Circadian rhythm refers to the physiological bio-rythums that exist between animals and there natural habitat.  Dr. Franz Halberg, a scientist at the University of Minnesota, coined the phrase to describe a strict rhythm that coincided with a cycle that was a little longer than a 24 hour day and night cycle.  Circadian rythums have been studied now for the past 50 years.  In humans, blood chemistry, body temperature, hormone secretion, physical strength even digestive secretions vary form hour to hour on this daily rhythm.  For fitness enthusiast there is great benefit being aware of these rhythms and how to make best use of our bodies flow through this 24 +/- hour pattern.

With our advances in technology and civilization we humans find ourselves in a world vastly different than the world we originated in some 4 million years ago.  There has been a significant trend in nutrition and fitness prescription to attempt to reconnect modern human to a “functional , organic, natural way of living replicating the hunting and gathering behaviors of Paleo man and woman.  This modern caveman approach to fitness and nutrition has inspired a trend of eating whole foods, seasonal veggies and fruits, less processed foods and a virtual war has been declared on refined sugars.

One factor I see over looked by many in the fitness and wellness field is what people do when they are not at the office or at home in the kitchen.  What about happy hour? What time do you go to bed?  Fall asleep? Do you stay asleep? Do you take medication to sleep?  What about how you feel in the morning? mid day? evening?  Do you need caffeine, candy other stimulants to stay awake and “function” through the day? These are critical questions I ask to determine how well an individual will respond to additional stress like found in a new training regimen, sport or activity.

Recently, I have been doing research on how to better, more comprehensively assess my new client’s lifestyle stress.  One of the ways I find works well to educate while assessing is the use of questionnaires.  I find these mostly beneficial in determining lifestyle habits or patterns that may be uncomfortable to discuss with me especially in the beginning few days of our working together. Below is an example of a questionnaire I found this weekend pertaining to individual biorhythms.

“OWL AND LARK QUESTIONNAIRE”

I found this bit in the FAQ section of well respected coaching source.

Each warm-up is training session dependent. You will not warm-up the same way if your training session is a 5,000m Row or Run vs. a 5-20 min training session for as much work as possible involving a variety of movements vs. if your training session is a A1/A2/B1/B2/C1/C2 vs. if your training session is Clean and Jerk 1 rep maximum. The warm-up can vary depending on many factors. We will give example warm-ups for each of the above examples, these are merely guidelines, as each individual will have different needs during their warm-up.
5,000m Row or 5,000m Run – if you are running for your training, you must run in the warm-up, if you are rowing for training, you must row in the warm-up. A 10 min row or run @ 50 % effort with some short (30 sec) pacing effort would be appropriate a few times during this 10 minutes. Following this, practice of breathing through the belly, stretching of needed areas, foam rolling of needed areas, doing the major bodyweight movements – lunge, squat, sit-up, chin-up, push-up – and some 60-180 sec moderate efforts of row or run would be fine as a warm-up. Ensure your breathing is ready for the demand you intend to place on the system by completing a thorough warm-up. If you need more time to feel comfortable to complete your training, take it.
5-20 min training session with variety of movement – again, 10 minutes @ 50% effort of run/row/bike/skip would be beneficial if breathing will be high during the training. Stretch and foam roll the necessary areas. Perform the movements that you have to complete during the training session in the warm-up. Try a few reps of each movement in correct sequence of the training session to prep your brain and body for what is to come. Ensure your breathing is ready for the demand you intend to place on the system by completing a thorough warm-up. If you need more time to feel comfortable to complete your training, take it.
A1/A2/B1/B2/C1/C2 – Begin with the movements related to the training session, then add more load to the first 2 movements, rotate though a few reps, add a little more load until you get close to your starting weight for set # 1. Prior to the first working set of the session (the first one you are counting) ensure you perform any necessary stretching, foam rolling, or dynamic ROM exercises.
Clean and Jerk for maximum load – this example will suffice for any low repetition weightlifting training session (i.e. bench press, weight chin-ups, back squat, front squat, deadlift, olympic lifting). The key is to ready the Central Nervous System (CNS). This is what is being trained. As per your feeling on that day, stretching, foam rolling, and any supplementary movements (skill transfer exercises, posterior chain, anterior chain, rotator cuff, dynamic ROM, etc.) for the training session should be completed in the warm-up. The focus early in the session should be on potentiating (realizing potential) the body for the remainder of the training session by performing any movements in a powerful, but controlled, manner. Speed and technique are necessary components of these sessions and therefore should be touched on in the warm-up.

In addition, here is another tid bit discovered recently on same site.

Part 1

Swim

8 sets; 100 meter crawl 80% 60 sec rest (tread water while resting b/t sets)

Part 2 (4-6 hrs later)

21-15-9

Heavy Dead lifts

30″ Box Jumps

The Top 5 Supplements to Gain Muscle Mass

by Charles Poliquin

In many seminars, I always get asked which supplements are best to gain mass. My answers will surprise many of you.

