Cian Lanigan - Enhanced Performance

My Quest for a Double Body Weight Deadlift

2011-09-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Dam you Dan John. Dam you. Why did you have say those things in “Never Let Go”?? Why did you have to go and get me all pissed off and focused like that??

For those of you who haven’t read his fantastic book about all things strength, he cuts all the BS and defines a novice lifter as anyone who can’t deadlift twice their body weight and bench body weight. Needless to say, that made be a novice lifter…and a pissed off one at that.

It was exactly what I needed. I entered this industry 3 years previous, and everything that the experts talked about was “corrective”. Strength and conditioning was reaching epidemic status as no one was allowed touch a weight unless they had near flawless primal movement patterns. Everything had to be working perfect, because there is no point in strengthening a poor movement pattern.

In fairness I’m giving Dan John all the credit in waking me up, but he was merely the “two” in a rapid one two combo. The “one” was from a Vancouver based S & C coach, Carmen Bott.

I arrived back in Vancouver for round 2 having just completed my B.Sc. back home in Ireland and Carmen was leading Human Motion, another company renting space in the gym. She was one of only a hand full of coaches who I’ve seen coaching and instantly respected.

“Hi Carmen, my name is Cian and I want to be a strength coa……”

“Get strong”

“Ok, ya, em…any books you’d recommend????”

“Get strong”

“Ok..so….did you see McGill’s new research on the…..?”

“Get strong”

Needless to say, I had an idea of what I needed to prioritize after this first meeting. I spent a week re-pattering a heavy erector dominance I’ve had for the few years and then started upping the weights. It’s amazing how weak textbooks can make you. Here’s a snippet of just the deadlift over the course of a few weeks.

And then, much like the video, everything came to an abrupt stop and all I had really achieved was a return to strength levels I had when I was in high school. I did reach 335 lb’s, a little more than was shown in the last lift, but still nothing to get excited about. This is when I learned something very human about myself. I can motivate myself for about 6-8 weeks and then I get very very lazy. Excuses seem to come quicker than reason to go lift heavy things, multiple times, in multiple different ways. I would love to blame a “busy life”, but in the interest of honesty I think this is a fair account of what happened; Pure laziness.

I was only off the band wagon for about 2-3 weeks but in a world where consistency is key I knew I had to get rid of missed workout, not to mind missed weeks. This was when I decided to do something that I think has fundamentally changed my view point as a S&C coach for the better. I signed up for an 8 week kettlebell course with Human Motion’s KB expert, Jim Talo.

Everything I had learned during my 5 year geek out phase applied to these fantastic balls of steal. Cook, McGill, Sahrmann, Myres, Boyle, Weingroff, Contreras, Robertson, etc. etc. etc. Finally it felt like everything they were saying was culminating together in the form of KB lifting. All of a sudden my workouts looked a lot different.

And so I swung, pressed and got down only to get back up again pretty religiously for a month or two. Initially I kept my workouts pretty much KB exclusive, but I slowly started to re-introduce the old staples. Swing it, press it, pull it, move it (insert daft punk sound track here). I was finally feeling happy with my workouts and genuinely excited about the gym again.

As the KB classes were drawing to an end I knew I needed something weekly to keep me honest so I got in touch with my buddy, Josh, from Stay Fit Anywhere and we started up a weekly workout. I also made my return to cycling after taking a 6 year mini retirement. Borrowing the Human Motion mantra, I had stopped working out and started training. It started to feel like the good old days when the youth version of those 5 colorful circles kept me focused.

I was in a good cycle of training. A few weeks passed. And then I found myself looking at a bar, alone in a gym. When I started warming up I didn’t feel too good, but once I started moving my focus started to narrow in and an unplanned max day immerged from what could have easily been a missed workout just a few months earlier. Today’s workout was all about one thing; how much weight I could lift off the floor?

First set with one plate for 10 felt good. Added another plate and dropped reps to 8. Felt good. Another half plate and reps dropped to 5. Warm up over, down to triples. Today was a good day, and you have to take those days when they come…..so more weight!!! 335 lb’s came along, my old max for 1 rep, and I was still doing triples and adding weight. New personal record (PR) and I wasn’t breaking a sweat.

Down to singles as every lift was now a PR. Here is 365 lb’s

Up to 385 lb’s.

That was actually a double body weight deadlift. But the weighing scales that I checked my weight that day was actually off (I never weigh myself so I had no idea) so I thought this was just a few pounds shy of a double body weight lift. I knew I had one more lift but what weight was the question. I hummed and hawed at the thought of adding a 5 lb plate to each side, but then decided 5 lb plates have no home on a bar used for deadlifts. Big boy plates only. I stripped off the small stuff and added a fourth plate. It wasn’t until I stepped back that I realized I had now committed myself. Ah well, I’ve 5 more minutes left to get my head into this pull. There was tons of self-doubt about this lift. I was adding 70 lb’s to my old PR that I lifted only 3 and a half months ago. But as with everything in life sometimes you just gotta shut up, chalk up and pull with everything you’ve got.

It felt good, effin’ heavy, but good. After looking at the video I obviously need to work on my lockout…there’s always something! One thing that I never felt before was the CNS fatigue I experienced in the week or so after. No DOMS, no pains, I was just drained. Due to this I’ve decided to implement the strategies outlined in “Power to the People” by Pavel. It’s amazing how one heavy lift can not only highlight your weak link but also give you new direction in your training.

Finally, if there is only one take home message from all of this - find someone to call you out, be it in person or text. Nothing gets you focused like some who ignores your strength and focuses on your weaknesses.

I wonder what 5 plates feels like??

Get Rolling!!

2011-04-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 5 years you’ve heard of foam rolling, or more specifically, self myofascial release (SMFR). In my last blog I went through a detailed explanation of why it’s important, how it affects the target tissue (fascia), when to roll, how long to roll, where and where not to roll…basically everything but the actual technique. If you haven’t read that yet I recommend that you check it out HERE either before or after reading this.

This blog is going to exclusively cover the technique and show how to roll pretty much every major muscle in the body. Below I go though each area individually and at the very end I’ve got a video of how to put it all together in a nice routine. This will save time as you can just smoothly move from one area to the next.

Let’s get stuck in!

Hamstrings

- Place one thigh on the foam roller.

- Support your body weight with your hands (making sure you keep your shoulder down) and your opposite leg.

- Roll over the length of your hamstring, from the base of your butt to just above the bend in your knee.

- If it feels ok lift your supporting leg off the ground and cross it on top of the leg you’re targeting.

- Make sure to hit the whole back side of your thigh – rotate your thigh in for a few passes and then out for a few more.

Itobial Band (ITB)

- Place the outside of your thigh on the foam roller.

- Support your upper body by placing your elbow on the ground. You can place your top hand on the ground for additional support.

- If you are tight place your top foot on the ground and push it into the ground so that you put less body weight on the foam roller.

- The leg you are rolling should stay extended.

- Roll the full length of your ITB, from the outside of your hip to the outside of your knee.

