that there’s just no pain involved in following them, they’re so easy that, wow(!) - not only will you get results and look AMAZING(!) forever but you’ll feel great and have fun(!) during the whole process, and you can have cheat days, chocolate days and so on – you’ve seen them too.
The trouble is it’s not true. You know the truth – it’s just that most of the time you’d rather not admit it because life’s easier that way.
We want to be brutally honest with you: with our elimination diet there is only one option and that is to commit to it 100%. There are no excuses, no half measures, no cheat days, no bits of chocolate here or something else there. The effort and commitment you put in will be rewarded.
If this isn’t you, and you don’t really want results but just want something to make you feel you’ve tried (again), stop reading now.
Really - we’d prefer if you found another diet to follow. There are plenty out there, and you can always come back when you really want to do something that works no matter how tough. We’re not judging you, but that’s the way it is with our diet.
We just don’t want to set you up for failure by pretending this is for everyone.
To get real results at anything you need to try hard, be honest with yourself, be committed, and be organised.
You know it’s true, so do we.
What you can expect
Another truth of our times is that you’re probably addicted to one or more foods (like sugar or caffeine or additives) and are also carrying around with you a toxic load, as well as a bunch of parasites and fungi.
That’s why eating even small amounts of banned foods will interfere with your body’s natural healing process, and why this has to be a 100% in or out thing.
Instead of dealing with whatever processed, additive laden food you normally throw at it, your body is going to have some freedom – and it’s going to use that freedom to get rid of some toxins. When that process kicks in, you’re going to know about it. The first few days, especially, can be quite hard.
That can make you feel pretty bad. On top of that all of your addictions, parasites and fungi are going to start screaming: I WANT SOME SUGAR-CAFFEINE-ADDITIVE-E-NUMBERS-AND GOD FORBID NICOTINE!!!!!!!!!
So you can expect to feel bad, tired, and have mood swings, fluctuating energy levels, and feel more stressed than usual.
The good news is that your body is going to be getting some great foods to help it out, and that for most people this period only lasts a few days. But you need to be mentally ready to handle it. Did we talk about commitment already?!
On the flip side, if you’re overweight you’re likely to lose lots of fat (and water, which when under stress your body stores to protect it from deadly inflammation. It just looks and feels like fat so we call it false fat).
Speaking of inflammation, our diet can also reduce it in your tissues, as it’s often caused by eating foods you’re intolerant to, or which are toxic and inhibit cellular respiration and repair. This is one of the major causes of disease today, which is worth bearing in mind if you find the diet tough – it can be tough for a reason.
We’ve also witnessed ourselves how people on this diet get shiny hair, better skin and nail condition, a reduction in bags under the eyes, and an all round boost in energy and vitality, not to mention a reduction in the severity of other health issues – all from our simple diet.
Forewarned is forearmed – be ready, be prepared
A little bit of preparation goes a long way – clearing your life of bad food and bad habits before you start will make things easier. Just take a look at our elimination diet, and if a food is not on the list or in red, get rid of it. Put it away out of temptation’s way or even better go for a truly new start and throw it in the bin.
Then, surround yourself with everything you need to ensure you’re ready to start on the first day on the diet.
That includes the right foods, but also emotional support from partners, friends and family – if they don’t know what you’re doing they’ll unknowingly tempt you into spoiling the great work you’ve undertaken.
We also don’t want you to set yourself up to fail by pulling this diet out and jumping in with both feet unprepared. Without preparation you’re more likely to fail, and that would be a shame, not only because you won’t get results, but also because you’ll start to believe that it’s your fault, that you just have bad genes, or no willpower, or that you’ve have never stuck with anything, or that it’s too hard for me, and all the other things we think about ourselves. Your self esteem will be worse for it, so don’t allow yourself to be put in that position.
A little bit of preparation can stop all that.
Your health, YOUR responsibility
Even if you asked us nicely, and even if we really wanted to, we can’t do this for you.
If you’re not sure you have the motivation to do the right thing, you might like to think there are other people you can go to who will take responsibility – who have to take responsibility - for your health when the going gets tough. Let’s talk about them for a second:
Your family, friends and partners have their own problems, hang ups and stresses, and are probably too busy hiding from them or dealing with them to take real care of you and your health. If you find your partner puts out food that you’re not convinced is too good for you, take control. They’re probably just tired and stressed like everyone else.
And they’re probably not the best person to know what’s right for you. That person is you and you alone.
Doctors, although undoubtedly well trained and with the best of intentions, are trained to diagnose, refer you to a specialist, and/or give you pharmaceutical products which may or may not be the best solution for you. This type of treatment takes care of short term symptoms but does not seek to remedy underlying causes, and leaves sometimes serious side effects.
So ask yourself who has the ability to look after your health most effectively:
Answer A: someone who has the most deeply held personal interest in seeing you get the most out every day, living a long, healthful life, who has full control over your lifestyle every second of your day and who can spend many hours researching answers to their questions (in case you didn’t get it, this is you), or
Answer B: a doctor who has only a professional interest in your well-being, who has a very limited amount of time to see you, and only a limited range of tools at their disposal
You have much more time and much more reason to take care of your health than your doctor does. Your doctor is the most effective person to see in certain circumstances, but it’s a little unfair to sit around eating the wrong foods, doing little or no exercise for years, and then go expecting your doctor to sort it all out. In the time available they can usually help to manage your decline, but not much more. If you want real answers, and real, positive health, you’re going to have to do it yourself.
The government can rarely make their minds up about anything, never mind being capable of taking care of your personal, individual health needs (and when they do get round to making their minds up they tend to be at least five years behind the latest research).
The media are only really interested in selling newspapers, magazines and ad space, and will print or screen whatever does the job – even if it contradicts what they printed yesterday.
The easiest part of all…
Get your very own copy of the 3D Personal Training Elimination Diet now.
To supercharge your elimination diet experience and for a more in depth program covering all aspects of nutrition and exercise, including the elimination diet, check out our 21 Day Roadmap to Health.
Yours in Health
A time comes in everybody’s life when we feel the need to give our body and mind a proper treat - a break away from the toxic and intolerance triggering foods which line much of our supermarket shelves. A proper treat which gives us a new feeling energy and vitality, a better body, and improved performance.
If you’ve ever promised yourself you’d do the right thing ‘sometime’ in the future, and now is that time, read on…
Why should you be on this diet?
If you want to lose (or gain) weight, change your body shape, feel full of energy and vitality again, or find that you fall ill more often than others, have a specific health complaint or just feel like you’re not firing on all cylinders – this diet is for you.
The 3D Personal Training elimination diet is different to other diets – even other elimination diets you might have seen or tried.
That’s because it’s built on an incredible foundation: over 10 years of nutrition and health research, over 10 years of practical testing on ourselves, and once confirmed as beneficial, with our clients.
During those 10 years we’ve assessed a lot of dietary programmes, ranging from those you see written by ‘experts’ to those featured on tv chat shows, to some less popular regimes that didn’t have the gimmicks needed to make the news.
