“The pain you feel today is the strength you’ll feel tomorrow” – Unknown

So this week I thought it would be a nice change, from me preaching, to bragging about my clients and how well they are doing.

But I also won’t bore you with every lift that every one of my clients is doing.  But I would really like to share some of the highlights.  Like Ricardo, who since June has gone from a 36 inch waist down to 33 inches.  I also started him with squatting 95lbs, and in his last session he did single leg squats with 100lbs of resistance.  His bench press has gone from 85 lbs for 17 repetitions to 135 for 12 in 16 work outs. Not too bad if you ask me.

Another client of mine, Emely, has gone from a size 4, to a 2 petite since she started training in May.  In just 9 work outs her squat went from 65lbs for 30 repetitions to 165lbs for 12.  During her last session she single leg squatted 115 lbs for 19 reps with her left leg and 20 with her right. Her bench press started out at 45lbs for 20 and got as high as 95lbs for 12 before we backed off because that was getting pretty heavy and she does enjoy the higher rep ranges. She also does Calf raises and in just 8 work outs she went from doing 85lbs for 20 all the way up to 155 for 15 reps.

Jorge went from deadlifting 165 for 15 reps to 225 for 12 in 8 work outs.  With Bicep Curls, he started out doing 25 kilograms for 20.  Now he is up to 50 kilos for 18 repetitions.

Jeane started in August with me. I had her start out doing single leg squats with the 45 lbs bar. 5 work outs later, she did 75lbs for 26 repetitions with her right leg and 27 with her left. Her deadlift was a conservative 45 lbs, but 9 work outs later she broke 100lbs and did 105 for 20.  Her pulldowns went from a feeling very heavy 45lbs to a strong 75 lbs.

Lastly my client Naiomi, who has been training with me since January has seen some great things happen.  Where we started learning squats with just the bar, she worked her way up to 160 lbs before we made the switch to single leg squats. When we did that we went back to just using the bar. But, very quickly, she worked her way up to 90lbs for 15 repetitions respectively. She also pulled that off in 10 work outs. In just 10 weeks she double her leg strength! This is pretty typical of all my clients. It is typical of most who train in this manner. So if you have been training and reached some plateaus and seem to have stopped making gains, you might want to consider taking a week or two off and let your body heal and recover.

It is true that even with this training, the improvements will come slower the longer you are training, but they still come, and they often come by spending even less time in the gym, not more.  Doing fewer exercises in a session, not more. An added bonus, for my beginners, is they do see their initial improvements in strength happen seemingly so quickly, that it creates a great reward mechanism to keep coming back and seeing those numbers continue to improve. As their body’s adapt and can handle more intensity, they push themselves even harder. They have more to give, and they do, and they love, despite not being able to feel their legs, how good it feels to give their best every work out.

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” – Henry David Thoreau

This is a little late for my Canadian friends, but honestly, is it ever too late for Pumpkin Spice Lattes and other goodies? So I figured I would share a couple Thanksgiving dessert recipes we’ve tried and really liked!

Pumpkin Spice Latte:

In the Blender, throw in;

2-3 big teaspoons of Pumpkin Puree

2 table spoons of butter (yummmmm!) (Preferably grass fed butter.) You could use coconut milk or regular milk in a pinch, but I have found this being a very healthy choice and delicious!

Then add approximately 1 teaspoon of honey, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a couple drops of vanilla extract.

Of course you brewed a pot of coffee, or at least half a pot, whatever makes roughly 2 cups of coffee, so you will pour that into the blender. Then blend it all up so you get a great froth.  Serve and enjoy!

A Paleo Version  of Pumpkin Pie: (Although we did cheat with the pie crust)

Pie crust, (we cheated and used a gram cracker base that we purchased pre-made from the store.

In a food processor or blender:

3 eggs

1 can of Pumpkin Puree

½ cup of Coconut Milk

½ cup of honey

1 teaspoon each of; nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla extract

Pour mixture into Pie crust (of your choice and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Then allow to cool then refrigerate for 2 hours to set.

Pumpkin Spice Ice cream:

In a food processor or blender:

1 can of Pumpkin Puree

1 can of Coconut Milk

½ cup of real maple syrup

1 teaspoon each of; nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla extract

Blend really well in the blender and then place mixture into your ice cream maker, if you have one.  If not, just pour onto/into a cookie sheet and place in the freezer. Once it is fairly frozen, but hopefully more on the creamy side you can scoop it up and put into your serving bowls.

I am going to warn you, all three are delicious and it was a nice treat last weekend for my little Canadian Thanksgiving celebration.

Next week I’d like to brag about some of my clients and share the successes they have been having over the last several weeks. So I’ll be sharing some of the data so that you can see how they have progressed with strength training once a week.

 

Paleo pumpkin pie: http://elanaspantry.com/paleo-pumpkin-pie/

Paleo pumpkin ice cream: http://www.billyparisi.com/homemade-pumpkin-coconut-milk-ice-cream/

Vegan pumpkin spice latte: http://www.therisingspoon.com/2012/10/vegan-pumpkin-spice-latte.html

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” – Helen Keller

So I was talking to a good friend of mine, who still lives in Korea, the other day and the conversation progressed, as it often does, to talking about fitness and diet. But I, just in passing, was telling him how I’m able to walk to work and that it takes about 8-10 minutes to get from my apartment to my studio.  Actually I’m pretty lucky, It is the third gig I’ve had where I have been able to walk to work.  I talked about how I walk in the morning to train my first client or two, then I walk home for a late brunch, then I’ll go back for the afternoon, then I sneak home again for my afternoon salad/snack.  Then I make another trip to the studio for my evening clients before finishing up and walking home for a later dinner and calling it an evening. So all in all I make about 6 trips on the average, which gets me pretty close, when all added up, to about an hour of walking every day.  It was at this point that it dawned on me that this is probably worth sharing.

