Training For Life

There is no such thing as “perfect” running form. But there are certain characteristics of
a good distance runner that are necessary for optimum efficiency and economy. In the
heat of a tough run or race, however, most of us are unlikely to think about “reducing
the moment arm of our swing leg to increase centrifugal motion and spare muscle
glycogen”. Instead, it helps to think about form in terms of simple analogies and very
quick ways to jog the brain, no pun intended.

If you are one of the roughly 1% of Americans who deal with celiac disease–or just one of the growing number of people who want to cut back on or even eliminate wheat from your diet to feel healthier–try baking with quinoa. True, bakeries and grocers have finally caught on and are now offering a much greater variety of gluten free options. But baking your own gluten free breads, muffins and other delights will give you the most control–and freedom–in your diet.

Quinoa is an ancient “grain” that’s not really a grain at all. It’s a seed that looks like a cereal. The ancient Incas ate Quinoa for thousands of years, and it’s a rare gem among plants because it offers the complete set of essential amino acids–meaning it’s just as good a protein source as meat. This makes it ideal not only for GF baking but for vegans and vegetarians as well.

But it doesn’t stop there: quinoa is also an incredibly good source of fiber, and of important and sometimes hard-to come by minerals like phosphorus, magnesium and copper.

If you want to try baking with quinoa, it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate some quinoa flour at either a chain grocery or a specialty health food store, depending on where you live. Some recipes will also call for some plain quinoa cereal cooked up like a grain. Quinoa flakes are another great baking ingredient, perfect for replacing rolled oats in a baking recipe if you have an oat allergy.

How To Bake With Quinoa

Unfortunately, gluten actually does serve a purpose is baking: it helps doughs and batters stretch and provides them with their “give” and viscosity. When you bake with gluten-free flours like quinoa, you’ll need to use xantham gum or gaur gum to mimic the binding and thickening effects of gluten. Xantham and guar gum are available at most higher-end grocery chains, or you can check your local health food specialty store or even order online.

To get the best texture and flavor, try mixing quinoa flour with other gluten-free flours, and mix in some potato starch or tapioca starch as well. (Quinoa baked goods aren’t naturally starchy like wheat baked goods.) A blend of 2 parts quinoa flour, 2 parts sorghum flour and 1 part tapioca starch is a versatile all-purpose gluten free baking blend you can make at home. Many gluten-free flour blends also offer pre-mixed all-purpose GF flours.

Quinoa baked goods can get a little dry, so look for recipes that include applesauce, yogurt, fruit or sour cream–these will lend moisture to the finished product. Using honey or blue agave nectar (a healthy all-natural sweetener) in the place of sugar will also create moister, more tender baked goods because both of these ingredients act as natural humectants, meaning they pull in moisture from the air.

Quinoa flour has a more distinctive flavor than wheat. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re converting a conventional recipe to a GF recipe and using quinoa flour, consider upping the proportions of spices, vanilla or other baking flavors.

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Here are a couple more answers about what is best to do for workouts.  I have seen so many people struggle with this.  Make your workouts count.  Here are a few suggestions.  Please feel free to e-mail me with questions or post your comments below.  Remember to always consult your doctor before taking on any exercise program.

Zumba. TRX. P90X. Pump. Spinning. Yogalates. Beach Body Insanity. The list goes on and on! With so many choices, how can you pick an exercise or workout that will burn the most fat, the fastest? In today’s article, you’re going to learn exactly how to make your own fat-burning workout to ensure that you burn fat as fast as possible.

What Are the Different Types of Fat-Burning Workouts?

The majority of workouts that advertise themselves as high calorie-burning events can be broken down into three different categories: cardio, resistance training, and cardio plus resistance training.

Cardio: An example of a cardio class would be spinning, a class in which you ride a stationary bike with varying levels of resistance and pedaling speeds, typically to a choreographed series of songs and movements such as standing, hovering, and jumping. Dance workouts like Zumba or Hip-Hop would also fall into the cardio category.

Resistance training: A resistance training workout would include activities like power yoga, which consists of body weight resistance exercises combined with stretching; Pilates, which is primarily focused on abdominal and lower back resistance training; TRX, which involves pulling and pushing the body with a special type of band; and pump, which uses dumbbells, barbells, and step benches for resistance.

Cardio plus resistance training: As you may have guessed, cardio plus resistance training combines the elements discussed above. P90X and Beach Body Insanity are two popular examples of activities that have you lifting weights one moment, then performing jumping jacks or step-ups just a few moments later. Another term for this type of sequential exercise is “concurrent training.”

Which Workout Burns the Most Fat?

Now that you know the different workout categories, the ultimate question remains: which workout burns the most fat?

A 2008 study at the University of California asked this very question, and had one group do cardio, another group do resistance training, and a final group do a concurrent training workout in which they ran for 30-60 seconds after completing each weight lifting set.

Even though each group did the same amount of work, the combination group experienced the following:

• a 35% greater improvement in lower body strength,

• a 53% greater improvement in lower body endurance,

• a 28% greater improvement in lower body flexibility,

• a 144 % greater improvement in upper body flexibility,

• an 82% greater improvement in muscle gains, and

• a 991 % greater loss in fat mass!

That means the combination group not only burned fat and built muscle at the same time, but the amount of fat they burned was a ten-fold increase over the amount burned by the groups that did cardio or resistance training only.

So without a doubt, combining cardio and resistance training will burn the fastest.

Quick and Dirty Tip: If you decide you simply don’t want to do your cardio and resistance training at the same time, you may be interested to know that additional research shows a greater total amount of calories burned when cardio is done first, followed by weight lifting. For example, you could go to the gym, run for 20 minutes on the treadmill, and then do 30 minutes of weightlifting.

How to Make Your Own Fat-Burning Workout

So if you’re ready to do a fat-burning workout, but don’t feel like going to the gym and signing up for a class, there is a way you can do combined cardio and resistance training at home. Try this workout:

• Do 10 push-ups or knee push-ups,

• Then stand and do 15-20 jumping jacks.

• Next to 10 squats or lunges,

• Then do 15-20 more jumping jacks.

• Next, move on to 10 crunches, again followed by 15-20 jumping jacks.

• Finally, pick a set of dumbbells off the floor and lift them overhead up and down a total of ten times, and

• Then finish with a final series of 15-20 jumping jacks.

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• 1. Baseline Measurements
No training program should be designed without first determining proper training zones and intensities. The more specific
the better. Raise your eyebrow when a training program simply instructs you to go at “race pace”, or “long easy effort”.
Instead, each recommended intensity needs to include quantitative values. This means that your cycling hill interval
workout should not just be “6-8 long hill repeats”, but should also prescribe power or heart rate training zones; such as “6-
8 hill intervals of 4 minutes at an average of 300 watts”, or “6-8 hill intervals of 4 minutes at a heart rate of 154-165″. In
order for a training program to prescribe such intensities, it is necessary for you to take baseline measurements. The most
common baseline measurement is a series of time trials that allow you to determine your approximate anaerobic or lactate
threshold, or what is sometimes called the “maximum lactate steady state” effort. Basically, this just means that before
designing your training program, you must spend 20-30 minutes in each of your sports (i.e. swimming, cycling, and
running) determining what your maximum *sustainable* pace is. Generally, this corresponds well with the point at which
your body is removing lactate as fast as it is accumulating, and you are beginning to breath rapidly to “blow off” carbon
dioxide in the bloodstream. Your training program’s intensities, or zones, are then based off the heart rate or wattage at
which this state occurs. If there are no baseline measurements, the success of your training program will be sub-optimal,
at best. During the first two to three weeks of taking on a new athlete, I run them through a battery of tests that help
determine these training zones, so that I can write their workouts to be biologically specific.
• 2. Periodization
Periodization is the process of breaking a training program year into smaller periods, or units of time duirng which the
training occurs at specific volumes and intensities. By arranging these periods in the correct sequence leading up to your
races, peak performance can be achieved without overtraining or injury. A training program that has you at the identical
training intensities and volumes, week in and week out, is not a periodized training program. A very basic example of
periodization would be “base training”, during which you build your aerobic system and teach the body the work more
efficiently in the presence of lactic acid; followed by a “build” in training intensity and volume as you become fitter and
stronger; then a “taper” as you approach race season, where your body absorbs the benefits of the “build” cycle; and
finally a “recovery” period after racing season, in which you joints heal and your body recovers from the season. There is
no perfect periodization scheme, but any good training program needs to lay the groundwork for training in a structured
and periodized format, as opposed to training the same way the entire year, then “laying off” for a week or so before the
race. Periodizing a training program is difficult and time consuming. During the first week that I take on a new athlete and
design their annual training plan, I’ll spend 4-5 hours ensuring that just the basic periodization is “perfect” – and it usually
still needs changes as the season progresses!
• 3. Training Specificity
Your training must be race specific. If you’re preparing for a marathon with 3 weekly tempo sessions, 1 weekly speed-
work track session, and 1 long weekend run, you’re spending way too much time in an anaerobic, carbohydrate burning
zone, and your body is not learning how to work in an efficient aerobic manner. This means you’re going to be full of lactic
acid and high blood acid during your marathon and have a very uncomfortable race, if you even finish. Beware of any
training program that doesn’t have you “training like you race”. This means lots of practice with race specific fueling, race
specific intensities, and race specific courses or topography. If you have a flat, fast race approaching in three weeks, you
shouldn’t be wasting much time with hill intervals, and vice versa. All my athletes must provide me with a complete list of
their planned and desired races, so that I can ensure their training actually is race specific.
• 4. Holistic Philosophy
Your training program can’t just prescribe workouts and nutrition. It must take into consideration stress levels, amount of
sleep, resting heart rate, weight, fatigue levels, etc. Your training program must listen to your body. If you try to “push”
through a prescribed workout, just to follow the rules, this may not be the best idea. It’s also nice to be able to look back
and see how the resting heart rate was leading up to a bad race, versus a good race, or how the weight fluctuates before
signs and symptoms of overtraining occur. All the athletes I train are recommended to keep track of these variables on
their daily training log.
• 5. R&R

Rest and recovery must occur! While for those of us with busy lives, this may mean that your rest week takes place during
the visit to the in-laws at the end of one month, and happens during your long week of deskwork in the middle of another
month, your must decrease training intensity and volume at regular periods throughout the training year. Some training
programs might include every 4 weeks and some every 3 weeks, but all programs must allow your body to stop, then soak
up like a sponge all the benefits of your hard work. Otherwise, you’re just chipping away at yourself until sickness or
overtraining forces you to stop.

Always Consult Your doctor before taking on a fitness routine.

A thick, juicy hamburger, a lightly toasted sesame-seed bun, some dewy garden-fresh tomatoes and a few generous dollops of relish and mustard: what could be better for a casual summer dinner with friends and family? And after all, health-wise, grilling meats sure beats frying them in fattening oils. But unfortunately, a shadow of suspicion lingers on that healthy hamburger: could that grilled hamburger cause cancer?

According to Dr. Ted Gansler, director of medical content at the American Cancer Society, 56% of respondents polled did not believe that regularly eating foods cooked on a charcoal grill can actually cause cancer. The truth: grilled meats can increase your risks of cancer— to a degree.

Simply put, animal meat has muscle proteins in it. When meat is grilled at very high temperatures, those proteins break down into chemicals called heterocyclic amines. Heterocyclic amines are a carcinogen—meaning they’re a substance known to cause cancer. Consumption of heterocyclic amines is linked in particular to cancers of the stomach and colon. In addition, as fats drip from the meat and burn up on the coals beneath, other potentially harmful chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which may rise back up in the smoke and permeate the meat.

Does this mean that chowing down on hamburgers is dangerous? Well, you probably don’t need to kick the grill to the curb just yet. Eating grilled foods on occasion isn’t likely to harm you—it’s “regular” consumption that might be more worrisome, although what exactly constitutes “regular” has yet to be clearly agreed upon.

As a mindful grillmaster, you can take a few steps to help lower the amount of carcinogens you end up consuming along with that tasty burger:

·         Don’t over-grill your burgers: there is such a thing as too well-done.

·         Pop meats in the microwave or oven for just a few minutes before transferring them to the grill, to reduce the amount of time they spend grilling.

·         For the same reason, use thinner cuts of meat.

·         Flip the meats frequently, about once per minute.

·         Marinate your meats: studies have suggested that marinating seems to somehow reduce production of heterocyclic amines by over 90%.

·         Raise the grilling surface a bit higher from the heat source, to reduce the formation of highly carcinogenic char on your burger.

·         Don’t eat any blackened or burnt bits of burger.

Many of the potentially dangerous chemicals created by grilling meats are a non-issue when it comes to grilling fruits and vegetables, so add a few of these to your grilling repertoire: you can still enjoy that smoky flavor without worrying about the health effects. Onions, corn, peppers, potatoes, peaches and pineapple all taste fantastic when served freshly grilled.

Whatever you do, avoid grilling processed luncheon meats or hot dogs. These products contain carcinogens called nitrates, and don’t even need the help of a grill to up cancer risks.

Do remember to keep things in perspective, though. The sun is a known cancer-causer— but you don’t hide out in your dark basement, do you? There’s probably as many carcinogens in the air you breathe as in the burger you’re about to bite into. So if you want a nice grilled dinner once and awhile, just follow the tips and don’t worry too much.

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