Fwd: [New post] Forbidden fructose

Hi,

Thought this post from Anastasia about fructose might be of interest

Cheers,
Mike

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: primalmeded <no-reply@wordpress.com>
Date: Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Subject: [New post] Forbidden fructose
To: clementmi@gmail.com

Forbidden fructose Anastasia | May 3, 2011 at 6:40 pm | Tags: Fructose, High-fructose corn syrup, Insulin resistance, Sucrose | Categories: Metabolic syndrome, Metabolism 101, Nutrition | URL: http://wp.me/p1rPyZ-2X

Not a day goes by without a well-meaning somebody reminding us that we don't eat enough fruit and vegetables. The nagging of the nutritionists rivals that of my grandmother who used to force her famous "borscht" down my throat. The limp and tasteless bits of cabbage would stick to the roof of my mouth making me gag and my shaking hand would invariably spill the red liquid on her white tablecloth, resulting in an extra serving of beetroot goodness. I am obviously still deeply scarred.

The bright images of squeaky clean green apples and shiny red capsicums are often displayed in contrast to the pictures of insipid and suspicious-looking burgers with visible grease glistening on the meat patty, with horror movie music theme in the background. You have to be a moron not to realise which one is better for you, right?

Is it any wonder that a word "fructose", which we immediately associate with "fruit", sounds so wholesome? Fructose is indeed the predominant sugar in fruit. But it is a little more than that.

For something that sounds so healthy, fructose has been implicated in several nutritional crimes of late. Several studies have found that excess fructose consumption can cause insulin resistance in the liver, NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), gout, hypertension and abdominal obesity, colloquially known as a "spare tyre". Does it make sense from physiological point of view?

Simple science

Actually, it does. While fructose is a simple sugar (=monosaccharide) just like glucose, it is actually processed in the body quite differently. After being absorbed from your intestine, it goes directly to the liver. The liver is like your body's own Border Control. It receives raw materials, a.k.a. nutrients, from the gut, examines them for suitability (is it poison? is it a building block?) and then packages the good stuff up, loads them onto specialised freight trucks (transport molecules) and sends them via blood to customers, the cells in your tissues.

As you already know, the liver helps the pancreas keep the blood glucose on a tight leash, either by releasing more of it or by diverting extra glucose to fat stores. However, unlike glucose, fructose is too toxic to be floating around your body. Like a conscientious customs officer, your liver recognises the danger and neutralises it  by converting ALL fructose into triglycerides (fat). Triglycerides can be sent to the safe heaven of your fat tissues in their own trucks called LDLs (did you just have a little "Eureka" moment?), or they can be stored in the liver itself. Not good either way. Nobody likes love handles or their liver resembling fois gras.

Incidentally, do you know what else is processed in a similar way by the liver? Alcohol. So what would happen from a love match between alcohol and fructose? Bacardi Breezer, anyone?

Back to reality

Hang on, you ask, are you saying that fruit will make me fat and diabetic? No. The concentration of fructose in fruit is unlikely to harm you. In a manner of a true toxin, fructose has a dose-response relationship: the more you have, the worse it is.

The real question is: what other foods contain fructose? You are probably familiar with HFCS, high fructose corn syrup, a ubiquitous sweetener in the land of stars and stripes. HFCS is a product of industrial engineering genius: it is cheap, subsidised by the government (yay for corn subsidies) and is sweeter than sucrose, table sugar. It has been justly vilified and we often think we are lucky that it never took off in Oz.

However, your humble sucrose is not much better. HFCS normally used in soft drinks has 55%/45% fructose/glucose content. The white stuff that you put in your coffee is 50/50. Let's say you don't use sugar in your coffee and you don't drink Coke, does it let you off the fructose hook? Sorry, no. Fructose is used in pretty much every processed and packaged product, whether on its own or as part of sugar. Fortunately for manufacturers, they don't have to put fructose on nutrition labels. But you can estimate fructose content of foods yourself by dividing the amount of sugar on the label in half. (Be careful, it doesn't work with dairy products, as their main sugar is lactose, not sucrose).

Here is a little table I prepared earlier.

	Sugar content (g)	Estimated fructose content (g)
Apple green, small	9.6	4.8
Apple juice, 250mL	26	13
Banana bread, 57g piece	14.7	7.4
Lipton Iced Tea, 375mL bottle	22.1	11.1
Nutrigrain cereal, 40g	12.8	6.4
Coca Cola, 600mL bottle	63.6	31.8

As you can see, you have to have a hell of a lot of apples to come close to the level of fructose an average Australian/American consumes daily in the course of their processed food addiction.