- This is normally a very tight area so micro rolls are good for tight areas, or stopping right on top of a tight spot and focus on belly breathing.

- Stack the legs on top of each other to increase pressure.

Quads

- You can roll both quads at the same time but I don’t love this as it’s harder to move to the outside and inside of your quads, hitting all aspects. Therefore, I do one leg at a time.

- Place your target thigh on the foam roller, elbows on the ground in a plank-like position.

- If you want less pressure bend your opposite hip and knee and place your leg beside you on the ground. A nice bonus of doing this is you get some hip mobility as you roll back and forth.

- Make sure you do full passes; front of the hip to just above the knee cap.

- You can army crawl with your forearms to allow you to make full passes.

- Make sure to keep your core tight enough so that your low back doesn’t sag down. Neutral spine at all times.

- Slow down and allow your quads to melt over the foam roller. Most people are so tight here that they tense up, speed up and then tell me they don’t feel tight at all. Move slowly and relax.

Hip Flexors (TFL)

- Same set up as when you’re rolling your quads only this time you are looking for a kind of notch right at your hip crease (where you hip bends when you bring your knee to your chest).

- You can try and roll directly on the front of your hip but I find most people don’t feel much here as the roller just cannot get deep enough.

- Therefore, aim to roll at kind of 45 degrees (not the side, not the front, right in between). Here you will find your TFL.

- This can be so tight that rolling isn’t an option. If so, just get right on top of it and focus on your breathing.

- If you want to put more pressure on it just lift the foot of the leg you’re rolling.

Adductors

- The easiest way to get into the position is to stay in a plank, then sweep one leg (the leg you want to roll) out to the side. Place the foam roller perpendicular to your leg and then rest on top of it. From here you can start to roll in a kind of diagonal movement.

- Generally most people are tight close to the knee and where the thigh joins the hips. Dudes, be careful not to roll anything important when you’re working up high.

- I said it before and I’ll say it again; full passes please.

Glutes

- Place one butt cheek on the roller with your arms supporting your upper body.

- To line the foam roller up with the fiber direction of your glutes you should have the roller facing out to the side about 30-45 degrees.

- You can roll from the very top of your hips (glute med) all the ways down to the top of your hamstrings.

- If you want to put a bit more focus on your piriformis place the ankle of the side you’re trying to roll on your opposite knee. You might find a little notch that’s tight – well done! You’ve found your piriformis. Hang out on that spot for a while.

- I like to roll my glutes with both a straight leg and when my ankle is on my opposite knee. Each way gets different things in different ways.

Calf

- In the video above I show 2 different ways to roll the calves; with a foam roller, and a tennis ball

- Foam Roller

- Place one calf on the roller and lift your butt off the ground by pushing your hands into the ground.

- Make sure you keep your shoulders away from your ears by actively pushing them towards the floor.

- This can be a challenging position for the shoulders so take breaks if needed. Don’t keep rolling if your shoulder is in your ear!

- As full passes of the calf can be hard, especially if you need to do a lot of them, I like to break the calf up into two halves; the Achilles tendon and below the muscle belly, and the top half.

- Make sure to rotate your foot so that it’s pointing in for a few passes and out for a few more. Hit every angle!

- Tennis Ball

- Start off in a half kneeling position, tennis ball in hand and pressed up against the calf.

- As you drive your knee over your second toe push the tennis ball into your calf and move your hand towards your heal.

- When you bring your knee back allow the ball to roll back to the starting point and repeat.

- I like to work the Achilles tendon first and then move up to where the muscle belly starts (where the two bellies of the gastrocnemius attach to the soleus). The combo of the tennis ball and the movement of the ankle is particularly good for this area.

Perionels & Tibilas Anterior

- Same set up as the ITB only this time you are placing the side of your lower leg on the foam roller.

- Again, feel free to use your top leg as support.

- Make sure to keep you core tight if you are stacking your legs on top of each other. View this as a moving side plank.

- Work the outside of your lower leg (perionels), and the front, just to the outside of your shine bone (tibilas anterior).

- This is a particularly important area to roll if you are running a lot and can help prevent shin splints.

T-Spine & Lats

- Sit on the ground and place the foam roller in a position so that when you lean back your mid back makes contact with it.

- Support your head with your hands and bring your elbows together in order to move your shoulder blades out of the way.

- Push your heals into the ground to lift your hips off the ground.

- Work from the top of your shoulders to the bottom or your rib cage by pulling and pushing the ground with your feet.

- Rolling your lower back is not recommended as your internal organs don’t have the support of your rib cage.

- If you find a tight spot in your mid back, position yourself on top of it and then place your butt on the ground. Slightly tuck your pelvis so that you don’t arch your lower back. Hold that position as you try to extend back on the foam roller. Don’t force it and don’t allow your head to drop back – keep your chin within a fist distance to your breast bone.

Plantar Fascia

- Place your foot on top of a tennis ball and put some of your body weight on top of it. Vary how much depending on how it feels. If you’re just crushing the tennis ball to feel anything switch to a lacrosse ball.

- Roll the whole underside of the foot working from the toes to heal.

- I like to do a few passes where I go from the big toe to the heel, then a few from the second toe to the heal, third, fourth and fifth, you get the drift.

- Make sure to work slow and deep.

- I sometimes find that it’s tight where the plantar fascia attaches to the heel. For this area I like to place my toes on the ground and move my heel from side to side.

- Make sure to practice your soccer skills when the ball shoots out from under your foot when you’re working on the edges!

Pecs

- Place a tennis ball between a wall and your chest.

- You can alternate the pressure by pushing your body into the wall using your legs.

- Start working your pec by moving your torso back and forth. In general try to work on lines that start on your breast bone and move towards your shoulder as this will line up with the fiber direction of the pec.

- Try a few passes with your arm by your side and with your arm raised up about 45 degrees.

Lats (and the Teres group)

- Extend your arm above your head so that you expose your lats (side of your rib cage).

- Place the tennis ball just behind your arm pit and push into the wall using your legs.

- Bend and extend your knees so that you can work in a more vertical line.

- Feel free to rotate your torso a bit to explore different areas.

- Although it’s not shown in the video you can also roll into your triceps in this position by just placing the tennis ball higher up on the wall.

Posterior Shoulder (with epic music!)

- Place the tennis ball on one side of your mid back and put pressure against the wall.

- WARNING – this is normally a mine field of knots so take it easy, you’re not going to break everything up in one session.

- You can work everything from you spine (without going over it) to the shoulder.

- Most people are tight everywhere so just experiment and find your tightest spots.

- When I find a really tight spot I like to stop moving when the ball is right on top of it and then start to reach my arm across my body in different angels (low, med, high). This forces the shoulder blade to move and can expose the knots better.

- Holding your arm in this extended or reaching position while continuing to roll can be great too.

- If you’re spending time in here with a tennis ball you simply have to do mid back strengthening during your workout. Any type of pulling movement is good.

