Training for the week Team Llama Bash

What's that dude in the background doing?

Lately I've added in a few extra days per week working on skill work for crossfit including things like running, double unders, pushups, handstands, burpees, bodyweight squats, pistols and pullups. I still keep 3 core lifting days per week.

12/1/11
Dynamic Warmup

Axle Floor Press
315 x 1
335 x 1 - PR woot woot


Thick Bar DB Press
110 x 8
120 x 8 - getting better

Ring Pullups 5 x 10

12/3/11- I've been training saturdays at Crossfit Tribe. Awesome community and great atmosphere to get deez loueez.

Crossfit Tribe - Training to be a boss

Dynamic Warmup

Push Jerk
245 x 3
270 x 2 - Almost dropped the third rep on my head, win!

Power Clean
225 x 3
245 x 3

Thruster
195 x 3
220 x 3 Maybe a new best?


Met-con (crossfit games clean and jerk C&J / rope climb)
5 C&J @ 145lbs + 5 rope climbs (13ft)
4 C&J @ 165lbs + 4 rope climbs (13ft)
3 C&J @ 185lbs + 3 rope climbs (13ft)
2 C&J @ 205lbs + 2 rope climbs (13ft)
1 C&J @ 225lbs + 1 rope climbs (13ft)
6:50 - Froning did it in just under 5 minutes.

12/6/2011
Dynamic Warmup

Llama Bash is looking clean and mean

I should probably stop posting all of my max effort attempts where my form falls apart. I promise my technique is not this terrible for every set!

(4-5") Deficit Deadlift
425 x 1
465 x 1
500 x 1 - PR no belt

Back Squat vs chains 100lbs @ top, 20lbs @ bottom
185 x 5
205 x 5 - the chains felt terrible, probably won't do these next week.

Overhead Squat
165 x 5
185 x 5 - PR, these are finally coming along some!

I decided to stop writing what I eat on a daily basis but to instead make separate posts occasionally with what I eat. Let me know if you guys are mad about this and wanted more of my food log.

Fun Fact #3 - 6 steps to a bigger, safer bench

If you guys haven't noticed I skipped #3 previously and went straight to #4 already. Trust me I'm going to be a doctor.

Using new technique will feel a bit awkward but I promise in the long run this will pay off, both adding more weight to your bench and keeping your shoulders healthier.

1. While lying on the bench pull your shoulder blades together and down

2. Walk your feet up toward your head (you won't make it there unless you're a freak, just try and walk your feet back some) and then widen them out.

3. Get tight! This position allows you to get power from the floor into your arms to bench more weight, but only if you keep your body rigid enough to allow this to happen. Try squeezing your butt muscles tight and keeping everything from your feet to your shoulders rigid.

4. Take a spot to unrack the bar - you want your upper back to stay tucked into position and trying to unrack the bar yourself will cause you to lose that position. Remember, shoulder blades together and down, chest up.

5. Take a deep breath in before letting the bar descend and don't let go of that breath until the hardest part of the lift is over.

6. As the bar is descending try to focus on bringing your chest up to meet the bar as the bar lowers.

Now smile because you just smoked your previous best bench PR.

6 Reasons to Eat Grass-Fed, Pastured and Wild Animal Products over their Grain-Fed Brethren: A Case for Eating Healthy Animal Products: Part 1

Since I got so excited and wrote so much about this super interesting topic, I've broken this into 3 sections, that I'll be posting over the next few weeks. I'll also attach a cliffnotes version at the top of each post because well, this thing is long and I want you all to get the information


Cliffnotes:

1. Grass fed beef contains up to 5 times more CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) then grain fed beef.
- CLA has been shown to reduce your risk of heart disease, decrease body fat in obese individuals and has been linked to a reduced chance of acquiring breast cancer (1).

2. Grass fed beef and dairy as well as pastured hen’s eggs contain more omega-3 fatty acids then its grain fed counterpart (3).
- Grass-fed beef has more Omega-3 fatty acids
- Grass-fed beef has a better ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids
- Animal sources of Omega-3 have readily available EPA and DHA
- Wild caught fish is great for you, regardless of mercury content
- Eating fish is better then taking supplemental Omega-3
- Farm raised fish contains very high levels of PCBs and are not as nutritious as wild caught


I often hear how popular vegetarian diets are for getting healthy and living longer. They generally equate the lack of animal products as one of the major reasons why their diets are so superior. I have absolutely no problem with vegetables and fruits, they have incredible health benefits. I’m all for them, but hey, I’m an avid meat head / meat eater extraordinaire so I have difficulty believing the hype about meat being bad. Anyway, as a true scientist you can’t be biased one way or another without proper evidence right? We need to be in search of the TRUTH! What is the best way to eat?

