The Not so Dirty Dozen - 12 Clean Foods for Power

September 14, 2009 by John Cummings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Nutrition 

1.  Grab Your Nuts!

Nuts

Nuts

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that those who consumed the most vitamin E — (from FOOD, not supplements) — enjoy a 67 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease than those who ate the least vitamin E.  Protein is essential to all workout programs and nuts have a bunch.

Nuts tip:  •  Add almond bits to your creamy peanut butter, toss some on your cereal or salad, pasta, pancakes or stir fry.

2.  Berries

Got antioxidants?   Berries do.   This powerful fruit (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries) help your body fight heart disease and cancer.  What’s more, flavonoids in berries may also help your balance, coordination, and short-term memory.  And, just a cup of raspberries has 6 grams of fiber, not to mention half the vitamin C you need today.

Berry good:  Blueberries top the charts in anti-oxidants.  They make a great addition to cereal or salad and if you’re making a healthy pancake, be sure to add berries (and nuts).  

3.   Bean, Beans the wonderful fruit . . .

Many people don’t realize that beans pack protein, fiber and iron but are low in fat.  Take your pick from black, lima, pinto, navy  and you’ll be eating a food that is essential for building new muscle and losing old fat.  

The more you toot . . .  Yes.  you’ll get gas from time to time but swapping meat for beans once or twice in the week can really reduce your fat intake and get more fiber.   Plus you’ll reduce your wrinkles! (according to a study in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden).

4.   Veggies (grean and leafy)

Take your vitamins!   Spinach and many green leafy vegetables have your A, C, and K; folate; beta-carotene; minerals including calcium and magnesium; fiber; and antioxidants. These micronutrients can neutralize free radicals that cause you to age.  

Go Green: Get nearly a full day’s vitamin A and half of your vitamin C from just one serving of spinach supplies nearly a full day’s vitamin A and half of your vitamin C. 

5.  No Whey!?  Yes, Whey!

When you’re building muscle, protein is a key ingredient.  But sometimes your “meal” is a smoothie, right? (nod your head, yes).  Whey protein is a high-quality protein that contains essential amino acids to build muscle and burn fat. The great thing about whey is that it has the most protein per calorie, flat out. 

No whey?  (Yes whey!)

If you get tired of whey smoothies, eat some ricotta cheese which is whey instead of milk curd.

6.   Whole Grains

Don’t skip your carbs!  How many times do we have to say it?   You want them because your body needs them.   Just be sure to eat carbs that are as processed as little as possible to make sure you get whole grains and fiber that help you to lose weight and build muscle.  

Don’t be fooled!  Not all “wheat breads” are alike.  Make sure you’re eating breads (and cereals and pastas, yes, pastas) that are WHOLE GRAIN or WHOLE WHEAT.

7.   Get Oiled Up with Olive Oil

Yeah, no.  You don’t rub this on.  You eat it.  Olive oil can be anti-catabolic, preventing muscle breakdown. All olive oil can be high in monounsaturated fats (good!) but virgin oil varieties have a higher level of vitamin E.  

8.  I love Peanut Butter! 

A lot of  calories. Check.  Sugar in many varieties. Check.  But peanut butter is packed with monounsaturated fats which are heart healthy and that can increase your body’s production of testosterone, which can help your muscles grow and your fat melt. (Don’t worry girls.  It won’t hurt.)   Be sure to hold the jelly and to pick natural peanut butters with no sugar.   Tip:  Sugar turns to fat.

9.   Where’s the Beef? 

Hey, you know you want meat.  And it’s because your body needs lean meats.  Protein is essential to your diet success.   Get as lean as possible by sticking to turkey breast which also has a lot of niacin and vitamin B6.  Do you prefer the dark meat?  Good for you:   lots of zinc and iron.  Fish, chicken and lean cuts of beef are good  too!

Out of Africa:   A Mayo Clinic study found by observing two African tribes that the tribe that ate fish frequently higher metabolisms and better fat-burning.

10.  Incredible, Edible Eggs

Egg protein has the highest “biological value” (it supports your body’s protein need better than any food).  B12 in eggs also helps fat breakdown.  Recent research shows that eating an egg or two a day will not raise your cholesterol levels.   And don’t toss all the yolks.  A lot of the protein and some fat are in there.  You can use both.  

Take your vitamins.    Over easy, over light or scrambled, eggs have riboflavin; folate; vitamins B6, B12, D, and E; iron; phosphorus; and zinc.

11.   Got Milk?

I know. Some of you are lactose intolerant.  But if you’re not, get your dairy and strengthen bones, lose weight and more.   Stick to low-fat yogurts, cheeses, and other dairy products and get a major source of calcium too.   

What about my heart?   3 or more servings of dairy per day can slash your risk of heart disease by 31 percent.

12.  Sow Your Oats

Oatmeal has soluble fiber which is great for many reasons:  it attracts fluid and stays in your stomach longer than insoluble fiber (like vegetables).  Soluble fiber may also reduce blood cholesterol (you’ve seen the Cheerios commercials).  For breakfast, you won’t find longer lasting energy and as a bedtime snack it will prevent binging and provide calories that won’t go straight to fat.  Avoid the sweet stuff and go for whole oats.  For a compromise, Quaker Oats One-Minute Oats can’t be beat.  (I eat them every day, sometimes 3 times). 