Here they are:

1. Fish Oil

What? Fish oil? That is not cool, avant-garde, sexy, or exotic. Fish oil?

Yes. Fish oil. You cannot be anabolic without enough Omega 3s. For example, I was once training a first-round pick for the NFL. He put on 29 lbs of lean body mass in one month once I jacked his fish oil intake to 45 grams a day. If you want to put muscle on and lose fat, take at least 30 grams of fish oil a day.

Additional reasons for using fish oil include:

• It reduces inflammation.
• It improves insulin sensitivity: makes glucose and amino acids get better in your starved muscle cells.

Taking fish oil in a liquid form is the most economical way of doing it. But taking them every meal works best.  I always recommend a combination of liquid and capsules – Liquid for home meals, and capsules for away from home meals.

2. PHyto Px

What? Ground fruits and veggies? Yes, indeed.

The more alkaline you are, the more anti-catabolic you are. Cortisol puts the body in an acidified status; PHyto Px alkalizes you and reverses that state in no time.

A PHyto Px drink with 40 BCAA tablets post-workout will put you immediately in an anabolic state. Green drinks are rapidly becoming a staple recovery in the U.K. in both football and rugby circles. This new product provides greens and reds in one for a broader base of micro-nutrients.

3. Whey Stronger:

This product is great for the following reasons:

• It is low-heat processed. All of the important proteins like immunoglobulins are not denatured. It is the same proteins you would find in organic milk.
• The milk comes from grass-fed cows. Therefore, it is rich in CLA, another well acknowledged anti-catabolic nutrient.
• It is rich in BCAAs and glutamine, important anti-catabolic factors.
• It is a better precursor for glutathione, therefore a more anti-oxidant protein.

In order to maximize the benefits of Whey Stronger, use 0.25 g per pound of bodyweight, first thing in the morning with 1 tablespoon of glutamine. Use it again, 0.25 g per pound of bodyweight, post-workout.

4. Carbohydrate Powder:

My philosophy on any nutrient is that if you want the best results, get the best stuff.

There are a lot of carb powders out there to chose from but my favorite is unflavored QuadriCarb ultra-soluble powder. It reloads glycogen the fastest.

QuadriCarb is a better choice because of it leaves the stomach faster, delivering glucose more quickly to the blood, and potentiating insulin release to a greater extent, compared to plain old malto-dextrin. It contains 4 different types of sugars with different glycemic curves that permit greater glycogen synthesis for an extended period of time.

These three metabolic attributes translate into faster muscle glycogen repletion after intense workouts (or competition), and an increased ability to drive the transport of anabolic/anti-catabolic nutrients like branched chain amino acids, creatine, and even carnitine.

Carnitine does not accumulate or “load” in muscle unless accompanied by high insulin concentrations, explaining why virtually all carnitine studies have NOT shown increases in muscle carnitine after oral or even intravenous dosing in multi-gram doses.  Additionally, very recent research indicates that the exceptional potentiating effects of QuadriCarb  on insulin release may  switch off” muscle protein breakdown in human muscle. Together, QuadriCarb can speed recovery and muscle refueling, drive nutrient transport, and foster an environment in muscle that supports gains in lean mass, both as carbohydrate/glycogen and muscle proteins.

5. Multi-Intense:

A single nutrient deficiency can halt muscle growth altogether. After running countless Comprehensive Metabolic Profiles, it has become obvious that overcoming deficiencies has often blasted plateaus in strength and muscle mass gains.

For example, many baseball pitchers and track throwers were shown to be deficient in taurine and magnesium, because of all of their high velocity throws. Restoring those two vital nutrients brought about immediate increases in performance in the gym.

In order to maximize the benefits of this nutritional solution, take 2 tablets, 3 times a day, in the middle of meals. That regimen should cover your nutritional bases.

Every person has different nutritional needs, but the above five are the best for everyone based on my experience. Use all of the above on a daily basis and you will have the foundation you need to achieve your goals.

Visit our online store to order today!

Today’s WOD

Run

10 minute Z1

5 x 400 meter repeats 90-95% RPE; rest time equivalent to previous split,

10 minute Z1

Part 2

Warm-up 5 minutes of muscle up practice

A. Close Grip Bench 3-5 sets of 3 reps (30×0 tempo) 3 minutes rest b/t sets

B.1. Ext Rot 60 sec rest

B.2. Powell Raises 60 sec rest

B.3. Face Pulls 60 sec rest 3 x 8 sets.

Digestive Aides

Digestive aides such as betaines-hydrochloride, ox bile, proteases, lipases and amylaes are recommended by Robb Wolf in his book “The Paleo Solution”. He goes on to explain the benefits of each. Betaine-HCL increases stomach acid which is responsible for much of the signaling that occurs later in the digestive process.  Ox bile helps to emulsify fats, making them more available for digestion.

Proteases, Lipases, and Amylases are digestive enzymes normally released by the pancreas.  These enzymes are responsible for digesting protein, fat, and carbs respectively. low stomach acid, or high insulin levels can decrease the amount of digestive enzymes released into the small intestines reducing the effectiveness of our digestion.

