Stress affects your mood, your enjoyment of life and your time with loved ones. Sounds obvious, right? But stress doesn’t just make you feel irritable; it may cause you to hold body fat as well. It’s relatively uncommon to walk into a grumpy 9-5 office and find a bunch of healthy fit people (sans Michael Scott, obviously). The overwhelming majority of the … [Read more…]
Coconut oil is always present in my pantry. It’s a great partner for your culinary endeavors, and the health benefits of coconut oil make it a worthy addition to your next shopping list. If being able to withstand the heat makes you tough, consider coconut oil an absolute badass. It’s known for its high smoke point (about 350F for unrefined virgin coconut oil). It maintains … [Read more…]
Feeling under the weather? Don’t reduce your fever with pills. Our superstar editor, Stephanie, had a fever from the flu the other night while outside her window sat 18 inches of Maryland snow. Her remedy? Baths and sleep. The simplicity of her approach and my realization that I haven’t had a fever in a long, long time got me wondering and researching what causes fevers … [Read more…]
Yesterday, I posted a suggestion that you should take your workout outside. I received some blowback (read: excuses) from my friends in Minnesota. I find this particularly useful for banter, given that we’re smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics! What sort of things can you do in the cold weather? Ice Hockey – 403 calories per hour Downhill skiing – 408 calories per … [Read more…]
Compare the sterile, big box gyms we are all too familiar with to training outdoors. You sense it intuitively. Having the elements on your skin, being surrounded by nature is good for us. Roughly three years ago, I moved from Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to Malibu. While the Valley is surrounded by majestic mountains, it’s made up of a grid of city blocks, apartment … [Read more…]
Mindful breathing is one of the easiest changes that you can make in your life, and one that you may see the most benefits from. I learned about meditation from my dad. I remember him going into a room for hours; he would come out looking stoned. Maybe he was, but I like to think he was just blissfully relaxed.
According to pops, mediation is simply paying attention to breath. By his definition, I’m a monk. I don’t practice traditional meditation consistently, but I continue to use the techniques daily. Even though I’m not sitting in a lotus position chanting, I use breath control to regulate mood, to calm nerves, to change body language and to generally adjust my outlook on life.
When I introduce friends to meditation, I recommend following their breath from their nose into their stomachs (rather than their chests) for five minutes.
If I have an upcoming event requiring calming my nerves (for example, a performance), I try to slow my breathing to a crawl. I set a timer or look at my watch and allocate one full minute. During these 60 seconds, I challenge myself to take as few breaths as possible while maintaining a natural, slow rhythm. Without fail, I’ll feel more relaxed and focused on the back end.
During 2000, with the Texas Rangers, I, along with hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, practiced meditation prior to games. I became close to Don Kalkstein, a Sports Psychology consultant to the Rangers and Dallas Mavericks, Sport Psychology Consultant. He told me Monday evening,
Effective breathing strategies can decrease stress and muscle tension. It’s also effective in calming nerves, sharpening focus, minimizing negative and distracting thoughts, reducing fatigue and promoting stamina. Unfortunately, proper breathing is an often overlooked component of performance preparation.
I felt more relaxed heading to the plate. I don’t think it was a coincidence that I hit in 28 straight games that year.
The health claims of attention to breath have been scientifically backed up. From Gretchen Cuda of NPR:
There are plenty of ways to relieve stress — exercise, a long soak in a hot bath, or even a massage. But believe it or not, something you’re doing right now, probably without even thinking about it, is a proven stress reliever: breathing. As it turns out, deep breathing is not only relaxing, it’s been scientifically proven to affect the heart, the brain, digestion, the immune system — and maybe even the expression of genes.
The stress reduction is the element of this discussion that is most noteworthy. Elevated stress levels contribute to everything from increased disease susceptibility to heart attacks. Any way to reduce this risk is worth looking into.
My best proof of concept on the benefits of focused breathing comes from my 2011 Spring Training with the Los Angeles Dodgers. During my physical, my initial blood pressure reading came up high enough that our doctor considered medication. I knew that the stress of trying to make the club was impacting the readings and asked that they not write the prescription. They agreed, with the caveat that they would check my blood pressure every day. Every day prior to the reading, I sat for five minutes, simply breathing. My readings following each meditation session were within normal range.