Yes, we admit we spent far too much time in the health section of our local bookstore on sunny afternoons. We’re also very guilty of spending too much time in public libraries searching for hard to find and out of print textbooks, manuscripts, magazines, newspaper articles and scientific journals.
At home we ignored calls from our friends so that we could study website after website and the latest clinical study data, and we admit we have built our own extensive private library of health, fitness and nutrition books. Whichever way it’s been sliced, diced, cooked or sprouted, we’ve been there.
The literature we read has come from medical doctors, naturopaths, osteopaths, nutritionists, nutritional therapists, endocrinologists, oncologists, herbalists, immunologists, consultant cardiologists, biochemists, gastroenterologists, specialists in Chinese medicine, more than one Nobel Prize winner and some of the finest lifestyle and sports coaches in the world today.
You name it, we’ve read it and tested it.
And boy did we test: high protein-low fat, low protein-high carb, low carb-high fat, high protein-high fat, high carb-high fat, calorie counting, green food only diets, anti-fungal, liquid only, food weighing, food combining, vegetarian, vegan, high fibre, raw food only, macrobiotic, celebrity and pretty much every other variety in between.
Every one of them made AMAZING! claims, backed up by fantastic testimonials and some extremely plausible scientific rationale.
But how effective were they? Many of them got short term results, some didn’t do your long term health any favours, and most resulted in a weight gain rebound shortly after finishing.
It’s easy to see that if you went on a ‘raw fresh green pea’ diet and ate nothing but raw fresh green peas for 3 weeks, it’d have some effect, weight loss for one! If you were counting calories peas would be right near the top of your list! I’d also be putting fewer toxins into my body and that would probably feel good too.
But a few weeks would be about it. Then, no matter how determined I was to shed that extra pound or two, my body would start losing the plot. And that’s just dangerous as well as ineffective long term.
Of course, I’d drop weight like you’ve never seen before, but the rebound would be horrible. And several of your internal organs would be pretty unhappy with you too.
Some people take the needle-in-a-haystack approach, trying every diet going in the hope that they’ll find one that really works. But again, this hit and miss approach rarely yields long term results, and can lead to years of frustration and yo-yo dieting.
All this dieting will probably leave you with a firm belief that the problem ultimately lies somewhere within you – lack of willpower, bad genes – you know how it works.
Most diets out there are clearly designed as quick fix band aids to what are often long term health or weight issues with underlying causes. They’re not designed to provide a response to these issues, but will give you very short term results followed by an inevitable rebound. So why do them?
The next time you’re looking for a dietary program, you should try one that really does work, not just for weight loss or muscle gain, but for energy, vitality, and general outstanding health across the board. And you stand a good chance of saying goodbye to a lot of long standing or chronic health issues too.
In short, this is a diet we designed for real humans with goals and problems that need a real response.
So what is an elimination diet?
Right about now you’re probably thinking that a diet that delivers so many real results must be ridiculously complicated.
But sometimes the best things in life are just so simple.
An elimination diet isn’t complicated, in fact the reason they’ve remained relatively undiscovered is because they lack marketable ‘gadgets’ or newsworthy controversy, or a new flashy ‘concept’.
Sadly, you’d think that results alone would make front page news, but since there’s no money to be made out of something so simple, nobody seems very much interested. Plain old boring results just don’t seem to sell magazines, newspapers, books or dvd’s these days.
There’s really not that much for people to make a big fuss over. This diet just works quietly, simply, and delivers unbelievable results by sticking to just two really simple rules:
1. We eliminate everything we’ve found your body doesn’t recognise as food – substances that are toxic, irritating, or steal your energy and vitality. These are highlighted in red throughout the plan
2. We ensure that only whole, nutrient rich, unprocessed and unrefined foods that work with your body by supporting it on every level, are eaten
That’s it! No silly calorie counting, weighing, or any of the other ridiculous things those other diets ask you to do.
It’s not rocket science but it’s so far removed from most people’s daily dietary intake that the results of following such a simple set of principles can be incredible.
Why the 3D Personal Training 21 Day Elimination Diet is so good
There are elimination diets and elimination diets.
If you take a moment or two to look at some other, very popular elimination diets out there you’ll see a lot of things on their list that we, and some of the leading authorities on nutrition, don’t count as food; for instance regular soy (tofu, beancurd).
You see, we’ve really done our homework. We’ve been busy searching and researching to find the latest and most up to date results, as well as looking at the common allergies and intolerances we see when testing our own clients.
Not only that, we made it easy for you to use, too.
And while we’re giving it away FREE, we wouldn’t want you thinking we gave our elimination diet any less then 100%. We’re just not the type of people to do anything half-heartedly.
This is how it works:
For the first 14 days (phase I) you eat what’s on the list – this eliminates everything most people’s bodies will have a problem with, and you might be shocked at what made our list – for instance we decided to dump lots of toxins and heavy metals in our rivers and seas and so many types of fish, which are notorious for accumulating them, are out.
Plenty of other things are in though – and most of what we include can be found in your average store or supermarket.
During the final 7 days (phase 2) you re-introduce certain types of food to gauge whether your body says yes or no to that food – basically whether it’s food to your body or not. If not, well you know what to do.
Simple, isn’t it?
Tough love…
Another thing that high profile diets seem to love telling us is that there’s just no pain involved in following them, they’re so easy that, wow(!) - not only will you get results and look AMAZING(!) forever but you’ll feel great and have fun(!) during the whole process, and you can have cheat days, chocolate days and so on – you’ve seen them too.
The trouble is it’s not true. You know the truth – it’s just that most of the time you’d rather not admit it because life’s easier that way.
We want to be brutally honest with you: with our elimination diet there is only one option and that is to commit to it 100%. There are no excuses, no half measures, no cheat days, no bits of chocolate here or something else there. The effort and commitment you put in will be rewarded.
If this isn’t you, and you don’t really want results but just want something to make you feel you’ve tried (again), stop reading now.
Really - we’d prefer if you found another diet to follow. There are plenty out there, and you can always come back when you really want to do something that works no matter how tough. We’re not judging you, but that’s the way it is with our diet.
We just don’t want to set you up for failure by pretending this is for everyone.
To get real results at anything you need to try hard, be honest with yourself, be committed, and be organised.
You know it’s true, so do we.
What you can expect
Another truth of our times is that you’re probably addicted to one or more foods (like sugar or caffeine or additives) and are also carrying around with you a toxic load, as well as a bunch of parasites and fungi.
That’s why eating even small amounts of banned foods will interfere with your body’s natural healing process, and why this has to be a 100% in or out thing.
Instead of dealing with whatever processed, additive laden food you normally throw at it, your body is going to have some freedom – and it’s going to use that freedom to get rid of some toxins. When that process kicks in, you’re going to know about it. The first few days, especially, can be quite hard.
That can make you feel pretty bad. On top of that all of your addictions, parasites and fungi are going to start screaming: I WANT SOME SUGAR-CAFFEINE-ADDITIVE-E-NUMBERS-AND GOD FORBID NICOTINE!!!!!!!!!
