High Fat vs Low Fat, Soya & Weston A. Price

It's official..... i've hit rock bottom! Using the Daily Mail is very low i know, but, the info here is worth reading and i love all my millions of blog readers so much i'm willing to take all the abuse for using such degradable sources

Have a read boys and girls:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2105132/Damn-low-fat-diet-How-reformed-vegan-John-Nicholson-gorges-foods-granny-enjoyed--felt-better.html

I may write about some of the topics in here in more detail at a later stage but take some of that article in. Admittedly with a pinch of salt (Celtic Sea Salt of course), but i like stuff like this as when good info reaches commercial sights people believe it more easily, sad but true, and it shows we're getting the message through!

Points for you from me,

• Soy is genetically modified shit!
• Personally, i wouldn't eat fermented Soy either.
• Soy contains trypsin inhibitors which block protein absorbtion
• Soy is a GM food and sprayed with a milllion pesticides which are phytoestrogen's and used as Estrogen by the body. Never a good thing!
• And read all you can by the Weston A Price Foundation. Learned this when i studied at the CHEK Institute in San Diego and

http://www.westonaprice.org/

Thanks for reading!

A small part of my take on Tryptophan + Ray Peat extract on his article entitled "Tryptophan, serotonin, and aging"

Tryptophan is important for people. Its an amino acid found in foods such as seafood, chicken, turkey, & spinach (yes spinach). We need Tryptophan as it helps make other chemicals/neurotransmitter's in the body. It goes like this:

Tryptophan > 5-HTP > Serotonin > Melatonin

So you can see you need Tryptophan to make your Serotonin and Melatonin (which is your sleep hormone). problem is that many people don't have enough quality, grass fed meats in their diet (or spinach) and become low on Tryptophan. You see, thats a problem for me as it can help you feel good and i've worked with numerous clients who need a lot more quality meats in their nutrition.

But there a slight catch........

While Tryptophan is important, an over adundance by consuming too many crappy Tryptophan supplements, can cause problems in the body. I'll let the one and only, Ray Peat explain

"Malnutrition, and specifically protein deficiency, produces an inflammatory state that involves extreme serotonin dominance. Stress or malnutrition prenatally or in infancy leads to extreme serotonin dominance in adulthood. Other functions of tryptophan are reduced, as more of it is turned into serotonin"

"The fatigue produced by “over-training” is probably produced by a tryptophan and serotonin overload, resulting from catabolism of muscle proteins and stress-induced increases in serotonin. Muscle catabolism also releases a large amount of cysteine, and cysteine, methionine, and tryptophan suppress thyroid function (Carvalho, et al., 2000). Stress also liberates free fatty acids from storage, and these fatty acids increase the uptake of tryptophan into the brain, increasing the formation of serotonin. Since serotonin increases ACTH and cortisol secretion, the catabolic state tends to be self-perpetuating. This process is probably a factor influencing the rate of aging, and contributing to the physiological peculiarities of aging and depression"

Here is a link to Ray's page http://raypeat.com/

Fantastic extract from Ray Peat on Tryptophan and Serotonin. I won't be posting loads of stuff about nutrition as there's so much info out there already but people who know a lot more than me. But, you (my advid reader) may not know where to look and who to trust.

Ray Peat is brilliant. God he's deep, and his articles take 100 times to read due to length and detail, but he's really ahead of his time and knows his stuff inside out... and backwards... and probably in Zulu!

This article (which isn't owed by me nor my own work) details how taking Tryptophan supplement can cause a lot of problems.

Bottom line, get your Tryptophan from the proper nutritional sources and you will look and feel a load better!

Shoulder Rehab Exercises

Shoulder Rehab exercises!

Here are a few floor exercises to help improve strength & stability in your shoulder. Of course they are Closed Chain Upper Extremity Exercises.

Don't focus so much on the specific exercises, but more on the certain technical points behind them.

Let's take the 4 point Horsestance exercise above with me bent over like I love it....

Hands under shoulder, thoracic spine extended, slight anterior lumbar curve, etc etc, but here's the key! Notice... The Humerus (upper arm bone) is externally rotating at the glenoid humeral joint, i.e. The elbow is pointing back, not rotated to the side. This helps to activate the scapula retractors, which in turn helps to stabilise the shoulder joint.

Most of you will feel this in your triceps which isn't bad but the place you really want is the upper back musculature. Make sure you retract your scapular to help this but externally rotating the humerus will help with this.

