Make Your Body Your Machine

I know this probably falls under the "duh" category, but it goes beyond the dangers of combining TRX Incline Presses with keg stands. Alcohol has a profound effect on your body, more than just making you feel a little tipsy (or all out sloshed drunk). Now I'm not advocating an all out beer strike, but if you are going for optimal physical conditioning or trying to trim that waistline, it is good to know the effect one drink has so you can determine if you are willing to make that sacrifice.

In this article, Joe Kita of Core Performance highlights 6 effects even moderate consumption of alcohol (one to two 12 ounce beers a day) can cause.

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Sometimes we want to believe that something is good for us even when we know it’s really not. Take alcohol, for instance. All the press about how a daily nip can prevent heart disease has convinced many people that it’s beneficial overall. But as I’m learning during this month’s One Small Change experiment in which I’ve significantly reduced my alcohol intake, there’s a lot more to consider than just heart health. Athletes need to weigh the effects of alcohol on fitness and performance. And here, I’m sorry to say, the evidence is almost entirely negative.

Danielle LaFata, M.A., R.D., C.S.S.D., a performance nutritionist with Athletes’ Performance in Phoenix, Arizona, recently prepared a report listing some ways in which alcohol can thwart training and competition. Keep in mind as you read this that she’s not talking about alcoholics. Just one or two 12-ounce beers, 5 to 10 ounces of wine or 1 to 2 shots of hard liquor (mixed drinks) nightly can cause these effects, as can regularly binging on weekends. Here’s the bar menu:

1. Interferes with deep, restorative REM sleep.

While alcohol can make you sleepy initially, it should never be used as a sedative because it disrupts your sleep cycles, especially REM. This stage is particularly important to athletes because it’s when you consolidate and commit to long-term memory what you learned during the day. So if you’ve taken a golf lesson, for instance, getting good REM sleep will help ensure that your mind and muscles assimilate the new technique.

2. Wrings the body of water and nutrients.

You already know that alcohol is a potent diuretic and that without adequate fluid your system is like an engine without oil. But what you may not realize is that in all that pee are lots of water-soluble vitamins and minerals that your muscles need for balance and performance. For athletes, the dehydrating effects of alcohol carry a double punch.

3. Disrupts the muscle-building process.

Reaching for a beer to reward yourself after a hard workout is one of the dumbest things you can do if your goal is to add lean mass. Alcohol is a bully in the body. It pushes aside protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients, which muscles need for recovery and growth, as it demands to be metabolized first. It always takes precedence. This deprives your post-exercise body of what it needs most and, thereby, sabotages improvement.

4. Spikes the production of cortisol.

This is the body’s stress hormone. Think of it as the alarm that triggers a gazillion little firemen to take off through your system. The longer these guys are on the scene, the more havoc they wreak, namely impairing thinking, raising blood pressure, decreasing bone density and muscle tissue, and increasing abdominal fat.

5. Depresses the immune system.

Alcohol and, subsequently, cortisol also handcuffs our body’s T-cells, which are activated when germs, a virus or another invader enters the body. This means you’re not only more likely to get sick and lose training time if you drink, but injuries will also take longer to heal.

6. Impairs reaction time long after consumption.

It takes roughly one hour for each drink to be metabolized and leave your system. But since you’re also becoming dehydrated, losing nutrients, interfering with muscle-protein synthesis, disrupting sleep and doing everything else we mentioned, your body will be hung over long after the buzz fades and the cobwebs in your head clear. One study out of New Zealand detected negative performance effects up to 60 hours post-binge.

So what does all this mean? Have we quaffed our last Coors? As LaFata points out, it really comes down to how serious you are about seeing results from your training. If you have a big race coming up, then it’s probably smart to avoid drinking 48 hours prior. If your goal is to lose weight, pack on muscle and finally put an end to people offering you part-time Santa jobs, then it’s probably wise to stop rewarding yourself with hi-balls post-exercise. Instead, rehydrate and refuel first. Then, later that night, if you want to toast your progress, do so in moderation, if at all.

Joe Kita is a noted writer, editor, motivational speaker and teacher. He authors the blog "One Small Change" for CorePerformance.com.

By Fraser Quelch

Do you want to see results from your training? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be training. You probably have specific goals in mind that you’d like to achieve, whether it’s staying fit for duty, fit for sport, fit for life, or just looking good. But if you want to achieve the results you have in mind, whatever they are, you need to ask yourself whether you’re training hard enough to achieve those goals.

If you couldn’t make it through more than three runs when you were skiing or snowboarding last season and you want to develop the fitness to last all day, then you’re going to have to train smarter and harder then you did last year to achieve your goal. If you find yourself doubled over at the end of your weekly pickup basketball game and you want to be chomping at the bit until the final buzzer rings, you need to dial up the intensity when you’re training. Whatever your goal, your training needs to meet-or preferably exceed- the demands of your goal.

