What's in your Multi?

I just came out of an amazing weekend of learning around the ingredients used in different supplements, the 2 primary Doctors I had the pleasure of hanging out with are: http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/hackman.html
and
http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/keen.html

2 astoundingly smart men.

So now on the meat of this post.... what is in you multi vitamin?
All multi vits are not created equal.
thing to look out for in your multi to ensure that you are putting the highest quality, most absorbable and potent nutrients into you body:

Vitamin E - the highest quality and bio active form is d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, ensure it is NOT "dl-alpha..." which is the synthetic form, or is not tocopherly nicotinate, acetate or anything else.

Magnesium - look for Magnesium as amino acid chelate or some other chelated form, citrate is the second best form, all other forms are not as good.

Calcium - again as amino acid chelate or some chelated for. Carbonate is the least well absorbed, citrate is a little better and then there are a couple of other forms somewhere in the middle of the ladder.

These 3 will give you a general idea of the quality of your multi vitamin.
remember that cheaper forms of micro-nutrients simply won't be absorbed and therefore will pass out of your body as they came in or worse, they will build up and cause toxicity in your body!

enjoy the summer! and make sure that if you are out in the heat, you are taking enough potassium or eating some bananas :)

Doctors Drive me Nuts.

Yes yes, my mommy is a doctor too and she sometimes drives me nuts too, but she's my mum so it's ok :)

I just got back from visiting a dermatologist and an allergist.

First the dermatologist:
I'm seeing him about acne and scarring on my shoulders, I've had pretty bad acne in my past and it's gotten better over the years through positive changes in lifestyle, diet and exercise. Some years ago I took a course of iso-tetronin (sp?) and it dried the hell out of my skin, my lips cracked up in massive pain, but my really bad acne subsided considerably.
So the Dermatologist had me on Doryx, a low dose antibiotic for about a month and he's given me a prescription for another 2 months. When I went in today I told him that I had ran out of the stuff for the last 5 days, but that I had noticed my energy levels were way higher when I wasn't taking the meds, even though I was taking pro-biotics.
"taking what?" he asked. He didn't know about pro-biotics, yet he was ok prescribing me Doryx for 2 years straight. I told him that the antibiotics were killing off my intenstinal microflora and that I could literally "feel" it, to which he said " you should probably go and check with a sports medicine doctor about that".(red flag red flag red flag). I asked him about the mechanism of action of the Doryx, he avoided the question and told me that I have 2 options: Doryx straight for like 2 years or more to keep my acne at "bay" or accutane, that that would take 2 weeks to get in due to some federal regulations... I told him I want the fastest most effective solution. He busted out of the room to "collect something" and sent in his assistant with some permits to fill out - i have to read the paperwork, I'm not sure what the permit is for, but I have to go submit some blood tests tomorrow and then go pick up the meds in 2 weeks.
hmm.......

second, the allergist:
I came to see this guy about a year ago when I suspected having an allergy to some sort of pollen. I worked with him for a while since he got a bunch of blood tests done for me including the testing of homocystene levels, anti-oxidant levels and C-reactive protien. I went to see him today because I'm doing an in depth investigation into food allergies, specifically, delayed-onset IgG type food allergies and how they affect weight loss, water retention, depressed energy levels etc etc. He doesn't test for them becuase he claims "there isn't enough scientific evidence to prove the efficacy of these tests" - he knew he just opened a massive can of worms right there and followed up with "maybe you should go see a naturopathic doctor, they believe in this stuff more than I do" - I then asked him for a referral and he is going to get back to me with a contact. The good thing is that he was open to me going to see someone else and was open to finding out about new things / approaches that did work.


so why do doctors drive me nuts?
what did these 2 men have in common? They were both in their forties or early fifties and so have probably been doing this for a while. The problem is that I don't believe they are current in the scientific breakthroughs and/or discoveries that are occuring in the medical world. It seems intuitive that the older a doctor is, the more "experienced" he is. I argue otherwise - that's its probably safer to assume that the older a doctor is the older and more obsolete his knowledge is. One of the first times I came to this realization was just over a year ago when I was back home in Kenya and went to see one of the more famous cardiologists in nairobi. He had put my grandmother on some diuretics in order to reduce her blood pressure, he was also the doc who had treated a bunch of my late uncles who died of heart attacks. (what's wrong with this picture?).
so anwyay, we got into a conversation about heart disease, cholesterol and drugs like Lipitor. I asked him if he had heard about Co-enzyme Q and how statin drugs affect endogenous production of Co Enzyme Q10, which in turn could lead to cardiomyopathy. He had nothing to say.

So just remember that what doctors tell you is NOT THE WORD OF GOD. Most people treat it that way. Get a 2nd opinion, get a 3rd opinion, go to a different country and get an opinion. Definitely talk a doctor in a different age group / generation.

