My Thoughts on Crossfit

One of the fastest growing fitness trends in the world today is Crossfit. Unless you live in a cave or under a rock, you have probably heard of somebody giving this trend a shot. I have seen many individuals in the fitness community give their opinions on this topic so I figured I would as well.

In today's society, we are dealing with a growing obesity epidemic as well as more and more people becoming more sedentary. I think it is utter nonsense to claim that any one fitness trend is better than another, so instead, we should all be aiming to move more, and I have always said that doing something is always better than doing nothing. Having said that, any individual who is looking for a change in their health and fitness journey or somebody who is just starting out on that path needs to assess their own goals and aspirations. The foundation of any fitness program should be built upon an individual's own personal goals, and to try and group all goals into one basket is utter nonsense. Not every wishes to bench press 300 pounds. Crossft, like any other fitness style or trend, has many pros and cons associated with it which I will address below.

What is Crossfit?

A simple Google search can answer this question for you, but in case you don't wish to see for yourself, I will do my best to concisely explain exactly what Crossfit is. Crossfit was originally designed to be a broad, diverse fitness style in order to train special operations academies in strength and fitness conditioning such as police forces, firefighters, military, etc. The principles behind these training modalities were originally focused on these groups because of the wide range of physical feats one would have to endure on the job. For example, a firefighter may need to scale a flight of stairs as fast as possible and then carry an injured person out of the building and away from danger. The programs that are offered are touted as being "scalable" so anyone from professional athletes to senior citizens can participate to their fullest capabilities.

Crossfit Training Goals

As I stated previously, the foundation for any fitness program should be the goals of the participant. Crossfit is no different here, however, they take a much broader approach. The mentality that is held by its faithful is that, "Why be really good at one thing (or a few things), when you can be competent at a bunch of things?" Most specifically, Crossfitters look to be 'competent' in each of 10 recognized fitness domains, which can be found in their Foundations. From their website: "Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist." Crossfitters take pride in their 'completeness'.

The Pros of Crossfit

There is no denying the fact that there are some incredibly athletic individuals who practice and even compete in Crossfit. There is even a "Crossfit Games" which is like their version of the Olympics. Like-minded trainees get together and compete to see who is the best at specific 'circuits' which are usually a combination of various exercises combined into single events. By following suit with what I said in the intro, I feel that Crossfit is doing a tremendous job at encouraging many folks to turn off their tvs and computers and getting out to get active.

By competing and working out in groups like Crossfit classes promote, certain people who thrive off of these types of situations will no doubt have a phenomenal rush of enjoyment. Not only that, but the workouts push you to your absolute limits, and then have you try and come back to beat your time from a previous session. A self-rewarding experience that not only makes you feel young, but can give that euphoric feeling deep down inside. Intense exercise also yields many benefits for individuals looking to reach optimal health.

The Cons of Crossfit

1. Rhabdomyolysis - According to PubMed: "Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle fibers that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is harmful to the kidney and often causes kidney damage." It is entirely possible for anyone to overtrain themselves to this point by using many other forms of fitness, but this condition seems to appear time and time again from Crossfit training styles. There are plenty of safety recommendations to prevent such an occurrence, however, the culture of Crossfit gyms appears to illicit these types of injuries out of their participants. The Crossfit website itself acknowledges this, mentioning it in their FAQs stating, "Don't kill anyone – Rhabdomyolysis is a potentially lethal threat to newcomers; be very careful. This is a very real and present danger. Avoiding “rhabdo’ should be the primary concern of first and second time workouts. Throwing a unknown newbie into an established group class is an invitation to rhabdo." Despite the fact that is a very serious issue, Crossfit appears to feel the need to poke fun at this;

In one specific instance, a Navy Crossfitter by the name of Makimba Mimms suffered Rhabdomyolysis, which he claimed resulted from a Crossfit workout, so he decided to file a lawsuit against the company. Because of this, there is now a Crossfit "WOD" (workout of the day) sarcastically named "Makimba" - names for these WODs are usually held by female names. Not only that, but Crossfit has a video on their website showing children performing "Makimba" as if this is a safe practice for all with absolutely no hazards whatsoever.

