We all know that nutrition is an essential part of any successful training program. Whether it’s for muscle gain, fat loss, increase your strength or improve your performance in your sport, good nutrition needs to be a part of your plan if you want to achieve the desired results. And nutrition like everything else is evolving, but maybe in a not so good way.
It just seems to me that the more we know about nutrition, the more we try to complicate things in order to achieve our goals; low carb, high carbs, low fat, cycling, vegetarian, ketogenic and all types of diets. We try to manipulate our protein/fat/carbs ratio perfectly to maximize our results and take all sorts of supplements to help give us an extra edge. We just try to do too much and most of the time we just fall off our over-complicated plan in as quickly as a couple of weeks. The truth is that it’s hard too keep up with a diet that requires you to calculate your macro-nutrient ratio, to count calories and weigh your food every meal and snack you eat.
How did we get there? I’m no nutritional expert, although I probably know more than the average person because of my background and because of what I do for a living, but why does nutrition need to be that complicated? Well, it doesn’t. Good nutrition, no matter what your goal is, should be to eat as much natural, unprocessed foods as possible. Our ancestors never had any weight or cholesterol problem because they were eating too much red meat or too many eggs! And I’m pretty damn sure they never EVER counted calories either. When did we lose the focus of eating foods that could be grown or hunted? When did we start making lunch meats, crackers and cookies staples in our diet? When did freakin’ cereals became the most popular breakfast?? Come on!
When did this become a healthy breakfast?
We count calories, carbs, fat and everything, but we eat incredible amounts of highly processed foods on a day-to-day basis. That just doesn’t make sense to me! Next time you’re going to have a granola bar or something like that, do me a favor and look on the label. Don’t even look at the protein, fat and carb content; just look at the list of ingredients. You’ll be surprised at the number of preservatives and chemicals with weird names there is in there.
We need to take a step back and look at our lifestyle as a whole; we move less, we eat more processed food, we’re always looking for the quick fix when we’re hungry (we don’t spend time cooking and actually sit down to enjoy our meal). And yet we’re counting calories, complaining about our obesity epidemic, arguing over what works best between low carb and low fat diets and wondering why there are more and more types of cancer and other types of disease that didn’t exist 100 years ago. Really?!
When you’re eating a good balance of real, natural foods that can be grown (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and hunted (all sorts of meat) every piece of the puzzle will fall in place. Low-quality processed foods are nutrient-deficient and no matter how much you eat they never really fill you up, so it’s way too easy to over-eat and that’s when you need to start counting calories. Real food on the other hand will always fill you up because of the high nutrient content and it is be very hard to over-eat. Nutritionist Brian St. Pierre‘s recommendations has gone in that same direction for a long time; people need to start eating REAL food! (By the way guys, Brian’s blog is awesome and filled with great information about nutrition so make sure you check it out). Buy real food, cook more, prepare in advance, enjoy your meals and try to limit the amount of processed foods you eat, and I guarantee you everything will fall into place.
Last week during one of our meeting at Endeavor, one of our coaches came up with an interesting study that supported the use of caffeine to increase maximum strength. The study measured upper body strength in trained subjects(1). The study used a 1RM bench press test as well as a bench press test (with load = 60% of 1RM) to failure. The amount used was 5mg/kg of body weight and was compared to a placebo group. In both tests, with caffeine consumption pre-test, subjects showed an increase in both maximum strength (for 1RM test) and an increase in number of reps (for test to failure).
As I was going over PubMed to find the study, I also came across another similar study done only with women(2). The study measured the effects of caffeine on upper body strength in trained women(2). The tests used were the same one as in the previous one and also showed an increase in maximum strength in women who consumed caffeine prior to an upper body strength test. The amount of caffeine used was 6mg/kg of bodyweight and was compared to a placebo group.
The use of caffeine has previously been supported by research to improve endurance in longer duration exercises, but it’s the first time I actually come across studies that support the use of caffeine to improve maximum strength (1RM tests). These are only 2 studies that have been done within the last year, so I think it’s going to be interesting to see more research on the subject.
References
1. Duncan MJ, Oxford SW. The effect of caffeine ingestion on mood state and bench press performance to failure. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Jan;25(1):178-85.
2. Goldstein E, Jacobs PL, Whitehurst M, Penhollow T, Antonio J. Caffeine enhances upper body strength in resistance-trained women. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2010 May 14;7:18.
