Welcome to the Pacific Elite Fitness newsletter!
Special Announcement - FREE shipping!
Click here to visit the brand new supplements page at Pacific Elite Fitness and use the special newsletter discount code: IMPAX08 for FREE shipping on any order. This offer limited to newsletter recipients only.
Featured Link: The Pacific Elite Fitness laboratory and medical affiliate in Spokane, Washington: Champions Sports Medicine.
Registered for Ironman? Ironman Coeur D' Alene Critical Speed Camp will feature Ben Greenfield as a guest coach and will run May 10-May 14, 2008 in Coeur D' Alene Idaho. Click here for more information.
Check out Ben Greenfield's Triathlon Adventure blog, featuring the twins, triathlon, and hilly bike climbs! Leave a comment or simply peruse Ben's musings.
Unbreakable optics? Ben Greenfield's tn sunglasses now available from Pacific Elite Fitness. Click here for more information.
Featured Triathlete Product
CordygenVO2 from Millenium Sports Technology contains cordyceps, jiaogulan extract, rhodiola and a unique blend of electrolytes. Ben Greenfield takes 3 capsules prior to endurance sports. Check it out here!
Ben Greenfield's 2008 multi-sport race season sponsors:
Blue Seventy wetsuits - Ben Greenfield's official wetsuit sponsor for the 2008 race season!
Did you know that Ben Greenfield's coached triathletes receive the following perks?
- 8% discount on Ergomo power meters
- 25% discount on tn sunglasses
- 35% discount from Millennium Sport Technologies
- 28% discount from Impax
- 40% discount from nuun
- 20% discount from PowerTap
- 15% discount from Hammer Nutrition
Click here to view triathlon coaching options and get started as early as this weekend!
n6 clothing specializes in high-quality, affordable apparel for swimmers and multi-sports athletes. Check them out!
Feature Articles in this newsletter:
- Hot Off the Press: Ben Greenfield voted as National 2008 Personal Trainer of the Year
SPOKANE, WA—APRIL 30, 2008— Ben Greenfield, an exercise physiologist, nutritionist and personal trainer at Champions Sports Medicine in Spokane, WA, has been awarded the distinct honor of 2008 Personal Trainer of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). The NSCA is an international nonprofit educational association founded in 1978 for the purpose of developing and presenting information regarding strength training, conditioning, injury prevention, and research findings. A personal training certification by the NSCA is nationally recognized as one of the highest attainable credentials among fitness professionals.
Candidates for Personal Trainer of the Year are judged based upon continuing education, credentials, publications, volunteer service, clinic and committee involvement. Greenfield will be honored at the National Conference Awards Reception in Las Vegas, NV, on Friday, July 11, 2008.
You can now look for Ben to be featured in magazines such as Men's Health, Shape, and Triathlete Magazine, as well as on national television features on fitness.
What does this mean for you?
It means you have full online access to the best personal trainer in the nation. Period.
All training programs from Pacific Elite Fitness and Ben Greenfield offer concierge style nutritional and fitness support, with daily workouts, exercise descriptions, nutrition tracking, unlimited e-mail access, phone conversations with Ben and much, much more. If you want results and you want the best trainer possible, then you
Interested in general fitness, nutrition help or personal training? Click here.
Need a triathlon coach? Click here.
Or simply e-mail Ben your direct questions by clicking here.
It's very easy to get fat when you fly. Traveling, especially via airplane, may be one of the best possible methods for you to pack a few extra pounds on your waistline.
Think about it. Not only are you sedentary for long periods of time in the car, shuttle van, airport terminal, airplane and taxi, but you're also dehydrated (water is completely necessary for the fat burning process), living off packaged food products (the body takes any unmetabolized preservatives in those packages and stores them as fat cells), and slightly stressed (cortisol, the body's stress release hormone, triggers fat storage).
Wow, what a great 1-2-3 combo for individuals with lofty fat gain goals!
As a case study on the success of a person trying to get fat while flying, let's follow Laura (a real client of mine) from her home to her final destination. Laura's name has been changed to protect her identity, but these travel tidbits were gleaned from Laura's online nutrition log and our e-mail discussion afterwards.