The hell if I know.

However, I think our approach to nutrition is not entirely fair. A lot of research is misinterpreted, certain companies begin marketing the heck out of a product and all of the sudden the consumer is duped into believing that Rice Crispies will help us lose weight. (But hey, give it a shot and let me know) We need to have an unbiased research based approach to nutrition.

There are a few ways where I believe we have gone wrong with conventional wisdom in regards to animal products (you know, beef, eggs, dairy). Without getting too far into the history, and boring you with the details, we’ve come to demonize saturated fat and cholesterol as heart disease causing rubbish. Animal products are laden with this stuff. Therefore the idea that meat = heart disease and premature death. Makes sense right? I’m not too sure…

I’d like to provide some interesting research that shows that a lot of these animal products have some very interesting health benefits that fly directly in the face of our current conventional wisdom. I believe as consumers it is our job to read the research and determine what is healthy and what isn’t. I want you to have the power of knowing for yourself which foods are healthy.

One very important thing to understand is the difference between animals that eat what they were meant to eat and those that were fed a cheap grain based diet. Unfortunately grain fed makes up the majority of animal products in the supermarket. What we eat has a direct impact on our health. Here are my top reasons to eat grass fed or pastured meat products.


1. Grass fed beef contains up to 5 times more CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) then grain fed beef.

Why is this important? CLA is a naturally occurring fatty acid found in meat and milk. CLA has been shown to reduce your risk of heart disease, decrease body fat in obese individuals and has been linked to a reduced chance of acquiring breast cancer (1). CLA has also been shown to reduce tumor growth in rats when it is present in small amounts in the diet. (2) Heart disease and cancers are two of the top killers in the United States. If we can decrease deaths in this area we’d really be helping ourselves out. Cheese and milk for the win!


2. Grass fed beef and dairy as well as pastured hen’s eggs contain more omega-3 fatty acids then its grain fed counterpart (3).

Omega-3 fatty acids have gotten a lot of media attention lately and are associated with a myriad of health benefits. Some benefits include a decreased risk of heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, renal disease, ulcerative colitis, COPD and Chrohn’s disease. I won’t bore you all with the details but if you’re interested take a look at this big old study. Its a definitive guide to the benefits of fish oil. http://www.ajcn.org/content/70/3/560S.full.pdf+html

Grass fed beef contains much more omega-3 fatty acid than grain fed beef (5). Human beings are also meant to consume a specific ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids. The typical American diet is currently consuming somewhere between 1 to 11 and 1 to 30 (omega-3 to omega-6) and this is hypothesized to be a major cause of modern illness (4). A healthy intake of omega-3 to omega-6 should be somewhere between 1 to 2 and 1 to 4 parts omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. Grass fed beef has a fatty acid profile of about 1 to 1.5 whereas grain fed beef is closer to 1:7.6 (5).

You can obtain Omega-3 from plant sources (flax, hemp) but they must first be converted to their active components EPA and DHA in the body. Unfortunately plant sources of Omega-3 convert very poorly to the usable forms EPA and DHA in the body. EPA and DHA is readily found in animal products, making them a superior source of omega-3s.

One of the best sources of omega three fatty acids is wild caught fish (5). Some people are afraid to eat fish because of a fear of mercury. However, eating fish is so beneficial it trumps the potential problems associated with mercury consumption. The FDA makes a very interesting argument that eating fish is a whole lot safer for you then not eating fish (6). The risk of succumbing to a disease by not eating fish is actually greater then eating the mercury that accompanies fish (6). Also, the literature shows us that eating fish is more beneficial then taking a fish oil supplement in raising our body‘s omega 3 levels. (7). So go eat some fish.

Just be aware that farm raised fish do not have the same nutritional value as wild caught fish in the same way that grass fed beef differs from grain fed beef. Also, in July 2003 the Environmental Working group reported that farm raised fish contains 16 times more PCBs then the wild caught variety. The environmental protection agency states that PCBs can cause cancer, reproductive and neurological problems, among other things. More information on PCBs can be found here -http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/tsd/pcbs/pubs/effects.htm

All resources are found in a seperate post. Stay tuned next Monday for part 2!

If anyone gets interested in buying grass-fed beef there is a great company called US Wellness Meats that sells grass-fed meat and other healthy animal products. You can click the banner in the upper right corner of my blog to get some. This is where I get most of my meat. The food quality and customer service is great.