2010 is coming to an end, and I must say it has been an incredible year for me! In the spirit of the holidays and as we’re wrapping up 2010 by the end of the week, I’ve decided to do the first ever DavidLasnier.com Best of 2010 Awards. So without further ado, here it is:
Best Website: HockeyStrengthAndConditioning.com . This website contains all the information you need from the top guys in the business. If you train hockey players, or if you’re a hockey player yourself, the information on this website will be of great help.
Best New Exercise: Standing Belly-to-Overhead Press. I got this one from my colleague Tony Gentilcore, and I simply love it. The Standing Belly Press was already one of my favorite exercise, especially because it’s so functional and also because there are so many variations you can use. Here’s the latest variation; it adds an overhead/anti-lateral flexion component to an already great core stabilization exercise.
Best Blog Post (from me):Keep Your Goal in Mind. This was definitely one of my favorite blogpost, because I feel so many athletes are studying for the wrong test when it comes to training for sports peformance.
Best Blog Post (from someone else): The Case Against Conventional Dairy by Brian St. Pierre. Technically, Brian wrote it in 2009 (December 21st, to be more specific), but it is by far the blog post that had the most impact on my life in 2010. Brian raises many interesting facts on conventional dairy; the way it is produced, the way the cows are raised and how it affects the quality of dairy, and how low fat dairy products are linked to different types of cancer. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not just Brian’s opinion; there are enough scientific proofs to support his point. Simply put, if you are still consuming dairy products, you NEED to at least make the switch to the organic kind.
Best Quote: “We judge others by their behaviors. We judge ourselves by our intentions.” by Stephen Covey. I read that quote for the first time on Kevin Neeld‘s website a couple of weeks ago. Think about it for a second. We all judge people around us by the way they act, even if their intentions might be different, but NEVER will we ever judge ourselves by our actions; only by our intentions. This is a very powerful quote that impacts all of the relationships we have with other human beings.
Honorable Mention: On a funnier note, this is the most hysterical quote EVER: “Arguing over the internet is like the special Olympics; nobody wins and you’re still a retard” by Tony Gentilcore. Hahaha…I have nothing else to say!
Best Sport Moment of the Year:
Enough Said.
Best Training Related Product: Show And Go by Eric Cressey. If you have been reading my blog consistently this will come to no surprise for most of you. The Show and Go program have been tested and approved by the whole Endeavor staff; and the results speak for themselves. If you’re looking for a great training program that’s been proven effective without taking any guess on the results, Show and Go is what you need.
Best Song: Sitting on top of DavidLasnier.com’s Billboard for the past 3 months, none other than No Love, featuring Eminem and Lil’ Wayne:
Best Supplement: Vitamin D. I have blogged many times in the past HERE and HERE about the positive effects of supplementing with vitamin D, so I won’t go over all the benefits in details again. I will simply say this; with all the scientific proofs piling up, vitamin D is now considered an ESSENTIAL supplement. It has been proven to increase levels of awesomeness and decrease the risks of everything that doesn’t make you awesome.
Best Picture:
Best Conditioning Modality: Split Squat Iso-Holds Into Slideboard. I will admit that this is very hockey-specific type of conditioning, but 80% of our athletes at Endeavor are hockey players, so did you expect anything else?! My colleague Kevin Neeld came up with this idea this past summer, and I’m still amazed at how great that idea was! Hockey is exactly that; iso-holds positions (when just gliding on the ice) alternated with short powerful bursts of acceleration (when skating).
Best TV Show: Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets. That show featured on HBO was simply awesome!
Rex Ryan is the freakin’ man!
2010 was a great year, and honestly I’m sure 2011 will be just as exciting, if not more! I wish to all of you nothing but the best for 2011; may this upcoming year bring you health, love and joy! I will see all of you in 2011!
P.S. I have postponed my special announcement and my surprise to you, my readers, after New Year’s day, as I’m sure most of you will have something more interesting to do than read strength and conditioning blogs on December 30th and 31st.
This year marks the first time in probably over 10 years that I finished all my holiday shopping more than 2 days before Christmas! Hopefully you did too! But if you still have gifts to buy to people around you who are either athletes, a coaches or just fitness enthusiasts, here’s a couple of ideas that you might want to consider.
This might be the perfect gift for anyone who doesn’t have access to a good coach or trainer, or anyone who doesn’t want to spend hours writing his own programs and going through trial and error to find what works. Eric Cressey has done an outstanding job with this product, and he’s basically eliminating the guessing work one needs to go through when building his own training programs. Show and Go is a proven system that has been put to the test by many before Eric actually launched the product. It provides you with 16 weeks of programs that guarantee you the results you’re looking for. The whole Endeavor staff has been on the Show and Go system for the last 10 weeks, and we’ve ALL made tremendous gains in both size and strength! Click HERE to get your copy now!