2. Crossfit certification - Anyone can get certified. Let that one sink in for a few seconds...ANYONE. All you need is $1000 and a weekend to learn the ins and outs of powerlifting. I for one believe that we need as many people in our society to promote health and fitness as much as possible, but there are far better (and safer) methods to promote an active lifestyle than having unqualified instructors telling Joe Couch Potato to thrust heavy weights over his head.

3. Specificity Training (or lack thereof) - The human body is a remarkable thing. When you train it to do something, with repetition and proper training modalities, your body gets better at that 'thing'. This is called training. For athletes, this is how they make their living, off of what is known as the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands). Someone training for a marathon would never use heavy back squats as a staple in their training regimen, and likewise Olympic powerlifters would never run 21 miles to improve their strength. Crossfit knows this and I discussed this earlier that they feel that it is much more important to be 'good' at a bunch of things rather than be 'great' at a few things. Fine, Crossfit is great at pushing you to your limits, but please do not try and sell this to athletes as a way to improve their game. Yes, these training modalities can translate over to some sports to improve physical endurance, but all athletic training eventually needs to reach a point of specificity where training and skill development mesh together.

4. The Workouts Don't Really Make Any Sense - Research has shown that for maximal "power" gains from training comes from heavy resistance being used within a 2-5 repetition range. The snatch for example is a "power" exercise that improves total body strength and a power hip drive (advantageous in many sports). Having said this, there is a Crossfit WOD (just one of many examples) where individuals are asked to snatch 135 pounds for 30 repetitions. Why? Once your body progresses beyond the 15 repetition range, you are now "endurance" training. Why on earth would you combine a power exercise with endurance properties? There are many examples of this. Such examples are also found in the exercise styles that are used. For example, a Crossfit saying is "no matter what it takes to get your chin over the bar, just DO IT!" This creates the potential for incredible muscular imbalance and poor form as the trainees will simply aim to complete something, often times with complete disregard for personal safety or proper form. Which leads me to...

5. Dangerous - Time and time again I see incorrect form used on many different exercises. Not only can this increase the risk for injury, but it can completely defeat the purpose of an exercise completely. One such exercise that I have seen performed on many occasions that literally scares me every time is the "Kipping Handstand Pushup". By pushing yourself to your limit in such a compromising position such as this increases the risk of injury immensely! Not only that, but the "kipping" motion (coiling the legs by bending the knees and then 'thrusting' upwards) takes much of the emphasis off of the deltoids (shoulders) which is intended to be worked in such an exercise. Yes, I know, there are plenty of other exercises that have inherent dangers associated with them, but that is the idea of years of research and experience within the physical fitness field of study. There are MUCH safer and more effective ways to work the same muscle group, especially for those that do not have the strength to do a handstand pushup. You can watch an example of this below (fast forward to the 0:38 mark to see the move being performed).

6. The "Cult" - For me, this has to be one of the worst parts of Crossfit. I have run into quite a few Crossfitters who have their noses extremely far into the air. Let me state this; I think Crossfit is great. I think Crossfit works wonders for the right crowd. I do not think this is for everyone. I don't really care if you do Crossfit or not. Do not think that you are better at everything just because you can do a "Fran" in under 5 minutes. I have also met some Crossfitters who are extremely educated, knowledgeable and in phenomenal overall physical shape. Having said all of that, I feel these types of personalities can be seen everywhere. There always seems to be a select few from any workout fanaticism (Cyclists, Crossfitters, "Jocks", yoga-ers, barefoot runners, etc.) that believe their workout system is the "cat's pajamas". I'm sure it speaks to the boredom and loneliness of our modern life. People gotta have something to believe in, whether it's god, rock hard abs or the saving grace of doing a "Cindy" in record time - for the most part, the point of the belief-system is to give one a sense of superiority over others. If you are a fan of Crossfit and love it, great! But similar to those folks that wish to drive down the street with the windows of their car down so that everyone can hear their blaring music, I have some news for you, nobody really cares what you do to stay fit and healthy (except maybe for fellow Crossfitters) so keep it to yourself.

In Summary

I may receive some flak from some of you Crossfitters out there, and that is fine, you are more than entitled to your opinion. Let me remind you that I think Crossfit is great for getting in shape. There are some inherent dangers associated with it (along with all forms of fitness) that I believe are not worth the risk for many of the individuals who decide to 'give it a shot'. There appears to be a greater risk of injury doing these types of exercises while sometimes being supervised by unqualified trainers. Many folks out there should look to attempt far safer methods of physical activity and then maybe 'building up to' Crossfit.

