Fat Gut, Thin Gut, and Leaky Gut
In our first step in a healthy nutrition plan post we talked about the importance of gut health and the two main areas that impact it; the intestinal microbiota, or “gut flora”, and the gut barrier. We also touched on the impacts of gluten and a leaky gut. But was does “leaky gut” actually means? What causes it? What are some of the symptoms? How does it impact your immune system?
On Quality of Movement
Not everyone has a gym membership or trains to achieve specific goals, yet we all experience movement on a daily basis. The least active people in the world are likely to wash, sit down and get up, eat and drink, get in and out of bed regularly, and even when it comes to these simple tasks of life, it quickly jumps to the eye that some do it better.
The First Step In A Healthy Nutrition Plan
Scientific research is bringing more and more credence to the notion that up to 90% of all known human illness can be traced back to an unhealthy gut (Brain Maker, David Perlmutter). And we can say for sure that just as disease begins in the gut, so too does health and vitality. Ongoing research continues to uncover a strong case that gut health is critical to immune system functioning, detoxification, inflammation, neurotransmitter and vitamin production, nutrient absorption, signaling being hungry or full, and utilizing carbohydrates and fat. The gut extracts vitamins, minerals and energy from the food we eat, and it produces more than twenty different hormones. An unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder, depression, alzheimer's, ADHD, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Most doctors learn very little about gut function and gut health, should they honestly be giving anyone nutritional advice?
Eat, Sleep, Train, Repeat: PART 2B Sleep
So what should you be doing to help rebalance your hormones, decrease your body fat, increase your energy levels, increase your libido, increase your immune function, improve your digestive health, increase your recovery while lowering your chances of illness and even death?
Eat, Sleep, Train, Repeat: PART 2A: Sleep
The human body appreciates rhythm, movement, and nourishment. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors supported this by waking up with the sunrise, being active during the day, and going to bed with the sunset. The invention of the light bulb has hugely impacted out lifestyles and changed our rhythm. There was no hunting and gathering in the dark, there was also no insomnia and chronic fatigue!
Our bodies like homeostasis and they achieve this best with routine and rhythm. Chronic stress has become the way many people live their lives these days as they are overworked and under-recovered. Most people don’t yet understand the risk associated with such high levels of stress. Our body passes through an “alarm stage” where it pumps out high levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones to help you “fight the tiger”. High levels of these stress-related hormones play havoc on our sex hormones and our sugar management hormones, which both play a critical role energy levels, the storage of body fat, and the health of your immune system.
Eat, Sleep, Train, Repeat: PART-1 Eat
Your body is like a delicate little flower. How you take care of your body dictate whether it wilts and die or if flourishes and blossom. The rapid pace of our society takes our focus away from the simple things that our body still appreciates and longs for: rhythm, movement, nourishment. Don’t underestimate the importance of the basics when it comes to reaching the results you are working for.
The Human Stress Response - Homeostasis
We continually placing our bodies under high levels of stress (sympathetic nervous system) - just about everything we do in our daily lives has an impact on our energy equation and our metabolism. Just sitting at your desk and thinking can use over 700calories, the brain requires a lot of energy to think. Physical activity is a hugely energy intensive stressors as the muscles, and the brain is needed to coordinate movement and meet the demands of the training session/competition.
When we eat poorly (cut calories, don’t eat enough quality nutrient-dense foods), we affect our metabolism and force our body to tap into other energy stores (lean muscle mass breakdown, fat metabolism, down-regulation of certain hormones (like you reproductive hormones)) to maintain energy balance in the body. Poor quality sleep also impacts our brain function and performance.
Health Posture PART 2: Longevity and Performance
Far too often we see athletes training to build strength and fitness, but failing to draw the link between posture and performance. Endless hours of lifting heavy weights and performing high volume repetitive repetition will never deliver the optimal results if the technique is compromised by posture.
Health Posture PART 1: Gymnastics Bridge
“Movement Is life”… “No movement? No life!”
Your spine has roughly 50 joints that allow you to move in complex ways. Unfortunately, due to a sedentary lifestyle and lack of movement complexity, most of us have lost full control of our backbone. A healthy spine is a mobile spine, how often do you move yours?
Team Sustain: Sport of Fitness: MAX Weights Method - Part 4
In the 5/3/2/1 method, we start with loads just under 5RM and attempt to add 2-3% more weight every set, performing 1 fewer repetitions every set until you achieve a new 1RM. This progression has the advantage of teaching the skill of expressing your true maximum in a 4-week block. We cannot go from a block of performing 3-5reps per set (MAX Weight PART 3) and expect to perform well in a 1RM until we have allowed the body to recruit higher-threshold fibres. Therefore, we will slowly increase the percentages of each set from week-to-week with the aim of increasing your 1RMs by 2-3% in 5 weeks from now.