What about fruit juice? Not too long ago fruit had to be squeezed by hand. Homemade juice sans the electrical juicer can be used as a babysitting tool: it will keep your kids busy for hours as they diligently work up a sweat trying to earn one glass of precious sugary orange liquid. If you want to be really mean, tell them to make apple juice by hand. Nobody in their right mind will eat 6 to 8 oranges in one sitting, but apparently a glass of juice, made from the same amount of fruit, is a healthy addition to our diet with breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Due to its current love affair with GI, Diabetes Australia tells diabetics that "a healthy eating plan for diabetes can include some sugar". Glucose has a GI of 100, but table sugar, with only 50% of glucose, is 65. But the other 50%, fructose, is the real killer. Unfortunately, the very thing which makes the GI of sugar lower is the reason NOT to give it to diabetics. Its effects on the liver make it a ticking time bomb: you can't see the blood glucose rise but your liver is developing insulin resistance with every bite of that low-fat banana bread.

So what do you do?
1. Whenever you drink soft drinks, juices, sports drinks, it is not just
the calorie load and fat-storing effects of insulin you have to worry about. It
is the direct toxicity to the liver. So don't.
2. Avoid sweets and cakes with high load of sugar.
3. Avoid processed pre-packaged foods, bars, biscuits, as they have a lot
of hidden sugar.
4. If your goal is to lose fat, limit your fruit consumption to 2 a day.
5. If you have a diagnosed fatty liver, temporarily avoid fruit. It has
nothing that you can't find in vegetables.

More information:
1. A must to see: "Sugar: the Bitter Truth"
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]
2. Dr Eades on sugar vs HFCS
3. Double danger of HFCS
4. Fructose content in popular beverages differs from data labels
5. Review: Fructose, weight gain and the insulin resistance syndrome

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--
Michael Clement
clementmi@gmail.com
------------------------------------------------------
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

Fitness News #17

Fitness News #17
Welcome to the other side of Easter.  Hands up if you ate too many Easter eggs [mikes hand goes up].  Hands up if you put weight on over Easter  [mikes hand goes up].   And with the indulgence over Easter, its made we think about diet foods and why the exist
Diet foods have we been sold a puppy?
Every decade the statistics show that Australia was fatter than previous decade.  By 2005 65% of males and 55% of females were deemed to be overweight.  At the same time the selves at the supermarket carry more and more diet related products, in alignment with the obesity crisis that Australia is facing.   Flash back to the 1950's, society was very different to what it is today.  The food on the table was simplistic, relatively healthy and lifestyles had a stack of incidental exercise built in.  For most life was in balance.   So what happened, how did society end up where it is today?  The answer is complex by nature, but can be broken down to; The loss of incidental exercise.  The housewife was freed of the more difficult jobs with the influx of devices, the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner and later the dishwasher, while the man of the house got the motor mower and collection of power tools.  Yes in 50's gender roles were defined.   The trip to the shops on foot was replaced with the motor car to the shopping centre.  And entertainment was delivered to the home via the Television. The changes in our diet.  Fast food came on to the market, based on taste derived from large doses of inexpensive fat and sugar and fuelled by massive marketing campaigns.  Even the humble sandwich taken to work has been replaced by the dreaded takeaway.  It seems that on every second corner is a vending machine providing products guaranteed to harden the arties and send us to an early death.   So to sum up on the food, what changes have we seen since the 50's Meat and 3 vege, becomes a host of different meals, some good but mainly of much higher calorie content Almost complete absence of fast food, that was once the special treat has become an everyday food. Portion size could be close to double what it was. The market has shrunk for simple healthy foods such as the humble apple, unable to compete without the massive marketing machines behind it And the introduction of the not so humble snack.   You may ask, what does this have to do with diet food, well the answer to that diet food is a reaction to the calorie onslaught that has hit our shores, and is flooding the stomachs of almost all before it.   For example, look at the liquid we put into our bodies, back in the 50's we drank tea and water and the occasional soft drink, as a treat.  60 years latter tea has been replaced with the cappuccino and worst still, water with soft drink, one of the most evil products on the market, simply  calories with no nutritional value what so ever.  Enter the diet soft drink, the calories are removed from drink.  However this is where we have been conned, the marketing machine has placed the product in everyone's hand, the product is bad for us, so the marketers have created a situation where we need a diet product to counteract the evils of the original product.   Lady's and gentlemen, we have been sold a puppy.  The marketing machine has hooked us on an evil product we didn't previously need and then it sells us a diet product to remove the evil, but we never needed the original product in the first place, so therefore we don't need the diet product.   Next week I'll talk about the super puppy
Outdoor Cycling
Road Racing This weekend is the Tour of Canberra.  Your's truly, the boys (and one girl) from the club are down to battle it out in pollie town with the best that NSW/ACT and perhaps the odd VIC can throw at us.   For me it's a 3 stage race; Saturday morning 55k hilly pack race Saturday afternoon 20k flat Individual Time Trail (ITT) Sunday morning 82k very hilly pack race   The times of the 3 stages are summed together and the winner is who has the smallest total time.   I've come 11th, which I'm really happy with   http://canberratour.org.au/   Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm Continues this Saturday Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344 Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.
Classes
Fitness First Join me for a double at Rockdale Tuesday evening   Mon 2/05/11 5:45 PM          5Dock Mon 5.45pm Tue 3/05/11 5:45 PM           Rock Tue 5.45pm Tue 3/05/11 6:45 PM           Rock Tue 6.45pm Wed 4/05/11 5:45 PM          N Strath Wed 5.45pm Thu 5/05/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am Fri 6/05/11 6:15 AM             Rock Fri 6.15am Sat 7/05/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am   YMCA Mon 2/05/11 7:30 PM          Riverwood Mon 7.30pm Tue 3/05/11 6:15 AM           Riverwood Tue 6.15am
Ask Mike
If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know   See you at the Gym   Cheers Mike
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Fitness New #16 - Chocolate