It turns out I didn’t need medication after all, I needed to connect with my breath.
Welcome to our 28th edition of the weekly open thread. Boston writes in: I’ve been a follower of KL for a while now and enjoy you sharing everything. You seem to end up discussing topics that I am interested in hearing about. I have a question about children and technology. I think it’s important to an extent for children to be introduced to technology because of the large … [Read more…]
Gavin provides us with our topic for musing today. You recently invited the readers of this blog to engage in more counter discussion of positions you have taken (to paraphrase you). Not your first time, and not surprising to anybody that frequents the KL. I think your mind would spin out of control if you went a day without a challenge, a task to conquer. Have you ever … [Read more…]
Diving right in with Chris’ question: Did you ever regret anything you did during a “bench clearing brawl” as its called (but not accurately worded in most cases). It’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment, but do you believe that in those instances in your career you were truly backing up your teammates? Interesting question for this blog, Chris. As you alluded … [Read more…]
Welcome to the 25th edition of our weekly open thread. Let’s get started. Zach opens: Do you have alternative exercises that fit into the 5×5 if you don’t have access to a squat rack or bench? For various reasons, the only gym I can get to has a handful of machines and free weights (limited to 50lbs), but I still want to get the same benefits as the traditional 5×5 with … [Read more…]
After yesterday’s interlude, we return to our weekly open thread. Chris: Maybe you’re not aware of it as you breathe in the warm fresh ocean air of Malibu or bask in sun of the Dominican, but here in New England we have been buried with about 8 feet of snow during the last month. For those of us that shovel, how should we factor it in with our 5×5’s and with rest? Leading … [Read more…]
You can find glucosamine, and every other nutrient your body needs from the food you ingest.
I’ve told you about my cozy little gym in Malibu, Malibu Fitness. We have quite the familial, neighborhood vibe. We all look out for each other and share fitness, health and well being tips. Generally as a group, we seek ways to share knowledge. A few days back, an exceptionally experienced power lifter approached me and asked how my dead lifts were coming. In his heyday, he was a freak, like record-holder strong, so when he talks, I listen. I told him my deadlifts were great, but my squats were bugging me in that I’ve been feeling some impingement in my hips.
As I mentioned, everybody’s intention is to help, and my man started to sell me on a glucosamine supplement that might help. Ughhhh. I can’t blame him. He doesn’t know my philosophy on supplements. When I expressed that I don’t take supplements and that I can get adequate amounts of nutrients from my foods, he gazed at me perplexed and skeptical. I like that. We were about to engage.
In order for his argument to work, three things need to be true. First, glucosamine needs to be a substance our bodies need. Second, additional glucosamine, from whatever source, needs to be helpful in solving the problem that I’m having – in this case, my hip impingement Third, the most effective method of getting the glucosamine needs to be from pills, not food. Let’s navigate those individually.
Glucosamine is a chemical that our bodies make naturally. It is a precursor to glycosaminoglycans, essentially the lubricant in the fluid around all of our joints. This fluid acts as a shock absorber, cushioning and protecting our joints when we move. In other words, it’s definitely necessary for our bodies, so we can check that box. No, I didn’t know this off the top of my head. Yes, I googled it. Homework, people.
Will additional glucosamine help me? The evidence doesn’t appear to be strongly in favor of this point. Some studies have indicated that there is mild pain improvement for some kinds of knee arthritis, but others suggest it’s no better than placebo treatments. And, I don’t have knee arthritis.
GH is ineffective for pain reduction in patients with knee OA. GS may have function-modifying effects in patients with knee OA when administered for more than 6 months. However, it showed no pain-reduction benefits after 6 months of therapy.
Other studies have not found any benefit for other joints. My body likely doesn’t need any help making glucosamine. The benefits from the chemical come from what our bodies can naturally produce, and simply adding more doesn’t help. From a study:
The results indicate that exogenous glucosamine does not stimulate chondroitin sulfate synthesis by human chondrocytes. Furthermore, the cells have the capacity to form amounts of glucosamine from glucose far in excess of that provided from exogenous sources, except at concentrations greater than could possibly be achieved with oral administration of glucosamine.
