In history books, nutritional deficiencies have usually been found in the wake of wars, droughts, and the wide-spread famine that results. These days though, most of us have the time and the resources to enjoy a balanced, nutrient-rich diet so why has it become normal to need extra helpings in the form of bottled pills and powdered scoops?

Food For Profit

Given that human health is dependent on nature and nature is there to serve, the supplement industry could be fairly described as a racket. The objective isn’t to make food go further or necessarily make us any healthier. Nutritional supplements are often available for no other reason than profit.

Since many of us are too busy or unable to manage our nutritional needs, food scientists and business brains have quietly come together to create some misdirection and, at the same time, stack some cash.

Let’s be realistic, all supplements claim to be are synthetic imitations of the genuine article. In some cases, they have literally preserved extractions of a fruit or plant. Living food contains an abundance of every nutrient we need to live in supreme health so why not just go for the real thing?

The market for both synthetic and natural food supplements is worth billions and it doesn’t stop at vitamin and mineral supplements, either. Protein shakes often contain very few ingredients found in nature.

In fact, to drive sales, some have started boasting about their scientific concoctions and laboratory formulated ingredients. Sadly, some of us are so confused over what’s real and what isn’t, marketing a product in this way actually works as a selling point.

But when we adopt ancient processing practices, such as sprouting and dehydrating, food becomes medicine for us and natural food, including free-range meat, is the ultimate human supplement.

The post Supplements, Seriously? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Consider the egg—a raw one may have a hard exterior but we all know what happens when the outer shell is compromised. Unless we reinforce the inside first, by cooking it, an egg might look hard and solid when, in fact, it’s fragile and falls over when we try to stand it up. A hard-boiled egg, on the other hand, can be spun on its head.

Activation of the core muscles should be a high priority each time we workout because core strength gives us the necessary foundation for strength training and functional movement. Also, a weak foundation is prime territory for injuries so these muscles are vital for our protection and safety.

If our heavier external muscles are strong and toned, that strength must go down to the bone.

Discover Your Core

Many people locate the core as the area behind our navels. While that’s a logical assumption, the core region really runs from our hips; all the way up the spine and because our thigh bones are attached to the pelvis; all the way down to our knees as well. This is evidenced when we kneel, our glutes fire-up and after a spell, there’s a noticeable lift in the buttocks.

Try kneeling down with your hips directly over your knees and feel how your buttocks are gradually activating and tightening up. In this position, our glutes are doing the stabilizing, more so than the muscles behind the navel.

House of Cards and Injury Prevention

Imagine the skeleton as a house of cards with the bones and vital organs balancing on random decks. Now, if you can imagine the role our muscles play in holding that structure together, you can see how vital it is to include core strength training in each session.

Injury Prevention

I’ve seen many experienced gym users struggle with the most basic body-weight exercises only because they’ve been training too hard and with too much added resistance. If we add too much external resistance too soon we’re not building a solid base but instead, we build strength in all the wrong areas, leaving ourselves wide open to injuries.
Slips and ouches may be part of life but so many are avoidable, especially when they’re caused by poor training techniques or dysfunctional movements.

Activate Your Core Chain

Our core muscles are mostly comprised of type 2 fibers which respond better to isometric (or static) stimulation. Core muscles, along with protecting the spine, hips, and organs, do a lot to prevent us from tipping over.

A simple way to activate your core is to hold yourself up when you exercise—no irony intended. So much of the fixed equipment in gyms encourages sitting but the problem is, once we sit down and start pumping iron, we disengage most of our core stabilizers. Instead, try to keep them engaged by adopting a strong, stable stance (preferably on your own two feet) before repping-out with free-weights. To recruit your core muscles, the trick is to keep the rest of your body static as you pump your weights. For advancement, try an unstable surface like a Bosu, a wobble board or a deep static squat.

The study of biomechanics shows us that most human movement is generated from the hips. As this is also the foundation for the spine and legs, the surrounding muscles have a critical job to do. Not only do they provide a nucleus of strength for the entire body, but they help protect and stabilize the spine. Adding heavy muscle mass to a delicate structure isn’t a wise move towards strength gains.