Fitness News #16
Hi Guys and Gals,   How's Easter going?
Chocolate
One of the challenges of Easter is all those fattening Easter Eggs you are given, but there's a solution, put them in a bag and give them to me, I'll make sure they are disposed of carefully  J   Some of you may of heard my chocolate joke "you can get your daily protein requirements from 14 boxes of chocolate".  Well, its actually true.  While what is in chocolate varies, an example is;   Aero Bubbles Easter Egg, Milk Chocolate, Nestle   Calories in 100g of Aero Easter Egg Calories           538 cals Carbohydrate 57.6g Protein             6.6g Fat                   30.8g Fibre                2.2g Source: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/calorie_counter/easter_eggs.htm   However what you get from chocolate depends very much on which chocolate you eat.  The range of nutrition varies considerably; Fat                   10-35% Carbs               20-70% Sugars             0-65% Dietary fibers 3-35% Protein             3-22% Calories per     100g 200-550 Source: http://www.cacaoweb.net/nutrition.html   And then they add sugar….   So does this mean we shouldn't eat chocolate?  No its not about denying what you love, its about understanding the beast and acting accordingly.  Taking control is about taking a number of simple steps; Which chocolates do you commonly eat What is the nutritional contents of those chocolates Was that a shock What other chocolates are there, that may interest you Empowered with this information, you are now in a position to make choices when buying and consuming chocolates; Which ones to buy How much to eat How often to eat chocolate What are you going to sacrifice to balance your diet or What extra exercise are you going to do   For the record, Lindt85 is my favourite, though I see it as an occasional food - enjoy
Outdoor Cycling
Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm Not on Easter weekend Saturday, Jessica will be back this coming Saturday Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344 Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.   Road Training My club has an adventure ride every so often and we had one on Friday.  Riding up to Akuna Bay, we had a large group of cyclist and decided to split into 2 groups, a faster group and a slower group.  The weather was absolutely stunning, not hot, not cold, not windy.  Topped it off with breakfast at Narrabeen Lakes before riding back to Marrickville   Conversely on Sunday morning, I had my bike setup for Time Trailing and headed for Centennial Park and it was a bad decision.  Once in Centennial the heavens opened up and most of us just had summer gear on and we froze.  On the way home we were shivering, teeth were chattering.  Taking my shoes off, I couldn't feel my feet, it was straight into the shower, followed  by a bath.  By the time I got out of it, I had 15 minutes to get ready and ride up to Riverwood for the RPM class, this time with a tonne of winter clothing on.   Tomorrow is the Sunday training ride to Waterfall, I think I'll give it a miss…
Classes
Walker st, North Sydney – HELP, have you got a friend in the area, ask them to go to the class   Easter Monday, join me at  Fitness First, Newtown   Fitness First Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm   (Fivedock cancelled) Tue class cancelled Wed 27/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm Thu 28/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am Fri 29/04/11 6:15 AM             Rock Fri 6.15am  - new permanent Sat 30/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am is being covered by Wendie This is Wendie's first class at Rockdale, come along and ride with Wendie.   YMCA Mon class cancelled Tue class cancelled Check the timetable for alternate classes
Ask Mike
If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know   See you at the Gym   Cheers Mike
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Fwd: Fitness News #15

