 First I want to thank all of those who donated for Cancer Research at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. You helped raise a total of $2,670.21 on my end! With a grand total of $247,924 raised for the San Francisco event. All for the cause of helping children who do not respond to traditional cancer therapies. I also want to thank you for helping me stay motivated to do this event in its entirety. This was a true test to my body and there were many times I doubted myself during training with the fear of injury. Okay, so here’s a quick recap with awesome pictures!
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Decathlon Week 4-8Updated 10/11/16
My training for D10’s Decathlon has been going stellar! My times and reps are improving! It feels great to tackle these goals and to “train” myself by setting up an intelligent workout regimen each week. The only issue I had is a low back injury which I suspect is merely severe muscle soreness from drilling one event. It always amazes me how sore we can get by doing something simple even if we are unaccustomed to it. Go to my profile page to see the list of events, my goals, and to donate to help children’s cancer research through Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. I have to reach a minimum donation amount of $2250 to compete, so help children’s cancer research and help me get to the competition! A huge THANKS to those who have already donated! Thanks helping pediatric cancer research. It has also given me more motivation to achieve my goal marks on competition day. Here’s some videos and highlights on my training! I had no idea this competition existed until I stumbled upon it while searching for more information on the Decathlon in the Rio Olympics. I have always loved watching track and field and specifically the Decathlon. I got very excited after seeing the list of events, many of which are disciplines I strive to improve and excel in.
Go to my profile page to see the list of events, my goals, and to donate to help children’s cancer research through Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. I have to reach a minimum donation amount to compete, so help children’s cancer research and help me get to the competition!  Here’s an update of what I have been up to:
Recently I was reminded of how much additional activity is needed for those with a sedentary lifestyle to lose fat. Most of us have a sedentary job which we drive to and then get home to sit in front of another computer or TV.  Active Jobs Make a Big DifferenceThe average sedentary woman will burn 1,750 cals a day and average man 2,300 cals a day. Take those same people and put them on their feet with light activity for 8 hours a day and now they burn 2,250 and 3,000 cals respectively. This activity level would describe such occupations as a nurse, server, or small-medium package handler. If you take these two people and have them at a job with moderate labor, they now burn 2,900 and 3,500 calories respectively. That is a difference of 500-1200 calories burned per day!
As a trainer, it is EXTREMELY easy to make those with active jobs lose fat. Give them a few extra workouts a week, make them adhere to a healthy diet, and watch them lose fat at an incredible rate. For the sedentary individual this happens MUCH slower as one would expect by the numbers above. They need to have their nutrition near perfect in order to lose fat at a considerable rate. A Hard WorkoutIf you have lower back issues or had them in the past, then you must take precaution when performing your daily activities and chores. It is important to use proper lifting posture while doing simple things like lifting objects off the ground or in this instance a not so simple task as swinging an axe. Give it a try and you will find how hard it really is. I was so excited to split wood when I moved back up in the “mountains” some years ago I did it for 4 hours with only minimal breaks. My body was shaking so hard I could barely walk home and I nearly puked. Why split wood for exercise:
How to:I grew up doing this chore as we needed adequate firewood for the winter and was shown to do so by my father. With that said, I am no expert in lumberjack sports. So there might be a more powerful or faster way to split logs, but this technique is used to save your lower back and utilize your legs. Last I looked there was no log splitting event in competition. Use these sound concepts:
 Set up the log on another larger piece of wood. This will make splitting much more effective and you won’t have to swing as far down reducing the strain on the lower back. Square up your stance to the log, with your feet shoulder width apart or wider. As with any overhead axe swing, begin with one hand at the end of the handle and other towards the axe head. Keep your back straight the entire time. An update from my blog written on Jan 2011
This is a follow up on my blog written some 2 years ago explaining my experience with nerve entrapment by the illio-psoas muscle. At the time I was uncertain what exactly the cause of my symptoms were. I was just very pleased they were going away. After doing some research and talking to other medical professionals, my experience describes the onset, symptoms, and recovery of a illio-psoas muscle strain and nerve entrapment. Many of the replies to the previous blog appear to be suffering from the same condition. Some however appear to not quite line up with this exact condition. Again I am a personal trainer, not a doctor or physical therapist so I could never give a diagnosis based on a blog reply nor could any medical professional.  Cortisone injections and body fat gain
Body fat or weight gain is a common side effect of taking systemic cortisone. I want to share with you my experience with taking intramuscular corticosteroid injections and the negative effects it has on body composition. I did have other unpleasant side effects, but nothing alarming where I needed additional medical attention. I began taking the injections as treatment for Alopecia Areata on my beard. This is an autoimmune disease which causes bald spots in a particular region. My doctor gave me 40mg monthly intramuscular injections of a corticosteroid for 4 months. A few months after treatment, I did some research and as expected I found many health networks saying it to be an aggressive and uncommon treatment due to possible severe side effects. He also gave me a topical cream to be used daily.  Great time, great seminar
This past week I attended The Charles Poliquin Biosignature Modulation Seminar. I could not believe how much relevant, practical, and ahead of its time knowledge I gained. Not only did I gain knowledge, but as soon as I had “how to” questions from clients and friends, I was able to give them a solid answer and practical solutions. Background of Biosignature The Biosignature Modulation Method is a unique way of measuring body fat and thus hormonal imbalances within each individual person. How does this work? We store body fat in certain areas based on our own unique hormonal profile. This can be due to both lifestyle and genetics. For example, someone can have excess umbilical fat storage (centered around the belly button) due to over exposure of cortisol. This can be a result of a high stress lifestyle, or how the person genetically responds to stress, or a combination of both. By measuring your body fat with the Biosignature Method, we can then find out where your problem areas are because of imbalanced hormones.  Image via Calvin and Hobbes Every year I encourage all of my clients to have New Year’s fitness resolutions. Most will have a goal of losing 10, 20, 50+ pounds. They should have this goal, however, regardless of the time of year. Resolutions should aim to improve on one or two aspects in your life to help achieve success. Take these resolutions and implement them into a plan that will allow you to achieve your fitness goal.
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