6 Reasons to Eat Grass-Fed, Pastured and Wild Animal Products over their Grain-Fed Brethren: A Case for Eating Healthy Animal Products: Resources

Resources:

1. Aro A., S. Mannisto, I. Salminen, M. L. Ovaskainen, V. Kataja, and M. Uusitupa. "Inverse Association between Dietary and Serum Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women." Nutr Cancer 38, no. 2 (2000): 151-7.)

2. C, J.A. Scimeca, et al. (1994) "Conjugated linoleic acid. A powerful anti-carcinogen from animal fat sources." p. 1053. Cancer 74(3 suppl):1050-4.

3. C. J., R.Sanz Arias, A.I. Rey, A. Castano, B. Isabel, J. Thos (1998). "Effect of free-range feeding on omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-tocopherol content and oxidative stability of eggs." Animal Feed Science and Technology 72: 33-40.

4. Simopoulos A: Omega-3 fatty acids in health and disease and in growth and development. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1991, 54:438-63

5. Daley C., Abbot A., Doyle P., Nader G., Larson S. A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant contant in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutrition Journal 2010

6. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/Seafood/FoodbornePathogensContaminants/Methylmercury/ucm088794.htm#execsum

7. Visioli F, Rise P, Barassi MC, et al, Dietary intake of fish vs. formulations leads to higher plasma concentrations of n-3 fatty acids. Lipids. 2003 Apr;38(4):415-8.

8. Penumarthy L., Oehme FW., Hayes RH. Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury tissue residues in healthy swine, cattle, dogs, and horses from the Midwestern United States Archive of Contamination Toxicology 1980:9(2):193-206

9. Looker AC., Pfeiffer CM., Lacher DA., Schleicher RL., Picciano MF., Yetley EA. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status of the US population: 1988-1994 compared with 2000-2004. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008;88:1519-27.

10. UC San Diego First Comprehensive Paper on Statins’ Adverse Effects Released (January 29, 2009) http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2009/Pages/1-29-statin-study.aspx (Accessed 12/2/2011)

11. Rosenfeldt FL., Haas SJ., Krum H., Hadj k., Leong J-Y., Watts G F. Coenzyme Q10 in the treatment of hypertension: a meta analysis of the clinical trials. Journal of Human Hypertension. April 2007:21, 297-306 doi:10.1038/sj.jhh.1002138

12. Pepe S., Marasco SF., Haas SJ., Sheeran FL., Krum H., Rosenfeldt., Coenzyme Q10 in cardiovascular Disease. Mitochondrion 2007 Jun;7 Suppl:S154-167: Epub 2007 Mar 16.

13. Singh et al. 2003 Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on risk of Atherosclerosis in patients with recent Myocardial Infarction. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry 246: 75-82, 2003

14. Dixon LB, Winkleby MA, Radimer KL. Dietary Intakes and Serum Nutrients Differ between Adults from Food-Insufficient and Food-Sufficient Families: Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. J Nutr. 2001 Apr;131(4):1232-46.

15. Huang et al. The efficacy and safety of multivitamin and mineral supplement use to prevent cancer and chronic disease in adults: A systematic review for a national institutes of health state of the science conference. Annals of Internal Medicine 2006;145:372-385

16. Bjelakovic et al. Mortality in Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of the American Medical Association 2007;297(8):842-857. doi: 10.1001/jama.297.8.842

17. Jacobs D., Gross M., Tapsell L. 2009 Food synergy: an operational concept for understanding nutrition. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition May 2009 vol. 89 no. 5 1543S-1548S

18. Neuhouser ML., et al. Multivitamin use and risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the Women’s Health Initiative cohorts. Arch Intern Med. 2009 Feb 9;169(3):294-304

19. Siri-Tarino P W, Sun Q, Hu F B, Krauss R M. Meta-Analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2010;91:535–46

20. Mensink RP, Katan MB. Effect of dietary fatty acids on serum lipids and lipoproteins. A meta-analysis of 27 trials. Journal of the American Heart Association Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 1992, 12:911-919doi: 10.1161/01.ATV.12.8.911

21. Geleijnse J M, et al. Dietary Intake of Menaquinone is Associated with a Reduced Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: The Rotterdam Study. The Journal of Nutrition November 1, 2004 vol. 134 no. 11 3100-3105

22. Cockaye S, et al. Vitamin K and the Prevention of Fractures Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1256-1261

23. Garland CF, Garland FC. Do sunlight and vitamin
D reduce the likelihood of colon cancer? Int J
Epidemiol 1980;9:227-231.