Laura's flight leaves at 10am. She is very careful from the time she wakes to the time she drives to the airport to avoid any purposeful physical activity, as this will enhance her body's natural metabolic rate for up to 24 hours and cause her to burn more calories every hour she sits on the airplane. Although she could go for a brief 20 minute walk or jog, perform 5 sets of 20 jumping jacks while she listens to the morning news, or do a brief 15 minute body weight exercise circuit, she insteads checks her e-mail, check in online for her flight, and makes two phone calls. These are activities she could have done at the airport, but she was able to avoid exercise by performing them at home.
Laura did not eat breakfast. This was an especially good idea, because she shut down the body's natural calorie burning process and sent a message to her brain that caloric restriction was present and fat storage may be a necessary mode of action. This way, everything she eats the rest of the day is more likely to be stored as fat, and she will have a good appetite once beginning travel.
Before leaving for the airport, Laura double checks her bag to make sure she hasn't packed any food from home. Although she could have put some sugar snap peas in a ziplock bag, wrapped an apple in a paper towel to keep in her purse, grabbed another small baggie of almonds for long term energy, and included some mint gum to keep her from mindless snacking on the plane, she instead departs with calorie-free luggage.
At the airport, while waiting for her flight to leave, Laura is very careful to continue avoiding engagement in physical activity. She does make sure to purchase a latte, which will give her 200 calories of nutritionally devoid fuel and help to further dehydrate her body, and she does sit and read the paper. Although she could have had a cup of green tea with a teabag from home and free cup of hot water from the coffee-shop, with far less caffeine than coffee, and although she could have read the paper on the plane, where she would be forced to sit, and although she could have performed some light stretching or calisthenics in the empty gate at C9, she is trying to successfully gain fat, and cannot make these choices without risking a metabolism boost.
Finally, Laura is on the plane for the first 3 hour flight to Denver, where she has a 1 hour layover, followed by a 1.5 hour flight to Phoenix. While on the plane, Laura asks for cranberry juice. This was a mistake in her fat-gain plan. She thought cranberry juice was healthy and was making an attempt not to gain fat too quickly with this choice. However, as it turns outs, the cranberry juice was a perfect decision because it will rapidly boost her blood sugar, causing an immediate insulin release, and sending her body directly into fat storage mode. Success!
Laura is very hungry now. She doesn't realize that the large spike in insulin caused a quick drop in blood sugar and sent her appetite through the roof. Whatever has happened, she knows she is in a perfect situation to gain fat by making a dietary decision based on appetite cravings rather than rational choice. She takes one extra bag of pretzels. The pretzels say low-calorie and fat-free, but the body responds to pretzels the same way as cranberry juice. Laura is glad she did not pack food for the plane, because otherwise, she would have been equipped to avoid these fat-gain decisions, and might have instead simply opted for a glass of sparkling water with a lemon wedge, to drink with her apple and almonds.
Laura is very careful to avoid the "Rule of 1 Hour-1 Minute" on the airplane. This rule clearly dictates that you cannot sit for more than 1 hour on an airplane without standing for at least 1 minute and performing some form of a simple stretch or exercise, such as an 20 shouler shrugs, 10 toe raises, or 15 body weight squats in the lavatory.This is a very good way to keep the metabolism elevated while traveling, and Laura must avoid that.
In the Denver airport, Laura goes to the Chinese food vendor. She orders a vegetable-chicken bowl on whole wheat noodles. This bowl begins with whole wheat noodles that have been given a chance to absorb 200 extra calories of vegetable oil, high in free radicals and fats. The noodles, while appearing to be healthy with the "whole-wheat" label, actually have the same glycemic index as white bread, meaning that there is no difference in consuming the noodles vs. consuming 10 spoonfuls of table sugar. Many whole wheat products are like this, but Laura still feels slightly guilty about the whole wheat noodles, because it sounds healthy.
Over the whole wheat noodles are piled a 1/4 cup of vegetables (also drenched in the vegetable oil and seasoned with MSG), as well as a 1/4 cup of hormone-infused chicken breast (which will help infuse synthetic fat-gaining estrogens into her body). Laura lightly seasons this meal with high-sodium soy sauce (which will help to raise her blood pressure, a good side objective while gaining fat).
This was an easy choice for Laura's fat gain goals. Such an easy choice, in fact, that she didn't even notice the dangerous alternative - the small bag of almonds and raisins for sale at the Starbuck's across the airport aisle, which would have been paired nicely with a cup of white tea sprinkled with cinnamon and perhaps a banana or apple from the basket of fresh fruit besides the cashier machine. Has she made these observations, she would have severely hampered her fat gain goals.
She made sure to take the walking belt and the escalators to her next gate, avoiding stairs and long periods of physical activity, although this would have been a perfect time to walk and make the phone calls that she made while skipping exercise earlier that morning.
The next flight offered a small meal. Laura had completely avoid logging onto the internet and requesting a "diabetic" meal on her flight. Although she isn't technically a diabetic, she would have been likely to receive a meal with low-glycemic index food and healthier vegetable based alternatives, and this would have disrupted her fat gain while flying. The actual food was nasty. It would clearly have helped her gain fat, but she couldn't stomach the taste. She had a diet coke instead, which was full of artificial sweeteners to help boost her insulin levels and cause appetite cravings.
Finally, Laura arrived in Phoenix, still full of these convenient appetite cravings from the diet coke. She didn't want to spend money on expensive food at the airport, and waited to eat until catching the shuttle to the rental car terminal, filling out the rental car paperwork, driving 10 miles, and finally stopping at a shopping mall complex, where she went to TCBY's frozen yogurt for her favorite treat and a reward for a long day of travel. During the course of this time, she might have been able to eat those sugar snap peas to fill her with fiber and keep her appetite satiated, so it was a good thing she didn't bring those along! She orderd the "fat-free" cappucino flavor, which was the equivalent of eight additional tablespoons of insulin-boosted sugar. She had peanuts for a topping, which is a legume known for containing large amounts of afflatoxin, another great way to gain fat cells. She made sure to avoid drinking water with this snack, as she knew her dehydration would severly inhibit fat burning.
With the quick drop in blood sugar from the huge insulin release, she finally arrived at her hotel 45 minutes later starved and ready for a late night snack at the hotel restaurant. She ordered a 1400 calorie chicken-caesar salad and sat back contented to have successfully gotten very fat while flying. She was very sure not to order her dressing on the side, not to ask for the chicken grilled instead of fried, and not to ask the waiter to leave off the Parmesan cheese, as this would have cut the salad calories by 60%.
Good job Laura! A successful day of getting fat while you fly. For these and other tips on getting fat, you can sign up for a month of nutrition coaching with Ben.
Ben Greenfield
MS, C-ISSN, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
So what the heck is actually in all those colorful bottles and jugs in the nutritional supplement section of your local gym or health club? More importantly, do they actually work? And if they do, are they just for athletes or for people trying to lose mass amounts of weight? To address these questions, I meandered into my local gym and asked to check out their nutritional supplement offerings.
I literally took each bottle off the shelf and inspected the label. Without any further ado, here's the results:
Fat Burn: Pyruvate
Pyruvate is basically an intermediate compound in your body's carbohydrate burning cycle. This carb burning cycle acts like a wheel that spins at certain rate. The faster the wheel spins, the more carbs you burn. By increasing the amount of available pyruvate, this supplement would speed up the wheel. When combined with a low calorie diet, this can be effective, especially if you have a high carb intake. This supplement would be most useful for individuals trying to speed up their metabolism without feeling the "overdrive" effect of energy supplements and caffeine.
Fat Burn: Thermogenics
Just as the name implies, thermogenics increase the body's core temperature, while also stimulating release of fat cells for energy and regulating appetite. People who are not overly sensitive to caffeine or other central nervous system stimulants can actually benefit from this boost to the metabolism. Athletes may also find something like this useful as an ergogenic aid to increase awareness and conserve the body's carbohydrate stores by burning more fat.