So you can expect to feel bad, tired, and have mood swings, fluctuating energy levels, and feel more stressed than usual.
The good news is that your body is going to be getting some great foods to help it out, and that for most people this period only lasts a few days. But you need to be mentally ready to handle it. Did we talk about commitment already?!
On the flip side, if you’re overweight you’re likely to lose lots of fat (and water, which when under stress your body stores to protect it from deadly inflammation. It just looks and feels like fat so we call it false fat).
Speaking of inflammation, our diet can also reduce it in your tissues, as it’s often caused by eating foods you’re intolerant to, or which are toxic and inhibit cellular respiration and repair. This is one of the major causes of disease today, which is worth bearing in mind if you find the diet tough – it can be tough for a reason.
We’ve also witnessed ourselves how people on this diet get shiny hair, better skin and nail condition, a reduction in bags under the eyes, and an all round boost in energy and vitality, not to mention a reduction in the severity of other health issues – all from our simple diet.
Forewarned is forearmed – be ready, be prepared
A little bit of preparation goes a long way – clearing your life of bad food and bad habits before you start will make things easier. Just take a look at our elimination diet, and if a food is not on the list or in red, get rid of it. Put it away out of temptation’s way or even better go for a truly new start and throw it in the bin.
Then, surround yourself with everything you need to ensure you’re ready to start on the first day on the diet.
That includes the right foods, but also emotional support from partners, friends and family – if they don’t know what you’re doing they’ll unknowingly tempt you into spoiling the great work you’ve undertaken.
We also don’t want you to set yourself up to fail by pulling this diet out and jumping in with both feet unprepared. Without preparation you’re more likely to fail, and that would be a shame, not only because you won’t get results, but also because you’ll start to believe that it’s your fault, that you just have bad genes, or no willpower, or that you’ve have never stuck with anything, or that it’s too hard for me, and all the other things we think about ourselves. Your self esteem will be worse for it, so don’t allow yourself to be put in that position.
A little bit of preparation can stop all that.
Your health, YOUR responsibility
Even if you asked us nicely, and even if we really wanted to, we can’t do this for you.
If you’re not sure you have the motivation to do the right thing, you might like to think there are other people you can go to who will take responsibility – who have to take responsibility - for your health when the going gets tough. Let’s talk about them for a second:
Your family, friends and partners have their own problems, hang ups and stresses, and are probably too busy hiding from them or dealing with them to take real care of you and your health. If you find your partner puts out food that you’re not convinced is too good for you, take control. They’re probably just tired and stressed like everyone else.
And they’re probably not the best person to know what’s right for you. That person is you and you alone.
Doctors, although undoubtedly well trained and with the best of intentions, are trained to diagnose, refer you to a specialist, and/or give you pharmaceutical products which may or may not be the best solution for you. This type of treatment takes care of short term symptoms but does not seek to remedy underlying causes, and leaves sometimes serious side effects.
So ask yourself who has the ability to look after your health most effectively:
Answer A: someone who has the most deeply held personal interest in seeing you get the most out every day, living a long, healthful life, who has full control over your lifestyle every second of your day and who can spend many hours researching answers to their questions (in case you didn’t get it, this is you), or
Answer B: a doctor who has only a professional interest in your well-being, who has a very limited amount of time to see you, and only a limited range of tools at their disposal
You have much more time and much more reason to take care of your health than your doctor does. Your doctor is the most effective person to see in certain circumstances, but it’s a little unfair to sit around eating the wrong foods, doing little or no exercise for years, and then go expecting your doctor to sort it all out. In the time available they can usually help to manage your decline, but not much more. If you want real answers, and real, positive health, you’re going to have to do it yourself.
The government can rarely make their minds up about anything, never mind being capable of taking care of your personal, individual health needs (and when they do get round to making their minds up they tend to be at least five years behind the latest research).
The media are only really interested in selling newspapers, magazines and ad space, and will print or screen whatever does the job – even if it contradicts what they printed yesterday.
The easiest part of all…
Get your very own copy of the 3D Personal Training Elimination Diet now.
To supercharge your elimination diet experience and for a more in depth program covering all aspects of nutrition and exercise, including the elimination diet, check out our 21 Day Roadmap to Health.
Yours in Health
Sunday, 20 December 2009
ADHD: Are Drugs & Pyschotherapy The Only Choices?
Change of pace from the last few posts but here is a sample of an article we wrote several months back that recieved a lot of interest and feedback.
ADHD: Are Drugs & Pyschotherapy The Only Choices?
“There is no evidence that dietary supplements such as fatty acids (omega 3 or omega 6) or cutting out foods containing artificial colouring and other additives can help children with ADHD.” (1)
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – 24 September 2008
When I showed this paragraph to a friend of mine whose son has been diagnosed with ADHD, her exact words were: ‘But it’s not true’ - in her experience cutting out certain foods has made a difference to her son.
So what’s going on?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a controversial topic, with opinion running all the way from ‘it’s just bad parenting’, to general medical opinion viewing it as a defined disorder which can be treated through pharmaceutical intervention (drugs) or psychotherapy. Some even think that ADHD as a condition has been concocted by psychiatrists in the USA who needed a defined medical condition in order to bill insurance companies for their time.
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, there is no doubt that growing numbers of our children are behaving in a manner that parents, and society at large, find difficult to understand.
Whether you blame bad parenting or believe ADHD is a medical condition, record numbers of our children are being drugged, socially stigmatised and psychoanalysed – and it’s a growing trend.
Is there an alternative view?
There’s a question that needs to be asked: why the big rush on the part of schools and organised medicine to drug our kids and make them feel socially abnormal? Has society become lazy in seeking answers to the ADHD question? Or do large, powerful and conservative health organisations dominate (with the best intentions or otherwise) the ADHD conversation and research?
Persistent hyperactive and inattentive behaviour could be caused by a huge range of factors, from dopamine receptor problems to bad parenting to iron deficiency to toxic metal interference to nervous system malfunction - there could be 10 or 100 causes or contributing factors to hyperactive and inattentive behaviour in children.
Any of these multiple factors may be at play in any given child at any one time.
So with heavyweight institutions rolling out the red carpet for pharmaceutical products and psychotherapy the world over, what are the alternative, or at least complimentary approaches, that you don’t see covered in the news?
Alternative approaches to ADHD
There is a body of emerging research and anecdotal evidence which suggests methods considered ‘alternative’ or ‘complimentary’ by the standards of established medical practice might well be worth exploring if your child is persistently inattentive or hyperactive.
For the most part, these are centred around what we eat day to day and how imbalances in our foods might lead to fatty acid, toxic metal, essential mineral and cellular energy imbalances:
High mercury levels
The mercury in amalgam tooth fillings and vaccines, not to mention from our polluted seas in the form of the fish we eat, could affect the nervous system in some children sensitive to mercury. Certainly there is some evidence to suggest that even slightly increased levels of mercury could be related to ADHD behaviours.
