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 we offer 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 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. 

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.

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

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.

Today's workout - high volume

For the last month I have been focussing on developing strength through more nervous system action so low volume ánd long rests between sets, with the deadlift being one of my main exercises.

This week I am reintroducing more high volume with shorter rests to develop strenght through muscle action. Tonight my workout consisted of:

1. Wide grip Chinups 70 reps in 10 mins
2. Unstable pushups using the Omgym (similar to gymnastic rings) 70 in 10 mins
3. Followed by my 'wheel of death' :) as I call it which is just a wheel on a rod that you extend out holding a plank style position
4. Finishing with 10 mins of skipping and then 3 sun salutations. 40 mins in total

Post workout shake:

• Hemp protein
• Half a banana
• Full teaspoon of coconut fat melted
• Handfull of soaked almonds
• Pinch of cinnamon
• A glass of water

All blended up - beautiful!

Tuesday night Workout

Just finished a workout consisting of the following exercises:

1. Single leg deadlifts with Kettlebell
2. Pistol squats
3. Turkish getups
4. Overhead press with Kettelbell

Then followed by some interval training for 10 minutes  (45 secs on 15 secs off) with my flow in.  http://www.flowin.com/index.php Using a wall climber technique.

Now time for a brown rice protein shake :)

Success Through Synergy

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

In the field of health and fitness, there are many effective techniques to help us achieve our optimal weight, appearance and fitness level. When used in isolation however, many of these techniques provide only short term results and often produce a yo-yo effect (think fad diets). We’d like to show you how your goals can be effectively achieved through a synergistic approach.

Synergy can be described as “the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.”
At unique³ we firmly believe (and our experience proves) that success in achieving your health and fitness goals depends on a synergy of 3 dimension: the right mental approach, functional physical training, and supportive nutrition and lifestyle.

Here’s why…

Mental approach

Effective goal-setting is where the road to success begins. It’s essential to understand where you are now in terms of your personal goals, and where you want to be in order to obtain clarity and purpose, and to be able to visualize your ultimate goal. Your goals need to come alive, so we encourage you to take the time to complete the following exercise and write the answers down in order to realize them:

Be bold – What is your ULTIMATE health/fitness dream?
Be honest – WHY do you want to achieve this, what will this outcome mean for you and allow you to DO?

Be connected – What will you SEE, HEAR and FEEL when you have it?

Be courageous – WHEN will you achieve it?
Be realistic – What are you WILLING to give up in order to get what you desire?

Be creative – How can you ENJOY the process while doing what is necessary to achieve your goals?

The secret to achieving a positive mental approach lies in how often you can be connected and aligned to these thoughts and feelings.
Physical training

In our experience there are three aspects of physical training that when addressed will bring success in achieving goals:

The need for muscle:

Muscle is one of your very best friends if you want to lose body fat, because it’s an active tissue that directly increases your rate of metabolism. Unfortunately, around the age of 30, our muscles begin to shrink, so it is imperative to regularly maintain or build them. When it comes to training, avoid fixed resistance machines as they allow no freedom for the muscles, literally boring them senseless with the same movement pattern and decreasing neuromuscular awareness at the same time. That’s a bad deal for your body. Choose free-weights or cables instead and try incorporating Swiss Balls (aka Physio Balls) to increase the neuromuscular demands. Additionally, think training “movements” not “muscles”; pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, bending and twisting are the basic movements of day-to-day life and we should try to mirror these during exercise.


Cardio in moderation:

It’s important not to overdo the cardiovascular exercise (e.g. cross-trainer or jogging), as this can lead to a decrease in muscle mass which reduces your ability to burn fat. We’re by no means suggesting that cardio exercise is bad. It’s essential for transporting nutrients to the cells via the bloodstream. When fat is released from storage centers (adipose cells) it travels through the bloodstream to be “burned”. However if there is a decrease in muscle mass, the body’s ability to burn fat is also decreased. As such, we recommend short-duration, high-intensity cardio to limit the possibility of losing muscle.


Flexibility:
Not only do our muscles shrink with age, but gravity, sedentary lifestyles and poor posture begins to take its toll as well! Bad posture can lead to injuries and regular bouts of associated pain. The details can be a little complex, but suffice to say there are muscles in your body that naturally become short and tight and others that get long and weak by nature. We need to stretch the shorter, tighter muscles and strengthen the longer, weaker muscles. For example when someone has a posture that resembles the Pink Panther – protruding head and rounded shoulders – the chest is one muscle that needs a good stretch. It’s important to only stretch what is tight though, as stretching the long and weak muscles will lead to further imbalances.


