KAPOW! Boxing

So lately I’ve been trying to get over this darn cough that keeps persisting. It’s keeping me up at night, disrupting my sleeping patterns, and killing my energy levels. So this week I thought it a good idea to talk to you all about how that can drastically affect your life.

First off, lets talk about your daily hormones – specifically cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which is what wakes you up and helps provide energy for the day (your bodies natural version of caffeine). It peaks about 9am and steadily drops through the day until it levels off around 9pm. Then around 9pm your repair hormones kick in and repair your body and mind until around 6am. And this completes the 24 hour cycle of your hormones.

Now – why does any of this matter? Well let’s say you have a nasty cough and wake up during the night (cough cough) and it takes an hour to get back to sleep. Once you wake up your cortisol levels think it’s time to get moving and begin to rise like it’s morning. The problem arises when the levels start to drop earlier in the day than normal leaving you exhausted when it’s only midday. Ever had that midday exhaustion feeling?

What do you do when you’re feeling low on energy? Chances are you grab a coffee or chocolate which gives you enough energy for another half hour or hour if you are lucky…but what then? It quickly becomes a vicious circle of short bursts of peak and trough energy levels. This continues to play havoc on your hormone levels. Usually it leaves you staying up later at night because you can’t get to sleep on account of the 100g chocolate bar you just smashed. Suddenly you come crashing down and go to sleep at 12am. So now your repair hormones are getting a 3 hour late start. But here comes the kicker, the repair hormones still stop repairing by 6am. So when you wake up you are even more tired because your repair hormones didn’t get enough time to do their job.

See the cycle? Ever been on one of these? Are you on one right now? If you are you know how it negatively affects EVERY aspect of your life (just ask your partner).

Our bodies and minds are naturally meant to be in line with the rise and fall of the Sun. Think of the stress hormone as the Sun and your repair hormone as the Moon.

Here is a a quick checklist to make sure you are in the right rhythm to get the most energy and feel the best:

- Asleep, not in bed watching TV or reading, asleep by 10:30pm.

- Awake by 7:30am.

- After the Sun goes down stay away from bright lights as they stimulate your stress hormones.

- Avoid other stimulants like chocolate or caffeine at night time.

- Eat your biggest meal during the day, not at night.

You’ve probably heard the term “Lift with your legs”. Well I say “Lift with your core”. Let me tell you why.

In the spirit of my moving house today I thought it a good opportunity to address the whole “Lift with your legs” thing. It’s not really accurate. You pretty much have to bend over at some point to pick things up and once you do, your legs can’t help you. So why not learn to do it properly and LIFT WITH YOUR CORE.

So here’s the deal, your back or to be more accurate your spine is not meant to be a load bearing column. So when you bend over to pick something up your supporting muscles are supposed to keep your spine straight and hold everything stable.

If you’ve ever hurt your back from lifting here’s why: As you bent over to pick up the weight all your muscles relaxed and your torso was hanging off your spinal column – and then your spine went PANG! And suddenly you couldn’t move. The area you probably hurt was your lower back – it’s almost always the thing that “goes” when you lift something. Believe it or not this occurs because your stomach muscles aren’t activating or aren’t strong enough to hold your spine straight. So strengthening the back isn’t the answer to solving your back problems, as odd as that seems. It’s all about your core muscles.

The core muscle that we are talking specifically about is your Transversus Abdominis or TVA for short. This is your body’s natural girdle which is a wide band centered around your belly button. It wraps around your whole waist and connects into your lower back (ah ha!). You use this muscle if you’ve ever sucked your stomach in to try to fit into an old pair of trousers or dress. That movement is actually activating your TVA. This is the main muscle your lower back relies on to keep straight when you bend over like when you pick up your child or even tie your shoes.

So once again, it all comes down to core strength. In this case TVA strength. So next time you go to bend over and pick something up, save your back and draw your belly button in tight towards your spine. Try practicing this at your desk or in your car by doing the “tummy vacuum” exercise.