A 2006 study, predominantly in 7 year old boys, showed that children with mercury blood levels slightly higher than average had a much stronger chance of having ADHD than children without. The study concludes:
“High blood mercury level was associated with ADHD”(2)
Low iron levels
Iron levels in children with ADHD have been shown to be lower than those without ADHD. The severity of symptoms has also been linked to the amount of iron found in children - the lower the iron level, the more severe the symptoms of ADHD.(3)
A clinical study published in 2008 looked at the effect of iron supplementation in children with low iron levels who had been diagnosed with ADHD. Each child was given 80mg of ferrous sulphate per day or placebo (dummy therapy) for 12 weeks.
The results showed significant improvements in ADHD behaviours in the children taking the 80mg of iron, while those taking the placebo showed no improvement.
Although we don’t know yet why iron is beneficial in treating ADHD, we do know it plays an important role in dopamine activity (a brain chemical), which in turn has been suggested as an important factor in ADHD.(4)
Iron can also protect us from the toxic affects of lead,(5) so where there’s a low level of iron in our bodies, our nervous system might be more exposed to its toxic effects,(6,7) and this could be a significant factor in triggering ADHD behaviour.
Since excess levels of iron can damage our bodies, it is important that iron levels be measured prior to supplementation.
High levels of lead
Central nervous system exposure to lead can affect dopamine release in our brains and the ability of our dopamine receptors to detect this important hormone. This effect has been put forward as a factor that contributes to ADHD.(8,9,10)
The effectiveness of our blood-brain barrier (part of our central nervous system which restricts the passage of various chemicals into our brain tissue) is also essential when it comes to how effective our brains are. Lead may disrupt and damage the structure of this barrier while iron protects it.(5,11)
High copper levels with low sulphur
This particular imbalance has been noted as one of the most common causes of ADHD behaviour, with symptoms including a ‘foggy’ mind, poor memory and lack of concentration. Foods high in copper include cocoa and chocolate products, coffee, tea, soy, liver, nuts, seeds, shellfish and wheat germ.(12)
Calcium and magnesium deficiencies
Deficiencies in both of these essential minerals have been put forward as another leading cause of ADHD behaviour.(12,13) If a person is extremely ticklish, craves chocolate and/or milk, is unable to disregard unimportant stimuli, has muscle cramps and trouble relaxing or going to sleep, any of these can suggest low magnesium and calcium.(14)
Hair Mineral Analysis
One way of measuring the levels of all the metals and minerals mentioned above is through Hair Mineral Analysis (HMA – in the interests of transparency we should note that 3D Personal Training offers HMA services). The advantage of HMA is that it offers a measure of many minerals and metals, and the significant imbalances between them in one single hair test. It’s also relatively cheap and non-invasive compared to blood sampling. Properly taken samples offer a good reflection of metabolic activity over a sustained period of time and allows for appropriate supplementation to be tailored to the needs of the individual.
The levels of lead in hair has previously been used in scientific research which found ADHD to be related to lead,(15) and some paediatricians have found hair to be more helpful than blood samples when looking at mineral deficiencies. Still, as with most tests it is not perfect and although at 3D Personal Training we think it’s a very useful tool, it does have certain draw backs (being hair, for instance, it’s somewhat open to external environmental contamination).
Food additives
A 2007 study involving ‘normal’ children (not showing ADHD symptoms) commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), and published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, found:
“Artificial colours or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.”(16)
That’s sounds like ADHD behaviour to us. And it begs the question: if these additives have this effect on children without ADHD, what on earth might they do to kids who do have a tendency for ADHD behaviour?
For clarification, the study tested preservative E211 (sodium benzoate) and food dyes E102 (tartrazine), E104 (quinoline yellow), E110 (sunset yellow), E122 (carmoisone), E124 (ponceau 4R) and E129 (allura red). These were just the additives the study tested. There are many, many more that were not.
In addition, the FSA noted:
“…if a child shows signs of hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) then eliminating the colours used in the Southampton study from their diet might have some beneficial effects.”
We think that’s an understatement.
Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) – Omega’s 3 & 6
It’s well documented that children with ADHD show lower levels of EFA’s than those without. This may be due to low dietary intake, poor breakdown of these fats into forms our bodies can use, or that some people burn fats faster, and therefore need more than others. Tell tale signs of a deficiency are excessive thirst, dry skin and hair, brittle nails and frequent urination.
It’s the ratio between omega 3 and 6 fats that matters though, and many children with ADHD have been shown to have a ratio a long way from the 2:1 ideal. In fact, many people today have ratios more like 1:15 or 1:30. The impact of this imbalance on mental health stretches way beyond ADHD.
This ratio imbalance must be addressed for EFA supplementation to be successful, and most of the studies which have looked at fatty acids have neglected this point. Only two have done so, one of which did not sufficiently address this imbalance (a decrease of 33.04 to 15.19 over four months),(17) and another which although encouraging was not large enough and did not contain a placebo or control group.(18)
This last study concludes that greater doses of omega 3 are needed to redress the imbalance to under 1:3 in order to show significant behavioural improvements. It’s a step in the right direction at least and suggests that omega 3 supplementation is the way forward.
Omega 3 oils are found in flax seeds (best ground fresh and eaten right away), walnuts and their oil, and fish oils. The blockbuster omega 3 oil is Antarctic Neptune Krill Oil, but Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend is also high quality. To read the rest of the article please follow the link:
http://www.3dpts.com/articles/ADHD_drugs_choices.html
ADHD: Are Drugs & Pyschotherapy The Only Choices?
“There is no evidence that dietary supplements such as fatty acids (omega 3 or omega 6) or cutting out foods containing artificial colouring and other additives can help children with ADHD.” (1)
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – 24 September 2008
When I showed this paragraph to a friend of mine whose son has been diagnosed with ADHD, her exact words were: ‘But it’s not true’ - in her experience cutting out certain foods has made a difference to her son.
So what’s going on?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a controversial topic, with opinion running all the way from ‘it’s just bad parenting’, to general medical opinion viewing it as a defined disorder which can be treated through pharmaceutical intervention (drugs) or psychotherapy. Some even think that ADHD as a condition has been concocted by psychiatrists in the USA who needed a defined medical condition in order to bill insurance companies for their time.
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, there is no doubt that growing numbers of our children are behaving in a manner that parents, and society at large, find difficult to understand.
Whether you blame bad parenting or believe ADHD is a medical condition, record numbers of our children are being drugged, socially stigmatised and psychoanalysed – and it’s a growing trend.
Is there an alternative view?
There’s a question that needs to be asked: why the big rush on the part of schools and organised medicine to drug our kids and make them feel socially abnormal? Has society become lazy in seeking answers to the ADHD question? Or do large, powerful and conservative health organisations dominate (with the best intentions or otherwise) the ADHD conversation and research?
Persistent hyperactive and inattentive behaviour could be caused by a huge range of factors, from dopamine receptor problems to bad parenting to iron deficiency to toxic metal interference to nervous system malfunction - there could be 10 or 100 causes or contributing factors to hyperactive and inattentive behaviour in children.
Any of these multiple factors may be at play in any given child at any one time.
So with heavyweight institutions rolling out the red carpet for pharmaceutical products and psychotherapy the world over, what are the alternative, or at least complimentary approaches, that you don’t see covered in the news?
Alternative approaches to ADHD
There is a body of emerging research and anecdotal evidence which suggests methods considered ‘alternative’ or ‘complimentary’ by the standards of established medical practice might well be worth exploring if your child is persistently inattentive or hyperactive.
For the most part, these are centred around what we eat day to day and how imbalances in our foods might lead to fatty acid, toxic metal, essential mineral and cellular energy imbalances:
High mercury levels
The mercury in amalgam tooth fillings and vaccines, not to mention from our polluted seas in the form of the fish we eat, could affect the nervous system in some children sensitive to mercury. Certainly there is some evidence to suggest that even slightly increased levels of mercury could be related to ADHD behaviours.
A 2006 study, predominantly in 7 year old boys, showed that children with mercury blood levels slightly higher than average had a much stronger chance of having ADHD than children without. The study concludes:
“High blood mercury level was associated with ADHD”(2)
Low iron levels
Iron levels in children with ADHD have been shown to be lower than those without ADHD. The severity of symptoms has also been linked to the amount of iron found in children - the lower the iron level, the more severe the symptoms of ADHD.(3)
A clinical study published in 2008 looked at the effect of iron supplementation in children with low iron levels who had been diagnosed with ADHD. Each child was given 80mg of ferrous sulphate per day or placebo (dummy therapy) for 12 weeks.
The results showed significant improvements in ADHD behaviours in the children taking the 80mg of iron, while those taking the placebo showed no improvement.
Although we don’t know yet why iron is beneficial in treating ADHD, we do know it plays an important role in dopamine activity (a brain chemical), which in turn has been suggested as an important factor in ADHD.(4)
Iron can also protect us from the toxic affects of lead,(5) so where there’s a low level of iron in our bodies, our nervous system might be more exposed to its toxic effects,(6,7) and this could be a significant factor in triggering ADHD behaviour.
Since excess levels of iron can damage our bodies, it is important that iron levels be measured prior to supplementation.
High levels of lead
Central nervous system exposure to lead can affect dopamine release in our brains and the ability of our dopamine receptors to detect this important hormone. This effect has been put forward as a factor that contributes to ADHD.(8,9,10)
The effectiveness of our blood-brain barrier (part of our central nervous system which restricts the passage of various chemicals into our brain tissue) is also essential when it comes to how effective our brains are. Lead may disrupt and damage the structure of this barrier while iron protects it.(5,11)
High copper levels with low sulphur
This particular imbalance has been noted as one of the most common causes of ADHD behaviour, with symptoms including a ‘foggy’ mind, poor memory and lack of concentration. Foods high in copper include cocoa and chocolate products, coffee, tea, soy, liver, nuts, seeds, shellfish and wheat germ.(12)
Calcium and magnesium deficiencies
Deficiencies in both of these essential minerals have been put forward as another leading cause of ADHD behaviour.(12,13) If a person is extremely ticklish, craves chocolate and/or milk, is unable to disregard unimportant stimuli, has muscle cramps and trouble relaxing or going to sleep, any of these can suggest low magnesium and calcium.(14)
Hair Mineral Analysis
One way of measuring the levels of all the metals and minerals mentioned above is through Hair Mineral Analysis (HMA – in the interests of transparency we should note that 3D Personal Training offers HMA services). The advantage of HMA is that it offers a measure of many minerals and metals, and the significant imbalances between them in one single hair test. It’s also relatively cheap and non-invasive compared to blood sampling. Properly taken samples offer a good reflection of metabolic activity over a sustained period of time and allows for appropriate supplementation to be tailored to the needs of the individual.
The levels of lead in hair has previously been used in scientific research which found ADHD to be related to lead,(15) and some paediatricians have found hair to be more helpful than blood samples when looking at mineral deficiencies. Still, as with most tests it is not perfect and although at 3D Personal Training we think it’s a very useful tool, it does have certain draw backs (being hair, for instance, it’s somewhat open to external environmental contamination).
Food additives
A 2007 study involving ‘normal’ children (not showing ADHD symptoms) commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), and published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, found:
“Artificial colours or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.”(16)
That’s sounds like ADHD behaviour to us. And it begs the question: if these additives have this effect on children without ADHD, what on earth might they do to kids who do have a tendency for ADHD behaviour?
For clarification, the study tested preservative E211 (sodium benzoate) and food dyes E102 (tartrazine), E104 (quinoline yellow), E110 (sunset yellow), E122 (carmoisone), E124 (ponceau 4R) and E129 (allura red). These were just the additives the study tested. There are many, many more that were not.
In addition, the FSA noted:
“…if a child shows signs of hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) then eliminating the colours used in the Southampton study from their diet might have some beneficial effects.”
We think that’s an understatement.
Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) – Omega’s 3 & 6
It’s well documented that children with ADHD show lower levels of EFA’s than those without. This may be due to low dietary intake, poor breakdown of these fats into forms our bodies can use, or that some people burn fats faster, and therefore need more than others. Tell tale signs of a deficiency are excessive thirst, dry skin and hair, brittle nails and frequent urination.
It’s the ratio between omega 3 and 6 fats that matters though, and many children with ADHD have been shown to have a ratio a long way from the 2:1 ideal. In fact, many people today have ratios more like 1:15 or 1:30. The impact of this imbalance on mental health stretches way beyond ADHD.
This ratio imbalance must be addressed for EFA supplementation to be successful, and most of the studies which have looked at fatty acids have neglected this point. Only two have done so, one of which did not sufficiently address this imbalance (a decrease of 33.04 to 15.19 over four months),(17) and another which although encouraging was not large enough and did not contain a placebo or control group.(18)
This last study concludes that greater doses of omega 3 are needed to redress the imbalance to under 1:3 in order to show significant behavioural improvements. It’s a step in the right direction at least and suggests that omega 3 supplementation is the way forward.
Omega 3 oils are found in flax seeds (best ground fresh and eaten right away), walnuts and their oil, and fish oils. The blockbuster omega 3 oil is Antarctic Neptune Krill Oil, but Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend is also high quality. To read the rest of the article please follow the link:
http://www.3dpts.com/articles/ADHD_drugs_choices.html
Friday, 18 December 2009
Bodyweight exercises
The truth is most people do not need any equipment to start with and most people waste their time in the gym on machines performing isolated and dyfunctional exercise.
Training at home can be a real advantage especially in regards to saving time but before you go out and buy expenisve machines, kettlebells, free weights etc I recommend having a strong body first. Its called relative strength. Here are a list of exercises I recommend you do before moving onto anything foreign:
1. squat - ideally atleast 100 deep squats (if pain free) correctly, check out my previous article on the importance of the squat.
