Applied Fitness and Nutrition For Coaches and Trainers

Presented by John Berardi, PhD, CSCS http://www.precisionnutrition.com

Interesting vs. Important In the media today there are a lot of ideas about fitness and nutrition – some good and some bad. But even among the good ones, it’s important to distinguish between which of the good ideas are important and which aren’t so important. It’s sort of like buying a new laptop. It’s easy to walk into a computer store looking for a specific set of options and accessories only to be blown away by a host of unexpected details that are interesting yet aren’t all that important to you and your computing experience. A great example is all this talk of the thyroid. Recently on Oprah, there was a big thyroid story and it left women everywhere wondering whether a sluggish thyroid is the reason they aren’t healthy, fit, and energetic. Now, while thyroid problems can be the source of frustration for a very small percentage of women, it’s not all that important to 95% of women everywhere. Especially if they aren’t already exercising, eating well, supplementing when necessary, and making time to relax and recover. So, like the laptop example above, the thyroid thing is interesting. But it’s not really all that important. Therefore in my presentation, I’m going to talk about the most important things your clients can do – in a specific order – to get healthy, lose weight, and de-stress. Now, let me warn you, you probably already know most of them. However, in this presentation, I hope to inspire you to put what you already know to good use. 5 Reasons You Might Be Frustrated

There are five major reasons most people are frustrated with their attempts at becoming healthier, improving their body, and boosting their performance. Here are those reasons:

1) Not exercising properly OR enough Hint: if watching “The Biggest Loser” makes up the bulk of your clients’ weekly exercise time, they’re definitely not going to be the biggest loser themselves..

2) Eating too much of the wrong stuff & too little of the right stuff Hint: those 100 calorie snack packs of chips and cookies constitute the wrong stuff.

3) Not supplementing when the diet is deficient Hint: not just in the pirate days did they get scurvy. Indeed, you’d be surprised at how few people actually get the baseline amount of recommended protein, fruits, veggies, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals each day.

4) Not knowing how to relax

Hint: if your clients save their relaxation for 1 – 2 weeks of vacation each year, they don’t know how to relax. And if they bring your blackberry with them on vacation, they definitely don’t know how to relax.

5) Not knowing what to do next if the steps above don’t work

Hint: there is a very small percent of the population (VERY SMALL) that can exercise properly, eat properly, supplement, and learn to relax, yet still have difficulty achieving the results they’re after. In these folks, there’s another step. Too bad not many folks know about it.

The Noise I’ve gotta be honest here. Almost everything else - beyond the first 5 steps above - is just noise. So forget all the campaigns shouting the following:

It’s your thyroid! It’s stress and cortisol! You need metabolism boosters! It’s all that meat you’re eating! You need a cleanse!

Fat burners! Want to know what all that noise has done? Well, in the last 15 years or so, we’ve watched the obesity rate double. And we’ve watched the US and Canada have to create new categories in which certain states and provinces boast a greater than 30% obesity rate. Scary. Looks like we need less noise and more quiet. So take a minute (relax, meditate, get centered, whatever), and focus on the exercise, the food, the supplements, and the relaxation. These are the things that will help your clients walk the path to better health and body composition. What Really Works – The Exercise One quote I love is this one:

“Movement is medicine for changing a person’s physical, emotional, and mental state.”

Indeed, recent research has demonstrated that exercise is more effective in treating depression than antidepressant medications! Beyond that, we all know that exercise helps us lose weight and build lean muscle. Hummm…exercise helps reshape the body, brighten the spirits, and sharpen the mind. I’m sold! The biggest question I get with respect to exercise is this one “what type of exercise is best.” Well, for starters, any exercise is better than none. So the best exercise is the kind of exercise you’ll do. But truthfully, if you really want to get the most out of the time you set aside to exercise, you need to do high intensity exercise.