Where can you find a good digestive aid?  Now foods: Super Enzymes.  Inexpensive and very effective according to Robb Wolf.

Digestive support is particularly effective if have suffered from G.I. problems in the past, have auto immune disease, or systemic inflammation.

Today’s WOD

Magnesium

Magnesium was just features in my Adrenal Fatigue Series for it’s role in enzymatic reactions related to the adrenal cascade.  Mostly known for it’s role in sleep aides, and the relationship with calcium.  magnesium comes in several varieties including magnesium oxide, magnesium chelates and magnesium citrate.  Robb Wolf recommends the citrate form for it’s apparent ease of absorption.  Charles Poliquin prefers the chelated form due to the varied compositions creating a time release effect.

Aside from the role in enzymatic reactions, magnesium has an influence in blood clotting, energy production, muscle contraction and nerve transmission.  Deficiencies play a role in insulin resistance, chronic fatigue (adrenal fatigue) and high blood pressure.

Robb Wolf recommends 1200 mg-2000 mg a day.  Robb goes on to suggest that the heavy doses of dairy and grains have displaced fruit and veggies in the modern western diet.  Even though this modern diet entails greater consumption of calcium the lack of magnesium (fruits and veggies, paticularly dark green veggies) greatly reduces the potential absorption of all this extra calcium.

I will begin the next series on recommended supplements. There are many out there.  Many unfortunately, are available purely for the opportunity to make a profit.  In most cases do nothing to benefit the individual whom purchased them and in some cases may even do more harm than good.

My sources for these recommendations are of a few individuals whom have dedicated much of their lives to help people take control of their lives by educating on the basics of nutrition, exercise and stress management. To name a few Robb Wolf who wrote “The Paleo Solution The Original Human Diet”, the guys from Peak Bio James Fitzgerald who in collaboration with Dr. Jeoff Drobot Have developed a nutrition product line that works to do the opposite of most nutrition products. Their philosophy at Peak Bio is to maintain a healthy gastro-intestinal tract, liver and adrenal system and the rest will fall in place.

See, so many of us want to do the right things regarding our health but have been mislead or just plainly have been fed a bunch of bullshit.  Large supplement companies are notorious for attaching a shiny label to a product and paying a celebrity a pile of dough to endorse a product many of said celebrities no nothing about.  The recommendations listed here in the upcoming days are purely to inform of the basics.  If you handle the basics the periphery systems will perform so much better than will an inflamed G.I. Tract and stressed out liver, adrenals, kidney or thyroid sprinkled with some crazy pixy dust found in bright red container with a metallic hologram glued to the side strategically placed at shoulder height on a shelf at the nearest get big and bad ass supplement store.

Vitamin D

Robb Wolf calls it “Vitamin 34 double-D”.

What does it do?

It is a pro-hormone that is best know for it’s active role in the metabolism of calcium and phosphorus. It is now know to be included in a major role in such hot topics as:

• Fat metabolism
• Cancer prevention
• Autoimmunity
• Fertility
• Insulin resistance
• Types 1 and 2 Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Anti-inflammatory as a COx2 inhibitor

Do to Vitamin D’s powerful anti-inflammatory effects and the probability that most people these days are working indoors makes this supplement a must have for Robb Wolf.   Even people who live in sunny cities like San Diego that drive to work much of the year squinting at the bright sun in their faces and go out on the weekend and hang by the beach, bay or pool are found to be Vitamin D deficient.  You would have to be on the fair skinned side of skin pigmentation and shirtless for at least an hour a day without sun screen on to get enough sun for your body to transform those UVB rays into enough Vitamin D to be sufficient.

Robb Wolf explains how the whole sunlight to Vitamin D process in his book “The Paleo Solution”.  There are however, a few other sources for the allusive pro-hormone. Liver and fortified animal products.  Careful though, eating too much liver can cause Vitamin A toxicity.  Not that eating too much liver would ever be a problem.  Not for me anyway.

So, how much do we need?  Well that depends on how much you hang in the sun with no clothes on,  where you live (closer to the equator get more UVB exposure), your skin pigmentation(the darker the less Vit D), air pollution plays a role, so on and so forth. A conservative estimate places our ancestors at 10,000 to 20,000 IUs a day.  I went to Costco and found a 5000IU gel cap for $13 and take one on days when I am not going to be out in the sun. For me that is not that often due to the fact I live a dream life of training outside and training other people outside on a pool deck downtown San Diego.

Today’s WOD

Part 1

Row Ladder

Row 11 @ 90% minutes alternating every other minute to 21 strokes per minute, ascending 3 stokes per minute every other minute. Maintain the same wattage if possible throughout the entire 11 minutes even in the 21 stroke per minute splits. Your ladder may look something like this:

Min 1 21 spm 230 avg watts

Min 2 23 spm 230 avg watts

Min 3 21 spm 235 avg watts

Min 4 26 spm 230 avg watts……..

Part 2