Hi, there's been some changes to the classes, due to Easter weekend.  The classes will be;

Fitness First
Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM    Walker Thu 6.00am
Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM    Newtown 5.00pm
No class on Saturday or Tuesday

YMCA
Sat 23/04/11 10:30 AM    Riverwood Sat 10.30am
No class on Monday or Tuesday

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Clement <clementmi@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 9:06 PM
Subject: Fitness News #15
To:

Fitness News #15
Hi Guys and Gals,   Well everyone seems to keeping up the good work, as winter starts to knock on the door, though the rain on Saturday kept a few away
Instructor Training
This weekend there was training for instructors, yours truly did 3 RPM classes on Saturday, after the mornings Hi Performance classes.  On Sunday I did Body Pump and CX3 which is a new core program that hasn't been released yet.  The new music that was used won't be made available to me until May 15th
Outdoor Cycling
Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm Third session was indoor as we don't use the velodrome when its raining.  The riders used bikes attached to mag trainers.  Eleri demonstrated how to ride a bike on rollers Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344 Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.   Road Racing On Saturday I figured that Sundays road race would be cancelled for sure, but I was wrong so I rode over the start line, with 4 RPM's in my legs.  I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire.  The format was A vs B,  C vs D graded handicaps and E grade racing themselves.  Placed in A grade, we set of chasing B grade and by halfway they had a 40 second lead, a couple of laps later and it was down to 30 seconds.  Historically A grade had never caught B grade, but this time we had a chance.  Down to 2 riders, we were swapping turns each lap and the seconds were dropping, not every lap.  With 3 laps to go it was down to 14 seconds and we put everything into it, catching them with 200mtrs to go, but we were spent and they had the better of us.  End result for me 2nd in A grade, 4th on handicap.  Not so bad.
Exercise on Holiday
How many of your friends have gone on holiday only to come back looking like they haven't set foot in a gym in their lives.  But they were only away for 2 weeks, how could they have lost so much fitness.   Well the real crime while on holiday is actually the diet.  When you are at home you have control over what you eat, but on holiday the food is whatever is dished up to you and most commercial food is based on taste, presentation and cost.  The reality is that food can be made tasty at a low cost by using cheaper high calorie products.  If you buy prepared food that tastes really good, its pretty likely to be bad for you.  Alcohol is high up there too, we tend to drink more when we are on holiday.   OK, we don't want to loose that fitness while we are on holiday, so what can we do.  Well basically there are 3 basic options; Incidental exercise Local facilities Personal options   Incidental Exercise This is activities provided by the purpose of holiday itself, for example; Skiing Bush walking Swimming Walking Kayaking Dancing The benefit here is that you've done the deed without cutting into the holiday time as its built into the activity itself.   Local Facilities Most hotels have some sort of gym, however there can be a wide variety in what they provide.  So what to do is take opportunity out of what you find, rather than entering the gym with a strict routine in mind.  The trick is to know a wide variety of exercises and know how to apply them to a variety of equipment   Local Gym.  Most gyms offer casual visits for a fee, typically $20.  Research the visiting location before you depart, send them an email if they don't have the info on their web page.   Bike hire.  Once again do the research prior.  Some cities have hire bikes that you just walk up to and use, such as Paris.   Running.  This kills two birds with one stone, you exercise and you get to explore your local surroundings.  This is my favourite , I've done things like head down a dirt road and found a small local village, cased out the local restaurants and found activities that I didn't know was available.  Often the hotel will have some running route suggestions.   BYO.  Perhaps running isn't your thing, or your not sure of the local safety.  No problems, all you need is your own body and perhaps something like an iPod loaded with your favourite yoga (or something else).  Even if you haven't got a video to follow, you can do some bodyweight exercises.  A colleague suggested; - plank - squats - push ups - jump squats - lunges - jump lunges - dips - reverse crunches - oblique twists
iPod applications
Having been asked to write up about iPod applications for strength and exercise, I found a wealth of applications and reviews of those applications.   Loading your phone with lots of cool apps is in vogue nowadays, but not everyone, including yours truely has got into   What is an iPhone An iPhone is a small portable computer with a touch screen.  It also makes phone calls.  It provides a huge benefit over a convention computer in that it is small, light and portable.  The iPod touch also caters for applications   What is an app App is short for application.  An application is a computer program designed to run a phone.   Do I have to buy the iPhone, or can I buy another brand Most of the applications have versions for andriod which is the computer system run on most other phones.  Microsoft have recently released a new computer system for phones and we can expect most of the applications to be available in the near future.   What do fitness apps do What fitness apps do is almost limited by imagination, but in a nutshell they could acheive can be categorised as; 1. Provide a set of information about the activity.  This could be as simple as a list of things to do right thru to video presentations 2. Capture details on your activity. Typically recording what you have done, but can include  tracking your results. 3. Analyse those details.  Usually mapping the details against your goals and objectives 4. Refine what activity is to be done based on analysis of the results.   In plain English, you tell it about you, tell it what you want and it tells you what to do, refining that instruction as you log it's results.   Most applications are no where near as smart as the description above and most of the time we don't really need all those bells and whistles.   How much do applications cost All but a few are either free or cost so little that it wasn't a concern.     Which application is for me There are so many out there, that we are spoid for choice. In fact there are too many choices. I asked the question on a womans fitness forum and these were the ones they were using; Livestrong - http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/ Nike - http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/ Gym Buddy - http://www.appstoreapps.com/2009/01/26/gym-buddy/ mapmyrun - http://www.mapmyrun.com/imapmy/ MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/iphone Weightbot - http://tapbots.com/software/weightbot/ All Fitness - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-in-fitness-700-exercises/id365497220?mt=8 couch to 5k! - http://www.c25k.com/ Run keeper - http://runkeeper.com/   What was apparent in the responses was how much they loved their applications.  In particular the respondant for Gym Buddy said; [quote] It is simple to use for basic stuff (including supersets), though if you want to get fancy you can delve deeper into it and set up plans with varying arrangements of exercises within a 'workout'. e.g. You might have 'Workout X' and within that you'd have plans for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc in the cycle.   It has a decent enough library of exercises, but you can quickly define your own categories and include notes with each exercise and indidvidual set. (handy for tracking setup notes about machines at different places)   You can enter in cardio type stuff, and define your own fields so you could copy data from your bike compter/hrm into it e.g. time, distance, peak HR, avg power, etc. An app called fitphone looks nice as well, and can do GPS logging so that may be of interest - it also does other stuff much like GymBuddy, though I have never used it just perused screenshots.   Honestly: I'd suggest jailbreaking, drop Installous on, trial them and buy the one that works. I bought one because it was a simple log, except when Apple dropped the fullstop/decimal point from the default number keypad you suddenly coudn't enter in a half kilo weight - so it was useless, other ones are buggy as well. Trialled gymbuddy and it was great so I bought the full version. [/quote]   Can I change applications Of course you can simply install an new app and start using it.  However it is highly unlikely that you will be able to move your information from the old application to the new application, you will have to start again   Further reading Top 5 fitness apps review: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10304825-233.html Health and fitness apps review: http://iphone-apps.toptenreviews.com/health-and-fitness/
Classes
Need your help with Walker st at North Sydney, the class is under attended.  If you have any friends who train at North Sydney, ask them to come.   Next weekend is Easter, come and join me at Newtown on Monday at 5pm.   Fitness First Mon 18/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm Tue 19/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm Wed 20/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am Sat 23/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm   YMCA Mon 18/04/11 7:30 PM           Riverwood Mon 7.30pm Tue 19/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am
Ask Mike
If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know   See you at the Gym   Cheers Mike
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

