Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
By Seanna Kelly Metzger
Bon Jour! Last week I wrote a post with lots of tips for how to stay on your eating and training plans while on vacation. It was a decent post, n’est pas? (Thanks for the comment’s ya’ll.)
Oh, I wish I could check in this week and share how well I followed my own advice while on vacation. Sadly, I can’t. I did a few things right, but alas, plenty wrong as well.
The bad news.
I ate only two, maybe three times each day. While I ordered smartly at these meals and none were too large, it was still only two or three small meals. So I left way too much time in between meals and more often than not, didn’t eat enough.
I know I said only in a pinch, but once in London when we were rushed out the door, and also on the first day in Paris we didn’t have any food in the apt., so I had a meal replacement bar for breakfast. Not ideal, but way better than going without. Plus, I wasn’t starving enough to inhale a pastry. That’s a decent trade off in a pinch.
I didn’t drink near enough water. Something about being on the move all day, standing in a line or shopping just wasn’t conducive to drinking lots of water. I know I should have drunk more (a lot more) but I didn’t. None of us did.
I drank wine every night. There I said it. Sometimes I even had up to 3 or 4 glasses! This is probably the worst of the things I did wrong. But alcohol combined with too small and too infrequent eating, and not enough h2o, most definitely wigged out my metabolism and for sure shut any fat burning down.
I had bread in France. Not massive amounts, maybe one and a half baguette (total in 7 days) all by myself. But still! It’s purely white flour! I have flour like once a month at communion. Thank goodness they don’t serve butter in the basket along with it. I wanted it real bad, but I’d of had to ask for it so, fortunately I didn’t.
Anyone but me? No? Ok, fine. Bad, bad girl! Now, what I did right.
In London, we stayed at a hotel that had a gym. During the four days I was there, I woke up early and lifted twice and did cardio twice. This is a small miracle because I want to be a lazy princess on vacation. I think last week’s post shamed me into getting in training while I could (at the hotel gym).
In Paris, however, we rented an apartment, so no hotel gym. In fact, I didn’t see any gyms (around the attractions? Go figure.) We did though walk everywhere, from 9-10am, sometimes earlier, until 4:30-5pm. Then out to dinner a few hours later. Walking of course. Seriously, no cabs, a few subway rides, we really did walk everywhere. Fortunately, the weather was pleasant and I had a hood for the two times it rained.
True confessions time … I was ONLY able to walk around all day was because I wore sensible shoes! Yep, me, the dork that totters around in heels most of the time. I dug out a pair of old Dansko mary janes (nice big toe box, cushy supportive sole, in basic black, elongating with dark jeans (haha)). I don’t know how stylish city women do it, walking around in heels all day. Ohhh, I wanted SO BAD (you know I brought them along) to wear my heels !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I didn’t. Man, my feet thanked me.
And, I almost forgot! The apartment in Paris was on the 6th floor, the top. The elevators are so tiny that when we arrived, only one person and one suitcase could come up at once. Once we got up after that first time, we’ve taken the stairs up and down each time. I promised myself (because I wasn’t going to be training while in Paris) that no matter what (how tired, how laden with packages, no matter!) I was hoofing it up the steps. Most times I felt great about my lung capacity to briskly get my lazy butt up the steps, but at least twice (so far) I’ve been winded (in all fairness I had groceries and a full back pack – of wine.) I’m just saying, it was hard, but it counts.
In restaurants I ordered smartly. England was a snap, but in France, it was difficult. I don’t speak French, but I know about poulet, boeuf and poisson. Yeah, so, because I don’t know how it’s cooked and sauced and served (usually poached in animal fat, butter, root veggies and flour with gravy (sauce) all over the food – don’t get me wrong, it was heavenly tasting, but way fattening). So by the time it arrived, all that was left to do was eat the protein and veggies and skip the potato, rice, or risotto (well, maybe a bite). You get a little sauce because it’s served on the plat, but oh well, c’est la vie.
In summary … Vacations are one of life’s treats and need to be enjoyed. My family and I have been traveling together for a long time and I’m just now, in the last five years or so, finding the balance between enjoying myself, which includes eating, sleeping in, and taking in the sights and cultures with maintaining a schedule that attends to the old body and mind. And doesn’t drive anyone I’m with crazy.
