Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I think it's time to finally disprove the whole turkey-tryptophan myth. For some ridiculous reason turkey has developed the rep of being extremely high in tryptophan, which is thought to be the reason why most of America gets so sleepy after a huge Thanksgiving meal. Tryptophan, one of the 20 essential amino acids, is responsible for the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a substance that regulates appetite, sleep patterns, and mood. In some ways the myth is true...turkey does have tryptophan, about 350mg per 200 calorie serving. The reason why this whole notion is a myth is because the tryptophan content in turkey is basically identical to that of other types of meat and poultry, including pork, chicken, beef, salmon, and lamb. I don't see people falling asleep on the couch every time they eat chicken or a hamburger. And really if you think about it, most people don't eat a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving...we mange out on the sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all of those other calorically dense foods. We get tired and sleepy because we eat so much in one sitting, and as a result our body has to spend the majority of it's energy burning off those calories, carbs, fats, and sugars. So, from now on, whenever Thanksgiving rolls around stop hating on all of the Turkeys...it's not their fault we're falling asleep.
Here are a bunch of awesome songs for your workout playlist. They'll definitely get your blood pumping and put you in the zone. Pump, pump, pump it upppppp!!!
Going to the doctor's office can be a stupidly confusing experience. I can't even tell you how many times I've gone in for an exam and the doctor would start throwing around words like triglycerides, blood pressure, or HDL/LDL cholesterol, and then tag on some magical ratio or number as a measurement...come on, is that number really supposed to mean anything to the average person?? He'd say something like "your LDL-to-HDL ratio is 95/60 mg/dl and your triglycerides are 145 mg/dl, you're perfectly healthy." Great...I'm glad the doctor says that I'm healthy, but I'd love to know what those numbers rmean and HOW good they really are. Here's your guide to the numbers/ratios doctors use to determine how healthy a person is, what these numbers measure, and what numbers to shoot for.
Cholesterol - When cholesterol levels are too high the excess begins to stick to arterial walls, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease. There are two types, HDL/"good" cholesterol, and LDL/"bad" cholesterol. LDL builds up on arterial walls and causes plaque to accumulate, HDL helps clean arterial walls of that plaque.
Total Cholesterol:
Good - < 200 mg/dl (mg per deciliter of blood)
Elevated - 200-239 mg/dl
High - >= 240 mg/dl
LDL Cholesterol:
Good - < 100 mg/dl
Pretty good - 100-129 mg/dl
Elevated - 130-159 mg/dl
High - 160-189 mg/dl
Very High 0 >= 190 mg/dl
HDL Cholesterol:
Low - < 40 mg/dl
High - >= 60 mg/dl
Triglycerides - Triglycerides are excess fat circulating through the blood stream. High levels are a primary cause of coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis.
Good - < 150 mg/dl
Elevated - 150-199 mg/dl
High - 200-499 mg/dl
Very High - > 500 mg/dl
C-Reactive Protein (CRP) - CRP is produced by the body in response to inflammation/infection, a main cause of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). The CRP tests for inflammation of the blood vessels and is used to assess the risk of CHD.
Low Risk of CHD - < 1.0 mg/dl
Moderate CHD Risk - 1.0-3.0 mg/dl
High CHD Risk - > 3.0 mg/dl
Body Pressure - The pressure on arterial walls as the heart pumps blood. Systolic refers to the maximum blood pressure or the pressure when the heart is beating, diastolic refers to the minimum pressure or the pressure when the heart is at rest. High blood pressure/Hypertension is a major risk factor for CHD, stroke, and heart attack. Blood pressure readings are measured by a sphygmomanometer (the squeezy cuff thing), and are given as systolic/diastolic (e.g. 120/80).
Good - < 120 mm HG/ < 80 mm HG
Pre-Hypertension - 120-139/80-89
Stage 1 Hypertension - 140-159/90-99
Stage 2 Hypertension - >= 160/>= 100
Fasting Blood Glucose - Measures the amount of sugar in the bloodas a test for diabetes.