2. Full pushups - Multiples
3. Plank position for more than 1 minute
4 Find a rail or tree or go to the kids playground and perform at least 1 full pull up
The progressions would then be:
1. Pistol (single leg squat)
2. Single hand pushup or muliples
3. Plank position for over 2 minutes - plus alternatives of 1 foot high, 1 hand high
4. Multiple pull ups to the king - 1 hand pull up. Also another tweak is wrapping a bar with a towel to make it thicker.
Here is a great book just released by an ex prisioner - who made mastering body weight exercises his thing behind bars. http://www.dragondoor.com/b41.html
Here is some inspiration from the 'Evil' Russian Pawel on bodyweight exercises http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef5O8AWnTTg
And then Steve Cotter taking the pistol squat to new heights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL_n0ITXxSw
Enjoy.
Training at home can be a real advantage especially in regards to saving time but before you go out and buy expenisve machines, kettlebells, free weights etc I recommend having a strong body first. Its called relative strength. Here are a list of exercises I recommend you do before moving onto anything foreign:
1. squat - ideally atleast 100 deep squats (if pain free) correctly, check out my previous article on the importance of the squat.
2. Full pushups - Multiples
3. Plank position for more than 1 minute
4 Find a rail or tree or go to the kids playground and perform at least 1 full pull up
The progressions would then be:
1. Pistol (single leg squat)
2. Single hand pushup or muliples
3. Plank position for over 2 minutes - plus alternatives of 1 foot high, 1 hand high
4. Multiple pull ups to the king - 1 hand pull up. Also another tweak is wrapping a bar with a towel to make it thicker.
Here is a great book just released by an ex prisioner - who made mastering body weight exercises his thing behind bars. http://www.dragondoor.com/b41.html
Here is some inspiration from the 'Evil' Russian Pawel on bodyweight exercises http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef5O8AWnTTg
And then Steve Cotter taking the pistol squat to new heights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL_n0ITXxSw
Enjoy.
Monday, 14 December 2009
The Squat: King Of All Exercises - Part 2
In Part 1 we took a holistic look at the importance of squatting in everyday life and some of the reasons why we, and some of the best strength and conditioning coaches around, think the squat is the ‘King of All Exercises’.
Today we’ll look at practical considerations when squatting as part of your workout - what makes a good squat, squatting technique, common muscular restrictions, and progressions if you’re currently unable to perform a full squat.
So why is the full squat such a great exercise?
At 3D Personal Training we use the full squat for weight loss, total body toning, strength training, conditioning, increasing athletic and sporting performance, increasing joint stability, and injury reduction amongst others. It’s not just an exercise for the big guys down at the gym but something everyone can enjoy whether you choose to use weights at all or throw 80kg on each side of the bar.
The reason it’s so effective is that it works pretty much every muscle in your body – and at upper end of the load and/or intensity scale it’ll even work the small muscles in your face. (1)
When pretty much every muscle in your body is getting a workout, a tremendous number of calories are burned. Squatting also adds active tissue – muscle - all over your body, and as we know adding active tissue is essential to weight loss because muscle has a high energy requirement even when not working. That muscle also aids in joint stability and injury reduction, sporting performance, and overall body tone. Not bad for a single exercise!
In short, it’s fantastic for anyone who wants to lose weight, tone up, improve their performance, is time limited or just look and feel their best.
What makes a good full squat?
The first and foremost consideration is avoiding the risk of injury through proper technique, and we can achieve that by setting ourselves up correctly, descending into the squat and ascending from the squat with good form. In figures 1 – 4 below we show good squat technique:
To check out the rest of this article please follow the link http://www.3dpts.com/articles/squat_part_2.html
Today we’ll look at practical considerations when squatting as part of your workout - what makes a good squat, squatting technique, common muscular restrictions, and progressions if you’re currently unable to perform a full squat.
So why is the full squat such a great exercise?
At 3D Personal Training we use the full squat for weight loss, total body toning, strength training, conditioning, increasing athletic and sporting performance, increasing joint stability, and injury reduction amongst others. It’s not just an exercise for the big guys down at the gym but something everyone can enjoy whether you choose to use weights at all or throw 80kg on each side of the bar.
The reason it’s so effective is that it works pretty much every muscle in your body – and at upper end of the load and/or intensity scale it’ll even work the small muscles in your face. (1)
When pretty much every muscle in your body is getting a workout, a tremendous number of calories are burned. Squatting also adds active tissue – muscle - all over your body, and as we know adding active tissue is essential to weight loss because muscle has a high energy requirement even when not working. That muscle also aids in joint stability and injury reduction, sporting performance, and overall body tone. Not bad for a single exercise!
In short, it’s fantastic for anyone who wants to lose weight, tone up, improve their performance, is time limited or just look and feel their best.
What makes a good full squat?
The first and foremost consideration is avoiding the risk of injury through proper technique, and we can achieve that by setting ourselves up correctly, descending into the squat and ascending from the squat with good form. In figures 1 – 4 below we show good squat technique:
To check out the rest of this article please follow the link http://www.3dpts.com/articles/squat_part_2.html
Sunday, 13 December 2009
The Squat: King Of All Exercises - Part 1
‘If you ain’t got squat you ain’t got squat’ say's Gary Gray a leading Physical Therapist and considered the father of modern day thoughts on function.
‘First and foremost when it comes to squatting, if you can’t, you must!’ say's Paul Chek one of the leaders in Personal Training education
That’s pretty big talk, so why do we think the squat is the single most beneficial exercise known to humankind, and why do so many of the world’s elite personal trainers and strength trainers call the squat the ‘King of All Exercises’?
Function for life
The squat is one of the most fundamental human movement patterns. When we start training our bodies to function correctly for sporting excellence, rehabilitation from injury, for freedom of movement, injury prevention and wellbeing in day to day life, the squat is where we should start.
When we think about the squat, we generally think of the big guys down at the gym, or watching weightlifters at the Olympics. They have a bar over the back of their shoulders with lots of weights on it, bend their knees, flex their hips and ankles, ending in a position where the heels of their feet are almost touching their glutes.
The fact is though that we use squats every day – lifting, walking up and down the stairs, getting into and out of your car, sitting, standing up from being seated or lying, dancing, jumping, cycling, skiing, golfing and running all involve a partial squatting movement.
As you can see, if you can’t squat properly and with adequate strength, you’re in big trouble because at worst you won’t be able to perform this essential movement at all, and at best you’ll risk injury.
At the thin end of the wedge you’ll have to ask your other muscles and joints to compensate for that lack of proper squat movement, creating imbalances throughout your body and eventually leading to a minor or major injury.
So what is a squat?
A squat can be one or two legged. You’re performing a partial squat anytime you bend a knee (knee flexion), anytime you bend your upper body forwards (hip flexion), and anytime the angle between your foot and the front of your lower leg decreases (foot dorsiflexion). Generally you’ll do all three to some extent at the same time.
A squat can be performed with your body parts moving backwards or forwards (sagittal plane), to the side (frontal plane), or while twisting (transverse plane) – and it often involves all three!
A full squat in the classic sense is the one we’ve described above, where your feet are flat on the floor, the tops of your thighs touch your abdomen and your hamstrings rest against the back of your lower legs (calves).
You can see that squatting is fundamental to functional human movement.