Tummy Vacuum – Start by lengthening your spine, draw your shoulders back then gently pulling your belly button in towards your spine. Hold for 10 seconds then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this 6 times. When this becomes too easy try increasing by 5 second holds and keep the rest periods the same.

This week let’s talk about the core, the most important musculature in your body. Everyone and their mother wants to have a flatter more toned stomach. Let me tell you now – doing a thousand sit ups isn’t going to do anything but give you bad posture and back pain.

Did you know that before you move any appendage – arm or leg, that muscles in your core fire about 50 milliseconds BEFORE you make any movement? That means you use your core every time you lift your arm, walk or really do anything. If you’ve ever had sore stomach muscles you will know this to be true because it basically hurts to do move anything.

Working the core is about functional movement, not isolating one tiny area and exercising it until it burns so bad you can’t move for 5 minutes afterward.

You can’t spot reduce weight off. This means you can’t do crunches to get a flatter stomach. I don’t care if you’ve do sit ups from now until the end of time, it just isn’t going to happen. The reason your stomach isn’t flat is because of the fat on top, not the lack of muscles underneath. Exercises work muscles, not fat. Make sense?

Let me talk about one subject in particular which seems to affect a lot of clients – back pain during core exercises.

Ever do a stomach exercise like crunches, leg raises, or rows and wonder why you get pain in your back? Here’s the answer: Your pelvis. It’s not sexy, it’s not exciting, but it’s the truth. Here’s why:

As you may know your back has a natural amount of curve to it. Your pelvis connects to the bottom of your spine and can increase or decrease the curve of your low back when it moves. So if your stomach isn’t strong enough to hold your pelvis in place then it moves and increases the curve in your low back. This causes pain because your back isn’t meant to bend that much, ouch! I’m sure this is a lot to take in so I will use an exercise as an example.

Leg raises. The leg raise exercise starts with you lying on your back with your legs out flat. You then lift your legs into the air and lower them under control back to the floor. You might understand how this affects the back best if I explain this in story mode (bare with me).

The two main players here are Mr. Lower Abs and Mrs. Hip Flexor (names may have been changed for security purposes…). Mr. Lower Abs job is to pull on the pelvis to flatten the back out. He is sad most of the time because he is usually too weak to do is job properly as he doesn’t get enough work. Mrs. Hip Flexor’s job is to move the legs by anchoring on the lower back and pulling. She is usually a strong willed woman who gets lots of work and is willing to hurt the body to get things done.

Here’s what happens to cause back pain. As you start to lift your legs Mr. Lower Abs says; “What the hell?! I’m not strong enough to lift those things! I need help! Sorry pelvis you are on your own.” So without help from the lower abdominals your pelvis rotates backwards thus increasing your lower back curve. What lifts the legs, I can here you anxiously ask? BAM! The metaphoric door busts open with a woman yielding the biggest gun you’ve ever seen! That’s right, it’s Mrs. Hip Flexor. She comes in and says “Stand aside Mr. Lower Abs and watch me kick some ass”. She pulls the legs up with all her might but in doing so also pulls on the lower back because that’s where she’s anchored. So now your back is really out of whack and by now is screaming in pain.

Hopefully that little story made some kind of sense. I’ve taken a courses which take over 40 hours to learn how the abs work so don’t be discouraged if you don’t fully understand it in a one page weird little story.

So next time you are doing a stomach exercise and you can feel your lower back lifting off the ground you know that Mrs. Hip Flexor has pushed Mr. Lower Abs out of the way and has sent him cowering in the corner while she handles her business.

As a tip, put your hand underneath your low back and keep pressure on it while you lift your legs – this will keep feisty Mrs Hip Flexor from beating up poor poor Mr. Lower Abs. If you can’t, simplify the exercise by lifting only one leg at a time or making smaller movements. The perfect scenario is when both the muscle groups are working together to maintain your neutral spine (I feel some kind of marriage analogy coming on…).