It is better to get buff from the inside out by getting down to the core. For a demonstration of how to use free-weights while keeping the core engaged, check out this move, The Kettlebell Halo.

The post Develop Strength Down to the Core appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The many variables, including fluid levels and muscle mass, that alter our BMI on a daily basis are perfectly normal yet the data on the scales can have a powerful impact on our mood and how we ultimately conduct our day.

The question is, why do we want that information and what can we do with it?

As a personal trainer, I’m not in the slightest bit concerned by how much you weigh because unless my plan is to pick you up and carry you around the gym, that sort of data doesn’t tell me what I need to know about you. I would never weigh another human being and I don’t think that sort of treatment bodes well for a healthy trusting relationship.

Scales Are for Baggage Handlers

People are much better served when I put my energy into designing the best training methods for them, not when I encourage a negative self-image by advising people who trust me to treat themselves like cattle or cargo.

A fit, able body is a far more liberating pursuit than a mattress full of money or a random figure plucked from someone else’s BMI chart and liberty, which is a circumstance, not a science, and can’t be quantified by data.

In the end, it turns out Jen just wants to feel good and be happy. She knows she’ll improve her chances by getting physically healthy and cleaning up her nutrition. The problem is her chosen yard-stick was preventing her progress. Instead of relying on how she felt, she was distracted by the unstable data the scales kept presenting. Now that she’s stopped treating her body that way, her teenage daughter might not have to go through years of the same self-sabotage.

The post Bathroom Scales, Who’s the Fittest of Them All? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When we warm up, either by stretching or performing a moderated version of the activity to come, we’re preparing our bodies in several different ways—three of which are crucial to our performance, recovery, and outcome.

Is all this twisting and folding really necessary?

When we warm up, either by stretching or performing a moderated version of the activity to come, we’re preparing our bodies in several different ways—three of which are crucial to our performance, recovery, and outcome.

The Pulse Raiser

Isn’t it nicer to be woken up gently rather than a bucket of cold water in the face? When it comes to exercise we should treat our hearts with the same courtesy. A gradual rise in intensity rather than a sudden spike will better prepare the heart for what’s coming. The pulse raising element of a warm up should leave us breathless but still able to complete a spoken sentence.

The Role of Mobility

As our bodies begin to move, your synovial joints (think heels, knees, hips, and shoulders) release synovial fluid for lubrication and to protect the cartilage at the head of the bone. As muscle fibers start to lengthen and contract, most of us notice an increased range of motion in the limbs. This improvement in flexibility is increased by the generation of body heat but it’s also due to the breakdown of fascia, the connective tissue that covers our muscles.

After a few minutes of repetitive movement muscles become more elastic and a greater amount of blood, enriched with oxygen and other essential nutrients, is delivered to them. At this point some of us have that lovely feeling of getting into our stride. Sufficient oxygen levels in the working muscles will hold back the lactic threshold so we can keep going for longer before fatigue sets in.

Take a Moment for Flexibility

Our range of motion (how far we can reach with our limbs) determines the amount of skilled movement we can put in to our chosen activity. The more quality and quantity of effort we put in, the more we’ll get out so it’s crucial that we put as much focus on our flexibility as we do with every other part of our fitness training.

There are various stretching techniques and in order to select the right one it’s a good idea to consider the activity you’re going to be doing—for example you could loosen your shoulders before a game of tennis by swinging your arms back and forth. A pre-workout stretch might require dynamic (active) stretches but keep in mind this can sometimes have the unwanted effect of overexciting the surrounding muscles. In an unmonitored environment, passive or static stretches are the safer and more effective option.

Time to Get Warm

When your warm up is complete there’s a lot less resistance between what the body wants to do and what the mind is ready to face. In other words, a good warm up ultimately connects the mind and body and get us in the zone for an awesome session.

Here’s a gentle warm up routine that includes dynamic compound stretches and a pulse raiser or two:

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