I can't stress how crucial this bit of technique is! Without it the humerus is internally rotating, scapula will wing, shoulder may protract & you'll be hurting your shoulder. Fantastic example of how one small change in technique can make a huge difference to an exercise and help you get the most out of it!

It also apply's to the press up/push up/whatever you call it! 2 points here
1. The further your elbows abduct, ie move from your ribcage the more pressure through the glenoid humeral joint. So i recommend keeping your elbows close to the body
2. Again, making sure you externally rotate the humerus will activate those scapular retractors & provide shoulder stability. Ya get me!

The scapula much prefers to work in the sagittal plane (But that's another blog entirely), so the more frontal plane you go and abduct the scapula, the more you risk hurting your shoulder!

I see so many numpty's doing Open Chain resistance band exercises for their shoulder rehab and getting nowhere. Don't be another numpty!

B

Forgot to say.... Welcome to my first blog!

My 1st Blog!

So happy to be doing this & so happy you're here reading this. Thankyou so much for coming to my blog, I want you to check on my updates regularly, follow me on Facebook, read all the info, practise, tell all your mates, get them to tell all their mates & spread the word about this.

You are about to learn about a great passion of mine..... The body! I've been working with the body for nearly 9 years now & every day it fascinates me as it always has.

I want to write this blog to spread the word about the work I do, to teach some of the amazing info I've been fortunate to learn & learn even more from the questions you may have! ( so don't be afraid to contact me)

Stay tuned!

Rehabbing YOUR Shoulder!

Rehabbing YOUR Shoulder!

There could be a million reasons for shoulder pain and getting to the root cause is a learned skill. Let’s start with a simple, and very common issue.

Scenario: Mr Pecs 2012 is getting severe shoulder pain bench pressing 1000KG for the 4^th time that week. Shock!

                            

Now lets start with the basic info. If you train a muscle more than its opposing group (i.e. chest and back), it will cause an imbalance & create a change in joint angles. This changes posture & causes pain as that joint isn’t where it’s supposed to be.

Getting slightly more technical…

Most of these cases will involve some form of Thoracic Kyphosis/flexion of the middle to upper spine. Thoracic flexion will shift that shoulder joint out of position, impinge the joint and cause pain. So you can do all the back training you want, pound the resistance bands and train your Rotator Cuffs until you turn blue…. But it won’t help, until you correct the Thoracic Kyphosis which is protracting the shoulder and causing the pain

To Rehab your Shoulder, you need:

1. Thoracic Extension
2. Condition the scapular retractors
3. Which you do through CLOSED CHAIN UPPER EXTREMITY EXERCISES……BOOM!

A closed chain movement is one in which you can’t overcome the resistance of something. An Open Chain movement is when you can overcome the resistance of something. So during a press up, you can’t push the ground away from you, you push away from the ground. That’s a closed chain movement. Walking is closed chain as you push away from the ground with your legs.

• So is the bench press Open or Closed Chain??

Yes, you were correct! It’s Open Chain as you are overcoming the resistance

Are internal/external arm movements with the dyna-band Open or Closed Chain?

• Correct again (wow you’re a natural), it’s an Open Chain movement ….. And that’s the problem with it!

WARNING, BIG WORDS: During a Closed Chain movement the distal section of a joint is fixed and the proximal section is moving. Distal is the section furthest away from the body and proximal is the closest section, i.e. when you walk the bottom bit of your thigh bone (femur) is fixed, whilst the top of it moves of the bottom bit.

This is so important for shoulder rehab as if the proximal section is working, you will be conditioning the scapular retractors, which helps to stabilise the scapula, which in turn will give it extra mobility and help the healing process speed right up.

Examples of good exercises for this are;

1. Press Ups
2. Swiss Ball Jacknife
3. Planks
4. Horsestance
5. 4 Point TVA Activation
6. Chin Ups
7. Scapjacks

Using the resistance bands to rehab the shoulder DOES NOT work. You need stability of the joint, to gain mobility. Resistance bands try and gain mobility first without the joint being stabile.

Now I do have a specific way of doing the above exercises to help the shoulder even further which I’ll post tomorrow (you lucky people!)

There are tons of reasons for shoulder pain, but if you’ve been suffering, you’ve started treatment and you’re looking to start exercising with it again, start with CLOSED CHAIN UPPER EXTREMITY MOVEMENTS.

B