EVERYTHING put together into a routine

Note: I rolled everything for the purpose of this video. If it's your first time on a foam roller you might want to do this too to find which areas are tightest. After that a full body roll isn't necessary. Give foam rolling 10 mins at the start of your warm up, that's it. The last thing I want to see is people spending 60 mins on a foam roller and calling it a "workout". Focus on your tight spots and feel free to skip over the areas that feel good. You can also make it workout specific e.g. when I'm going to do deadlifts I'll focus more on my hips, when I'm going to do squats I'll focus more on my lower leg to try and open up my locked up ankles.

Finally, this isn't meant to represent the only way to foam roll. There are numerous ways to hit every muscle. Feel free to play around with it a little.

So that's everything folks! This blog might have taken a year out of my life so I hope that it achieved what it set out to do, get people confident with rolling so that you do it on a regular basis. If you are looking for any additional advice on rolling outside of the actual technique check out my previous blog HERE.

Cian Lanigan

BSc., CSCS, NCEF.

Foam Rolling & Myofascia Explained

2011-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Fascia is of huge importance. It is one of only 3 networks that run throughout the entire body, the other two being the fluid and neural network. Anything that the body considers important enough to weave into every orifice of the body is simply vital, otherwise evolution would have thrown it in the trash long before we even made it out of the cave. So if this fascia stuff is so important how come we know so little about it and what the hell does it do anyway?

I believe it stems from the way anatomy is currently thought in school. We see pretty pictures of a muscle connecting to a tendon which in turn attaches to a bone; three perfect structures independent of each other. The truth is that it's far more like a continuum, everything flows gracefully from one structure to the next and the thing that ties it all together is fascia. Fascia is a matrix of fibrous connective tissue that runs throughout the entire human body, separating and binding together muscles and organs. Chaitow describes fascia a little more eloquently in this awesome blog as an "elastic-plastic, gluey, component that invests, supports and separates, connects and divides, wraps and gives cohesion, to the rest of the body". It's like a 3-D cobweb, but can also function as a sheath to wrap structures. It's simply fascinating stuff, and with research currently exploding in this area we're learning that fascia has more functions than we ever thought possible. Without going into a review of the current literature it's safe to say that it's far from a background material.

Here is a superb video that will give you a better idea.

And here is a pic Robert Schleip, one of the leaders in the field of fascial research, sent me when I was in contact with him regarding my final year project. It's taken during the first few seconds of rat dissection really showing the fascia between the skin and muscle.

It's important, very important, but just like everything in life it can run into trouble every now and again. Although fascia raps muscles so that they can glide over each other in constant contact sometimes adhesions can occur and muscles that should glide over each other become stuck. Other reasons for adhesions stem from a simple lack of strength. If the muscle doesn't have enough strength to hold what it's supposed to hold in position the body simply doesn't give up, it ties down anchor points to support the muscle. A common site for this is the mid back which for most people is a mine field of trigger points and adhesions. The mid back is constantly put on a stretch when you sit in that seat, staring at this screen, with that crappy posture you're currently sporting. Shoulders elevated and protracted (rounded), T-spine (mid back) rounded, head about 4 inches too far forward; all of this is putting a hell of a strain on your mid back muscles that are trying hard to pull you back into place. But they don't have the strength so they lay down anchor points to stop your sipping even further forward. Yes, all those knots in your back are fascial support structures trying to hold you in place, so make sure you’re going to strengthen them if you are going to get them massaged out or you'll slip even further into the world of a hunchback.

Here is a pic of some adhesion's in our rat friend.

So where does this leave us in the world of strength and conditioning?

Three steps; we need to 1) Roll 2) Stretch and/or mobilize, and 3) Strengthen. You will never have an effective program unless all 3 are present. Figuring out exactly what do roll, stretch and strengthen is where a full assessment comes in. The combination of a postural, movement (FMS), and a table assessment is how I personally come to the conclusion of what each client needs to work on. Although I cannot stress the importance of a proper assessment to find you’re current weaknesses, the general pattern I see a lot is that people need to do roll and stretch the quads, hip flexors (especially TFL), ITB and pecs while strengthening the core, hamstrings, glutes (I cannot stress this one enough, seriously no one has an ass anymore WTF??), and every single muscle in the back except for the lumbar erectors and upper traps. It's important to roll before stretching, and in most cases people need to learn how to activate muscles before they can strengthen them. Once you've rolled and stretched a muscle you need to used it (ideally though a lengthened position) so that your brain will remember the extra movement you should have just given it.

I use a foam roller for the thighs, hips and mid back and a tennis ball for the plantar fascia (video below), calves, pecs, lats and posterior side of the shoulder. PCV pipe, med balls, lacrosse balls and golf balls can all also be used if you want to get a little more aggressive - most people are not ready for this. I generally recommend 20 full passes over target areas and 5-10 passes over other areas. Once I've demonstrated how to target a specific tissue on the foam roll or tennis ball I don't give too many additional guidelines. As, I think, Mike Robertson said, "It should be an organic process". I really like this concept. Make it your own, if moving 2 inches one way gets you on "that spot" better then move 2 inches that way!! Don't think that if you're targeting a tissue, let's take the ITB as an example, you don't need to say exclusively on the outside of your thigh - move around! Hit the back side of the ITB (closer to the hamstrings), hit the front side (closer to the quads, you'll find some good stuff in there!), don't just stick to one line. Likewise, when you're on your quads make sure to get all of them, move more to the inside and then move more to the outside. Do a few passes with your feet pointing in, and then do a few with your feet pointing out. Bend your knee so your quad in on a stretch and then roll it. Play around on it once you have the general guidelines, you're looking for the sore spots.

In general, you want to move slow and deep, just like a proper massage. I find a lot of people want to tense up and move quickly to avoid any soreness. Suck it up and put in your time! You're just putting your body weight on a piece of foam, stop the whining already! Make sure that you keep breathing throughout. Holding your breath is a sign that you're tensing up, again, you're on a piece of foam, no need for you to turn red in the face; deep belly breaths please. If you find a really tight spot, which you will, get right on top of it, stop moving, focus on your breathing and try to get your muscle to melt over the foam roller or tennis ball. I also like small, micro rolls, over tighter areas, but always start and finish with full passes of the muscle. You should start at the middle of your body and work out, therefore, I get on the foam roller for my thighs and hips, then jump up onto my feet and work my calves, plantar fascia (bottom of your foot), pecs, lats and mid back with the tennis ball.

When to roll?
I get every single client to foam roll first thing. When most people start they need to spend more time on the foam roller so I'll allow 20 mins at the start of the session for just foam rolling for the first week or two. After that 5-10 mins tops. Once clients have the technique down I ask them to keep a foam roller in their living room and get on it as often as possible. If it's during the ads break pick a muscle and just roll that, next ad break pick a different muscle. Generally people need to spend a lot of time on the foam roller for the first month or two, after that 10 mins at the start of all workouts is normally enough. Having said that, it can also be useful during the workout, between sets, if an area is very tight. A perfect example of this is the 90/90 Split Squat - most new clients can't even hold the proper position due to tightness in the quads/hip flexors, not to mind move up and down. Rolling the quads/hip flexors during the rest period, along with some glute activation work, generally helps out a lot.

