Have you have ever found yourself saying something resembling the following: “I just don’t have any time to work out anymore. I’m just way too busy.” Well, I have some incredible news for you! All you need is just 4 minutes per day to satisfy your body’s essential requirement for exercise! Yes, I’m serious, and this flips the excuse of not having enough time right on its head. This type of intensified training I’m talking about is called Tabata interval training.
Quite simple and effective, a Tabata session consists of twenty seconds of maximum output, followed by ten seconds of rest, repeated eight times consecutively for a total of four minutes. And, you can use any exercise (running, rowing, cycling, burpees, jump rope, squats, etc.)! Doing Tabata sprints is perhaps the most rewarding – and physically taxing – way to spend those four minutes. (Refer to my previous post on sprinting)
The credit for this simple and powerful training method belongs to its namesake, Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Their groundbreaking 1996 study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, provided documented evidence concerning the dramatic physiological benefits of high-intensity, intermittent training. After just 6 weeks of testing, Dr. Tabata noted that just four minutes of Tabata interval training could do more to boost aerobic and anaerobic capacity than an hour of endurance exercise.
Translation: You don’t need to drudge out 45 minutes of chronic cardio training to burn calories and gain fitness. In fact, this research tells us that you will benefit far more from short, intense bouts of exercise, such as a tabata session than any long slow painful cardio session. Say WOW!
Two of the best parts of this training are that there is no equipment necessary and you can do this anywhere at anytime. All you might need is a GymBoss interval timer so you can keep true to the clock while you add up your repetitions. You can get pretty creative with this training, since you can use almost any exercise you can think of such as pushups, pullups, squats, lunges etc. If you’re feeling extra frisky, you can even do more than one tabata session in your workout. Go crazy!
So guess what? No excuses. Go get some!
Your health coach,
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
Check out Funk Roberts doing some Tabata (His pushups are a little short on the range of motion but not bad)
The most functional activity that you could ever do as a human being regardless of age is run. We are a species born to run, and for the majority of our existence we required the ability to run in order to survive. That meant an all out sprint every once in a while to escape danger, hunt prey, or maybe just for kicks or competition with our pals.
When you break into an all-out sprint, there is a resulting powerful neuroendocrine response that stimulates your genes to build stronger muscle, thicker bones, and faster nerve impulses- thus allowing you to go faster next time! Sprinting also fires up your metabolism (can you say weight loss?) improves your insulin sensitivity (burn fuel efficiently), and sculpts your body into a lean mean machine (woohoo!).
One of these athletes spends hours on end at a chronic pace breaking their body down slowly, and the other trains intervals of very brief all-out efforts followed by plenty of rest and recovery. It’s no secret which of these two athletes is healthier, more functional, and more like our ancestors.
Sprint training can be done as little as once or twice every two weeks on top of your regular exercise programming. I do them once per week on top of my crossfit training and I have noticed a tremendous improvement in my explosiveness. The cool thing about sprint training whether swimming, biking, running, rowing, etc… is that on top of improving your anaerobic fitness (short bursts of speed) it also improves your cardiovascular fitness! But not the other way around. Read more about these metabolic pathways in the October 2002 crossfit journal.
Listen up! A word of caution, if you are a beginner or have not run in a long time make sure you ease into sprinting slowly. Start by gradually picking up the pace of your walking, then to a slow jog, then to a run, then to uphill walking/running to dampen the impact, then to all-out sprints. There is potential to injure yourself since sprinting requires a good base of strength, fitness and flexibility. Make sure you scale accordingly.
Sprint training can be done with any activity and at various intervals. I usually train anywhere from 10 to 30 second intervals, with anywhere from 1-2 minutes of rest in between sprints. I will usually do anywhere from 4 to 12 rounds of this 1-2 times every 2 weeks. For beginners, pick up the pace for 10 seconds, and rest for 2 minutes. Do this 4 times in a row every week. I promise your body will improve quickly! A great resource for sprint and distance interval training is the crossfit endurance website.
For some tips on sprinting check this guy’s video’s out:
As the 2007 Crossfit Games champ “OPT” James Fitzgerald would say: “Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.”
Go get some!
Your health coach,
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
Kellogg’s claims sugary ‘Cocoa Crispies’ cereal can boost your child’s immunity opinion by Mike Adams the Health Ranger
Alright, check this out. Coco Crispies claim that they will help boost your child’s immunity? If processed white sugar, partially-hydrogenated trans fat oils and synthetic chemical vitamins could enhance human immunity then North Americans would be the healthiest people on the planet. Case in point- we are not. It is such a shame that the FDA allows this type of scam marketing by industries like Kellogg’s. If we ever actually want to be part of the solution and have more people getting less sick then this false marketing and garbage food production must stop.
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
Try this exercise today: Put your right shoe on your left foot and your left shoe on your right foot. Seriously, do it. Feels goofy doesn’t it? But after a while it might start to feel “normal” right? In fact, your body is so amazing that your feet would eventually deform to resemble your backwards shoes! Isn’t that just like what we’ve been doing to our children for years? Ever since we were old enough for our parents to jam tiny Nikes on our feet we’ve been sporting shoes. Unfortunately all this did for us was force an environment for our foot to adapt to. Now it isn’t so uncommon to see weak flat feet, deformities like bunions and hammer toes, or just plain weak and atrophied legs and feet.
Since we are not genetically designed to have our feet trapped between rubber, glue, and fabric all day, shoes have left our feet soft, untrained, and have created faulty movement patterns. Believe it or not we were born into this world naked and our genes planned for us to use our feet to walk, run, and play without using a crutch like a shoe. Does this mean that I think we should walk around pieds-nus everywhere we go? Of course not! I’m just as guilty as the next person for having too many pairs of shoes and it’s just not possible in our industrialized society to go barefoot everywhere. However, I will give you some tips that have helped me develop strong feet, tendons, and balance:
- Beware of shoes with “proper” arch support, rigid orthotics, or high-heels (sorry ladies). Instead, pick up shoes that are flat and provide less support so that they place a demand on your feet to grip, push and pull when you walk. Rather than help you solve your problem, shoes with arch supports prop you up and lead to weak, atrophied foot musculature. High heels go without saying
- Try running/walking shoeless or with shoes that allow your feet to perform in a more natural manner. Traditional running shoes that have elevated softened heel supports impede our natural gait and can result in a shortened Achilles tendon and calf muscle. Also, athletic shoes promote heel striking instead of using the balls of your feet and this leads to knee, hip, and spine subluxation and eventual joint breakdown. Several brands that I have used and are great are Inov-8 And vibram five fingers which are very cool for exercise, play, and for fun. They promote stimulation of the muscles in your feet and lower legs that will not only make you stronger and healthier, but improve your balance, agility and proprioception. These shoes need to be introduced gradually though since they have much less support than your common footwear.
- Go barefoot as often as possible! Whenever I get home, walk on the beach, play in the yard, I always go barefoot. Your feet need some tough love too just like the rest of your body. This will be helpful to strengthen not only the muscles and structure of your foot, but also help toughen up the skin on your feet to allow you to walk outside without whining like a sissy. If our ancestors could see us now, they would probably point and laugh at how soft we’ve gotten.
So take my advice and start giving your feet the sufficiency that they need build a strong and healthy balance. Even if you already have bunions, flat feet, or hammer toes it’s never too late to improve them. As always, the more we go towards what makes sense in nature, the healthier we become.
Your health coach,
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
To learn more about how to strengthen flat feet and barefoot running visit Mark’s Daily Apple
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Here’s what was for dinner last night:
Main Food Ingredients: Mixed greens and arugula salad, Avocado, Yellow squash, Wild Clams, Wild Shrimp, Asparagus, Cherry tomatoes, Cucumbers, Cilantro and goat cheese.
Other ingredients: Coconut oil, Balsamic vinegar, Tamarind, Agave nectar, raw cashews, 2 Garlic cloves, Ground black pepper, Ground cumin.
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon tamarind
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 1/2 cup chopped cashews
- 2/3 cup fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
Add the tamarind-cashew mix to the pan or skillet and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and cool while putting together the spring-arugula salad, cherry tomato, avocado and cucumber. Place several baked clams filled with tamarind-cashew shrimp mix on top of salad, sprinkle with a touch of goat cheese and gorge!
Meal prep time 30 minutes.
Very tasty cave-man friendly meal that is balanced with ample protein, fat, and some carbohydrate mostly from vegetable. Get your grunt-on and whip this up for breakfast, lunch or dinner…whichever is more contrarian for you:)
Your health coach,
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
Have you heard the recent buzz surrounding chocolate milk and how it is now touted as the new sports drink? The belief is that chocolate milk is supposed to help speed your recovery from strenuous exercise by re balancing electrolytes and replenish glycogen to your muscles and liver. The notion comes from a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, recently covered by CBS news. The study compared low-fat chocolate milk versus two other sports drinks when it comes to recovery from strenuous activity.
In the study, nine male cyclists rode until their muscles were depleted of energy, then rested four hours and biked again until exhaustion. During the rest period, the cyclists drank low-fat chocolate milk, Gatorade, or Endurox R4. During a second round of exercise, the cyclists who drank the chocolate milk were able to bike about 50% longer than those who drank Endurox, and about as long as those who drank the Gatorade.
And guess who partially funded the study? Answer: The Dairy and Nutrition Council. What a coinkydink. Do you think they wasted any time using this to promote their product to the public? They were on it like stink on a monkey.
The Got milk? campaign assembled NBA all-star Dwight Howard, tennis star Ana Ivanovic and teen soccer star Jozy Altidore to embark on a 25-city “Refuel Your School” tour to reward 25 high school athletic teams for choosing chocolate milk to refuel and rehydrate. The campaign also included a ”Go Pro For A Day” sweepstakes offering the opportunity to spend time with Howard, Ivanovic or Altidore or prizes including adidas’ gift cards. The Got milk? campaign also aired commercials featuring the aforementioned all-stars promoting the new revolutionary sports drink.
I will be so bold to say that as much as the dairy industry would like you to believe they are contributing to the health of the planet, they are in fact contributing to just the opposite. They are only about their bottom dollar and not about “doing your body good”. They are well aware of the dangers of its products that they work so hard to promote to you, but they would never tell you that dairy is contributing to all chronic sickness and disease. While the popular belief is that you need dairy products in your diet to get calcium, vitamin D, and protein, you might be surprised to know that these claims are totally false.
I want you to read this articleby Robert M. Kradjian, MD, Breast Surgery Chief Division of General Surgery, of Seton Medical Centre #302 in Daly City, CA. This article is a great summary that presents objective information that is well reviewed and cited. Here are several excerpts from the article that you might find informative:
“Fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds! How was this accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding; that’s how.”
“Any lactating mammal excretes toxins through her milk. This includes antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals and hormones. Also, all cows’ milk contains blood! The inspectors are simply asked to keep it under certain limits. You may be horrified to learn that the USDA allows milk to contain from one to one and a half million white blood cells per milliliter. (That’s only 1/30 of an ounce). If you don’t already know this, I’m sorry to tell you that another way to describe white cells where they don’t belong would be to call them pus cells.”
If those excerpts don’t make you think twice about putting ANY dairy in your face, ESPECIALLY YOUR CHILD’S, then the rest of the article will help…read it. Something you’ll find out is that dairy is laced with saturated fat (yes even so called “low fat” dairy) that promotes inflammation that leads to cardiovascular disease and chronic illness. Dairy products spike insulin levels that promote insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), weight gain, and chronic illness. There are proteins in milk such as bovine albumin and casein that create systemic inflammation in your body and contribute to certain autoimmune diseases. Dairy products are very acidic when put in your body so to counteract and re balance pH there are intelligent mechanisms that your body uses such as sequestering Calcium from your bones and Magnesium. (Can you say osteoporosis?)
So is low fat chocolate milk a great sports drink? Maybe when compared to two other beverages that are full of chemicals and sugar. My suggestion would be to always ask yourself “how would I do this as nature intended?” Your ancestors certainly didn’t drink cow’s milk or pound sugary beverages after they spent the day hunting and gathering. They were in far better shape then you or me, had extraordinarily strong teeth and bones, were generally more useful, and did not suffer from any chronic disease.
Next time you exert yourself, do your hormones a favor and reach for some fresh water and some quality carbs and protein found in fruits, veggies, and lean meats. Your performance will thank you, and so will your health and vitality.
Your health coach,
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
I recently stumbled across this blog by a fellow named Marc Sisson who has a great website called Mark’s Daily Apple and several other fantastic blogs about eating a Paleo diet and functional training. The content on his blogs are fantastic and his newsletter is outstanding.
I want to share with you a great video that he put together called Paleo in a Nutshell. This is part 1…Enjoy!
Also take this cool “How Paleo/Primal are you Quiz
I scored a good mix of Paleo/Primal instinct. Here’s my results:
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
A sound functional squat is something that you will discover is not only essential to every athlete but in fact every human-being must demonstrate in order to be healthy and pain-free. The squat is no more an invention of a trainer or coach than is walking or running. It is a vital, natural, and a functional component of your well-being.
Most of the planet’s inhabitants do not sit in chairs; they squat. Meals, defecation, and gatherings are all performed in a squat position and never in chairs. Only in the modern world do we find ourselves sitting in chairs, couches, benches and stools. This comes at a loss of functionality due to the degeneration and de-conditioning of bone, joints, soft tissue, and muscle. If you think about it, if the human species was intended to spend so much time sitting we would have been given 4 legs attached to our backsides instead of 2.
Occasionally there are athletic trainers, health-care providers, or physical therapists that say that you should not squat. In nearly every instance this is pure ignorance on the part of the practitioner. A question that should be asked to these individuals is “by what method should your patient get off the toilet?”
In a similarly misinformed manner you may have heard that the knees should not be bent past 90 degrees in a squat. This is an argument that is quickly resolved when asking that person to sit on the floor with their legs out in front of them and then stand without bending their legs past 90 degrees. Without getting on their feet in some awkward manner they will never get off the floor in a functional manner without bending at least one knee past 90 degrees.
Not only is the squat not detrimental to the knees, when done correctly it is actually rehabilitative of painful, damaged, or delicate knees. In fact, if you do not squat properly, your knees cannot stay healthy regardless of how free of pain or discomfort you are. This is equally true of the hips and back.
On an athletic front, the squat produces solid core strength and it is the ultimate hip extension exercise. Since powerful and controlled hip extension is the foundation of all good human movement and elite athleticism it should be the cornerstone of everyone’s training.
It is entirely possible to injure yourself by squatting incorrectly, but it is also very simple to bring the squat to a level of safety matched by walking. In the following article I will explain how that is done.
The Air Squat
The air squat begins with the athlete squatting without any weight other than body weight. In fact, mastery of an air squat must be demonstrated before ever attempting any weighted back squats, front squats, or squats with weight overhead.
The air squat when executed properly has the athlete stand erect with the feet shoulder width apart and the toes pointed slightly outwards. When ready to squat, you must keep your mid-section tight by contracting abdominal muscles and accentuating the normal arch in the low back. The movement is initiated by sending your butt back just as if you were going to bump a car door closed with your rear if your hands were full. Descend by sinking into the squat being mindful of keeping your body weight in your heels so that the knees do not extend past the toes. Lift your arms for counterbalance and keep your chest tall as you descend while maintaining a tight midsection, being careful not to surrender the arch in your low back. Stop as low as you can, preferably so that the fold of the hips descends past the knees, and make sure your knees stay pressed outwards and not caving inwards. Upon rising exert your force to the outside of your feet as if you were trying to rip a piece of paper between your feet. Stand tall at the top of your squat to complete your full hip extension.
Top: tighten core
Mid- send the butt back Bottom- hips below knees
- Maintain the integrity of the curve in the low back throughout the squat
- Keep your weight in your heels
- At the bottom of your squat make sure your hips get below your knees
- Make sure your knees do not extend beyond your toes
Video coaching of the air squat and the advanced squatting movements are available in the Committed to the Core Video Consultation Series on the Franson Family Chiropractic website at www.fransonchiropractic.com/Franson_Family_Chiropractic/Committed.html
Make sure you watch the video titled The Squat: Foundations of the Squat. This is an excellent video that will teach you step by step how to squat with proper form.
Dr. Ryan Hewitt
References: The Crossfit Journal- December 2002. http://journal.crossfit.com/