Supportive nutrition and lifestyle
What you eat and drink daily and the amount of rest you’re getting are absolutely vital if you want results, not only in terms of weight loss but also for optimal health. Here are three things you need to get right:


Eat to boost your metabolism
Largely, this means minimising your intake of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates, and eating frequent meals (no greater than four hours between each one) consisting of quality proteins (preferably from free range, chemical and hormone free animals), fibrous carbohydrates (above ground vegetables) starchy carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, brown rice), and good fats and oils (seeds, nuts, fish and olive oil). When it comes to the specific ratios of each macronutrient (especially the amount of starchy carbohydrates), it’s a case of listening to your body after each meal in order to account for bio-individuality and stress levels. We recommend using a food diary and recording after each meal (or at the end of the day) what you ate, including proportions and the respective reactions, e.g. satisfied, not satisfied, bloated, hungry, mentally-focused etc.


Drink plenty of water

The body is made up of around 75% water. Water is crucial when it comes to health because it plays a role in transporting nutrients, digestion, elimination of waste products, and detoxification – and those are the tip of the iceberg. Beware though, a “dry mouth” is not a safe indicator of thirst; it is actually a sign that the body is well into dehydration. How much water should we drink each day? That depends on several factors, including your weight and how active you are. To get an approximate amount in litres, try this formula: your weight in kg x 0.033 = the amount in litres per day you need to drink.


Get sufficient sleep
Sleep is another factor that has huge implications for your body. We consider sleep a major tipping point, and there have been many times when we’ve seen clients who are addressing the above points, but only achieve significant results by getting to bed earlier and sleeping a little longer.


Finally we’d would like to share the story of one our clients to illustrate the value of applying synergy in your life.

Fathima came to me because she wanted to change the way she looked before returning home after moving to London to study. She had previously tried all the usual diets and had also tried personal trainers who took her through workouts. But she achieved no lasting results with these individual approaches. So our first task was to realign Fathima’s mind-set with success through our goal setting exercise. The next step was giving her the framework to achieve success by teaching her about synergy. Here’s an extract of an email she sent us (used with kind permission).


“FIRST OF ALL, I MUST TELL U that I have been absolutely showered with compliments ever since I got off the plane here! I’ve had people come up to me and ask me what I’ve been ”taking”!!! It’s crazy, and quite a few people weren’t able to recognize me at all…I’ve also tried on my old clothes…and well…I’ve had to take in at least 5 inches on some of my shirts (which has been VERY satisfying indeed!!). The weirdest thing is that most people don’t believe me when I say it’s all down to a healthy diet, exercise and decent sleeping hours!!”


Is it time to get some synergy in your life?

The Art of Mastery

“All man’s well-being depends upon two things: one is the right choice of aim, of the end to which actions should tend, the other lies in the finding of the actions that lead to that end” – Aristotle

The right mental approach is a major factor in long term health and fitness success, particularly when it comes to commitment and following through on tasks. The right choice of aim and finding the actions that help to achieve are the two vital ingredients to mastery, both of yourself and your goals.

What is mastery?    

Mastery is a state of being.

“Consistency not perfection” is the catchphrase of our friend Paul Stephen Lubicz. Consistency is the mark of the master – it’s a state not a product. The minute you get locked into believing there is a perfect way to doing anything you become less open to other possibilities. Self growth stops and the self critical part of your mind can become a self defeating monster. Because those impossible ‘fixed’ ideals you’re holding onto can’t be met and the only thing that sets you up for is negative self image. Don’t get us wrong though, consistently doing an average job will bring average results, it’s only through the approach of excellence can true mastery be attained.

The fundamentals of Mastery

Recently I read an exceptional book by George Leonard called ‘Mastery’. In it Leonard emphasizes the point of living in the current moment, and even accepting and enjoying the plateau we all experience from time to time.

So how do you best move towards mastery? To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself. Rather than being frustrated while on the plateau, you learn to appreciate and enjoy it just as much as you do the upward surges:
“Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life.”

The 5 keys to fulfillment…

Leonard describes 5 master keys to long-term success and fulfillment, as:
1. Instruction – Find a master teacher
2. Practice – Masters love to practice, it’s their passion
3. Surrender – Surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline
4. Intentionality – Create the vision in colour
5. The Edge – Push the envelope

Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker, Master

Which one are you?

The Dabbler: Approaches each new sport, relationship, career with enormous enthusiasm. They love the ritual of getting started, new equipment. But they only seek instant gratification and when they reach that plateau they quit and look for the next bed to jump in.

The Obsessive: Makes the journey painful. Results are the only thing that counts. When they reach the plateau the obsessive bangs, fights and does whatever it takes to knock through it.

The Hacker: Stays on the plateau indefinitely. Does enough to get by and stays in the comfort zone.
The Master: Simply anticipates the plateau, which leads to power. They don’t fight it, stress about it or quit. They practice dedication and practice diligently, for the sake of the practice itself. When climbing the mountain be aware of the peak ahead, but don’t keep looking at it. Keep your eyes on the road, and when you reach the top just keep going…

“Do not think that this is all there is. More and more wonderful teachings exist – the sword is unfathomable” – Master Swordsman Yamaoka Tesshu