Try this: Want to know how your back measures up? Stand against a wall with your heals, calves, butt, shoulders, and head all touching the wall. Now take one of your hands and try to slide it through the small of your back. If it slides straight through than you’ve too much curvature in your back which means Mrs. Hip Flexor is wiping the floor with Mr. Lower Abs. Ideally your hand should just be able to fit into the curve of your low back without passing through.

Hope this helps. As always if you have any questions or would like to know more please let me know.

Mike Tyson, love him or hate him, is arguably one of the greatest boxers of all time. Why? Because he had unbelievable speed, power, and accuracy. He used his entire body to generate the speed and power needed for his famous big left hook. So why am I saying this and why do you care…

First, let’s put this in plain English:

Better technique = Better workout = More muscles worked = More calories burned
= Better results for YOU

Get it? If this is making sense than you will realise that next time you get on those bags you should practice better technique so you get more benefit out of each workout.

Also realise there is a balance between working on too much technique and going in windmill style on the bags. Work on one or two things at a time until you get better and then move onto the next. I can understand you don’t want to get too bogged down with thinking about technique and leaving our sessions frustrated and without breaking a sweat.

Here are a few things which are most commonly done wrong and how to correct them. So next time you are in, go through a mental checklist and see if you are doing any of these then start working on one or two of them. I promise you will enjoy the sessions more and get better, lasting results.

So here are the 5 most common mistakes client’s make while boxing and how to fix them:

Hands dropping – This is probably the most common mistake. Always aim to “look through your gloves”. This means your thumbs should rest on your cheek bones and your gloves should be just on the outside of your eyes on either side. Take note next time your training on where your hands are resting between punches. If they are dropping below the chin, push them back up!

Punching with your hands – This seems like a weird one. Believe it or not your power is generated from your feet, legs, hips, core, and shoulders…not just your arms. So if you find yourself punching and only your arms are moving and nothing else – correct it by moving your whole body. This means pushing off your feet, turning your hips, and rotating your core to throw the punch properly. Guess which technique is going to use more muscles and burn more calories, moving just your arms or moving your arms, legs, hips, core, shoulders, and feet?

Elbows out like chicken wings – Winner winner chicken dinner! Remember you should start and finish each punch by tucking your elbows into your ribs. Once you’ve started the punch then rotate your elbow out and when you return your punch back to guard position, tuck those elbows in again. It’s easier for your body just to leave those elbows out but remember the less you move the less calories your burn.

Flat footed – When in the boxing stance the tendency is to have both heals flat on the ground. In order to move the freest and easiest it’s best to keep the back heal a few centimetres off the ground. This allows you to be more agile. Think how a boxer is always moving and bouncing around the ring. It’s not possible to do this with your heals flat on the ground.

Leaning forward – While throwing a punch people often lean on their front foot, taking all the pressure off their back foot. The problem here is that it leaves you imbalanced and weak on the back leg. Generally through every punch or combo you should keep a 50-50 balance between your left and right feet. An easy way to tell if you are doing this is to look at your back foot during a punch or combo – if your heal is completely off and your toe pointing down and barely touching the ground then you are leaning. If you miss hit or miss a punch altogether on the bags or focus mitts chance are you will topple over because you don’t have balance. If you are balanced and miss the target it’s no big deal because your back foot can recover your balance for you.

So next time you are in do a bit of a check and see which, if any, of these things you are doing. Try to fix one at a time and you will be well on your way to being a better boxer – just like “Iron” Mike (or maybe not…)!

Did you find this helpful? Please let me know.

Until next time,

Invest in your health and enhance your life!

Miles

Hello All,

This week the government has made a proposal to start regulating the billion dollar weight loss industry. It wants to make any business who claims its products help to lose weight to prove their results through tests for a minimum of two years. That means all these dangerous fad diets would actually have to prove themselves to the public instead of the irresponsible behaviour most of them currently display. I think this is a great idea and I am very excited the government is finally getting involved. Right now, 95% of people who go on diets FAIL to lose weight over the long term. This is a staggering statistic. Sadly it’s also not surprising.