Squatting and evolution
Before we had sofa’s at home, chairs at the office and seats in cars, we had the ground. We lived most of our lives there, eating, preparing food and cooking when we discovered how to make fire, harvesting food, working, socialising and going to the toilet (more on that later). Most of our tools and belongings lived on the ground too, so we spent most of our time there. The squat was essential to survival.
Anyone who has spent any time in Asia will see that the squat is alive and well in those countries of the world. In Western countries though, where we spend a great deal of time sitting, we hardly, if ever, squat anymore – it’s a great irony that in the modern West we now consider it an exercise.
That’s pretty bad, because it means an ill health epidemic: fatigue, poor digestion and elimination and the diseases that accompany it, obesity, spinal and postural imbalances among many others.
Squatting for weight loss & total body conditioning
We firmly believe that the full squat is the best single exercise you can perform to achieve weight loss and total body conditioning. Even when using just your own body weight or light to moderate weights, almost all of the muscles in your body will be activated.
As highly regarded health and fitness practitioner Paul Chek says:
‘Many respectable strength and conditioning experts feel that if they had to choose only one exercise to condition an athlete, the squat would provide the greatest overall benefit.
This is because the squat is a free body movement that requires use of every muscle in the body. Given enough load and/or intensity even small muscles in the face will contract.’
When pretty much every muscle in your body is getting a workout, a tremendous number of calories are burned. It also adds active tissue – muscle - all over your body, and as we know adding active tissue is essential to weight loss because muscle has a high energy requirement even when not working.
In short, it’s a fantastic exercise for anyone who wants to lose weight, tone up or just look and feel their best, it’s great for improved athletic and sporting performance, and as we’ll see it’s also amazing for overall health.
So why is the squat so good for digestion & elimination?
In Asian countries (at least outside of tourist hotels) you’ll rarely find a western style toilet. Instead you’ll find a toilet that is flat to the ground, with two foot spaces either side of a hole. Mostly these are made of porcelain but I’ve also seen many other variations (a single wooden plank over a huge pit being used by a whole village (not together) being the most interesting – you get a core stability and balance workout at the same time as great bowel function!).
The full squat compresses your lower abdomen with the right thigh pushing faeces uphill along the ascending colon and into the transverse colon, while your left thigh compresses the descending colon, eventually moving everything into your rectum.(1)
A full squat powerfully facilitates evacuation of the colon, helping to prevent constipation and toxic build-up in the bowels. This in turn also helps digestion and absorption of nutrients – when your intestinal system is backed up your stomach has to hold on to its contents longer than usual, meaning poor digestion as well as reflux and heartburn.(1)
The longer faeces are kept in your colon, the more they putrefy, creating a cess pool inside you. Of course there are a range of other measures needed for healthy bowel movements, such as a good intake of fibre and maintaining your good bacteria, but the squat is another weapon in the fight against foul faeces.
Squatting also helps to pump blood, and gives a good massage not only to your intestines but also to a number of other organs. It stimulates the movement of essential bodily fluids, helps nutrient absorption and facilitates removal of waste products and toxic substances in your body.
Squatting, overall health, relaxation and energy gain
The benefits of squatting go far beyond weight loss, conditioning, digestion and elimination. It’s also great for overall health, vitality, energy and spinal health.
The legendary Chi Gung master Mantak Chia writes:
‘One of the most wonderful Tan Tien Chi Kung exercises undoubtedly is squatting.
More than any other posture, squatting opens the lower lumbar vertebrae and thereby prevents hernia. It also activates the latent motor force of the pelvis, opens the groin, flexes the hip joints, induces downward pressure and release of waste, gases and toxins, and reactivates the colon. By gravity pull it provokes, it stirs the earth Chi current to move and bounce upward to the perineum, awakening the spinal fluids in the sacrum, and opening and elongating the spine. This action rebalances the vertebrae and eases the Chi current upward to the crown.
Additionally, the squatting posture massages the lungs and heart. The lower Tan Tien helps the heart by facilitating the Chi and blood flow.
Of particular importance is the role of squatting in lengthening the psoas, the muscles in the groin area that rotate the hip joint and flex the spine.
By relaxing the psoas, unity between the lower and upper parts of the body is promoted. A flexible psoas makes it possible for the Chi to flow freely upward, connecting the lower lumbar with the lower part of the groin.’(2)
Breathing squats can be used to relax your mind and build energy throughout your body, especially for those who have high stress lifestyles. Your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS – also known as the digestive or anabolic nervous system) regulates the ‘rest and relax’ activities of your body, in contrast to the ‘fight or flight’ response that the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) regulates.(1)
If you lead a high pressure lifestyle or just need to chill out, breathing squats are for you. They will help the PNS to calm your mind, re-balance your hormones and build positive energy throughout your body.
To perform a breathing squat, exhale fully on your way down, pausing briefly before inhaling on the way up into a standing position. Let your arms rest either by your sides or on your knees, your hands finishing close to your feet.
Just don’t try to make the movement too rigorous – remember, it’s a relaxation technique! Feel your breath move into and out of your body, counting the breaths.
We recommend doing as many as you can throughout the day when you have a quiet moment – try 30 to 100 per day if you can. You’ll soon feel calmer, more energised, flexible and less stressed.
Squatting is for everyone
Squatting is not only essential to human function, great for your digestion and elimination, and easy to perform anytime anywhere, it’s also an exercise that everyone can do and that is beneficial to everyone, whether you’re a full time homemaker, desk bound office worker, casual football player or Olympic athlete.
You’ll prime your body for everyday life, avoid injury, eliminate waste, relax your mind and body, develop muscle, say goodbye to muscular and skeletal imbalances and start to move more freely.
The squat really is the ‘King of All Exercises’ - as our favourite physical therapist Gary Gray says: ‘If you ain’t got squat you ain’t got squat’.
In Part 2 we’ll look at practical considerations when squatting as part of your workout - what makes a good squat, squatting technique, common muscular restrictions, and progressions if you’re currently unable to perform a full squat – all illustrated with photo’s so you can see for yourself how to integrate the squat into your workout and into your life.
‘First and foremost when it comes to squatting, if you can’t, you must!’ say's Paul Chek one of the leaders in Personal Training education
That’s pretty big talk, so why do we think the squat is the single most beneficial exercise known to humankind, and why do so many of the world’s elite personal trainers and strength trainers call the squat the ‘King of All Exercises’?
Function for life
The squat is one of the most fundamental human movement patterns. When we start training our bodies to function correctly for sporting excellence, rehabilitation from injury, for freedom of movement, injury prevention and wellbeing in day to day life, the squat is where we should start.
When we think about the squat, we generally think of the big guys down at the gym, or watching weightlifters at the Olympics. They have a bar over the back of their shoulders with lots of weights on it, bend their knees, flex their hips and ankles, ending in a position where the heels of their feet are almost touching their glutes.
The fact is though that we use squats every day – lifting, walking up and down the stairs, getting into and out of your car, sitting, standing up from being seated or lying, dancing, jumping, cycling, skiing, golfing and running all involve a partial squatting movement.