--
Michael Clement
clementmi@gmail.com
------------------------------------------------------
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

Fitness News #15

Fitness News #15
Hi Guys and Gals,   Well everyone seems to keeping up the good work, as winter starts to knock on the door, though the rain on Saturday kept a few away
Instructor Training
This weekend there was training for instructors, yours truly did 3 RPM classes on Saturday, after the mornings Hi Performance classes.  On Sunday I did Body Pump and CX3 which is a new core program that hasn't been released yet.  The new music that was used won't be made available to me until May 15th
Outdoor Cycling
Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm Third session was indoor as we don't use the velodrome when its raining.  The riders used bikes attached to mag trainers.  Eleri demonstrated how to ride a bike on rollers Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344 Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.   Road Racing On Saturday I figured that Sundays road race would be cancelled for sure, but I was wrong so I rode over the start line, with 4 RPM's in my legs.  I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire.  The format was A vs B,  C vs D graded handicaps and E grade racing themselves.  Placed in A grade, we set of chasing B grade and by halfway they had a 40 second lead, a couple of laps later and it was down to 30 seconds.  Historically A grade had never caught B grade, but this time we had a chance.  Down to 2 riders, we were swapping turns each lap and the seconds were dropping, not every lap.  With 3 laps to go it was down to 14 seconds and we put everything into it, catching them with 200mtrs to go, but we were spent and they had the better of us.  End result for me 2nd in A grade, 4th on handicap.  Not so bad.
Exercise on Holiday
How many of your friends have gone on holiday only to come back looking like they haven't set foot in a gym in their lives.  But they were only away for 2 weeks, how could they have lost so much fitness.   Well the real crime while on holiday is actually the diet.  When you are at home you have control over what you eat, but on holiday the food is whatever is dished up to you and most commercial food is based on taste, presentation and cost.  The reality is that food can be made tasty at a low cost by using cheaper high calorie products.  If you buy prepared food that tastes really good, its pretty likely to be bad for you.  Alcohol is high up there too, we tend to drink more when we are on holiday.   OK, we don't want to loose that fitness while we are on holiday, so what can we do.  Well basically there are 3 basic options; Incidental exercise Local facilities Personal options   Incidental Exercise This is activities provided by the purpose of holiday itself, for example; Skiing Bush walking Swimming Walking Kayaking Dancing The benefit here is that you've done the deed without cutting into the holiday time as its built into the activity itself.   Local Facilities Most hotels have some sort of gym, however there can be a wide variety in what they provide.  So what to do is take opportunity out of what you find, rather than entering the gym with a strict routine in mind.  The trick is to know a wide variety of exercises and know how to apply them to a variety of equipment   Local Gym.  Most gyms offer casual visits for a fee, typically $20.  Research the visiting location before you depart, send them an email if they don't have the info on their web page.   Bike hire.  Once again do the research prior.  Some cities have hire bikes that you just walk up to and use, such as Paris.   Running.  This kills two birds with one stone, you exercise and you get to explore your local surroundings.  This is my favourite , I've done things like head down a dirt road and found a small local village, cased out the local restaurants and found activities that I didn't know was available.  Often the hotel will have some running route suggestions.   BYO.  Perhaps running isn't your thing, or your not sure of the local safety.  No problems, all you need is your own body and perhaps something like an iPod loaded with your favourite yoga (or something else).  Even if you haven't got a video to follow, you can do some bodyweight exercises.  A colleague suggested; - plank - squats - push ups - jump squats - lunges - jump lunges - dips - reverse crunches - oblique twists
iPod applications
