3 Must do Exercises to Master the Pullup

How To Spot A Bad Personal Trainer / Coach

3 Rules for Building Strength Without Weights

3 Rules for Building Strength Without Weights

Listen, you’ll have no problem putting on some serious strength and size without hitting the weights… as long as you know how to PROGRAM your training.

As you may or may not know, my “thing” is training for muscle and strength with body weight – and so I wanted to give you three “rules” to help you accomplish this goal.

Follow these rules, and you’ll be on your way to getting big and strong with bodyweight exercise … neglect them, and you’ll likely have a hard time reaching your goals.

3 Rules for Building Strength Without Weights

1 – Stick to the basics

Cool calisthenics moves and tricks are AWESOME – my personal goal list for the year includes these exercises:

– solid clutch flag on both sides
– elbow lever
– free handstand

And a few more.

HOWEVER … when it comes to actually gaining STRENGTH and MUSCLE, these moves are not going to help a ton. They are more “skill” oriented … and are GREAT exercises … but not perfect for getting big and strong.

To gain muscle and get strong with your own body weight, you need to be focusing on things like:

– push ups and advanced variations
– pull ups and advanced variations
– squats and advanced variations
– jumping
– sprinting

2 – Do the “right” amount of volume

If you are training for skill – practicing handstands is a great example – you want to go LOW reps, and do a lot of them, frequently, and NOT to failure. It’s like PRACTICE more than anything.

But let’s say you’re going for hypertrophy, like we do in phase one of Body Weight Strong … you want to pound those muscles with some volume.

Now, you don’t have to go old-school, “golden age” bodybuilder-style and do thirty sets for each body part … but here is an example of what a workout might look like:

(...NOTE: workout does not include warm up, skill work, metabolic “finisher” at the end, etc...)

push up / one arm push up progression – 30-45 seconds, as many reps as possible
+
vertical jump progression – 30-45 seconds, as many reps as possible

four sets total of each move

THEN

pull up progression progression – 30-45 seconds, as many reps as possible
+
squat / one leg squat progression – 30-45 seconds, as many reps as possible

four sets total of each move

3 – Higher reps for size, “medium” reps for strength

A lot of folks think these two things are one in the same … and while there is without a doubt a relationship between the two, training to get big is actually different than training to get strong.

As you can see in the workout above, you end up getting around 8-12 reps of each exercise … this is generally best for that muscle size goal.

If you’re going for STRENGTH … like we do in phase TWO of Body Weight Strong … you want to move towards a little lower in the rep range, like 3-5 ish … this is best for raw strength.

Boom! Your three “rules” of body weight strength.

Train hard, and until next time -

by Forest Vance
Author, Body Weight Strong

How to Avoid Growing Man Boobs

How to Avoid Growing Man Boobs

By Brian Klepacki, MS, CSCS, CISSN, FMS
From optimaxperformance.com

Aug 11,2015

Clearwater, Florida




We’ve all seen them. Man Boobs. Maybe you have them but I can be sure you don’t want them. Interestingly enough this is medically diagnosed condition known as gynecomastia.
Gynecomastia is triggered by a decrease in the amount of the hormone testosterone compared with estrogen. The prevalence of gynecomastia peaks between the ages of 50 and 80. At least 1 in 4 men in this age group are affected.

When we hear the word estrogen we quickly think of Lifetime, you know, that estrogen laden TV channel where it’s always the man’s fault… But don’t be so quick to judge this hormone for all of your misery because the truth is, estrogen is found in every man and in some cases higher levels than what is deemed normal.

Gynecomastia (a.k.a. man boobs) is caused when estrogen levels are out of balance with testosterone levels. This imbalance simply leads to the growth of breast tissue in men over time. Now this condition isn’t just an issue with aging men and it’s not always externally influenced.

This condition occurs is more than half of male infants due to the effects of their mother’s estrogen level. Generally, the newborn’s swollen breast tissue goes away with two to three weeks after birth. Swollen breast tissue can also occur in males experiencing puberty.
This is relatively common since the body is being pushed through a vortex of hormonal changes. This side effect from puberty will naturally go away within six month to two years.
However for most men, gynecomastia is often a preventable condition. Now we should know by now that men cannot escape estrogen because it is naturally occurring in the body but we can limit estrogen exposure by avoiding these 5 things throughout our day.