I loved the comments about all of the wonderful vacations that are coming up for our readers! Yay all of you! I urge you all to plan vacations wisely. First, so that it doesn’t interfere with an upcoming event or one that has just happened. Figure out and accept what you can and can’t do with regard to your training. Think about what’s important to you on this vacation. What challenging physical activities can you work into your vacation to take advantage of the local landscape as well as do with your traveling companions? With a little creativity anything is possible, it really is.
But above all, have fun. At the risk of sounding like a jerk, embrace the experience and enjoy yourself. You can always shelve the formal training until you get home (like me!) and just go with the flow too.
What have you figured out to make the most of a vacation? I’d love to hear about what has worked for you?
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
By: Amy Kasden
What do you do when life throws you a curveball? Do you cave under pressure or do you enter triage mode and make it through? Learning how to triage your life can be one of the most valuable skills on and off the court. If you do not work in a hospital, have you ever watch ER? If so, you’ve seen how the ambulance comes screeching in and in that moment, chaos erupts. Thankfully, doctors/nurses in the ER are equip to quickly determine what is worth salvaging and what is not. If it is worth salvaging, they quickly assess what needs to happen. It is in those short moments lives are saved. Well, when life gets in the way of your perfectly planned out week, the successful apply these same principals and make it work.
Its tax season, which for me, means long hours and unpredictable emergencies cropping up to make my 50 hour week turn into a 70 hour week. Those emergencies can easily turn a well planned workout schedule into a wish list that will likely not happen. However, that does not mean I have a free pass to throw all caution out the window, skip the gym all together and stop eating clean food. What it means is that I need to prioritize and figure out what I can allow to take a back seat and what needs to be accomplished.
There are four important steps I try and follow to get through these weeks:
So here is how last week played out for me.
Step 1: If you haven’t already read it, I strongly suggest you go back and read the previous week’s post about efficient meal prep. My biggest hold up is not having enough food prepared and getting stuck without anything, exhausted at the end of the day with no desire to go to the store or cook. Thankfully, last Sunday I took my own advice and prepared a boat load of meals. This not only allowed me to grab Tupperware from the fridge and run out the door every morning, but it meant I didn’t have to think about it when I got home at night.
Step 2: Training. I wanted to get in 4 days of cardio, 2 lifts, 2 plyo/functional workouts and a yoga practice. Well, being at work at 7 am and not getting home till 8 pm does not leave much wiggle room for training. This is where my morning workouts come in handy. Since I can’t predict what time I will get out of work, I made sure I get the most important workout done in the morning. For me, that was my lifts and my functional training. Having set out the bare necessities and placing those sessions in the morning, I was able to rest knowing I was at least getting something done.
Step 3: Allow an extra rest day. By the time Thursday rolled around I was exhausted. Probably from getting home Wednesday night at 8 pm to then log back onto my computer to finish up more work. This is where common sense needed to step in. If you have been following Heather’s CNS posts, you get what I’m talking about. I was on system overload, exhausted, stressed, frazzled, trying to wake up Thursday morning to get to the gym at 5 am was just not an option. Thus, I took an extra rest day last week.
Step 4: Outlook. When all was said and done, I only got in 2 days of cardio, 2 functional/plyo sessions, 1 lift and 1 yoga. But if I turn that phrase around, I got in 2 days of cardio, 2 functional/plyo sessions, 1 lift and 1 yoga practice; all on top of working 7 days straight! When I look at it that way, I was a huge success. Not to mention I continued to eat clean the entire week.
In sum, we have all been there; the week before the big college game and you have a family emergency, the week before the triathlon and your boss tells you the project that was due next month is now due in 3 days, or the week you just finished planning out to a T quickly goes down the toilet because nothing goes as planned; whatever it is, I know you have all been t here. Quickly assessing how you will survive the week is what determines your success. So when you see this catastrophe coming down the road, or when the catastrophe just blows up in your face, now you know how to handle it:
By quickly triaging your schedule, you can prevent the entire week from being a loss. While my last week was not what I had expected, I cannot say it was a loss. I still accomplished a lot and stayed as close to on track as possible. I can now sit here, in a new week, without regret.