It's Only Natural

In nature, animals stay just as fit as they need to be in order to stay alive. If they did anything extra, they’d be wasting energy and resources on something that didn’t pay any dividends. The human body is no different. It will only become as fit as it needs to be in order to meet the demands you place upon it. ‘Training’ programs the body to be able to respond to higher and higher physical demands and levels of bodily stress. But if you don’t push yourself hard enough while training, your body won’t have the stimuli it needs to adapt and push you to the higher level of fitness you’d like to have in order to achieve your goals.

The body adapts to do what you do and the intensities you do it at. The same rule applies to weight loss. Many people falsely believe that the best way to lose weight is to train in the ‘fat burning zone,’ a pace at which you can easily carry on a conversation while exercising. Wrong. While the human body most efficiently burns fat as a percentage of overall caloric expenditure at this level of intensity, working out at high intensity level actually burns far more fat calories. Want to say adios to love handles? Then dial up the heat.

Achieving your fitness goals requires dedication, discipline, mental toughness, a willingness to reach beyond what’s comfortable - and a willingness to suffer. Embrace the idea of working very, very hard when it’s time to ignite the afterburners, and you’ll see great results!

Staff SGT Ken Weichert and his wife Stephanie of STARTFitness.com, teamed up with TRX Professor, Chris Frankel, to provide the National Guard with a TRX workout for last year's holiday issue of GX magazine.

A six-time Soldier of the year and Veteran of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Desert Storm, SSG Ken Weichert knows what it takes to get a body in prime condition.  He and Stephanie have been fans of the TRX and have incorporated it into their START Fitness progam; military-inspired, boot-camp style workouts for Soldiers and civilians.

Now stop reading this, download the workout and get busy!  This isn't a tea party!  Move it, move it, move it!

Hooah!

Mixed Martial Arts is the epitome of basic, raw competition. One man against one man. No ball, no net, just strength and skill against strength and skill.  MMA fighters require discipline of both the mind and body if they want to be competitive.  This Saturday, November 14, 2009, top MMA fighters Brandon Vera and Randy Couture will be fighting in UFC 105 held in, Manchester, England.

Vera has been using the TRX in his training for this upcoming fight and Randy Hetrick was able to work with him to create TRX exercises specific for people training for MMA.  This routine is specifically formulated to provide the strength, agility, and movement needed to quickly gain the advantage over the opponent.  We are excited to see the outcome of UFC 105.  Good luck Brandon!

Brandon Vera TRX prep for UFC 105 against Randy Couture.

View official Fitness Anywhere Press Release.

On September 24, 2009, Ryan Job, Navy SEAL veteran and a close friend of mine and the Fitness Anywhere family, passed away following surgery to address injuries he sustained him while operating in Iraq. As a Navy SEAL Team 3 operator and then as a veteran, Ryan never asked for recognition or praise from his fellow Americans. Yet those who had the privilege of knowing Ryan couldn’t help but walk away from any interaction with him without being inspired by his optimism, his determination, his unstoppable drive, and his unwavering commitment and dedication to family and country.

On this Veteran’s day, we celebrate all of our active service members and veterans. And we remember Ryan—a loving husband and son, a true patriot, a dedicated friend who was always quick with a laugh in the most dire of circumstances, a game warrior who never let the magnitude of the challenges he faced dampen his burning ambitions or dim his courageous approach to everything he set his mind to achieving. In his life, as a man and as a service member, Ryan set an example that we should all try to follow. Modest, hard working and blessed with an indomitable spirit, Ryan embodied all of the best qualities of America’s service members.

Ryan's time with us has ended, but what he achieved in his short life inspires us each day and reminds us to give our all in the pursuit of excellence. Before Ryan passed away, I had the privilege of working with him to develop a TRX training protocol to help him recapture the physical fitness he lost while recovering from his injuries--so that he could continue to pursue the lofty goals in fitness and life that he set for himself--blindness be damned. In allowing me to help him, Ryan gave me an enormous gift that I have only come to recognize over time.  Even as his eyes were permanently closed, he opened mine to the reality that we at this company have an enormous capacity to help our wounded troops and others who struggle daily with staggering challenges of injury and permanent disability.  This gift touched me deeply and will, I hope, continue to touch others for many years to come.

I am so thankful to have known Ryan during the years following his injury. Based upon the experience with his own injury, he was keen to help support the mission of our TRX Warrior Fund--our initiative to fund and deliver a range of support to wounded soldiers and challenged athletes. Before Ryan passed away, my editorial team had the great fortune to interview him for an article to promote the initiative.  He spoke extensively with our staff writer, Andrew Vontz, and gave extensive details on his experience.  I always envisioned celebrating with Ryan when this story got picked up and began to do good.  Instead, on this Veterans Day, we remember Ryan by sharing his story with you. It inspires us, and we hope it will inspire you.

On this day, the Fitness Anywhere Team and I salute Ryan Job and all of the other veterans and their families who sacrifice so much on behalf of our country.