Every time I'm in the gym I see people bench pressing incorrectly...and it sucks because they're cheating themselves out of getting the best chest workout possible. Not only does bad form reduce the amount of stimulation on the chest muscles, but it also puts excessive stress on the shoulder girdle and/or arms. By doing this you risk injuring the shoulders, lose a lot of power, and insufficiently work the chest muscles. If you dumbbell/barbell bench press regularly, watch this video and make sure your form matches up. A little change can make a HUGE difference.
I was at CVS yesterday looking for a bag of cough drops and I was pretty amazed by the colorful collection of cough drops. I doubt many people even think about reading the ingredients or nutrition facts on cough drops...typically you wouldn't think of them as "food," but as medicine. After all, medicine's supposed to be good for your health, right? Do me a favor, the next time you're looking for cough drops check the label. It's amazing how much crap they pack into a small, seemingly healthy cough drop. Each drop is about 15 calories, all of which are derived from sugar. If you're sick and popping drop after drop, those calories can quickly pile up. What's worse is that all of the sugar can quickly spike your blood sugar, send insulin spiraling through your body, and ultimately cause the majority to be stored as body fat. Yuck!
I think what surprised me most was that some brands, most notably Halls Breezers (which taste delicious, kinda like candy...I guess that's because they pretty much are), are loaded with artifical colors, artifical sweeteners, and even trans fats!!! I can tolerate minimal artifical colors/sweeteners for the sake of soothing my throat, but trans fats ("partially hydrogenated oils" on nutrition labels) are a huge no-no. I'm not about to sacrifice my heart health and cholesterol levels, it's not worth it in the long run. The next time you're sick choose a healthier option to alleviate the pain...drink a cup of green tea with honey, or look for brands of cough drops that are "natural" or "organic." Those brands, such as Halls Naturals, are made only with natural flavors and no chemicals whatsoever. They even have a drop with real honey in the center. Honey's loaded with disease/cold fighting antioxidants and the fructose content helps minimize any spikes in blood sugar. It's a great, healthy, and tasty way to fight the worst colds.
Here's a promise for ya...if you follow this routine I guarantee that you'll be able to develop ups like Adrian Wilson (Arizona Cardinals).
Ok, so I lied...maybe not that high, Adrian Wilson's vertical leap is freakishly ridiculous. What I can promise you though is that if you follow this routine once, or better yet twice a week in place of your leg workout, it'll help you develop lower body power, explosiveness, and flexibility that'll translate into a higher vertical leap. I've used this for about three months now and I've added over a foot to my vertical. A few months back I could barely touch the bottom of the backboard, now I can hit rim. Another three months and I'll be dunking!
The Routine
Flexibility!
The first major component of my vertical leap routine is developing lower body flexibility. This means opening up your hip flexors, lengthening your hamstrings, and further developing the range of motion of your quads, glutes, and calves. When your range of motion is limited, especially in the hips, it limits the amount of power and force that you can generate with your lower body. Think about it, if you wanted to punch something as hard as humanly possible, I'm talking an angry punch, would you bend your arm only slightly and punch, or cock your elbow all the way back past your chest and explode forwards? I think the latter. It'd probably hurt a lot more. By increasing the flexibility of your lower body it'll increase your range of motion, let you squat lower, and ultimately enable you to more powerfully explode upward.
As a means of increasing flexibility, I'm a big fan of using both static stretching and dynamic stretching. Static stretching is simply when you stretch a muscle and hold that stretch for 20-60 seconds, think a typical quad stretch. This type of stretching is really advantageous in the long run because it allows muscles to elongate plastically, or stay stretched/lengthened permanently. Static stretching is ideal right after your workout because of that fact that the core temperature of muscles is elevated, which allows them to more effectively become stretched permanently. Not only that, but static stretching post-workout can help decrease soreness. Static stretching is also the ideal way to increase flexibility when you're not working out (i.e. in your home).
Dynamic stretching is often known as an active warm-up, which involves short bursts of deep stretches that temporarily expand the body's range of motion (e.g. high knees or walking lunges). Dynamic stretching is ideal as a warm-up pre-workout because it helps decrease the risk of injury and increases the strength of muscular contractions. One noted study at Wichita State University concluded that dynamic stretching allowed athletes to jump significantly higher than those who stretched statically before their workout. On average participants jumped 56.70 cm when they stretched statically, whereas they jumped 61.48cm when they stretched dynamically. That's pretty ridiculous...athletes jumped 8.5% higher just by changing the way they stretched!