This is a great opportunity to talk to you about the ins and outs of diets and why they appear to work for a time then fail miserably over the long term. This also ties in well with your last email about “The Metabolic Typing Diet”.

Calorie restricting diets have a downward spiralling effect. Your body goes into starvation/survival mode which has the following effects:

- Your body releases stress hormones which shuts down the systems of your body such as your immune and digestive systems – it also decreases metabolism

- Takes energy from muscles thereby reducing the amount of muscle on your body

- INCREASES FAT STORAGE as the body needs to conserve energy

- Increases tiredness as the body is in a constant state of stress

- Increases cravings for junk food and energy drinks such as fizzy drinks, coffee, and tea – to keep up energy intake

So when you go on these fad diets they do help you lose weight initially which I’m sure feels great. Hopefully you now realise what you are losing is mostly muscle and in fact you are actually GAINING FAT!

So here’s how you will look and feel after your next fad diet – Fatter, weaker, more tired, and more stressed. Sound like fun?! Wanna know where to sign up?! If you’re thinking what I’m thinking…

Ok, now the good news. You don’t ever have to feel those terrible side effects again. Follow through on the metabolic typing plan which is right for you and remember to listen to your body. This is usually where an advertiser sticks in the product they are trying to sell. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to sell you anything. I honestly, seriously, and absolutely want you to feel and look the way you want and deserve.

Homework: Over the next week after each meal take a second to think about how you feel. Do you still feel hungry? Are you stuffed but then hungry soon after? If your answer is yes, then you are not eating properly and need to get on track. When you feel good it’s a lot easier to exercise, eat right, and enjoy life!

If you are interested in taking “The Metabolic Typing Questionnaire” this web site has an electronic version of it: http://www.naturalhealthyellowpages.com/metabolic/self_test.html. I don’t endorse this web site or any of its products – it’s merely a free online tool to determine your metabolic type.

If you have any questions about any of this please don’t hesitate to email me at miles@powerfitboxing.com.au.  Until next time,

Invest in your health and enhance your life!

Miles

Well thanks to everyone for sending me some great topics and questions. I will aim for a new topic every week and will continue to email them to you for the next few weeks. After that, the discussions will be posted here on the web sites blog page. So without further ado, let’s get into it!

“Applied knowledge is power!”

The best thing I think that can make the biggest difference in your life is your nutrition. Nutrition is the foundation of all health and fitness. I’ve successfully used the “Metabolic Typing Diet” as the basis for not only my client’s programs but also my own. It’s a very simple and holistic approach to eating. I’ll cover some of the basics here today but this topic will take a couple of emails to fully explain and understand.

Metabolic Typing

The Basic Idea
Everyone is just as different on the inside as they are on the outside. We function differently and have different nutritional requirements therefore we need to eat different combinations of foods from what others need to eat.

This eating plan is the safest and only healthy way to reach your goals whether it be to lose weight, reduce body fat, or put on lean muscle.

This information is scientifically proven to work so there are no gimmicks, magic pills, shakes, bars, etc which need to be used, just sound nutritional needs for you based on your specific genetic requirements.

History
Weston A. Price made a great discovery in the 1930’s in which he travelled to 16 different indigenous cultures around the world. His research showed that diets varied greatly all depending on where the cultures lived and what food was available to them. For example, Eskimos primarily ate foods high in fats and proteins while groups in South America feasted on mainly plant based food and only a small amount of meat.

What Price discovered was that nearly all the tribes enjoyed amazing health and were very physically fit even though all had completely different eating habits. The only similarities Dr. Price could find were they all: contained organic foods, were whole foods (non-processed), and ate animal products.

What it Means for You
Ever wonder why some diets seem to work wonders for some and are terrible for others? Ever wonder why there are a million diet plans out there? Let’s stop all the noise and confusion surrounding nutrition and get back to basics. There is a specific type of diet which will suit your needs and give you the best energy and results you could ever ask for. And remember, what works for you will not necessarily work for the next person.