1) Beer

Pounding a six-pack of beer every night is bad enough for weight gain but can also lead to the growth of man boobs. Phytoestrogens (compounds that mimic true estrogen in the body) are present in the hops used to make beer, and are also found in other plants involved in the making of alcoholic beverages.

Alcohol is toxic. There’s no other word that can describe alcohol. It is pure toxic and the list of harmful effects on the body is lengthy. Alcohol negatively affects the liver in multiple ways.

Gynecomastia has been associated with liver disease (cirrhosis). The liver is largely responsible for metabolizing hormones, and if there is any disruption in the proper function of it, the liver will convert many androgens into estrogens, which will result in the growth of breast tissue.

2) Cigarettes
Just like alcohol, there is nothing good that comes from cigarette smoking… unless you are in the family line of Philip Morris. If yellow teeth, nasty breath, ugly skin, and a raspy voice aren’t good enough reasons to quit smoking then maybe this will be the kicker.

Lung cancer is among the most common reasons for cancer-related breast growth- and is also, of course, one of the most preventable forms of cancer. Cancers can produce hormones for their own benefit and growth, which can result in hormone imbalances and in turn accelerate the growth of breast tissue.

3) Getting High

I don’t care if you are in favor of legalizing weed in your state. This isn’t a right-side/left-side debate. This is the truth. Marijuana is not acceptable… at least as far as your chest is concerned. Abusing weed (as well as other drugs like heroine, amphetamines, and methadone) is plausible to increasing the amount of breast tissue in men.

Given that gynecomastia is a result from a hormone imbalance, some studies suggest that marijuana depresses testosterone levels for up to 24 hours which ultimately affects the estrogen:testosterone balance.

Unfortunately the exact mechanism isn’t yet known on how this works but until that time comes, stop smoking weed, and protect your testosterone (and your brain) just in case research does prove this to be true.

4) Not Eating Enough

This might sound like a no-brainer but make sure you eat enough throughout your day. Habitually depriving yourself of adequate nutrition will cause your testosterone levels to drop and the unfortunate part is that your estrogen levels stay the same.

Now while some men will develop man boobs during this time of food skimping, some men won’t grow boobs until their nutrition levels and caloric intake returns back to normal. This phenomenon was first noted in 1945 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This epidemic was commonly referred to as “refeeding gynecomastia” and was seen when war prisoners (men) during World War II were liberated. These men grew breast tissue within a few weeks of resuming a normal, healthy diet.

Yes this is an extreme situation that might not ever be replicated again; you can take the same mechanisms and apply them today with crazy work schedules, stress, or sickness. Significant weight loss and malnutrition are often accompanied by hyopgonadism 
(decreased testosterone production). It is easy to skimp on eating properly so do yourself a favor and never miss a meal fully loaded with nutrients (and of course protein).

5) Herbal Products

Before you go lathering up with your wife’s shampoo, read its label. A recent study from the New England Journal of Medicine found that when applied topically, tea tree oil and lavender oil can cause gynecomastia. In pure form, these oils mimic estrogen activity and slow the effects of androgen hormones in the body.

So there you have it men. Make sure to avoid these 5 things during your daily routine and you’ll be in better control of your chest.

Brian Klepacki, MS, CSCS, CISSN, FMS
http://themenshealthdaily.com/man-boobs

Beginners Pull Up Workout Tutorial Week 1 strength training for pull ups...

Single Leg Bridge Exercise

The single leg bridge exercise is a great way to isolate and strengthen the gluteus (butt) muscles and hamstrings (back of the upper leg). If you do this exercise correctly, you will also find that it is a very powerful core strengtheningtechnique.

In order to hold the pelvis level throughout the exercise, you need to contract both the abdominal and lower back muscles. Use this exercise for a unique twist on the traditionalcore and abdominal strengthening exercises.

How to Do the Single Leg Bridge Exercise

• Lay on your back with your hands by your sides, your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Make sure your feet are under your knees.
• Tighten your abdominal and buttock muscles.
• Raise your hips up to create a straight line from your knees to shoulders.

• Squeeze your core and try to pull your belly button back toward your spine.
• Slowly raise and extend one leg while keeping your pelvis raised and level. If your hips sag or drop, place the leg back on the floor and do a double leg bridge until you become stronger.