Areas you shouldn't foam roll.
Don't roll your knee cap, or directly behind the knee cap. Only roll parts of your spine that have the support of your rib cage. That means that your lower back and neck are a no no. When working around your shoulder with a tennis ball don't roll into your arm pit. Apart from that everywhere else is a go.

So how does all of this affect fascia?
Well, generally sticking points or adhesions occur because the fascial matrix in that area dries up and layers end up sticking to each other. Rolling over them can help to break up these adhesions but it also stimulates the fascia to become more fluid. Drinking your 2 liters of water a day, every single day, is only going to help this process. Supplementing with Fish Oil is great too. If you really find a tight spot that just won't break up (give it a week or two, not just one session) you should probably consider getting a massage from a registered massage therapist (RMT). Hands on tissue work wins hands down every single time (no pun intended). If I could get my clients 15-20 mins of hands on tissue work at the start of their warm up the foam roller would start to gather some dust pretty quickly. But the problem is that good RMT's are generally over $100 per hour. A quality foam roller and tennis ball are at most $50 and they last for months. It's an awesome way to get a regular cheap massage and it will drastically improve your tissue quality, with will in turn improve you movement quality. Here is a very random pic of the foam roller I personally use.

By no means is this all you should do as your warm-up, but it defiantly should be an integrated part of the 20 mins you spend getting ready to strength the movement patterns you should have just improved.

If you want to learn more, check out this Foam Rolling Clinic I'm putting on this Wednesday the 23rd!

Cian Lanigan

Foam Rolling Clinic

2011-03-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm putting on a Foam Rolling Clinic for the Switching Gears Triathlon Club next Wednesday at 6pm!! Check out the info below and email me if interested.

"I know that everyone on this email list trains and has tight muscles that sometimes ache and scream for a little TLC!

I know the hardest thing to do when you're training and working and trying to have a life is do preventative, pre-hab type therapy but you can fit this into your schedule easily and cheaply! Foam Rolling, also known as Myofascial Release Therapy, is the most effective and easy ways of preventing injuries and improving performance.

Strength and Conditioning Specialist Cian Lanigan has offered up his expertise and extensive knowledge of the benefits of Myofascial Release and the use of Foam Rollers to teach all athletes alike how to maintain healthy muscles and even target common areas of weakness that could lead to injury and under performance.

Next Wednesday, March 23rd at 6pm at Pacific Multisport (4391 Main St), Cian Lanigan will be doing a 90min show and tell on how to use the foam rollers and give an easy and quick routine to use as a warm up for any type of activity (cardio & resistance training) and give exercises to strengthen common weaknesses in many runners, cyclists, triathletes and more. Cian has many qualifications including a Degree in Exercises Sciences, and additional training and certifications including the FMS (http://www.functionalmovement.com/SITE/aboutfms/fmshistory.php) which he uses to establishes weaknesses in the body's movement patterns and prescribe corresponding exercises for injury prevention.

To read more about Myofascial Release go to Cian's Blog where he posted his final year study on the topic: http://cianlanigan.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-final-year-project.html

And to register for the evening please respond to hello(at)enhancedperformance.ca The cost will be $50.00 including the purchase of a foam roller, if you already own a foam roller it will be $25.00 for non club members and free for members!"

I'm going to being my A game for this one, I hope to see you there!!!
Cian Lanigan

My Final Year Project

2011-03-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks when I’ve been going through some self myofascial techniques (foam rolling) with my clients the topic of my final year project (FYP) has popped up a few times. I’ve decided to write a quick blog about my FYP so that people can get an understanding of what exactly I did in university, and what my research found.

I’ve also uploaded a full copy of my FYP to google docs so if anyone wants to get their nerd on, all they have to do is click on the title below.

“The Effects Of Self Myofascial Release On The Plantar Surface Of The Foot During Sledge Rebound Jumps.”

For everyone else, here is a plain English summary.

Fascia is like a 3-D cobweb type exoskeleton. It’s all over your body, head to toe, back to front, and ties everything together while at the same time keeping everything in their own compartments. Although fascia runs through pretty much every structure in the body my research was primarily focused on the myo-fascia or muscle-fascia.

For decades fascia was thrown to the side as a background material, with no real research being conducted into what role it may play. Recently, however, things are starting to get take off in the world of fascial research as people are getting more and more interested in the growing body of literature that shows fascia as a potential signalling tissue that adapts to stress, pressure and movement.

At the time of my research (and still to this day as far as I’m aware) all the research was focused on the physiology of fascia and how techniques like massage affect it, particularly around the area of pain relief. I, however, wanted to find out if it was possible to get an enhanced performance out of this tissue through self-massaging or self myofascial release (SMFR) as real world hands on massage is very expensive on a regular basis. One can easily administer SMFR using a foam roller and/or tennis ball so it’s cheap, easy to do, and at the end of the day this is how it’s going to be administered in the world of strength and conditioning so this is how I wanted to test it in the lab.

How to measure performance was the next question. I chose to examine the stretch short cycle (the lengthening of a muscle followed immediately followed by a shorting of the muscle) as this action is the basis of how we move. So to cut straight to the chase, I got a bunch of people to hop on a force platform (fancy weighing scales connected to a computer).

With research it’s all about trying to isolate one variable so I strapped each subject to a seat that slides up and down on an angled platform so that the jumps were far more consistent. Here is a pic of yours truly strapped in.

I then got subjects to hop on their dominant leg for about 10 hops, gave them a break, and then got them to hop on their right leg. They then came out of the “force sledge apparatus” and they rolled their dominant foot only on a tennis ball for 3 to 5 mins. Therefore, both legs were tested first, one foot was rolled on a tennis ball, and then both legs were tested again allowing the other to act as a control.

Then came weeks of excel. I had to manually find all the points where people landed on the force platform and left the platform, for every hop, for every trail, for every subject. Once I had all these points I could work out contact time and flight time. Playing with a bit of maths then allows you to workout out height jumped and the reactive strength index (RSI). RSI is basically a measure of explosiveness.

So did rolling your foot on a tennis ball for a few mins do anything??

Excitingly, yes it did.

Firstly, you’ve got to look at the control leg because if that changed the experiment is garbage as other factors would have affected it. Good news is that remained consistent throughout, so we can conclude that if any change is seen in the leg we rolled it has to be down to the fact we rolled it and not something else.

So what changed already??

Subject jumped 12.8% higher, and their RSI improved by 20.1%!!!!!! Yes you’re reading that right, and yes, all they did is roll their foot on a tennis ball for a few mins to get those results. Crazy, eh??

What I found awesome about this project is that, to my knowledge, I’m the only person who’s conducted a study like this. There were a few other interesting findings which you’ll just have to read through the full text to find. There’s still a ton more to learn about fascia, and these results will need to be repeated by someone else, but it’s a very interesting start in the world of research around the myofascial system and unlocking an enhanced performance.