There are two types of high intensity exercise that work best. The first is strength training. And the second is high intensity interval training. Now, while most folks think of strength training as something reserved for the bodybuilders and strongmen, nothing can be farther from the truth. While strength training can be done in the gym with weights, it also can be done with dumbbells, sandbags, old tractor tires, exercise bands, or even your own body weight. And all of this can be done at home, at a local park, or at a community center. The real key is challenging your body through six key movement patterns: Pushing Pulling Twisting Squatting Bending Lunging Beyond strength exercise, your clients should also build in some conditioning exercise, often referred to as cardio. Now, although most people think of long jogs, bike rides, or the stair master, this type of exercise is not all that effective. Indeed, high intensity interval exercise, exercise in which you work really hard for 20-90 seconds, rest, work hard again, rest again, has been shown to be the most effective form of conditioning work. Indeed, to show you how little time this type of exercise actually takes, one of my favourite conditioning workouts takes only five minutes. First, you do a 5 minute warm up. Next, you have to set your treadmill at an incline of 15% and a speed of 6-8mph (based on your running ability). Run for 20 seconds. Then recover for 10 seconds (jumping off while the treadmill is still going along). Again, run for

20 seconds and recover for 10. Continue this for 5 total minutes. Believe it or not, this workout is more effective at burning fat and improving your conditioning than 45 minutes of walking or jogging! (But be careful…your clients may have to work themselves up to this one if they’re a beginner). Now, when it comes to total exercise time per week, research we here at Precision Nutrition did in conjunction with the University of Wyoming has demonstrated that 5 hours is the magic number. Anything less fails to produce results while 5 hours or more of exercise produces great results. To accomplish 5 hours of exercise, I highly recommend setting aside 4 days of the week. (Most prefer Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday). During each of these workouts, spend about 60 minutes doing strength exercise and 10-20 minutes doing high intensity interval exercise. What Really Works – The Food Just as exercise is medicine, so is food. And just as it’s possible to dig your grave with your own knife and fork, it’s also possible to prevent and treat disease as well as improve your body with your own knife and fork. Unfortunately, most people are never very honest about what their knives and forks are doing. In fact, a speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil approach is usually taken. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard one of these lines, I’d be a very wealthy guy.

“I eat really well…” But… “…I’m still 20lbs overweight.” “My diet is perfect…” But… “…I often feel sluggish and low energy.”

“I make good nutritional choices…” But… “…I’ve got high BP, cholesterol, and type II diabetes.”

Obviously these are all lies. If you ate really well, your diet was perfect, or you made good nutritional choices, these would be problems. Now, the best way to get started in improving your diet is to following these five rules:

1) Eat every 2-3 hours during the day and don’t wait extended periods between meals. Research has demonstrated that those people who eat more frequently tend to have better blood sugar control, lower stress hormone production, lower body fat, and more lean muscle.

2) Include lean, complete protein at every meal and snack during

each day. The ideal amount of protein per day for an exercising individual is 1 gram per pound of body weight. For a 140 lb woman, that’d be 140g of protein and for a 190 lb man it would be 190g protein. Getting this much means grabbing some protein every time you snack or eat a meal.

3) Include vegetables (even a small amount of fruit) at every meal

and snack during each day. The ideal amount of fruits and veggies each day is 8-10 servings. It’s quite tough to get all these servings if you don’t include some cooked, raw, juiced, or blended with each meal.

4) Include a variety of healthy fats in your diet every day. Our

food supply today contains a fat balance that’s out of wack. To get our fat intake back to where it should be, we need to include things like olive oil, avocadoes, flax oil, fish oil, raw nuts, and more each day.

5) Consume carbohydrate-rich foods only after exercise. Carbs aren’t the enemy. But they should be controlled since it’s easy to over eat them. The best strategy to control carbs is to eat mostly whole grain carbohydrates (like amaranth, quinoa, whole grain oats, etc.) and to save them until after exercise. Since exercise increases our body’s ability to effectively utilize carbohydrates, the ideal time to eat some whole grains is within the first few hours post exercise.