The goal is to maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your extended leg and hold for 20 to 30 seconds. You may need to begin by holding this bridge position for a few seconds and switching sides. It's better to hold the correct position for a shorter time than to go longer in the incorrect position.

If you can't hold this position, begin with the basic Bridge Exercise to build strength and then progress to the one-leg bridge.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/strengthtraining/qt/onelegbridge.htm

The Basic Bridge Exercise for a Better Butt

The Basic Bridge Exercise for a Better Butt

The bridge exercise is a great way to isolate and strengthen the gluteus (butt) muscles and hamstrings (back of the upper leg). If you do this exercise correctly, you also will find that it is a good core stability and strengthening exercise that targets the abdominal muscles as well as the muscles of lower back and hip. Finally, the bridge exercise is considered a basic rehab exercise to improve core and spinal stabilization.



How to Do the Bridge Exercise

Lay on your back with your hands by your sides, your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Make sure your feet are under your knees.
Tighten your abdominal and buttock muscles.
Raise your hips up to create a straight line from your knees to shoulders.

Squeeze your core and try to pull your belly button back toward your spine.
If your hips sag or drop, lower yourself back on the floor.
The goal is to maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your knees and hold for 20 to 30 seconds. You may need to begin by holding the bridge position for a few seconds as you build your strength. It's better to hold the correct position for a shorter time than to go longer in the incorrect position.
If you find the basic Bridge Exercise too easy, you may want to move up to the One-leg Bridge Exercise.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/strengthtraining/qt/bridge-exercise.htm

5 Tricks for the Best Nap Ever

5 Tricks for the Best Nap Ever

When it's noon, it's naptime

Naps used to get a bad rap, conjuring up all sorts of unfortunate—and unfair—images of slackers, rambunctious kindergarteners in need of time outs, and AARP members looking to rest their weary bones.

Not anymore. A 2013 Gallup Poll revealed that 40% of Americans get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep a night; what’s more 43% admitted they’d feel better if they got more sleep. So it makes sense that we’d try to catch some extra zzz’s whenever (and sometimes wherever) we can.

And more and more people are doing just that. Companies like Google, Ben & Jerry’s and Proctor and Gamble encourage employees to take nap breaks. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is one of several colleges to set up rooms for napping. (Located in the school’s library, UM’s nap station is equipped with vinyl cots, disposable pillowcases, and a 30-minute time limit.) And Barclays PLC, a global financial group, got some unwanted publicity last year, when the Wall Street Journal revealed that exhausted interns were slipping into stalls to take “toilet naps,”using their phones as an alarm. And then there’s Google Naps, a parody of Google Maps, which can tell you the best places in your cityto catch a few winks—from libraries to park benches.

Before you Type A’s get all judgy, know this: Feeling sleepy before bedtime is completely normal. Our body’s internal biological clock (otherwise known as circadian rhythm), which regulates our physical, mental, and emotional changes 24/7, also controls our wakefulness. According to research from Harvard Medical School, we usually feel alert during the day then gradually become sleepy as we move toward evening. But some of us experience a bout of mid-afternoon drowsiness, and a quick snooze can be just the ticket for handling that fuzzy feeling.

What’s more, studies show that there is a virtual laundry list of benefits to be had from nabbing some shut-eye (hey, they don’t call it a power nap for nothing). Among them: A nap can boost brain power,make you more alert, and improve your memory. Oh, it can also help your waistline: lack of sleep can trigger hunger and could lead to overeating.

And now that the weather’s turned ridiculously cold (in the some parts of the country, anyway), can you think of a better time to indulge in a little cozy midday shut-eye? Here’s how to get the most from hibernating:

Find the middle ground

As with many things in life, timing is everything. “Basically, the best time for a nap is as close to the middle of the day as possible,” says Michael Grandner, PhD, psychiatry instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “Before lunch is too early,” says Grander. “Lie down too late in the day and it will interfere with your nighttime sleep. Now it’s getting darker earlier and daylight has shifted, so probably not before noon and not after 3:00.”

Keep it brief

Telling yourself, “I’ll lay down for however long I sleep” is not a great idea. You need figure out a set length of time for your nap and set the alarm. Ideally, a power nap should be 20 to 30 minutes. “You can go to 60 minutes, though once you go beyond 30 minutes, you get diminishing returns as far as improving brain function and reaping other benefits from your nap,” says Grandner. Plus, he says, if you extend your nap past 60 minutes, you’ll enter into a deeper (or slow-wave) stage of sleep and might wake up feeling groggy—which could affect how the rest of your day goes.

Sack out on the sofa

Your bed signals to your body that you’re nodding off for the night and can put you in a nighttime sleep mode. What you’re looking for, says Grandner, is a place that’s comfy, but not too comfy. The couch is your friend.

Keep it quiet

Be protective of your sleep space, says Grandner. You’re looking for a place that’s as quiet as possible (consider a white noise machine or ear plugs to drown out any noise). It should be dark enough to close your eyes, but not pitch dark. “You don’t want to confuse your brain into thinking you’re retiring for the night,” says Grandner. The temperature shouldn’t be too hot or cold—slightly cool is ideal for maximum comfort. (If you’re too hot or too cold, your body has to regulate its temperature, which might make it hard to relax.)

Coordinate the caffeine

It might seem counter-intuitive, but a 2003 Japanese study found that downing a cup of Joe right before settling down can contribute to a restful nap. Here’s why: Caffeine doesn’t kick in until about 20 to 30 minutes after it’s ingested. So you’ll wake up just as the coffee is taking effect—and feel wonderfully refreshed.

Simply resting can help, too

Looking for a doze at work? Grandner assures that rest, even without sleep, can be beneficial. Just relax, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and you’ll perk back up in 20 to 30 minutes. In fact, we may have found just the thing to help you wind down during your 9-to-5: Meet the Nutshell sleep pod, a wearable sack of blissful solitude, designed by a resourceful student at the New York School of Visual Arts. It’s just a prototype right now, but fingers crossed. (Hey, it beats hanging out in a restroom stall, right?)

http://time.com/3616535/napping-best-nap/

4 Must-Do Chest Exercises For A BIGGER Chest (Muscle Marix Chest Workout)

The Power of Sleep III

GARBAGEMEN FOR YOUR BRAIN

“I was nervous when I went to my first sleep conference,” says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, the chatty and inquisitive co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester. “I was not trained in sleep, and I came to it from the outside.” In fact, as a busy mother and career woman, she saw sleep the way most of us probably do: as a bother. “Every single night, I wanted to accomplish more and enjoy time with my family, and I was annoyed to have to go to bed.”

Because she’s a neuroscientist, however, Nedergaard was inclined to ask a seemingly basic question: Why do our brains need sleep at all? There are two competing evolutionary theories. One is that sleeping organisms are immobile and therefore less likely to be easy targets, so perhaps sleep provided some protection from prey. The time slumbering, however, took away from time spent finding food and reproducing. Another points out that sleeping organisms are oblivious to creeping predators, making them ripe for attack. Since both theories seem to put us at a disadvantage, Nedergaard thought there had to be some other reason the brain needs those hours offline.

All organs in the body use energy, and in the process, they spew out waste. Most take care of their garbage with an efficient local system, recruiting immune cells like macrophages to gobble up the garbage and break it down or linking up to the network of vessels that make up the lymph system, the body’s drainage pipes.

The brain is a tremendous consumer of energy, but it’s not blanketed in lymph vessels. So how does it get rid of its trash? “If the brain is not functioning optimally, you’re dead evolutionarily, so there must be an advantage to exporting the garbage to a less critical organ like the liver to take care of it,” says Nedergaard.

Indeed, that’s what her research shows. She found that an army of previously ignored cells in the brain, called glial cells, turn into a massive pump when the body sleeps. During the day, glial cells are the unsung personal assistants of the brain. They cannot conduct electrical impulses like other neurons, but they support them as they send signals zipping along nerve networks to register a smell here and an emotion there. For decades, they were dismissed by neuroscientists because they weren’t the actual drivers of neural connections.

But Nedergaard found in clinical trials on mice that glial cells change as soon as organisms fall asleep. The difference between the waking and sleeping brain is dramatic. When the brain is awake, it resembles a busy airport, swelling with the cumulative activity of individual messages traveling from one neuron to another. The activity inflates the size of brain cells until they take up 86% of the brain’s volume.