So I bet you're more interested in learning more about foam rolling now! Well, in the next week or two I'm putting tons more info up on this blog and hopefully on a guest blog as well. Make sure to follow Enhanced Performance on Facebook to get all the updates on those upcoming blogs HERE.

How To Find The Right Personal Trainer - Part 3

2010-12-28T15:55:00.000-08:00

O.k., you've now got a trainer who is educated, experienced and who practices what they preach. You're on the right road to a quality trainer, but there are still a few questions you can ask to guarantee you have the right person for the job.

Without further ado let's get stuck into the next question.

Q #6 - What are we going to do in our first session?

If they answer anything along the lines of a actual workout it's a bad sign. The first session is where the trainer needs to find a starting point and a direction to go in. This is the session where they get the information necessary to develop a plan. Every trainer has a slightly different way of doing this (another reason I, along with other educated trainers, are begging for a governing body; this stuff needs to become a standard operating procedure across the industry). Body measurements and body mass are some examples of the anthropometric measurements that can be taken. In addition to these standard measurements a postural, movement and table assessment may be conducted. Finally, maximal strength, strength endurance, power, aerobic capacity along with other performance based tests can all be conducted if necessary. Don't expect everything I've listed to be part of your assessment; but expect a assessment, not a workout.

Also, your trainer should inform you how the assessment has directed the training program. There is no point in doing a assessment if they are just going to give you a generic training program. Everything done in the assessment should have a rational. Never be too shy to ask "Why are we doing this?"

Q #7 - How are we going to monitor progress?

I can guarantee this question will scare a lot of trainers because it'll mean they will have to give you something they probably have never given a client before - actual progress. Now you're really scaring them as that progress is going to have to be defined AND tangible. You're actually asking them to be accountable to their job description. This is going to be a first for a lot of trainers!!

Expect documentation and expect to be apart of the process. Retesting the original assessment is one way to monitor progress, but you should also expect every workout to be written down. It's the only way that you will be able to see where you've come from, and it's the only way the trainer will learn what training programs work best for your body.

Q #8 - Do you have a referral network?

Every single smart trainer I know has a large referral network. As personal trainers we only work with healthy people. It is outside our scope of practice to train someone who is in pain. Therefore, all professional personal trainer have to refer out. When you hire a quality personal trainer, by default you should be gaining access to a network of quality health care professionals. If a trainer doesn't have a referral network they care more about their own ego than the well being of their clients.

So that's 8 key questions you need to be asking during the interview. The next thing you need to do is watch the trainer working. Watch them do what you are going to pay them for. Workout next to them when they are training a client. If you're not inspired to workout harder AND better you need to continue your search. This is something that you only get to do with personal trainers. You can't watch a doctor treat another patient, you can't watch a physio tape someone up. This is a huge advantage you have when picking a trainer, so make sure you take advantage of it!

Things to look for;

A warm up that isn't on one of the "cardio" machines. You're going to pay this person over a dollar per minute. If the best they can give you for a warm up is 10 mins on a cardio machine you need to walk away.

A trainer who allows chit chat throughout the session. You hired this person to train you, not to exchange life stories. A few minutes chat during the warm up is fine, but never forget why you decided to hire this person in the first place. There is something you are looking to improve, something that clearly means a lot to you as you are considering hiring help. The "help" you end up hiring should be assisting you, not befriending you. Regardless, if you are doing a set correctly you will not be able to talk and during your rest you should be receiving feedback on the set you just completed. Where is the time for chit chat in a proper training session?? If you do become friends with your trainer that friendship needs to solely exist outside of that training hour when your are not paying them. Friendship shouldn't cost anything.

100% concentration on the client, nothing less is acceptable. Staring at a T.V. or off into the distance instantly disqualifies that person from becoming your trainer.

Movement. If the trainer is standing still they are missing things, guaranteed. The trainer simply has to walk around the client as they are completing a set in order to see it from different angles. Put simply, if the trainer is standing still they are not doing their job.

Corrections (and plenty of them!). I have never in my life seen a perfect set of 10. There's always something to improve on....always. Make sure the trainer is giving good feedback and that the client is moving better as a result of the corrections.

Progress. If you see a client of the trainer moving and looking the same as they did when they started you need to move on.

If you ever overhear a client complain of a pain and the trainers response is something along the lines of "you're not trying hard enough" and then tells them to continue the exercise, you need to run. This might seem so obvious but the amount of times I overhear a client complain of low back pain in a plank and then hear the trainer respond with "just squeeze your abs harder" is simply ridiculous. Proper form might fix that too...but ya "squeeze harder", hold your breath and hang your stomach 2 inches off the ground while your inner ear makes friends with your shoulder will fix it just as fast.

If the trainer EVER lets them do a weighted squat or deadlift with a rounded back you need to run away. This is personal training basics 101, lifting heavy weight with a rounded back is the fastest way possible to herniate a disk. This is the exact way not to deadlift...

....think he needs more weight ;)

Finally, you need to find a trainer you like and more importantly respect. You need to find someone who makes you want to push yourself harder. Someone who you look forward to seeing in the gym. Don't give this the highest priority when choosing a trainer because you'll end up hiring a friend, but don't discount it either. If a trainer ticks every single box you have but you just don't like them, DON'T HIRE THEM. You are going to cancel sessions, skip workouts and your progress is going to come to a screeching halt. You need to find a trainer who you are comfortable with pushing you, not someone who you will dislike for it.

I hope this blog helps people find better trainers. Quality trainers do exist, but they are in the minority and always will be until this industry becomes regulated. Until then it's up to you, the client, to set the minimum standard and set it high.

Cian Lanigan
B.Sc. SES, NCEF

How To Find The Right Personal Trainer - Part 2

2010-12-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

If you're going to find a good trainer you're going to have to put in some work. The first time you go in to meet your potential trainer you need to view it as a interview. You are hiring them to train you. They have to impress you, not the other way around. In this blog I want to give you the best questions to ask during this interview, and things you need to look out for.

I want this blog to be simply advice, but I think my first point is going to have to become a rule. Interview more than one trainer!! This is the only way you're going to be able to make a informed decision. Yes this means you're going to have to make a few more phone calls, take more time out of your schedule and talk to people. It means more work, but I can guarantee you'll end up with a better trainer. If possible also interview trainers from more than one gym. Often times every trainer in a gym will have the same approach to training and that might not be the right approach for you. Try to see at least 3 trainers from at least 2 separate gyms. You'll be amazed with how different every trainer is.

O.k. so you've got a trainer in front of you. Now what?? Well it's time to start asking questions. First and foremost you need to ask about their education. It is the foundation of everything else. It's the foundation of a quality trainer.

Q #1 - What is your primary certification?

The primary certification is one which the trainer gets insurance through. Here are the common primary certifications you'll see here in Vancouver, and what formal education you need in order to sit them.