Having been asked to write up about iPod applications for strength and exercise, I found a wealth of applications and reviews of those applications.   Loading your phone with lots of cool apps is in vogue nowadays, but not everyone, including yours truely has got into   What is an iPhone An iPhone is a small portable computer with a touch screen.  It also makes phone calls.  It provides a huge benefit over a convention computer in that it is small, light and portable.  The iPod touch also caters for applications   What is an app App is short for application.  An application is a computer program designed to run a phone.   Do I have to buy the iPhone, or can I buy another brand Most of the applications have versions for andriod which is the computer system run on most other phones.  Microsoft have recently released a new computer system for phones and we can expect most of the applications to be available in the near future.   What do fitness apps do What fitness apps do is almost limited by imagination, but in a nutshell they could acheive can be categorised as; 1. Provide a set of information about the activity.  This could be as simple as a list of things to do right thru to video presentations 2. Capture details on your activity. Typically recording what you have done, but can include  tracking your results. 3. Analyse those details.  Usually mapping the details against your goals and objectives 4. Refine what activity is to be done based on analysis of the results.   In plain English, you tell it about you, tell it what you want and it tells you what to do, refining that instruction as you log it's results.   Most applications are no where near as smart as the description above and most of the time we don't really need all those bells and whistles.   How much do applications cost All but a few are either free or cost so little that it wasn't a concern.     Which application is for me There are so many out there, that we are spoid for choice. In fact there are too many choices. I asked the question on a womans fitness forum and these were the ones they were using; Livestrong - http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/ Nike - http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/ Gym Buddy - http://www.appstoreapps.com/2009/01/26/gym-buddy/ mapmyrun - http://www.mapmyrun.com/imapmy/ MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/iphone Weightbot - http://tapbots.com/software/weightbot/ All Fitness - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-in-fitness-700-exercises/id365497220?mt=8 couch to 5k! - http://www.c25k.com/ Run keeper - http://runkeeper.com/   What was apparent in the responses was how much they loved their applications.  In particular the respondant for Gym Buddy said; [quote] It is simple to use for basic stuff (including supersets), though if you want to get fancy you can delve deeper into it and set up plans with varying arrangements of exercises within a 'workout'. e.g. You might have 'Workout X' and within that you'd have plans for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc in the cycle.   It has a decent enough library of exercises, but you can quickly define your own categories and include notes with each exercise and indidvidual set. (handy for tracking setup notes about machines at different places)   You can enter in cardio type stuff, and define your own fields so you could copy data from your bike compter/hrm into it e.g. time, distance, peak HR, avg power, etc. An app called fitphone looks nice as well, and can do GPS logging so that may be of interest - it also does other stuff much like GymBuddy, though I have never used it just perused screenshots.   Honestly: I'd suggest jailbreaking, drop Installous on, trial them and buy the one that works. I bought one because it was a simple log, except when Apple dropped the fullstop/decimal point from the default number keypad you suddenly coudn't enter in a half kilo weight - so it was useless, other ones are buggy as well. Trialled gymbuddy and it was great so I bought the full version. [/quote]   Can I change applications Of course you can simply install an new app and start using it.  However it is highly unlikely that you will be able to move your information from the old application to the new application, you will have to start again   Further reading Top 5 fitness apps review: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10304825-233.html Health and fitness apps review: http://iphone-apps.toptenreviews.com/health-and-fitness/
Classes
Need your help with Walker st at North Sydney, the class is under attended.  If you have any friends who train at North Sydney, ask them to come.   Next weekend is Easter, come and join me at Newtown on Monday at 5pm.   Fitness First Mon 18/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm Tue 19/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm Wed 20/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am Sat 23/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm   YMCA Mon 18/04/11 7:30 PM           Riverwood Mon 7.30pm Tue 19/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am
Ask Mike
If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know   See you at the Gym   Cheers Mike
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Fitness News #14