The Stetching Plan!
Pre-workout Dynamic Stretching (this should only take about 5 minutes)
High Knee Hugs - 60 seconds
Walking Heel to Butt - 20 per side
Leg Cradle Walks - 20 per side
Spiderman Stretch - 10 per side
Inchworms - 10 reps
Post-Workout & Off Day Static Stretching (Do this after your leg routine, and as many days as possible separate from your workouts)
Standing Quad Stretch - 2x per leg, hold for 30s (Image)
Standing Hamstring Stretch - 2x per leg, hold for 30s (Image)
Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch - 2x per leg, hold for 40s (Image)
Lying Glute Stretch - 2x per leg, hold for 30s (Image)
Strength-Training + Plyometrics
If you wanna jump like MJ, developing explosive power is critical. One of the best ways to do that is through a combination of intense, heavy strength training and plyometrics. I'm sure you're familiar with strength-training, but plyometrics is a less well-known training technique. Plyometrics, also known as "jump-training," is a popular method of training primarily used to improve sports performance, especially in basketball, soccer, and track & field, which focuses on developing power, explosiveness, and acceleration. Plyometric training is based off of the idea that muscles that are stretched immediately before they contract concentrically (flexing a muscle is considered a concentric contraction, e.g. curling a dumbbell) will contract faster and with more force. Think of it like a spring, if you push a spring down as far as possible it's gonna explode upwards with tremendous force and velocity...now apply that principle to your legs. By squatting down and immediately jumping up as high as possible, again and again, you generate a ton of force.
As for the strength training component, all of the exercises should be done at low reps (4-8) with heavy loads. Lifting heavier weights for fewer reps is the primary way of increasing muscular power, strength, and explosiveness. Here goes, get ready, it's intense!
Romanian Deadlifts - 4x6 reps. Make sure your knees are bent slightly, don't let your back arch.
Weighted Wall Squats w. Ball- 2x8 reps. Hold dumbbells in your hands, your lower back should touch the exercise ball. Go parallel to the ground, get low!!
Weighted Plyometric Jump Squats - 3x10 reps. Start with no weights until you learn the form, gradually make it more difficult by holding dumbbells and jumping.
Box/Step Jumps - 3x10 reps. If you have Step equipment start by raising the step up to a comfortable height. The goal is to keep progressing by gradually making the step higher and higher. If you don't have access to a Step equipment you can use a bench or box (the step equipment is the colorful boxes + platform in the video below).
Lateral Box Jumps - 1x8 reps per side. Use a low step or box and move quickly from side to side.
Your legs might hate you after this, but trust me, you'll be well on your way to jumping much higher than you've ever been able to before. Even if you don't care about increasing your vertical leap, this is still a kick-ass leg workout that'll build your quads, hamstrings, calves, and butt, increase your flexibility, and shred off a ton of body fat.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I think it's time to finally disprove the whole turkey-tryptophan myth. For some ridiculous reason turkey has developed the rep of being extremely high in tryptophan, which is thought to be the reason why most of America gets so sleepy after a huge Thanksgiving meal. Tryptophan, one of the 20 essential amino acids, is responsible for the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a substance that regulates appetite, sleep patterns, and mood. In some ways the myth is true...turkey does have tryptophan, about 350mg per 200 calorie serving. The reason why this whole notion is a myth is because the tryptophan content in turkey is basically identical to that of other types of meat and poultry, including pork, chicken, beef, salmon, and lamb. I don't see people falling asleep on the couch every time they eat chicken or a hamburger. And really if you think about it, most people don't eat a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving...we mange out on the sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all of those other calorically dense foods. We get tired and sleepy because we eat so much in one sitting, and as a result our body has to spend the majority of it's energy burning off those calories, carbs, fats, and sugars. So, from now on, whenever Thanksgiving rolls around stop hating on all of the Turkeys...it's not their fault we're falling asleep.