In terms of cholesterol, I'm not going to delve into the details of it in this post, all you need to know is that if you are taking statins and not supplementing with Co Enzyme Q10, you are messing with your hearts oxygen supply at a cellular level and your heart muscles could very well be slowly dying away - a condition that you won't feel or get measured until you drop dead some day on the golf course.

REMEMBER:
The pharmaceutical companies make millions of dollars every year, they give incentives and kick backs to doctors that prescribe their drugs. Moreover, the majority of "prescription" medication is not curative, it holds symtops at bay or masks them in some way. eg. statins go in and mess with your normal cholesterol output whereby dietary changes are a safer and longer term fix.

Cheers to your health!


CoQ10: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q

Air Squat!!!!

My aunt from kenya asked me about un weighted squats the other day.
here'a a link to a video from Crossfit that does a fabulous job of explaining the key points of the air squat:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_AirSquats.wmv

when you can do 50 full depth air squats, start doing tabata squats!!!

example tabata squats:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/sample2tabata.wmv

You should use a medecine ball or some other soft surface if you have an issue with not going deep enough on each rep.

the squat...

If you're going to go to the gym and do one movement only. Let that movement be the Squat.

- Bar is resting on traps
- hands are gripping as close as possible
- elbows tucked back
- back is arched, butt is back, hips are NOT forward
- feet are positioned around shoulder width apart, toes pointed out slightly.
- get full range of motion and come up fast.

here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYddZUIzJ9g

weight on the bar = 325 #


The squat is the king of functional movement. Tight core, full body, full range of motion, etc etc.
There is NO other lower body based movement that comes close.
The leg extension, leg curl and... god forbid... the leg press are all great tools to rehab from injury and they all have a place.... in the physical therapy department.

for example, I hear all sorts of stuff like people trying to "save their back" or "not compress the spine" or whatever, what these people do not realise is that they are increasing their chances of future injury from using machines because for example, the leg press is designed so that the core does not have to remain tight in order to push up the weight (well not compared to the squat anyway) and you your legs may get stronger while your core remains weak, furthermore if you don't develop your body as a UNIT, you will never reach your athletic potential.

start squatting! with weight, without weight, with someone on your shoulders etc, your body will thank you for it.

My bulking blue print

I've been getting some questions about bulking up lately. So here's what I did earlier this year to gain some new (~15 lbs) of muscle.

- I started out eating a lot ... about 3500 calories a day. I then found that this was too much.
- my sweet spot was somewhere between 2500 and 3000 for putting on size, I did put on some fat, but not much (since I was on catalyst)
- I was doing standard bodybuilding type workouts with mostly 5x5's. I was lifting as heavy as possible on most days and ending workouts with some high rep light work to remove the lactic acid and stimulate some Growth Hormone release.
- After Every workout I took Advocare's Post workout recovery shake, I could feel a huge difference on the days that I didn't take it.
- I was eating a lot more carbs than I usually do, around 200 grams a day. For you zoners out there, all I did was make sure that I hit 25 blocks and then I'd eat more if I felt like it.
- Sleep and hydrate more than usual - your body needs more water to get really anabolic, also the extra sleep will help you make superior gains. TO soop up my sleep even more, i was taking 1000mg of Vitamin C at night to buffer cortisol release, and NightTime recovery and some GABA when I remembered.
- Take a BCAA blend. This is probably the most important part of your supplement program in addition to ensuring adequately high levels of protien intake. I shot for at least a gram per pound body weight.
- DO lots of heavy squats. If you don't you won't grow. Period. Oh and you probably want to do some max deadlifts once every 2 weeks or so.
- Every 2 - 3 days I increased my fiber intake and took a fiber drink to help move along all the extra food I was eating.
- Stay active and get in a short run every 3-5 days to ensure that all the extra food is moving smoothly through the digestive system.
- Take a good pro biotic every morning and a digestive enzyme supplement before very large meals. This will help your body actually ABSORB the nutrients you are taking in. Otherwise you could be wasting your time in the gym and in the kitchen.

that's what worked for me. stick to all the points and it will work for you too.
It's been almost a month since I finished my bulking phase, and I've lost about 4 pounds, of which I think is mostly fat. I haven't been doing much lifting in the past couple of weeks and have re-started up on more yoga, gymnastics, dance and ruby to get the new muscle functional and strong through full ranges of motion.

It was interesting, i stopped bulking when I "biceps" and chest started "coming in the way" - seriously it's funny shit when you have to put some noticable extra effort to bring your hands to yoru face and compress the bicep. Also, reaching over behind the shoulders gets a little more challenging when the pecs are larger :)

have fun and post questions if you have any!