What about you? Do you have any tips for when your week suddenly becomes a cluster? How do you make it through without feeling like a failure.
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
by Heather Morgan
Argh. Sometimes I’m like a dog with a bone on some topics. The Central Nervous System (CNS) has had me hot and bothered the last couple of weeks. But I did warn you in the post 2 weeks ago that it was a big topic. That was your heads up that there’d likely be more out of me. Then last week I got a little personal on the topic. Well this week—fear not—no personal diatribes. Actually, my shoulder injury will be mentioned, but just briefly, and only in context in the midst of some 1970’s geekiness. Promise.
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Bring out the disco ball, I’m citing some research that’s a few decades old today. While rehabbing my shoulder, I was reminded of a study and paper I did in college. While that Motor Learning class assignment was in 1992, I distinctly remember that much of the research my paper-partner and I found for it was…well…old. We were studying the effect of a balance task trained only on one side of the body’s transference to the other side of the body. We didn’t find much of the studies we based ours on in the newer sports medicine library, but, rather, in rehab and physiology journals in older libraries around campus. (Yeah, no internet. How did we even graduate? haha) At the time it was merely annoying and inconvenient to us, but as I think about it now what that tells me is that the sport science community largely ignored the research and hadn’t expounded on it much, at least not by the early 1990’s.
Anyhow, the shoulder deal reminded me of that project because it occurred to me that training effect transference has been proven and it happens because—say it with me, folks!—we only have one nervous system. So, while logic might lead you to believe that continuing to train one side of the body while resting the injured side might promote strength and ability imbalances, the opposite is actually true. The former “logical” thinking assumes that training effects such as muscle size increases due to training are what is responsible for improvements in strength and power, but that gives the muscles too much credit, at least for the first few weeks before muscle hypertrophy (size increase) is a factor. In fact, training is happening more so at the neurological level, with the nervous system rehearsing movements over and over which has many wonderful effects that appear “on the outside” as increased strength, power, speed, agility, balance, and dynamic flexibility. Just to name a few.
Okay, back to the ‘70’s. In a study from 1979, participants were to strengthen their elbow flexors on one arm only. What they found in that arm was that first the nervous system got better at recruiting more muscle cells to do the activity. Then the cross-sectional area of the muscles involved did eventually get bigger, which then contributed to some strength increases. But, the EMG studies still showed that it was neural adaptation contributing as well. The weird part is that eventually EMG studies showed that neural activation actually decreased while the amount of force associated with that lowered activation increased. Translation: It took less stimulation from the nervous system to get the muscle cells to produce a greater output. The nervous system was better at recruiting fibers for the activity, and the fibers it was recruiting were stronger. With some of those fibers now also bigger, the job of the nervous system to generate force production from the fibers is was recruiting was easier. This is why trained individuals find that over time activities that were a much bigger effort for them previously are now possible with less effort.
But here’s where it gets cooler and more relevant! The OTHER arm—the untrained one—got stronger too! In my own study I found this to be true with balance tasks. People got better at a one-legged balance task on their untrained side after practicing the task on the assigned side only. Most of the studies we used to support ours had to do with muscular hypertrophy and strength, like the one I just mentioned. In the 1979 study, the trained arm got 35% stronger while the untrained arm got 20% stronger. It certainly wasn’t because the untrained arm packed on more size. It was because the nervous system was able to take the patterns it used to improve the trained arm and translate it to the untrained arm. This gave me license to do things with my uninjured shoulder in hopes that my nervous system would layer that training neurologically on to my injured shoulder to avoid any large decreases in strength, and even mass, while I laid off of it for a while.