Another important lesson is one we can take from the way Okinawans eat, called “hara hachi bu.” In Okinawa, heart disease and stroke rates are lower than in North America. So are cholesterol, homocysteine, and blood pressure measures. Rates of cancer are lower - especially breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. Hip fractures are lower and dementia is rare. Plus the Okinawans tend to live longer. What’s their secret? Hara hachi bu. Roughly translated this means eating only until you’re 80% full. And no more. Now, this isn’t a dietary suggestion. Rather, it’s part of the culture. And many experts believe that this cultural practice, in conjunction with the Okinawan diet rich in fruits and veggies, fish, whole grains, and legumes is the secret of their success. For more on how to create the perfect diet: The Precision Nutrition System What Really Works – The Supplements Many experts suggest that supplements aren’t necessary when the diet is complete. Unfortunately in North America, the diet is pretty much never complete. Can you believe that 68% of the population is deficient in calcium, 90% in chromium, 75% in magnesium, 80% in vitamin B6, and 95% in omega 3 fats?

In fact, in a recent study, even athlete diets didn’t measure up. In this project, the diets of 70 athletes were analyzed for vitamin and mineral intake and not a single one met the recommended daily amount. All of them were deficient in between 3 and 15 nutrients. Beyond this, other research has shown the following:

Less than 5% of men and 3% of women get the minimum number of fruits and veggies per day (3-5 servings).

On average, women are getting only 80g of protein per day (when their needs are closer to 120-140g) and men are getting only 120g of protein per day (when their needs are closer to 170-190g).

I’m definitely not one to heavily promote nutritional supplements. However, with the deficiencies above, folks have to either improve their food intake tremendously or they have to start supplementing their diets with things like:

1) Protein supplements (In Canada I recommend the proteins+, proteins+ vegan, or proteins+ instant smoothie) 2) Fish oil supplements (In Canada I recommend o3mega) 3) Greens supplements and Multi-vitamins (In Canada I recommend greens+ multi+ as it contains both greens and a multi-vitamin formula)

What Really Works – De-Stressing While it’s true that the best time to relax is when you don’t have time for it, it’s also true that most North Americans have a mistaken view of relaxation. In North America we consider our 1 or 2 annual vacations our “time to rest.” Unfortunately these vacations are too

few and far between. Also, many of us fill our vacation days just as full as our days at home. The ideal way to rest is to build in some daily recovery time. Athletes tend to do this best and we could learn a thing or two from them. So, what do we want to build in daily rest time? Well, to understand this, we have to understand something about our brain. Basically one way to categorize our brain function is to break it down into the following two categories:

Sympathetic Activity – which is often called “fight or flight” activity Parasympathetic Activity – which is often called “rest and digest” activity.

As you can imagine, most of us tend to be much too “sympathetic.” It might be our jobs, our homes, our bills, our relationships, traffic, or any other stressor that throws us into a “fight or flight” state. But whatever it is, with chronic sympathetic activity leads to high levels of circulating cortisol and adrenaline, both produced by our adrenal glands (located adjacent to our kidneys). When stress is chronically high and the adrenal glands continue to pump our cortisol and adrenaline, our “non-critical” functions are inhibitied – things like digestion, liver metabolism and detoxification, cellular repair, immune function, and reproduction. In essence, through several physiological interactions, we end up with:

1) Poor blood sugar management and insulin resistance 2) Depression, sleep disruption, and carbohydrate craving 3) Decreased thyroid conversion and a reduced metabolism 4) Altered sex hormone activity

5) Amino acid loss from skeletal muscle And the net result of all of these is hormonal havoc, reproductive dysfunction, muscle loss, fat gain. But what many don’t understand is that it doesn’t stop there. With all this cortisol and adrenaline pumping out, eventually the adrenal glands begin to slow production of cortisol and adrenaline. Until chronic fatigue sets in. Not a happy prognosis. So, what can we do to prevent this? Well, the key here is balance. We’re never going to reduce all of our stress. The job, the relationships, etc. Hopefully they’re all sticking around. And, truth be told, a certain amount of stress is really good for us. So instead of focusing on the sympathetic side of the equation, we need to focus on the parasympathetic side. In other words we need to engage in more activities that help us create our own parasympathetic state. So, what types of activities help us achieve a restful state of relaxation and recovery? Well, there are all sorts of activities that can help with this. Popularized in the last few years, certain types of yoga and Pilates are very parasympathetic. As are most types of meditation. Spa treatments often help achieve that deep parasympathetic state. As does time spent in the sauna or Jacuzzi. But you don’t have to visit a Tibetan monk, drop thousands of dollars, or even leave your house to achieve deep relaxation. The following activities can also work well and can be done at home:

