In This Issue:
– Robertson Training Systems Updates
– Training Tip
– Nutrition Tip
– Exclusive Interview: Joel Marion
– New Articles
– Schedule
Robertson Training Systems Updates:
New Article Up!
Geoff Neupert and I recently had an article published at T-Nation.com. This article covers the age-old debate of Olympic vs. Powerlifting Squats. You’ll also find some tips on how to squat deeper and more effectively as well!
Olympic vs. Powerlifting Squats
BTW, if you want to follow the drills in my sample mobility routine, all the drills are taken directly from the Magnificent Mobility DVD.
Seminar Updates
The Vinkofest seminar is only three weeks away – be sure to register now if you haven’t already.
http://www.muscledrivethru.com/vinkofest/
As well, Paul Reid and I are finalizing details on my Australian seminar circuit in the Spring of 2008. Look for an official annoucement in the October 15th newsletter!
Training Tip:
Get up, stand up….
We all know that sitting in front of a computer isn’t the best thing for our health or posture. So what do we do about it?
Here are several simple strategies to improve your pelvic alignment, get those glutes firing better, and keeping that low back healthy.
– Purchase a stand-up desk. If you use a laptop, try splitting your time 50/50 between sitting and standing.
– Use an airex pad or pillow to perform prolonged hip flexor stretches while reading or typing.
– FIDGET! Creep begins to set in at approximately 20 minutes; by moving around you help negate the effects and keep your tissues at better resting lengths.
The computer is a necessary evil. Figure out ways to combat your computer nerd posture by following these tips and you’ll be that much better off when you hit the gym!
Nutrition Tip:
Nutrient Dense vs. Calorie Dense
By Mike Roussell
Are your carbohydrates nutrient dense or calorie dense? This is a key question that you need to ask yourself each time you sit down to eat.
Nutrient Dense carbohydrates contain lots of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber. These are carbohydrates such as spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, apples, and other fruits and vegetables. Calorie Dense carbohydrates contain lower amounts of vitamins, minerals and more calories from actual carbohydrates. Examples of these foods are rice, pasta, corn, flour tortillas, and breads. You want your diet to be full of nutrient dense carbohydrates all the time and then you want to eat calorie dense carbohydrates in the couple hours following your workouts.
Eating this way will allow you to consume more food while at the same time improve your body composition (less fat, more muscle). So when you sit down to eat remember to ask yourself “Are these carbohydrates nutrient dense or calorie dense?”
If you like this tip and want to learn more about Mike and his products, check out his Naked Nutrition website.
Exclusive Interview: Joel Marion
MR: Joel, let’s start from the beginning with the usual routine. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
JM: Most people know me as the Body-for-Life guy who has since ventured over to the “dark side” [laughing]. I got my start in the fitness world by winning the Body-for-Life Challenge in 2001, but have certainly come a long way from there. The next year I started writing for Muscle Media, which was EAS’s partner magazine, one of the biggest fitness circulation magazines at the time. Around that time I also started contributing some of my ideas on training and nutrition to T-Nation.com, and collectively over the past years I’ve had roughly 100 articles published in various print and Web publications, ranging from Men’s Fitness (where I am a member of the Training Advisory Board) and even some more mainstream publications like Woman’s Day. I also operate my own online diet and fitness consultation business at www.JoelMarion.net, where I’ve worked with a wide variety of clientele, including doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, models, athletes, and plenty of regular everyday people looking to improve their appearance in the mirror and overall health. Online coaching is great is it’s allowed me to reach folks that I’d never be able to otherwise – I’ve worked with clients from 5 continents and over 20 countries, which has definitely been a very cool experience.
As for my professional education and credentials, I’m a certified sports nutritionist through the International Society of Sports Nutrition (CISSN) and a certified personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA-CPT). Additionally, I’m a Magna Cum Laude graduate from The College of New Jersey with degrees in both Exercise Science and Health Education. They’ve actually grown to be one of the top Exercise Science undergrad programs out there, with guys like Jay Hoffman, Avery Faigenbaum, and Nick Rattimus heading up the department. Jay and Nick obtained their PhDs from the prestigious grad program at UCONN and Avery is known as the top youth sports expert in the country. Jay is also on the Board at the NSCA and a lot of the research conducted in the Exercise Science lab at TCNJ has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including some of the most forward looking studies on Beta-Alanine, which has become quite a popular performance enhancement supplement in both the strength training and endurance world.
MR: You’ve become a go-to guy when it comes to nutrition. What are some common nutritional principles that people fail to adhere to?