When daylight wanes and we eventually fall asleep, however, those glial cells kick into action, slowing the brain’s electrical activity to about a third of its peak frequency. During those first stages of sleep, called non-REM (rapid eye movement), the firing becomes more synchronized rather than haphazard. The repetitive cycle lulls the nerves into a state of quiet, so in the next stage, known as REM, the firing becomes almost nonexistent. The brain continues to toggle back and forth between non-REM and REM sleep throughout the night, once every hour and a half.

At the same time, the sleeping brain’s cells shrink, making more room for the brain and spinal cord’s fluid to slosh back and forth between them. “It’s like a dishwasher that keeps flushing through to wash the dirt away,” says Nedergaard. This cleansing also occurs in the brain when we are awake, but it’s reduced by about 15%, since the glial cells have less fluid space to work with when the neurons expand.

This means that when we don’t get enough sleep, the glial cells aren’t as efficient at clearing the brain’s garbage. That may push certain degenerative brain disorders that are typical of later life to appear much earlier.

Both Nedergaard’s and Veasey’s work also hint at why older brains are more prone to developing Alzheimer’s, which is caused by a buildup of amyloid protein that isn’t cleared quickly enough.

“There is much less flow to clear away things in the aging brain,” says Nedergaard. “The garbage system picks up every three weeks instead of every week.” And like any growing pile of trash, the molecular garbage starts to affect nearby healthy cells, interfering with their ability to form and recall memories or plan even the simplest tasks.

The consequences of deprived sleep, says Dr. Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, are “scary, really scary.”

RIGHTSIZING YOUR SLEEP

All this isn’t actually so alarming, since there’s a simple fix that can stop this nerve die-off and slow the brain’s accelerated ride toward aging. What’s needed, says Carskadon, is a rebranding of sleep that strips away any hint of its being on the sidelines of our health.

As it is, sleep is so undervalued that getting by on fewer hours has become a badge of honor. Plus, we live in a culture that caters to the late-nighter, from 24-hour grocery stores to online shopping sites that never close. It’s no surprise, then, that more than half of American adults don’t get the recommended seven to nine hours of shut-eye every night.

Whether or not we can catch up on sleep–on the weekend, say–is a hotly debated topic among sleep researchers; the latest evidence suggests that while it isn’t ideal, it might help. When Liu, the UCLA sleep researcher and professor of medicine, brought chronically sleep-restricted people into the lab for a weekend of sleep during which they logged about 10 hours per night, they showed improvements in the ability of insulin to process blood sugar. That suggests that catch-up sleep may undo some but not all of the damage that sleep deprivation causes, which is encouraging given how many adults don’t get the hours they need each night. Still, Liu isn’t ready to endorse the habit of sleeping less and making up for it later. “It’s like telling people you only need to eat healthy during the weekends, but during the week you can eat whatever you like,” he says. “It’s not the right health message.”

Sleeping pills, while helpful for some, are not necessarily a silver bullet either. “A sleeping pill will target one area of the brain, but there’s never going to be a perfect sleeping pill, because you couldn’t really replicate the different chemicals moving in and out of different parts of the brain to go through the different stages of sleep,” says Dr. Nancy Collop, director of the Emory University Sleep Center. Still, for the 4% of Americans who rely on prescription sleep aids, the slumber they get with the help of a pill is better than not sleeping at all or getting interrupted sleep. At this point, it’s not clear whether the brain completes the same crucial housekeeping duties during medicated sleep as it does during natural sleep, and the long-term effects on the brain of relying on sleeping pills aren’t known either.

Making things trickier is the fact that we are unaware of the toll sleep deprivation takes on us. Studies consistently show that people who sleep less than eight hours a night don’t perform as well on concentration and memory tests but report feeling no deficits in their thinking skills. That just perpetuates the tendency to dismiss sleep and its critical role in everything from our mental faculties to our metabolic health.

The ideal is to reset the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, a matter of training our bodies to sleep similar amounts every night and wake up at roughly the same time each day. An even better way to rediscover our natural cycle is to get as much exposure to natural light as possible during the day, while limiting how much indoor lighting, including from computer and television screens, we see at night. And of course, the best way to accomplish that is by making those seven to nine hours of sleep a must–not a luxury.

“I am now looking at and thinking of sleep as an ‘environmental exposure,'” says Brown University’s Carskadon–which means we should look at sleep similarly to how we view air-pollution exposure, secondhand smoke or toxins in our drinking water. If she and other researchers have their way, checking up on sleep would be a routine part of any physical exam, and doctors would ask about our sleep habits in the same way they query us about diet, stress, exercise, our sex life, our eyesight–you name it. And if we aren’t sleeping enough, they might prescribe a change, just as they would for any other bad health habit.