This is a concept that’s been used in the rehab world for eons, but it seems like only recently that it’s gotten hotter and hotter in the fitness and athletic training worlds, thus the resurrection of functional training, and the renewed sex appeal of compound movements, Olympic lifts, and kettlebell training. (By the way, this was just how people trained decades ago, it wasn’t called “functional training” as far as I know. It was merely “exercise”. Or, for some people decades before that, it was called “work” as they plowed fields, smithed metal, and so forth!) Speaking of more functional compound movements, another study looked at the effect of a specific training program on other activities. Participants were trained in the barbell squat for 8 weeks, increasing their strength in that movement pattern by 70%. Researchers then tested the participants’ strength during non-trained activities. The squatters improved in strength on the leg press as well, but to a lesser extent than the squat. They didn’t improve in strength at all on the seated leg extension, though. So their quads were stronger but their nervous system showed no improvement in ability to activate the quads during leg extensions.
So, how can OLD news help you in your NEW training programs? Here are a few tips to wrap this up:
• Strength increases in one activity don’t necessarily translate to dissimilar activities/movements/exercises. And the more dissimilar, the worse the transference. So, if training for a specific sport, keep the training sport-specific.
• On the heels of the point above, you should train movements, not muscles. If you don’t concentrate on the former, you will not be training the nervous system as well, and therefore you will sacrifice potential strength gains.
• Unless your sport is done seated, avoid doing much of your strength training while sitting. Likewise, avoid emphasizing isolated muscle groups, and instead favor multi-joint, full-body movements. Even better, include a predominance of one-sided exercises to enhance nervous system coordination.
• Keep in mind that your “weaker” side is benefitting from the stronger side’s training as well. Your nervous system is making sure of that. Single-side training can promote this, while also allowing less-able limbs to get stronger without the more-able ones there to pick up their slack as much.
References:
Moritani T, deVries HA: Neural factors versus hypertrophy in
the time course of muscle strength gain. Am J Phys Med
58:115-130, 1979
Thorstensson A, Karlsson J, Viitasalo JH, Luhtanen P, Komi PV:
Effect of strength training on EMG of human skeletal muscle.
Acta Physiol Scand. 1976 Oct;98(2):232-6.
A good read:
Movement That Matters, by Paul Chek
Friday, March 19th, 2010
By Joanna Sutter
Guess who gets a new MP4 bike training plan this weekend? YOURS TRULY! For me, getting new training plans is like Christmas morning…it’s a gift! But until then, I have 2 more workouts to conquer so I better get back in the saddle.
Enough about me let’s meet…
The MP4 Athlete of the Week: Erika Sperl-Imhoff
If we asked your coach or training partner to list three words that describe you they would be: Cheating on the there words, but three descriptors: Feisty. Not-a-quitter. Mini-Martha-Stewart.
What are you training 4? My next big race is USAT Collegiate Nationals in Lubbock, TX (April 17th). where I’ll be competing for the University of Minnesota! The rest of my summer calendar a half marathon, and a few 10Ks, and I’m looking forward to more tri’s with my other team – Peace Coffee Racing. Going to be a busy summer!
What is the best nutrition or training tip you’ve ever been given? Whether it be a new nutrition plan or a change in workouts, you can try anything for a week. No excuses for quitting until you give it a fair try!
Tell us about your most memorable athletic achievement: Oh man – Med City Marathon, 2008. It was the smartest race I have ever ran, and *knock on wood* hopefully I’ll be able to pull of something like that again. Ran negative splits the whole way (last mile was sub 7s!), perfect fueling + hydration, it was awesome. My finish time was a 3:19, which isn’t that impressive in lots of races, but at a little marathon like Med City, it was good enough to take my age group and get me second female finisher overall!!
Describe your perfect workout: As much as I’m enjoying these new strength workouts, I’m still a distance girl at heart. A long run around Minneapolis’ lakes, followed by going to sit in the kiddie pool for an “ice bath” 
My dad used to bike with me to keep me on pace and carry the hydration, so I think I’d have to fly him in from Philly too 
How do you achieve workout/life balance? Truthfully, I don’t. There are three BIG things in my life: my family/boyfriend/friends, training, and school. Throw in some faith, work, and volunteering, and there is just a lot going on! It seems like there’s a continuously rotating schedule of what takes precedence… although the boy and training constantly duke it out for 1st.
What motivates you on days you don’t feel like working out? I’ve been through quite an orthopedic hell – due to a genetic condition called fibrous dysphasia, I’ve fractured my femoral neck twice, and nearly had running taken away for good! I know what it’s like to not have my mobility, and that makes my workouts seem that much more special. It’s not that I have to do them, it’s that I get to!
