Chris points us to an interesting study involving circadian rhythm and weight gain (to be fair, Melissa sent it to me first, but she doesn’t have a blog).  In the study, nocturnal rats fed during what would have been their sleeping hours gained more weight than rats fed during their waking hours, despite the same overall intake and energy expenditure.

(BTW, if any of you have the full text of the study, might I request a copy?  Pretty please?)

What’s interesting to me is not just the physiological implications of the study (that there might be some unique mechanism that causes animals to store fat more effectively during their snoozing hours), but the statements the obesity experts were quoted as saying:

“How or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it is clearly not just calories in and calories out,” said Fred Turek, from the Northwestern’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, where the research took place.  “Better timing of meals could be a critical element in slowing the ever-increasing incidence of obesity.”

and

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, agreed. He said: “It is groundbreaking. It really gets you thinking why this has not been done before.  It could be very dramatic if it affects whether you are going to get fat or not.”

Are you kidding me?

“Better timing of meals?”

“Groundbreaking?”

“Affects whether you are going to get fat or not?”

The study looked at rats that were eating during their sleeping hours.  While I don’t doubt there are some overfat folks eating during the hours they should be sleeping, I highly doubt that 64% of Americans are waking up in the middle of the night and chowing down.  Or perhaps they’re suggesting we’re all operating on schedules that run counter to our normal Circadian rhythms? And these guys are supposed to be experts?

What these folks do is what clients and trainees often do – they lose the forest for the trees.  It’s all too easy to get bogged down in the myriad details of the (admittedly) complex picture of fat loss and lose sight of the one or two most important things which, if done consistently, would yield you 80% or more of the results you’re looking for.  Believe me, if you’re having trouble losing weight, it isn’t because you should be on vampire hours.

There’s nothing wrong with seeking new information or looking to add to your understanding.  But figure out how it falls into the larger picture.

A fellow trainer (name withheld) asks me how I can be so nice to my clients all the time, even when it’s clear they aren’t even trying.

The answer’s simple:  To them, they are trying.  They don’t know how far they are from fulfilling their potential.  In fact, their actual “potential” is as inconceivable to them as beating Deep Blue with a couple of pawns is to me (BTW, I’m horrible at chess).

There are two truisms for novice trainees I’d like to invoke here:

Truism #1:  You’re probably not exercising as hard as you think you are.

Truism#2 (the more important one, IMHO):  Not only are you not exercising as hard as you think you are, you’re not even working hard enough to produce meaningful results.  So there.

But that’s ok, because the initial beginner period isn’t about working hard or “losing 26 1/2 pounds in 2 weeks” or whatever.  It’s about obtaining technical proficiency in the exercises you’re doing, and about learning to care.

Daniel Coyle describes a young girl learning a new piece of music.  He writes:

It sounds pretty bad.  It’s not music; it’s a broken-up, fitful, slow-motion batch of notes riddled with stops and misses.  Common sense would lead us to believe that Clarissa is failing.  But in this case common sense would be dead wrong.

He argues:

…experiences where you’re forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them…end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it.

What this implies for a novice trainee is:

1) Their ability to exercise safely with effort is a skill that needs to be practiced.  Over and over and over again, if necessary (and it usually is).

2) Prepare for a long period of “suck” at the beginning.

Most normal people (”normal” meaning not unhealthly obsessed with the intermittent lifting of heavy things) don’t see the value in grinding out an arduous set of say, squats, for a “meager gain” of an extra pound or two (or five).  Luckily, this is as trainable as the ability to actually grind out an arduous yet technically proficient set of squats.  Whether it’s because you tie the exercise to your goals (”Press that weight up – it’s short-sleeves weather!”) or because you become a fitness savant, familiarity in this case breeds self-motivation.  People naturally want to be effective (even if the outcome isn’t necessarily so).

But the rub is that long period of “suck.”  Almost always accompanied by much whining, complaining, cajoling, and gnashing and wailing.  Change – particularly important change – is hard.  And so it’s nice to have a pleasant guide doling out the beatings.

So if you or someone you know is just starting out in their exercise and nutrition odyssey, be patient.  Some people just have to wade through more “suck”  than others.

(The irony – I’ve been deadlifting for years and am still wading through my deadlift “suck.”)

Most people believe that operating an SUV with the windows open is more fuel efficient than running it with the A/C cranked.  But if you run tests and gather actual data, you’ll find the opposite to be true (legions of sweaty passengers thank you, Savage and Hyneman).

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a field more built on mythology than exercise.  I doubt you’d be able to come up a similar industry that so often takes hearsay for gospel.  Perhaps this is why trainers and customers alike so readily fall for the latest fitness fads.

Back to the point:  Take what you hear as “fitness and nutrition gospel” with a grain of salt (for example, the admonition that salt raises blood pressure).  Am I saying that you should throw away your running shoes, junk your weights set, or eschew fruits and veggies for fried Coke and potato wedges?  No – well, maybe you could stand to stop running – but what I am saying is that you are responsible for your own health and well being.  Don’t blindly trust news outlets with overhyped headlines (really just press releases from labs hawking their latest wares).  Read the studies yourself.  Probe deeper than the surface.  And do yourself a favor and don’t stop at the written word – put it into practice.  Keith Norris’ blog (good blog, BTW) puts it perfectly – Theory Into Practice.