Easy on the insulin.  In a Penn State study, blood sugar levels stayed stable with oatmeal much longer than many other foods.  

For healthy recipes, check out Arlene’s Healthy Cooking Blog.

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Super Sets, Giant Sets, Drop Sets

July 9, 2009 by John Cummings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Weight Training 
Looking for a way to spice up your workout and get some intensity back into your program?  Give Drop Sets, Giant Sets and Super Sets a try and you’ll jump start your metabolism, muscle growth and fat loss.  These are also a big help if you’re working out alone and finding it difficult to really “finish” that set without a spot.
 
If you’re new to weight training, you may not be familiar with these terms so lets start with a brief explanation of why you would want to consider a different kind of “set” in the first place. 
 
Sets:  Most people are aware that resistance training with weights is performed by doing sets of an exercise consisting of a specific number of repetitions.  For example, pressing the barbell 10 times (10 repetitions) without stopping is considered a “set” of 10 repetitions.   That’s the no-brainer.  Some of us will do 3 sets like that, with a minute or two rest in between, and then move on to another exercise.
 
For muscle growth to occur, it is advisable to bring the muscle or muscle group to temporary failure (”I can’t do another repetition!”).  For this reason, it makes sense to work on one or two body parts (chest and triceps, for example), to do so to failure and to rest that body part completely for 3-5 days or even a week to encourage recovery and muscle growth.
 
Because it is difficult to push yourself to failure and fully exhaust the muscles, thereby maximizing the muscle growth after recovery, we use many techniques to reach failure:  a partner to push you, drop sets, supersets and even giant sets.  Lets look at each: 
 
1: DROP SETS
The simplest method for achieving total temporary failure on on set of one exercise is a drop set.  Don’t drop the weights. “Drop” refers to lowering the amount of weight you are using while you’re still on the same set.  This works great with or without a partner but is an ideal way to get more out of a set when there is no one there to spot you.
 
Perform a set for as many reps as you are able at a given weight.  For example, you might be doing a barbell bench press at 185 pounds.  If your goal was to finish 10 reps of that weight but you find yourself struggling to get the 9th and 10th rep, rack the bar, drop the weight by 20 to 40 pounds and complete not only the 2 reps you missed but as many as you can to failure. You can double drop if needed to really get it done.  You can do this on every set or just on the final set of a particular exercise.  You’ll really feel the pump.  
 
2:  SUPER SETS
These are as cool as they sound.  Unlike drop sets, you’ll actually do two different exercises for the same body part.  To do a superset for one body part (chest, for example), pick an exercise that you want to start with like a bench press, and work to failure (don’t be afraid to do a drop set to get to failure).  Then, without resting, pick up dumbbells and do chest flyes to failure. 
 
That’s a super set.  By exhausting the overall chest on the bench press and then performing the flye without rest, you recruit other muscle fibers and really get a great workout for that muscle. Try doing three supersets instead of doing 2 exercises that you would just perform three ses of separately.
 
3: GIANT SETS
GIant sets are just a step up from Super Sets.  Instead of doing 2 exercises for a body part back to back, you do 3 or even 4 exercises, to failure on each set without resting.  
 
This is not a technique for the beginner.  If you have not worked out for several weeks or months and gotten totally familiar with your own strengths and weaknesses on each exercise, you’re not ready for Giant Sets.  
 
Here’s a sample Giant Set workout for legs:
 
Giant Set 1:   
 
Barbell Squats:  Use a weight that brings you to failure at 10-12 reps.  Without resting, move to:
Walking Lunges:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 steps each leg.  Without resting, move to:
Leg Extensions:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 reps.  Without resting, move to:
Leg Curls:  Use a weight that brings you to failure after 10-12 reps.
Rest for 3-4 minutes.
 
That is a giant set.  Two of those will usually seal the deal for your upper legs.  Be sure to warm up first.
 
So, give these “change it up” combos a try and see how they change your muscle growth
Use the MyBodySite.com workout creator to create and log your own workouts.  

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Welcome to the New MyBodySite.com Blog

June 6, 2009 by John Cummings · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Nutrition, Sports Training, Supplements 

MyBodySite.com is committed to providing its members with cutting edge tools to help achieve and maintain fitness and health. We know that information is key to getting and staying in shape. That is why we are launching this new blog platform that will allow us to provide you with articles from experts across the spectrum of fitness and health.

Whether you need information about nutrition, weight loss, sports training, bodybuilding, supplements, workout routines or any topic in fitness and health, you’ll find it here are we grow our articles base to be the largest on the internet.

If you have expertise in a category that you would like to share with our users, send an email to blog@mybodysite.com. Please include your credentials, website address and the names of other websites or publications that you currently write for. We will be glad to consider you as an expert and author on MyBodySite.com.

In health,

John Cummings
Founder & CEO
MyBodySite.com

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