Carb Resist Formula - HCA
The primary ingredient in this supplement is hydroxy citric acid. This compound can help reduce carbohydrate conversion to fat and instead cause formation of glycogen, your body's storage carbohydrate. This process actually tricks your brain into thinking that food is present in excess, thereby controlling your appetite. This would be useful for compulsive eaters or individuals attempting to control caloric intake.
Carb Resist Formula - CCK
CCK stands for "Cholesystokinin", which is a protein used by your body to control appetite. Normally when you eat food, you digestive system release CCK, and this causes your nervous system to send a signal to the brain that you're "full and satisfied". By presenting CCK in the absence of food, this supplement achieves the same result without the calories. Again useful for people who just need to control their appetite.
Glucosamine-Chondroitin Joint Support
Most of us have dealt with joint pain or arthritis-like symptoms at some point, especially with high amounts of exercise. Glucosamine and chondroitin act by attracting water into a joint (which enhances lubrication), forming healthy joint bone tissue and reducing the level of cartilage-destroying compounds in the joint. Many individuals claim a significant amount of reduced joint pain upon supplementing with a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin.
Children's Multivitamin
In the absence of a proper and complete diet (which defines most typical Western diets), kids often need more than just food in order to develop properly. While you shouldn't use multi-vitamins as a crutch to ignore poor dietary habits, supplying your kids with a complete array of multivitamins and minerals in a tasty chewable form is a good idea.
Multivitamin for Protein Diet & Multivitamin for Carb Diet
Depending on the type of diet you consume, you will have a higher requirement for certain arrays of enzymes, minerals, and vitamins. For instance, an individual consuming a high protein diet with lots of animal meats will have a lower need for supplements like vitamin B and iron. By categorizing multi-vitamins according to macronutrient intake, these allow you to avoid ingesting excess compounds that you may not need, while still obtaining adequate vitamin levels.
Antioxidants
Exercise, pollution, and environmental toxins produce free radicals in our bodies, which can contribute to cell membrane and muscle tissue damage, while at the same time inhibiting proper recovery and immune system integrity. An antioxidant formula contains an array of natural compounds designed to "scavenge and destroy" free radicals. Even though fruits and vegetables also contain high amounts of antioxidants, if you exercise regularly or with a large amount of intensity, your recovery would be highly enhanced by including antioxidants in your diet.
Vitamin C
High doses of vitamin C have been suggested to enhance immune system strength, maximize the immune system response, and decrease levels of free radicals. Especially during cold and flu season, this can be useful. A vitamin C supplement provides a packaged and convenient way to get your vitamin C, which is nice when you just don't have time to reach for the OJ.
Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's)
Amino acids are the building blocks for protein formation, which your body especially needs after heavy amounts of a muscle tearing exercise, such as resistance training. Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine are the three amino acids found in most BCAA supplements, and can not only help minimize muscle degradation, but can also delay fatigue. This would be a great compound for athletes and individuals for which a quick recovery from exercise is important. As a bonus for endurance athletes, it can also be a significant source of energy during workouts that exceed 2-3 hours.
Volumizer
Most supplements of this nature are designed with one goal in mind: build muscle mass. To achieve this effect, this mixture includes creatine for enhancing intensity and duration of muscular contractions, combined with taurine, glutamine, glycine, alanine, betaine, and inositol for muscle building, recovery, energy conservation, and antioxidant activity. A "mass-builder" like this would be most beneficial for a bodybuilder or athlete attempting to increase size as quickly as possible without sacrificing explosiveness, intensity, and recovery capability.
Protein Tablets and Protein Powder
As a provider of all the necessary amino acids, complete proteins are necessary for recovery and muscle building. And that's not just for individuals trying to "get heavier" or increase muscle mass. Any individual engaging in strenuous cardiovascular exercise or any form of resistance training must consume a complete protein within 30 minutes after exercise to be properly recovered. The reason for this is that the levels of the hormones responsible for protein uptake into muscle tissue are highest during this time, then begin to drop off as you relax. The convenience of protein tablets and protein powder allows this recovery to take place as soon as you're done exercising. Most gyms will sell some type of shaker or mixer to make your shake on the spot, rather than waiting to eat until you drive home.