Nutrition is the foundation of every single person’s health. It doesn’t matter what the person does – athlete or housewife – if you don’t get the nutrition right then nothing else matters.

NOTE: Be prepared for a very different and holistic approach to nutrition and your new “diet”. A lot of what this eating plan says may seem counterintuitive because of all the misinformation provided by the media and businesses trying to capitalise on your lack of knowledge. We aim to supply you with a base foundation of knowledge so you can take away and use this information for the rest of your life.

Learn to listen to your body. Your body will always tell you when it needs to eat, when you’ve had enough, and if you’ve eaten the right foods. There is no general set amount of carbs, protein, and fat for everyone. Your requirements are going to be different from anyone else around you. A lot will have to do with how fast you body burns through carbohydrates. If you eat a meal heavy in carbohydrates and you are hungry soon after then you should eat more proteins/fats than carbohydrates. Alternatively if you have a lot of protein/fat and are hungry soon after then you should eat more carbs than protein/fat. Like I said, listen to your body!

To understand what constitutes a carb or protein or fat think of it this way:

Carbohydrate = No eyes – The food comes from a source which didn’t have eyes.
Protein/fat = Eyes – The food comes from a source which at one point had eyes.

For a few examples: Carbohyrates are ALL fruit and vegetable.
Protien/fats – All meats, fish, poultry, dairy, seafood, nuts and legumes.

So the next time you are eating have a look at your plate and try to work out which is which. Half the battle is having the knowledge necessary to make the right choices.

Now of course there is more to it but let’s start with this. It’s the only truly healthy way to curb hunger pains, stop sugar cravings, increase muscle tone, and decrease body fat.

If you have any questions about any of this please don’t hesitate to email me at miles@powerfitboxing.com.au. Until next time,

Invest in your health and enhance your life!

Miles

Ever feel like you are doing a lot of the same movements during any kind of exercise?  Ever wonder why that is?  All human movements can be broken down into 7 basic exercises; lunge, squat, bend, push, pull, twist, and gait.

Each one of these primal movements were needed for basic life back in the caveman days.  You will find all exercises you do even now will come from one of these 7 basic movements.  Your goal should be to master these moves as best as possible because they will make life easier (not to mention your training!).

As a base you should be able to do each of these base exercises with perfect form.  Once you’ve mastered that try ascending the movement to something more challenging.  To find out how follow this example:

Squat – Say you can do a standard squat properly.  You’ve got a nice straight back, knees are in line with the toes and don’t come past the toe line.  You find squats easy, you could do them all day.  Well let me ask you a question.  What happens if you were to lift one leg off the ground and then try to do your squat off one leg?  Different exercise?  You better believe it!  You will start wobbling all over the place and your leg will be carrying twice the weight you are used to.  You are guaranteed muscle fatigue and soreness the next day.  This is a perfect example of an ascent of the squat exercise.

This example can be used in most of the other movement types.  So next time you are having a workout, think about which of the 7 movements you are currently doing and if it’s too easy how can you make it more challenging.

If you are interested in hearing more about this topic please comment on it and I’ll be happy to cover more.

Thought it a good idea to share with you the benefits of the two primary types of exercise STRENGTH and CONDITIONING and why they are both important.

STRENGTH work is important because it ultimately helps you to lose weight easier. Think of your muscles like a car engine. The bigger the engine the more fuel it burns. Just like the stronger your muscles the more calories they burn. Imagine you have all these little engines all over your body and these engines can quickly burn up everything you eat. After your ‘engines’ finish with your food they attack and burn up your fat stores because they always need more fuel. So it’s almost like cheating! The more strength work you do the more you can just sit around and burn calories off your body.

Examples: Body weight exercises like push ups, sit ups, lunges, or squats.  Also any work done under added weight like a chest press, shoulder press, or lat pulldown.

CONDITIONING work is equally important as it has everything to do with your heart and lungs. Ever gone up a flight of stairs feeling like your lungs were going to collapse and your heart was going to literally pound out of your chest? Conditioning work will make you feel fitter to move around easier and help you to avoid heart disease and subsequently live longer.

Examples: Running, rowing, cycling, BOXING!, or any sports activity.

Now…look at your weekly exercise routines and see if you are doing more of one than the other.  Ideally strength work should make up about 70% of your training.  So if you had to point a finger at the exercise type which gives you the best benefits strength work would edge out conditioning.

Stay tuned for my next blog which we will talk about primal movements and how they are the foundation of all movement needed for everyday life – this one is not to be missed!

If you have questions/comments or want to suggest a topic to talk about please let me know!

Hellooooo  everyone,

Long time no talk.  How you been?  I’ve been negelecting my blog duties and am making a mid year resolution to get back into it.  So without further ado…

Quick update:  As from my last post I’ve made a big effort to do strength training at minimum three times per week and I feel so good for doing it.  I’ve put on about 4 kgs of muscle (I’m huge!) and most importantly I have great energy all day.  Do you know what’s made all the difference?  Scheduling time to do it.

I’ve got one of those new fangled (or not so new…) computer programs which automatically blocks the same time off every week for my training.  So when I look at my schedule all I see is I’m unavailable for that hour.  It makes sure I don’t make any phone calls, check my emails, or whatever else seems so important at that moment.  I look at my schedule, it says train, so I train.

If you let it, your mind will always find something to fill your time with – whether or not it’s really what you want to do. I’m willing to bet most things you spend your time doing are draining your energy and not leaving you with much at the end of the day.   How often do you actually feel better after doing something? My guess your answer is – not enough.

My lesson for today is LIVE INTENTIONALLY.  This means, plan out your life in advance and live it!  Yes I know, things will come up which don’t match your plan.  Yes I know, how can you possibly know what to expect.  Schedule time for yourself and don’t miss it for anything.  This can be time to train, time to read, or just sit quietly and switch your mind off.  Whatever it is, it’s important. What you want is important.  You need it like you need water (how much water are you drinking by the way…). Start treating it that way.

I’ve got a confession to make.  It’s something I’m not proud of.  Let me tell you a little story about it.

This morning I was training one of my great long term clients, Jo.  Jo over the years has lost some good weight and really gotten her tone in her muscles back.  So she now lifts fairly heavy weights, which means for me that I have to lift these fairly heavy weights first to give them to her.  As I bent over and twisted to pick up the 12.5 kilo dumbbell, something in my spine went “OUCH!” It suddenly felt like someone was putting their knee straight into my back…. not good.

Being the manly man that I am (try not to laugh) I picked up the 12.5 kilo weight and handed it to Jo all while trying to act cool.  I was praying she didn’t just see her very own trainer hurt his back on a weight he was now asking her to lift!  As she began to focus on the exercise at hand I slowly realised I had just escaped total embarrassment (phew!).

As Jo completed the exercise I began to think of a few years back when I was weight training all the time and never got niggles or pains…anywhere!  There is no way I would have hurt my back by just bending and twisting – I would have laughed at the idea of it and then gone back to my 20 kilo biceps curls (slight exaggeration…).

And that brings me to my big confession.

I, as a fitness professional, have not completed a proper weights program since before Christmas!  Sure I’ve done weekly boxing sessions and other bits of cardio.  But I’ve only been doing very sporadic strength exercises, all to the detriment to my health.  Oh the shame! Oh the humility! (feel sorry for me yet?)

I’m now reminding myself of the importance of having a complete program.  It’s vital to have not only good conditioning but also have great strength.  And this doesn’t mean you have to have huge muscles.  Flexibility also plays a big role.  It all ties together and it’s all necessary.

So I wonder how many of you out there have experienced this kind injury from something so simple.  How many times have you heard of someone bending over to pick up a pen at work and “throwing” their back out?  Or reaching for something in the cupboard, getting a pain in your shoulder, and not being able to move for a week.

We as a nation (and world) are too sedentary.  There is not enough physical activity in our day to day lives.  Are you happy with your level of strength or conditioning?  If not get out there and do something about it before life gets in the way again.  Don’t wait.