No formal education; Can-Fit-Pro (PTS), BCRPA, ACE
Diploma required; CSEP-CPT (personal trainer)
Bachelors required; CSEP-CEP (exercise physiologist), CSCS (strength & conditioning)

There are also certifications like the Twist Sport Conditioning Coach (TSCC) that don't offer insurance. These are "auxiliary" certifications and generally take a good bit of money and a weekend or two to complete. Some of them are great, some of them not so much.

(Time for me to get in trouble) Watch out for trainers who hold a certification which requires no formal education and tons of "auxiliary" certs. Doing this allows you to get a lot of letters after your name without really knowing too much.

It goes without saying that the more educated your trainer is the better. It doesn't guarantee you'll find only good trainers but you're more likely to find good trainers if you focus your search around education. Surprisingly, I've found that education has a very small correlation to the price per session. I've seen trainers with a bachelors charge $65 per session (like myself) and trainers with just the basic cert charge $85.

If a trainer has a cert that isn't on the list google it!! You owe it to yourself to know this stuff.

Q #2 - What have you done for continued education over the last year??

So now that we've got the common training certs covered you also need to know about the hazy world of continued education. All training certifications require you to earn continuing education credits by going to courses in order to hold your certificate. Smart concept, but some continued education is questionable at the best of times. Turn up to the yearly weekend training conference OR sit 2 very basic online courses and you're certified for another year. Fact of the matter is that if you're willing and able to give a bit of cash and committee a day or two PER YEAR you'll hold your certification. So when you ask your potential trainer what they've done for continued education in the past year and they answer "I just did some online courses" or "I went to this weekend seminar" be wary. Expect more. The better trainers will have gone to a minimum of 4 courses per year, and the really good trainers will leave their city to go see the smarter speakers.

This really is the minimum. I know a lot of smart trainers who listen to 2-3 webinars per month, go to at least 1 seminar every two months, and make numerous trips during the year so that they can meet the best in the industry.

Finally, one of the best questions you can ask to get a gauge for a trainers education is to ask....

Q #3 - Who do you look up to in the industry?

If you were to only ask one question this should be it. If a trainer was lacking formal education and experience but answered this question well I wouldn't dismiss them when making your decision. The best trainers won't shut up when you ask them this question!

You don't need to know the big names in the industry. If they answer, "well I just kinda do my own thing", start running. I fell that any trainer should be able to drop a minimum of 5 names in a heart beat. It doesn't matter if you don't recognize the names, how they answer the question will tell you everything you need to know. They should want to tell you want they learned from each respective name. They should get excited!! Mike Boyle, Nick Tumminello, Pavel Tsatsouline, Bret Contreras, Thomas Myers, Stuart McGill, Shirley Sahrmann, Gray Cook, Charlie Weingroff, Mel Siff, Mike Robertson....and that's just skimming the surface. If I asked a writer who inspires them and they couldn't name any authors I'd start laughing. The same should apply to trainers.

Q #4 - How many years experience do you have?

After education the next big thing to look out for is experience. It's not rocket science to assume that someone who has been training for 10 years will be better than someone who has trained for 1. But it can't just be years of experience. What type of experience is hugely important. Did they intern? Did they volunteer? Have they shadowed different health care professionals? The longer and more diverse their experience the better. Experience that should count for something is not how many years you've locked yourself into your own bubble, it's how much exposure you've had to people who are smarter than you. Use your better judgement here, I'd pick a trainer who has spent some time with physios and completed a internship but who has only been around for a year or two over a trainer who has been around for 10 years but only trained in the same gym day in day out.

Q #5 - Do they practice what they preach??

If I was going to hire someone to teach me how to cook I wouldn't hire someone who nukes their dinner 9 times out of 10. I'd want to find someone who LOVES food, someone who is so passionate about cooking they spend the majority of their waking day doing something related to it. I would want them to be so passionate about it that it rubs off on me. The exact same needs to be true of your future trainer. What sports do they play? How often do they train? Are they, or have they ever competed at a high level? They need to LIVE sport. Anything less simply isn't good enough. If you are competitive (e.g. you're looking for a trainer so that you can run a half marathon faster) you simply have to be working with a trainer who has competed. By no means does it need to be the same sport as you, they simply have to understand what hard training feels like. They simply have to have gone through it themselves.

There is still a lot of information the general population NEEDS to know in order to find a quality trainer. The third and final part of this blog is going to cover one or two more questions you should be asking and hell of a lot of tips for when you are watching your future trainer! Stay tuned.

Cian Lanigan
B.Sc. SES, NCEF

Click here for Part 3

How To Find The Right Personal Trainer - Part 1

2010-12-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

O.k. so you're ready to get back into the gym but you're feeling a little lost. You need a personal trainer, but how do you find a good one??

Just head into the gym or type "personal trainer" into google, eni meni mini mo, and hey presto you've found the one for you. Right??....WRONG!!!

I feel this habit comes from choosing doctors or physios. I could be wrong on this one but I feel that most people think "they all went to school for this so what difference does it make?". And with doctors or physios that holds more truth because they are regulated. Now don't get me wrong, there is still a big discrepancy in the quality of the practitioner when it comes to regulated forms of treatment but at the end of the day they all have a minimum standard. They all know the basics.

Personal trainers however, all that goes out the window...because we are not regulated.

It amazes me that no one is talking about this. It's like the dirty little secret of the training industry. There is no one governing body, there is no minimum standard, there is no nothing.

And the result...

Some certification just require you to pass a written test. That's right, you sign up, they send you a manual which you scan read, sit the exam and now you're a personal trainer!! No hands on learning, no "this movement is bad, this movement is good", NOTHING!! What anyone actually learns from that is beyond me.

Some "specialist" certifications require you to come in for 2 weekends (25 hours) as well as the standard manual, sit a written test and now you're a "specialist"???? And, no, I'm not making this up!! This is what the majority of personal trainers hang their hats on. This is what "sets them apart" from you.

Some of the better certifications take 8 months to complete, with work experience. This is still a super basic certification when it comes to leaning how to be a professional trainer, but it's an o.k. starting point.

What boggles my mind though is that 9 times out of 10 that's it in terms of education. Trainers don't continue learning. Everything they know comes from that manual or weekend course they took years ago!!

But that's not even what really pisses me off. What really makes me mad is when these trainers charge enormous hourly rates. They've read a manual and now you have to pay $65, $75 or even $85 per session to see these "educated" people!! I'm sorry but these people don't know shit. And what's worse is that often times gyms support this behavior. I've worked in a gym and witnessed first hand trainers who are still completing there certification train clients one-on-one without any guidance or instruction and those poor clients were paying $65 for that hour. THAT'S OVER A DOLLAR PER MINUTE!!

What's really scary about this is that the vast majority of personal trainers fall into category. So how do you find a good one?

Part 2 of this blog will uncover strategies for finding the right trainers. Easy things you can look for, quick questions you can ask and what level of education you should expect from the different price brackets.