But let’s assume that it might help my hip flexor issues. This brings us to the larger question – should we be crushing it in pill form?
My friend from the gym thinks that we can’t get what we need from food because our soil is depleted of nutrients. Bottled, processed pills may be only way. He cited a nutrition journal, removing it from his bag to show me. Perfect, I had a plan to immediately discredit the book. In my mind I was already expecting the publishing date of this antiquated manual to be in the mid 2000s. I opened it and found that it was published in the last year, in 2014. Damn. Our conversation continued as I attempted to stay open minded. My friend wanted to share a particular passage with me about how the typical American diet doesn’t provide ample nutrients and therefore we must supplement. That was easy, I don’t eat the typical American diet. But glucosamine is tricky. You have to work a bit harder for it. That’s why I eat the bones. (If that’s too much, try the broth). From paleoleap.com:
As well as providing the raw materials for healthy bones and joints, the proteins in bone broth deliver an especially interesting benefit for rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease marked by painful damage to the tendons and ligaments. Specifically, these proteins may actually help stop the autoimmune response in its tracks. One study found that chicken collagen dramatically improved symptoms in 60 patients; four of them showed complete remission…Interestingly enough, the studies evaluating glucosamine + chondroitin supplements have produced conflicting and inconclusive results, and there seems to be a significant bias introduced by industry funding. However, one study compared glucosamine + chondroitin to plain collagen and found that the collagen was actually more effective, indicating that there might be something in the whole food that the supplements miss.
Our first solution to soreness or aging (39 for 2 more months) in our bodies should not be to reach for a bottle off the shelf. Many folks who take glucosamine supplements don’t notice an effect immediately. This isn’t surprising – even in the studies that suggest moderate pain improvement, it takes 4-8 weeks of daily pills to achieve that effect. While glucosamine has not been proven to have harmful effects even when taking 1,500 mg daily, many people get impatient and take significantly more than that dosage. A recent study suggested that the higher doses damaged pancreatic cells and possibly increased risk for diabetes.
Our bodies have evolved to maintain balance. The supplement industry promotes a mindset of popping a pill to correct this problem, taking a powder to correct that one and shortcuts for everything. Continually throwing our systems out of balance with a “more is better” attitude can lead to significantly larger problems down the road. By hunting a well balanced nutritional approach, we provide our bodies with sustenance in a form we evolved to process and use.
GNC is a modern day snake oil salesman. Next time the shelves offer you a cure for whatever soreness you’re experiencing, do some legwork and break down the claim. Question the assumptions instead of falling for the hype. And eat some bones.
Tonight, I made radish soup for my boys and myself. It so was delicious, I figured I would share the recipe with you. First, so you can be totally up to speed on the health benefits, let’s rewind.
Remember my post on radishes? If the floating thought bubble above your head reads “This man has no life,” you are correct. I know that most folks aren’t going to snack on radishes like I do. If you won’t, I know for damn sure your kids (or brothers and sisters) won’t either.
Ever prepare a meal for a child (or teenager) and watch as they remove anything green? Makes me wonder if they know something I don’t. If you have more than one youngster, like I do, it’s likely that they don’t agree on which foods they appreciate. It’s always a challenge to create a menu, and making sure it’s healthy is even harder. Sometimes, you just need to sneak the good stuff into a meal for the young ones and for you.
Much like smoothies, soups can be a healthy way to hide nutrients and subtly familiarize kids with new flavors. Consistency can throw my guys off, so whenever adding unfamiliar veggies to soup, I just chop them up giving them less mass and trusting the goodness to bleed into the meat and broth, the dependable staples of what they’ll eat.
I appreciate chunks and bites of radishes, onions, garlic. My boys don’t yet, so this recipe features my veggie disguising tricks of chopping, mincing and slicing much smaller than I normally do when cooking for myself.
Here you go.
You’ll need:
2/3 pound grass fed beef brisket, cut into small pieces
½ pound organic radishes, chopped
2 organic green onions, chopped
¼ organic yellow onion, chopped
5 organic garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sea salt
8 cups water
Directions:
Place the radishes and water into a pot. Cover and bring to a boil; cook for 15 minutes over medium high heat.