Your life is really just one big experiment with a subject population of n=1.  So go gather some data.  Test yourself.

I’d like to apologize to the readers of this blog for my inactivity as of late.  Several interesting changes have occurred in my life recently, two of which are notable enough to me to actually mention:

First, I received my purple belt in BJJ.  To say I was stoked is an incredible understatement.  I refer you to my previous post about “owning a belt” for my feelings on this one.

Second (and probably more importantly), I became a foster father to three kids.  Let me state for the record that all the things they say about parenting being a full-time job are true, and then some.

Long story short, I’ve been slacking a bit on all non-essential (as in, the-world-won’t-stop-turning-on-its-axis-if-I-don’t-get-it-done) projects, including (to my dismay) this blog.  My sincere apologies; I’m resolved to get back on track once I’ve got my time better figured out.

The observation: I’m still training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and I’m still lifting weights.  Although my life has turned upside down, I still make time to tend to the things that matter most to me second to my family – my avocation, and my health.  It’s got to be the same for you as well.  We’ve all got things that get in the way of getting in shape (whatever that means to you), and it’s all too easy to let these things bar you from your potential.  Don’t let them – make fitness a commitment in your life, even if it’s in trickles and spurts at first.  It gets easier, I promise.

Thanks for reading.  And for putting up with me.

P.S. – Anyone got any good ideas for low-carb kid-friendly dinners?  Particularly for kids who’ve grown up loving carbs?

Yesterday a client asked me if I listened to my iPod during my workouts, to which I responded, “Never.”  Incredulous, she asked how I managed to block out external distractions (like other people, for instance) while strength training, and my embarassingly lame response was, “I don’t know; I guess I just focus.”

Aside: I learned how to focus when I cut my teeth in my local college’s gym years ago.  Being the sole 12 year old Asian nerd in a sweathog gym with college linebackers walking around, you quickly learn to be aware of and yet ignore loud, sweaty dudes throwing iron all around you.

You may hem and haw about how much you don’t like to exercise.  You can complain all you want about how much work lifting weights is.  You can cry and moan all you want about how unfair it is that you have to keep working out, over and over and over again, lest you lose your hard-earned muscle.  Heck, you can even whine between exercises.  But when it comes down to the work, don’t meta-exercise.  Focus on your efforts, keeping your technique as perfect as possible.

Meta-exercise?

It’s a made-up term, of course.  It refers to meta-level (or abstract) discussion of exercise.  As in:

• Saying to yourself, “It’s too heavy” before you pick up the weight
• Thinking about whether or not you should use machines, free weights, kettlebells, or other human bodies
• Worrying about whether or not your program is too simple/complex/long/short
• Arguing over the Internet over whether single or multiple sets of an exercise are required for optimum muscle growth

…in lieu of exhibiting consistency, discipline, and effort in an actual nutrition and exercise program.

All of these things are great distractions from getting down to business – i.e., the actual process of exercising.  Don’t meta-exercise.  Focus, and get things done.

Either you hate the new Watchmen movie or you love it.  Some people won’t be able to get past the violence.  Some will be turned off by the full-frontal nudity and the laugh-out-loud ridiculousness of scoring a sex scene with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelulah.”  And some people just flat-out won’t get it.

If you’re attentive (or a fanboy, like me), you’ll understand that Watchmen isn’t a story about superheroes, but a morality tale on the nature of good and evil.  You’ll not only get it, you’ll see how necessary the shocking bits are to the narrative.

Same is true for exercise and eating right.  Some will accuse you of unnecessarily depriving yourself.  You might be frowned upon for vanity.  Some people might try strength training but be scared off by the discomfort or the effort or the fact that you tend to make really funny faces when exerting said effort.

Those people don’t get it.  And sadly, they won’t reap the benefits of exercising, either.

For a while, fitness was all about health.  All the writings from the early days of Physical Culture pay tribute not just to the prodigious amounts John Grimek and Abbye Stockton could lift, but to their glowing skin, radiant spirits, and general exuberance of health.

Then, in the 60s and 70s, fitness became all about pushing the envelope.  More miles are better, said Dr. Kenneth Cooper.  2 hours in the gym lifting weights (for one bodypart!) became the norm, then twice a day workouts.  If 30 sets for chest was good, then 60 must be twice as good, right?

Next, the pendulum swung the other way.  Exercise became all about how fast you could get in and out of the gym.  We had fartlek training, Spinning, and wind sprints.  Mike Mentzer preached the efficacy of doing only three sets total (total, for your whole body) per workout.  Did I mention you were only supposed to work out once every two weeks?

The trend is now swinging back towards Olde-Tyme methods of building your body:  Kettlebells, sandbags, keg lifting, bodyweight workouts (to put this in perspective for non-fitness industry types, it would be as if all the contractors in the world threw out their nail guns and mechanical screwdrivers and went back to using hammers and hand-held screwdrivers).   Luckily, the emphasis is back on health.

If you ask me, exercise for health’s sake never went out of style.  The methods may change, but what we wanted was always the same – the look, feel, and expression of vibrant health.

(I’m a notoriously poor soothsayer (my UFC picks always lose) and not all that great of a pundit.  So you’ll have to go with my knowledge and experience on this one.)

Good luck this weekend, although from what I’ve gleaned from your wife you don’t need it.

Above: Not your competition (lucky for you).