Cian Lanigan
B.Sc. SES, NCEF,

Click here for Part 2

How to Win at Fat Loss

2010-08-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Eat less, exercise more!!

Although that pretty much summarizes it, I know that you are looking for a bit more. So after going through the literature, reading what other top strength & conditioning coaches are recommending, and of course including what I've seen work again and again, I've broken it down to 12 key points.

On a slight side note, all this advice is for fat loss not weight loss. If you're not 100% sure what the difference is read my last blog "Weight Loss Vs. Fat Loss".

Although each of these points has been shown to be effective individually what makes this a powerful fat loss tool is the combination of all 12 points. I understand that adopting all 12 points into your lifestyle might be daunting, but at an individual level none of these steps are hard to do. The main reason for this is because some of the most effective fat loss methods in this post are about changing how you eat, not what you eat. The main reason for this is because I'm a Sport Scientist, not a nutritionist. If you're a little intimidated by the list simply pick one point and stick by it for a week. After the first week pick a second point and add it into your routine. The more points you can effectively adopt into your daily lifestyle the more fat you're likely to lose. Taking your time to integrate these 12 points into your lifestyle is a far better long term strategy than trying to adopt all 12 points in your first week just to get frustrated and give up.

Ok, so enough chit chat...time to get down to business.

1. Mental Determination. The first thing you need to do is get to a point in your head where not losing body fat is no longer an option. It's that simple. I've seen people lose fat on the worst programs simply by never giving up. It might have taken them 10 times longer than it should, but they all achieved their goals. There is simply nothing more powerful than the made up mind. How you get to this point I unfortunately can't help you with. It's just got to come from within. "Eehhh, ya....I, emmmmmm.....kinda want to lose 50 lbs of body fat" is never going to get you anywhere. You need to get to a point where you are ready and willing to run through concrete walls, kung fu kick Chuck Norris so hard that he actually starts to weep, and then eat kryptonite as a post ass kicking snack. Get determined and get effin' confident that this is an achievable goal....because it is.

2. Increase meal frequency. To pull out a number of minimum meals per day is not reflective of the research. What the research is telling us is that people who eat more meals per day lose more fat even when the total calories per day are identical. The only thing I'll add to this is that a "meal" isn't a full plate of food piled sky high. It's simply a feeding of food that's balanced e.g. has fruit/veg, protein & a carbohydrate. A hand full of nuts with a small yogurt & a few grapes is a "meal". I aim for 5 "meals" per day, some are bigger than others.

3. Choose nutrient dense food. This one is really easy, switch white foods for brown foods and you'll get more out of the food you eat. Wild rice, oats, quinoa, spelt...all good things.

4. Big breakfast every single day. The research clearly shows that people who eat breakfast have less body fat. Furthermore, people who eat breakfast every day have less body fat that those who eat it occasionally. So get breakfast into you, no excuses! Make it the night before, set your alarm earlier, I really don't care how you do it, just eat breakfast. It jump starts your body and sets you up to burn more calories throughout the day. Finally, it also seems that a bigger breakfast is even better...so instead of just having a cereal, get some seasonal fruit and throw it on top with some hemp seeds!!!

5. Eat on the clock. I don't know why, but eating at the same time every day results in greater fat loss compared to eating at different times every day, even though the same food was eaten each day (broken down into the same sized meals), Iwao (1996) and Farshchi (2004). Therefore, pick times that you're going to eat your "meals" and stick to it, every day.

6. Low Carbohydrate Diet. I think I need to start this point off with some caution. Although a low carb diet is what the research suggests for fat loss, this does not mean a no carb diet!! Too many people have taken this concept too far and have taken carbs out of their diet completely. You simply have to have carbs, you need them! However, time and time again, the research has shown that a lower carb diet results in a higher rate of fat loss. The point that I really want to make here is that it's not a low fat diet that results in greater fat loss. In actual fact, numerous studies have shown that an unrestricted low carb diet (subjects could eat as much total calories as they wanted provided the total carb content was low) results in greater fat loss than a restricted low fat diet (subjects could only eat what was given to them and the fat content was low). Also, as an added bonus the adherence to the unrestricted low carb diet was greater than the restricted low fat diet i.e. a higher percentage of the people who started the diet actually kept it up. So not only does it increase fat loss, but it's also easier to do. Win win.

7. Increase water intake. Simply staying hydrated increases the amount of calories your body naturally burns (metabolic rate). This doesn't mean drink any of the hundreds of sugar water that's passed off as "water" these days...this just means water. The stuff that comes out of your tap and nothing more. (If you're not happy with the water out of your tap get a filtering system. Don't buy bottled water.). A nice easy way to work out how much to drink is to half your weight in pounds and drink that in fluid ounces e.g. if you're 200 lbs drink 100 oz of water. Sorry for my metric readers but it's a nice easy way to remember and you probably have a converter in your phone, so just spend the time to work it out!! You need to drink this water throughout the day, not in one chug. You should never wait until you're thirsty and your pee should always be clear. Oh, and one final note on this topic; iced water seems to be even better for fat loss. I presume this is because your body has to burn energy to re-heat your body after drinking the iced water. Regardless, just drink water. If there's ice in it from time to time even better.

8. Resistance (strength) Training. I've no doubt that I will end up writing countless blogs on just this topic alone so I'm going to keep it brief here. Using the metaphor of a car, having more lean mass (muscle) is the equivalent of having a bigger engine that burns more fuel (fat). This is obviously something that we want because having more lean mass means that you're going to burn more fuel 24 hours a day, every single day...yes, even when your sleeping. This is why I'm so against "weight loss" as that normally means muscle loss, which in turn means that you're going to decrease the amount of fat your body naturally burns, hence making it harder for you to lose fat. This does not mean that you need to turn yourself into a bodybuilder; it simply means do some resistance (strength) training. Again, I'll get into this at a later date but resistance training is what you need to prioritize during your workout. Cardio work does not burn fat nearly as effectively. In fact McTiernan (2007) got 202 subjects to do moderate to vigorous intensity aerobic activity (med. to hard cardio) for 1 hour a day, 6 days a week, for 1 year...AND...subjects lost on average 3.5 lbs!! After a year! Of 6 days a week! Med. to high intensity cardio work!! I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty disappointed with that. (Side note; you still need to do cardio work for health reasons, but for fat loss it just doesn't cut it).

9. Pre workout protein. While I'm on the topic of working out I may as well include the next major point. Eat a protein based snack pre workout (about 20-30 mins before). Hackent et al. (2009) conducted a great double blind crossover study (just a v. powerful study) that showed that if you consumed protein pre workout (20 mins in this case) it significantly increased the amount of calories your body burned the day after the workout. Just like a lot of the points in this list, I'm not 100% sure why exactly this happens, but there's one thing we know for sure, it does happen. If you're already working out this is so easy to do that it's stupid not to do it!! It could take the form of a protein bar or shake, or it can simply be some nuts (a variety is better). (The study used 18g of whey protein).