Reading in a quiet spot 30 minutes before bed Drinking warm tea and staring out at the sunset Drinking red wine and listening to music before bed Lighting candles and having an Epson salts bath

In fact, I’ve seen more than a fair share of high level athletes smoke marijuana to achieve this relaxing, parasympathetic state. And this

too seems to work to balance them out during periods of high training stress. (Not that I’m recommending this approach). Just keep in mind the activity doesn’t matter. It’s the state you achieve. So whatever activities can help your clients get 30 minutes of quiet, restful, worry-free parasympathetic activity each day, those are the activities I recommend. What’s Next? At this point it’s important to note that even with the strategies discussed above, a very small percentage of folks (VERY SMALL) might still struggle. Indeed, after applying the appropriate exercise and nutrition programs, supplementing when necessary, and learning to rest and recover, some people might still experience poor results. In this case, some basic physiology is to blame and the most common problems are:

1) Poor ATP production ATP is the energy currency of the body. Without the right level of ATP production and utilization, the function of each and every cell is in jeopardy. In the case of poor ATP production, the main culprits can be poor oxygen delivery (anemia or subclinical anemia) and/or poor glucose delivery and utilization (diabetes or insulin problems).

2) Low thyroid activity

The thyroid is responsible for producing a series of hormones that can help regulate everything from protein creation in the body to how we get energy from our nutrients to our metabolic rate. Without adequate thyroid activity, cellular function and energy transfer is dramatically slowed.

In the case of low thyroid activity, the main culprits can be low thyroid hormone output, poor thyroid hormone conversion, and low thyroid hormone activity

3) Gastrointestinal dysfunction

Beyond its role in the digestion and absorption of our food, our GI tract is often called “the second brain” because of its overall importance in cellular communication. Without proper function of the GI tract, overall health suffers quite quickly. In the case of gastrointestinal dysfunction, the main culprits can be an improper balance between good and bad bacteria living in our guts, poor digestion and absorption of nutrients, food allergies/intolerances, and poor cellular communication.

Now, truth be told, the remedy for most of these issues is – you guessed it – proper exercise, proper nutrition, proper supplementation, and rest/recovery. Indeed, the odds of your clients having a problem that these factors can’t fix are very, very low. However, if you’ve made sure each of these factors is looked after and still struggle, it’s time to dig a little deeper, get some blood work done and have it analyzed by someone who knows what they’re doing. For more on blood testing and analysis: Precision Nutrition’s Blood Profile Analysis Summary In the end, hopefully this article has helped you cut through the noise and figure out what’s really important as you help your clients get healthy, lose weight, and de-stress. If you take anything away from this article I hope it’s this: getting healthy, losing weight, and de-stressing isn’t that complicated. It’s

quite simple really. It’s achieved when you do a few simple things exceptionally well. And then you repeat them. About Dr. Berardi Dr John Berardi is the president of Precision Nutrition, a world leader in nutrition planning and education for athletes and exercisers of all levels. A renowned speaker, coach, and mentor to athletes and recreational exercisers around the world, Dr. Berardi splits his time between Austin, Texas and St. Catharines, Ontario.

Nutrition for you The Precision Nutrition System Eat. Improve. Impress.

Precision Nutrition started with a single question: what exactly should people eat to 1) look fit, 2) be healthy and 3) perform to their highest potential?

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Gourmet Nutrition, Volume 1. A complete cookbook containing over 100 delicious, PN-sanctioned recipes.

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Diet Guide. A comprehensive guide to nutrition. Everything is covered from food selection to meal timing to nutrition program design.

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Measurement Guide. Why measuring results is critical; exactly what to measure, and how.

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