Some physicians are already taking the initiative, but no prescription works unless we actually take it. If our work schedule cuts into our sleep time, we need to make the sleep we get count by avoiding naps and exercising when we can during the day; feeling tired will get us to fall asleep sooner. If we need help dozing off, gentle exercises or yoga-type stretching can also help. Creating a sleep ritual can make sleep something we look forward to rather than something we feel obligated to do, so we’re more likely to get our allotted time instead of skipping it. A favorite book, a warm bath or other ways to get drowsy might prompt us to actually look forward to unwinding at the end of the day.

Given what scientists are learning about how much the body–and especially the brain–needs a solid and consistent amount of sleep, in-the-know doctors aren’t waiting for more studies to prove what we as a species know intuitively: that cheating ourselves of sleep is depriving us from taking advantage of one of nature’s most powerful drugs.

“We now know that there is a lasting price to pay for sleep loss,” says Veasey. “We used to think that if you don’t sleep enough, you can sleep more and you’ll be fine tomorrow. We now know if you push the system enough, that’s simply not true.”

http://time.com/3326565/the-power-of-sleep/

The Power of Sleep II

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SKIMPING

Despite how great we feel after a night’s rest–and putting aside what we now know about sleep’s importance–we stubbornly refuse to swallow our medicine, pushing off bedtime and thinking that feeling a little drowsy during the day is an annoying but harmless consequence. It’s not. Nearly 40% of adults have nodded off unintentionally during the day in the past month, and 5% have done so while driving. Insomnia or interrupted sleep nearly doubles the chances that workers will call in sick. And half of Americans say their uneven sleep makes it harder to concentrate on tasks.

Those poor sleep habits are trickling down to the next generation: 45% of teens don’t sleep the recommended nine hours on school nights, leading 25% of them to report falling asleep in class at least once a week, according to a National Sleep Foundation survey. It’s a serious enough problem that the American Academy of Pediatrics recently endorsed the idea of starting middle and high schools later to allow for more adolescent shut-eye.

Health experts have been concerned about our sleep-deprived ways for some time, but the new insights about the role sleep plays in our overall health have brought an urgency to the message. Sleep, the experts are recognizing, is the only time the brain has to catch its breath. If it doesn’t, it may drown in its own biological debris–everything from toxic free radicals produced by hard-working fuel cells to spent molecules that have outlived their usefulness.

“We all want to push the system, to get the most out of our lives, and sleep gets in the way,” says Dr. Sigrid Veasey, a leading sleep researcher and a professor of medicine at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “But we need to know how far we can really push that system and get away with it.”

Veasey is learning that brain cells that don’t get their needed break every night are like overworked employees on consecutive double shifts–eventually, they collapse. Working with mice, she found that neurons that fire constantly to keep the brain alert spew out toxic free radicals as a by-product of making energy. During sleep, they produce antioxidants that mop up these potential poisons. But even after short periods of sleep loss, “the cells are working hard but cannot make enough antioxidants, so they progressively build up free radicals and some of the neurons die off.” Once those brain cells are gone, they’re gone for good.

After several weeks of restricted sleep, says Veasey, the mice she studied–whose brains are considered a good proxy for human brains in lab research–“are more likely to be sleepy when they are supposed to be active and have more difficulty consolidating [the benefits of] sleep during their sleep period.”

It’s the same thing that happens in aging brains, she says, as nerve cells get less efficient at clearing away their garbage. “The real question is: What are we doing to our brains if we don’t get enough sleep? If we chronically sleep-deprive ourselves, are we really aging our brains?” she asks. Ultimately, the research suggests, it’s possible that a sleep-deprived brain belonging to a teen or a 20-year-old will start to look like that of a much older person.

“Chronic sleep restriction is a stress on the body,” says Dr. Peter Liu, professor of medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and L.A. Biomedical Research Institute. And the cause of that sleep deprivation doesn’t always originate in family strife, financial concerns or job-related problems. The way we live now–checking our phones every minute, hyperscheduling our days or our kids’ days, not taking time to relax without a screen in front of our faces–contributes to a regular flow of stress hormones like cortisol, and all that artificial light and screen time is disrupting our internal clocks. Simply put, our bodies don’t know when to go to sleep naturally anymore.