Add the beef and garlic. Turn down the heat to medium and cook for 25 minutes.
Add fish sauce, salt, and chopped green and yellow onion. Cook an additional five minutes.
Serve with or over brown rice
My end game is comfort. The taste is super mild, yet flavorful. There are no overpowering flavors, and it is crazy healthy.
Note: If your kids are anything like mine, you’ll want to mince that garlic extra fine and strain the green onions out before serving. If they still don’t eat it, let them make their own PB and J. You just put in a lot of thought for their meal, but you’re not a restaurant.
Eating until you’re close, but not completely full, may help you live a longer, healthier life. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with splitting my dinner into two meals. I’ve found that eating ¾ of my food prior to the “red light time,” followed by the remaining ¼ after my television segment is done leaves me sharper and more energetic. This likely has to do with … [Read more…]
Our brains need a break, both from everyday routines and, in particular, our workouts.
Over the course of time, doing the same thing day in and day out leaves us with a stale routine. Our workouts become drab and exhausting. There’s only one way to break out of that rut. We must experiment with something new from time to time to keep things fresh.
Routines can be powerful. We’ve talked before about how a standard morning routine frees up my mind for more creative pursuits later. However, this isn’t entirely true. Our brains continually make new connections and flush out old ones, even deep into adulthood (a concept called “neuroplasticity”). By changing up our inputs, our brain is forced to wire itself differently. This can help us to seek out previously unconsidered solutions and options.
Likewise, our body functions similarly. By asking it to only do the same things over time, we may see less progress. This adaptation is why you might see major results in the first 4-6 weeks of a workout program, only to then have them plateau over time. Our hormones, muscles, and cells are no longer being forced to adapt.
As with all of our pursuits, involving others and seeking out collaboration can often be the most effective solution. Yesterday, I worked out with a bodybuilder dude. I’ve witnessed this guy working his ass off on a day-to-day basis every time I stop in at Malibu Fitness. He’s worked hard for many, many months now, and I knew it might be a good place for me to try some fresh techniques.
Justin’s is a volume based routine. I know, intuitively, that rest is required for muscles to regenerate tissue. Without regeneration, there are no strength gains. Growth hormone and testosterone are produced during the rest periods, not during the training periods. The science backs this up. From a meta-study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise:
Training with a mean intensity of 60% of one repetition maximum elicits maximal gains in untrained individuals, whereas 80% is most effective in those who are trained. Untrained participants experience maximal gains by training each muscle group 3 d.wk and trained individuals 2 d.wk. Four sets per muscle group elicited maximal gains in both trained and untrained individuals.
In other words, for optimal gains, volume-based routines are not ideal. However, all that said, I’m uber confident that giving my mind a break at this moment is more important than training optimally. I am absolutely 100% sick of my 5×5 workout. Anything was going to be less nauseating than my squat deadlifts bent over row overhead press routine.
We must’ve knocked out 35 to 40 sets of legs yesterday. I woke up this morning sore from my ankles to my waist. Normally, I take a day off in between my weight training workouts and run sprints. Today I have another session planned with Justin to work pulls, back and shoulders.
One thing that was abundantly clear yesterday during the volume-based workout with Justin was that I broke a strong sweat. Very generally speaking, my body is so used to the workout that I have currently in place that I don’t really sweat profusely and I miss that desperately.
As a side note, Justin drinks grape drink and egg whites throughout his workout. I felt like I was being transported back to 1997. I asked Justin what he likes to eat post workout and he told me white rice and pasta. Justin believes that we need to ingest straight glucose after our workouts.
I won’t be changing up my routine that much. I also don’t foresee sticking with a volume based training regimen for any significant length of time. However, in the short term, simply doing something different is freeing up my mind and body to adapt and improve. Action > bitching and complaining.