Sincerely,
Randy Hetrick

To commemorate this Veteran’s day and to honor our good friend, Ryan Job, we offer the TRX "Summit" Workout, a downloadable pdf workout, with all the proceeds going to benefit the TRX Warrior Fund.

Read Ryan's Story

Want to know how to lose that extra padding you have around the middle?  Eat right and exercise... right? So that's what you do, you plan out your meals, you hit the gym (with your TRX in tow), you work on increasing your score for the 30 Day Thanksgiving Challenge.  You're score increases, but that extra padding doesn't decrease. WTFreak! You've worked so hard, what could be wrong?

"Despite what you might hear, fat loss is NOT just about diet and exercise.   Physiology plays a very important role.  And today, our physiologies are more out of whack than ever in human history." says Dr. Walsh in a post entitled, "Four Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat" on Precision Nutrition's blog.  He points out that losing weight is much more complex than just dieting and exercising.

The body is a complex machine with many different systems interacting to make sure you stay alive.  When one of these systems is out of whack, your body doen't function at optimum level.  Dr. Walsh explains how four particular systems, the oxygen delivery system, the blood sugar management system, the adrenal system and the digestive system, could be the culprit of why those pounds aren't melting away.

If you feel your workouts are in vain(which they never are since, aside from weight loss, there are so many other benefits) and you are not seeing the results you would like to see, it might be time to take a deeper look into your overall health.

For more information, read Dr. Walsh's, Four Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat.

If you've ever seen a statue of a powerful Greek or Roman God or Goddess, you've probably noticed their finely chiseled abs (after you've probably noticed how anatomically correct they are).  A goal that few of us mere mortals are able to obtain. 

Of course every exercise on the TRX works your core just by the shear nature of suspension training.  Here is a work out specifically designed to give your core that extra challenge.  Soon you'll have those Gods envious of you!

Exercise                                                                 Reps

TRX Overhead Back Extension                              12

TRX Kneeling Roll-Out                                           12

TRX Leg Raise                                                       12

TRX Reverse Oblique Crunch (left and right)         8

TRX Side Plank w/ tap (left and right)                     8

When Cem Eren, of Fitt Quest, approached Randy Hetrick and told him, "I have some stuff you've probably never seen done with the TRX", Randy was skeptical as he had heard this before.  When he took a look at the videos that Cem had shot, his reply, "This guy's crazy."

Now these exercises fall under the category of "Don't try this at home kids."  Cem trains professional boxers and fighters and is always looking for innovative and unique training methods to push his athletes to the next level.  He instantly saw the potential of the TRX and incorporated it into his training sessions, adding his own Cemconditioning methodology.

CemCondition Video

He has trained:

Robert dos Remedios or "Coach Dos" shares a couple of great TRX circuit workouts on his blog, Obervations from a Strength Coach.

Circuit #1:

1. TRX wheelbarrel walks - 2 times across 3 aerobic steps + 5 plyo push-ups
2. "Monkeying around" - pull-up and hang climbing variations two times across the bars
3. TRX push complex - Push-up, T's, and superman's 5 times each
4. Rope battle - 50 reps any style you choose

Circuit #2:

1. TRX feet elevated rows (with hinging hips) - 10 times
2. Hang leg raises - 10 reps of any variation of leg raise
3. TRX plank position pike + saw - 10 reps
4. Rope battle - 50 reps any style you choose.

Check out his post, TRX, Ropes & Bodyweight Circuit, to view video examples of each exercise.

When Alex Roodhouse served in Iraq as part of a Navy combat riverine team, he risked his life every time he went on patrol, often facing a hail of enemy fire. Danger comes hand in hand with active duty. But it’s a reality that Roodhouse has become even more acutely aware of since he completed his service and joined the Fitness Anywhere military sales team. “When I visit the VA hospitals for FA, I often discover that I served in some of the exact same places with the wounded vets that I meet.”

Roodhouse and Dr. Joe ‘Doc’ Martin, D.C., a SEAL team veteran and FA’s director of military education, recently participated in their third Compass Group for combat wounded Marine vets on behalf of FA. As more and more active duty service people use the TRX to stay mission fit on base and while deployed, the TRX has become a familiar tool. “Half of the seminar participants had used the TRX before,” says Roodhouse. “They like the TRX because it’s the same equipment that active duty service people use and because it’s easy to adjust workouts and movements to work with their specific injuries.

Vets have a way to train even with injuries, and the FA team gets something great out of the experience, too. “I got into the health care field for a reason,” says Doc Martin. “I spent my time in the SEAL team learning how to blow things up and I’m spending the rest of my life fixing things.”

LEARN MORE:

At: www.vetfoundation.org

GET INVOLVED:

Buy a TRX FORCE DVD and Guide, $5 of your purchase goes directly into the Fitness Anywhere Warrior Fund to help us support efforts like the Compass Group.