This is why researchers hope their new discoveries will change once and for all the way we think about–and prioritize–those 40 winks.

http://time.com/3326565/the-power-of-sleep/

The Power of Sleep I

The Power of Sleep

New research shows a good night's rest isn't a luxury--it's critical for your brain and for your health

When our heads hit the pillow every night, we tend to think we’re surrendering. Not just to exhaustion, though there is that. We’re also surrendering our mind, taking leave of our focus on sensory cues, like noise and smell and blinking lights. It’s as if we’re powering ourselves down like we do the electronics at our bedside–going idle for a while, only to spring back into action when the alarm blasts hours later.

That’s what we think is happening. But as scientists are now revealing, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, when the lights go out, our brains start working–but in an altogether different way than when we’re awake. At night, a legion of neurons springs into action, and like any well-trained platoon, the cells work in perfect synchrony, pulsing with electrical signals that wash over the brain with a soothing, hypnotic flow. Meanwhile, data processors sort through the reams of information that flooded the brain all day at a pace too overwhelming to handle in real time. The brain also runs checks on itself to ensure that the exquisite balance of hormones, enzymes and proteins isn’t too far off-kilter. And all the while, cleaners follow in close pursuit to sweep out the toxic detritus that the brain doesn’t need and which can cause all kinds of problems if it builds up.

This, scientists are just now learning, is the brain on sleep. It’s nature’s panacea, more powerful than any drug in its ability to restore and rejuvenate the human brain and body. Getting the recommended seven to eight hours each night can improve concentration, sharpen planning and memory skills and maintain the fat-burning systems that regulate our weight. If every one of us slept as much as we’re supposed to, we’d all be lighter, less prone to developing Type 2 diabetes and most likely better equipped to battle depression and anxiety. We might even lower our risk of Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis and cancer.

The trouble is, sleep works only if we get enough of it. While plenty of pills can knock us out, none so far can replicate all of sleep’s benefits, despite decades’ worth of attempts in high-tech pharmaceutical labs.

Which is why, after long treating rest as a good-if-you-can-get-it obligation, scientists are making the case that it matters much more than we think. They’re not alone in sounding the alarm. With up to 70 million of us not getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers insufficient sleep a public-health epidemic. In fact, experts argue, sleep is emerging as so potent a factor in better health that we need a societal shift–and policies to support it–to make sleep a non-negotiable priority.

http://time.com/3326565/the-power-of-sleep/

Tips for improving cycle fitness

Tips for improving cycle fitness

A few simple tips for more efficient cycle training.

If you are new to cycling or have a very basic level of fitness, the most important thing is to spend more time on the bike. When you are unfit – the good news is that whatever you do, you will see relatively large improvements in fitness. The ‘fitter’ you become, the relatively harder it is to eke out even more fitness gains.

The first tip is simply to cycle more.

1. Cycle more

If you want to do a 100 mile ride, you will need to find more time to cycle. You will want to be doing a few 2-3 hour rides at the very least. Preferably a few 3-4 hour rides to get used to long distances. You could do a 100 mile ride on the back of one hour training rides, but your legs will be sore the next day, and you will struggle towards the end.

The trick is often finding time to be able to cycle more. If you live a busy life, a good solution is commuting by bike. This may be the whole journey or even just part of it. If you have many family commitments, you could try and cycle out to some venue and meet your family there on bike. If you have a roof rack, you can easily bring back the bike on the car. I’m sure your family won’t mind you going to a posh restaurant, whilst you are dressed in lyrca.

2. The pyramid of training intensity

Something that has served me well for the past 20 years is paying a rough attention to this pyramid of training intensity.

This is my rough training pyramid – recovery rides come under base / endurance. The division between categories are not strict. An endurance ride may merge into a ‘sweet spot’ training. If you’re not doing hill climbs, you might want to not do any level 4 max intervals at all. The point is that generally you spend more time at a lower intensity.

Most of your training will be to build up base aerobic fitness. This is a long endurance ride. If you are new to cycling, it is important to start with this endurance training. If you have been cycling, you still need to work on this endurance side.

If you are pressed for time, you may want to jettison the lowest level of easy training rides, and concentrating on more threshold / higher level types of training. But, as a rough rule of thumb, you definitely want to pay attention to both endurance and speed work.