I’ve riffed on supplements before. This is not the first time you’re hearing my views. Given how much money our nation is spending on pills, powders and oils, it’s worth continuing the discussion. Supplements are akin to training wheels on a bicycle. They might provide the illusion of mastery, but the confidence is of the phony variety. From slate.com: It’s an iconic scene: … [Read more…]
If you’ve followed the blog, you know my take on supplements. I’m not a fan. They’re dangerous, because they’re highly processed and poorly regulated. They’re expensive. These supplements also have a more pernicious effect. Taking supplements lulls you into a pattern of poor decisions and subsequently diminished health. If I believe I can get my nutrition from a capsule or a … [Read more…]
Epsom salt baths will make you smell good. They may have a placebo effect in soothing and calming sore muscles, but the science behind the practice is questionable. Every day, I walk by the bag of Epsom salt in my boys’ bathroom and giggle when reading the label statements. Lisa (my amazing ex-wife) buys it for them and they buy in, so I figure it’s “working” for them. … [Read more…]
If you’ve lost your creative magic, try carving out some time for yourself. It can be a bear to establish a line between working and relaxing. With smartphones, laptops and always-on communication methods, it is simple to get caught in a never ending work cycle. Our occupation becomes a treadmill, and we can easily end up just going through the motions. I’ve been in … [Read more…]
When you find yourself with a cold, don’t avoid the milk. You may have heard the myth that drinking milk will make a cold worse. Our regular readers know we don’t fall for a catchphrase without doing our due diligence. From listverse.com: A lot of people think that drinking milk while you have a cold is a bad idea because it causes more mucous to build up. Actually, milk … [Read more…]
Kap in researching a previous post you said, My 5 x 5s take roughly 90 minutes, including warm ups, the sprint workouts are about 75 minutes”, what take so long? Could you please break this down, trying to emulate your workouts but not sure what I am missing. Thanks!
Charlie,
This is a solid question. I dig the attention to detail. Much respect.
Our focus at Kaplifestyle is about power production and the development of lean tissue. Neither our 5 x 5 nor our sprint workouts are endurance exercises. Rather, we want to fully recover in order to optimize for explosiveness and speed.
From strength and conditioning coach John Alvino:
How long you should rest in between sprints can have a huge impact on your training results. If you are training for pure speed, you generally want full recovery in between sprints. For the distances discussed above you could easily rest 3-6 minutes in between sprints.
This may not be the ideal formula for fat burning, but I’m in it for the power and the muscle mass. I believe that more lean tissue is better, long term. The longer the sprints and the less recovery built in, the more catabolic the activity may become.
So, when I perform the 5 x 5 or sprints, I recover fully between sets. Here’s a sample breakdown.
15 minute warm up
4 x 40 yards with 4 minutes rest between = roughly 17 minutes
No, it’s not an exact science, but you get the picture. The key word is power. Full recovery leads to full power production. Full power production reminds our bodies to keep the lean tissue we have and to lay down more. Lean tissue equals more power production and the cycle repeats.
Strong mind,
Kap
Let me know what’s on your mind in the comments below.
Every Thursday and Sunday for the last year, I’ve gone through the same sprint workout. This time, I find myself dreading following that routine. A warm-up followed by four 100s, four 60s and four 40s…I can’t do it today. I need something different. From business2community.com: Ask anyone who fell off the bandwagon with their New Year’s fitness resolutions: boring workouts … [Read more…]
I love the dumbbell snatch. It’s one of the exercises I perform simply because enjoy it. I dig the sensation of moving the weight fast and the sting when my feet hit the floor. Lucky for me, the dumbbell snatch translated perfectly to baseball. Picture Andrelton Simmons going from an athletic position to leaping up to, well, snatch a bullet line drive. Notice the … [Read more…]
The bench press is the most essential upper body move for overall strength, power and muscular development. It has also inspired the world’s most ridiculous question: Man, how much can you bench? This query is both embarrassing and meaningful. The amount of weight an athlete can move off of his or her chest translates directly to sport. For non-athletes concerned mostly … [Read more…]
Ensuring you have an appropriate warm up is essential to any successful program. Warm ups prior to exercise are important to prepare your circulatory system and muscles for exertion and reduce the chance of injury. Unfortunately, traditional stretching routines are ineffective. The most potent way to warm up for an athletic activity is by performing the same movements you will … [Read more…]