As you can see, if you can’t squat properly and with adequate strength, you’re in big trouble because at worst you won’t be able to perform this essential movement at all, and at best you’ll risk injury.
At the thin end of the wedge you’ll have to ask your other muscles and joints to compensate for that lack of proper squat movement, creating imbalances throughout your body and eventually leading to a minor or major injury.
So what is a squat?
A squat can be one or two legged. You’re performing a partial squat anytime you bend a knee (knee flexion), anytime you bend your upper body forwards (hip flexion), and anytime the angle between your foot and the front of your lower leg decreases (foot dorsiflexion). Generally you’ll do all three to some extent at the same time.
A squat can be performed with your body parts moving backwards or forwards (sagittal plane), to the side (frontal plane), or while twisting (transverse plane) – and it often involves all three!
A full squat in the classic sense is the one we’ve described above, where your feet are flat on the floor, the tops of your thighs touch your abdomen and your hamstrings rest against the back of your lower legs (calves).
You can see that squatting is fundamental to functional human movement.
Squatting and evolution
Before we had sofa’s at home, chairs at the office and seats in cars, we had the ground. We lived most of our lives there, eating, preparing food and cooking when we discovered how to make fire, harvesting food, working, socialising and going to the toilet (more on that later). Most of our tools and belongings lived on the ground too, so we spent most of our time there. The squat was essential to survival.
Anyone who has spent any time in Asia will see that the squat is alive and well in those countries of the world. In Western countries though, where we spend a great deal of time sitting, we hardly, if ever, squat anymore – it’s a great irony that in the modern West we now consider it an exercise.
That’s pretty bad, because it means an ill health epidemic: fatigue, poor digestion and elimination and the diseases that accompany it, obesity, spinal and postural imbalances among many others.
Squatting for weight loss & total body conditioning
We firmly believe that the full squat is the best single exercise you can perform to achieve weight loss and total body conditioning. Even when using just your own body weight or light to moderate weights, almost all of the muscles in your body will be activated.
As highly regarded health and fitness practitioner Paul Chek says:
‘Many respectable strength and conditioning experts feel that if they had to choose only one exercise to condition an athlete, the squat would provide the greatest overall benefit.
This is because the squat is a free body movement that requires use of every muscle in the body. Given enough load and/or intensity even small muscles in the face will contract.’
When pretty much every muscle in your body is getting a workout, a tremendous number of calories are burned. It also adds active tissue – muscle - all over your body, and as we know adding active tissue is essential to weight loss because muscle has a high energy requirement even when not working.
In short, it’s a fantastic exercise for anyone who wants to lose weight, tone up or just look and feel their best, it’s great for improved athletic and sporting performance, and as we’ll see it’s also amazing for overall health.
So why is the squat so good for digestion & elimination?
In Asian countries (at least outside of tourist hotels) you’ll rarely find a western style toilet. Instead you’ll find a toilet that is flat to the ground, with two foot spaces either side of a hole. Mostly these are made of porcelain but I’ve also seen many other variations (a single wooden plank over a huge pit being used by a whole village (not together) being the most interesting – you get a core stability and balance workout at the same time as great bowel function!).
The full squat compresses your lower abdomen with the right thigh pushing faeces uphill along the ascending colon and into the transverse colon, while your left thigh compresses the descending colon, eventually moving everything into your rectum.(1)
A full squat powerfully facilitates evacuation of the colon, helping to prevent constipation and toxic build-up in the bowels. This in turn also helps digestion and absorption of nutrients – when your intestinal system is backed up your stomach has to hold on to its contents longer than usual, meaning poor digestion as well as reflux and heartburn.(1)
The longer faeces are kept in your colon, the more they putrefy, creating a cess pool inside you. Of course there are a range of other measures needed for healthy bowel movements, such as a good intake of fibre and maintaining your good bacteria, but the squat is another weapon in the fight against foul faeces.
Squatting also helps to pump blood, and gives a good massage not only to your intestines but also to a number of other organs. It stimulates the movement of essential bodily fluids, helps nutrient absorption and facilitates removal of waste products and toxic substances in your body.
Squatting, overall health, relaxation and energy gain
The benefits of squatting go far beyond weight loss, conditioning, digestion and elimination. It’s also great for overall health, vitality, energy and spinal health.
The legendary Chi Gung master Mantak Chia writes:
‘One of the most wonderful Tan Tien Chi Kung exercises undoubtedly is squatting.
More than any other posture, squatting opens the lower lumbar vertebrae and thereby prevents hernia. It also activates the latent motor force of the pelvis, opens the groin, flexes the hip joints, induces downward pressure and release of waste, gases and toxins, and reactivates the colon. By gravity pull it provokes, it stirs the earth Chi current to move and bounce upward to the perineum, awakening the spinal fluids in the sacrum, and opening and elongating the spine. This action rebalances the vertebrae and eases the Chi current upward to the crown.
Additionally, the squatting posture massages the lungs and heart. The lower Tan Tien helps the heart by facilitating the Chi and blood flow.
Of particular importance is the role of squatting in lengthening the psoas, the muscles in the groin area that rotate the hip joint and flex the spine.
By relaxing the psoas, unity between the lower and upper parts of the body is promoted. A flexible psoas makes it possible for the Chi to flow freely upward, connecting the lower lumbar with the lower part of the groin.’(2)
Breathing squats can be used to relax your mind and build energy throughout your body, especially for those who have high stress lifestyles. Your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS – also known as the digestive or anabolic nervous system) regulates the ‘rest and relax’ activities of your body, in contrast to the ‘fight or flight’ response that the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) regulates.(1)
If you lead a high pressure lifestyle or just need to chill out, breathing squats are for you. They will help the PNS to calm your mind, re-balance your hormones and build positive energy throughout your body.
To perform a breathing squat, exhale fully on your way down, pausing briefly before inhaling on the way up into a standing position. Let your arms rest either by your sides or on your knees, your hands finishing close to your feet.
Just don’t try to make the movement too rigorous – remember, it’s a relaxation technique! Feel your breath move into and out of your body, counting the breaths.
We recommend doing as many as you can throughout the day when you have a quiet moment – try 30 to 100 per day if you can. You’ll soon feel calmer, more energised, flexible and less stressed.
Squatting is for everyone
Squatting is not only essential to human function, great for your digestion and elimination, and easy to perform anytime anywhere, it’s also an exercise that everyone can do and that is beneficial to everyone, whether you’re a full time homemaker, desk bound office worker, casual football player or Olympic athlete.
You’ll prime your body for everyday life, avoid injury, eliminate waste, relax your mind and body, develop muscle, say goodbye to muscular and skeletal imbalances and start to move more freely.
The squat really is the ‘King of All Exercises’ - as our favourite physical therapist Gary Gray says: ‘If you ain’t got squat you ain’t got squat’.
In Part 2 we’ll look at practical considerations when squatting as part of your workout - what makes a good squat, squatting technique, common muscular restrictions, and progressions if you’re currently unable to perform a full squat – all illustrated with photo’s so you can see for yourself how to integrate the squat into your workout and into your life.
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