24. Garland C, Shekelle RB, Barrett-Connor E, et al. Dietary vitamin D and calcium and risk of colorectal cancer: a 19-year prospective study in men. Lancet 1985;1:307-309.

25 . Grant WB. An estimate of premature cancer mortality in the U.S. due to inadequate doses of solar ultraviolet-B radiation. Cancer 2002;94:1867-1875.

26. Goldberg P, Fleming MC, Picard EH. Multiplesclerosis: decreased relapse rate through dietary
supplementation with calcium, magnesium andvitamin D. Med Hypotheses 1986;21:193-200.

27. Hayes CE, Cantorna MT, DeLuca HF. VitaminD and multiple sclerosis. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1997;216:21-27.

28. Hypponen E, Laara E, Reunanen A, et al. Intake ofvitamin D and risk of type 1 diabetes: a birth-cohort study. Lancet 2001;358:1500-1503.

29. Cannell J J, Hollis B W, Sorenson M B, Taft T N, Anderson J B. Athletic Performance and Vitamin D. American College of Sports Medicine

30. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D. Office of Dietary Supplements http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind#h3

Fun Fact #4 - Meditation reduces stress among other things

Got Stress?

Meditation has been utilized as an effective tool for stress reduction for years.

In addition to stress reduction, meditation has been documented to decrease blood pressure, slow breathing rate, increase oxygen utilization and to have a positive effect on the body's immune system (3).

Meditation and certain Yoga practices have been shown to improve short and long term cardiovascular function (pulse, blood pressure) in healthy individuals (1). It has even been implicated in some studies to increase intelligence (2)

For more information on how to meditate and make it part of your daily practices check out mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-zinn. He makes it incredibly easy to use.

Give it a shot!

Resources:

1. Ankad, R B, Herur A, Patil S, Shashikala G V, Chinagudi S. "Effect of short-term Pranayama and Meditation on Cardiovascular Functions in Healthy Individuals" Heart Views. 2011 Apr-Jun 12(2): 58-62

2. R.W. Cranson et al. "Transcendental Meditation and Improved Performance on Intelligence Related Measures: A Longitudinal Study." Personality and Individual Differences 12 (1991), 1105-1116

3. Trivieri, Anderson "Alternative Medicine The Definitive Guide" 2002 Innovision Health Media Inc. Celestial Arts Berkeley, CA:pg 930-931

Fun Fact #2 - Got Knee Pain?

Got Knee Pain? Don't feel badly, its the most common lower extremity area to have an injury.

Recent research from Chris Powers over at the University of Southern California is showing that knee pain is often due to abnormalities at the hip!

Well, The knee bone's connected to the, hip bone...

It makes sense that movement at one joint, or abnormal movement at one joint (the hip) affects another (the knee).

If you have knee pain, talk to your doctor about seeing a physical therapist or another qualified health professional.

However, if you are interested in how we can prevent future knee pain, how do we go about this? Strengthen the hips and trunk. Some of my favorite exercises to do that are:

X-walks: To strengthen hip abductors and External Rotators
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9IcLbu8ThY

Band Resisted Bird Dogs - Strengthens hip extensors and trunks muscles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx94FoB-DeI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLB37775E3E3369354

Make sure you set your hips and core in one position for the bird dog. All movements should be coming from your hip. You shouldn't be creating a big curve in your lower back each time your leg shoots back.

These are two movements I put into my warmups for about 2 sets at the start of each lower body session.

Save your knees.

Resources:

Powers C M. The Influence of Abnormal Hip Mechanics on Knee Injury: A Biomechanical Perspective. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy February 2010 vol 40:N 2:42-51

What I eat on a typical Training Day

8:00am
Bone broth (from sheep bones), Braunschweiger (from US wellness meats, grass-fed, oragnic), Nuts - brazil and almonds (raw and soaked), Raw Whole Milk

10:00 - ½ of this shake
Raw Milk, 2 oranges, 1 banana, strawberries, blueberries, greek yogurt, olive oil

12:00pm
Salad, hummus, 2 hardboiled eggs(from my parent's chickens), homemade dressing

3:30pm - 2nd half of the shake

5:30 - handful of organic raisins

6:00pm - 5 g BCAA while training


7:45pm Handful of organic raisins

8:00pm
Mashed sweet potato and turnip and Kerrygold butter, Asparagus, Brussel sprouts and bacon

10:30pm
4 eggs, hot peppers, mushrooms fried up in coconut oil, 1 avocado, 1 sweet potato