Different types of training

When training, I try to have a specific purpose to the training. It tends to be one of these four types.

1. Recovery ride – This involves taking it easy and give yourself a chance to recover from the previous ride. Don’t under-estimate importance of proper recovery. Your interval sessions and races will be much more effective if you can do them fully recovered. Sometimes, it can be hard to do a recovery ride; it can be a very low average speed – low intensity (60-65% of max HR.) If we are riding with other people, most recovery rides become typical – mid-range moderately hard. If you are really stretching your capacity – high intensity intervals and very long distances, proper recovery rides become more important. Note many people feel that ‘easy’ recovery rides of 1-2 hours offer better recovery than sitting on the couch. Commuting can make excellent recovery rides.
2. Steady endurance ride. At around 65-80% of heart rate. This is a good effort level to improve aerobic fitness and improve endurance. In winter, I tend to make many rides at this intensity.
3. Threshold Training. Training at around 85% of max heart rate. ‘Comfortably hard’ – the level just before the accumulation of lactic acid. Just below threshold training is sometimes known as ‘sweet spot’ training. This can see big improvements in fitness without being overly stressful and enables a higher volume of training. It’s a level you can maintain for a couple of hours.
4. High level intervals – training above threshold level 90-98% of heart rate. The aim is to increase tolerance to acidosis, increase power and efficiency of VO2 max. This is for those who really want to increase speed, usually those racing. They are much more intense and require more training. See: more details on interval training tips

Vary Training

One mistake, people often make is just to do the same kind of training every week. When commuting it’s easy just to get into a slow gentle rhythm. Many beginners end up doing all rides at a ‘moderately hard’ level. This is fine for base training, but, if commuting is your main form of training, you should try mix it up. On alternate days, try commuting home very fast. Try different routes, which are a bit longer but give an opportunity to do some speed work. This can be a time trial to see how quickly you can cover a distance or it can be a series of intervals, finding some local hills.

If you have limited time, you will see most improvement in your cycling fitness from training at a high intensity. If you want to improve your fitness for a quicker 10 mile time trial. You need to be training at this race intensity.

Motivation to train

If you get really inspired and motivate to do hill climb intervals, the chances are this will make good training for you. I’m not a great one for getting on a turbo and sticking to HR zones and power zone. What motivates me to train is going around the countryside cycling really fast up hills. It’s not always very scientific, but it has got me quite fit! Similarly, other people may need to find like minded cyclists to go out and train with. There are others, I know who can do four hour endurance rides on a turbo!

Positive frame of mind

A big part of improving cycling fitness is having a good attitude to cycling and training. If you are in a positive frame of mind, training tends to be more effective. It will inspire you to go out even when the weather is not so good.  It is important not to get discouraged by lack of perceived improvements. It can be difficult to judge your performance. If you enjoy your cycling, you will naturally want to go out and improve your fitness. It’s not just the miles you do, but your frame of mind too.

Race and targets

Having something to aim for is good. If it is a big ride in August, try to have some smaller goals on the way. When you know a big event is coming up next month, it is very good for focusing the mind and disciplining your training. The best training will also be to try and replicate what you will be doing. If you know your doing the Etape d’Tour, you need to be focused on being able to cycle 100 miles, with 3,000m of climbing.

Nutrition / Hydration

I’m not a big fan of fancy diets. It is important to take a balanced diet, based on common sense. When you are stressing your body through training, it is more important to eat good foods.

• Try maintain constant energy levels
• Make sure you have good recovery food / drink, after hard training ride
• More cycling nutrition tips

Loose Weight

Losing a few lbs makes a big difference to climbing and the enjoyment of cycling. Lose 5kgs, is going to help your cycling uphill.

Discipline vs flexibility

To improve fitness, it does require a certain discipline. We need to do different types of riding. We need to be able to push ourselves in order to stretch capacity. We also need the discipline to do recovery rides and take time for days off, when we need it. However, there is an important line between determination and obsession. Don’t panic, if you can’t meet one session. If you are tired, have the flexibility to take a day off.  For some people, over-training can be as much as a problem as under-training.

Buy A Better Bike

If all else fails spend a lot of money on a more expensive and better bike. This is a very well known trick for leading to instant improvements in cycle fitness.

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