Meal Replacement
The primary difference between protein powders and meal replacement drinks is the presence of carbohydrate in the meal replacement drink. While it's true that protein is essential for muscle recovery, carbohydrate is also also essential for recovery, activity, and the assurance of a good workout the next day. I actually recommend a meal replacement drink *over* the consumption of a protein-only drink during the time immediately following exercise. This way, a protein-only drink can be used at a different time of day, when carbohydrate consumption is not as important, and the excess carbohydrates may actually cause weight gain.
Nitric Oxide
Nitric oxide, or NO for short, causes vasodilation in your blood vessels. This means that the vessel becomes larger, allowing for a greater amount of oxygen flow, energy delivery and glucose uptake. Individuals who would benefit most from this effect would be heavy weightlifters, who need that extra pump of blood for more oxygen during a large lift, and bodybuilders, who need that "venous" look. Many NO supplements also include other muscle mass volumizing compounds like creatine, branched chain amino acids and whey protein. So although they can be more expensive, you may save money in the long term on such a mixture.
Cell Mass
I mention this compound because it includes a "muscle cell uptake proprietary matrix". All this means is that compounds are included in the supplement that enhance delivery from the gut into the bloodstream or from the bloodstream into the muscle tissue. Since many supplements are not as easily absorbed as their whole food counterparts, the presense of absorption enhancement can be a valuable addition.
Creatine
Some us associate creatine with explosive sports like football or weightlifting. This is because creatine is a component of your body's "high-energy" system, fueling activities that last for a very short 5-20 second period of time. After this very short effort is over, creatine levels are restored in the muscle and another brief, all-out exercise movement can take place. For individuals who need very quick bursts of speed or power, creatine can enhance the effort by providing a few extra seconds of energy, and a slightly enhanced recovery period. This is useful, of course, for all power athletes, as well as weightlifters who want to lift more reps with a slightly heavier weight for more muscle mass gain. For endurance athletes, creatine can increase force application, delay emptying of carbohydrate stores, and decrease recovery time between bike sprints or quick hill efforts. Some water weight gain and muscle cramping has been associated with creatine, but no serious side effects have been observed
Endurance Recovery Formula
An endurance recovery formula has a carbohydrate to protein ratio that differs from a "weightlifting" recovery formula. While most weightlifting formulas range from equal amount of carbs and protein, to a slightly higher amount of protein, endurance recovery formulas typically fall into a 3:1 or 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. Research has shown that this ratio results in optimal re-fueling and recovery. Since your body needs the amino acids from protein to repair and rebuild broken muscle fibers and other tissues, protein is a necessity in any endurance recovery formula. The carbohydrates help to restore the muscle glycogen, or stored energy levels. The 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of protein to carbohydrates allows for carbohydrate uptake into muscle tissue to be accompanied by very efficient protein uptake. This combo allows for enhanced response to the previous workout and a better workout the next day.
What does the "ISSN" after my name mean? It means I am certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, which is the most difficult sports nutrition degree to attain, requiring years of study and a degree in a exercise science related field. It also means that I am on a constant research quest to discover the products that best serve your performance, immune system, or weight loss needs.
Based on my knowledge and qualifications, I've handpicked what I consider to be the "best of the best" nutritional supplements and now feature them in a brand new supplements section of Pacific Elite Fitness. my website. Many of these are the exact products that I personally take every morning OR use to fuel an active lifestyle.
As a bonus to newsletter recipients only, you can use this special discount code: IMPAX08 for FREE shipping on any order of Impax brand supplements from the website. I personally take six Enerprime, 1 Delta-E, 2 EnerEFA, and 1 ProstElan every day - and my body runs like a well-oiled machine! ***Although full cellular turnover takes 30 days to occur, if you don't feel a difference within seven days, I will return your vitamins for a full refund, no questions asked.***
Click here to get started. Until next time, train and eat smart,
Ben Greenfield
NSCA-CPT, CSCS, MS, C-ISSN
P.S. I’ve also scattered several “Metabotips” throughout my book "100 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism". These tips, tricks, and secrets are amazing weight loss tools, for just $19.99!