If you could workout with anyone in the world who would it be and why? Martha Stewart. She is my adopted mom, fairy godmother, and idol, all wrapped into one. And she made brownies with Snoop Dogg – what’s not to love?
What is your favorite workout accessory? My Garmin! I love that it lets me just run (or bike!). no pre-planned route, no end point in sight. At the same time, when I finish I like to know how far I’ve gone, and seeing those negative mile splits is the icing on the cake!
What kitchen gadget can you not live without? BLENDER! The one I have now does the job, but I would honestly trade a kidney for a Vita Mix. If you know someone who knows someone… let’s talk.
What was the last thing you’ve had to eat today? There is an empty plate sitting on the coffee table in front of me. It once contained a massive amount of homemade green bean fries and hot salsa/ketchup. My stomach and mouth are very pleased.
What book or magazine is on your bedside table? Just picked up the Easter edition of Martha Stewart Living. I really wasn’t kidding! Underneath it is my bible and the last issue of Runner’s World.
What beauty product is always in your purse or gym bag? Is Icy Hot considered a beauty product…?
What is the most played song on your iPod? The Sweet Home Alabama / Country Grammar Mashup. I don’t think I could ever burn out on that song!!
The first place you go when you log on to your computer is…. My email. Although I’m starting to think that’s not such a good idea.. I had over 20 messages to respond to when I got home from practice!
When you’re not working out where can we find you? Hanging out at the lake – I run there, bike there, waitress at a restaurant there, go redeem my free ice cream thanks to said waitressing job there. I never want to move from Minneapolis!
What’s your motto? “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” – I’ll either find a way, or I’ll make one!
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
By Jodi
Cannot WAIT for spring!
I love spring time. More than anything in the whole world, I love warm weather. So let me expound upon that: I love spring and summer time but there is something so special about the *first* few weeks of warm weather after the cold winter. Of course if you live in Florida or California you may not get where I am coming from, but if you live in an area where the weather changes with the season you are most likely reading this after you have come in from being outside today and we completely understand.
This past weekend we were blessed by having Noah blow through on his ark. Mother Nature was kind enough t0 dump enough water on us (11″ in Boston) to start our own water park in my back yard. At one point I considered offering those tubes you see at Water Country
As you slide, be careful of the T.V.
and giving everyone a chance to slide down our bulkhead into our basement and float around with the couch. Fun would have been had for all but I opted instead to use that time to find new and excited ways for us to offer you some more value. What do I mean by that? MP4 is adding new features to the site soon, bio pages, webinar options, class times and more. We are constantly improving and nothing provides a better inspiration for us than spring time.
First, we need to say thank you because your emails to us mean a lot! Your suggestions and inquiries tell us exactly what you are looking for and we are glad to oblige. Second, we will always be changing so check back often. We keep you informed through our blog posts but we’ll also have other avenues available to us flowing with information about upcoming events and products.
Some things you should know:
We have already begun to offer our workout packs but their official launch is on the horizon. Once you combine them with our menu planning product that is coming as well, you will be a force to be reckoned with. From there, if you take that knowledge and learn how to apply it effectively with our webinars, you’ll have a season to remember. Lastly, we will tell you all about all of these things at our next teleseminar (shhh…don’t tell anyone except everybody you know that it’s the first week of April) since the last one was so successful.
Things you may not want to know:
I don’t have a pinky toe nail on my right foot. Too much info? Sorry. Tax deadline is less than a month away. Again, bearer of bad news here? Sorry. But how about, you don’t want to know that you missed out on all these things that are coming so make sure that you check back often or you are signed up for our blogblasts (look up to the right and sign up there). There is nothing spammy about our blasts–yes we do let you know of products that are coming, but we also provide you with tons of value so this is not a one way street. From track workouts, to strength workouts, to recipes and so on, we make sure that you are getting more than you thought possible when you sign up for info.
Well I am off to my basement to remove the remaining fish that are left down there from the deluge. If you have any questions about the information above, hit us up at info@modelper4mance.com and we will be happy to answer you.