10. Rest. You simply have to get enough sleep. You have to give your body time to recover. It may be slightly surprising to this see on the list, but it's vital for long term success. Proper rest is often completely over looked in fat loss programs. Long story short you need a minimum of 7 hours sleep. Also if you live a stressful life you need to do de-stressing activities (read, yoga, listen to music etc). Being stressed changes your hormonal balance and makes it harder to lose fat.

11. Supplementation. Yes, there are actually supplements that I recommend you take!! I don't think it'll shock you to learn that these are not the marketed "weight loss" supplements that are constantly pushed on us. So what is the best supplement on the market?? Fish oil!! Studies actually show that independent of a change in diet or exercise supplementing with fish oil decreases body fat. I find this crazy...but the research shows it works. As an added benefit it also contains a few grams of omega 3 which is a reason in its self to supplement with fish oil. After that, the rest of my recommended supplements are just food!! Chili's, grape fruit and to a lesser extent coffee have all been shown to increase your metabolic rate. So, eat a grape fruit as part of your breakfast, sneak in a coffee around that mid day slump and throw a chili in your dinner to fire up your body's engine. (Note, 1-2 medium cup(s) of coffee per day is all I recommend. And if you do decide to drink it you need to drink more water).

12. Short term fasting. Ok, I must admit this is a new one for me, and although the science gives it a thumbs up I want to read more research on the topic. Hopefully, everyone here knows that crash diets are an absolute NO. They are simply disastrous for long term success. They destroy your hormonal balance and basically mess your body right up. And what are crash diets? Basically fasting for a period of about 2 weeks (medium term fasting). This is why I'm hesitant with sort term fasting. But I'm fully ready to admit when I'm wrong and after looking at some research for short term fasting it looks very promising. Basically, if you fast for one or maybe two days out of a week you get a positive response from your body. (Note; if you were to do it 2 days out of the week they should be non-consecutive days). Even if it does result in a positive response from your body (decreased body fat & LDL cholesterol to name just two) I would personally find it almost impossible to fast for one day a week, every week. I simply enjoy food too much!! But I wanted this list to be as scientifically bases and as current as possible, and hence this creeps in as the 12th step. I currently recommend that you only add this step if you've already integrated the first 11 steps into your daily lifestyle and are still looking for an even faster rate of fat loss.

And that's it!! This is what I consider to be the top 12 things you can do to win at fat loss. As I said at the start, none of them are particularly hard to do (well maybe #12). You can still have some chocolate from time to time. You can still drink that glass of wine or that pint of beer. You can still have a life!!

So try it out and let me know how it goes.

Cian Lanigan
B.Sc. SES, NCEF
www.enhancedperformance.ca

Weight loss Vs. Fat loss

2010-08-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Weight loss is not fat loss!!

This is the #1 mistake people make. Your weight is the number that pops up on the scales, your fat is how much you can pinch!! Your weight is everything; bones, muscle, organs, blood etc. Literally everything that makes you!! Therefore, weight loss can come from anything. However, fat loss is just that; a decrease in body fat and nothing else. It's that simple.

The HUGE mistake people make is they become obsessed with weight loss when what they are really interested in is fat loss. As basic as this may sound I've no doubt that you're guilty of this mistake too...if you've ever used a scales to judge the success of a diet you're guilty!!! Weight loss is simple, and can happen in a matter of hours. Go to the bathroom, then sit in a sauna and hey presto you've lost 5 pounds of body weight!! (However, not a gram of this came from your body fat).

Fat loss, however, is different. It is not as simply and takes time. There are no magic potions that will decrease body fat, but there are for "weight loss". These need to be avoided at all costs as all they do is make your body retain less water which will in turn slow down the amount of fat your body naturally burns...resulting in, yes you guessed it, long term fat gain!

There are also some magic potions that claim to increase fat loss. These also don't work. Here's why; In order to get fat to the place where it gets burned (mitochondria) it needs carnitine. So these fat loss magic potions have carnitine in them in order to try and get more fat into the mitochondria. In theory it makes sense...BUT...your body naturally has carnitine and giving it more through supplementation doesn't make a difference. As Alwyn Cosgrove described, supplementing carnitine is like giving you 5 passports to get through customs, it's absolutely pointless as all you need is 1. So don't waste your money on supplements that do absolutely nothing!!

Quite simply in order for long term successful fat loss to occur you need 3 things.
1. Proper Diet
2. Exercise
3. Proper hormonal balance

Finally the last point I feel that is extremely important to make is that muscle is more dense than fat (i.e. 1 pound of muscle takes up far less space than 1 pound of fat). Again something that doesn't seem that important initially but in reality it's hugely important that people know this. Why? Well because if you start a program of diet and exercise you are likely to maintain body weight. The reason for this is because your are putting on lean muscle and decreasing body fat.

Just to illustrate this, here are the results for a study done by Bemlin et al. (2000). They had 3 groups in the study. In terms of weight loss group A lost 5.5 lbs, group B lost 4.8 lbs and group C lost 6.6 lbs...so all in all if you were using a weighing scales to measure progress all 3 groups lost approximately the same.

However, taking a closer look at the results group A lost 5.5 lbs of fat and maintained muscle mass, group B lost 9.2 lbs of fat and gained 4.4 lbs of muscle mass and group C lost 15.4 lbs of fat and gained 8.8 lbs of muscle mass.

As I hope you can clearly see weight loss is not the same as fat loss!!

Cian Lanigan
B.Sc. SES, NCEF,
www.enhancedperformance.ca

Starting Point

2010-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

So this is it. My very first blog post. Forgive me if any "experienced" bloggers read this and sigh about all the novice mistakes I'm making, but I'm new. Give me a break and hopefully watch me get better at this throughout the future.

The real point of this post is to simply mark the beginning of my online venture. This happens to co-inside with the beginning of my new life in Vancouver, the end of my 4 year university degree, and my departure from my homeland, Ireland. All factors that are making this a extremely intimidating, yet exciting time in my life.

So I want to include you, the reader and possibly client, right from the beginning. Before anything gets started, before I even start offering training, I want to invite you to join me on this journey. I have no idea were this adventure is going to end up but I know that it started right here. This place is where I want to tell you about the thousands of journal articles and hundreds of books worth of information on training I have studied. And I want to do it all for free.

But this is just the beginning. It is easy for anyone to tell you what they have already learned. I want this to be a place were I can tell you what I am going to learn. I want this to be a place where in 5 years time you'll be able to see the progressions in training concepts AND understand why those changes took place.

Simply because this is what makes me tick. This is what fascinates me.

So instead of this being something I do by myself, like it has been for the last 6 years, I want to make this public. Now that I am out of formal education I want you to dictate my learning. Up to now, profs and scientists have told me what they think is relevant to learn. This is no doubt useful to a point, but now I'm ready to hear from the real people. The people I train and the people who are just interested in training. I want to know what exactly you struggle with in regards to training and living a healthy lifestyle, and then I want to research answers to those problems for you. And yes, once again, I want to do this all for free.

So get in contact with me!

cian@enhancedperformance.ca