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Great article at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html that proves exercising makes you fat. Actually, the article says that you use up all your willpower forcing yourself to exercise so that you overeat afterwards. Therefore exercising makes you fat.

The article should have mentioned that 99% of the population eat too many refined carbs which spike the blood sugar and cause an insulin release. Insulin causes you to store fat and prevents you form burning fat while exercising. That is why drinking a gatorade before or after a 20 minute run is a bad isea, it’s all sugar (the research for gatorade was done on 90+ minutes of activity in Florida where its crazy hot). Unless you are doing a major endurance event you do not need the electrolytes or sugar that a sports drink contains.

How can you exercise and lose weight? Here are the top three things….

#1- Eat a balanced diet (of healthy fat , protein and carbs) devoid of sugar and grains (that is right no grain not even Ezekiel bread or sprouted ancient Kamut) at every meal. This will keep blood sugar level and avoid insulin spikes. No one has ever gotten fat eating fruits, vegetables, meat fish nuts and seeds.

#2- Do high intensity weights and cardio mixed- you need to push yourself in order to see results. Doing a 30 min run at 6 mph 4x a week will burn some calories but not make a major change in your physique (once you have adapted to the initial shock to the system). High intensity circuit  training has been proven to get the best results and the variety will keep you training longer.

#3- Alcohol- It’s not just the calories and the fact its all sugar. The alcohol get processed in your liver. Unfortunately, that is where fat gets broken down as well. Bad news is if you go out on the town then try to make up for it by training hard your body cannot burn any fat, its to busy detoxifying your blood. Cut down the total number of drinks  weekly as well as eliminate all alcohol Sun – Thurs (or another 5 consecutive days). That way your body will be able to de-toxify and be able to burn fat during/ after your exercise. 

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, crossfit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/  and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/

I did my first Half Ironman race on Sunday at Shawnigan Lake http://www.triseries.ca/index.php . A great event and we had an amazing day for it. I definitely was under-trained and noticed that when I went past my longest distances from training  on the bike especially, I had a big drop off in performance. Lots of long rides needed if I am to finish Ironman Canada. More to come tomorrow.

I regularly get asked abouty the latest fitness trends. here is one I got today.
Hey CB, (my soccer feriends call me CB)
My team at work, all women, have seen this ‘powerful’ new exercise machine.
It claims 10 minutes work on it is as good as 1 hr of regular exercise.

A couple of them are pondering buying it.
After I stopped laughing I thought I would ask your thoughts on such a miraculous product.
My answer:
I went to a conference where they covered it and it does work, but its more of a neural effect. i.e. it takes 10 000 reps to perfect a squat, you may be able to cut that down to 1000 on the expensive power plate, but in the end you still need to exercise and do lots of it to lose weight (the vibrations stimulate the neural system so you recover better etc, but it does not burn more calories which most people will need to see results). Summary if you injure your leg it will help you heal faster as you can get a good training effect with no impact. I would not buy one for individual use without testing it first, they have a vibration gym down here on the water in Yaletown they could try it for a few weeks and see if it miracles the fat off (my bet is it won’t). If you read the studies on their site they all involve helping seniors not fall by doing squats on them (same effect has been proven with a wobble board), the one study of weight loss showed and I quote
”
In conclusion 24 week whole body vibration training did not reduce weight total body fat or subcutaneous fat in previously untrained females.” http://www.powerplate.com/pdfs/technology/scientific/Roelants_EffectsWBVCompositionStrength.pdf

So if you work with seniors afraid of falling they can buy the power plate for 1000s or a wobble board for 50 bucks, but for weight loss you are throwing money away………

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, crossfit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/  and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/

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Want faster recovery? Try this…..Right after your workout take an alternate hot and cold shower (as hot and cold as you can stand). Ideally if you have a shower with a Handel you can focus the cold on the areas you have just trained. Alternate at least twice and always finish on cold. I did this yesterday after a 3 hour ride and 30 minute run where my quads were cramping. No soreness today and the cramping stopped during the shower. Right after your next workout and leave a post here in comments with what you think.

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, crossfit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/ .

I had the opportunity to attend a fantastic seminar on the weekend at the Richmond Olympic Speed Skating Oval. It is a world class facility and I would recommend stopping by and checking it out. http://richmondoval.ca/default.htm 

The seminar was put on by Mark Verstegen the founder of Athletes Performance http://www.athletesperformance.com/ , they are the premier athlete training facility in the United States. The seminar was half lecture and half practical. They covered movement prep and core activation (they call it Pillar Strength instead of core strength). They also covered weighttraining focusing on athletic power and speed development. Notably, Athletes Performance is highly focused on recovery (nutrition, ART, hydro-therapy etc.). It was very informative.

It was an amazing facility and great presenters. I came out with some great new exercises that my clients are enjoying and some new information on athletic power and speed development. Looking forward to the next continuing education moment.

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top  personal trainers, crossfit  and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/ .