Fitness News #14
Hi Guys and Gals,   Good to be back to all the classes.  Winter is starting to head our way and soon the temptation will be there at some point to give the gym the miss and this could be your folly, those who train thru winter will reap the rewards, resist the temptation!
Music
Many of the instructors including yours truly are booked for midday next Saturday for instructor training in the new release.  BUT even though we will be trained in the new music, we won't be receiving it for another month
Outdoor Cycling
Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm The second session was conducted by Jessica and other track riders Saturday 2pm.  Joanne our woman's track champion demonstrated starts.  Write up is here: http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344 Contact is Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com   Guy's can also get into the action on Monday and Wednesday nights.   Track racing – Saturday 4pm Those who hung around saw yours truly race, probably a bit crazy considering that I did High Performance in the morning.  Hey I did OK.  Write up here http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2250&start=903   Road training – Sunday 6.30am Yes 6.30am actually exists on Sunday morning.   But your's truly has his sights on the NSW Team Time Trail championship and we have formed a team that went out training this morning and hit it reasonably hard,  so if I die on the stage on Monday night you can point and say 'na na na nana'
Bits and Pieces
Fat explained Came upon this really interesting post written by Emma-Leigh.  Posted here; http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=123726731   In the industry we are in, and with such a focus on 'being lean', it is no surprise that everyone is curious as to what their BF is. However - in the female community on a whole, there is a gross distortion of what a persons BF usually is! So - on the request of a few members, I have put together this sticky to help. Basic Definitions and Concepts in Body Composition Body composition refers to the make up of lean tissue and fat tissue in the body. So: Lean Tissue - Composed of muscle, bone, organs, glycogen, blood volume, water, hair, nerves and a few other bits and pieces. Fat Tissue - Composed of different categories: essential fat, and storage fat. Essential fat - Required for life and physiological functioning. This is fat stored/ that is part of nerves, bone marrow, the organs (heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines) and also the muscles. There is thought to be ~ 8-12 % in females and ~ 3-5% in males. The extra 'fat' that is essential for females is thought to be due to our requirement for babies and hormones. It is essential RESERVE fat found in breast tissue, genital regions and *gasp* lower body stores. Storage Fat - The 'cheese' factor. Generally divided into - VISCERAL fat (around organs and in the abdomen) and SUBCUTANEOUS fat (under the skin). In females, this is usually about 15% and males it is about 12%. Measuring Body Fat % There are many, many ways to find out your body fat percentage, and these all vary in accuracy and availability. Generally speaking - the more accurate the method, the more expensive and 'unobtainable' it is. Going from MOST accurate to LEAST accurate: DEXA scan – This involves a full body x-ray like that used for bone density scans. It is very accurate (although there WILL be a variation between machines - so best to get it done on the same machine by the same technician). There IS also a radiation factor (something to consider if getting multiple scans). Underwater/ Hydrostatic Weighing (also called water displacement) – An individual is submerged and weighed under water, with all the air blown out of their lungs and a percentage of fat and fat-free weight is calculated from body density. Very accurate when done professionally but not widely available. The Bod Pod - Similar concept to underwater weight, but the individual is placed into a small chamber and the amount of air displaced is measured by sensors and calculated into a BF %. Also accurate, but not widely available. Skin-fold measurements/ calipers – Folds of skin are measured with a caliper (pinching tool). The measurements are used in equations that link the thickness of skinfolds to percent body fat calculations. It can be done via '3 sites', '4 sites' and '7 sites'. The more measurements made, the more accurate the estimate. It is simple and available, but needs to be done by someone who is trained and there are wide variations in accuracy. Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) – These are scales or hand-held devises that run an electrical current through the body to determine water content. They vary in accuracy according to the specific device (some brands are better than others), the number of attachment points (foot and hand electrodes are more accurate than hand held or scale devises), and the user. Example: if you use a SCALE only - the electrical impulse takes the path of least resistance - so travels up one leg, and straight down the other. Thus, it basically measures LOWER body %. If you use a hand held device, it only measures UPPER body %. Similarly - As they are based on WATER content - fluctuations in hormones/ hydration throw values out. So - the best results are obtained first thing in the morning after emptying bladder/ bowels, with no alcohol consumed for 2 days prior, and no exercise the night before, and - hormone free. Tape measure method - There are a number of formula based on several body measurements taken with a tape measure. It can be roughly accurate, but it does depend upon your ability to accurately measure as well as body shape/ type. Although LEAST accurate - it is especially useful for tracking yourself over time as it is readily available. Body fat % in females Generally speaking - most athletes range between 12-14% and 20%. Most fit females in the general community are 18-24%. Most every day females, well, usually above 24%. It is also important to note that a female who LOOKS thin does not necessarily mean she has a low body fat. This is the concept of 'skinny fat'. In females, the lowest values for body fat correspond to the essential fat content (about 8-12%). This level of fatness is extremely low (professional bodybuilder on stage low). And once a female reaches 12%, especially for prolonged periods, they will run into issues with health (lack of periods, decreased immune function, decreased recovery, decreased bone mass, etc). Body Fat Categories for Women: 8-12% - Essential Fat 13-20% - Athletic Fat Levels 21-24% - Fitness Fat Levels 25-31% - Acceptable Fat Levels >32% - Obese Visual Estimates and why is it so inaccurate? There are many reasons - firstly, people look different at different at the SAME body fat depending on where they hold their fat, and how much lean mass they have. Additionally, people make the mistake of comparing visual estimates in females and males - and, as discussed above, this is NOT correct... Essentially, you need to add on another 5-8% to a MALE estimate for an accurate guess for a female visual %. For example: a male 10% is roughly a female 15-17%. A male 3-5% is a female 8-12%. It is also important to note that you need to look at the WHOLE person! So - in females, where UPPER BODY might be lean (eg: 10-12%), LOWER body may well still hold a LOT of fat (female stubborn fat) which will INCREASE their average bodyfat %. Generally speaking - visual cues to look for in females: - Upper back definition and shoulder/ delts usually come in first in females [mid to high teens] - Abs separation and pec separation follows this [usually low to mid teens] - Quad definition/ ham definition and Glute striations [single digit to low teens] But NOTE: this is 'most' females (who have typical pear-body fat distribution) if an individual holds more fat in a MALE distribution (apple) then the cues will be different. Some visuals to help: ^ The first is ~ 17% by DEXA scan. The second about 14% by DEXA.
Classes
The permanent at Market st has been taken off me,  this Friday's class is my last in the CBD for the foreseeable future, so if your in the City, this is the last chance to ride with me   Fitness First Mon 11/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm Tue 12/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm Wed 13/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm Thu 14/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am Fri 15/04/11 6:45 AM             Market Fri 6.45am – last class, come and join me Sat 16/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am   YMCA Tue 12/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am
Ask Mike
If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know   See you at the Gym   Cheers Mike
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat