Low Cost, Effective Home Training Routine, Part Two

This is part two of the Low Cost Home Training Program I posted up just before. I made the videos last summer and thought some new people might like to give it a try. These are serious routines and you will see good results if you do each of them twice weekly with suitable eating habits.

Here's the Pulling routine. The other one was the Pushing routine, remember?

Routine Description:

Warm Up: TRX Reverse Flies and Front Raises

I did 3 sets of 20 (10 reps of each movement) just as a nice warm up for the shoulders and upper back muscles.

TRX Hanging Row:

In the gym I’d probably be doing a cable row, machine row, even a dumbbell row… any type of horizontal pulling movement. Here I’ve gone for the TRX variation, and I’m leaning back as far as possible so that I’m pulling as much of my body weight as I can.
I managed 4 sets of 16 reps here, you should aim for 10 - 12 reps.

Resistance Band One Arm Reverse Flies

Here I’m trying to replicate a Reverse Cable Fly that I might do in the gym. In my program we’d call this a Precision Movement trying to target the rear deltoid muscle specifically.
Do 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps.

Resistance Band Upright Row

Usually I’d do this with a barbell in the gym, but a resistance band will suffice at home or on holiday. We want to be pulling our elbows straight up into the air, and our hands to about middle-of-the-chest height.
4 sets of 10 - 12 reps again here.

Pull Ups / Chin Ups

Vertical Pulling movement. Self explanatory! These are tough though, so don't be too upset if you can't manage them as a beginner.

Resistance Band Reverse Flies

Again. This is probably over kill having already done a TRX version and a single arm version, but I wanted to show a few different options.

Resistance Band Bicep Curls

Squeeze those biceps at the top and release slowly.
4 sets of 12 - 16 reps.


Not shown in the video, but do these too.Google them if you have to.


Hip Thrust / Glute Bridge 4 x 20 reps.
Hip Rotation aka Clam Shell Exercise, or Fire Hydrant Exercise 4 x 20 reps each side.
Hip Abduction aka Laying Side Leg Raise 4 x 20 reps each side.

Read More

Low Cost, Effective Home Training Routine, Part One

I shot these videos last summer and thought I'd share them again for all the people looking to get into shape as part of their New Years Resolutions.

Now, it's like I talk about all the time. If you actually want results you need to train productively, not just "burn calories". Resistance training really is the key, but weights are expensive! On a budget, some resistance bands and a suspension trainer are a great option to train seriously at home.

Today's routine is based on pushing movements, and accessory exercises that compliment them.

Routine Description:

Warm Up: Resistance Band One Arm Flies

I usually start this routine with Pec Dec in the gym. A dumbbell or cable fly is a similar movement, and the resistance band fly is the option we’ll use with the home routine. If you had two sets of the same bands (and really they’re not very expensive, so that’s worth thinking about) you could do both sides together… or one at a time like I am doing here. I’m adding a little extra shoulder rotation to the end of the movement here which I feel gives me just that little extra bit of contraction in the pectorals.
Do 3 sets of 12 - 16 reps of these.

Horizontal Push: Push Ups

We could do a Chest Press with the Resistance Bands, but I feel like Push Ups are as good an option as any. You can see I start with a beginners version, leaning against the railing… and then I do a more advanced version with my feet elevated. If you have the TRX and are really looking for an advanced option you can have your feet in the straps which means a lot of extra work to stabalise yourself.
Do 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps.

Various Squats

I think the TRX Squats are a really good method to learn good, deep squatting technique. You can lean back into the squat a little and you have the handles to hang on to for balance, and you can squat nice and deep. Once that’s too easy, try either the one legged (pistol) squat or the one legged lunge. These damn near killed me. You can see some discrepancy with my form from one side to the other as well… if only I’d had a coach there to point that out at the time!
4 sets of as many as you can manage!

Resistance Band Front Raise

Coming back to upper body, and this is a nice one to target the shoulders. Anterior Deltoid muscle in particular.
Do 2 x 12 - 16 reps.

Resistance Band Side Lateral Raise

Shoulders again, this time trying to hit the Lateral (or middle if you prefer) Deltoid. With both this and the above exercise, try to have a little pause at the top of the movement, and then return slowly to the starting position.
Do 3 x 12 - 16 reps.

Vertical Push: Resistance Band Shoulder Press

Much like performing a Dumbbell Shoulder Press in the gym, but with the Resistance Bands instead.
Do 3 x 10 - 12 reps.

Resistance Band Overhead Tricep Extension

Self explanatory, isn’t it? You could do a variation on Cable Kickbacks here as well, which I quite like.
Do 3 x 12 - 16 reps.

Here's the link to the next routine.

Read More

Masterpost: All detoxes are a scam.

I decided a "master post" is where I dump EVERY link I can find addressing a particular source of nonsense, quackery, pseudoscience or scammery. In this case, "detoxing".

Here it comes, hold on to your hats.

First though, you may well ask "if all these things are scams, how do they get away with selling them?" well you may be sorry that you asked. Here's a great video that explains it.

You want more links explaining why "detox" is junk science? You got it.

• Detox Diet Deliberations.
• Detoxes: An Undefined Scam.
• The ultimate detox: your kidneys.
• Quackwatch.org  detox overview
• The Crap That Is Colon Cleansing
• Elitefitnessmentoring: A bit of common sense shows us that this is total BS.
• Detox programs amount to a large quantity of excrement, both literally and figuratively.
• You Can't Detox Your Body. So How DO You Get Healthy?
• What the marketers of detox products have done is made the term “detox” meaningless – actually the term now is nothing but a red flag for snake oil.
• The idea that we need to follow a special diet to help our body eliminate toxins is not supported by medical science.
• There are multiple case reports and case series that describe the adverse effects of colonic cleansing. 
• Sciencebasedmedicine.org Fashionable Toxins
• Alternative medicine’s ideas of detoxification and cleansing have no basis in reality. 
• it might be gentler to think of it as a voluntary, self-administered tax on scientific illiteracy and decadence.
• Detox diets myths vs reality
• There’s no such thing as ‘detoxing’. In medical terms, it’s a nonsense. Diet and exercise is the only way to get healthy.

A few updates, as if we didn't know these products were bad enough already:

• Proceed with caution: The tea that’s making women pregnant.
• Unexpected Pregnancies Caused By Popular Tea Detox That Can Stop The Pill From Working
• Women having surprise pregnancies 'can be traced back to tea detox'
• Why Detox Diets and Cleanses Always Fail
• Fancy Juice Doesn’t Cleanse the Body of Toxins 
• Products that promise “detox” are a sham. Yes, all of them. 

And another video for good measure.

Read More

Gabrielle Maston: Orthorexia Is Real

Gabrielle Maston: Orthorexia Is Real:

This topic has been a long time coming - orthorexia.  Haven’t heard of it before?
 
Well I will inform you, it’s a form of an eating disorder where someone has an extreme or excessive preoccupation with avoiding what is perceived as unhealthy “bad” foods. 

Click the link to read the full article.

Read More

Ugh this whole raw milk fiasco. Wow.

In the center of the drinks fridge,
but not to be drunk?

No pun intended, but this is hard for me to process. Possibly due to my background in the security industry, my brain likes to just write people off as bad, scumbags, or whatever, because that's the simplest explanation for unconscionable behaviour. Some of the things I dealt with in the past... trying to make sense of it will drive you around the twist, it's better to just say "because he's a shitbag" and move on and not let it upset you too much.

So, thinking about it now, that's probably why I'm less than diplomatic with certain of these self appointed health experts, who I'll just call straight out as scumbags who've just made up some load of bullshit, potentially harmful, and are making a fortune selling it at an inflated price to vulnerable people after scaring them off conventional, safe things.

Now these people with the raw milk though...

Here's some of what we know.

• We know that before pasteurisation, people often got sick and / or died as a result of drinking tainted milk.
• We know that it is illegal to sell non-pasteurised milk for human consumption.
• We know that 4 children became seriously ill and one died after drinking "raw" unpasteurised milk.

To be fair that is all we know right now. It is yet to be established that the milk was actually responsible for this. It seems likely, sure... but let's be fair and not draw our own conclusion and treat it like an established fact when it isn't.

The supplier though. This is where I have mixed feelings.

Judging from their comments in the news article and from some posts (some now removed) they've made on social media, they clearly do think it is ok and in fact preferable to drink unpasteurised milk. There is an arm of the anti-vac, anti-flouride, "everything as close to natural as possible" type movement that is anti pasteurisation and pro raw milk too... it's not just these particular people.

So, I'm not sure if these guys are anti-all that other stuff as well but it does appear that they are advocates of drinking raw milk and the "bath milk not for consumption" sticker is just a nudge nudge wink wink way to circumvent the laws against selling raw milk for human consumption. Laws that are in place for our safety.

So for that and keeping in mind what I said earlier, my first inclination is just to write 'em off as more scumbags pushing dangerous and overpriced goods, pretending that they're healthier products than you'd get from a conventional source. I looked at their FB page though and it is all pictures of happy, well cared for cows and other animals. No one who loves animals that much can really be a bad person, in my mind anyway.

What I am experiencing at this point is called "cognitive dissonance". Two conflicting conclusions on observation of the same situation.

What you can probably take from it is that is possible for even the best people to be misguided. And when you think about it, the food standards laws that we do have do such a good job of preventing the illnesses and diseases they are designed to protect us from, that it's probably easy to get complacent like "oh that's a lot of fuss over nothing, it's all perfectly fine". It kind of reminds me of the Y2K bug... once a problem is solved, people forget what a problem it was. And and some point after that, people start to think there was never a problem in the first place and the solution to that problem is unnecessary or a scam.

That's probably understandable and excusable. Not to say it is excuses trying to circumvent the law of the land, but it is understandable that people might be complacent to the dangers of improperly handled food, untreated milk and so on. Which is all the more reason for the importance to be driven home in the process of businesses or individuals attaining a certification in safe food handling.

As a responsible adult you then have the obligation to take these matters seriously, as you DO know better, you've been presented with all the information, and it is indefensible to simply choose to dismiss it. This is the same argument I have with people in my industry who promote unnecessary, restrictive approaches to dieting. You have been taught better, and just chosen to ignore what you've been taught and do something irresponsible with the potential to do harm to others who come to you in good faith.

The big picture.

You can do a google search on "raw milk healthier" and what you'll find is a lot of the claims about treated milk being "stripped of it's nutrients", too high in carbs, causing disease and so on. Also claims that raw milk cures all manner of diseases. Also a bunch of conspiracy theories similar to the anti-vax, anti-flouride, and other "big pharma / big agriculture" type of nonsense as we touched on earlier.

All of that is completely made up, imaginary, and with literally zero basis in reality. What is a concerning trend these days though, is for people to just choose their own version of reality, their own facts, and insist upon their version being correct and everything else being a lie, regardless of a complete lack of supporting evidence and overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In this case, it's all this talk about raw milk being a "healthier, more nutritious" choice.

It just isn't.

This phenomenon is explained to an extent by what is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, which describes how people with limited knowledge on a subject will assume a position of authority or expertise on that subject, because in actuality they do not even know enough about it to realise how much they do not know about it!

Now not to be a hypocrite, I'm writing here about the dangers of raw milk when I'm not an authority on the subject. I'm a trainer, not a microbiologist. That though, is why I'm happy to defer to the authority of the people who research these matters professionally. Which is not to say that we should blindly kowtow to authority figures as if they could never be wrong or mistaken... but if you have the choice between the scientific community as a collective, and the people who specialise in a specific field in particular vs someone who just has a strong opinion but no credentials, someone who has just decided "this is how I reckon it is"... who would you reasonably expect to be more likely to be correct?

So this isn't so much an essay on the dangers of raw milk so much as it is about the dangers of the Dunning-Kruger effect run rampant, and the trend towards the dismissal of real science in favour of "feelpinions". Especially it is an essay about the dangers of being complacent in regards to other people's health and wellbeing, and the moral obligation as adults to act responsibly.

In the case of treated vs raw milk though. As I said elsewhere last night, you have got one option that's safe and healthy, and you've got another option that comes with a risk and is also illegal. What possible reason is there to choose the latter option?

Whichever side of the debate you are on, I invite you to come and discuss this matter on facebook.

Read More