We are made to walk. In fact, we have evolutionarily sacrificed a great deal in order to be able to walk as well as we do. Our brain has set up a whole rewards mechanism for when we do walk long distances. It’s why people feel so good after they have had to walk so far and why people go out of their way to go on hikes. I would even call it my first solution, if you have not been feeling so good and have felt a little down. Try seriously going on longer walks and see how you feel before taking more drastic steps. I won’t go as far to say there is a direct cause and effect, but it is hard to notice that depression keeps rising in the general population as walking seems to be less and less. Makes for an interesting correlation doesn’t it?

Now here is the good news. Fitness and movement adds up. You do not have to go for 1 hour in a straight shot, you can do it in spurts and you can do it throughout the entire day. Maybe you get 20 minutes at lunch.  Do it!  You can go again later after dinner again, or while the kids are doing their activity. You can park as far away from the store at the far end of the parking lot. It might only be a two minute walk to and fro, but like I said, movement is cumulative in a day. It all adds up. Take the stairs when you can instead of the escalator or elevator, it all helps. You may not live close to your job the way I do, so you will have to be a little more creative, but I ultimately want to finish with and reinforce that just because you don’t have a full hour or two for daily exercise, does not make it the excuse not to do something. We can find 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there, and before you know it you are crawling into bed feeling good from all the extra movement and feeling tired enough to really enjoy a nice restful sleep.

“South Africa have the greatest winning record in World Cup history. They are a massive physical team with plenty of experience. Japan have the least winning record in the World Cup and have the smallest team. But it’s a great opportunity and I am looking forward to it.”

• Eddy Jones, Japan Head Rugby Coach

On the second day of the Rugby World Cup, being hosted by England, the rugby universe was blessed to witness one of the greatest upsets in rugby history.  When Japan, a tier 2 rugby nation, beat South Africa, one of the world’s rugby juggernauts. Then four days later Japan, still battered and sore, took on Scotland.  And… were soundly beaten! So it would be easy to chalk up Japan’s victory over South Africa as a fluke. As just another very weird and unique upset in the sporting world, which happens. But then something interesting happened. Japan had 10 days between their game against Scotland and their next pool match against Samoa, who are a very good team in their own right. Japan looked great! Fit! Disciplined! And they earned a deserved, clinical, and convincing victory over the Samoans.

Now the former rugby coach and the lover of John Gagliardi’s coaching philosophy, would love to talk about Eddy Jones and his approach and success to the game.  I’d love to talk about his success with Australia, then his success helping the South Africans, and then how he has seemingly performed a miracle with the Japanese. Then go I’d rant about how Canada, my homeland, needs to get its head out of it’s a$$ and get this guy on board.  How half our team seemly all attend the University of Victoria is still beyond me, and screams of a Politique that really holds us back.

But I am not a rugby coach at this time, nor an expert on Eddy Jones’s system. I am however an expert in training methodologies and recovery, and that is what I want to discuss.

Japan looked fantastic against South Africa.  Four days later they really struggled and my argument is not because they lacked fitness. On the contrary, they might be the fittest team at this World Cup. They did not have enough days to recover and heal. The proof is that 10 days later, where they did have time for plenty of healing and recovery, they went out against Samoa and looked great again. This was so obvious to everyone who has been watching, that the commentators, in both matches, discussed this at great length. (three days later when the Japanese were going through there run through, their captain as well as most of the players, were still limping around and feeling quite stiff and sore.)

If these guys are professionals, at the top of their game, at the peak of physical conditioning, are not recovered enough… What does that say about your training and recovery needs? This is the point of HIIT. Taking days off from the gym is not about being lazy, or looking for the ‘easy way out.’ Quite the opposite. It’s about going to the gym. Working extremely hard! Then get out of your own way and let your body heal!

For the athletes, it is critical to understand and remember that competition is intense training! Therefore adequate recovery after the competition is paramount as well. This is something “old school” coaches everywhere should know and remember. I’ll pick on hockey again because I grew up playing it and had more than my fair share of these types of coaches. But there was, on more than one occasion, where we would lose a game and did look pretty fatigued in the third period. Our coach’s solution… Skate us until we puked the next practice. Ludicrous! Fitness at that time in the season was not the issue. Recovery from the previous practice where he skated us to death was!  Or the previously hard fought game was the issue. We were tired and struggling not because we were out of shape, but because we had not adequately recovered from the previous work out.

I’ll finish with making it clear, there is a time and place for really hard skating sessions, or fitness sessions with any sports team. Generally pre-season. But good coaches, and you with your training program, can take a great lesson from the Japanese rugby team and the schedule they were dealt in this world cup, and recognize when the focus needs to shift from intense fitness, to proper recovery between those intense sessions.

The irony is we have recognized this for a long time, really!  American football games are played once a week. Virtually all rugby games around the world are once a week. Your most intense training sessions… Should be, on the average, once a week.