This is a great gift idea for anyone involved in hockey training; whether it’s for a player or a coach, a membership to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com is a gift that will help them get better. Some of the brightest minds in hockey training are behind that website; names like Mike Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks), Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks), Darryl Nelson (USA Hockey) and Endeavor’s own Kevin Neeld are all contributing to the website to help develop better hockey players. For less than 10$/month (less than 100$/year if you pay all at once), a membership to this site will guide any hockey player in the right direction when it comes to his training. What’s even cooler is that you have the option of signing up and getting a 30 day trial for only $1! If you’re not satisfied with the content (which won’t happen trust me!) you can just cancel you subscription. Click HERE to get the 30 day trial.
With the new year coming up, for all these people making fat loss related resolutions, the Precision Nutrition System is definitely the ideal present to guide them through their lifestyle and nutritional changes that will lead them to their results. The Precision Nutrition System includes everything you need to help you make necessary changes in your eating habits in order to get results; everything from cookbooks to online support through the Precision Nutrition website, everything is included. The price is currently down from $147 to $97 for the whole system, so order now!
So if you need a last minute gift for the athlete or fitness enthusiast in your life, one of these should be a perfect fit.
On a side note, as I’ve mentioned last week I’m working on a couple different projects. One of them is related to my website and my readers; stay tuned next week for a special announcement as well as a thank you gift for my readers who have been following my work!
Let me spell it for you: E-A-T. What? That’s not a secret? You already knew this? Possible. But a wise man named Stephen Covey once said “Knowing and not doing it is not knowing”…or something like that. And it couldn’t be more true. For all of those of you out there who are trying to add muscle mass to their frame and have a hard time doing it, this tip applies to you. And please do me a favor and stop thinking you’re so special and that the problem must be something else because you think you’re eating enough. I don’t know you, but if you’re not gaining muscle, you’re not eating enough. Period. Stop blaming your fast metabolism, your genetics or anything else for that matter. You’re not eating enough!
Yeah, yeah, you have a fast metabolism…now go eat a sandwich
I’ve heard it so many times: “…but I eat all the time; it would be impossible for me to eat more than that. I’m sure that’s not the reason why I’m not gaining weight.” Eat more. You are not special; your metabolism is not preventing you from gaining muscle; your genetics is not limiting you. You’re not eating enough, plain and simple. Eat more and I’ll guarantee you you’re going to put on some weight, and way faster than you think. I’ve actually witnessed gains as fast as 6-8 pounds a month with clients and athletes who really make a dedicated effort of taking in large amounts of quality foods. And no, none of them were on performance enhancing drugs. Stop being jealous and making excuses for yourself. Just eat more!
Mandatory sandwich eating for everyone!
The truth is that there are in fact many factors to account for that are responsible for increasing muscle mass. Things like: an appopriate training program, the intensity you put in your training, the quantity and quality of your sleep, the amount of time allowed for recovery, your stress level, your genetics and your testosterone levels are all important factors that contribute to gains in muscle mass. But don’t think you’re so special that it might be one of these things that really is limiting your progress.
Simply, put it this way: if you are lifting on a regular basis and you are eating more calories than what you burn in a day, you will gain muscle. Guaranteed.
Enough said. Now, go eat!
P.S. Do me a favor and send this information to all the hard gainers around you.
As a strength coach, you will face the same question everyday: What supplement should I take to improve my performance? I really don’t like this question, as most of time I feel like what athletes are really asking is: What magic pill can I take to replace the benefits I could have from good nutrition since I’m too lazy to eat well?
It really comes down to the fact that I really don’t recomment any supplement to anyone unless they at least make a conscious effort of eating well. Supplements should be used to give an edge on your performance when you already have a proper diet or to help you recover better in times of more intense training/practice volume. I don’t think supplements should ever be used to compensate for a shitty diet and lifestyle.
Does this look like your lunch box? If so, supplements are definitely not what you need
The first step to make to help you improve your performance and recovery is by making sure you have a good diet. What I mean by this is: eat enough protein, eat every 3-4 hours, eat mostly whole foods like fruits, vegetables and meat, stay away from food products as much as possible, etc. Most young athletes don’t realize how much of an impact nutrition actually has on their performance. It’s really important to make them realize it and help them improve their diet before we recommend any supplement.
That being said, I am not against supplements at all. It’s just about which one to take because there is so much crap on the supplement market; I would easily say over 90% of the supplements out there are totally worthless and they do nothing but making you waste your money.
Most useless supplement ever?
Here is a list of the supplements I feel comfortable recommending because they have proven effective by the research out there and by the athletes to whom I’ve recommended these supplements.
Essentials:
- Fish Oil. This is a staple supplement for everyone. Numerous studies have proven it is effective for a number of things including: improving memory and fighting Alzeimer, reducing cardiovascular disease risks, maintain joints health, helping improve body composition and the list goes on and on.
- Vitamin D. Another staple, especially in the northern regions because we are rarely if ever getting enough vitamin D from the sun. Helps prevent different type of cancers, reduce risks of diabetes, help prevent chronic fatigue and depression, etc.
- Multivitamin. Unless you’re eating all organic food, I definitely recommend taking a multivitamin because the quality of the food we eat in 2010 might not that great with all the pesticides, chemicals and preservatives that are used.
- Greens supplement. The reason I feel this is a staple is that even if you eat well there are very little chances that you match your fruits and vegetables requirement every single day. I personnaly use it on days I don’t get enough fruits and veggies, but I would also recommend it to someone who’s always on the road from playing a high level sport or just because of work.
Auxiliary:
- ZMA. Improves your sleep quality BIG time, improves your recovery and increase the production of testosterone and growth hormones. Simply awesome. Nothing else to say about it.
- Creatine. Not necessarily a supplement I would take year round, but I like creatine once in a while to improve recovery. It can be very useful in times of high and intense training volumes.
- Beta-Alanine. Similar to creatine, beta-alanine helps improve recovery. It acts differently than creatine as it allows you to do more work in the same amount of time. It’s really effective for everything that’s anaerobic lactic based (20-90 sec). Hockey players love it.
Last week I came across an article on the internet about the obesity epidemic that has been going on for over a decade now in the world, and especially in North America. To say that it was shocking would be an understatement. It explains how people got this fat and how the ADA (American Dietetic Asoosication) is in big part responsible for this problem that is growing at an alarming rate.
The ADA is the association that controls the nutritional information that is given to the people, and no nutritional recommendation can be made without the permission of the ADA. So basically, they control what they want the poeple to know. But it’s also very interesting that the ADA is sponsored by big companies such as Coca-Cola, Hershey’s and Kellogg’s just to name a few. Yes, you read that right! So this professional unbiased association is suppose to tell us what to eat? Are you kidding me?!
But wait, the best is still to come. The ADA actually has a section on their website that invites companies to sponsor the ADA!
That’s not it. This is my favorite part; the article goes into detail as to when this obesity epidemic started and the following graph is presented showing a drastic increase in obesity and overweight people in 1977 in the United States.
Weird, huh? But what happened in the United Stated in 1977 in order to create a drastic increase in overweight people?
Are you ready for this?
The article sites that in 1977 the ADA basically changed their nutritional recommendations to the following:
- Eat more starch
-Eat more carbohydrates
- Saturated fats are bad
Does that sound familiar? Is that what we have been led to believe what “good nutrition” is by the medias and most of the nutritional information easily accessible?
If you still think that’s right, time for a reality check:
If this is considered good nutrition why does obesity, diabetes, all sorts of cancer and the like are growing at an alarming rate ever since?
How did our ancesters never had all these same problem while they weren’t concerned about eating fatty meat and definitely weren’t eating as much carbohydrates?
If you haven’t read the article, I strongly suggest you do so. It’s literally a slap in the face of common nutritional recommendations and how we’ve been wrongfully informed on nutrition as a society for the last decades. Check it out HERE.
Last week, I wrote a post about my pefect pre-workout routine, so I figured it would only be a logical sequel to write my perfect post-workout routine. So without further ado…
- As soon as I finish my training, I lay down on my back for a couple minutes (especially if I did conditioning that day because I need that time to wind down and make sure I won’t throw up). Is there any better ways to cool down anyway?
- After laying down for a couple minutes, I get up and do static stretching; mostly for the muscles that I trained that day to restore length.
- After stretching and making sure I won’t throw up, I will take down my post-workout smoothie that I prepared before leaving home.
- Once I took care of my post-workout nutrition, I will take a couple of minutes to sit down in front of my lap top and blog my training session I just did. I keep track of my training on a blog so I won’t ever lose programs and I can also refer to my archives very quickly on a blog. I’ve been doing this for 3 years and it’s always interesting to go check back what I’ve done in the past and how strong (or weak) I was.
- To finish things off, I jump in a sauna, relax for 10-12 minutes in there and then immediately jump in a cold thub(or cold shower) for a minute or two, depending on how cold the water is. Once I got out, I feel unbelievably good and relaxed. Unfortunately, I haven’t had access to a sauna in a while, so it has been more contrast showers lately. It’s definitely not as effective, but when it’s all you have it still does a good job.
Are you kidding me? A sauna with a TV in it….that’s gotta be the greatest thing in the world!
The whoel purpose of that whole post-workout routine is to improve recovery. Some people will argue that there is no scientifical proof out there that supports contrast bath/showers as a mean of recovery, but I could care less. Even if it would do nothing at all to promote recovery, I still feel awesome and unbelievably relaxed after doing it; so even if that’s the only benefit I get from it, it’s still worth it!
There is always perfect conditions to train in; these conditions might be different for everyone as we all have different lifestyles, different preferences when it comes to food and supplements as well as musical choices. But whatever it is for you, there is definitely an ideal pre-training or pre-workout routine that puts you in the zone and gets you ready to lift heavy weights. This is mine…
- Wake up at around 8 in the morning after a good night of sleep of between 8 and 9 hours of sleep (before which I ideally took ZMA).
Awesome supplement to improve sleep quality
- Get dressed (including wearing sweat pants and a hoodie to help get warm).
- Breakfast at 8:30 consisting of a 6 eggs omelet with onions, peppers, spinach and organic sharp cheddar cheese with a side of 2 Ezekiel bread toasts and a couple of pieces of diced pineapple. I’ll also supplement with 4 fish oil capsules and 3 vitamin D softgels that I will take down with half a cup of pomegranate juice.
Hands down healthiest and best-tasting bread ever!
- Prepare my post-workout smoothie by throwing all the necessary ingredients in the blender, while drinking a cup of green tea.
- Pack my gymbag with clean clothes, post-workout smoothie and anything I might need for my training.
- Crack open a Spike shooter (which has carefully been placed in the fridge for optimal coldness the night before) and head for the Ferrari in the parking lot that’s gonna drive me to the gym.
Allright, my ’96 Corolla might not be exactly like a Ferrari, but it’s still red…and it’s WAY faster!
- Drive to the gym, while sipping my delicious Spike shooter and listening to music that goes from “let’s start to get ready” on low-moderate volume when I leave home to “let’s smash babies everywhere” on very high volume when I arrive at the gym! This is the part where I usually get really fired up to lift.
I’m not sure if it’s the Spike or the music that gets me so fired up…
- Drop my stuff, foam roll, dynamic warm up and I’m ready to roll!
Combine all those factors and I have a 100% chances of being mentally and physically prepared to lift.
The answer is most likely: YES! If you’re living the northern part of the United-States (above North Carolina) or in Canada, it is now that time of the year where the days become shorter, it rains almost every single day and the sun barely shows up. All of these factors mean that our vitamin D levels are dropping significantly because our main source is from sun light.
Even during the summer, we need to be exposed to the sun between 10 and 2 in the afternoon (where the sun rays are stronger) for at least 30 minutes to maintain adequate levels of vitamin D. Just imagine now, what it takes during the fall and winter months where the sun rays are weaker and the sun light time is becoming almost non-existent to get enough sun exposure. We could get our intake from food sources like fatty fish and fortified milk, but honestly that is far from enough.
But why are vitamin D levels so important? The thing is that vitamin D acts more like a hormone in the body rather than just a simple vitamin: it is associated with testosterone and other hormones in the body as well as having an impact on mood and fatigue. In fact, low vitamin D levels have been associated with different types of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, chronic fatigue and depression. If that doesn’t convince you to get your D levels in check, I don’t know what will.
There are different sources of vitamin D supplements out there (tablet, drops, spray) and the recommendations may vary from one expert to another. I used to recommend taking 1,000 IU per day and bump that intake to 2,000 IU during the fall and winter months, but that might not even be enough. The truth is that everybody’s different and it is very hard to know individual needs. I’ve heard of some people that needed for up to 10,000 IU per day for a 3 months period to bring their levels back up to normal. For that reason, I’d strongly suggest that you get your vitamin D levels tested. This is the best way to know how much you should take in. If that is not a possible option with a doctor for you, there’s a good alternative: Bioletics, a company that my colleague Eric Cressey has talked about in the past, makes home tests that you can order online for a very reasonable price. Ideal serum concentration should be between 40-70 Ng/ml with less than 20 Ng/ml being very deficient.
When did this become a healthy breakfast?