Crossfit, like many other health and wellness endeavors, is a business and above all else, wishes to make money. Modern society, the way it is today, people are constantly looking towards becoming 'thin' and 'looking good' faster than ever before. I think it has become a product of our fast-paced lifestyles that causes many to always look for the quickest fix possible. These two factors have lead to (in my honest opinion) a tremendous popularity rise in Crossfit because of the 'rush' you get from doing a workout so intense. If it is this hard, it must give me the fast results that I am looking for, which is not always the case, and certainly should not be the intention if safety has to be pushed aside.

Also, athletes training for a specific sport should be encouraged to train in much more specific modalities to aid in their athletic performances. Crossfit trains individuals to be 'good' at a number of things, but not 'great' at any one thing, and they even proclaim that. Crossfit is one tool, in a list of many, that can help certain people with their goals, but it is certainly not for everyone!

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_investigative/the_truth_about_crossfit
http://journal.crossfit.com/2002/04/foundations.tpl#featureArticleTitle
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001505/
http://physicalliving.com/what-about-crossfit-tuesday-qa-with-john-sifferman/

Anabolic Hormones Part 3: Insulin-Like Growth Factors

 

In parts 1 and 2 we covered testosterone and growth hormone. Today, in part 3 of 3, we will learn about insulin-like growth factors.

What is it?

I will give a very condensed explanation of what insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are. In a process that takes anywhere from 8 to 29 hours to complete, growth hormone stimulates liver cell DNA to synthesize IGFs. The IGFs then attach to binding proteins in order to be transported by the blood stream to specific tissues throughout the body. The stress created from resistance training influences the hormonal response of IGFs so that they can stimulate growth of muscle, nerve, and bone tissue remodeling. Many of these hormonal pathways are still not understood as the interactions between hormones and their different pathways are so diverse.

Exercise Responses of Insulin-Like Growth Factors

IGF-1 has been the most studied in the context of exercise because of its immense role in protein anabolism. There is still so much to this process that is still unknown because of the 8 to 29 hour window of operation from IGFs. Researchers do believe that it is possible to initiate IGF synthesis caused by the disruption or breakdown of cellular material in the body from resistance training, including fat cells and muscle cells.

Having said that, there have also been studies that have shown the release of IGFs from fat cells caused by non exercise related stress. IGFs are stored it fairly large quantities in our fat cells but in much lower amounts in our muscle cells.

One thing that is for certain however, is that cases have been shown where if an individual's IGF concentrations are low prior to a resistance workout, the levels have risen post-workout.

Training Adaptations of IGFs

Responses of IGFs to heavy resistance training is still unknown, but levels of IGFs prior to a workout appear to affect the levels post-workout. For example, if an individual has lower levels of IGF prior to their workout, then they would see an increase due to resistance training. However, if their levels are high prior to their workout, they would see no increase, as if their body has already reached a level suited to their needs.

Mechano Growth Factor (MGF)

IGFs that are produced directly in the muscle cells are known as mechano growth factors (MGFs). These are produced in response to muscular overload and stretch (resistance training). It has been suggested that while IGFs promote the initiation of protein synthesis, MGFs initiate the growth or hypertrophy of the muscle cells themselves. MGFs have received great interest from bodybuilders as the direct injection of MGFs into the muscles appear to be a primary anabolic hormone for muscle hypertrophy.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition
http://www.steroids.ro/steroid-profiles/mechano-growth-factor.html
Photo: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2GF1_Insulin-Like_Growth_Factor_Nmr_Minimum_Average_Structure01.png

Set Point Theory and Body Composition

There are more and more studies done every day discussing the obesity epidemic that is sweeping across Western Civilization. Yes, this is an epidemic and if you don't believe so, then you must have your head in the sand, but we can save that discussion for future blogs.

The studies that have been done lately have been focusing on how much genetics plays a role in our body compositions. We all know that members of the same family look alike. Eye color, hair color, proportions of limbs, size of your muscles, etc. all seem to be genetically based. Why on earth would we assume that body composition (percentage of non-lean mass most specifically) is not based on this same principle then?

There have been numbers thrown about, and to be honest I am not the one that is going to give you a final answer on this, but from what I have read, some researchers suggest that as much as 40-65% of our body compositions are genetically-based.

A recent theory that has caught my attention is called the "Set Point Theory". This theory believes that everyone essentially has a (for lack of better terms) 'basement' weight and 'ceiling' weight. These are referred to as 'set points'. Between these set points, you create a theoretical area of where your weight, and for the most part, body composition, falls based on your genetics, or as theory goes.

This does seem to make sense and even lines up with an article that I recently read in the New York Times called the Fat Trap. This set point theory and the NYT article discusses the idea that individuals who try and fluctuate beyond their 'set points' have a helluva time as their body's survival mechanisms kick in to try and prevent too much chaos.

The idea here is that, let's theoretically say that your lower set point is around 160 pounds as a grown male. Your dad was always tall and slender, and was skinny his entire life, and since you look just like him, you fall into roughly the same set points that he does.

Now let's say you are currently 170 pounds, you feel like training for a marathon to get back into shape and start training hard and dieting well. You begin to notice in the first few weeks of dieting and training that your weight starts coming off quite rapidly. Your body begins to get lean and mean, you look good and feel good, but your weight won't budge past 160 pounds.

This set point theory (as well as the Fat Trap article from NYT) believes that your body starts a process of slowing down your weight loss due to its fear that you are threatening its survival. Your body may then even start to initiate processes to make sure that your weight returns to where it was.

This may in fact be one of the single most startling revelations in the health and fitness industry as time and time again, individuals report serious struggles maintaining success after a dramatic weight loss. It could possibly come down to the fact that their bodies just simply initiate survival mechanisms.

So why is it that people get to the size that they do? This appears to be one of the questions that is puzzling researchers. It is certainly no secret that on a general scale, people are consuming far greater calories than they ever have throughout human history, while at the same time becoming far more sedentary than ever in human history.

This set point theory therefore has flaws in it...well not necessarily. For someone like myself, I have been quite lucky up to this point in my life. I have had a great childhood with plenty of activity and sports, and have always been a 'skinny kid'. Even now at the age of 27, I struggle to get my weight much higher than about 180 pounds. I am not bragging, just my genetics! That could all very well change and I may suddenly start gaining weight well beyond that 180 mark as I age and my metabolism slows, but I will discuss more of that later.

The point I heading towards, is that even though I was very active as I was younger, my diet wasn't the greatest. My family was always on the run and we lived off of fast food and deep fried foods. If my genetics were any different, I may be much larger than I am now. So how come some people gain so much weight over others?

The reasoning may lie in the difference between an individual's set points. For example, I seem to consistently stay between 170-180 pounds. Sure, if I put a lot of effort into it, I could probably get my weight up a bit higher than 180 and if I went on a hunger strike, my weight would probably dip below 170, but for the most part, those are my set points, a difference of about 10 pounds. For a lot of people, a life of abusing their bodies by consuming large quantities of calories combined with massive amounts of inactivity, can cause their upper set point to slowly ratchet higher and higher. Not only do they ratchet their upper set point up, but their lower one may come with it.

If we still use myself as an example and I neglect my body for the next 10-15 years and get my upper set point up to 280 pounds, my lower set point may also raise up to say 250-260 pounds. Now, when I try and get fit and healthy again, my body will struggle to get past that lower set point because I have locked myself into that position.

That is a very vague and brief example, but think of this; I seem to have my set points about 10 pounds apart. What if someone has a difference of 40 or 50 pounds between their set points? Suddenly their weight can climb much faster than they ever thought!

So you may say to yourself, "Why exercise and diet accordingly if I don't really have a choice in the matter, aren't I genetically doomed regardless?"

Simple answer; because you can! What I am trying to get across here is that some people are absolutely going to have more difficulties losing weight over others. On the flip side of that equation, some people are going to struggle to try and keep their weight up. That is life, and according to the research, anywhere from 40-65% of what makes you look like you is genetic.

Because of trends like these, the medical community has had to come up with new terms like the phrase "skinny fat" which is used to represent the physical state of those that may appear skinny, but are terribly unhealthy because of the way they live their lives. Just because you got a lucky card in the draw and can, "Eat whatever you want because you never gain a pound!" does not mean that your lifestyle should reflect that.

Keep these things in mind though. We unfortunately live in a society where looks matter. You are pretty hard-pressed to see advertisements for gym memberships or diet clinics that don't shove 6-pack abs in your face. Men and women alike seem to crave a flat, toned, six-pack midsection more than anything else. Guys may also want big muscles and women want a toned posterior too.

For those of you that follow me may know of my youtube channel. I actually had an individual come on there recently and comment on my video claiming that, "You workout this much and you still aren't RIPPED!?!?" I decided to write a reply to this person stating the reasons for my interest in health and fitness which go beyond my appearance, but also indicated that my appearance was based on genetics, diet, etc. He replied with something along the lines of, "Don't blame your genes for your failures. A true sign of a man's fitness level is the size of his muscles!"...

I know not everyone can be educated on the benefits of health and fitness as many only see the world in black and white. They believe everything they see in the media and think that the only respectable end-result of dieting and exercising to the extreme is to look like a supermodel. I can tell you this, however, that no matter what your genetics tell you about how you are going to look, you can still fight that trend and have some success. Keep in mind the slew of other benefits to eating properly and exercising that go well beyond how you look. 

Sure, genetics may play a 40-65% role in your body composition, but that is still nowhere near 100%. Not only that, but the rewards to your brain, your heart, your lungs, and your muscles from exercising and eating properly are far greater than what you see in a mirror.

Anabolic Hormones Part 2: Growth Hormone

Last week we discussed the anabolic hormone testosterone. This week, part 2 of 3, will focus on growth hormone.

What is Growth Hormone?

Also known as "somatotropin", growth hormone comes from the pituitary gland. It has many different uses and anabolic effects within the human body which can have direct effects or mediated through the production of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) by the liver and fat cells.

What Does It Do?

Growth hormone is present and very important in the growth and development of children, but has also been seen as a result of resistance training. The tissues that growth hormone interact with include bones, immune cells, skeletal muscles, fat cells, and liver tissues. The main physiological roles are:

-Decreases glucose utilization
-Decreases glycogen synthesis
-Increases amino acid transport across cell membranes
-Increases protein synthesis
-Increases utilization of fatty acids
-Increases fat breakdown
-Increases availability of glucose and amino acids
-Enhances immune cell function

How Does it Work?

As one of the most potent anabolic hormones, growth hormone may me mediated by secondary hormones, but for the most part, it acts directly on target tissues. It interacts with tissues and stimulates the release of IGFs which greatly increase the conditions that promote tissue repair.

Growth hormone is released from hepatic (liver) cells as well as non-hepatic cells (fat, white blood cells, muscle, etc.) and enters peripheral circulation. It is transported in this way so that it can attach to specific binding proteins on cells.

Pharmacological Growth Hormone

Due to the varied uses of growth hormone in the human body, it is still unclear as to why pharmacological growth hormone acts differently than exercised-induced growth hormone. One thing that has been researched and documented however is that injecting growth hormone into an individual may increase muscle hypertrophy (size) but this may compromise the quality of muscle being built. For still-unknown reasons, exercised-induced hypertrophy is a much more favorable technique for gaining mass while also maintaining muscle quality and strength.

Program Design

If an individual is training for hypertrophy purposes, their program design is very important in order to reach their goals. Studies have shown that increased blood lactate concentrations increase the level of growth hormone. One thing to note however, is that when individuals were studied using very light weights and exercising in a much higher repetition range, serum levels of growth hormone did not change. There appears to be an intensity limit for individuals to reach in order to stimulate growth hormone production.

On the other hand, individuals who were training with heavy resistance (10 rep maximum) with short rest periods between sets (1 minute) saw greater growth hormone concentration increases when compared to individuals training in the 5 rep maximum range with longer rest periods. This has been studied and documented before and should be of no surprise as strength or power training (very high reps, 5 or fewer reps) works very well to increase and individual's overall strength, but a 6-12 rep range is ideal for muscular growth.

Growth Hormone in Women

Studies have shown that women have higher blood levels of growth hormone throughout their menstrual cycle compared to men. This not only proves that growth hormone plays many different physiological roles within the human body, but also that it is not the single limiting-factor when it comes to muscular growth. This may be due to the fact that women generally have lower levels of testosterone, but other factors must also be at play when determining what causes muscular hypertrophy.

Summary

Although there have been many studies done on the effects of both exercised-induced, as well as pharmacological growth hormone, there are still many variants and observations that need to be done. It is understood that there are multiple interactions that growth hormone plays a role in that determines muscular growth and strength as it has been shown that simply increasing concentrations does not necessarily increase muscle size/strength. Also, understanding how growth hormone concentrations change throughout not only an individual's day to day life, but also over long periods of resistance training can help us further understand the full role this anabolic hormone plays in our bodies.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Anabolic Hormones Part 1: Testosterone

Three of the primary anabolic hormones that are involved in human muscle growth are testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor. There are other factors at play here such as insulin and thyroid hormones, but I will mainly focus on the three primary anabolic ones in a 3-part series here on my blog.

What is Testosterone?

Testosterone is the primary androgen hormone that interacts with skeletal muscle tissue in both men and women. Some individuals may not realize that women too have free-floating testosterone in their blood streams, but they do. They certainly do not have the same levels that men do, but it is present and biologically interacts the same way as men for muscle growth.

When most people think of testosterone, their minds may immediately think of "pumped" weightlifters (see picture above) that have been taking steroids. Yes, testosterone is a well-documented and well-studied anabolic steroid that has been used in the past for muscle growth, but the focus on this blog is about the naturally-occurring testosterone in our bodies. In fact, the direct effects of testosterone on skeletal muscle growth has probably been most notarized from experiences and studies conducted with steroid use but in actuality insulin-like growth factors (IGF's) have a more dramatic effect on the human body (discussed in Part 3 of this series).

Biological Interactions

Testosterone has many direct and indirect effects within the human body. Indirect interactions with other hormones demonstrate the remarkably complex neuroendocrine-immune system in influencing skeletal muscle size and strength. An example of indirect influence on the body would be testosterone's interaction with the neuron receptors. It can interact with receptors on neurons, increase the amount of neurotransmitters, and influence structural protein changes. To explain these changes to a laymen; this means that testosterone can indirectly alter muscular size and force properties of a muscle, but not necessarily both at the same time.

Many factors come into play when studying the size of an individual's muscle, but size does not necessarily correlate to the force that can be generated from said muscle. By increasing the number of neurotransmitters, for example, one can increase a muscle's affinity for force production without necessarily becoming "big". Real-world applications of this can be seen in Major League Baseball pitchers. Many pitchers can generate tremendous force from their shoulder but do not necessarily have large shoulder muscles.

Testosterone also has direct interactions on the body. It can promote growth hormone responses in the pituitary gland which can influence protein synthesis in muscle.

How Does Testosterone 'Work'?

Testosterone is secreted from the testes in men and the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. From here, it is transported to target tissues by transport hormones in the blood. At the target tissue, testosterone enters the cell membrane and directly interacts with the DNA to increase DNA transcription. This is the stage at which protein synthesis is induced and muscles cells can divide.

Testosterone can also bind to cell membrane receptors, although this field of study in to what these interactions actually do is continually growing.

Anaerobic vs. Aerobic Exercise Effects on Testosterone

Anaerobic exercise (resistance training) has consistently shown increases in blood testosterone in both men and women. This is obviously due to the effects of the type of training and therefore the biological response to increase protein synthesis in the muscles but to also increase the indirect effects on the body discussed earlier.

High-intensity aerobic endurance exercise has also been shown to increase blood concentrations of testosterone in both men and women. This may be contrary to some people's current knowledge but there seems to be a definitive reason for this. While anaerobic training may increase testosterone levels to increase protein synthesis, aerobic training causes a catabolic state in the body (tissue loss) and higher levels of testosterone may be present to simply try and keep up with tissue loss, or in other words, trying to replace the tissue that is lost. In fact, studies have shown that oxidative stresses placed on the body during high-intensity aerobic exercise may actually promote a decrease in muscular fiber size to improve oxygen transport to the cells.

Increasing Testosterone Concentrations

-Large muscle group exercises (deadlift, power clean, squats)
-Heavy resistance (85-95% 1RM)
-Moderate to high volume of exercise, achieved with multiple sets or multiple exercises
-Short rest intervals (30-60 seconds)

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Overtraining

It seems to be that many people need to spend so much of their time either motivating themselves or others to exercise. On the flip side of this coin, overtraining can be just as dangerous as not training, so this blog will hopefully allow others to understand, identify and avoid overtraining which can lead to short-term or even chronic injury!

What is Overtraining?

Overtraining is defined as excessive frequency, volume, or intensity of training that results in extreme fatigue, illness, or injury (which is often due to a lack of sufficient rest, recovery, and perhaps nutrient intake). To overtrain on a short-term basis is called overreaching. This, however, is often desired by trainees as this causes microtrauma in the body that needs to repair in order to improve. Overreaching can be fairly easily overcome by a few days rest with proper nutrient intake. The problems that arise is when an individual overreaches and does not allow sufficient nutrient intake or recovery time.

The whole basis of periodization or performance training is to overreach on numerous occasions (planned), which can suppress performance, but then the body will adapt and grow stronger, faster, better, etc. during tapering of training. This is also known as the General Adaptation Syndrome, but if there is too much growth stimulus or too-long of growth stimulus, an individual can get injured.

How Long Can it Last?

Overtraining syndrome can last as long as six months, and recovery can then be delayed. For many individuals, overtraining can be caused by doing too much, too soon, or repetitive overuse, but almost all cases can be reversed after proper rest and recovery.

Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic Syndromes
Scientists believe sympathetic syndrome can occur first which includes increased sympathetic activity at rest such as increased heart rate, disrupted digestion, etc. It is believed that all forms of overtraining will eventually progress to parasympathetic if allowed to.

Anaerobic Overtraining
An example of anaerobic training would be resistance training. Factors that indicate anaerobic overtraining would be a decreased desire to training, or a decreased joy from training. An individual may also begin to feel more jittery than usual during a workout, as if they have an increase in epinephrine. Although having this extra "surge" of adrenaline may sound like a good thing during training, an overtrained individual would see a decrease in performance.

Anaerobic Overtraining Hormonal Markers

Short-term overreaching can cause increased production of testosterone and insulin-like growth factors (IGF-1) which can improve the efficiency of the repair and recovery period, but once an individual reaches their overtrained state of chronic overreaching, their levels of testosterone and IGF-1 can end up back at regular levels decreasing the affinity for proper recovery.

Anaerobic Psychological Factors

Known as the "inverted iceberg" profile, individuals who partake in heavy resistance training programs can result in decreased vigor, motivation and confidence yet heightened levels of tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion, anxiety, and irritability as well as impaired concentration.

Aerobic Overtraining

Generally caused by extreme levels of training frequency, volume, intensity, or a combination of these variables without sufficient rest or recovery. Increased resting heart rates and increased creatine kinase levels (indicating muscle damage) are two of the indicators for aerobic overtraining. Also witnessed is: decreased performance, decreased % body fat, altered blood pressure, increased muscle soreness, decreased muscle glycogen, decreased total testosterone concentration, decreased ratio of total testosterone to cortisol, and increased sympathetic stress response.

A well-designed fitness training program will cause some overreaching in an individual to create enough response for growth and improvement. However, proper rest and recovery, as well as proper nutrient intake need to also be addressed in order for an individual to not reach a state of overtraining.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Be Mindful of What You Are Eating!

I have always been an active person, playing sports year-round growing up. I have also been quite lucky *knock on wood* to have a slim build and never really need to worry about what I eat. Over the past few years, I have definitely put on a few pounds of "comfortable insulation" but nothing too serious.

After I graduated University in 2006 at the age of 21, I still had that lazy mindset that I could basically eat whatever I wanted and drink whatever I wanted because exercise and my metabolism would take care of the rest. Well, a few pounds crept up on me and I decided to nip my bad habits in the butt long before they took hold and overran my life.

In 2008 when I decided to really start to change my lifestyle by exercising more frequently and 'watching what I eat' I really only did one part of the equation. Again, I figured that since I was so active and that I was still young with a blazing metabolism, I could basically eat whatever I wanted to.

Fast forward a few years now, and I have had some pretty good success. I don't necessarily eat/exercise to "look good", because as I have told people in the past, I frankly don't really care what I look like on the beach. I exercise and try to lead a healthy life for a number of reasons including feeling better, being able to do the things that I like to do, be in a better mood, and hopefully all of these criteria for years to come (especially now with my son!).

I will say that in these past few years of exercising more, I have begun to change my dietary habits as well. Not only do I wish to maximize my results and how I feel from being active, but I have also come to learn of the numerous other health effects/benefits a proper diet has. You could say that my diet has been slowly evolving over the years and rather than an overnight resolution to overhaul everything, I have been making small changes over the years that are manageable to me and make sense based on what I learn/read about.

This brings us to November 2011. For my 27th birthday, my wonderful wife bought me an iPad for my birthday/Christmas/Anniversary gift. I played around with the idea of 'tracking calories' for years now but have never wanted to be a slave to what I eat.

Well, to start 2012, I finally decided to download a free app for my iPad that would help me track my calories in a fairly loose sort of way. Now I need to mention a few disclaimers here. One, I have only been doing this for a week. Two, I don't plan on doing this forever, I just wish to educate myself on how my diet is going based on how I currently living my life, etc. Three, I am not being 100% accurate about things, but I am doing my best and am probably 90-95% accurate (I am NOT using a food scale to weigh every single morsel of food).

Well, at the end of my first week with this new endeavor/hobby/goal/whatever you want to call it, I have made some pretty startling observations that I will list below.

First, about me; I am 27 years old, have a pretty fast metabolism, work a full-time job with a few part-time personal training jobs on the side. I am married, have an infant son at home and also exercise 6-7 times/week. I am very active and should be consuming well over 3000 calories/day!

I have done a bit of research and realize that I don't really wish to lose a whole lot of weight, plus I am active and try and keep my lean muscle mass in check so I have been aiming for about 40-50% carbohydrates, 25-30% protein and 25-30% dietary fat (healthy fat as much as possible). This plan seems to work best for me and seems to fit my lifestyle the most, but should still challenge me to meet certain criteria.

Things that I have learned so far:

1. Carbohydrates creep up on you FAST! Holy smokes has this ever been an eye opener for me. There is sugar in nearly EVERYTHING we eat! I cut soda out of my diet a long time ago, so the only beverages I consume is either water, green tea, the daily glass of chocolate milk (post-workout), and the occasional glass of white milk (1%) with dinner. I try and eat as many fruits and vegetables as I can and keep my grains to whole grain and I STILL have absolutely no problems blasting through my daily carbohydrate consumption...and that is even when I am aiming for 50% carbs on a 3000cal+ diet!!!!

This is scary for a few reasons. One, I know I am in a very small minority of people who actually consume this few of carbs. Two, there are many, many people out there who consume carbs with this thought in their heads that it is 'fat free' so it must be good for them...only to pack on more and more and more pounds! Three, as I said, I don't consume any sugary beverages and I still have no problems meeting my daily caloric counts, I struggle to keep my carbs down, and I am highly active. I find this downright scary and disturbing to think of some folks out there who down cans and cans of soda a day or eat carb-full meals then go sit on their butts and watch tv...holy smokes. To be honest, I knew it was bad, but never really knew it was THIS bad!

2. I really am trying to do my best to keep my protein levels up. I do quite well with this as I try and have protein with every meal, I have healthy snacks that I try and squeeze some protein in, as well as having protein shakes (low-cal) throughout the day. I guess this one will be tougher for me to keep my numbers up the more active I am because the higher my daily calorie count goes, the higher my recommended proteins go as well. This is probably my best category though.

3. Healthy fats are out there, you just have to look for them! I try and cook with olive oil, I take a fish-oil supplement and I try and squeeze some avacado into my diet whenever I can. The scary part is seeing the amount of fat in some packaged products at the grocery store. A little bit of fat is good, too much fat is bad, and especially stay away from trans fats. What may be even scarier than all of this however, is that when companies remove the fat from their products, they replace it with sugar...which makes most individuals in our society think its then guilt-free....wrong!

This is going to continue to be a learning curve for me. I have realized that I have actually been doing quite well in my daily caloric intake. I often wondered how far off/on I was before I started tracking, but have come to realize that I am pretty spot-on in that regard. The biggest learning curve for me will be to watch my carbohydrate calories as the higher that goes, the less room there is calorie-wise to get my required proteins and fats in. I will keep everyone updated!

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS