Essential fatty acid supplements – your choices explained

Essential fatty acid (‘EFA’) supplements are becoming more popular with interest about more weird and wonderful supplements like krill oil growing. EFA supplements are sometimes necessary for basic health due to the way that our food is produced, and the types of diets we choose, however this is generally a lifestyle choice. Today we generally get far too much omega 6 and far too little omega 3 (also called O3) in our diets. This is bad for a number of reasons Read more..

The REAL meaning of intensity

Language is useful only when we agree upon the meaning of the words we are exchanging. ‘Intensity’ seems to be a a word steeped in confusion as far as it’s meaning in the physical training context goes.

I have had many a conversation with people who know a thing or two about training but seem to be confused about weight training and intensity, some have even dissolved into near arguments with people telling me I am making it up myself!

Intensity in the context of weight training can be most simply defined as the % of the highest weight you can lift for one repetition. This is the scientific application of the word ‘intensity’. The dictionary definition ceases to apply when yo walk in to the gym or training facility.

What intensity is NOT is:

• How hard session is – this is intensity, volume, exercise density and a load of other things
• How daunting a session may be
• How fast your heart is beating
• How much you’re sweating
• How heavy you’re breathing

They might be correlated with the intensity but they are not intensity. Don’t believe me? Here’s some quotes….

“HIT wasn’t that high intensity. Intensity’s defined as the relative amount of your 1 rep max at which you’re working.” Charles Poliquin

“High-intensity strength exercises (in the 70-100% range [of 1 rep max]) are better than low intensity strength exercises (in the 40-70% range [of one rep max]) while dieting.” Cristian Thibaudeau

Diet for weightloss

There are diets for this and diets for that but one thing connects many of them – fat loss. How do you identify a good weight loss diet and what are rules of ANY good weight management program?

The rules of the good weightloss diet.

The diet will…

1. Ensure sufficient water, macro, micro and phytonutrients for health as well as sufficient fibre
2. Safeguard lean mass (organs, muscle etc) whilst supporting fat mass loss
3. Allow sufficient ‘energy’ to exercise well and function from day to day
4. Take account of the users health levels and lifestyle
5. Ensure lasting results through good health, behavior change (if necessary) and solid long term diet.

There are lots of diets on the market but you must be sure that the one you choose complies to the above if it is going to support healthy long term weight management.

Choose carefully.

The CrossFit Games 2008

The results of the 2^nd annual CrossFit games are in and can be found here

All the competitors in an event of this type deserve some kind of recognition given the difficulty of the event – it’s literally blood sweat and tears stuff, if you’re not familiar with this type of training have a look at the homepage crossfit.com . This event now in it’s second year has grown – a lot – as the popularity of the training philosophy as a whole grows but it is not with out it’s detractors and fare share of controversy.

CrossFit utilizes real functional movements, high intensity, high exercise density and almost infinite combinations of exercises in a supportive group setting and is an incredibly effective way to increase your fitness. The daily exercise prescription is available at the homepage and even if training alone results can be compared and questions of comments left at the daily comments section. Added to this support is the CrossFit Journal and the constant flow of info meaning that the result philosophy is truly ‘open source’.

However despite the support the CrossFit package is also one that has to be treated with caution, many people especially those with low general fitness levels and a lot of those with office jobs just have no business doing a lot of what CrossFit asks you to do. Yes, workouts are ‘scalable’ and there is some info on starting out but this is in contract with the ‘do or die’ mentality of the hardcore following.

As always you have to think about the cost benefit ratio of a course of action. Following CrossFit may well benefit you hugely BUT starting out wrongly may well cause big problems so if you;re thinking about getting started then read THIS.