JM: The major problem is that most people do adhere to the “common” nutritional principles, when in fact what’s common pretty much sucks in terms of results. You know, we’ve been adhering to the “common sense” approach to nutrition (eat less, work hard, stay dedicated) for so long with less than sub-par results, but somehow we keep thinking that it’s going to magically start working. People aren’t succeeding; they’re failing. The percentage of individuals who are able to lose weight and keep it off is in single digits, and even those folks must continue to diet a low calorie levels for more or less the rest of their life to maintain the weight loss because of the damage long-term energy restriction does to your metabolism.
Granted, the common sense approach will have a positive impact on health (not optimal, but positive) because it’s generally prescribed to choose healthier food choices, but when it comes to fat loss and body composition, common sense just doesn’t work. The number one error that people make is heavy calorie restriction and chronic calorie restriction. Skipping breakfast and lunch is looked upon as a job well done by most folks on a diet, when in reality it creates an environment in the body that couldn’t be anymore resistant to fat burning. Bottom line, restricting calories over the long-term, especially drastic calorie restriction, will never work for maintainable weight loss, and that’s where most folks go wrong.
MR: Your new book, The Cheat to Lose Diet, was just released, and gets into the reasoning you just mentioned. Tell us a little more about that.
JM: Fat loss really is a Catch-22 situation. You have to restrict calories to lose fat, but when you restrict calories, the body becomes resistance to fat loss as a starvation protection mechanism. Just wonderful. In the book, I teach dieters how to overcome the fat-loss catch-22 by incorporating strategic “cheating” (or periods of higher calorie, carb, and fat intake) into a dietary regimen. Research has shown that it takes about a week for the body to begin to negatively adapt to even moderately calorie restriction. One of the major players in the whole chain of events is the hormone leptin. Leptin more or less communicates your nutritional status to the brain and when you begin to restrict calories, leptin levels begin to drop off. This sends a signal to the brain to slow metabolism, increase hunger, and put the breaks on fat burning. In other words, go on a diet and your body fights back. Not exactly what you are hoping for from all your sacrifice, hard work, and effort. Fortunately, research has also shown that it only takes 12-24 hours of increasing your calorie level, or ‘cheating” on your diet to reset levels of leptin, metabolism, and other crucial hormones in the fat burning equation. So, we use strategic cheating to trick the body into thinking you’re not dieting and overcome the dietary catch-22.
In addition to that, we also use a carbohydrate cycling technique throughout the week when not cheating as leptin has been shown to have strong ties with carbohydrate. In the end, you lose more fat more consistently all while regularly indulging in your favorite foods (and yes, that even includes things like pizza and ice cream).
As far as what’s included, the book provides all the program specifics, 12 weeks of daily menus, tips, FAQs, and close to 100 recipes, of which the 75 main-meal recipes were contributed by our friend John Berardi. You can pick it up at Amazon.com in hardcover for less than 20 bucks.
MR: Let’s switch gears and talk training for a minute. What do you consider some of the top training flaws you see in people who come to you for training?
JM: Most people spend way too much time working out. The idea that more is better plagues gym-goers all over, which is a major contributor to the fact that most people aren’t achieving the results they desire from their resistance training efforts. Anything longer than 50 minutes when chronically implemented is overkill, with the ideal resistance training workout lasting 30-45 minutes in my opinion. I’m a strong believer in short, frequent sessions, and have been known to prescribe 20-minute workouts with clients on many occasions. Granted, that means you’ll have to work out a bit more often, but it does wonders to keep people fresh and motivated while bringing along solid results. Prolonged workouts, especially with inadequate nutritional practices, yield minimal gains and fast burn-out. Shorter, frequent sessions are the way to go for optimal progress and most importantly long-term consistency in your training (which means cumulative real progress month after month, year after year).
MR: Last question – if you could only give people one piece of advice to help them achieve their goals, what might that be?
JM: In order to achieve your goals, you have to be consistent in your efforts toward them, and the best way to maintain consistency is through proper planning. Everyone has heard the old adage “If you fail to plan, you might as well plan to fail” and that certainly rings true with obtaining your physique and gym-related goals. If you’re someone who’s in the gym and/or eating adequately sporadically, you’re planning probably sucks and is undoubtedly what is holding you back. Map out your training and your diet precisely, or to make life easier, pay someone to do it for you. Did I mention I provide that service through www.JoelMarion.net? 😉
MR: Awesome, thanks so much for the interview, Joel! Where can my newsletter readers learn more about you?
JM: It’s been my pleasure. You can learn more about me at www.JoelMarion.net and my book at www.CheatToLoseDiet.com. The book really is a steal at only 16 bucks and change at Amazon, so pick up a copy (or two!). Believe me, this is a program that you can actually get your girlfriend, wife, or parents to do, too.
MR: Great. Thanks Joel!